***BREAKING NEWS***

Saturday 30th September 2006: -

• Pakistan 'role in Mumbai attacks' - Pakistan's intelligence agency was behind the train blasts in Mumbai in July that killed 186 people, Indian police say. The attacks were planned by the ISI and carried out by the Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba, based in Pakistan, Mumbai's police chief said. AN Roy said the Students' Islamic Movement of India had also assisted. Pakistan rejected the allegations and said India had given no evidence of Pakistani involvement in the attacks.   (RELATED: See our Problem > Reaction > Solution archive for more background info)

• Total curfew declared in Baghdad - The Iraqi government has declared an immediate curfew in the capital, Baghdad, to run until Sunday morning. The move affects both vehicles and pedestrians, a spokesman for the Iraqi prime minister said. The spokesman did not reveal why a curfew was being put in place, but sectarian violence and blasts have been increasing in recent days.

• Gonzales Cautions Judges on Interfering - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who is defending President Bush's anti-terrorism tactics in multiple court battles, said Friday that federal judges should not substitute their personal views for the president's judgments in wartime. He said the Constitution makes the president commander in chief and the Supreme Court has long recognized the president's pre-eminent role in foreign affairs. "The Constitution, by contrast, provides the courts with relatively few tools to superintend military and foreign policy decisions, especially during wartime," the attorney general told a conference on the judiciary at Georgetown University Law Center.

• Secret US deal 'broke EU privacy law' - The secret release of information on millions of private banking transactions to US anti-terrorism investigators breached privacy rules in Europe, according to an official inquiry report released yesterday. The findings emerged from a report into the transfer of information by Swift, a Belgian-based organisation which processes money transfers on behalf of the world's banks, including the largest UK financial institutions.

• Agencies 'should share details' - Police, social workers and doctors should be forced to share details about potentially dangerous people, a police chief's organisation has said. A new report into killer Michael Stone found facts about his state of mind were not passed between agencies. Brian Moore, from the Association of Chief Police Officers, says avoidable tragedies could continue to occur without changes to regulations. He says too much importance can be given to patient confidentiality.

• Stone blasts Bush over 9/11 role - Director Oliver Stone has criticised President George Bush, saying he had "set the country back 10 years." Speaking at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, Stone condemned what he saw as the politicisation of the 9/11 attacks. He claimed the "overreaction" to the attacks had wasted resources, encouraged fanatics and made him "ashamed to be an American". Stone's new film is about two men who survived inside the World Trade Center.

Friday 29th September 2006: -

• US Senate backs terror trial bill - The US Senate has passed controversial legislation endorsing President George W Bush's proposals to interrogate and prosecute foreign terror suspects. The 65-34 vote followed Thursday's backing by the House of Representatives for almost identical legislation. The new bill could be signed into law by the president within a few days. Under the new legislation, special tribunals will be set up to question and try suspects being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

• Number 10 aide is quizzed over cash for peerages - The police investigation into the cash for peerages scandal moved a step closer to Tony Blair last night after it emerged that a senior Downing Street official has been interviewed by detectives. Reports claimed that Ruth Turner, one of the Prime Minister's political advisers, was questioned under caution last week. She is believed to have been asked about internal correspondence discussing the possibility of nominating Labour donors for peerages. She was interviewed as part of the Scotland Yard inquiry that has so far seen three people arrested and more than 40 interviewed about their links to the affair.

• Priests 'took US church millions' - A Catholic priest in the US is under arrest and another is on the run after being accused of stealing millions of dollars from their parishioners. Monsignor John Skehan, 79, was charged with grand theft, as Florida police searched for Father Francis Guinan. The two men are suspected of stealing a total of $8.6m (£4.6m) from their Palm Beach church and funding a lavish life of property, holidays and gambling. A lawyer for Monsignor Skehan said the figures were "over-sensationalised".

• Congressman accused of sending 'sick' emails to 16 year old boy - A Congressman has been accused of sending questionable emails to a sixteen-year old Capitol page, RAW STORY has learned. Reports circulated on the Internet earlier this week, indicating that in private emails, Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) had requested photographs of the page, asked what he wanted for his birthday, and inquired about his age.

Thursday 28th September 2006: -

• Angry Musharraf to raise ISI collusion claims with Blair - General Pervez Musharraf will hold talks with Tony Blair today amid controversy over a British government-commissioned report that claims Pakistan's spy network is too close to Muslim terrorists. The report by the Defence Academy - a Ministry of Defence thinktank - which was leaked to the BBC's Newsnight programme, is said to claim that, indirectly, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency had supported al-Qaeda and the Taleban and aided the Madrid and London bombers.   (COMMENTARY: This report is only the tip of the iceberg.  It is well known that the Pakistani ISI was funded and trained into existence by the CIA and has been used to assist terrorist campaigns such as we saw in the case of 9/11, when the (now former) head of the ISI Lieutenant-General Mahmoud Ahmed arranged the payment of $100,000 to be wired to Mohammad Atta, the alleged ring leader of the 9/11 hijackers.  And where was Ahmed the morning of 11th September 2001?  He was having breakfast with Porter Goss, former head of the CIA.  See our 9/11 archive for more background info)

• Video: BBC hidden cam shows China selling prisoners' organs - An undercover investigation by BBC News finds that China has a flourishing trade of organs from executed prisoners. China is becoming the destination of choice for rich foreigners in need of organ transplants. One hospital said it could provide a liver for about $100,000. China has more executions than any other country in the world. Officials told undercover reporters that executions increase prior to national holidays, so many organs are available around those times. The following video report features hidden camera footage of organs being sold in China: -

Courtesy of rawstory.com / RELATED: See our Chinas Sale of Human Organs archive

• Boys told no standing to urinate: 'It is a human right not to have to sit down like a girl' - It's an entirely new definition of "Standing Room Only." Or perhaps a new measure of "equality" has arrived. Whatever it is, it has sparked a huge political debate at a school in Kristiansand, Norway, according to the Norwegian paper Fædrelandsvennen. The trigger for the explosion of opinion? A decision in the local district that schoolboys must sit on toilet seats when urinating, not stand. According to the news report, the rule was announced for boys at Dvergsnes School, prompting outrage from Vidar Kleppe, the chief of The Democrats Party.

• Ped Med: Seeking allies in autism fight - Parents' push for progress in autism research and discovery has meant a pull for political allies. As families of children with the disorder and their supporters appear before federal committee hearings and state health panel reviews to demand long-overdue attention and action, some congressional and community leaders are starting to line up behind their cause. Among others, Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla., a medical doctor and persistent critic of the use of thimerosal in vaccines, has sponsored legislation to ban the mercury-based preservative from flu shots. The compound has been phased out of most childhood vaccines. Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., called congressional hearings in April 2002, when he was chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, to investigate an autism link to childhood vaccines after his grandson was diagnosed with the disorder.

Wednesday 27th September 2006: -

• VIDEO NOW ONLINE: Jesse Ventura Highlights Government Plan To Attack U.S. Cities & Kill Americans: Cites Northwoods, Gulf of Tonkin, JFK assassination, NORAD stand down as reasons to question official 9/11 story - In a sit-down video interview recorded on Monday night, former Minnesota Governor, pro-wrestling star and actor Jesse Ventura told radio host Alex Jones he found it very disturbing in light of what happened on 9/11 that the U.S. government had once planned to "attack certain cities within the United States," as a pretext for war.

• New Zealand Cashless society gets a step closer - Businesses that process customer payments at point of sale are discovering there is a wider range of payment technologies and services available to them. Along with the ubiquitous cash register and lone Eftpos terminal, Eftpos terminals able to accept new types of payment cards are being rolled out, as are IP PC systems that can be used at point of sale to process sales transactions without the need for an Eftpos terminal. As for mobile payment systems, Ian Bailey, managing director for Eftpos terminal distributor Cadmus, says it's not only taxis and fast food delivery firms using mobile Eftpos to process payments wirelessly. He says public transport companies, taxi companies and seminar and market day retailers also use mobile Eftpos, and the speed and reliability of both Telecom and Vodafone mobile data networks are suitable for the wireless transactions as Eftpos only sends a small amount of data each time.

• Nanotechnology Risks Unknown: Insufficient Attention Paid to Potential Dangers, Report Says - The United States is the world leader in nanotechnology -- the newly blossoming science of making incredibly small materials and devices -- but is not paying enough attention to the environmental, health and safety risks posed by nanoscale products, says a report released yesterday by the independent National Research Council. If federal officials, business leaders and others do not devise a plan to fill the gaps in their knowledge of nanotech safety, the report warns, the field's great promise could evaporate in a cloud of public mistrust.

• Search policy violates student privacy - Back in the first week of my college career, I was rudely woken one night by an obnoxious pounding down the hall. Some quick investigative work revealed two members of the Pullman Police Department at a nearby door. They’d smelled “something suspicious” on a walk-through and decided to wake everyone else up, too. Soon, I came to expect the residence hall patrols and the accompanying sense of unreasonable guilt. The residents’ most minute actions were subject to the scrutiny of police who didn’t give a damn about our rights to privacy within our own walls.

• Peaceful Iraq war protests prompt 71 arrests - Two Presbyterian ministers were among 71 people arrested during a series of peaceful protests against the Iraq war Tuesday, said a spokeswoman for a group participating in the protests. Demonstrators held sit-ins, prayer services and sing-alongs at four locations in the Capitol complex, including the central atrium of the Senate Hart Office Building. The demonstrations were reminiscent of the Vietnam era, with protesters strumming guitars, singing peace songs, holding flowers and wearing hats made of balloons.

• American Barcode and RFID Announces TETRAGATE, Which Links Biometric Facial Recognition and RFID, Creating Formidable Security Solution: Industry Innovators Unveil System Promising the Tracking of 'Any Asset - One Network' - American Barcode and RFID (AB&R) is pleased to announce the creation of a new technology -- TETRAGATE -- which combines UHF RFID (radio frequency identification) technology inside an employee ID card with biometric facial recognition. TETRAGATE recognizes people approaching from 60 feet away in a fraction of a second, reading up to 60,000 faces in a single second -- without people knowing their images are being scanned. In a world where security and surveillance issues create uneasiness on the best of days, a team of innovative security and technology experts have come together to create what is the most secure access control solution available for tracking human as well as physical assets on the same network.

Tuesday 26th September 2006: -

• FURTHER INTO BONDAGE: EU approves Bulgaria and Romania - The European Commission has announced that Romania and Bulgaria will be admitted to the EU in January 2007, but under strict conditions. Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said both countries had made enough progress to join the union. But they will be checked for progress in curbing organised crime and corruption, and ensuring food safety and the proper use of EU funds.

• Could Rove's October Surprise Be Osama's Dead Carcass?: Neo-Fascists need a poster child for the war on terror to justify crushing kids' testicles and nuking Iran back to the stone age - Could Karl Rove's promised pre-election October surprise come in the form of Osama bin Laden's dead carcass and a propaganda coup for the universally abhorrent war on terror? Recent indications suggest the final nail in the coffin for this CIA poster child might be just around the corner.

• A four minute visual blitz through examples of the Illuminati's satanic symbolism.  Much of these are covered in our popular Illuminati Symbolism section here.  Click play to view the video: -

• VIDEO: Shouting CCTV Cameras - Over 4 million cameras, being retro-fitted w/speaker systems. Yelling out orders to people like a concentration camp. Doesn't sound like V for Vendetta at all: -

Monday 25th September 2006: -

• Disney scanning raises eyebrows: Theme parks begin to collect fingerprint information on visitors - Walt Disney World, which bills itself as one of the happiest and most magical places anywhere, also may be one of the most closely watched and secure. The nation's most popular tourist attraction is beginning to scan your fingerprint information. For years, Disney has recorded onto tickets the geometry and shape of visitors' fingers to prevent ticket fraud or resale, as an alternative to time-consuming photo identification checks. By the end of the month, all of the geometry readers at Disney's four Orlando theme parks will be replaced with machines that scan fingerprint information, according to industry experts familiar with the technology. The four parks attract tens of millions of visitors each year.

• ACTOR, ROBBIE COLTRANE SPEAKS OUT ON WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION AND THE WAR ON TERROR - Now 56, Coltrane first appeared in Cracker in 1993. At its height, the drama series, which ran for three years, attracted audiences of more than 15 million. By the end of the third series, he and Jimmy McGovern were trying hard to find a case to be solved by psycho-analysis and not DNA. Iraq, and recent terrorism events, including 9/11 changed that. The latest Cracker is all about a revenge killing by a former soldier who is fired up by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and who starts out on a killing spree of his own. Coltrane said he could not remember talking to anyone in Britain who said we should have gone to Iraq, and, on the question of weapons of mass destruction, added: "... They were telling fibs. They were lying to us." He added: "Once you have gone into a war that was illegal and which was gained by lying to the populus of a democracy ... what is that if it is not some sort of terrorism?"

• Dunn quits as HP spying scandal snowballs - HP chairman Patricia Dunn has quit the board of directors of Hewlett-Packard Co, effectively immediately, responding to the continuing outcry over increasingly shocking revelations about the company's practice of spying on journalists and its own employees. Offering a partial mea culpa, but refusing to take questions during a press conference Friday, chief executive Mark Hurd admitted he had known about some aspects of the spying. But what he knew about the possibly illegal practices, and when, remained open questions. "While many of the right processes were in place, unfortunately they broke down and no one in the management chain, including me, caught it," he said.

• NO2ID: Blair 'building tools of totalitarianism' - Civil liberty campaigners NO2ID this evening attacked Tony Blair on his personal role in promoting the national identity scheme and ID cards, branding both him and it a dangerous threat to civil liberties. A full-page advertisement in an edition of The Guardian to be distributed at Labour Party Conference on Monday shows Blair in menacing monochrome with a bar-code forming a Hitler-style moustache over the words “ID cards have worked well in Europe before." Phil Booth, NO2ID’s National Coordinator said: "Tony Blair is not Hitler. But he has personally driven this insidious ID scheme. Sneering at the idea that citizens could have anything to fear from a state they have learnt to distrust, he calls it modernisation".   (RELATED: See our Big Brother section)

• Claim: USCENTCOM Sergeant Blows Whistle On 9/11 Inside Job: Blogosphere debate rages as to whether "Chavez" is real or disinfo - An individual describing himself as a Sergeant stationed at MacDill AFB claims he witnessed unusual preparations for a potential airplane hitting the base on the morning of 9/11 and publicly questions the NORAD stand down and the demolition of the twin towers. Many have reacted to the claims by warning of a hoax designed to poison the well of the 9/11 truth movement. In a letter that first appeared on the 9/11 Veterans For Truth Website, Sergeant Lauro "LJ" Chavez responds to a Cincinnati Post hit piece article by outlining his own doubts about the official version of 9/11 and his personal experiences of the strange prelude to the events of that morning.

• CIA: Iraq war made terror worse - The Iraq war gave birth to a new generation of Islamic radicals and the terrorist threat has grown since the 9/11 attacks, a classified US intelligence report has concluded. Islamic radicalism has mushroomed worldwide and the Iraq war is a major reason for that, according to a National Intelligence Estimate which was completed in April. It is the first formal appraisal of global terrorism by US intelligence agencies since the war began in March 2003 and represents a consensus view of its 16 spy services.

• New Information Regarding Uncommon Psychiatric Adverse Events For All ADHD Drugs, Health Canada - Health Canada is informing Canadians that the prescribing and patient information for all drugs used for the management of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) is being revised to provide information about the potential for psychiatric adverse events, including rare reports of agitation and hallucinations in children. This update comes in light of an ongoing review of psychiatric events associated with the use of these drugs and follows Health Canada's May 2006 Public Advisory regarding rare heart-related risks for all ADHD drugs.

• Carlyle poised to bid for Libyan oil giant, says son of Gaddafi: US private equity group with links to leading Republicans in talks to buy state-controlled Tamoil, valued at €3bn - US private equity giant Carlyle is in talks to acquire Libya's state-controlled oil refining and marketing operation, Tamoil. Al-Saadi Gaddafi, the son of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the country's long-time leader, said Carlyle was one of four or five groups involved in an international tender to buy 100 per cent of Tamoil. It is thought the business will fetch close to €3bn (£2bn).

Sunday 24th September 2006: -

• School strip searches mandated by House: With student molestations skyrocketing, lawmakers demand weapon in drug fight – Even though student molestations seem to be reaching epidemic proportions in schools across America, the House of Representatives has approved a tough new anti-drug and anti-weapon law that would require local districts to develop search policies – including strip searches – with immunity against prosecution for teachers and staff. Schools would have to develop policies for searching students, or face the loss of some federal funding, under the bill – HR 5295, approved by a voice vote Tuesday. It moves to the Senate, which does not have similar legislation pending at this time.

• No evidence bin Laden is dead - Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia said on Sunday it had no evidence that Osama bin Laden had died, shedding further doubt on a secret document leaked in France that said Saudi secret services believed he had died last month. France and the United States said on Saturday they could not confirm the report in French regional daily L'Est Republicain which quoted France's DGSE foreign intelligence service as saying the Saudi secret services were convinced the al Qaeda leader had died of typhoid in Pakistan in late August.

• Bin Laden Found Dead, Says Rumour: Must be true then I guess! - The elusive al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, whom the United States has been in pursuit of since the Sept. 11 attacks, has been claimed to be dead. The French news paper L’Est Republicain cited a report by the French intelligence service claiming that bin Laden had died from typhoid in Pakistan in August. However, French and American officials declared the claim could no be confirmed.

• First-Grader Suspended Over Plastic Squirt Gun: School District Says Policy Prohibits Exceptions - A Missouri mother is angry that her first-grader was suspended from school over a plastic toy gun. "I asked her, 'You're going to suspend my son for 10 days for this? He cannot harm a soul with this,'" said Danielle Womack, whose son, Tawann Caskey, was suspended from Milton Moore Elementary School in Kansas City. Tawann was suspended over a 2-inch plastic squirt gun.

• UK citizens uncover new Guantanamo scandals - In a letter published in The Times newspaper earlier this week, a team of more than 100 medics slammed the Foreign Office for colluding in war crimes and refusing to respond to a request from the British Medical Association (BMA) to send a team of doctors to the U.S.-run detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and calling for an immediate investigation into the medical needs of the detainees held there. "Our government's excuse is that it does not wish to set a precedent to act for British residents, rather than British citizens. We find this morally repugnant," said the letter, signed by 120 medical professionals.

• Ex boss Ratner mulling $666 mln Signet bid: report - Gerald Ratner is to table a higher-than-expected bid of up to 350 million pounds for the shops of jewellery retailer Signet Group (SIG.L: Quote, Profile, Research) this week, The Mail on Sunday reported. Without citing sources, the newspaper said Ratner was working on the bid which would significantly top the 200 million pounds he was previously reported to be preparing for Signet's UK business, which includes the H Samuel and Ernest Jones chains.

• AUDIO DOWNLOAD: 'The David Shayler Show' on Resonance104.4fm [22.09.06] [Download Here]

Friday 22nd September 2006: -

• OOOOOOOH CONTROVERSIAL!: Government 'let down' 7/7 survivors - Victims of last year's deadly London suicide bomb attacks were let down by poor emergency planning, a government report has revealed. The Home Office report will admit that anti-terrorism plans failed to deal with the aftermath of the bomb attacks by four British Islamists on London's transport network on July 7 which left 52 commuters dead and more than 700 wounded.   (RELATED: The government carried out 7/7 - or rather rogue criminal elements within did - see our 7/7 archive for more detail)

• ANOTHER ONE FOR THE LIST: A new website from one of our friends in the 9/11 truth movement - 911truthpeterborough.com: -

• Storm building over RFID-enabled passports - As the U.S. government prepares to complete a conversion to the controversial RFID-based electronic passports, traditional paper-only IDs are still available for a few months to those listening to the raging debate over security and privacy concerns swirling around the electronic documents. Many security experts are still questioning whether e- passports, which have a 10-year life span, have enough security built in to survive a decade of hackers and technology advancements while protecting e-passports users from data theft, identity theft and other security and privacy intrusions. "If the government is right, this will be the first time in the history of mankind that a perfectly secure application will be produced. Of course it will be hacked," says Bruce Schneier, a noted security guru, author and CTO of Counterpane Internet Security. The government thinks otherwise and has already started to issue the cards from two of its regional offices in Colorado and Washington, D.C.   (RELATED: See our Total Global Surveillance archive)

• Scandinavian Airlines introduces Biometric Check-In - Scandinavian Airlines has become one of the world’s first airlines to introduce biometric security check-ins. It is now using biometric security at baggage check-in and boarding gates on domestic services across Sweden, following a successful trial period in northern Sweden. This is part of Scandinavian Airlines’ vision of “simple travel” to maintain an efficient self-service flow as security requirements are intensifying at the airports. Passengers leave their fingerprints in Precise Biometrics’ fingerprint reader at the baggage check-in, where they are temporarily stored. At boarding, passengers will provide a new fingerprint, which is then matched against the temporarily stored print. This solution ensures that the person handing the baggage is the same person boarding the plane. The solution also guarantees privacy will be maintained, as temporarily stored fingerprints are deleted once they have been used.

• CDC Backs HIV Test for All Between 13-64 - All Americans between the ages of 13 and 64 should be routinely tested for HIV to help catch infections earlier and stop the spread of the deadly virus, federal health recommendations announced Thursday say. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said HIV testing should become about as common as a cholesterol check. Nearly half of new HIV infections are discovered when doctors are trying to diagnose a sick patient who has come for care, CDC officials said.

Thursday 21st September 2006: -

• Fingerprint replaces card and cash - Students now have easy access to off-campus meals with the touch of a finger. Whitworth College has recently installed the IMYE system, which allows students, faculty and staff to buy meals on- and off-campus, without cash or student ID card. Each time a student makes purchases through IMYE, the student scans their fingerprint to authorize payment.   (RELATED: See our Cashless Society Control Grid archive)

• Fears raised over access to children's database - THOUSANDS of town hall officials, charity workers and even careers advisers will be given access to the new national children’s database, raising doubts about its confidentiality. The Times has learnt that permission to use the Information Sharing Index has been extended beyond social workers, doctors and teachers to include a wide range of civil servants and children’s services. Any voluntary group that provides services to local authorities or primary care trusts can apply for access, as can local education authority officials. The huge number of accredited users will be challenged by children’s charities. Government officials say that access will be tightly patrolled. Authorised users will have to apply for an access number before using the system and tell their local authority why they need access.

• Assisted suicide 'may be option for depressed' - Britons suffering from severe depression may soon be able to opt for assisted suicide in a Swiss clinic, its founder claimed yesterday. Ludwig Minelli, who established the Dignitas institute in Zurich eight years ago, said a case going before the Swiss supreme court next month involves a Swiss patient suffering from bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression, who wants the right to an assisted suicide. Mr Minelli said a judgment in the man's favour would have implications across Europe.

• UN: Human rights worsening in Iraq - The United Nations assistance mission for Iraq (UNAMI) has said that human rights violations in Iraq are continuing on a massive scale amid growing violence in all sections of society. "Human rights violations, particularly against the right to life and personal integrity, [have] continued to occur at an alarming daily rate in Iraq," the report, released on Wednesday, said. Bodies found in the Baghdad morgue "often bear signs of severe torture including acid-induced injuries and burns caused by chemical substances, missing skin, broken bones - back, hands and legs, missing eyes, missing teeth and wounds caused by power drills or nails," the report said.

• School fingerprinting issues still unsettled - Chesaning Union Schools, like all other Michigan schools, will fingerprint employees over the next two years as part of a state mandate. The question is: Who will pay? Next month, Board of Education members will discuss how the district will proceed with fingerprinting more than 200 employees, said Superintendent Kathy L. Stewart. Most districts in Saginaw County will likely contract with the Saginaw Intermediate School District to do the job. The intermediate district is charging $65 per print. Stewart, however, said board members have yet to decide who will pay for the fingerprinting -- the school district or each employee. It would cost the district more than $14,000 to cover the costs, Stewart said. Districts have until July 2008 to fingerprint all employees.

Tuesday 19th September 2006: -

• British soldier admits war crime - A British soldier has become the first to admit to a war crime after pleading guilty to inhumanely treating Iraqi civilians, at a court martial. Cpl Donald Payne, 35, of the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, pleaded guilty to the charge at the start of a court martial involving seven UK soldiers. But Cpl Payne denied manslaughter and perverting the course of justice.

• Video highlights the financial and environmental consequences of the controlled demolition that brought down the World Trade Center towers. Also: What did the president's brother, Marvin Bush, have to do with security for the World Trade Center Complex and Dulles International Airport on 9/11? Why were there so many power-downs and evacuations in the WTC just prior to 9/11?: -

• Google ordered to remove news items or pay huge fine - A Brussels court has ordered internet giant Google to pay 1 million euro a day if it does not remove all news articles and pictures from French and German language newspapers on its news site, Belgian media reported on Monday. "The judgment, dating back to September 5, made public only yesterday (Sunday), says that Google provides texts after the publishers have taken them off their own websites," Flemish newspaper De Morgen reported. The court considered this a breach of authors' rights, as well as Belgian law on databanks, the daily said.

• Acne drug 'linked to depression' - A popular treatment for severe acne has been found to produce depressive behaviour in mice. University of Bath scientists tested Roaccutane after claims it has caused depression and suicide in patients since its introduction in 1982. Their work, published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, is the first to back up these reports with firm scientific evidence. The drug's maker, Roche, does include a warning about depression in packets.   (RELATED: See our Compromised Health archive)

• FROM LAST WEEK: Flyer crackdown to cut city litter: Control zone set up under new law ahead of freshers' week - A WEST Yorkshire council is introducing new measures to help control the litter caused by the distribution of flyers, which are often discarded and end up littering the city's streets. Using the new powers Leeds Council has created a zone where it will be an offence to distribute printed material including flyers, stickers, leaflets and cards – unless for religious, charitable or political purposes – without a permit.

Monday 18th September 2006: -

• Terror suspect zips lip; fears retribution - Claimed fear of retribution by Pakistani security agents has brought a temporary halt to terror trial proceedings in London. Omar Khyam, accused with six others of plotting a bombing campaign in Britain, stopped testifying at the Old Bailey after saying his family in Pakistan had been threatened by Pakistan's Directorate for Inter-Service Intelligence, or ISI. "I just want to say the ISI in Pakistan has had words with my family relating to what I have been saying about them," The Evening Standard quoted Khyam as telling the court Monday. "I think they (ISI) are worried I might reveal more about them, so right now ... the priority for me has to be the safety of my family so I am going to stop (testifying). "I'm not going to discuss anything related to the ISI anymore, or to the evidence."

• Sources: August terror plot is a 'fiction' underscoring police failures - British Army expert casts doubt on 'liquid explosives' threat, Al Qaeda network in UK Identified - Lieutenant-Colonel (ret.) Nigel Wylde, a former senior British Army Intelligence Officer, has suggested that the police and government story about the "terror plot" revealed on 10th August was part of a "pattern of lies and deceit." British and American government officials have described the operation which resulting in the arrest of 24 mostly British Muslim suspects, as a resounding success. Thirteen of the suspects have been charged, and two released without charges. According to security sources, the terror suspects were planning to board up to ten civilian airliners and detonate highly volatile liquid explosives on the planes in a spectacular terrorist operation. The liquid explosives -- either TATP (Triacetone Triperoxide), DADP (diacetone diperoxide) or the less sensitive HMTD (hexamethylene triperoxide diamine) -- were reportedly to be made on board the planes by mixing sports drinks with a peroxide-based household gel and then be detonated using an MP3 player or mobile phone. But Lt. Col. Wylde, who was awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal for his command of the Belfast Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit in 1974, described this scenario as a "fiction."   (RELATED: See our Problem > Reaction > Solution archive for more background info)

• Attorney general warns US on torture bill - The attorney general warned the US at the weekend that its bill to try to limit its obligations under the Geneva convention while interrogating and trying detainees risked international condemnation. Lord Goldsmith waded into the row after a Senate committee rejected the bill and backed alternative legislation proposed by Republican senator John McCain and supported by George Bush's former secretary of state, Colin Powell. The attorney general's comments, in a lecture to lawyers in Chicago, signal an attempt by Britain to bring the US back in line with international law. The bill follows a US supreme court ruling that the Geneva convention's prohibitions on torture apply to al-Qaida members, which the Bush administration had denied.

• Family angered about report disputing existence of Gulf War syndrome - Years after her granddaughter and great-grandson died of what she believes were Gulf War-related illnesses, Marie Robertson continues to think of them and miss them. ``Oh, Cheryl, Cheryl,'' she said at home one afternoon last week as she held a picture of granddaughter Cheryl Lynn Tucker Kochanowski. Following the release last week of a federal report that said there is no such thing as Gulf War syndrome, the 84-year-old Plain Township woman remains convinced that the deaths of her two family members were caused by some type of exposure her granddaughter had in the first Gulf War in 1991.

• Australia Police treatment of suspects 'equates to torture' - An inquiry has heard the treatment of robbery suspects by members of the Victorian police Armed Offenders Squad could be regarded as "torture". The Office of Police Integrity (OPI) is hearing allegations nine officers assaulted people under arrest and denied them access to lawyers. The Armed Offenders Squad was disbanded after an OPI investigation. One prisoner says he suffered broken ribs and had a plastic bag put over his head. The lawyer assisting the OPI inquiry, Garry Livermore, says an officer used his firearm to intimidate the man. "[He] pulled a gun to threaten him and placed the barrel to the side of the head," he said. Mr Livermore says the allegations are serious.

• False Reports on Iran a Replay of Run-Up to Iraq War? - A report today by veteran McClatchy (formerly Knight Ridder) reporters John Walcott and Warren P. Strobel warns that some of the same type of shaky intelligence that proved false in the run up to the Iraq war may be rearing its head again in regard to Iran. "U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials say Bush political appointees and hard-liners on Capitol Hill have tried recently to portray Iran's nuclear program as more advanced than it is and to exaggerate Tehran's role in Hezbollah's attack on Israel in mid-July," they write. "President Bush, who addresses the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, has said he prefers diplomacy to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, but he hasn't ruled out using military force. Several former U.S. defense officials who maintain close ties to the Pentagon say they've been told that plans for airstrikes - if Bush deems them necessary - are being updated."

• Big Brother is shouting at you - Big Brother is not only watching you - now he's barking orders too. Britain's first 'talking' CCTV cameras have arrived, publicly berating bad behaviour and shaming offenders into acting more responsibly. The system allows control room operators who spot any anti-social acts - from dropping litter to late-night brawls - to send out a verbal warning: 'We are watching you'. Middlesbrough has fitted loudspeakers on seven of its 158 cameras in an experiment already being hailed as a success. Jack Bonner, who manages the system, said: 'It is one hell of a deterrent. It's one thing to know that there are CCTV cameras about, but it's quite another when they loudly point out what you have just done wrong. 'Most people are so ashamed and embarrassed at being caught they quickly slink off without further trouble.

Sunday 17th September 2006: -

• VIDEO: Jason Burmis, one of the creators of the popular 9/11 documentary Loose Change, talks about how far the 9/11 truth movement has come, how far it has to go, and what tactics to use to get it there: -

• US rice contaminated with illegal GM strain - Up to one fifth of rice entering the EU is contaminated with an illegal genetically modified (GM) strain from the US. Those are the findings of the European Commission's own investigation into EU rice imports, following the admission in August by the US government that untested strains of GM rice had entered the food chain. If that wasn't alarming enough, our own research has shown this rice has made its way into products available in German supermarkets. Coming just one week after we revealed how Chinese products containing another illegal and untested GM rice variety were available on supermarket shelves in the UK and Europe, these results illustrate the inability of the GM industry to control its own technologies.

• The ID Chip You Don't Want in Your Passport - If you have a passport, now is the time to renew it -- even if it's not set to expire anytime soon. If you don't have a passport and think you might need one, now is the time to get it. In many countries, including the United States, passports will soon be equipped with RFID chips. And you don't want one of these chips in your passport. RFID stands for "radio-frequency identification." Passports with RFID chips store an electronic copy of the passport information: your name, a digitized picture, etc. And in the future, the chip might store fingerprints or digital visas from various countries. By itself, this is no problem. But RFID chips don't have to be plugged in to a reader to operate. Like the chips used for automatic toll collection on roads or automatic fare collection on subways, these chips operate via proximity. The risk to you is the possibility of surreptitious access: Your passport information might be read without your knowledge or consent by a government trying to track your movements, a criminal trying to steal your identity or someone just curious about your citizenship.

• VIDEO: Tim Sparke (MD of Mercury Media) in an address to the 911 Truth Campaign (Britain & Ireland) talks about the film Loose Change 2 on the eve of the fifth anniversary of 9/11: -

(RELATED: Help get Loose Change aired on UK Channel 5!)

• Forced labor for Palestinian children in Israeli prison - Many Palestinian children in Israeli Telmond Prison are being exploited by “forced labor in which they must work eight hours for a few shekels,” as reported by the Prisoners Information Center. One of the children made a statement after his release. “The prison administration has forced all prisoners in Telmond Prison to work eight hours for very low wages.” He went on to say, “The Israeli soldiers come to the chambers at seven and force us to go with our legs tied with chains.” The child added that his job was to stand under guard and pack plastic spoons in boxes.

• Poland rebuked over bid to curb central bank’s powers - The Polish government was on Thursday night handed a stinging rebuke for trying to curb the powers of the country’s central bank, with the European Commission warning that it would keep a “close eye” on Warsaw’s stance. Charlie McCreevy, the European Union internal market commissioner, said in a speech to Polish businessmen: “Supervisors must be independent from political interference. I must therefore underline that I am deeply concerned by what is currently happening in Poland.” Mr McCreevy, who enjoys sweeping powers to police the internal market and launch infringement cases against national governments, said: “There can be no trust, no efficient co-operation, no confidence from the market and in the market if financial supervisors have to follow orders from political masters.”

• Liberty Dollars face legal scrutiny - Spending stamped pieces of silver making the rounds in Western North Carolina could get you up to five years in prison. That’s what prosecutors with the U.S. Justice Department are saying about “Liberty Dollars,” an alternative currency whose distribution is motivated by politics and profit. But those promoting the private currency said they never called the dollars official U.S. tender and questioned whether the Justice Department’s assertion would hold up in court.

Saturday 16th September 2006: -

• Ludicrous Diversion: 7/7 London Bombings Documentary - On the 7th of July 2005 London was hit by a series of explosions. You probably think you know what happened that day. But you don’t. The police have, from the onset of their investigation, chosen to withhold from the public almost every bit of evidence they claim to have and have provably lied about several aspects of the London Bombings. The mainstream news has willfully spread false, unsubstantiated and unverifiable information, while choosing to completely ignore the numerous inconsistencies and discrepancies in the official story. The government has finally, after a year, presented us with their official ‘narrative’ concerning the event. Within hours it was shown to contain numerous errors, a fact since admitted by the Home Secretary John Reid. They have continuously rejected calls for a full, independent public inquiry. Tony Blair himself described such an inquiry as a ‘ludicrous diversion’. What don’t they want us to find out?  View the film here: -

Contact: ludicrousdiversion@hotmail.com

• Singapore stops opposition protest - Singapore police stopped an opposition politician from leading a protest march past the venue for the annual IMF-World Bank meetings on Saturday, again highlighting the city-state's restrictions on freedom of speech. Singapore, which had hoped to show off its economic success by hosting the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings this month, has instead attracted surprisingly strong criticism from the two bodies and from NGOs when it blacklisted accredited activists. With some 16,000 delegates in town for the meetings, including central bankers and finance ministers from around the world, Singapore's curbs on its critics have come under scrutiny. Opposition politician Chee Soon Juan, secretary-general of the tiny Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) and six other activists wearing white tee-shirts with slogans such as "Freedom Now" held a rally at "Speaker's Corner." But police stopped their planned march to the convention center, where the IMF/World Bank meetings are taking place.

• How to steal the next election using the Diebold AccuVote-TS voting machine or others like it - Researchers at Princeton University have released a new "Security Analysis of the Diebold AccuVote-TS Voting Machine," which finds many possibilities for election fraud in these particular voting machines. Their report also recognizes that similar problems likely exist with other direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machines, saying, "Simply put, many computer scientists doubt that paperless DREs can be made reliable and secure, and they expect that any failures of such systems would likely go undetected."

• Bush defends demands for CIA 'torture' power - President Bush launched an impassioned counterattack on critics of his proposals to give CIA interrogators a free rein in their treatment of terror suspects yesterday, saying "it's vital that the folks on the front line have the tools necessary to protect the American people". The CIA programme, involving controversial secret camps outside the US, was one of the most important elements in warding off future terrorist strikes, Mr Bush told reporters. "Were it not for this programme, al-Qa'ida would have succeeded in launching another attack on the American homeland." The President was speaking at a hastily arranged press conference, less than 24 hours after a group of senior Republican senators staged an open revolt against his proposals, voting through on the Armed Services Committee their own bill, providing greater safeguards for detainees.

• Attacks On 911 Researchers Growing: By Joel Skousen - Attacking The Messenger. The growing attack on critics of 9/11 has reached a crescendo this week. Not only has the public been exposed to multiple conspiracy debunkers on radio and television interviews as well as articles in national magazines, but this week Brigham Young University put Prof. Steven Jones on paid leave to stop any influence he might have on students pending an investigation into what BYU considers his "increasingly speculative and accusatory" statements concerning the real cause of the WTC collapse.

• 9/11 Toxic Dust Whistleblower Raided By SWAT Team: Ground zero hero Major Mike McCormack says he was deliberately targeted for helping release documents on EPA government cover-up, says 75% of police, firemen believe 9/11 cover-up - A 9/11 toxic dust whistleblower, a ground zero hero and one of the individuals influential in the release of documents proving a government cover-up that deliberately put police, firemen and rescue personel at risk, has been raided by a New York SWAT team - who ransacked his home for three hours after he was arrested. Major Mike McCormack is a hospital technician and civil air patrol pilot who worked the ground zero site for eight days after the collapse of the twin towers. He is one of the real heroes of 9/11 and was the man who found the American flag that was later displayed as a token of unity atop the rubble.

• Deported terror suspect faces no charges in France - No charges are pending against a man deported to France from Britain, where he was considered a terror suspect, French authorities said today. British authorities alleged the man had ties to a group linked to the al-Qaida terror network, and deported him to France yesterday on national security grounds. In France, judicial officials said the man – a dual Algerian-French national identified only as MK – was unknown to anti-terrorism magistrates, and that there were no French anti-terrorist or criminal proceedings against him. It was not immediately clear if the man was free today. One of his lawyers in Britain questioned British authorities’ handling of the case. Nicola Rogers, who defended him at British hearings, said she and MK were only told in “very general terms” of the allegations against him and did not get access to all evidence used to press the British authorities’ case that he posed a security risk.

Friday 15th September 2006: -

• Britain still a cash society as use of ATMs up - BRITONS make the largest number of cash machine withdrawals throughout Europe, a report by payments association APACS showed yesterday. Cheque use is declining and the fabled cashless society is failing to materialise. Britons made some 2.7 billion cash machine transactions in 2005, up 6.7 per cent on the previous year.

• Brits ignore bloke trapped down manhole - There was a time when Britons could leave the security of their homes and venture forth safe in the knowledge that in the unlikely event of falling down a manhole, their fellow citizens would at least have the courtesy to stop and enquire: "Hello, are you from the Water Board or are you down that manhole involuntarily?" Not any more, as 65-year-old Clive Collins can attest. The poor bloke fell down a 5ft-deep manhole in a car park in Boscombe, Dorset, and was trapped for 45 minutes "while shoppers ignored his cries for help", the BBC explains. Collins recalled: "Probably about 15, 20 people walked by. The more I called out, the less they seemed to notice me." He continued: "What surprised me is that they didn't make eye contact. A woman actually parked along side my camper and put the hood up on her car.

• America: Freedom to Fascism New Theatre Openings - 'Aaron Russo’s film, America: Freedom to Fascism, will be opening in Chicago, Denver, Portland, Beverly Hills, Houston, Dallas, Tempe, Tucson, and Salt Lake City beginning in September and October. Openings in Nashville and other cities are said to be in the works as well. If you haven’t seen the film yet, be sure to check out the schedule for cities and dates.'

Thursday 14th September 2006: -

• Pupils aged five being fingerprinted: Fingerprints check at city school libraries - SCHOOL pupils at several Edinburgh primary schools are having their fingerprints taken before withdrawing books from their libraries. The book check-out system, called 'Junior Librarian', requires school library staff to scan pupils' thumbprints against biometric readers before allowing them to check out books. Edinburgh City Council could not confirm how many schools were using the system because it was up to individual schools to use their budget to purchase the system. A council spokeswoman said: "Young children enjoy the independence they get in choosing their own books and this encourages them to read more.

• US Iran report branded dishonest - The UN nuclear watchdog has protested to the US government over a report on Iran's nuclear programme, calling it "erroneous" and "misleading". In a leaked letter, the IAEA said a congressional report contained serious distortions of the agency's own findings on Iran's nuclear activity. The IAEA also took "strong exception" to claims made over the removal of a senior safeguards inspector.

• Wider use of private data planned - Sensitive personal information would be passed between Whitehall departments under new government plans. The move would help to tackle ID fraud and would also identify those "in need", the Department of Constitutional Affairs (DCA) has claimed. It promised "appropriate safeguards" to ensure some details remained private. But the Conservatives said the idea was an "excuse for bureaucrats to snoop", while pressure group NO2ID described it as an "abolition of privacy".

• World has tapped just 18 percent of global oil supplies, Saudi executive says - The world has tapped only 18 percent of the total global supply of crude, a leading Saudi oil executive said Wednesday, challenging the notion that supplies are petering out. Abdallah S. Jum’ah, president and CEO of the state-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co., known better as Aramco, said the world has the potential of 4.5 trillion barrels in reserves - enough to power the globe at current levels of consumption for another 140 years. Jum’ah challenged oil ministers and petroleum executives at an OPEC conference in Vienna to step up exploration “and leave the minimum amount of oil in the ground.”

• City removes fluoride from water - Fluoride will no longer be added to Del Rio’s drinking water. The Del Rio City Council made that decision Tuesday night after a presentation by John Morony, a retired college biology professor, who characterized fluoride as a poison and showed the council numerous research references that link fluoride to higher rates of cancer and other health hazards. Following Morony’s presentation and a brief discussion by the council, Councilman Pat Cole said, “I make the motion that we cease immediately adding fluoride to our beautiful San Felipe Springs water.”   (RELATED: See our Compromised Health archive)

Wednesday 13th September 2006: -

• Syria blames U.S. for embassy attack: Claims Washington orchestrated it to get concessions from Damascus – The attack today against the United States embassy in Damascus was orchestrated by American intelligence to embarrass the Syrian regime and extract political concessions, a senior member of Syrian President Bashar Assad's Baath Party claimed to WND. "We in the government are 100 percent sure America was behind this attack, which is not the same as other attacks by Islamic groups," said the senior Baath party official, speaking on condition of anonymity.   (RELATED: See our Problem > Reaction > Solution archive)

• Menezes police officer promoted - One of the senior officers in charge on the day Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead by police is to be promoted. Commander Cressida Dick is to become a deputy assistant commissioner, the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) announced on Tuesday. Mr Menezes was shot seven times at Stockwell Underground station. The family of the Brazilian man said they were "absolutely disgusted and outraged at what is just one more slap in the face".

VIDEO: Loose Change on Paula Zahn: -

• Drug, alcohol testing policy on school board agenda - Churchill County School Board trustees will review Thursday a proposed drug and alcohol policy that would allow district officials to request a drug test from employees involved in workplace accidents, or if there is reasonable suspicion the employee is using drugs or alcohol on the job. The 23-page draft policy will be discussed by the school board at its meeting in the pit at the Old High School. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. The board will not be voting on the proposed policy at this meeting. It is listed on the agenda for discussion only. School Superintendent Carolyn Ross said the drug and alcohol policy was suggested by the district's workers' compensation insurance carrier. Bob Sinnett of Sinnett Consulting will be at the meeting to answer questions and discuss the proposed policy. The document requires employee drug testing under three scenarios - when a worker's compensation claim is filed, when a property damage report is filed and if there is "reasonable suspicion" the employee is using prohibited substances. Employees who refuse to submit to a drug or alcohol