30th NOVEMBER 2005

• EPA Plans to Test 9-11 Dust — The Environmental Protection Agency has offered its final plan for testing dust left from the World Trade Center collapse in Lower Manhattan. WNYC's Kathryn Herzog reports. The $7 million plan calls for testing of any dust lingering in private homes and businesses south of Canal Street and west of Pike and Allen streets. The tests are for asbestos, lead and other toxins left over from the World Trade Center attacks nearly four years ago.

• Iraq Misses Deadline on Torture Probe: Iraq's Government Misses Two-Week Deadline to Complete Investigation of Torture Allegations - Iraq's government missed a two-week deadline Wednesday to complete an investigation into torture allegations at an Interior Ministry lockup, a probe which Amnesty International warned may show a pattern of abuse of prisoners by government forces.

• While Americans snooze, a creeping police state grows - Almost imperceptibly, American freedoms are shrinking with only scant objections from a few voices in the proverbial wilderness. The modus: creating the fear of terrorism and the corresponding need for stringent new "national security" measures. Consider a U.S. Supreme Court decision this week. The court denied the appeal of a former FBI translator fired after complaining vital intelligence was poorly translated and that one colleague was engaged in espionage. Even the Justice Department's inspector general concluded the translator's allegations had merit. Yet, the high court's justices refused to listen to the translator's appeal for reinstatement because the FBI claimed—without a shred of proof—that "national security" was at stake and therefore the case shouldn't be heard.

• Zambia bans Brazilian church in satanism row - Zambia has banned the local branch of Brazil's Universal Church of the Kingdom of God after claims its leaders were satanists, the government said on Wednesday. "There are reports that two men within the Church had been painted and that the same church was practicing Satanism," Home Affairs Permanent Secretary Peter Mumba said in a statement.

• Straw quizzes US on 'CIA flights' - The foreign secretary has written to Washington over claims that the CIA has used EU airports to move suspects to other countries for torture. Jack Straw said the letter "expressed concern" on behalf of all EU countries and he was waiting for a response.

• Two in court over al-Jazeera 'bombing' memo - A civil servant and a former MP’s researcher appeared in court today charged with leaking an account of a conversation between Tony Blair and George Bush, in which the US President allegedly suggested bombing al-Jazeera, the Arab news network. David Keogh, 49, a former communications officer at the Cabinet Office, and Leo O’Connor, 42, a one-time researcher for the former Labour MP, Anthony Clarke, appeared at Bow Street Magistrates Court charged under the Official Secrets Act.

• Weldon rips 9/11 commission over intelligence failures - Still wearing his makeup from an appearance on CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight," U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon, R-7, of Thornbury, told a packed house at the township library Tuesday evening about his concerns regarding the 9/11 Commission. The congressman said the military intelligence unit Able Danger identified four Sept. 11 hijackers in 2000, more than a year before the attacks. He said the commission, charged with investigating intelligence failures, deliberately excluded the input from its July 2004 final report. Members of the commission have repeatedly denied the claims.

• Police Taser autistic teen at school: Boy charged in south Fort Myers incident - A 15-year-old autistic boy was shocked with a Taser at Cypress Lake High School in south Fort Myers after striking teachers, an officer and an assistant principal, police said. The teen was charged with disturbing the peace, interfering with a school function and resisting an officer without violence after the incident last week, according to the Lee County Sheriff's Office.

• 40% of child deaths Aids-related - HIV/Aids is the leading cause of death of South African children under the age of five. Diseases of poverty account for a further 30% of deaths in this age group, the Children's Institute (CI) has said. The HIV/Aids pandemic is first among a number of factors that are standing in the way of realising child rights in South Africa, and the country needs a comprehensive response to children infected and affected by the disease.

• Food regulator calls for release of cancer study data on aspartame - EU processors will have to wait longer to find out if they can continue to use aspartame, after the EU's food safety regulator said it had still not received evidence from an Italian research centre indicating that the artificial sweetener causes cancer. In a press statement the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) urged the Ramazzini Institute in Italy to release the data it had on aspartame. EFSA said it had first made its request in June after Ramazzini published its claims in a scientific journal. The request was renewed in September.

• Tanner to speak on topic of ‘New World Order’: Congressman frequent critic of administration’s handling federal budget, entitlement programs - Tennessee’s Eighth District U.S. Representative John Tanner will speak at the University of Tennessee at Martin at 4 p.m., Nov. 30, in Watkins Auditorium of the Boling University Center. His presentation, “The United States and the New World Order,” is open to the public.

29th NOVEMBER 2005

• Vanunu Speaks Out About 'Illegal Incarceration' and Harrassment by Israeli Authorities - Two weeks after Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli nuclear whistle blower, was jailed for 36 hours on alleged parole violations he tells why he feels 'unfairly targeted' as well as telling why his freedom of speech and association rights are being disregarded. Even though he already spent 18 years in jail, it looks like authorities are looking 'for any little thing' to put him behind bars.

• Bishop apologizes to victims of abuse - The bishop of the Fairbanks Catholic Diocese published an open letter in Sunday's newspaper apologizing to victims of sexual abuse by church representatives. The Bishop Donald Kettler reaffirmed his promise to bring healing to those harmed by child sexual abuse and to update the diocese's efforts to prevent abuse from happening in the future.

• ACTIVIST JUDGE BETRAYS MILLION VOTERS, STABS PROPERTY OWNERS - Constitutional property rights are threatened by an Oregon activist judge. Oregon judges past and present have no intention of allowing voter approved measures to constrain illegal land use laws. The courts, sympathetic to the radical environmental movement, are euthanizing both the state and federal Constitution to accomplish their political agenda of land control without payment.

• Video airs of purported hostages in Iraq: Christian group says 4 aid workers kidnapped - The Arabic-language channel Al-Jazeera on Tuesday broadcast a video issued by an unknown group showing what it claimed were four hostages. The group, which called itself "the Swords of Justice," said the four were spies and claimed they worked under the cover of "the Christian Peace group," according to Al-Jazeera. CNN cannot independently verify the video's authenticity.

• Miami Police Take New Tack Against Terror - Police are planning "in-your-face" shows of force in public places, saying the random, high-profile security operations will keep terrorists guessing about where officers might be next. As an example, uniformed and plainclothes officers might surround a bank building unannounced, contact the manager about ways to be vigilant against terrorists and hand out leaflets in three languages to customers and people passing by, said police spokesman Angel Calzadilla. He said there would be no random checks of identification.

• Canadian Vote Means Ouster of Lower House - Canadian politicians will hit the campaign trail this holiday season after opposition parties seized upon a corruption scandal to bring down the minority government of Prime Minister Paul Martin in a vote of no confidence.

28th NOVEMBER 2005

• French quizzed on Di's death - A EUROPEAN court has reportedly ordered French authorities to answer questions about the car crash which killed Princess Diana. The European Court of Human Rights had given the French Government until February 6 to explain, among other things, why it took so long for Diana to reach hospital and why her body was embalmed, Britain's Daily Express newspaper reported.    (RELATED: See our popular 'Diana Assassination' Archive for more info).

• Indonesia deploys British arms against protesters - British military equipment is being used by the Indonesian authorities against civilians in remote parts of the country. Despite promises by Foreign Office ministers that UK arms exported to the country are not used for internal repression, a photograph seen by The Observer shows a British-made Tactica water cannon vehicle deployed in the troubled eastern province of West Papua.

• CIA accused of running secret prisons abroad - The US Central Intelligence Agency is alleged to have been running secret prisons in Asia and eastern Europe where it interrogates suspected al-Qaeda prisoners. Human Rights Watch, the US-based organisation, yesterday said there was strong evidence, including the flight records of CIA jets transporting prisoners out of Afghanistan, that Poland and Romania were among countries allowing the CIA to operate secret detention centres in their countries.

• Campaigners up the ante in ID card battle - CAMPAIGNERS fighting plans to introduce a national identity register and ID cards are bringing a biometrics roadshow to the Capital. The move by the NO2ID pressure group is aimed at highlighting some of the pitfalls of using biometrics to capture finger prints and facial images to be stored on the controversial ID cards.

• 50 babies a year are alive after abortion - The debate over abortion was reignited last night after it emerged that 50 babies survive botched terminations in Britain every year. The figures are the first to show the true scale of a problem thought to have been confined to just a handful of babies.

• 'Trophy' video exposes private security contractors shooting up Iraqi drivers - A "trophy" video appearing to show security guards in Baghdad randomly shooting Iraqi civilians has sparked two investigations after it was posted on the internet, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal. The video has sparked concern that private security companies, which are not subject to any form of regulation either in Britain or in Iraq, could be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent Iraqis.

27th NOVEMBER 2005

• Secrets of the CIA: A video documentary courtesy of Google Video - click here to watch

• Pentagon Expanding Its Domestic Surveillance Activity: Fears of Post-9/11 Terrorism Spur Proposals for New Powers - The Defense Department has expanded its programs aimed at gathering and analyzing intelligence within the United States, creating new agencies, adding personnel and seeking additional legal authority for domestic security activities in the post-9/11 world.   (RELATED: See our 'Big Brother' archive for more background info)

• Slogan for German feelgood campaign was used by Nazis - The organisers of a €30m (£20m) mass media campaign designed to make Germans feel good about themselves were suffering acute embarrassment yesterday after it emerged that Adolf Hitler's Nazi party had got there first. Germany's media and publishing companies launched the campaign, entitled "Du Bist Deutschland" (You Are Germany), last September. The project, which shows moody photographs and television shots of sporting heroes and celebrities, aims to change Germans' traditionally pessimistic view of themselves.

• Britain gives approval to torture, claims Amnesty - Tony Blair has been accused of undermining decades of British campaigning for international human rights by using the war on terror to give a "green light" to torture. Amnesty International is to launch an unprecedented global campaign tomorrow against the British Government after ministers admitted they would use information gained by torture to prevent attacks on the United Kingdom.

• The leak that revealed Bush's deep obsession with al-Jazeera - The US president planned to bomb the Qatar-based channel - that was the remarkable claim made in a top-secret memo. Why is the world's most powerful man so worried about a TV station?

• Britain's gay, lesbian couples soon can walk down the aisle - Normally, a Wednesday in December would be a slow day for weddings at Brighton Town Hall. But there will be lots of confetti and rice on Dec. 21. Debra Reynolds and her colleagues who conduct civil ceremonies for Brighton and Hove City Council are booked starting at 8 a.m. for 16 sets of vows — all gay or lesbian couples entering into civil partnerships under a law passed last November.

• What did U.S. military know before 9/11?: Congress wants to hear more about allegations that four hijackers were identified before they acted - A top-secret military program set up six years ago to probe the Al-Qaida terrorist network is provoking fierce new debate about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

• Rights abuse 'worse than Saddam' - FORMER Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi says human rights abuse in the country is as bad, if not worse, than it was under Saddam Hussein. "People are doing the same as (in) Saddam Hussein's time and worse, " Dr Allawi told British Sunday newspaper The Observer. "These are the precise reasons why we fought Saddam Hussein and now we are seeing the same things."

26th NOVEMBER 2005

• Princess Diana's death still remains a mystery: Several years after the tragical day several facts made people look at the accident at a different angle - The tragedy happened on 31 August 1997 when Diana died in a crash in a tunnel under the Place dу l'Alma in the centre of Paris. At that time the most reasonable explanation was the intoxication of the driver and simple misfortune. But what did actually happen? Several years after the tragical day several facts made people look at the accident at a different angle.  (RELATED: See our popular 'Diana Assassination' Archive for more info).

• FBI WATCHES JOURNALISTS - Using powers granted by the U.S. Patriot Act, the FBI has stepped up surveillance on journalists in an effort to plug leaks from a Bush Administration paranoid of potential scandals. Justice Department sources say in reports that wiretaps, e-mail intercepts, and daily monitoring of reporters’ activities are just a few of the actions of a program authorized by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Surveillance of reporters is just part of increased federal efforts to monitor Americans’ daily activities.

• Referendum sought in fluoride debate - Residents opposed to a plan to add fluoride to Wangaratta and Wodonga drinking water are calling for a referendum on the issue. The Victorian Government says the introduction of fluoride will help prevent tooth decay and has widespread community support. But Wodonga resident Marilyn Edgar is circulating a petition aimed at blocking the move due to health concerns.

• An Innocent Man in the Hell of Guantánamo - He's forgotten nothing of the pain, the humiliation, the solitude. American investigators took a year to clear him. And another year to free him. Beyond the revolting injustice to which he was victim, former journalist Bader Zaman denounces the arbitrariness of American detention centers.

• Hospital to test ID chip in patients - A controversial device that can store security information and is the size of a grain of rice will make its way into the right arms of some 50 volunteering Arrowhead Regional Medical Center patients. But, its purpose here won't be to provide bank account or e-mail passwords to the Colton hospital's staff. The VeriMed microchip system will be used to store valuable information such as type of allergies and current medication so physicians can determine the safest treatment in the event someone is unconscious or unable to speak.

• How US Anthropoligists Planned "Race-Specific" Weapons Against the Japanese - During the Second World War, over two dozen anthropologists worked for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the institutional predecessor to the CIA, performing a variety of tasks ranging from covert-ops to desk-bound propaganda analysis.

• Writers Threatened by Australian Anti-Terror Laws: "These draconian Anti-Terrorism Laws will threaten free speech and the integrity of Australian teachers, researchers, schools and universities – and hence profoundly corrupt the next generation of Australians." - A vocal humanitarian writer and scientist, I have been publicly identified in an expert and humane submission to the Senate Committee Inquiry into the proposed Australian Anti-Terrorism Laws [1] as threatened by the “sedition” provisions of these laws on account of my recent broadcast on Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality on ABC Radio National.

• VIDEO - White House Pushed UK to Kill al-Jazeera Bombing Story: Bush wanted to bomb Arab news network to prevent reports on Falluja attack - On Wednesday, Downing Street threatened The Daily Mirror with prosecution under the Britain's Official Secrets act for the disclosing a memo that indicated Blair had convinced Bush not to bomb the Arab language news network al-Jazeera.

• Fears raised on ID card proposals - Concerns of fraud, computer overload and the cost of identity cards have been raised with a committee of MPs. Security safeguards for the cards were "no more" than that for chip and pin bank cards, a London School of Economics academic told the committee.

• CREATING CRISES: Syria accuses US of launching lethal raids over its borders - Syria has accused the United States of launching lethal military raids into its territory from Iraq, escalating the diplomatic crisis between the two countries as the Bush administration seeks to step up pressure on President Bashar Assad's regime.   (RELATED: See our 'Problem > Reaction > Solution' for more background info)

25th NOVEMBER 2005

• Fury over gagging threat 'to spare Bush's blushes' - THE Attorney-General was accused last night of using the Official Secrets Act “big stick” to gag newspapers in an attempt to save President Bush from further embarrassment over Iraq. Lord Goldsmith threatened newspapers on Tuesday with prosecution under the Act if they published details from a record of a conversation between Mr Bush and Tony Blair from April last year, when the President is alleged to have suggested bombing al-Jazeera, the Arabic television network.

• Video catches Malaysian abuse of Chinese woman - Malaysian officials have launched an investigation into the alleged abuse of a Chinese woman in police detention. A video clip taken on a mobile phone apparently shows the woman being stripped and forced to do squats by a woman constable in a police station.

• Brazil's police 'execute thousands' - Hundreds, possibly thousands of people are shot by police every year in Brazil, a BBC investigation has found. The authorities say it is mainly criminals caught in military-style raids on drug gangs but according to a former senior official, new evidence suggests that many of the shootings are cold-blooded executions conducted by the police.

• US army cuts teeth on video game - America's Army is one of the most popular computer games on the planet and like many games, it is a shoot-em-up, get-the-bad guys kind of affair. But unlike other games, America's Army is truly a product of the US military. The Army first released the game a few years ago as a recruiting tool.

• Report drops Fallujah bombshell - The controversy over the American use of white phosphorus as a weapon of war in Fallujah deepened yesterday when it was revealed that a US intelligence assessment had characterised WP as a "chemical weapon".

24th NOVEMBER 2005

• Investigating the 'death metal' murders - One man's relentless search for his missing son led him to uncover one of the most shocking crimes in post-war Italy - a tale of satanism and violence that has gripped the country for more than a year.

• TiVo Sees RFID-enabled personal video recorders - TiVo Inc has a notion that RFID may be used, at some future point, in clothing, jewelry or under the skin in order to help a personal video recorder recognize the viewer and tailor content accordingly. The company recently filed an application for a patent with the US Patent and Trademark Office for a mobile personalization system that uses RF tags and a DVR.

• Utah Lawyer Hospitalized After Being Targeted by Homeland Security for Information Linking Five U.S. Supreme Court Justices With Bribery Over Bush v. Gore Decision - The head of a Chicago-based court reform group said the attorney, Paul Young, was targeted by 'American Gestapo Agents' posing as businessmen. Sherman Skolnick says he has been warned by a federal judge that he also is a target of a bogus Homeland Security probe that may land the 50-year 'judge busting' truth seeker in jail.

• Aspartame Causes Cancer in Rats at Levels Currently Approved for Humans - A statistically significant increase in the incidence of malignant tumors, lymphomas and leukemias in rats exposed to varying doses of aspartame appears to link the artificial sweetener to a high carcinogenicity rate, according to a study accepted for publication today by the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP).

• Legal gag on Bush-Blair war row - The attorney general last night threatened newspapers with the Official Secrets Act if they revealed the contents of a document allegedly relating to a dispute between Tony Blair and George Bush over the conduct of military operations in Iraq.

• Able Danger: Uncovering the 9/11 Cover-up: More Than Half of House Reps. Wants Hearings on Able Danger - Writing for the Wall Street Journal's opinion page, former FBI Director Louis Freeh has become the most recent critic of the 9/11 Commission's investigation into the terrorist attacks that killed 3,000 Americans. He also leveled criticism at the 9/11 Commission Report, which he says is flawed because it is incomplete.

23rd NOVEMBER 2005

• NO2ID: Poll shows 50:50 split on ID cards - Campaign group NO2ID today released the results of an ICM poll of 1,013 adults commissioned last week, which shows a continued drop in support for ID cards to 50% and a rise in public opposition to the Home Office scheme to 48%.

• Flu Drug is Killing People - The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is investigating reports that the deaths of 12 Japanese children may be linked to the anti-viral drug Tamiflu. The possibility has caused alarm, since millions of doses of the drug are currently being stockpiled for use in a potential flu pandemic. Dr. Mercola's Comment: "I swear this whole bird flu saga is something straight from some television mini-series or fiction novel. However, as you know, you couldn't make up a story like this tale of greed and political corruption..."

• Report: 9/11-Iraq link refuted days after attack: Magazine says administration refused to give key docs to Senate committed - Ten days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, President Bush was advised that U.S. intelligence found no credible connection linking the attacks to the regime of Saddam Hussein, or evidence suggesting linkage between Saddam and the al-Qaida terrorist network, according to a published report.

• Al-Jazeera seeks answers over 'bombing' memo - Arabic TV news channel al-Jazeera has called on the US and UK governments to provide a "good explanation" for comments allegedly made by George Bush about a plan to bomb its Qatar headquarters. The comments, which surfaced in a leaked memo, alleged that the American president considered bombing al-Jazeera's offices in Doha, the capital of Qatar, at the height of last year's Iraqi insurgency in Falluja.

• Epidemic Rule Seeks Report of Travelers' Flu Symptoms - Travelers entering the U.S. with fever and other flu-like symptoms would be reported by the airline or ship that brought them, under new rules proposed today, a U.S. public-health official said.

• Protesters Arrested Near President Bush's Texas Ranch - A dozen war protesters were arrested Wednesday for setting up camp near President Bush's ranch in defiance of new local bans on roadside camping and parking. About four hours after the group pitched six tents and huddled in sleeping bags and blankets, McLennan County sheriff's deputies arrested them for criminal trespassing.

22nd NOVEMBER 2005

• Catholic Monsignor Arrested, Charged With Fondling Boys - The former vicar general of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix was arrested Monday on charges he fondled boys and young men and asked them prying questions about their sex lives that he pretended were part of confession.

• Torture still widely practiced in China - The UN special envoy on torture has said that his invitation to visit China indicates growing awareness in Beijing that the practice is still widely used. Manfred Nowak told the BBC he had been promised the freedom to see prisoners and investigate claims of torture.

• 9-11 Probers Leave Questions Behind - The private watchdog group formed by the former members of the 9-11 Commission is closing up shop. The announcement of its last media event—a December 5 briefing where the 9-11 Discourse Project "will issue its final assessment of progress on all 9/11 Commission recommendations"—came today.

21st NOVEMBER 2005

• CIA does not use torture: director - The CIA uses “unique and innovative ways” to obtain vital information from prisoners but strictly obeys laws against torture, CIA director Porter Goss said. He defended the organisation against allegations of torture, claiming there was a “huge amount of misinformation” swirling about on the subject of detainees.

• Council motion to oppose ID cards - On 22nd November, Bristol City Council will be voting on a motion designed to hinder the Government's controversial ID Cards Bill. Experts believe that the plan to collate all Government databases into the biggest database on citizens in the world may lead to a surveillance state similar to that of George Orwell's 1984.

• Internet may become powerful political tool - The Internet in China is heavily driven by entertainment but has the potential of becoming a powerful political weapon, according to a poll. The survey, directed by a Chinese professor and funded by a US foundation, showed that 84 percent of Internet users sought information on the Web, mostly pertaining to entertainment.

• Clarke 'sceptical' about arming police - The home secretary, Charles Clarke, said today that he remained "sceptical" about routinely arming police officers, saying there was evidence it encouraged criminals to carry guns.

• U.S. rebuffs talk of al-Zarqawi's death (again) - U.S. forces sealed off a house in the northern city of Mosul where eight suspected Al Qaeda of Iraq members died in a gunfight -- some by their own hand to avoid capture. Authorities were trying Sunday to determine whether one of the eight was terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a U.S. official said.

• Report: Cheney advocated U.S. torture - The U.S. practice of using torture on terror detainees was rooted in Vice President Dick Cheney's office, a former senior State Department official claims. Retired U.S. Army Col. Larry Wilkerson, who served as former Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff, made the allegation to CNN, and said it was possible the practice was still going on.

• British WWI Veteran Dies at Age 109 - Alfred Anderson, the last known survivor of the 1914 "Christmas Truce" that saw British and German soldiers exchanging gifts and handshakes in no man's land, died early Monday, his parish priest said. He was 109. His death leaves fewer than 10 veterans of World War I alive in Britain.

• Texas sues Sony BMG for spyware violations - Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed a civil lawsuit on Monday against Sony BMG Music Entertainment (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) for including "spyware" software on its media player designed to thwart music copying. According to the lawsuit filed in Travis County, several of the company's music compact discs require customers to download Sony's media players if they want to listen to the CDs on a computer.

• India introduces ID card system at ‘Chhoti’ transits: Report - India has unilaterally introduced compulsory identity card system for Nepalis entering India through 'Chhoti' transits, a newspaper report said on Monday. As per the new rule, Nepali nationals have to produce identity card or other documents identifying themselves while entering India from the transit point and inform Indian security officials where they are going and why.

20th NOVEMBER 2005

• Government tested AIDS drugs on foster kids: Children not provided with basic legal protection, review finds - Government-funded researchers tested AIDS drugs on hundreds of foster children over the past two decades, often without providing them a basic protection afforded in federal law and required by some states, an Associated Press review has found. The research funded by the National Institutes of Health spanned the country. It was most widespread in the 1990s as foster care agencies sought treatments for their HIV-infected children that weren’t yet available in the marketplace.

• Black magic, murder and madness in Satanist South Africa: The fixation with the occult dates back to apartheid, writes Gavin du Venage in Cape Town - A CHURCH custodian is murdered in the dead of night and his mutilated corpse, bearing vicious stab wounds to his head and side mimicking those of Jesus Christ on the cross, is left in front of the altar. On the ground, in the victim's blood, is written the word "Satun" (sic). 

• Secret death squads feared among Iraq's commandos - Among the varied armed security men on Baghdad's streets these days, you can't miss the police commandos. In combat uniforms, bulletproof vests and wrap-around sunglasses or ski masks, they muscle through Baghdad's traffic jams in police cars or camouflage-painted pickup trucks, clearing nervous drivers from their path with shouted commands and the occasional gunshot in the air.

• Government’s left and right hand disagree in public - As the pressure mounts in the debate over the Identity Cards project, Dame Stella Rimmington’s harsh criticisms of the scheme last night have prompted the Minister in charge, Andy Burnham, to make wild claims about the card’s benefits and capabilities.

• Jordan tightens security and speeds anti-terror laws - Jordan is tightening security and speeding up anti-terror laws to ensure the country is better protected against bombings, Interior Minister Awni Yarfas said on Saturday.  (RELATED: See our 'Problem > Reaction > Solution' for more background info)

• Washington Post Explains How the Nazi-Created CIA Protects Us: by Kurt Nimmo - Dana Priest of the Washington Post tells us the CIA has "joint operation centers in more than 2 dozen nations" and the agency’s job is "to track and capture suspected terrorists and to destroy or penetrate their networks." Never mind that the CIA created the Islamic Terror Network (along with MI6, Mossad, and other intelligence "services") and this is sort of like a cop selling drugs to a street corner pusher and then busting the dealer and his customers.

• Train more of us to use guns, say police - Thousands more police must be trained in the use of firearms, according to rank-and-file officers who joined politicians and police chiefs last night to urge immediate action to tackle the spread of Britain's gun culture.  (COMMENTARY: But I thought that guns are illegal in the UK, how can there still be guns on the streets?... I'm kidding of course!)

• Strange shrine leads to Satanism fears - EVIDENCE of what authorities have described satanic rituals has been discovered in the cemetery of St George Kontou in Larnaca. On Wednesday night, satanic symbols were placed at the entrance to the cemetery including an animal’s skull and skin. Other strange symbols were placed upon a map and candles had also been lit. The head of the cemetery Papaphilipos Zachariou, a priest, expressed his sadness over the incident, which is the first time since 1974 that evidence of satanism has been discovered on holy ground.

• American Christian Fundamentalist Leader Calls For Global War - If Christian fundamentalists are to be believed, America's invasion of Iraq and the consequent brutal slaughter of thousands of innocent civilians in that country are all part of a grand divine plan that will finally culminate in the 'second coming' of Jesus Christ. Establishing an empire that will extend all over the globe, Christ will rule like a powerful monarch, saving those who believe in him and dispatching non-believers, all non-Christians and non-conformist Christians, to everlasting perdition in hell.

19th NOVEMBER 2005

• Gatso 2: rollout of UK's '24x7 vehicle movement database' begins - A "24x7 national vehicle movement database" that logs everything on the UK's roads and retains the data for at least two years is now being built, according to an Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) strategy document leaked to the Sunday Times. The system, which will use Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), and will be overseen from a control centre in Hendon, London, is a sort of 'Gatso 2' network, extending. enhancing and linking existing CCTV, ANPR and speedcam systems and databases.

• Iraqi says he was held with hundreds in secret jail - An Iraqi man told on Thursday how he was tortured along with hundreds of other detainees in an Interior Ministry building similar to a secret bunker at the center of a prisoner abuse scandal.

• More than 80 000 held by US since 9/11 attacks - The United States has detained more than 80 000 people in facilities from Afghanistan to Cuba since the attacks on the World Trade Centre four years ago, the Pentagon said on Thursday. The disclosure comes at a time of growing unease about Washington's treatment of prisoners in its "war on terror" and Europe's unknowing help in the CIA's practice of rendition.

17th NOVEMBER 2005

• Crimestoppers launches on the net - Crimestoppers is launching an FBI-style (Stasi) website aimed at tracking down Britain's most wanted suspected criminals. For the first time police will be able to post details of the most wanted crime suspects in the country online.

• Passport prices soar to £170 for family of four - The price of a standard passport is to leap by more than a fifth to fund controversial fingerprinting and face-scanning security checks, the Home Office has announced. The cost of the travel documents will rise from £42 to £51 for adults from December 1. Charges increased 27 per cent just two years ago.

• MS patients to be given cannabis spray drug - A cannabis-based medicine is being made available to British patients with multiple sclerosis for the first time following approval from the Home Office for its importation from Canada. The oral spray derived from the cannabis plant will be available on prescription for around £4 a day. Research indicates that it relieves the pain and spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis.

• Shocking pictures released of 'tortured' Iraqi prisoners - GRUESOME images of battered and bruised Iraqi prisoners allegedly tortured by Shiah militants inside a Baghdad jail were released today. The series of pictures show prisoners, both men and teenagers, with injuries which appear to have been caused by beatings. One man's leg appears to have been beaten to such an extent that his upper leg is just a mass of black and blue.

• Documents Show Nixon Deception on Cambodia - Even after Richard Nixon's secret war in Cambodia became known, the president persisted in deception. "Publicly, we say one thing," he told aides. "Actually, we do another."

• ALERT: EPA TO ALLOW PESTICIDE TESTING ON ORPHANS & MENTALLY HANDICAPPED CHILDREN: Public comments are now being accepted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on its newly proposed federal regulation regarding the testing of chemicals and pesticides on human subjects. On August 2, 2005, Congress had mandated the EPA create a rule that permanently bans chemical testing on pregnant women and children. But the EPA's newly proposed rule, misleadingly titled "Protections for Subjects in Human Research," puts industry profits ahead of children's welfare.

• Believe 9-11 Was an Inside Job? Leave the Country! - Swanson frozen food heir, Tucker Carlson, host of MSNBC’s The Situation with Tucker Carlson, believes you should get out of America if you believe nine eleven was an inside job. Responding to a caller after Brigham Young University physics professor Steven E. Jones—who believes there were "pre-positioned explosives" in all three buildings at ground zero—appeared on his show, Carlson declared: "…if you really believe the U.S. government killed 3000 of its own citizens for no reason and lied about it and invaded Afghanistan as a result of something it did, you ought to leave the country… because that’s so terrible… so evil, that your tax dollars go in to support it make you complicit in it… if you really believe that, you ought to leave…"

16th NOVEMBER 2005

• CIA Accused of Using Airport in Mallorca: Spanish Court Gets Report Accusing CIA Used Airport on Mediterranean Island to Transfer Suspects — The National Court has received a prosecutor's report on allegations that the CIA used an airport on the Spanish island of Mallorca for a program of covert transfers of terror suspects, court officials said Monday.

• UNDERMINING THE FAMILY STRUCTURE: Head offering pregnancy tests to girls aged 11 - A school has been attacked for offering pregnancy tests to girls as young as 11 - without telling their parents it was setting up the scheme. The initiative is intended to reduce teenage pregnancies in the surrounding area, which has one of the highest rates in Britain.

• The Nazi Scientists of America: After the war, 118 German rocket scientists worked together at Fort Bliss, Texas. - The front page of The New York Times on November 17, 1945, bore a curiously vague headline: “88 German Scientists Reach Here, Reputedly With Top War Secrets.” The scientists had arrived on a converted ocean liner the day before—60 years ago today—and been immediately “whisked away” aboard a fleet of buses.

• NM Takes Steps To Ban Aspartame In Schools - As VRP reported in the October 2005 VR News President's Desk, the people of New Mexico spearheaded a movement to try to ban the sale and distribution of aspartame-containing foods in New Mexico. Stephen Fox's New Mexico Nutrition Council and the people of his state won a substantial victory when the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Board (EIB) agreed to hear the aspartame rule change proposal, which would ban its sale in that state. The Board voted 4-2 to convene five days of hearings in July.

• Call for ID cards to get smart - The idea of a UK identity card has stirred up controversy but it looks increasingly likely to become part of most people's wallets from 2008. The scheme faces a rocky ride through the Lords before it makes it onto the statute book, and critics are likely to continue arguing that the scheme is unnecessarily intrusive and offers few benefits.

• Strom Thurmond High School eliminates ID cards; deploys BIO-key's Biometric Identification software - A South Carolina high school has abandoned regular student ID cards, choosing instead to go with an ID system that would work with its current cafeteria and library software. The school chose something students couldn't lose or forget--biometric finger scanning from BIO-key.

• Ex-detainee says torture widespread in Iraq bunker - An Iraqi student who said he was held with prisoners in an Interior Ministry bunker described on Wednesday how he was hung blindfolded in excruciating positions and called a "Sunni dog" by his Shi'ite interrogators.

• The Al-Zarqawi 11/9 Amman Bombings: More Holes in the Official Story - by Michel Chossudovsky

15th NOVEMBER 2005

• Commuters face airport-style scans - Rail and London Underground passengers could soon face airport-style scanning techniques under new anti-terror plans, the transport secretary revealed today.

• 9/11 TRUTH NEWS - Professor Jones Exposes Controlled Demoltion of WTC on MSNBC - Tucker Carlson Visibly Shaken, Attemps to Keep Jones from Presenting Evidence.

• Invasion of privacy: Congress should curtail FBI powers under Patriot Act - Personal privacy, a bedrock principle of conservative political philosophy, is being invaded through a Patriot Act provision that allows the FBI to delve into the lives of ordinary Americans.

• 'Smart' CCTV could fight terrorist threat in stations - A SYSTEM of “intelligent CCTV” capable of alerting operators to packages left on trains and suspicious behaviour by passengers is being studied by rail chiefs, Alastair Darling, the Transport Secretary, said. Government scientists are working on the development of a 21st-century CCTV system and London Underground security experts are monitoring plans to put hundreds of the new generation of smart cameras on the New York subway.

• Who profited from Amman bombings: Israelis were evacuated hours before the attack - In the wake of recent bomb attacks targeting three hotels in the Jordanian capital Amman, the corporate media attempted to shape events to the liking of the Bushcons and the Israelis.

• PERSPECTIVE: Kate's Weekly Column - Article 32, 'ON TERROR AND TORTURE' By Kate Mucci

• Former 9/11 Commission Not Satisfied With Terror Response - The former 9/11 review committee does not believe the government is doing enough to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists. The former commission's chairman Thomas Kean concludes that, "the most striking thing to us is that the size of the problem still totally dwarfs the policy response."

• DRONES 'TO FLY OVER CITIES' - HONEYWELL is developing a micro flying spy drone -- that would be used for civilian law enforcement! The device, a hovering robot carrying video cameras and other sensors, is being created and tested at HONEYWELL's Albuquerque, NM plant.

• Angry Libyans call for vengeance - ...In this case, the accused are five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor. They have been charged with deliberately infecting the children as part of an Aids-related experiment.

14th NOVEMBER 2005

• France seeks to extend crisis law - The French cabinet is seeking to extend by three months a state of emergency aimed at controlling suburban unrest. Laws imposed last week to let councils impose curfews and ban rallies for 12 days are said to have been successful. Parliament is expected to approve the extension on Tuesday while police say the unrest appears to be declining.

• 9/11 'COCK-UP' THEORY: Ethics panel clears US senator in 9/11 leak probe - The Senate Ethics Committee has dropped its investigation of Sen. Richard Shelby regarding allegations he was the source of a media leak about how the National Security Agency handled messages before the Sept. 11 attacks.

• U.S. may have once detained Jordan bomber: Military says man with same name as one terrorist was held, then freed - American forces detained and later released an Iraqi with the same name as one of the suicide attackers who struck three hotels in Amman, Jordan, last week, the U.S. military said Monday.

• More Miraculous Or Perhaps Planted 9/11 Evidence Uncovered: A Wells Fargo Card From A Flight 11 Passenger Turns Up In Perfect Condition One Year After the Fact - The ATM card of Waleed Iskandar was returned to his parents, allegedly found by the Ground Zero Recovery Team on Sept. 11, 2002. Questions remain as to why it turned up a year later and how could such a flimsy card survive such a towering inferno?

• (Brainwashed) Jordanians mull (brainwashed) Iraqi woman's role in bombs - Some question confession, others ask: ‘What are these people made of’ - The televised confession of an Iraqi woman — accused of being the fourth would-be suicide attacker — set Jordanians buzzing Monday, with some expressing joy over her capture and others venting anger over her deadly plans.

• Printers and Privacy: Why Government-Sponsored Printer Identification Raises Serious Privacy Concerns - In my last column, I explained how the government now might be able to track us by using data generated by our cell phones. In this column, I will discuss another method of tracking - one that has been around far longer, but has gotten little publicity until recently.

• ANALYSIS: Did Al-Zarqawi Really Bomb Amman? - Al-Zarqawi was declared killed by the Americans during their invasion of Afghanistan. Then suddenly he re-appeared in Iraq to stage car bombings that killed only Iraqis rather than Americans, Al-Zarqawi’s real enemies. Now it is claimed that Al-Zarqawi’s terror is spilling over to the neighboring Arab countries. Al-Zarqawi is just a cover name for terror operations perpetrated by “American/Israeli/British Triad” to perpetuate its myth of “war against Islamic global terrorists” as a cover front for their war against the Arab World.

• The Jordan river of lies - There are all kinds of problems with the Official Story of the Jordanian bombings. I've mentioned some already, and here are some more...

• Revealed: UK wartime torture camp - The British government operated a secret torture centre during the second world war to extract information and confessions from German prisoners, according to official papers which have been unearthed by the Guardian. More than 3,000 prisoners passed through the centre, where many were systematically beaten, deprived of sleep, forced to stand still for more than 24 hours at a time and threatened with execution or unnecessary surgery.

• Officials not worried about privacy concerns: System would videotape scene when gunfire heard - Neither York Mayor John Brenner nor police Commissioner Mark Whitman are co