TBRNews.org

TBR News October 12, 2009

The Slaughterhouse Informer A Compendiium of Various Official Lies, Business Scandals, Small Murders, Frauds, and Other Gross Defects of Our Current Political, Business and Religious Moral Lepers. Presenting a new magazine that contains material that is not found elsewhere and is very difficult to post on the Internet. The ‘Voice of the White House’ will appear in each issue containing material not found on TBR News for very obvious reasons.This publication will appear once a week, on Wednesday, every week, will be ten pages in length and is available by subscription only. The price is $5.00 a month and can be paid via PayPal or by check, sent to ‘Morris Productions, 3015 E. New York St. Ste A2-190, Aurora, Il 60504.’ If you don’t like it, and Bush supporters can read the Drudge Report for free, you can cancel at any time. TBR Ebooks Civil insurrection in America and government countermeasures: The official papers By Bradley Moscrip An in-depth study of official American plans to construct FEMA detention centers in America and specific recent U.S. Army domestic counterinsurgency plans. Here is a sampling of the ebook contents: Gun Control by Confiscation As the American general population is known to be the most heavily armed in the world, immediately upon the declaration of Martial Law and the execution by the military of counterinsurgency programs, it has been determined that the BATF, will begin the process of rounding up all rifles, pistols and so-called assault weaponry from the civil population. Lists of gun collectors obtained from firearms dealers, gun magazine subscription lists and other sources will be the basis for these mass confiscations. Gun owners will be supplied documentation by the BATF showing which pieces have been confiscated so that in the future, they will be told, they can recover their weapons when the state of emergency has passed. In actuality, weapons that do not have a high value or are not suitable for arming loyalist police forces, will be destroyed by order This study is available from tbrnews at $5.00 by PayPal The Voice of the White House Washington, D.C., October 11, 2009: “A sort of a mixed-bag this time around. First, let us discuss the American pharmaceutical industry that has finally crept out from under their wet log and let us see just why so many young children suddenly developed autism or why so many users of this or that popular drug suddenly died of liver cancer or developed brain tumors. The drug industry is not trying to kill people but they want to maximize their profits and with grateful assistance from our thoroughly corrupt lawmakers, they can now dump a new drug onto an unsuspecting market with a minimum of testing. So what of fifty thousand people die? So many more are satisfied and just look at the huge profits to be made> Why a pill that costs less than two cents to make can be sold for thirty dollars with not a sound from anyone on Congress. Most of our representatives are too busy trying to hide their bribes in foreign banks to worry about the health of their constituents. Of course, elections are coming up next year and there are certainly going to be some surprises. The last time around, all the Jesus Freaks got chunked into the garbage disposal (where all of them so richly belong) and this time, the health industry whores can join them. Brian Harring has a correspondent inside the drug industry who has been stuffing his emailbox with all kinds of interesting information. I think Mr. Harring ought to find the home addresses of all the CEOs of the major drug companies and publish them. This is so people who have lost loved ones can write directly to them without having their piteous letters dead ended in some secretary’s waste basket. And I used to look at a Russian website, http://www.iraq-war.ru/ that had a number of interesting articles. Now, unfortunately, this hitherto interesting site seems to have been taken over by strange people so that all we see are pieces about ‘Ziofascists’ and remarks about ‘President Babboon.’ About one article in twenty now is legit news. And the articles appearing about the Bush/Cheney manipulations of the Saudi 9/11 attackers got so much play that I was asked to run it again: Enjoy! Bush, Cheney, Rove and the Taliban: Strange Bedfellows In this final overview treatment of the economic warfare that has had disastrous consequences for the United States, we investigate the Saudi terrorists attacks on American targets of prominence on September 11, 2001. This report, in all rights, ought to be dedicated to dramatis personae :Karl Rove who conceived it, George W. Bush who approved it and Dick Cheney who implemented it. We should like to give especial thanks to Mr. Leszek Kobiernicki, of the British Ministry of Defense, for all of his very valued assistance. Mr. Kobiernicki is a specialist in official documentation and has access to very high level intercepted American military and diplomatic transmissions. His assistance has been absolutely vital and his extensive material fundus will be dealt with in further articles. The deadly attacks by a team of Saudi terrorists against American targets on September 11, 2001, was in no way a secret venture. Almost from its inception, its progress was known to, and closely followed by, the intelligence agencies of Britain, Russia, Germany and Israel. All of these countries, without exception, duly notified the American authorities about a pending attack, by aircraft, against American targets. The Israeli Foreign Intelligence agency, the Mossad, had actually penetrated the leadership of the group centered in Hollywood, Florida, and made regular reports on the pending attack to their government. The Israeli government, in turn, made full disclosure to the highest level of authority in Washington. Interestingly enough, the man who formulated the attack, Osama bin Ladin, was a personal friend of the American president, George Bush, and his very wealthy Saudi family had been investors in Bush’s Arbusto Energy Oil Company, founded in 1978.Another big investor was BCCI (Bank of Credit & Commerce) that later was shut down in July of 1991, charged with multibillion-dollar fraud and which had been heavily involved in drug money laundering, arms brokering, covert intelligence work, bribery of government officials and aid to terrorists. Several members of the Bush family were heavy investors in the Carlyle Group, a defense contractor and investment fund with numerous interests in the Middle East, run by former Reagan administration Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci. Former President George H. W. Bush attended an investment meeting at the Washington, D.C. Ritz-Carlton hotel on September 10, 2001 and also a meeting with Shafiq bin Laden, representing joint interests of the Saudi Binladin Group and Carlyle. In addition to the question of American control of oil and natural gas deliveries, there was also an internal political issue. It should be noted that during the previous administration of William Clinton, the American right wing, personified by the Republicans, fought a long, loud and effective public relations battle against what they saw was Clinton’s left wing policies. There was a steady drumfire of attacks, mostly from the far right Evangelicals, about Clinton’s various affairs and also about alleged financial peculations when he was governor of Arkansas. Always extremely manipulative and often very vicious, the Republican leadership, coupled with outside business interests, manoevered George Bush into the Oval Office by a mixture of bribery, political presssure and deliberate vote fraud in Florida. When a narrow Supreme Court majority placed Bush into office, Dick Cheney, a fixture of the very far right Republicans, appointed himself to the office of Vice President. Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney was born in Nebraska in 1941, Cheney grew up in Casper, Wyoming., later attending Yale University. Cheney dropped out during his sophomore year, and eventually earned a political science degree at the University of Wyoming in 1965. After winning a postgraduate fellowship that took him to Washington, Cheney was employed by the Nixon administration as a special assistant to Donald Rumsfeld, who at that time was director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, and later White House counsel. In August 1974, after President Nixon resigned from office in disgrace , Rumsfeld was called to join the White House staff as an assistant to Ford, and Cheney moved along with Rumsfeld. Hard-working, loyal and good-natured, Cheney made a good impression and became Ford's chief of staff from 1975 to 1977. A very strong neo-conservative and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Cheney is the former CEO of Halliburton Company, which greatly benefitted from contracts with the U.S. government, especially in the war with Iraq Cheney has ties to the Carlyle Group, is a former Senior Fellow with the American Enterprise Institute,has served on the Advisory Board of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), and has been linked to the Project for the New American Century (PNAC). Cheney opposed the Equal Rights Amendment, has an anti-abortion advocate, and supports prayer in school. While serving in Congress, he was one of 21 members opposing the sale ban of armor-piercing bullets; was one of only four to oppose the ban on guns that can get through metal detectors; opposed sanctions against the apartheid-era South Africa in the mid-1980s along with voting against a resolution calling for the release of Nelson Mandela; voted for a constitutional amendment to ban school busing; voted against Head Start; and voted against extending the Clean Water Act in 1987. Cheney was appointed head of Halliburton in 1995. This company was, and still is, the largest worldwide providers of equipment and services to the oil industry, Cheney was appointed to head this company solely because of his previous government employments and the contacts this supplied. During his five years as CEO, Cheney nearly doubled the size of Halliburton's government contracts, totaling $2.3 billion. Cheney continued to draw a $1,000,000 per year paycheck from Halliburton while serving as the Vice President.He stated a number of times that he saw no conflict of interest between taking this paycheck, and participating in White House decisions that have allocated billions of dollars of bids to Halliburton that have not gone to open tender. Since he and Bush occupied the White House, Cheney managed to accomplish a great deal in the fields of personal enrichment and political gain. As Vice President, Cheney met with the heads of oil, gas, and nuclear power companies, asked for and got their needs and requirements and turned them into a new national Energy Plan. Cheney's close relations with the later-convicted swindler, Ken Lay of Enron, is a case in point. Given his key role in determining the policy and practice of the Bush administration, an understanding of Cheney's history is important While Cheney was running Halliburton, there was a 91`% increase in U.S. government contracts with that firm. · In 2000, before assuming office as Vice President, Cheney's income from Halliburton:was $36,086,635 · American energy companies gave the 2000 Bush/Cheney presidential campaign $1,800,000 · He convinced the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. to lend Halliburton and oil companies another $1.5 billion, backed by U.S. taxpayers. Unfortunately some of these loans went to a Russian company with ties to drug dealing and organized crime. Under Cheney's leadership Halliburton and its subsidiaries supported, or even ordered, human rights violations and broke international laws. · Libya engaged a foreign subsidiary of Halliburton company, Brown & Root, to perform millions of dollars worth of work. At the time, Libya was strongly suspected of harboring and encouraging terrorist activity, Brown & Root was subsequently fined $3.8 million for violating Libyan sanctions. (Although Cheney wasn't leading Halliburton when these sales started, subsidiaries' sales to Libya continued throughout his tenure.) · Halliburton became the biggest oil contractor for Iraq, selling more than $73 million in goods and services to Saddam Hussein's regime although there were firm U.S. sanctions on Iraq at the time. , Karl Christian Rove became Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff to President George W. Bush until his sudden resignation on August 31, 2007. He once headed the Office of Political Affairs, the Office of Public Liaison, and the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives.. Rove influenced dealings with Iraq and North Korea, according to Bush administration sources. For instance, when the U.S. was notified, through formal diplomatic channels, that North Korea had nuclear technology, Congress was in the midst of discussing the Iraqi war resolution. Rove counseled the president to keep that information from Congress for 12 days, until the debate was finished, so it would not affect the vote. He was also reported to be present at a war strategy meeting concerning whether to attack Syria after Iraq. Rove said the timing was not right. Yet. having the political advisor involved in that decision is wrong. It was Rove who kept President Bush relentlessly adherent to his obsessive goal of a permanent Republican-controlled executive, making the argument that America is safe only in their hands – Rove, highly intelligent and extremely arrogant, firmly believed himself an expert in both policy and politics because he could see no distinction between the two. This matters for a number of reasons. There is always a time during any president's administration when what is best for the future of the country diverges from what best serves that president's political future. It was always Rove’s firm intention to push the president in the direction of reelection rather than the country's best interests. What Rove always wanted to achieve, was nothing less than a major alignment in US politics, making the Republicans the sole party of government for a generation or more. In June 2003 powerful far right wing writer, Grover Norquist wrote “In crafting its agenda for economic reform, the Bush administration has the luxury of being able to think and plan over a full eight years…This guarantee of united Republican government has allowed the Bush administration to work and think long-term….Republicans are looking at decades of dominance in the House and Senate and having the Presidency with some regularity.” According to Norquist “every time the government gets smaller there are fewer Democratic precinct workers in the world…It is a virtuous cycle.”. Now that we have some background on the players, let us consider the origins of the 9/11 attacks on American targets. We have taken a brief look at the major players in the game and have taken even a briefer look at some of the attending circumstances behind the Saudi terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Now it is time to outline what lay behind the actual attack. High level people in the government are laboring under the misapprehension that they are speaking over secured telephone lines or email or faxing over other secure services but in the main, they are living in a fool’s paradise. The President does have very secure lines of communications but neither Cheney nor Rove did. Not only can our very own NSA listen in to conversations held from Cheney’s “Secret Command Post” but so can others, to include the British and Russian intelligence agencies. Our Army has been reading top secret Israeli diplomatic, military and intelligence messages for some time And even the PRC and the French are not without success in pulling messages off the air and breaking even the most complicated algorithmic encryption. It is from these sources that it has been possible to put together a plot that not even the most creative of the bloggers could possibly have imagined. It is well known that the far right wing of the Republican Party was determined to get control of the White House just as they then had control of Congress. They were well on their way to stacking the third branch of our government, the judicial. The main architect of this ambitious plan was Karl Rove. Very intelligent but totally amoral and personally vicious, Rove was a powerful influence over George Bush, converting him to a form of aggressive Evangelical Christianity and getting him elected to the Governorship of Texas. Rove was instrumental in convincing the power elite of the time to support Bush as the Republican candidate for President in 2000 and the manipulations to put the colorless Bush into the Oval Office have been covered extensively in the media and on the Internet. There were deliberate voter frauds including fixed voting machines, machines made and controlled by a strong Bush supporter. There was obvious and deliberate voter fraud in Florida, a state run by Bush’s brother and Rove had seen to it that there was a bare majority of the Supreme Court to, in effect, job Bush straight into the White House. Now, the plotters reasoned, they had control of the executive, the legislative and the judicial. There was only one more factor to take into account in the final securing of absolute power and that was the American public. Not even the most accomplished of the watchers can say with certainty when the final chapter was first broached but enough has been pieced together to make a thoroughly believable scenario. In all probability it was Rove, a man with a good understanding of history, who realized that a so-called wartime President could gather unto himself, and his supporters, almost unlimited powers and among these was the power to frighten the public into obeying his dictates and the excuse for establish these dictates in the first place. During the First World Ear, Woodrow Wilson set up a virtual dictatorship in the United States during his war with Germany and, of course, there was the seizure of power by Hitler in 1933 after he had been appointed a Chancellor with limited powers. Coupled with this burning desire for long-term, if not permanent, political control in the United States, there was also the issue of economic control but with a cowed public and control over all three branches of government, economic control would be a very easy matter to accomplish. It was well known that the United States was in growing need of natural gas and, most especially oil. It was also less well known that the once-enormous Saudi fields were running dry and that Iraq had more oil than Saudi Arabia. Also, the Iraqi dictator, Hussein, had physically bombarded Israel during the Gulf War and he was viewed by that country as a great menace. The strong, overly strong many asserted, influence Israel and its organs in the United States had was another factor in the plan. It was the gradual inclusion of top Israeli political and military leaders in the plan that allowed the Russian GRU to discover it. Rove saw a brief, Bismarckian campaign against Iraq that would gain the United States access to that country’s oil and to establish even stronger ties with Israel and its domestic support of Republican policies. What was lacking was a casus belli, a cause for war. It was in this area that Bush and Cheney had excellent prospects. Osama bin Ladin was the son of a very powerful Saudi businessman who had the highest-level connections in his country and whose family activities were well known to Cheney because of his tenure as head of Halliburton. The bin Ladins also had very good connections with George Bush and had invested heavily in his company, Arbusto. Certain favors could then certainly be asked and, if everyone could see profit in them, granted. It is known that the great bulk of the actual 9/11 terrorists were Saudi citizens (1 Egyptian, two UAE, 1 Lebanese and 15 Saudis) and they were ordered to attack the United States, again (there had been one unsuccessful attack on the WTC on February 26, 1993, when a car bomb was detonated in the parking garage below the North Tower of the WTC. The 1,500 lb explosive device was intended to knock the North Tower into the South Tower , bringing both towers down and killing thousands of people.) The bomb was badly situated and it killed six people and injured over a thousand. Herein lay the seed for the Rovian casus belli, only this time, a more spectacular attacks needed to be launched to achieve any hoped for results in both supplying a Pearl Harbor-type excuse for war but also a power tool to be used to frighten the mass of the public into terribled obedience to the wishes of a protecting government. There were so many contacts with the Saudi elements that no one could possibly keep track of them but it was obvious to most foreign agencies after the attack that its origins were never in doubt. And to further assist the plot, the Israelis were brought into the fold. Their competent foreign intelligence, the Mossad, was already at work undercover in the United States, spying on anti-Israel Moslim activists so it surprised no one when the Mossad, using Yemini Jews, infiltrated the Atta group in Hollywood, Florida. The incident would be executed by people controlled by bin Ladin but supervised by the Mossad. But it was all very well and good for a trio of highly-placed plotters to scheme inside a relatively secure White House but as the plans were developed and others brought into the execution of it, the chnce for serious leaks became greater. Although the government quickly enlisted the aid of a legion of conspiracy people to cloak their actions with absurd rumors and distracting fictions, there were still many who questioned the attacks but as the years have passed, the subject has grown stale and so grown over by a huge jungle of lies, fictions and confusion that like the earlier Kennedy assassination, it will pass into the oblivion of history. The attacks went off as planned, Bush played the role of savior and in the wake of the attack, fear became the order of the day and fear was constatly being cultivated by the Bush people and harvested at the polls. But the Rove people failed in two areas and it was a failure that eventualy brought down their plans. The Saudi attack that was aborted in the fields of Pennsylvania was intended to crash into the Capitol building when Congress was in session, causing huge casualties and giving Bush the excuse to govern by decree until some vague future time when new elections to replace the dead or crippled members of that body could be held. The second area of failure was the refusal of the senior commanders of the Army to become involved in neo-Fascistic roundups of any dissident citizenry or to run any barbed wire detention centers. By constantly crying about the wolves, the Bush conspirators exceeded their brief and eventually, the public ignored the color coding and the exhortations to use duct tape on windows to prevent radioactive matrial from entering their homes. In short, the plotters could only go so far without eventually enforcing their wishes and the plot, which killed a huge number of people and bankrupted the country, fell apart. But fortunately, so also did the far right Republicans and God willing, we shall not see their like again. Here is a very brief timeline that contains items of interest: July 4-14, 2001: Osama bin Laden receives treatments for kidney disease at the American hospital in Dubai and meets with a CIA official who returns to CIA headquarters on July 15. [Le Figaro, October 31st, 2001] July 5, 2001: The government's top counter-terrorism official, Richard Clarke, states to a group gathered at the White House: "Something really spectacular is going to happen here, and it's going to happen soon." The group included the FAA, the Coast Guard, the FBI, the Secret Service, and the INS. Clarke directs every counter-terrorist office to cancel vacations, defer non-vital travel, put off scheduled exercises and place domestic rapid response teams on much shorter alert. July 26, 2001: Attorney General Ashcroft stops flying commercial airlines due to a threat assessment. [CBS, 7/26/01] Late July 2001: The U.S. and UN ignore warnings from the Taliban foreign minister that bin Laden is planning an imminent huge attack on US soil. The FBI and CIA also fail to take seriously, warnings that Islamic fundamentalists have enrolled in flight schools across the U.S. [Independent, 9/7/02] August 2001: Russian President Vladimir Putin orders Russian intelligence to warn the U.S. government "in the strongest possible terms" of imminent attacks by suicide pilots on airports and government buildings. [MS-NBC interview with Putin, September 15, 2001,] August 6, 2001: The CIA also presents a warning to the President, explicitly concerned with terrorism inside the United States, indicating that bin Laden might be planning to hijack commercial airliners. Actual content of this message has been the subject of considerable debate, with White House officials understandably downplaying its significance. [Time magazine, May 16, 2002; New York Times, May 16, 2002] August 8-23, 2001: Two high ranking Israeli Mossad agents come to Washington to warn the FBI and CIA that up to 200 terrorists have slipped into the U.S. and are planning an imminent major assault in the U.S. Indications point to a highly visible target. [Telegraph, 9/16/01; Los Angeles Times, 9/16/01; “Fox News,” 5/17/02] The Mossad gives the CIA a list of terrorists. A major Israeli spy ring was hard on the heels of at least four members of the 9/11 hijackers, including lead hijacker Mohammed Atta. [BBC, 10/2/01] September 10, 2001: NSA intercepts two messages in Arabic. One message read: “Tomorrow is zero hour,” and the second: “The match begins tomorrow.” [New York Times, August 10, 2002; Reuters, June 19, 2002] On June 19, 2002, CNN reported the contents of these two National Security Agency intercepts. Other news outlets, including the Washington Post, also reported on the intercepts. [New York Times, August 10, 2002] September 10, 2001: A particularly urgent warning was received the night before the attacks, causing some top Pentagon brass to suddenly cancel travel plans for the next morning, apparently because of “sudden security concerns.” [Newsweek, 9/12/2001] “Why that same information was not available to the 266 people who died aboard the four hijacked commercial aircraft may become a hot topic on the Hill." [Newsweek, 9/13/2001] September 11, 2001: General Mahmud of the ISI, a friend of Mohammed Atta, is visiting Washington on behalf of the Taliban. [MS-NBC, Oct. 7, 2001] September 11, 2001: Employees of Odigo, Inc. of Israel, one of the world's largest instant messaging companies, with offices in New York, receives threat warnings of an imminent attack on the WTC less than two hours before the first plane hits the WTC. Law enforcement authorities have gone silent about any investigation of this. Odigo Research and Development offices in Israel are located in the city of Herzliyya, a suburb of Tel Aviv which is the same location as the Institute for Counter Terrorism which breaks early details of insider trading on 9-11. [Ha'aretz, 9/26/2001; Reuters, June 19, 2002] September 13-19, 2001: Members of bin Laden's family are driven or flown under FBI supervision to a secret assembly point in Texas and then to Washington, where they leave the country on a private charter plane when airports reopen three days after the attacks. [New York Times, September 30, 2001] September 19, 2001: The FBI claims there may have been six hijacking teams on the morning of 9/11. [New York Times, 9/19/01; CBS, 9/14/01; Guardian, 10/13/01] Authorities have identified teams that total as many as 50 infiltrators who supported or carried out the strikes. About 40 of the men have been accounted for. [Los Angeles Times, 9/13/01] October 10, 2001: U.S. Ambassador Wendy Chamberlain paid a call on the Pakistani oil minister. A previously abandoned Unocal pipeline from Turkmenistan, across Afghanistan, to the Pakistani coast, for the purpose of selling oil and gas to China, is now back on the table "in view of recent geopolitical developments." [Pakistan, the Frontier Post] September 23, 2006: the French newspaper L'Est Républicain quoted a report from the French secret service (Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure, DGSE) stating that Osama bin Laden had died in Pakistan on 23 August 2006, after contracting a case of typhoid fever that paralyzed his lower limbs. Saudi security services first heard of bin Laden's death on 4 September 2006. The Osama death was reported by the Saudi Arabian secret service to its government, which in turn quickly reported it to the French secret service. It is to be noted, however, that since his death, bin Ladin has released a number of tape recorded interviews that somehow seemed to have strongly supported the Bush administrations’s continued terrorization of the American public. These tapes have been, and are being, made by a CIA-owned firm in Texas. Any educated Arabic person will tell you that while the language is technically correct, it is badly flawed in that no Arab would use such wooden and improbable phrases in his speech. This is not particularly surprising because the CIA is not known for either its intelligence, subtlety or creative ability. A DoD analysis of the ‘bin Ladin tapes’ carries the attached warning. This account is blocked unless one has the entrance codes. It says, basicially, that the tapes are laughable fakes but is careful not to state by whom they are made. YOU ARE ACCESSING A U.S. GOVERNMENT (USG) INFORMATION SYSTEM (IS) THAT IS PROVIDED FOR USG-AUTHORIZED USE ONLY. By using this IS (which includes any device attached to this IS), you consent to the following conditions: The USG routinely intercepts and monitors communications on this IS for purposes including, but not limited to, penetration testing, COMSEC monitoring, network operations and defense, personnel misconduct (PM), law enforcement (LE), and counterintelligence (CI) investigations. At any time, the USG may inspect and seize data stored on this IS. Communications using, or data stored on, this IS are not private, are subject to routine monitoring, interception, and search, and may be disclosed or used for any USG-authorized purpose. This IS includes security measures (e.g., authentication and access controls) to protect USG interests--not for your personal benefit or privacy. Notwithstanding the above, using this IS does not constitute consent to PM, LE or CI investigative searching or monitoring of the content of privileged communications, or work product, related to personal representation or services by attorneys, psychotherapists, or clergy, and their assistants. Such communications and work product are private and confidential. See User Agreement for details. Federal Register: October 9, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 195)] Stamped Mail Over 13 Ounces Must Be Presented at a Retail Service Counter ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: The Postal Service is revising the Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM[reg]) to require all mailpieces weighing more than 13 ounces bearing only postage stamps be presented to a Postal Service employee at a retail service counter in a Post Office\TM\. DATES: Effective Date: January 4, 2010. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: These revisions ensure compliance with safety and security directives as required by the Postal Inspection Service. The Postal Service hereby adopts the following changes to Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM), which is incorporated by reference in the Code of Federal Regulations. Express Mail Next Day and Second Day Delivery items: a. Weighing more than 13 ounces and paid only with postage stamps, must present such items to an employee at a retail service counter at a Postal Service facility.* * * Priority Mail weighing more than 13 ounces bearing only postage stamps as postage may not be deposited into a collection box, Postal Service lobby drop, Automated Postal Center (APC) drop, Postal Service dock, customer mailbox, or other unattended location. These mailpieces are also precluded from pickup service. The sender must present such items to an employee at a retail service counter in a Postal Service facility. The Postal Service will return improperly presented items to the sender for proper entry and acceptance. Parcel Post weighing more than 13 ounces bearing only postage stamps as postage may not be deposited into a collection box, Postal Service lobby drop, Automated Postal Center (APC) drop, Postal Service dock, customer mailbox, or other unattended location. These mailpieces are also precluded from pickup service. The sender must present such items to an employee at a retail service counter in a Postal Service facility. The Postal Service will return improperly presented items to the sender for proper entry and acceptance. Media Mail weighing more than 13 ounces bearing only postage stamps as postage may not be deposited into a collection box, Postal Service lobby drop, Automated Postal Center (APC) drop, Postal Service dock, customer mailbox, or other unattended location. These mailpieces are also precluded from pickup service. The sender must present such items to an employee at a retail service counter in a Postal Service facility. The Postal Service will return improperly presented items to the sender for proper entry and acceptance. Library Mail weighing more than 13 ounces bearing only postage stamps as postage may not be deposited into a collection box, Postal Service lobby drop, Automated Postal Center (APC) drop, Postal Service dock, customer mailbox, or other unattended location. These mailpieces are also precluded from pickup service. The sender must present such items to an employee at a retail service counter in a Postal Service Facility. The Postal Service will return improperly presented items to the sender for proper entry and acceptance. A mailpiece weighing more than 13 ounces bearing only postage stamps as postage may not be deposited into a collection box, Postal Service lobby drop, Automated Postal Center (APC) drop, Postal Service dock, customer mailbox, or other unattended location. These mailpieces are also precluded from pickup service. The sender must present such items to an employee at a retail service counter in a Postal Service Facility. The Postal Service will return improperly presented items to the sender for proper entry and acceptance. Regardless of postage payment method, single-piece Priority Mail and single-piece Package Services weighing more than 13 ounces may not be deposited into a collection box, Postal Service lobby drop, Automated Postal Center (APC) drop, Postal Service dock, customer mailbox, or other unattended location. These mailpieces are also precluded from pickup service. The sender must present such items to an employee at a retail service counter in a Postal Service facility. The Postal Service will return improperly presented items to the sender for proper entry and acceptance * * * * * Russians Praise, GOP Mocks, Obama's Peace Prize October 10, 2009 AP WASHINGTON (AP) -- While Russia's president congratulated President Barack Obama for winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Republicans see the award as so outrageous that they're using it to raise campaign money. Obama won the prize ''for awesomeness,'' says the mocking GOP fundraising letter. Obama's honor shows ''how meaningless a once honorable and respected award has become,'' says the letter, signed by Michael S. Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had a different view. He said the award will encourage further U.S.-Russian cooperation. ''I hope this decision would serve as an additional incentive for our common work to form a new climate in world politics and promote initiatives which are fundamentally important for global security,'' Medvedev said in a letter to Obama. Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro also weighed in. He called the Nobel award a ''positive step,'' although he said it was more a repudiation of former President George W. Bush than a recognition of anything concrete Obama has done. Steele said Obama hasn't accomplished enough to deserve the prize. Numerous Democrats and independents have expressed similar views, although generally in less bombastic terms. Asking for contributions to the RNC of $25 to $1,000, Steele wrote that ''the Democrats and their international leftist allies want America made subservient to the agenda of global redistribution and control. And truly patriotic Americans like you and our Republican Party are the only thing standing in their way.'' 50% Oppose Stricter Gun Control Laws October 5, 2009 Rasmussen Reports Just 39% of Americans now say the United States needs stricter gun control, as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to review the constitutionality of state and local anti-gun laws. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 50% are opposed to stricter gun control laws, and 11% are not sure. In March, 43% favored stricter gun control laws. In previous surveys, voters have been narrowly divided on the question. Men by 23 points oppose stricter gun control laws. Women are evenly divided. Sixty-five percent (65%) of Democrats favor tighter control of guns, but 69% of Republicans and 62% of adults not affiliated with either party disagree. The Supreme Court starts a new term today, and one of the most important cases on its docket looks at whether the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution takes legal precedence over state and local anti-gun laws. Only 20% of adults believe city governments have the right to prevent citizens from owning handguns. Sixty-nine percent (69%) disagree and say city governments do not have that right. Eleven percent (11%) are undecided. Eighty-seven percent (87%) of Republicans, 52% of Democrats and 72% of unaffiliateds say cities do not have the right to ban handgun ownership. Seventy-one percent (71%) of Americans continue to believe that the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right of an average citizen to own a gun. Thirteen percent (13%) do not think gun ownership is a constitutional right. Fifteen percent (15%) aren’t sure. These findings are roughly comparable to a survey in March. Yet, despite these findings, a plurality of Americans (46%) says it is too easy to buy a gun in America. Only 13% say it’s too hard to purchase a firearm. One-out of-three adults (33%) say the level of difficulty is about right. The Supreme Court in June 2008 upheld individual gun ownership when it declared Washington, D.C.’s law banning handguns within city limits as unconstitutional. But because Washington is a federal enclave, the court has now taken on a challenge to Chicago’s gun law to determine the constitutionality of anti-gun measures in all states and localities. Sixty-three percent of voters agreed with the Washington, D.C. decision. The ruling also raised the public’s opinion of the Supreme Court. Fifty-seven percent (57%) of Americans say they have followed news reports about the Supreme Court’s decision to review the constitutionality of state and local gun control laws. Twenty-six percent (26%) say they have been following very closely. Eleven percent (11%) are not following the story at all. The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states, “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” The amendment is part of the Bill of Rights. Gun control advocates have argued that the Second Amendment refers to the arming of a militia for the common defense and is not a guarantee of an individual’s right to own a gun. The National Rifle Association and numerous political leaders, both Democrat and Republican, among others, disagree. Fifty-seven percent (57%) of Americans say gun sales are up in the United States because of a fear of increased government restriction on gun ownership. Seventy-one percent (71%) of Americans believe it is at least somewhat likely that President Obama will seek tougher gun control laws, including 43% who say it is very likely. The gun case will be one of the first major ones new Justice Sonia Sotomayor will tackle as a member of the Supreme Court. The majority of voters (51%) say Sotomayor is a liberal while 29% view her as a moderate. Thirty-one percent (31%) of voters see the current Supreme Court as too liberal, while 20% say it is too conservative. The plurality (42%) says the political balance is about right. But the court this summer enjoyed its highest performance ratings in over two years. White House strips immigration policing powers from Arizona sheriff Sheriff Joe Arpaio has previously been attacked by critics for racial profiling among illegal immigrants October 9, 2009 by Daniel Nasaw in Washington guardian.co.uk A controversial Arizona sheriff known for taking a hard line against illegal immigrants has been stripped of some of his powers in what he described as a political move by the Obama administration. Joe Arpaio, a gruff lawman who styles himself as America's toughest sheriff, has won acclaim from US anti-immigrant forces for his relentless pursuit of mostly Hispanic illegal immigrants in Maricopa county, Arizona, a fast-growing county of 4 million people that is home to Phoenix, the nation's fifth largest city. Arpaio's aggressive tactics include the jailing of illegal immigrants in tent cities surrounded by barbed wire in the middle of Arizona's searingly hot summers, the reduction of meal costs to 20 cents per day, the use of pink jail clothing for men, and chain gangs for women inmates. Arpaio also came in for criticism when he appeared on the Fox reality show Smile: You're Under Arrest. Under a two-year-old agreement with the federal department of homeland security, Arpaio and his deputies had been authorised to enforce federal immigration law by arresting suspected illegal immigrants in the field and by checking the immigration status of people arrested on other offences. But after drawing thousands of complaints and a civil rights investigation from the justice department, Arpaio was this week stripped of his federal authority to make immigration arrests. County attorney Andrew Thomas, one of Arpaio's supporters, condemned the "setback in the fight against illegal immigration". For his part Arpaio has promised to continue chasing illegal immigrants using state laws. In an angry press conference, he called US homeland security officials "liars" and said he would personally drive those caught on the streets to the border if federal officers refused to take arrested illegal immigrants into custody. "I'll take a little trip to the border and turn them over to the border," he said. Arpaio's critics decried his continued plans to arrest illegal immigrants and said the Obama administration should sever all ties with him. The now-rescinded authority to conduct field sweeps of illegal immigrants yielded only about 300 out of the roughly 33,000 total arrests of illegal immigrants since 2007, the Obama administration has done little to curtail Arpaio, said Frank Sharry, executive director of immigration reform advocacy group America's Voice. "He's going to go down in history as a man who terrorised the Latino community for the sake of his own visibility and political popularity," Sharry said. "The fact that the Obama administration would lend any of its legitimacy to any of his activities is surprising and disappointing." Arpaio was first elected sheriff in 1993. "The department of homeland security is making a historic mistake if it continues its relationship with Sheriff Joe Arpaio," said Paco Fabian, spokesman for immigration reform advocacy group America's Voice. "The federal government is lending its full force and legitimacy to a rogue cop certain to go down in history as a serial violator of civil rights and an enemy of the Latino community." An estimated 12 million illegal immigrants live in the US. The federal government is virtually paralysed over how to react, with conservatives like Arpaio calling for the arrest and deportation of illegal immigrants and increased border enforcement. Obama, many Democrats and some Republicans call for a system that will allow most to gain legal status after paying a fine and learning English, but reform efforts in 2006 and 2007 withered under sustained rightwing opposition. More than 60 law enforcement agencies across the country have signed onto the same programme under which local officers are effectively deputised to enforce immigration law. But critics of the programme say it wastes police resources needed to fight street crime, promotes racial profiling of Hispanics, targets peaceful workers, breaks up families and breeds distrust of police among immigrants, who become afraid to report crime for fear they will be asked for immigration papers. U.S. Mystery 'Police' Force Has Small Montana City on Edge October 9, 2009 by Katie Landan Fox News When two brand new, shiny black Mercedes SUVs bearing a "Hardin Police Department" logo drove through the main thoroughfare of Hardin, Mont., last week, people took notice. "How many police forces have Mercedes?" said Charlene Warren, a local business owner who has lived in Hardin for more than half a century. "That threw up a red flag." And speaking of flags, it did not go unnoticed that the emblem on the sides of the SUVs bore a strong resemblance to the Serbian national flag. Furthermore, those "police department" cars were rolling through Hardin, a small southeastern Montana town of 3,600 that just happens not to have a police department. The luxury vehicles that rolled through town belonged to the American Police Force (APF), a California-based security firm that is drafting a contract that will give it control over a $27 million medium-security prison that was built in Hardin more than two years ago, but has never held any prisoners. But that contract is now on hold as the Montana State Attorney General's Office investigates APF and the Big Horn County Sheriff's Department enters preliminary talks about incorporating a real police department in Hardin so a similar episode doesn't occur in the future. At first, Hardin residents were pleased that APF was planning to turn their empty prison into a training facility. Hardin has a double-digit unemployment rate and is desperate for revitalization, and the area was left high and dry last spring when the federal government decided not to use the facility to harbor Guantanamo Bay detainees. Opening the prison would mean jobs. But since the SUV incident, APF's reputability is under scrutiny. "We have covered this story for years now, and for the last month, it’s been one twist and turn from the other" Nick Lough, a reporter at KULR-8 in Billings, Mont., told FOXNews.com. The latest twist: The owner of APF, Michael Hilton, is a convicted felon, including two convictions in grand theft cases, and an alleged con-artist who, according to some sources, utilizes more than 20 aliases. "That is big controversy, is the unknown," said Warren. "There are too many lies." Michael Cohen, a former Secret Service agent named as the would-be operator of the prison, served 14 months in prison for stealing $2,800 from the agency after his conviction in 2004. Cohen told the Associated Press he spoke with Hilton about the position but was not offered the job. Hardin’s Two Rivers Authority Board — an economic development agency — was contacted by APF about a month ago to draft a contract that would hand over control of the prison. But now the board's Web site prominently displays the following words: We welcome anyone to visit our town! There are no commandos in the streets. There is no fence or gate being built around Hardin. People are free to come and go as they please. APF is not running our town or our police force. Residents and concerned citizens now are voicing their opinions on street corners, at town hall meetings and in the “blogosphere.” They are demanding to know who APF's parent company is, what the company plans to do in their town and, finally, what on earth those two Mercedes were doing roaming their streets. Bob van der Valk, contributing writer for the Terry Tribune and editor of the travel website Montanawithkids.com, doesn't think the people of Hardin will let the APF get the contract to run the prison. "I think the people found out that what occurred was an under-the-table deal that shouldn't have happened," he told FOXNews.com. He said he hopes the facility will be turned into a high school to combat school overpopulation in the community. FOXNews.com contacted Hilton's office at APF, but he declined to comment. The company's public relations director Becky Shay, formerly a reporter for the Billings Gazette, also refused to comment. According to one report, Shay fears for her own safety and recently hired her own security team. Residents, bloggers and the media are said to be filling her inbox with their grievances, and there are reports that she has received death threats. "They just can't give us any answers," Warren told FOXNews.com. "People are afraid. This is a good little town, we got a nice people here, and I wouldn't want to see some dishonest person, like this American Police Force, do any harm to our town." "They found us real vulnerable right now," Warren says, "and they are just taking advantage of a good thing." On Top of the World Most climate researchers see the Arctic in color-coded satellite pictures. Fewer go to see it up close. October 9, 2009 by Daniel Stone Newsweek Every 101 minutes or so, a Department of Defense imaging satellite circles the Earth, capturing images from the equator to the polar ice caps. It's that DOD drone (colorfully named the DMSPF-17) that monitors geologic changes, such as the decreasing size of the Arctic and Antarctic ice covers. The images it snaps are the ones most people see of the Earth's two white domes, which have been steadily diminishing for the past decade. But step closer to the Earth—about 250 miles closer—until you're just above the surface, and the picture becomes more vivid. Skimming over the top of the world feels a bit like being on a different planet, according Rick Steiner, a marine conservation researcher at the University of Alaska. For the past two years, Steiner has led research missions flying low over thousands of miles of Arctic seas for a handful of polar climate scientists, some of whom work for the federal government. He times the daylong voyage to coincide with the time of year when sea ice is at a minimum, the exact end of summer melting in mid-September, before the autumn cool begins to refreeze some of the water. Having lived in Alaska for 30 years, Steiner can tell you in personal detail how the minimum has shrunk from year to year. He calls the voyage his annual "bearing witness to the Arctic crisis" trip. The crisis has been mapped out in precise detail in slide shows and research papers, with startling statistics. The past three summers have seen the lowest ice volume ever recorded, according to data released annually by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). The sea-ice minimum in 2007 (1.6 million square miles) was the single lowest year, with nearly 40 percent less ice than the seasonal average recorded over the past three decades. And the problem is only expected to worsen. As the ice melts, it releases highly concentrated carbon and methane that is locked in the permafrost, creating an accelerating warming loop. An additional compounding factor is that dark oceans absorb more of the sun's energy than light-colored ice, which reflects a large portion of it. That means that the more ice melts over the summer, the more open ocean there is, which leads to more absorbed energy and warmer oceans, which means that less ice forms the following winter, which leads to even more open ocean the following year. Early this past summer, researchers thought 2009 would be even worse than 2007 in terms of melting, until a late-arriving wind from the equator brought cool air that prevented even more melting. NSIDC director Mark Serreze calls it a "small blip" on a downward-sloping line. "When you're actually looking out the window and seeing mile after mile of warm ocean water where there used to be sea ice that you once walked around on, it gives you the certainty that something major is going on there," says James Overland, a marine environmental researcher with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, one of the handful of researchers on the flight. The thickness of the ice and water temperatures—which were also measured at disturbingly high levels by Steiner and his team this year—are also measurements you can't make by peering at satellite images. The Antarctic has problems of its own; last month researchers discovered the continent's largest glacier melting four times faster than initially projected. But of the two poles, the Arctic is more volatile. The smallest changes in global climate can affect millions of square miles of open sea there, since it has a smaller ice cover than its South Pole counterpart. It's also a territory of immense interest to the U.S. Just days before President Bush left office this past January, he signed a directive ordering further study of the Arctic region and the natural resources it might offer. "High levels of uncertainty remain concerning the effects of climate change and increased human activity in the Arctic," the directive said, encouraging skeptics who claim that climate change is still a debatable proposition. In Alaska, Steiner was incredulous, and he has since recommended to Obama administration officials to change the directive. (The White House Council on Environmental Quality submitted a report to the president last month highlighting the urgency of Arctic issues.) Possible disagreements about human contribution to global warming notwithstanding, a melting Arctic does bring up questions about sovereignty and national security. Russia already made a play in 2007 to claim the northernmost parts of the globe, with an eye on the valuable oil reserves below. But more generally, less ice means more area for the U.S. Coast Guard to monitor. Rear Adm. Chris Colvin runs the Coast Guard's district office in Juneau, Alaska, and has seen the effect of longer summers and warmer winters in the region. "Our concern is an increase of [human] activity up here, which is definitely the case," says Colvin. Much of that increase, he says, is tourism vessels and oil companies that see dollar signs in the newly accessible ocean and seabed. Shipping vessels may pose a future problem. Transport analysts started calculating in 2006 that with increased melting caused by global warming, ships could save thousands of miles by exchanging equatorial routes for a more direct passage along the northern parts of Asia and North America and down through the Bering Strait. Most of the insurance companies that cover transport vessels aren't yet willing to insure valuable goods passing through dangerous and potentially icy waters, but future melting and longer summers could remove that obstacle, requiring additional military attention in the region. "If ships start passing through [the Bering Strait], we're going to have concerns up there," says Colvin. (That's one reason why the Coast Guard is the leading sponsor of Steiner's annual trip.) While the world awakens to the increasing seriousness of a melting Arctic, Steiner and his colleagues have moved on to the question of how increased Arctic temperatures will affect the rest of the globe. Less ice locked up at the poles means more water in the oceans and higher ocean levels. What that means for the environment—and consequently for the economies and politics—in coastal areas all over the world is still unclear. Effects can also be felt by the critters on the ground. On a good day, with a clear cloud cover, biologists can spot signs of Arctic wildlife from satellite images. On-the-ground censuses have highlighted the dangers posed to Arctic wildlife, most significantly polar bears, who may find themselves stranded with few food options on floating bits of melting ice. For his part, Steiner has seen some changes himself on his annual flights. "Last year we saw about seven polar bears, thousands of walruses, and a handful of seals," he says. This year they saw none. Government estimates suggest that it may take 30 years until the Arctic is ice-free during the summer, although more alarmist voices have set the date as close as 2013. Crunching the numbers and basing his assessment on his team's observations, Steiner foresees a completely ice-free summer within the next decade. By then, he fears, the crisis he sees worsening each year will have turned into a catastrophe. The Afghan Death Toll: October 2009 22 October 12, 2009 by Brian Harring October 1, 2009 The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Spc. Ross E. Vogel, III, 27, of Red Lion, Pa., died Sept. 29 in Kut, Iraq, of injuries suffered from a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 67th Signal Battalion, 35th Signal Brigade, Fort Gordon, Ga. The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation. The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Staff Sgt. Alex French IV, 31, of Milledgeville, Ga., died Sept. 30 in Kwhost, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit using an improvised-explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment, Lawrenceville, Ga. The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died Sept. 29 in Jolo Island, the Philippines, from the detonation of an improvised-explosive device. The soldiers were assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group, Fort Lewis, Wash. Killed were: Sgt. 1st Class Christopher D. Shaw, 37, of Markham, Ill. Staff Sgt. Jack M. Martin III, 26, of Bethany, Okla. October 3, 2009 The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Spc. Russell S. Hercules Jr., 22 of Murfreesboro, Tenn., died Oct. 1 in Wardak province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire He was assigned to the 4^th Battalion, 101^st Aviation Regiment, 159^th Combat Aviation Brigade, 101^st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky. The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Sgt. Ryan C. Adams, 26 of Rhinelander, Wisc., died Oct. 2 in Logar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle using rocket-propelled grenade fire. He was assigned to the 951st Engineer Company (Sapper), Wisconsin Army National Guard, Rhinelander, Wisc. The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Sgt. Roberto D. Sanchez, 24 of Satellite Beach, Fla., died Oct. 1 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1^st Battalion, 75^th Ranger Regiment, Hunter Army Airfield Ga. October 4, 2009 The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died Oct. 2 in Wardak province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when enemy forces attacked their unit using small arms fire. Killed were: Sgt. Aaron M. Smith, 25, of Manhattan, Kan. He was assigned to the 2^nd Battalion, 87^th Infantry Regiment, 3^rd Brigade Combat Team, 10^th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y. Pfc. Brandon A. Owens, 21, of Memphis, Tenn. He was assigned to the 118^th Military Police Company, 503^rd Military Police Battalion, 16^th Military Police Brigade, XVIII Airborne Corps, Fort Bragg, N.C. October 5, 2009 The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Staff Sgt. Thomas D. Rabjohn, 39, of Litchfield Park, Ariz., died Oct. 3 in Wardak province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated during an attempt to disarm it. He was assigned to the 363rd Explosive Ordnance Detachment, Coolidge, Ariz. The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Spc. Paul E. Andersen, 49, of Dowagiac, Mich., died Oct. 1 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his camp using indirect fire. He was assigned to the 855th Quartermaster Company, South Bend, Ind. October 7, 2009 The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Maj. Tad T. Hervas, 48, of Coon Rapids, Minn., died Oct. 6 at Contingency Operating Base Basra, Iraq, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 34th Infantry Division, Rosemont, Minn. The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation. The Department of Defense announced today the death of eight soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died Oct. 3 in Kamdesh, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their contingency outpost with small arms, rocket-propelled grenade and indirect fires. They were assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo. Killed were: Staff Sgt. Vernon W. Martin, 25 of Savannah, Ga. Sgt. Justin T. Gallegos, 27, of Tucson, Ariz. Sgt. Joshua M. Hardt, 24, of Applegate, Calif. Sgt. Joshua J. Kirk, 30, of South Portland, Maine. Sgt. Michael P. Scusa, 22, of Villas, N.J. Spc. Christopher T. Griffin, 24, of Kincheloe, Mich. Spc. Stephan L. Mace, 21, of Lovettsville, Va. Pfc. Kevin C. Thomson, 22, of Reno, Nev. The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Spc. Kevin O. Hill, 23, of Brooklyn, N.Y., died Oct. 4 at Contingency Outpost Dehanna, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit using small arms and indirect fires. He was assigned to the 576th Mobility Augmentation Company, Fort Carson, Colo. Army Releases September Suicide Data The Army today released suicide data for the month of September. Among active-duty soldiers, there were seven potential suicides. One has been confirmed as a suicide, and six are pending determination of the manner of death. For August, the Army reported 11 potential suicides among active-duty soldiers. Since the release of that report, four have been confirmed as suicides and seven remain under investigation. There were 117 reported active-duty Army suicides from January 2009 through September 2009. Of those, 81 have been confirmed, and 36 are pending determination of manner of death. For the same period in 2008, there were 103 suicides among active-duty soldiers. During September 2009, among reserve component soldiers who were not on active duty, there were seven potential suicides. Among that same group, from January 2009 through September 2009, there were 35 confirmed suicides. Twenty-five potential suicides are currently under investigation to determine the manner of death. For the same period in 2008, there were 40 suicides among reserve soldiers who were not on active duty. Over the past year, the Army has engaged in a sustained effort to reduce the rate of suicide within its ranks. This effort has included an Army-wide suicide prevention stand-down and chain teach for every soldier; the implementation of the Army Campaign Plan for Health Promotion, Risk Reduction and Suicide Prevention; the establishment of both a Suicide Prevention Task Force and Suicide Prevention Council; a long-term partnership with the National Institute of Mental Health to carry out the largest ever study of suicide and behavioral health among military personnel; and more than 160 specific improvements to Army suicide prevention policies, doctrine, training and resources. “Whether it’s additional resources, improved training or ensuring those in our Army community can readily identify the warning signs of suicidal behavior, all our efforts often come down to one soldier caring enough about another soldier to step in when they see something wrong, “ said Brig. Gen. Colleen McGuire, Director, Army Suicide Prevention Task Force. “Soldiers will be willing to do that if they know help is available, if they believe there is no stigma attached to asking for that help, and if they are certain that Army leaders remain absolutely committed to the resiliency of our entire Army Family.” Soldiers and families in need of crisis assistance can contact Military OneSource or the Defense Center of Excellence (DCOE) for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury Outreach Center. Trained consultants are available from both organizations 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. The Military OneSource toll-free number for those residing in the continental U.S. is 1-800-342-9647, their Web site address is http://www.militaryonesource.com. Overseas personnel should refer to the Military OneSource Web site for dialing instructions for their specific location. The DCOE Outreach Center can be contacted at 1-866-966-1020, via electronic mail at Resources@DCoEOutreach.org and at http://www.dcoe.health.mil . The Army's most current suicide prevention information is located at http://www.armyg1.army.mil/hr/suicide/default.asp . October 9. 2009 The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Sgt. 1st Class Kenneth W. Westbrook, 41, of Shiprock, N.M., died Oct. 7 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., of wounds suffered Sept. 8 when insurgents attacked his unit in the Ganjigal Valley, Afghanistan, using small arms and indirect fire. He was assigned to the 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan.