T-Room

The Best in Alt News

This site holds the archives from the original T-Room website. Click here to visit the New T-Room or use the search box below.

March 14, 2011

Continued – Breaking news out of Japan

UPDATE 3/15/2011

US Surgeon General: Buying Iodine Appropriate

Level 6 Event – Radiation Levels Soar As Radioactive Winds Sweep Toward Tokyo

The Intel Hub
Shepard Ambellas
March 15, 2011

According to our sources this is now a Level 6 event and readings will be fluctuating and rising rapidly.

At this time it is openly admitted that readings are 400 mR/hr at 20 miles out from the source.

It is now openly admitted that radioactivity has reached dangerous levels in the area. There is now a 20 mile diameter perimeter (HIGH-RAD AREA) established around the Fukushima reactor.

ocal weather patterns are reported to have now changed course to a southerly direction sweeping nuclear winds toward Tokyo as locals fear radiation poisoning.

Read the rest of the story HERE

________________

CONFIRMED – RADIOACTIVITY BEING RELEASED DIRECTLY INTO ATMOSPHERE

(Reuters) – Japan has told the U.N. nuclear watchdog radioactivity was being released “directly” into the atmosphere from the site of an earthquake-stricken reactor and that it had put out a fire at a spent fuel storage pond there.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), citing information it had received from Japanese authorities at 0350 GMT, said on Tuesday dose rates of up to 400 millisievert per hour have been reported at the Fukushima power plant site.

It did not give details or comparisons on the radiation level but exposure to over 100 millisieverts a year is a level which can lead to cancer, according to the World Nuclear Association. The Vienna-based IAEA uses the unit to measure doses of radiation received by people.

“The Japanese authorities are saying that there is a possibility that the fire was caused by a hydrogen explosion,” the IAEA said in a statement. It later said that the fire had been extinguished at Unit 4 of the plant.

Read the rest of the story HERE

________________

Radiation can spread to the West Coast –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tOiwjlJNFw

______________

Democracy Now! This Could Become Chernobyl on Steroids”: Nuclear Engineer Arnie Gundersen on Japan’s Growing Nuclear Crisis

Click HERE to catch up on all of the news items Democracy Now! is covering
_______________

Radiation detected in Russia – Panic selling on Nikkei Market

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTAqgnJoiys

Director General of IAEA Says New Information About Reactor Core is “Worrying”

Radiation level soars after Japan nuke plant fire

Japanese officials told the International Atomic Energy Agency that the reactor fire was in a fuel storage pond — an area where used nuclear fuel is kept cool — and that “radioactivity is being released directly into the atmosphere.” Long after the fire was extinguished, a Japanese official said the pool might still be boiling, though the reported levels of radiation had dropped dramatically by the end of the day.

___________________

POWERFUL 6.O 6.4 EARTHQUAKE RATTLES SHIZUKA REGION OF JAPAN + LIVE FEED FROM JAPAN’S NHK

A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.0 jolted central Japan on Tuesday night.

The Japan Meteorological Agency says the quake with an intensity of 6 plus on the Japanese seismic scale zero to 7 hit at 10:31 PM.

The focus of the quake is in the eastern part of Shizuoka Prefecture and is estimated to be at a depth of 10 kilometers.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011 23:05 +0900 (JST)

_______________

LIVE TOKOYO GEIGER COUNTER

________________

TEPCO UNABLE TO POUR WATER INTO REACTOR #4’s STORAGE POOL FOR SPENT FUEL

Update 10:45: According to Reuters, TEPCO’s new plan is to dump water by helicopter, which sounds incredibly desperate. And some minor good news: All of the TEPCO power plants OTHER than the main one are fine, according to the IAEA.

Update 9:36: To add insult to injury, Japan was just hit with another 6.2 earthquake, and buildings in Tokyo are said to be shaking.

Update 9:14: Another horrible headline from Kyodo Wire: TEPCO unable to pour water into No. 4 reactor’s storage pool for spent fuel

Update 8:35: Via ForexLive, TEPCO is saying that spent fuel rods in reactor #4 are exposed to the air. That sounds horrible.

Update 8:16: The radiation is too high for TEPCO workers to stay in the control room says KYODO WIRE.

Update 7:47 AM: France: The nuclear crisis is now a level-6 crisis on a scale of 7.

Click HERE to read the full article

_______________

Radiation decreasing, fuel ponds warming

Japanese authorities told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that radiation levels at the plant site between units 3 and 4 reached a peak of some 400 millisieverts per hour. “This is a high dose-level value,” said the body, “but it is a local value at a single location and at a certain point in time.”

Later readings were 11.9 millisieverts per hour, followed six hours later by 0.6 millisieverts, which the IAEA said “indicate the level of radioactivity has been decreasing.”

Almost all people living within 20 kilometres of the plant have already been evacuated and supplied with potassium-iodide pills that will protect them effectively against the effects of iodine-131 that could conceivably be emitted in the future. The pills saturate the thyroid gland and prevent the radioactive iodine-131 from being absorbed, dramatically reducing the risk of thyroid cancers, which are the major potential health effect from the possible progression of the accident.

The IAEA said 150 people from around the site have been monitored. The results of some people have been reported and 23 have undergone decontamination.

Click HERE to read the latest update from World Nuclear News

_______________

Nearly 500 quakes/aftershocks have occurred in Japan since the 9.0 quake. 500!

Click HERE to see the USGS Data and click HERE to see the data mapped

________________

Forbes Blog– Rad levels three times normal level in Tokyo
TOKYO LEVEL

_______________

Attention Verizon Customers –

Japan News will be carried on Channel 1770 for free until 3/17

Verizon customers can call Japan free through 4/10

____________

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtYq70-71RI

_____________

Dramatic escalation in Japan

FIRST PUBLISHED 1.22am GMT
UPDATE 1: 1.58am GMT Information from TV appearance, change of headline from ‘Possible damage to Fukushima Daiichi 2′
CORRECTION: 1.58am GMT Removal of potential inaccuracy on torus’ status in containment
UPDATE 2: 2.19am GMT Information from government, change of headline from ‘Damage to Fukushima Daiichi 2’

Loud noises were heard at Fukushima Daiichi 2 at 6.10am this morning. A major component beneath the reactor is confirmed to be damaged. A fire is burning at unit 4 and evacuation to 30 kilometres is being urged.

Confirmation of loud sounds at unit 2 this morning came from the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA). It noted that “the suppression chamber may be damaged.” It is not clear that the sounds were explosions.

READ UPDATE HERE

March 14, 2011 — When it comes to major disasters, Obama's priority is the same: protect the corporate interests

(Editor’s Note: The T-Room is providing updates by credible and reliable news sources in the Breaking News post in the Cafe. We are bypassing the corporatist spin propaganda machine to bring you the most accurate, factual and timely information on the tragedy unfolding in Japan including the Fukushima Daiichi and Diani Nuclear Power Plants.)

By Wayne Madsen
Wayne Madsen Reports


Fukushima Reactor No. 1 After Explosion

President Obama, as he displayed so ignominiously in the aftermath of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, has, once again, demonstrated that his first priority in the face of major disasters is the protection of corporate interests. Obama’s reaction to the post-quake nuclear power plant disasters in Japan complements what amounts to a cover-up of the danger posed by nuclear power plants in quake-prone areas. Obama has good reason to be protective of the nuclear power industry: he is in their pockets as much as he was in the pockets of BP and other oil companies after the Deepwater Horizon oil platform explosion and subsequent oil deluge in the Gulf.

The nearly 40 year-old nuclear reactor that experienced a core meltdown and explosion, Fukushima Daiichi’s Unit 1, was manufactured by General Electric and built in Japan at a time when memories of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were still fresh in the minds of many Japanese. Of course, thanks to slick public relations and the support of both the U.S. and Japanese governments, the fear of the Japanese public about nuclear power plants was assuaged by guarantees that the safety of the plants was guaranteed, even during an earthquake in seismically-active Japan. [Read more…]

March 13, 2011

The Road to Washington – We hold the power to be the change that is needed to find compassion within our communities

Louisiana resident Cherri Foytlin, mother to six children and wife to displaced Deepwater oil rig worker Forest Foytlin, has had enough.  As her family’s livelihood is increasingly threatened by financial deprivation, Ms. Foytlin has run out of time.

Beginning March 13th, 2011, Ms. Foytlin will embark on a journey that she hopes will forever turn the tide of destruction left in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Ms. Foytlin will walk 1,243 miles from New Orleans to Washington, D.C. En route she hopes to garner enough support to captivate the nation with her message of change.

Ms. Foytlin has been fighting for the welfare of the families in the Gulf since the spill first began. She has cried and pleaded for president Obama to restore the people’s faith in the government by demonstrating accountability, transparency, and support towards residents affected by the oil spill. Prompted by desperation, but drive by hope, this walk represents her final attempt to reach the administration.

“This is a pilgrimage of love for the people of the Gulf. I am taking their concerns about health, the economy, the environment and the claims process to the President of the United States. I asked him to come down at the height of the spill so he could meet the people who were truly impacted. My request fell on deaf ears, but we will not be ignored.  My walk is a universal and non-partisan event; it is about preserving our civil rights as a nation, and our human rights as a global community” [Read more…]

March 12, 2011

Al Jazeera: Empire – Right to interven in Libya?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkI4GMvneC0

Arab states seek Libya No-fly zone

Regional bloc calls on UN Security Council to take steps to protect civilians from air attack by Gaddafi forces.

The Arab League has called on the United Nations Security Council to impose a no-fly zone over Libya in a bid to protect civilians from air attack in the ongoing battle against the more than 41-year rule of leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Youssef bin Alawi bin Abdullah, Oman’s foreign minister, announced the decision at a press conference on Saturday following a meeting of the bloc’s ministers in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

Abdullah, who chaired the meeting, said the decision was agreed upon by all of the member states that attended Saturday’s talks.

Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, said the main goal of the decision is to protect the civilian population of Libya.

Read the rest of the story HERE

March 11, 2011

Breaking News – Nuclear Reactors May Meltdown, Earth Shift and more

UPDATE 03/14/11

Attention Verizon Customers –

Japan News will be carried on Channel 1770 for free until 3/17

Verizon customers can call Japan free through 4/10

_________________

“TEPCO: 8,200 microsieverts recorded at plant

Tokyo Electric Power Company says radiation levels reached 8,217 microsieverts per hour near the front gate of the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power station at 8:31 AM Tuesday.

Anyone in this kind of environment would be exposed to more than 3 years’ worth of naturally occurring radiation within a single hour.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011 09:29 +0900 (JST)”

NHK News Conference held a short while ago

Possible damage at Fukushima Daiichi 2 – At 6:10 am an explosion was heard inside the suppression pool casement – cracks to the casing are possible thereby emitting radioactive material via air or liquid

All 3 Fukushima Nuclear Plant Reactors are in meltdown

General Electric Designed Reactors in Fukushima have 23 Sisters in the US

When it comes to major disasters, Obama’s priority is the same – protect the corporate interests – USAID aka CIA sent to Japan to implement disinformation campaign

Breaking – from WNN

Loss of coolant at Fukushima Daiichi 2
14 March 2011

Serious damage to the reactor core of Fukushima Daiichi 2 seems likely after coolant was apparently lost for a period.

Tokyo Electric Power Company announced earlier today that unit 2’s reactor core isolation cooling system had failed after an increase in pressure in the containment vessel to some 700 kPa.

The Japan Atomic Industry Forum reported back statements from the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) that describe Tepco’s efforts from that point.

The company prepared to pump seawater into the reactor system, but this was only started “after the water level reached the top of the fuel.” The water level continued to drop and Tepco then began preparations to open a valve to vent the containment vessel.

At 8.50pm Tepco told NISA that it presumed some of the fuel rods were broken, based on radiation detected in the environment.

Nuclear Scientist Recycled Fuel Containing Plutonium at Fukushima Plant Increases Meltdown Stakes

Cold Shutdowns at Fukushima Daini

BOJ Increases Emergency-Operation Total to 15 Trillion Yen

Japan Adds $183 Billion to Stabilize Markets After Quake

US Navy – 7th Fleet Repositions Ships After Contamination Detected

Explosion rocks third Fukushima Reactor –

First published: 3.08am GMT

UPDATE 1: 3.25am Addition of background information

UPDATE 2: 3.49am Technical details on pressure

UPDATE 3: 4.34am Injuries, radiation rates and pressure data

UPDATE 4: 12:00pm Subsequent radiation readings

Another hydrogen explosion has rocked the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, this time at the third reactor unit. Initial analysis is that the containment structure remains intact.

The blast that occurred at 11.01am today was much larger than the one seen at unit 1 two days ago. An orange flash came before a large column of brown and grey smoke. A large section of the relatively lightweight roof was seen to fly upwards before landing back on other power plant buildings.

Chief cabinet secretary Yukiyo Edamo appeared on television shortly afterwards to identify the blast was a hydrogen explosion. He said contact had been made with the plant manager whose belief is that the containment structure, important to nuclear safety, remains intact. The rationale for that statement, Edamo said, was that water injection operations have continued and pressure readings from the reactor system remained within a comfortable range.

Read the rest of the updates HERE

UPDATE 03/13/11

Impact on North America:
The Pacific jetstream is currently flowing due east directly toward the United States. In the event of a major meltdown and continuous large-volume radioactive release, airborne particles will be carried across the ocean in bands that will cross over the southern halves of Oregon, Montana and Idaho, all of California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, the Dakotas, northern Nebraska and Iowa and ending in Wisconsin and Illinois, with possible further eastward drift depending on surface wind direction.
Most of the particles can be expected to travel high in the atmosphere, with fallout dependent on low pressure zones, rainfall and temperatures over the US. If a meltdown can be contained in Fukushima, a small amount of particles would be dispersed in the atmosphere with little immediate effect on human and animal health.
Another climate factor to be taken into account is the potential for an El Nino Variable bulging the jetstream further northward, causing fallout over western Canada and a larger number of American states.
Seasonal rainfall over Japan does not normally begin until mid-April and does not become significant until early June.
If very high radiation releases are detected at some point, a potential tactic to lessen contamination of North America is for the US, Canadian and Russian air forces to seed clouds over the northwest Pacific to create a low pressure front and precipitation to minimize particle mass reaching North America.

h/t Kim

FROM WORLD NUCLEAR NEWS

Contamination checks on evacuated residents

13 March 2011

Potential contamination of the public is being studied by Japanese authorities as over 170,000 residents are evacuated from within 20 kilometres of Fukushima Daini and Daiichi nuclear power plants. Nine people’s results have shown some degree of contamination.

Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (Nisa) – part of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (Meti) – said that out of about 100 residents evacuated from Futaba by buses, nine people were found to have been exposed. The pathway of their exposure is currently under investigation.

One person was measured to have an exposure of 18,000 counts per minute (cpm); another had a measurement of between 30,000 and 36,000 cpm; while a third evacuee had an exposure of 40,000 cpm. A fourth person initially gave a reading of over 100,000 cpm, but a second measurement taken after the person had removed their shoes was just under 40,000 cpm. Another five people were said to have “very small counts”.

Read the rest of the update HERE

See SATELLITE IMAGERY OF JAPAN BEFORE AND AFTER QUAKE AND TSUNAMI

From World Nuclear News

Earthquake impact on Fukushim Daiichi

Reactors 1, 2 and 3 were in operation at Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (Tepco’s) east coast Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant when the earthquake struck. Three other reactors were already shut for inspection but all three operating units underwent automatic shutdown as expected. Because plant power and grid power were unavailable during the earthquake, diesel generators started automatically to supply power for decay heat removal.

This situation continued for one hour until the plant was hit by the tsunami wave, which stopped the generators and left the plant in black-out conditions. The loss of power meant inevitable rises in temperature within the reactor system as well increases in pressure. Engineers fought for many hours to install mobile power units to replace the diesels and managed to stabilise conditions at units 2 and 3.

However, there was not enough power to provide sufficient coolant to unit 1, which came under greater and greater strain from falling water levels and steady pressure rises. Tepco found it necessary yesterday to vent steam from the reactor containment. Next, the world saw a sharp hydrogen explosion destroy a portion of the reactor building roof. Prime minister Naoto Kan ordered the situation brought under control by the injection of seawater to the reactor vessel.

UPDATE 03/12/11

Breaking News – Two Nuclear Reactors May Go Through Meltdowns-

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTzr3SbZv0c

福島第一原発 爆発の瞬間 Explosion at Fukushima nuclear plant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMEV-_X5b_8&feature=youtu.be

Force Of Japanese Earthquake Has Shifted Earth’s Mass & Sped Up Time

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhSA0BjpYZk

Video taken by private citizen – lives on reclaimed land aka old Tokoyo Bay – films the earth around his home literally opening up w/water forcing its way up –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6K6JcAB9T0

Japan Earthquake Situation Analysis – AV-2011-03-12

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRur7HwKzAM

NHK World Tsunami Hits Video

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZhO65q9E3M

March 10, 2011

Stealing from Social Security to Pay for Wars and Bailouts

By Paul Craig Roberts
March 10, 2011

The American Empire is failing. A number of its puppet rulers are being overthrown by popular protests, and the almighty dollar will not even buy one Swiss franc, one Canadian dollar, or one Australian dollar. Despite the sovereign debt problem that threatens EU members Greece, Ireland, Spain, and Portugal, it requires $1.38 dollars to buy one euro, a new currency that was issued at parity with the US dollar.

The US dollar’s value is likely to fall further in terms of other currencies, because nothing is being done about the US budget and trade deficits. Obama’s budget, if passed, doesn’t reduce the deficit over the next 10 years by enough to cover the projected deficit in the FY 2012 budget.

Indeed, the deficits are likely to be substantially larger than forecast. The military/security complex, about which President Eisenhower warned Americans a half century ago, is more powerful than ever and shows no inclination to halt the wars for US hegemony. [Read more…]

ENDING WORKER'S RIGHTS TO NEGOTIATE DOES NOT EQUATE TO BUDGET CUTS

UPDATE X1 – SEE IMPORTANT UPDATES AT END OF THE POST

Every single Tea Party/Patriot voter should be demanding from the officials they elected into office in 2010 to follow the letter of the law and demonstrate transparency. If not, then your credibility as a movement is toast. You must practice what you preach, otherwise this so-called patriot movement is as self serving as the Democrat/Republican Party machines you fought tooth and nail to replace.

What Governor Walker did last night in Wisconsin proves beyond any doubt that his target all along was to end the right of employee’s to task a third party to negotiate on their behalf their employment benefits. This tawdry move made by the GOP leadership, after hiding behind closed doors all day, has no relationship whatsoever in saving taxpayers money. Yet the TP/Patriot leadership wants you, their voter, to believe otherwise. Poppycock!

Why? Because the GOP’s vote was on legislation NOT on the budget. Member’s of your respective state assembly’s vote on legislation AND on the budget – two separate processes. Although they interrelate, they are managed and voted on separately. No taxpayer funds were saved with yesterday’s vote. NONE. ZILCH. ZERO.

What Walker and his GOP thugs achieved was ceasing state employee’s rights. That is it! And they did it in secret – an all out blatant assault on our democracy. Is this the kind of politics the Tea Party/Patriot movement voted into office?

Not once during the 2010 election did I see the first placard, commercial or candidate telling the voter that in order to cut the budget or end deficit spending they would need to vote to end the people’s rights to collective bargaining.  Did you? That’s what I thought – a resounding NO!

Which is precisely why Walker and his GOP brethren didn’t run on it. They knew they wouldn’t win!  So, knowing their top corporate donors wanted to bust up the unions they stealthily infiltrated the independent Tea Party/Patriot movement by telling them what they wanted to hear  “reduce the budget” “cut taxes” “end deficit spending” all the while knowing their hidden agenda – bust up the unions at any and all costs – the worker be damned.  Their campaign strategy worked.  They won a majority thanks to the TP/Patriot vote.

Once in office, Walker’s first few days of the legislative session takes those patriotic tax slogans and twists them into anti-rights legislation, while telling Wisconsinites that this is what you, the TP/Patriot voter,  wanted when you voted him into office. You know this is not true, but instead you are the one’s taking the hit.

The TP/Patriot voter is being used as not only as cover, but as a punching bag taking the right and left hook for these duplicitous scoundrels. Why are you letting them get away with it?

The Tea Party/Patriot voted to cut the budget AND to end deficit spending NOT to end the people’s “rights“! If you want union reform then say it out loud and be a leader. Cowering behind the flag and using the TP voter as cover is small minded and beneath any true and decent American patriot.

Learn what the GOP in Wisconsin is really doing by clicking HERE.

Just saw this. The T-Room does not condone violence. However, given the mood of America such anger and threats are not surprising. Honestly, I’m surprised it has taken this long, especially since the elite have been baiting the citizens for sometime now –

In 53-42 Vote, Wisconsin Assembly Gives Final Passage To Bill Stripping Collective Bargaining Rights; Politicians Get Death Threats Over Imminent Austerity

UPDATE X1 –

Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council weighs in on open meeting controversy
Bill Lueders on Thursday 03/10/2011 10:54 am

I have been asked whether the Wisconsin FOIC has a position on last night’s action by the state Legislature. As you know, I am not a lawyer and do not play one on TV. These are difficult issues to parse. But a few points can be made:

The Open Meetings Law, at 19.84(3), states: “Public notice of every meeting of a governmental body shall be given at least 24 hours prior to the commencement of such meeting unless for good cause such notice is impossible or impractical, in which case shorter notice may be given, but in no case may the notice be provided less than 2 hours in advance of the meeting.”

There is no dispute that yesterday’s meeting was not noticed 24 hours in advance and I see no way it could be argued that giving 24 hours notice was “impossible or impractical,” three weeks into a budget stalemate. There is also some question as to whether a full two hours notice was given, in that it was arguably not posted in a location to which media and others have unfettered access. The Assembly Dems say they did were not notified until 4:10 pm, and the Senate meeting purportedly began at 6 p.m.

The Senate Chief Clerk, Robert Marchant, has advanced the argument that the notice was sufficient under Senate Rule 93, which holds that the Senate can convene in special session without giving advance notice. Others have pointed out that this rule pertains to the Senate, whereas last night’s meeting was a Joint Committee of Conference, a.k.a. Joint Conference Committee. They say Rule 93 would not apply in such a case.

The council’s position is that, whether or not a viable legal challenge can be brought, this action merits the condemnation of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council as contrary to the spirit, at least, of the Open Meetings Law, as well as to the state’s traditions of openness.

We believe the meeting was hastily convened without adequate public notice because the people convening it felt they needed an element of surprise to prevail — making it precisely the sort of action the state’s Open Meetings Law was intended to preclude.

The Daily Page

Related Post:

The Real Tea Party Patriots are Paying Dearly for Trusting the Snakes Again

MSNBC Interviews Blogger, Ian Murpy, Buffalo Beast Audio of Call – Walker talks to David Koch

March 9, 2011

The Plain Truth on State Power … First they came…

First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOVV5pcvglE

March 7, 2011 — Stanley Ann Dunham Obama Soetoro's CIA colleagues

By Wayne Madsen

The time period that President Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro/Sutoro, worked for various Indonesian and Pakistani operations associated with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) was during a time frame when USAID was composed almost entirely of CIA official and non-official cover agents who worked throughout Indonesia and Southeast and South Asia.

Ann Dunham Soetoro and Barack Obama as “flexible cover” agents

Before he was sacked as CIA director in 1976 and replaced by George H. W. Bush, William E. Colby commissioned a study of the agency’s priorities in a five-year plan. The Secret NOFORN plan, titled “Director of Central Intelligence: Perspectives for Intelligence 1976-1981,” described the importance of agencies like USAID in the CIA’s operations. The report states: “Contributions of such agencies as State, Defense, Treasury, USAID, USIA, Agriculture, and Commerce can be enhanced substantially by more effective approaches to information gathering and in the reporting aspects of their activities. We need particularly, gains in the interrelationships between overt and clandestine and technical and human sources. We must establish more direct lines between our human collectors and our technical collectors.” [Read more…]

March 8, 2011

The Truth Behind Quantico Brig's Decision to Strip PFC Manning & Anonymous Targets Manning's Jailers

UPDATE X1 – “If George W. Bush Were Torturing Bradley Manning Would the Left Rollover the Way They Do for Obama – see the video below – questions reach the President

By David E. Coombs

The Brig has stripped PFC Manning of all of his clothing for the past three nights, and they intend to continue this practice indefinitely.  Each night, Brig guards force PFC Manning to relinquish all of his clothing.  He then lies in a cold jail cell naked until the following morning, when he is required to endure the humiliation of standing naked at attention for the morning roll call.  According to Marine spokesperson, First Lieutenant Brian Villiard, the decision to strip him naked every night is for PFC Manning’s own protection.  Villiard stated that it would be “inappropriate” to explain what prompted these actions “because to discuss the details would be a violation of PFC Manning’s privacy.”

The defense communicated with both PFC Manning and the Brig forensic psychiatrist and learned more about the decision to strip PFC Manning of his clothing every night.  On Wednesday March 2, 2011, PFC Manning was told that his Article 138 complaint requesting that he be removed from Maximum custody and Prevention of Injury (POI) Watch had been denied by the Quantico commander, Colonel Daniel J. Choike.  Understandably frustrated by this decision after enduring over seven months of unduly harsh confinement conditions, PFC Manning inquired of the Brig operations officer what he needed to do in order to be downgraded from Maximum custody and POI.  As even Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell has stated, PFC Manning has been nothing short of “exemplary” as a detainee.  Additionally, Brig forensic psychiatrists have consistently maintained that there is no mental health justification for the POI Watch imposed on PFC Manning.  In response to PFC Manning’s question, he was told that there was nothing he could do to downgrade his detainee status and that the Brig simply considered him a risk of self-harm.  PFC Manning then remarked that the POI restrictions were “absurd” and sarcastically stated that if he wanted to harm himself, he could conceivably do so with the elastic waistband of his underwear or with his flip-flops.

Without consulting any Brig mental health provider, Chief Warrant Officer Denise Barnes used PFC’s Manning’s sarcastic quip as justification to increase the restrictions imposed upon him under the guise of being concerned that PFC Manning was a suicide risk.  PFC Manning was not, however, placed under the designation of Suicide Risk Watch.  This is because Suicide Risk Watch would have required a Brig mental health provider’s recommendation, which the Brig commander did not have.  In response to this specific incident, the Brig psychiatrist assessed PFC Manning as “low risk and requiring only routine outpatient followup [with] no need for … closer clinical observation.”  In particular, he indicated that PFC Manning’s statement about the waist band of his underwear was in no way prompted by “a psychiatric condition.”

While the commander needed the Brig psychiatrist’s recommendation to place PFC Manning on Suicide Risk Watch, no such recommendation was needed in order to increase his restrictions under POI Watch.  The conditions of POI Watch require only psychiatric input, but ultimately remain the decision of the commander.

Given these circumstances, the decision to strip PFC Manning of his clothing every night for an indefinite period of time is clearly punitive in nature.  There is no mental health justification for the decision.  There is no basis in logic for this decision.  PFC Manning is under 24 hour surveillance, with guards never being more than a few feet away from his cell.  PFC Manning is permitted to have his underwear and clothing during the day, with no apparent concern that he will harm himself during this time period.  Moreover, if Brig officials were genuinely concerned about PFC Manning using either his underwear or flip-flops to harm himself (despite the recommendation of the Brig’s psychiatrist) they could undoubtedly provide him with clothing that would not, in their view, present a risk of self-harm.  Indeed, Brig officials have provided him other items such as tear-resistant blankets and a mattress with a built-in pillow due to their purported concerns.

The Brig’s treatment of PFC Manning is shameful.  It is made even more so by the Brig hiding behind concerns for “[PFC] Manning’s privacy.”  There is no justification, and there can be no justification, for treating a detainee in this degrading and humiliating manner.

Learn more about PFC Manning’s court martial HERE

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF8qWezhntA

Anonymous Hackers Target Alleged WikiLeaker Bradley Manning’s Jailers

As army private Bradley Manning suffers for his alleged megaleak of secret documents to WikiLeaks, one group of hackers seems determined to make sure that others feel his pain.

Over the weekend, the loose hacker collective Anonymous declared that it will go on the offensive against those who are currently detaining Manning in a Quantico military brig, keeping him in solitary confinement and forcing him to strip nightly and stand at attention naked each morning.

In a crowdsourced document used to coordinate the group’s actions, Anonymous hackers name Department of Defense Press Secretary Geoff Morell and chief warrant officer Denise Barnes as targets and call on members to dig up personal information on both, including phone numbers, personal histories and home addresses. The goal of the operation, for now, is to “dox” the two officials, the typical Anonymous method of publishing personal information of victims and using it for mass harassment.

“Targets established,” reads the document, before naming Morell and Barnes. “We’re in the ruining business. And business is good.”

The group, which is calling its attack “Operation Bradical,” also lists demands as follows:

“Manning must be given sheets, blankets, any religious texts he desires, adequate reading material, clothes, and a ball. One week. Otherwise, we continue to dox and ruin those responsible for keeeping him naked, without bedding, without any of the basic amenities that were provided even to captured Nazis in WWII.”

Read the rest of the story HERE

UPDATE X1 – Dylan Ratigan points out the hypocrisy of the left “power base” regarding PFC Bradley Manning –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kon5MMf2Ao

Millions of dead 'sardines' floating in Redondo Beach Harbour

This Fox reporter blames the Red Tide on the fish kill, but I beg to differ.  First let’s watch this quick report –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85q9hoCLItI

Now let’s watch this earthquake alert issued last week –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl7beIkDDWs&feature=channel_video_title

We know Redondo Beach is nearby Baja and that they share the same tectonic plates. Given the fact lots of seismic activity was occurring in this part of California last week, it is reasonable to correlate this earthquake activity with this massive fish kill.

See US Volcano and earthquake update – Washington State Geyser – Baja California – Arkansas and Yellowstone post.

March 7, 2011

With Millions of American's Turning off Lamestream News and Turning on Alternative News the State Department Pleads for More Propaganda Dollars to Compete

SEE UPDATE X1 BELOW

There is ONE reason millions upon millions of American’s continue to turn off ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX, MSNBC and turning on Russia Today, Press TV, Al Jazeera, the Corbett Report and Prison Planet to name a few alternative radio/video sites.

That reason is simple – American’s and people across the globe wish to know the truth. It’s that simple.

Those of us who have turned to the internet to learn what the hell is going on have learned time and again that government’s lie…a lot! This is especially true here in America. This lying has apparently been going on for at least a half a century if not longer; the talking heads of yore just lied better than the current ones do. Nonetheless, lies, lies, lies.

The game is up –  the empire building American leadership has been “covertly” doing in our name while maiming our military personnel and sending us in to debt slaves to pay for it all is being exposed to the light of day, and we’re not taking to kindly to it.

Secretary Hillary Clinton seems to think her agency needs more cashola to counter this truth movement b/c as she put’s it “we’re losing the propaganda information war with foreign media”. Big clue Secretary Clinton, America has LOST the information war.  Gone! Over! Toast! It has been replaced with news outlets that tell us American’s what our country is really doing – building her empire when during another time in our history, we went to War to stop a man from doing such a thing – of which few American’s want or desire. Oh, and those few who do are the one’s feeding at the trough of the oligarch’s who want to dominate the world aka the New World Order.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJXavIDFIN4&feature=player_embedded

PS  – Glenn, you are one of the biggest lamestream media propagandists on the payroll. Give it up.

UPDATE X1 – From Raw Story –

Exclusive: I ‘wined and dined’ NYT and WSJ for favorable coverage, health insurance whistleblower says

by Brad Jacobson

“It was so easy for me to get my way”

A former health insurance insider turned whistleblower says that he was not only surprised at how “easy” it was to manipulate members of the news media over the years, but also reveals that he routinely “wined and dined” reporters from major news outlets – including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal – in return for favorable coverage.

In his new book Deadly Spin, Wendell Potter describes how his chief function as a senior public relations officer at two of the largest for-profit health insurance companies in the United States – Humana and Cigna – was to “perpetuate myths that had no other purpose but to sustain those companies’ extraordinary high profitability.”

But in an extended interview with Raw Story last week, Potter went further, revealing that he lunched with reporters at major media outlets for years – including journalists at the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal – as well as those from local and regional media, in most cases picking up the tab, which he says directly resulted in positive coverage of the companies he represented.

Read the rest of this investigation HERE

Dollar vs. Gold In A Dual Inflation-Deflation Economy Part 1

By Doug Eberhardt

Every time you hear “the dollar’s down” or “the dollar’s up,” what exactly does that mean? If they say the dollar is currently trading at 76.54, as it is today, what does that tell you about the relative strength of the dollar or its purchasing power? The truth is, it doesn’t tell you much at all.

I began to make this case in Why Gold Is a Better Currency Indicator Than the U.S. Dollar Index. In this article I will further explain how looking at the dollar as represented by the dollar index alone doesn’t paint a complete picture and how inflation and deflation are occurring at the same time and what that means for gold investors.

The Dollar Has Been Up and Down the Last Three Years

We can see from the following chart that the dollar, as represented by the Dollar Index, has been above and below the 80 line a couple of times in each direction the last few years. Does this picture paint whether we have inflation or deflation? How? [Read more…]

March 6, 2011

Jeffrey Smith Video on Hidden Dangers in Kids' Meals: Genetically Engineered Foods & Monsanto's "Unlikely" New Business Partner — A Name You Know Well…

Click “GM Free Schools” to learn more about this effort. Educate! Educate! Educate!

Monsanto’s “Unlikely” New Business Partner — A Name You Know Well…

Many have long suspected that U.S. policy on genetically modified (GM) organisms was being influenced by the multinational corporations that profit from genetic engineering and the export-oriented agribusiness. However, recently released Wikileaks cables document just how close that relationship has become.

The U.S. Department of State has virtually become an agency for promoting the private interests of the Monsanto Corporation.

As European social movements pressure their governments for an ongoing moratorium on GM seeds and foods, Monsanto and other biotech corporations have been pushing to find new market footholds, using hybrids even in impoverished Haiti following the January 12, 2010 earthquake. They have been pursuing such goals in collaboration with USAID, the U.S. State Department and the Gates Foundation Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

According to Netline:

“The collusion of the Gates Foundation with Monsanto corporation is no accident, as high level officials leading AGRA are former Monsanto executives. The recent purchase by AGRA of $500,000 worth in Monsanto stocks was vivid proof of that close relationship. Despite many words by Gates officials since the inception of the AGRA agenda denying that GMO seeds would be used as part of AGRA, their close relationship with Monsanto has now been revealed to be a key element in their agronomic ‘new green revolution’ strategy.”

Read the full story HERE

The Perfidy of Government: Evidence v. Denial

by Paul Craig Roberts

This essay is about three recent books that explain how we lost our economy, the Constitution and our civil liberties, and how peace lost out to war.

Matt Taibbi is the best — certainly the most entertaining — financial/political reporter in the country. There is no better book than Griftopia (2010) to which to turn to understand how stupidity, greed, and criminality, spread evenly among policymakers and Wall Street, created the financial crisis that has left Americans overburdened with both private and public debt. Taibbi walks the reader through the fraudulent financial instruments that littered the American, British, and European financial communities with toxic waste. He has figured it all out, and what in other hands might be an arcane account for MBAs is, in Taibbi’s hands, a highly readable and entertaining story.

For the first 65 pages, Taibbi entertains the reader with the inability of the public and politicians to focus on any reality. The financial story begins on page 65 with Fed chairman Alan Greenspan undermining the Glass-Steagall Act leading to its repeal by three political stooges, Gramm-Leach-Bliley. This set the stage for the banksters to leverage debt upon debt until the house of cards collapsed. When Brooksley Born, head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, attempted to do her regulatory job and regulate derivatives, the Federal Reserve, Treasury, and Securities and Exchange Commission got her bounced out of office. To make certain that no other regulator could protect the financial system and its participants from what was coming, Congress deregulated the derivatives markets by passing the Commodity Futures Modernization Act. [Read more…]

US Volcano and Earthquake update: Washington State – Geyser and Baja CA – Arkansas – Yellowstone

SEE UPDATE BELOW –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl7beIkDDWs&feature=channel_video_title

And to further show evidence of earthquake swarms check this short presentation out – Earthquake Watch thru March 6th – AV-2011-03-03

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5iZ8owQSVI

UPDATE X1 – From the Extinction Protocol blog –

Tectonic plates stressed across the planet – awaiting a trigger?

Quakes along the Kamchatka subduction zone have increased in the last 48 hours

Above- Chile (left) and massive seismic wave under Antarctica (right). Tectonic plate stresses are building across the globe. Earth has been reeling under an accelerated solar wind stream that has been blasting the planet and sheering the magnetosphere for 6 consecutive days. Seismic vibrations have been rippling across the Antarctica seismic stations non-stop for the past few days. Recent quakes today along tectonic plate boundaries in Kamchatka, Chile, the Bonin Islands in Japan, Guatemala (Cocos plate), the South Island of New Zealand, the Loyalty Islands in the South Pacific, near Eureka California, and Myanmar are all indications we are nearing a tipping point for another sizeable jolt. A magnitude 6.2 earthquake jolted northern Chile on Sunday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, but there were no reports of any damage and the linchpin copper mining sector was not affected- though this quake in Chile will do little to alleviate the stresses.

Read full story HERE