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.

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. November 1, 2009: “There has been a great deal of toil and trouble concerning the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. The problem with that backward, tribal country is the fact that we want right of way for an oil pipeline, which we will never get and our beloved CIA is making hundreds of millions of illegal dollars with the opium crops there. And most people do not know that the Taliban was a CIA creation and they are still dealing with each other. The new president and his brother are both CIA paid people and both deal in drugs. The Russians have offered to help us there provided we wipe out the opium fields. Why? Because a flood of heroin is pouring into Russia from Afghanistan opium poppies and  killing many young Russians. Our response to this suggestion? No way. So I am putting up the contents of a long, detailed CIA report on their dealings with the Taliban and also pointing out that there is no al Queda. That’s a CIA term for their computer data base on the Taliban, not a terrorist organization. If the American public had any idea of the filthy tricks the Bush people played on the citizenry, there would be an open revolt, believe me. Well, read these selections from an official CIA report. Read it and weep:

…..(t)he Internet has both plus and minus sides. On the positive side, it can be seen as an integrator of diverse cultures and a rapid way for the business communities, to include international banking, and governments, to keep in constant communication with one another. It has been seen as an effective medium to create a homogenous global community. On the other hand, however, it also has been the means by which terrorist groups are able to keep in communication with each other and keep ahead of interdiction attempts…….. There is no question that the Saudi terrorists who planned the September 11 attacks on American targets made extensive use of the Internet to plan their attacks. It is noted here that American and foreign counter-intelligence agencies were able to “see” what the Atta people were up to but as they often used private codes, an exact interpretation of their specific meanings often led to speculations. For instance, Atta, the chief Saudi terrorist, reported from his headquarters in Florida that

            ”The semester begins in three more weeks. We’ve obtained 19 confirmations for studies in the faculty of law, the faculty of urban planning, the faculty of fine arts, and the faculty of engineering.” 

            Even the Israeli Mossad agents working with the Atta group were initially unaware of the meaning of this message. It was discovered later that the so-called facuilty of law, once thought to be the Supreme Court building turned out to be the Capitol building which the Atta people intended to attack while Congress was in session.

            Because Muslim terrorists have used, and are using, the Internet to keep in contact with each other and to plan acts of violence, we have taken a page from their book and set up our own specific sites, aimed at gathering in various terrorist organizations. Chief among these masked sites are:

·        aloswa.org on which we air our own bin Laden messages and calls for fatwas

·        almuhrajiroun.com which we called for fundamentalists to assassinate the then=president of Pakistan, Musharraf. The latter was proving to be too difficult for us to work with and was more interested in taking US funds for his personal gain rather than fighting the Taliban

·        alneda.com on which we sent out encrypted and misleading messages to terrorist groups and posted pro-Muslim propaganda.

·        7hj.7hj.com on which we showed interested people how to conduct computer attacks by a means which would at once reveal them to our own experts.

            It should be necessary to point out that we are not using the tern ‘al Qaeda’ in this report because this means ‘the base’ or, in actuality, the computer base which we have been keeping on the Taliban and its activities since its inception. Al Qaeda has been used as a blanket term for any Muslim extremist group and does not apply to any specific entity. While we have been successful in convincing the public that this group carried out the September 11 attacks, in fact this attack was carried out by Saudi religious extremists……. The Afghanistan-based Taliban had nothing to do with the attack and, because of our ongoing relationship with them, would never have attempted such actions without our prior knowledge and/or consent. …….

            The Internet is gradually replacing the print media in the United States, and elsewhere and because of its diversity, is impossible to control. What can be done, and is being done, is to use the Internet to confuse potential enemies, gain their confidence so they can be exposed or penetrated and to present issues to the public in a manner that we wish. The Internet serves as an excellent, inhouse controlled, source of political and intelligence disinformation.”

            In following excerpts, we will learn the methodology by which the CIA produces disinformation and disseminates it to the public, bypassing the media. Ed.

Debunk the myth of Al Qaeda

Its size and reach have been blown out of proportion

By Kimberly A. McCloud and Adam Dolnik

MONTEREY, CALIF. – News reports indicate that Al Qaeda, ousted from its camps in Afghanistan, is now on the loose, spreading terror around the world.

Several recent attacks have been claimed by or attributed to the terrorist network, including an assault on a Jewish synagogue in Tunisia, multiple explosions in Yemen last month (including one at the US Embassy compound), attacks in the Philippines, and a fire in the Milan metro.

But is Al Qaeda really behind all these attacks? Analysts cite differences in modus operandi compared with alleged past attacks, as well as more probable perpetrators in those recent incidents. Still, Al Qaeda is likely to be the top suspect in future incidents. Victims, including states, may even blame Al Qaeda for political reasons, namely to gain US sympathy and support.

Would-be terrorists the world over may be inspired to perpetrate attacks, seeking to feel they are part of what they perceive as a large, powerful terrorist movement. The public perception that Al Qaeda is running wild is likely to increase fear, especially among Americans.

Such concern, when translated into a heightened vigilance about one's surroundings – particularly in light of this week's warnings about future attacks in the US – may not be a completely bad thing. But unchecked public fear, taken to an extreme, could immobilize citizens, jeopardize civil liberties, and lead America into too many fights abroad.

The United States and its allies in the war on terrorism must defuse the widespread image of Al Qaeda as a ubiquitous, super-organized terror network and call it as it is: a loose collection of groups and individuals that doesn't even refer to itself as "Al Qaeda." Most of the affiliated groups have distinct goals within their own countries or regions, and pose little direct threat to the United States. Washington must also be careful not to imply that any attack anywhere is by definition, or likely, the work of Al Qaeda.

This phenomenon of "exaggerated enemy" is not new.

In 1983, three spectacular suicide bombings in Beirut were claimed by the previously unknown "Islamic Jihad." Numerous subsequent attacks were attributed to the group. And while the intelligence community concluded that "Islamic Jihad" was a nom de guerre for the Lebanese Hizbullah, it was clear that many of the subsequent attacks were unrelated to the militant Shiia organization.

Still, the campaign succeeded in creating the image of an invincible force, and "Islamic Jihad" became a symbol to follow – much as Al Qaeda is today.

The US must be careful about its use of the term "Al Qaeda." Meaning "the base" in Arabic, it originally referred to an Afghan operational base for the mujahideen during the Soviet occupation in the '80s.

In the current context of Osama bin Laden's terror network, this name was imposed externally by Western officials and media sources. Mr. bin Laden has, in fact, never mentioned "Al Qaeda" publicly.

In the quest to define the enemy, the US and its allies have helped to blow it out of proportion. Posters and matchbooks featuring bin Laden's face and the reward for his capture in a dozen languages transformed this little-known "jihadist" into a household name and, in some places, a symbol of heroic defiance.

By committing itself to eradicating terrorism, the Bush administration has put itself in a difficult position, especially if "Al Qaeda" begins popping up all over the map. While the US government must be diligent in protecting its citizens, it cannot try to extinguish every terrorist flame that appears without further encouraging the phenomenon as well as exhausting its resources. America must choose its battles wisely.

Resisting immediate attribution of attacks to Al Qaeda is the first step in defusing the enemy. While the Bush administration has not necessarily been blaming all post-9/11 attacks on Al Qaeda, it has passively allowed others to claim themselves as Al Qaeda or to blame it.

By allowing Al Qaeda to become the top brand name of international terrorism, Washington has packaged the "enemy" into something with a structure, a leader, and a main area of operation.

An invisible, amorphous enemy may be even more frightening. But we must be honest with the facts in order to construct a viable long-term strategy to combat terrorism.

• Kimberly A. McCloud and Adam Dolnik are research associates at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies.

Al-Qaeda's origins and links

Al-Qaeda, meaning "the base", was created in 1989 as Soviet forces withdrew from Afghanistan and Osama Bin Laden and his colleagues began looking for new jihads.

The organisation grew out of the network of Arab volunteers who had gone to Afghanistan in the 1980s to fight under the banner of Islam against Soviet Communism.

During the anti-Soviet jihad Bin Laden and his fighters received American and Saudi funding. Some analysts believe Bin Laden himself had security training from the CIA

The "Arab Afghans", as they became known, were battle-hardened and highly motivated.

In the early 1990s Al-Qaeda operated in Sudan. After 1996 its headquarters and about a dozen training camps moved to Afghanistan, where Bin Laden forged a close relationship with the Taleban.

The US campaign in Afghanistan starting in late 2001 dispersed the organisation and drove it underground as its personnel were attacked and its bases and training camps destroyed.

Cells across the world

The organisation is thought to operate in 40 to 50 countries, not only in the Middle East and Asia but in North America and Europe.

In western Europe there have been known or suspected cells in London, Hamburg, Milan and Madrid. These have been important centres for recruitment, fundraising and planning operations.

For training, the group favours lawless areas where it can operate freely and in secret.

These are believed to have included Somalia, Yemen and Chechnya, as well as mountainous areas of Afghanistan.

There have been reports of a secret training camp on one of the islands of Indonesia.

Unlike the tightly-knit groups of the past, such as the Red Brigades in Italy or the Abu Nidal group in the Middle East, al-Qaeda is loosely knit. It operates across continents as a chain of interlocking networks.

Individual groups or cells appear to have a high degree of autonomy, raising their own money, often through petty crime, and making contact with other groups only when necessary.

Defining al-Qaeda?

This loose connection between groups has raised a question of definition. When we talk about al-Qaeda do we refer to an actual organisation or are we now talking about something closer to an idea? Attacks like the May 2003 bombings in Riyadh and the attack on Israeli tourists in Mombasa in 2002 are widely attributed to al-Qaeda. But were these attacks in any way planned or financed or organised by Bin Laden or the organisation he is still believed to lead?

Some analysts have suggested that the word al-Qaeda is now used to refer to a variety of groups connected by little more than shared aims, ideals and methods.

We do however know that several radical groups are or have been formally affiliated with al-Qaeda. The most important is the radical wing of the Egyptian group Islamic Jihad whose members took refuge in Afghanistan and merged with al-Qaeda.

Its leader is Ayman al-Zawahri, a ruthless Egyptian believed to be the brains behind al-Qaeda and the mastermind of many of its most infamous operations.

These include the attacks on two US embassies in Africa in 1998 and the 11 September attacks against New York and Washington.

There are also believed to be links with:

·                     Militant Kashmiri groups

·                     The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, or IMU

·                     The Abu Sayyaf group in the Philippines;

·                     The GIA, or Armed Islamic Group, in Algeria and its radical offshoot known as the Salafist group, or GSPC.

'War on terror'

Western police forces and intelligence agencies have had some successes in breaking up al-Qaeda cells, closing down front companies and freezing assets as part of the "war on terror".

Some of its top leaders have been killed or captured, and interrogations of some members at Guantanamo Bay have further weakened the organisation.

However, uprooting the organisation in its entirety has been a highly complex and frustrating task.

In a recent report on Iraq and the war on terror, the Oxford Research Group noted that despite the detention of many of its members, al-Qaeda "remains vibrant and effective".

Most frustratingly, the fate and whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden himself is still a deep mystery.

Terror Goes Online

But so far, the real world is safe from cyberattack

by Steven Cherry

            The fact that terrorists make extensive use of the Internet comes as little surprise. But, according to Gabriel Weimann, a professor of communications at the University of Haifa, in Mt. Carmel, Israel, our greatest fear along those lines—the threat of cyberterrorism—is greatly overstated. For terrorists, as for the rest of us, the Internet is primarily a marketplace of ideas unlike any that has existed before, says Weimann.

Weimann recently spent a year as a visiting fellow at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C. In March 2004, the institute issued his report, "How Modern Terrorism Uses the Internet." His new book, Terror on the Internet: The New Arena, the New Challenges , is due to be published early this year.

Weimann says that the odds of a terrorist using the virtual world to attack key physical infrastructure—by hacking into the computers controlling the power grid, for example—are remote.

Importantly, critical networks are inaccessible from the Internet, Weimann notes. Nuclear weapons and other sensitive military systems, as well as the computer systems of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, are "air-gapped," that is, there is no physical connection between these government computers and the Internet, making them immune to cyberattack. As we continue to network everything, it will be important to maintain these air gaps.

"Systems in the private sector tend to be less well protected, but they are far from defenseless, and nightmarish tales of their vulnerability tend to be largely apocryphal," says Weimann. However, he adds, "as a new, more computer-savvy generation of terrorists comes of age, the danger seems set to increase."

But terrorists are using the Internet, often in the same ways that we all do. They search for information about transportation, infrastructure, maps, shipping activity, economic data, "and even about counterterrorism measures," says Weimann. He notes that in a 2003 speech, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld quoted a captured Al Qaeda training manual as saying, "Using public sources openly and without resorting to illegal means, it is possible to gather at least 80 percent of all information required about the enemy."

In his March 2004 report, Weimann wrote, "One captured Al Qaeda computer contained engineering and structural features of a dam, which had been downloaded from the Internet and which would enable Al Qaeda engineers and planners to simulate catastrophic failures. In other captured computers, U.S. investigators found evidence that Al Qaeda operators spent time on sites that offer software and programming instructions for the digital switches that run power, water, transportation, and communications grids."

Yet when Weimann looked more deeply into cyberterrorism, he found the threat to be generally less than people think. "In some ways, it's exaggerated," he said in a phone interview. "There hasn't been a single case to date of [a terrorist] using the net to launch a cyberattack."

Weimann says terrorists also use the Internet for fundraising and recruitment. "Before 9/11, they used it very openly," he notes. "We began studying terrorist Web sites in 1998. Back then you could find the bank account numbers they wanted people to donate to, everything. After 9/11, the terrorists moved to different ways, using charity sites where not all the money goes to terrorism. Now it's a challenge to find terrorist sites disguised as charity sites. Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hesbollah, and other groups use the Internet to blend legitimate and terrorist purposes."

The Net can also be helpful in recruiting operatives. Weimann points to the case of Ziyad Khalil, who was recruited online and became a key Al Qaeda operative in the United States. As documented in a 2003 book, Black Ice: The Invisible Threat of CyberTerrorism , by Dan Verton, Khalil bought satellite telephones, computers, and other electronic surveillance technologies for Al Qaeda.

Then there's the Internet's utility for planning and coordination. There are any number of sophisticated tools for collaboration, plus the obvious ones of e-mail, instant messaging, and chat rooms. It's easy to build a new, temporary identity and post entries from public Internet kiosks and cafes. There are plenty of ways to hide or encrypt messages, or terrorists can just speak obliquely.

Weimann says that Mohammed Atta's final message to his fellow 9/11 terrorists was: "The semester begins in three more weeks. We've obtained 19 confirmations for studies in the faculty of law, the faculty of urban planning, the faculty of fine arts, and the faculty of engineering." Weimann believes the talk of various "faculties" referred to specific facilities , such as the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. Sifting the plans from the chatter is perhaps law enforcement's greatest task.

But terrorists are also using the Internet in new and different ways. The Internet is a terrific way for terrorists to get their message out, Weimann says, uncensored and unadulterated by journalists. Traditional media have thresholds that have to be met before they will report something. Images and sources have to be vetted for authenticity and appropriateness. "On the Internet," he says, "terrorists can show what they want. If they want to show a beheading, they can."

"What we see," he continued, "is a blending of the high-tech and low-tech. There is nothing more low-tech than a beheading…. But then they post the videos online; they inform the entire world and get immediate psychological impact."

Weimann, applying his early training in psychology, sees this impact as the terrorists' single greatest tool. "The damage isn't just to the beheaded person, it's to the population as a whole," he says. "So they don't need to launch cyberattacks right now."

Global jump in swine flu deaths  

October 30, 2009

BBC News

The number of swine flu deaths reported worldwide has jumped by more than 700 in a week, latest World Health Organization figures reveal.

More than 5,700 swine flu deaths were reported by 25 October, compared to nearly 5,000 the week before.

The biggest rise was in the Americas where 4,175 deaths have been reported, up 636 from the week before.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has shut all schools and banned public meetings for three weeks after its first swine flu death.

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said the measures were to prevent the spread of the H1N1 virus.

Mrs Tymoshenko said there would also be restrictions on what she called non-urgent travel between different parts of Ukraine.

Cases 'unreported'

The latest WHO figures showed there had been 440,000 confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus worldwide.

But the organisation said that as many countries have stopped counting individual cases, the actual number is likely to be significantly higher.

The BBC's Imogen Foulkes says the WHO has warned for months that as winter sets in, the northern hemisphere can expect swine flu cases to rise. Now that appears to be happening.

The virus emerged in Mexico in April and was declared a global flu pandemic on 11 June.

"In the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere, influenza transmission continues to intensify, marking an unusually early start to winter influenza season in some countries," said the WHO's latest update.

Statistics showed fatal cases in Europe climbed to at least 281, while those in Asia-Pacific rose to 1,070.

In a separate statement, the WHO said that experts meeting this week had concluded that a single dose of swine flu vaccine was sufficient to immunise adults and children over 10.

The Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (Sage) said that countries that had made vaccinating children a priority could administer them a single dose to ensure that as many as possible are immunised quickly.

It said that while more data on children between six months and 10 years was needed "the priority should be to give them at least one dose of vaccine now, and to cover as many of them as possible". 

Third party challenges in NJ, NY are warning sign

November 1, 2009

by Beth Fouhy

Associated Press

NEW YORK - Third party candidates could upend two major races in off-year elections Tuesday, and the success of those candidacies is a warning shot fired at both major parties by voters angry at government and disillusioned by politics as usual.

In the New Jersey governor's race, independent Chris Daggett has gone from afterthought to player in a contest pitting the unpopular incumbent, Democrat Jon Corzine, against Republican Chris Christie.

In New York's 23rd Congressional district, where longtime Republican Rep. John McHugh stepped down to be Army secretary, prominent national Republicans have snubbed GOP candidate Dede Scozzafava, a state assemblywoman who supports abortion rights and gay marriage, in favor of Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman.

Daggett is not expected to win the New Jersey contest, and the GOP split in upstate New York could throw the race to Democrat Bill Owens.

But the impact of those candidacies on the high-profile contests points to an anti-incumbent, anti-establishment sentiment that could be a prevailing theme in the 2010 congressional elections and beyond.

"What it says is the public is looking for less self-interested parties and candidates who can reflect the needs of a very frustrated public," said Douglas Astolfi, a history professor at Florida's St. Leo University. "We have two wars and we're in a recession that neither party seems to address in any positive way. There's a deep sense that government has abandoned the common man. People are frustrated and angry."

Both parties ignore such sentiment at their peril in 2010 and perhaps into the 2012 presidential race.

In Senate contests from Florida and Kentucky to New Hampshire next year, conservatives furious at the Republican establishment are mounting primary challenges against more mainstream candidates favored by the national party.

On the other side, Democratic strategists worry that progressives, disgusted by the big money bank bailout and disillusioned with President Barack Obama's lack of fight on issues such as a government-run health insurance plan, might keep some people from voting. That could cost Democrats seats up and down the ballot.

Political operatives are keeping an eye on independent voters - an important and growing group that often decides elections. Will these voters send a signal to politicians Tuesday as well or will they stay home and leave it to the more ideologically driven base voters in both parties?

That appears to be happening in the New York race, where strategists believe Scozzafava has faded and it's now a contest between Hoffman and Owens.

Sensing opportunity, ambitious conservatives have jumped in to endorse Hoffman. The most prominent is Sarah Palin, the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee and a potential high-profile contender for the White House in 2012.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, also looking at 2012, has announced his support for Hoffman. So has Chuck DeVore, a conservative California assemblyman hoping to run in a U.S. Senate primary against Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett Packard executive backed by national Republicans to take on the Democratic incumbent, Barbara Boxer.

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich has endorsed Scozzafava, drawing the enmity of conservative bloggers scoffing at the possibility of a Gingrich presidential run in 2012.

Hoffman's rise has infuriated leaders of New York's Republican Party, who insist Scozzafava is a good fit for the district. That district favored Obama last year, but is one of the few still held by Republicans in the Northeast.

"What risks being lost in the midst of all this is who will be the best candidate to represent the people of that district," said the state party director, Tom Basile.

In New Jersey, Daggett, a businessman and former Environmental Protection Agency official, has appealed to voters who are turned off by both Corzine and Christie and fed up with the candidates' campaign bloodbath. Daggett was widely believed to be the winner of a televised candidate debate and has been endorsed by The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., the state's largest newspaper.

John Weingart, associate director of Rutgers University's Eagleton Institute of Politics, said Daggett's candidacy had succeeded in giving disillusioned voters a competent and credible alternative to Corzine and Christie.

But Weingart said lack of money, the institutional obstacles to a third party candidacy and a growing awareness among voters of the ideological differences between Christie and Corzine would cause Daggett's campaign to stall.

"To vote for an independent candidate, you have to believe either that the person can win or that there is no difference you care about between the Democratic and the Republican candidate," Weingart said.

A Quinnipiac Poll released Wednesday found Corzine ahead of Christie by a 43-38 percent margin with 13 percent for Daggett and 5 percent undecided. But a majority of voters said they had an unfavorable view of both Corzine and Christie.

In the 1992 presidential race, money wasn't an issue for billionaire businessman Ross Perot, whose rise was powered by the same kind of populist anger brewing today. Perot vastly altered the dynamic of that contest, running as an independent and winning 19 percent of the vote.

Democrat Bill Clinton was the beneficiary of that three-way contest, taking away the presidency from George H.W. Bush with just a plurality of the vote. Clinton did so in part by adding a populist flair to his message, drawing voters who had been attracted to Perot.

Detachment from the major parties some of the success of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, another billionaire who appealed to a city craving for competence in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.,

Bloomberg, who ran as a Republican that year, announced in 2007 that he would switch parties and become and independent, leading to speculation he would run for president at some point. Bloomberg is expected to cruise to a third term on Election Day.

Agencies: Glitch with foreign SS numbers is fixed

November 2, 2009

by Holly Ramer 

Associated Press

            CONCORD, N.H. - Two federal agencies that put Americans at risk for identity-theft-like problems have fixed a glitch that linked U.S. Social Security numbers to those issued by three foreign countries, officials said.

            The problem, which mostly affects Maine and New Hampshire, involves three Pacific Island nations that receive disaster loans, grants and other aid from the United States in exchange for military privileges in the region.

            The U.S. Department of Agriculture, one of the agencies that issues the aid, has replaced all the Social Security numbers of affected borrowers in its loan processing system with new characters that don't match any U.S. numbers, an agency spokesman told The Associated Press, which first reported the problem in August.

            The Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Republic of Palau all have their own Social Security systems, but the USDA and several other agencies have treated numbers issued by the three nations as if they were U.S. numbers, regardless of whether they were already in use.

            That can create headaches similar to identity theft when identities become linked in the eyes of lenders or creditors. In one case, when a Micronesian man defaulted on a $7,306 loan from the U.S. Small Business Administration, collection agencies sought out this Associated Press reporter.

            Though the man's Social Security number had only eight digits, the Business Administration computer automatically added a zero to the front, turning it into a nine-digit number that matched the reporter's.

            Though the USDA has known for years that numbers were getting mixed up, it made no changes to its software or procedures until recently.

            The Small Business Administration also has taken steps to protect Americans whose numbers may match aid recipients from the three nations and will consider writing letters to credit bureaus on behalf of those who have been affected, a spokeswoman said Monday.

            "The SBA has put in place a review process that will protect individuals with unusual Social Security numbers from being incorrectly penalized by the credit bureaus," said spokeswoman Carol Chastang.

            The new process will also flag potential matches going forward, she said.

            The Agriculture Department's fix also will apply to future loan recipients, according to a spokesman for Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, D-N.H., who looked into the issue after the AP report. Rep. Paul Hodes, D-N.H., also wrote a letter urging the head of the U.S. Social Security Administration to investigate.

            The Department of Education explicitly tells aid applicants from the three nations to skip the section of the application that requires a Social Security number.

            There's no way to tell how many Social Security numbers other agencies have mixed up. But the USDA, SBA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency have given grants and loans to more than 13,000 people in the three island nations since 2000.

            FEMA, however, no longer offers direct financial aid in the region, and the agency that took over its disaster aid duties doesn't collect Social Security numbers from grant applicants.

ALL BUSINESS: Credit-card rates up before new law

October 31, 2009

by Rachel Beck 

Associated Press

NEW YORK - Have you checked the interest rates on your credit cards lately? Odds are they're going way up.

That's because credit-card companies are rushing to raise rates and tack on extra fees ahead of a law slated to take effect Feb. 22 that is supposed to limit such moves in the future. In some cases, rates are doubling to as high as 30 percent or more, even for people who pay their bills on time.

The current maneuvering by the card companies is serving up another blow to American consumers who are already struggling with their finances. U.S. lawmakers let that happen by giving the card companies nine months to prepare for the rules.

"The delay allowed them to restock their arsenal with weapons," said Lloyd Constantine, an attorney who has spent 22 years litigating cases tied to the credit-card industry and is the author of the new book "Priceless: The Case that Brought Down The Visa/Mastercard Bank Cartel."

It's hardly surprising that banks and other credit-card issuers would use a grace period afforded to them by Congress to their advantage.

The changes required under the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act, or CARD Act, could go a long way to stop deceptive practices in the card industry. But before that happens, card issuers are grabbing what they can from the millions of Americans who are their customers.

Constantine is one of them. The interest rate on his Chase Visa card doubled to 17 percent earlier this month. He got a notice announcing the change and couldn't figure out why. Constantine, who has a high net worth, rarely uses the card, and when he does he pays his bill on time.

Come late February, the CARD Act will prohibit lenders from raising rates on outstanding card balances. In other words, if you have a balance of $1,000 and the company wants to change your rate, it only applies to new purchases. It wouldn't be retroactive on old debt.

Card issuers also won't be able to change the terms of a contract so long as the cardholder makes a minimum payment on time.

The rules ban a practice known as "universal default." That's where lenders raise a cardholder's interest rates when that person misses payments to other creditors or takes on new debt like a mortgage or a car loan.

The card companies lobbied Congress hard for the delay. They argued they needed the time to overhaul their computer systems, craft new sales' pitches and rewrite disclosure documents to be sent to customers.

While all that may be true, the facts indicate that they are using the time for something else.

Even though interest rates set by the Federal Reserve are at historic lows - which has let banks and other issuers borrow cheaply - cards have become more costly for Americans, according to research released Wednesday from the Pew Charitable Trusts' Safe Credit Cards Project.

The nonprofit organization found that credit-card companies boosted interest rates on new cards by an average of 20 percent from January to July. That data doesn't include increases over the last four months when many lenders stepped up their pace of raising rates and fees.

The study reviewed nearly 400 cards offered by the largest 12 U.S. card issuers. It found nearly all contracts still allow banks to raise interest rates on outstanding balances. Card companies also have added or raised fees for things like balance transfers, cash advances and overdraft protection.

Representatives of the card business say the increases reflect the realities of the recession, not an attempt to gouge customers. The weak economy means a greater risk that all cardholders could potentially default, said Scott Talbott, senior vice president of government affairs for the Financial Services Roundtable, an industry group.

Banks and other card issuers have been seeing more late payments, and industry forecasts call for at least 10 percent of cardholders to default on their unpaid bills.

Bank of America's annualized default rate in September was 14.25 percent on its credit cards, while payments more than 30 days past due were about 7.5 percent, according to LowCards.com. Capital One's annualized default rate in September neared 10 percent, while 5.38 percent of cardholders were delinquent.

Now U.S. lawmakers are waking up to what they let the card companies do.

The House Financial Services Committee recently introduced legislation to move up the effective date for the credit card law from February to Dec. 1. But Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, while acknowledging that change would benefit consumers, rejected the idea. He said it would force the Fed to implement provisions of the new law without adequate public comment and could lead to "unintended consequences."

There have been bills introduced in both the House and Senate to immediately freeze interest rates on existing balances for the estimated 700 million credit cards in circulation.

"We worked long and hard to enact the safeguards included in the Credit CARD Act," Sen. Chris Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut who had introduced the bill in 2004, 2005 and 2008 before successfully passing last spring, said in a statement. "But as soon as it was signed into law, credit card companies were looking for ways to get around the protections this Congress and the American people demanded."

His spokesman declined further comment about why Congress is being so aggressive with its actions now. Too bad they couldn't see this coming a lot earlier.

---

Rachel Beck is the national business columnist for The Associated Press. Write to her at rbeck(at)ap.org

US drone strikes may break international law: UN

October 28, 2009 

AFP 

US drone strikes against suspected terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan could be breaking international laws against summary executions, the UN's top investigator of such crimes said.

"The problem with the United States is that it is making an increased use of drones/Predators (which are) particularly prominently used now in relation to Pakistan and Afghanistan," UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions Philip Alston told a press conference.

"My concern is that drones/Predators are being operated in a framework which may well violate international humanitarian law and international human rights law," he said.

US strikes with remote-controlled aircraft against Al-Qaeda and Taliban targets in Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan have often resulted in civilian deaths and drawn bitter criticism from local populations.

"The onus is really on the United States government to reveal more about the ways in which it makes sure that arbitrary extrajudicial executions aren't in fact being carried out through the use of these weapons," he added.

Alston said he presented a report on the matter to the UN General Assembly.

He urged the United States to be more forthright about how and when it uses drone aircraft, something about which the US Defense Department and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) usually keep silent.

"We need the United States to be more up front and say, 'OK, we're willing to discuss some aspects of this program,' otherwise you have the really problematic bottom line that the CIA is running a program that is killing significant numbers of people and there is absolutely no accountability in terms of the relevant international laws," Alston said.

Since August 2008, around 70 strikes by unmanned aircraft have killed close to 600 people in northwestern Pakistan.

"I would like to know the legal basis upon which the United States is operating, in other words... who is running the program, what accountability mechanisms are in place in relation to that," Alston said.

"Secondly, what precautions the United States is taking to ensure that these weapons are used strictly for purposes consistent with international humanitarian law.

"Third, what sort of review mechanism is there to evaluate when these weapons have been used? Those are the issues I'd like to see addressed," the UN official said.

Multiyear Arctic ice is effectively gone: expert

October 29, 2009

by David Ljunggren  

OTTAWA, Oct. 29, 2009 (Reuters) — The multiyear ice covering the Arctic Ocean has effectively vanished, a startling development that will make it easier to open up polar shipping routes, an Arctic expert said on Thursday. Vast sheets of impenetrable multiyear ice, which can reach up to 80 meters (260 feet) thick, have for centuries blocked the path of ships seeking a quick short cut through the fabled Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. They also ruled out the idea of sailing across the top of the world.

But David Barber, Canada's Research Chair in Arctic System Science at the University of Manitoba, said the ice was melting at an extraordinarily fast rate.

"We are almost out of multiyear sea ice in the northern hemisphere," he said in a presentation in Parliament. The little that remains is jammed up against Canada's Arctic archipelago, far from potential shipping routes.

Scientists link higher Arctic temperatures and melting sea ice to the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming.

Barber spoke shortly after returning from an expedition that sought -- and largely failed to find -- a huge multiyear ice pack that should have been in the Beaufort Sea off the Canadian coastal town of Tuktoyaktuk.

Instead, his ice breaker found hundreds of miles of what he called "rotten ice" -- 50-cm (20-inch) thin layers of fresh ice covering small chunks of older ice.

"I've never seen anything like this in my 30 years of working in the high Arctic ... it was very dramatic," he said.

"From a practical perspective, if you want to ship across the pole, you're concerned about multiyear sea ice. You're not concerned about this rotten stuff we were doing 13 knots through. It's easy to navigate through."

Scientists have fretted for decades about the pace at which the Arctic ice sheets are shrinking. U.S. data shows the 2009 ice cover was the third-lowest on record, after 2007 and 2008.

An increasing number of experts feel the North Pole will be ice free in summer by 2030 at the latest, for the first time in a million years.

"I would argue that, from a practical perspective, we almost have a seasonally ice-free Arctic now, because multiyear sea ice is the barrier to the use and development of the Arctic," said Barber.

Fresh first-year ice always forms in the Arctic in the winter, when temperatures plunge far below freezing and the North Pole is not exposed to the sun.

Shipping companies are already looking to benefit from warming waters. This year two German cargo ships successfully navigated from South Korea along Russia's northern Siberia coast without the help of icebreakers.

The Arctic is warming up three times more quickly than the rest of the Earth, in part because of the reflectivity, or the albedo feedback effect, of ice.

As more and more ice melts, larger expanses of darker sea water are exposed. These absorb more sunlight than the ice and cause the water to heat up more quickly, thereby melting more ice.

Barber said the ice was now being melted both by rays from the sun as well as from below by the warmer water.

Scientists are also seeing more cyclones, which pick up force as they absorb heat from the warmer water. The cyclones help generate waves that break up ice sheets and also dump large amounts of snow, which has an insulating effect and prevents the ice sheets from thickening.

After a long search, Barber's ice breaker finally found a 16-km (10-mile) wide floe of multiyear ice that was around 6 to 8 meters (20-26 feet) thick. But as the crew watched, the floe was hit by a series of waves, and disintegrated in five minutes.

"The Arctic is an early indicator of what we can expect at the global scale as we move through the next few decades ... So we should be paying attention to this very carefully," Barber said.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Rob Wilson)

Port City Pushes Back Against Washington's Tightening Flood Insurance Definitions

September 29, 2009

by Evan Lehmann

New York Times

PORTLAND, Maine -- The ocean is slowly rising to meet this city's wooden lobster wharfs. As area seas lick up the old log pilings, warming waters invite hurricanes and new predatory fish into the nation's northern gulf. But these are relatively distant threats when compared with a storm brewing in Washington, D.C., where federal experts are redrawing the nation's flood maps that define insurance coverage eligibility. It's the political climate that's causing city and state officials to hunker down in opposition.

Here, for example, more accurate federal flood insurance maps for the city's harbor would shift the city's stretch of piers into a new classification that could experience higher waves and more damage. That would end the city's ambitious pier-top development plans and threaten the fishing fleet, officials worry.

The shift means that construction of new buildings would be effectively prohibited on the sturdy plank piers, which lobstermen have shared for years with restaurants, office space, even some condominiums.

Existing structures would also face a grim future. They could be rebuilt to half of their current value if a hurricane rakes them into the ocean. That concerns city officials, who worry the wharfs could slip into disrepair if pier owners see little economic reason to maintain them, prompting memories of a dark period of harbor dilapidation in the 1970s.

"We think this designation is extreme. It goes too far," said Penny St. Louis Littell, director of the city's planning department. "Our harbor has not had that kind of damage."

Many communities are facing economic development challenges as the Federal Emergency Management Agency uses new technologies and sharpened science to update floodplain maps. Plane-mounted lasers are capturing the terrain below with much more precision, and updated computer models account for rising risk of floods associated with stronger hurricanes.

Wave velocity can be inconvenient

Often, the result is a larger floodplain. More homes and business are considered vulnerable. That can complicate development projects -- or prohibit them entirely. That move is generally applauded by environmental groups, which believe the federal government has encouraged construction along coastlines vulnerable to climate change through overly cheap public insurance programs.

FEMA, for its part, is following orders from Congress. The remapping is meant to save lives, prevent damage and reduce the National Flood Insurance Program's huge exposure to loss.

The proposed maps for Portland would designate the harbor a "V Zone," where winds and waves can act in tandem to tear a building down. The piers currently fall within the relatively lenient "A Zone," which requires new buildings to be slightly raised.

"

We follow the science," said one FEMA official involved in the process. "And the science doesn't always take us to places that are convenient."

The sea near Portland has risen about 8 inches since 1912. Greenhouse gas emissions appear to be hastening that rate. Ocean temperatures are warming more quickly than in the past, having risen about 2 degrees Fahrenheit since 1970. Water expands as a result, and the "rate of sea-level rise has accelerated in recent decades," according to a study released this year by the University of Maine.

"V Zone" is short for velocity zone, one of the most dangerous areas identified by FEMA. Wind-driven waves are apt to rise 3 feet before smashing into structures. The result is bleak.

"The forces involved in V Zone flooding would topple almost any building or do substantial structural damage," said David Conrad, an expert on the flood insurance program with the National Wildlife Federation. "That's why it's critical to locate where those areas are."

Mansions in the dunes? Not at this port

In this case, though, Portland was misidentified, officials and residents insist.

"Our company is over 200 years old, and there's no documented history [of 3-foot waves causing damage]," said Charlie Poole, whose family owns the Union Wharf, a sprawling concrete pier where a shirtless man brushed weeds from wire lobster traps recently. "We're trying to have FEMA understand."

St. Louis Littell, the city's planner, says the agency is treating Portland as if it's a coastal plain, not a fishing port in a sheltered harbor. City and state officials are pressing FEMA to abandon the proposed map and do more research, such as placing a tidal gauge in the harbor for a year.

"Portland Harbor is not your mansions in the sand dunes. It's an economic engine," St. Louis Littell said. "Can I say that a catastrophic storm won't come into Portland Harbor? No. But I can say it hasn't happened in the last 100 years."

The city has a powerful bodyguard backing its opposition. Maine Sen. Susan Collins, the top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, which oversees FEMA, wrote a letter last month to the agency's administrator, Craig Fugate, to reaffirm the city's position that the map is "inaccurate."

Collins also said that FEMA's policy requiring cities to pay for an engineering study to rebut the government's findings is "troubling." "It should not be Portland's responsibility to shoulder the financial burdens of correcting FEMA's mistakes," she wrote.

A Senate aide said the office is arranging a series of meetings between city and FEMA officials to bridge the impasse. The agency recently delayed a 90-day public comment period on the proposed map after it failed to properly advertise the period.

Fixing one threat and creating another

FEMA emphasizes its use of science to reach its conclusions. The agency could face criticism if it shifts its position under political pressure, though observers think that's unlikely to occur.

"There are often disputes over maps, but the way those get worked out is in formal proceedings," said Conrad of the National Wildlife Federation. "If mapping just became political, that would lead to the total breakdown of the hazard identification system -- something that should be avoided at all costs."

Yet as the government responds to emerging natural hazards, it has the potential effect of causing a different type of trauma: one that's man-made.

If Portland is designated a V Zone, the fishing fleet there could suffer. Private pier owners have taken advantage of the city's multiple-use zoning rules to build commercial buildings over the water. That revenue allows them to charge lower rents to lobstermen, who use the piers to tie up their boats, store piles of traps and sell the crustaceans.

City officials worry that the fishing industry could become trapped in a whirlpool of costs.

That's what David MacVane, 75, whose family has fished these waters for decades, has tried to avoid. He was fixing old traps one day recently instead of buying new ones, bending U-nails around the sea-scarred frame to seize the wire sides in place. Bait is placed in the trap's "kitchen," and the lobster becomes caught in its "parlor" as it tries to leave.

White-haired and quick-tongued, the tanned fisherman quipped that many on these piers are late in paying their bills. Then again, the federal government is none too quick in doing its thing, either, he said.

"We'll be gone before that happens," MacVane said of FEMA applying the new maps.

Visit Mexico and Die! Fifteen shot dead at Mexico ranch

October 31, 2009

BBC News

            Fifteen people have been killed on a remote ranch in northern Mexico, with a prominent union leader among the dead.

            The body of Margarito Montes, an organiser of agricultural workers, was among those found riddled with bullet holes in southern Sonora state.

            Correspondents say the killings bear the hallmarks of drug gang murders, but the link has not officially been made.

            More than 15,000 people have died in drug-related violence since a concerted push against drug gangs began in 2006.

            President Felipe Calderon has so far deployed some 45,000 extra security forces in key areas across Mexico in a bid to tackle the cartels.

            Correspondents say farmers are often caught up in drug violence, by being paid or coerced to grow marijuana and opium poppies

The Afghan/Iraq Death Toll: November 3

November 2, 2009

by Brian Harring

November 2, 2009

                The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

                        Spc. Adrian L. Avila, 19, of Opelika, Ala., died Oct. 29 at Khabari Crossing, Kuwait, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related accident.   He was assigned to the 1343rd Chemical Company, 151st Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear Battalion, 115th Fires Brigade of the Alabama Army National Guard, in Fort Payne, Ala.

            The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation.

            The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

                Pfc. Lukas C. Hopper, 20, of Merced, Calif., died Oct. 30, southeast of Karadah, Iraq, of injuries sustained during a vehicle roll-over. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.

                The circumstances surrounding the accident are under investigation.

            The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

                Spc. Christopher M. Cooper, 28, of Oceanside, Calif., died Oct. 30 in Babil province, Iraq, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 28th Infantry, 172nd Infantry Brigade, Schweinfurt, Germany.

                The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation.

Enjoy the warmth while it lasts

October 31, 2009
by Lawrence Solomon
 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195916-Enjoy-the-warmth-while-it-lasts

Thank your lucky stars to be alive on Earth at this time. Our planet is usually in a deep freeze. The last million years have cycled through Ice Ages that last about 100,000 years each, with warmer slivers of about 10,000 years in between.

            We are in-betweeners, and just barely - we live in (gasp!) year 10,000 or so after the end of the last ice age. But for our good fortune, we might have been born in the next Ice Age.

            Our luck is even better than that. Those 10,000-year warm spells aren't all cosy-warm. They include brutal Little Ice Ages such as the 500-year-long Little Ice Age that started about 600 years ago. Fortunately, we weren't around during its fiercest periods when Finland lost one-third of its population, Iceland half, and most of Canada became uninhabitable - even the Inuit fled. While the cold spells within the 10,000 year warm spells aren't as brutal as a Little Ice Age, they can nevertheless make us huddle in gloom, such as the period in history from about 400 AD to 900 AD, which we know as the Dark Ages. We've lucked out twice, escaping the cold spells within the warm spells, making us inbetweeners within the inbetween periods. How good is that?

            We aren't alone in having been blessed by good weather. About 2000 years ago, around the time of Caesar and Christ, temperatures were also gloriously warm, some say much warmer than those we've experienced in recent decades. That period - the centuries immediately before and after Caesar and Christ - are known as the Roman Warm Period, a time of wealth and accomplishment when the warmer weather filled granaries and extended grape and olive growing regions to lands that had previously been unarable.

            Another period of unusual warmth came about 1000 years after the Roman Warm Period, during the centuries before and after the year 1000, in what is known as the Medieval Warm Period. In this period, again warmer than the present time, the world shucked off the insularity of the Dark Ages to allow civilization to once again blossom. England, then positively balmy, became a grape-growing region. In the North Atlantic, the Arctic sea ice released its grip over Greenland, making this vast island hospitable for Viking settlers. In the Canadian Rockies, majestic forests - trees larger than those of today - thrived before their decimation by the glaciers that came in with the Little Ice Age.

            Another 1000 years and we come to our time, known to climatologists as the Modern Warm Period. What a great time of technological and cultural advancement we've known, one of unprecedented prosperity, human longevity, and human comfort. For a brief period in the 1970s it appeared to some scientists that the climate that had abetted our prosperity had turned - this was the fear of global cooling that then made headlines. Though many now mock those fears of climate cooling, the scientists were eminent and the science was sound - after all, given Earth's history through the eons, and the passage of 10,000 years since the last ice age, it was hardly outlandish to believe that time of warmth was up.

            It wasn't then - the decades after the 1970s have been about as good as it gets. But it could be now. In fact, some of the same scientists who in the 1970s warned of a new cold spell still believe it could be imminent. Other eminent scientists with compelling new evidence have recently joined them in predicting the end of our Modern Warm Period. They and others note that the warming of the planet stopped 11 years ago and that the planet has begun to cool.

If a new Dark Age does come, it could be rapid, marked by plunging temperatures and extreme weather events. Such was the transition from the Roman Warm Period to the Dark Ages and from the Medieval Warm Period to the Little Ice Age. To date, we have seen no plunging temperatures, no uncharacteristically extreme weather.

            If we are living on borrowed time, as the history of the world would suggest, this reprieve would be but one more blessing to count. We should enjoy the warmth while we can, and hope that it persists so that the world our children and grandchildren inherit will be no less warm and welcoming.

            Lawrence Solomon is executive director of Energy Probe and Urban Renaissance Institute and author of The Deniers: The world-renowned scientists who stood up against global warming hysteria, political persecution, and fraud.

Lawrence can be reached at LawrenceSolomon@nextcity.com