No one has more tinfoil than the Pentagon.

[Minstrel Boy]

You think something is crazy? Can't be done? Defies nature? Plum "kooky"?

They're working on it.

And they have trillions of unaudited dollars to try to prove you wrong.

Secretary of Defense William Cohen, in 1997, on seismic weapons:
"Others are engaging even in an eco-type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves.... So there are plenty of ingenious minds out there that are at work finding ways in which they can wreak terror upon other nations. It's real, and that's the reason why we have to intensify our efforts, and that's why this is so important."

Weather modification:

In The Times of London for November 23, 2000, Dr. Rosalie Bertell confirms that "US military scientists are working on weather systems as a potential weapon. The methods include the enhancing of storms and the diverting of vapor rivers in the Earth's atmosphere to produce targeted droughts or floods."

Another example, this time from a 1996 Air Force research paper entitled Weather As a Force Multiplier, which called for an examination of "the concepts, capabilities, and technologies the United States will need to remain the dominant air and space force in the future":

US aerospace forces can "own the weather" by capitalizing on emerging technologies and focusing development of those technologies to war-fighting applications. Such a capability offers the war fighter tools to shape the battlespace in ways never before possible. It provides opportunities to impact operations across the full spectrum of conflict and is pertinent to all possible futures. The purpose of this paper is to outline a strategy for the use of a future weather-modification system to achieve military objectives rather than to provide a detailed technical road map.

Remote viewing:

STAR GATE was one of a number of "remote viewing programs" conducted under a variety of code names, including SUN STREAK, GRILL FRAME, and CENTER LANE by DIA and INSCOM, and SCANATE by CIA. These efforts were initiated to assess foreign programs in the field; contract for basic research into the the phenomenon; and to evaluate controlled remote viewing as an intelligence tool. The program consisted of two separate activities. An operational unit employed remote viewers to train and perform remote viewing intelligence-gathering. The research program was maintained separately from the operational unit.

By 1995 the program had conducted several hundred intelligence collection projects involving thousands of remote viewing sessions.

Notable successes were said to be "eight martini" results, so-called because the remote viewing data were so mind-boggling that everyone has to go out and drink eight martinis to recover. Reported intelligence gathering successes included:

Joe McMoneagle, a retired Special Project Intelligence Officer for SSPD, SSD, and 902d MI Group, claims to have left Stargate in 1984 with a Legion of Merit Award for providing information on 150 targets that were unavailable from other sources.

A "remote viewer" was tasked to locate a Soviet Tu-95 bomber which had crashed somewhere in Africa, which he allegedly did within several miles of the actual wreckage.

In September 1979 the National Security Council staff asked about a Soviet submarine under construction. The remote viewer reported that a very large, new submarine with 18-20 missile launch tubes and a "large flat area" at the aft end would be launched in 100 days. Two subs, one with 24 launch tubes and the other with 20 launch tubes and a large flat aft deck, were reportedly sighted in 120 days.


Um - kill with a stare and walk through walls?

Ronson began his journey into the US army’s heart of cerebral darkness in London, where he got a tip from Uri Geller - the psychic famed for bending spoons on TV in the 1970s. "Under Clinton, the nuttiness was at the fringes but the dynamic changed when the Bushes got into power and it felt like the nuttiness was now at the core of things," Ronson tells me at his Soho club. "So I started asking around and then I heard about remote viewers and psychic spies and, right here on the roof terrace in this building, Uri Geller told me that he’d been ‘re-activated’."

I ask why the US military might have brought Geller back in from the cold. The simple answer is that Geller once belonged to an unofficial unit of psychic spies, formed in the 1970s to read the future and conduct experiments into the supernatural for the US military. Geller’s tip led Ronson to Glenn Wheaton, a retired sergeant and former Special Forces psychic spy who confirmed that the military funded this unofficial unit. There was more to the psychics, however, than trying to "remotely access" Soviet weapons plans or predict China’s next move. They were looking at new forms of warfare, including walking through walls, adopting a cloak of invisibility, even stopping an animal’s heartbeat by staring at it.

Wheaton told Ronson about a "goat lab" where the staring took place and this led him to General Stubblebine III, the army’s chief of intelligence in the 1980s. The General is a big fan of Geller and in Ronson’s documentary lays out a whole trayful of twisted cutlery as evidence of his faith. Stubblebine, says Ronson, was so convinced about these ideas that he spent several weeks trying to conjure up a mental state that would enable him to walk through walls. He never succeeded, but became a powerful advocate of New Age thought.

Ronson is smiling across the table as we discuss the debleated goats he discovered at an army base in Fort Mead, North Carolina, but his story has the darkest of undertones. "It felt as if I was really finding this stuff out for the first time," he says. "No-one knows about the goats. They’re completely new and the guy who told me immediately regretted it."


And how about this...

When Paul Vallely, now senior military analyst for FoxNews, was the Deputy Commanding General, US Army, Pacific, he co-authored a military paper titled From Psyop to Mindwar. Here's an excerpt:

"For the mind to believe in its own decisions, it must feel that it made those decisions without coercion. Coercive measures used by the operative, consequently, must not be detectable by ordinary means. There is no need to resort to mind-weakening drugs such as those explored by the CIA; in fact the exposure of a single such method would do unacceptable damage to MindWar's reputation for truth. Existing PSYOP identifies purely-sociological factors which suggest appropriate idioms for messages. Doctrine in this area is highly developed, and the task is basically one of assembling and maintaining individuals and teams with enough expertise and experience to apply the doctrine effectively. This, however, is only the sociological dimension of target receptiveness measures. There are some purely natural conditions under which minds may become more or less receptive to ideas, and MindWar should take full advantage of such phenomena as atmospheric electromagnetic activity, air ionization, and extremely low frequency waves."

Are we crazy, are we kooky, are we embarrassing for simply throwing their remarks back in their faces?

[atommom]

1. Hmm. Should we let the NYT and Faux News know about the seismic

weapons? Surely that would be right up their alley...

[frylock]

2. prohibition of military or any hostile use of environmental modification

Convention on the prohibition of military or any hostile use of environmental modification techniques, 10 December 1976.

The States Parties to this Convention,

Guided by the interest of consolidating peace, and wishing to contribute to the cause of halting the arms race, and of bringing about general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control, and of saving mankind from the danger of using new means of warefare,

Determined to continue negotiations with a view to achieving effective progress toward further measures in the field of disarmament,

Recognizing that scientific and technical advances may open new possibilities with respect to modification of the environment,

Recalling the Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, adopted at Stockholm on 16 June 1972,

Realizing that the use of environmental modification techniques for peaceful purposes could improve the interrelationship of man and nature and contribute to the preservation and improvement of the environment for the benefit of present and future generations,

Recognizing, however, that military or any other hostile use of such techniques could have effects extremely harmful to human welfare,

Desiring to prohibit effectively military or any other hostile use of environmental modification techniques in order to eliminate the dangers to mankind from such use, and affirming their willingness to work towards the achievement of this objective,

Desiring also to contribute to the strengthening of trust among nations and to the further improvement of the international situation in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations,

Have agreed as follows:


ARTICLE I

1. Each State Party to this Convention undertakes not to engage in military or any other hostile use of environmental modification techniques having widespread, longlasting or severe effects as the means of destruction, damage or injury to any other State Party.

2. Each State Party to this Convention undertakes not to assist, encourage or induce any State, group of States or international organization to engage in activities contrary to the provisions of paragraph 1 of this article.


ARTICLE II

As used in article I, the term "environmental modification techniques" refers to any technique for changing - through the deliberate manipulation of natural processes - the dynamics, composition or structure of the Earth, including its biota, lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere, or of outer space.


ARTICLE III

1. The provisions of this Convention shall not hinder the use of environmental modification techniques for peaceful purposes and shall be without prejudice to the generally recognized principles and applicable rules of international law concerning such use.

2. The States Parties to this Convention undertake to facilitate, and have the right to participate in, the fullest possible exchange of scientific and technological information on the use of environmental modification techniques for peaceful purposes. States Parties in a position to do so shall contribute, alone or together with other States or international organizations, to international economic and scientific co-operation in the preservation, improvement and peaceful utilization of the environment, with due consideration for the needs of the developing areas of the world.


ARTICLE IV

Each State Party to this Convention undertakes to take any measures it considers necessary in accordance with its constitutional processes to prohibit and prevent any activity in violation of the provisions of the Convention anywhere under its jurisdiction or control.


ARTICLE V

1. The States Parties to this Convention undertake to consult one another and to co-operate in solving any problems which may arise in relation to the objectives of, or in the application of the provisions of, the Convention. Consultation and co-operation pursuant to this article may also be undertaken through appropriate international procedures within the framework of the United Nations and in accordance with its Charter. These international procedures may include the services of appropriate international organizations, as well as of a Consultative Committee of Experts as provided for in paragraph 2 of this article.

2. For the purposes set forth in paragraph 1 of this article, the Depositary shall, within one month of the receipt of a request from any State Party to this Convention, convene a Consultative Committee of Experts. Any State Party may appoint an expert to the Committee whose functions and rules of procedure are set out in the annex, which constitutes an integral part of this Convention. The Committee shall transmit to the Depositary a summary of its findings of fact, incorporating all views and information presented to the Committee during its proceedings, The Depositary shall distribute the summary to all States Parties.

3. Any State Party to this Convention which has reason to believe that any other State Party is acting in breach of obligations deriving from the provisions of the Convention may lodge a complaint with the Security Council of the United Nations. Such a complaint should include all relevant information as well as all possible evidence supporting its validity.

4. Each State Party to this Convention undertakes to cooperate in carrying out any investigation which the Security Council may initiate, in accordance with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations, on the basis of the complaint received by the Council. The Security Council shall inform the States Parties of the results of the investigation.

5. Each State Party to this Convention undertakes to provide or support assistance, in accordance with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations, to any State Party which so requests, if the Security Council decides that such party has been harmed or is likely to be harmed as a result of violation of the Convention.


ARTICLE VI

1. Any State Party to this Convention may propose amendments to the Convention. The text of any proposed amendment shall be submitted to the Depositary, who shall promptly circulate it to all States Parties.

2. An amendment shall enter into force for all States Parties to this Convention which have accepted it, upon the deposit with the Depositary of instruments of acceptance by a majority of States Parties. Thereafter it shall enter into force for any remaining State Party on the date of deposit of its instrument of acceptance.


ARTICLE VII

This Convention shall be of unlimited duration.


ARTICLE VIII

1. Five years after the entry into force of this Convention, a conference of the States Parties to the Convention shall be convened by the Depositary at Geneva, Switzerland. The conference shall review the operation of the Convention with a view to ensuring that its purposes and provisions are being realized, and shall in particular examine the effectiveness of the provisions of paragraph 1 of article I in eliminating the dangers of military or any other hostile use of environmental modification techniques.

2. At intervals of not less than five years thereafter, a majority of the States Parties to this Convention may obtain, by submitting a proposal to this effect to the Depositary, the convening of a conference with the same objectives.

3. If no conference has been convened pursuant to paragraph 2 of this article within ten years following the conclusion of a previous conference, the Depositary shall solicit the views of all States Parties to this Convention concerning the convening of such a conference. If one third or ten of the States Parties, whichever number is less, respond affirmatively, the Depositary shall take immediate steps to convene the conference.


ARTICLE IX

1. This Convention shall be open to all States for signature. Any State which does not sign the Convention before its entry into force in accordance with paragraph 3 of this article may accede to it at any time.

2. This Convention shall be subject to ratification by signatory States. Instruments of ratification or accession shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

3. This Convention shall enter into force upon the deposit of instruments of ratification by twenty Governments of accordance with paragraph 2 of this article.

4. For those States whose instruments of ratification or accession are deposited after the entry into force of this Convention, it shall enter into force on the date of the deposit of their instruments of ratification or accession.

5. The Depositary shall promptly inform all signatory and acceding States of the date of each signature, the date of deposit of each instrument of ratification or accession and the date of the entry into force of this Convention and of any amendments thereto, as well as the receipt of other notices.

6. This Convention shall be registered by the Depositary in accordance with Aricle 102 of the Charter of the United Nations.


ARTICLE X

This Convention, of which the Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish texts are equally authentic, shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, who shall send duly certified copies thereof to the Governments of the signatory and acceding States.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the undersigned, being duly authorized thereto, have signed this Convention.

Done at Geneva, on the 18 day of May 1977


Annex to the Convention


Consultative Committee of Experts

1. The Consultative Committee of Experts shall undertake to make appropriate findings of fact and provide expert views relevant to any problem raised pursuant to paragraph 1 of article V of this Convention by the State Party requesting the convening of the Committee.

2. The work of the Consultative Committee of Experts shall be organized in such a way as to permit it to perform the functions set forth in paragraph 1 of this annex. The Committee shall decide procedural questions relative to the organization of its work, where possible by consensus, but otherwise by a majority of those present and voting. There shall be no voting on matters of substance.

3. The Depositary or his representative shall serve as the Chairman of the Committee.

4. Each expert may be assisted at meetings by one or more advisers.

5. Each expert shall have the right, through the Chairman, to request from States, and from international organizations, such information and assistance as the expert considers desirable for the accomplishment of the Committee's work.


Understandings regarding the Convention

It is the understanding of the Committee that, for the purposes of this Convention, the terms "widespread",
"long-lasting" and "severe" shall be interpreted as follows:

a) "widespread": encompassing an area on the scale of several hundred square kilometres;
b)"long-lasting": lasting for a period of months, or approximately a season;
c) "severe": involving serious or significant disruption or harm to human life, natural and economic resources or other assets.

It is further understood that the interpretation set forth above is intended exclusively for this Convention and is not intended to prejudice the interpretation of the same or similar terms if used in connexion with any other international agreement.


Understanding relating to article II

It is the understanding of the Committee that the following examples are illustrative of phenomena that could be caused by the use of environmental modification techniques as
defined in article II of the Convention: earthquakes; tsunamis; an upset in the ecological balance of a region; changes in weather patterns (clouds, precipitation, cyclones of various types and tornadic storms); changes in climate patterns; changes in ocean currents; changes in the state of the ozone layer; and changes in the state of the ionosphere.

It is further understood that all the phenomena listed above, when produced by a military or any other hostile use of environmental modification techiques, would result, or could reasonably be expected to result, in widespread, long-lasting or severe destruction, damage or injury. Thus, military or any other hostile use of environmental modification techniques as defined in article II, so as to cause those phenomena as a means of destruction, damage or injury to another State Party, would be prohibited.

It is recognized, moreover, that the list of examples set out above is not exhaustive. Other phenomena which could result from the use of environmental modification techniques as defined in article II could also be appropriately included. The absence of such phenomena from the list does not in any way imply that the undertaking contained in article I would not be applicable to those phenomena, provided the criteria set out in that article were met.


Understanding relating to article III

It is the understanding of the Committee that this Convention does not deal with the question whether or not a given use of environmental modification techniques for peaceful purposes is in accordance with generally recognized principles and applicable rules of international law.


Understanding relating to article VIII

It is the understanding of the Committee that a proposal to amend the Convention may also be considered at any conference of Parties held pursuant to article VIII. It is further understood that any proposed amendment that is intended for such consideration should, if possible, be submitted to the Depositary no less than 90 days before the commencement of the conference.

Note: These Understandings are not incorporated into the Convention but are part of the negotiating record and were included in the report transmitted by the Conference of the Committee on Disarmament to the United Nations General Assembly in September 1976 (Report of the Conference of the Committee on Disarmament, Volume I, General Assembly Official records: Thirty-first session, Supplement No. 27 (A/31/27), New York, United Nations, 1976, pp. 91-92).

http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/52d68d14de6160e0c12563da005fdb1b/1cf69ae06e664558c125641e00528931?OpenDocument

[bpilgrim]

13. why would they need a rule if it wasn't possible to mess with mothernature

good post :toast:

peace

[frylock]

29. yep

:scared:

[oblivious]

3. Yep. Crazy. Tinfoil. Kooky. The NYT says it is, so it must be.

So the Secretary of Defence said 7 years ago that people are engaged in a kind of eco-terrorism to set off earthquakes and volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves and yet it is kooky for DU members to talk about it!!!!!!!!!

This is not just sad. It's dangerous. The same technique that forced the rest of the media to self-censor is working here.

[bloom]

4. that is what I think, also

when there are bills in congress about it, the CIA talking about it yet we can't so we don't look like kooks? If we don't talk about it - who will?

[Karenina]

5. No accountability?

"And they have trillions of unaudited dollars to try to prove you wrong."

Don't mind me, I think I'll just keep asking questions, even if they're dumb ones. ;-)

It's interesting to observe how upset and downright ornery some become when their view of what may or may not be within the realm of possibility is challenged. :shrug:

[laundry_queen]

37. What you said is very important:

"This is not just sad. It's dangerous. The same technique that forced the rest of the media to self-censor is working here."

Bingo.

[seemslikeadream]

6. CAN YOU FEEL THE SILENCE?

[MaraJade]

53. Yup. . .

nothing at all from the right but the sound of crickets chirpin'. . .

[Minstrel Boy]

7. Environmental Warfare and US Foreign Policy

In 2002 the website globalresearch.ca reported that the Russian State Duma's International Affairs and Defence Committee expressed concern that "Under the HAARP program the USA is creating new integral geophysical weapons that may influence the near-Earth medium with high-frequency radio waves…the significance of this qualitative leap could be compared to the transition from cold steel to firearms, or from conventional weapons to nuclear weapons." The deputies demanded an international ban on large-scale geophysical experiments of this sort and sent the appeal to President Vladimir Putin, news outlets, scientific groups, the UN and others. The article went on to say that the HAARP program "will create weapons capable of breaking radio communication lines and equipment installed on spaceships and rockets, provoke serious accidents in electricity networks and in oil and gas pipelines and have a negative impact on the mental health of people populating entire regions." (10)

Dr. Nicholas Begich, co-author of the book Angels Don’t Play This HAARP, depicts HAARP as "a super-powerful radio wave beaming technology that lifts areas of the ionosphere by focusing a beam on them and then heating them. Electromagnetic waves then bounce back onto earth and penetrate everything - living and dead." This ability allows for better communication with submarines and wide-area Earth-penetrating tomography (similar to radar) that can be used to locate underground missile sites, bunkers and oil reserves. Through his research he has come to the conclusion that HAARP has the potential to jam global communication systems, change weather patterns over large areas, interfere with wildlife migration patterns and negatively affect human health. It is also capable of potentially triggering targeted floods, droughts, hurricanes and earthquakes. (11)

Dr. Rosalie Bertell, author of Planet Earth: The Latest Weapon of War and founder of the International Institute of Concern for Public Health, while writing on the background of HAARP says, "It would be rash to assume that HAARP is an isolated experiment which would not be expanded. It is related to fifty years of intensive and increasingly destructive programs to understand and control the upper atmosphere… It would be rash not to associate HAARP with the space laboratory construction which is separately being planned by the United States…The ability of the HAARP/Spacelab/rocket combination to deliver very large amount of energy, comparable to a nuclear bomb, anywhere on earth via laser and particle beams, are frightening…The project is likely to be "sold" to the public as a space shield against incoming weapons, or, for the more gullible, a device for repairing the ozone layer." (12)

Michel Chossudovsky, professor of economics at the University of Ottawa and Director of the Center for Research on Globalization, says that "there are very clear statements by the US Air Force to the effect that weather modification technology is available, HAARP is fully operational and could be used in actually military situations. It is evident weather warfare does constitute an instrument of the Air Force, they even identify the scenarios of its use." He said his interest in the topic was sparked by the fact that it is possible to change climate and disrupt electricity over large areas of the Earth, effectively destabilizing portions of the globe and paralysing national economies. This can be done without the enemy even knowing the source of it. The health and economic prosperity of entire regions could potentially be devastated through climatic manipulations without the deployment of a single troop or the firing of any munitions. It is naïve to assume that those who ordered the development of the nuclear bomb would not want total control over this technology. Chossudovsky says HAARP can act as a "weapon of mass destruction" because it can destroy industry, infrastructure, agriculture and cause loss of life. He questions whether HAARP should be used at all since it has "global and environmental implications" and because it affects the electromagnetic field of the Earth. (13)
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/GIL401A.html

[democracyindanger]

8. Keep on shoveling

Using an out of context Cohen quote that was the basis for a deleted thread is freakin' brilliant, too.

[Minstrel Boy]

9. will do.

Context:

Q: Let me ask you specifically about last week's scare here in Washington, and what we might have learned from how prepared we are to deal with that (inaudible), at B'nai Brith.

A: Well, it points out the nature of the threat. It turned out to be a false threat under the circumstances. But as we've learned in the intelligence community, we had something called -- and we have James Woolsey here to perhaps even address this question about phantom moles. The mere fear that there is a mole within an agency can set off a chain reaction and a hunt for that particular mole which can paralyze the agency for weeks and months and years even, in a search. The same thing is true about just the false scare of a threat of using some kind of a chemical weapon or a biological one. There are some reports, for example, that some countries have been trying to construct something like an Ebola Virus, and that would be a very dangerous phenomenon, to say the least. Alvin Toeffler has written about this in terms of some scientists in their laboratories trying to devise certain types of pathogens that would be ethnic specific so that they could just eliminate certain ethnic groups and races; and others are designing some sort of engineering, some sort of insects that can destroy specific crops. Others are engaging even in an eco- type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves.

So there are plenty of ingenious minds out there that are at work finding ways in which they can wreak terror upon other nations. It's real, and that's the reason why we have to intensify our efforts, and that's why this is so important.

[democracyindanger]

10. Heh. Yeah.

Nevermind that Cohen's talking about FALSE THREATS, and as part of his list of what sorts of FALSE THREATS they're dealing with are supervillain earthquake machines.

Good fucking grief.

[oblivious]

11. And you certainly took 'false threats' out of context didn't you.

Good grief indeed.

[democracyindanger]

12. LMAO

Appropriate handle.

[oblivious]

15. Yours too, given your attempt to silence legitimate discussion.

[democracyindanger]

16. legitimate

for people dangerously out of touch with reality

[seemslikeadream]

25. Reality? Who is out of touch?

Bush Pushes Plan For Space Weapons
Proposes Boost For Missile Shield
$2.4 Trillion Budget Outlined
By Charles Aldinger and Jim Wolf
Reuters News Agency

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- U.S. President George W. Bush is planning to put the first weapons in space despite broad international opposition, budget papers sent yesterday to the American Congress showed.

Bush's $2.4 trillion (U.S.) spending plans for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 include an unspecified sum for developing and testing "advanced, lightweight, space-based (missile) interceptor components," the Pentagon's Missile Defence Agency said.

In its budget overview, the agency said it was seeking $47 million to start "technology development" of such weapons and others that could be phased into a multi-layered U.S. missile shield starting in January, 2012.

In the two years thereafter, the Pentagon aims to base a handful of missile interceptors in orbit for testing, the agency said.

Any such setup, whether space-based lasers or interceptor rockets in orbit, could give the United States the means to attack enemy satellites as well as incoming warheads.

The 2005 budget is the first to set aside funds to start developing the kind of weapons former U.S. president Ronald Reagan had in mind when he called for a space-based Strategic Defence Initiative in 1983.

Critics decried Reagan's vision as "Star Wars" for fear it would launch an arms race in space.

Bush proposed a $401.7 billion defence budget for 2005, and the White House said he was likely to seek up to $50 billion more for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The budget would increase U.S. military spending by 7 per cent over the current year.

And it would steadily boost spending to $487.8 billion in five years despite growing budget deficits.

In addition to the deficit issue, the budget is certain to stir bitter debate in Congress over Bush's call to boost funding for missile defence by $1.2 billion to $10.2 billion next year.

It also would nearly double current funding to modernize the army and increase spending on unmanned spy planes for use in Iraq and to help fight what Bush calls the war on terrorism.


Democrats and some U.S. allies have criticized the plan to quickly begin deploying a limited anti-missile shield, warning it has not been adequately tested.

Democrats also criticized Bush's plans to slash funding for scores of U.S. government programs.

Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved.

http://www.thestar.ca/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type
1&c=Article&cid=1075763410028&call_page=TS_World&call_pageid=968332188854
&call_pagepath=News/World&pubid=968163964505&StarSource=email

[democracyindanger]

26. You should

start a new thread when you want to change the subject.

[seemslikeadream]

30. I did not change the subject - trillions of unaudited dollars

$2.3 TRILLION

Bush stands firm on plan for missile defense

By Jim Wolf, Reuters | December 17, 2004

WASHINGTON -- President Bush remains intent on deploying a multibillion-dollar shield as an "important deterrent" against ballistic missile attack, the White House said yesterday, a day after the system's first flight test in two years ended in failure.

Scott McClellan, Bush's spokesman, did not address a delay in activating the first parts of the plan, which seemed to have slipped into next year, partly because of technical difficulties. "The president remains firmly committed to moving forward on a missile defense system," he told reporters. "Given the threats that we face in this day and age, missile defense is an important deterrent."

In December 2002, Bush ordered the Pentagon to have the ground-based component operating by this year. Boeing Co. is the Pentagon's prime contractor on the project, which would be stitched into a multilayered defense.

The latest test went wrong when an interceptor rocket shut down in its silo Wednesday in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific because of "an unknown anomaly," the Defense Department's Missile Defense Agency said. A target missile carrying a dummy warhead had been fired 16 minutes earlier from Kodiak, Alaska.

more
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2004/12/17/bush_stands_firm_on_plan_for_missile_defense/

FBI looks for leak in satellite program

Posted on Thu, Dec. 16, 2004
By Dan Eggen and Walter Pincus
WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON - The National Reconnaisance Office has asked the Justice Department to consider opening a criminal investigation into recent disclosures about a highly classified satellite program that has prompted criticism in Congress because of escalating costs, two administration officials said Wednesday.

...

The request from the National Reconnaisance Office, which manages spy satellite programs, comes in the wake of reports about a stealth satellite program under debate in Congress.

The Washington Post on Saturday reported details of the program and said its cost has ballooned from $5 billion to $9.5 billion. The New York Times published an article on the program Sunday. The request for a Justice Department review was first reported by Associated Press.

...

Four Democratic senators refused to sign "conference sheets" related to the 2005 intelligence authorization bill, reportedly to protest the program.

The NRO's request marks the latest in a series of high-profile federal inquiries related to leaks of classified or sensitive information, including an ongoing probe into whether Bush administration officials illegally identified a covert CIA operative to reporters in the summer of 2003.

...

On Tuesday, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., ranking Democrat on the Select Committee on Intelligence and the Armed Services Committee, told reporters he did not believe from what he had read "that disclosure was improper."

Levin added that the report he read "was very general," and that Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., "had made in a very general way, a similar reference to a classified program."
more
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/104298...


Critics say mysterious new U.S. spy program endangers national security

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. Congress' new blueprint for intelligence spending includes a mysterious and expensive spy program that drew extraordinary criticism from leading Democrats, with one saying the highly classified project is a threat to national security.

In an unusual rebuke, Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the senior Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, complained Wednesday the spy project is "totally unjustified and very, very wasteful and dangerous to the national security." He called the program "stunningly expensive."

Rockefeller and three other Democratic senators - Richard Durbin of Illinois, Carl Levin of Michigan and Ron Wyden of Oregon - refused to sign the congressional compromise negotiated by others in the House of Representatives and Senate that provides for future U.S. intelligence activities.

The compromise noted the four senators believe the mystery program is unnecessary and its cost unjustified and "they believe that the funds for this item should be expended on other intelligence programs that will make a surer and greater contribution to national security."

Each senator - and more than two-dozen current and former U.S. officials - declined to further describe or identify the disputed program, citing its classified nature. Thirteen other senators on the intelligence committee and all their counterparts in the House approved the compromise.
more
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2004/12/08/773931-ap....

Lawmaker: Spy Project Threatens Security

...

Sending even defensive satellite weapons into orbit could start an arms race in space, warned John Pike, a defense analyst with GlobalSecurity.org, who has studied anti-satellite weapons for more than three decades. Pike said other countries would inevitably demand proof that any weapons were only defensive.

"It would present just absolutely insurmountable verification problems because we are not going to let anybody look at our spy satellites," Pike said. "It is just not going to happen."

Rockefeller's description of the spy project as a "major funding acquisition program" suggests a price tag in the range of billions of dollars, intelligence experts said. But even expensive imagery or eavesdropping satellites - so long as they're unarmed - are rarely criticized as a danger to U.S. security, they noted.

"From the price, it's almost certainly a satellite program," said James Bamford, author of two books about the National Security Agency. "In the intelligence community, it's so hard to get a handle on what's going on, particularly with the satellite programs."

Another expert agreed. "It's hard to think of most any satellite program, at least the standard ones, as dangerous to national security," said Jeffrey T. Richelson, who wrote a highly regarded book about CIA technology in 2001.
more
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/27-12082004-413828.html


‘Space Pearl Harbor’

The rare criticisms of a highly secretive project in such a public forum intrigued outside intelligence experts, who said the program was almost certainly a spy satellite system, perhaps with technology to destroy potential attackers. They cited tantalizing hints in Rockefeller’s remarks, such as the program’s enormous expense and its alleged danger to national security.

A U.S. panel in 2001 described American defense and spy satellites as frighteningly vulnerable, saying technology to launch attacks in space was widely available internationally. The study, by a commission whose members included Donald H. Rumsfeld before his appointment as defense secretary for President Bush, concluded that the United States was “an attractive candidate for a Space Pearl Harbor.”

Sending even defensive satellite weapons into orbit could start an arms race in space, warned John Pike, a defense analyst with GlobalSecurity.org, who has studied anti-satellite weapons for more than three decades. Pike said other countries would inevitably demand proof that any weapons were only defensive.
more
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6682352/



Chinese Threat to American Leadership in Space

“Deny Space to others”: the last chance to stop China

...

As the situation currently stands, it is clear that the expression “to assure our continued access to space and deny the space to others if necessary” - recurrent, with little variations, in the US military plans - is specifically directed towards China. The Pentagon believes that China has the same intention towards the ousting the United States from Space, and considers its polemic declarations about the “rumoured” US plans of space weaponization - expressed in front of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space - as the weapon to diplomatically damage and slow down the action of the USA, while actively working in secret towards the same objective. According to Larry Wortzel, director of the Asian Studies Center at the Heritage Foundation, the introduction by the Chinese of a draft treaty devised to act against the US's intent to develop space weapons is misleading (“…because they’re developing their own space-based weapons...”), having no other purpose than to diplomatically damage the USA and thus delay their Theater Missile Defense plan, while China continues with its own plans. According to Richard Fisher of The Jamestown Foundation, the People's Liberation Army is aware that the “control of space” concept - as theorized by the US military - is an objective that China must achieve: “China needs to be able to deny to the United States access and use of space, as they themselves exploit space to support their own forces”.

Several factors, therefore, let one foresee that the impact of the Space challenge between the USA and China will exceed previous expectations about the strategical-military use of Space (spy satellites) and the race to install weapons, both offensively and defensively (concepts that are difficult to distinguish from each other, particularly in regard to the US military ultimate objective to “deny Space to others, if necessary”, suggesting that the offensive dimension will prevail against the defensive one).

While we may not know much about the character of Chinese space policy (with the exception of the declarations of condemnation of any space weaponization plan -but the real intentions of China can be deduced from its will to expel the USA from its own area of infuence), we do know more about China's progress in Space. Meanwhile, it can be asserted definitively that the US is determined to maintain by all means possible (including denying the rest of the world access to Space) their own space leadership, the key to the “Full Spectrum Dominance” and the fundamental presupposition of the unipolar-imperialistic “New American Century”.

The relation between the space dimension and the imperialistic dimension (with “Manifest Destiny” echos) of the USA, is sealed by the conclusions of a book written in 1996 by arms experts George and Meredith Friedman: “Just as by the year 1500 it was apparent that the European experience of power would be its domination of the global seas, it does not take much to see that the American experience of power will rest on the domination of space. Just as Europe expanded war and its power to the global oceans, the United States is expanding war and its power into space and to the planets. Just as Europe shaped the world for a half a millennium so too the United States will shape the world for at least that length of time” - by dominating Space.
more
http://globalpolitician.com/articles.asp?ID=225


Ya really think it's 'satellites?'

When Jay Rockefeller says its cost "endangers the national security," it's gotta be worse -- as in "much, much worse."

Lawmaker vows efforts to kill 'wasteful' mystery spy project

TED BRIDIS, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, December 9, 2004

...

But Rockefeller backed off his remarks that the spy project was a danger to national security. His spokeswoman, Wendy Morigi, said the senator believes spending huge amounts of money on the project was dangerous. Rockefeller has called the mystery program "stunningly expensive."

The rare criticism of a highly secretive project led to a flurry of speculation inside Washington about details of the program. Outside intelligence experts said references to its enormous budget suggested a price tag in the billions of dollars, usually reserved for spy satellite systems.

Rockefeller and the other Democrats -- Sens. Richard Durbin of Illinois, Carl Levin of Michigan and Ron Wyden of Oregon -- all refused to sign the congressional compromise negotiated by others in the House and Senate that included approval for the project.

Wyden said the Bush administration asked for the disputed project, which he said enjoyed strong support among members of the House Intelligence Committee. The Senate panel has voted unanimously the past two years to kill the program, he said.

The project was no longer necessary because of changed capabilities of U.S. enemies, Wyden said, adding that other U.S. intelligence programs can perform the same function for less money and risk. He said senators were concerned about how the government contract was awarded. Auditors believe the program will exceed its proposed budgets "by enormous amounts of money," Wyden said.

more
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/12/09/national1959EST0787.DTL


What is America's top-secret spy program?

...

'Prowler' at work
The United States has long been interested in such offensive programs, launching an experimental and highly classified satellite called "Prowler" on the space shuttle Atlantis November 1990.

Prowler stealthily maneuvered close to Russian and presumably other nations’ communications satellites in high Earth orbit, 24,000 miles (38,400 kilometers) up. These satellites are ideal targets. They are at much higher altitudes, and thus difficult to track visually. Most of the key military satellites are in this orbit — relay satellites that transmit imagery uplinked from spy satellites, military communications satellites and electronic eavesdropping satellites that target terrestrial microwave communications.

Prowler gathered all manner of data on the high-Earth-orbit satellites: their size, measurements, radar signature, mass and the frequencies on which they relay their data. Now experts suggest that the United States may be trying to use, or has already succeeded in using, that stealth technology to "negate" an adversary's satellite communications.

A satellite using such technology would not have to jam the other satellite's signals, strictly speaking. Knowing how its communications systems were configured, the satellite could simply step in front of it and block its signals. In fact, one expert said Prowler did just that in tests using U.S. communications satellites, without being detected.
more
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6687654/

Some lawmakers call classified program overpriced, inadequate

...

Opponents of the new program, however, argue that the satellite is no longer a good match against today's adversaries: terrorists seeking small quantities of illicit weapons, or countries such as North Korea and Iran, which are believed to have placed their nuclear weapons programs underground and inside buildings specifically to avoid detection from spy satellites and aircraft.

The National Reconnaissance Office and the CIA declined to comment. Lockheed Martin Corp., which sources said is the lead contractor on the project, issued a statement saying, "As a matter of policy we do not discuss what we may or may not be doing in regards to classified programs."

Escalating costs
The satellite in question would be the third and final version in a series of spacecraft funded under a classified program once known as Misty, officials said.

Concerned about the latest satellite's relevancy and escalating costs, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has twice tried to kill it, according to knowledgeable officials. The program has been strongly supported, however, by Senate and House appropriations committees, by the House intelligence committee, which was chaired by Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.) until he recently became CIA director, and by his predecessor, George J. Tenet.

"With the amount of money we're talking about here, you could build a whole new CIA," said one official, who, like others, talked about the program and the debate on the condition of anonymity because of the project's sensitivity.
more
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6695514/


Inside The New Spy Bill

Monday, Dec. 20, 2004
The 600-page Intelligence-Reform Bill that congress passed last week is the most sweeping overhaul of the U.S. spy community since World War II. President Bush, who plans to sign the bill soon, was at first lukewarm about it, and conservative House Republicans almost derailed it. But congressional holdouts bowed to pressure from the Sept. 11 victims' families, who demanded the system be fixed. How will it work? Here are answers to five crucial questions.

Who will be the new Director of National Intelligence (DNI) that the bill establishes? CIA Director Porter Goss was the obvious choice. But the former Florida Congressman's first 2 1/2 months of righting the troubled agency have been bumpy, with five senior CIA officials quitting. Goss isn't out of the running, but because he would face a confirmation battle from Democrats worried that he's too political, the White House is considering others, such as 9/11 commission chairman Thomas Kean, former Senator Sam Nunn and ex — Navy Secretary John Lehman.

How powerful will the director be? Republican Senator Susan Collins describes the DNI as the "quarterback," controlling most of the $40 billion spent annually on intelligence, setting priorities among the 15 spy agencies and forcing them to share secrets. So that the director would remain neutral and not become bogged down in operational details, Congress didn't give the DNI control over spying at the CIA and other agencies. But without operational control, the director may be less useful to the President and therefore have less access to him. It will take a close friend of Bush's or someone "very aggressive" in the post to overcome that, warns Winston Wiley, a former CIA official.

Will the bill stop terrorists at the border? It requires 10,000 more border-patrol guards and 4,000 more immigration and customs agents over five years. It also orders improvements in air-cargo and cruise-ship security. But the measures are "meaningless without the dollars to back them up," says Democratic Representative David Obey. So far, Congress has been stingy about paying for them.

more
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,110104...

TRILLIONS OF UNAUDITED DOLLARS



Dr. Zakheim

Dov S. Zakheim was sworn in as the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) and Chief Financial Officer for the Department of Defense on May 4, 2001. Dr. Zakheim has previously served in a number of key positions in government and private business. Most recently, he was corporate vice president of System Planning Corp., a technology, research and analysis firm based in Arlington, Va. He also served as chief executive officer of SPC International Corp., a subsidiary specializing in political, military and economic consulting. During the 2000 presidential campaign, he served as a senior foreign policy advisor to then-Governor Bush.

From 1985 until March 1987, Dr. Zakheim was Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Planning and Resources in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Policy). In that capacity, he played an active role in the Department's system acquisition and strategic planning processes. Dr. Zakheim held a variety of other DoD posts from 1981 to 1985. Earlier, he was employed by the National Security and International Affairs Division of the Congressional Budget Office.

Dr. Zakheim has been a participant on a number of government, corporate, non-profit and charitable boards. His government service includes terms on the United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad; the Task Force on Defense Reform (1997); the first Board of Visitors of the Department of Defense Overseas Regional Schools (1998); and the Defense Science Board task force on "The Impact of DoD Acquisition Policies on the Health of the Defense Industry" (2000).

A 1970 graduate of Columbia University with a bachelor's in government, Dr. Zakheim also studied at the London School of Economics. He earned his doctorate in economics and politics at St. Antony's College, University of Oxford, where he was graduate fellow in programs of both the National Science Foundation and Columbia College, and then a research fellow. Dr. Zakheim has been an adjunct professor at the National War College, Yeshiva University, Columbia University and Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., where he was presidential scholar.
http://www.defenselink.mil/bios/zakheim_bio.html


He was a signitory to a document that said,

"Furthermore, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to ba a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event - like a new Pearl Harbor."

http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDef ...


The CEO of SPC

Dr. Dov Zakheim has been nominated to serve as Under Secretary of Defense and Comptroller. He is presently the CEO of SPC International, and in the past he has served as Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Planning and Resources as well as in a variety of Defense Department positions under former President Reagan. He was a member of the Task Force on Defense Reform under then-Secretary of Defense William Cohen and in February of 2000 he was appointed to the Defense Science Board Task Force on the Impact of DoD Acquisition Policies on the Health of the Defense Industry. He has received the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Medal; the Bronze Palm to the DoD Distinguished Public Service Medal and the CBO Director's Award for Outstanding Service. A New York native, Dr. Zakheim is a graduate of Columbia University and has also studied at the London School of Economics. He received his doctorate degree from St. Anthony's College at Oxford University.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/20010212-2.html

It was an SPC subsidiary, TRIDATA CORPORATION, that oversaw the investigation after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 1993.


Dr. Dov S. Zakheim
CEO, Systems Planning Corporation International

Dov S. Zakheim is Corporate Vice President of System Planning Corporation (SPC), a high technology, research, analysis, and manufacturing firm based in Arlington, Virginia. He is also Chief Executive Officer of SPC International Corporation, a subsidiary of SPC that specializes in political, military and economic consulting, and international sales and analysis. In addition, Dr. Zakheim serves as Consultant to the Secretary of Defense and the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. He is an Adjunct Scholar of the Heritage Foundation, and a Senior Associate of the Center for International and Strategic Studies.

From 1985 until March 1987, Dr. Zakheim was Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Planning and Resources. In that capacity, he played an active role in the Department's system acquisition and strategic planning processes. Dr. Zakheim also guided Department of Defense policy in a number of international economic fora including the US-USSR Commercial Commission; the Caribbean Basin Initiative; and the Canadian-US Free Trade Agreement. He also successfully negotiated numerous arms cooperation agreements with various US allies.


A graduate of Columbia University, New York, where he earned his B.A., Surnma Cum Laude, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, Dr. Zakheim also studied at the London School of Economics. Dr. Zakheim earned his doctorate in economics and politics at St. Antony's College, University of Oxford, where he was a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow, a Columbia College Kellett Fellow, and a post-doctoral Research Fellow. He has served as Adjunct Professor at the National War College, Yeshiva University and at Columbia University. He is currently Presidential Scholar and Adjunct Professor at Trinity College, Hartford, CT.

Dr. Zakheim served for two terms as a Presidential appointee to the United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad. In 1997 he was appointed by Secretary of Defense Cohen to the Task Force on Defense Reform. In May 1999 Secretary Cohen named him to the first Board of Visitors of the Department of Defense Overseas Regional Schools.

Dr. Zakheim writes, lectures, and provides radio and television commentary on national defense and foreign policy issues both domestically and internationally, including appearances on major US network news telecasts, McNeil-Lehrer Newshour, Larry King Live, BBC Arab and World Service. and Israeli, Swedish, and Japanese television. He is an editorial board member of Israel Affairs and of The Round Table (the Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs), and serves on review panels for the Wilson Center for International Scholars, the United States Institute of Peace, and the U.S. Naval Institute. He is the author of Flight of the Lavi: Inside a US.-Israeli Crisis (Brassey's, 1996), Congress and National Security in the Post Cold War Era (The Nixon Center, 1998), and numerous articles and chapters in books. Dr. Zakheim is also a trustee of the Foreign Policy Research Institute; serves on the Board of Directors of Search for Common Ground, and of Friends of the Jewish Chapel of the United States Naval Academy; and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and other professional organizations. Dr. Zakheim is a member of the advisory boards of the Center for Security Policy, the Initiative for Peace and Cooperation in the Middle East, and the American Jewish Committee
more
http://www.ndu.edu/inss/symposia/jointops00/zakheim.htm ...


Pentagon finance manager resigns
Thursday 11 March 2004

Rabbi Dov Zakheim's refused to tell journalists the exact reason for his departure on Wednesday. A former adjunct economics professor at New York's Yeshiva University, Rabbi Zakheim has spent more than 30 years working in various jobs at the Pentagon.

But he has also worked in private industry, specifically as a consultant to McDonnell Douglas and Boeing.


Rabbi Dov Zakheim,
Pentagon comptroller and chief financial officer, a conservative Republican who graduated from Jew's College in London in 1973, Zakheim first joined the Department of Defence in 1981 under former president Ronald Reagan.

He was responsible for such tasks as preparing defence planning guidance for nuclear war.

As Pentagon Comptroller and Chief Financial Officer, Rabbi Zakheim's priority has been financial management.
But that does not include additional spending needed to support US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - a sum expected to range from $30 billion to $50 billion.

A General Accounting Office report found Defence inventory systems so lax that the US army lost track of 56 aeroplanes, 32 tanks and 36 Javelin missile command launch-units.

more
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/635B6007-9DD0-436C-BFF6-E6521520B1C7.htm

US tells Afghan warlords security needed for aid

MAZAR-I-SHARIF: US Undersecretary of Defence Dov Zakheim has told rival factions in northern Afghanistan they cannot expect reconstruction aid if they continue to fight each other.

Speaking after meeting faction leaders in the northern town of Mazar-i-Sharif on Friday, Zakheim said there was a link between such aid and security. “Of course, if the conflict continues, it makes it very hard for the humanitarian efforts,” he said.

“They have seen that we have invested in places where there are no skirmishes.”

In Mazar, Zakheim met Uzbek warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum, his rival Ustad Atta Mohammad of the Jamiat-e-Islami faction, and a representative of the Shi’ite Hezb-i-Wahdat. Repeated clashes between Dostum’s and Atta’s forces in northern Afghanistan in recent months have claimed the lives of dozens of people, both soldiers and non-combatants.

Zakheim said he had received assurances from them that they would work to improve security to allow implementation of humanitarian and reconstruction programmes.

Last week, after a visit by the US special representative to Afghanistan Zalmai Khalilzad, the rivals agreed to start disarming their forces in the cities and remote areas.

Zakheim said relations between Dostum and Atta appeared civil.

“They seemed to be very comfortable together,” he said, adding that said they were working together to disarm and reduce the number of what they termed “skirmishes” between their forces.

Both Atta and Dostum are members of President Hamid Karzai’s U.S-backed government that came to power last year after the ouster of the former Taliban regime. However they have appeared more interested in pursuing regional interests than helping the central government establish its control.

Last month Karzai threatened to sack regional warlords and government officials if they continued to abuse their power.

Before his visit to the north, Zakheim met in Kabul with Defence Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim to discuss US-backed efforts to rebuild the national army, ministry officials said. —Reuters

more
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_3-1...

Analysis: Defense budget practices probed
Thursday, 02-Oct-2003 10:00AM PDT Story from United Press International
Copyright 2003 by United Press International (via ClariNet)

MIAMI, Oct. 2 (UPI) --

Zakheim said, however, he was limited in his response because of the ongoing audit of the issue, which originally was sparked by a telephone call to the Pentagon's Defense Hotline.

"Our objective will be to review the allegations to the Defense Hotline concerning funds 'parked' at the U.S. Special Operations Command by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)," said a letter from the inspector general's office to Gen. Charles Holland, who has since retired as Special Operations commander.

Among several documents The St. Petersburg Times obtained during its investigation was e-mail sent by Special Operations Command Comptroller Elaine Kingston to colleagues in February 2002.
She said an unidentified official in the Pentagon comptroller's office had asked her if the command could "park" $40 million of research-and-development money in its proposed budget for the 2003 fiscal year.

The programs where the money was placed included missile warning systems on aircraft, infrared equipment on helicopters and radar system. The amounts ranged from $2 million to $5 million.
Kingston said in the e-mail message she coached her colleagues on how to account for the money and avoid attracting congressional attention to it.

"We are doing a favor for the OSD (Office of the Secretary of Defense) which we hope will benefit the command if we should need additional (research and development funds)," the message said.
Young said at the hearing on President Bush's request for $87 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan Tuesday that he wants to know if it is a common practice.

Young is clearly not finished and called it "an obvious attempt to keep from Congress what was happening. I think that would make you suspicious. It makes me a little suspicious."

more
http://quickstart.clari.net/qs_se/webnews/wed/dp/Uus-de...

Dov S. Zakheim to Resign from the Department of Defense
March 24, 2004
In this position, Zakheim initiated an enterprise architecture to achieve a vision of simpler budget processes, activity-based costing, and a clean audit by 2007. He oversaw three Department of Defense budgets, each totaling more than $300 billion, and recently proposed a 2005 budget of $401.7 billion. He played a leading role in raising in excess of $13 billion for the reconstruction of Iraq, and walked through six wartime supplementals in support of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. He further created the Defense Business Board and worked closely with the Office of Management and Budget and the Government Accounting Office on financial management affairs.

“I am proud to have been part of President Bush and Secretary Rumsfeld's senior Pentagon team for the past three years,” said Zakheim reflecting on his tour. “It has been an exhilarating, albeit extremely demanding experience. Even as we have addressed the many concerns arising out of the War on Terror and Operations Enduring Freedom, Noble Eagle and Iraqi Freedom, including winning both military and financial support from the international community for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, we have also tended to ongoing budget needs to support our forces and defense civilians at home and abroad. We have also made great strides in rectifying the department's antiquated financial management system; we continue to anticipate that DoD will receive clean audits in the not too distant future.”

Regarding Zakheim’s resignation, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said, “Dov Zakheim has been a cornerstone to the Department of Defense over the past three years. He has been a leader in helping transform the Department to better address the needs of the 21st century. I thank him for his commitment and his counsel. He will be missed.”

Zakheim was sworn in to his current position May 4, 2001. Prior to that, his government service included a number of key positions, to include from 1985 until March 1987, as the deputy under secretary of defense for planning and resources in the office of the under secretary of defense (policy). He also held a variety of other Department of Defense posts from 1981-1985 and served with the National Security and International Affairs Division of the Congressional Budget Office.

During other periods of Zakheim’s career, he served as a senior foreign policy advisor to then-Gov. Bush, during the 2000 presidential campaign. Prior to that, he was the corporate vice president of System Planning Corporation (SPC), a technology, research and analysis firm. He also served as chief executive officer of SPC International Corp., a subsidiary specializing in political, military and economical consulting.
http://www.allamericanpatriots.com/m-news+article+story...

"According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions," Rumsfeld admitted.

$2.3 trillion — that's $8,000 for every man, woman and child in America. To understand how the Pentagon can lose track of trillions, consider the case of one military accountant who tried to find out what happened to a mere $300 million.

"We know it's gone. But we don't know what they spent it on," said Jim Minnery, Defense Finance and Accounting Service.

Minnery, a former Marine turned whistle-blower, is risking his job by speaking out for the first time about the millions he noticed were missing from one defense agency's balance sheets. Minnery tried to follow the money trail, even crisscrossing the country looking for records.

"The director looked at me and said 'Why do you care about this stuff?' It took me aback, you know? My supervisor asking me why I care about doing a good job," said Minnery.

He was reassigned and says officials then covered up the problem by just writing it off.

"They have to cover it up," he said. "That's where the corruption comes in. They have to cover up the fact that they can't do the job."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/29/eveningnews/m...

Zakheim has been a participant on a number of government, corporate, non-profit and charitable boards. His government service includes terms on the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad; the Task Force on Defense Reform (1997); the first Board of Visitors of the Department of Defense Overseas Regional Schools (1998); and the Defense Science Board task force on "The Impact of DoD Acquisition Policies on the Health of the Defense Industry" (2000).

A 1970 graduate of Columbia University with a bachelor's in government, Zakheim also studied at the London School of Economics. He earned his doctorate in economics and politics at St. Antony's College, University of Oxford, where he was graduate fellow in programs of both the National Science Foundation and Columbia College, and then a research fellow. Zakheim has been an adjunct professor at the National War College, Yeshiva University, Columbia University and Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., where he was presidential scholar.

Zakheim has written, lectured and provided media commentary on national defense and foreign policy issues domestically and internationally. He is the author of "Flight of the Lavi: Inside a U.S.-Israeli Crisis" (Brassey's, 1996), "Congress and National Security in the Post-Cold War Era" (The Nixon Center, 1998), "Toward a Fortress Europe?" (Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2000), and numerous articles and chapters in books.

Recently reflecting on the sacrifices associated with managing the financing of the nation's war effort, Zakheim said, “Our people need to be constantly on their guard, constantly at the ready, razor sharp, in difficult conditions; we don’t want to make (the mission) one iota more difficult over something that’s easily taken care of … if something bothers our people in uniform, I don’t consider it trivial at all.”

“I look forward to more time with my family, and to an exciting new phase of my life,” said Zakheim, regarding his departure from the Department of Defense, “but I shall indeed miss the pleasure of working closely with my colleagues at DoD, and throughout the government, in the Congress, and in many capitals overseas.”
http://www.allamericanpatriots.com/m-news+article+storyid-635.html

In a report to the DoD comptroller, Undersecretary of Defense Dov Zakheim, acting Assistant Inspector General for Auditing David Steensma wrote: "We reported that DOD processed $1.1 trillion in unsupported accounting entries to DOD Component financial data used to prepare departmental reports and DOD financial statements for FY2000. For FY2001 we did not attempt to quantify amounts of unsupported accounting entries; however, we did confirm that DOD continued to enter material amounts of unsupported accounting entries to the financial data."

What this gibberish means is that the DoD still cannot account for at least $1.1 trillion from fiscal 2000 under former president Bill Clinton, and the assistant inspector general of DOD wouldn't even touch the unsupported money expenditures for fiscal 2001 because "material amounts" still couldn't be accounted for properly in the year George W. Bush came to power. The trillion-dollar question is how much is "material amounts"? Because the auditor would not "quantify" the amount, some fear it's worse than the previous year's unaccounted for $1.1 trillion.

Of course the Department of the Army, headed by former Enron executive Thomas White, had an excuse. In a shocking appeal to sentiment it says it didn't publish a "stand-alone" financial statement for 2001 because of "the loss of financial-management personnel sustained during the Sept. 11 terrorist attack."

So where is that missing $1.1 trillion? Traditionally the top dogs at the Pentagon haven't liked the word "missing." The rationale at DoD has been that just because the money can't be accounted for doesn't mean it is lost, stolen or strayed. According to Susan Hansen, a spokeswoman for DoD: "These are unsupported entries. When the auditors go to audit the books and they look at the balance sheet for the year, someone has entered in an adjustment because they made an error somewhere."
more
http://www.insightmag.com/main.cfm/include/detail/storyid/246188.html
Yet even Allbaugh is small-time compared to the latest defector to the private sector, Pentagon comptroller Dov Zakheim, who announced two weeks ago that he will be leaving for a partnership at Booz Allen Hamilton, the technology and management strategy giant that is one of the nation's biggest defense contractors. Although Zakheim is not nearly as familiar as Condoleezza Rice, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, or Defense Policy Board member Richard Perle, he too has been identified as one of the ultrahawkish "Vulcans" who shaped Bush foreign and military policy from its earliest days. Zakheim has bustled through the revolving doors before, serving as a deputy undersecretary of defense during the Reagan administration, where he worked for Perle before leaving government to join a missile-defense contractor.

At the mammoth Booz Allen firm, Zakheim will join R. James Woolsey, the former director of central intelligence and Perle associate on the Bush Defense Policy Board. These were the defense intellectuals who favored invading Iraq long before Sept. 11 -- and long before any U.N. resolutions on the topic were introduced.
So far Booz Allen has yet to win any major Iraq contracts of its own, although it has shared Pentagon boodle for several years with Kellogg Brown & Root, the Halliburton subsidiary that is by far the biggest contractor out there. (At a recent hearing on Halliburton's scandal-scarred performance in Iraq, Zakheim did his best to defend the vice president's old company. "They're not doing a great job," he shrugged, "but they're not doing a terrible job.")

Booz Allen swiftly jumped on the Baghdad bandwagon last May, when it co-sponsored (with the Republican-connected insurance giant American International Group) a postwar conference on "The Challenges for Business in Rebuilding Iraq" that featured speeches by Woolsey and Undersecretary of Defense Zakheim. (The price of admission for industry executives ranged from $528 to $1,100 a head.) Included was the chance for executives to participate in a "not-for-attribution session that will permit a dynamic, frank exchange of views on the opportunities and challenges businesses will face in post-conflict Iraq."

More recently, Booz Allen was listed as a partner in a controversial $327 million contract to outfit the new Iraqi army. The prime contractor in this murky deal was Nour America Inc., which on closer inspection turned out to be controlled by a close associate of Ahmad Chalabi, the dubious former exile promoted by Perle, Woolsey and their ideological associates as the best possible leader for Iraq after Saddam. Chalabi is a leading member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council and enjoys enormous influence inside the Defense Department, which issued the Nour contract. Unfortunately Nour had scant qualifications, if any, for the lucrative contract. After protests from more qualified contractors who had lost out, the contract was withdrawn for rebidding. Meanwhile, Booz Allen denied any role in the Nour affair, aside from a post-bid $50,000 consulting contract.
more
http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:iUASMhjvMuIJ:www.s ...
GovCon Executive Speaker Series Featuring Former DCI James Woolsey

The GovCon Council is pleased to present this event in partnership with the International Exchange Business Council (IBEC), an emerging initiative of the Fairfax County Chamber.

R. James Woolsey has said that strategic security is the greatest challenge the business world faces today. In his role as a Vice President and officer in Booz Allen Hamilton’s Global Assurance practice, Mr. Woolsey helps corporations and government agencies integrate security into their strategic business planning in an effort to protect the vital networks upon which we all depend.

Those networks - electricity grids, oil and gas pipelines, telecommunications infrastructures, financial systems, food production and delivery systems and hundreds of others - are constructed to be responsive to the public and easily accessed and maintained. However, in a post-September 11 world, these characteristics translate to vulnerability.
http://www.gcn.com/events/16483.html

COMPANIES ON THE GROUND:
THE CHALLENGES FOR BUSINESS IN REBUILDING IRAQ
1 May 2003 - Washington DC
SPEAKERS

Kenneth H Bacon, President, Refugees International (confirmed)
Ashton Carter, Ford Foundation Professor of Science and International Affairs, Harvard University (confirmed)
Anthony H. Cordesman, Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy, CSIS (confirmed)
Pat Cronin, Assistant Administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development (confirmed)
Ambassador James Dobbins, Director, International Security and Defense Policy, RAND Corporation (confirmed)
Jane Harman, U.S. Representative (D-CA), Ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (confirmed)
Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger, German Ambassador to the United States (confirmed)
Zoran Kusovac, Jane's Intelligence Review Correspondent (confirmed)
Alan Larson, Undersecretary for Economic Affairs, State Department (confirmed)
Martin Levine, Senior Managing Director, Shorebank Advisory Services (confirmed)
General William Nash (ret.), Director, Center for Preventive Action, Council on Foreign Relations (confirmed)
Thomas Pickering, Senior Vice President of International Relations, The Boeing Company, former Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs (confirmed)
David Rothkopf, Chairman & CEO, Intellibridge Corporation (confirmed)

Rubar Sandi, President of the U.S.-Iraq Business Council (confirmed)
James Steinberg, Vice President and Director, Foreign Policy Studies Program, Brookings Institution, former Deputy National Security Advisor (confirmed)
John Taylor, Undersecretary for International Affairs, Department of the Treasury (confirmed)
James Woolsey, Former Director of Central Intelligence, Vice President, Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc., CSIS Trustee (confirmed)
Daniel B Yergin, Chairman, Cambridge Energy Research Associates (confirmed)
Dov S. Zakheim, Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) (confirmed)
http://www.janes.com/defence/conference/rebuilding_iraq ...


Wolfowitz Approves New DTSA Under Feith
Defense Daily - September 6, 2001
Tarbell To Retire

As expected, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz on Friday approved shifting what is now the Technology Security Directorate (TSD) out from under the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) overseen by Pentagon acquisition chief Pete Aldridge to the control of DoD policy chief Douglas Feith, and renaming it the Defense Technology Security Administration (DTSA), according to documents and officials.

TSD Director Dave Tarbell disclosed the shift yesterday during the ComDef 2001 conference in Washington, D.C. Tarbell also disclosed plans to retire and seek a new career in industry. Lisa Bronson will replace Tarbell as the head of the new DTSA under Feith, while Jack Shaw will serve as Aldridge’s point man on export control issues.

Pentagon officials suggested the move in July to improve the export competitiveness of U.S. suppliers by shifting export control oversight away from DTRA, which is charged with controlling the proliferation of defense technologies, a mission in opposition to DTSA’s charge (Defense Daily, July 30).

"The Director, Administration and Management in coordination with the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and the General Counsel, DoD, will take the actions necessary to implement this decision," Wolfowitz wrote in an Aug. 31 memo authorizing the changes that was obtained by Defense Daily. "The Under Secretary for Policy shall ensure that there is appropriate coordination with the Under Secretary of Acquisition, Technology and Logistics on technology security matters. The latter has important responsibilities, especially relating to international defense industrial cooperation, that should be taken into account in the formulation and implementation of export licensing policy."
more
http://www.clw.org/atop/newswire/nw090701.html


Jews brainwashed Bush? What a joke!'

Four years ago, when Zakheim was on presidential candidate George Bush's foreign policy planning team, he told Haaretz the U.S. did not need to play policeman around the globe, and that American military involvement overseas should be reserved for extreme situations, such as the prevention of genocide.

...

From the time when reports about the Bush administration's intention to go to war started to circulate, critics have charged that Jewish neoconservatives in the Pentagon were responsible for dragging the U.S. into war with Iraq, with the intention of protecting Israeli, not American, interests. Proponents of this claim hail from all parts of the political spectrum, starting with arch-conservative Pat Buchanan, and continuing with two Democrats from Capitol Hill, Congressman Jim Moran (Virginia), and Senator Friz Hollings (South Carolina).

"Pat Buchanan, in my view, is an anti-Semite," said Zakheim. "I'm sorry, but you cannot keep saying what he says, and say he's not an anti-Semite. He is an anti-Semite. I know one when I see one."

...

Alongside such claims about corruption in Saddam Hussein's regime, Zakheim brings up the issue of terror. Given Saddam Hussein's well-known support for Palestinian suicide bombers, "why is it so hard to believe that he had ties with Al-Qaida," Zakheim wonders. "If you make the connection - Iraq, weapons of mass destruction, terrorism - then it definitely becomes a world problem," he concludes.

...


Israelis who worked with Zakheim are full of praise for his professionalism. Though he always upheld American interests, they say, he had a warm place in his heart for Israel and he did as much as he could to help. For instance, after the start of the intifada, when it became clear that Israel's police force lacked equipment to defuse bombs, Zakheim found funds, and arranged a transfer of $28 million for automatic gear used by sappers. Zakheim is proud of his close relations with many Israelis - recently his son was married in Jerusalem, but at the time, a stepson who went on a photo-shoot in Hebron was beaten by settlers.
more
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/441712.html


Iraq Survey Group
Donald Rumsfeld's al Qaeda

By John Stanton and Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writers


And with the ISG's intelligence fusion operation located in Washington, DC, that means Rumsfeld's hands are dirty. There is also a clear line that can be drawn between the ISG and Undersecretary for Plans and Policy Douglas Feith's Office of Special Plans/Office of Northern Gulf Affairs. Feith reportedly created the disinformation about Iraqi WMD and then Rumsfeld/Cambone allegedly used torture as a tactic to elicit false confessions and exaggerated claims under extreme duress. It is a tactic that SS Commander Heinrich Himmler and Soviet KGB Chief Levrenti Beria practiced so well in Germany and the USSR, respectively. No one claims that the USA and Israel rise to the level of Nazi and Soviet torturers, but, it is too early to say.

Recent evidence offered by General Janis Karpinski, NGO's and investigative reporters, indicates that Israeli interrogators may have been active in Iraqi detention centers. But the Israeli government has stated that any Israelis in Iraq were there on their own. We are inclined to believe them to a point. The problem is that it gives rise to the specter that anti-Arab Israeli xenophobes, including members of the racist and terrorist Kach and Kahane Chai, were participating as either freelance torturers in Iraq or as part of a parallel intelligence operation—separate from Mossad—being run out of Ariel Sharon's office. They, like their American counterparts, make for great recruits. The scary part is that neither government can control them—or, perhaps, does not want to get involved.
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/070904Stanton-Madsen/070904stanton-madsen.html

How Zakheim "found funds" is what is at issue here...

For instance, after the start of the intifada, when it became clear that Israel's police force lacked equipment to defuse bombs, Zakheim found funds, and arranged a transfer of $28 million for automatic gear used by sappers.

Alright, Dov, where did you get those funds? It is our money and it was appropriated for a specific purpose, where did you get it from?


Winds of Change:Troubled Waters Ahead For the Neo Cons
by
Wayne Madsen

The neo-con attack on Shaw was predictable considering their previous attacks on Ambassador Joe Wilson, his wife Valerie Plame, former U.S. Central Command chief General Anthony Zinni, former counter-terrorism coordinator Richard Clarke, former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, CIA counter-terrorism agent Michael Scheuer (the "anonymous" author of Imperial Hubris who has recently been gagged by the Bush administration), fired FBI translator Sibel Edmonds (who likely discovered a penetration by Israeli and other intelligence assets using the false flag of the Turkish American Council and who also has been gagged by the Bush administration), and all those who took on the global domination cabal. But Shaw showed incredible moxie. When he decided to investigate Pentagon Inspector General Reports that firms tied to Perle and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz were benefiting from windfall profit contracts in Iraq, Shaw decided to go to Iraq himself to find out what was going on. When Shaw was denied entry into Iraq by U.S. military officers (yes, a top level official of the Defense Department was denied access to Iraq by U.S. military personnel!), he decided to sneak into the country disguised as a Halliburton contractor. Using the cover of Cheney's old company to get the goods on Cheney's friends' illegal activities was yet another masterful stroke of genius by Shaw. But it also earned him the wrath of the neo-cons. They soon leaked a story to the Los Angeles Times claiming that Shaw actually snuck into Iraq to ensure that Qualcomm (on whose board sat a friend of Shaw's) was awarded a lucrative cell network contract.

But nothing could be further from the truth. Shaw, who worked for Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, represented the Old Guard Republican entity that in August 2003 set up shop in the Pentagon right under the noses of Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Feith to investigate the neo-con cabal and their illegal contract deals. The entity, known as the International Armament and Technology Trade Directorate, was soon shut down as a result of neo-con pressure. Not to be deterred, Shaw continued his investigation of the neo-cons. Although the neo-cons told the Los Angeles Times that the FBI was investigating Shaw, the reverse was the case: the FBI was investigating the neo-cons, particularly Perle and Wolfowitz, for fraudulent activities involving Iraqi contracts. And in worse news for the neo-cons: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was giving the Inspector General's and Shaw's investigations a "wink and a nod" of approval.

The financial stakes for the Pentagon are high - the Iraqi CPA's Inspector General recently revealed that over $1 billion of Iraqi money was missing from the audit books on Iraqi contracts. For Shaw and the FBI, it was a matter of what they suspected for many years - that Perle, Wolfowitz, and their comrades were running entities that ensured favorable treatment for Israeli activities - whether they were business opportunities in a U.S.-occupied Arab country or protecting Israeli spies operating within the U.S. defense and intelligence establishments.

Shaw certainly must have recalled how, during the Reagan administration, an Israeli spy named Jonathan Pollard was able to steal massive amounts of sensitive U.S. intelligence over a long period of time and hand it over to his Israeli control officer, a dangerous and deadly agent provocateur named Rafael "Rafi" Eitan. That had disastrous effects on U.S. intelligence operations throughout the world because some of the documents were handed by the Israelis to the Soviets in return for letting more Soviet Jews emigrate to Israel.
more
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/081104_winds_change.shtml

[hang a left]

67. I just love when you do that.

:loveya:

[seemslikeadream]

71. Thanks hang a left

:hi:

[Minstrel Boy]

14. to be precise, "a false threat under the circumstances,"

to use Cohen's words.

A "false threat," like the hoax anthrax powder mailed to B'nai B'rith, that was the subject of the question. That the powder was not anthrax says nothing about the capabilities of anthrax.

In context, Cohen is saying that even the threat of tectonic weapons in the hands of terrorists is taken very seriously.

What does that suggest to you about how seriously the Pentagon regards research into such a weapon system?

I would say, much more seriously than it is taken here.

[Zynx]

17. It means that we waste a lot of time chasing a phantom

That said, I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to convince the Pentagon to waste money on a weapon that could supposedly move tectonic plates. Just like you could convince them to throw money at an FTL drive or "space stealth."

[democracyindanger]

19. put your back into it

you're just about eye-high with the bullshit.

What Cohen is saying is that false threats are generated to divert resources from real threats.

So keep plugging away. You're doing somebody a favor.

[Minstrel Boy]

22. "the false scare of a threat"

Cohen's words. Not a false threat. In other words, the threat is real. Otherwise it would be of no consequence to the Pentagon.

If the prospect of a human influence upon volcanic and tectonic activity was totally screwball, it would not register as a threat at all.

[democracyindanger]

23. That tail

keeps getting closer. Keep chasing it, and eventually you'll catch it.

Meanwhile, don't worry about Iraq. The real threat is Dr. Evil.

[Sterling]

73. You are seriously out of your league here friend.

I would tone down the PA's you are looking like a fool. Just some objective advice for you. I am watching this discussion unfold and you are clearly the one who is having a a comprehension problem.

[Karenina]

18. Please do 'splain me sumthin'

as I can feel the hair rising on the back of your neck through my keyboard. ;-)

WHAT about the discussions of unlimited funding for "military" applications of new technologies disturbs you so?

I lived in an earthquake zone and survived a 6.8. Those plates were definitely rocking and rolling. Mankind ain't got NOTHING on that shit!
However, it also is plausible to me that human activity COULD exacerbate a pre-existing condition. Why NOT question what kind of technology is being developed with that 2.3 BILLION (or is it TRILLION) the Pentagon cannot seem to "find?"

[democracyindanger]

20. Unlimited military research funding

isn't the topic.

This thread is just a continuation of the "tsunami was caused by a manmade weapon."

[Minstrel Boy]

24. Let's be clear about something here.

I have not said the tsunami was manmade.

In fact, I think you would find that virtually no one here has made such a bald assertion. How could they? This flap has all been about questions and hypotheticals.

See, here's the deal: that which used to be "Acts of God" are being expressly folded into the mission capability of the US military. We are entering a period of human history - the final period, if we don't watch ourselves - in which our speaking of the natural world may mean little more than a nostalgic conceit.

Have you taken a look around the world lately? What shouldn't we question?

[Zynx]

27. Why shouldn't we question?

Because this makes less sense than chasing FTL (faster than light) drives. I hope you know what is wrong with that.

The US military, or any other military, can't begin to approach the energy levels required to do this sort of thing.

And if they somehow could one day, it would be much easier to just point the deathray or whatever at the enemy country and make it into a sheet of glass.

[shance]

41. Wow. What you say is the most frightening of all.

OF COURSE WE SHOULD QUESTION.*

Fascism begins when questioning ends......

[Zynx]

70. Uh, what does this have to do with fascism?

It's not relevant if the Pentagon is evil or not - they are. That doesn't mean they, or the Evil Commies, or anyone else, can do something that requries billions of tons of TNT equivalent in terms of energy anymore than they can build a FTL engine.

[bobthedrummer]

48. Mind control efforts via think tanks and PNAC...

they've failed...

[ooglymoogly]

78. are you suggesting that haarp and it's equivalent in russia do not exist?

or maybe you hope ridicule will stop the discussion

[Me.]

21. Good Thread MB

Needed to be said. And let's not forget kooky theories like Northwoods. Oh wait, that was another one thought up by the pentagon. Imagine, the notion of attacking citizens on their own soil and pretending terrorists did it, so they could convince Americans of the efficacy of going to war. That would never happen, would it?

[jpgray]

28. Show me the evidence we can create a 9.0 Richter scale quake

Because I don't believe we make a bomb big enough.

[Minstrel Boy]

31. Am I arguing that the Sumatra quake was

caused by a bomb? No. Am I arguing that it was induced by some other means? No.

The purpose of this thread is to draw attention to the fact that what we think crazy or impossible can mean something else to the Pentagon. It still may be crazy or impossible, but nevertheless, they are on it.

Should we look away?

[jpgray]

33. No, but practical evidence and speculation are two different things

I don't think this stuff should be censored, but I think higher standards should be kept by people who rush to believe something without much evidence to support that belief.

[Minstrel Boy]

36. I saw no "rush to believe something."

Just some questions, is all.

[Wonk]

40. This was a little before your time, but here's a short history lesson.

Oct 30, 1961, Russia test detonated a ~50 megaton warhead 4,200 meters above sea level. This led to the US, UK and USSR agreeing to the partial nuclear weapons test ban treaty which was signed in 1963.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/30/newsid_3666000/3666785.stm
(snip)

The United States Government insists it has known for many years how to make 50 and 100-megaton bombs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba

(snip)

...blast damage up to 1000 km away...

---

I think a 100 megaton nuke detonated underwater would make one hell of a wave all by itself, and could precipitate a tectonic shift (aka earthquake) causing an even bigger one if detonated in the proper location (similar to how a mortar shell can trigger an avalanche, releasing all the stored up potential energy and causing much more damage than the mortar shell could possibly cause all on its own).

I'd like to add that I have absolutely zero evidence that this was what happened in the case of the South-East Asian tsunami.

[Karenina]

44. The silver lining

of this cloud of controversy would be people beginning to ask, WHERE'S THE $$$$$$2.3 TRILLION$$$$$$ (the figure ADMITTED to) and WHO is doing WHAT with it.

[bpilgrim]

32. a nuke could be the CATALYST

is what is being proposed, i think.

peace

[jpgray]

34. There should be evidence of tests

A project of such a size would require significant funding and testing, and a workforce of significant numbers. How do you learn to make an earthquake-causing superweapon without leaving any evidence?

[AZCat]

35. I calculated this last night, but the thread is gone

In the thread that spawned the current ban, I had calculated how big of a bomb it would take to cause a 9.0 Richter scale quake, but the thread is gone. As I figured it, it would take an amount of plutonium orders of magnitude greater than currently available to make such a bomb. I will see if I can drag the info from the 'net again and will repost my calculations, if you're interested.

[Minstrel Boy]

38. Thanks for the offer, but

no, not really interested.

Secretary of Defense Cohen spoke of "the use of electromagnetic waves" to trigger seismic and volcanic activity.

But again, this thread is not an argument that the tsunami was artificially generated. It was meant to open a broad discussion about the Pentagon's pursuit of weaponry most of us would think kooky.

[AZCat]

39. I thought it was relevant

I apologize if I am going off on a tangent, but I thought that an understanding of the physical limitations of nuclear devices was relevant to a discussion about the Pentagon's pursuit of weaponry. If we know the limit of what they can do, it prevents us from postulating devices beyond that limit.

"Electromagnetic waves" is unclear to me. Do you have any idea what Secretary Cohen meant - how these waves would be generated?

[reorg]

51. Cohen referred to what Alvin Toffler wrote 1993

in "War and Anti-War".

The quote is from the paperback issue by Warner Books, London, published in 1994, p. 160:

"And then there is ecological weaponry (...) what the United States did with the use of defoliants in Vietnam.

These acts are primitive compared with some of the imaginable (and imagined) possibilites of sophisticated ecological weaponry. For example, triggering earthquakes or volcano eruptions at a distance by generating certain electromagnetic waves; deflecting wind currents, sending in a vector of genetically altered insects to devastate a selected crop; using lasers to cut a custom-tailored hole in the ozone layer over an adversary's land; and even modifying weather."

Toffler goes on to say (p. 162):

"In 1975, at a hearing on the future of the United Nations before the Committee on Foreign Relations of the U. S. Senate, the late author and anti-nuke campaigner Norman Cousins was asked what should be done to prevent the further proliferation of nuclear weapons. Verging on despair, he said the world should have thought about that thirty years earlier.

When it came our turn to testify, we suggested to the senators that they and the world should start worrying about the weapons of thirty years hence. The same holds true today. Myopia and lack of imagination are diseases that afflict warriors and anti-warriors alike."

[seemslikeadream]

66. Myopia, lack of imagination diseases that afflict warrior & anti-warrior

I'm not sure if you'll remember but I will never forget your kindness in the Sudan.

:hi:

[Jose Diablo]

42. It may mean nothing but

What about all those contrails reported a few years back. Has anybody figured out what exactly the military was doing with that?

Edit: One thing is certain though, if the military has enough money to screw around with all these 'projects', they have far too much money to spend.

If the 'projects' were funded, then who in the hell paid for them and under what congressional oversight? ALL money the government spends is supposed to be authorized by "we the people" (congress) and if these bullshit 'projects' were undertaken, who in the fuck authorized it. Or did the military need to piss-away money that couldn't be spent on the projects they were authorized to spend the money on.

I think we have some crappy people in congress and the military. People that are and have been stealing from the till.

Think about it, where does the money to research these areas come from?

[dbt]

43. 'Scuze me while I whip this out:

It is scientifically impossible to change water into wine. It is scientifically impossible to bring a dead body back to life. It is scientifically impossible to walk on water. It is scientfically impossible to restore sight to a blind person through the application of clay mud made with saliva. It is scientifically impossible to get up and walk around after having been dead for a couple of days.

Therefore, Jesus was a kook and Christianity is a Conspiracy Theory, subscribed to and fully supported by millions of people worldwide.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled pogrom.

:tinfoilhat:
dbt

[bloom]

55. that is a good point

When enough believe a conspiracy theory - it is no longer a conspiracy theory - or something. And if we can't talk about kooky things - we better get rid of at least half of the threads around and maybe all of the religious ones.

That would really be a challenge to talk about only provable things.

Didn't everything start as someone's construct and/or opinion?

Like math. Anything.

That grass is "green". (Actually grass is a lot more than green. And then you have the problem of what color is and how it appears. This could just go on and on. Color-blindness, differences of perception. Differences in grass. Differences in lighting, time of year....)

[bobthedrummer]

45. A lot of this tin-foil has been privatized since becoming known about.

For instance, psychics, remote viewers, pagans, Wiccans, witches, shamen, telepaths, assassins, hypnotists, magicians and even musicians!

Can't have our taxes supporting astrologers, seers and covens (as well as their social networks for 20+ years) in the United States of America. Telekinesis isn't a fit subject to study, like teleportation. LOL!

Here's just a sample of the private sector's X-files
SAIC's recruiting psychics
(like old STAR GATE program)
http://www.lfr.org/csl/index.shtml

American Technology Corporation of San Diego got the government contract for acoustic and sound directed energy weapons (LRAD etc.)
and American Technology Corporation has been putting voices inside of human heads (a diagnostic criteria of psychosis) since 1974 at a minimum.

American Technology Corp. isn't the sole owner of patents on these sound based weapons systems
http://www.raven1.net/5159703.htm

American Technology Corp. executives have engaged in insider trading
http://biz.yahoo.com/t/14/1529.html

Pentagon awards contracts for weapons to American Technology Corporation of San Diego
http://www.raven1.net/atc-ag98.htm

http://www.raven1.net/hssweapon.htm

The Mind Has No Firewall
http://www.mindjustice.org/book_frameset.htm

[bobthedrummer]

46. 9.5 Kick

:dem::kick:

[bobthedrummer]

47. 21st century warfare plans from US Pentagon

Massive file from War College, Carlisle, PA.
http://carlisle-www.army.mil/library/bibs/warfar03.htm

Revolution in Military Affairs/RMA Rumsfeld's goal.
http://www.datafilter.com/mc/rmaWarCollege.html

Revolution in Political and Military Affairs/RPMA by Charles J. Dunlap Jr. The efficacy of military coups.
http://www.guerrillacampaign.com/coup.htm

The Real Shock and Awe
http://www.dodccrp.org/shockIndex.html

[seemslikeadream]

54. BAE Systems Recieves $35 Million For HAARP Program

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2899445#2903292
2903292,

BAE Systems Receives $35 Million For HAARP Program


June 14 2004

Washington (SPX) Jun 14, 2004 - The Office of Naval Research has awarded BAE Systems a $35.4 million contract to manufacture 132 high frequency (HF) transmitters for installation in the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program's (HAARP) phased array antenna system. The contract was finalized April 19 with BAE Systems Information & Electronic Warfare Systems in Washington, D.C.

The HAARP program collects and assesses data to advance knowledge of the physical and electrical properties of the Earth's ionosphere. "We look forward to contributing to this critical program. This is an opportunity for BAE Systems to play an important role in expanding knowledge of the Earth's ionosphere.

Significant potential applications include long-range communication, sensing and satellite vulnerability to nuclear effects," said Ramy Shanny, BAE Systems vice president and general manager for Advanced Technologies (AT).

In 1992, AT was awarded a contract to design and build the Ionospheric Research Instrument (IRI), the HAARP program's primary tool used to study ionospheric physics. The IRI is currently composed of 48 antenna elements and has a power capacity of 960,000 watts.

When installed, the additional 132 transmitters will give HAARP a 3.6 mega-watt capacity. The HAARP build-out is jointly funded by the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
more
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/missiles-04zi.html


BAE SYSTEMS North America has reached a definitive agreement with Advanced Power Technologies, Inc. (APTI), to purchase the corporation for $27 million in cash.

APTI, a private company with headquarters in Washington, D.C., focuses on intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance exploitation and information processing for defence, civil and commercial uses. APTI's core competencies include radio frequency (RF) and optical engineering, communications and networking, signal and data exploitation and knowledge creation.

Other disciplines include microwave engineering; antenna design and development; optical sensors, plasma and shock physics; advanced ordnance systems; non-destructive testing; signal and image processing; and digital control systems, including industrial-based process controls.

...

Mark Ronald, president and chief executive officer, BAE SYSTEMS North America said, "APTI's demonstrated performance, growth and high quality technical workforce align well with BAE SYSTEMS growth strategy in network centric warfare and information operations.

...

About BAE SYSTEMS:

BAE SYSTEMS is a systems company, innovating for a safer world. BAE SYSTEMS employs nearly 100,000 people including joint ventures, and has annual sales of around $19 billion. The company offers a global capability in air, sea, land and space with a world-class prime contracting ability supported by a range of key skills. BAE SYSTEMS designs, manufactures and supports military aircraft, surface ships, submarines, radar, avionics, communications, electronics, guided weapon systems and a range of other defence products.

BAE SYSTEMS is dedicated to making the intelligent connections needed to deliver innovative solutions.
more
http://www.globenet.free-online.co.uk/index.htm


How and why was electronic warfare carried out in rural Tennessee?

From the known profile of electronic weaponry, the electronic attack upon WJKM appears to have been caused by a tactical electromagnetic weapon, emitting a directed electromagnetic plasma, beam, pulse, etc. at the target. Electronic weapons with this capability are known, and can be land mounted in a facility like the former power plant, mounted in portable facilities like vans, trucks, helicopters or airplanes.

Electronic weapons may even be space-based, on satellite platforms. This reporter has personally met with an Assistant Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon who confirmed the existence of such secret space-based weapons as early as 1977.

An alternative electronic warfare delivery system may involve newly constructed relays for the HAARP installation in Alaska. The potential tactical electronic warfare applications of HAARP are under investigation. Serious public interest researchers maintain that HAARP's electromagnetic energy may cause effects such as earthquakes, such as occurred on July 7 in Hartsville. Electromagnetic weapons have been used in tectonic warfare, intentionally causing earthquakes. Electromagnetic pulse energy accompanies most earthquakes. Research shows that ultra low frequencies emitted by the HAARP installation may affect the human limbic system, and be used for mood management and mind control.

The close resemblance of the Hartsville attack to other U.S. Air Force electronic warfare led to speculation that radio station WJKM may have been chosen as a test target for a clandestine electronic warfare unit located within the power facility, or to which the power facility serves as electronic relay point. The likelihood that the electronic attack was accidental, rather than an intentional military test, is low, given that the targets were media outlets.
more
http://www.ecologynews.com/cuenews31.html


BAE Systems is Europe's largest arms exporter. BAE Systems is dedicated to producing innovative and high-specification ways of killing and maiming people. Satisfied BAE customers include Saddam Hussein in Iraq, General Pinochet in Chile, and the House of Saud. Are you a feudal Middle Eastern dictatorship that tortures your political opponents - and innocent British citizens? BAE Systems says: No problem! We just want your cash.
more
http://www.angloarabia.com /


Carlyle Interested in BAE's Shipbuilding Unit, Telegraph Says
July 25 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. buyout firm Carlyle Group, whose senior advisers have included former President George H.W. Bush, has expressed interest in buying BAE Systems Plc's shipbuilding business, the Sunday Telegraph reported, without citing sources.

The paper said Carlyle hasn't decided if an offer would include BAE's submarine operations at Barrow-in-Furness, England, and the sale of Britain's only submarine business to a foreign company may be politically sensitive.

BAE's Chief Executive Mike Turner said July 12 that Europe's largest weapons maker is in talks with several ``interested parties'' about selling its unprofitable shipbuilding unit, which makes Type 45 destroyers and Astute submarines. The company hasn't yet outlined what assets would be included in a sale.

Any bidder for Barrow would compete with DML, which runs the Devonport Royal Dockyard, and is 51 percent owned by Halliburton Co., the oilfield contractor led by Vice President Dick Cheney before he returned to politics in 2000, the paper said. The U.K.'s VT Group Plc has also said it's interested in BAE's shipbuilding yards in Barrow and Glasgow, Scotland.
more
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000102&sid=a ...

From The Sunday Times
Snip
David Leppard and Robert Winnett

BRITAIN’S biggest defence company has been accused by a whistleblower of operating a £60m “slush fund” to channel “bribes” to members of Saudi Arabia’s royal family. BAE Systems now faces a criminal investigation over allegations that it used Peter Gardiner, a reputable travel agent from St Albans, Hertfordshire, to lavish its Saudi clients with gifts and luxury holidays.

Gardiner has given details of the payments in interviews with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). Speaking publicly for the first time, he told The Sunday Times that he had spent £60m on BAE’s behalf. “It was an enormous amount of money. It’s more a question of what we didn’t spend it on than what we did,” said Gardiner.

The slush fund — spent by Gardiner over 13 years from 1989 and 2002 — provided a £170,000 Rolls-Royce, other luxury cars, London apartments, private air travel and accommodation in five-star hotels in Hawaii, Los Angeles, Paris and New York. Under separate arrangements, middlemen also arranged prostitutes for some dignitaries.

The largesse was extended to Saudi officials and members of the country’s large royal family who controlled the kingdom’s arms procurement, the chief source of BAE’s income over the past 18 years.
more
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1190953,00...

By Sylvia Pfeifer (Filed: 25/07/2004)

An American private equity group with close links to the Bush administration has emerged as a leading contender to acquire the shipbuilding business of BAE Systems, Britain's largest defence company.

Carlyle, which specialises in defence deals, is known for its links to the White House.

Until last year it counted George Bush Sr, the former US president, among its advisers. George W Bush, the US president, once served on the board of directors of Caterair, an airline catering company owned by Carlyle. James Baker, the former US secretary of state, and John Major, the former prime minister, both hold senior positions in the private equity group.

Carlyle has not yet decided whether its possible offer would include BAE's submarine operations at Barrrow-in-Furness. However, the sale of what is Britain's only submarine business to a foreign company could be politically sensitive.

Any bidder for Barrow will face competition from DML, the company that runs the Devonport Royal Dockyard. DML is 51 per cent owned by Halliburton, the US oil services company that used to be run by Dick Cheney, the US vice-president.


Analysts say one possibility would be for DML to link up with either VT or Carlyle to buy the yards. However, it is still not certain that BAE will proceed with the sale. The company has yet to issue a formal sales memorandum
more
http://www.money.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/...

The defence firm and the slush fund
Robert Winnett and David Leppard

FOR the Saudi princes and princesses it was just another luxury trip to the paradise island of Oahu in Hawaii. Under the shadow of Diamond Head, the island’s volcano, they enjoyed the run of one of the world’s best hotels while spending thousands in gourmet restaurants and designer boutiques.

The party of 50 people checked into its usual floor of suites at the Kahala Mandarin Oriental hotel. It has its own dolphins in a private blue lagoon, spas and “beach butlers” to provide face sprays, cooling drinks and sunshades. They hired a fleet of cars and after a few days travelled in a private Boeing 707 to another Hawaiian island, Maui, to stay at the five-star Grand Wailea hotel. The total cost of the trip in August 1998 was more than £250,000, including £25,000 on car hire.

For the Saudis, such holidays are part of the trappings of their royal status and influence in the oil-rich desert kingdom. But the trip to Oahu and similar jaunts are now attracting the attention of Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

This weekend, details of the trip and others funded by BAE Systems, Britain’s biggest defence company, have been disclosed by a whistleblower to The Sunday Times.
more
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1190346,0 ...


BAE probed on £60m Saudi slush fund
From The Sunday Times
Snip
David Leppard and Robert Winnett

BRITAIN’S biggest defence company has been accused by a whistleblower of operating a £60m “slush fund” to channel “bribes” to members of Saudi Arabia’s royal family. BAE Systems now faces a criminal investigation over allegations that it used Peter Gardiner, a reputable travel agent from St Albans, Hertfordshire, to lavish its Saudi clients with gifts and luxury holidays.

Gardiner has given details of the payments in interviews with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). Speaking publicly for the first time, he told The Sunday Times that he had spent £60m on BAE’s behalf. “It was an enormous amount of money. It’s more a question of what we didn’t spend it on than what we did,” said Gardiner.

The slush fund — spent by Gardiner over 13 years from 1989 and 2002 — provided a £170,000 Rolls-Royce, other luxury cars, London apartments, private air travel and accommodation in five-star hotels in Hawaii, Los Angeles, Paris and New York. Under separate arrangements, middlemen also arranged prostitutes for some dignitaries.

The largesse was extended to Saudi officials and members of the country’s large royal family who controlled the kingdom’s arms procurement, the chief source of BAE’s income over the past 18 years.

From:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1190953,00 ...

BAE wins £1bn Hawk contract

from the Guardian
Wednesday September 3, 2003
BAE Systems, Britain's biggest weapons maker, today clinched a contentious £1bn order to supply Hawk training aircraft to India, in a contract for which Tony Blair personally lobbied.
The deal, in negotiation for more than a decade, has sparked much political contention in Britain.
(snip)
Critics have argued that the sale lays the British government open to charges of hypocrisy, as it was pushing for a big arms deal at the same time as playing peacemaker between India and Pakistan over the disputed territory of Kashmir.
ales to India and Pakistan, despite political tension between the two regional rivals.

more:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,12559,1034880,0...

400 boxes of documents --- from Traveller’s World

Although such hospitality is considered routine in some Third World countries, it is a criminal offence for British companies to pay bribes to overseas officials. Fraud investigators are also concerned about the way the payments were described in the company’s accounts.
The SFO is now studying Gardiner’s statement, together with the contents of nearly 400 boxes of documents that he has volunteered from Traveller’s World, his company.

Last week Gardiner said his company had acted entirely properly. He approached the SFO in March and has been helping them and the police uncover full details of the slush fund since then. The possibility of a criminal investigation into BAE marks a new low for the defence company, once the darling of new Labour. It has fallen out of favour after being accused of massive overspending on a series of Ministry of Defence contracts.

Gardiner’s evidence spans much of the period of the Al-Yamamah arms deal, Britain’s biggest export contract. It resulted in the sale of more than £20 billion worth of aircraft, such as Tornado and Hawk jets, and other military equipment to the oil-rich state.

Whitehall officials said last week they were shocked by the scale of the alleged slush fund. The government is determined to show that all cases of alleged corruption will be fully investigated, but the case is highly sensitive.
more
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1190953,00...


UK arms firm's £60m Saudi slush fund
Police inquiry into arms firm's £60m slush fund

David Leigh and Rob Evans
Tuesday May 4, 2004
The Guardian

...

Files have been seized by Ministry of Defence police alleging corruption on a massive scale by Britain's biggest arms firm, BAE Systems. Payments totalling more than £60m to prominent Saudis are listed, a far greater amount than has been previously alleged.
MoD fraud squad detectives investigating allegations of bribery of a civil servant have seized 386 boxes of "slush fund" accounts.

Most explosively, the documents detail £17m in benefits and cash allegedly paid by BAE, which is chaired by Sir Dick Evans, to the key Saudi politician in charge of British arms purchases, Prince Turki bin Nasser. He is recorded under the codename "PB", alleged to mean "principal beneficiary".

BAE is trying to secure another £1.5bn of arms deals from the Saudi regime, following the sale of planes, missiles and warships worth £50bn to them over the past 15 years.

The documents list by name every Saudi official alleged to have received benefits from BAE in recent years. These include a number of military attaches at Saudi Arabia's London embassy, recorded as being provided with luxury London houses at BAE's expense.
more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/armstrade/story/0,10674,12090...


BAE Systems is offering its staff in Saudi Arabia an extra £1,000 a month in an attempt to stop the exodus of staff, one employee has told BBC News Online. The indefinite monthly payment follows a one-off payment of £4,500 in December after housing compounds were bombed in May 2003, killing 35 people.

The security situation has deteriorated since then. Earlier this month al-Qaeda militants beheaded an American engineer they had been holding hostage.

The British-owned defence firm made the £1,000 cash offer in an e-mail to each of its 2,400 staff in Saudi Arabia, describing it as an "emergency security payment", the employee said.

The employee said that people have been on edge since the housing compounds came under fire in May 2003 but that employees were encouraged to stay on the payroll to get the lump-sum offer in December.
more
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3837407.stm

Includes replies to:
"Are you an expatriate working in Saudi Arabia? Are you pondering to leave or is the security situation still under control? And how is your company persuading you to stay? Tell us your experiences.At the request of our readers in Saudi Arabia e-mailing us their stories, all names have been withheld"


US war system reaps $2bn for BAE

David Gow
Saturday July 19, 2003
The Guardian

BAE Systems, Britain's biggest defence manufacturer, yesterday secured its place at the heart of the Pentagon's visionary new electronic warfare programme, with a contract from Boeing worth up to $2bn.

It is seen by the Pentagon as capable of delivering a precise firepower that will dwarf the "shock and awe" seen in Iraq this year.
BAE's selection, along with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon, America's biggest defence contractors, buttresses its ambition to become a substantial US military supplier.

The company, at loggerheads with the British government, has made no secret of its ultimate plans for merger with the big US players such as Boeing or Lockheed, though talk of an imminent deal is too premature.

The highly classified work of BAE's two US units, one of them acquired from Lockheed and both run by US citizens, will be kept secret from the company's main British businesses under US laws, which forbid such technology transfer - a restriction that Tony Blair asked to be lifted in his Washington visit this week.

Jack Dromey, chief defence industry negotiator at the TGWU, said the plans would mean the end of a £70m project, known as Red Dragon, to build a repair facility in the centre of a new aviation park at RAF St Athans, near Cardiff.
more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/military/story/0,11816,100142...


BAE Systems enters agreement with Carlyle Group

BAE Systems North America has reached agreement with The Carlyle Group, Washington, D.C., to spin out its Imaging Sensors business located at Milpitas, Calif.
Imaging Sensors was previously part of BAE Systems Reconnaissance and Surveillance Systems of Syosset, N.Y. In the transaction, BAE Systems provided the assets of Imaging Sensors to form a new company, Fairchild Imaging, Inc. Closing of the agreement occurred April 6, 2001.
The core competencies of the new company, Fairchild Imaging, are in charged coupled device development and fabrication and electronic imaging systems. This company pioneered the development of CCD imaging technologies and has continued to innovate in a number of commercial product areas serving medical, dental and industrial surveillance markets. It currently employs 123 people.
"Fairchild Imaging is an excellent business. This transaction is part of our continuing strategic alignment to our aerospace core competencies, and provides Fairchild Imaging with great opportunity for future investment growth and success in its new commercial markets as well," said Mark Ronald, president and CEO, BAE Systems North America.
Under the terms of the transaction, BAE Systems North America retains an equity interest in Fairchild Imaging. The new company will continue to provide CCD products to the Reconnaissance and Surveillance Systems business within BAE Systems North America. Financial terms were not disclosed.
MORE
http://www.defense-aerospace.com/cgi-bin/client/modele....

UK: MoD official took BAE gifts
David Leigh and Rob Evans
Tuesday April 6, 2004
The Guardian

A slush fund run by Britain's biggest arms firm, BAE Systems, has been providing free holidays to a low-paid civil servant at the Ministry of Defence, according to allegations made to the Guardian.

The information has been passed to the Serious Fraud Office, which is planning to interview a key witness today.

...

The firm, which uses a battery of methods to persuade Britain and regimes all over the world to buy its weapons, has frequently been at the centre of corruption allegations abroad. The Guardian disclosed this year that since Labour legislated against bribery of foreign public officials, BAE has secretly shifted its files of payments to agents and foreign politicians into a vault in Geneva. BAE is also alleged to be using Swiss banks and offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands to conceal its transactions.

The Guardian also disclosed allegations that BAE has been operating a £20m slush fund to provide prostitutes, yachts and free trips for Saudis. This fund, according to the documents, also appears to have been used to finance the free holidays for Mr Porter. BAE has refused to respond to all these allegations, other than to make a generalised denial of wrongdoing.
more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/military/story/0,11816,118678...


BAE chairman named in 'slush fund' files
David Leigh and Rob Evans
Wednesday May 5, 2004
The Guardian

...

Sir Dick Evans, the retiring chairman of BAE who faces his his final shareholders meeting today, has been named in allegations concerning the arms firm's £60m "slush fund", according to documents seen by the Guardian.

His name is referred to in a number of alleged phone calls, emails and meetings. The slush fund allegations are under investigation by Ministry of Defence police.

Sir Dick, who also faces questioning on arms procurement by MPs on the Commons defence committee this afternoon, remained silent yesterday in the face of the allegations about him.

Documents previously seized by MoD police detail £17m of alleged payments to a Saudi responsible for arms purchases from Britain, Prince Turki bin Nasser.
more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/armstrade/story/0,10674,12097...


DRS Technologies Receives $23.3 Million Contract to Provide High-Frequency Radio Transmitters for U.S. Government
Tuesday June 15, 9:30 am ET

PARSIPPANY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 15, 2004--DRS Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: DRS - News) announced today that it has received a $23.3 million contract, including options, to provide high-frequency (HF) radio transmitters for the High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP), which supports a U.S. government Arctic research facility being built to study the Earth's upper atmosphere.
The $11.5 million base contract was awarded to DRS by BAE Systems PLC (LSE: BA.L - News). For this award, DRS will manufacture more than 60 Model D616G 10-Kilowatt Dual Transmitters to fulfill the transmitter requirements for the HAARP program. Work for this order will be performed by the company's DRS Broadcast Technology unit in Dallas, Texas. Product deliveries to BAE Systems' Information and Electronic Warfare Systems in Washington, D.C., are scheduled to begin in March 2005 and continue for approximately one year.

"We are pleased to continue our role as a premier supplier of transmitters for the HAARP program," said Steven T. Schorer, president of DRS's C4I Group. "This award enhances DRS's position as a leader in high-technology radio frequency solutions for secure and tactical communications systems supporting the applications of the government scientific research community."

The high-frequency or short-wave Model D616G Transmitters were designed specifically for the U.S. government HAARP research facility. Currently, the ionosphere provides long-range capabilities for commercial ship-to-shore communications, transoceanic aircraft links, and military communications and surveillance systems.

A primary goal of HAARP is to understand how variations in the sun's radiation affect the performance of radio systems and to improve military command, control, communications and surveillance systems.

DRS Broadcast Technology, formerly known as Continental Electronics, is a global leader in broadcast transmitter equipment. It is the foremost supplier of advanced radio frequency transmission technology and the world's most experienced provider of the highest power radio broadcast equipment, offering a full range of products for broadcasting, military and scientific applications.

DRS Technologies, headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey, provides leading edge products and services to defense, government intelligence and commercial customers. Focused on defense technology, DRS develops and manufactures a broad range of mission critical systems. The company employs 5,800 people worldwide
more
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040615/155095_1

[Minstrel Boy]

49. First, they ignore you.

Posted to my blog.

First, they ignore you.

Then, they call you a "conspiracy theorist."

Then, they fight a strawman and pretend it's you.

Then, you're proven right. But it doesn't make any difference, because they control the spin, and by now they're lying about something else, anyway.

A whole lot of sensible knickers are getting twisted over some folks questioning the provenance of the earthquake and tsunami. Look, for instance, at this story: "Conspiracy theorists see dark forces behind tsunami disaster":

In bars and Internet chatrooms around the world questions are being asked, with knowing nods and winks, about who caused the submarine earthquake off Sumatra on December 26, and why governments were so slow to act in the minutes and hours before tsunamis slammed into their shores, killing almost 150,000.

"There's a lot more to this. Why is the US sending a warship? Why is a senior commander who was in Iraq going there?" whispered designer Mark Tyler, drinking a pint of beer at a bar in Hong Kong's Wan Chai district.

"This happened exactly a year after Bam," said Tyler, referring to the earthquake in Iran which killed 30,000 on December 26 last year. "Is that a coincidence? And there was no previous seismic activity recorded in Sumatra before the quake, which is very strange," he said, nodding somberly.

...

Among the more common suggestions is that eco-weapons which can trigger earthquakes and volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves were being tested.

You gotta love that Lone Gunmen colour. I wonder how many "knowing nods and winks" the author really saw, or if the conspiracist truly "whispered."

Democratic Underground was singled out this week by The New York Times and FoxNews for posts which asked whether there might be more than nature at play. That the US mainstream - and it doesn't get more mainstream than those two - would pick over an anonymous message board for "extreme" examples of free speech was silly enough. (Unbalanced, too: when has either singled out examples of the grotesque ignorance and bloodlusting hate on sites such as "Free Republic"?) Compounding the silliness with a dispiriting concession to those who are forever permitted to frame the debate, DU's administrators have now banned "Kooky Tsunami Conspiracy Theories," though every relevent post merely questioned whether a human agency was possible, and tried to raise awareness of the military's interest in weaponizing the forces of nature. This, despite the fact not a single death can be attributed to "Kooky Tsunami" theories; unlike, say, the Kooky WMD Theories popularized and unretracted by the Times and FoxNews. (And, as was to be expected, the call has already gone out from DU's perpetually embarrassed handwringing moderates to further constrict the freespeech zone: "Can we extend this to 'Kooky 9/11 Conspiracy Theories' too?")

If it's a kooky theory, and it involves killing people, you can be sure the Pentagon is there. In 1997, then-Secretary of Defense William Cohen admitted to taking seriously the threat of seismic weapons in the hands of terrorists. Even the hypothetical possibility of triggering "earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves" was cause for the Pentagon's concern. What does that suggest regarding the Pentagon's level of interest towards the research and development of its own seismic weapon system?

And not just the Pentagon. In his autobiography Through the Eyes of the Enemy, Lt Col Stanislav Lunev - the highest ranking defector from Soviet military intelligence - acknowledges that the USSR was developing and testing seismic weapons in the mid-1980s. (The Amazon editorial review notes that the book "could be dismissed as fantastic paranoid ravings were the source not so credible and the ramifications not so severe.") Also Akif Gasanov, a former KGB intelligence officer, claims to have seen evidence of Soviet tectonic weaponry 20 years ago:

GASANOV: I became aware of this subject quite by accident in 1985. I was working in the Second Department (counterintelligence) in the linear branch of Western espionage. I needed some new assistants to "set up" foreign diplomats. We would usually select these people from among intellectuals who were of interest to the Western special services.

...

The information I received seemed fantastic. Certain scientists at the Academy of Sciences were working on problems associated with earthquakes. There was a certain Ikram Kerimov and a group of his associates, the most notable of whom was Dzhafar Dzhafarov, son of Khady Dzhafarov, the well-known professor.

Ikram Kerimov asserted that they could control and initiate earthquakes. Moreover, he said they had theoretical justification for their assertions and were attempting to obtain minimal financing in the academic sphere. In their opinion, there were grounds to believe that a number of earthquakes that had occurred recently may well have been initiated through a remote control device or accidentally triggered directional influence on the Earth's core.

We collected materials that might prove factually relevant, then drew up and submitted our report to the center.... It would usually take a month or more to process information. On this occasion, however, we received a conclusion very quickly. The assessment was fairly high for internal USSR information. It was treated as intelligence information. There was an immediate request to prepare the most extensive possible analytical reference package on the material and send it to the VPK (military-industrial complex). As a result of VPK study, a very high assessment was given. Scientists were then brought to Moscow to elaborate the subject matter. According to main information, an outstanding environment was created for them. They were afforded almost unlimited financing and the ability to conduct experiments.

...

In the late 1980s, a series of earthquakes took place encompassing a vast territory -- from India to Central Asia. Accusations of the use of tectonic weapons and directed towards the Soviet Union appeared in the Western press at that time. Our scientists who had participated in the development of tectonic weapons declined to give a response to all questions dealing with the nature of these earthquakes.

Then there's Dennis Kucinich's Space Preservation Act. As tabled before Congress on October 2, 2001, it defined "exotic weapons" as those "designed to damage space or natural ecosystems (such as the ionosphere and upper atmosphere) or climate, weather, and tectonic systems with the purpose of inducing damage or destruction upon a target population or region on earth or in space." But be careful to whom you mention it. No evidence is enough for some who need to deny the hidden High Weirdness of our world.

The same goes for weather modification, mind control, remote viewing - heck, even attempting to kill with a stare and walk through walls. The deep black world of military-intelligence R&D is all real, all crazy, all the time. And that's just the part we know about. There is no greater conspiracy theorist than the US defence establishment, and its kooky theorizing has the benefit of God knows how many trillions of unaudited dollars to see its theories become practice. What has it left us to not question?

Here's a tsunami conspiracy story even the Times and Fox wouldn't ridicule, because they would likely commend it:

US eyes greater military clout in Asia following tsunami tragedy

The massive US-led relief operation in tsunami-hit Asia is expected to give the American military greater clout in the region and bolster counterterrorism efforts, analysts say. Backed by an array of US warships, planes and helicopters, more than13,000 US military personnel have been dispatched to help Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka, the countries most affected by the December 26 disaster.

Conducting its largest operation in Asia since the Vietnam War, the US military could remain in the region for up to six months, analysts said here Tuesday.... US forces are also using Thailand's Vietnam war-era air base of Utapao as an airlift hub for the humanitarian mission in the region, strengthening potential US military logistical support throughout southeast Asia.

Also:

The emergency relief operations appear to provide a windfall opportunity for beefing up the American military presence in Southeast Asia, part of the expanding Pentagon strategy of "forward positioning,"establishing sites, so-called "air cargo hubs, "where American forces can stash equipment and enter and leave as desired."

Myself, I think it's most likely the earthquake and tsunami occurred naturally, but I can't say with certainty. And certainty about the natural world is something I miss.

[Galley_Queen]

57. Yes.

A quick Google search brings out some very interesting material, which you include.

Phuck the NY Times and Faux News and their reporting of DU conspiracy theories. I really can't think of too many conspiracy theories talked about on this board, or elsewhere since 2000 that have turned out to be WRONG. Maybe not proven (i.e. the death of Paul Wellstone and JFK, Jr.), but not PROVEN wrong.

It wouldn't surprise me at all to find that some country (such as perhaps India) conducted nuclear/electromagnetic, whatever, tests that triggered the earthquake. I simply don't see that as being a conspiracy nut. I see that as being curious.

[bobthedrummer]

50. Former CIA analyst and USSR expert Ray McGovern spent a couple

of days in Green Bay last October. At my old school, UWGB. After I thanked him and his buds for preventing nuclear war we were talking about websites and I brought up DU, which he reads. Imagine my surprise when he said he knew my posts as bobthedrummer.

OTOH, he publicly stated that we were just "baby steps" away from fascism.

Those hundred or so suitcase nukes are a real threat btw.:scared:

[Minstrel Boy]

52. McGovern says conspiracy theories "need to be explored"

and is a signatory of the 9/11 Truth Statement. (http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20041026093059633)

Very cool for you, bob. Like virtually every institution, the CIA has shades of light and dark. McGovern was one of the good guys.

[txaslftist]

56. It jest pisses me off...

That the pentagon is spending TRILLIONS of my taxpayer dollars on this horse-shit. They may be able to make 'earthquake weapons' and train psychic empathy killers -hell, what do I know?- We don't need that shit!

What a collossal waste.

[HalfManHalfBiscuit]

58. If you believe the Pentagon is seriously doing this, you are a kook

Pure disinformation. The Pentagon/CIA/Military are fucking with gullible people.

[bobthedrummer]

59. Campaign Contributions of Post-war Contractors

Rich people's weapons systems developed with our taxes!
Follow the $$$! They are capable of anything.
http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/resources.aspx?act=contrib

[Karenina]

60. Ya want some fries wit dat?

:eyes:

[seemslikeadream]

63. Nuclear Weapons Stealth Takeover

"The reason why the Navy and the Admirals are predominantly involved in the weapons is that until the Space military launch posts are ready and positioned with the minimum degree of reliability, the US Navy has more than 70 % of the first and second strike capability on its boats and hence an equivalent amount of the budget earmarked for strategic systems."



His comments made the link for me between the nuclear weapons program, the Navy, NASA, and other types of directed energy weapons developed in nuclear weapons labs intended for space. Marion Fulk, a former Manhattan Project scientist and retired Livermore nuclear physical chemist told me that nuclear weapons cannot be used in space without contaminating the atmosphere, and laser weapons will not work because there is too much space trash already up there which will impede the effectiveness of the lasers. Wars in space will create more space trash until it is impossible to leave the earth, which already according to Astronaut Edgar Mitchell, is very dangerous now since a paint chip nearly took out the windshield of the space shuttle. The US plans to weaponize space are a violation of the United Nations 1967 Outer Space Treaty: Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies. The intent was "to promote international co-operation in the peaceful exploration and use of outer space" and specifically prohibited the weaponization of space with ANY weapons, including nuclear weapons.

The 2001 Space Preservation Act, HR 2977 which was introduced by Congressman Dennis Kucinich, let the cat out of the bag and revealed under the "Definitions" in the bill, that directed energy weapons which can target individuals and populations from space for the purposes of psychotronics, mind control, and mood control, are clearly the new space weapons intended to establish global dominance by the New World Order. Directed energy weapons developed in the nuclear weapons labs have been used on nuclear weapons lab whistleblowers, UC students, handed over to the EPA to use on environmentalists, and to the FBI to turn over to local law enforcement. These weapons are now land, air, and sea based. Space is the last frontier.


ADMIRAL BOBBY RAY INMAN – SPOOKS-R-US


Tipped off by a journalist in Washington DC, my investigation of Admiral Bobby Ray Inman revealed that he was THE Admiral at the center of the spider web. A look at his social network (see Namebase.org
opens in new window) helped put the ‘puzzle palace’ together, and I discovered he was National Security Advisor to five Presidents, Director of the NSA, Deputy Director of the CIA under William Casey, Vice Director of the DIA, Director of Naval Intelligence, President of SAIC, Chair of the 1985 Congressional ‘Inman Commission’ on Terrorism, affiliated with the Carlyle Group, on the advisory boards of Tufts and the University of Texas, represents SBC Communications Corporation at Cal Tech, Chairman Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, and a member of both the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission. And, Admiral Bobby Ray Inman is a member of the University of Texas faculty. One could say he is a dangerous man.

One job he didn’t get was Secretary of Defense under Clinton:



"1994: Former admiral Bobby Ray Inman, stung by press and Senate criticisms of his record, asked President Clinton to withdraw his nomination as secretary of Defense. A Clinton aide, George Stephanopoulos, later wrote that Inman had held back information during his White House background check."



A look at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) reveals just exactly what kind of activities are undertaken in a spook shop where there is no accountability, and what business Inman was conducting at SAIC

under his leadership. SAIC is one of the largest private employee-owned corporations, and like the Carlyle Group, escapes scrutiny (because it is privately owned) despite annual revenues of more than $5.9 billion. In 1990 it was indicted and pled guilty to ten felony counts of fraud on a Superfund site, called "one of the largest of environmental fraud…" in Los Angeles history. DOE contracted SAIC to manage and operate the Yucca Mountain Program, which I worked on as a scientist at the Livermore Lab. I became a whistleblower at Livermore in 1991 because of my knowledge of the extent of science fraud on the most important public works project in US history. SAIC’s control over internet domain names, gained when they purchased Network Solutions Inc., caused a furor and identified the ties in SAIC to "the shadow ruling-class within the Pentagon". Basically SAIC is a private spook corporation, involved in voting machines (SEQUOIA etc.), controlling the internet (Network Solutions), training foreign militaries, and the contractor that set up global communications for the US military. The internet is being changed from a public resource to a lucrative operation influenced by spooks and former Pentagon officials. The internet was a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) project to begin with.

One of SAIC’s prime clients is DARPA (DOD), which recently employed 5-time convicted felon Admiral Poindexter, an associate of Inman’s going back to Iran-Contra. Poindexter was forced to resign over his involvement with PAM, a "terrorism futures market" DARPA project which predicted assassinations, terrorism and other events in the Middle East. His earlier controversial program TIPS – the Total Information Awareness Program – was set up to spy on Americans. He was also involved in creating large information databases on Americans which are now being used to track citizens. SAIC also had contracts to develop information systems for the Pentagon, FBI and IRS. Police can now legally stop a person on the street, ask their name, type it into a palm pilot and come up with detailed personal information in a few seconds. An Associated Press story on Sept. 9, 2004, "Conn. City Uses Scanners to Nab Criminals" revealed that police in New Haven, Connecticut, are now driving around in police cars with infrared scanners connected to databases which they are using on license plates to hunt for "criminals", tax delinquents, and parking ticket violators. Some of the $25,000 scanners were paid for in one month from collected revenues. A military project, the real purpose of the internet is revealing itself:

more
http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=3323

[Minstrel Boy]

65. R&D'ing environmental weapon systems?

mind control? remote viewing?

Of course. I'm not so gullible to think otherwise.

To which Half have I the pleasure of speaking?

[Karenina]

68. (psssssst.... mb....

sounds like a half baked biscuit in an unpre-heated oven. give it time...)

[bpilgrim]

75. that's all you got?

we DEFINATELY need a filter system.

peace

[Ouabache]

61. Fox's Senior Military Analyst is a KOOK?

Well there we have it. Who woulda thunk it?

good find Minstrel Boy !! >>>Paul Vallely, now senior military analyst for FoxNews, was the Deputy Commanding General, US Army, Pacific, he co-authored a military paper titled From Psyop to Mindwar. Here\'s an excerpt:

"For the mind to believe in its own decisions, it must feel that it made those decisions without coercion. Coercive measures used by the operative, consequently, must not be detectable by ordinary means...."<<<<<<

I would guess the coercion by Fox IS undetectable to all its' idiotiotic, addicted viewers.

[Zynx]

69. Actually, I'm fairly sure he is a lunatic

At least a right-wing fanatic.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

62. The Pentagon has too much money and too few brains.

And, even fewer morals.

[Octafish]

64. Jack Anderson thought about it in 1985...

Here's a some thing to think about...

The United States is still involved in ESP-ionage

by Jack Anderson
and Dale Van Atta
Deseret News
12-13 August 1985

WASHINGTON -- a decade ago, an American agent penetrated a previously unknown, top-secret Soviet military base in the Urals. The spy described the base in minute detail, according to a Central Intelligence Agency report.

He charted railways, machine shops and laboratories. He even reported that "an unusual proportion of women" were working at the facility.

James Bond should be so successful. Unlike his fictional counterpart, this agent was not particularly bold or dashing. He didn't parachute deep into Soviet territory or even slip across the Iron Curtain under cover of darkness.

SNIP...

Before dismissing this as hallucinogenic hokum, the taxpayers should know that our government has spent -- and continues to spend -- millions of dollars on this hush-hush research. It began with the CIA's "Project Scanate" in the early 1970's, and has since become the Defense Intelligence Agency's "Project Grill Flame."

SNIP...

The most striking occurred when one of the institutes top psychics, given only the geographic coordinates, described the Semipalatinsk nuclear facility in Soviet Central Asia in detail only confirmed afterward by satellite spy photos.

CONTINUED...

http://www.mceagle.com/remote-viewing/pub/news/85aug13-dn.html

Tin Hat worn by Aguirre



Mine is like this.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

72. It Can't Happen Here. Kicking this conspiracy theory to where it s/b. n/t

[bobthedrummer]

74. I hear that-kick.

:dem::kick:

[Minstrel Boy]

76. "Space-launched darts that strike like meteors"

From "Is This What War Will Come To?" Popular Science, June 2004:


SPACE-LAUNCHED DARTS THAT STRIKE LIKE METEORS

This technology is very far out--in miles and years. A pair of satellites orbiting several hundred miles above the Earth would serve as a weapons system. One functions as the targeting and communications platform while the other carries numerous tungsten rods--up to 20 feet in length and a foot in diameter--that it can drop on targets with less than 15 minutes' notice. When instructed from the ground, the targeting satellite commands its partner to drop one of its darts. The guided rods enter the atmosphere, protected by a thermal coating, traveling at 36,000 feet per second--comparable to the speed of a meteor. The result: complete devastation of the target, even if it's buried deep underground. (The two-platform configuration permits the weapon to be "reloaded" by just launching a new set of rods, rather than replacing the entire system.)

The concept of kinetic-energy weapons has been around ever since the RAND Corporation proposed placing rods on the tips of ICBMs in the 1950s; the satellite twist was popularized by sci-fi writer Jerry Pournelle. Though the Pentagon won't say how far along the research is, or even confirm that any efforts are underway, the concept persists. The "U.S. Air Force Transformation Flight Plan," published by the Air Force in November 2003, references "hypervelocity rod bundles" in its outline of future space-based weapons, and in 2002, another report from RAND, "Space Weapons, Earth Wars," dedicated entire sections to the technology's usefulness.

If so-called "Rods from God"--an informal nickname of untraceable origin--ever do materialize, it won't be for at least 15 years. Launching heavy tungsten rods into space will require substantially cheaper rocket technology than we have today. But there are numerous other obstacles to making such a system work. Pike, of GlobalSecurity.org, argues that the rods' speed would be so high that they would vaporize on impact, before the rods could penetrate the surface. Furthermore, the "absentee ratio"--the fact that orbiting satellites circle the Earth every 100 minutes and so at any given time might be far from the desired target--would be prohibitive. A better solution, Pike argues, is to pursue the original concept: Place the rods atop intercontinental ballistic missiles, which would slow down enough during the downward part of their trajectory to avoid vaporizing on impact. ICBMs would also be less expensive and, since they're stationed on Earth, would take less time to reach their targets. "The space-basing people seem to understand the downside of space weapons," Pike says--among them, high costs and the difficulty of maintaining weapon platforms in orbit. "But I'll still bet you there's a lot of classified work on this going on right now."
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/aviation/article/0,20967,636378,00.html

[seemslikeadream]

77. Mystery Object Orbits Earth

from DulceDecorum

Mystery Object Orbits Earth

Sept. 20, 2002: Something odd is circling our planet. It's small, perhaps only 60-ft long, and rotates once every minute or so. Amateur astronomer Bill Yeung first spotted the 16th magnitude speck of light on Sept. 3rd in the constellation Pisces. He named it J002E3.
Automated asteroid surveys scan the skies every few weeks, yet there was no sign of Yeung's object earlier this year. "It must have entered Earth orbit recently," says Paul Chodas of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program at JPL. "But it doesn't match any recently-launched spacecraft."
In other words, it's a mystery.
<snip>
Could it be an alien spaceship? "If it is," says Chodas, "the aliens aren't good pilots. J002E3 is in a chaotic orbit. It loops around Earth once every 48 days or so, coming as close to our planet as the Moon and ranging as far away as two lunar distances." There's no evidence that the speck is moving under its own power. The orbit is constantly changing because of gravitational perturbations by the Sun and Moon.
At first Yeung and others thought J002E3 might be a small asteroid--a reasonable guess. The object is as bright as a 30m-wide space rock and it's moving about as fast as an asteroid should move. Mars and Jupiter have captured asteroid moons before; perhaps Earth had done the same.
It was a good idea, except for the paint.
That's what University of Arizona astronomers found on Sept. 12th when they measured the spectrum of sunlight reflected from J002E3. "The colors were consistent with ... white titanium dioxide paint--the type of paint NASA used on Apollo moon rockets 30 years ago," says Carl Hergenrother, who conducted the study with colleague Robert Whiteley.
<snip>
So, J002E3 might be a spacecraft after all--an old one from Earth. Where has it been all these years?
"Orbiting the Sun," answers Chodas. "I've traced the motion of J002E3 backwards in time to find out where it's been," he explains. Apparently, J002E3 left Earth in 1971, went around the Sun 30 or so times, and came back again. Chodas, a expert in planetary motion who has seen plenty of complicated orbits, says "I've never seen anything like this."
At first glance, J002E3 would seem to be from Apollo 14. That mission began in January of 1971, and according to Chodas' calculations J002E3 broke out of Earth orbit in March of the same year. There's a problem, though: NASA has accounted for all the big pieces of the Apollo 14 spacecraft. None are missing.

more
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/20sep_mysteryobject.htm

[Octafish]

79. That's weird.

[Minstrel Boy]

80. wow...never seen that.

Thanks OctaRanger. You never cease in the amaze dept.

[DulceDecorum]

81. Thanks,

Seemslikeadream.
Good thread, Minstrel Boy.
Blog On!!
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/blogs/2005/01/04/blogs_new_place_at_the_media_table.html

First of all,
there was a terrible tragedy involving MASSIVE loss of life.
Second of all,
such events - namely earthquakes and tsunamis - have occurred naturally.
Thirdly,
and this is where everyone gets all bent out of shape,
certain nations have the capability
- and the desire -
to cause such events.
http://www.thememoryhole.org/mil/cohen-ecoweapons.htm

The US is
therefore justified in
seeking out and testing out ways to neutralize this perceived threat.
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/SYT308A.html

AZCat says that he calculated the amount of energy that it would take to shift a tectonic plate and came up with a HUGE amount.
I do not doubt this,
but I do want to know how many here know
How To Cross A Bridge
http://physics.uwstout.edu/deptpages/physqz/resonanc.htm

Since not everyone is adept at physics,
bear with me as I break it down.
There is something called resonance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resonance

Think of a swing.
When you push the swing at the point where is changing direction,
the swing will go higher and higher.
If you push the swing at most other points,
the swing will twist and turn
because you have destroyed that smooth harmonic increasing amplitude.

You, as a human being, have a natural resonance.
Everything does.
And you know that sometimes loud music will make your stomach
or some other part of you to vibrate.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3614180.stm

The earth has a natural resonance too.
Schumann resonance
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schumann_resonance.

OK, now we get to the good stuff ----
Which is why the "fair and balanced" reporters
such as Judith Miller of the New York Times
http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Judith_Miller
and the ENTIRE "news team" at Fox
http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Fox_News
who claim to provide us with "all the news that is fit to print,"
have decided to label DU researchers as "kooks."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3541706.stm

As we go on pumping carbon dioxide into the air, we might borrow a line from financial planners. Past performance is no guide to future results.
The buildup of carbon dioxide (CO2) is forcing scientists to rethink their expectations - not only about the buildup of heat on Earth but also about the implications for the natural world far beyond warming.
Take those powerful Alaskan earthquakes. We expect land to rise as the weight of glaciers melts away. Should we also adjust our assessment of earthquake risk?
Two geophysicists say "yes." Glaciers hold down earthquake action even in a seismically active region like Alaska, argue Jeanne Sauber with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and Bruce Molnia with the US Geological Survey in Reston, Va. They use history and current data to make their case.
For example, earthquake action picked up in places where the ice masses retreated some 10,000 years ago, Dr. Sauber notes. Scandinavia had major quakes back then. Canada also had many moderate quakes as its glaciers melted.
Melting glaciers do not cause earthquakes: Quakes are created when forces within the crust build up strain in rock until something slips. Alaska is seismically active because a North Pacific crustal plate is ramming into southern Alaska, creating pressures that must be relieved at some point.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0819/p16s01-sten.html

On March 27, 1964, an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.4 rocked the southwest coast of Alaska. Lasting 3 to 4 minute, it left 131 people dead, and the area looking like a war zone. Not only was this quake large enough and devastating enough to be named the greatest North American earthquake, it's aftershocks continued to hit the area at magnitudes over 6.0 on the Richter Scale.
<snip>
In the Gulf of Alaska, a vertical displacement of the ocean floor started a tsunami, which had waves of 30m (100ft) targeting the coastline. This was one of the largest causes of destruction, it was powerful enough to move boats over one mile inland!
http://wwwshs1.bham.wednet.edu/curric/science/geophys/granat/Alaska.htm

Which facts indicate that
the connections between earthquake and resulting tsunami
is extremely well known in meterological circles.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/04/tsunami.meteorologist.reut/

The great Alaskan earthquake of 1964
was the largest earthquake in North America
and the second largest ever recorded
(largest occurred in Chile in 1960).
http://www.wcatwc.gov/64quake.htm

Glaciers are VERY VERY HEAVY
and are said to depress the land mass directly underneath them.
This phenomenon is found mainly in the Arctic AND in the Antarctic.

Bed Elevation shows height of the ice sheet bed (meters above sea level, color shading) over the Laurentide Ice Sheet domain. As glaciers grow, the weight of the ice can become large enough to depress the earth's crust beneath the glacier. In these plots, warm colors (yellows, reds) are elevations above sea level, while cool colors (blues) indicate elevations below sea level. These changes in bed elevation are produced by the Isostasy component of UMISM.
http://polarmet.mps.ohio-state.edu/PolarMet/paleonwp_b.html

But the glaciers in the Arctic are melting -- and melting FAST.

Wednesday, 5 April, 2000
Ozone levels over the Arctic have fallen dramatically this winter, say scientists.
An international group of researchers found cumulative ozone losses of more than 60% at around 18 kilometres (11 miles) above the polar region between January and March.
"These are among the largest chemical losses at this altitude observed during the last 10 years," said the European Commission, a main sponsor of the research, in a statement.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/702388.stm
10 September, 2000
A Canadian police patrol boat has completed a voyage through the fabled Northwest Passage without encountering any pack ice.
It opens up the possibility of commercial shipping using a route which would shorten the journey between Europe and Asia by about eight-thousand kilometres (5,000 miles). .........
The search for an ice-free route linking the Atlantic and the Pacific has been the goal of sailors for more than 400 years. Hundreds died in the quest for a shorter passage between Europe and the Far East.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/918448.stm
02 March 2002
The Arctic ice cap is melting at a rate that could allow routine commercial shipping through the far north in a decade and open up new fisheries.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn1978
08-11-04
Since 1974 Arctic sea-ice has shrunk by about 1 mm sq km, or the size of Texas and Arizona combined, the ACIA report said. Temperatures are projected to rise another 7 to 13 degrees Fahrenheit (4 to 7 Celsius) in the next 100 years.
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/features/fex44748.htm

Of the many concerns voiced by scientists who study global warming trends, rising ocean levels is one of the most dramatic. An average rise in global ocean levels of just a few inches could have devastating effects on coastal towns, cities, and ecosystems. Why then is even the slightest risk of a shrinking polar cap not sounding alarms all across the world's lowland regions?
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/20020418aqua4.html
Goodbye, Maldives.
http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update2.htm

NOW HEAR THIS!

29 December, 2004
It is not just the threat from the Canary Isles. ANTARCTICA POSES A FAR MORE SERIOUS DANGER TO THE SURVIVAL OF LIFE ITSELF ON EARTH. The earth's wobble on its axis is just over one degree at maximum. Despite that, the axis is stable at present, the wobble being insufficient to affect the stability of the spin of the earth.
http://www.newsmedianews.com/tsunami.htm

The WOBBLE.
WHAT, pray, is the wobble?

July 18, 2000
The wobble, which has been under observation for more than a century, has a period of about 433 days. In other words, it takes 1.2 years to complete one wobble. The amplitude of the wobble amounts to about 20 feet at the North Pole.
It has been calculated that the wobble would dampen down and cease to exist in 68 years unless SOME FORCE CONSTANTLY ACTED ON IT TO INVIGORATE IT. ...
According to his calculations, two-thirds of the Chandler wobble is caused by ocean-bottom pressure changes. The remaining one-third is the result of fluctuations in atmospheric pressure. Gross says the effect of atmospheric winds and ocean currents on the wobble is minor.
Scientists are interested in the Chandler wobble because variations in latitude due to the wobble could throw off celestial navigation systems that are unaware of the wobble by a fifth of a mile.
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/07/18/earth.wobble.enn/

February 13, 2004
A comprehensive search of the Internet fails to produce easy to find references to the Global 2000 report. Among the predictions it contained was the stark warning of instant catastrophe waiting in the wings as the southern and northern ice packs change in density. THE CURRENT ONE DEGREE 'WOBBLE' OF THE EARTH ABOUT ITS AXIS IS PARTLY DUE TO AND IS AFFECTED BY THE OFFSET MASS OF THE ANTARCTICA ICE PACK. SHOULD THAT FRAGILE BALANCE CHANGE, THE WOBBLE WILL NOT SIMPLY GET WORSE OF LESS —IT WILL THROW THE WHOLE KILTER OF THE EARTH'S ROTATION OFF.Chaos will result as the planet adopts and adjusts to the new axis of rotation. But before then, global flooding, instant ice ages and global weather mayhem will transform the surface of our world far beyond anything that even the most far fetched environmental horror movie has ever even tried to conceptualise. It will be the old age of global civilisation as we know it and the effects may well all but eradicate limbed life on this planet. Those are the harsh facts.
Some months ago scientists from the UK attempted to inform the US of the true realities of the dangers of global warming and climate change. It is a threat that far surpasses any threat posed by Al Qaeda or any terrorist group, they say—something that has held the US preoccupied since 9/11.
http://www.newsmedianews.com/environment.htm

In the future, the study’s findings may allow researchers to pinpoint mass changes by looking at the wobble or to monitor global climate change by tracking mass changes around the planet with GPS. For example, over a 10-year period, scientists could detect mass changes due to melting of the Greenland ice sheet. “As that water is released from Greenland, it gets distributed evenly throughout the oceans; it changes the shape of Earth, and we could measure that change,” Blewitt says. “So we could backsolve and try to figure out where that mass is moving from and where it’s moving to, and hopefully, we’ll be able to say something about the balance of ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland.”
http://www.geotimes.org/june04/NN_wobble.html

OH MY!
So basically, they are saying that the polar caps balance the wobble and if the caps melt away then the rotation of the earth is going to be affected.
Well, that doesn't sound good.
We see that the Arctic is being opened up to commercial shipping though.
That's a plus.
How is Antartica faring?

December 26, 2004
GRASS has become established in Antarctica for the first time, showing the continent is warming to temperatures unseen for 10,000 years.
Scientists have reported that broad areas of grass are now forming turf where there were once ice-sheets and glaciers.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1415627,00.html
Well, that's not so bad.
With a few long-horns, they may just develop a decent cattle-raising industry.

“One of the interesting things about the sea floor in that area, is it tends to get deeper as you move inward, because the ice is heavy and depressing the continent,” Jacobs said.
In these areas, the grounding line might recede so far that seawater would undercut a lot more of the ice sheet than it does now, according to the researchers. With their foundation eroded, large chunks of the ice sheet could collapse into the ocean, scientists have proposed.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3077456/

Wednesday, 26 December, 2001
If humans really are interfering with the Earth's climate and pushing up world temperatures, some of the best evidence could come from Antarctica.
Changes in the environment on and around the White Continent can have far-reaching effects. ...
Captain Chris Elliott has been sailing these waters for more than 30 years and knows them better than anyone. As parts of the continent have warmed up he has noticed a reduction in annual ice cover. And he feels this is not all that is changing.
"The weather is even more volatile than it was," he said. "We're getting a greater frequency of very deep depressions, causing very strong winds. I'm not saying we didn't get them before, but it seems to me the frequency is greater."
This is only the personal view of one very experienced sailor, but it echoes the growing feeling that things are changing in Antarctica.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1728745.stm

Tuesday, 19 March, 2002
An Antarctic ice shelf that was 200 metres thick and had a surface area of 3,250 square kilometres has broken apart in less than a month.
UK scientists say the Larsen B shelf on the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula has fragmented into small icebergs. Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey (Bas) predicted in 1998 that several ice shelves around the peninsula were doomed because of rising temperatures in the region - but the speed with which the Larsen B has gone has shocked them.
"We knew what was left would collapse eventually, but the speed of it is staggering," said Dr David Vaughan, a glaciologist at the Bas in Cambridge.
" to believe that 500 billion tonnes of ice sheet has disintegrated in less than a month."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1880566.stm

Thursday, September 23, 2004
Glaciers in Antarctica are thinning faster than they did in the 1990s and researchers have discovered an unexpected folded section deep beneath the ice cap, findings that may indicate the ice is less stable than had been thought. Glaciers in West Antarctica are discharging 60 percent more ice into the sea than they are accumulating from snowfall, a research team led by Robert Thomas at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Wallops Island, Va., reports in Thursday's issue of the journal Science.
The glaciers flowing into the Amundsen Sea are thinning twice as fast as they did in the 1990s, the researchers said, a rate of loss that could raise sea level by 0.2 millimeters per year. That's a rate equal to previous estimates for all Antarctic melting, the team said. ....
The Larsen B ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula collapsed in 2002 and researchers said nearby glaciers began flowing up to eight times faster than they did prior to the breakup.
They said the speedup also caused glacier elevations to drop, lowering them by up to 125 feet in six months.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/09/23/national1437EDT0631.DTL

Sept. 22, 2004
WASHINGTON - Glaciers once held up by a floating ice shelf off Antarctica are now sliding off into the sea — and they are going fast, scientists said on Tuesday. ...
“We’ve seen 150 miles of coastline change drastically in just 15 years.”
The affected area is at the far northern tip of the Antarctic, just south of Chile and Argentina. Temperatures there have risen by up to 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit in the past 60 years -- faster than almost any region in the world.
In the past 30 years, ice shelves in the region have lost more than 5,200 square miles of area.
“The Larsen area can be looked at as a miniature experiment, showing how warming can dramatically change the ice sheets, and how fast it can happen,” Scambos said in a statement. “At every step in the process, things have occurred more rapidly than we expected.”
But not all the melting in the Antarctic can be seen as a “miniature experiment.”
The Ross ice shelf, for example, is the main outlet for the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, with several large glaciers that could, if they melted completely, raise sea levels by 16 feet.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6073204/

The old Global-Warming song-and-dance.
Well, just suppose those the anti-Michael Chrictons are correct.
What is the US going to do about it?

MRS. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I rise to introduce legislation to recognize the importance and need for increased weather modification research. Weather modification is the general term that refers to any human attempt to alter the weather. While we may not be able to stop Mother Nature entirely, we can sometimes alter her course, changing the weather in small, yet significant ways. These efforts have been used in the U.S. for more than 50 years to reduce crop and property damage, optimize useable precipitation during growing seasons and lessen the impact of periodic, often severe droughts.
http://hutchison.senate.gov/speec379.htm
108th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 2170
To establish the Weather Modification Operations and Research Board and outline its duties and responsibilities.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
March 4, 2004
http://www.theorator.com/bills108/s2170.html

WHEW!!
MARCH 4, 2004.
I missed seeing that one at first.
Abu Zarqawi distracted me.

Weather control, as well as "weather tampering", is expressly forbidden dating from at least December 10, 1976, when the "United Nations General Assembly Resolution 31/72, TIAS 9614 Convention (http://www.fas.org/nuke/control/enmod/text/environ2.htm) on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques" was adopted.
http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Weather_control

Yeah, so?
Do you honestly expect us to simply sit still and die of thirst?

One well-established cloud-seeding operation in the US is to be found in George Bush's home state of Texas. The South Texas Weather Modification Association (STWMA) was formed in 1996. In 1998, the Edwards Aquifier Authority in Texas set aside $500,000 for cloud seeding, and in coordination with the STWMA, convinced then-Governor George W. Bush's administration to suspend regulations requiring a permit to seed clouds, which allowed efforts to begin immediately. Since that time several distinct weather-modification associations have begun operations in Texas, and at Texas A&M one can find publications which provide introductory overviews and maps demonstrating the effects of cloud seeding operations there. Recent news indicates that cloud-seeding efforts continue in the dry and arid counties of southwest Texas. ...
It's been widely hinted that the US already has the power to manipulate the weather for it's own military purposes. And they're certainly not being completely secretive about it, either. The US military would very much like to own the weather although it's generally accepted that the techniques for doing so have already been "dispersed" around the world, since the breakup of the former Soviet Union. The Chinese, for example, have a clause in their Regulations on Administration of Weather Modification which specifically states that weather modification for military purposes will be carried out. In light of that fact, it might not be long before al Qaeda is blamed for killer storms. Indeed, it's been shown recently that, during the early days of cloud seeding, many deaths were caused by inexperienced scientists who were tinkering with a large storm in England.
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/4/28/91213/9747

See, that is why we cannot afford to let those terrorist have cropdusters.
You all may think that those things are harmless
but they are really Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Which reminds me,
how many of those things did Saddam have in his arsenal?
Damn playboy.

Saturday December 18, 2004
By late next year, incredibly, people can go skiing in Dubai, this city in the desert where the temperature averages 20°C! Work has already started on this first indoor ski resort in the Middle East, which will also be the world’s longest indoor ski slope with a real snow play area.
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2004/12/18/nation/9692617&sec=nation

But since INDOOR snow can never compete with OUTDOOR snow ...
12/30/2004
DUBAI (AFP) — Snow has fallen over the United Arab Emirates for the first time ever, leaving a white blanket over the mountains of Ras al-Khaimah as the desert country experienced a cold spell and above-average rainfall.
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2004-12-30-uae-snow_x.htm
I warned you about them cropdusters.
And being complacent.

December 28, 2004
The precise location of Sunday's massive earthquake off Indonesia surprised geologists because it hit an area that had been quiet for more than a century.
The whole region is a geological hotbed where two major tectonic plates crash together, "but no one ever thought much about earthquakes along this section," said seismologist Kerry Sieh of Caltech, one of the few researchers who have studied the region.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/la-sci-geology28dec28,0,1700804.story

And now lets have a look at Alaska
since J002E3 aka the Moonraker,
showed up in September 2002.

Tuesday, November 5, 2002
FAIRBANKS, Alaska (CNN) -- A major earthquake struck 75 miles south of Fairbanks, cracking roads, crumbling support mechanisms for the trans-Alaska pipeline and triggering mudslides, but there were no immediate reports of injuries, officials said Sunday.
The U.S. Geological Survey estimated the quake's preliminary magnitude at 7.9.
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/11/04/earthquake.alaska/
http://geopubs.wr.usgs.gov/fact-sheet/fs014-03/

But you cannot lay the blame for this squarely at the feet of that
mysterious object circling the earth in an erratic orbit.

Megatsunamis were first hypothesized in 1958 by geologists searching for oil in Alaska. They observed evidence of unusually large waves in the nearby bay. Five years later, landslides were revealed to be the source of the Alaskan waves.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megatsunami
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2540321.stm
I am certain the Blame-Halliburton lobby will go into high gear over that,
and totally ignore the good that
oil exploration equipment is bringing to all of us.

A Houston-based maker of seismic equipment, best known for its oil-field products, is seen as a prime candidate for a tsunami early warning system for the Indian Ocean.
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=78587

And how has Alaska been faring over the past few days?

The storms that started just over a week ago
(about the same time the tsunami hit)
have piled snow 9 feet deep on higher spots in the Sierra Nevada, soaked Los Angeles with record rainfall, caused mudslides and knocked out power to thousands of customers.
A 40-mile stretch of Interstate 5 remained shut Tuesday north of Los Angeles because as much as 2 feet of snow had fallen on top of a layer of ice at Tejon Pass, elevation about 4,200 feet, the California Highway Patrol said. The CHP closed the freeway early Monday and there was no immediate indication Tuesday when it might be reopened.
The closing idled hundreds of truckers and other travelers who didn't want to turn around to take a detour looping around the mountains and through the desert.
The storms were sparked by an extensive low pressure system that edged down from the Gulf of Alaska and remained parked off the Pacific Northwest coast. The latest front was expected to linger through Tuesday and another system was to move across the state later this week.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-4710235,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-4710383,00.html

Now whever anything like this happens,
some people just have a hard time accepting it.
http://www.independent-media.tv/item.cfm?fmedia_id=10211&fcategory_desc=Under%20Reported
San Diego indymedia is a perfect example of this.
http://sandiego.indymedia.org/en/2004/08/105517.shtml

Such people tent to become completely unglued when they encounter certain types of information.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Jan05/Rajiva0106.htm
Which is why much of it has to remain classified.

In 1957, the president's advisory committee on weather control explicitly recognized the military potential of weather-modification, warning in their report that it could become a more important weapon than the atom bomb.5
http://twm.co.nz/militarywm.htm

Weather modification is a technology once embraced by the U.S. military as a tool to help both wartime and peacetime missions. However, interest in the ability to modify weather has waned over recent years and is now nearly non-existent.
http://www.fas.org/spp/eprint/coble.htm

SEE THAT!!
READ IT AGAIN.
... interest in the ability to modify weather has waned over recent years and is now nearly non-existent.
... interest in the ability to modify weather has waned over recent years and is now nearly non-existent.

THEY ARE NOT DOING ANY SUCH THING.
Here is irrefutable PROOF.
Oct. 29, 2004
"It's kind of silly at this point," said Marks, director of hurricane research for the lab. "People don't realize how much energy we're talking about and the area involved. It's immense." .....
While the U.S. military is not involved with Hoffman's project, .....
"There is a U.N. convention in place that bans using weather modification as a weapon," he said.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/29/tech/main652303.shtml
Now, if Dan Rather had been reporting the news like THAT,
he might not have besmirched his name.

Saturday, January 08, 2005
Washington: The State Department denied on Friday that it had “foreknowledge” of the tsunami, but withheld it from South Asian countries, while warning the US base at Diego Garcia, thereby preventing damage to it.
It also denied that the tsunami was caused by underground nuclear tests, saying these allegations were utterly false and fell in the category of “misinformation.”
Todd Leventhal, State Department-designated Chief, Counter Misinformation/Disinformation Team told Daily Times that after the South Asian tsunami, two false misinformation allegations have arisen, first that Washington had foreknowledge of the impending disaster but held back the information and, secondly, that the giant wave was caused by a subterranean nuclear explosion.
<snip>
Leventhal told this newspaper that the main proponent of the “foreknowledge” allegation, Canadian professor Michael Chossudovsky, has a long history of “spinning conspiracy theories.” For example, one of his allegations is that al Qaeda “is supported by the Bush administration.”
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_8-1-2005_pg7_49
Furthermore,
Tsunami warning system not manned on boxing day
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2005/s1278353.htm

Comments such as those attributed to Michael Chossudovsky
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=%5CForeignBureaus%5Carchive%5C200501%5CFOR20050107b.html
have brought down the wrath of Ann Coulter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Coulter
upon the hapless heads of the progressives.

Now,
Mr Dennis Kucinich may subscribe to conspiracy theory:
(C) The term `exotic weapons systems' includes weapons designed to damage space or natural ecosystems (such as the ionosphere and upper atmosphere) or climate, weather, and TECTONIC SYSTEMS with the purpose of inducing damage or destruction upon a target population or region on earth or in space.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/2001/hr2977.html
But,
unless Kucinich is prepared to explain,
in layman's terms
exactly HOW ELF vibrations can be used to affect Schuman's Resonance,
http://www.spring.net/geo/JohnVolos/Public/pages/research/OLDPAGE_GB/main_uk.htm
he would be well advised to hold his peace.

And even if there is such a link,
one must always bear in mind that
the US occupies a unique position as policeman to the world and must adapt to cope with disasters and:
1. The resulting need for humanitarian relief.
2. The possible destabilization of the international community.
3. The possible threat to national security.
4. The anticipated nation-wide call for action.
Were an impactor to be detected in advance, the nation and perhaps the entire planet will quite naturally look to the DoD for the fortitude, technical expertise and leadership, not to mention the required force in the form of nuclear devices, to counter such a threat to its citizen's lives and well being.
http://www.fas.org/spp/military/docops/usaf/2020/app-r.htm

The DOD is charged with DEFENDING the US from ALL THREATS.
http://www.lamonitor.com/articles/2004/12/31/headline_news/news03.txt
But they can hardly be blamed for not enforcing the Kyoto Accords.
Nor should they be reviled for informing their military personnel of what was taking place elsewhere.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tsunami/story/0,15671,1385102,00.html
Such a thing has never happened before.
This is all reckless speculation and concecture
based on irrelevant and unconnected facts amny of which are still avaiting verification.
One must also remember that the heroes of Flight 93 did used their cell phones to call their loved ones and this act of civil disobedience SAVED LIVES.

Scientists once believed that an earthquake at one location
could not trigger earthquakes at distant sites. That belief was
shattered in 1992 when the magnitude-7.3 Landers earthquake in
California's Mojave Desert triggered a swarm of quakes more than 800
miles away at Yellowstone, as well as other temblors near Mammoth Lakes,
Calif., and Yucca Mountain, Nev.
<snip>
The Denali quake also generated noticeable water waves in
Seattle's Lake Union, Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain and in swimming
pools on the East Coast. It also triggered small quakes in California's
Geysers geothermal area, which is north of San Francisco, and in eastern
California's Long Valley, which, like Yellowstone, is a caldera, or
giant volcanic crater created by cataclysmic prehistoric volcanic
eruptions.
http://www.seis.utah.edu/RecentNews/YNP-05272004.shtml

... an expert on seismic activity in Yellowstone, said it is unclear how activity in one area might affect seismic activity on other nearby faults.
http://www.earthside.com/yellowstone.html
See also:
http://www.earthside.com/yellowstone.html

A powerful earthquake that rocked Alaska in 2002 not only triggered small earthquakes almost 2,000 miles away at Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park – as was reported at the time – but also changed the timing and behavior of some of Yellowstone's geysers and hot springs, a new study says. ........ While other large quakes have been known to alter the activity of nearby geysers and hot springs, the Denali fault earthquake of Nov. 3, 2002, is the first known to have changed the behavior of such hydrothermal features at great distances, according to Smith and his colleagues.
http://www.naturalworldtours.co.uk/articles2004/may/may2804g.htm

December 24, 2004
In Yellowstone, earthquake activity appeared to increase in April at Norris Geyser Basin and then become more frequent in May and June near Madison and then in June and July at Yellowstone Lake.
The cause? Researchers looked at several factors, including gravitational pull similar to the kind that causes tides, and changes in barometric pressure.
The more likely triggers, Christiansen said, are connected with water.
When water trickles into the underground water table, it can exert pressure that might cause earthquake faults to slip.
When snow melts quickly, the lifting of that weight could also set off quakes.
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?tl=1&display=rednews/2004/12/24/build/wyoming/30-park-quake.inc

As of the 7th of January, (2005) the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) has reported that this morning again sees no changes at Mauna Loa. Since early July 2004, an increased number of earthquakes has been recorded from beneath Mauna Loa. From week to week, the numbers fluctuate but remain well above the norm. During the week ending December 28, 128 earthquakes were located under the summit. Through December 28, more than 1725 earthquakes related to the ongoing seismic activity have been located beneath Mauna Loa’s summit caldera and the adjacent part of the southwest rift zone. Most of these earthquakes are quite deep, from 35 to 50 km below the ground surface and small, less than magnitude 3. They are "long-period" (LP) earthquakes, which means that their signals gradually rise out of the background rather than appearing abruptly. Such a concentrated number of deep LP earthquakes from this part of Mauna Loa is unprecedented, at least in HVO's modern earthquake record dating back to the 1960s.
<snip>
The GPS network first showed definite lengthening of the lines across the summit caldera in late April or early May 2002, after nearly 10 years of slight deflation. The summit expansion tailed off and perhaps stopped in mid-winter 2002-2003. It then resumed, starting on about February 15, 2003, slackened, and once more began in late April or early May. The lengthening again slowed during summer 2003 but accelerated as summer ended. During 2004, the inflation had been at a fairly steady to slightly increasing rate until the contraction in late August. In general, we interpret the lengthening, uplift, and tilting to indicate swelling of the magma reservoir within the volcano.
Starting on July 20, 2004, HVO began showing the tilt at station MLO rather than at MLK; the latter station has been having instrumental spikes that distort the record.
http://www.swvrc.org/restless.htm

The earthquake came just three days after a magnitude 8.1 earthquake in a completely uninhabited region west of New Zealand's sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands, and north of Australia's Macquarie Island <8> (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/Quakes/ussjal.htm). This would normally be unusual, since earthquakes of magnitude 8 or more typically occur only about once per year on average <9> (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/faq/hist.html#8). Seismologists have speculated about a possible connection between these two earthquakes, saying that the former one might have been a catalyst to the Indian Ocean earthquake, as the two quakes happened on opposite sides of the Indo-Australian tectonic plate <10> (http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,11787870%255E28477,00.html).
Coincidentally, the earthquake struck almost exactly one year (within an hour) after a magnitude 6.6 earthquake killed an estimated 30,000 people in the city of Bam in Iran <11>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake

Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Enzo Boschi, the head of Italy's National Geophysics Institute, likened the power of the earthquake that struck southern Asia to detonating a million atomic bombs the size of those dropped on Japan during World War II. The shaking was so powerful, it even disturbed the Earth's rotation, Boschi said.
"All the planet is vibrating" from the quake, he told Italian state radio. Other scientists said it was early too say whether the rotation was affected by the quake.
http://www.sfexaminer.com/article/index.cfm/i/122804n_quake
http://www.illinoisleader.com/columnists/columnistsview.asp?c=21710

Thursday, January 6, 2005
VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- An organization that monitors compliance with a global ban on nuclear weapons tests has said its instruments recorded about 1,500 aftershocks in the 48 hours following the Asian quake and tsunami.
The Vienna-based Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization said on Wednesday the aftershocks were detected by 78 stations in southern Asia after the initial 9.0-magnitude quake struck west of northern Sumatra, Indonesia.
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/01/05/tsunami.aftershocks.ap/

January 08, 2005
THE earth is still ringing like a bell, nearly two weeks after the powerful earthquake that launched the killer Boxing Day tsunamis.
"I've never seen the earth ringing this long after an earthquake," said Australian National University geophysicist Herbert McQueen.
"The persistence is very unusual," said Dr McQueen, who has monitored the bell-ringing effect with a highly sensitive instrument called a super-conducting gravimeter.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11881741%255E2703,00.html

JANUARY 07, 2005
"The wobble of the earth's rotation clearly anticipated these two big events," Negi said. He recalled that there is a revolutionary theory, which was given in 1967 by L Mansinha and D L E Smiley, two scientists from Canada,which says that wobbles are co-seismic with great earthquakes.
In the case of the recent events in December 2004, Negi said, "The big question is whether earth got jolted after these two earthquakes or DID THE PRIOR JOLTING OF THE PLANET,
http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eq_depot/2003/eq_030804/
http://www.zetatalk.com/index/aug04wob.htm
as was shown in the increased wobble,
http://www.zetatalk.com/index/aug13wob.htm
http://www.zetatalk.com/index/slowing.htm
build up pressure to cause great earthquakes in both the hemispheres within three days."
It is already known that the earthquake that unleashed deadly tidal waves on Asia was so powerful it made the earth wobble on its axis. US geological survey expert Ken Hudnut said last week "We can detect very slight motions of the earth and I would expect that the earth wobbled in its orbit when the earthquake occurred due the massive amount of energy exerted and the sudden shift in mass."
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/984135.cms

[seemslikeadream]

82. Thanks to you Dulcey D.

Always great reading from you, I've just finished this! lol

World War Three: The Players: Part two
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=125&topic_id=4046

World War Three: The Players
http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=5741&forum=DCForumID43&archive=yes



:hi:

[seemslikeadream]

83. The Conspiracy Stomp Kick