Thursday 31st July 2008: -

• 7 Years After 9/11, First Responders Still Lack Medical Treatment - Medical and health and safety experts today urged Congress to approve new legislation to establish a permanent monitoring, research and health care program for the responders and people who lived and worked near Ground Zero who were exposed to the same mix of pulverized glass and concrete, asbestos, lead and burning jet fuel. Peg Seminario, AFL-CIO health and safety director, told the House Subcommittee on Health: The exposures were made much worse by EPA’s [Environmental Protection Agency’s] pronouncements that the environment was safe and OSHA’s [Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s] failure to enforce workplace safety and health requirements during the entire 10-month period of rescue, recovery and clean-up operations at the WTC [World Trade Center] site. As many as 100,000 responders—firefighters, paramedics, rescue and recovery workers—were exposed to the stew of chemicals and other toxic substances in the rubble of the World Trade Center following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

• Confirmed: Jesse Ventura To Appear At Anti-war/Truth Concert - Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura has confirmed he will be appearing at the upcoming anti-war/ 9/11 truth concert along with Country Music Legend Willie Nelson. More on this when the details are finalized…

• Student charged after 9/11 stickers left on plane - A former Worcester man faces charges after he allegedly placed a sticker claiming Sept. 11 was an "inside job" in an airplane bathroom, then ran off the plane at Logan International Airport. Twenty-6-year-old Jason Robo was arraigned Thursday on charges of disorderly conduct and interfering with aircraft operation. A flight attendant on the Delta flight to Salt Lake City on Wednesday found homemade stickers that read "9/11 was an Inside Job! PrisonPlanet.com" on a bathroom sink and on the tray table for Robo's seat. The plane was evacuated, and takeoff was delayed for three hours.

• Coca-Cola Amatil trials cashless vending machines - Coca-Cola Amatil Australia is to pilot new cashless vending technology in partnership with Vending Management Services Limited (VMSL). The trial of the new Cashless Payment System and Cashless Reconciliation Engine (CRE) for Coke Vending will allow credit card and scheme-based debit card payments at vending machines. Gary Meier, General Manager of Coke Vending, says the initiative is in response to Australian consumer research. “In Australia, cards already account for more than half of all immediate purchase transactions. We are bringing vending machines in line with how consumers like to buy,” he said. “People will still be able to use coins and notes in the vending machines if they wish, or take advantage of the new technology and purchase using a credit card or scheme-based debit cards. This initiative is about making the vending experience even easier and more convenient for busy consumers.”

• Radovan Karadzic tells UN court the US tried to assasinate him - Radovan Karadzic has used his first appearance before an international war crimes court to accuse the United States of trying to assassinate him and to joke that he was taking legal advice from an unseen presence. Appearing tired and gaunt, the former Bosnian Serb leader, now known to his jailers as prisoner number 38, wore a dark suit and tie during a one hour and ten minute hearing where he was charged by the United Nations with 11 counts of war crimes including genocide. Initially calm and grave, Karadzic's composure appeared to crack after Alphons Orie, the Dutch judge presiding over the court, refused to allow him to read out a four-page document protesting at his arrest.

• MPs call for YouTube '18' certificate: Committee also wants TV-style 9pm watershed - Internet sites that rely on user-generated video content should adopt watershed viewing hours and a cinema-style age rating system to protect children from porn and violence. An influential committee of MPs also recommended that sites such as YouTube should do more to screen unsuitable content before publication to protect youngsters from the internet's "dark side". The report, carried out by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, said that curbs and closer vetting are required to avoid websites unwittingly publishing pornography, child abuse and other illegal content.

Wednesday 30th July 2008: -

• BBC given record fine over faked phone-in winners - The BBC was handed its largest fine yesterday after Ofcom, the media regulator, found the broadcaster guilty of a litany of offences involving phone-in competitions. The corporation was ordered to pay a total of £400,000 for breaches of the broadcasting code involving four television programmes, including Comic Relief, and four radio shows, which the regulator said had involved staff “faking winners of competitions and deliberately conducting competitions unfairly”. The ruling takes the total fines levied by regulatory bodies on broadcasters to nearly £11.5 million in the past year, after a spate of incidents involving the abuse of premium-rate phone-in competitions.

• Where's the debate on the DNA database?: It contains the profiles of a million innocent people and lacks basic safeguards – but it has no legislative foundation - A government-funded inquiry is calling for the DNA profile of people, who have not actually been convicted of a crime, to be removed from the national DNA database. Britain has the largest DNA database in the world. There are over 4.2 million people on it. But a million of those people have never been convicted of anything. And 50,000 of them are children. Millions of these profiles are given to private companies without the consent of individuals. Yet the DNA database has mushroomed with no basis in legislation. And members of parliament have never been given the opportunity to vote on it.

• British hacker who broke into Pentagon may finally be sent to US - A British hacker who admitted hacking into Pentagon and NASA computers searching for evidence of extraterrestrial life has lost his latest extradition appeal. After fighting the case for more than six years in UK courts, the British House of Lords officially dismissed his appeal. Gary McKinnon, 42, admitted to illegally accessing around 100 U.S. military and government computers while living in his north London flat from Feb 2001 to March 2002. While roaming around the systems, he was caught after downloading an image that he thought could have been an alien spacecraft. He reportedly crashed a computer network of 2,000 U.S. Army computers for one day, and also shut down 300 computers located at a U.S. Navy weapons facility.

RELATED VIDEO: Gary McKinnon on the Richard and Judy show - 21/07/2006

• £100-a-month fuel bill to become a reality as British Gas increases prices: British Gas increases prices by up to 44% - The £100-a-month fuel bill is to become a reality for millions more families after record energy price rises were announced yesterday. The increases of up to 44 per cent for ten million British Gas customers were branded “indecent” last night as MPs stepped up the pressure for a windfall tax on energy companies. The biggest rises will hit families in London, the Midlands and southern England as the company, which is expected to announce multimillion-pound profits today, introduces a new regional pricing structure. Gas bills rise by an average of 35 per cent and electricity by 9 per cent, pushing the annual energy bill for a British Gas dual-fuel customer up £263 to £1,314, a rise of 25 per cent.

• SORRY FOR THE LACK OF UPDATES THESE PAST FEW DAYS - WE HAVE BEEN HAVING TECHNICAL PROBLEMS.

Sunday 27th July 2008: -

• WeAreChange Robbed of 3 Cameras and Important Footage - On July 26, 2008 around 4am Eastern Time WeAreCHANGE members Sabrina Rivera and myself Luke Rudkowski noticed our cars front widow was knocked out. The only missing property inside the car was three WeAreCHANGE cameras with important video footage. It is important to note that I myself was receiving harassing phone calls for the past 24 hours prior to the robbery. The Robbery took place right after a public WeAreCHANGE meeting which Sabrina and myself attended. The following cameras have been taken. The cameras were located on the bottom floor of the back seat in a camera bag covered by a towel no way visible from outside. The windows in the car were tinted and no one from the outside was able to see anything resembling a camera or camera bag. THOUGH THEY MANAGED TO LEAVE A $4,000 MACBOOK PRO LAPTOP AND $300 GPS SYSTEM

(COMMENTARY: Something similar also happened to our WeAreChange - UK guys very recently.  Almost as if the footage was the target... scratch that... EXACTLY like the footage was the target.  And all other equipment is left behind.  Another 'coincidence' happened to us, not once but twice when WTC survivor William Rodriguez came to our hometown of Skipton as part of a 9/11 Truth tour.  Our computer system has never had a hack that caused so much damage that required us to wipe the drives... except for the two days (one in November 2006 and again in February 2007) that Rodriguez came to visit us.  And we have been running this same system since for almost five years... never a problem before or since.  What a coincidence!.  Not really. Come on now you New World Order minions, we know you have declared war on us, but we want an even playing field here!)

• Missouri Police taser injured boy 19 times - KY 3 News’ Sara Sheffield reports on an injured teen from Ozark, Missouri who was tasered up to 19 times by police. Passing motorists called Ozark police out of concern for the teen as he walked along the busy overpass. When the police arrived, the young man was lying on the shoulder of the highway directly underneath the 30 foot high overpass with a broken back and foot. Doctors believe 16-year-old Mace Hutchinson broke his back and heel after falling, as his injuries are consistent with such a fall. The boy’s family does not understand why police would have tasered the the teen 19 times after he was so seriously injured.

• All air passengers to give their fingerprints ... but is the reason security or simply to raise profits for the duty-free shops? - Millions of passengers flying from British airports will be fingerprinted from next year under the latest controversial Government anti-terror plans. The measures, which will apply to both domestic and international passengers, are being introduced despite opposition from the Information Commissioner, Britain’s privacy watchdog. The Commissioner forced Heathrow to abandon a similar plan earlier this year after warning that it was potentially illegal under data protection laws. Critics say the main reason for the scheme is that airport operators want to maximise profits by ensuring all passengers are able to spend money in ‘duty-free’ shops.

• MOVIE FANS TO GET BOMB FRISK - Cinema-GOERS may be searched on the way into shows in a new crackdown on suicide bombers. Theatres, restaurants and hotels will also be covered in an anti-terror blueprint to be published by Security Minister Lord West later this year. Diners, hotel guests and theatre-goers could all have to undergo searches. And designers of public buildings will need to get security advice from "police architectural liaison officers" on how to make buildings bomb-proof. "We are developing guidance to explain the Government's approach to protection," said Lord West.

(COMMENTARY: Incidentally I went to the Cineworld cinema in Bradford yesterday to see 'The Dark Knight' (a bloody good film by the way!) and it seems they are doing bag-searches there too - in order to stop people from taking a camera in and recording the film.  I guess if I had a bag and they searched it yesterday they might have found the drinks bottle that I smuggled in from outside (to avoid paying their own extortionate prices!)... and hey, video piracy funds terrorism apparently!)

• Spy council's videos at tip - A council blasted for "spying" on parents over school admissions has now given cameras to staff at its refuse tip. Workers have been equipped with caps and vests with videos mounted on them to record aggressive behaviour by people dumping waste. Poole Council in Dorset said themove was meant to protect staff after a series of abusive incidents. The council sparked uproar by using anti-terror powers for pupil catchment checks. The TaxPayers' Alliance said: "They should have learned their lesson."

• Batman's Take on 9/11 Era Politics? Drop the Fearmongering: "The Dark Knight" warns against what happens when a society abandons its principles out of fear - "One of the "biggest" ideas of the year, according to James Fallows writing in the Atlantic Magazine, is the End of 9/11 as a metanarrative for American politics. For a growing domestic and international constituency, it is no longer tolerable for the very invocation of those events to warrant overriding every principle of American democracy. That moment of thoughtless panic has passed, and appears now to have been a dream of madness. Casting aside principles in the name of the "war on terror" -- to "work ... the dark side, if you will", as Dick Cheney put it -- is now being recognized as the path to becoming the very evil we feared." One of the most potent confirmations of this maturing zeitgeist is the overwhelmingly positive critical and public reception of Christopher Nolan's stunning new Batman film The Dark Knight, which, in its careful use of 9/11 visual tropes takes the viewer on a sometimes traumatic but ultimately redemptive and humanistic journey towards a truly post-9/11 ethic.

• Did anyone read Joker his Miranda rights? - If you're one of the 22 million or so people who saw "The Dark Knight" this weekend, you probably noticed that the movie had some Serious Themes alongside the bombs, slick stunts, and brilliant performances. (And if you haven't read seen it yet, don't read on, and consider this your spoiler alert.) Sure, "Iron Man" had brown guys being blown up to a hard rock soundtrack, and American arms killing Americans. And at least the editorial board thought "The Hulk" could be considered an allegory for the war on drugs. But Christopher Nolan's latest addition to the Batman canon is the most explicit and thought-provoking with its post-9/11-ness, starting with bursting skyscrapers in its first few minutes and at various points taking up torture (I think the sound of ringing steel is still in my head from Batman's slamming Joker's head onto a table), surveillance (complete with heavy-handed speechifying on privacy by Lucius Fox) and even directly calling the Joker a terrorist a handful of times.

Saturday 26th July 2008: -

• CCTV Cameras installed in UK cinemas: CCTV Cameras have been installed to watch over their audiences by Britain's largest cinema chain - The cameras, which cost £30,000 each, have been installed at several Odeon cinemas across the country, allowing the audience in each screen to be monitored by staff in the foyer. They have been installed at nine cinemas in major cities, including Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester and London, and the company plans to install them in all newly built cinemas. Human rights groups and cinema-goers have expressed their concerns at the introduction of cameras to yet another area of life, with some declaring them an invasion into the audience's privacy.

• London tube hit by second Oyster card failure in weeks - Thousands of commuters got a free ride yesterday as the Oyster card system failed on the London Underground for the second time this month. Problems with the pay-as-you-go system meant that barriers had to be kept open throughout the busiest period in the morning at a cost of tens of thousands of pounds in lost fares to Transport for London (TfL). The problem with the system - which allows passengers to touch a card on to an electronic reader when entering and leaving stations - occurred at around 5.30am. A similar glitch two weeks ago resulted in the corruption of 40,000 cards, which had to be replaced. TfL said no such corruption had occurred yesterday. TfL blamed the fault on contractors Transys. "We believe that this problem, like the recent issue, resulted from incorrect data being sent out by our contractor, Transys," it said.

• SS Dispatched to Intimidate GCN, MN We Are Change - On the Alex Jones Show today, Ted Anderson of GCN and Anthony Jasa of Minnesota We Are Change provided details on a campaign of harassment and intimidation by the Secret Service against Jasa and GCN. The Secret Service accused Jasa of forging press credentials, although Anderson told the Secret Service he approved Jasa’s GCN credentials. Jasa told Alex Jones the SS attempted to intimidate his fiancée and enter his residence in order to search his computers. According to Jasa and Anderson, SS agents asked if Jasa believes in 9/11 conspiracy theories, as if this is some sort of criminal behavior.

• Media hails Obama’s Speech As Call For “New World Order” - The media hailed Obama’s Berlin speech in front of hundreds of thousands yesterday as a call for a vision of America as part of a “new world order”. Excerpts from The International Herald Tribune: “I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before,” Obama said, confronting the delicate issue of campaigning abroad. “Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen — a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world.”

• Navy Prosecutor In Gitmo Case: "If they hadn't shot down the fourth plane it would've hit the dome": "Bin Laden driver" case contains revealing details - Though the trial the man, dubbed "Osama bin Laden's driver", is primarily functioning as a show piece for the Bush administration's "war on terror", some interesting information emerged from the Guantanamo Bay naval base yesterday in the form of a direct admission from a US prosecutor that the fourth plane was "shot down". The revelation came during assertions from representatives for the prosecution that Salim Hamdan had detailed knowledge of the intended target of the fourth hijacked plane on 9/11.

Wednesday 23rd July 2008: -

• Another 9/11 Apologist Exposed: Thanks to 9/11 Blogger and AJFan, I just listened to one of the most amazing pieces of abject fabrication I have heard on any radio station; and that includes Bill O’s show - “Professor Muller (at about 7:30) is led by Boston Public Radio host Tom Ashbrook to the subject of what future presidents should know about the physics of terrorism; specifically, how did those buildings come down?” Professor Muller is currently with the University of California, Berkley and also a member of the JASON Defense Advisory Group which brings together top scientists as consultants for the United States Department of Defense. So he shouldn’t be too biased, eh? He writes a monthly column for MIT’s magazine and by all accounts, he is a very smart man (you can tell by how he holds his glasses there). So, let’s see what he says in the interview about the physics of 9/11, shall we?

• Soldier Dies In Afghanistan - A soldier has been killed in Afghanistan, while two others were injured in the bomb attack. A spokesman for the MoD has revealed that he was a member of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME), on attachment to the Parachute Regiment. The injuries of the other two soldiers are not thought to be life threatening. The soldier's death, on Tuesday night, takes the number of British military casualties in the country to 111. An MoD statement said: "Whilst returning fire one soldier from 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment was injured by a mine. "While leaving the scene after suppressing the enemy, a vehicle other soldiers were travelling in hit a suspected improvised explosive device."

• Cleric Hamza loses bid to stop extradition to U.S - Radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri lost a legal bid on Wednesday to block his extradition from Britain to the United States where he is accused of trying to set up an al Qaeda camp and faces other terrorism charges. Hamza, who is serving a seven-year jail term for inciting his followers to murder non-believers, is accused by U.S. prosecutors of attempting to set up a terrorist training camp in Bly, Oregon, from 1999 to early 2000. The Egyptian-born cleric, who applauded the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, also faces charges that he was involved in plotting the capture of 16 Western hostages in Yemen in 1998. Four of the hostages, three Britons and an Australian, were killed when Yemeni troops stormed the militants' hide-out.

• Dawn Page receives £800k payout for brain injury caused by high-fluid diet: A mother of two has won more than £800,000 at the High Court after she claimed that a radical detox diet left her brain-damaged and epileptic - A mother of two has won more than £800,000 at the High Court after she claimed that a radical detox diet left her brain-damaged and epileptic. Dawn Page, 52, said that she was told to drink four extra pints of water a day and reduce her salt intake to prevent fluid retention and reduce weight. Within days of going on “The Amazing Hydration Diet” she began vomiting and, less than a week after starting the diet, suffered a massive epileptic fit. She was taken to intensive care but doctors were unable to prevent permanent brain injury. Mrs Page now suffers from epilepsy and a “cognitive deficit” that affects her memory, concentration and her ability to speak normally. She was forced to quit her job as a conference organiser, suffers from frequent mood swings and relies on her husband, Geoff, for help around the house.

Tuesday 22nd July 2008: -

• Another major man-made climate change advocate recants - The campaign to force people to accept that “the debate is over” and that man-made CO2 emissions are driving climate change is in deep trouble, with another top global warming advocate - rocket scientist and carbon accounting expert Dr. Richard Evans - completely reversing his position. Evans was a consultant to the Australian Greenhouse Office from 1999 to 2005 and he wrote the carbon accounting model (FullCAM) that measures Australia’s compliance with the Kyoto Protocol.

• Warming Swindle film swindled of justice - Ofcom, Britain’s media regulator, seems to have been too quick to damn the Great Global Warming Swindle, and too quick to exonerate one of Britian’s leading warming hysterics: In the closing moments of the program a voiceover from the climate change sceptic Fred Singer claimed that the Chief Scientist of the UK had said that by the end of the century the only habitable place on the planet would be in the Antarctic and that “humanity may survive thanks to some breeding couples who moved to the Antarctic”. Sir David has never made such a statement. It is thought that Mr Singer confused the comments with those made by the scientist James Lovelock, who infuriated many colleagues in the science community when he publicly questioned global warming.

• 9/11 billboard used to sell Republican song: US citizens outraged at Mike Meehan's Republican Song adverts - especially as the song sucks - Residents of Orlando, Florida were outraged and baffled last week by billboards showing the burning twin towers alongside the message "Please Don't Vote For A Democrat". As a nationwide kerfuffle ensued, local Republicans hastily distanced themselves from the billboards. But it turned out that the posters' message — while heartfelt — is actually the title of a song, available for download (for $5) from a website also mentioned on the billboard.

• 9/11 Search Dog From Utah Dying Of Cancer - Kenji is one of four Utah search dogs who were called to work at ground zero. A 9/11 hero is fighting cancer that may be the result of his work at ground zero. He is the last of four Utah dogs, who went to New York and searched for survivors in smoking debris after the terrorist attacks. Fields Moseley has his story. At eleven years old, Kenji still likes to go for a walk through Dimple Dell Park. Despite having rebuilt knees and some gray fur, he still has plenty of energy for a game of hide-and-seek. Finding people is what Kenji was trained to do. It is what his owner and partner Dave Perks says he's always been good at it. “We’ve been proud of Kenji. He's been a really fine search dog. Learns quick and doesn't forget,” said Perks. That's why this well-trained lab was one of four dogs who got the call when terror struck. “We belong to Utah Task Force One,” Perks said. When the World Trade Center towers were brought down by terrorists in 2001, this elite group searched the debris for survivors.

• Cashless society coming soon ala Starbucks - I went to Starbucks this morning to get a coffee. Nothing unusual in that. However, as I was waiting in line I went to get my money clip and realized I had left it at home. OK, no problem. I reached into my wallet and pulled out my trusty debit card - then a thought ocurred to me that went something like this: "I am ordering a $3.50 item at a drive thru and I am going to pay with a debit/credit card. That just doesn't seem right to me." The feeling was so strong, I was tempted to order something else I absolutely didn't want just to pump up the bill a little. At least that way I wouldn't feel as creeped out about using plastic to buy $3.50 worth of coffee.

• Bluetooth is watching: secret study gives Bath a flavour of Big Brother: Covert monitoring system raises privacy issues / Signals can be used to track mobile phone users - Tens of thousands of Britons are being covertly tracked without their consent in a technology experiment which has installed scanners at secret locations in offices, campuses, streets and pubs to pinpoint people's whereabouts. The scanners, the first 10 of which were installed in Bath three years ago, are capturing Bluetooth radio signals transmitted from devices such as mobile phones, laptops and digital cameras, and using the data to follow unwitting targets without their permission. The data is being used in a project called Cityware to study how people move around cities. But pedestrians are not being told that the devices they carry around in their pockets and handbags could be providing a permanent record of their journeys, which is then stored on a central database.

• How Many Chinese Have Been ‘Suicided’? - “Being suicided” is a new term growing popular on the Internet in China today. It generally refers to deaths that are announced by Chinese authorities to be suicides, but where foul play is suspected. Often when authorities attribute a death to suicide, people believe the real killer will never be punished, considering the corrupt legal and policing systems in China. The term’s first usage may been in the internet discussion of the death of Li Guohua, a man from Anhui Province who reported the corruption of local officials to higher authorities.

• Epilepsy drug link to birth defects found - Pregnant women who take an epilepsy drug that is also prescribed for migraines may increase the risk of their children having birth defects, doctors warned yesterday. Babies born to women who took topiramate during pregnancy were more likely to have cleft palates, cleft lips and genital abnormalities, a study found. The findings build on previous research, which found that other anti-convulsant drugs are also linked to an increase in birth defects. Typically, 2-3% of babies are born with abnormalities, but among women taking epilepsy drugs, the figure is 4-8%. Birth defects were more common when women were receiving high doses of more than one drug.

Monday 21st July 2008: -

• 2008 Bohemian Grove Guest List Obtained By 9/11 Truth Activists: Guests included George H. W. Bush, David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger - An official guest list for Bohemian Grove's 2008 midsummer encampment along with a map of the Grove's facilities has been obtained by a San Francisco based action group who held protests and information drives outside the entrance to the elite summer retreat. The list reveals that amongst the hundreds of corporate representatives, government officials and banking elites, guests also included former president George H.W. Bush, David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, as well as several former directors of the CIA, including James Woolsey.

• More than a movement -- the search for 9/11 truth is an awakening - A year ago, I announced in this forum the launching of my survey for a book that would compile personal accounts of ordinary people active in the 9/11 truth movement. Since then, I’ve been gathering dozens of revealing, often moving stories from inside and outside the U.S., and I’ve begun to put a shape to Voices for 9/11 Truth. Along the way, I’ve come to believe that what we call the 9/11 truth movement is not really a movement per se. It’s something else, something potentially more important, more meaningful, and maybe even more impactful. First, the obvious: we’re not exactly a homogenous group. Yes, there is a shared commitment to prompt a thorough and impartial 9/11 investigation and unravel the sinister mess behind the crime and cover-up, but we’re not linked by bloodlines, gender, age, economic status, or any other common entity. We’re no clearly defined, pre-established group seeking a platform to gain rights or power -- and anyway, we’d be hard pressed to put together a thousand members for a rally, let alone hundreds of thousands. In fact, what I’ve been most struck by in fielding these personal accounts and interacting with the gutsy people behind them is the wide diversity of those who believe that 9/11 was orchestrated from within our government.

• Actress Heather Thomas Latest Celebrity to Question 9/11 - American actress Heather Thomas, known for her role as Jody Banks in the 1981 television series The Fall Guy with Lee Majors, has told Retroality TV that she does not believe flight 77 hit the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. “They said it vaporized, and yet they produced bodies saying that they didn’t vaporize. You can vaporize a two-ton engine? I don’t think so…. No plane does damage like that. It was a bomb.” Heather Thomas: “A lot of people say they closed the Twin Towers for weekends on end (directly before 9/11) and wouldn’t let the security people in there (because they were setting it up for demolition)." Thomas, who played Marilyn Monroe in Hoover vs. the Kennedys, also voiced doubts about the official version of events at the WTC. “And a lot of people say they closed the Twin Towers for weekends on end (directly before 9/11) and wouldn’t let the security people in there (because they were setting it up for demolition).”

• 9/11 relative fights NYC co-op board over flag - A relative of a 9/11 victim is fighting his Brooklyn co-op board, which wants to remove an American flag from his door. Vincent Romano, who's a lawyer, says he put the flag outside his door after his wife's cousin died at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. He says the co-op board has ordered him to remove the flag by Tuesday. Romano says residents were told to keep items off their doors to avoid damaging new paint. But he says the paint job is not relevant in his case because the flag is held up by magnets.

• Nicolas Sarkozy faces anti-EU protests in Ireland - President Nicolas Sarkozy's motorcade took a detour through Dublin's streets to avoid noisy and colourful protests from Irish farmers, fishermen, the far Left and a frog. The French President, who is the current holder of the European Union's rotating presidency, also took evasive action when challenged over his comments, made last week, that Ireland should hold a second referendum. "I never said that Ireland had to organise a new referendum. I said that at some stage, or another, the Irish had to give their opinion," he insisted. "I never said there had to be a referendum. I didn't say on what question there would be a vote. I did not in any way meddle in Irish domestic politics. We do not want to impose anything."

• Jacqui Smith warned by first group to be given ID cards that they will not improve security - The first group of workers to be have compulsory ID cards forced on them have warned Jacqui Smith that the measure will not improve security. Union staff representing airport workers will this week meet the Home Secretary as a matter of "urgency" to discuss their concerns. When ministers announced the plans to phase in compulsory ID cards, airport workers were chosen as the first people to have to carry them.

Saturday 19th July 2008: -

• Metal scans to combat knife crime - POLICE chiefs in South Yorkshire are to use airport-style metal detectors in areas where they suspect people to be carrying guns and knives. Officers have already taken delivery of a number of new scanners. They will be used to support specific police intelligence - if police receive a tip-off about violence at a certain nightclub, for example. The new tool in the war against gun and knife crime was unveiled on the day Home Office figures revealed knife crime across the county went up by 20 per cent last year. The figures show that, of a total of over 145,000 crimes reported to police last year, 381 were classed as "knife crimes".

COMMENTARY: Whatever country this takes place, see how this is just the tip of a massive iceberg (just like everything else we see in the mainstream news!) and read the book 'The Franklin Cover up' by former US Republican Nebraska State Senator John W. Decamp.  Also check out the documentary Conspiracy of Silence which was made by Yorkshire Television in the early 1990's and was suppressed for many years by the American political establishment, now available on Google Video.

• Epilepsy Study Incriminates Aspartame in Medications: by Dr. GLEN MABSON, Phd. Epileptic Foundation of Maui dba Pacific Epilepsy Society - The most profound reason for the spectacular increase in seizures is the inclusion of the drug ASPARTAME in with the new larger sized anti-seizure drugs: DILANTIN, DEPACOAT, TEGRATOL and several others produced by major pharmaceutical corporations. In 2007 the manufacture of Dilantin changed the description of the 100 mg. Dilantin changed the 100 mg white capsule with red stripe to a much larger white capsule, orange on one end, which contains 100 mg of the drug, plus aspartame. 150 people who took the new Dilantin capsule found the seizure rate increased in every case. The Chemical Pharmaceutical Engineer employee, in fear of his job would not reveal his name, but said they were adding aspartame.

• Ministry of Defence admit losing 700 laptops in just four years - DEFENCE chiefs yesterday admitted losing more than 700 laptops in four years - double the figure previously claimed. The MoD said 658 of their computers had been stolen and 89 lost - along with 131 memory sticks. A total of 26 memory sticks containing classified information have either been stolen or misplaced since January alone. The Lib Dems condemned the latest security breaches, which came despite a drive to tighten procedures, as "shocking incompetence". But the MoD insisted their policies were "generally fit for purpose" and said all data losses were fully investigated. The embarrassing new details were disclosed in response to questions tabled in Parliament. Lib Dem MP Sarah Teather said: "It seems that this Government simply cannot be trusted with keeping sensitive information safe."

Friday 18th July 2008: -

COMMENTARY: Two words spring to mind... 'Keystone Cops'.  Seriously though, these guys are here to 'protect' us and want absolute power over us to keep us safe and want/need to have access to all of our private data in order to do so.  Concerned?  Well if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear... right?

• Hospital laptop stolen - A LAPTOP containing personal details of patients has been stolen from Falkirk and District Royal Infirmary. The computer, kept in a locked cupboard which was password protected, includes the names and addresses of 89 audiology patients. The equipment was taken during a break-in at the hospital's audiology unit. NHS Forth Valley says it is working closely with Central Scotland Police but the laptop has still to be recovered.

• 'No decision' on giant database - No decision has been taken to create a huge database containing details of all phone calls, e-mails and internet use, security minister Lord West says. The Information Commissioner has warned that such a database could be a "step too far for the British way of life". Asked in the House of Lords about that warning, Lord West said: "It is very early days as to where we go on this." But the switch from traditional phones meant the "entirely new" communication methods had to be assessed, he said.

• Data watchdog given power to raid: The Information Commissioner's Office is to be given the power to raid government departments to prevent data breaches - Data protection watchdog the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is to be given the ability to raid government departments it suspects of wrongdoing or negligence. Prime minister Gordon Brown today announced that the ICO would be given the power to conduct “spot checks”, in a bid to prevent data breaches on the scale of that suffered by HM Revenues & Customs in November 2007. While the powers do not yet permit the ICO to raid business premises, information commissioner Richard Thomas said “alarm bells must ring in every boardroom”. “For some time, I have been pressing the government to give my Office the power to audit and inspect organisations that process people’s personal information without first having to get their consent,” he said. Thomas also called for large-scale data breaches to be made a criminal, rather than civil, offence – a move that would drastically increase the penalties for such a breach.

• Facebook Bug Leaks Birthday Data - Last week, birthday details of over 80 million FaceBook users were inadvertently exposed due to a bug in the test version of the web site. Sophos Senior Technology Consultant Graham Cluely discovered the bug while he was checking the new Facebook design. He noted that birth dates of some of his very reclusive and privacy-obsessed acquaintances were popping up when actually they should have been hidden.

• Spying uncovered: Documents show state police monitored peace and anti-death penalty groups - Undercover Maryland State Police officers repeatedly spied on peace activists and anti-death penalty groups in recent years and entered the names of some in a law-enforcement database of people thought to be terrorists or drug traffickers, newly released documents show. The files, made public yesterday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, depict a pattern of infiltration of the activists' organizations in 2005 and 2006. The activists contend that the authorities were trying to determine whether they posed a security threat to the United States. But none of the 43 pages of summaries and computer logs - some with agents' names and whole paragraphs blacked out - mention criminal or even potentially criminal acts, the legal standard for initiating such surveillance. State police officials said they did not curtail the protesters' freedoms.

• UK: Youth football ID card blow - YOUNG footballers will have to arm themselves with ID cards next season - to prove their age and eligibility to play. The new ruling kicks off on September 1 and means that youngsters wanting to play in Devon County Football Association affiliated matches must buy - and carry - an ID card costing £4.50. The ruling - which applies to all age groups and is being operated in other counties - says that youngsters from the age of eight must have a card which has to be available to the opposition coach or match referee in the event of someone questioning a player's age.

• INDIA: Voters without ID card will not be allowed to cast votes - The electorates of Chhattisgarh may not be able to cast their votes without any Photo Identity Card (PIC) in the Assembly polls likely to be held in November. "It will be difficult for any one to vote in the coming Assembly election without any Photo Identity Card," Election Commission (EC) sources told reporters here. After officially starting its election process for formation of the next government in Chhattisgarh on or before December 6, 2008, the EC has also issued several instructions to the state, the sources said. Among the instructions of the Commission are ban in transfer of all officials, including the district collectors, who are engaged in election related works in the state, sources said.

• Fears raised over ‘Big Brother vault’ - A database of everyone's phone calls, texts, e-mails and internet browsing could be a step too far, the government's own privacy watchdog has warned. Richard Thomas said the government's plans to force telecoms and web companies to hand over details was an unreasonable invasion of privacy. Ministers say the proposal is vital for the fight against terrorism and serious crime. 'Sometimes, the best-intentioned plans bring the most insidious threats – where freedoms are not appreciated until it is too late to turn the clock back,' said information commissioner Mr Thomas.

• Taser uses and abuses - Taser use by police has come under legitimate scrutiny in Canada in the past year after several high-profile deaths and reports of excessive use. But amid the controversy, there is a bright spot and it comes from the Ottawa police force. Ottawa police, the first municipal force in Ontario to have Tasers, have largely used them with restraint, according to use-of-force reports dating back eight years. There are still questions to be answered about Taser use across the country, but Ottawa's record suggests that, when used carefully, they may live up to their billing as a useful law enforcement tool that is an alternative to deadly force.

• Caught On Camera: Teen Dies After Shot With Taser Gun: Officer Suspended For 5 Days - A teenager died after being hit with a police Taser gun for 37 seconds, and the whole thing was caught on tape by surveillance cameras. Authorities said that Darryl Turner had been in a confrontation with a supervisor at work at a North Carolina grocery store. When Officer Jerry Dawson arrived, he fired his Taser gun at the 17-year-old and struck him in the sternum. "The initial use of the (Taser gun) is not in question," said Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Chief Ken Miller. However, for 37 seconds, Dawson continued to use the Taser gun against the teen. An autopsy revealed that Darryl Turner died of a heart attack, authorities said.

• Boulder police shoot naked man with Taser: Police say suspect was high on LSD - A man accused of taking LSD, stripping off his clothes and screaming in the middle of a busy intersection Wednesday night became combative when officers arrived and had to be shocked three times with a Taser, according to Boulder police. According to a police report, officers were dispatched to the area of 28th and Iris at about 10:34 p.m. on a report of a nude man who was standing in the middle of the street and screaming. When they arrived, they found Christopher Dornfield, whose age was not immediately available, rolling around on a nearby patch of grass, officers reported. When Dornfield refused to comply with officers’ orders to hold still, he was shot with a Taser, according to the report. He was shocked twice more after he tried to get back on his feet and advanced toward officers, according to police.

COMMENTARY: How is this right?  The use of a DEADLY weapon (and these buggers are indeed deadly) in order to force a suspect into co-operation.  This is not a defensive method.  This is pain compliance and a massive abuse on the public in the form of 'authorities doing what they must to protect us'.  Really, if you can't see this for what it is then you have lost the plot.

• Ashcroft Defends DOJ's Post-9/11 Policies: Former AG: Overruling Controversial Legal Guidance Was 'Not a Hard Decision' - Former Attorney General John Ashcroft told lawmakers Thursday that he fully embraced pushing forward an aggressive counterterrorism policy during his tenure, but that overturning some initial Justice Department legal guidance was necessary after later review. "The administration's overriding goal, which I fully embraced, was to do everything within its power and within the limits of the law — I repeat within the limits of the law — to keep this country safe from terrorist attack," he told the House Judiciary Committee. Ashcroft said that's why he initially approved now-controversial legal guidance on interrogation put forth by former DOJ Office of Legal Counsel official John Yoo in an August 2002 memo.

• Water boarding proved “very valuable” in Guantanamo - Former Attorney General John Ashcroft spoke at the fifth part of a hearing entitled “From the Department of Justice to Guantanamo Bay: Administration Lawyers and Administration Interrogation Rules.” Ashcroft defended the Department of Justice’s action in Guantanamo Bay, saying that they worked within the framework of the law and never supported torture. Ashcroft said that after 9/11, the Bush Administration’s overriding goal was to do everything within its power and within the limits of the law, to keep this country and the American people safe from terrorist attacks. He spoke about the Administration’s efforts to work within the law and follow Supreme Court rulings about torture and interrogations in Guantanamo, and that water boarding was never ruled as torture and has “proved very valuable.”

• WeAreChange confronts Christie Todd Whitman - On September 11, 2001 former NJ governor Christie Todd Whitman was the Environmental Protection Agency Director. The agency issued false statements and declared the air safe to breathe. Here is the former EPA Director’s response to critical questions nearly seven years later.

• Obama Calls For National Civilian Stasi - Presidential candidate wants domestic “security force” as powerful as U.S. military, columnist compares proposal to Hitler Youth - Presidential frontrunner Barack Obama has called for a “civilian national security force” as powerful as the U.S. military, comments that were ignored by the vast majority of the corporate media but compared by one journalist to the Nazi Hitler Youth. “We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded,” Obama told a Colorado Springs audience earlier this month. World Net Daily editor Joseph Farah asked if he was the only journalist in America who found Obama’s statement troubling.

Wednesday 16th July 2008: -

• SUV drivers made to park at the back of the store like black people on buses - Government fueled alarmism about global warming - which has not occurred in the last 10 years nor will it occur in the next 10 years - is accelerating the creation of new forms of malthusian control over our lives, with the ultimate goal of identifying those who don’t submit to the whims of the climate cult as second class citizens and enforcing a new manifestation of 1950’s style segregation. The image at the top of this story is from an Office Depot outlet in Austin, Texas. People who drive those evil life-giving gas, plant food spewing, SUV’s are forced to park further away from the entrance to the store as a kind of collective societal punishment for not conforming to the green agenda.

• OFT: Banks make more than £200 a year from each customer - Banks make more than £200 a year from each customer, according to an Office of Fair Trading report, which exposes the myth of free banking for all. The Government watchdog has attacked the banks for their "complex" terms and conditions, which leave customers in the dark about how much they are being charged. As many as 1.4 million people are paying over £500 a year in charges and these customers are frequently 'vulnerable', low income and low saving customers.

• The idea of imposing an indiscriminate curfew on kids is grotesque': I have a distasteful vision of the police riding around the streets of English towns and cities rounding up youngsters' - In the Youth Crime Action Plan, published today by the government, the bit I find the most worrying is not one of the main ones. It's the proposed imposition of curfews, banning children from being outside past a certain time, and punishing parents if they are. The word curfew has, for me, sinister and ominous connotations. Silent, dark streets; prowling soldiers with guns at the ready; the occasional click-clack of hurried footsteps as a hunched figure hurries to safety; a shot is fired, someone is captured - or lies dead. Now that's what I call a curfew.

• CCTV on fire engines to tackle attacks on crews - A new £24,000 CCTV camera system has been introduced to fire engines across the county to protect against attacks on firefighters. The five-month long project to install cameras to record evidence that could be used in court has been funded by Northamptonshire County Council and rolled out to fire engines at stations in The Mounts, Daventry, Long Buckby, Moulton, Mereway, KetterADVERTISEMENT ing, Wellingborough and Rushden. The new technology, which differs from that already used by crews in Corby, starts filming as soon as the fire engine is started and stops recording 30 minutes after the engine is stopped.

• 'Chav' is a weapon of class hatred and should be banned, claims think tank - The word 'chav' is a weapon of class hatred and should be banned, Left-wing academics claim. The Fabian Society believes the term, a common derogatory expression for a brash white working-class person, is offensive. It wants to silence those who use it to describe loutish types in Burberry baseball caps, scraped-back hairdos and clanking fake gold 'bling' jewellery.

• Ventura Blasts Culture That "Cannot Handle The Truth": Former Governor decries corporate media, two party system, highlights disgust at "failed political leadership" - Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura has hit out at a now entrenched culture that "cannot handle the truth" when it comes to the events of 9/11, the war in Iraq, the devastation that has been wrought on the economy and the "failed political leadership" of the last eight years. Ventura spoke exclusively to the nationally syndicated Alex Jones Show yesterday, in an hour long interview that allowed the independent governor to divulge a great deal more than in his later appearance on CNN.

(RELATED: See our 9/11 archive and our affiliated site 911truthskipton.com)

• Registration Extended for 911 Workers and Volunteers to Preserve Right to File Workers' Compensation - Nearly seven years have passed since the twin towers of the World Trade Center collapsed following a terrorist attack into “Ground Zero” devastation. Those who have assisted in the recovery, cleanup and rescue efforts of the World Trade Center destruction, have an extended deadline of August 13, 2008 to register with the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board. The law has been changed to allow the filing of a workers’ compensation claim for those that have a 9/11 related illness. The change also applies to those volunteers and workers who are not sick now, but who may become sick in the future because they were exposed to toxic air following 9/11.   

(FURTHER RESEARCH: The Feal Good Foundation)

• ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF A BRAIN-DEAD NEO-CON USING 9/11 TO PROMOTE THE PHONY 'LEFT VS RIGHT' PARADIGM: Songwriter's 9/11 Image On Billboards Stirs Controversy - Three billboards in the Orlando area that depict New York's World Trade Center in flames with the words "Please Don't Vote for a Democrat" are the work of a St. Cloud songwriter and commercial painter who is marketing his latest song. Mike Meehan doesn't apologize for the in-your-face gripping image that burned itself into the collective memory of Americans who recall the events of Sept. 11, 2001. The billboards went up Sunday, he said, and have already sparked controversy.

• Vanity Fair writer arrested for sneaking into Bohemian Grove - Vanity Fair contributor Alex Shoumatoff faces trespassing charges after apparently trying to sneak into the famous, rich and powerful Bohemian Club’s annual retreat over the weekend. For more than a century, the club has been hosting its secretive summertime retreats up at the 2,700-acre Bohemian Grove. The party atmosphere, however, has been tempered of late by the club’s battle with a fourth-generation member, John “Jock” Hooper, who resigned in 2004 over the Bohemian plan to harvest oak and fir trees from its wilderness.

(RELATED: See our Bohemian Grove archive)

• Fox News host: 15 year-old detainee ‘maybe deserved’ harsh treatment - Today, lawyers for Canadian national Omar Khadr, a Guantanamo detainee, released an interrogation video from 2003, showing Khadr weeping and begging for better medical treatment. Discussing the video today on Fox News, host Trace Gallagher declared Khadr had killed an American solider — Khadr is accused of throwing a grenade — and so “maybe he deserves” to be tortured.

Tuesday 15th July 2008: -

• 'Big Brother' warning over Government database that records EVERY phone call and e-mail in Britain - A 'Big Brother' database recording every single phone call and e-mail made in Britain would threaten the British way of life, the information watchdog has warned. Information Commissioner Richard Thomas said such a Government-run database would have serious data protection implications. Amid speculation a massive database is already being planned, he declared it would be a 'step too far'.

• Idaho School District Adopts Fingerprint Scanner for Student Lunches - School officials in Nampa say they intend to use a new scanning machine to identify students buying school lunches. The machine should be ready for secondary schools this fall and will replace the more traditional identification cards. Nampa School District Spokeswoman Allison Westfall says the biometric scanner assigns a unique identification to each student's fingerprint. Westfall says students will not be forced to participate. Use of the finger scan has raised privacy concerns in at least one other Idaho school district. But designers of the scanner's software say there is no way for any fingerprint computer or expert to reconstruct a print based on data gathered in schools.

• Report: MI5 Outsourced Torture - MPs are calling for an investigation into allegations that British intelligence has “outsourced” the torture of British citizens to Pakistani security agencies after hearing accounts of people being abducted and subjected to mistreatment and, in some cases, released without charge. John McDonnell, the Labour member for Hayes and Harlington, and Andrew Tyrie, Conservative member for Chichester, say the allegations should be examined by the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), the Westminster body that oversees the Security Service, MI5, and the Intelligence Service, MI6.

• Ventura: Neo-Cons May Stage Terror To Stay In Power: Former Governor: “Absolutely” danger of false flag as pretext to attack Iran - Former Governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura warns that Neo-Cons are so desperate to maintain a grip on power that they could stage a terror event in order to create a pretext for attacking Iran. Speaking on the Alex Jones Show before last night’s announcement that he would not be running for U.S. Senate, Ventura said a conflict with Iran was all but inevitable. “I don’t see any way of avoiding it because I think it’s gonna be Bush’s last hurrah,” said Ventura, adding that another war front would only help the Republicans and John McCain.

• Sudan 'will block genocide case' - Sudan has said it will do all it can to block the work of the International Criminal Court, which has accused the nation's leader of genocide in Darfur. President Omar al-Bashir's most senior adviser told the BBC the allegations were designed to generate hostility between tribal groups in Darfur. Ghazi Salaheddin said that if the ICC pursued the case it could jeopardise relations between Sudan and the UN.

• Coca-Cola Says 'Zero' Is Safe In China - Coca-Cola quickly defended itself when rumours started circulating on Chinese Internet that its sugar-free drink Zero is unsuitable for human consumption. Online articles read that the beverage contains an aspartame that is in fact a sugar substitute, alleged to be a neurotoxin which can affect the nervous system. The articles cite headaches, memory decline, epilepsy, vision loss, stupor and cancer as symptoms caused by aspartame. But Coca-Cola China said in a statement that the rumours and articles are groundless. Coke is quoted as saying that “In fact, more than 200 authoritative scientific researches have already proved that aspartame has nothing to do with cancer.”

• Blair pulls out of Gaza visit because of 'feared assassination attempt' - A feared assassination attempt against Tony Blair forced him to cancel a visit to the Gaza strip. Israeli sources said defence minister Ehud Barak advised the former prime minister to stay away from the Hamasruled coastal territory as he could be targeted for attack, according to a Jewish news agency. Mr Blair's office said there had been a "specific security threat" which could have endangered the local community, as well as the visiting dignitaries.

Saturday 12th July 2008: -

(RELATED: See our Bohemian Grove archive)

• UK group to portray 9/11 Truth as anarchist/cultists: 9/11 Cultwatch To Speak At Anarchist Studies Network Conference - This September Loughborough University hosts the Anarchist Studies Network conference. Joining in the debates and discussions, to be held between Thursday 4th and Saturday 6th September, will be 9/11 Cultwatch’s Larry O’Hara and Paul Stott.

• WTC 7 Emergency Head Was Building Collapse Specialist - The former New York City chief emergency manager Jerome Hauer, whose office was on the 23d floor of WTC 7, was also a building collapse specialist, according to a recently uncovered New York Times article. Hauer has attracted suspicion from the 9/11 truth movement because of his zeal to push the official story in the hours after the attack when details were still sketchy. Hauer was also Managing Director of Kroll Associates - the company that provided security for the WTC complex on 9/11 - and he also betrayed advance knowledge of the anthrax attacks a week before they happened.

• Doctor is last 9/11 death - A woman doctor last seen near the Twin Towers a day before the 9/11 attacks in 2001 has finally been classified as a victim. The body of Sneha Philip, 31, was never found and no clear evidence links her to Ground Zero in New York. But a state court has now toppled an earlier ruling that she was not a victim of the terror strikes. It is thought she may have died trying to help others. Her mother Ansu, 61, said: "Having to go through this process was terrible." The 9/11 toll is now 2,751.

• Britain urging return to wartime food frugality - Evoking an era of World War II austerity, British families are being urged to cut food waste and use leftovers in a nationwide effort to fight sharply rising global food prices. It's not back to ration books, "victory gardens" or squirrel-tail soup yet, but warning bells are being rung by experts at all levels of Britain's government as well as from the World Food Program.

• Plea after patient data find - CALLS have been made for all abandoned Scottish hospital buildings to be examined, after private patient data was found at a disused site. X-rays marked with patients' names, photographs and other paperwork were found at the derelict Law Hospital in Carluke. NHS Lanarkshire says it is investigating. The finding came to light after Gary Whittle, an amateur photographer, took shots inside the hospital. The latest discovery comes only months after records were found at a disused hospital in Dundee.

Thursday 10th July 2008: -

• McCain asked about PNAC and 9/11 at town hall - During a town hall event in Portsmouth, OH on Wednesday, John McCain was asked by a member of the audience whether his links to the parent organization of the Project for a New American Century explain why he has been reluctant to support calls for a new investigation of 9/11. The questioner began, "I was curious about a document. Back in September of 2000, the Project for a New American Century, or PNAC, whose members included Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Jeb Bush and Paul Wolfowitz, wrote a document entitled 'Rebuilding Americans Defenses.'" As McCain turned and paced away from him, the questioner continued, "In it, they state, quote, "The process of transformation, even if it bring revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event like a new Pearl Harbor."

• BBC's Third Tower: 30 Pieces of Good News: by Dr. Kevin Barrett and Rolf Lindgren - The one-hour BBC program The Third Tower should have a positive effect on spreading the truth about what happened to WTC 7. Despite its attempt to debunk by twisting and omitting facts, there is much to cheer about.

• Washington can't live up to standards of 9/11 'truthers' - The late U.S. president Ronald Reagan once remarked that "facts are stupid things." While Reagan's comment was an inadvertent slip of the tongue, too many people remain willing to unblushingly assert their belief in this sort of thinking. Rather like corpse gas, a fresh batch of skewed thinking has lately bubbled up from the depths due to the imminent release of a draft report from the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology on the collapse of 7 World Trade Center during the 9/11 attacks. WTC 7 was not hit by planes, but rather collapsed at 5:20 in the afternoon on the same day after being hit by debris from the fall of the North Tower. Its destruction was not mentioned in the 9/11 Commission Report on the attacks.

• Truth Rising: The Movement Finds Its Voice - You won’t be reading about it in the New York Times or seeing it on the billboard at your local multiplex cinema, but 9/11 Chronicles: Truth Rising is causing waves on the Internet with many comparing the documentary to the underground blockbuster Loose Change. At a time when the 9/11 truth movement is both at its most visible and under the most prolonged attack by debunkers, the movie serves as a reminder of what is at the heart of this grass-roots phenomenon - a yearning for justice both for the victims of 9/11 and those people who are still paying the price - the brave rescue heroes and firefighters who are living and dying with debilitating illnesses - having been abandoned by their government many years ago.

• Heart attacks and suicides... yet the dangers were all kept so quiet. So how CAN you trust your medicine? - Few of us would think to question the safety of our prescription drugs. After all, they’ve been developed to make us better. But just how safe are they really — and is the official drug watchdog doing enough to protect us? Last month, for instance, it was revealed that the number of powerful anti-psychotic drugs being prescribed to children had almost doubled in past six years. Yet despite the growing evidence that these drugs can seriously harm children — causing excessive weight gain, a rise in blood pressure, severe lethargy and even lactation — the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency is powerless to limit their use.

• Nicolas Sarkozy pledges to force through EU Treaty: President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged to push through the new European Union's Treaty by the end of the year, warning the EU must not get embroiled in an "institutional soap opera" - In a forceful speech to the European Parliament in which he presented France's priorities during its six-month rotating EU presidency, Mr Sarkozy said: "It is Europe's duty to act right now". He said he would propose a way forward by the end of the year for the Lisbon Treaty after consulting the government of Ireland, where voters rejected it in a referendum last month.

• Gordon Brown refuses to apologise over road tax fiasco - Gordon Brown has rejected demands to apologise to MPs amid accusations from the Conservatives that he misled Parliament over Treasury moves to increase road tax for millions of motorists. The Treasury admitted on Wednesday that more than 9 million motorists will be hit with significant rises in Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) as part of a "green tax" package that will come into effect next year. Many drivers will see their tax rise by more than £200 a year as a result of the plans.

Wednesday 09th July 2008: -

• BBC CONSPIRACY FILES: The Third Tower: A Critical Examination - On July 6, 2008, BBC released a documentary examining the collapse of World Trade Center 7, on September 11, 2001. The film purported to "solve the final mystery" of 9/11 in regards to whether the collapse of the building was due to fire or controlled demolition. The film used interviews of people from both sides of the argument, as well as stock footage and reconstructions to show the viewer the cases to be made for each theory. This is the second film the BBC has created on the subject of alternative theories of 9/11. The film is highly charged and controversial, with emotions running deep. In this review I will attempt to remove the emotional side of the film and simply look at the facts and opinions offered, their validity, and the BBC's attempt to make a "balanced" film.

• AUDIO LINK: BBC’s WTC 7 “Fairy Tails” - Broadcast from the Alex Jones Show Tuesday 8th July. Alex Jones and Jason Bermas discuss more details from the BBC’s latest hit piece on the 9/11 Truth Movement.

• Why You Should Be a 9/11 Truther Even if You Don't Believe the Government Carried Out the Attacks: Why even those who don't believe the Government carried out the attacks should support 9/11 truthers - Why you should be a 9/11 truther even if you don't believe the Government carried out the attacks. Let's say you go along with the idea that WTC 7 collapsed because of normal fires, and Hani Hanjour went from an incompetent idiot to a highly skilled pilot, and 9/11 was carried out by 19 arab terrorists working for Osama Bin Laden. You should still join forces with the 9/11 truth movement and here's why.

• Families' fight for 9/11 remains thrown out - A US judge has dismissed a case brought by families of victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks who said New York authorities denied proper burials by sending debris containing possible human remains to a garbage dump. The lawsuit, filed in 2005 by a group called WTC Families for a Proper Burial, sought to have up to 1.8 million tonnes of World Trade Centre rubble transferred out of the Fresh Kills landfill on New York's Staten Island.

• Most Muslim coverage 'negative' - Researchers looking at the way British Muslims are represented by the media say they have found that most coverage is negative in tone. A Cardiff University team behind the study looked at nearly 1,000 newspaper articles from the past eight years. Two-thirds focused on terrorism or cultural differences, and much of it used words such as militancy, radicalism and fundamentalist. The research was commissioned by Channel Four's Dispatches.

• ID cards face UK student scorn: Feedback site voices "creepy" concerns - Young people have condemned ID cards as "illegal" and "creepy" on a website to canvas their views. People aged 16 to 25 have been using the site MyLifeMyID.org, launched today, to discuss the £4.4bn National Identity Scheme (NIS). So far the vast majority of the comments have been against the project. Feedback from the site will be put towards tailoring the biometric card to suit young people's needs when they are offered the cards from 2010. Site forums so far have raised fears about data security and governments abusing the information despite the glowing assessment of the scheme offered by home secretary Jacqui Smith as she launched the site on Wednesday. One comment said: "This government ID data base gives me the creeps." Another asked: "How do we protect our British freedoms and put a stop to this totalitarian scheme to control our identities?"

• Racist Toddlers - The UK is on alert for racist toddlers. And not just the obvious racism like when a toddler sets fire to a cross on someone's lawn, but the more hidden racism like when a toddler says "Yuk!" about foreign foods (my wife never lets me get away with such racism towards the food she makes and will throttle me greatly for any incidents). The question, of course, is how did England become filled with such racist toddlers?

• Terror laws used to count city centre beggars - CONTROVERSIAL "anti-terror" powers have been used to count the number of beggars in Cambridge city centre, the News can reveal. The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), dubbed the "snooper's charter", was introduced to help stop serious crime and terrorism. However, under the legislation, CCTV was used to tot up how many beggars there were in the city on three separate occasions in the last two years. Sir Simon Milton, chairman of the Local Government Association, recently wrote to all councils to warn them against employing the legislation for "trivial" matters.

• Terror Stopped For Putting My Hand In My Pocket: "YOU. STAND OVER THERE." - This past Sunday night I was subjected to another stark reminder of how far the UK has descended into a total police state when I was stopped on the street by "Police Community Support Officers" for putting my hand in my pocket. After returning to London in high spirits from an excursion to see the great Neil Young play a barnstorming gig at the Hop Farm festival in Kent, I was standing at the bus stop in Trafalgar Square with my girlfriend only to suddenly have the following order barked at me by a goon in a bright yellow jacket: "YOU. STAND OVER THERE." "Excuse me? Are you addressing me?" I replied. "STAND OVER THERE." the man repeated while pointing about 1 metre to his left as his female colleague stood silently staring. "No thanks, I think I'll stay here." I replied. "WE CAN DO THIS THE EASY WAY OR THE HARD WAY." He continued, attempting to assert some form of power over me in his own mind by forcing me to pointlessly move one step away from my current position, while speaking to me in a manner you or I would a dog.

• Ex-spy chief opposes planned new terror laws - The ex-head of Britain's MI5 domestic spy agency said Tuesday she opposes Prime Minister Gordon Brown's plans for tougher new anti-terrorism laws. Making her first speech to the House of Lords since being appointed to Britain's upper legislative chamber last month, Baroness Eliza Manningham-Buller said the government's plans were unnecessary. Manningham-Buller was the head of the domestic security service from 2002-2007 and spent more than 30 years working in British intelligence. Brown wants to increase the time police can hold terror suspects without charging them from 28 days to 42 days. He argues that police officers need the extra time because of the complexity of scouring computers, trawling phone records and following up leads across the globe.

• France terror laws 'flout rights' - France violates human rights in the way it handles terrorism-related cases, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report says. The pressure group says France uses a catch-all offence to charge suspects even when they have only a vague link to an alleged terrorist organisation. The report also says suspects can face long periods of detention before trial, and some have suffered physical violence during interrogation. HRW says ministers need to take action or risk alienating some communities.

• Bangladesh: Repeal New Terror Law - Bangladesh's new counterterrorism ordinance violates fundamental freedoms and basic fair trial rights and should be repealed or amended to meet international standards, Human Rights Watch said today. The military-backed interim government kept secret the far-reaching provisions of the new law until its adoption on June 11, preventing the public and civil society from commenting on the law's contents.

• X-ray mum 'sacked after falling ill' - A HOSPITAL radiographer claims she was sacked for `whistle blowing' about serious health and safety issues. Ruth Mcauley said she had a condition known as `darkroom disease' through constant exposure to processing chemicals used to develop x-rays. But when she tried to get something done about it, she claims she was bullied, victimised and discriminated against.

Tuesday 08th July 2008: -

• BBC Hit Piece Edits Silverstein Comment In Dirty Tricks Scam - The BBC’s embarrassing attempt to dig itself out of a hole that keeps getting deeper was again exemplified during their latest yellow journalism hit piece on 9/11 truth, in which they played Larry Silverstein’s “pull it” comment but edited out the most important part of the statement, and in doing so changed its context altogether. An army of informed truth activists are almost tripping over each other to point out the gargantuan number of errors, ad hominem smear tactics, bias and shoddy investigative techniques displayed in the program which aired Sunday in the UK. Just one such example concerns WTC complex leaseholder Larry Silverstein’s infamous “pull it” comment which can be viewed in its entirety below with other clips included for context in confirming that the term “pull it” is industry jargon for deliberately demolishing a building.

• WTC 7 isn’t the final mystery, it is one in a row of mysteries - Mike Rudin Spinmaster. Listen! WTC 7 isn’t the final mystery, it is one in a row of mysteries. We do not and will not fall for anyone claiming that the case is solved with the view solely on one point! I just put together the main valid points and hints for an inside job in the last two weeks, points that can not be debunked, as they stand straight for the seventh year after the attacks, and were nearly never touched by “debunkers”. There is no special order in that points, and I’m sure I can add another 200 ones- I’m just not in the mood for deliver hard facts to ignorants. And, BTW, I have sources for all points, valid sources, established sources. It’s no problem to research it.

• Alex Jones and Jason Bermas Respond to the BBC: Audio Interview via YouTube - PrisonPlanet.tv broadcast from Monday July 7th 2008. Alex Jones and Jason Bermas Respond to the BBC’s lies about 911.

• COMPLAIN TO THE BBC: We - UK Citizens - pay the BBC via the TV licensing fees, just for them to insult and smear us (yet again) for not accepting the official 9/11 fable.  If you would like to complain to them directly, here is the link to do so.

OUR COMPLAINT: -

I would like to lodge a complaint against Mike Rudin and the BBC for the deeply insulting programme 'The Third Tower' (part of the Conspiracy Files series).

We pay our TV licensing fees to the government whom then pay yourselves - and this is this what we get in return?

This was by no means a fair and balanced piece, in fact it was an all out hit-piece on those who question/doubt the official story of 9/11, engaging in the usual 'Yellow Journalism' that the BBC has long been well known for.

Once again the BBC took the part of government apologist, whilst claiming to be unbiased (give me a break!) and did a poor, false and misleading job of answering the questions that we - the 9/11 truth movement have spent the last seven years asking.

There are already several articles available online rebutting your documentary (links at http://www.911truthskipton.com/news.htm) - I would hope that you take the time to view these.

Thank you for your time.

• Judge dismisses case over 9/11 remains - A U.S. judge on Monday dismissed a case brought by families of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks who said the city denied proper burials by sending debris containing possible human remains to a garbage dump. The lawsuit, filed in 2005 by a group called WTC Families for a Proper Burial, sought to have the estimated 1.2 million to 1.8 million tons of rubble originally from the World Trade Center site transferred out of the Fresh Kills landfill located on New York's borough of Staten Island. The families said the city should move the residue that had been finely sifted multiple times to a more suitable location and have a cemetery created.

• BBC directors' pay hikes defended - The BBC's Director-General defended the decision to award pay rises to the corporation's executive directors despite a year of job cuts and phone-in scandals. Mark Thompson waived his own right to a bonus because of the "scale of disruption and uncertainty" facing BBC colleagues. But nine executive directors did receive bonuses in 2007/08, according to this year's annual report. BBC Vision director Jana Bennett took a total rise of more than £100,000 including her bonus and other benefits, but Mr Thompson said her bonus had been cut because of the fakery scandals involving some BBC TV shows.  (COMMENTARY: Fakery at the BBC?... c'mon get serious!)

• Truckers warn of EU roads 'stealth tax' - European Union plans for new environmental road tolls on top of soaring fuel and food prices are a "stealth tax" on truckers, shops and shoppers, the haulage industry has warned. The European Commission will tomorrow propose new rules to charge operators of heavy good vehicles extra for the noise, congestion and air pollution from their lorries. Under current EU rules trucks are only charged for wear and tear on roads but from 2012 onwards, the Commission wants to pass on to industry environmental costs estimated at £80 billion a year. Jack Semple, Director of Policy at the Road Haulage Association, warned that new costs would hit industry and end up being passed on to consumers.

• EU begins budget discipline procedure against UK - European Union finance ministers started disciplinary budget steps against Britain on Tuesday, saying its deficit was set to exceed the country's fiscal commitments. "The decision on Britain has been adopted," a diplomat said. All 27 EU members have agreed to keep budget deficits below 3 percent of gross domestic product, but the ministers said Britain's shortfall was expected to top the level in the fiscal years 2008-09 and 2009-10.

Monday 07th July 2008: -

• Glaring and damning errors already apparent in new BBC WTC 7 hit piece - I just read the article Evolution of a Conspiracy Theory written by the producer of the new wtc hitpiece Mike Rudin. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/conspiracy_files/7434230.stm) It is full of errors, non-sequiturs and false claims. A couple struck me as so blatant I feel embarrassed to be British.

• The Weekend's TV: The Conspiracy Files: 9/11 – The Third Tower, Sun, BBC2: Yet more tall stories with no foundation - Imagine an infection that actually feeds on the only antibiotic available to counter it and you have some measure of the problem in dealing with conspiracy theories. When conspiracists encounter solid evidence against their favoured scenario, they have only two options available to them. They can compromise their religious belief in the narrative they've constructed, or they can simply enlarge it, extending the conspiracy so that, amoeba-like, it absorbs this irritating foreign body and digests it whole. Almost invariably, they choose the latter, and The Conspiracy Files: 9/11 – the Third Tower, a film about the collapse of World Trade Centre Building 7, offered several choice examples of the process.   

(COMMENTARY: Another establishment hit piece which uses the term 'conspiracy' as a one-sided buzz-word, ignoring that those who embrace the official story (or 'fable' would be more appropriate) are themselves embracing a theory of a 'conspiracy'.  This is very note worthy and important because it shows the willful ignorance consistent in those who attack both 9/11 Truth and those who seek it).

• Three years on, victims remember 7/7 - Hundreds of people crowded into King's Cross station today to remember the 52 innocent people killed when four bombs blew themselves up on London’s public transport network three years ago. Among those marking the third anniversary of 7/7 were survivors of the attacks and relatives of those who died, joined by Boris Johnson, the London Mayor, and Tessa Jowell, the minister responsible for the capital.   (RELATED: See our 7/7 archive)

• Afghanistan Accuses “Foreign Intelligence Agency” Of Deadly Embassy Bombing - Afghanistan’s interior ministry has accused a “foreign intelligence agency” of being behind today’s deadly suicide bombing that ripped apart the country’s Indian embassy in Kabul, killing 41 people. Could the event represent another “false flag” run by American intelligence as a means of maintaining a military presence in Afghanistan and control of the country’s lucrative opium trade? A further 141 were injured when the bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into two diplomatic vehicles entering the embassy and the blast also devastated nearby shops and buildings.   (RELATED: See our Problem > Reaction > Solution archive)

• London Cops Use “Knife Crime” as an Excuse to Conduct Searches: London police: Knife crime replaces terror as police priority - Knife crime has overtaken terrorism as the top priority for London Metropolitan Police, British newspaper The Times reported on Saturday. The authorities have established a special anti-knife-crime unit to address the recent spate of fatal stabbings in the British capital, Paul Stephenson, deputy commissioner of London Metropolitan Police, was quoted as saying. His announcement came after a 16-year-old boy became the 18th teenager that had been killed in violence in London this year. There were 26 youth murders in 2007.

• Cost of surveillance "costing UK £20billion" - The cost of our surveillance society has topped £20billion, a report claims today. The figure, which is said to work out as costing £800 per household, includes £19billion for the planned ID card system and £500million spent on CCTV cameras. The TaxPayers' Alliance report was highlighted by David Davis, the former shadow home secretary who resigned as an MP over Government plans to hold terror suspects for 42 days. He said: "ID cards, CCTV, the DNA database and other measures are a huge waste of taxpayers' money on policies that undermine freedom and are utterly ineffective in fighting crime or terrorism."

• EUROPE: Czechs Could 'Bury' Lisbon Treaty - Czech President Vaclav Klaus and politicians from the senior ruling Civic Democrats (ODS) have been inspired by the Irish rejection of the Lisbon Treaty, which could now die in Czech hands. On Jun. 12 Irish voters rejected the Lisbon Treaty, an EU (European Union) legal document for institutional changes. "All Europe should thank the Irish," said Klaus, making him the only EU head of state to openly welcome the referendum result. Klaus is known for his scepticism on human-caused climate change and the role of civil society.

• G8 summit: Gordon Brown has eight-course dinner before food crisis talks - Gordon Brown and his fellow world leaders have sparked outrage after it was disclosed they enjoyed a six-course lunch followed by an eight-course dinner at the G8 summit where the global food crisis tops the agenda. The Prime Minister was served 24 different dishes during his first day at the summit – just hours after urging the world to reduce the "unnecessary demand" for food and calling on British families to cut back on their wasteful use of food. Mr Brown and his wife Sarah were among 15 guests at the "blessings of the earth and the sea social dinner". The dinner consisted of 18 dishes in eight courses including caviar, smoked salmon, Kyoto beef and a "G8 fantasy dessert".

• UK Report Predicts Brain Implants, Revolution: The secret meeting between Obama and Hillary lays bare his close connections to elite globalist power groups - A British defense think tank predicts possible “key risks and shocks” for the future in a recently released report. The report predicts microchip brain implants, flash-bombs, Marxist middle-class revolutionaries, extreme globalization and more, all likely within 30 years. The “source document for the development of UK Defense Policy” was created by the Development, Concepts and Doctrines Centre (DCDC), and will be used to “shape the UK’s future defense requirements” until 2036, according to the report.

• Making a Killing in the Green Zone at Expense of U.S.: American war makers don't call it the "Green" Zone for nothing - When Bush took over in 2000, the national debt was $5,674 billion. However, since Sept. 29, 2006, the debt has increased by $1.6 billion per day. Making matters worse, the cost of the Iraq war is bleeding America to death. Bush finances it with high-interest “payday” loans, selling Treasury bills to China—which now holds $4 trillion in IOUs. Your personal debt load is $31,100.53. You indirectly pay for the neo-con war every time you pay for gas, electricity, food and every other commodity that has increased in price. By the time Bush leaves office the national debt will be a staggering $10 trillion.

• CNN poll: Most say Founding Fathers wouldn't be impressed - How would the likes of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin feel about the way the United States has turned out 232 years after declaring its independence? Most Americans say they're proud to be citizens, but most also think the Founding Fathers wouldn't be pleased. Not pleased, a majority of Americans recently polled said. According to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey, 69 percent of adult Americans who responded to a poll June 26-29 said the signers of the Declaration of Independence would be disappointed by the way the nation has turned out overall.

• VIDEO - John McCain: ‘I hate the bloggers’: John McCain, Town Hall Meeting, Merrimack, NH 12/29/07 - Hey right wing bloggers. I think he’s talking about you too. JOHN MCCAIN: “Now we’ve got the cables. We’ve got talk radio. We’ve got the bloggers. I hate the bloggers. We’ve got all kinds of sources of information.” I’m giddy with the thought that he isn’t very fond of me.

• Porn appears on rugby programme - New Zealand rugby fans watching a regular sports programme found themselves viewing hardcore pornography instead on Sunday afternoon. Four minutes of pornography interrupted sports coverage on the Prime Television channel, after what a spokesman described as a distribution mix up. The pornographic footage was meant for an adult pay-per-view channel. Instead, it found its way onto a regular free-to-air programme called "Grassroots Rugby". Rival television channels reported that some viewers were angry about the broadcast, which may have been seen by children.

Sunday 06th July 2008: -

• UPDATE ON THE BBC 911 TRUTH HIT PIECE: We just viewed the BBC documentary live about an hour ago... and we hate to say that we were indeed correct in our pre-air analysis (the next item down the page).  Producer Mike Rudin missed out so much of key information and hand-picked anything that he felt debunks the popular 9/11 'conspiracy theories'.  The problem is though, we (as 9/11 Truthers) are the ones debunking them (i.e. those who embrace the official fable).  All it takes is a single piece of the official story to be proven as false for the entire 'official conspiracy theory' to collapse.  And to be fair and honest, we don't have a specific theory of what happened on 9/11.  Our message to the world is essentially '9/11 is a lie... take time to look at it... now go and ask questions'.  

Going back to the broadcast tonight, one example of the deception is that they didn't explain why the BBC/CNN footage of themselves announcing the collapse of WTC7 (prior to the actual collapse) is important.  We broke this back in February 2007 as a major story, precisely because it shows that the mainstream news will make an announcement that is false and not investigate it.  It shows that they are basically parrots of the official story (i.e. because they can announce that a building has fallen when it is still standing in the bloody background!) and therefore they are little more than a willfully ignorant mouthpiece for the very criminal government that (the evidence shows) orchestrated the attacks.  Disagree with us?  Well, tonight's shameful Conspiracy Files broadcast only adds to that notion... 

Send us your comments on the BBC hit-piece via e-mail.

• TONIGHT THE BBC ENGAGES IN AN ALL OUT ASSAULT ON 9/11 TRUTH: Don't forget that tonight the BBC will be lunching a new attack on 9/11 Truth in their second 'Conspiracy Files' documentary due to air at 21:00 on BBC2.  In addition to the usual 'Yellow Journalism' that we see from the BBC, we anticipate that in this program the viewer will be exposed to: -

• the frequent and improper one-sided use of the word 'conspiracy' (usually followed by the word 'theory' or 'theorist').  Now... bearing in mind that a 'conspiracy' is defined as "a planning and acting together secretly, esp. for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason", defenders of government corruption and the official story often forget that they are themselves defending a conspiracy theory - one which involves 19 Arab hijackers whom couldn't even fly Cessna's.  Instead they play the 'conspiracy' card as a topical buzz-word, taking it out of context and therefore tilting much public opinion into their corner. Sadly this works because we are otherwise conditioned (particularly in the UK and USA) to associate 'conspiracy theories' as alternative, far fetched, bizarre and therefore foolish.

• only being show evidence that supports the official conspiracy theory and not be shown anything that destroys it.  Destructive evidence such as we see here (and in yesterdays headlines down the page) in relation to the availability of water to put out the fires in WTC7 (this is a specific issue we expect to see distorted and taken out of context in tonight's broadcast).

• the BBC deceptively placing themselves in the camp of the survivors and the families of 9/11 along with the defenders of the official conspiracy theory... thereby pitching us (the debunkers of the official conspiracy theory) as the perceived 'bad guy's'.

• the program to insinuate that by doubting the official conspiracy theory we are disrespecting those who died in the attacks and causing severe distress to the survivors.  To buy into this paradigm is to forget that many of the families and survivors have been at the forefront of the 9/11 truth movement.  People such as William Rodriguez, the Jersey Girls and Bill Doyle, representative of one of the largest victim groups.  See our affiliated website 911truthskipton.com for a list containing many many more examples.

• the use of lawyer-like distortion of the facts and carefully crafted sophistry.  We do know that they are specifically doing this to explain away the Jane Standley footage bombshell (see our comments from last Wednesday 02/07/2008).  As we commented a few days ago, the use of the technique called 'Sophistry' is to make a defense which relies on confusing your critics.  Hypothetically, imagine I murdered someone by stabbing a them to death.  I could use sophistry and defend myself by saying "Okay I did stab this person, but it wasn't me that killed them... they bled to death".  The fact that they bled to death is probably accurate, but my statement is a lie by omission because it ignores the fact that I caused that very outcome.

• an uneven balance of 9/11 Truthers versus those who embrace the official conspiracy theory.  We saw this in the previous The Conspiracy Files program where only three 9/11 Truthers were interviewed, yet roughly a dozen individuals were featured in opposition.

So... following tonight's broadcast, should you not be feeling appropriately violated and patronised enough, we recommend that you visit the BBC's NWO shill Conspiracy files page here and take part in being suckered in further.

(RELATED: See our 9/11 archive and our affiliated site 911truthskipton.com)

• No BBC, WTC 7 Did Not Collapse “Due To Fire” & The Final 9/11 Mystery Is Not Solved - “The building collapsed due to fire”- I’m still waiting to see a shred of evidence to support this theory. Just “saying” that the building collapsed due to fire is not evidence or proof that it collapsed due to fire. You can bet that NIST won’t bother to explain this away: When the hit piece comes out, this is a critical piece of evidence that NIST (I am assuming) will ignore in their report: “Although virtually all of the structural steel from the Twin Towers and Building 7 was removed and destroyed, preventing forensic analysis, FEMA’s volunteer investigators did manage to perform “limited metallurgical examination” of some of the steel before it was recycled. Their observations, including numerous micrographs, are recorded in Appendix C of the WTC Building Performance Study. Prior to the release of FEMA’s report, a fire protection engineer and two science professors published a brief report in JOM disclosing some of this evidence."

• “Shockingly Calm”: The Phone Calls From the Planes on 9/11 - A number of people received phone calls the morning of September 11, 2001 that they believed were made by individuals on board the planes that crashed in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. Descriptions of these calls, however, reveal something odd. According to the official story we have been told, the callers were in an unprecedented crisis, stuck on planes under the control of murderous terrorists, and with no knowledge of whether they were going to be allowed to live or die. Yet in many of the phone calls, the caller appears to have been remarkably calm. Perhaps if just a few of them–for example, those with specific personal experiences, like the flight attendant who was a former police officer–had maintained their composure, then this would be less remarkable. Yet the large majority of the callers displayed this same calmness. In their recollections, some of the people who received the calls have indeed commented on this fact, apparently surprised by it. Some of them have also commented on the absence of panic, screaming, or other sounds of chaos in the background.

• EU can leave Ireland behind - Since June 12, attention has focused on the consequences for Ireland of declining to ratify the Lisbon Treaty - and more particularly, on whether we could be relegated to the slow lane of a two-speed Europe if we maintain our opposition to the Lisbon reforms. For obvious reasons, EU member states view renegotiation of the Lisbon Treaty’s substance as impossible. Produced after seven years of deliberation, the existing consensus might quickly collapse in such negotiations. Even if an agreement was reached, a new ratification process could potentially present huge difficulties - and not just in Ireland.

• Poland's euro-scepticism threatens to throw a spanner in EU works - Marta Kotlarz, an ambitious young law graduate who returned to Poland this year to launch her career after working in England, was enjoying the sunshine in the smart Baltic seaside town of Sopot among crowds of well-dressed holidaymakers. The town's cafes and fashionable sushi restaurants were crowded with Poland's new middle class. With the economy growing at five or six per cent per cent annually they can afford to dine out in style. The holiday crowd are the people who have done well out of membership of the EU and there is huge support for Europe at Sopot's tables.

Saturday 05th July 2008: -

• 9/11 third tower mystery 'solved': By Mike Rudin: BBC, Conspiracy Files - The final mystery of 9/11 will soon be solved, according to US experts investigating the collapse of the third tower at the World Trade Center. The 47-storey third tower, known as Tower Seven, collapsed seven hours after the twin towers. Investigators are expected to say ordinary fires on several different floors caused the collapse. Conspiracy theorists have argued that the third tower was brought down in a controlled demolition. Unlike the twin towers, Tower Seven was not hit by a plane. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, based near Washington DC, is expected to conclude in its long-awaited report this month that ordinary fires caused the building to collapse. That would make it the first and only steel skyscraper in the world to collapse because of fire.

Although on the surface the BBC may seem to be at times 'rebellious' and critical of certain issues such as the War on Terror, in reality this Corporation is actually deeply involved in whitewashing the real truth behind such things.  

Tomorrows 'Conspiracy Files' hit piece will be one such example.

• ANALYSIS FROM 911BLOGGER.COM: Regarding the aforementioned article by Mike Rudin, posted on the BBC News website...

It mentions that NIST says "fire fighters could not fight the fires in Tower 7, because they didn't have enough water and focused on saving lives." However, NIST's claim is incorrect. There were in fact fireboats that had been moored near the WTC the morning of 9/11, to provide water to the site. See:
http://www.firehouse.com/terrorist/17_Pharvey.html

One of the boats, the John J. Harvey, could reportedly "pump 16,000 to 20,000 gallons of water a minute. 'That's the equivalent of 15 [fire] engines drafting water,' explained 65-year-old FDNY retiree Bob Lenney, who spent 25 years piloting Harvey." See:
http://www.fireboat.org/press/time_out_092701.asp

In fact, one of NIST's earlier reports stated, "According to the FDNY first-person interviews, water was never an issue at WTC 7 since firefighting was never started in the building." See:
http://wtc.nist.gov/NISTNCSTAR1-8.pdf (p. 110).

• SOME MORE BBC BIAS RELATED NEWS ARTICLES FROM THE ARCHIVES: -

The BBC's commitment to bias is no laughing matter

BBC accused of institutional 'trendy left-wing bias'

We are biased, admit the stars of BBC News

Fears of bias as BBC gets £141m in EU loans

SEE ALSO: www.biased-bbc.blogspot.com

• ID cards: Aviation workers being 'used politically' - Representatives of the aviation industry have said they are being used as political pawns to further the government's controversial ID cards programme. The British Air Transport Association (Bata) said aviation workers were being used as guinea pigs for the scheme. ID cards for 'airside' workers — those who work beyond airport security checks — will become compulsory in 2009. "We do feel we're being used politically," Roger Wiltshire, secretary general of Bata told ZDNet.co.uk on Friday. "The government intends a creeping introduction, to [lend the cards credibility]. We will be the first industry to have compulsory ID passes, even before the voluntary scheme is in place."

• Hundreds of innocent people 'wrongly branded criminals', by CRB checks - Hundreds of innocent people have been wrongly branded as criminals by the Government agency set up to vet people working with children, The Daily Telegraph can disclose. People applying to take up jobs as teachers, nurses, childminders and even those volunteering to work with youth groups are likely to have been among those falsely accused of wrongdoing by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB). Those wrongly accused by the CRB face having their careers blighted or being stigmatised by their communities. They also face having to endure an appeals process to clear their names.

• Court order on YouTube user data fans privacy fears - A U.S. judge's order to Google Inc (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) to turn over YouTube user data to Viacom Inc (VIAb.N: Quote, Profile, Research) sparked an outcry on Thursday from privacy advocates in the midst of a legal showdown over video piracy. Viacom, owner of movie studio Paramount and MTV Networks, requested the information as part of its $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against the popular online video service and its deep-pocketed parent, Google. Judge Louis Stanton of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ordered Google on Tuesday to turn over as evidence a database with usernames of YouTube viewers, what videos they watched when, and users' computer addresses. Privacy activists from the Electronic Frontier Foundation said in a blog post the order "threatens to expose deeply private information" and violated the Video Privacy Protection Act, a 1988 federal law passed after Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork's video rental habits were revealed.

• David Icke banned from ‘Big Brother’ public meeting with Bob Geldof and David Davis - David Davis doesn’t want a real debate on the Orwellian State – he wants a controlled one that’s only on his terms with safe people like Tony Benn and Bob Geldof. The basis on which this by-election was called – to have an open debate on the Big Brother State – is a blatant misrepresentation of what is actually happening. Today, David Icke attended the Hull Guildhall with a resident from the Haltemprice and Howden constituency, with tickets booked through the local Conservative Party in her name, to see the presentation of David Davis and Bob Geldof on ‘civil liberties’. The resident was told, as was everyone else, that this was a public debate open to anyone so long as they had a ticket booked. The event was advertised as such on the David Davis website.

• Police say UFO was just the Moon - Police called out to a 999 call about an unexplained object in the night sky solved the mystery straight away for their operator - "it's the Moon, over." But the emergency call meant the officers were sent out to a house in the valleys area of south Wales. They were told a "bright stationary object" was spotted above the unnamed caller's home. A recording of the call has been released as part of a police campaign asking people to use 999 appropriately.

Thursday 03rd July 2008: -

• Pay-by-phone commerce coming closer: Talk, text and pay - Whipping out your mobile phone to pay for a sandwich at lunchtime could soon become a reality. The global trade body for the mobile industry and a European monetary organisation have signed a pact to speed up the deployment of handset payment services in Europe. The GSM Association (GSMA) and the European Payments Council (EPC), which represents 8000 banks in the EU, will now jointly co-ordinate efforts to get phones paying for just about everything, from impulse purchases in shops to restaurant meals. The programme has been called, simply, the Pay-Buy-Mobile initiative. But, in order to ensure such services run smoothly, the pair recognises the need for a “Trusted Service Manager” clearing house to help manage cash-flow between banks and network operators.

• Airlines going cashless on flights - Don't bother hitting the ATM before boarding your flight -- your airline may no longer be accepting cash. Starting Aug. 5, Alaska Airlines will become the latest carrier to go cashless for in-flight purchases such as headphones, cocktails and snacks. Others that have gone cashless include Frontier Airlines, American Airlines, JetBlue, AirTran, Virgin American and Midwest Airlines.

• Man hit by police Taser dies: Officer acted while breaking up fight - A man died late last night after a Louisville Metro Police officer used a Taser on him to break up a fight between the man and his brother, a police spokeswoman said. The incident began about 10 p.m. when an officer responded to a fight between the brothers in the 5000 block of Delaware Drive off Shepherdsville Road in the Buechel area, spokeswoman Alicia Smiley said.  (COMMENTARY: And then they call them non-lethal weapons...)

• Terrorist 'linked to Osama bin Laden' released on bail...

(No, not him!, someone else...)

...A man allegedly connected to Osama bin Laden who was once one of the world's most wanted terrorists has been freed on bail. Although his name has been widely used in the past he can only be referred to as "U" under a court order which also bans any reference to the date he was released or the town where he was bailed to.

• Poland poses latest problem for EU - As Poland becomes the latest country to erect a stumbling block in the path of the EU's Lisbon Treaty, the BBC's Adam Easton, in Warsaw, examines why. Polish President Lech Kaczynski's announcement that he will not yet sign the Lisbon Treaty highlights the competing power centres in the EU's largest new member and their different approaches to Europe. In this particular case, Mr Kaczynski may well end up having the final say because, even though the Polish parliament has already approved it, he must sign it to complete the ratification process.

• Cyprus moves to ratify EU treaty despite Irish no vote - Cyprus pressed ahead towards ratification of the European Union's Lisbon Treaty on Thursday despite its rejection by Irish voters, with MPs set to approve the document over the opposition of President Demetris Christofias's communist party. The debate began at 0800 GMT but a vote was not expected before 1630 GMT because of the number of MPs who wanted to speak. Christofias's AKEL party voted to oppose the treaty in a June 23 ballot, but the president has made clear his government will back the treaty despite his party's eurosceptic stance.

• A prophet from the wilderness sends his message to the world - Conspiracy theorist and author David Icke brought the Haltemprice and Howen by-election to life yesterday. The Yorkshire Post joined an entertaining day on the campaign trail. DAVID ICKE didn't wear his turquoise tracksuit or declare himself the Son of God, but there was still plenty to boggle the mind. Icke, visionary, conspiracy theorist and former Hereford United goalkeeper, launched a very odd campaign in Haltemprice and Howden yesterday by insisting that he didn't want to be elected and would like to see David Davis win, which must make him unique among the opposing candidates.   (RELATED WEBSITE: davidicke.com)

Wednesday 02nd July 2008: -

• BBC BLOG: Controversy and conspiracies III: From Mike Rudin, producer of The Conspiracy Files series - After the huge response to Richard Porter's blogs last year about 9/11 Part of the conspiracy? I was very keen to get to the bottom of what exactly happened. For the latest Conspiracy Files programme, on 9/11 - The Third Tower (Sunday 6 July at 2100 BST on BBC Two), I've been looking in detail at allegations that there was a conspiracy to deliberately demolish a third tower at the World Trade Center. This third skyscraper was never hit by an aeroplane. There is little photographic evidence of extensive damage. Yet seven hours after the Twin Towers collapsed, this 47-storey building collapsed in a few seconds.   (COMMENTARY: Another unimpressive blog from a BBC editor where the writer answers the questions... by not really answering them at all.  Take for example the issue of the BBC's accidental reportage of the collapse of WTC7 twenty-three minutes before the ACTUAL collapse.  Ever since this footage surfaced in early 2007, the point has been that WTC7 did not simply collapse as an accident, it was planned, a collapse zone was declared, bombs were heard being detonated and a countdown to the collapse given.  This is DOCUMENTED.  And the fact that the BBC and other news services reported the collapse too early only adds to the vast amount of prior knowledge to an event that the BBC would otherwise rather you believe was an 'accidental' collapse due to fire.  However Mike Rudin sidesteps this whole devastating issue (and presumably will also do so in the upcoming BBC2 documentary) stating that Reuters got the story that WTC7 had collapsed based on an amazing assumption that it was going to collapse and so the BBC repeated this press release... very circular logic!  That would be like me saying 'Okay, I did stab this person, but it wasn't me that killed them... they bled to death'.  This technique is known as Sophistry... Something used by defense lawyers all the time in murder cases.  Is that the BBC's job?  Mike Rudin has clearly done his homework and knows how to explain by not explaining. /// RELATED RECENT WTC7 NEWS: Leaked NIST Docs: "Unusual" Event Before Collapse Of WTC 7 - Unexplained "jet of flames" shot out of window before implosion of skyscraper)

• 9/11 hero dog 'to be cloned' - Trakr, a dog that sniffed out survivors from under the rubble of the World Trade Centre after the September 11 terror attacks, may be cloned. The German shepherd, who lives with his owner, James Symington, in Los Angeles, was picked by BioArts International, a Californian cloning firm, as the most "clone-worthy" canine in a competition offering an owner a free chance to replicate their pet. Mr Symington said he and Trakr were among the first search and rescue teams to arrive at the New York site after the attacks, and were responsible for locating the last human survivor under about 30 feet of debris. Now aged 15, the dog no longer has use of his back legs due to a degenerative neurological disorder.  According to BioArts, experts believe the condition may be linked to exposure to toxic smoke at the World Trade Centre site. However, some specially-bred species of dogs suffer similar degenerative conditions.

• Prince William plays key role in Royal Navy's £40 million cocaine bust - Prince William was part of a Royal Navy helicopter crew that took part in a dramatic £40 million cocaine seizure from drug runners in the Caribbean. The raid took place only four days after Prince William’s frigate HMS Iron Duke began its five week anti-drugs patrols in the region. Sub-Lieutenant Wales, 26, as he is known in the Navy, was involved in planning the operation and carrying out surveillance of the drugs boat. HMS Iron Duke spent several days tracking down the vessel, which appeared to be heading for Europe or West Africa, after receiving a tip-off from the US authorities.   (COMMENTARY: I wonder if Will's ran into any family members on board the vessel)

• UK surveillance breaches human rights, rules ECHR: The UK Government's surveillance practices violate the privacy rights of UK and foreign citizens, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled. The judgment follows a nine-year battle over phone and internet taps - The Court found that the UK's wide and secretive surveillance laws are "not in accordance with the law" and that they violate the right to privacy guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights. Civil liberties groups Liberty and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties took the UK Government to the Court over allegations that their communications had been intercepted between 1990 and 1997.

• Boy, 4, held by police at ID card protests - A FOUR-year-old boy was among those held during ID card protests in Edinburgh, it was reported this morning. Nine arrests were made yesterday as protestors from the campaign group No2ID attempted to disrupt a meeting at the Carlton Highland Hotel. Among these herded into police vans was a four-year-old, who was taken away along with his protesting mother, it was reported.

• Top airline bosses launch assault on airport ID card plan - The bosses of the UK’s major airlines have attacked plans to force airport workers to enrol in the national ID card scheme, claiming that “the UK aviation industry is being used for political purposes on a project which has questionable public support.”* If anything the move, they say, could reduce security by adding a “false sense of security to our processes.” In a letter sent to home secretary Jacqui Smith under the auspices of the British Air Transport Association, the bosses of airlines including British Airways, Virgin, BMI and EasyJet, the MDs and CEOs of several airports and the general secretary of airline union BALPA express their “determined opposition” to the proposal. It will add extra processes, costs and risks to “an already comprehensive system of identity and record checks”, and airside staff “are already the subject of extremely thorough vetting and criminal records checks.” ID cards add nothing to this, they say.

• New Biometric Devices Scan Palms, Not Fingers or Eyes - Forget fingerprint scanners, which have replaced password access on some high-end laptops. Forget iris scanners, especially their creepy use portrayed in the 2002 Tom Cruise movie, "Minority Report." No, the future of biometrics (automated identification using body parts) involves scanning palms. At least, that's the message from Fujitsu Computer Products of America, which recently unveiled palm-scanning technology for the U.S. market that's already in widespread use in Asia.

• New pass for long-term foreigners in Singapore - Foreigners studying, visiting and working in Singapore on a long term will be issued a new pass in the coming months, as part of government's effort to enhance national security. The new Long Term Pass (LTP) will replace the current stamp endorsement on travel documents and the paper-laminated Disembarkation/ Embarkation (r D/E) for foreign holders of Student's Pass (STP), long term visit pass, Employment Pass (EP) and Dependant's Pass. The LTP card will have better security features compared to the present paper-laminated card, with similar biometric features as those in the Singapore National Registration Identity Card (NRIC) to provide a secure means of identifying individuals and facilitate travel, said a Government statement on Wednesday.

• Unicef among critics of Italian plan to fingerprint Roma children - The Italian government's plan to fingerprint Gypsy children was condemned yesterday as a discriminatory "ethnic headcount" that insulted the country's Roma population. The interior minister, Roberto Maroni, said the proposal, which would affect all Gypsies living in camps, would make it easier to identify child beggars. He said the government also planned to make it easier to remove children from Roma parents who sent their offspring out to beg on the streets instead of to school. But a senior opposition member, Rosy Bindi, said the plan presupposed that all Gypsy minors were criminals. "This is a frankly unacceptable ethnic headcount," she said.

• Meditation, Yoga Might Switch Off Stress Genes - Researchers say they've taken a significant stride forward in understanding how relaxation techniques such as meditation, prayer and yoga improve health: by changing patterns of gene activity that affect how the body responds to stress. The changes were seen both in long-term practitioners and in newer recruits, the scientists said.

Tuesday 01st July 2008: -

• Truth Rising: The Blueprint For Change - Alex Jones’ 9/11 Chronicles Part One: Truth Rising is more than a rollercoaster adventure through the various expressions of the 9/11 truth movement, it pays homage to a form of direct activism that has corrupt politicians scuttling for cover across the country as their crimes are exposed in public. The film is a blueprint for unravelling the 9/11 cover-up and going on the offensive in the name of truth. Arriving amidst a barrage of abuse, death threats and corporate media hit pieces directed towards the 9/11 Truth Movement, 9/11 Chronicles Part One: Truth Rising is a reminder of the core principles that unite us and what we have collectively achieved over the course of the last few years alone.

• Five homes raided under Terror Act - Five houses were raided by police today as part of an inquiry into a gang suspected of promoting extremist views and radicalising vulnerable people. The properties were all in Stoke-on-Trent, including three in Cobridge, one in the High Lane area of Burslem and one in Tunstall, Staffordshire Police said. A spokesman said the raids were part of an "ongoing investigation into the activities of a small group of people suspected of being involved in promoting violent extremist views and radicalising vulnerable community members". He added: "They are being conducted under the Terrorism Act and have been prompted by concerns about the activities of a small number of people in the local community."

• Stations to get x-ray security - Airport-style x-ray machines will be installed at London Underground and mainline rail stations across the UK this summer, but the government has ruled out increasing security at all terminals because it fears a passenger rebellion. Bag-screening machines and sniffer dogs would be placed at tube and mainline rail stations in the capital and other cities from this week, the Department for Transport said. However, a trial had found that introducing airport-style checks across the board would be impractical and would antagonise the public, the DfT added. The transport minister, Tom Harris, said the public would not accept the delays that would be caused by a widespread security clampdown and there would be objections about personal privacy if an extensive screening regime were introduced.

• Obama Supporters Organize to Protest Candidate's Stance on Spying - Barack Obama tapped his sizeable grassroots network on Saturday, coordinating over 4,000 "Unite for Change" meetups across the country through the campaign's social networking portal, MyBo. At the same time, however, other supporters worked furiously over the weekend to organize a new MyBo campaign to protest and pressure Obama. Many activists are outraged by the Senator's recent announcement that he will back a controversial bill to grant the Executive more spying powers and immunize telephone companies accused of illegal surveillance. Both efforts demonstrate how Obama's national network, which broke fundraising records and turned the first term Senator into an unlikely presidential nominee, can respond to top-down edicts and spring into action for self-organized protests.

• Many Democrats Object as House Passes Spying Bill - The House passed legislation to expand spying authority, despite the objections of most Democratic lawmakers, almost ensuring that a White House-backed surveillance measure will become law. The heated debate reflected a sharp split between liberal and moderate-to-conservative Democrats in an election year when Republicans are seeking to bludgeon Democrats on national-security matters. Party leaders had worked feverishly to mend the rift for several months, but were unable to find a solution that could pass muster with both liberal House lawmakers and the Senate. Reflecting these tensions, presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama announced Friday he would support the bill.

• Iran: Ahmadinejad was target of foiled U.S. 'X-ray plot' - American agents made an attempt on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's life during his visit to the UN food summit in Rome last month, Iran's IRNA news agency has reported. Former Iranian ambassador to Rome said that Ahmadinejad's bodyguards had foiled the American "X-ray plot," whereby the Iranian leader was to be exposed to excessive radiation. The bodyguards found that the metal detectors installed at the ambassador's residence gave off radiation measuring three times the normal level, the former ambassador said. The three-day summit at the UN Food and Agriculture headquarters in Rome was meant to tackle acute emergencies caused by soaring food prices across the globe, and how to help small farmers in poor countries produce enough food.

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