The New York Times > Washington > New Spy Plan Said to Involve Satellite System: "ASHINGTON, Dec. 11 - A highly classified intelligence program that the Senate Intelligence Committee has tried unsuccessfully to kill is a new $9.5 billion spy satellite system that could take photographs only in daylight hours and in clear weather, current and former government officials say.

The cost of the system, now the single biggest item in the intelligence budget, and doubts about its usefulness have spurred a secret Congressional battle. The fight over the future of a system whose existence has not yet been officially disclosed first came to light this week."

Just to make it obvious, we're talking about this.

(Via NY Times.)

Telegraph | Yushchenko poisoned by 'Agent Orange': "Supporters of Mr Yanukovich, who is backed by the government in Moscow, had claimed that Mr Yushchenko's illness was caused by bad sushi, too much cognac or a sexually transmitted disease."

(Via The Telegraph.)

Kenyan collects her Nobel Prize: "OSLO -- The first African woman and the first Kenyan to win the Nobel Peace Prize, environmental activist Wangari Maathai, received her award yesterday to the beat of drums and dancers that broke with the usual stodgy ceremony."

(Via Boston Globe -- World News.)

Security officials downplay threat of lasers aimed to crash airliners: "there is no credible evidence that any groups are planning to use such weapons and no incidents involving lasers have been reported"

(Via Boston Globe -- National News.)

G.I.S' PAYCHECKS FUND TRUCK ARMOR: "So the Pentagon leadership has finally recognized that they need to armor up their trucks. But they've settled on a damn peculiar way of paying for the work. They're dipping into soldiers' paychecks to do it."

(Via Defense Tech.)

TRUCKS STILL THIN-SKINNED: "The Hummers are protected, mostly. It's the trucks that are in trouble"

(Via Defense Tech.)

Sig Harrison on North Korea: The Other Shoe: "A careful reader observes that Selig Harrison’s article in Foreign Affairs was advertising for Ending the North Korea Nuclear Crisis, ‘the report of a high-level Task Force on U.S./Korea Policy [associated with the Center for International Policy] presenting important new recommendations for resolving the dispute over weapons between the United States and North Korea.’"

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

SpySat Revealed: It's MISTY: "The Washington Post’s Dan Priest reports that government officials confirmed the classified ‘major funding acquisition program’ to which Senator Rockefeller objected was the next stealth reconnaissance satellite in the MISTY program (MISTY-3).

This blog has covered the MISTY program in the past"

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

He lost an arm in Iraq; the Army wants money: "Middletown: He lost his arm serving his country in Iraq.

Now this wounded soldier is being discharged from his company in Fort Hood, Texas, without enough gas money to get home. In fact, the Army says 27-year-old Spc. Robert Loria owes it close to $2,000, and confiscated his last paycheck."

(Via recordonline.com : Times Herald-Record.)

PAC faults Democratic leader: "Liberal powerhouse MoveOn has a message for the ''professional election losers' who run the Democratic Party: ''We bought it, we own it, we're going to take it back.'"

Favorite part: "''For years, the party has been led by elite Washington insiders who are closer to corporate lobbyists than they are to the Democratic base," said the e-mail from MoveOn PAC's Eli Pariser. ''But we can't afford four more years of leadership by a consulting class of professional election losers.""

MoveOn Homepage

(Via Boston Globe -- National News.)

A shift on rights panel: "Over the past three years, Mary Frances Berry and Cruz Reynoso presided over US Civil Rights Commission meetings that were so frigid that members would sometimes snap at one another or sit back and stare coldly."

(Via Boston Globe -- National News.)

Intelligence bill includes expanded counterterrorism powers: "People indicted on terror charges will have a much harder time being freed on bail under a provision in the new intelligence bill. The provision also broadens the government's authority to spy on terror suspects."

(Via Boston Globe -- National News.)

US stance on armor disputed: "Despite Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld's assertion that the military is outfitting Humvees with armor as quickly as possible, the company providing the vehicles said it has been waiting since September for approval from the Pentagon to increase monthly production by as many as 100 of the all-terrain vehicles, intended to protect against roadside bombs in Iraq."

(Via Boston Globe -- National News.)

US soldier found guilty of murdering Iraqi: "A US soldier who shot dead an unarmed and wounded Iraqi civilian to 'put him out of his misery' was found guilty of murder Friday, as Iraq's political parties won more time to register candidates for next month's elections."

(Via TOI - The United States.)

Amputation rate for US troops twice that of past wars: "US troops injured in Iraq have required limb amputations at twice the rate of past wars, and as many as 20 percent have suffered head and neck injuries that may require a lifetime of care, according to new data giving the clearest picture yet of the severity of battlefield wounds."

(Via Boston Globe -- World News.)

Poisoning theories tested in illness of Ukrainian...: "Poisoning theories tested in illness of Ukrainian candidate"

...

"doctors were working on three poisoning theories, including one involving dioxin."

(Via Boston Globe -- World News.)

Soldier Claims U.S. Military Deceived Him into Serving: "A soldier, who came out of retirement because he wanted to serve in Iraq for just a year, will be heading back to the war zone on Friday for a second tour. Specialist David Qualls filed for a temporary restraining order, claiming the military deceived him into serving again. A U.S. District Court Judge has denied his request"

(Via NPR News: Nation.)

Intelligence Efforts Get Boost: "Congress this week approved changes in law that will permit undercover CIA officers serving overseas to keep salaries from their civilian jobs even when they exceed what they would have been paid by the federal government."

The increase in pay potential only helps the officers stay more honest... As long as their civilian jobs don't cause a conflict of interest.

(Via washingtonpost.com - Politics.)

Laser: The latest terror weapon: "US says terrorists are exploring ways to beam lasers into cockpits to blind pilots."

You've gotta be f'in kidding me.

(Via TOI - The United States.)

Peeking Under the Robes: "Judicial Watch has obtained and posted the 2003 financial disclosure statements of every sitting federal judge."

(Via Reason Online: Hit and Run.)

Bush Says No Payroll Tax Hike for Social Security: "President Bush ruled out raising payroll taxes to help pay for Social Security reform on Thursday, leaving him few options other than a sharp increase in government borrowing to bankroll transition costs estimated at up to $2 trillion."

(Via Reuters: Politics.)

SpySat Follow-up: "That still leaves the question of its identity open. There is a pretty strong school of though suggesting the satellite program in question is a signals intelligence program, not FIA.

Wyden argued that ‘the original justification for developing this technology has eroded in importance due to the changed practices and capabilities of our adversaries’—which could be a reference to a mode of terrorist communications."

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

Thousands face genocide by Indonesian military: "Collective Punishment: for guerrilla attacks on development projects. The military must show both the population as a whole and warriors in particular that the death of children, lovers and family is the reward for insurgency - just as the British army did in India, Borneo and Kenya!"

(Via www.indymedia.org main features.)

SpySats: Sometimes It's Just a Cigar: "My best guess is that Rockefeller and Wyden were merely referring the National Reconnaissance Office’s Future Imagery Architecture, which was to‘completely restructure U.S. satellite imagery capabilities by including new design imaging satellites as well as new processing, exploitation and dissemination capabilities.’"

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

Defense Tech: ROCKY FOE: SATELLITE WEAPONS?: "As regular Defense Tech readers know, the Pentagon has a whole stack of projects, in varying stages of development, to strike evil-doers in space. In October, the Air Force declared operational it's radio frequency-based satellite jammer, the Counter Communications System. Back in January of 2003, the Defense Department launched its Experimental Satellite Series (XSS), which is developing pint-size orbiters, largely for offensive purposes. Recently-revealed XSS designs include a 'blocker' microsat, which uses a 'circular, gimbaled, opaque fan' to stop up enemy communications in space. There's also an orbiting 'grabber,' equipped with a mechanical arm, meant for 'docking with and reorientation of enemy spacecraft.' With this 'grapple feature,' the mini-ship will 'attach itself to [an] enemy satellite, [and] benignly cause disorientation.'

Satellites from hostile countries aren't the only ones which could be blocked or grabbed by the American machines. In a recent report, the Air Force declared that orbiters from neutral nations, private companies -- even weather satellites -- were all on the target list, too."

(Via a DefenseTech.)

Taliban contacts US over amnesty offer: "Taliban members willing to lay down their weapons have contacted US military commanders in Afghanistan."

(Via TOI - The United States.)

Dec 8, 2004: Make them stop: "The situation in Iraq, which as we all know is disastrous, seems to catching up to the Bush Administration. The 1,000th combat fatality came yesterday; a leaked CIA report from the Baghdad station chief indicates that the situation is far more treacherous than what the Bush Administration lets on and shows no signs of getting better; Donald Rumsfeld was thrown off guard when confronted by angry soldiers; and George Bush himself has gone from 'mission accomplished' to 'the enemies of freedom in Iraq have been wounded, but they're not yet defeated.'"

(Via DNC: Kicking Ass.)

ActNow!: "In a historic effort to hold US officials accountable for acts of torture, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and four Iraqi citizens recently filed a criminal complaint with the German Federal Prosecutor's Office at the Karlsruhe Court in Karlsruhe, Germany against high ranking United States officials over the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison and elsewhere in Iraq. The four Iraqis all allege abuse at the hands of US troops, including severe beatings, sleep and food deprivation, hooding and sexual abuse."

(Via The Nation Weblogs.)

CorpWatch: CSC/ DynCorp: "The world's premier rent-a-cop business runs the security show in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the US-Mexico border. They also run the coca crop-dusting business in Colombia, and occasional sex trafficking sorties in Bosnia."

(Via CorpWatch.)

More than a little biased, but still:

CorpWatch: Company Profiles: "Find more about the top ten military contractors in the United States -- their unsavory histories, deadly products, and the campaign contributions and spin that keep them in business."

(Via CorpWatch.)

The Daily Outrage: "Kerik hired Iraqi policemen without background checks who later turned out to be hardened criminals. He re-hired policeman formerly employed by Saddam Hussein and bragged of training 37,000 new officers. Currently, roughly a quarter of the force Kerik left in place--a total of 30,000 officers--have been or will soon be fired by the US government and paid $60 million in severance payments, according to the far-from-antiwar New York Post."

(Via The Nation Weblogs.)

The Online Beat: "'We cannot vent and then have Congress not act. If these reports are not investigated, we have all wasted our time,' the two-time candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination declared. 'This cannot simply be an academic venting session. Take this struggle to the streets and legitimize it there, as they did in Selma.'"

(Via The Nation Weblogs.)

ARMED ROBOTS, GOOEY SNACKS MADE BY SAME FIRM: "When they're not building gun-toting, death-dealing machines, Foster-Miller scientists are helping make chewy, gooey fruit snacks; training railway workers in staying safe; building bone-growth devices; and testing out new vending machines for Pepsi."

(Via Defense Tech.)

Plea to the democratic world: Ukraine needs your support: "Ukraine needs your support. On Sunday December 26, 2004, a re-vote of the run-off for the Presidential Election in Ukraine is planned.  Anyone who is over the age of 18 and a citizen of another country (i.e. other than Ukraine) can become an international observer.  (Ukrainian citizens can be local observers)  The Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC), in cooperation with the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), has organized international election observers for the first two rounds and are now seeking observers for round three.  You do not need to be Canadian to register through the UCC, you may be a citizen of any country except Ukraine."

(Via Kuro5hin.org.)

IRAQ THE MODEL: "It was really confusing to me in the beginning that liberals would not support the change in Iraq (remember we were isolated so we didn't know much about that) even though they were against Bush, as it's over now and any humanist should (in my mind) support democracy and peace in Iraq. Besides, I've always considered myself a liberal! On the other side, I had a bad impression that many of the people on the right were fanatics and racist! How much did we learn in this year!

Anyway, I still consider myself a liberal (a conservative one) and I intend to add some of the moderate liberal blogs to our sidebar, but of course I would never change my mind about our friends and supporters, and I don't care what people label them as. I judge people by their stand. "

(Via Iraq The Model.)

Ex-Marine testifies of killing Iraq civilians: "A former US Marine staff sergeant testified at a hearing yesterday that his unit killed at least 30 unarmed civilians in Iraq during the war in 2003 and that Marines routinely shot wounded Iraqis and killed them."

(Via Boston Globe -- World News.)

The Daily Outrage: "The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) informed the Pentagon of prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison five months before the horrific pictures appeared in the American media, validating the ICRC's charges.

Instead of thanking the ICRC for its prescience, the right-wing media lambasted the humanitarian organization's motives and findings in the wake of the prison scandal.

After calling the photos 'no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation' Rush Limbaugh wondered whether the interrogations--in which prisoners were stripped naked and threatened with attack dogs--were supervised by the ICRC."

(Via The Nation Weblogs.)

A legal titan throws his hat in the governor's ring | csmonitor.com: "Eliot Spitzer, the crusading New York attorney general, has made it official: He wants to be governor. His entrance into the race guarantees that New York will remain in the nation's political spotlight, even if the election is two years off."

Just a nitpick, but can we stop using the words "crusading" and "crusade"? Is that so hard???

(Via Christian Science Monitor.)

What spy reforms mean | csmonitor.com: "If historic legislation to reform the US intelligence community can be summed up in a word, it might be this: centralization."

I got my answer: The DCI is getting replaced with the DNI, who has much more power, including budgetary control.

(Via Christian Science Monitor.)

Ron Paul (R-TX) Denounces National ID Card: "‘National ID cards are not proper in a free society,’ Paul stated. ‘This is America, not Soviet Russia. The federal government should never be allowed to demand papers from American citizens, and it certainly has no constitutional authority to do so.’"

(Via Lew Rockwell.)

Disgruntled Troops Complain to Rumsfeld | Newsday.com: "Army Spc. Thomas Wilson, for example, of the 278th Regimental Combat Team that is comprised mainly of citizen soldiers of the Tennessee Army National Guard, asked Rumsfeld in a question-and-answer session why vehicle armor is still in short supply, nearly two years after the start of the war that ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

'Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to uparmor our vehicles?' Wilson asked. A big cheer arose from the approximately 2,300 soldiers in the cavernous hangar who assembled to see and hear the secretary of defense."

(Via Newsday.com.)

Defense Tech: "The Iraq attack was built on the premise that speed and high-tech equipment could radically change the way war was fought. Short, swift attacks against key targets -- such as communications stations and headquarters -- could confuse enemy forces and isolate them from their commanders, according to both Army and Defense Department doctrine. If you chopped off the enemy's head, the theory went, the whole body would die. Getting to the fight faster became the focus of modernization plans for the Army and all other U.S. armed services.

Now, the escalating insurgency in Iraq is showing that lightning assaults can quickly topple a regime -- but also unleash problems for which small, fast, high-tech U.S. forces are ill-equipped.

'We're realizing strategic victory is about a lot more than annihilating the enemy,' says one senior defense official in Mr. Rumsfeld's office. Victory also requires winning the support of locals and tracking down insurgents, who can easily elude advanced surveillance technology and precision strikes. In some cases, a slower, more methodical attack, one that allows U.S. troops to stabilize one area and hold it up as an example of what is possible for the rest of the country, could produce better results, according to emerging Army thinking."

(Via Defense Tech.)

Neocon 101 | Christian Science Monitor: "Some basic questions answered

What do neoconservatives believe?

'Neocons' believe that the United States should not be ashamed to use its unrivaled power – forcefully if necessary – to promote its values around the world. Some even speak of the need to cultivate a US empire. Neoconservatives believe modern threats facing the US can no longer be reliably contained and therefore must be prevented, sometimes through preemptive military action."

(Via Christian Science Monitor.)

WHAT BECAME OF CONSERVATIVES? by Paul Craig Roberts: "Apparently, Rush Limbaugh and National Review think there is a liberal media because the prison torture scandal could not be suppressed and a cameraman filmed the execution of a wounded Iraqi prisoner by a U.S. Marine.

Do the Village Voice and The Nation comprise the "liberal media"? The Village Voice is known for Nat Henthof and his columns on civil liberties. Every good conservative believes that civil liberties are liberal because they interfere with the police and let criminals go free. The Nation favors spending on the poor and disfavors gun rights, but I don't see the "liberal hate" in The Nation's feeble pages that Rush Limbaugh was denouncing on C-SPAN.

In the ranks of the new conservatives, however, I see and experience much hate. It comes to me in violently worded, ignorant and irrational emails from self-professed conservatives who literally worship George Bush. Even Christians have fallen into idolatry. There appears to be a large number of Americans who are prepared to kill anyone for George Bush.

The Iraqi War is serving as a great catharsis for multiple conservative frustrations: job loss, drugs, crime, homosexuals, pornography, female promiscuity, abortion, restrictions on prayer in public places, Darwinism and attacks on religion. Liberals are the cause. Liberals are against America. Anyone against the war is against America and is a liberal. "You are with us or against us.""

(Via Chronicles Magazine.)

Interrogators objected to tactics: "The Bush administration's aggressive techniques for extracting information from detainees captured in Afghanistan and Iraq sparked sharp dissent among some experienced interrogators in the military and the FBI, according to government documents released by the American Civil Liberties Union yesterday."

(Via Boston Globe -- National News.)

Back to Iraq 3.0: Options in Fallujah and about those elections...: "In short, the plan — as reported in various media — will mean that

troops would funnel Fallujans to so-called citizen processing centers on the outskirts of the city to compile a database of their identities through DNA testing and retina scans. Residents would receive badges displaying their home addresses that they must wear at all times. Buses would ferry them into the city, where cars, the deadliest tool of suicide bombers, would be banned.

George, and others, compare this to the Warsaw Ghetto in World War II, along with all the Nazi imagery you can imagine."

...

"The real crime here is not the requirement for Fallujans to wear ID badges or even to make the men work at reconstruction. The real crime is that poor planning and wishful thinking regarding the future of 25 million people has narrowed the universe of available options to a series of iron-fisted tactics that range from horrible to truly catastrophic."

(Via Back to Iraq 3.0.)

BBC NEWS | World | Africa | 'No drop' in world hunger deaths: "The number of chronically hungry people has hardly budged since 1996."

(Via BBC News.)

FBI letter alleged abuse of detainees: "SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- FBI agents witnessed 'highly aggressive' interrogations and mistreatment of terror suspects at the US prison camp in Cuba starting in 2002 -- more than a year before the prison abuse scandal broke in Iraq (emphasis from ls) -- according to a letter a senior Justice Department official sent to the Army's top criminal investigator."

(Via Boston Globe -- National News.)

Online Journal Editors' Blog: "Following up on my just-published article (See 'The 'Make Us Safe Believers: Enabling Their Own March In Fascism'), I must note with alarm how the violence of the Kerry-Edwards and Democratic Party war rhetoric -- not less vicious and murder-filled than what is coming out of Bush-Cheney-Rove -- has become acceptable pop culture and water-cooler conversation.

It is just one more toxic legacy of 9/11 that any president of the United States, or presidential candidate, can shout about how he will 'kill' terrorists and not even bother to hide their war crimes and mass murder plans beneath noble language. Dem/Kerrycrats are not blanching in horror, but happily going along."

(Via OnlineJournal.com.)

Online Journal Editors' Blog: "Pacifica Radio recorded the church hearings. As I listened, I heard stories of students at Kenyon College waiting up to 12 hours to vote; voters, including the elderly, made to stand in line in the rain for hours; and people falsely being told that they could vote on Nov. 3 because of the long lines on the 2nd. Then there was one particularly tragic case in which a man suffered a medical emergency in his home, and his wife was not home to help him because she had to wait hours to vote; he died."

(Via OnlineJournal.com.)

The first annual "Send a Heretic to Prison!" contest: "December 4, 2004%u2014Dear Great Americans Everywhere, to celebrate our great moral victory in the November election, the newly formed White House Office of Homeland Heresy is sponsoring its first annual 'Send a Heretic to Prison!' contest. Who are the heretics in your neighborhood? What makes them a dangerous heretic? Point them out to us. With your help, we will once again make America safe for the 17th century."

(Via OnlineJournal.com.)

Is the Bush Administration Certifiable? by Paul Craig Roberts: "Why was Bush in Nova Scotia advocating pre-emptive invasion unless Bush has other Middle Eastern countries targeted? Iran and Syria are the only two remaining Middle Eastern countries that are not ruled by US puppets.

Lacking sufficient military forces to successfully occupy Iraq, how is Bush going to engage in pre-emptive wars against Iran and Syria without bringing back the draft? If eight US divisions can’t do the job in Iraq, sixteen US divisions won’t be enough for Iran. Defeating standing armies is a different game from occupying a hostile country. The US military is good at the former, not at the latter."

(Via Lew Rockwell.)

Rumsfeld Sees an Iraq Pullout Within 4 Years: "The defense secretary said the decision hinged on the progress that Iraq's civilian government and security forces made by then."

(Via The New York Times > Washington.)

Reuters.com | Congress Poised to Pass Intelligence Reforms: "The bill, sought by some of the families of Sept. 11 victims, would implement key recommendations made by the Sept. 11 Commission and create a new director of national intelligence with strong budget powers to oversee the 15 spy agencies."

So what's the difference between this new Director of National Intelligence and our current Director of Central Intelligence?

(Via Reuters.)

INDUSTRY BIGS TEAM UP ON RAY GUNS: "Two of the heavyweights of the defense industry are teaming up to develop 'a laser armed combat vehicle,' Baltimore Business Journal says. Northrop Grumman, which is building the Army's Tactical High Energy Laser, will put together the ray gun. United Defense, maker of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, 'will develop a hybrid [gas/electric] combat vehicle that would carry the laser weapon,' according to the Journal."

(Via Defense Tech.)

AlterNet: War on Iraq: "America Is So Much Better Than This": "Over the past four years, we have witnessed the greatest loss of a very valuable type of American power in our history: our power to lead, to persuade, and to inspire."

(Via AlterNet.)

Consensus on Global Warming: "'Well, here's an interesting one: the fine fellows at Science Magazine have done an analysis of the last ten years' published scientific articles (articles from crank or non-peer-reviewed publications were not counted) on the subject of global climate change. The results themselves are interesting, but the most remarkable part was that, of the 928 papers they found, 75% accepted that global warming was caused by human activities, either explicitly or implicitly. 25% made no mention either way. And not a single paper asserted otherwise.'"

(Via Slashdot.)

DoD News: Secretary Rumsfeld Interview with Bill O'Reilly for The O'Reilly Factor:

"BILL O’REILLY:  How do we beat them?
DONALD RUMSFELD:  Oh, well, it’s a test of wills. I mean, they haven’t won a single battle the entire time since the end of, of major combat operations.
BILL O’REILLY:  [OVERLAPPING VOICES] Same thing happened in Vietnam, though, 
DONALD RUMSFELD:  [OVERLAPPING VOICES] They never, never won,
BILL O’REILLY:  They never beat us."

(Via DefenseLink.)

Some thoughts on that election thing and other matters: "What the Brits may not realize is that many of those who voted for Bush actually pride themselves on their ignorance. They associate being any kind of intellectual with elitist East and West Coasters, the dissolute 1960s, 'old Europe', and other nasties on their love-to-hate list; for many of them as well, whether consciously or unconsciously, it is a source of satisfaction that they have a president who's no smarter than they are."

(Via OnlineJournal.com.)

Texas to Florida: White House-linked clandestine operation paid for "vote switching" software: "An empty manila folder and a blank legal pad notebook were found on the hotel room's desk along with an undated and unsigned suicide note written on lined paper, which lacked any identifiable fingerprints, from Lemme's day planner. The note merely contained the time 8:10 a.m. with the following notation: "I love my family (family underlined once) with all my heart. I am sorry. I am depressed and in pain. Mary Ann (Lemme's wife), I love you." ("I love you" underlined twice). It was certainly not indicative of a person who was ecstatic that he was finally going to nail a long investigation that involved vote rigging, overbilling, and fraud abetted by the very top political leadership in Tallahassee."

(Via OnlineJournal.com.)

Cokie Roberts: Why Intelligence Reform Is Stalled: "With much riding on this week's intelligence bill vote, many in Congress are saying the president has pushed hard enough"

(Via NPR News: Nation.)

Paris ends security program after mishap: "PARIS -- French police yesterday ended their practice of hiding plastic explosives inside air passengers' luggage to train bomb-sniffing dogs after one such bag got lost, possibly ending up on a flight out of Charles de Gaulle airport."

(Via Boston Globe -- World News.)

ArmsControlWonk.com: Bashing ElBaradei Redux: "Anonymous intelligence sources tell Reuters that Tehran purchased of large amounts of beryllium, which can be used to initiate the chain reaction in a nuclear device. The allegation provided anonymous diplomats (including one U.S. diplomat) the opportunity to tell Reuters that ‘the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency knew about it but had withheld the information from the IAEA board of governors.’"

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

ArmsControlWonk.com: "The latest outrage is a new Department of Health and Human Services policy that ‘requires the World Health Organization to submit all requests for expert scientific advice to political officials at HHS who pick which federal scientists will be permitted to respond.’"

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

IRAN'S "TROJAN HORSE" IN SPACE: "this 'first Iranian space mission and planned follow-on satellite flights, even if failures, could act as 'technological Trojan Horses' to help Iran develop both range and warhead improvements to [Iran's] already upgraded [missile] program,'"

(Via Defense Tech.)

RUSSIA'S NUCLEAR CRUTCH: "- Russia is leaning more and more on its nuclear weapons, as its conventional military falls into the toilet. - Fallujans looking to return home are going to have to give up DNA samples, get their retinas scanned, and wear special badges constantly. - Arms Control Wonk Jeffrey Lewis tears the Bush administration a new one, over the White House's ten-thumbed attempts to bigfoot the International Atomic Energy Agency...."

(Via Defense Tech.)

With Recess Imminent, Intelligence Bill Remains Tied Up: "The House is reconvening in a session this week in what is described by the bill's authors as the last chance this year for passage."

(Via The New York Times > Washington.)

IRAQ THE MODEL: "Terrorism is losing the battle and in spite of tough times we're facing in this battle and in spite of the fear and worries that we carry in our minds I felt a great joy when I saw a sign on the road saying:
'Your voice is as precious as gold. No, it's more than that!'"

(Via Iraq The Model.)

The New York Times > Washington > For Kerik, a Blunt New Yorker, a Complex Washington Task: "Former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Kerik's patron in government and business, said people have long underestimated the one-time street cop. 'He was always doing better than even I thought he would do,' Mr. Giuliani said."

(Via NY Times.)

AlterNet: EnviroHealth: The Gap Between Delhi and Dallas:

"There are too many of us and some of us consume far too much. The solution will require us to cut overall consumption and close the gap between rich and poor."

"The problem, of course, is that international negotiations meant to address the problem generally go something like this: 'You've got too many cars!' say poor countries. 'Oh yeah? Well, you've got too many people!' say the rich ones."

(Via AlterNet.)

Osama trail has gone cold: Musharraf- The Times of India: "WASHINGTON: The search for al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has gone cold and there is no indication of his whereabouts, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf told the Washington Post in an interview published on Sunday."

(Via The Times of India.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY INDYMEDIA: Looking Back Five Years to the Battle of Seattle: "The Independent Media Center is a network of collectively run media outlets for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of the truth. We work out of a love and inspiration for people who continue to work for a better world, despite corporate media's distortions and unwillingness to cover the efforts to free humanity."

(Via indymedia.org main features.)

AlterNet: DrugReporter: Here, Kiddie, Kiddie: "drug companies are pushing ADHD drugs for children by funding researchers and advocacy groups — and ignoring the studies which question their claims."

(Via AlterNet.)