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Do We Still Have the Sons of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?
Sunday, 15 November 2009 1:34 A GMT-05
If he is, indeed, the 9-11 mastermind, I surely would like to ask him a question or two. The first would be how on earth he was able to persuade Osama and the boys that the plan would have any chance at all to succeed. From the beginning, it depended upon complete ineptitude on the part of America’s air defenses. Even though Tom Clancy, a man who seems to be on the best of terms with the Pentagon crowd, had already written two novels in which terrorists hijack airliners, Debt of Honor, and Executive Orders, with the intent of crashing them into important buildings, the very notion that someone would actually do it was beyond our leaders’ wildest imagination, we have been told. Though the top U.S. bulb might be an exceptionally dim one, how does one make grandiose plans that depend utterly upon such unimaginably low wattage up and down the chain of command? Wouldn’t Mohammed have to be more than a mastermind, but a master mindreader?
More than that, wouldn’t it even have required a degree of clairvoyance that would surely have made the plan very hard to sell to superiors? The hijackers would all have to be able to get through security without their weapons being detected and those weapons would have to be perceived as lethal enough to allow them to control the far larger numbers of passengers and crew of the airplanes. What are the chances, really, of so many people behaving so much like sheep?
“Sorry, Khalid,” I can hear Osama saying, “Go back to the drawing board and come up with something a bit simpler that has a greater likelihood of success,” and we haven’t even mentioned the need for virtuoso piloting and navigating performances by novice pilots on harrowing suicide missions.
Fort Hood shooter used as excuse to scapegoat Muslims, Arabs
Saturday, 7 November 2009 2:39 P GMT-05
As soon as the name of the shooter at Fort Hood who killed 13 people and wounded 38—Nidal Malik Hasan—was known, reporters and bloggers began jumping to conclusions about his heritage and his motive.
Fox News Channel’s Shepard Smith said “the name tells us a lot,” and an op-ed column on FoxNews.com suggested the shooting spree was “the largest terror act since 9/11.” Later, Fox and Friends hosts suggested that the military should conduct "special debriefings" for all Muslim officers.
Commentators at the Jihad Watch blog immediately labeled Hasan a “jihadi” and called for a “war on Islam.”
World Net Daily’s headline trumpeted “Fort Hood triggerman: Muslim, shrink, officer,” implying that Hasan’s religion was his most relevant attribute.
CBSNews.com decried an immediate “anti-Muslim backlash” that included at least one threatening call to the Arab-American Institute. However, the news website then poured fuel on the fire itself with its title for a videotaped interview with Ft. Hood Base Commander Lt. Gen Bob Cone: although Cone repeatedly emphasized the bravery and rapid response of the soldiers at the scene and made only a passing reference to “unconfirmed reports” that Hasan said “Allah Akbar” while shooting, CBS titled the video “Fort Hood Suspect: ‘Allahu Akbar’.”
16-Year Old Got Life Without Parole for Killing Her Abusive Pimp -- Should Teens Be Condemned to Die in Jail?
Monday, 2 November 2009 11:44 A GMT-05
Sara Kruzan was 11 years old, a middle school student from Riverside, Calif., when she met a man -- he called himself GG -- who was almost three times her age. GG took her under his wing; he would buy her gifts, take her and her friends rollerskating. "He was like a father figure," she recalls.
Despite suffering severe bouts of depression as a child, until then, Kruzan was a good student, an "overachiever" in her words. But her mother was abusive and addicted to drugs; as for her father, she had only met him a couple of times. So, more and more, GG filled in.
"GG was there -- sometimes," she said. "He would talk to me and take me out and give me all these lavish gifts and do all these things for me …" Before long, he started talking to her about sex, giving her his expert advice on what men were really like and telling her that she didn't "need to give it up for free."
Unbeknownst to her, GG was grooming Kruzan to be a prostitute. When she was 13, he raped her. "He uses his manhood to hurt," Kruzan recalls, "Like, break you in. I guess."
Kruzan worked for GG as a prostitute for three years. The hours were 6 p.m. until 5:30 or 6 in the morning. She and "the other girls" would come back and hand over their earnings to him. "He was, like, married to all of us I guess," she says. " … Everything was his."
After years of prostitution and sexual abuse, when she was 16, Kruzan snapped: She killed GG, was arrested and convicted of first-degree murder. Despite attempts by her lawyer to have her sentenced as a juvenile, the judge described her crime as "well thought-out" and sentenced her to life without parole.
"My judge told me that I lacked moral scruples," she recalls, a term she did not know the meaning of.
Second autopsy: Hampton's death likely murder
Monday, 2 November 2009 12:52 A GMT-05
A doctor who carried out a second post-mortem examination on the body of Timothy Hampton says the nuclear expert's fall from the UN building in Vienna was murder.
Rape Is a Pre-Existing Condition? The Heartlessness of the Health Insurance Industry Exposed
Thursday, 22 October 2009 10:55 A GMT-05
By taking anti-AIDS medicine after a rape, Christina Turner discovered that she had made herself all but uninsurable.
C.I.A. Is Still Cagey About Oswald Mystery
Monday, 19 October 2009 12:41 A GMT-05
For six years, the agency has fought in federal court to keep secret hundreds of documents from 1963, when an anti-Castro Cuban group it paid clashed publicly with the soon-to-be assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. The C.I.A. says it is only protecting legitimate secrets. But because of the agency’s history of stonewalling assassination inquiries, even researchers with no use for conspiracy thinking question its stance.
Reviewing Project Censored's Latest Top 25 Censored Stories
Sunday, 11 October 2009 1:02 A GMT-05
From 1998 - 2007, financial and banking companies "spent $1.7 billion on federal campaign contributions and another $3.4 billion on lobbyists." In 1999, Glass-Steagall was repealed, the landmark 1933 law that curbed speculation and separated commercial from investment banks and insurance companies. In January 2000, the Commodity Futures Modernization Act legitimized swap agreements and other hybrid instruments, at the core of today's problems by preventing regulatory oversight of derivatives and leveraging, thus letting Wall Street legally pillage and speculate, so they did. The result was a financial coup d'etat "cement(ing) the gradual takeover of the government by a small class of connected insiders" who choose candidates, control elections, weaken financial regulations, and run the country for their own self-interest. As a result, Washington today is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Wall Street financial giants. What they want, they get, no questions asked.
Criminalizing everyone
Saturday, 10 October 2009 7:32 P GMT-05
By March 2004, federal prosecutors were well on their way to turning 66-year-old retiree George Norris into an inmate in a federal penitentiary - based on his home-based business of cultivating, importing and selling orchids.
Mrs. Norris testified before the House Judiciary subcommittee on crime this summer. The hearing's topic: the rapid and dangerous expansion of federal criminal law, an expansion that is often unprincipled and highly partisan.
Chairman Robert C. Scott, Virginia Democrat, and ranking member Louie Gohmert, Texas Republican, conducted a truly bipartisan hearing (a D.C. rarity this year).
These two leaders have begun giving voice to the increasing number of experts who worry about "overcriminalization." Astronomical numbers of federal criminal laws lack specifics, can apply to almost anyone and fail to protect innocents by requiring substantial proof that an accused person acted with actual criminal intent.
Family Says 911 Tape Caught Cops Planning Cover-Up After Shooting
Saturday, 10 October 2009 7:25 P GMT-05
In their complaint in Maricopa County Court, Anthony and Lesley Arambula say an armed intruder "crashed through the front window" of their home on Sept. 17, 2008 and ran into one of their son's bedrooms.
Anthony, worried about his son who was still in his bedroom, says he "held the intruder calmly at gunpoint" and called 911.
Phoenix Police officers already in the neighborhood heard the crash of the Arambulas' window. When they approached the house, Lesley says, she told Sgt. Sean Coutts that her husband was inside holding the intruder at gunpoint. Lesley says Coutts failed to pass on that information to the two other officers.
Inside the house, the Arambulas say, Officer Brian Lilly shot Anthony six times in the back while he was still on the phone with the 911 operator - twice when he was on the ground.
The officers ran into the bedroom after Anthony told them, "You just killed ... you just killed the homeowner. The bad guy is in there."
The complaint states that Officer Lilly "admitted that it was only after Tony was laying, bullet-ridden, on the ground that he assessed the situation. The 911 tape continued to record what happened even after Officer Lilly unloaded his weapon into Tony, including Officer Lilly's post-shooting, one-word 'assessment': 'Fuck.'
"Tony believed he was going to die; the 911 tape records his plaintive goodbye to his family: '... I love you ... I love you.' Then Tony made what he believed was a dying request to the officers; he did not want his young family to see him shot and bloodied. Officers callously ignored his request and painfully dragged Tony by his injured leg, through the home and out to his backyard patio, where they left him bloodied and shot right in front of Lesley, Matthew and Zachary."
Report: Top anti-drug official was 'secret ally of drug lords'
Sunday, 20 September 2009 3:16 P GMT-05
Richard Padilla Cramer, a 26-year veteran anti-drug official, is behind bars, arrested after officials accused him of directing a massive cocaine shipment to Spain via the United States, and selling important information in law enforcement databases to a vicious Mexican drug cartel. In other words, Cramer, a key Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agent who worked in Guadalajara and Nogales, Arizona, was allegedly “a secret ally of drug lords,” reported The Los Angeles Times.
Cameron Todd Willingham, Texas, and the death penalty
Saturday, 5 September 2009 2:30 A GMT-05
Did Texas execute an innocent man?
A Delta Manhunt, With Booze and Guns
Saturday, 5 September 2009 2:27 A GMT-05
Federal authorities are investigating an Aug. 20 incident in which armed white citizens, using a military vehicle, helped search for an unarmed black burglary suspect in the Delta. U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, of Mississippi's second congressional district, confirmed to the Jackson Free Press Monday that the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice are investigating the manhunt, which took place outside Sumner in Tallahatchie County.
There Are More Slaves Today Than at Any Time in Human History
Thursday, 27 August 2009 1:47 A GMT-05
Today’s slavery focuses on big profits and cheap lives. It is not about owning people like before, but about using them as completely disposable tools for making money.
Why Are Cops Tasering Grandmothers, Pregnant Women and Kids?
Monday, 17 August 2009 11:02 P GMT-05
Technology is a double-edged sword, the cliche goes. It can save and even extend your life, but it can also kill you in new and unpredictable ways. In the several years since the Arizona-based Taser International has deployed its terminologically challenging Electronic Control Devices (ECDs), colloquially known as stun guns or simply tasers, what started out as a midrange law enforcement weapon has turned into a surreal nightmare that has gone viral from streets to screens. It's now to the point that only a hyperreal comedian like Stephen Colbert can make sense of it.
"Incestuous" relationships between Blackwater and U.S. government
Saturday, 15 August 2009 5:44 P GMT-05
“What we have here is an individual who received billions of dollars in US contracts, and still was under contract with the U.S. government, and fancied himself someone who wanted to wipe out Islam and kill Arabs and Muslims,” Madsen said.
In economic tough times, cybercrime still paying
Sunday, 9 August 2009 7:04 P GMT-05
US authorities say Americans - the easiest prey, according to Nigerian scammers - lose hundreds of millions of dollars a year to cybercrimes, including a scheme known as the Nigerian 419 fraud, named for a section of the Nigerian criminal code. Now financially squeezed, Americans succumb even more easily to offers of riches, experts say. Though statistics are fuzzy, the FBI-backed Internet Crime Complaint Center says that scam reports by Americans grew 33 percent last year, and that after the United States and Britain, Nigeria housed the most perpetrators. Ultrascan, a Dutch research firm that investigates complaints of 419 fraud, says online scam offers from Nigerians in and outside their homeland have mushroomed this year.
Keith Olbermann On Blackwater
Thursday, 6 August 2009 1:26 A GMT-05
Explosive Allegations: Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder
Wednesday, 5 August 2009 1:53 A GMT-05
A former Blackwater employee and an ex-U.S. Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Prince's companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life." In their testimony, both men also allege that Blackwater was smuggling weapons into Iraq. One of the men alleges that Prince turned a profit by transporting "illegal" or "unlawful" weapons into the country on Prince's private planes. They also charge that Prince and other Blackwater executives destroyed incriminating videos, emails and other documents and have intentionally deceived the U.S. State Department and other federal agencies. The identities of the two individuals were sealed out of concerns for their safety.
Pfizer to Pay Tens of Millions for Deaths of Nigerian Children in Drug Trial Experiment
Sunday, 26 July 2009 10:01 P GMT-05
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has agreed to pay $75 million to settle a class action lawsuit filed against it by Nigerian parents who claim the company caused harm to their children by using them as guinea pigs in a nonconsensual, unlicensed drug trial.
Idaho man sodomized by police Taser plans to sue
Sunday, 26 July 2009 8:55 P GMT-05
A Boise, Idaho, police officer who pushed a Taser inside a man’s buttocks and threatened to “Taser his balls” violated use-of-force policy, but didn’t break the law, an ombudsman has found.
3 New Jersey Mayors and 5 Rabbis Among Those Arrested in Federal Inquiry
Sunday, 26 July 2009 7:46 P GMT-05
A two-year corruption and international money-laundering investigation stretching from the Jersey Shore to Brooklyn to Israel and Switzerland culminated in charges against 44 people on Thursday, including three New Jersey mayors, two state assemblymen and five rabbis, the authorities said.
Oliver Stone: JFK and the Unspeakable
Sunday, 26 July 2009 7:39 P GMT-05
Why does it matter? The death of JFK remains a critical turning point in our history. Those who caused his death were targeting not just a man but a vision -- a vision of peace. There is no calculating the consequences of his death for this country and for the world. Those consequences endure. To a large extent, the fate of our country and the future of the planet continue to be controlled by the shadowy forces of what Douglass calls "the Unspeakable." Only by unmasking these forces and confronting the truth about our history can we restore the promise of democracy and lay claim to Kennedy's vision of peace.
Man, 74, Shoots Carjacker, 18
Saturday, 25 July 2009 2:06 A GMT-05
The punk brought a knife to a gun fight, quite literally.
Treasury: We Can't Tell You Where Bailout Money Went, Because "Money Given to a Bank is Like Water Poured into an Ocean"
Tuesday, 21 July 2009 2:10 A GMT-05
But just like dye is frequently added to streams by scientists in order to trace the flow of water, Treasury could easily track the flow of bailout funds. Indeed, the government has very sophisticated software which tracks funds, which it uses in terrorism investigations. But that is all moot. The truth of the matter is that Treasury never even asked the banks to keep track of where the bailout money was going. If they ask, the banks would be required to keep track themselves.
Too easy on rogue cops
Friday, 10 July 2009 2:29 A GMT-05
Davis parceled out punishments ranging from written reprimands to a 45-day unpaid suspension to 11 officers who were involved in steroid use or had frequented an afterhours club in Hyde Park where drugs, alcohol, and prostitutes were present. The punishments are a byproduct of a federal investigation in 2006 that culminated in the arrest and lengthy imprisonment of three former Boston Police officers for protecting a large shipment of cocaine arranged by federal agents posing as drug dealers. The head of that protection racket, former officer Roberto Pulido, was a steroid user who also guarded parties at the after-hours club frequented by police.
9/11 Truth Activist Sues Glenn Beck and Fox News for Defamation
Friday, 12 June 2009 11:26 P GMT-05
Specifically, Greg Hoover will be suing the above-described defendants in Federal Court for Beck’s having repeatedly broadcast statements characterizing those who question the government’s official version of the events of 9/11 as, "anarchists," "terrorists" and as persons denying the Holocaust. The complaint will note that - on October 22, 2007 - Beck suggested that those identifying themselves as associated with the 9/11 truth movement are "dangerous" "anarchists" who deny the Holocaust, and are "the kind of group that Timothy McVeigh would come from." The suit will also note that during Beck’s June 10th broadcast Beck linked the murder of the Washington D.C. holocaust museum guard with "9/11 truthers." As I have previously written, suing people for defamation who falsely claim that 9/11 activists are terrorists could be a good way to stand up to these bullies.
GLENN BECK SAYS 9/11 TRUTHERS ARE DESTROYING AMERICA...
Thursday, 11 June 2009 1:16 A GMT-05
Glenn Beck attempts to tie the Holocaust Museum shooter with the 9/11 truth movement - BE
Suspect in shooting death of abortion provider George Tiller may be charged today
Monday, 1 June 2009 7:28 P GMT-05
Today, a 51-year-old Johnson County man could be charged with murder and aggravated assault in the shooting of Tiller, who had been shot before by an anti-abortion foe. The crime has drawn condemnation and outrage from the president and stirred strong emotions across the nation. Tiller, 67, was shot once just after 10 a.m. Sunday as he stood in the lobby of Reformation Lutheran Church, 7601 E. 13th St., where he was serving as an usher. The gunman threatened to shoot two men who tried to apprehend him. Wichita police said that the suspect was arrested without incident on I-35 in Johnson County about three hours after the shooting, following a statewide broadcast describing the suspect and his car. Although Wichita police would not name the suspect, the Johnson County Sheriff's Office identified him as Scott P. Roeder, according to the Associated Press.
JFKII - The Bush Connection
Sunday, 31 May 2009 4:39 A GMT-05
The evidence relies primarily on governement documents and public records. The center piece of the evidence is a memo entitled "Assassination of President John F. Kennedy", signed by J Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI, 5 days after the assassination, which names Bush as a supervisor of CIA-trained assassins.
Guns are up in D.C., violence is down
Saturday, 30 May 2009 6:49 P GMT-05
The failure of urban gun laws to reduce violence is based on holding inanimate objects - guns - responsible for the actions of criminals. Criminals are cowards. They go after easy prey. This is why they target the poor, and not the rich. Criminals also target the unarmed, which is why Washington, D.C., was a "gangsta paradise," to quote an old rap song.
Police occasionally give self-defense lessons to law-abiding citizens, encouraging them to use judo and the like to disarm a criminal. Training the citizenry on how to shoot and carry a handgun might be a better investment. Everyone in a city does not have to be armed - just enough to keep criminals wondering if that "easy prey" is protected by Smith & Wesson.
Torture a hallmark of Phoenix's drug kidnappings
Wednesday, 20 May 2009 12:45 A GMT-05
Phoenix police say they have yet to witness the level of violence -- the beheadings, the bodies shoved in drums -- that their counterparts are seeing in Mexico City or the border town of Juarez. "It gets close sometimes," said Lt. Lauri Burgett, who heads the Home Invasion and Kidnapping Enforcement squad. Kidnappers will smash their victims' fingers with bricks, snip their backs open with wire cutters, carve them up with knives or simply shoot them. "We've had them electrocuted. They set them in a tub with water and use kind of barbaric means and zap the tub. I think it was a battery hooked up," Burgett said.
Off Woodward, life hits a dead end
Saturday, 16 May 2009 5:43 P GMT-05
The people of the Detroit Metropolitan region got a glimpse of the ruined block a few months ago when the police convened a press conference from the blood-stained porch of 654 Robinwood claiming they had rounded up 61 outlaws including the killer who assassinated the dope man at that address in broad daylight. And then like quicksilver, the police and the press slipped away. The six families remain. Trapped. "Do I live in Hell? Yes I do and no I don't," said Jerry Williams, who lives at 666 Robinwood and spoke through a steel gate dressed in a bathrobe and dirty socks. "It would be Hell if I was dead, but I ain't. So that just makes the place ugly. The most ugly thing that human beings can create."
Who killed Nick Berg?
Thursday, 14 May 2009 11:06 A GMT-05
None of this proves a grand conspiracy, but it does raise questions. In the final segment of the tape, Berg is thrown to the ground, but doesn't move. During the decapitation, starting at the front of the throat, there is little sign of blood. The scream is wildly out of sync, sounds female, and is obviously dubbed. Dr John Simpson, executive director for surgical affairs at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, told Ritt Goldstein of the Asia Times, "I would have thought that all the people in the vicinity would have been covered in blood, in a matter of seconds ... if it [the video] was genuine".
FBI: Mom, boyfriend kidnapped her son, held blow torch to him
Friday, 17 April 2009 3:18 A GMT-05
New details were released Tuesday in the bizarre case of a Miami woman who is accused of staging her own kidnapping, abducting her teenage son and standing by as an accomplice held a blow torch to the boy's leg to convince his father their ransom demand was serious.
2001 Gun Control Fact Sheet
Sunday, 12 April 2009 5:44 P GMT-05
Very informative and, in more than one way, quite humorous. -BE
Deadly dog-fighting ring is uncovered
Sunday, 12 April 2009 5:17 P GMT-05
Police broke up a deadly dog-fighting den in Dorchester yesterday, Joe Zanoli of the Boston Police Department said. Officers and representatives from the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals removed three dogs - one dead, another severely injured - from a bloody fighting pit in a first-floor apartment on Raven Road at about 7:30 p.m. Large amounts of blood, a fighting pit, cages, probing sticks, and bite sticks were found, Zanoli said. No arrests have been made, but Zanoli said the resident, an unidentified 36-year-old male, could face felony charges.
The Origins of US Illegitimacy: Fatal Flaws that Sink the Warren Commission
Thursday, 9 April 2009 2:19 A GMT-05
The death of Lee Harvey Oswald who had always maintained that he was a 'patsy' was improbably convenient. It relieved the government of having to get a conviction. Most importantly, however, the Warren Commission could not risk a trial that would have exposed the cover up. That is motive enough to order a 'hit'. Certainly --a trial of Oswald disastrous for a corrupt and perhaps illegitimate government. Oswald. Oswald knew too much.
Lawsuit: Minneapolis cops planted pistol on teen after they gunned him down
Wednesday, 1 April 2009 8:35 A GMT-05
The court filings in a lawsuit filed by Fong Lee's family against Minneapolis police and the officer who fired the fatal shots, along with a review of police reports, witness statements and other documents, raise the possibility that Fong Lee was unarmed when an officer shot him eight times — and that the pistol that officers said they found near his body was placed there after the shooting. The gun in question had been recovered earlier after a burglary and turned over to police, who kept it as evidence and had never returned it to its owner. Moreover, Minneapolis police "may have tried to deliberately alter history by writing new reports indicating the gun recovered near Fong Lee's body was not the same gun" that had been recovered after the burglary, according to Richard Hechter, a lawyer representing Fong Lee's family, wrote in an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court on Monday.
To survive Khmer Rouge, he painted
Tuesday, 31 March 2009 10:58 P GMT-05
Today, three decades after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime, marks the beginning of the first substantial hearing in the trial of a senior Khmer Rouge official before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. Kaing Guek Eav, or Duch, a former mathematics teacher, is accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes for his role as commander of the Tuol Sleng prison, where 14,000 men, women, and children were tortured and killed. During the three years, eight months and twenty days that the ultra-communist Khmer Rouge were in power, as many as two million people died from execution, starvation, and illness. The international criminal tribunal -- a hybrid of international judges and prosecutors who work alongside their Cambodian counterparts -- has been plagued by seemingly endless delays. There were only seven survivors of the Tuol Sleng torture prison. Vann Nath, a painter by trade and a former monk, was one. He escaped death by painting portraits of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge leader, that were commissioned by Duch.
China's hi-tech 'death van' where criminals are executed and then their organs are sold on black market
Sunday, 29 March 2009 9:05 P GMT-05
Developed by Jinguan Auto, which also makes bullet-proof limousines for the new rich in this vast country of 1.3 billion people, the vans appear unremarkable. They cost £60,000, can reach top speeds of 80mph and look like a police vehicle on patrol. Inside, however, the 'death vans' look more like operating theatres. Executions are monitored by video to ensure they comply with strict rules, making it possible to describe precisely how Jiang Yong will die. After being sedated at the local prison, he will be loaded into the van and strapped to an electric-powered stretcher. This then glides automatically towards the centre of the van, where doctors will administer three drugs: sodium thiopental to cause unconsciousness; pancuronium bromide to stop breathing and, finally, potassium chloride to stop the heart.
New Orleans Murder Blog
Sunday, 29 March 2009 3:52 P GMT-05
Washington Parish authorities believe KKK group tied to killing was not extensive organization
Sunday, 29 March 2009 2:42 P GMT-05
Man arrested after 'stabbing to death teenager trying to burgle his house'
Sunday, 15 March 2009 8:24 P GMT-05
A man stabbed to death a teenage boy who was trying to burgle his house, sources said today. The man, who is in his early twenties, was arrested after he attacked the 17-year-old boy, who was said to have been breaking in to the house with two other youths.
Funny crimes of our times...
Saturday, 14 March 2009 7:42 P GMT-05
14 $20 bills is a grand total of $280. I don't know how well the counterfeiters knew their trade but it is entirely conceivable that they were at least good enough to make the bills look genuine to an untrained eye. And if Mr White was into counterfeiting himself I would guess the amount he would produce would likely exceed $280. So quite likely he is just being charged with not being a currency expert.
Gardner Museum recalls art heist as 19th anniversary nears
Saturday, 14 March 2009 2:58 P GMT-05
After two men dressed as Boston police officers conned their way into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum after midnight on March 18, 1990, and stole artwork now valued at $500 million, South Boston crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger started pressuring people to find out who did it, according to a longtime associate of the gangster.
Highway robbery? Texas police seize black motorists' cash, cars
Wednesday, 11 March 2009 9:27 A GMT-05
More than 140 people reluctantly accepted that deal from June 2006 to June 2008, according to court records. Among them were a black grandmother from Akron, who surrendered $4,000 in cash after Tenaha police pulled her over, and an interracial couple from Houston, who gave up more than $6,000 after police threatened to seize their children and put them into foster care, the court documents show. Neither the grandmother nor the couple were charged with any crime. Officials in Tenaha, situated along a heavily traveled highway connecting Houston with popular gambling destinations in Louisiana, say they are engaged in a battle against drug trafficking and call the search-and-seizure practice a legitimate use of the state's asset-forfeiture law. That law permits local police agencies to keep drug money and other property used in the commission of a crime and add the proceeds to their budgets.
Sudan soldier: 'They told me to kill, to rape children'
Tuesday, 10 March 2009 12:38 A GMT-05
'Rockefeller' asks judge to drop fake name charge
Sunday, 1 March 2009 11:59 P GMT-05
Lawyers for the German national who moved to the United States in the late 1970s said on Sunday that prosecutors failed to prove that he adopted the alias for the purpose of throwing the arresting police officers off his trail. The lawyers are asking a judge to drop the charge of providing a false name to police, arguing that he had used the name Clark Rockefeller for at least 15 years, including in a sworn affidavit to the grand jury. The motion to dismiss the charge will be filed in Suffolk Superior Court on Monday.
The Two Documents Everyone Should Read to Better Understand the Crisis
Saturday, 28 February 2009 6:15 P GMT-05
As a white-collar criminologist and former financial regulator much of my research studies what causes financial markets to become profoundly dysfunctional. The FBI has been warning of an "epidemic" of mortgage fraud since September 2004. It also reports that lenders initiated 80% of these frauds.1 When the person that controls a seemingly legitimate business or government agency uses it as a "weapon" to defraud we categorize it as a "control fraud" ("The Organization as 'Weapon' in White Collar Crime." Wheeler & Rothman 1982; The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One. Black 2005). Financial control frauds' "weapon of choice" is accounting. Control frauds cause greater financial losses than all other forms of property crime -- combined. Control fraud epidemics can arise when financial deregulation and desupervision and perverse compensation systems create a "criminogenic environment" (Big Money Crime. Calavita, Pontell & Tillman 1997.)
Violence between repo men, car owners on the rise
Saturday, 28 February 2009 6:00 P GMT-05
Alone in his mobile home off a winding dirt road, Jimmy Tanks heard a commotion at 2:30 a.m. just outside his bedroom window: Somebody was messing with his car. The 67-year-old railroad retiree grabbed a gun, walked out the back door and confronted not a thief but a repo man and two helpers trying to tow off the Chrysler Sebring. Shots were fired, and Tanks wound up dead, a bullet in his chest. The man who came to repossess the car, Kenneth Alvin Smith, is awaiting trial on a murder charge in a state considered a Wild West territory even by the standards of an industry that's largely unregulated nationally. Since Tanks' death last June, two other repo men from the same company Smith worked for were shot, one fatally.
America's Law-Free Zone
Friday, 20 February 2009 5:08 P GMT-05
So no international tribunals or foreign countries have any power to investigate or prosecute American officials for war crimes (even when those war crimes are against citizens of those countries and/or committed within their borders). And, American political officials must also not be prosecuted inside the U.S., by American courts. "Nobody is entitled" to do that either, because "attempting to prosecute political opponents at home or facilitating their prosecution abroad is like pouring acid into our democratic machinery." The implication of their argument -- which is now the conventional Beltway view -- is too obvious to require much elaboration. If our political leaders can't be held accountable for their war crimes and other serious felonies in foreign countries or international tribunals, and must never be held accountable in the U.S. either (because to do so is to "pour acid into our democratic machinery"), then it means that American political officials (in contrast to most other leaders) are completely and explicitly exempt from, placed above, the rule of law. That conclusion is compelled from their premises.
Police recover second weapons cache in central MA
Tuesday, 17 February 2009 4:45 A GMT-05
Police say a 72-year-old Auburn man will face criminal charges after investigators found 85 guns and 800 pounds of ammunition in his home, most of them stored improperly. Investigators zeroed in on Anthony Simulynas after a Worcester resident who was arrested for illegal possession of military-style explosives and assault weapons said he stole a powerful machine gun from the elderly Auburn resident.
NEWS: Cop Guilty of Kidnapping and Robbing Dealers, Reselling Drugs
Friday, 13 February 2009 7:28 A GMT-05
The evidence at trial showed that from November 2003 through April 2006, Sease conspired with other Memphis police officers to use their authority as law enforcement officers, including their service weapons, to rob suspected drug dealers of cash, cocaine and marijuana. Sease and his co-conspirators would then resell the stolen drugs for their own profit. The government introduced proof of 16 separate robberies, as well as one attempted robbery. In each robbery, Sease or another uniformed Memphis police officer, would pull over a car containing suspected drug dealers and steal whatever drugs and cash that they found.
Why Lee Harvey Oswald Had to Die!
Sunday, 8 February 2009 9:18 P GMT-05
The government had a problem! Lee Harvey Oswald would have to be tried for the crime of murdering the President. For quite some time in our history, those charged with crimes were given trials. The government had not yet figured out that if you just call them a bad name (terrorist) you can dispense with all those niceties. Someone, somewhere was alarmed! What if Lee Harvey Oswald should get a good lawyer and mount a strong defense! What if Lee Harvey Oswald proved his charge that he was just a patsy!
The Atrocities Committed Against Women and Girls in the Congo Defy Imagination
Sunday, 8 February 2009 2:10 A GMT-05
The disturbing stories that have come out of the Congo defy imagination: women and young girls being raped by militia men in front of their families; rape victims ranging from as young as six months to as old as 83 years; women and girls faced with unwanted pregnancies and raped intentionally by men known to have AIDS. There is also a devastating epidemic of women and girls whose vaginas and reproductive organs have been completely destroyed from being violated with guns, bottles and sticks, often resulting in a condition called fistula, a rupture that results in the uncontrollable leakage of urine and feces. The traumatized rape victims are then further stigmatized and ostracized by their families and communities. Says Mukwege, awarded the UN Human Rights Prize in December 2008 for his humanitarian work, “attacking women, the bearer of life, with this level of terror, I believe it has nothing to do with sexual desire. I think it’s about destabilizing society, trying to destroy society and bring about its complete destruction.”
The Financial Crisis Is Driving Hordes of Americans to Suicide
Thursday, 29 January 2009 12:16 P GMT-05
Pushed past their breaking points, people are robbing banks to pay the rent, setting homes on fire -- even taking their own lives.
Prosecute Bush and Company for their Criminal Negligence and Cover-Up Regarding 9/11
Thursday, 29 January 2009 11:59 A GMT-05
Is there strong evidence of criminal negligence with regard to the 9/11 attacks? Definitely. Is there strong evidence for a cover-up and destruction of evidence? Without doubt. See this and this. Now is the perfect time to prosecute criminal behavior. 9/11 is no exception. If the only politically feasible way to do it is to start with a prosecution solely for criminal negligence or cover-up, then start there.
Killing 'nonwhite people' was motive in Brockton shooting spree, police say
Friday, 23 January 2009 2:58 A GMT-05
A man accused of a horrific rape and killing spree told investigators that he was "fighting extinction" of the white race and had stockpiled 200 rounds of ammunition to "kill 'nonwhite people' such as African Americans, Hispanics and Jewish people," according to a police report filed today in court.
Mexican Drug War Poses Major Threat to U.S.
Thursday, 22 January 2009 10:41 A GMT-05
The U.S. Department of Justice called the Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTO) the “greatest organized crime threat to the United States” in their 2009 National Drug Assessment report. Last year the Mexican drug cartels killed close to 5,700 people.
WWII-Era Mass Grave Believed to Contain 1,800 Germans
Monday, 19 January 2009 3:27 P GMT-05
Poles digging at the site of a planned luxury hotel in Malbork — which was called Marienburg and was part of Germany during the war — excavated a bomb crater at the foot of the city's famous 13th century Teutonic Knights fortress, authorities said Monday. The workers found a small group of bodies in late October and halted digging to allow prosecutors to investigate. After resuming work weeks later, the workers turned up dozens, and then hundreds, more corpses. They believe more may be found.
Alberto Gonzales Considers Himself a 'Casualty of the War on Terror' | PEEK | AlterNet
Thursday, 1 January 2009 10:12 P GMT-05
During a lunch meeting two blocks from the White House, where he served under his longtime friend, President George W. Bush, Mr. Gonzales said that "for some reason, I am portrayed as the one who is evil in formulating policies that people disagree with. I consider myself a casualty, one of the many casualties of the war on terror."
Man accused of leaving Colo. bombs kills himself
Thursday, 1 January 2009 8:59 P GMT-05
The threat that shut down this resort town on New Year's Eve was real: Police said Thursday that four packages in holiday wrapping held dangerous bombs made of gasoline and cell phone parts and came with notes warning of "mass death." The man suspected of placing the bombs in two banks and in an alleyway on Wednesday shot and killed himself a short time later, police said. The body of James Chester Blanning, who grew up in Aspen and lived in Denver since 2003, was found Thursday, police said.
Karl Rove Destroyed My Life
Saturday, 27 December 2008 7:24 P GMT-05
There is no question in my mind that Rove played a key role in what happened to me. From the beginning, the investigation was started by Rove’s client, the state attorney general Mark Pryor; then the prosecution was carried out by the wife of Rove’s best friend and his former business partner. [They had previously worked as political consultants together in Alabama.] We have a live witness who claims that Bill Canary—Rove’s partner—said Rove had taken my case to the Department of Justice. Now it’s up to Congress—and the House and the Senate judiciary committees—to bring Rove before the House Judiciary Committee.
Michael Connell's Death Brings to Mind the Strange Death of Raymond Lemme
Thursday, 25 December 2008 3:03 P GMT-05
Michael Connell, the IT consultant who died in a plane crash last Friday, shortly before he was due to testify in federal court regarding his alleged role in tampering with the 2004 Ohio presidential election results, brings to mind the death of Raymond Lemme. Because of the similarities between Lemme’s and Connell’s connection to the 2004 Presidential election, I think that people trying to figure out the cause of Connell’s death would do well to consider the death of Raymond Lemme. Therefore, I’m reposting my 2005 DU post on the death of Raymond Lemme, with some minor revisions to make it more current:
'Santa' opens fire at Calif. party; 3 dead
Thursday, 25 December 2008 2:39 P GMT-05
A man dressed as Santa Claus opened fire at a Christmas Eve party in a suburban Los Angeles home that subsequently caught fire, leaving three people dead, police said. The man arrived at the party in Covina late Wednesday and immediately opened fire with a handgun, police Lt. Pat Buchanan said.
The Homicides You Didn't Hear About in Hurricane Katrina
Wednesday, 24 December 2008 10:35 A GMT-05
What do you do when you notice that there seems to have been a killing spree? While the national and international media were working themselves and much of the public into a frenzy about imaginary hordes of murderers, rapists, snipers, marauders, and general rampagers among the stranded crowds of mostly poor, mostly black people in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, a group of white men went on a shooting spree across the river. Their criminal acts were no secret but they never became part of the official story. The media demonized the city's black population for crimes that turned out not to have happened, and the retractions were, as always, too little too late. At one point FEMA sent a refrigerated 18-wheeler to pick up what a colonel in the National Guard expected to be 200 bodies in New Orleans's Superdome, only to find six, including four who died naturally and a suicide. Meanwhile, the media never paid attention to the real rampage that took place openly across the river, even though there were corpses lying in unflooded streets and testimony everywhere you looked -- or I looked, anyway. The widely reported violent crimes in the Superdome turned out to be little more than hysterical rumor, but they painted African-Americans as out-of-control savages at a critical moment. The result was to shift institutional responses from disaster relief to law enforcement, a decision that resulted in further deaths among the thirsty, hot, stranded multitude. Governor Kathleen Blanco announced, "I have one message for these hoodlums: These troops know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so if necessary, and I expect they will." So would the white vigilantes, and though their exact body count remains unknown, at least 11 black men were apparently shot, some fatally.
A Brief History of CIA Involvement in Drug Trafficking
Saturday, 13 December 2008 6:51 P GMT-05
The Nugan Hand Bank of Sydney was a CIA bank in all but name. Among its officers were a network of US generals, admirals and CIA men, including former CIA Director William Colby, who was also one of its lawyers. With branches in Saudi Arabia, Europe, Southeast Asia, South America and the U.S., Nugan Hand Bank financed drug trafficking, money laundering and international arms dealings. In 1980, amidst several mysterious deaths, the bank collapsed, $50 million in debt.
Bank blast kills police officer in Oregon
Saturday, 13 December 2008 3:19 P GMT-05
A bomb exploded inside a bank here late Friday afternoon, killing a police officer who arrived to check on a suspicious object and seriously injuring two others. A spokesman for the Oregon State Police, Lt. Gregg Hastings, said a Woodburn police officer died. He did not identify him. He also said the blast seriously injured the Woodburn police chief and a bomb technician with the Oregon State Police. The police chief, Scott Russell, was in surgery at a Portland hospital late Friday, said a hospital spokeswoman. Hastings said Russell was in stable condition.
Greece riots: timeline
Thursday, 11 December 2008 3:21 P GMT-05
How Greece's worst civil disturbances in decades unfolded
Indian police arrest 2 men in Mumbai investigation
Sunday, 7 December 2008 6:12 P GMT-05
One of the two Indian men arrested for illegally buying mobile phone cards used by the gunmen in the Mumbai attacks was a counterinsurgency police officer who may have been on an undercover mission, security officials said Saturday, demanding his release.
Cruel and Unusual: Serving a Death Sentence in a Prison Hospital
Friday, 5 December 2008 8:27 A GMT-05
Johnson was convicted of murder in 1999 and sent to death row. In 2003, his sentence was commuted to 40 years, and on Oct. 30, 2008, Gov. Rod Blagojevich commuted his sentence to time served. This means the state of Illinois has no legal basis for keeping him incarcerated. But now he faces a new challenge: the possibility of extradition to California for different charge. For Gloria, who has been fighting for years to bring her son home for the last months of his life, this would be an unthinkable defeat.
Mumbai attacks: 300 feared dead as full horror of the terrorist attacks emerges
Sunday, 30 November 2008 8:29 P GMT-05
The Sunday Telegraph was given the details of a secret interrogation report based on an interview with the surviving terrorist. The 19-year-old suspect, who lived near the Pakistani city of Multan, is said to have joined Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Islamist fundamentalist group, a year ago. He is alleged to have confessed that he received weapons instruction at a training camp in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The plot is said to have been planned from there. A group then made a reconnaissance of Bombay earlier this year. India believes a Pakistani merchant ship was used to transport some, or all, of the terrorists before they seized control of a fishing trawler to reach Mumbai (Bombay). The final leg of their journey was completed in inflatable boats.
Did a Criminal Mastermind Stage the Mumbai Nightmare?
Saturday, 29 November 2008 6:58 P GMT-05
The coordinated nighttime assault against seven major targets in Mumbai is reminiscent of the 1993 bombings that devastated the Bombay Stock Exchange. The recent attack bears the fingerprints of the same criminal mastermind – meticulous preparation, ruthless execution and the absence of claims or demands. The eerie silence that accompanied the blasts are the very signature of Ibrahim Dawood, now a multi-millionaire owner of a construction company in Karachi, Pakistan. His is hardly a household name around the world like Osama bin Laden. Across South Asia, however, Dawood is held in awe and, in a twist on morals, admired for his belated conversion from crime boss to self-styled avenger.
Mumbai: Armed Police Would Not Fire Back
Saturday, 29 November 2008 6:38 P GMT-05
But what angered Mr D'Souza almost as much were the masses of armed police hiding in the area who simply refused to shoot back. "There were armed policemen hiding all around the station but none of them did anything," he said. "At one point, I ran up to them and told them to use their weapons. I said, 'Shoot them, they're sitting ducks!' but they just didn't shoot back." As the gunmen fired at policemen taking cover across the street, Mr D'Souza realised a train was pulling into the station unaware of the horror within. "I couldn't believe it. We rushed to the platform and told everyone to head towards the back of the station. Those who were older and couldn't run, we told them to stay put."
Mumbai terror rage ends after 60 hours, 195 dead
Saturday, 29 November 2008 5:43 P GMT-05
A 60-hour terror rampage across India's financial capital ended Saturday when commandos killed the last three gunmen holed up in a luxury hotel engulfed in flames. At least 195 people died. After the final siege ended, adoring crowds surrounded six buses near the hotel carrying weary, unshaven commandos, shaking their hands and giving them flowers. The commandos, dressed in black fatigues, said they had been ordered not to talk about the operation, but said they had not slept since the ordeal began. One sat sipping a bottle of water and holding a pink rose.
A Nixon-Ruby Connection
Wednesday, 26 November 2008 8:25 P GMT-05
This FBI-document of 1947 recommends that "one Jack Rubenstein of Chicago" should not be called to testify for the Committee on Unamerican Activities, for he is working for Congressman Richard M. Nixon. According to the Warren Commission, Ruby had no connections with Oswald, Organized Crime or the Government. No wonder the header reads "This is sensitive".
Officer allegedly saw killing, fled scene
Tuesday, 25 November 2008 9:23 P GMT-05
Commissioner Edward F. Davis placed Officer Junior Phillips on administrative leave yesterday after internal affairs investigators told him they believed the 36-year-old patrolman was present when Sheldon Andrews was stabbed to death at a Dorchester cookout. Investigators believe Phillips fled before homicide detectives arrived at the scene, police said.
Correction officer accused of raping inmate
Tuesday, 25 November 2008 9:01 P GMT-05
A correction officer has been accused of rape and having sexual relations with a female inmate at the Suffolk House of Correction in Roxbury. Lieutenant Thomas A. Healy, Jr., 41, was held on $1,500 cash bail after his arraignment today in Roxbury Municipal Court. Healy faces charges that also include indecent assault and battery, according to Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley's office.
Cheney, Gonzales Indicted in Texas Prison Case
Wednesday, 19 November 2008 2:42 P GMT-05
Cheney is charged with engaging in an organized criminal activity related to the vice president's investment in the Vanguard Group, which holds financial interests in the private prison companies running the federal detention centers. It accuses Cheney of a conflict of interest and "at least misdemeanor assaults" on detainees because of his link to the prison companies.
Megan Mitchell, a spokeswoman for Cheney, declined to comment on Tuesday, saying that the vice president had not yet received a copy of the indictment. The indictment accuses Gonzales of using his position while in office to stop an investigation in 2006 into abuses at one of the privately-run prisons. Gonzales' attorney, George Terwilliger III, said in a written statement, "This is obviously a bogus charge on its face, as any good prosecutor can recognize." He said he hoped Texas authorities would take steps to stop "this abuse of the criminal justice system."
Exposed: Federal Air Marshals Too Busy Smuggling Coke and Molesting Kids to Protect You
Sunday, 16 November 2008 3:09 A GMT-05
Under government policies, air marshals found guilty of felonies were fired or forced to resign. But 10 air marshals convicted of misdemeanors, mostly drunken driving, were allowed to keep their jobs. And even after notice that background checks were poor, the agency failed to root out air marshals with troubled pasts before they committed felonies.
Raped in the Military? You May Have to Pay for Your Own Forensic Exam Kit
Friday, 14 November 2008 4:37 P GMT-05
TRICARE, the United States Department of Defense Military Health System that covers active duty members, will only pay for rape kits if the victim is seen in a military or a VA facility. But the Pentagon acknowledges that 80 percent of military rapes are never reported. And that 80 percent who go off-base to protect their anonymity (and/or their careers) are on their own. If a soldier is on leave, or is five-hours from the nearest VA, or if a soldier is simply delivered to the nearest hospital by the local ambulance driver, their rape kits are not covered under TRICARE. Neither are other forensic exams that might be used in domestic violence situations. Front-line treatment shouldn't be conditional on where a rape occurs or where the nearest treatment is available. This is not only a parity issue, but a further obstacle to treatment and justice.
Cop directing traffic spots man driving his truck
Thursday, 30 October 2008 6:35 P GMT-05
A police officer directing traffic outside of a concert in suburban Dallas noticed a familiar-looking truck driving by -- his own. The startling sight led to the arrest of James Matthew Herring, 22, who is charged with theft and evading arrest, police said.
Front Window of Cindy Sheehan's Campaign Office Shattered
Thursday, 30 October 2008 6:02 P GMT-05
Police responded about 8 AM and left a case number and a form to report missing items. They evidenced no concern that political intimidation may have been part of the motivation, or--worse still--that this may be an operation by a resuscitated "Plumbers" group. (And we do not mean "Joe the plumber." For younger readers, search on "plumbers AND break-ins AND Nixon".) Informal "exit polling" of voters emerging from long voting lines (took 45 minutes to cast a ballot) at San Francisco City Hall on afternoon of Oct. 29 suggested an unanticipated but very welcome surge for Sheehan.
Ashley Todd, PA Racist Hoax "Victim," Was Paid Organizer for College Republican National Committee, Not a Volunteer
Monday, 27 October 2008 10:54 P GMT-05
Last week, a troubled young woman handed the McCain campaign a Willie Horton-style race card, and the media helped them play it. The attack of a 20-year-old college student was seized upon by the Drudge Report as a "mutilation," and other conservative Web sites as fodder against the surging Obama campaign. Ashley Todd filed a report with the Pittsburgh Police Department alleging a 6'4'' black man robbed her, then carved up her cheek and sexually assaulted her because he saw that she was a McCain supporter. It turns out the story was made up, and that Todd's black eye and the backwards B scratched into her cheek were most likely self-inflicted.
Md. teen pleads guilty to killing family
Monday, 27 October 2008 9:07 P GMT-05
Nicholas Browning, 16, of Cockeysville pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder in the February slayings of John W. Browning, 45; Tamara, 44; Gregory, 14, and Benjamin, 11. Browning wept in court as prosecutors described the crime. A sheriff's deputy brought him a box of tissues, and Browning wiped his eyes and blew his nose. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors will not seek a sentence of life without parole. Instead, they will seek a maximum of two consecutive and two concurrent life sentences, meaning Browning could eventually be released on parole. Under state law, he would serve at least 23 years behind bars.
ATF disrupts skinhead plot to assassinate Obama
Monday, 27 October 2008 8:59 P GMT-05
In court records unsealed Monday, federal agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target a predominantly African-American high school by two neo-Nazi skinheads. Agents said the skinheads did not identify the school by name. Jim Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of the Nashville field office for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the two men planned to shoot 88 black people and decapitate another 14. The numbers 88 and 14 are symbolic in the white supremacist community. The men also sought to go on a national killing spree, with Obama as its final target, Cavanaugh told The Associated Press. "They said that would be their last, final act -- that they would attempt to kill Sen. Obama," Cavanaugh said. "They didn't believe they would be able to do it, but that they would get killed trying." An Obama spokeswoman traveling with the senator in Pennsylvania had no immediate comment. The men, Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tenn., and Paul Schlesselman 18, of West Helena, Ark., are being held without bond. Agents seized a rifle, a sawed-off shotgun and three pistols from the men when they were arrested. Authorities alleged the two men were preparing to break into a gun shop to steal more.
Families of the Victims Tortured by Chicago Detectives Rejoice at First Arrest
Monday, 27 October 2008 7:28 P GMT-05
Jon Burge might have gotten away with torture altogether if it weren't for the case of Andrew Wilson. Wilson was arrested on Valentines Day, 1982, for the killing of two police officers, William Fahey and Richard O'Brien. That night, after spending hours being interrogated at Area Two, where he ultimately confessed to the crime, he was admitted to Chicago's Mercy Hospital with multiple injuries, including lacerations to his face, bruises to his chest, and second degree burns to one thigh. The next year, Wilson was convicted for the murders and sentenced to death, but the Illinois Supreme Court overturned the conviction, based on the fact that he had been apparently abused by police. The court's opinion cited Wilson's testimony at a pretrial hearing, where he described being "punched, kicked, smothered with a plastic bag, electrically shocked and forced against a hot radiator throughout the day until he confessed." Wilson was convicted a second time for the same crime, in 1988, and given a life sentence. In 1989 he filed a civil suit against Jon Burge and four other police officers.
Update: KATV's Anne Pressly Passes Away
Sunday, 26 October 2008 3:43 P GMT-05
An Arkansas television anchorwoman found beaten at her home earlier this week has died from her injuries. It is with heavy hearts that we tell you KATV's Anne Pressly, found beaten in her home Monday morning, died Saturday from her injuries.
Copper thefts leave youth sports scrambling for field time, answers
Thursday, 23 October 2008 11:07 A GMT-05
In the past five years, copper prices have risen about 300 percent, from about a dollar a pound at scrap yards in 2005 to more than $4 a pound earlier this year. "When it was around a dollar a pound, metal theft wasn't something we dealt with too often. Now, it consumes about 85 to 90 percent of our time," said Sgt. Walt Reed of the Kern County Sheriff's Department in California. His jurisdiction covers 100 square miles of the county in California's central valley, the heartland of the state's agricultural production. Kern County's vast geography makes it difficult for Reed's force to patrol tracts of farmland. It's a magnet for scrap thieves drawn to the metal in irrigation pipes, water pumps and diesel motors. Reed estimated that about 90 percent of the suspects arrested for metal theft turn out to be addicted to the stimulant methamphetamine.
Arson, Suicide, and Murder Mark the Economic Crisis, and We're Not Hearing About it
Monday, 20 October 2008 10:48 A GMT-05
Suicide is, however, just one type of extreme act for which the financial meltdown has seemingly been the catalyst. Since the beginning of the year, stories of resistance to eviction, armed self-defense, canicide, arson, self-inflicted injury, murder, as well as suicide, especially in response to the foreclosure crisis, have bubbled up into the local news, although most reports have gone unnoticed nationally -- as has any pattern to these events.
3 charged in Pikesville vandalism
Thursday, 9 October 2008 3:21 P GMT-05
A 19-year-old member of Baltimore Hebrew Congregation was being held yesterday after being charged in connection with the spray-painting of a swastika and the word "Nazis" at the synagogue in Pikesville. Matthew Ian Saunders, whose family worships at the temple, and two other young Jewish men - Daniel Alexander Diaz, 19, and a 17-year-old who was not identified by police - were charged with two counts of destruction of property and damaging the property of a religious entity.
THE ESSENTIAL LESSONS OF THE ROSENBERG CASE
Tuesday, 7 October 2008 12:23 A GMT-05
The central lesson of this episode is that our government abused its power in dangerous ways that remain relevant today. Those in power targeted our parents, making them the focus of the public’s Cold War-era fear and anger. They manufactured testimony and evidence. They arrested our mother simply as leverage to get our father to cooperate. They used the ultimate weapon — the threat of death — to try to extort a confession. They created the myth that there was a key “secret” of the atomic bomb, and then devised a strategy to make it appear that our father had sought and passed on that “secret.” They executed our father when he refused to collaborate in this lie. They executed our mother as well, even though they knew that she was not an active participant in any espionage activities.
The Anthrax Case Reopens
Wednesday, 1 October 2008 3:18 A GMT-05
The Congressional anthrax hearings of September 16-17 revealed that public pressure is keeping the doors open in the anthrax case. FBI Director Robert Mueller promised that the FBI will provide their evidence to a panel of experts for scientific evaluation. The battle will now turn to the independence of this panel, and whether "all evidence" or merely "scientific evidence" will be under review.
Sarah Palin's History of Indifference to Sexual Assault
Thursday, 18 September 2008 2:37 A GMT-05
Yes it is. It has become painfully clear that not only is Sarah Palin not an advocate for rape victims, she is not an advocate for women. But Palin doesn't hate women; she just doesn't care about them.
Suspended cop: Sex with prostitute wasn't fun, it was work
Wednesday, 10 September 2008 10:35 A GMT-05
Breiner is one of two officers suspended indefinitely without pay for engaging in sex acts during the undercover investigation. Breiner is the only officer trying to stop the city from suspending him, saying that because he did what he was asked to do, the punishment violated his constitutional rights.
Here we go again
Sunday, 7 September 2008 4:11 P GMT-05
Women in trouble are there through no fault of their own, they need understanding and nurturing. Men in trouble have only themselves to blame, might be dangerous and should be contained and controlled. It never seems to occur to the writers of these articles that their double standards have a whiff of self-fulfilling prophecy about them. That a woman knows society will react sympathetically to her problems and so is less likely to react with obvious destructiveness. That a man knows society doesn't give a damn, will spit on him when he lands in the gutter and so might react from rage. (Never mind the specious claim that women turn their troubles inward but men turn them outward. Then explain the fact that male suicide is several times more prevalent than female.)
FBI Sweeps Anthrax Under the Rug
Friday, 5 September 2008 5:22 A GMT-05
Ivins passed two polygraph tests and no link was made between his handwriting and that on the anthrax letters. Investigators were so frustrated at Ivins passing the polygraph tests that they searched his house for books or articles on how to fool a polygraph, but found none.
Man arraigned who allegedly hid $1.3M in cocaine
Tuesday, 2 September 2008 11:14 P GMT-05
A 33-year-old Boston man pleaded not guilty today in Lynn District Court to drug trafficking charges after police allegedly caught him during the weekend with $1.3 million worth of cocaine in his vehicle. When Yorgi Tejeda, 33, was arrested Sunday afternoon in Lynn, police allegedly found 14 kilograms -- or about 31 pounds -- of cocaine in a hidden compartment in his vehicle. Tejeda is charged with trafficking cocaine over 200 grams, Essex County prosecutors said.
Russian cops accused of killing website owner - USATODAY.com
Tuesday, 2 September 2008 6:10 P GMT-05
The owner of an independent website critical of authorities was shot and killed Sunday by police in a volatile province in southern Russia, his colleague said. Police arrested Ingushetiya.ru owner Magomed Yevloyev on Sunday, taking him off a plane that had just landed in Ingushetia province near Chechnya, said the site's deputy editor, Ruslan Khautiyev. Police whisked Yevloyev away in a car and later dumped him on the road with a gunshot wound in the head, Khautiyev said. He said Yevloyev died in a hospital shortly afterward.
Police plan 'supermarket cells' to hold shoplifters and drunks
Tuesday, 2 September 2008 5:31 P GMT-05
Supermarket police cells could be set up in shopping malls and town centres to hold shoplifters, drunks and other short-term offenders. The short-term lockups could hold prisoners for up to four hours where they would be finger-printed, photographed and have a DNA sample taken. They would allow beat bobbies to remove offenders from circulation without spending too long off the street themselves.
Five women beaten and buried alive in Pakistan 'honour killing'
Tuesday, 2 September 2008 5:07 P GMT-05
Pakistan ordered an inquiry yesterday into how five women were buried alive in an "honour killing". Three suspects were arrested as condemnation of the outrage spread across the country. The atrocity took place six weeks ago in a remote region of the vast and restive province of Baluchistan. Three teenage girls named as Hameeda, Raheema and Fauzia, attempted to marry men of their own choosing, and were then reportedly kidnapped by armed local tribesmen along with two older women. According to human rights groups and local reports, the five women were driven away to a desert area by men belonging to the Umrani tribe. The three teenage girls were hauled out, beaten and shot. Injured, but still alive, they were thrown into a ditch. When the two older women, aged 45 and 38, protested at what was happening, they were subjected to the same treatment. "All five women were connected," said Ali Dayan Hasan of Human Rights Watch.
The Return of Superfly
Tuesday, 2 September 2008 4:57 P GMT-05
It was a matter of control, and trust. As the leader of the heroin-dealing ring called the Country Boys, Lucas, older brother to Ezell, Vernon Lee, John Paul, Larry, and Leevan Lucas, was known for restricting his operation to blood relatives and others from his rural North Carolina area hometown. This was because, Lucas says, in his down-home creak of a voice, "a country boy, he ain't hip . . . he's not used to big cars, fancy ladies, and diamond rings. He'll be loyal to you. A country boy, you can give him any amount of money. His wife and kids might be hungry, and he'll never touch your stuff until he checks with you. City boys ain't like that. A city boy will take your last dime, look you in the face, and swear he ain't got it . . . You don't want a city boy -- the sonofabitch is just no good."
David Kelly's closest female confidante on why he COULDN'T have killed himself
Sunday, 31 August 2008 4:27 P GMT-05
‘David would have had to have been a contortionist to kill himself the way they claim,’ she said. ‘I don’t know whether he was born right-handed but by the time I first met him he favoured his left hand for any task that required strength, like opening a door or carrying his briefcase. ‘When he embraced friends at the beginning and end of Baha’i meetings, it was his left arm that you felt hugging you and you could tell his right arm hurt him because he rubbed the elbow a lot. ‘I didn’t want to pry but he finally told me the reason in the spring of 2003. It was the last time I saw him before he died. He was visiting America on business and we went out to dinner. ‘He ordered steak and he was holding his knife very oddly in the palm of his right hand, with his wrist crooked, trying to cut the meat. ‘He told me that some time ago he had broken his right elbow and it was never fixed properly, so he had real problems with it. It was painful and it never regained its strength.
Police Using G.P.S. Units as Evidence in Crimes
Sunday, 31 August 2008 3:25 P GMT-05
Prosecutors in suburban Chicago analyzed data from the Garmin G.P.S. device to pinpoint where Mr. Hanson had been on the morning after his parents were fatally shot and his sister and brother-in-law bludgeoned to death in 2005. He was convicted of the killings this year and sentenced to death.
9/11 Truth and the Tuskegee 40 Year Coverup
Saturday, 2 August 2008 4:35 P GMT-05
The Tuskegee “experiment” victimized 399 black men and many suffered and died as a direct result. On 9/11, thousands of people of all colors, including white, were mass murdered, some dying horribly painful deaths. Thousands more will die as a direct result of Christie Todd Whitman and the EPA’s lies (OK’d by Condoleeza Rice) about the air being safe to breathe; if you’re white, your skin color will not save you, and neither will our “representatives”. Given that another massive terror attack- perhaps multiple dirty bombs in US cities- is a possibility and may be the pretext for instituting martial law and completely destroying the US Republic and our Constitution, is it not imperative that the 9/11 events be fully investigated, when what we’ve been told is so obviously not the truth? Given that the neocons keep threatening Americans with another attack and are lusting for war with Iran, can we afford to wait 40 years to find out if the truth about 9/11 is that it was an inside job and it’s being covered up? Should not all those responsible for the success of the attacks be exposed and held accountable? A truth and reconciliation commission may be the best way to reveal all parties who had foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks and facilitated their success, as well as institute the reforms that will be necessary to prevent future attacks being enabled by policy makers and elite power brokers. In an environment where whistleblowers and those who turn state’s evidence are the ones who have immunity and protection, instead of corrupt “elites”, it is likely more people will come forward. According to Sibel Edmonds, who has gone on to found the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition, many of her colleagues in the field of national security want to testify, but they will not do so unless subpoenaed; if Congress cannot be counted on to be supportive of hearings, if the media cannot be counted on to publish and broadcast the unspun truth, if protection from retaliation is not offered, what incentive do they have to come forward with evidence of corruption and malfeasance by public officials and powerful private interests who can ruin their reputations and careers, even harm them and their families? The least the American People can do to show potential whistleblowers they have our support is with non-violent demands and actions, raising our voices in the streets and online, in support of public hearings, full disclosure and real accountability.
Suspect in anthrax-letter deaths kills himself
Saturday, 2 August 2008 3:02 A GMT-05
Anthrax-laced letters that killed five people and severely rattled the post-9/11 nation may have been part of an Army scientist's warped plan to test his cure for the deadly toxin, officials said Friday. The brilliant but troubled scientist committed suicide this week, knowing prosecutors were closing in. The sudden naming of scientist Bruce E. Ivins as the top -- and perhaps only -- suspect in the anthrax attacks marks the latest bizarre twist in a case that has confounded the FBI for nearly seven years. Last month, the Justice Department cleared Ivins' colleague, Steven Hatfill, who had been wrongly suspected in the case, and paid him $5.8 million. Ivins worked at the Army's biological warfare defense labs at Fort Detrick, Md., for 35 years until his death on Tuesday. He was one of the government's leading scientists researching vaccines and cures for anthrax exposure. But he also had a long history of homicidal threats, according to papers filed last week in local court by a social worker. The letters containing anthrax powder were sent on the heels of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and turned up at congressional offices, newsrooms and elsewhere, leaving a deadly trail through post offices on the way. The powder killed five, sent numerous victims to hospitals and caused near panic in many locations.
U.S. Military Covers up Murder: Says Soldier Beat Herself to Death
Friday, 1 August 2008 1:46 A GMT-05
The photographs revealed that Lavena, a small woman, barely 5 feet tall and weighing less than 100 pounds, had been struck in the face with a blunt instrument, perhaps a weapon stock. Her nose was broken and her teeth knocked backwards. One elbow was distended. The back of her clothes had debris on them indicating she had been dragged from one location to another. The photographs of her disrobed body showed bruises, scratch marks and teeth imprints on the upper part of her body. The right side of her back as well as her right hand had been burned apparently from a flammable liquid poured on her and then lighted. The photographs of her genital area revealed massive bruising and lacerations. A corrosive liquid had been poured into her genital area, probably to destroy DNA evidence of sexual assault.
Decapitated bus passenger, man was 'totally calm' during attack
Friday, 1 August 2008 1:33 A GMT-05
A young man travelling on a Greyhound bus was stabbed to death and beheaded by a stranger in a horrifying act of apparently random violence. The incident occurred on a bus travelling from Edmonton to Winnipeg just before 10 p.m. Wednesday.
Father wanted for murder arrested in New York; children unhurt
Thursday, 31 July 2008 1:05 A GMT-05
A 25-year-old father who is accused of fatally stabbing a woman in the face in Lynn and then kidnapping his estranged wife and four young children was arrested today in New York, law enforcement officials said. Rodlyn Petitbois was arrested without incident at Franklin Avenue and Union Street in Brooklyn at about 6:15 p.m., said Detective Kenny Anderson, a New York police spokesman. The wife and four children were found safe in a Brooklyn apartment, said Steve O'Connell, a spokesman for prosecutors in Essex County, Mass. The arrests came after a massive and frantic manhunt. Officials had activated an Amber Alert at 10:44 a.m., seeking the public's help in finding the family. The search included federal immigration officials, the FBI, and authorities in New York, where Petitbois once lived.
GOP operative nabbed in prostitution sting
Saturday, 26 July 2008 2:54 P GMT-05
Peter Hong, 41, of Minneapolis, was one of 19 men picked up Wednesday afternoon after police say he responded to an ad for sex put out in newspapers and online by the St. Paul Police Department's vice squad. He was booked into the Ramsey County Jail at about 5 p.m. the same day on suspicion of engaging in prostitution.
GOP whistleblower names Karl Rove in Ohio's 04 election theft
Monday, 21 July 2008 2:57 A GMT-05
This case has the potential to put some of the most powerful people in the country in jail, according to Arnebeck, as he was joined by a well-respected, life-long Republican computer security expert who charged that the red flags seen during Ohio's 2004 Presidential Election would have been cause for "a fraud investigation in a bank, but it doesn't when it comes to our vote." "This entire system is being programmed in secret by programmers who have no oversight by anybody," the expert charged, as Arnebeck detailed allegations of complicity by a number of powerful GOP operatives and companies who had unique access both to the election results as reported in 2004, as well as to U.S. House and Senate computer networks even today.
Tragedy. Audacity. Trouble.
Sunday, 20 July 2008 4:38 P GMT-05
From his wheelchair, Michael Pelletier led a multimillion-dollar drug ring, paying swimmers to smuggle marijuana from Canada into Maine
Charred bodies found on Tijuana street
Saturday, 12 July 2008 1:44 P GMT-05
The execution-style killings marked a resurgence in violence between feuding Tijuana drug cartels.
Yeah, What ABOUT that Anthrax Terrorist?
Saturday, 12 July 2008 1:11 P GMT-05
Call me crazy. But after viewing this very creepy exchange between Patrick Leahy and Michael Mukasey regarding the anthrax killer, I got the feeling that both of them know exactly who sent those anthrax-laden letters almost seven years ago.
Serbian basketball player sought in assault on fellow student
Thursday, 10 July 2008 9:57 A GMT-05
Serbia agreed to cooperate in the case of Miladin Kovacevic, 20, who fled the United States in early June after he was charged in the May 4 assault of a fellow Binghamton University student at a bar in Binghamton, New York.
The fight started May 4, when Bryan Steinhauer, 22, tried to dance with the girlfriend of one of Kovacevic's friends. Witnesses said Kovacevic, who is 6-foot-9, 280 pounds, kicked the 5-foot-9, 130-pound Steinhauer repeatedly in the head as he lay on the ground. Three men, including Kovacevic, were charged with assault and gang assault and held on $100,000 bail, according to police. Kovacevic, who had been recruited to play basketball for the university, managed to flee the United States after his mother flew to New York to post bail and a Serbian consular official provided him with a temporary passport.
US planned nerve gas tests on Australian soldiers
Tuesday, 8 July 2008 7:36 A GMT-05
The Defence and Prime Minister's office files show that the US was strongly pushing then prime minister Harold Holt's government in the 1960s to allow tests of two of the deadliest chemical weapons ever developed -- VX and GB, better known as Sarin nerve gas. The revelation airs this morning on the Nine Network's Sunday program.
The little girl they couldn't see
Sunday, 6 July 2008 3:30 P GMT-05
The police officers had seen it all, but never anything like this. Last December, they stood inside a bedroom in a Brighton rehabilitation facility, visiting with Haleigh Poutre, a 13-year-old girl once deemed so hopelessly brain-damaged that judges approved the removal of her life support. But now Haleigh was not only breathing, but also communicating. And it wasn't just any conversation. She was answering questions about who might have delivered a near-fatal blow to her head nearly three years ago.
Even Fort Detrick Scientists Themselves Think the Killer Anthrax Came from their Facility
Saturday, 5 July 2008 6:07 P GMT-05
"In an e-mail obtained by FOX News, scientists at Fort Detrick openly discussed how the anthrax powder they were asked to analyze after the attacks was nearly identical to that made by one of their colleagues.
"Then he said he had to look at a lot of samples that the FBI had prepared ... to duplicate the letter material," the e-mail reads. "Then the bombshell. He said that the best duplication of the material was the stuff made by [name redacted]. He said that it was almost exactly the same … his knees got shaky and he sputtered, 'But I told the General we didn't make spore powder!'"
Surveillance Video Captures Graphic Hit-and-Run
Friday, 6 June 2008 3:38 A GMT-05
Hartford police released a surveillance video that shows a 78-year-old man, wh...o was struck by a car, lying motionless on a busy city street as pedestrians gawk but do nothing.
Graphic: Police Release Video Of Hartford Hit-And-Run
Friday, 6 June 2008 3:23 A GMT-05
Hartford police are looking for help from the public to find the driver police said struck a 78-year-old man in Hartford on May 30. Police found Angel Torres, of Hartford, on the ground in front of 33 Park St. Friday, May 30, at approximately 5:45 p.m. Torres had suffered head injuries when he was hit by a car, police said. He was taken to Hartford Hospital, where he is in critical condition and is paralyzed from the neck down.
Troy From West Virginia Harasses 9/11 Family Member Bob McIlvaine
Sunday, 25 May 2008 3:52 P GMT-05
I heard about this on the way up to New Hampshire. Apparently Troy even asked Bob to put a bullet in his head (notice how Troy conveniently left that out). Mrs. McIlvaine was very shaken up by this, and understandably so. Troy has a history of harassing members of this movement by crank calling them on the phone (and he recently harassed 9/11 First Responder John Feal by calling him at least 30x according to John), but this is the first time his efforts focused on a 9/11 family member.
Snitch
Sunday, 25 May 2008 12:17 A GMT-05
Deanna Johnson testified against a murderer to save her son. But in the projects, truth comes at a price.
Exeter bombing suspect was 'brainwashed', friends insist
Saturday, 24 May 2008 6:09 P GMT-05
The man who is suspected of detonating a bomb in an Exeter restaurant on Thursday was described by police and friends last night as a vulnerable and mentally disturbed "friendly giant", who had been "brainwashed" by people seeking to convert him to Islam.
No Paper Trail Left Behind: the Theft of the 2004 Presidential Election
Saturday, 24 May 2008 4:30 P GMT-05
In the Georgia governor's race Republican Sonny Perdue upset incumbent Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes by a margin of 52 to 45 percent. This was especially strange given that the October 16-17, 2002 Mason Dixon Poll (Mason Dixon Polling and Research, Inc. of Washington, D.C.) had shown Democratic Governor Barnes ahead 48 to 39 percent, with a margin of error of ± 4 points. The final tally was, in other words, a jaw dropping 16-point turn-around! What the Cleland “defeat” by Saxby and the Barnes “defeat” by Perdue both have in common is that nearly all the Georgia votes were recorded on computerized voting machines, which produce no paper trail. In Minnesota, after Democrat Sen. Paul Wellstone's plane crash death,34 ex-vice-president Walter Mondale took Wellstone’s place and was leading Republican Norm Coleman in the days before the election by 47 to 39 percent. Despite the fact that he was trailing just days before the race by 8 points, Coleman beat Mondale by 50 to 47 percent. This was an 11-point turn around! The Minnesota race was conducted with paper ballots, read by optical scan readers, but Mondale never bothered to ask for a recount.35 Welcome to a world where statistical probability and normal arithmetic no longer apply!36 The Democrats, rather than vigorously pursuing these patently obvious signs of election fraud in 2004, have nearly all decided that being gracious losers is better than being winners,37 probably because – and this may be the most important reason for the Democrats’ relative silence - a full-scale uncovering of the fraud runs the risk of mobilizing and unleashing popular forces that the Democrats find just as threatening as the GOP does.
Biofuel 'home brewers' raid grease barrels
Thursday, 22 May 2008 2:34 A GMT-05
A few years ago, drums of used french fry grease were only of interest to a small network of underground biofuel brewers, who would use the slimy oil to power their souped-up antique Mercedes. Now, restaurants from Berkeley, California, to Sedgwick, Kansas, are reporting thefts of old cooking oil worth thousands of dollars by rustlers who are refining it into barrels of biofuel in backyard stills. "It's like a war zone going on right now over grease," said David Levenson, who owns a grease hauling business in San Francisco's Mission District. "We're seeing more and more people stealing grease because it lets them stay away from the pump, but it's hurting our bottom line."
Celebration Of Americans Turning In Their Neighbors, Family Members
Tuesday, 20 May 2008 1:41 A GMT-05
Lest we forget that from this same wellspring of tyranny emerged Operation TIPS, which was supposedly nixed by Congress, a DOJ, FBI, DHS and FEMA coordinated program that would have recruited one in twenty-four Americans as domestic informants, a higher percentage than was used by the Stasi in East Germany.
Overwhelming Evidence Points To Murder Of DC Madam
Saturday, 3 May 2008 8:09 P GMT-05
"She had one white paper file box that she told me had some important paper with her and then she just kind of raised her eyebrows like you're supposed to think oh yeah, that's all the information that she had on her business in Washington," her building manager said. If Palfrey was planning to commit suicide just three days later then why did she leave with several suitcases and a box of files? According to an AP report, "Blanche Palfrey (her mother) had no sign that her daughter was suicidal, and there was no immediate indication that alcohol or drugs were involved, police Capt. Jeffrey Young said," On at least four previous occasions, both in the past and more recently, Palfrey publicly stated that she would never commit suicide. Twice on The Alex Jones Show, the most recent example being less than two months ago, Palfrey made clear her intention never to kill herself (Click here for MP3). "No I'm not planning to commit suicide," Palfrey told The Alex Jones Show on her last appearance in March, "I'm planning on going into court and defending myself vigorously and exposing the government," she said. "Not to be concerned, I have no intention of letting anyone buy me off or make any kind of a deal with me....and I'm not planning to commit suicide either," said Palfrey on a separate occasion. Alex Jones also talked directly to Palfrey during show breaks and she re-stated her intention never to commit suicide and made it clear that if she was found dead to consider it murder. GCN Live radio board operators are also witnesses to these statements.
Pat Tillman’s mother still not sure she’s being told the truth
Saturday, 3 May 2008 8:01 P GMT-05
According to the Army, Tillman was firing across a valley at enemy fighters on the other side, but Rangers on the road below thought he was shooting at them and fired back. A dozen officers and Rangers were disciplined for the incident, but Mary Tillman is still not satisfied. According to CBS, “She points to inconsistencies, including that his uniform was burned after his death, which is against regulations, and that the coroner refused to sign the autopsy for months because his analysis of Tillman’s gunshot wounds was not consistent with the Army’s original story.” “This isn’t about us,” Mary Tillman told CBS. “This is about what they’ve done to the public. This was a public deception.”
Exonerated, 17 years late
Friday, 2 May 2008 11:27 A GMT-05
Randolph's ordeal began on a cold December afternoon in 1990. A little girl was playing on a snow bank in Roslindale when a man on a bicycle approached her, flashed a knife, and held it to her cheek. He cornered the child next to a dumpster, told her to take down her pants, and molested her. About 20 minutes later, the police picked up Randolph, who was walking near the scene of the crime on American Legion Highway. At the time, Randolph was homeless, struggling with a drinking problem, and living at the Pine Street Inn, a shelter in the South End. He had been arrested before, for crimes like shoplifting and breaking and entering. But no one had ever accused him of being violent or a predator. When police asked the child whether she recognized Randolph as her attacker, she said no. But a few minutes later, after talking to her aunt, she accused Randolph. During a grand jury investigation, the child described her attacker in ways that did not match Randolph, including his clothing and height, Patel said. There was also no physical evidence connecting Randolph to the assault, records show.
Collateral Damage in the D.C. Madam Case
Friday, 2 May 2008 10:52 A GMT-05
UPDATE: Deborah Jeane Palfrey found dead of supposed suicide at her mother's home in Florida. Brandy Britton was also found dead of a suicide hanging. Strange that both women decided to hang themselves? Ms. Palfrey is on record as saying she would not commit suicide and, if she was found dead, it would be murder. Link. If you want to hear the words come from Ms. Palfrey's own mouth, here is a link to her last interview. 05/01/2008.
The Palfrey-Cheney Connection
Friday, 2 May 2008 10:47 A GMT-05
Is it possible that facing of a 55-year sentence, Ms. Palfrey was going to do some talking, in hopes of a reduced sentence? Were some persons concerned that an angry or vindictive Palfrey might write tell-all?
'D.C. Madam' found hanged
Friday, 2 May 2008 1:03 A GMT-05
Deborah Jeane Palfrey, known as the "D.C. Madam," was found dead in Florida on Thursday, according to Tarpon Springs police. Deborah Jeane Palfrey was convicted of running a high-powered prostitution ring. Palfrey hanged herself in a storage shed on her mother's property, where she had been staying, police said. Palfrey's mother, 76-year-old Blanche Palfrey, found the body, police said. Palfrey was convicted April 15 in connection with a high-end prostitution ring catering to Washington's elite. She had said in interviews that she would kill herself before going to prison.
Captive woman 'had 7 children by father'
Sunday, 27 April 2008 2:37 P GMT-05
A woman has told police that she was held prisoner in a cellar for almost 24 years by her father, who repeatedly raped her and fathered her seven children. Lower Austria police said in a statement that the 42-year-old woman, identified as Elisabeth F., had been missing since August 29, 1984 and was found by police in the town of Amstetten on Saturday evening following a tip. Franz Polzer, head of the Lower Austrian Bureau of Criminal Affairs, told reporters that the 73-year-old father, identified in a separate police statement as Josef F., had been taken into custody.
The High Crimes of John Yoo
Saturday, 26 April 2008 4:41 P GMT-05
Among other criteria, it stated that “[p]hysical pain amounting to torture must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death.”
BUSH BASHER SMASHES DISABLED TEEN: COPS - New York Post
Friday, 25 April 2008 2:37 A GMT-05
"He began yelling about Iraq and Iran at Jenna Bush. She was waving at the crowd. I told the guy, 'What are you doing? Shut up. This is about a child and books,' " said John Lovetro. "He was unperturbed. I said, 'Get out of here! You're being a moron!' " The next thing he knew, Talis was allegedly punching Maureen - a fan of the first lady since meeting her in 2004.
NY Post Smears Activist For "Wheelchair Assault"
Friday, 25 April 2008 2:35 A GMT-05
The NY Post is facing a lawsuit after it brazenly smeared a 9/11 truth activist for attacking a wheelchair-bound woman in New York last night, when in fact it was the activist himself who was beaten up by the girl's father according to eyewitnesses.
Former prosecutor says new spy case shows that Pollard case was bigger than thought
Thursday, 24 April 2008 1:21 A GMT-05
A former US attorney says the arrest of a US Army veteran on charges he spied for Israel confirms that the 1985 case of Jonathan Pollard was bigger than suspected. Joseph DiGenova oversaw the Pollard case. He says 84-year-old Ben-Ami Kadish is alleged to have had the same Israeli handler as Pollard, a former US Navy analyst serving a life sentence for espionage. DiGenova says the similarities are eerie. He says it clearly indicates the case is bigger than these two.
Court Again Clears EPA in 9/11 Toxic Dust Ruling
Tuesday, 22 April 2008 11:04 P GMT-05
An EPA whistleblower, Dr. Cate Jenkins then wrote a letter to Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and other members of the New York congressional delegation blasting the EPA for hiding dangerous toxins from Ground Zero workers in the aftermath of 9/11. The Letter claimed that EPA-funded research on the toxicity of breathable alkaline dust at the site “falsified pH results” to make the substance appear benign, when it was, in reality, corrosive enough to cause first responders and other workers in lower Manhattan to later lose pulmonary functions and, in some cases, to die. In an even more shocking development it was revealed that Whitman apparently had financial interests in reassuring the public that all was well and that lower Manhattan could safely be reoccupied.
Christie Todd Whitman Not Liable For Telling Residents That World Trade Center Air Was Safe To Breathe, Judge Rules
Tuesday, 22 April 2008 10:57 P GMT-05
Former EPA chief Christine Todd Whitman cannot be held liable for telling residents near the World Trade Center site that the air was safe to breathe after the 2001 terrorist attacks, a federal appeals court said Tuesday. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Whitman apparently made comments reassuring people about the safety around the site based on conflicting information and reassurances by the White House. The appeals court said legal remedies are not always available for every instance of arguably deficient governmental performance.
Experts: Sirhan Sirhan Did Not Kill RFK
Sunday, 20 April 2008 5:52 P GMT-05
The other evidence was the Pruszynski recording. This is the only audio recording of the assassination. Another scientist analyzed it and concluded that at least 13 shots were fired from two different guns. Philip Van Praag, a forensic engineer, said he made three discoveries. The first two demonstrate that there must be more than one shooter, he said. The third conclusion is that the shots fired by the second shooter matched the firearm a security guard behind Kennedy carried. Joling and Van Praag presented their findings together, although the two investigated the Kennedy shooting independently. They had never met until last year. During a seminar, they realized their separate findings were perfectly wed.
Sometimes your friends end up duct-taped and suicided
Sunday, 20 April 2008 5:45 P GMT-05
Riad ran the Palestine Children's Welfare Fund (PCWF), a radical Gaza-based "charity" that helped children in Gaza and that we tried to help. Several of you sponsored children from his organization for the measly sum of $10/month that makes such a huge difference in their lives by paying for schoolbooks and medicine. Those of you who did, I honor from the bottom of my heart. Riad was doing such good work that right wing Likud organizations slandered him by linking him and his charity to Islamic fundamentalist terror in newspaper and Internet articles. He had court cases against several of them including that slimey rat David Horowitz. Shortly before Riad was suicided, his home had been raided by the feds and his computers were confiscated. It sent shockwaves through the pro-Palestinian community because it was one of the last organizations you could use to help people. My friend is dead. Found floating in a lake, ductaped by "suidice". Other friends of mine are being persecuted too but they're not suicided yet.
Who Killed Martin Luther King?
Sunday, 20 April 2008 5:16 P GMT-05
Six-oh-one p.m., April 4th, 1968, Martin Luther King has been felled by a single shot. In 1977 the family of Martin Luther King engaged an attorney and friend, Dr. William Pepper, to investigate a suspicion they had. They no longer believed that James Earl Ray was the killer. For their peace of mind, for an accurate record of history, and out of a sense of justice they conducted a two decade long investigation. The evidence they uncovered was put before a jury in Memphis, TN, in November 1999. 70 witnesses testified under oath, 4,000 pages of transcripts described the evidence, much of it new. It took the jury 59 minutes to come back with their decision that Loyd Jowers, owner of Jim’s Grill, had participated in a conspiracy to kill King, a conspiracy that included J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI, Richard Helms and the CIA, the military, the Memphis Police Department (MPD), and organized crime. That verdict exonerated James Earl Ray who had already died in prison. The news of the verdict, in one of the most important national security trials in modern history, was suppressed. And to this day — with very, very few exceptions — the public does not know that this trial took place and what the outcome was.
April 19 -- Day of remembrance
Sunday, 20 April 2008 2:16 A GMT-05
It is with great sadness that we honor today the victims of the Waco massacre, April 19, 1993, and the Oklahoma City bombing, April 19, 1995.
Police, Media Say FBI Target Found Dead In Lake, Bound & Gagged, Committed Suicide!
Sunday, 20 April 2008 1:52 A GMT-05
Austin police said Thursday that they are leaning toward a ruling of suicide in the death of a middle school teacher and activist whose body was found Wednesday in Lady Bird Lake with his hands and legs bound and tape over his eyes.
Man's guilt doubted after 26 years in prison
Sunday, 20 April 2008 1:46 A GMT-05
Two attorneys recently revealed that their former client, Andrew Wilson, admitted committing the crime that sent Logan to prison, but attorney-client privilege had kept them from coming forward. Wilson's death last year allowed the attorneys to unseal an affidavit stating that Logan was not responsible for the fatal shooting of security guard Lloyd Wickliffe at a McDonald's restaurant in January 1982.
'Inhumane' motorists drove OVER and around hit-and-run victim as he lay dying in the street
Thursday, 17 April 2008 8:49 P GMT-05
The self-employed plasterer was cycling down a dual carriageway in Manchester at about 3.30am last Saturday when he was knocked over by a stolen VW Golf. The car was later found burnt-out nearby. Witnesses said that instead of stopping to help Mr Wills as crucial minutes ticked by, other motorists steered around his body, and police believe one actually drove over him. "It's a pretty sad state set of affairs when people refuse to stop to help a fellow human who is clearly in dire need of help," said a police source.
Lawyers Move To Get Torture Memo Author Yoo Tried As War Criminal
Saturday, 12 April 2008 2:25 P GMT-05
The National Lawyers Guild has called for the firing from Berkeley Law School of former assistant to the Attorney General John Yoo for what it describes as "complicity in establishing a policy" that has led to war crimes. During his time in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, Yoo authored various controversial memos in which he advocated the possible legality of torture and decreed that enemy combatants could be denied protection under the Geneva Conventions. Yoo, a co author of the PATRIOT ACT, also suggested that it was legal to declare war anytime, any where, and on anyone the President deemed a threat.
Somalia: The Open Secret Horror Show Continues
Friday, 4 April 2008 10:54 A GMT-05
Our "news" media have been trained to produce fiction revolving around the notion that whatever America does overseas is "right"; and in this case there's no possible argument to be made in favor of our intervention in Somalia; therefore they have no choice but to avert their eyes and pretend it isn't happening. Thus the war in Somalia -- just like many of America's clandestine operations over the years -- is a "secret" to most Americans. But it's not clandestine. It's just a secret. In former days, when the CIA old-timers were staging a regime-change operation, they took pains to make sure nobody found out. They were afraid of the media. Now their successors don't have to be so careful, because they control the media, and they know nobody's gonna make a peep.
The Declassified Torture Memo Says Laws Are Worthless
Friday, 4 April 2008 10:40 A GMT-05
You got that? Laws that Congress has passed are not applicable to the President during wartime. In other words, fuck you, Constitution; fuck you, criminal statutes. The President can run the armed forces like the desperate Don of a dying mob family trying to cling to some turf, and neither he nor anyone under his direction is culpable in any way, shape, or form.
Beijing Steps Up Falun Gong Persecution Ahead of Olympics
Thursday, 3 April 2008 10:28 A GMT-05
Once detained, the Falun Gong adherents are sent without trial to reeducation-through-labour camps, where reports indicate they face torture and other forms of abuse. The Falun Gong website Minghui.org, which receives and compiled accounts of persecution from inside China, has reported that 129 Falun Gong adherents were tortured to death by authorities between January 1st and March 20th, 2008. The website provided a list and case details for each individual reported to have been killed.
Advanced tactic targeted grocer
Saturday, 29 March 2008 3:40 P GMT-05
A massive data breach at Hannaford Brothers Cos. was caused by a "new and sophisticated" method in which software was secretly installed on servers at every one of its grocery stores, the company told Massachusetts regulators this week.
Lawyer: Gitmo Trials Pegged To '08 Campaign
Saturday, 29 March 2008 2:38 P GMT-05
Using the murder of 2,973+ people for everything it's worth... I don't think anyone (honest) can deny that the 9/11 attacks have been used by those in Government for MULTIPLE reasons (pre-emptive war, loss of civil liberties, reason to continue wars, and on and on and on...). Almost as if the attacks were designed specifically for that purpose. Hmmm... - Jon
New evidence suggests second shooter killed RFK
Thursday, 27 March 2008 11:14 P GMT-05
One investigator, Dr. Robert Joling, has studied the Kennedy assassination for nearly four decades. He determined the fatal shot came from behind Kennedy, while Sirhan was four to six feet in front of the senator and never got close enough to shoot him from behind, an NBC affiliate reports. Analysis by another forensics engineer, Philip Van Praag, of a Canadian journalists tape recording, known as the Pruszynski recording, determined that 13 shots were fired while Kennedy was killed, although Sirhan's gun only held eight bullets, according to the NBC reporter. This suggests that a second shooter was involved in the assassination. Van Praag's analysis led him to conclude that a second gun that was fired matched a type owned by one of the security guards in Kennedy's entourage.
Man Innocently Kills Cop During Drug Raid
Saturday, 22 March 2008 6:26 P GMT-05
In the case where a citizen mistakenly (and allegedly) shot through his door at a raiding police officer, the citizen is facing a murder charge; in the case where a raiding police officer mistakenly shot through a door and killed a citizen, there were no criminal charges. Over the last quarter century, we’ve seen an astonishing rise in paramilitary police tactics by police departments across America. Peter Kraksa, professor of criminology at the University of Eastern Kentucky, ran a 20-year survey of SWAT team deployments and determined that they have increased 1,500 percent since the early 1980s—mostly to serve nonviolent drug warrants.
Witnesses: Teen killed by police had his hands up
Saturday, 22 March 2008 6:02 P GMT-05
"No one in the family is accustomed to having guns ... We are humble people," Buenrostro-Gonzalez's father, Jose Luis Buenrostro, said, disputing the police account of the fatal shooting. Police maintain that the officers were not at fault and that Buenrostro-Gonzalez had threatened them with a firearm. "The officers reacted appropriately and in compliance with our policies when confronting an armed and dangerous suspect," said police Assistant Chief Howard Jordan. "They fired in defense of their lives after (Buenrostro-Gonzalez) pointed a weapon at them." Police said Buenrosto-Gonzalez may have been associated with gangs in East Oakland. His friends and family vehemently denied the possibility.
Former Cape Air pilot get prison time for lying
Saturday, 22 March 2008 2:23 A GMT-05
Crews suffered a diabetic seizure in the middle of a flight from Martha's Vineyard to Hyannis in February 2002. One of the four passengers, Melanie Oswalt, landed the plane safely at Provincetown Airport, even though its landing gear didn't extend and the airport was closed. Oswalt was a Cape Air security supervisor who was a pilot-in-training with just 48 hours flying experience.
DSS ignored 'red flag' of abuse
Thursday, 20 March 2008 10:34 A GMT-05
DSS officials had known of neglect in the home as far back as 2002 and were informed of three reports of possible physical abuse since late last year, including reports of a beating with a belt in December and burns with a cigarette on March 4. But DSS did not notify law enforcement officials until Monday, when teachers discovered burn marks on his genitals, pelvis, and buttocks. "This kid was sent home to be tortured for another 13 days, as far as I'm concerned, because somebody dropped the ball," Middleborough Police Chief Gary J. Russell said in an interview yesterday. "It makes you want to cry. This kid was tortured."
Decriminalize prostitution
Sunday, 16 March 2008 4:16 P GMT-05
Eliot Spitzer paid a woman for sex. And got caught. Depending on whose statistics you choose to believe, more than one in every 10 American adult males have paid for sex at some point in their lives. What's more, in 2005, about 84,000 people were arrested across the nation for prostitution-related offenses. In other words, it's not terribly uncommon. It's a part of our culture, and it's not going away any time soon. Perhaps Spitzer's resignation will help convince Americans that it is finally time to decriminalize prostitution across the country.
Street mix-up delays police response to slaying
Friday, 14 March 2008 10:43 A GMT-05
At 11:20, according to the internal police document, Santiago's neighbor called 911 and spoke with the operator for almost three minutes. The operator, following procedure, took down the address and the details the emergency. The operator, who is not identified by name, sent a computerized message that was dispatched to officers in District 1, the area that covers Boston's Downtown Crossing, Beacon Hill, Chinatown, and Charlestown. The caller is "upset," reads the message. "Immediately believes there was an homicide on the 3rd floor. The person has the kids with her. . . . Please hurry before he come back [sic]." At 11:24, the operator sent another message to officers: The caller does not want to give further information and is afraid to go to the third floor. At 11:26, the police, then at Downtown Crossing, began to suspect they had the wrong address, according to Driscoll. At 11:29, the operator sent a third message from the caller, who was "very upset because police are not there yet." At 11:31, officers from District 11, which covers Dorchester, were dispatched. They arrived at 11:34, 14 minutes after the operator received the call and about 10 minutes after the operator entered the information into the computer system. Driscoll said the average response time for police to arrive on the scene is seven minutes after they receive the 911 call.
Mother facing jail after leaving baby in car for two minutes while she put money in a charity box 10 yards away
Thursday, 13 March 2008 3:21 A GMT-05
The mother was out of her car for just minutes and no more than 10 yards (9 metres) away. But that was long and far enough to land Treffly Coyne in court after a police officer spotted her sleeping 2-year-old daughter alone in the vehicle. Mrs Coyne had taken her two older daughters to pour £4 in coins into a Salvation Army collection box. Minutes later, she was under arrest - the focus of both a police investigation and a probe by the state's child welfare agency.
Peeling The Onion Again: Eliot Spitzer And Countless Layers Of Hypocrisy
Thursday, 13 March 2008 3:02 A GMT-05
The Megaphone has now learned that as attorney general, Spitzer [photo] got involved behind the scenes, and in the courts, filing a amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief on Silverstein’s behalf on Jan. 15, 2003. For years, this brief languished in the files of the public records room on the 17th floor of the Second Circuit Court in Manhattan, until it was discovered and brought to The New York Megaphone by NYC attorney and author Carl Person. The court ended up agreeing with Spitzer and Silverstein, over-turning the decision of a lower court. Spitzer helped midwife a fat compromise and an eventual $4.5 billion payout for Silverstein. The Megaphone’s multiple requests for comment from Governor Spitzer were ignored. Attorney Carl Person told The Megaphone, “I was surprised to see that Spitzer had used his position as attorney general to support one private litigant over another. Normally, this is not done…Silverstein could well have been someone who destroyed evidence concerning the 9/11 events by apparently ordering or consenting to the tearing (pulling) down of 7 WTC and the removal of the debris from his multiple ground leased premises thereafter.”
Death Row Lotto
Tuesday, 11 March 2008 6:20 P GMT-05
The death penalty is supposed to be reserved for the state's most unconscionable murderers, but such deplorable offenders often are spared, while perpetrators of far less cruel and callous crimes await the ultimate punishment on death row. Like Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman, who faces death for murdering a local drug dealer, despite virtually no hard evidence proving he was the actual killer. Or Olen Hutchison, sentenced to die for a murder that was committed while he was in another county. In Tennessee, capital justice is a grim game of chance, where the outcome often hinges on the whims of a particular prosecutor and where judges rarely find a death sentence excessive. While it's easy to make moral arguments against the death penalty -- if not practical ones, since innocent people occasionally find their way to death row -- perhaps the worst criticism about capital punishment in Tennessee is that it's arbitrary and irrational. In fact, one of the state's highest prosecutors cavalierly admits that the decision to pursue the death penalty is based on a "gut feeling." The blatant, unexplainable disparities in sentencing are exactly why the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily suspended capital punishment during the 1970s. But today the death penalty is just as randomly applied in Tennessee as ever before, despite statutory changes intended to make the system fair.
Gang Members Get Trained in the Army
Tuesday, 11 March 2008 4:52 P GMT-05
"Gang members are using the techniques and skills learned in the Army to commit crimes, and there is no doubt about that. The worrisome thing is that they endanger not only officials but all of society," says Gregory Lee, former supervisor of the national Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and private consultant in Los Angeles. In Southern California the orders are clear: Any indication that a gang member has military training must immediately be reported. Each time authorities enter a gang member’s house, said an anti-gang official who preferred to remain anonymous, "We have precise orders to look for photos, Army uniforms, anything related to the Army or that demonstrates a military training of that gang or gang member." That information is classified in a special gang database, according to the source. "For us, it is vital to know if we are confronting an enemy with military training," says Lieutenant George Zagurski, member of the intelligence unit of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. He declined to state the number of local gang members known to have been trained by the Army.
Marines promises a full investigation into puppy-throwing video
Saturday, 8 March 2008 3:05 P GMT-05
Military officials say they haven't confirmed the identity of a U.S. Marine seen throwing a puppy off a rocky cliff in a disturbing video. The Marine's purported name was uttered in the video and has been widely circulated online. The name matches a 22-year-old lance corporal at Kaneohe Bay. He's a member of the First Battalion, Third Marine Regiment, which returned from Iraq in October.
Men use bogus police badges to rob immigrants
Tuesday, 4 March 2008 4:10 A GMT-05
Police are looking for two men who have been flashing fake badges and impersonating police officers to rob illegal immigrants. The most recent robbery was reported Sunday night in Chelsea, when two men dressed like plainclothes detectives knocked on the door of a second-floor apartment on Broadway at 8:30 p.m. With badges hanging around their necks and speaking into what looked like a police radio, the men forced all the residents into a room and stole cash and jewelry. Over the last six months, there have been a total of 11 such robberies in Chelsea, East Boston, and Everett. “They’re targeting illegal residents who are scared to communicate with police in the first place,” said Captain Keith Houghton of the Chelsea Police Department.
Gun Control Claims More Victims
Saturday, 1 March 2008 7:32 P GMT-05
That’s not to disparage the police. In most cases, they act aggressively and competently. But they are rarely the first to arrive at the scene of a crime. The first ones there are the perpetrators and their victims. That’s when self-defense weapons are needed, not after the damage is done. Consider that in all such incidents, the shooters are not so deranged as to attack police stations, shooting ranges, or gun shows. They have enough presence of mind to assail unarmed people in gun-free zones because they will encounter no effective resistance. (The one incident in which an individual was foolish enough to threaten to kill hostages where guns were prevalent was at a shooting club in California in July 1999. The gunman was promptly shot by an employee, without harm to the hostages.)
Columbine To Va. Tech To NIU: Gun-Free Zones Or Killing Fields?
Saturday, 1 March 2008 7:30 P GMT-05
Few know that Dylan Klebold, one of the two Columbine killers, was closely following Colorado legislation that would have let citizens carry a concealed handgun. Klebold strongly opposed the legislation and openly talked about it. No wonder, as the bill being debated would have allowed permitted guns to be carried on school property. It is quite a coincidence that he attacked Columbine High School the very day the legislature was scheduled to vote on the bill. With all the media coverage of the types of guns used and how the criminal obtained the gun, at some point the news media might begin to mention the one common feature of these attacks: They keep occurring in gun-free zones.
New evidence challenges official picture of Kennedy shooting
Tuesday, 26 February 2008 4:58 A GMT-05
But the lone gunman explanation has always looked shaky. The autopsy of Kennedy's body suggested that all four shots that hit him came from behind, and powder marks on his skin showed they must have been from close range. But Sirhan was in front of Kennedy when he fired, and after shooting two shots was overcome by hotel staff, who pinned him to a table. Also, Sirhan fired eight shots in total, yet 14 were found lodged around the room and in the victims. "There is no doubt in our minds that no fewer than 14 shots were fired in the pantry on that evening and that Sirhan did not in fact kill Senator Kennedy," said Robert Joling, a forensic scientist who has been involved with the Kennedy case for nearly 40 years.
Psychotropic Drugs & Gun Free Zones Again The Cocktail For A Killer
Sunday, 17 February 2008 12:26 A GMT-05
As the media prepares to launch another blitz of gun control propaganda in the wake of the Northern Illinois University shootings, it's no surprise to learn that killer Steven Kazmierczak had been taking psychotropic drugs and that the campus was a victim disarmament zone - the two major factors which always breed this kind of tragedy. Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, as well as 15-year-old Kip Kinkel, the Oregon killer who gunned down his parents and classmates, and Cho Seung Hui, the Virginia Tech killer, were all on psychotropic drugs. Scientific studies proving that prozac encourages suicidal tendencies and psychopathic behavior in young people are voluminous and span back nearly a decade. Jeff Weise, the Red Lake High School killer was on prozac, "Unabomber" Ted Kaczinski, Michael McDermott, John Hinckley, Jr., Byran Uyesugi, Mark David Chapman and Charles Carl Roberts IV, the Amish school killer, were all on SSRI psychotropic drugs.
Ill. gunman's rampage baffles friends
Saturday, 16 February 2008 7:25 A GMT-05
If there is such a thing as a profile of a mass murderer, Steven Kazmierczak didn't fit it: outstanding student, engaging, polite and industrious, with what looked like a bright future in the criminal justice field. And yet on Thursday, the 27-year-old Kazmierczak, armed with three handguns and a brand-new pump-action shotgun he had carried onto campus in a guitar case, stepped from behind a screen on the stage of a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University and opened fire on a geology class. He killed five students before committing suicide.
The Fear Factory
Sunday, 10 February 2008 11:09 P GMT-05
There are signs, however, that judges and jurors are getting fed up with such concocted "threats." In December, the prosecution of the "Liberty City Seven" ended in one acquittal and a hung jury for the rest of the accused. The supposed cell was accused of preparing a "full ground war" against America by bringing down the Sears Tower and other buildings. At trial, however, it emerged that the men had no operational abilities, that the plots were dreamed up at the exhortation of two paid FBI informants while smoking dope and that the group had been provided its camera, military boots and warehouse by the JTTF. Despite 15,000 surveillance recordings of the men, including one in which they swore allegiance to Osama bin Laden, the jury refused to convict. "This was all written, produced, directed, choreographed and stage-designed by the United States government," Albert Levin, an attorney for one of the accused, said in his closing argument.
US soldier convicted of killing Iraqi
Sunday, 10 February 2008 4:49 P GMT-05
On Friday, Vela's commanding officer testified that he ordered Vela to kill al-Janabi, saying that was the only way to ensure the safety of his men in hostile territory. Sgt. Michael A. Hensley, who was a staff sergeant at the time of the killing but was later demoted, testified that he and the other members of the sniper team had all fallen asleep, then awoke to find al-Janabi squatting about three feet from them. Hensley said he ordered the man to lie on the ground and was searching him when he saw "military-aged men" who he thought were carrying weapons about 100 yards away. He said al-Janabi began yelling, and he decided that killing the man was the only way to keep the sniper hide-out from being discovered by what he believed was a group of approaching insurgents.
G.I. Tells of Ordering Execution of Unarmed Iraqi
Saturday, 9 February 2008 4:34 P GMT-05
Under a grant of immunity, the sniper, Sgt. Michael A. Hensley, an expert marksman and sniper trainer, testified in the court-martial of Sgt. Evan Vela. Sergeant Vela is accused of murder, impeding a military investigation and planting evidence to cover up an unjust shooting. An earlier charge of premeditated murder was dropped. Sergeant Vela is the third soldier to be charged in the death of the Iraqi, Genei Nesir Khudair al-Janabi, last May. Sergeant Hensley and another soldier, Specialist Jorge G. Sandoval Jr., were acquitted of murder charges last year, but were convicted of planting evidence. As part of his sentence, Sergeant Hensley was demoted from staff sergeant.
Kidnappings of U.S. citizens on rise
Saturday, 9 February 2008 2:59 P GMT-05
The scenario that fits about 90 percent of the FBI's kidnapping cases starts with a middle-class family with no criminal ties, who live in communities such as Chula Vista, San Diego and National City. The family typically owns a business in Mexico and has relatives there. At least one family member, usually a man in his 40s, makes several personal and professional trips across the border. While driving in Mexico, this person is pulled over by as many as 10 people posing as police. They're carrying weapons, wearing vests and using police jargon. Within a minute or two, someone is shoving a hood over the victim's head and dragging him into a vehicle. His car is left on the side of the road. “We've had victims held for days to months,” Horan said.
Fatal shooting of officer leaves neighborhood numb
Sunday, 27 January 2008 4:40 P GMT-05
Shivers, a 34-year-old father, was shot as was trying to enter at the house in the street’s 900 block around 8:30 p.m. He and several other officers were there with a search warrant as part of a drug investigation, police said. Shivers was pronounced dead at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. He left behind a wife and three children – ages 2, 8 and 14.
Weapons Trove Suspect Is Linked to Hate Crimes - New York Times
Wednesday, 23 January 2008 9:29 A GMT-05
It all happened in less than three hours on a cool September night — a prolific spurt of anti-Jewish vandalism at more than a dozen locations in the heart of Brooklyn Heights. On Monday, the police caught a break, arresting a man who they said had a trove of weapons inside a stately apartment building in the neighborhood. The man, Ivaylo Ivanov, admitted under videotaped questioning that he was behind the spree, which had mystified investigators for months, the police said. And later Monday evening, after Mr. Ivanov’s arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court, his lawyer surprised reporters with his own announcement: Mr. Ivanov is himself Jewish.
Will a Drug Warrior Be Hanged?
Wednesday, 16 January 2008 1:38 A GMT-05
Thailand’s war on drugs — vigorously approved by the Bush administration — has received far less attention in the United States than it deserves. When Thaksin launched his anti-drug campaign in 2003, he declared that “in this war, drug dealers must die.” Interior Minister Wan Muhamad Nor Matha promised that drug dealers “will be put behind bars or even vanish without a trace. Who cares? They are destroying our country.” The Thai government was concerned about the rising number of Thais taking amphetamine-type pills — popularly known as Yaa-Baa. The crackdown began in early February 2003. Within weeks, government officials were bragging about the number of bad guys killed. A New York Times article noted that “the killings started right on cue. Many victims were on secret, but official, ‘black lists.’” Throughout Thailand, local officials set up black boxes or mailboxes and encouraged people to accuse anyone suspected of involvement with narcotics — no evidence required. Many people used the anonymous system to accuse business competitors or personal enemies. According to a 2004 U.S. State Department human-rights report, the interior minister warned “governors and provincial police that those who failed to eliminate a prescribed percentage of the names from their blacklists would be fired.”
MARTIN LUTHER KING - THE FATAL SHOT CAME FROM A DIFFERENT DIRECTION
Tuesday, 15 January 2008 12:13 P GMT-05
According to the government, James Earl Ray shot Dr. Martin Luther King from that window. There is, needless to say, no physical evidence to prove this charge. James Earl Ray spent his life in prison based solely on a coerced confession which he immediately retracted. None of the ballistics tests, which were performed on the rifle James Earl Ray allegedly used, were able to link that rifle to the actual bullet that killed Dr. Martin Luther King. Dr. King's family does not think James Earl Ray was the killer, and recently won a civil court case proving there was a conspiracy. Now, thanks to writer Ted Wilburn, in a story which follows, new evidence has surfaced to prove that the government and the media have been lying to the public about the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King.
9-11 Cover-Up, Treason and The Bomb
Tuesday, 8 January 2008 3:22 A GMT-05
Edmonds claims, in the Times article, that following the 9-11 attacks, FBI investigators took a number of Turkish and Pakistani operatives into custody for questioning about foreknowledge of the attacks, but that a high-ranking US State Department official repeatedly acted to spirit them out of the country. Edmonds was fired from her FBI translating job in 2002 after she accused a colleague of having illicit contact with Turkish officials. She has claimed that she was fired for being outspoken, and in 2005 her position was reportedly vindicated by the Office of Inspector General of the FBI, which concluded that she had been sacked for making valid complaints. One of those whom Edmonds claims in the Times report was being investigated in connection with the nuclear information transfers was Pentagon analyst Lawrence Franklin. Franklin was convicted and jailed in 2006 for passing US defense information to American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbyists and sharing classified information with an Israeli diplomat. Franklin, in 2001, was part of the Pentagon Office of Special Plans, a kind of shadow intelligence unit set up by the Bush administration inside the Pentagon whose job it was to gin up “evidence” to justify a war against Iraq. In that capacity, he (along with several other OSP members and arch neocon schemer Michael Ledeen) was also identified by Italian investigative journalists working for the newspaper La Republican, as having been at a crucial meeting in December 2001 in Rome with the Italian defense and intelligence service ministers. La Republicca reports that at that meeting a plan was hatched to fob off forged Niger embassy documents as evidence that Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein was trying to buy uranium ore from Niger.
2 election workers get 18 months for rigging presidential recount
Tuesday, 8 January 2008 1:38 A GMT-05
A judge suspicious of more corruption pressed two former election board workers to tell what they know and then sentenced them today to the maximum 18 months in prison for rigging the 2004 presidential election recount to make their job easier. “I can’t help but feel there’s more to this story,” said Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Peter Corrigan, who allowed the women to remain free on bond pending appeal. Some of their friends and relatives sobbed as the judge imposed the sentence.
Police abandoned security posts before Bhutto assassination
Friday, 4 January 2008 5:30 A GMT-05
"Police officers had frisked the 3,000 to 4,000 people attending Thursday's rally when they entered the park, but as the speakers from Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party droned on, the police abandoned many of their posts," wrote Saeed Shah in an essay published by McClatchy News Service. "As she drove out through the gate, her main protection appeared to be her own bodyguards, who wore their usual white T-shirts inscribed: 'Willing to die for Benazir.'" While some intelligence officials, especially within the US, were quick to finger al Qaeda militants as responsible for Bhutto's death, it remains unclear precisely who was responsible and some speculation has centered on Pakistan's intelligence service, the ISI, its military or even forces loyal to the current president Pervez Musharraf. Rawalpindi, where Bhutto was killed, is the garrison city that houses the Pakistani military's headquarters.
Doctors Who Tried To Resuscitate Benazir Bhutto Were Pressured To Keep Quiet: Here's Their Report
Tuesday, 1 January 2008 8:46 P GMT-05
As you can see if you read the report, they spent 40 minutes trying to revive her, even though they hadn't seen a single sign of life. Why? Because nobody wanted to admit that she was dead. And then, according to the doctors, the government came along and scooped up all the records and warned them not to talk about what they saw. How depressingly familiar. Could terrorists have done all this? Depends on what you mean by "terrorist", doesn't it?
That Was One Considerate Unnamed FAA Employee!
Saturday, 29 December 2007 1:44 P GMT-05
On September 11, 2001 a group of FAA employees who were directly involved in handling the hijacked aircraft, or at the very least witnessed the actions of those directly involved with those aircraft, gathered to discuss what they had just been through. That meeting was recorded on an audiotape. One does not have to be a top-notch detective to realize that such a recording could easily be an invaluable piece of evidence in any subsequent investigation. And anyone whose IQ exceeds that of an absolute imbecile would likely realize that the murder of many hundreds of people would not go uninvestigated. Yet an FAA employee,- whose identity has to this day not been made public,- destroyed this tape,- allegedly, in a very meticulous and thorough manner, making absolutely sure it would never be heard.
FBI Confiscated $400K from man, who is charged with no crime
Saturday, 22 December 2007 9:47 A GMT-05
2 robbers broke in to Luther RIcks home, one of them stabbed his son. He shot and killed one of them defending his home. Even though the robbers didn't get to the $402,767 that he had in a safe, the FBI refuses to give it back until he proves he made it, because they found marijuana in the home. Even though he has been cleared of all charges!
2 nabbed after dog allegedly stolen and eaten
Friday, 21 December 2007 1:47 P GMT-05
Honolulu police arrested two men, ages 58 and 43, both of Kalihi, for allegedly stealing the dog Sunday from Moanalua Golf Club, where they were maintenance workers. The dog belongs to a member who was given permission to leave his pet at the clubhouse while golfing.
The Grinch Who Stole America
Wednesday, 19 December 2007 1:25 A GMT-05
You might even know that Cheney was one of the founders of the Project for a New American Century. The Project for a New American Century, in turn, called for a new American empire well before 9/11, and lamented that, without a "catastrophic and catalyzing event — like a new Pearl Harbor", transformation of America into an empire would be very slow. But you may not know that -- in the 70's -- Cheney was instrumental in generating fake intelligence exaggerating the Soviet threat in order to undermine coexistence between the U.S. and Soviet Union, which conveniently justified huge amounts of cold war spending. See also this article. This scheme foreshadowed Mr. Cheney's role in generating fake intelligence in Iraq by 30 years.
Heroine of the Week
Wednesday, 19 December 2007 12:15 A GMT-05
A 7-year-old-girl is being hailed as an "angel from heaven" and a hero for jumping in front of an enraged gunman, who pumped six bullets into the child as she used her body as a shield to save her mother's life. Alexis Goggins, a first-grader at Campbell Elementary School, is in stable condition at Children's Hospital in Detroit recovering from gunshot wounds to the eye, left temple, chin, cheek, chest and right arm. The girl's mother, Selietha Parker, 30, was shot in the left side of her head and her bicep by a former boyfriend, who police said was trying to kill Parker. . . . Police identified him as Calvin Tillie, 29, a four-time convicted felon whom Parker had dated for six months.
Another Shooter With A History Of Anti-depressant Use
Friday, 14 December 2007 9:16 A GMT-05
Robert Hawkins, the 19 year old who killed himself and eight other people with an assault rifle last night in Omaha, Nebraska had a history of treatment with psychiatric drugs for depression and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and was on prozac according to press reports. Of course the headlines will once again focus on how evil and dangerous guns are, how the second amendment should be reevaluated and will once again ignore the fact that this young man was subject to dangerous brain altering chemicals for a number of years prior to this tragic incident.
CIA Torture Jet wrecks with 4 Tons of COCAINE
Friday, 14 December 2007 5:37 A GMT-05
This Florida based Gulfstream II jet aircraft # N987SA crash landed on September 24, 2007 after it ran out of fuel over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula it had a cargo of several tons of Cocaine on board now documents have turned up on both sides of the Atlantic that link this Cocaine Smuggling Gulfstream II jet aircraft # N987SA that crashed in Mexico to the CIA who used it on at least 3 rendition flights from Europe and the USA to Guantanamo's infamous torture chambers between 2003 to 2005.
9/11 Victims' Lawyers Blast Ground Zero Toxic Air Lies In Court
Wednesday, 12 December 2007 7:04 A GMT-05
However, it must be remembered that Whitman and the EPA are accountable to the White House and act under the direct authority of the Bush Administration. It was the 2003 EPA Inspector General's investigation that revealed that it was the White House that had pressured EPA into changing its press releases to add more "reassuring" language. The further memos revealed that Whitman conspired with the White House to falsely reassure New Yorkers that the air was safe.
Fox & Friends debate: Should all Americans carry guns?
Wednesday, 12 December 2007 6:16 A GMT-05
"I hope this represents a change in the way we think about gun-free zones," said Larry Pratt of the Gun Owners of America, "because heretofore, we've had these kinds of bad guys attacking schools and churches and they don't meet any armed resistance ... I think we have to get it through our heads: gun-free zones are criminal-friendly zones."
NYPD tricking innocent people into committing nonexistent crimes, then charging them with felonies!
Sunday, 9 December 2007 7:04 P GMT-05
Find a wallet, go to jail? New York undercover cops have been leaving wallets and purses around in public spots in the city, then arresting anyone who picks them up and doesn’t present them to a nearby uniformed officer. Some arrestees have otherwise clean records and say they intended to use ID inside the bags to notify the rightful owners. Putting money inside the bags didn’t lead to serious enough charges, in the coppers’ view, so they began salting them with live American Express cards so that the finders could be charged with grand larceny, with four years behind bars.
'Better Than Doyle': Camouflage In The JFK Assassination Would Have Fooled Sherlock
Thursday, 22 November 2007 9:25 P GMT-05
The "best" available evidence would be the President's body. Forensically, the body would bear the record of the assassination. For example, if Kennedy had been killed by knife wounds, "Oswald's" "sniper's nest" would have been irrelevant. For a better example, if Kennedy's body showed that his wounds had come from the front, Oswald could not have been the killer, "sniper's nest" or no, because Oswald was behind the President when he was killed. Similarly, if the President's body showed that he had been shot from behind, it wouldn't matter how many witnesses said they saw or heard gunfire from elsewhere -- because the body was the best evidence. The witnesses could have been wrong, confused, or lying. The wounds on the body would tell the tale. Therefore the main technical problem for the plotters was how to make the autopsy surgeons believe that the President had been shot from the rear when he had been shot from the front. The solution they apparently employed was one Arthur Conan Doyle probably never considered.
The Saudi Arabian Justice System Sucks Pig Cock
Thursday, 22 November 2007 6:37 A GMT-05
Here's the Saudi Justice Ministry's reasoning for a female gang-rape victim being sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in prison for "illegal mingling": "[A]nyone has a right to appeal verdicts, but [the ministry] also warned of 'stirring up agitation through the media that may not be objective and cannot grant anyone any right as much as it can negatively affect the other parties involved in the case.'" You know, if you can't stir up agitation over a woman and man who were gang raped and then punished by a court because they were unmarried and met with each other before being gang raped, then there's not much to stir up trouble about at all.
FBI's Forensic Test Full of Holes
Monday, 19 November 2007 11:51 A GMT-05
In 2004, however, the nation's most prestigious scientific body concluded that variations in the manufacturing process rendered the FBI's testimony about the science "unreliable and potentially misleading." Specifically, the National Academy of Sciences said that decades of FBI statements to jurors linking a particular bullet to those found in a suspect's gun or cartridge box were so overstated that such testimony should be considered "misleading under federal rules of evidence."
A year later, the bureau abandoned the analysis. But the FBI lab has never gone back to determine how many times its scientists misled jurors. Internal memos show that the bureau's managers were aware by 2004 that testimony had been overstated in a large number of trials. In a smaller number of cases, the experts had made false matches based on a faulty statistical analysis of the elements contained in different lead samples, documents show.
O'Reilly: "Truth is Anti-American." Mark Cuban: "Bill O'Reilly is a Moron"
Sunday, 18 November 2007 7:18 P GMT-05
Apparently the ambush wasn’t enough to satisfy Billo, so he then set his sights on Mark Cuban for financing the new movie “Redacted” for its depiction of atrocities committed by some of our soldiers in Iraq, and Cuban had a few choice words to say about it. Note to Billo, this film is not going to incite any more anti-American hatred than the actual criminal actions of a few bad soldiers already did, and nothing could be more anti-American than pretending to report the news and acting like that never happened, and attacking those who won’t. Sweeping the horrors of war under the rug is not the supporting the troops. A public that better understands those horrors is what a democracy needs so that it never unnecessarily sends our soldiers into war in the first place.
School shooter kills 8, self in Finland
Thursday, 8 November 2007 12:56 A GMT-05
An 18-year-old gunman opened fire at his high school in this placid town in southern Finland on Wednesday, killing seven other students and the principal before mortally wounding himself in a rampage that stunned a nation where gun crime is rare. Police were analyzing YouTube postings that appeared to anticipate the massacre, including clips in which a young man calls for revolution and apparently prepares for the attack by test firing a semiautomatic handgun.
Journalist killed in Iraq
Tuesday, 16 October 2007 2:06 A GMT-05
Salih Saif Aldin, 32, an Iraqi who sometimes wrote under the name Salih Dehema for security reasons, was killed yesterday while reporting on the violence in the Baghdad neighbourhood of Sadiyah, according to a statement from the newspaper. The newspaper said that Aldin's wounds appeared to indicate he was shot at close range. His body was later found on the street, covered with newspapers.
Treason in Shreveport
Tuesday, 16 October 2007 1:30 A GMT-05
A week ago, I returned from a fact-finding mission in Shreveport, New Orleans and Houston. Alongside reporter Jordan Green, I met many of Dr. Graham’s surviving friends and coworkers. Every one of them indicated that Dr. Graham’s death deserves a deeper investigation. No one believes that Dr. Graham was unstable, or suicidal. The only party to allege that Dr. Graham could have taken his own life is the Shreveport FBI. I personally did a face-to-face interview with FBI Special Agent Stephen Hayes, when I stumbled into him at his office in Shreveport. The tone and content of his comments were indicative. He was hostile, and belittling. The interview ended when he “called security” on me and Mr. Green, (who was there reporting for Yes! Weekly, Greensboro, N.C.) Dr. Graham met two 9/11 terrorists, ten months before 9/11, in his native Shreveport. He was a medical associate of Dr. Mohammed Habeeb Ahmed (now a resident of San Jose, CA, we believe) and an associate of current federal fugitive Mohammed Jamal Khan (now residing in his native Pakistan, we believe). Dr. Graham was meticulous about these meetings. He wrote a book he tried to publish (“The 9/11 Graham Report”) and even created a set of four video tapes in which he clandestinely recorded Khan and Ahmed in his office in 2002 and 2003, discussing the year 2000 meetings with 9/11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Fayez Banihammad. In his book, Graham discusses cardboard boxes in Khan’s apartment that indicated that Khan was supplying documents or supplies to Khalid al-Mihdhar, who with al-Hazmi, was later identified to be one of the “ringleaders” of 9/11. Khan also had boxes bearing the names Nawaf al-Hazmi and Fayez Banihammad.
Wis. AG: Deputy Shot Himself 3 Times
Wednesday, 10 October 2007 10:36 A GMT-05
An off-duty sheriff's deputy who killed six people apparently shot himself three times, with the last shot hitting him in the right side of the head, the state attorney general said Tuesday.
Gun control doesn't protect us -- guns do
Monday, 8 October 2007 10:57 P GMT-05
If there were no guns, I would say allow no guns. But since all the wrong people already have them, and the cops can't do much about it except match their firepower, then it may well be time to arm thyself, citizen.
So Who's Afraid of the Israel Lobby?
Monday, 8 October 2007 1:10 A GMT-05
Seldom has the Lobby's power been as clearly demonstrated as in its ability to suppress the awful truth that on June 8, 1967, during the Six Day War: Israel deliberately attacked the intelligence collection ship USS Liberty, in full awareness it was a U.S. Navy ship, and did its best to sink it and leave no survivors; The Israelis would have succeeded had they not broken off the attack upon learning, from an intercepted message, that the commander of the U.S. 6th Fleet had launched carrier fighters to the scene; and By that time 34 of the Liberty's crew had been killed and over 170 wounded.
Private Security In Iraq: Most Shooting Incidents Go Unreported
Friday, 5 October 2007 5:07 A GMT-05
Most of the more than 100 private security companies in Iraq open fire far more frequently than has been publicly acknowledged and rarely report such incidents to U.S. or Iraqi authorities, according to U.S. officials and current and former private security company employees.
2nd Man Held in US Embassy Bomb Attempt
Wednesday, 3 October 2007 1:06 A GMT-05
A Bosnian arrested in an apparent plot to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Vienna seems confused and in the past received psychiatric care, Austrian officials said Tuesday as they tried to determine a motive for the botched attempt. Asim C., a 42-year-old unemployed Bosnian, was arrested Monday after his bag -- grenades, plastic explosives and bits of metal -- set off a detector at the embassy entrance, which is fortified and guarded by U.S. Marines. He fled on foot, but was captured nearby after tossing the backpack into the street. It did not explode, and no one was injured.
Blackwater portrayed as out of control
Tuesday, 2 October 2007 2:00 A GMT-05
Among the most serious charges against the prominent security firm is that Blackwater contractors sought to cover up a June 2005 shooting of an Iraqi man and the company paid, with State Department approval, the families of others inadvertently killed by its guards. Blackwater has had to fire dozens of guards over the past three years for problems ranging from misuse of weapons, alcohol and drug violations, inappropriate conduct and violent behavior, says the 15-page report from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Just after the report was released, The Associated Press learned the Federal Bureau of Investigation is sending a team to Iraq to investigate an incident that has angered the Iraqi government.
Hub cop steps up to collar drive-by suspects
Thursday, 27 September 2007 8:53 A GMT-05
A decorated Boston cop working a paid detail in Roxbury yesterday busted three suspected gunmen wanted for the brazen drive-by shooting of a reputed gang member after the officer heard a police broadcast and stopped the suspects by standing in front of their fleeing car. The victim, who is well-known to police, was found bleeding from a gunshot wound to his face at the corner of Mount Pleasant and Dudley streets. The gunmen, the victim told cops, fled in a Mercury Sable. Patrolman Scott Roby, who is assigned to the gang unit, was working a construction site detail a few streets over when he heard the description of the car broadcast over his police radio. Just then, he saw three men in a car matching that description speeding down the road toward him, and he jumped in front of it “in a way that they couldn’t take off,” Roby told the Herald last night.
US Tourist Kills Mugger With Bare Hands
Saturday, 15 September 2007 6:24 P GMT-05
A US tourist realized a robbery wasn't a joke when a masked robber put a gun to her head and a military veteran in her tour group grabbed the young assailant and killed him with his bare hands.
Katrina Plus Two Years: This Is Not a Home (Random Thoughts on an Anniversary)
Thursday, 30 August 2007 6:42 A GMT-05
This was a city in America that was left to fend for itself after the largest natural disaster in U.S. history, with money tossed at it like it was a sidewalk drunk with a cup. It is part of America. You fail New Orleans, you fail the nation. And while Mayor Nagin and President Bush talk about people returning, Jean says, "We are moving...I'm tired."
Drug Cartels Put Hit Squads in Laredo
Tuesday, 28 August 2007 8:48 A GMT-05
Mexican drug lords locked in a bloody fight for control of a pipeline that runs from Mexico to Dallas and up through middle America have brazenly stationed hit squads and reconnaissance teams in Laredo. In the past two years, rival cartels have killed at least seven people in Laredo, including a victim stalked and killed near his job site and a man gunned down in the parking lot of a popular restaurant, U.S. authorities say. Nearly all the victims were mixed up in the drug trade themselves.
In the "Helping Patsies Get Visas" Department?
Thursday, 16 August 2007 11:54 P GMT-05
The Washington Times has a story revealing that employees of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have been accused of "aiding Islamic extremists with identification fraud and of exploiting the visa system for personal gain." We also learned that investigations into these charges - including that "a USCIS officer in Harlingen, Texas, sold immigration documents for $10,000 to as many as 20 people" - have been stymied because of "lack of resources."
In Search of John Doe No. 2: The Story the Feds Never Told About the Oklahoma City Bombing
Saturday, 11 August 2007 9:41 P GMT-05
Thanks to Mother Jones for this excellent article, and for making the related documents available online at their site. Thanks also to James Ridgway (and research assistants) for this excellent investigating reporting. Oklahoma City ... 9/11 ... Jessica Lynch ... Abu Ghraib ... Patrick Tillman ... anything else being covered up?
Homeowner arrested after the burglar he confronted falls 30ft
Thursday, 9 August 2007 11:09 A GMT-05
A homeowner was arrested after a burglar plunged from the balcony of his top-floor flat. The intruder suffered head injuries and is fighting for his life after falling around 30ft on to a concrete path. Later police arrested the owner and are investigating whether the intruder was pushed.
Mob Wars Hit New Heights in Israel
Sunday, 5 August 2007 6:29 P GMT-05
In the past, rival families would settle their scores quietly. But as the pot gets richer, they are getting bolder, taking more risks and posing a greater threat to public safety. Most crime bosses now travel with bodyguards in armored vehicles. The official police Web site boasts a 6.9 percent drop in organized crime cases last year, but experts warn the decline may be due to a greater reluctance to complain as the level of violence increases. The figures also say murders were up by 12 percent and attempted murders by 37 percent in 2006. Police say organized crime activity is a major factor in the increase.
Was the pin-up boy of Bush's War on Terror assassinated?
Sunday, 5 August 2007 1:30 A GMT-05
Preposterous though it may seem, there is a growing view that Pat Tillman was targeted by American special forces because he was about to become an embarrassment. New evidence shows that he was turning out to be a very troubled "hero", a poster boy for the Army and the War on Terror who may have been about to speak out against the war he had come to symbolise. Letters home and memories of those who knew him in Iraq suggest that after his initial enthusiasm, he had decided that Iraq was not just a quagmire but an "illegal" war. Tillman had been heard arguing bitterly against the Iraq war and urging his fellow soldiers to vote for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004.
He had also been using his celebrity to contact the best-selling anti-war intellectual Noam Chomsky, and they were due to meet as soon as Tillman returned from Afghanistan.
There Will be No Justice Until Michael Vick Ends Up in a Jail Cell
Thursday, 2 August 2007 2:20 A GMT-05
People often ask me why I bother amassing more wealth when I repeatedly claim I have everything I need. Generally, I shrug my shoulders or find some other way of avoiding the question. But the truth is, someday, I’d like to open up a pet rescue. Often, I have envisioned what it would be like. I would have many acres of lands with various heated/air conditioned buildings with their own fenced in yards. I would split the pets up based on their individual needs. For example, I’d have separate areas for feral cats, declawed cats, senior cats, aggressive dogs, submissive dogs and so on and so forth. My shelter would be no kill and no cage. Perhaps I could convince a few vets to volunteer their time for a good cause or maybe I’ll hire my own to work full time. Either way, I’d like to open up a shelter where anyone could bring injured or unwanted pets, no questions asked. And even if I couldn’t adopt them all out to loving homes, I could make sure they lived their lives in relative comfort…as opposed to dying on the street or rotting in cages at the local pound. This has always been a very vivid dream of mine.
Saudi Flights on CIA-Linked Air Charters
Saturday, 14 July 2007 5:36 P GMT-05
Curiously, however, there is no mention of the organized crime connections of air charter owner Zammiello in either the 9/11 Commission Report, which covered the Saudi flights, or in recently-released FBI documents rebutting allegations that bin Laden family members were allowed to leave the U.S. without being interviewed by authorities. The omission is surprising, especially considering Frank Zammiello's relevance to the story of President George W. Bush's amazing claim of executive privilege in early 2002 for all records of the Boston FBI.
A Postcard from Iraq
Saturday, 7 July 2007 6:31 P GMT-05
Look at us. See what a grateful, humble people we have become. We are grateful that our loved ones are tortured but not killed or drilled or have their eyes pulled out.
Christie blasts Rudy on WTC air
Wednesday, 4 July 2007 3:26 P GMT-05
Former Environmental Protection Agency boss Christie Whitman says she urged Ground Zero workers to wear respirators, but then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani blocked her efforts. She also said city officials didn't want EPA workers wearing haz-mat suits because they "didn't want this image of a city falling apart."
The Trial of Saddam Hussein We Never Saw
Sunday, 24 June 2007 6:41 P GMT-05
The tribunal was established to prosecute those guilty of crimes against humanity during Saddam’s reign. Much as the Nuremburg Tribunal did with the Nazis, It was also supposedly meant to educate Iraqis and the world about Saddam and his barbarous regime and, at the same time, to bring a kind of closure to that nightmarish epoch. That at least was the fiction. The fact is that many of those complicit in Saddam’s crimes—some of the world’s most prominent leaders and businessmen, past and present—are missing from the dock. The full story of Saddam’s crimes will never be told. Which is just as planned. From the start, the tribunal was established, financed and advised by the United States, the same power that once helped arm Saddam, encouraged him and stymied attempts of others to rein him in. Even most of the forensic investigations—the excavation of mass graves and the examination of mountains of documents—were carried out under the supervision of U.S. investigators. To make the rules of the game perfectly clear, one of the tribunal’s regulations, constantly overlooked by the media, is that only Iraqi citizens and residents can be charged with crimes before that court. It is thus understandable that there has been no mention in the Baghdad courtroom of foreign complicity with Saddam’s crimes, such as the genocide of the Kurds. What is surprising, though, is how thoroughly the American media have played along with that charade.
Giuliani Campaign Chairman Indicted For Cocaine Trafficking
Sunday, 24 June 2007 4:12 P GMT-05
Thomas Ravenel has stepped down from the campaign, according to a statement released by Giuliani's political director, Mark Campbell, who also said the campaign has no information about the accusations pending against Ravenel. As reported by AP via CNN, Ravenel has been charged with distribution of cocaine, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Texas Crowd Beats Man To Death
Sunday, 24 June 2007 3:44 P GMT-05
BBC News is reporting the beating death of a man who stepped out of the car in which he was riding to check on the condition of a young girl who had been struck by the car. The collision happened at low speed in a parking lot, and the girl, said to be three or four years old, was not seriously injured. But the passenger, David Rivas Morales, was beaten by the crowd and left lying on the ground. He was taken to a hospital where he died soon afterward.
Are You In Danger Too?
Thursday, 14 June 2007 1:29 A GMT-05
The increasing availability of broadband at home is a big convenience that's accompanied by huge risk. "Equally important is getting computer users — especially those individuals with broadband connections — to lock down their computers. Left insecure, the machines can be turned into zombies," notes Salkever. An unsecured broadband connection that's using Windows — a combination many families use every day — is basically the computer equivalent of leaving your car in the driveway, unlocked, with the keys in the ignition. Oh, and the car's loaded with your most valuable possessions. Obviously, no one would do that, but many people don't think twice about their computer's security. "Today's operating systems, in particular the Windows operating system, are so insecure that it is impossible to say that any one individual was in control of their computer," says computer forensics expert Ted Coombs in Defense Forensics and Child Pornography He notes that there are multiple viruses and related programs written that can put "kiddie porn" onto the computers of unsuspecting owners — and it's not that hard, requiring only a "mid-range capability."
Guardsmen on border accused of running smuggling ring
Thursday, 14 June 2007 12:14 A GMT-05
Three National Guardsmen assigned to the Texas-Mexico border were accused of running an immigrant smuggling ring after 24 immigrants were found inside a van that one of them was driving, a U.S. attorney said Monday. The three, arrested late Thursday and Friday, were arraigned Monday on a federal charge of conspiring to transport illegal immigrants.
'Chemical castration' planned for paedophiles
Thursday, 14 June 2007 12:12 A GMT-05
Paedophiles are to be offered 'chemical castration' to stop them re-offending, John Reid will announce today. The sex offenders will be given injections of drugs to curb their urges to assault young children.
Documents Reveal: Cops Planted Pot on 92-Year Old Woman They Killed in Botched Drug Raid
Saturday, 2 June 2007 5:57 P GMT-05
Gregg Junnier and another narcotics officer went inside the apartments around 2 p.m. while Jason Smith checked the woods. Smith found dozens of bags of marijuana -- in baggies that were clear, blue or various other colors and packaged to sell. With no one connected to the pot, Smith stashed the bags in the trunk of the patrol car. A use was found for Smith's stash 90 minutes later: A phone tip led the three officers to a man in a "gold-colored jacket" who might be dealing. The man, identified as X in the documents but known as Fabian Sheats, spotted the cops and put something in his mouth. They found no drugs on Sheats, but came up with a use for the pot they found earlier. They wanted information or they would arrest Sheats for dealing. While Junnier called for a drug-sniffing dog, Smith planted some bags under a rock, which the K-9 unit found. But if Sheats gave them something, he could walk. Sheats pointed out 933 Neal St., the home of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston. That, he claimed, is where he spotted a kilogram of cocaine when he was there to buy crack from a man named "Sam."
Crime rises as police fight other threats
Tuesday, 22 May 2007 10:59 A GMT-05
Like Boston, many U.S. cities are struggling to stem a wave of violent crime and murder that has raised questions of whether police are fighting terrorism at the expense of street crime, and whether a widening wealth gap feeds the problem.
Scientists Cast Doubt on Kennedy Bullet Analysis
Saturday, 19 May 2007 4:57 P GMT-05
The "evidence used to rule out a second assassin is fundamentally flawed," concludes a new article in the Annals of Applied Statistics written by former FBI lab metallurgist William A. Tobin and Texas A&M University researchers Cliff Spiegelman and William D. James. The researchers' re-analysis involved new statistical calculations and a modern chemical analysis of bullets from the same batch Oswald is purported to have used. They reached no conclusion about whether more than one gunman was involved, but urged that authorities conduct a new and complete forensic re-analysis of the five bullet fragments left from the assassination in Dallas. "Given the significance and impact of the JFK assassination, it is scientifically desirable for the evidentiary fragments to be re-analyzed," the researchers said.
Duke and Durham: The Whitewash Continues
Sunday, 13 May 2007 2:35 P GMT-05
In the wake of the Duke Non-Rape, Non-Kidnapping, and Non-Sexual Assault Case, people have been asking how it was that such transparently false charges could have remained in play for as long as they did. Despite the fact that the first investigating police officer said shortly after hearing Crystal Gail Mangum’s numerous accounts on the morning of March 14, 2006, declared that she was lying, the case was pursued, indictments secured, and a process of state-sponsored injustice ensued. Stung by condemnation from across the country for the actions of its police force, Patrick Baker, the city manager compiled a brief report to examine "what went wrong." Those of us who have little confidence in an entity of government to point out how another entity of government engaged in malfeasance waited with very, very low expectations. On Friday, May 11, 2007, Baker released his report and, true to our expectations, it is a whitewash of great proportions.
OKC Murder Cover-Up Unravelling
Friday, 11 May 2007 12:53 P GMT-05
Attorney Jesse Trentadue said in his investigation into his brother's August 1995 death in a federal holding facility in Oklahoma City, he ran across what he claims was a concerted effort by the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice to cover up the circumstances surrounding the death of Kenneth Trentadue. Jesse Trentadue claims his brother was killed during interrogation by the FBI who thought, in a case of mistaken identity, he was a suspect in the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building that took the lives of 168 adults and children.
'My Brother-in-Law Received a Falun Gong Practitioner's Liver'
Friday, 11 May 2007 12:50 P GMT-05
One week after live organ harvesting was exposed in a hospital in Sujiatun, Shenyang City, the reporter met three people from China in front of the Immigration Bureau in Seoul. After they read materials on the CCP's live organ harvesting, they whispered to the reporter, "We knew this way before you did!" and left in a hurry. A taxi driver in Shenyang City also said the locals all knew about the live organ harvesting and it wasn't anything new.
Haditha marine 'watched superior kill surrendering civilians'
Thursday, 10 May 2007 2:04 P GMT-05
A US marine told a court yesterday that he had "pissed" on the head of one of 24 dead Iraqi civilians killed by his unit and watched a superior officer kill five Iraqis as they tried to surrender. Sergeant Sanick Dela Cruz made the admission at a pre-trial hearing ahead of a series of military trials over the killings and alleged cover-up at Haditha, 120 miles west of Baghdad, in November 2005.
6 men charged in plot to attack Fort Dix
Wednesday, 9 May 2007 3:30 P GMT-05
Six foreign-born Muslims were arrested and accused Tuesday of plotting to attack Fort Dix and slaughter scores of U.S. soldiers -- a scheme the FBI says was foiled when the men asked a store clerk to copy a video of them firing assault weapons and screaming about jihad.
Lift gun bans, and students will be safer
Friday, 4 May 2007 5:25 P GMT-05
Not only does a campus gun ban give free rein to campus murderers who will never abide by the law, but it announces to every rapist in the country that women on college campuses are defenseless.
Men accused of Levin murder held without bail
Tuesday, 1 May 2007 3:00 A GMT-05
While police are still investigating who fired the fatal shot, the evidence suggests that it was Barros, Zabin said. Under Massachusetts law, all armed participants of a shootout are culpable if someone is killed.
Cops Admit To Planting Marijuana on 92 Year Old Woman Killed in Botched Drug Raid
Tuesday, 1 May 2007 2:44 A GMT-05
The deadly drug raid had been set up after narcotics officers said an informant had claimed there was cocaine in the home. When the plainclothes officers burst in without notice, police said, Johnston fired at them, and they fired back. Assistant U.S. Attorney Yonette Sam-Buchanan said Thursday that although the officers found no drugs in Johnston's home, Smith planted three bags of marijuana in the home as part of a cover story.
Officials: Three shot dead at Missouri shopping center
Monday, 30 April 2007 8:52 P GMT-05
A gunman suspected of wounding a police officer shot and killed two people and wounded at least two others at a shopping center in Kansas City, Missouri, before being gunned down by police, authorities said Sunday. "It appears that he came to the mall to shoot people," said Sgt. Tony Sanders, a Kansas City police spokesman. "Whether it was random or not we do not know."
Anti-gun nonsense
Monday, 30 April 2007 7:46 P GMT-05
The phrase "gun-free zone" is the ultimate delusion. A more accurate expression would be "defenseless zone." Like most mass murderers, the Virginia shooter was smart enough to choose victims who could not fight back. The Virginia Tech "defenseless zone" policy that made bringing a gun on campus an expellable offense was like a neon welcome sign to him, offering very high probability that he could achieve a high body count. The threat of expulsion or firing was effective in preventing law-abiding students and faculty from bringing a gun to school to defend themselves, but it did not deter the perpetrator. That's the insanity of gun-control laws; the only ones who abide by them are the law-abiding citizens. Well-intentioned people argue that we should restrict access to guns. However, scientific research has consistently shown that restrictions on gun purchases and carriage cause large increases in violent crimes like rape, murder and multiple-victim public shootings.
JFK Murder Plot "Deathbed Confession" Aired On National Radio
Monday, 30 April 2007 5:25 P GMT-05
The "deathbed confession" audio tape in which former CIA agent and Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt admits he was approached to be part of a CIA assassination team to kill JFK was aired this weekend - an astounding development that has gone completely ignored by the establishment media.
Switzerland and the gun
Sunday, 29 April 2007 6:01 P GMT-05
Guns are deeply rooted within Swiss culture - but the gun crime rate is so low that statistics are not even kept. The country has a population of six million, but there are estimated to be at least two million publicly-owned firearms, including about 600,000 automatic rifles and 500,000 pistols. This is in a very large part due to Switzerland's unique system of national defence, developed over the centuries.
Uncomfortable truth: U.S. troops ignored sex slave atrocity, used Japanese-run brothels
Friday, 27 April 2007 11:51 P GMT-05
An Associated Press review of historical documents and records -- some never before translated into English -- shows that American authorities permitted the official brothel system to operate despite internal reports that women were being coerced into prostitution. The Americans also had full knowledge by then of Japan's atrocious treatment of women in countries across Asia that it conquered during the war. Tens of thousands of women were employed to provide cheap sex to American troops until the spring of 1946, when Gen. Douglas MacArthur shut it down.
Security and Liberty
Thursday, 26 April 2007 1:20 A GMT-05
Freedom is not defined by safety. Freedom is defined by the ability of citizens to live without government interference. Government cannot create a world without risks, nor would we really wish to live in such a fictional place. Only a totalitarian society would even claim absolute safety as a worthy ideal, because it would require total state control over its citizens’ lives. Liberty has meaning only if we still believe in it when terrible things happen and a false government security blanket beckons.
Homeland security officer arrested after raid
Thursday, 26 April 2007 12:40 A GMT-05
When federal agents raided local massage parlors last month, they were shocked to find a Department of Homeland Security law enforcement officer’s gun and uniform in an apartment linked to one of the parlors. That officer — David J. Wolkiewicz, 51 — appeared before a federal magistrate judge Tuesday, and court papers indicated that he has admitted that he helped run a parlor where prostitution allegedly took place.
Policeman admits to shooting officer
Wednesday, 25 April 2007 8:47 P GMT-05
A 27-year veteran of the Boston Police Department pleaded guilty yesterday to assault charges for shooting a fellow officer with his service weapon after a night of heavy drinking. Officer Paul Durkin has also agreed to resign from the department, which bars convicted felons from its ranks, spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said. Durkin, who pleaded guilty to one count of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, was sentenced to three years of probation and a mandatory evaluation for alcohol abuse.
FBI investigating threats against colleges in Worcester, Providence
Wednesday, 25 April 2007 5:34 P GMT-05
The FBI contacted a number of colleges in Worcester and one in Providence after it received nonspecific threats of violence against the schools, an agency spokeswoman said today. Officials have urged school officials to be alert today for suspicious activity. Gail Marcinkiewicz, an FBI spokeswoman, said the threats had not been corroborated. They did not include a date or time and were not directed at specific schools, she said, and "they had no nexus to terrorism."
Poison: KGB men to face Litvinenko murder charges
Monday, 23 April 2007 7:15 P GMT-05
Scotland Yard detectives are to issue arrest warrants against three former KGB officers suspected of poisoning ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko. Police have told sources close to Mr Litvinenko's widow Marina that they intend to lay charges of murder and poisoning against the men, who met the victim three weeks before his death in London.
A side effect of Iraq war may be higher homicide rates
Monday, 23 April 2007 7:06 P GMT-05
Leyton said his research into mass murderers indicates that as their rage develops against a person or a group or an institution, they begin making destructive plans. And then something triggers deadly action that almost always ends in suicide. "The commonality is first they pronounce their own lives unlivable," he said, "and they blame it on someone else or some institution, and they fantasize what to do about it, and then they build their plan." And inside a twisted mind, the relentless exposure to war may help justify the violence. So in a sense, could Cho and 32 people at Virginia Tech be more casualties of the Iraq war? That's stretching the point. But we do seem to have developed a resigned acceptance of the daily casualty counts from Iraq, even the 200-plus killed just two days after Virginia Tech. And if the campus slaughter wasn't unnerving enough, consider, as the war goes on, the grim forecast from "The Man Who Studies Murder."
Bans don't deter killers
Monday, 23 April 2007 5:48 P GMT-05
Whether it is Virginia Tech or other deadly attacks — Columbine High School, where 13 were shot dead by two students in 1999; Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, where 23 were fatally shot by a deranged man in 1991; or a McDonald's in Southern California, where 21 people were shot dead by an unemployed security guard in 1984 — they happened in gun-free zones. (Many older shootings, such as the one at Luby's, occurred before states began issuing permits for concealed handguns.) In recent years, similar attacks have occurred across the world, including Australia, France, Germany and Britain. Do all these countries lack enough gun-control laws? Hardly. The reverse is more accurate. The law-abiding, not criminals, are obeying the rules. Disarming the victims simply means that the killers have less to fear. As last week's attack demonstrated, police can't always be there: Unarmed students and faculty met the killer before police could arrive.
Gunman Caused More Than 100 Wounds
Monday, 23 April 2007 5:42 P GMT-05
Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho fired enough shots to wound his 32 victims more than 100 times before killing himself with a bullet to his head, a medical examiner said Sunday. Dr. William Massello, the assistant medical examiner based in Roanoke, said pathologists have sent blood samples for toxicology testing to determine if Cho was on drugs at the time of his rampage. It could take as long as two weeks to get the results of those tests, he said. Cho was not especially accurate with his shots, Massello said, but hit many of the victims several times. His shots caused more than 100 wounds.
Sources: Feds Ordered VA Police To Stand Down
Saturday, 21 April 2007 5:59 P GMT-05
Though wishing to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, we have received calls from police and EMT's who tell us that a stand down order was in place, and this is also confirmed by eyewitness Matt Kazee, who is a Blacksburg local. Kazee talked to local EMT's and police who told him the same thing, that the order was to wait until federal back up arrived before any action was taken. This explains the complete non-response of the police in the two hour gap between Cho's first two murders and the wider rampage that would follow later that morning.
Protection, Disarmament and Massacre
Saturday, 21 April 2007 4:37 P GMT-05
Now let me be clear. I do not wish to understate the horror of what any victim of such savage violent crimes go through. But the startling common thread throughout these massacres is the degree to which the government has claimed total control and promised total security. Public high schools and many colleges have long been deemed gun-free zones, as if this actually protects anyone. Airline security has long been the domain of the state, yet the state could do absolutely nothing to protect Americans on 9/11. And at Virginia Tech, the students had the false sense of security that because the government had greatly restricted their own right to bear arms at a public facility, they would be safe. Yet for two full hours, the police failed to stop the assailant between the time he began shooting and the time he killed many others and then himself. And, again, we have no reason to necessarily expect it to have gone any better. In 2002, at Appalachian Law School in Virginia, a private institution, a school massacre was cut short when students resisted, one of them with a gun he had retrieved from his car. Yet, as some have pointed out, we hear little about such horrible crimes being stopped by private weapons ownership. Millions of times a year, criminals are preempted by Americans wielding private weapons. Studies indicate that well over ninety percent of the time, private individuals defend themselves with guns without ever firing a shot. You compare this caution and success to the record of government agents, who, knowing they will usually get away with negligent or even malicious violence, are increasingly likely to use overwhelming force against the peaceful.
A gun ban and the gunman
Friday, 20 April 2007 6:04 P GMT-05
Last year Virginia legislators considered a bill that would have overridden policies at public universities that prohibit students and faculty members with concealed handgun permits from bringing their weapons onto campus. After the bill died in committee, the Roanoke Times reported, Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker welcomed its defeat, saying, "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus." Maybe Mr. Hincker was right. But as Monday's horrifying mass murder at Virginia Tech vividly demonstrated, there is a difference between feeling safe and being safe. The university gun ban not only did nothing to protect people at the school, it left them defenseless as a coldblooded gunman methodically killed 32 of them over the course of 21/2 hours.
Once Again, Gun Control Doesn't Work
Wednesday, 18 April 2007 4:10 P GMT-05
We should note also that gun controllers hardly ever confront the original and central purpose of the Second Amendment: To serve as a check against tyranny. Their position here, which is as faulty and fallacious as their other two gun-control positions, is that, unlike the olden days, the federal government can now be trusted never to become tyrannical. How many gun massacres must we witness before Americans finally abandon their devotion to gun control? The best thing Americans could ever do is to abolish all restrictions on ownership of weapons, including registration requirements, waiting periods, concealed-carry laws, et cetera, which would once again permit ordinary, peaceful, law-abiding Americans the unrestricted ability to defend themselves against murderers, who have as much respect for laws against guns as they do for laws against murder.
Gun Control Law Helped Campus Killer
Wednesday, 18 April 2007 6:41 A GMT-05
Gun Owners of America, the only major no compromise 2nd Amendment group in America, issued a press release in which its President Larry Pratt stated,"All the school shootings that have ended abruptly in the last ten years were stopped because a law-abiding citizen -- a potential victim -- had a gun." "The latest school shooting demands an immediate end to the gun-free zone law which leaves the nation's schools at the mercy of madmen. It is irresponsibly dangerous to tell citizens that they may not have guns at schools. The Virginia Tech shooting shows that killers have no concern about a gun ban when murder is in their hearts."
Courageous final act of professor
Wednesday, 18 April 2007 3:51 A GMT-05
"It wasn't like an automatic weapon, but it was a steady 'pow,' 'pow,' 'pow,' 'pow,'" student Richard Mallalieu, 23, told The Washington Post. "We didn't know what to do at first." The students in the class dropped to the floor and started overturning desks to hide behind as about a dozen shots rang out, he said. Then the gunfire started coming closer. Librescu, 77, fearlessly braced himself against the door, holding it shut against the gunman in the hall, while students darted to the windows of the second-floor classroom to escape the slaughter, survivors said.
Virginia School Shooting: Another Government Black-Op?
Tuesday, 17 April 2007 12:10 P GMT-05
Early details about the horrific school shooting at Virginia Tech strongly indicate that these events represent a Columbine-style black-op that will be exploited in the coming days to push for mass gun control and further turning our schools into prisons. Eyewitness Matt Kazee told the Alex Jones Show that it was a full two to three hours after the shootings began that loudspeakers installed around the campus were used to warn students to stay indoors and that a shooter was on the loose. Quite how the killer was afforded so much time before any action was taken to stop him is baffling, especially considering the fact that the campus, according to Kazee, was crawling with police before the event happened due to numerous bomb threats that had been phoned in last week.
Campus Gun Ban Disarmed Virginia Victims
Tuesday, 17 April 2007 5:36 A GMT-05
"Advocates of wider gun controls said the availability of guns in the United States had made it easier for people to commit murder everywhere, including in schools and colleges," reports Reuters, with no mention of the fact that had the victims been allowed to exercise their concealed carry rights, the casualty figures may have been far lower. Students at VA Tech are already slamming the pathetic response on behalf of the police, who locked down the school and sat back as the killer was able to carefully pick off his targets.
Gunman kills 32 in Virginia Tech rampage
Tuesday, 17 April 2007 5:22 A GMT-05
Investigators gave no motive for the attack. The gunman's name was not immediately released, and it was not known whether he was a student.
Who Killed JFK? Famous Spook Outs the Conspiracy
Thursday, 12 April 2007 10:03 P GMT-05
E. Howard Hunt, the country's most notorious spook who later served time for his role as one of the plumbers in the bungled burglary that later toppled Richard Nixon, gave a near-deathbed confession to his long-estranged son, naming then-Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and a handful of CIA spooks as the cabal behind the assassination of John F. Kennedy, according to a story in Rolling Stone.
The Waters of Knowledge versus The Waters of Uncertainty
Thursday, 12 April 2007 8:49 P GMT-05
My task this afternoon is to explore with you the reasons the American people do not know who killed President Kennedy and why. In order to do this we will have to deal with three interdependent conspiracies which developed in the course of the assassination and its aftermath. These are (1) the criminal conspiracy to murder the President by a cabal of militarists at the highest echelons of power in the United States; (2) the conspiracy which aided and abetted these murderers after the fact, by covering for the assassins, also a true criminal conspiracy involving an extremely wide circle of government officials across the entire political spectrum and at all levels of government; and (3) a conspiracy of ignorance, denial, confusion, and silence which has pervaded our entire public.
Misdemeanors, minorities sentenced to embattled Tex. prisons
Thursday, 12 April 2007 8:08 P GMT-05
About 15% of Texas's 4,700 inmates aged 10–21 are imprisoned for misdemeanor offenses, most commonly assault and marijuana possession. Charges for graffiti, curfew violation and failure to attend school also have landed many kids in the youth prison system recently rocked by reports the agency and prosecutors took no action on allegations of sexual abuse by 2 top administrators. Inmates at other facilities are now stepping forward with similar claims.
Pat Tillman: Killed by Friendly Fire or Executed by His Own Government?
Monday, 9 April 2007 3:30 A GMT-05
Logic dictates that we raise the possibility of Tillman’s assassination by his own government. Top civilian leadership had the reason and the opportunity to assassinate Tillman, and now they are acting quite guilty. The Tillman story has a great chance of breaking out: survivor Kevin Tillman was with his brother constantly at war. Pat and Kevin were shipped from Iraq to Afghanistan because Pat made no secret of his opinion that war in Iraq was “illegal and unjust,” and he was, according to his brother, prepared to tell his story publicly at the first opportunity. The Tillman brothers were due for a furlough, and Kevin stated in interviews that Pat had arranged to meet with an anti-war journalist while at home. We wonder if others might have known this.
Hidden from History: The Canadian Holocaust
Saturday, 7 April 2007 3:28 P GMT-05
The Untold Story of the Genocide of Aboriginal Peoples by Church and State in Canada
Tax protester gets more than 2 years
Wednesday, 4 April 2007 2:50 P GMT-05
A man who contended that he was not required to pay income tax, and whose case led to an indictment against actor Wesley Snipes, was sentenced Tuesday to 27 months in prison.
Katrina fraud stretches far beyond Gulf
Sunday, 1 April 2007 7:05 P GMT-05
An Illinois woman mourns her two young daughters, swept to their deaths in Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters. It's a tragic and terrifying story. It's also a lie. An Alabama woman applies for disaster aid for hurricane damage. She files 28 claims for addresses in four states. It's all a sham. Two California men help stage Internet auctions designed to help Katrina relief organizations. Those, too, are bogus. More than 18 months after Hurricane Katrina decimated the Gulf Coast, authorities are chipping away at a mountain of fraud cases that, by some estimates, involve thousands of people who bilked the federal government and charities out of hundreds of millions of dollars intended to aid storm victims. The full scope of Katrina fraud may never be known, but this much is clear: It stretches far beyond the Gulf Coast, like the hurricane evacuees themselves. So far, more than 600 people have been charged in federal cases in 22 states — from Florida to Oregon — and the District of Columbia.
Drug war discourages honest discussion or rehabilitation
Friday, 30 March 2007 4:07 P GMT-05
I think it's safe to say the turnout at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings would be rather low if alcoholism were a crime pursued with zero-tolerance zeal.
Death Squad in Delaware: The Case of the Murdered Marine
Friday, 30 March 2007 2:38 A GMT-05
Hale, a retired Marine Sergeant who served two tours in Iraq and was decorated before his combat-related medical discharge in January 2006, was murdered by a heavily armed 8–12-member undercover police team in Wilmington, Delaware last November 6. He had come to Wilmington from his home in Manassas, Virginia to participate in a Toys for Tots event.
Fleeing from Baghdad to Damascus: Refugees on the Highway from Hell
Friday, 30 March 2007 2:14 A GMT-05
Up to 2 million Iraqis have fled their home since the beginning of the war just over four years ago, most of them escaping overland. And ever since Jordan effectively closed its border at the beginning of this year, Syria has become the number one destination for the refugees. Far more than 1,000 of them reach At-Tanf every day, "all of them exhausted and tired, with young children and elderly relatives in their car," says the border-control commander on duty.
Police chief charged for beating tourist, cops for cover-up
Wednesday, 28 March 2007 5:14 P GMT-05
In the first results of a widespread investigation of misconduct, prosecutors have charged the acting chief of an “out of control” police department in a Fire Island, NY tourist town with stomping a vacationer unconscious for slamming a door after getting a littering fine. The victim was hospitalized with a ruptured bladder and other internal injuries. A trio of officers are charged with failing to get him medical attention and then manufacturing charges to justify the beating.
Dust to Dust: The Health Effects of 9/11
Tuesday, 27 March 2007 11:29 P GMT-05
Rape fears lead women soldiers to suicide, death
Tuesday, 27 March 2007 1:56 A GMT-05
U.S. female soldiers in Iraq were assaulted or raped by male soldiers in the women’s latrines, and an alarming number committed suicide, Col. Janis Karpinski reportedly testified before an international human rights commission of inquiry last month. “Because the women were in fear of getting up in the darkness [to go to the latrine], they were not drinking liquids after 3 or 4 in the afternoon,” Karpinski testified, according to a report on Truthout.org. “In the 100 degree heat, they were dying of dehydration in their sleep.”
Bill Maher: “Traitors don’t get to question my patriotism!”
Tuesday, 27 March 2007 1:27 A GMT-05
Sibel Edmonds
Friday, 23 March 2007 6:03 P GMT-05
Story of Sibel Edmonds and other FBI heroes who were stymied from investigation and arresting the alleged Arab hi-jackers before 9/11.
Brockton father pleads not guilty in slayings of wife, daughter
Friday, 23 March 2007 5:56 P GMT-05
Benoit told police after his arrest that he had been depressed, had not been able to get his Prozac prescription, and was worried about not having food in the house. He told police he killed his wife while his daughter slept and then strangled the child.
Getting Screwed
Friday, 23 March 2007 5:51 P GMT-05
We have seen an Army General or two fired in response to late-coming national publicity of abhorrent treatment of our maimed and recovering soldiers. But the real crime is much higher than three or four stars.
The administration and the Pentagon didn’t plan for an occupation of Iraq, because that planning would belie our public optimism, betray the propaganda of cakewalks and a thousand flowers, and reveal the truth about the administration’s 2003 force-march to war. Likewise, to have planned for 25,000 injured Iraq and Afghan veterans, many permanently crippled, blinded, disfigured and brain damaged, and 100,000 psychological and emotional head cases trying to reintegrate into their former lives would have revealed the administration’s Iraq narrative to be dead wrong. No matter the cost, the Bush-Cheney narrative must be seen as the "reality."
Beaten Female Bartender's First Live Interview
Friday, 23 March 2007 5:17 P GMT-05
Bartender Karolina Obrycka--the woman whose barroom beating by a Chicago policeman was caught on tape--spoke this morning with Tamron Hal. It's her first live interview about the matter.
It's Been an 'All Out War' on Pot Smokers for 35 Years
Friday, 23 March 2007 6:01 A GMT-05
Perhaps most troubling, the factor most likely to determine whether or not these citizens serve jail time or not isn't the severity of their "crime," but rather where they live. Today there are growing regional disparities in marijuana penalties and marijuana law enforcement -- ranging from no penalty in Alaska to potential life in prison in Oklahoma. In fact, if one were to drive from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Ore., he or she would traverse more than a dozen jurisdictions, all with varying degrees of penalties and/or tolerance toward the possession and use of pot. Does this sound like a successful national policy?
Why Do Straights Hate Gays?
Wednesday, 21 March 2007 5:11 P GMT-05
What do we do to you that is so awful? Why do you feel compelled to come after us with such frightful energy? Does this somehow make you feel safer and legitimate? What possible harm comes to you if we marry, or are taxed just like you, or are protected from assault by laws that say it is morally wrong to assault people out of hatred? The reasons always offered are religious ones, but certainly they are not based on the love all religions proclaim.
Rove in the Docket
Monday, 19 March 2007 11:15 P GMT-05
The firing of the “Gonzales 8” is a perfect opportunity to zero-in on the Justice Department and start tossing bodies on the burn pile. But it’ll take someone with enough brains to figure out what’s really going on and big enough cahones to go for the jugular. That’s how a predator brings down the live-game and that’s what it’ll take to rout the mob bosses at the D.O.J. Anyone who gets squeamish over a little political blood-letting should probably get a job in retail--not government.
Another damning admission from the New York Times: whitewashing Iraq war
Monday, 19 March 2007 10:56 P GMT-05
In perhaps the most damning admission made by the newspaper, it fell to the Times public editor last August to admit that the editors had suppressed a story about the Bush administration’s illegal NSA electronic spying program for more than a year, publishing it only in December 2005, and had then lied about it, failing to reveal that it had quashed these revelations on the eve of the November 2004 election.
Republican Political Mafia and Federal Law
Monday, 19 March 2007 9:08 P GMT-05
Criminal investigations of Republican politicians are slowed to a snail pace by politicized appointees in case after case like the New Hampshire phone jamming scandal. The federal prosecutor who convicted California Republican Congressman Duke Cunningham for corruption was unjustly fired. The federal prosecutor who would not prosecute phony vote fraud charges against Democrats in New Mexico, in time for the 2006 elections as demanded by Republican politicians, was fired.
The Smog of Race War in LA
Monday, 19 March 2007 6:55 P GMT-05
In these graffiti-filled, job-emptied neighborhoods, and in the media, receptivity to simplistic race war rhetoric appears to grow in direct proportion to the speed and intensity with which globalization, migration and economic dislocation remake the City of Angels. The rise of Latino power in LA, most recently displayed in the electoral victory of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in 2005 and last year's 2 million-strong immigrant rights march downtown, has taken place just as the once-powerful African-American community has watched its numbers and influence rapidly dwindle. (LA's 428,000 African-Americans now account for less than 11 percent of the city's population.) In the minds of some African-Americans, Latinos, especially poor immigrants, have replaced white racism as the primary cause of the disappearance of LA's robust black middle class in once-great black suburbs like Compton, built on a foundation of industrial and government jobs and reflected in the election of black officials like Mayor Tom Bradley. Since the end of the Bradley era, after the '92 riots announced that everything and nothing had changed in black LA, many explanations for black displacement have arisen -- some of which cast the ascendant Latino majority in a role formerly reserved for whites who fought the rise of black power.
The Women's War
Monday, 19 March 2007 6:03 P GMT-05
There have been few large-scale studies done on the particular psychiatric effects of combat on female soldiers in the United States, mostly because the sample size has heretofore been small. More than one-quarter of female veterans of Vietnam developed PTSD at some point in their lives, according to the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Survey conducted in the mid-'80s, which included 432 women, most of whom were nurses. (The PTSD rate for women was 4 percent below that of the men.) Two years after deployment to the gulf war, where combat exposure was relatively low, Army data showed that 16 percent of a sample of female soldiers studied met diagnostic criteria for PTSD, as opposed to 8 percent of their male counterparts. The data reflect a larger finding, supported by other research, that women are more likely to be given diagnoses of PTSD, in some cases at twice the rate of men.
The truth should be proclaimed loudly
Sunday, 18 March 2007 2:36 A GMT-05
Here is a publisher in a country negotiating for EU membership for whom Armenian history, the Kurds, Cyprus (unmentioned in my book) - even Turkey's bid to join the EU, for heaven's sake - is reason enough to try to sneak my book out in silence. When in the history of bookselling, I ask myself, has any publisher tried to avoid publicity for his book? Well, I can give you an example. When Taner Akcam's magnificent A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility was first published in Turkish - it uses Ottoman Turkish state documents and contemporary Turkish statements to prove that the genocide was a terrifying historical fact - the Turkish historian experienced an almost identical reaction. His work was published "quietly" in Turkey - and without a single book review.
Are we experiencing the last days of Constitutional rule?
Saturday, 17 March 2007 5:29 P GMT-05
What explains Bush-Cheney invulnerability to accountability? Perhaps the answer is that Bush has desensitized us. Like kids desensitized to violence by violent video games and movies and pornography addicts desensitized to sex, we have become desensitized by the avalanche of Bush-Cheney crimes, lies, and disdain for Congress, courts, and public opinion. Our elected representatives, if not the American people, now regard as normal such heinous actions as war crimes, the rape of the Constitution, self-serving use of government office, and the constant stream of lies and propaganda from the highest offices of the executive branch.
American Gulag: Petty criminals doing hard time
Saturday, 17 March 2007 5:16 P GMT-05
Somewhere around 10 percent of African American men in their 20s live behind bars. In some states, where a single felony conviction is enough to bar the offender from ever being able to vote again, over one quarter of African American males are disenfranchised. Since 1980, a virtual "prison industrial complex" has arisen, with phenomenal rates of new-prison construction abetted by lucrative construction and prison-guard union lobbies. Several states, including California, spend more on prisons than they do on higher education. Despite dramatically falling crime rates over the last 10 years (which most criminologists attribute more to demography -- there have simply been fewer young men of late), prison populations have continued to soar. As the number of truly heinous crimes has fallen, increasingly it is small- time hoodlums, drug users, and mentally ill people who have been drawing long spells behind bars. America today has five times as many prisoners as it did in 1980.
(Daniel) Pearl Family Doubts KSM Confession
Saturday, 17 March 2007 4:21 P GMT-05
"He wants to take credit for doing it, and he wants to exonerate al Qaeda, blame Pakistan, and whatever," said Judea Pearl, Danny's father. "When a person confesses and he has nothing to lose. You have to take it with a spice of doubt."
White House Never Investigated CIA Leak
Saturday, 17 March 2007 3:54 P GMT-05
Dr. James Knodell, director of the Office of Security at the White House, told a congressional committee today that he was aware of no internal investigation or report into the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame. The White House had first opposed Knodell testifying but after a threat of a subpoena from the committee yesterday he was allowed to appear today. Knodell has testified that those who had participated in the leaking of classified information were required to attest to this and he was aware that no one, including Karl Rove, had done that.
From Sex Workers to Restaurant Workers, the Global Slave Trade Is Growing
Friday, 16 March 2007 11:19 P GMT-05
The commerce in human beings today rivals drug trafficking and the illegal arms trade for the top criminal activity on the planet. The slave trade sits at number three on the list but is closing the gap. The FBI projects that the slave trade generates $9.5 billion in revenue each year, according to the U.S. Department of State's "2004 Trafficking in Persons Report." The International Labour Office, in the 2005 report "A Global Alliance Against Forced Labor," estimates that figure to be closer to a whopping $32 billion annually.
9/11 "Confession": How Real?
Friday, 16 March 2007 8:37 P GMT-05
Towards the end of The Wire's first season, Ronald "Wee-Bey" Price -- soldier to Baltimore drug lord Avon Barksdale -- gets nailed for a murder. He knows he's headed to jail for a long, long time. So he confesses to crime after crime after crime, in order to protect the rest of the Barksdale crew from homicide rap. The police know the confessions are all wrong; Wee-Bey screws up some of the cases' key facts. But there's nothing they can do; they've "solved" a slew of murders, all at once. Wee-Bey came to mind, as I read about Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's confession to the 9/11 attacks and to "more than 30 other terror attacks or plots." Like Wee-Bey, "KSM" is clearly a bad, bad dude. A murderer. Worse: a serial killer. But was he personally responsible for everything from "attempting to destroy an American oil company in Sumatra owned by...Henry Kissinger" to to "launching a Russian surface-to-air missile at an El Al airliner leaving Mombasa" to masterminding "an assassination attempt on President Clinton in the Philippines in 1994 or 1995?" And he personally beheaded Daniel Pearl, too?
Plame Confirms She Was "Covert," Calling Outing a "Travesty"
Friday, 16 March 2007 5:35 P GMT-05
Valerie Plame told a congressional committee today that she indeed did work in a "covert" status at the CIA, and referred to the "travesty" of the disclosure of that by administration officials and the media. "I know I am here under oath, and I am here to say that I was covert," she said, disputing claims to the contrary.
Illegal immigrants are here to stay
Friday, 16 March 2007 3:10 P GMT-05
SUPPOSE YOU LEARN that a New England manufacturer is exploiting its employees, many of them illegal immigrants, with wretched working conditions. It fines them for talking on the job, refuses to pay overtime, and penalizes them for bathroom breaks of more than two minutes, all in addition to low wages, long hours, and squalid facilities. What do you do? Well, if you're the United States government, you send armed agents to haul the workers off in shackles to a military base 100 miles away, then fly scores of them more than 2,000 miles to a holding pen in Texas. You provide the frightened detainees with little information and no access to lawyers. You act so rashly that many of those you seize are separated from their children and can't get word to spouses or babysitters. You display such ineptitude, in fact, that babies end up in the hospital, dehydrated, after their nursing mothers are taken away.
Do You Dubai?
Wednesday, 14 March 2007 9:02 P GMT-05
Halliburton is correct to jump ship to Dubai, a place proud of its independence and freedom of trade, as well as money laundering capacities. The UAE aspires to be the Switzerland of the region, and perhaps replace Switzerland entirely in an age where it is oil, weapons, and drugs, not gold, that constrain, or fail to constrain, the paper dollar.
US officer "upset" Iraqi suspects taken alive, court hears
Wednesday, 14 March 2007 7:14 P GMT-05
A soldier who has pleaded guilty to killing those detainees told the court that he shot them because his squad leader told him to do it after having been reprimanded when he radioed back to base to say he had prisoners to transport. Private William Hunsaker showed little remorse for his crimes, saying he had only agreed to an 18-year sentence because "I got tired of lying to everybody and I didn't want to spend the rest of my life in prison for -- in my eyes -- killing three terrorists."
NAFTA Truck "Safety"
Wednesday, 14 March 2007 2:21 A GMT-05
Meanwhile, as the major media continue to avoid reporting anything substantive regarding this issue, The Trucker, an online news site, gave a report in which Todd Spencer, executive vice president of OOIDA, is quoted as saying that "the pilot plan is ignoring homeland security concerns." Testifying before the Senate, he stated: "It is simply abhorrent to think that our government would allow Mexican trucks full access to U.S. highways before all safety, economic and homeland security concerns are completely and appropriately addressed."
Bush's New US Attorney a Criminal?
Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:08 P GMT-05
There's only one thing worse than sacking an honest prosecutor. That's replacing an honest prosecutor with a criminal.
The 20 journalists who have lost their lives in Putin's Russia
Sunday, 11 March 2007 6:30 P GMT-05
Far from being an individual tragedy, the death of Ivan Safronov will be seen by many as part of a grim trend. The Kommersant reporter is at least the 20th Russian journalist to die in suspicious circumstances since 2000, when Vladimir Putin assumed the Russian presidency. Shot, stabbed or poisoned, the journalists have two things in common: no one has been convicted, or in most cases even arrested, after their deaths. And all of them had angered powerful vested interests which appear to suffer little restraint in dealing with their enemies.
Cheney's Handwritten Notes Implicate Bush in Plame Affair
Thursday, 8 March 2007 6:45 P GMT-05
Copies of handwritten notes by Vice President Dick Cheney, introduced at trial by attorneys prosecuting former White House staffer I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, would appear to implicate George W. Bush in the Plame CIA Leak case. Bush has long maintained that he was unaware of attacks by any member of his administration against [former ambassador Joseph] Wilson. The ex-envoy's stinging rebukes of the administration's use of pre-war Iraq intelligence led Libby and other White House officials to leak Wilson's wife's covert CIA status to reporters in July 2003 in an act of retaliation.
Defenestration Row: Convenient Suicides and State Power
Thursday, 8 March 2007 6:31 P GMT-05
This week saw the mysterious death of yet another journalist in Moscow. This time it was Kommersant columnist Ivan Safronov, a former colonel who wrote about Russia's ever-murky military affairs, as the Moscow Times reports. Safronov, who occasionally ran afoul of the "security organs" when digging up dirt on Russia's military-industrial complex (much akin to its American counterpart centered in the north Virginia badlands formerly known as Hell's Bottom but now called the Pentagon), apparently committed suicide by jumping out of a fifth-floor window, head first, with his hat and coat on. And if you believe that "official" explanation, we have some beachfront property in Nizhny Novgorod we'd like to sell you.
N.Y. imam sentenced in terror sting
Thursday, 8 March 2007 5:26 P GMT-05
The former imam of an Albany mosque was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison for his role in a money laundering scheme involving a fictional terror plot set up as an
FBI sting.
Feds: Airline Worker Used Security ID To Sneak 14 Guns, Drugs On Orlando Flight - Local News
Wednesday, 7 March 2007 6:59 P GMT-05
A 22-year-old airline employee from Central Florida was arrested after he used his security privileges to smuggle a bag containing 13 handguns, an M-16 type automatic weapon and marijuana on board a Delta flight at Orlando International Airport, according to federal agents. According to an arrest affidavit, Thomas Anthony Munoz, of Kissimmee, Fla., said he was recruited by another Orlando airport employee to smuggle the guns in exchange for money, Local 6 reported.
Libby found guilty in CIA leak trial
Tuesday, 6 March 2007 8:44 P GMT-05
Libby is the highest-ranking White House official to be convicted of a felony since the Iran-Contra scandal of the mid-1980s. The case brought new attention to the Bush administration's much-criticized handling of weapons of mass destruction intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war.
9/11 Truth Has Already Won the Debate
Monday, 5 March 2007 5:32 P GMT-05
Well then, the grossly "criminally negligent" Bush regime should certainly have been in no position to influence the outcome of the investigation into September 11th 2001. Is that an unreasonable statement? Is it common to allow the suspect to initiate his own investigation? (outside of Washington D.C?) President William Jefferson Clinton was impeached for Obstruction of Justice, raising that particular offense to the level of an impeachable high crime. Has the Bush regime obstructed justice in regard to September 11th 2001?
America on its Knees Before Tyranny
Sunday, 4 March 2007 7:57 P GMT-05
If we were to attempt a genuine discussion of the Bush regime, one might formulate the main issues as these: Is the regime legitimate? After all, it took office by what millions recognize was a stolen election enabled by a corrupt Supreme Court and the president's brother's political machine in Florida.
Internet porn pop-ups cost this teacher her job and her freedom
Sunday, 4 March 2007 9:24 A GMT-05
A teacher faces up to 40 years in jail for exposing her pupils to online pornography, amid an outcry from computer experts that she is the innocent victim of malicious software.
Recalling Pol Pot's Terror, But Forgetting His Backers
Saturday, 3 March 2007 6:48 P GMT-05
The genocide in Cambodia did not begin on April 17 1975, "Year Zero." It began more than five years earlier when American bombers killed an estimated 600,000 Cambodians. Phosphorous and cluster bombs, napalm and dump bombs that left vast craters were dropped on a neutral country of peasant people and straw huts. In one six-month period in 1973, more tons of American bombs were dropped on Cambodia than were dropped on Japan during the second world war: the equivalent of five Hiroshimas. The regime of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger did this, secretly and illegally. Unclassified CIA files leave little doubt that the bombing was the catalyst for Pol Pot's fanatics, who, before the inferno, had only minority support. Now, a stricken people rallied to them. In Panh's film, a torturer refers to the bombing as his reason for joining "the maquis": the Khmer Rouge. What Nixon and Kissinger began, Pol Pot completed. And having been driven out by the Vietnamese, who came from the wrong side of the cold war, the Khmer Rouge were restored in Thailand by the Reagan administration, assisted by the Thatcher government, who invented a "coalition" to provide the cover for America's continuing war against Vietnam.
ICJ rules Serbia 'not directly responsible' for genocide
Tuesday, 27 February 2007 7:06 P GMT-05
The UN's International Court of Justice has ruled Serbia was not directly responsible for genocide committed during the 1992–1995 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
AP: CIA recruited Japanese war criminals
Monday, 26 February 2007 7:24 P GMT-05
Col. Masanobu Tsuji was a fanatical Japanese militarist and brutal warrior, hunted after World War II for massacres of Chinese civilians and complicity in the Bataan Death March. And then he became a U.S. spy. Newly declassified
CIA records, released by the U.S. National Archives and examined by The Associated Press, document more fully than ever how Tsuji and other suspected Japanese war criminals were recruited by U.S. intelligence in the early days of the Cold War. The documents also show how ineffective the effort was, in the CIA's view.
'Things got worse' without them
Sunday, 25 February 2007 1:33 P GMT-05
On Tuesday, a federal judge will hear final arguments in a civil suit seeking more than $100 million in damages from the government for the false imprisonment of Salvati and Limone, whose convictions in the slaying of Edward "Teddy" Deegan were overturned six years ago, and Greco and Tameleo, both of whom died in prison before they were exonerated.
Soldier faces life in jail
Thursday, 22 February 2007 5:51 P GMT-05
Cortez, Spc. James Barker, Pfc. Bryan L. Howard, Pfc. Jesse Spielman and former Army Pvt. Steven Green were playing cards and drinking Iraqi whiskey, gin and energy drinks while working a traffic control point, when Green kept encouraging them to rape an Iraqi girl. "Barker and Green had already known what house they wanted to go to," Cortez said, pausing again. "They had already been there before, known there had been only one male in it, and it would be an easy target."
Judge blocks transfer of Cali. inmates out to private jails
Wednesday, 21 February 2007 9:17 P GMT-05
A state superior court has ruled Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's forcible transfer of up to 5,000 California inmates to Corrections Corporation of America's private out-of-state prisons is illegal, thwarting the governor's only short-term plan to address prison overcrowding. California prisons currently hold approximately 173,000 inmates, with about 17,000 bunking in spaces such as gymnasiums and day rooms.
Lou Dobbs On The War On (Some) Drugs
Monday, 19 February 2007 4:23 P GMT-05
Addiction, however, is different issue. It’s a medical, or psychological, problem that can only be dealt with through treatment and counseling. And, think of it this way, isn’t it likely that people who are addicted to illegal drugs resist getting treatment because they’re afraid of getting caught ? These people would be addicts whether drugs were legal or not, and the addiction “problem” has no bearing on the issue of when we are going to end the monstrous failure that is the War On Drugs.
Pakistan rights group: at least 565 women and girls died in honor killings in 2006
Monday, 12 February 2007 6:25 P GMT-05
At least 565 women and girls in Pakistan died in so-called honor killings in 2006, the country's main rights organization said Thursday, nearly double the number it recorded the year before. The sharp increase from 287 in 2005 was due "at least in part" to expanded data collection, the privately funded Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said in its annual report. However, it said many more cases may have gone unreported and has estimated in the past that the annual total may be about 1,000.
LAPD Brightens My Day with Big Fat Lie
Friday, 9 February 2007 3:14 P GMT-05
A press officer whose name I didn't catch (because she hung up on me when I stood up for TNS) called to complain about our "coverage" of an incident in which LAPD personnel allegedly beat a handcuffed man to death in front of multiple witnesses. Gabriel Voilles put together a bulletin on the matter for our In Other News... section this morning. This officer was very upset by it, immediately accusing TNS of printing lies. I informed her that we were, quite transparently, merely relaying what her hometown newspaper the LA Times had reported, and that we -- as a matter of journalistic policy -- made no claims as to the true narrative of the incident, since no reporter was on the scene. She then claimed that the Times story on which our bulletin was based did not say or suggest the cops had beaten a man to death while he was cuffed, as our bulletin says, and repeated her insistence that we had published "lies."
Rep. grills ex-US leader in Iraq: Where did 363 tons of cash go?
Wednesday, 7 February 2007 2:39 P GMT-05
Over $4 billion in cash, which came from Iraqi oil exports and other sources, was sent by the Federal Reserve to Baghdad on pallets aboard U.S. military planes just before government control was given back to the Iraqis, Reuters says. The bills reportedly weighed hundreds of tons.
Law student suspended after 'terrorist' shooting
Monday, 5 February 2007 4:57 P GMT-05
Cho, a Yale University graduate, has been charged with aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, trespassing and vandalism, said Lt. John Walker, with Southwest Detectives. He had gone to the Drexel students' apartment at 12:30 p.m., pounding on their door. When they didn't answer, Cho shot rounds from his legal Glock-9 into the door's lock.
Number of People Stopped by Police Soars in New York
Sunday, 4 February 2007 7:19 A GMT-05
The New York Police Department released new information yesterday showing that police officers stopped 508,540 individuals on New York City streets last year — an average of 1,393 stops per day — often searching them for illegal weapons. The number was up from 97,296 in 2002, the last time the department divulged 12 months’ worth of data.
Minn. farmer charged after chasing thief
Friday, 2 February 2007 6:10 P GMT-05
A farmer who chased down a thief and held him at gunpoint until authorities arrived now faces a more serious charge than the thief himself. Kenneth Englund, 74, was charged with second-degree assault, a felony. The thief, who the sheriff said admitted stealing about $5 worth of gasoline from Englund's neighbor, was charged with misdemeanor theft.
Police jail rape victim for two days
Wednesday, 31 January 2007 6:24 P GMT-05
Attorney Virlyn "Vic" Moore III of Venice said his client was seated in the front seat of the police cruiser, on her way to the scene of her attack when the officer learned of the warrant, cuffed her and placed her in the back seat. "To stop the rape investigation and instead victimize her again," Moore said. "I'm aghast, astonished and outraged. I have never, ever heard of this happening." The officer arrested the woman at a sergeant's instruction, McElroy said. The student had failed to pay $4,585 restitution after a 2003 juvenile arrest, McElroy said. Moore said his client is convinced that she paid the fine and that the warrant was probably the result of a clerical error.
US Army Investigating New Torture Allegations
Wednesday, 31 January 2007 6:13 P GMT-05
At this point, there is no way to confirm if the video is a true representation or not. The video has no publicly-identifiable source at this point, the primary subject appears almost completely in shadow, and the footage has obviously been edited down into a concise 3-minute package.
'I'VE JUST KILLED 4 MEMBERS OF MY FAMILY'
Tuesday, 30 January 2007 5:21 P GMT-05
A GULF War veteran calmly walked into a police station, put a self-loading pistol on the counter and announced: "I have just killed four members of my family."
Officer faces trial in Abu Ghraib case
Monday, 29 January 2007 5:09 P GMT-05
The highest-ranking American soldier - and only officer - charged with a crime in the Abu Ghraib scandal will be court-martialed on eight charges, including cruelty and maltreatment of prisoners, his lawyer confirmed yesterday. Lt. Col. Steven Lee Jordan, a 50-year-old reservist from Virginia who ran the interrogation center at the Iraqi prison, was accused of failing to exert his authority as the place descended into chaos, with prisoners stripped naked, photographed in humiliating poses and intimidated by snarling dogs. He was also charged with lying to investigators.
Ex-aide's immunity deal won't be detailed
Monday, 29 January 2007 4:54 P GMT-05
Attorneys for former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby won't know the specifics of former White House press secretary
Ari Fleischer's unusual immunity-from-prosecution deal when Fleischer testifies against their client Monday.
Terror bombing rocks Israeli town Eilat, killing at least three
Monday, 29 January 2007 2:50 P GMT-05
Palestinian terror organizations Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigade, an arm of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization, and Islamic Jihad's Al-Aqsa Brigades have claimed joint responsibility for the attack. Officials from the Eilat Police Department confirmed that a suicide bomber infiltrated the area and detonated explosives nearby a local bakery.
Antiterror cameras capturing crime on T
Monday, 29 January 2007 2:34 P GMT-05
Friday, MBTA Transit Police arrested a 27-year-old man accused of robbing a passenger at gunpoint at the Back Bay station. Such cases have often gone unsolved, officials said, and the arrest would have been far less likely without digital images from a surveillance camera at the station. So far, about a dozen crimes have been solved with help from the cameras, and T police expect many more cases , including those from an investigation into a large ring of robbers.
Libby case witness details art of media manipulation
Sunday, 28 January 2007 4:08 P GMT-05
A smorgasbord of Washington insider details emerged during the perjury trial of I. Lewis Libby, the vice president's former chief of staff. No one served up spicier morsels than Cathie Martin, Vice President Dick Cheney's former top press assistant . Martin described the craft of media manipulation -- under oath and in blunter terms than politicians like to hear in public.
Childhood poverty comes at great cost to U.S. economy
Saturday, 27 January 2007 7:52 P GMT-05
Children who grow up poor in the United States cost the economy $500 billion a year because they are less productive, earn less money, commit more crimes and have more health-related expenses, according to a new study.
Girl, 6, Embodies Cambodia's Sex Industry
Saturday, 27 January 2007 11:09 A GMT-05
The precise scale of Cambodia's sex trade is difficult to quantify. International organizations - such as UNICEF, ECPAT and Save the Children - say that anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 women and children are involved. An estimated 30 percent of the sex workers in Phnom Penh are under the age of 18, according to the United Nations. The actual figure may be much higher, activists say.
U.S. soldier gets 18 years prison in Iraq slayings
Friday, 26 January 2007 3:22 P GMT-05
Clagett, of Moncks Corner, South Carolina, pleaded guilty to attempted premeditated murder, conspiracy to commit premeditated murder, premeditated murder, conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice.
The Plame-gate Plot Thickens
Thursday, 25 January 2007 6:28 P GMT-05
Two other unnamed officials who traveled with Bush on a state visit to Africa in July 2003 reportedly encouraged a Time magazine correspondent to ask about the circumstances behind Wilson’s trip, pointing him in the direction of Plame. At the top of the operation to counter Wilson were Bush, who approved the partial release of a CIA National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq’s WMD, and Cheney, who dispatched Libby to meet with reporters.
Panama's Noriega set to be released
Wednesday, 24 January 2007 11:17 P GMT-05
'As much as Noriega may be celebrating his early release, the truth is it's a celebration for naught,'' said former U.S. Attorney Guy Lewis, who tried his case along with prosecutors Richard Gregorie and Michael ''Pat'' Sullivan. ``He's been convicted in absentia on murder charges in Panama, and he's been convicted in absentia on money-laundering charges in France. ''The real question is not whether he will be released from custody,'' said Lewis. ``The real question is will he be turned over to the Panamanians or the French to continue his prison sentence?''
DA: Young mother botched abortion with ulcer medication
Wednesday, 24 January 2007 8:36 P GMT-05
Instead of aborting the 24 to 25 week-old fetus, however, Amber Abreu gave birth to 1 1/4-pound baby girl. The infant, who was named Ashley, died four days later, prosecutors allege. Abreu pleaded not guilty today in Lawrence District Court to "procuring an improper miscarriage," a charge that could carry up to seven years in state prison. She was ordered held on $15,000 cash bail.
Beatings reportedly accompanied by ethnic slurs at Guilford
Wednesday, 24 January 2007 6:02 P GMT-05
The NC State student said members of the Guilford College football team provoked the fight and that he and his friends tried to avoid getting involved, especially because Khader had been suspended in the fall semester. First Sabbah was attacked and then Khader, Awartani said. He tried to pull some of the assailants off his friends.
"That's when I got my share of the assault," he said. "That's when they put me on the dirt and beat my ass. All this was accompanied by 'sand niggers,' 'fucking Palestinians,' 'terrorists.' I would like to say seven to eight people were attacking me."
FBI: Gang Members Joining Military
Monday, 22 January 2007 6:33 P GMT-05
The FBI described the gang presence as a "growing threat," the Chicago Sun-Times reported. "The military enlistment of gang members could ultimately lead to the worldwide expansion of U.S.-based gangs," the report said.
Blame criminals, not the guns that stop them
Saturday, 20 January 2007 6:14 P GMT-05
Measures that prevent law-abiding citizens from exercising their Second Amendment rights will only empower criminals and increase the vulnerability of law-abiding citizens. The answer to violent crime is stiffer penalties for people whose criminal actions place society in danger. Ultimately, we must stop blaming guns for violence, as they are simply tools that are used regularly to aid the innocent against vicious attacks.
Truck driver sentenced to life in prison
Friday, 19 January 2007 2:13 A GMT-05
Tyrone Williams, 36, was convicted last month of 58 counts of conspiracy and harboring and transporting immigrants. A jury deliberated for a little more than 5 days before deciding to send Williams to prison without the possibility of parole for each of the immigrants who died from dehydration, overheating and suffocation in his truck during the 2003 trip from South Texas to Houston.
Did Bush's Lies to Troops Play Role in the Rape, Killing of Iraqi Girl?
Thursday, 18 January 2007 4:32 P GMT-05
The fact is, the Bush White House has deliberately lied to our soldiers in Iraq. By feeding them a constant stream of bullsh*t about Iraq's "ties" to 9/11, the Bush team has created a situation in which our troops are filled with rage and hell-bent on vengeance: a situation that has been directly responsible for the barbaric acts that we've seen committed by U.S. troops in Iraq.
Yale student's '98 murder linked to 9/11?
Wednesday, 17 January 2007 9:48 A GMT-05
So with no student/teacher love affair gone array, no real evidence this was some kind of senseless random act of violence, and no other real motives raised by police or the press, there seems to be only one motive left that has been greatly overlooked, the subject of Suzanne's senior thesis and one of Van de Velde's area of expertise: Osama Bin Laden
Libby on Trial
Wednesday, 17 January 2007 7:24 A GMT-05
One of the great mysteries of l'affaire Plame is why the Bushies lashed out so severely at Ambassador Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame, by exposing her CIA connection and effectively ending her career. After all, there were plenty of internal government critics who opposed the rush to war, including in the CIA, and they were never "outed" or otherwise rendered professionally disabled. Why pick on Plame?
Did The Government Force BBC To Drop Menezes, 7/7 Dramas?
Wednesday, 17 January 2007 7:01 A GMT-05
The family of Jean Charles de Menezes, the innocent man who was gunned down by British police in the wake of the London bombings, has today accused the BBC of aiding a cover up after plans to film a politically sensitive docu-drama about his murder were unceremoniously dropped. The filiming of a docu-drama about the 7/7 London bombers has also been suddenly abandoned.
U.N. says 34,000 Iraqis killed in 2006
Tuesday, 16 January 2007 3:47 P GMT-05
The United Nations said on Tuesday more than 34,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in violence last year and it chided the government for allowing the killers, some of them inside the security forces, to go unpunished.
Former CIA Man Latest To Connect LBJ To JFK Assassination
Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:20 A GMT-05
E. Howard Hunt, a former CIA agent who organized the Watergate break-in, earning him the name "plumber" states in his book, American Spy: My Secret History in the CIA, Watergate & Beyond, due out in April, that "LBJ had the money and the connections to manipulate the scenario in Dallas and is on record as having convinced JFK to make the appearance in the first place." "He further tried unsuccessfully to engineer the passengers of each vehicle, trying to get his good buddy, Gov. [John] Connolly, to ride with him instead of in JFK's car – where...he would have been out of danger," writes Hunt.
Boy tries to reconnect with old life after 4 years
Monday, 15 January 2007 7:22 P GMT-05
As questions mounted about his abduction and how it lasted more than four years, a 15-year-old boy spent Monday with relatives -- including some born since he disappeared.
MARTIN LUTHER KING - THE FATAL SHOT CAME FROM A DIFFERENT DIRECTION
Monday, 15 January 2007 7:05 P GMT-05
Why the US Is Not Leaving Iraq: The Booming Business of War Profiteers
Monday, 15 January 2007 6:48 P GMT-05
The Pentagon contractors are both as a major driving force to the war on Iraq and a major obstacle to the withdrawal of US led forces. The rise of the fortunes of the major Pentagon contractors can be measured, in part, by the growth of the Pentagon budget since President George W. Bush arrived in the White House: it has grown by more than 50 percent, from nearly $300 billion in 2001 to almost $455 billion in 2007. (These figures do not include the Homeland Security budget, which is $33 billion for the 2007 fiscal year alone, and the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which are fast approaching $400 billion.) Large Pentagon contractors have been the main beneficiaries of this windfall. For example, a 2004 study by The Center for Public Integrity revealed that, for the 1998–2003 period, one percent of the biggest contractors won 80 percent of all defense contracting dollars. The top ten got 38 percent of all the money. Lockheed Martin topped the list at $94 billion, Boeing was second with $81 billion, Raytheon was third (just under $40 billion), followed by Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics with nearly $34 billion each.
French linked to Rwanda slaughter
Friday, 12 January 2007 4:38 P GMT-05
Sources contend the U.S., knowing France was involved in the massacre, took no action. The U.S. had been monitoring all communications, including diplomatic communiqués, but did not want to create a crisis in Franco-American relations over a country regarded to have little strategic interest.
Africa's inferno
Thursday, 11 January 2007 8:16 P GMT-05
In the Darfur region of Sudan, civilians are raped and killed, not for land or goods, but because of who they are. The killing is an end in itself.
New Orleans stepping up patrols, checkpoints, cameras to stem wave of violent crime
Thursday, 11 January 2007 6:17 P GMT-05
acing nine homicides in just eight days in his battered city, Mayor Ray Nagin declared a crackdown on violent crime, promising more police on the streets, more surveillance cameras and a better effort to speed cases through the courts.
Killing Stirs Racial Concerns in North Woods of Wisconsin
Tuesday, 9 January 2007 9:53 P GMT-05
Law enforcement officials said Monday that a Hmong hunter found dead Saturday in northern Wisconsin had been murdered after an “accidental meeting” between the victim and another small game hunter.
Fair Jury Could Crack Diana Cover-Up
Monday, 8 January 2007 8:59 P GMT-05
The aftermath of the death of Diana Princess of Wales, 94% of which the British public believe was an assassination, has been characterized at every step of the way by official stalling, witness intimidation, whitewash and chicanery, behavior alone that suggests elements of the state are clearly attempting to sabotage a fair appraisal of the evidence because it would implicate them as being involved in the murder.
Defense in 'Fragging' Case Granted Help
Monday, 8 January 2007 8:34 P GMT-05
Martinez, 39, of Troy, N.Y., is the only soldier known to be charged with killing his superior officer, also known as "fragging," during the Iraq war. He could face the death penalty if convicted.
'Here we are prisoners'
Monday, 8 January 2007 6:51 P GMT-05
"Those who control Nuevo Laredo control the U.S. highways and the flow of narcotics into the United States," said Sheriff Rick Flores, whose Webb County territory runs along the Texas-Mexico border. "This city is an open gateway for narcotics and terrorists," Flores said. "If the price is right, anyone - and I mean anyone - can move weapons of mass destruction, people and drugs into the United States." Not one local Mexican or U.S. newspaper reported the April street violence. Reporters don't go into Nuevo Laredo's streets often, and when they do, they don't report on the cartels. Not one Nuevo Laredo municipal police officer ever appeared at the scene, either. It was as if the bloodbath never happened.
Stop-Gap Cop Measure: Hire 'Illegals'
Friday, 5 January 2007 4:49 P GMT-05
We all know that “illegals” will do anything to gain a legal foothold in America, including all the crummy, dirty or dangerous jobs that Americans don't want to do. Police work and soldiering aren't crummy jobs, and here at home, once you complete basic training you might not even have to get dirty. But dangerous — that's a given. So why miss an opportunity to sign someone else up for the job?
Tijuana police force ordered to turn in guns
Friday, 5 January 2007 4:31 P GMT-05
Federal officials were expected to conduct ballistics tests on the weapons, apparently to see if they could link any of the weapons to the many killings that have been attributed to drug cartels.
Guardsmen overrun at the Border
Friday, 5 January 2007 4:03 P GMT-05
According to the Border Patrol, an unknown number of gunmen attacked the site in the state's West Desert Region around 11 p.m. The site is manned by National Guardsmen. Those guardsmen were forced to retreat.
Adolf Eichmann and Saddam Hussein
Wednesday, 3 January 2007 4:52 A GMT-05
History and justice. The two go hand in hand. To deny one is to diminish the other. History and justice. It is our responsibility to record, to pursue and to preserve. The rest is irrelevant. Now back to Saddam Hussein. What a colossal mistake. What injustice.
The Low Profile: CNN and the New York Times Execute a Denial of History
Tuesday, 2 January 2007 4:44 P GMT-05
Conveniently carried out just five minutes past the hour when "Anderson Cooper 360" goes on the air, the execution provided an opportunity for viewers to think about the long story of the Iraqi leader's brutal reign. Yet when it came to informing the audience about one key aspect of that history - the role of the United States in helping to create and maintain the "butcher of Baghdad" - CNN offered only amnesia.
Silence lets killers roam
Tuesday, 2 January 2007 4:29 P GMT-05
Their silence allows murderers to walk free in the neighborhoods, knowing that if they killed once without legal consequences they're free to kill again. Their silence means that friends of the victim will feel just fine about taking matters into their own hands, leading to more gunplay, more bloodshed, more death. Their silence means that the very kids who fire the guns can't possibly have any measure of self-worth. They know that if they kill or if they die, there's no one on the street or down the block who will act like it's any particularly big deal.
Cheney on the Stand
Monday, 1 January 2007 8:05 P GMT-05
Mr. Vice President, isn’t it true that you and the defendant outed Valerie Plame to send a signal to others who might dissent from your Iraq policy that they would pay a terrible price for doing so? Mr. Vice President, do you understand that in the United States no person is above the law? No further questions, your honor.
Michael Wolsey Interviews Jenna Orkin - Audio Inside
Monday, 1 January 2007 6:57 P GMT-05
In the first of a 3 or 4 part series on the 9-11 Dust, Visibility 9-11 welcomes to the program Jenna Orkin of the World Trade Center Environmental Organization. One week after September 11th, Christie Todd Whitman stated that, "Given the scope of the tragedy from last week, I am glad to reassure the people of New York and Washington D.C., that their air is safe to breathe and their water is safe to drink.", even as the EPA had information to the contrary. In fact, the 9-11 dust was extremely caustic and in August of 2003, the EPA issued a report showing the changes the Bush administration made to the intial cautionary statements which were originally meant to warn the public of the dangers in the dust. These warnings were changed to reasurances and the public never heard the truth. These lies have resulted in thousands of people getting sick from breathing the toxic dust, and now, over 5 years later, they are dying. If you think our own government isn't capable of deliberately killing its' own citizens, think again. Here is yet another shameful example of the dastardly deeds committed by the criminals in charge of the U.S. government and yet one more reason to doubt the official story about what happened on September 11th, 2001.
Michael Wolsey Interviews Penny Little - Audio Inside
Monday, 1 January 2007 6:36 P GMT-05
In this the 2nd of a 3 or 4 part series on the 9-11 Dust, Visibility 9-11 welcomes to the program Penny Little, producer of the new 9-11 documentary, 911 Dust and Deceit. One week after September 11th, Christie Todd Whitman stated that, "Given the scope of the tragedy from last week, I am glad to reassure the people of New York and Washington D.C., that their air is safe to breathe and their water is safe to drink.", even as the EPA had information to the contrary. In fact, the 9-11 dust was extremely caustic and in August of 2003, the EPA issued a report showing the changes the Bush administration made to the intial cautionary statements which were originally meant to warn the public of the dangers in the dust. These warnings were changed to reasurances and the public never heard the truth. These lies have resulted in thousands of people getting sick from breathing the toxic dust, and now, over 5 years later, they are dying. If you think our own government isn't capable of deliberately killing its' own citizens, think again.
Officer charged in bridge deaths faced earlier murder charge
Monday, 1 January 2007 6:22 P GMT-05
One of the seven policemen charged in a deadly gunfight on a bridge during the chaos that followed Hurricane Katrina had previously been charged with murder in the 2001 death of a suspect, but the charges were dismissed. Fraternal Order of Police lawyer Donovan Livaccari said Friday that Sgt. Kenneth Bowen had "acted within his rights to protect himself" in that case. Records show that the city agreed to pay the suspect's mother $12,500 to settle a lawsuit. Bowen, five colleagues and another officer who has since left the force were indicted Thursday in the Sept. 4, 2005, shooting deaths of two men and wounding of four other people on the bridge.
What Have We Learned from the War on Drugs?
Monday, 1 January 2007 4:29 P GMT-05
Americans have curiously mixed attitudes about drug crimes. On the one hand, we blithely elect people to high office who did things that, had they been caught, might have earned them prison time. (In 2000, remember, George W. Bush was careful not to deny ever using cocaine.) On the other, we tend to see the stiff sentences given to those who were caught as fitting punishment for their contemptible behavior. In this realm, ideology has a way of overriding mere facts. We have learned, for example, that marijuana is a comparatively benign drug that has few risks and some apparent benefits. In 1999, a National Academy of Sciences panel said pot has "potential therapeutic value" for "pain relief, control of nausea and vomiting, and appetite stimulation." The New England Journal of Medicine has endorsed medical marijuana. Eleven states have also approved the idea. Yet the Bush administration, like the Clinton administration before it, has spurned the idea. Not only has it actively fought state initiatives to let sick people get relief from cannabis, it has obstructed research to help patients.
He takes his secrets to the grave. Our complicity dies with him
Monday, 1 January 2007 4:07 P GMT-05
There is growing evidence across the Arab world that Saddam held a series of meetings with senior American officials prior to his invasion of Iran in 1980 - both he and the US administration believed that the Islamic Republic would collapse if Saddam sent his legions across the border - and the Pentagon was instructed to assist Iraq's military machine by providing intelligence on the Iranian order of battle. One frosty day in 1987, not far from Cologne, I met the German arms dealer who initiated those first direct contacts between Washington and Baghdad - at America's request. "Mr Fisk... at the very beginning of the war, in September of 1980, I was invited to go to the Pentagon," he said. "There I was handed the very latest US satellite photographs of the Iranian front lines. You could see everything on the pictures. There were the Iranian gun emplacements in Abadan and behind Khorramshahr, the lines of trenches on the eastern side of the Karun river, the tank revetments - thousands of them - all the way up the Iranian side of the border towards Kurdistan. No army could want more than this. And I travelled with these maps from Washington by air to Frankfurt and from Frankfurt on Iraqi Airways straight to Baghdad. The Iraqis were very, very grateful!"
9/11 - Who Signed Sakher Hammad's WTC Basement Level Pass?
Saturday, 30 December 2006 2:21 P GMT-05
Who Murdered Katherine Smith?
How a spy was caught and why he still stands to profit
Friday, 29 December 2006 3:42 A GMT-05
A secondary theme of Mr. Olive's engaging book is an account of the utter failure of systems controlling the circulation of classified material. Anyone even vaguely aware of security rules will be appalled to read how Pollard systematically obtained highly-classified documents from intelligence agencies all over the D.C. area, simply by ordering them from repositories maintained by various offices, including the CIA. Pollard had no "need to know" because the bulk of these documents he had acquired had no relevance to his work. No matter. Internal courier services brought the papers to Pollard in carload lots. He stuffed them under his desk, and then took to his car at his leisure in briefcases. In one episode related by Mr. Olive, in a single evening Pollard lugged enough documents to fill five suitcases stacked in the rear of his car. (My neighborhood branch of the D.C. public library pays more attention to what leaves the building than did the ATAC "guards.")
Horrors that mirrored Saddam's worst excesses
Thursday, 28 December 2006 6:06 P GMT-05
The two-storey building had been reopened by the British as a police station, part of the coalition’s optimistic attempts to restore order after Saddam’s overthrow. Before long it was nicknamed “Gestapo HQ” by British officers. The horrors taking place behind its thick white walls were feared to compare with the sadistic excesses of the toppled dictatorship.
Gerald Ford forced to admit the Warren Report fictionalized
Wednesday, 27 December 2006 4:23 P GMT-05
Thirty-three years ago, Gerald R. Ford took pen in
hand and changed - ever so slightly - the Warren Commission's key sentence
on the place where a bullet entered John F. Kennedy's body when he was
killed in Dallas.
The effect of Ford's change was to strengthen the commission's conclusion
that a single bullet passed through Kennedy and severely wounded Texas
Gov. John Connally - a crucial element in its finding that Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole gunman.
New Orleans: Big Easy to Big Empty
Tuesday, 26 December 2006 10:20 P GMT-05
In this half-hour film, Greg Palast and his team travel to New Orleans to investigate what has happened since Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast last year. On his visit, he discovers that the population of New Orleans is miniscule, the reconstruction sparse, suicide rates are climbing, and many have not, nor know how to, return to the city that care forgot. He examines why residents had to leave, what really caused the flood and why they aren't returning.
The federal response to Katrina is a disaster in its own right
Tuesday, 26 December 2006 10:16 P GMT-05
The discussions currently abound as to whether the disastrous response to Katrina was a result of a conspiracy or of general incompetence. To an extent the difference here is not all that significant when stacked against the following realization: our government is not just inefficient in some details, it is criminally negligent on a grand scale as it spends days even initiating response to events to which a response is needed immediately and preparations to respond must begin even beforehand.
Does Prison Harden Criminals? Yes.
Tuesday, 26 December 2006 9:48 P GMT-05
In prison, one learns from peers how to be a better criminal, makes criminal contacts and also acquires a pemanent record that severely inhibits the possibility of future employment. The conservative argument is that the unpleasant experience of prison serves as a useful deterrent and discourages released prisoners from committing more crime. Both of these frameworks would predict that the effects of incarceration would be amplified by harsher, more restrictive prison conditions.
Did American fire on Iraqis for sport?
Tuesday, 26 December 2006 8:25 P GMT-05
The men were fired, along with their supervisor, who has denied wrongdoing, according to the company. Shepard and Schmidt are now suing Triple Canopy. Their lawsuit alleges they were fired "in retaliation for their reporting criminal activity which they had witnessed." "I believe we were fired," says Shepard, "because they wanted this whole incident to go away."
Why Is Genarlow Wilson in Prison?
Tuesday, 26 December 2006 7:19 P GMT-05
After a wild New Year’s Eve party, six Douglasville teens found themselves charged with child molestation under a legal technicality. The boy who refused to take a plea now faces a decade behind bars.
Christian teen recovering from attack by Islamists
Tuesday, 26 December 2006 6:53 P GMT-05
As WND has reported, Noviana and three of her friends were walking on a school path Oct 29, 2005, when they were assaulted by radical Islamic jihadists wielding machetes. Noviana was the only survivor, and suffered the massive slash across her face and neck; the other three girls were decapitated.
Parole board member says FBI tried to intimidate him
Tuesday, 26 December 2006 6:02 P GMT-05
Two of those men, Joseph Salvati and Peter Limone, spent more than 30 years in prison for the murder of Edward "Teddy" Deegan before being exonerated in 2001 when the Justice Department released documents showing the FBI withheld evidence from prosecutors that could have cleared the men so the agency could protect Vincent "Jimmy" Flemmi, an informant who actually committed the crime.
Up to 500 killed in Lagos fuel blast
Tuesday, 26 December 2006 4:45 P GMT-05
Up to 500 people were burned alive on Tuesday when fuel from a vandalized pipeline exploded in Nigeria's largest city, Lagos, emergency workers said.
Iraqi Women's Bodies Are Battlefields for War Vendettas
Tuesday, 26 December 2006 3:48 P GMT-05
The Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) recently issued a frightening report documenting the growing practice of public executions of women by Shia Militia. One of the report's more grisly accounts was a story of a young woman dragged by a wire wound around her neck to a close-by football field and then hung to the goal post. They pierced her body with bullets. Her brother came running trying to defend his sister. He was also shot and killed. Sunni extremists are no better: OWFI members estimate that no less than 30 women are executed monthly for honor related reasons.
Discovery of dazed stowaway grounds flight
Monday, 25 December 2006 11:34 P GMT-05
A man scaled a security fence at Raleigh-Durham International Airport and boarded a Delta jet in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, landing himself in jail while preventing a flight to Cincinnati from taking off. Gregory S. Wester of Fuquay-Varina walked onto the Boeing 737-800 and quietly took a seat while a cleaning crew was working on the plane about 3:30 a.m., airport spokeswoman Mindy Hamlin said. Wester had climbed a 7-foot fence topped with barbed wire to gain access to the tarmac at the airport's Terminal A. Airport police charged Wester with first-degree trespassing and illegally possessing a prescription drug. He also faces a federal charge of gaining access to an aircraft without permission. He remained in the Wake County jail late Tuesday.
Crime about to rise and swamp prisons, warns Blair team
Monday, 25 December 2006 10:29 P GMT-05
A document drawn up by Tony Blair's strategy unit warns that a slowdown in economic growth is threatening to reverse recent falls in crime. It predicts that the jail population could rise by 25 per cent, topping 100,000 within the next five years, and outstripping the planned rate of growth in prison places. It says the Government should consider drastic crime-curbing remedies used abroad, such as rationing the amount of alcohol people can buy, a ban on alcohol advertising, ID chip implants, the use of bounty hunters and "chemical castration" for sex offenders. The 60-page report, Policy Review: Crime, Justice and Cohesion, written last month, also makes controversial observations about social cohesion. In a blow to Labour's record, it speaks of a growing wealth gap, saying: "The very poorest have got poorer since 1997."
No jail for policeman who coerced women into sex
Monday, 25 December 2006 8:23 P GMT-05
Gregg O'Shei, 43, told City Judge Craig D. Hannah he wanted to apologize to everyone he has embarrassed by his actions, including his victims. He declined to comment as he left court.
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Hannah imposed strict probationary terms on O'Shei and warned him he faces jail for any future contact with either of his victims, both of whom said they were disappointed that he wasn't given some jail time.
Dead spy's Italy contact arrested
Sunday, 24 December 2006 7:03 P GMT-05
Police have arrested an Italian man who met Russian former spy Alexander Litvinenko the day he fell ill from poisoning, Italian news agencies said. The two men met at a London sushi bar on 1 November. Mr Litvinenko died on 23 November from radiation poisoning.
Holocaust Jew accused of war crimes
Sunday, 24 December 2006 3:32 A GMT-05
The case of Solomon Morel, 86, is the only one in Holocaust history where a Jew stands accused of war crimes against Germans. It has perplexed legal minds in both countries. Poland says genocide is genocide whether a Jew or a Nazi committed it, while many Israelis see rough justice in the 1500 German deaths for which Mr Morel is alleged to be responsible. Now the Israeli Government has said that Mr Morel will not be sent back to stand trial in Poland under any circumstances.
Phoenix slayings informant speaks out
Sunday, 24 December 2006 1:05 A GMT-05
Horton led police to Dieteman, 31, and Dale Hausner, 33, who were charged this summer with slayings attributed to the so-called Serial Shooter. Police say seven people were killed and 17 wounded in the random attacks across the area dating to May 2005, which mostly came as the victims walked or bicycled alone late at night or in the early morning.
America Has Become Incarceration Nation
Friday, 22 December 2006 9:50 P GMT-05
Drug policies have been responsible for a disproportionate share of the rise in the inmate population, with the 40,000 drug offenders in prison or jail in 1980 increasing to a half million today. A substantial body of research has documented that these laws have had virtually no effect on the drug trade, as measured by price or availability of drugs. Most of the drug offenders in prison are not the "kingpins" of the drug trade. Indeed, the low-level sellers who are incarcerated are rapidly replaced on the streets by others seeking economic gain.
Rape charges dropped in Duke case
Friday, 22 December 2006 9:44 P GMT-05
The district attorney dropped rape charges Friday against the three Duke University lacrosse players after the stripper who accused them changed her story again. But the men still face kidnapping and sex charges that could bring nearly 60 years in prison. A lawyer for one of the men bitterly demanded that District Attorney Mike Nifong drop the remaining counts and accused him of offering shifting explanations of the alleged attack in an attempt to win the case at any cost. "It's now the shifting sands again, the shifting factual theory," defense attorney Joseph Cheshire said. He added: "It is the ethical duty of a district attorney not to win a case, not to prosecute all cases, but to see that justice is done."
9/11's Trainer in Terrorism Was an FBI Informant
Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:45 P GMT-05
I want to admit, in all fairness, that certain notable victories have been achieved in the narrow pursuit of al Qaeda. At the same time, after five years of the new broadened war on terrorism, we can say with confidence that the net result to date is a far more dangerous world than we had before.
Innocents Abroad: US Cracks Down on Guantanamo Detainees
Wednesday, 20 December 2006 12:04 P GMT-05
Whatever the government's motives for this ongoing horror, Americans need to wake up and recognize that Guantanamo and the so-called "War on Terror" have made America--and every one of us Americans--guilty of the most obscene of war crimes. There will inevitably come a day of reckoning--a day when we will all be called to account for our collective crime. Let us at least be able to say then that we spoke out against what is being done in our name.
Tucson military recruiters ran cocaine
Wednesday, 20 December 2006 9:58 A GMT-05
Two military recruiting stations sit side-by-side there, one run by the Army, the other by the Marines. Between them, a total of seven recruiters were on the take, secretly accepting bribes to transport cocaine, even as most spent their days visiting local high schools. They had help from several more recruiters at an Army National Guard office, where one recruiter was said to be selling cocaine from the trunk of his recruiting vehicle.
Cheney to be defense witness in CIA case
Tuesday, 19 December 2006 11:39 P GMT-05
"We're calling the vice president," attorney Ted Wells said in court. Wells represents defendant I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who is charged with perjury and obstruction. Sitting presidents, including Clinton and Ford, have testified in criminal cases, but presidential historians said they knew of no vice president who has done so.
US robberies, murders on the rise
Tuesday, 19 December 2006 7:50 P GMT-05
Violent US crime such as robberies and murders rose by 3.7 per cent in the first half of 2006, while property crimes
such as larceny and car thefts declined from the year-earlier period, the FBI said Monday. Murders were up by 1.4 per cent, with major cities leading the trend, the US federal anti-crime agency's data showed.
111,000 IMMIGRATION FILES LOST
Friday, 15 December 2006 6:06 P GMT-05
An investigation by a government oversight agency recently revealed that in 2005 U.S. immigration authorities either “lost” or could not account for an estimated 111,000 files on immigrants to the United States, resulting in tens of thousands gaining citizenship without any indication as to whether authorities had checked to see if any of them had a criminal history.
Keep off the streets, British prostitutes urged
Wednesday, 13 December 2006 4:52 P GMT-05
Police hunting a serial killer who is murdering women at a rate unprecedented in British criminal history urged prostitutes on Wednesday to stay off the streets. Five naked bodies have been found near the eastern English port town of Ipswich in the last 11 days, terrifying the community in an area where serious crime is relatively rare.
Gary Webb's Death: American Tragedy
Wednesday, 13 December 2006 4:26 P GMT-05
When Americans ask me what happened to the vaunted U.S. press corps over the past three decades – in the decline from its heyday of the Watergate scandal and the Pentagon Papers to its failure to challenge the Iraq WMD lies or to hold George W. Bush accountable – I often recall for them the story of Gary Webb.
Abduction of Women on the Rise
Tuesday, 12 December 2006 8:31 P GMT-05
Few women like to talk about what they have to go through. "I was taken by Americans for three days recently," Um Ahmed told IPS in Baghdad. "They told me they would rape me if I didn't tell them where my husband was, but I really didn't know." She said that she was turned over to the Iraqi National Guard "who were even worse than the Americans." Her husband eventually surrendered to the U.S. military, but she continued to be held "to apply pressure on him to confess things he never did," she said. "They told him they would rape me right in front of him if he did not confess he was a terrorist. They forced me to watch them beat him hard until he told them what they wanted to hear."
It's Time to Re-Open the Investigation of RFK and JFK Assassinations
Monday, 11 December 2006 7:39 P GMT-05
In 1968, I was in my final year at the University of North Carolina. From my meeting with a close associate of RFK, I worked as a college and university organizer in his presidential campaign. At the time of his assassination, RFK was the leading candidate for the presidency—far ahead of his nearest rival in the polls and definitely on track to win the November election. Seeing the BBC broadcast of videotape evidence of three unassigned CIA agents in the Ambassador Hotel Ballroom at the time of RFK’s assassination shocked me. The federal government, Congress and the criminal justice system of the United States failed to protect the president of the United States and its leading presidential candidates. Worse. They have failed to tell the truth to the American people.
Woman allegedly steals to impress beau
Sunday, 10 December 2006 6:07 P GMT-05
Nickey Davidson, 25, is charged with three counts of aggravated burglary and theft in a series of house burglaries that seem to have been used to finance a double life. "She told her boyfriend in Coffee County that she had a high-paying job, so all these crimes were committed in trying to keep up with the lie she told him," Warren County Sheriff's Department Capt. Tommy Myers said. "When we told her boyfriend about what had happened, he was shocked. He was even more shocked to find out she is still married," he said.
No evidence found of war crimes Ranger alleged, Pentagon says
Sunday, 10 December 2006 5:38 P GMT-05
An investigation by the U.S. Department of Defense earlier this year found no evidence of war crimes alleged by former Army Ranger and suspected bank robber Luke Sommer, the Pentagon said Friday.
Boomerang Effect
Sunday, 10 December 2006 5:20 P GMT-05
Police will not be surprised by this prediction. I have talked with cops about Fourth Generation war, and they “get it” much better than do American soldiers and Marines. Many have told me that they already recognize elements of war in what they are encountering, especially in inner cities. Cops have been killed while just sitting in their cruisers, because they represent the authority of the state. How big a step is it for those cruisers to get hit with IEDs instead of pistol shots? The Bush administration, as usual, has it exactly backwards. The danger is not that the “terrorists” we are fighting in Iraq will come here if we pull out there. Rather, American involvement in 4GW in Iraq will create “terrorism” here from among the people we have sent to fight the war there. Well educated in the ways of successful insurgency, they will come home embittered by a lost war, by friends dead and crippled for life to no purpose. Thanks to America’s de-industrialization, they will return to no jobs, or lousy “service” jobs at minimum wage. Angry, frustrated and futureless, some of them will find new identities and loyalties in gangs and criminal enterprises, where they can put their new talents to work.
Why So Many Black Women Are Behind Bars
Saturday, 9 December 2006 7:36 P GMT-05
More women, and especially black women, are behind bars as much because of hard punishment than their actual crimes. One out of three crimes committed by women are drug related. Many state and federal sentencing laws mandate minimum sentences for all drug offenders. This virtually eliminates the option of referring non-violent first time offenders to increasingly scarce, financially strapped drug treatment, counseling and education programs. Stiffer punishment for crack cocaine use also has landed more black women in prison, and for longer sentences than white women (and men).
Police: Chicago gunman angry over patent
Saturday, 9 December 2006 7:27 P GMT-05
Jackson, 59, told police before he was shot that he had been cheated over a toilet he had invented for use in trucks, Police Superintendent Phil Cline said Saturday. He was holding a hostage at gunpoint Friday when a SWAT officer shot him from about 45 yards away, Cline said earlier. There were no negotiations and the hostage was unharmed, police said. "There was at least another 25 to 30 people on the floor and I think the Chicago police officers from SWAT saved those people's lives," he said.
Moscow hospital fire kills 45
Saturday, 9 December 2006 6:35 P GMT-05
A suspicious fire combined with a blocked exit turned the women's ward of a Moscow drug treatment hospital into a deathtrap Saturday as flames and smoke overcame patients. At least 45 women trapped behind a locked gate were killed in the deadliest fire in the Russian capital in decades. Russia's chief fire inspector, Yuri Nenashev, said he was "90 percent certain" the fire was set deliberately, and Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said it appeared to be arson or extremely careless handling of flammable materials.
Ranger alleges war crimes
Saturday, 9 December 2006 6:27 P GMT-05
Asked if he was going public with the allegations to curry favor in advance of his criminal trial, Sommer said: "This isn't going save my ass. If I committed a bank robbery, I deserve to go jail. That's acceptable. "Sacrifices have to be made for the greater good. This is not a crafty method of gaining public support," he said. "I have seen people issue orders to cover up the deaths of as many as 16 innocent people," Sommer said. He spoke of one incident in which he alleges a commanding general in Afghanistan ordered the cover-up of such an execution.
Corruption, crime inside Homeland Security
Saturday, 9 December 2006 5:40 P GMT-05
And nowhere is the corruption more evident than within Immigration and Customs Enforcement, where the reports of crime conducted by ICE employees eclipse the management report summaries.
“Our investigations resulted in 321 arrests, 333 indictments and 243 convictions,” inspector general Richard Skinner wrote in the report’s cover letter.
Feds: Man planned to blow up Ill. mall
Friday, 8 December 2006 10:59 P GMT-05
A Muslim convert who talked about his desire to wage jihad against civilians was charged Friday in a plot to set off hand grenades at a shopping mall at the height of the Christmas rush, authorities said. Investigators said Derrick Shareef, 22, an American citizen from Rockford, was acting alone and never actually obtained any grenades. He was arrested Wednesday when he met with an undercover agent in a parking lot to trade a set of stereo speakers for four hand grenades and a gun, authorities said.
Police Overkill Leaves a Trail of Death
Friday, 8 December 2006 4:10 P GMT-05
Last but not least, police tasered and gunned to death Derek Hale, a decorated 25-year-old U.S. Marine who had served two tours of duty in Iraq, as he sat talking to a woman and two children in front of a house in a Delaware neighborhood. Police swarmed Hale in front of the suspected home of a member of an outlaw motorcycle gang that is notorious for violence and drug offenses. Upon engaging Hale, who was sitting with his hands in his sweatshirt, the officers insisted he place his hands in view. Immediately after that, according to independent witnesses, the police tasered him three times and fired three .40-caliber rounds into his chest, ultimately leading to his death. Hale had no criminal or arrest record in Delaware, and witnesses to the shooting insist that he was no threat to the police. In fact, after police tasered Hale the second time, one of the independent witnesses yelled at the police that what they were doing was “overkill,” to which one of the officers responded, “Shut…up or we’ll show you overkill.”
FBI investigating reports of misleading calls to Va. voters
Friday, 8 December 2006 3:24 P GMT-05
Voters in the cities of Covington, Hampton and Colonial Heights and the counties of Accomack, Northampton and Fairfax reported getting deceptive telephone calls in the days before the election informing them that their voting places had changed, when they had not, Jensen said. In Arlington County, resident Timothy Daly said he got a phone message Sunday, said to be from the "Virginia Elections Commission," telling him he was registered to vote in New York so he couldn't vote in Virginia. "If you do show up, you will be charged criminally," said the message, the text of which appeared on Daly's affidavit to the Board of Elections.
Death penalty sought in baby's microwave death
Friday, 8 December 2006 4:45 A GMT-05
A woman suspected of killing her month-old daughter by putting her in a microwave oven was indicted on a charge of aggravated murder Thursday, and the prosecutor said he would seek the death penalty.
U.S. military prepares Haditha murder case charges
Wednesday, 6 December 2006 9:29 P GMT-05
The U.S. military is expected to charge at least five U.S. Marines in the killing of 24 civilians in Haditha, Iraq, and the charges could include murder, defense officials said on Wednesday.
Wounded men dispute police account of 50-shot incident that killed unarmed black man in New York
Wednesday, 6 December 2006 6:08 P GMT-05
The shooting killed 23-year-old Sean Bell on his wedding day and wounded two of his companions, setting off a storm of outrage in New York, especially in the black community. The three victims are black, and the police officers included two blacks, two whites and one Hispanic. Lawyers for Benefield and the still-hospitalized Joseph Guzman, 31, say both men also have claimed that none of the five undercover and plainclothes officers identified themselves as police before opening fire. The barrage of bullets killed Bell on the morning of his wedding.
Ten Reasons To Impeach The President
Wednesday, 6 December 2006 5:28 P GMT-05
Remember what Bill Clinton was impeached for when reading the following ten reasons why George W Bush should be impeached.
Fed court to hear 'landmark torture case' against Rumsfeld
Wednesday, 6 December 2006 5:00 P GMT-05
In a press release issued today, the American Civil Liberties Union announces that a "landmark" case against Donald Rumsfeld will be heard in federal court this week. The ACLU and another legal rights organization, Human Rights First, are to appear in court here on Friday "to argue that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is directly responsible for the torture and abuse of detainees in U.S. military custody," says the release.
Trucker convicted in immigrants' deaths
Monday, 4 December 2006 11:37 P GMT-05
A truck driver was convicted Monday in the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants crammed into a sweltering tractor-trailer in the deadliest human smuggling attempt in U.S. history. The jury will return on Wednesday to begin hearing evidence on whether Tyrone Williams, 35, should get the death penalty.
U.K. sends police to Moscow in spy probe
Monday, 4 December 2006 11:09 P GMT-05
DHS official admits taking bribes to fake documents
Friday, 1 December 2006 10:40 P GMT-05
A federal immigration official pleaded guilty Thursday to receiving more than $600,000 in bribes for falsifying documents for illegal immigrants. Robert Schofield, 57, could face 25 years in federal prison when he is sentenced in February. He pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, to issuing fraudulent documents to at least 184 illegal immigrants who falsely received U.S. citizenship.
Litvinenko: Case closed
Friday, 1 December 2006 5:00 P GMT-05
It seems that days before the poisoning of the former KGB agent hit the headlines, Russia and the government of the United Kingdom (I stress the government, not any particular person within that structure) were preparing to sign an extradition treaty, guaranteeing mutual co-operation in transferring criminal elements from one country to the other, as the need arises. Of course, top of that extradition list would be one Mr. Boris Berezovsky (left), who is wanted by the Russian authorities for a variety of crimes. Facing the dock for looting Russia of billions - ostensibly for the benefit of his "motherland" of Israel - it's clear that the former oligarch, a close friend of Blair, Bush and co., needed a distraction - and quickly. The Russians were fully aware of this from the beginning, thus explaining their calm, collected approach to the contrived "East-West crisis".
US car theft rings probed for ties to Iraq bombings
Friday, 1 December 2006 3:15 A GMT-05
Terrorism specialists think Iraqi insurgents prefer American stolen cars because they tend to be larger, blend in more easily with the convoys of US government and private contractors, and are harder to identify as stolen.
Urban Legends Reference Pages: Gift Card Theft
Friday, 1 December 2006 3:01 A GMT-05
If you buy Gift Cards from a display rack that has various store cards you may become a victim of theft. Crooks are now jotting down the card numbers in the store and then wait a few days and call to see how much of a balance THEY have on the card. Once they find the card is "activated" they go online and start shopping.
"The Ringworm Children"
Monday, 27 November 2006 8:31 P GMT-05
The kids were told they were being treated from ringworms. In reality, they were being given a dose of X-rays 35,000 times the allowed maximum. That happened in Israel in 1951 and was funded by the US government. The objective: to conduct an experiment in order to see the effects of X-ray radiation. Sensational? Definitely. But the film about this, as reported here by Israelinsider, has been shown on the Israeli TV and has already earned significant acclaim in that country.
US man allegedly spied for Israel, China
Monday, 27 November 2006 7:22 P GMT-05
Noshir Gowadia, a 62-year-old Indian-born former engineer with US defense giant Northrop Grumman, was indicted on 18-counts of federal charges and is suspected of trying to sell Israel "top secret" data about US weapons systems, according to the Washington Times. He could face the death penalty.
Post-Modern Prosecutions
Sunday, 26 November 2006 7:53 P GMT-05
Perhaps the most "post-modern" of the prosecution claims is that the multiple stories that the accuser told police constitute "proof" that the Duke 3 raped her. In the aftermath of the lacrosse team party, she told police that she was raped, that she was not raped, that the entire team raped her, that 20 people raped her, that her partner, Kim Pittman-Roberts, helped the rapists, that Pittman-Roberts tried to stop the rapists, that she and Pittman-Roberts fought back, that five men raped her, that three men raped her, and that she was "100-percent sure" at every lineup that Brad Ross was at the party when, in fact, he was not.
Numerous Allegations Over Russian Torture
Sunday, 26 November 2006 3:22 P GMT-05
A United Nations human rights body says it has received numerous and consistent allegations of torture by Russian forces, including in secret detention centres in Chechnya. The UN Committee against Torture is calling on Russia to investigate and prosecute all allegations of torture.
Poisoned Litvinenko Blames Kremlin in Last Interview Before Death
Saturday, 25 November 2006 1:08 A GMT-05
“The bastards got me,” he whispered. “But they won’t get everybody.” Mr Litvinenko, 43, uttered his last defiant words to Andrei Nekrasov, a friend and film-maker, who had visited him in University College Hospital in London every day this week. Although Mr Nekrasov had seen Mr Litvinenko sometimes more than once a day, Tuesday was the last occasion on which his friend could communicate properly. Yet in his final remarks, the former spy remained defiant in his battle against President Putin and the Russian security services.
'State secrets privilege' blocks fired translator from suing FBI
Friday, 24 November 2006 11:55 P GMT-05
The same month the report was released, Edmonds' lawsuit to contest her firing was dismissed. Legal briefs show the government had invoked the so-called state secrets privilege, arguing that the lawsuit would jeopardize national security. The state secrets privilege — a series of U.S. legal precedents — has been cited by the federal government at least 18 times since 9/11 and at least 81 times since the privilege was first recognized in 1953, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
92-year-old killed in 'roughest neighborhood in Georgia'
Thursday, 23 November 2006 7:10 P GMT-05
Many people on the run-down northwest Atlanta street where Kathryn Johnston lived fortify their windows with metal bars and arm themselves for protection. Johnston, 92, was no exception. Alone in her home, she was waiting with her gun on Tuesday night when a group of plainclothes officers with a warrant knocked down her door in a search for drugs, police said. She opened fire, wounding three officers, before being shot to death, police said.
Give addicts heroin, says officer
Thursday, 23 November 2006 6:58 P GMT-05
Howard Roberts told an Association of Chief Police Officers' conference in Manchester the idea should be assessed.
He said the treatment would cost £12,000 a year per addict but added that drug users steal property valued at an average of £45,000 a year.
Plea deals pile up in Iraq murder cases
Tuesday, 21 November 2006 8:05 P GMT-05
Experts surprised that military has agreed to lighter sentences
Russian defector poisoned in London 'on orders of Moscow'
Monday, 20 November 2006 3:54 A GMT-05
Alexander Litvinenko, a former lieutenant-colonel with Russia's FSB security service and a staunch critic of Vladimir Putin's regime, fled to Britain in 2000, saying he feared for his life. Yesterday, the Metropolitan Police said he was in a "serious but stable" condition after tests confirmed traces of rat poison called thallium in his body .
Thieves take statue of Alexander the Great
Saturday, 18 November 2006 8:34 A GMT-05
A quarter-ton bronze statue of Alexander the Great has been stolen from Roslindale, apparently spirited from a neighborhood square without a single witness.
This Is Why The Iraqis Hate Us
Friday, 17 November 2006 5:17 P GMT-05
No one is suggesting that U.S. troops should roll over like a poodle if someone is shooting at them - they have every right to shoot back no matter what your view on the war is. The rubicon is crossed when petty thieves, children who throw rocks or completely innocent people are brutalized without recourse and the one thing that betrays the true nature of it all is the sadistic reaction of the protagonists who enjoy the torture, the beatings and the death.
Marine gets reduced sentence for Iraq civilian killing
Thursday, 16 November 2006 11:07 P GMT-05
The sentence of John Jodka III was reduced yesterday after he pleaded guilty to his part in the killing of Hashim Ibrahim Awad, 52, in Hamandiya, west of Baghdad. The military judge in the case, Lieutenant Colonel David Jones, said five years in prison and a dishonourable discharge were appropriate, but due to a "very fortuitous pre-trial agreement", the sentence was reduced.
Feds to Probe L.A. Juvenile Detention Conditions
Thursday, 16 November 2006 10:32 P GMT-05
In some cases, researchers found unnecessarily long detentions. In one instance, a 17-year-old with "hyperactivity disorder" and "mild mental retardation," who was charged with loitering, was kept in a juvenile hall for a year.
Trash collector gets life for fashion writer's murder
Thursday, 16 November 2006 10:01 P GMT-05
A former trash collector was convicted Thursday in the rape and murder of a fashion writer who was found lying in a pool of blood in her Cape Cod home with her 2-year-old daughter clinging to her body.
Kahane supporters praise Gaza killings as 'holy'
Sunday, 12 November 2006 7:48 P GMT-05
Right-wing activist Baruch Marzel spoke of the killings in Beit Hanun: "After so many cannons, we see today that one cannon managed to hit, the holly cannon, and all rush to apologize." He continued: "If you would have listened to rabbi Kahane this wouldn't have happened to you, leave!"
Cop charged in stickups
Sunday, 12 November 2006 6:02 P GMT-05
Cpl. Michael Hearne allegedly gave a long-time co-conspirator an unregistered handgun to use while robbing drug dealers, state police Sgt. Stephen Jones said.
MoveOn offering $250k for evidence of voter fraud
Wednesday, 8 November 2006 3:57 P GMT-05
The political action committee, MoveOn.org, is offering a $250,000 reward for material evidence leading to a felony conviction for an organized effort of partisan voter suppression or electronic voting fraud. Throughout the day accusations of election fraud and voter suppression incidents have been flooding into state and federal authorities throughout the country. In Virginia, the FBI has launched a criminal investigation into charges of voter suppression.
AUDIO: Laura Ingraham Tells Listeners To Jam Voter Protection Hotline
Wednesday, 8 November 2006 3:42 P GMT-05
As FireDogLake has been reporting, right-wing radio host Laura Ingraham today urged her listeners to obstruct efforts to protect voting rights by jamming a free voter protection hotline.
2 gangs find real peace, in secret
Sunday, 5 November 2006 6:15 P GMT-05
That violence stopped abruptly in July, when a temporary cease-fire took effect, later strengthened by the truce. In the nearly four months since, there has not been a single shooting that police have connected to either group, two law enforcement officials involved in the truce effort told the Globe . Overall violent crime in the sections of Jamaica Plain and Roxbury where the gang members live has plummeted by as much as 80 percent, said one of those officials.
“There has never been an American army as violent and murderous as the one in Iraq”
Thursday, 2 November 2006 11:04 P GMT-05
If Americans knew the full extent of U.S. criminal conduct, they would receive returning Iraqi veterans as they did Vietnam veterans, Hersh said. “In Vietnam, our soldiers came back and they were reviled as baby killers, in shame and humiliation,” he said. “It isn’t happening now, but I will tell you – there has never been an [American] army as violent and murderous as our army has been in Iraq.”
Bomb Explodes At eBay PayPal HQ In SJ On Halloween
Thursday, 2 November 2006 6:39 P GMT-05
The blast occurred near an outdoor corridor popular for employee breaks and was not visible from the street. A 6-by-7-foot window was shattered, but there was no other damage.
U.S. Marshals' sweep apprehends 10,733 fugitives
Thursday, 2 November 2006 6:22 P GMT-05
Last week's roundup, led by the U.S. Marshals Service, included Allen Marksberry, an unregistered sex offender in Rickman, Tennessee, who was baby-sitting several young children when he was arrested on October 24. Also nabbed were Demetrius Avery Jackson, an accused cop killer in Birmingham, Alabama, and Eric Dewayne Meneese, a Crips gang member, in Nashville, Tennessee.
U.S. Soldier Murdered By Iraqi Police -- And Then The Coverup
Tuesday, 31 October 2006 6:02 P GMT-05
The Post story by Amit Paley visits the Sholeh police station in Baghdad, where posters "celebrating Moqtada al-Sadr, head of the Mahdi Army militia, dot the building's walls.” One rainy night this month, it seems, the Sholeh police set up an ambush and killed Army Cpl. Kenny F. Stanton Jr., 20, said to be a “budding journalist.” At the time, Paley writes, Stanton and other members of the unit “had been trailing a group of Sholeh police” escorting known Mahdi Army members.
14,000 U.S.-supplied weapons reportedly missing in Iraq
Monday, 30 October 2006 5:59 P GMT-05
Thousands of weapons the United States has provided Iraqi security forces cannot be accounted for, and spare parts and repair manuals are unavailable for many others, a new report to Congress says. The report, prepared at the request of the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Virginia Republican Sen. John Warner, also found that major challenges remain that put at risk the Defense Department's goal of strengthening Iraqi security forces by transferring all logistics operations to the defense ministry by the end of 2007.
Sheriff: Parents, kids killed for drugs, money or both
Sunday, 29 October 2006 6:14 P GMT-05
Rolling confessed to 3 more murders before execution
Friday, 27 October 2006 10:17 P GMT-05
Shortly before he was executed in Florida this week, serial killer Danny Rolling handed his spiritual adviser a handwritten confession to three more murders.
A Pedophile Priest Speaks Out
Friday, 27 October 2006 3:16 P GMT-05
Directed by former TV news producer Amy Berg, the film is built around chilling interviews with the defrocked priest, who was deported to his native Ireland in 2000 after serving seven years of a 14-year prison sentence prison for committing four "lewd and lascivious'' act with two young brothers. He speaks in a lilting Celtic voice that sounds like Mrs. Doubtfire, making him even creepier. He dispassionately recounts his heinous acts as if describing someone else. He wears a sly smile as he says what arouses him: "How about children in swimsuits? I'd say, yeah. How about children in underwear? I'd say, yeah. How about children naked? Uh-huh, yeah.''
Killer wildfire doubles to 24,000 acres
Friday, 27 October 2006 10:47 A GMT-05
A fire official said the blaze was the work of an arsonist and could lead to murder charges against whoever is responsible.
"This is a deliberately set arson fire," said John Hawkins of the Riverside County Fire Department. "An arson fire that leads to the death of anyone constitutes murder."
Enron’s Skilling Sentenced; Bush Walks
Thursday, 26 October 2006 8:37 P GMT-05
Skilling has to pay up his ill-gotten gains to Enron’s stockholders, but what about the $9-plus billion owed to electricity consumers? The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Bush’s electricity cops, have slapped Enron and its gang of power pirates on the wrist. Could that have something to do with the fact that Ken Lay, in secret chats with Dick Cheney, selected the Commission’s chairmen?
Cheney confirms that detainees were subjected to water-boarding
Thursday, 26 October 2006 7:58 P GMT-05
Vice President Dick Cheney has confirmed that U.S. interrogators subjected captured senior al-Qaida suspects to a controversial interrogation technique called "water-boarding," which creates a sensation of drowning. Cheney indicated that the Bush administration doesn't regard water-boarding as torture and allows the CIA to use it. "It's a no-brainer for me," Cheney said at one point in an interview.
Kenneth Lay alive? Maybe
Tuesday, 24 October 2006 4:42 P GMT-05
With those two examples in mind, I advance the following theory: Kenneth Lay -- the disgraced CEO of Enron who was convicted of 10 counts of fraud, conspiracy and lying to banks in two separate cases related to the collapse of the Houston-based company he founded, who died of heart disease July 5 while vacationing in Aspen, Colo. -- isn't really dead, either. How do I know? Why else would a federal judge decide last week to vacate Lay's conviction on fraud and conspiracy charges connected to the downfall of the once mighty energy trading company? Why would a judge make it more difficult for the government to seize $43.5 million from Lay's estate, money he stole from his company, and ensure the ill-gotten goods stay put. The answer is easy. So somebody, probably Lay, can use the money at a later date. The ruling was based on case law established in 2004 that allows convictions to be revoked if defendants die without an opportunity to appeal. The convenience makes it impossible for me to think otherwise.
The David Kelly "Dead in the Woods" PSYOP
Monday, 23 October 2006 4:16 P GMT-05
Asked by US translator and military intelligence operative Mai Pederson, if he would ever commit suicide, he had replied, ‘Good God no, I would never do that.’ Immediately after his death, Pederson asserted, ‘It wasn’t suicide’. This, for the establishment’s sensitive apparatus, was an alarming statement that could not be allowed to resonate.
She took badge to nab Hub officer
Saturday, 21 October 2006 9:33 P GMT-05
A 19-year-old prostitute feared that no one would believe her if she said an off-duty Boston police officer kept forcing her to perform sex in his car. So one night, she fled his car with a key piece of evidence: his badge.
Hundreds of police officers pay tribute to Briggs
Saturday, 21 October 2006 5:44 P GMT-05
Several thousand police officers on bicycles, motorcycles, horses and on foot marched more than three miles through downtown Manchester on Saturday to honor a fallen comrade, "a hero who would rush into burning buildings" -- who was shot to death in the city this week.
U.S. brings first treason case in over 50 years
Wednesday, 11 October 2006 9:04 P GMT-05
Adam Gadahn, 28, who is believed to be overseas and is not in U.S. custody, was accused of treason, which carries a maximum punishment of death, and providing material support for a terrorist group, the official said. Gadahn, also known on the videos as Azzam the American, has been involved in a propaganda campaign of the Islamic militant group, sources familiar with the case said. Some of the videos have threatened attacks against the United States.
Murder and Ethnic Cleansing in Moscow
Wednesday, 11 October 2006 7:21 P GMT-05
No one yet knows who killed Anna Politkovskaya. But it is hard to look at Putin’s government right now with anything other than deep skepticism. The British writer Alex Hollowell wrote on Monday that, “It is time to grasp that we are sharing a continent with a very large tyranny.” It is also a reminder that terrorists don’t just come in the shape of small cells of isolated radicals, but also in the sometimes-scarier forms of governments.
Killing Journalists: Reflex Action for the Mobster State
Wednesday, 11 October 2006 6:06 A GMT-05
In Russia, mobsters may gun down journalists in gangland fashion, but here in America we are a bit more circumspect, as we have a flimsy facade of civilized behavior to uphold. Journalist Gary Webb made the mistake of connecting the CIA and the Nicaraguan Contras to the crack epidemic in the 1980s, a mistake that resulted in his “suicide,” a remarkable event, as Webb managed to shoot himself multiple times.
China's Execution Buses
Wednesday, 11 October 2006 5:46 A GMT-05
Red October: Killing the Truth in Moscow
Wednesday, 11 October 2006 4:38 A GMT-05
And in this new world order of "dark siders" ruling by fear, force and lies, is it any wonder that an unarmed teller of unwanted truths would be gunned down in the miasma of a Moscow October?
More Calls for Death Penalty in Child Rapes
Tuesday, 10 October 2006 6:00 P GMT-05
Critics say that if child sex crimes are a capital offense, victims might be reluctant to report abuse because the offenders often are family members. "If you've got a father or brother or uncle molesting a young person, a lot of people aren't going to turn them in if it means they'll be sent to jail or put to death," said Michael Mears, director of the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council.
Report: Women who killed kids form bond
Monday, 9 October 2006 6:24 P GMT-05
The women have much in common. Both were married, stay-at-home moms who followed out-of-the mainstream religious leaders. Both suffered from postpartum depression and psychosis after the birth of their daughters.
Is this the killer of Russian journalist?
Monday, 9 October 2006 4:13 P GMT-05
Russia's best known investigative journalist was murdered two days before she was due to publish a scathing report on torture by Russian agents in Chechnya, it emerged yesterday, as outrage spread around the world.
Update on Michael Zebuhr's Murder
Sunday, 8 October 2006 6:40 P GMT-05
Michael Zebuhr's suspicious murder
Sunday, 8 October 2006 6:20 P GMT-05
Is this just another meaningless murder in a nation that has thousands of murders every year? Or was his murder connected to his involvement in educating students about 9/11? Is there any connection to Professor Judy Wood, Professor Jim Fetzer, or Scholars For 9/11 Truth?
Officials: Russian journalist found dead
Saturday, 7 October 2006 3:40 P GMT-05
Anna Politkovskaya, a tireless investigative reporter, had written a critical book on Russian President Vladimir Putin and his campaign in Chechnya, documenting widespread abuse of civilians by government troops. Her body was found in an elevator in her Moscow apartment building, a duty officer at a police station in central Moscow told The Associated Press. Dmitry Muratov, editor of the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, where Politkovskaya worked, told Ekho Moskvy radio that she was killed in the late afternoon.
Proof of Government Whitewash
Friday, 6 October 2006 9:07 P GMT-05
And did you know that investigators for the Congressional Joint Inquiry discovered that an FBI informant had hosted and even rented a room to two hijackers in 2000 and that, when the Inquiry sought to interview the informant, the FBI refused outright, and then hid him in an unknown location, and that a high-level FBI official stated these blocking maneuvers were undertaken under orders from the White House?
Amish School Attack Leaves 5 Children Dead, 6 Injured
Tuesday, 3 October 2006 5:14 P GMT-05
Police had said all of the female students in the classroom were between 6 and 13 years of age. The captives also included some older adolescent teacher's aides. Their names weren't released. ``He split them up, males and females,'' Miller said. ``He let the males go, some of the adults go. He bound the females at the blackboard, and apparently executed them.'' Roberts was armed with a semi-automatic handgun, a shotgun, a stun gun and several knives, in addition to tools such as a hammer, hacksaw and wooden boards used to barricade the classroom after letting some of the people go, said Miller. He said Roberts had no previous criminal record.
Condi's Killer Pen
Monday, 2 October 2006 5:55 P GMT-05
Not only did Condi's office give final approval for the press release that has affected 1000's of New Yorkers, "two devastating memos, written by the U.S. and local governments, show they knew. They knew the toxic soup created at Ground Zero was a deadly health hazard. Yet they sent workers into the pit and people back into their homes." What do you say to that media? U.S. and local Governments knowingly sent New Yorkers to their death. Is that "newsworthy" enough for you?
Boston Police officer pleads not guilty to shooting fellow officer
Monday, 2 October 2006 5:17 P GMT-05
A Boston police officer today pleaded not guilty to criminal charges stemming from an incident last June when he allegedly shot and wounded a fellow Boston police officer while both were off-duty.
Scandal involving Chicago police officers could precipitate over 100 dropped cases
Sunday, 1 October 2006 5:37 P GMT-05
According to the Chicago Tribune, that memo instructed prosecutors to drop cases handled by four Chicago police officers who were later charged with robbery and kidnapping.
Colorado sheriff: High school assault of 'sexual nature'
Thursday, 28 September 2006 4:42 P GMT-05
A gunman who killed a student hostage and then himself during a high school standoff in Colorado "traumatized and assaulted" his hostages and the attack "was of a sexual nature," police said Thursday.
US school siege ends in bloodshed
Thursday, 28 September 2006 4:34 P GMT-05
A gunman and one of the teenage girls he was holding hostage have died after police stormed a school in the US state of Colorado.
Regarding Evil and American Identity, Part 1
Thursday, 28 September 2006 1:00 A GMT-05
Just because al-Qaeda members commit evil deeds doesn't mean that Donald Rumsfeld does not. A man who murdered someone in a drive-by shooting is not excused because he is put into a jail cell next to a serial killer.
Colorado school evacuated as gunman holds hostages
Wednesday, 27 September 2006 9:41 P GMT-05
Clem said five people had been taken hostage at Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colorado, about 35 miles southwest of Denver, but that one, a young girl, had already been released.
Court victory lets preserved Ohio '04 ballots tell new tales of theft and fraud as convictions mount
Monday, 25 September 2006 4:22 P GMT-05
Ohio election protection activists have won a landmark court battle to preserve the ballots from 2004’s disputed presidential election, and researchers studying those ballots continue to find new evidence that the election was, indeed, stolen. Among other things, large numbers of consecutive votes in different precincts for George W. Bush make it appear ever more likely that the real winner in 2004 should have been John Kerry. Meanwhile, indictments and prison terms are mounting among key players in that tainted contest.
Gunmen open fire on Florida mosque; no injuries, damage reported
Monday, 25 September 2006 1:53 P GMT-05
Shots were fired at a mosque in Melbourne, Florida as worshippers celebrated the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, but no injuries or arrests were reported, authorities said Saturday.
Slain woman's kids were in washer, dryer
Sunday, 24 September 2006 3:32 P GMT-05
Two of the children were nude, the third wearing only underpants, Hart said. The oldest, 7-year-old DeMond Tunstall, was found in the dryer, the younger two children -- 2-year-old Ivan Tunstall-Collins and 1-year-old Jinela Tunstall -- in the washer.
Intruder killed by nurse was hit man, police say
Saturday, 16 September 2006 4:30 P GMT-05
After a struggle, the 51-year-old nurse fended off her attacker by strangling him with her bare hands. Neighbors praised the woman for her bravery, and investigators said they believed the dead man -- Edward Dalton Haffey -- was burglarizing Kuhnhausen's home. But after an investigation, police now say the intruder Kuhnhausen strangled was apparently a hit man hired by her estranged husband -- Michael James Kuhnhausen Sr. -- to kill her.
How to steal the next election using the Diebold AccuVote-TS voting machine or others like it
Friday, 15 September 2006 4:03 P GMT-05
Here is a direct quotation from this report, describing some of the ways by which the next election could be stolen
Fugitive nabbed after 30 years living on a dead man's ID
Friday, 15 September 2006 12:17 P GMT-05
Authorities say Ball spent the next three decades hiding in Tennessee by stealing the identity of a dead man, posing as a married man, and using Dollie Walton to help him -- until marshals came knocking on his door.
Democrats ask for investigation of former EPA director on 9/11 health issues
Thursday, 14 September 2006 5:11 P GMT-05
At hearings last week in New York, Whitman was the most frequent target of lawmakers who charged that ground zero workers were not protected as they worked to clear the pile of toxic debris. Whitman, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, declared in the days after Sept. 11 that the air in lower Manhattan was safe for workers and residents. But she has said she and the EPA always differentiated between the air quality in lower Manhattan and at ground zero.
Woman in wheelchair on way to gun practice shoots mugger
Saturday, 9 September 2006 4:38 P GMT-05
Margaret Johnson might have looked like an easy target. But when a mugger tried to grab a chain off her neck Friday, the wheelchair-bound 56-year-old pulled out her licensed .357 pistol and shot him, police said.
Captured fugitive 'Buck' Phillips appears in court
Saturday, 9 September 2006 4:37 P GMT-05
No gunfire was exchanged during the arrest in Akeley, a town in northwestern Pennsylvania near the New York border, the police said.
Military Unit Accused of "Racism" and "Kill Counts"
Thursday, 3 August 2006 3:18 P GMT-05
Military prosecutors and investigators probing the killing of three Iraqi detainees by U.S. troops in May believe the unit's commanders created an atmosphere of excessive violence by encouraging "kill counts" and possibly issuing an illegal order to shoot Iraqi men.
Will Bush and Gonzales get away with it?
Wednesday, 2 August 2006 4:22 P GMT-05
The pilot and Vietnam POW -- a staunch Republican -- who pushed through the War Crimes Act of 1996 is appalled that the Bush administration, facing possible prosecution for war crimes, is devising a legal escape hatch.
Report Alleges Bush Has Violated 26 Statutes
Wednesday, 2 August 2006 2:10 P GMT-05
"The misconduct I have found is not only serious, but widespread," reads a draft summary of the report by Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI)
Debtors' Hell
Wednesday, 2 August 2006 1:58 P GMT-05
An excellent expose by The Boston Globe of the predatory tactics used by the debt collection machinery in Massachusetts. Reads like a frontline report from the war on the poor.
Following Zakheim and Pentagon trillions to Israel and 9-11
Tuesday, 1 August 2006 3:32 P GMT-05
Silence of the Lam
Monday, 31 July 2006 11:58 A GMT-05
Accused of sexually abusing young boys, a Brooklyn rabbi lit for Israel 22 years ago. Now one alleged victim wants him brought back for trial.
Death at the Supermarket
Monday, 31 July 2006 11:45 A GMT-05
Yet very little attention was given to the one possible motive which the media has barely focused on: Michael Ford, the killer, was apparently “teased” and "harassed" by coworkers for being Muslim.
"Killing people is like squashing an ant:" former US soldier
Monday, 31 July 2006 12:09 A GMT-05
A former US soldier accused of raping and murdering an Iraqi girl compared killing people in Iraq to "squashing an ant," in an interview with a reporter about a month before the attack.
5 shot, 1 fatally at Seattle Jewish center
Saturday, 29 July 2006 2:23 A GMT-05
At least five people were shot, one of them fatally, Friday afternoon at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, and one person was arrested, authorities said.
Sergeant Tells of Plot to Kill Iraqi Detainees
Friday, 28 July 2006 6:47 P GMT-05
In a lengthy sworn statement, he said he had witnessed a deliberate plot by his fellow soldiers to kill the three handcuffed Iraqis and a cover-up in which one soldier cut another to bolster their story. The squad leader threatened to kill anyone who talked. Later, one guilt-stricken soldier complained of nightmares and “couldn’t stop talking” about what happened, Sergeant Lemus said.
Are you stupid enough to believe one word from Bush & Cheney?
Friday, 14 July 2006 7:54 P GMT-05
Does anyone even believe that Bush believes his own lies?
War on Iraq: A Wave of Sexual Terrorism In Iraq
Friday, 14 July 2006 1:30 P GMT-05
Like women everywhere, Iraqi women have always been vulnerable to rape. But since the American invasion of their country, the reported incidence of sexual terrorism has accelerated markedly -- and this despite the fact that few Iraqi women are willing to report rapes either to Iraqi officials or to occupation forces, fearing to bring dishonor upon their families. In rural areas, female rape victims may also be vulnerable to "honor killings" in which male relatives murder them in order to restore the family's honor. "For women in Iraq," Amnesty International concluded in a 2005 report, "the stigma frequently attached to the victims instead of the perpetrators of sexual crimes makes reporting such abuses especially daunting."
In Defense Of The Conspiratorial World View
Friday, 14 July 2006 1:26 A GMT-05
We use the concept of conspiracy every day in our legal system, and there would be many thousands more criminals walking our streets were we not to recognize and include the concept of conspiracy in trials. Yet somehow, a vastly different standard has been applied to certain historic crimes over the decades when the public demands a logical explanation for the extraordinary events in question.
Merchants of death in Iraq
Wednesday, 12 July 2006 10:36 P GMT-05
"Their [special forces troops'] dogs were biting everybody, including children and women in the neighborhood," Um Amar, a 63-year-old woman who lives three houses away from Sinan told IPS. "They killed the poor boy in cold blood and arrested his little brother."
Novak: Rove was a source in outing Plame
Wednesday, 12 July 2006 1:47 P GMT-05
Columnist Robert Novak said publicly for the first time Tuesday that White House political adviser Karl Rove was a source for his story outing the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame.
U.S. releases names of soldiers charged in death of Iraqi family
Tuesday, 11 July 2006 3:04 P GMT-05
Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, Spc. James P. Barker, Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman and Pfc. Bryan L. Howard were charged with premeditated murder, rape and obstruction of justice in the March 12 attack in Mahmoudiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad. Cortez, Barker and Spielman also were charged with consuming alcohol in violation of U.S. military orders in Iraq, housebreaking and arson.
Fight Against New Women’s Prison Takes on Incarceration Habit - The NewStandard
Sunday, 9 July 2006 7:32 P GMT-05
Richardson said women who commit drug- and alcohol-related and non-violent crimes should receive help, not punishment. A study of the inmate population at HCCC funded by the National Institute of Corrections and published in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly found that 49.9 percent of the female population could qualify for "intermediate sanctions" rather than imprisonment because their crimes were non-violent; the same was found for the male population, at 43.1 percent.
Bush Directed Cheney To Counter War Critic (07/03/06)
Wednesday, 5 July 2006 5:53 A GMT-05
President Bush told the special prosecutor in the CIA leak case that he directed Vice President Dick Cheney to personally lead an effort to counter allegations made by former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV that his administration had misrepresented intelligence information to make the case to go to war with Iraq, according to people familiar with the president's statement.
Elections Are Still Stolen the Old-Fashioned Way
Friday, 30 June 2006 8:13 P GMT-05
What's a bigger problem with American elections: disenfranchisment of minority voters or new electronic voting machines stealing votes?
U.S. troops accused of killing Iraq family
Friday, 30 June 2006 3:24 P GMT-05
Five U.S. Army soldiers are being investigated for allegedly raping a young woman, then killing her and three members of her family in Iraq, a U.S. military official told The Associated Press on Friday.