Round up...

Defense CEOs see pay double since 9/11, study says --AP

Positive Press on Iraq Is Aim of U.S. Contract --Washington Post

VIDEO: Olberman tells it like it is --MSNBC via Crooks & Liars

Round up...

9/11 Truth: Peter Lance vs. National Geographic --Peter Lance

Will the End of Oil be the End of Food? --AlterNet

"Secret Hold" Senator Identity Revealed: Ted Stevens --CNN via Crooks & Liars

Round up...

US accused of bid to oust Chávez with secret funds --The Guardian (The Revolution Will Not Be Televised may now be viewed online)

Is drug smuggler working for CIA? --Chicago Sun-Times

Bush Appointee Used Taxpayer Resources For His Personal Horse Racing Operation --Think Progress

Has the Bush doctrine failed? --Christian Science Monitor

Is this Bush's secret bunker? (Mount Weather) --The Guardian

Round up...

Hurricane Expert Threatened For Pre-Katrina Warnings --Baltimore Chronicle (Greg Palast)

Brown says White House wanted him to lie --UPI

One Year Later: The Real State of New Orleans --Think Progress

AUDIO: Interview with Energy Bulletin co-editor Bart Anderson --KZYX Radio via Global Public Media

Senator Who Put "Secret Hold" on Bill to Open Federal Records Is a Secret, Too --Cox News Service

The Cheney presidency --Boston Globe (Op-ed)

Cheney Chooses Chief Propagator of False Iraq-9/11 Link to be Official Biographer --Think Progress

Prudential to Pay $600 Million in Fund Case --NY Times

VIDEO: Corrupt politicians, lobbyists try to escape voters' wrath --PBS via Raw Story

Round up...

The Man Who Said Too Much --Newsweek

Federal prosecutors suppressed evidence of 1993 World Trade Center bombers --Wayne Madsen Report

US housing slump fuels crash fears --The Guardian

Numbers show a second-rate US --Christian Science Monitor

Experts warn U.S. is coming apart at the seams --Newshouse News Service

Army Corps worries about Big Easy levees --AP

FEMA Trailers Exploding

Long-Awaited FEMA Trailer Explodes --AP, 8/26/06

Fire leaves family homeless --Times Picayune, 8/12/06

Hurricane Rita Evacuee dies in FEMA trailer fire --AP, 8/3/06

"...The victim had previously gone to the news media with concerns about the trailer's safety. ... In May, she spoke to Lake Charles television station K-P-L-C about exposure to formaldehyde in the two-bedroom mobile home. She said the exposure was causing headaches, a sore throat and sinus problems. According to the report, Schools said FEMA suggested that she open her windows to alleviate the problem."

Second FEMA Trailer Fire this Week Claims Life of St. Bernard Man in Slidell --St. Tammany, 8/3/06

Fire destroyed FEMA trailer --The Daily Star, 7/19/06

Trailer fire injures Harvey woman --Times Picayune, 7/17/06

Couple Burned in FEMA Trailer Explosion --AP, 4/16/06

Wheelchair User Perishes In FEMA Trailer --Inclusion Daily Express, 4/4/06

- -- --- ----- -------- ----- --- -- - -- --- ----- -------- ----- --- -- -

Are FEMA trailers 'toxic tin cans'? --MSNBC, 7/25/06

...Air quality tests of 44 FEMA trailers conducted by the Sierra Club since April have found formaldehyde concentrations as high as 0.34 parts per million – a level nearly equal to what a professional embalmer would be exposed to on the job, according to one study of the chemical’s workplace effects.

And all but four of the trailers have tested higher than the 0.1 parts per million that the EPA considers to be an “elevated level” capable of causing watery eyes, burning in the eyes and throat, nausea, and respiratory distress in some people.

...Dr. Scott Needle, a pediatrician in Bay St. Louis, said he noticed some unusual and persistent health problems among his patients living in the trailers well before the possible link to formaldehyde exposure surfaced.

“I was seeing kids coming in with respiratory complaints – colds and sinus infections – and they were getting them over and over again,” he said. “…Almost invariably, these families were staying in the FEMA trailers."

...Despite the Sierra Club tests – and air quality testing by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in November that detected formaldehyde levels at FEMA trailer holding stations on the Gulf Coast as high as 5.0 parts per million, or 50 times the EPA’s “elevated” level – FEMA says the trailers are safe and there is no need for it to conduct its own air-quality testing.

FEMA U-turn on trailer tests --MSNBC, 8/3/06

Responding to reports that formaldehyde may be sickening hurricane victims living in government-provided travel trailers along the Gulf Coast, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has reversed course and ordered air quality tests to determine if some of the units are emitting unacceptably high levels of the toxic gas. ...The testing came under order of Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff after he was alerted to an MSNBC.com article published on July 23...

...Secretary Michael Chertoff has been “very engaged in the issue” a Department of Homeland Security official told NBC's Pete Williams. The official said that in response to the MSNBC.com story, the secretary directed his staff to look at the matter thoroughly and to “turn it inside out to determine if there was any validity to the claims.”

...FEMA spokesman Aaron Walker said the agency has requested the tests for formaldehyde “out of an abundance of caution” and added that agency officials remain “highly confident and comfortable in the travel trailer program.”

He said the agency has received only 46 complaints of suspected formaldehyde contamination in the more than 113,000 travel trailers deployed in the Gulf Coast since it began logging calls on a special hot line in March.

But another FEMA official (Mike Andrews, FEMA’s director of mobile home operations in Mississippi) said earlier this week that the agency already has determined that there is a problem with elevated formaldehyde levels in “two or three brands” of the at least 10 brands of travel trailers provided to the government under emergency contracts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

...An official with the Sierra Club, which has spearheaded efforts to get FEMA to test the trailers for formaldehyde, said Andrews’ remarks indicated “that FEMA has now acknowledged there is a problem.”

“But what about the people who don’t know why they have been so sick, why they and their kids get sick again and again?” said Becky Gillette, co-chair of the environmental organization’s Mississippi chapter. “FEMA needs to do far more. It needs to do comprehensive testing and should make sure that people are notified of the problem.”

Formaldehyde high in FEMA trailers --The Sun Herald, 8/25/06

Testing of FEMA travel trailers provided as temporary housing to those left homeless by Katrina continues to show illness-inducing levels of the chemical formaldehyde, the environmental group Sierra Club said Thursday.

The group has now tested 52 trailers in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana, with 83 percent registering formaldehyde above 0.1 parts per million, a level the Environmental Protection Agency considers elevated.

...Kathleen Covington has been living in a FEMA trailer in Coden, Ala., since October. She tried to contact the local poison control center and health department after her 5-year-old started having asthma attacks in the night. She sent her 8-year-old away for three weeks after the child started getting nose bleeds. When the child left the trailer, she said, the nose bleeds stopped.

Covington has also been suffering with headaches and said she has lost 27 pounds in a month and a half.

"My kids just want to know when they are going to get better," Covington said.

Godish said the family's symptoms are a classic sign of formaldehyde exposure.

"The average person has no reason to know why they are having these illnesses," Godish said. "They just go to the doctor and have it treated."

FEMA To Test Methods To Reduce Formaldehyde In Travel Trailers --FEMA Press Release, 8/8/06

...Meanwhile, FEMA will soon begin distribution of a brochure to trailer occupants across the Gulf Coast explaining how those persons sensitive to formaldehyde may be affected by its presence and preliminary actions they can take to reduce their exposure in the trailers. The advice includes taking steps to:

• Increase ventilation. Open the windows and door of the trailer and use fans to force stale air out and bring fresh air in.
• Keep indoor temperatures cool. Heat does cause formaldehyde to increase the rate at which it releases fumes, so, after the trailer is well ventilated, keep temperatures cooler with air conditioning.
• Lower the humidity. Like heat, humidity causes formaldehyde to release fumes, so keep the relative humidity at about 40 to 50 percent in the trailer.
• Do not smoke inside. Tobacco smoking releases formaldehyde and other toxic chemicals.

ALERT TO FEMA: During the summer in the Gulf Coast the temperature regularly reaches the triple digits! "Just control the weather and you'll be fine," seems to be their basic message.

Couple Discovers High-Levels of Formaldehyde in FEMA Trailer --ABC (WLOX), 3/17/06

...After waiting for several months, Paul and Melondy Stewart were overjoyed to finally receive a FEMA trailer in December. But almost immediately that joy left them.

"When we first moved in here we had significant symtoms which continued til today. We had burning eyes, burning nose, nasal headaches, that type of thing," Paul Stewart said.

...The couple has tried everything to get rid of the fumes: opening windows and doors, even purchasing an industrial air purifier. But nothing seems to work.

Round up...

DOE predicts gasoline shortages --The New Mexican

The CIA-Contra-Crack Connections, 10 Years Later --LA Times (Op-ed)

EPA scientist says agency hid dangers at ground zero from first responders, others --Raw Story

9/11-responders' health woes reach beyond NYC --AP

Whispers of Mergers Set Off Suspicious Trading --NY Times

U.S. May Curb Iran --LA Times

Weary Iraqis Face New Foe: Rising Prices --NY Times

Wolf Blitzer gets Howard Sterned --CNN video via YouTube


CNN does not check their sources!

Round up...

Poll: 85% of Iraqis strongly oppose occupation, 76% say US invaded for oil --Abu Aardvark

Military to investigate cover-up of Pat Tillman's death (VIDEO) --BBC via Raw Story

Whistleblowers Say State Farm Cheated Katrina Victims --ABC (The Blotter)

Round up...

Russia spins global energy spiders' web --The Asia Times

"A circle defining international energy security is now being drawn. The artist is Russia, which is steadily pulling into this circle all the resource-rich corporate states around the globe. These countries have a profound political affinity for one another and a simultaneous collective disdain, and even a hatred, for US-led unipolar dominance. The multinational oil companies of the West are being marginalized as a direct result."

Recession will be nasty and deep, economist says --Market Watch

Fannie Mae Avoids Criminal Prosecution --AP

Opium hits record in Afghanistan (again) --AP

Britain flooded by cheap heroin from Afghanistan --The Belfast Telegraph

'News round up' re-start...

5.5 DC9 COKE BUST FALLOUT: WORSE THAN SNAKES ON A PLANE --Daniel Hopsicker

To Mix The Impossible Bomb: Suspects Charged, Arraigned In Alleged Bombing Plot --Brad Blog

Army intell. analyst under investigation for suggesting 9/11 was inside job --The Lone Star Iconoclast

Forty-one-year-old Sergeant First Class Donald Buswell, who served over 19 years in the United States Army and received a Purple Heart after being injured in Iraq, has now been labeled "disloyal" by the Army for suggesting 9/11 was an inside job. In response to an unsolicited e-mail, Bushwell wrote the following:

"I say Occums razor is the best way to deduce this ‘day of infamy’; if you weigh all options, do some simple studying you will see 911 was clearly not executed by some arabs in caves with cell phones and 3 day old newspapers! I mean how are Arabs benefiting from pulling off 911? They have more war, more death and dismal conditions, so, how did 911 benefit them? Answer: It didn’t. So, who benefited from 9-11? The answer is sad, but simple; The Military Industial [sic] Complex.

It’s not a paranoid conspiracy to think there are conspiracies out there...and, it’s not Liberal Lunacy either, nor is it Conservative Kookiness! People, fellow citizens we’ve been had! We must demand a new independent investigation into 911 and look at all options of that day, and all plausabilities [sic], even the most incredulous theories must be examined."

As the Iconoclast reports:

"Upon returning to his office the next day, Buswell discovered the locks had been changed, his security clearance was revoked, and an investigation had been launched. Buswell’s commanding officer, Colonel Luke Green, drafted a letter assigning Major Edwin Escobar to the investigation. According to sources, Colonel Green has asserted that SFC Buswell failed to obey Army regulations when he used his government issued email account to send what have been termed as messages disloyal to the United States with the intent of stirring up disloyalty, in a manner that brings discredit upon the United States Army."

Poll: Opposition to Iraq war at all-time high --CNN

Marines Who Served Will Be Ordered Back --LA Times

Is the Next Step a Draft? --ABC News (The Blotter)

"An Iraq War veterans group says the call-up of thousands of Marines from the Individual Ready Reserve, announced by the Pentagon today, is 'one of the last steps before resorting to a draft.'"

US made an offer Iran can only refuse --Inter Press Service

Iran Sanctions Could Fracture Coalition --NY Times

Corn Shortage Predicted By 2008

"'We're putting the supermarket in competition with the corner filling station for the output of the farm,' said Lester Brown, an agriculture expert in Washington and president of the Earth Policy Institute. Farms cannot feed all the world's people and its motor vehicles as well, he said, and the result is that more people will go hungry." --NYT, 1/17/06



From the Earth Times, August 12, 2006:

WASHINGTON - Analysts in United States have cautioned that unless corn planting is expanded drastically, the country could be facing corn shortage by as early as 2008.

...Mark McMinimy, analyst at Stanford Washington Research, said, "There's definitely need for more corn. Especially with the ethanol industry growing bigger and hungrier each year".

...As per the current consumption rates, analysts predict that stockpiles would go down by nearly 40 percent to 1.23 billion bushels by next fall. With the oil price increasing every week, motorists in US have been turning to ethanol, which is produced from renewable resources such as corn, sugar and soybeans. US ethanol consumes as much as 2.15 billion bushels of corn, which is about 18 percent of the total crop produced.

----

From "Ethanol could leave the world hungry," Fortune Magazine, August 16, 2006:

...It could leave much of the world hungry.

We are facing an epic competition between the 800 million motorists who want to protect their mobility and the two billion poorest people in the world who simply want to survive. In effect, supermarkets and service stations are now competing for the same resources.

This year cars, not people, will claim most of the increase in world grain consumption. The problem is simple: It takes a whole lot of agricultural produce to create a modest amount of automotive fuel.

The grain required to fill a 25-gallon SUV gas tank with ethanol, for instance, could feed one person for a year. If today's entire U.S. grain harvest were converted into fuel for cars, it would still satisfy less than one-sixth of U.S. demand.

...biofuel production is now being driven largely by the runaway price of oil. Many food commodities, including corn, wheat, rice, soybeans, and sugar cane, can be converted into fuel; thus the food and energy economies are beginning to merge.

...In some U.S. Cornbelt states, ethanol distilleries are taking over the corn supply. In Iowa, 25 ethanol plants are operating, four are under construction, and another 26 are planned.

Iowa State University economist Bob Wisner observes that if all those plants are built, distilleries would use the entire Iowa corn harvest. In South Dakota, ethanol distilleries are already claiming over half that state's crop. ...

----

"...the only way to effectively reduce oil-dependency is to reduce overall energy-dependency. Alone, supply-side solutions only offer more problems. Growing grain to feed cars and trucks instead of growing food to feed people is just one example."

----

Coming to a "Super Center" near you...

Letter to the Editor (Times Union)

(See "Local library packed for 9/11 truth" and "Web movie takes flight" for background.)

9/11 deserves scrutiny
Times Union, August 12, 2006

I commend the Times Union for covering the recent local screening of the documentary, "Loose Change," which addresses many of the unanswered questions regarding the 9/11 attacks. I only hope that the paper will now pay attention to the family members, whistle-blowers, independent journalists and concerned citizens who have been voicing similar concerns for nearly five years.

Unanswered questions and outright lies by the government have gone virtually unaddressed by the mainstream media, fueling speculation and giving rise to various conspiracy theories.

Why should the public be forced to rely on amateur filmmakers for answers?

For example, prior to 9/11, high-level government officials protected a wealthy Saudi by the name of Yassin al-Qadi from the FBI. Al-Qadi has been identified as one of Osama bin Laden's chief money launderers, and according to FBI agent Robert Wright, his arrest could have prevented 9/11.

But al-Qadi is not your average suspect. In addition to being a primary financier of al-Qaida, he also happened to own a company with millions of dollars worth of U.S. government contracts. At one time, he also escorted U.S. officials, such as Dick Cheney, around on their official visits to Saudi Arabia.

But you won't read about that in most newspapers. You also won't see it mentioned in "Loose Change."

This is exactly why media outlets like the Times Union should conduct their own independent investigation of the facts and circumstances surrounding the attacks. Otherwise authentic evidence will continue to disappear while "junk" research floods the front pages.

Jersey Girls, Coop Research releasing documentary

From Paul Thompson of Cooperative Research...

Dear CCR Subscribers,

I'm proud to announce that the Complete 9/11 Timeline will be given extensive coverage in a new documentary to be released early next month. The film, 9/11: Press for Truth, chronicles the lobbying efforts of five members of the 9/11 Family Steering Committee (also known as the "Jersey Girls") to establish an independent commission to investigate the attacks. In November 2002, an official 9/11 Commission was formed. But it was underfunded, powerless, and rife with conflicts of interest. Its final report has been widely criticized for its omissions and distortions of the evidence.

9/11: Press For Truth, in presenting the families’ story, stitches together rare, overlooked news clips, buried stories, and government press conferences, revealing a pattern of official lies, deception, and spin. The film highlights the Jersey Girls' discovery of my 9/11 timeline and how they used the facts presented in it to eventually publicly repudiate the 9/11 Commission's work.

There are a number of recent films on the 9/11, however, as some have noted, this film has a real potential to bring the story to the mainstream. Just days ago, a nationwide poll showed that over one-third of Americans believe it is "very likely" or "somewhat likely" that U.S. government officials either participated in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon or took no action to stop them "because they wanted the United States to go to war in the Middle East." Many more have doubts about the official story.

While there are a number of films that "preach to the converted" that the official story is incorrect, 9/11: Press For Truth has the potential to reach out to a larger audience. There is an incredible amount of ignorance about 9/11, with half of the US population still believing that Saddam Hussein had a role in the attacks and one-third not even able to name what year 9/11 took place in. This new film presents the most important facts without pushing any particular theories about what happened, so it's an ideal way to inform a friend or family member without much risk of scaring them off.

Our 9/11 investigative project needs your help promoting this film and supporting additional research. I hope we can work together to bring this new film and the important 9/11 facts it contains to the large audience that needs to see it.

What you can do:

• Volunteer to distribute flyers and posters of the film. We have the flyers and posters printed, packed, and ready to ship. If you are interested, send us an email telling us where you live and how much time you can devote during the last week of August and first week of September to this task. If you have very little time, but would still like to post a few posters around your town, please download the poster from here.
• Host a local screening of the film on September 11 or the weekend before. Go here for details.
• Purchase the DVD from Cooperative Research. We aren’t expecting to meet our fundraising goals from DVD sales alone, but every little bit helps. Support Cooperative Research by buying a copy of the DVD from our store. Go here to pre-order the DVD now.
  

Articles about the recent poll showing growing skepticism about what happened on 9/11 also note that many have only begun to have suspicions recently. Important questions are being raised as the issue goes mainstream, but ironically, at the same time, Cooperative Research and my investigation of 9/11 are having more trouble than ever before. I have a mountain of topics to investigate to further uncover the truth about 9/11, but I just don't have the funds to do it. It is also important that Cooperative Research is able to put its website on autopilot (see Fundraiser Alert) in September when we expect a huge surge in traffic.

Cooperative Research has fallen far short of its fundraising goals this year. Though it's been able to keep the website going, numerous critical tasks have not been done and it has been unable to fund new research. As a result, my own work on 9/11 came to a near halt in March after the fundraiser failed to raise the needed funds. I wish I could work on this full time, but unfortunately I can't survive on air. We're ready for another major research push to coincide with the 5th anniversary of 9/11, but we need your help. But in order to do this we need your financial support. Since the spring fundraiser we have only raised $7,541 of the $30,400 we called for in our budget. At a minimum, we need $10,000 to fund 9/11 research for the next 4-5 months. If we raise enough funds, we will be able to add new entries to the database on a daily basis during this critical period.

This is a pivotal and exciting time. I sincerely hope you'll see the new film, tell your friends about it, and host house parties to show it. And of course, please support our website with tax-deductible donations and volunteer work. No one doubts that 9/11 has had a profound effect on the last five years and continues to do so. If you want to have an impact on politics one of the most important things you can do is help educate yourself and others about what really happened on 9/11. Let's seize the opportunity this new film and the fifth anniversary of 9/11 presents us!

Sincerely,
Paul Thompson

Links:
9/11: Press for Truth web site and trailer: http://www.911pressfortruth.com/
Place Pre-Order for DVD: http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/911_press_for_truth.html
Volunteer for Flyer Distribution: http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/contact.jsp
Download and Print Posters: http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/misc/911_press_for_truth_poster.pdf
Host a local screening: http://pressfortruth.bravenewtheaters.com/

Lockheed Martin major participant in 9/11 Global Guardian exercise

The American Monitor (TAM) is currently looking into many unreported details of the exercises that were underway during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. While the research process has been slow, tedious, and expensive, TAM has uncovered some very interesting information.

Additional work still needs to be completed, but in the meantime I thought I would share the following tidbit from a Lockheed Martin brochure currently available on the company’s website.

The ever-changing missions of the Joint Warfighter require staffs that are capable of performing their warfighting duties efficiently and effectively. Policies and procedures used by the warfighter need to be used, validated, and updated. Effective exercise planning and execution requires experienced and dedicated personnel that are experts in their functional area as well as experts in the Joint Exercise process. Intelligence scenarios need to be well thought out and thoroughly documented; event scripting must be sequential and believable; event injects must be orchestrated and achieve desired outcomes; and exercise after-action reported should be accurate, well documented, with aggressive follow-up action.

LMIT (Lockheed Martin Information Technology) Joint Exercise Planners and Analysts have supported the USSTRATCOM (and earlier SAC) Joint Exercise program for nearly 15 years. Our people are known throughout the DOD for their experience and outstanding deliverables, products, and results. The principal elements of our assistance are in the areas of exercise planning, documentation, event sequencing, role-playing, administration and observation, and after action analysis. Global Guardian and Global Archer are two of the primary exercises we support. In addition, out analysts provide similar support for STRATCOM's participation in regional command exercises. ... LMIT has extensive experienced in assisting personnel in attaining high levels of IT proficiency. We offer course in all of the operating systems. For example, at USSTRATCOM, we offer course in the Nuclear Planning and Execution System (NPES) and in the Command's LAN operations.

The role played by private defense contractors in military war games should not be overlooked. As illustrated above, companies like Lockheed Martin play a major role in large-scale nuclear and post-nuclear exercises, including the Global Guardian exercise that was in "full swing" during both attacks on the World Trade Center.

According to the brochure, "event scripting must be sequential and believable" and "event injects must be orchestrated and achieve desired outcomes."

Event "injects" or "inputs" are imaginary scenarios/threats that are "injected" into exercises in order to test the military's responses.

"I think this is a damn input," one NORAD official noted after the second attack on the World Trade Center. He thought, like everybody at NEADS originally did, that the attacks were all part of Vigilant Guardian--an exercise that was being conducted in conjunction with Global Guardian.

A simulated hijack scenario was scheduled to be "injected" at about the same time as the real attacks, causing significant confusion.

The 9/11 Commission gave a different story.