U.S.: ‘Credible threat’ of major attack in Italy

St. Peter's Square, Leaning Tower of Pisa get special attention

Italian authorities have clamped unprecedented security coverage over the Vatican and other Christian landmarks after receiving a "credible threat" of a Christmastime terrorist attack, senior U.S. officials said Wednesday.

Over the past two days, officials within the Vatican and elsewhere in Italy have increased security near major Christian symbols, including St. Peter's Square. The step was taken based on a warning from the Mossad, the Israeli security service, that there was a "high index of probability" that "an important symbol of Christianity" would be the target of an attack between Christmas and New Year's, senior officials told NBC News on condition of anonymity.

...

http://msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=3741206&p1=01%7C%7C%7C%7C003

Bush overruled on US terror law


US President George W Bush does not have the power to detain an American citizen seized on US soil as an "enemy combatant", a court has decided.

The federal appeals court ruled that "dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla should be released from military custody into civilian detention.

Mr Padilla is thought to be the only US citizen since World War II to be detained on a presidential order.

Correspondents say the ruling is a blow to Mr Bush's war on terror.

Al-Qaeda claim

The enemy combatant classification is normally used for wartime prisoners who may be held without charge or trial and without access to lawyers.

"We are as keenly aware as anyone of the threat al-Qaeda poses to our country and of the responsibilities the president and law enforcement officials bear for protecting the nation," the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals said in its ruling.

"But presidential authority does not exist in a vacuum."

Prosecutors accuse Mr Padilla, a former gang member originally from New York City, of conspiring with the al-Qaeda network to blow up a so-called dirty bomb.

This is a device made of radioactive material and attached to conventional explosives which could potentially cause mass casualties, both from the blast and from exposure to radiation.

Analysis / Saddam could be offered deal

By Ze'ev Schiff, Haaretz Correspondent

ATHENS - Deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein could be offered a deal in which he would give his captors information on if and how he hid weapons of mass destruction and if he smuggled some of them into Syria. In exchange, he would face life imprisonment and not be executed for war crimes, senior Iraqis attending a conference here on the future of the region have hinted.
Saddam was captured, alive and well, on Saturday near his hometown of Tikrit. U.S. troops found him hiding in a subterranean hole. He did not resist.

The Iraqi figures also said that, even if the number of concealed weapons of mass destruction is not large, Saddam will certainly know who he appointed to take charge of the operation and in what area the weapons are being stored.

The possibility that Saddam transferred some of the weapons to Syria was raised on the eve of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, when satellite pictures showed convoys moving from Iraq to Syria. It is still unknown precisely what was transported in these convoys, but it is clear that this was a secret operation between Iraq and Syria.

...

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=371903&contrassID=1&subContrassID=8&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

Otřesná úroveň propagandistů "s hvězdami a pruhy"

Štěpán Kotrba

I v propagandě platí teritroriální zásada. Mysli globálně, jednej lokálně. Pokud se někdo pokusí o kobercový nálet svými historkami na celou zeměkouli, nesmí používat béčkových scénáristů.

Protože potom je to - béčkový - kýč, o kterém si každý myslí své. Stejné spektakulární kýčovitosti se dopouští ti, kteří už deset let papouškují prefabrikované nesmysly o zločinném Kavanovi a rozviřují stále tytéž historky, ve kterých už je přinejmenším jeden soudní rozsudek, který se o vině vyjádřil jinak, než je převládající "veřejné" mediální mínění. Případně netuše, co se stalo padesát metrů od nich, zkoumají diplomatické akce na druhém konci světa a přinášejí o nich své "zasvěcené" soudy. Takové propagandisty a "komentátory" mám nejraději, neb svou hloupost ukazují všem.

"V jednom z objektů, kde se v prachu povalovaly cihly a papírový odpad, jsme ucítili vůni drahých doutníků. Takových, jaké si v Iráku obyčejný smrtelník nemůže dopřát," řekl televizi Fox News seržant Daniel Saffeels (23) z Charitonu ve státě Iowa. "Bylo to jako v nějakém filmu. Jako když se mafiánský kmotr dopustí osudové chyby."

Saddáma zradily doutníky, Právo, 17. 12. 2003 >

"Uvidíme, jaký trest dostane. Ale myslím si, že si zaslouží ten nejvyšší. Protože nechal trpět svůj lid. Je to mučitel. Vrah. Je to sesazený tyran, který si zaslouží soud, poslední soud," řekl Bush. ... "Už jsem ho viděl. Viděl jsem, jak ho odvšivovali poté, co by vytažen z díry."

Bush: Saddám si zaslouží "nejvyšší trest", ABC/ČTK, 17. 12. 2003

...

http://blisty.cz/article.rb?id=16300&iid=1448

While one policeman forcibly subdues a demonstrator, another takes aim during the FTAA protests in Miami on Nov. 20.

"This is not America"

Chemical, Nuclear Arms Still 'Major Threat,' Cheney Says

Vice President Decries 'Cheap Shot' Journalism

By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 17, 2003; Page A15

Vice President Cheney warned this week that "the major threat" facing the nation is the possibility that terrorists could detonate a biological or nuclear weapon in a U.S. city.


Cheney told commentator Armstrong Williams that the war on terrorism is "going to go on for a long time" and that U.S. soil remains vulnerable to al Qaeda, the network behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The vice president said one of his biggest worries is "the possibility of that group of terrorists acquiring deadlier weapons to use against us -- a biological weapon of some kind, or even a nuclear weapon."

"To contemplate the possibility of them unleashing that kind of capability -- of that kind of weapon, if you will, in the midst of one of our cities -- that's a scary proposition," he said. "It's one of the most important problems we face today, because I think that is the major threat."

Cheney also criticized what he considers a proliferation of "cheap shot journalism" about the administration. "People don't check the facts," he said

...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A6345-2003Dec16?language=printer

9/11 Chair: Attack Was Preventable


(CBS) For the first time, the chairman of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks is saying publicly that 9/11 could have and should have been prevented, reports CBS News Correspondent Randall Pinkston.

"This is a very, very important part of history and we've got to tell it right," said Thomas Kean.

"As you read the report, you're going to have a pretty clear idea what wasn't done and what should have been done," he said. "This was not something that had to happen."

Appointed by the Bush administration, Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, is now pointing fingers inside the administration and laying blame.

"There are people that, if I was doing the job, would certainly not be in the position they were in at that time because they failed. They simply failed," Kean said.

Albright thinks Bush hiding bin Laden

World Net Daily

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told Fox News Channel analyst Morton Kondracke yesterday she suspects President Bush knows the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and is simply waiting for the most politically expedient moment to announce his capture.

Kondracke made the announcement about what Albright told him backstage before an appearance on another Fox show on "Special Report With Brit Hume."
Kondracke was incredulous that a former secretary of state could believe something like that about a U.S. administration.

"She was not smiling when she said this," offered Kondracke, who believes Albright is serious about the conspiracy theory.

Albright is on a media tour to promote her new book, "Madam Secretary, A Memoir."

She was mildly critical of Bush administration policy in Iraq on camera in later appearances on "The O'Reilly Factor" and on MSNBC's "Hardball With Chris Matthews."

"I'm one of these people that said I understood the 'why' of the war, but I didn't understand the 'why now' or the 'what next,'" she told O'Reilly. "I still have a lot of questions. And I think that we don't know, frankly, what the effect of Saddam's capture is on the general situation in Iraq. President Bush and Secretary Rumsfeld have, in fact, warned about violence still going on, and the effect within the rest of the Middle East of a prolonged trial or an execution or generally how he is treated."

http://www.prisonplanet.com/121703hidingbinladen.html

pearljam145 writes that the "UK is planning to test biometric passports that will include face and iris or fingerprint recording and recognition for a 6 month period on 10000 volunteers. Read here for more details. A face recognition chip is going to be the primary biometric and iris or fingerprint scanning will be use as a secondary biometric. However face recognition might not be the perfectly viable solution since it has produced too many false positives in the past. Face recogntion to this date is not robust enough to support real time recognition in a crowd (more failures?). Only with cooperation of the subject does this system produce good results. So will face recognition join fingerprint and iris recognition in a long list of obtrusive recognition techniques?"

http://slashdot.org/articles/03/12/14/0111205.shtml?tid=134&tid=158&tid=191&tid=99

clanek zakladatele Autodesku, dnes duchodce ve Svycarsku :)

The Digital Imprimatur
How big brother and big media can put the Internet genie back in the bottle.
by John Walker
September 13th, 2003
Revision 4 -- November 4th, 2003

http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/digital-imprimatur/

PR neunavne jede dal

"CNN.com has an article about research that some major credit card companies (MasterCard and American Express) are putting into creating 'contactless' credit cards. These are similar to the Speedpass that ExxonMobil has been using for six years. What to people think about the prospect of this more widespread use of RFID? Is this something that will only lead to more credit card fraud, or will it provide more secure means of payment?" (The article comes from the Associated Press.
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/12/13/2230200

It was barely noted in the media, but this week the UN General Assembly voted on a series of resolutions on disarmament and security. And as the Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy reports, "The United States consistently voted against the most important resolutions on nuclear and space disarmament."

The vote for bringing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty into force was 173 yeas against one truculent American nay.

We long ago signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty -- the treaty we roll up and use to smack the noses of places like Iran when they seek nuclear weapons -- and Article Six of the NPT requires us to work toward eliminating our own nuclear weapons stocks. Yet a Japan-sponsored resolution calling for all states to keep their word on this point was approved with 164 yeas against 2 nays -- with the United States and India opposing.

A resolution calling for negotiations to prevent nuclear weapons in space was adopted by a vote of 174 to zero. There were four abstentions: The United States and three client states, Israel, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. (Those three may object to such a dismissive characterization -- but when a place like Micronesia implies it can't countenance any roadblocks in its inexorable march to domination of outer space, then I'm sorry but the client-state shoe fits.)

There were several other embarrassingly lopsided votes, and the Lawyers' Committee lays them all out here.

http://www.thenation.com/outrage/index.mhtml?bid=6

Zakázaná slova amerických učebnic se počítají na stovky

Po vykázání elitistických, sexistických, urážlivých, náboženských či příliš "silných" výrazů angličtina v učebnicích radikálně prořídla.

LOS ANGELES 29. května (ČTK/Reuters) - A kruci: Peklo již nemá místo v amerických učebnicích pro základní a střední školy. Ale nikdo v nich také neplachtí na jachtě, ani nehraje pólo. V učebnicích také nemůže nikdo o nikom říci, že má chlapeckou postavu, že je slepý, že je od narození postižený, případně, že je nejlepším mužem pro tuto práci, že je babizna, kotě, knihomol nebo dokonce barbar, píše agentura Reuters.
Všechna tato slova jsou totiž vykázána z amerických učebnic proto, že jsou příliš elitistická (pólo, jachta), sexistická (kotě, chlapecká postava), urážlivá (slepý, knihomol), diskriminující věkovou skupinu (babizna), nebo prostě příliš silná (oblíbené americké zaklení 'do pekla' nahrazeno kruci nebo hernajs). Bůh je také zakázaným slovem, protože on či ona (angličtina nemá rody) je příliš religiozní.
Kdo se chce seznámit s celým seznamem 500 vykázaných slov i s důvodem jejich zákazu, může se podívat do nové knihy profesorky Newyorské univerzity Dianne Ravitchové The Language Police (Jazyková policie).
Podle ní vydavatelé učebnic dějepisu a angličtiny trvají na tom, že neuplatňují cenzuru, ale pouze "pravidla ohledů" - ta byla poprvé zavedena v 70. letech, aby vykořenila pohlavní a rasové předpojatosti, a od té doby se výrazně rozrostla.
Mnoho lidí se tak v legraci snaží najít nový titul pro Hemingwayova Starce a moře (The Old Man and the Sea, doslova Starý muž a moře), kde je problematické snad každé slovo s výjimkou spojky "a" a členu "the". Starý diskriminuje věkovou skupinu, muž je sexistické a moře není možné použít, pokud student žije ve vnitrozemí a není s to pochopit koncept velkého množství vody, říká Ravitchová.
Ale fenomén dezinfikování slov a myšlenek se neomezuje jen na vydavatele učebnic, kteří chtějí mít co největší náklady, a proto se snaží nikoho neurazit. List The New York Times nedávno napsal, že vědci v Národním ústavu zdraví se ve snaze neurazit konzervativce ve vládě prezidenta George Bushe nejen vyhýbají slovům jako gay nebo homosexuál, ale vymýšlejí si i kódová slova. Reportér listu uvedl, že jednomu vědci doporučili nadřízení, aby návrh žádosti o grant "vyčistil" od těchto výrazů, i když se jeho výzkum zaměřoval právě na AIDS u homosexuálů.
Ale vláda není jediným zdrojem cenzury a omezení. Největší obchodní síť supermarketů Wal-Mart nedávno zakázala prodej příliš provokativních časopisů pro muže, i když nadále prodává sexy prádlo.
Podle Ravitchové má v amerických učebnicích pravice i levice to, co chce - například důraz na rodinné hodnoty i rovnost mezi etnickými skupinami. "Do učebnic dostali všichni svá oblíbená témata. Dějepisné texty třeba jen nerady kritizují nějakého diktátora, pokud není dávno mrtev. A i potom jsou výjimky, kdy je třeba Mao ce-tung chválen za modernizaci Číny, ale jeho totalitní vláda není zmíněna," řekla Ravitchová.
"Nemůžete v učebnicích uvést také Matička Rus nebo Otčina a to je hloupé a současně neuvěřitelné. Je to jako kdyby ožil 'newspeak' George Orwella," uvedla v narážce na manipulaci s řečí, kterou Orwell popisuje v románu 1984.
Podle Ravitchové vydávání učebnic kontrolují čtyři největší vydavatelé, kteří je prodávají po celých USA, a proto se snaží, aby jazyk v nich byl co nejméně potenciálně urážlivý. "Nechtějí kontroverze a nechtějí, aby se lidé rozčilovali," uvedla profesorka, která pracovala jako poradkyně pro vzdělání ve vládě prvního prezidenta George Bushe i jeho nástupce Billa Clintona.

http://ihned.cz/?s1=0&s2=0&s3=0&s4=0&s5=0&s6=0&m=detail&article[area_id]=10001075&article[id]=12861240&p=000000_detail

You are a KGB guy?? Cool ! My dad was head of CIA!

;)


"Saddam is an evil man"


"Saddam is a threat to every American"


"We know has has tons of biological and chemical weapons"


"He has noo-ku-lar weapons and can strike in 45 minutes"


"He has ties to Al-Qadea and may be involved with 9-11"


"We must fight a war against terror to be secure"


"No to war!"


"Bah, those liberal-hippy protestors don't bother me"


"Bush lied, people died"


"Rest assured we will find WMD"


"The Bush administration must go. This is an unjust war"


"Please calm down"


"I never said Saddam has weapons of mass destruction"


"See, no blood on my hands"


"Rummy must be smoking something"


"We found that one thing, uh, remember?"


"Ah well, it wasn't my fault we went to war"


"Whoa, wait a minute"


"I'll tell you why we went to war"


"Because God told me to"


"We went to free the Iraqi people"


"From a dictator we created"


"We also went to war to keep our kids free"


"Don't forget for peace!"


"One of these days we'll get that Bin Laden too"


"Forget him. Who will we bomb next?"


"Hmmm, North Korea is evil"


"Eh, maybe we should bomb Iran first"


"Don't forget about me"


"I've got some ideas about 'freedom' too"


"Freedom is slavery"


"Ignorance is strenth"


"And of course, war is peace"
_________________

A Net of Control

UNTHINKABLE: How the Internet could become a tool of corporate and government power, based on updates now in the works


By Steven Levy
NEWSWEEK INTERNATIONAL
Issues 2004 — Picture, if you will, an information infrastructure that encourages censorship, surveillance and suppression of the creative impulse. Where anonymity is outlawed and every penny spent is accounted for. Where the powers that be can smother subversive (or economically competitive) ideas in the cradle, and no one can publish even a laundry list without the imprimatur of Big Brother. Some prognosticators are saying that such a construct is nearly inevitable. And this infrastructure is none other than the former paradise of rebels and free-speechers: the Internet.

...

http://www.msnbc.com/news/998345.asp?cp1=1#BODY

Soldiers in Iraq 'did not have WMD protection'

By Kim Sengupta

12 December 2003

British forces went into battle in the Iraq war without protective equipment against weapons of mass destruction -- the very "threat" used by Tony Blair to justify joining the American-led invasion.

Not one single tank or armoured vehicle was fitted with the required filter to guard against chemical and biological attacks. And the entire stock of vapour detection kits, needed after a suspected chemical attack, was found to be unusable.

...

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=472468

Terrorist Acts Organized By Russian Secret Services

Kavkaz Center News

The Press Office of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (CRI) released a statement that the blast near Hotel National in Moscow was organized by Russian secret services. "Terrorism in Russia is organized and directed by Russian secret services and military intelligence for propaganda purposes".

The statement by CRI Foreign Ministry concerning the events says: "It is true that Russian secret services are committing terrorist acts in Russia and other places; they are using their agents of Chechen ethnic background, but they are not succeeding in blaming the responsibility on the Chechen people and on the Government of Chechnya for the grave crimes that the Kremlin commits".

"Government of Chechnya is against violence used against civilians. We repeat, we condemn terrorism in any forms". Foreign Ministry also condemned the position of Western states for not being ready to acknowledge the FSB involvement in the terrorist acts in spite of multiple evidence and proofs.

For instance, Khanpasha Terkibayev, ethic Chechen, one of the organizers of the hostage-taking in the Moscow theater in October 2002, has been working for the FSB. This fact is a direct proof that terrorism in Russia is initiated in the government circles. After the Nord-Ost events in the Moscow theater Terkibayev continued to work at the FSB and in the presidential administration as well.

-----------------------------

Putin's terror paradigm: View articles at http://www.propagandamatrix.com/archiveprior_knowledge#fsb

View the astounding video, Assassination of Russia at http://www.propagandamatrix.com/multimedia_assassination_of_russia.html

http://www.propagandamatrix.com/111203russiansecretservices.html

Israel Trains U.S. Assassination Squads in Iraq :.

The U.S. should soon be racking up even more confirmed kills of women, children and old men in Iraq. The parallels to Vietnam are insane! Remember the Phoenix Program? Remember the cross border missions into Cambodia and Laos during that conflict? U.S. special forces are operating "over the fence" again; this time inside Syria.

I don't believe this nightmare is happening. This thing is escalating, folks, I hate to break it to ya. Oh well, everything old is new again.:

Israeli advisers are helping train US special forces in aggressive counter-insurgency operations in Iraq, including the use of assassination squads against guerrilla leaders, US intelligence and military sources said yesterday.

The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has sent urban warfare specialists to Fort Bragg in North Carolina, the home of US special forces, and according to two sources, Israeli military "consultants" have also visited Iraq.

US forces in Iraq's Sunni triangle have already begun to use tactics that echo Israeli operations in the occupied territories, sealing off centres of resistance with razor wire and razing buildings from where attacks have been launched against US troops.

But the secret war in Iraq is about to get much tougher, in the hope of suppressing the Ba'athist-led insurgency ahead of next November's presidential elections.

US special forces teams are already behind the lines inside Syria attempting to kill foreign jihadists before they cross the border, and a group focused on the "neutralisation" of guerrilla leaders is being set up, according to sources familiar with the operations.

"This is basically an assassination programme. That is what is being conceptualised here. This is a hunter-killer team," said a former senior US intelligence official, who added that he feared the new tactics and enhanced cooperation with Israel would only inflame a volatile situation in the Middle East.

"It is bonkers, insane. Here we are - we're already being compared to Sharon in the Arab world, and we've just confirmed it by bringing in the Israelis and setting up assassination teams."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4815008-103550,00.html