December 6 & 13, 2004
Whole Body Health
December 20, 2004
December 27, 2004
SOUTH BEND, Ind. - A former laboratory director of a division of Underwriters Laboratories (UL) in South Bend generated considerable heat in professional circles on Nov. 11 when he fired off a letter via email to a prominent metallurgist, questioning the theory that jet fuel fires set by the 9-11 terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center were hot enough to soften or melt structural steel.
Sending that email led to Kevin R. Ryan being fired from his job as site manager at the UL-affiliated Environmental Health Laboratories Inc., in South Bend.
Ryan wrote his professional opinion to metallurgist Frank Gayle at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) because NIST, with Gayle at the helm, is conducting a $16 million, two-year investigation of the twin towers' collapse, with a draft report expected in January.
UL has played "a limited role in the investigation," noted The South Bend Tribune on Nov. 22. The investigation reportedly involves testing the type of steel used to construct the World Trade Center - mainly its ability to withstand fires.
The federal probe postulates that burning jet fuel was a primary factor in the structural collapse that led to the "pancaking"-style, vertical demolition of the 110-story WTC towers on Sept. 11, 2001. However, any clear information that throws water on that theory is bound to furl some brows among those who accept the government's story of how the WTC towers were destroyed.
Ryan, whose firing may be in response to his decision to share his letter beyond the confines of his company and its affiliates, did not return phone messages left for him by AFP on Nov. 29 and Nov. 30.
According to the 911Truth.org News Service, he copied his letter, via email, to David Ray Griffin, author of the book about 9-11 called The New Pearl Harbor. Ryan also copied it to Catherine Austin Fitts, a member of the 911Truth.org board.
Griffin reportedly received permission to distribute Ryan's letter to other parties.
On Nov. 12, the letter was published at septembereleventh.org, the web site of the 9-11 Visibility Project.
AFP obtained a copy of Ryan's letter, in which Ryan said he was speaking for himself only, not on behalf of UL or his laboratory. The recipient, Gayle, is deputy chief of the Metallurgy Division of the NIST.
"The buildings should have easily withstood the thermal stress caused by pools of burning jet fuel," Ryan noted in his rather lengthy letter, referring to the results of performance tests on models of the floor assemblies used in the Twin Towers, as he described it. In the letter, Ryan refutes Dr. Hyman Brown from the WTC construction crew, who claims that the WTC buildings collapsed "due to fires at 2,000 [degrees] F melting the steel."
Ryan also noted that a newspaper, which he did not name, commented on Brown by saying, "Just-released preliminary findings from a National Institute of Standards and Technology study of the World Trade Center Collapse support Brown's theory."
Ryan pointed out in his letter that the steel components would have had to have been exposed to temperatures around 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit for several hours.
"And as we all agree, the steel applied met those specifications. Additionally, I think we can all agree that even un-fireproofed steel will not melt until reaching red-hot temperatures of nearly 3,000 F. Why Brown would imply that 2,000 F would melt the high-grade steel used in those buildings makes no sense at all."
Referring to the summer 2003 results of Gayle's own published metallurgical tests, Ryan noted that "weak steel" was virtually ruled out at that time as a "contributing factor in the collapse."
Ryan wrote to Gayle: "Your comments suggest that the steel was probably exposed to temperatures of only about 500 degrees (250 C), which is what one might expect from a thermodynamic analysis of the situation."
However, Gayle later released additional findings that, according to Ryan, "seem to ignore" the 2003 results.
Ryan pointed out that the summary of the new findings "states that the perimeter columns softened, yet your findings make clear that `most perimeter panels (157 of 160) saw no temperature above 250 C.' To soften steel for the purposes of forging, normally temperatures need to be above 1,100 C. However, this new summary report suggests that much lower temperatures were able to not only soften the steel in a matter of minutes, but lead to rapid structural collapse."
In the letter to Gayle, Ryan added: "This story just does not add up. If steel from those buildings did soften or melt, I'm sure we can all agree that this was certainly not due to jet fuel fires of any kind, let alone briefly burning fires in those towers. That fact should be of great concern to all Americans. Alternatively, the contention that this steel did fail at temperatures around 250 C suggests that the majority of deaths on 9-11 were due to a safety-related failure. That suggestion should be a great concern to my company."
Noting that the events of 9-11 "are the emotional driving force behind the War on Terror," and that the WTC collapse "is at the crux of the story of 9-11," Ryan told Gayle: "My feeling is that your metallurgical tests are at the crux of the crux of the crux."
Ryan summarized, "Either you can make sense of what really happened to those buildings, and communicate this quickly, or we all face the same destruction and despair that come from global decisions based on disinformation and `chatter.' . . . Please do what you can to quickly eliminate the confusion regarding the ability of jet fuel fires to soften or melt structural steel."
The 911Truth.org News Service, quoting a Nov. 12 New York Times report, noted that "the NIST team under Gayle is planning to hold some of its deliberations in secret" and that some 9-11 victims were considering filing a lawsuit "to force the agency to open the meetings to the public."
The NIST investigation was started in 2002 after lobbying by the Skyscraper Safety Campaign, created by Monica Gabrielle and Sally Regenhard, both of whom lost family members on Sept. 11, 2001.
UL media spokesman Paul Baker had not returned two phone messages as this story went to press.
An unattributed UL-linked comment in the above-mentioned Nov. 22 South Bend Tribune story denied that UL ever certified the materials for building the WTC.
However, Ryan stated in his letter: ". . . The company
I work for certified the steel components used in the construction
of the WTC buildings."
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If it ain't over till the fat lady sings, why did John Kerry sing like a canary election night? Or has he quietly told Jesse Jackson he was off-key and wants a chance to sing a different tune? Jackson blitzed Ohio from Nov. 28 to Nov. 29 with the demand that this last bastion of Democratic hope to salvage the presidency recount the results and examine sundry evidences of vote fraud.
In so doing, Jackson complemented the already ongoing move on the part of the Green Party and the Libertarian Party for such a recount - a gambit that cost forces working with Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb and Libertarian Party presidential candidate Michael Badnarik some $160,000.
Dissident Greens and Libertarians second-guessed the strategy, but restive Ohio voters hint that even if the victory is not overthrown, the reputation of the two-party system could be severely damaged. All of which serves the interests of a multi-party America giving its citizens for once a true choice in the near future.
While Green central committee official Rich Stevenson suspects provisional ballots were discarded in thousands, Libertarian chairman John Butler asserts that provisional balloting itself "opens the door to fraud." Butler says he is motivated by the ultimate goal of forcing the duopoly to liberalize ballot access laws.
But both agree the Democratic hierarchy just might allow discrepancies to be swept under the rug of "one Skull and Bonesman conceding to another. What can be expected from a system where 85 percent of the electorate assert independence from two party loyalties but only Republicans and Democrats work at election boards?" asks Stevenson.
Anomalies abound in Ohio.
Reports of shortages of voting machines in Democratic districts purposely curtailed by a corrupt GOP. Long waiting lines leading to droves of voters throwing in the towel in such precincts. And in Warren County, there was a "lockout" on election night where only GOP workers were left in control, due to a claimed "terrorist threat" - since repudiated by the FBI.
Exit polls showing a clear Kerry victory were examined by national expert, professor Steven Freeman of the University of Pennsylvania whose 11-page treatise is at a loss to explain the discrepancies but does refute those proffered by the established GOP mavens.
In Hamilton County, where Cincinnati is located, Democratic chairman Tim Burke represents the donkey hierarchy in his cautious response. He admits many, mainly urban Kerry volunteers, are distressed and suspicious of the outcome.
The rhymin' reverend, however, was less circumspect.
"We can live with losing an election," said Jackson. "We can't live with fraud and stealing."
Jackson demands that Bush-Cheney campaign chairman and Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell step aside from his erstwhile duties to oversee the recount. Blackwell is the fox guarding the chicken house, Jesse averred.
"Experts must be given full access to electronic voting machines that leave no paper trail," said Jackson.
Researcher Bob Fitrakis, on the news web site opednews.com, reports: "Kerry's margins in 37 of 88 Ohio counties are suspiciously low when compared to those gained by Judge Ellen Connally, an unsuccessful Democratic Supreme Court candidate."
These calculations focus on standardized countywide ratios between bottom-of-the-ticket tallies won by Connally vs. those won by Kerry in heavily Republican rural counties.
According to a wide range of experts, there appears to be a "systematic removal of Kerry votes by hackers, who then overlooked the Connally votes."
"Could a vastly underfunded African-American female candidate at the bottom of the ticket outpoll Kerry in Butler County?" Fitrakis asks.
And why, other analysts ask, did George W. Bush receive 4,258 votes in the Franklin County precinct of Gahanna - where only 628 people voted?
Hamilton County Democratic Chairman Burke, who was faced with these and other anomalies, was asked if he helped the Greens and Libertarians with their price tag of $160,000 for the recount.
"We don't have that kind of money," Burke replied. "But we do support it."
Skull and Bonesman Kerry hasn't retracted his concession at press time.
The unruffleable Burke was also queried about Diebold CEO Wally O'Dell's pre-election boast that "we'll do anything to ensure a Bush victory in Ohio."
Diebold is a leading supplier of voting machines.
In perhaps the quintessential understatement of election 2004, Burke commented, "With all the paranoia out there, it was sure a stupid thing to say."
The paranoia has developed with no help from corporate-owned
local media. As alternative reporter Katie Lynn, of denver.org,
remarks: "It is inconceivable that our local newspapers front-page
election fraud in Ukraine while ignoring [domestic] reports of
malfunctioning voting machines, fraudulent election results, inconsistent
numbers of voter registrations vs. vote totals in Ohio, along
with credible university studies showing statistical impossibilities
in election results."
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Feds issue order to censor news of border problems.
In an effort to curtail Border Patrol and Customs officials from releasing to the public information of the crisis situation existing along U.S. borders, a new Homeland Security Department(DHS) has issued a directive to keep federal agents silent.
Faced with growing public concern over reports of an almost unrestricted flow of undocumented aliens over America's borders with both Mexico and Canada, as repeatedly reported by American Free Press, information under the new directive can be kept from the public by simply stamping it "for official use only."
The information does not need to be classified or even stamped "sensitive" to fall under the edict.
The DHS is requiring employees to sign a nondisclosure agreement, which many civil libertarians argue is unconstitutional.
Two unions representing border agents and officials, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the National Treasury employees Union, have warned in a joint statement that the agreement that employees are being forced to sign gives the government "unprecedented leeway to search employee homes and personal belongings in violation of the Fourth Amendment."
The amendment in-short provides Americans "protection from unreasonable search and seizure."
Under the directive the government "may conduct inspections at any time or place" to ensure that the agreement is obeyed, without the Fourth Amendments's guarantee of probable cause and the issuance of a search warrant.
The directive is the latest effort by the Bush administration, armed with the new repressive Patriot Act, to impair the civil rights of the citizenry.
Attorneys for the two unions in a letter to Joe D. Whitley, general counsel for DHS, asked that the agreement no longer be distributed to workers.
The letter also stated that the directive gives officials of the DHS a means "to suppress and cover up evidence of their own misconduct and malfeasance by stamping documents ‘for official use only."
One example of what the directive could have been used to prevent was the leaking of information last year concerning a college student who placed fake explosive materials under the lavatories in the bathrooms of several airliners. The items were not found until the student had contacted officials telling them the items were there.
The student was testing the effectiveness of airline security. It was an embarrassment for DHS officials, going all the way to the top including the office of outgoing Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge.
"The notion that the directive could be used to cover up evidence of wrongdoing is baseless." Brian Roehrkasse, a spokesman for the department, said.
Roehrkasse said that the agreements with workers were needed to protect "the large quantity of sensitive information in the department' and that they did not necessarily" exempt releases under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Roehrkasse did not comment on how material stamped "for official use only," a term used on thousands of government forms, could necessarily mean it was sensitive.
Mark Roth, an attorney for the AFGE, said the directive would certainly discourage employees from talking to the public, even Congress about "matters of public concern.
"I think, sadly, it will probably be used to keep information the public needs to know out of the public's hands.' Roth concluded.
The unions intend to challenge the directive in federal court.
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Baghdad, Iraq - While over 2,000Iraqis and at least 50 U.S. soldiers have died during the siege of Fallujah, heavy clashes between resistance fighters and occupation forces have continued to spread across much of Iraq.
The U.S. military states that it will take at least two months to restore electricity and water to the demolished city, as the Iraqi Red Crescent has only recently been granted access to what are believed to be at least 150 families stranded in the city.
The Iraqi Ministry of Health estimates that over 300,000 refugees from embattled Fallujah are spread throughout Baghdad, as well as many villages near Fallujah (as people have yet to be allowed to return to their homes).
While the goals of the U.S. military siege of Fallujah were to quell a rising resistance and create stability prior to the elections scheduled for Jan. 30, the results appear to indicate a spreading and more violent organized resistance is being directed at the U.S.-led occupiers of Iraq.
Since the siege of Fallujah began on Nov. 8, the number of attacks against the U.S. troops in occupied Iraq since the invasion of March 2003. The Pentagon reported that 139 troops have been killed in Iraq this month - half of whom died in the offensive on fallujah.
The U.S. military claims that between 1,200 and 1,600 resistance fighters were killed in Fallujah, yet attacks targeting U.S. forces have increased throughout many cities in Iraq.
Examples of the lethality and coordination of ongoing attacks occurred in Samarra on Nov. 25, when a car bomb exploded next to a U.S. military patrol and killed two people and wounded 14. Many of the casualties were Iraqi police, who are viewed as collaborators by the Iraqi resistance. A second car bomb in the same city struck a police station a short time later.
A third bomb then exploded injuring an Iraqi National Guardsman, while Iraqi police were inspecting the area near the second attack.
In the same city earlier this month, a series of car bombs and clashes between Iraqi resistance fighters and U.S. troops and Iraqi police left 36 people dead, 26 of whom were police officers.
Other examples of the rapidly spreading resistance abound in the capital city Baghdad, where in one day alone in November the U.S. military was attacked 66 times.
The so-called "Green Zone," the U.S. headquarters in the city, which is considered by occupation forces to be the most secure area in all of Iraq, is bombed with mortars on a daily basis, oftentimes followed by large, black plumes of smoke.
In the al-Adhamiya district of the city, the U.S. base is bombed with mortars on a nightly basis.
Residents in western Baghdad continue to report loud explosions in the area near the airport, where a large U.S. military base is located.
However, most of the attacks remain unreported by the mainstream media. For example, in Baquba, a small city of 200,000 people 40 miles northeast of Baghdad, there are attacks on a daily basis. Just in the last week, there have been at least three car bomb attacks on Iraqi police and the U.S. military there.
"Yesterday, Nov. 27, a car bomb struck a U.S. convoy destroying three vehicles," said Sheikh Adnan, a resident of Baquba, "Last night, the Iraqi resistance attacked the main police station while it was occupied by Americans."
Munir Jabar, the head of the Communist Party in Baquba, was assassinated on Mov. 26 because he was suspected of being a spy for the occupation forces.
It is also being reported by residents of Baquba that the main U.S. base in their city continues to get bombed on a daily basis by mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.
On Nov. 28, there were more clashes in Baquba between the resistance and occupation forces, along with clashes in Baghdad, Samarra and Ramadi.
Sporadic fighting is ongoing in Fallujah as well.
Also in the last week of November the oil infrastructure was once again attacked by resistance fighters - as happens every week in Iraq. On Nov. 25, as most Americans were settling down for Thanksgiving dinner, a key pipeline that links Iraq's northern oil fields to one of the major refineries was sabotaged near the town of Beji. All oil flowing into the refinery has stopped, terminating all power to large areas of central and northern Iraq.
In addition, the situation in Iraq's Third-largest city, Mosul, remains tense as resistance fighters continue to occupy police stations and kill Iraqi National Guard members, leaving their headless bodies around the streets of the city.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told reporters recently: "No doubt attacks will continue in the weeks and months ahead, and perhaps intensify as the Iraqi election approaches. I suppose this has to be expected."
While the U.S. military continues to ask for more boots on the ground in Iraq, the forces that are now being diverted to other problem areas throughout the country appear to be growing thin as tours of duty are extended on a regular basis.
Iraq continues to remain extremely unstable, and the growing rift among various political parties regarding the upcoming election is adding to the problem already facing the U.S. military.
Dahr Jamail is a free-lance reporter who is contributing exclusive
rports from Baghdad to American Free Press. Jamail can be reached
via his web site, www.dahrjamailiraq.com
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With all of the political hoopla and heifer dust that is spread about the Middle East, you might think we are totally dependent on Middle Eastern oil. Actually, we are not.
The United States imports about 62 percent of its oil and other petroleum products. Only about 11 percent of domestic usage comes from the Persian golf countries. Saudi Arabia, for example, supplies about 7.2 percent of domestic usage.
Our main imports by far come from Canada, Mexico, Venezuela and Nigeria. From January to July 2004, Saudi Arabia was fourth, just ahead of Nigeria and behind Canada, Mexico and Venezuela. Iraq was sixth. These figures are from the American Petroleum Institute.
We are bogged down in the Middle East because of Israel, not oil. Iraq was perceived as a threat to Israel, not to Saudi Arabia and certainly not to us. A man who at one time prepared the president's daily intelligence briefing told me years ago that there was never any indication whatsoever that Iraq was going to invade Saudi Arabia. We just used that as an excuse for Gulf war I.
The majority of American diplomatic efforts in the Middle East are directed at trying to persuade Arab countries to accept Israel. Their relationship to Israel is really none of our business.
I realize that members of a Christian cult that originated in the 19th century believe they have a biblical obligation to love "Israel." Well, people are entitled to their religious beliefs, but none of them has any business being used as a basis for American foreign policy.
We have one, and only one, interest in the Middle East. That is access, at a fair market price, to oil. Whether the countries from which we buy oil like or don't like Israel, are democracies or monarchies or dictatorships, is immaterial and irrelevant.
I harbor no ill feelings toward Israel. In many ways, ti is an admirable country, but it is a foreign country, and the United States should treat Israel the same as it treats every other foreign nation. We should make it clear, for example, that Israel's enemies are not our enemies. If the Israelis and the Syrians don't get along, that's their business. Our relations with Syria should be based strictly on how Syria treats Americans and America's interests.
Unfortunately, Israel has a very powerful lobby in the United States. Even though our intelligence people said Syria was cooperating with the United states in the war on terrorism, we nevertheless applied sanctions, not because of anything Syria said about us or did, but because Syria allows some Palestinian organizations opposed to Israeli occupation to operate inside Syria.
When Jimmy carter was president, we ended up in effect paying bribes both to Israel and to Egypt so they would sign a peace treaty. That was a dumb thing to do. It was in their interest, not ours, to sign a peace treaty. Why should the american taxpayers be donned to pay for it?
The whole underlying basis of the neo-conservative cockamamie idea of democratizing the Middle East at the point of a gun is the theory that if the Arab countries are democracies, they will accept and get along with Israel. I seriously doubt that, as their dispute with Israel is not over forms of government but over Arab land Israel has seized and refuses to relinquish.
George Washington advised us to harbor neither habitual enmity nor habitual friendship for any foreign country. He also advised us to bewar of foreign influence in our domestic affairs. Both pieces of good advice, and both ignored because too many politicians in Washington are wet-pants scared of the Israeli lobby.
We should not be involved in the Middle East at all except as purchasers of oil, but we will go on spending treasure and blood in the area until the American people elect some politicians brave enough to face down the Israeli lobby.
Establishing a modern state of Israel in the middle of the
Arab world was a British colonial idea. It was about as smart
as establishing the national head quarters of the Ku Klux Klan
in Harlem. Americans should not pay with their lives and tax dollars
for a British blunder.
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While the U.S. dollar has already declined 35 percent against the euro in the past four years, the main event has not yet occurred. The euro was just the opening act.
Correcting the U.S. trade deficit requires the dollar to weaken against the currencies of those countries with which the United states has the largest trade deficits, meaning the Chinese yaun and the Japanese yen.
The Bank of Japan sold 14.83 trillion yen in the first two months of this year, and bought roughly $140 billion to keep the dollar from falling below 105 yen. But in March, they called it quits. Since March, Japan has been noticeably less determined to support the dollar and, guess what, the dollar has declined by 7 percent against the yen since then.
In September, Japan actually reduced its Treasury position by $1.5 billion. It was the first time in two years that Japan sold more U.S. Treasuries that it bought.
I've often been asked how long I thought Japan and China would continue to support the dollar. Well, it seems we now know the answer: Until March 2004. With Japanese support for the dollar waning, it won't be long before China lets the yuan float and other Southeast Asian countries start concerning themselves with issues other than competitive devaluations against the dollar.
For a while now the United States has been pressing China to let its currency float, a move that is widely anticipated to lead to a stronger yuan against the dollar. This must rank as one of the dumbest things I have seen the United States do in recent times.
Calling for a stronger yuan is by definition, calling for a weaker U.S. dollar. However, U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said in London, just last week, that "Nobody had ever devalued their way to prosperity." I guess the U.S. administration feels that the United States is already so prosperous that it could afford to pursue a weaker dollar, even though its official policy is one of a strong dollar. It that sentence confuses you, don't worry, it seems to confuse Snow as well.
While the fixed exchange rate between the dollar and the yuan has allowed Chinese exports to remain very competitive in U.S. markets, it cost the Chinese dearly. China has had to buy in the order of 500 billion dollars' worth of U.S. Treasuries to keep the yuan pegged to the dollar. This year alone, China bought in excess of 100 billion dollars. At the same time, the falling dollar has caused the price of Chinese raw material imports to soar. Just in the last year, the cost of oil is up 33 percent, copper is up 55 percent and nickel is up 18 percent - you get the picture. If China allows the yuan to float, and it appreciates against the dollar as is widely expected, then the cost of raw materials imports to China will drop significantly and that is most certainly positive for the Chinese economy.
China alone will not be able to support the U.S. dollar. With Japan clearly indicating that it is getting indigestion from an overdose of U.S. Treasuries it would imply that China has to take up the slack if the dollar is to remain at its current exchange rate.
Given that China is under pressure from the U.S. government to let its currency float and appreciate against the dollar, this would be an opportune time for the dragon to politely grant the United States its wish. But if the Chinese let the yuan float, it also implies that they would not have to buy as many U.S. Treasuries going forward.
Japan has reduced its Treasury purchases since March, and I wonder if our intrepid leaders in Washington have thought about who will finance the growing U.S. budget deficit. Life has been far too easy for U.S. politicians in the past 15 years. Just like U.S. consumers, they have become proficient at spending in excess of their means, in the belief that there will always be someone out there to lend them more money.
But the game is over. With the U.S. economy sinking into quicksand the buyers of last resort have been the Asians, and now it seems that they have had enough.
According to the Conference Board Inc., a private economic research group, the outlook for the U.S. economy further weakened in September. This is the fifth straight decline in economic leading indicators. With such a bleak outlook for the U.S. economy it's going to be tough to replace decreased Chinese and Japanese appetite for U.S. bonds with private purchases.
For most of this year, I have been saying that we need to see the U.S. dollar decline in conjunction with rising interest rates before the dollar-gold price will sustain a meaningful rally.
Since the day after George Bush was reelected as president of the United States, interest rates have risen, and the dollar has declined. It's too soon to call it a trend, but my own feeling is that the dollar is heading much lower and the gold price is heading much higher.
The U.S. trade deficit is a virtual guarantee that interest rates will rise. It's busy happening, and there is no end in sight. Prepare yourself, buckle up, and hold on.
[Paul van Eeden is an independent investor, analyst and newsletter
editor, born in South Africa. He can be reached through www.paulvaneeden.com.]
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This is the time of year when people line up for hours because there is a scarcity of the latest hot selling new toy or gizmo they just have to have. Could this same psychology work to get people to wait in endless lines and pay exorbitant prices for flu shots? But more importantly are these coveted flu shots safe and effective?
Anecdotal evidence tells of people getting the flu after getting a shot while those who didn't get a shot didn't get the flu. Some say the reason the folks who caught the flu after getting the shots is because their immune system was too weak to respond properly or the vaccine was defective, not all the virus was killed or the vaccine was not designed to work against the strain of flu going around that year.
There are so many strains of constantly mutating viruses and bacteria. And now - thanks to sorcerer's apprentices playing gods with DNA, bacteriological warfare experiments, genetically modified cross species vectors etc - guessing which virus or viruses will strike in any season is akin to guessing the power ball lottery.
Theoretically if all of the virus is killed ti shouldn't infect you when the nurse injects it into your body. How do scientists kill the virus? They mix it with formaldehyde, a dangerous carcinogen, and other poisons, such as ethylene glycol (antifreeze), a kidney killer.
Because scientists breed bacteria and virus strains in such nasty things as rotten eggs, sheep guts, monkey brains and fetal diploid tissue (minced aborted babies), they have to preserve it. The cheapest way is themerosal, a mercury derivative that is a highly toxic heavy metal that attacks every organ and system in your body. Mercury is strongly implicated in Alzheimer's disease and the epidemic of autism in vaccinated children.
To give this concoction a kick they add a dose of aluminum, another poisonous metal also strongly correlated with Alzheimer's made many times worse when associated with mercury and fluoride. To this witches' brew they have to add antibiotics to keep the bacteria from growing. This year the antibiotics didn't work, so over 46 million vaccines were recalled due to bacterial contamination.
If flu vaccines infect people with weaker immune systems, why does the government say the elderly and babies should go to the head of the line?
Cynical people who believe in conspiracies might say killing off the elderly will stave of the bankruptcy of Social Security; and killing off the babies who survive the abortion mills will make it easier to replace Americans with cheap foreign workers.
If you pick up a flu virus you won't necessarily come down with the flu. Whether you become ill depends on how well your immune system deals with the virus. So you might say that a virus doesn't give you the flu; and immune system that doesn't defeat the virus is what gives you the flu. The key is immunity.
Fortunately, strengthening the immune system isn't very hard; it just takes some discipline and common sense. Exercise, nutritious foods, managed stress levels and the right amount of sleep are very important factors in maintaining immune system health.
Studies have shown that it's also helpful to supplement with a few proven immune system enhancers, such as echinacea, and vitamins C, E, and beta carotene - all of which have been shown to help fight colds and flu. Selenium is also and effective flu fighter, as is zinc and N-acetylcysteine, and amino acid that stimulates your body to produce the powerful antioxidant enzyme glutathione.
In the April 2001 issue of Nutrition & Healing newsletter, Jonathan V. Wright, M.D., also suggest eating a daily clove of fresh, raw garlic, which is loaded with plenty of antifungal, antibacterial and antiviral properties. Wright also strongly recommends avoiding sugar, because even a single teaspoon of sugar can impair the immune system by 50 percent for several hours.
For more information abut maintaining a health lifestyle, visit
the site of the Health Sciences Institute at www.hsibaltimore.com. To get a copy of the
organization's HSI electronic newsletter, visit: www.hsibaltimore.com/ealert/freecopy.html.
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The New York Times of Oct. 1, 2004, records the fact that the number of children with autism or related diseases in the public school system increased from 118,846 in 2002 to 141,022 in 2003, an increase of 19 percent. It also states that this figure has increased 20 percent to 25 percent every year since the mid 1990s. As a result of these increases more people are required to teach these learning disabled children which increases the cost of the public school system.
Also there has been a concomitant increase in related diseases, like attention deficit disorder, which has caused disruptions on classrooms that interfere with the education of more normal children.
The net result is that public education keeps increasing in cost and the results are far from satisfactory.
Autism was unknown in ancient times. It appeared suddenly as a uniquely American disease about 60 years ago. The first case was diagnosed in 1941. Dr. Leo Kanner of Johns Hopkins University first described it in a medical textbook in 1943. He described 11 children with "extreme autistic aloneness." All of these were born after 1930.
Originally, Dr. Bruno Bettleheim proposed that autism was caused by "refrigerator" mothers who did not provide a stimulating environment for their children. However, this theory has been discredited.
The disease, which affects boys and girls in a four to one ratio, has reached epidemic proportions in the United States. During the 10-year period ending in 2002 there was a 1,700 percent increase in the number of autistic children in American schools. The total number of disabled children in school increased also, but only by 30 percent.
The individuals with Disabilities Act was passed in 1975 to ensure equal educational opportunities for disabled children. At that time congress promised to cover 40 percent of the costs associated with the program, but it has never funded more than 15 percent according to Dr. Yazbak who provides a perspective on autism in the winter 2003 issue of The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.
An autistic child can cost a school system $30,000 a year or more. Since it has been progressively more difficult to fund this program diagnosis is a serious matter for physicians and not easily approved by school authorities. Consequently there are probably more autistic children than those in the statistics. The overflow probably appears as autism related diseases like attention deficit disorder. Such children are usually disruptive in regular classrooms and, as a result, are usually controlled with drugs. Nevertheless they often interfere with the education of their classmates.
At the June 2004 meeting of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness in San Diego, California, Dr. Boyd Haley, chairman of the Chemistry department at the University of Kentucky, disclosed that boys are no longer superior to girls in mathematics and science. Boys have also lost about 100 points in test scores. He said affirmative action is needed to get adequate numbers into law and medical school.
Haley believes that the probable cause of this flip-flop in intellectual capabilities is mercury poisoning, which causes something like intoxication. He calls it Mad Child Disease.
In Haley's laboratory experiments, testosterone potentiated the toxicity of mercury and estrogen suppressed it. Haley said he believes this is why boys are affected so much more than girls.
Mercury is an extremely effective neurotoxin.
Mercury from amalgam fillings in a mother's teeth is transferred to infants during gestation. The more fillings the greater the transfer.
Amalgam fillings were introduced into dental practice in this country around 1860. By about 1880 a uniquely American disease called neurasthenia, American nervousness, appeared. Relief of severe neurological conditions by removal of amalgam fillings was reported over 100 years ago in this country and 75 years ago in Germany. Women with more than 10 amalgam fillings and a high concentration of testosterone in their amniotic fluid are likely to have an autistic child.
Thimerosal, a preservative used in vaccines, is another source of mercury. In 1977, a report in the medical literature disclosed that a 1 percent solution of thimerosal, used as a topical disinfectant, had caused the deaths of 10 out of 13 infants. The dead infants had high concentrations of mercury in their organs. Those who survived had high concentrations of mercury in their blood.
Even though the article recommended banning this material from hospitals, this same substance, which killed children when applied to their umbilical cords, has been injected into newborn babies in this country since the mandated vaccination program started about 1985.
The amount injected is said to be 50 to 100 times as much as the Environmental Protection Agency says is a safe level for mercury taken in through the mouth.
Haley's laboratory studies show that a substance called tubulin, essential for the proper functioning of neurons in the brain, is denatured by thimerosal, which has been used in medications since about 1930.
Thimerosal disappears quickly after injection because it dissociates in the presence of water and salts in the body to form ethyl mercury. This is a far more toxic substance than mercury.
In addition, the vaccines contain aluminum, which synergistically makes it even more toxic furthermore lead also increases the toxicity of mercury and this is still being leached from old pipes in many inner city locations. Antibiotics also potentiate mercury.
HEART ATTACK CONNECTION
Idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, which has claimed the lives of a number of athletes, who dropped dead for no apparent reason and cause a number of older people to require heart transplants, also has a mercury connection. German investigators have found high concentrations in damaged hearts - 22,000 times the usual level of mercury in heart muscle. The cardiovascular systems of autistic infants are also adversely affected by mercury.
Some people are able to excrete mercury fairly easily. After exposure they have relatively high concentrations in their hair, blood and fingernails. Others less favored by genetics, have lower concentrations in hair, blood and fingernails.
Autistic children have great difficulty eliminating mercury. They have higher than normal concentrations of mercury in their baby teeth. Mercury finds a home in their tissues from which it is not easily removed.
Since the brain constitutes about 30 percent of a newborn baby's weight, it is reasonable to assume that a substantial amount of the ethyl mercury enters it when babies are inoculated with vaccines.
Babies get a dose of hepatitis B vaccine on the day they are born. This contains 12.5 micrograms (mcg) of mercury. A 6.6-pound (3 kilograms) child takes in approximately 4.2 mcg of mercury per kilogram - 42 times the allowable oral intake (0.1 mcg/kg/day) according to CDC and FDA.
It is interesting to note that thimerosal was eliminated from vaccines for cats and dogs in 1992; the same year it disappeared from vaccines in Denmark. But thimerosal-free hepatitis B vaccine for infants was not available until 2000 in the United States.
Haley believes that the United States is experiencing an unprecedented disaster as a result of a general mercurial toxemia, which is being ignored by medical authorities. He has been concerned about it and has attempted many time with out success to get the FDA and the vaccine branch of the CDC to recognize this during the past 15 years.
The November 2004 University of California (Berkely) Wellness Letter advises its readers that "all is well in Vaccineland." Thimerosal does not release mercury in the body. People are unnecessarily concerned.
Is this evidence that Haley is right when he suggests that many good doctors are comb chemists?
Dr. Bernard Rimland, founder of the Autism Research Institute, disclosed that, when his autistic. Child was born in 1956, it was autistic at birth, and autism was a case disease. It was first described in a textbook in 1943. Today, it affects 60 out of 10,000 children and most autistic behavior starts at 18 months instead of at birth. In other words, the autism occurs subsequent to the vaccinations.
A rise in the number of autistic children with little or no mental retardation has been observed in 1987, 19 percent were in this category and 56 percent are now.
Although medical authorities claim that there is no cure for autism, Rimland stated that removal of mercury from the bodies of autistic children, bu use of a special chelating agent, was effective about 70 percent of the time.
The fact that mercury is poisonous was known in ancient times. There is a legend of a king bothered by excessive hair, who for a time employed a stranger to his country who claimed to be expert in removing hair. However, when his counselors told the king about the mercury compound that the stranger was using the king had him executed.
In England, years ago, such compounds were used to remove hair from skins in the manufacture of hats. The hatters developed mental problems memorialized by the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland.
In more recent times mercury was implicated in pink disease, which affected babies between six months and two years in the English-speaking world and two in five years in Europe. The symptoms included pink fingers and toes accompanied by irritability, weakness, the sudden and rapid racing of the heart, high blood pressure, photophobia and inflammation of the peripheral nerves also known as polyneuritis.
One mother is reported to have said: "My child behaves like a mad dog!" Popular theories blamed viruses and nutritional deficiencies, but by 1950 mercury compounds widely used in teething powders, became suspect. The disease disappeared after 1954 when mercury was removed from teething powder.
In 1928 Ili Lilly discovered thimerosal. It was patented in 1930 and introduced into various medications as a preservative. In 1941 the first case of autism was encountered. All of the 11 cases covered in the 1943 textbook, which described autism, were born after 1930. Timland thinks that this is more than a coincidence.
The fact that Kuwait's autism epidemic started after they adopted the World Health Organization's recommended vaccination schedule is additional support for the conclusion that something in the vaccines is causing the problem. Despite the enormous amount of pollution resulting from hundreds of burning oil wells at the end of the Gulf War, there were few birth defects and no autism encountered at that time.
Haley's laboratory data clearly indicate, but do not prove, that the ethyl mercury carrier, thimerosal, the preservative in vaccines, is responsible for an epidemic of autism related diseases which has damaged a who generation of our young.
A decision to remove thimerosal from pediatric vaccines in the United States was made in 1999. The American Academyof Pediatrics claims that all routinely recommended infant vaccines are free from preservative thimerosal. However Drs. Mark and David Geier reported that the 2003 Physicians Desk Reference reported that Merck's pediatric hepatitis B vaccine contains 12.5 mcg of thimerosal per dose and the adult version contains 25 mcg per dose. Wyeth and Aventis Pasteur vaccines also contained this preservative. All influenza vaccines contain it, and they are being recommended for children.
Package inserts are labeled per FDA regulations, and it is a criminal offense to mislabel products. Yet a spokesman for Aventis Pasteur told the Geiers that the company had ceased selling DtaP, a pediatric vaccine, in the preservative formulation in March 2001 and that their 2003 version's package insert, which listed thimerosal, was incorrect.
The World Health Organization believes the removal of thimerosal from vaccines to be unlikely because it is needed to kill bacteria during the nonsterile manufacturing process. It may also be an integral part of the process and not intended to serve primarily as a preservative. Consequently "preservative free" vaccines may not be free of thimerosal.
The Children's Health Act of 2000 established an Interagency
Autism Coordinating Committee with a 10-year goal of preventing
25 percent of cases of autism through early intervention and developing
better way to treat it. Complete prevention, however, does not
seem to be the objective.
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A new book is challenging the orthodox school of medical thought surrounding how we regard illness in this country. Frightening as it is. Goodbye Germ Theory, written by Dr. William Trebing, takes on the billion-dollar vaccination industry and compels us to examine how we live. More importantly, Trebing asks us to stop relying on modern medicine to make us healthy and to take responsibility for our own well-being.
"The basic premise of the book is: You have a ghost that is going to sneak into your body and make you sick and you need these guys - doctors and pharmaceutical companies - to save you." Trebing told American Free Press. "The basic premise of the germ theory has to be rethought.
Trebing calls the germ theory "a doctrine of propaganda."
He says that the medical profession is telling Americans, "Don't worry, we'll take care of you."
But, according to Trebing, the problem is, it remove the responsibility of taking care of oneself, of eating well and of drinking high-quality water and gives it to the medical establishment.
Essentially, Trebing is questioning the foundation of what Americans consider to be healthcare today.
Modern medicine is a big business of taking care of sick people," said Trebing. "You have to have sick people to do this."
However, Trebing is careful to note the role of modern medicine in saving lives.
"We're not talking about medical doctors - we're talking about this cartel, these people who keep people sick for profit," said Trebing. "All of medical care should be based on the wisdom of the body to heal itself. If we studied that, we would know more."
Polls show that most Americans eat fast food at least one to two times per week. High-fat, low quality foods like Big Macs, Whoppers, french fries and sodas dominate the country's dietary habits.
"The United States has the best health care in the world," said Trebing. "More money is spent on pharmaceuticals than in any other country. Yet, the United States is in the top 10 of degenerative diseases. The way the system is set up doesn't work."
Life expectancy may be increasing for certain populations, said Trebing, but that doesn't necessarily mean people are any happier or living better.
"The only way to live to 80 or 90 and live a happy life is to lay off the coffee, white flour, sugar, alcohol, salts and poor quality fats," said Trebing. "All of these are irritants to the body."
VACCINATION
At the heart of germ theory today, says Trebing is the established vaccination program in the United States.
"Vaccinations do not strengthen the immune system; nature does." said Trebing. "Vaccines weaken them. Toxic chemicals weaken them."
Trebing accuses the medical cartel of fabrication and manipulating statistics on diseases in this country in order to sell its drugs.
"Most of the statistics began in the 1950s around when vaccines were created," said Trebing. "But, in order to get to the truth, you have to go into the public records in each town and look at them manually."
In order to understand diseases, Trebing says, you have to see the connection between sanitation and germs.
"Diseases cycle during periods of poor sanitation," said Trebing. "But sanitation was improving at the time."
According to Trebing, the statistics show that the rates of many diseases were already on their way down at the time vaccines were first introduced.
"Look at the graph from 1860 to 1940 in my book," said Trebing. "We were already at the bottom of the graph."
However, since the advent of vaccinations, in some cases, there has been a resurgence of these disease.
"There are cases today where vaccines are being given, and diseases are on the rise," said Trebing. "In the case of polio, it is down on paper. What you do have, is a rise in encephalitis - swelling of the brain and spinal tissue."
The simple fact is, says Trebing, the use of vaccines to fight diseases is questionable.
"No vaccine will ever guarantee that you will not get the disease," Trebing said. "They will only guarantee increased antibodies. But antibodies are one-tenth of the body's immune response. So many other factors are involved. It's virtually meaningless in science.
"If everybody did what they needed to do, this medical
cartel wouldn't be necessary," said Trebing. "Parents
would be keeping their children healthy, and many doctors would
be out of business.
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A distinguished university professor, speaking before a gathering
of an 
international doctors
group, said he believes a buildup of the toxic mineral mercury
is the leading cause of Alzheimer's disease (AD), the debilitation
illness that afflicts older people and leads to memory loss, confusion
and general mental deterioration.
"Mercury and only mercury, causes all the diagnostic hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease," said Dr. Boyd Haley. Chairman on the University of Kentucky's Department of chemistry, at the June 2004 meeting of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness in San Diego, Calif.
Haley is a biochemist. Some of his publications can be found in The proceedings of the National Academy of Science. Haley also said that this element causes all the abnormal biochemical reactions that kill neurons and cause the disease.
The National Institutes of Aging, however, claim there is no known cause.
Haley found that laboratory cultures of neurons, when treated with mercury, form the tangles and deposits observed when the brains of people withAD are autopsied. Structures, called microtubulin, inside neurons degenerate to form tangles. A soluble protein, called tubulin, becomes insoluble to form the deposits.
Mercury poisons an enzyme that converts glutamate to glutamine in the brain. Unconverted glutamate kills brain cells.
According to Haley, mercury poisons more enzymes than any other toxic metal.
Released into Minamata Bay in Japan in the 1950s, mercury contamination has been blamed for a disastrous outbreak of neurological diseases there.
A great deal of the research on which Haley bases his conclusions has been accomplished in other countries. However, the dispensers of money for research in the United States, like the FDA, the NIH and the Alzheimer's Research Foundation, generally refuse to support research on toxic metals as a cause of disease. The Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science also discourages such research. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent yearly on AD research.
AD has devastating effects not only on the victims, but also on their families. Besides the emotional strain, which frequently breaks up families, it involves a heavy financial burden. Total direct and indirect costs have been estimated to be at least $100 billion annually. These are expected to increase, not only because of inflation, but also because of increasing numbers of AD patients, In 2000 there were about 4.5 million of them. In 2050 there may be 11 million to 16 million.
Average cost of care for the eight-to 20-year duration of this illness has been estimated to be $174,000 Nursing homes charge $42,000 to $70,000 a year. For the 70 percent who are cared for at home, supplemental care runs about $12,000 annually.
Haley claims the major source of our body burden of mercury comes from amalgam fillings. He and his students have demonstrated that dental amalgam generates colorless mercury vapor at room temperature, which can be measured with an EPA mercury sniffer. He says that brushing it with a toothbrush causes 10 times more vaporization, and drinking hot liquids, like coffee, causes another 10-fold increase in emission. Furthermore, soaking amalgams in water produces a solution that kills neurons in culture.
On the other hand, the Alzheimer's Association claims that the vest available scientific evidence shows no relation between these fillings, which typically contain 50 percent mercury that, in certain forms, is known to be toxic to the brain and other organs.
The group says amalgam fillings emit small amounts of mercury vapor when they are installed or removed and as they wear. The organization also says that , theoretically, the vapor could be absorbed and might damage nerve cells in the brain. Furthermore they say that mercury affects some of the biochemical; processes implicated in AD. But they add that an FDA panel concluded in 1991 that there was no evidence that amalgam filling pose any danger.
Haley says that research by people in his department and the AD research department at Kentucky showed that AD brains contained mercury and that the concentration of mercury in patient's fingernails decreased as the disease progressed. This indicated increasing difficulty in excreting this substance.
After Haley's report was issued, his grant was terminated. NIH then funded a study by Dr. Stanley R. Saxe, a dentist at the university. His research, published in The Journal of the American Dental Association, stated that there was no significant association between AD and any aspect of amalgam fillings and no correlation between AD and levels of mercury in AD brains.
Critics have disputed Saxe's findings, noting that Saxe must be a very unnusual dentist. Very few dentists are experts in neurological diseases.
Saxe's research and a review of the health effects of mercury published in The New England Journal of Medicine in October 2003, underpin the endorsement of amalgam fillings as safe by the FDA, the Public Health Service and the World Health Organization. The American Dental Association informs dentists that amalgam fillings are safe.
On the other hand, Haley claims that there are no studies in the scientific literature proving that mercury does not vaporize from amalgam fillings. The FDA has no data to refute his claims, not have they funded any studies to show that amalgam fillings are safe.
People also acquire this metal from coal-fired power plants, preservatives in vaccines and fish. People used to be exposed by handling liquid mercury and by breathing air in rooms where mercury from broken thermometers has spilled on the floor. Gold miners still use mercury to recover gold, and large quantities are said to get into rivers in Brazil from this source.
Our bodies have a protein that protects us from toxic metals. About 67 percent of this is located in our digestive systems, so mercury in fish is probably not as bad as that from other sources.
Each dose of influenza vaccine contains 25 micrograms of mercury in thimerosal, a preservative. Given to someone weighing 220 pounds, this amounts to 2.5 times the amount of mercury the FDA and EPA say is safe to take in a day by mouth. Given to a 110-pound person this is five times the amount. This does not enter our digestive system, where the bulk of our protection against mercury is located. There fore you might expect it to have an even more toxic effect.
It would be interesting to know why the Institute of Medicine is discouraging research on the relationship between toxic metals and disease.
Is it possible that, where lots of money is involved, as Haley
suggests, conflicts of interest can arise that impact people's
health?
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A 9-11 rescue worker recently came forward to say he was told by FBI agents to "keep my mouth shut" about one of the "black boxes" a fellow firefighter helped locate at ground zero, contradicting the official story that none of the flight and cockpit data recorders were ever recovered in the wreckage of the World Trade Center (WTC) towers.
Honorary firefighter Mike Bellone claims he was approached by unknown bureau agents a short time after he and his partner, Nicholas DeMasi, a retired New York firefighter, found three of the four "black boxes" among the WTC rubble before January 2002.
The pair first claimed in an August 2003 book entitled Behind the Scene: Ground Zero to have found the data recorders.
DeMasi said the "black boxes" were found while he traversed "ground zero" in his all-terrain vehicle (ATV) with three federal agents.
FBI and New York fire officials have denied ever finding the voice and data recorders.
Now Bellone claims agents were adamant about keeping the discovery a secret.
"They confronted me and told me to not to say anything," recalled Bellone, referring to one of three reddish-orange boxes with two white stripes he saw in the back of DeMasi's ATV. "I said, ‘Give me a good reason.' When they couldn't, I told them I wouldn't shut up about it.
"Why should I? I have nothing to hide and nothing to gain. It's the truth, and Nick and I are sticking to our story as we always have."
Bellone said he and DeMasi were not the only 9-11 rescue workers to see the "black boxes." He said there were several other witnesses and said he knows they have been silenced by federal agents.
"I know two or three others saw what went down, but they are not talking," said Bellone. "They got to those guys after they talked to me. The only reason I can figure they are trying to hide the truth is that the government knows it screwed up, and the recorders would prove it."
Asked to give names of the other witnesses, he said he wouldn't break a fellow worker's confidence by revealing his identity.
"I can tell you this, though, it was all very strange. I worked on the spaceship Columbia cleanup, and you know when something important is found and when something is not," he said.
The day the "black boxes" were secretly carted away, agents acted like "something big was going down," he added.
Bellone said he never learned the FBI agents' names as this type of personal contact and information wasn't exchanged between the civilian workers and government officials working side-by-side at ground zero.
"They had on their FBI jackets, but I'm sure I could pick them out of a lineup or recognize their pictures," said Bellone.
The pair's bombshell accusations blow a big hole in the official story as well as the findings in the recent 9-11 commission report."
In Chapter 1, footnote 76, there is the sole but definitive reference to the airline "black boxes": "The CVR's and the FDR's [voice and flight data recorders] from American 11 and United 175 were not found."
Asked if DeMasi and Bellone were questioned or subpoenaed, commission spokesman Al Felzenberg said: "I can't tell you now if he was one of the 1,200 people we interviewed or if the book was one of the countless ones we researched. We explored every lead, but I will try to find out if we talked with him and get back to you."
Bellone said commission members never contacted him or DeMasi and never asked the two to appear before the group even though the book was published well before the hearings commenced.
"I have been contacted by only one newspaper reporter, from The Philadelphia Daily News," said Bellone, referring to an October 2004 story by reporter William Bunch, who recapped DeMasi's statements as well as the usual official denials.
Those close to the 9-11 investigation said the recovery of the "black boxes" is important because they may hold vital clues about what really happened on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.
The cockpit voice recorder uses a pair of microphones to capture all cockpit sounds for the last 30 minutes of a doomed flight. The flight data recorder is also significant since it records altitude, heading and airspeed.
Both recorders are designed to withstand enormous impact and heat. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials said they should have withstood the conditions at the WTC.
And finding the boxes after a crash seems to be standard procedure, according to the NTSB.
"It's extremely rare that we don't get the recorders back,' said NTSB spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz. "I can't remember another case which we did not recover the recorders."
Bellone is retired and was made an honorary New York fireman
for his efforts after 9-11. DeMasi has recently retired from Engine
Co. 261, nicknamed the "Flaming Skulls."
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The next time you buy an IBM computer, it will not only be made in China but it will be a product of a Chinese company. Lenovo, that was created in 1984 by Chinese government scientists. The acquisition of the computer division of America's legendary corporate giant, IBM, will make Lenovo the third largest personal computer producer in the world.
Once known as "Big Blue," IBM got $1.7 billion in the deal, part of it as shares in Lenovo. By taking over IBM's sales and distribution divisions, China will have access to distribution channels in 165 countries.
According to IBM, American workers in their computer division will be employed by the new company. However, since 40 percent of IBM's computer division was already staffed by Chinese workers, the likelihood is that as Lenovo grows into a global PC company it will train its own workforce in China and have little need for American expertise.
The Lenovo deal represents the largest overseas acquisition
by a Chinese company and, as AFP has continued to warn, may be
just a sing of things to come as the Bush administration makes
no effort to curb China's unchecked efforts to take over U.S.
markets.
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China, rapidly becoming a major world power, is undertaking a crash program to develop high-technology weapons, according to newly released Pentagon reports.
"China is pursuing research and development programs to introduce so-called ‘new concept' weapon systems into the inventories of the People's Liberation Army (PLA)," said one Pentagon report. The weapons include systems in the categories of kinetic energy, lasers and radio-frequency fields.
China has a significant research effort in the development of kinetic energy weapons with muzzle velocities in excess of two kilometers a second, based on new technologies such as electrothermal chemical guns and rail guns.
"Kinetic energy weapon' is a term used in connection with ballistic missile defense to mean a projectile-type weapon such as hypervelocity rail guns or a chemically propelled space-based interceptor, or a weapon using streams of high-speed particles of heavy metals. Electrothermal chemical guns use electricity to boost the release of energy from propellants such as compressed gas in order to fire a projectile. Rail guns utilize magnetic energy - called "Lorentz Force" - to propel an object at high velocity up two parallel electricity-conducting rails.
"Chinese scientific publications describe an electrothermal chemical gun, likely for naval and air defense, as being in the late stages of development," a Pentagon report reveals.
China is also pursuing a robust program for laser weapons. The Chinese have openly stated that their scientists have "laid a firm technical foundation" in laser technology and are capable of developing laser weapons. China is reportedly focusing its laser weapon development on antipersonnel, counter-precision guided munitions for air defense and anti-satellite roles.
China's research into laser weapon technologies already has resulted in the development and fielding of several systems. In 1995, China North Industries Corporation, a military trading company, introduced the ZM-87 laser weapon at defense exhibitions in Manila and Abu Dhabi.
A maritime version of the ZM-87 laser is believed intended for the purposes of blinding foreign navy personnel.
Chinese writings indicate a continuing effort to develop additional laser systems. A second system was unveiled at the 50th anniversary of the PLA in 1999, when the chinese displayed what was probably a laser-based anti-tank ground missile countermeasure on its late model Type 90-11 tanks.
Military experts contend that it would be impossible for a conventional army to defend itself against laser weapons which could incapacitate whole divisions by blinding troops as the laser weapon targets incoming forces.
The Chinese have been rapidly developing a force of high-tech tanks and other armored vehicles, armed with guns similar to those on U.S. heavy tanks. The designs were sold to them by Israel, which obtained the technology from the United States.
Additional Chinese ground combat systems include laser pointers, laser range finders and laser target designators. These devices are routinely marketed today at defense exhibitions.
China can be expected to continue to develop military weapon and non-weapon laser systems.
"Using a combination of indigenous capabilities and foreign assistance, China could emerge as a leading producer and exporter of military lasers by 2020," the Pentagon warned.
China has also placed a priority on the development of radio-frequency (RF) weapons. Although the PLA likely does not have an RF system at this time, it is developing the high-power technologies that could form the basis for some types of RF weapons.
China may attempt development of air defense RF systems intended to defeat missiles or aircraft by targeting electronics in their guidance, altimeter, fire control, communications, navigation and other critical subsystems.
RF systems refer to weapons that use intense pulses of radio frequency energy to destroy electronics in a target.
"China may consider RF weapons with an anti-satellite (ASAT) capability. An ASAT mission is undoubtedly one of the most stressing RF applications, Pentagon officials said.
For a ground-based system beaming RF energy into space, high-powered microwave sources and large transmitting antennas will need to be built but are not beyond the scope of Chinese ability.
"In addition to indigenous research," a Pentagon report says, ‘China is working closely with foreign scientists and is seeking foreign technology associated with high-power RF generation. Chinese scientists have published efforts to develop explosively driven RF weapons technology that potentially could be used in missile warheads or aircraft bombs, and they are studying the effects of RF pulses on electronics and the propagation of RF energy through the atmosphere."
The Pentagon report does not point out that the Chinese stole high-tech information, probably including RF technology, from spies they were able to plant in America's foremost national laboratories, such as Brookhaven and Lawrence Livermore, particularly during the administration of President Bill Clinton. At the time, the Chinese were given open access which allowed them to swipe U.S. technology through lax security. There were also gifts of U.S. secrets given to the Chinese by the Clinton White House, which was linked to the Chinese through Clinton campaign coffers being enhanced by Chinese military sources.
"China may consider working with Russia to support research
and development of high-powered microwave systems, referred to
as Rancis-E, which would target the electronics onboard precision
guided missiles," the Pentagon said.
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It is no accident that two days after the federal "hate crimes" bill was defeated in Congress on Oct 8, "thought police in Philadelphia arrested 11 evangelical Christians from the organization Repent America for witnessing peacefully at a homosexual pride parade. They were charged with hate crimes" - three felonies and five misdemeanors - aand jailed for 21 hours. The preliminary hearing is Dec. 14,.
The message to Christians and conservatives from "speech crime" forces is clear: Don't think that just because you won temporarily on the federal level, you can escape indictment as hate criminals. State "Anti-hate" laws, defining bias against homosexuality as "hate," are just as harsh as the federal bill. If you criticize homosexuality publicly, expect jail time.
The Anti Defamation League of B'nai B'rith (ADL) has persuaded 48 of the 50 states to adopt its model anti-hate law. This legislation creates a new category of crime, the hate crime of "intimidation."
Intimidation occurs when a member of a protected minority, such as a homosexual, is the victim of any illegal action motivated by bias. In order to prove intimidation, then, the state must establish that bias motivated the crime.
According to the traditional justice system, it is enough to simply ascertain that a crime was committed and who committed it. Our jury system adequately takes into consideration questions of motivation and severity of punishment.
Yet ADL-sponsored state anti-hate laws want more. Because the ADL teaches that bias against certain groups is bad, it is crucially important to hate crime enforcers that any accusation of bias as the motivation behind a crime be looked into deeply.
Yet the term "bias" is ambiguous. What is bias? Is bias bad? Is bias really hate? Is the Defendant realy biased? Did he act out of biased motives, or just rage? All these are problematic questions, best answered by a psychologist, or even God.
Unfortunately, the ambiguity of the term "bias" as a criterion for guilt creates distinct characteristics in the way hate laws are enforced.
We are seeing his form of indictment clearly acted out in the arrest of the Philadelphia 11.
FIND EVIDENCE LATER
In traditional law, when it is thought that a crime has been committed, it is necessary to determine if sufficient evidence exist to warrant arrest. However under anti-intimidation law, since bias is so difficult to determine, guilt for bias crime often requires a full court inquiry, summoning expert testimony.
Therefor, in countries such as Sweden, Canada and Germany, the hate crime justice system tends first to arrest, leaving evidence of intimidation to be determined in court.
This es exactly what happened in Philadelphia on Oct.10.
In years past, the group Repent America had peacefully protested at the OutFest festival, an event sponsored by the homosexual community in Philadelphia for which it receives $22,5000 from the city, said Michael Marcavage, director of Repent America.
An attorney for OutFest had tried to seek an injunction preventing the group from protesting, but that was considered unconstitutional.
Marcavage said that police originally told them that the festival was a public event.
However, the group of Christian protesters was arrested when Chief James Tiano, who was the liaison between the police department and the homosexual community, ordered the group to relocate to the outskirts of the event. When they objected the group was arrested and charged with criminal conspiracy, possession of instruments of crime, reckless endangerment of another person, ethnic intimidation, failure to disperse, disorderly conduct and obstructing highways.
For the 11 defendants, however, the anti-hate nightmare could be just beginning. That nightmare is largely financial. In Canada, popular columnist Doug Collins was fined $3,000 for questioning whether the 6 million figure of the Holocaust might be somewhat less. He spent $200,000 in court costs and appeals before his death.
Defense of the Philadelphia 11 could be even more expensive. Thus, the necessary probing into bias motivation, plus an antagonistic court system, always makes hate crimes trials and appeals much more time-consuming and expensive than conventional ones. In addition, intense media bias against those indicted for "hate crimes" creates a scenario which has proven utterly exhausting for those ensnared in the thought crimes tribunal system.
MAKING LAWBREAKERS
After reading this, you might be exclaiming, "Thank heaven I do not live under anti-hate laws as capricious and ensnaring as Canada's or Pennsylvania's." The truth is that you probably do. If you do not live in Wyoming, Florida, or Georgia (which recently had its hate law ruled unconstitutional), than your state has an ADL-inspired anti-hate law which is probably just as stiff and cruel as Pennsylvania's - one that is just waiting to descend on you if you should "intimidate" anyone from a protected group.
If you are a pastor, talk-show host or publisher, for example, and you hurt the feelings of a homosexual, beware. The hate crime bureaucracy in your state cold well descend on you, burying you in false accusations and court costs.
It happened to 11 Christians in Pennsylvania. It can happen to you.
For more on the threat of hate crimes legislation, visit Rev.
Ted Pike at www.truthtellers.org
The "Philadelphia Eleven" story is found at www.repentamerica.com. For more on the Philadelphia
11, visit the web site, repentamerica.com or call 1-800-3-REPENT.
Rev Pike is a Christian activist who has created several excellent
films and spoken at AFP and TBR conferences.
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TITUSVILLE, Florida—While the mainstream media has focused on a sensational murder trial in California and the political crisis that followed the flawed elections in Ukraine, it has ignored a huge domestic story about the computer programmer who has come forward and explained how he had written computer code to steal elections in Florida.
An affidavit signed by the programmer, Clinton Curtis, in Prince
George's County, Md., on Dec. 6, 2004, names the individuals involved
in a computer vote fraud scheme that he worked with in "the
early fall of 2000" as "lead programmer" for a
company called Yang Enterprises, Inc. (YEI), based in Oviedo,
Fla.
The 4-page Curtis document contains 15 points that he swears are both true and correct.
"I declare under penalty of perjury," Curtis signed on the affidavit, "that the above is true and correct."
By the fall of 2000 Curtis had worked as a programmer for two years with YEI, a listed "small, minority, woman-owned business" that does extensive business with NASA and Florida. The CEO of YEI is a Chinese immigrant named Mrs. Li Woan Yang.
| Above, Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida may have seen technology experts manipulate the 2000 presidential election, according to an affidavit filed by an electronic voting computer software programmer. |
On its web site, YEI says it has 250 employees working at its Oviedo headquarters, the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Patrick Air Force Base and Tallahassee, Fla. According to published company documents, the contact person for YEI is Mike Cohen, Yang's "executive secretary." Cohen, named by Curtis as being one of the three key persons at YEI involved in creating the program in 2000, has not answered telephone calls. |
Beside Cohen, two other employees
of YEI met with Curtis "in late September or October of 2000"
to determine if he could write a program to steal votes on computer
voting systems. They were Mrs. Yang and Tom Feeney, "corporate
counsel and lobbyist" for Yang Enterprises. At the time,
Feeney, a Republican, was also a member of the Florida legislature.
A month later, Feeney became speaker of Florida's House. Feeney was instrumental in the controversial 2002 reapportionment and redistricting in Florida that became known as "the speaker's fix." Feeney had been Jeb Bush's running mate in Bush's 1994 attempt to win the Florida governor's mansion.
As a result of population growth, in 2002, Florida obtained two more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, and one of them, the 24th district, went to Tom Feeney of Oviedo.
Curtis served as "technology adviser" to Feeney at YEI. After consulting Curtis, "Feeney would advise YEI on how best to procure the contracts for these projects."
Regarding a fall meeting in 2000 when Feeney asked about developing a program to steal votes, Curtis wrote:
Mr. Feeney said that he wanted to know if YEI could develop a prototype of a voting program that could alter the vote tabulation in an election and be undetectable. He was very specific in the design and specification required for this program.
He detailed in his own words, that: "(a) the program needed to be touch-screen capable, (b) the user should be able to trigger the program without any additional equipment, (c) the programming to accomplish this remain hidden even if the source code was inspected."
After further discussion, Mrs. Yang told Mr. Feeney that we would attempt to build a prototype for this program so he [Feeney] could see it, test it, and show it to others.
Curtis said he believed that Feeney was interested in creating this program "to be able to detect and prevent" vote fraud—not to commit it.
As directed by his employer and Feeney, Curtis created the vote fraud software prototype. He delivered the program "to Mr. Hai Lin Nee, the quality control person at YEI," according to his affidavit.
Curtis explained to Feeney and Yang how they could detect fraudulent source code so it could be prevented. Mrs. Yang responded, "You don't understand, in order to get the contract we have to hide the manipulation in the source code. This program is needed to control the vote in south Florida."
"I was shocked that they were actually trying to steal the election and told her that neither I nor anyone else could produce any such program," Curtis wrote. "She stated that she would hand in what I had produced to Feeney and left the room with the software."
Curtis said he attended subsequent meetings between Feeney and Yang prior to the 2000 election.
"It became clear to me," Curtis wrote, "that Mr. Feeney was well aware that by artificially reducing the margin of victory of the opposition party in areas where they were the strongest, the overall outcome would then favor his candidate."
According to Curtis, Feeney "bragged" that he had implemented "exclusion lists" to reduce the "black vote." Feeney also said, "proper placement of police patrols could further reduce the black vote by as much as 25 percent," he wrote. "Shortly thereafter, I resigned from YEI, and took another job at the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT)."
From computerized vote fraud, the Curtis affidavit goes on to describe "illegal activities of YEI" with the FDOT, "involving over-billing and defrauding of the state of Florida." Curtis reported the information to the FDOT inspector general's (IG) office and was eventually fired.
The IG, Raymond Lemme, pursued the allegations made by Curtis regarding YEI. Lemme and Curtis continued to meet after Curtis had been fired from the FDOT.
"In June of 2003, he [Lemme] told me that he had tracked the corruption ‘all the way to the top,' " Curtis wrote. On July 1, 2003, Lemme was found dead in a Valdosta, Ga., hotel room the victim of an apparent suicide. His arm had been slashed.
The Curtis affidavit also says that YEI has engaged in espionage through its work at the various NASA and Air Force facilities it contracts with. "I saw Mrs. Yang send a great deal of internal information to her brother in China," Curtis wrote, "who, she had informed me, had been deported for spying. . . .
"Hai Lin Nee was subsequently arrested by federal officials in Orlando, Fla., on or about March 17, 2004," according to the affidavit, "on charges that included sending radar guidance system chips for Hellfire antitank missiles to a company in communist China."
‘GOD BLESS AMERICA'
As a response to the Curtis affidavit, YEI posted the following statement on its web site: "Recently there have been several accusations against this corporation by Clinton Eugene Curtis. All of the allegations are 100 percent FALSE!! An official statement will be forthcoming. Thank you for your concern, and God bless America."
On Dec. 14, Michael A. O'Quinn, a lawyer representing YEI, issued a statement that the allegations found in the Curtis affidavit are "categorically untrue." The statement also says, "Mr. Nee has never been an employee of YEI."
Calls to O'Quinn went unanswered.
Feeney serves on the House Science Committee, which oversees the activities of NASA. Six days after Curtis signed his affidavit, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe handed in his resignation. O'Keefe said he is quitting NASA for a better paying job at Louisiana State University.
Numerous calls to NASA regarding the O'Keefe resignation and
the allegations found in the Curtis affidavit have so far gone
unanswered.
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A recent study by the Pentagon's Defense Science Task Force
on Strategic Communications 
concluded
that in the struggle for hearts and minds in Iraq, "American
efforts have not only failed, they may also have achieved the
opposite of what they intended." This Pentagon report flatly
states that our war in Iraq actually has elevated support for
radical Islamists. It goes on to conclude that our active intervention
in the Middle East as a whole has greatly diminished our reputation
in the region, and strengthened support for radical groups. This
is similar to what the CIA predicted in an October 2002 National
Intelligence estimate, before the invasion took place.
Then, earlier this month, we learned that the CIA station chief in Bagdad sent a cable back to the U.S. warning that the situation in Iraq is deteriorating, and not expected to improve any time soon. Other
| A Baghdad citizen screams "America get out" during a demonstration against U.S. policy in Iraq |
CIA experts also warn that the security situation in Iraq is likely to get even worse in the future. These reports are utterly ignored by the administration. These recent reports are not the product of some radical antiwar organization. They represent the U.S. government's own assessment of our "progress" in Iraq after two and a half years and the loss of thousands of lives. We are alienating the Islamic world in our oxymoronic quest to impose democracy in Iraq. |
The reality is that current-day Iraq contains three distinct groups of people who have been at odds with each other for generations. Pundits and politicians tell us that a civil war will erupt if the U.S. military departs. Yet our insistence that Iraq remain one indivisible nation actually creates the conditions for civil war. Instead of an artificial, forced, nationalist unity between the Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds, we should allow each group to seek self-government and choose voluntarily whether they wish to associate with a central government. We cannot impose democracy in Iraq any more than we can erase hundreds of years of Iraq history.
Even opponents of the war now argue that we must occupy Iraq indefinitely until a democratic government takes hold, no matter what the costs. No attempt is made either side to explain exactly why it is the duty of American soldiers to die for the benefit of Iraq or any other foreign country. No reason is given why American taxpayers must pay billions of dollars to build infrastructure in Iraq. We are expected to accept the interventionist approach without question, as though no other options exist. This blanket acceptance of foreign meddling and foreign and may be the current Republican policy but it is not a conservative policy by an means.
Non-interventionism was the foreign policy ideal of the Founding
Fathers, an ideal that is ignored by both political parties today.
Those who support political and military intervention in Iraq
and elsewhere should have the integrity to admit that their views
conflict with the principles of our nation's founding. It's easy
to repeat the tired cliché that "times have changed
since the Constitution was written" - in fact, that's an
argument the left has used for decades to justify an unconstitutional
welfare state. Yet if we accept this argument, what other principles
from the founding era should we discard? Should we reject federalism?
Habeas corpus? How about the Second Amendment? The principle of
limited government enshrined in the Constitution - limited government
in both domestic and foreign affairs - has not changed over time.
What has changed is our willingness to ignore that principle.
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As millions of Americans feast this holiday season on turkeys purchased from supermarkets, they have no idea what grisly foods their turkeys were gobbling up before they wound up as the main course for supper. But that is what organic farmers and some anti-animal cruelty groups are bringing to the table in a series of disclosures about the true nature of agribusiness in the United States today.
Turkeys at industrial farms are regularly fed a diet consisting of questionable substances including something called rendered protein meal, which essentially consists of the boiled-down bodies of dead pets, diseased livestock and "road kill."
Rendering is the ghastly practice of cooking euthanized pets, old and lame horses, dead livestock and road kill to produce meal and "yellow grease." These "products" are then sent to pet food manufacturers or commercial feed makers who sell them as a dietary supplement to poultry and live-stock farms across the country.
What happens to that dead deer, dog or cat on the side of the road? If the owner does not claim it, it usually winds up in one of the 350 rendering plants across the country. By all estimates, the bodies of millions of sick, cancer-riddled animals are sent to factories every year to be boiled down to feed livestock.
Ann Martin, author of the book Food Pets Die For, writes that Van Smith, a reporter for The Baltimore City Paper, a weekly news and entertainment newspaper, spent a day riding around in a truck from Valley Proteins in Marland. Martin said that Smith describes "how carcasses of zoo animals and ‘thousands of dead dogs, cats, racoons, possums, deer, foxes, snakes and the rest that local animal shelters and road kill patrols must dispose of each month are rendered. Pictures show barrels overflowing with dead dogs and cats waiting to be rendered."
Martin also cites a Jan. 5, 2000, article from Florida's Gainesville Sun in which reporter Paula Rausch documents how employees from the Alachua County Animal Shelter had to deliver euthanized animals to a rendering plant. Rausch reportedly wrote "that the employees had to ‘lift them off the truck and heave them into a pit, exposing themselves to foul odors, putrid substances underfoot and having to see the grinding going on.' These duties were taking their toll on the staff at the shelter."
Rendered animal protein is not allowed under organic standards, said John Cleary of the Northeast Organic Farming Association in Vermont.
"Really, these are a lot of things that consumers would be surprised bout when it comes to the food they eat," said Cleary. "There is always the potential for unforeseen consequences of raising animals in ways the nature did not intend. It gets to the point that consumers except cheap food and if you want cheap foods you have to cut some corners. And that's what this is all about.
Consumers who are unsatisfied with commercial meats, game and
produce are increasingly turning to organic farms to purchase
their food. Individuals who are disgusted by the prospect of eating
foods that have been raised on processed road kill should talk
to their local health food store or family farm to find out how
they can purchase free range or organic foods.
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In addition to the obvious failings in the intelligence reform legislation, which was overwhelmingly approved by Congress, more threats to civil liberties have been uncovered. Under the new law, the FBI can obtain secret surveillance warrants against "lone wold" suspects not known to have connections to a specific terrorist group. Put directly, you and your neighbor could be put under secret surveillance.
Sen. Richard Feingold (D-Wis.) Said he voted for the legislation because of its intelligence reforms, but opposed much of the expansion of law enforcement powers. Much of it was not part of the 9-11 commission recommendations.
"I am troubled by some provisions that were added in conference that have nothing to do with reforming our intelligence network," Feingold told The Washington Post. This Justice department has a record of abusing detention powers post 9-11 and of making terrorism allegations that turn out to have no merit."
The law enforcement measures are "most troubling in terms of the trends they represent." said Charlie Mitchell, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. "They keep pushing and pushing without any attempt to review what they've done."
Under the new law, a legal presumption would be established denying bail for anyone indicted by a grand jury on terrorism charges. The suspect could appeal to a judge, but he would bear the burden of proving that his release would be prudent and there is no flight risk. This stipulation has long been in place for suspects in many violent and drug crimes, but not for terrorism.
Meanwhile, an outraged public has pressured the president and congressional leaders to pledge early action next January on two elements of the bill that had been purged: prohibiting drivers licenses to illegal aliens and banning the use of consular cards as official identification. Both had been recommended by the 9-11 commission, which noted that the 19 hijackers had 63 drivers licenses among them, permitting travel anywhere at will.
Feelings were so strong that members of 9-11 Families for a Secure America urged that Congress scrap the whole measure and start again in January rather than approve a bill with the immigration provisions deleted. The 300 members lost loved ones in the attacks.
"You allowed the murder of my son; I will not allow you to kill my daughters," said Joan Molinaro, mother of a New York fireman who died Sept. 11, as she held up his picture and then one of her daughters. "No bill should pass the House, the Senate, anywhere, unless it contains immigration reform - you secure our borders, you keep my girls alive.
A newly released study also noted the vulnerability of the southern border, where "over 20,000 other-than-Mexican people from ‘countries of interest' (Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan) are detained each year for illegally crossing the border."
But the report by the Heritage Foundation and the Center for Strategic and International Studies also called for Congress to "extensively overhaul the Department of Homeland Security [DHS] before it becomes an entrenched bureaucracy resistance to reform.
"It's time to rethink the structure and operation of the department," said John Hamre, president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in releasing the report in Washington on Dec. 13.
"Bureaucracies have a way of becoming hardened," he said. "If we do not fix DHS now, we risk permanently embedding pre-9-11 thinking into the decision-making structures of our nation's homeland security."
DHS management should be streamlined, the report said. In part that would mean creating a deputy security for policy with the powers and responsibilities similar to a corporate chief operating officer. It's also important, the report said, to establish a unified policy planning staff to prepare for critical situations.
The roles and missions should be made clear, the report said.
That will mean merging several organizations, including customs
and border Protection plus Immigration Customs Enforcement, it
said. The transportation Security Agency (TSA) should be pared
back into solely an agency that protects travelers. That would
mean, for example, taking away TSA's current involvement with
border security. Finally, DHS agencies should report directly
to the deputy secretary.
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