Citizens For Legitimate Government 24 Nov 2009 http://www.legitgov.org The day ends in 'y,' so it's time for another AfPak bl*w job. US to give $38.7 million to 27 Afghan provinces to reduce poppy cultivation --A report published last month in The New York Times identified the brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai as a CIA operative and a major opium dealer. He was also reported to have close ties with the Taliban. 24 Nov 2009 The US government has made a commitment to provide financial aid to Afghan provinces that have reduced or eliminated the production of opium. The United States signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday according to which it agreed to give $38.7 million to 27 Afghan provinces that eliminated or significantly reduced poppy production in the world's biggest supplier country, AFP reported. According to the MOU, the money will be handed over to Afghanistan's counter-narcotics ministry [Flush twice. It's a log way to the Afghan counter-narcotics Ministry.], which will disperse the cash to the 27 different provinces to finance development or alternative crops. [LOL. Am I the only one to observe that the US pays to *cultivate* Afghan opium poppies, while simultaneously paying to *reduce* them? Oh, but we can't get single-payer health care or the public option --too expensive. --LRP] http://www.legitgov.org/price_obusha_afpak_war_031009.html Obomba poised for special Thanksgiving holiday 'bad news' dump: Afghanistan decision to come within days, White House says 26 Nov 2009 President Obama will announce within days whether he will send more troops to Afghanistan, the White House said after he met with his national security team Monday night. "After completing a rigorous final meeting, President Obama has the information he wants and needs to make his decision and he will announce that decision within days," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. [Right, Monday night, but the PentaPost leak will likely take place on Thanksgiving.] http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/11/24/us.afghanistan/index.html Top Democrat warns Afghanistan will bankrupt domestic programs, threatens war surtax if Obama sends more troops 23 Nov 2009 David Obey came to Congress in 1969, a young Democratic congressman from Wisconsin, opposed to the Vietnam War and mindful of the funding it was draining from Lyndon Johnson's Great Society programs. Thirty years later, he is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and adamant that Afghanistan is a similar quagmire that could bankrupt President Obama's domestic agenda. "There ain't going to be no money for nothing if we pour it all into Afghanistan," House Appropriations Chairman David Obey told ABC News. "If they ask for an increased troop commitment in Afghanistan, I am going to ask them to pay for it." Comparing Afghanistan to Vietnam, Obey said that both were long-standing civil wars and that, in each case, the United States found itself with an unreliable partner on the ground. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/11/top-democrat-warns-afghanistan-will-bankrupt-domestic-programs-threatens-war-surtax-if-obama-sends-m.html Leaked documents reveal No 10 cover-up over Iraq invasion --Inquiry to hear how Blair hid true intentions for war 22 Nov 2009 Military commanders are expected to tell the inquiry into the Iraq war, which opens on Tuesday, that the invasion was ill-conceived and that preparations were sabotaged by Tony Blair's government's attempts to mislead the public. They were so shocked by the lack of preparation for the aftermath of the invasion that they believe members of the British and US governments at the time could be prosecuted for war crimes by breaching the duty outlined in the Geneva convention to safeguard civilians in a conflict, the Guardian has been told. Does this picture show British soldiers broke Geneva Conventions? Public inquiry to be launched into allegations of abuse torture against Iraqi civilians at UK-run detention camp 24 Nov 2009 A photograph handed to The Independent claims to show Iraqi civilians captured in southern Iraq being mistreated by British soldiers in breach of international law and the Geneva Conventions. The incident is to be investigated at a public inquiry to be announced tomorrow by Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth, which will also examine evidence of one of the worst atrocities ever carried out by the British Army. It is claimed that hours after the picture was taken, the four men were transferred to a UK-run detention camp where they were badly beaten and where 20 other civilians were murdered by British soldiers. The covering of a prisoner's face and rear handcuffing on the ground is a breach of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions which prohibits the humiliating and degrading treatment of detainees. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/nov/22/iraq-invasion-no10-cover-up KBR to bid for part of $3B Air Force contract 23 Nov 2009 Defense contractor [terrorists] KBR said Monday the U.S. Air Force has asked it to bid for future task orders under the Worldwide Environmental Restoration and Construction program. KBR is one of 23 companies that will compete for related contracts. The total value of the contract to be dispersed among participating contractors is $3 billion. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5illCBgqDEjORyicBYxhyfz7PODQwD9C5HCHG1 Secret files show UK courts were misled over 9/11 suspect --The Guardian has obtained classified documents produced by the FBI and anti-terrorist officials in the UK after the 9/11 attacks which shed new light on how the courts were misled. 22 Nov 2009 British prosecutors failed to disclose crucial evidence to the courts in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks in a case that resulted in an innocent pilot being jailed for five months, previously unseen documents reveal. Lotfi Raissi, an Algerian living in the UK, was the first person in the world to be arrested after the 2001 attacks in New York and Washington DC. Accused of being the "lead" instructor of the 9/11 hijackers, Raissi was held in Belmarsh high security prison awaiting extradition to the United States. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/nov/22/lotfi-raissi-secret-files-evidence Atty: Fort Hood suspect may seek insanity defense 24 Nov 2009 An attorney for an Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people during an attack at Fort Hood says his client will likely plead not guilty and may pursue an insanity defense at his military trial. John Galligan, the Fort Hood-area civilian attorney for Maj. Nidal Hasan, told The Associated Press by phone Monday that the court must consider his client's mental status because the allegations against Hasan contradict his lifestyle and military career. http://www.legitgov.org/attack_on_fort_hood_051109.html 'Police targeting people for their DNA' --Watchdog says quest for data undermines presumption of innocence 24 Nov 2009 Police forces have been arresting people simply to add them to the controversial DNA database as a result of lax rules that have developed with almost no public scrutiny, the Government's independent DNA watchdog warns today. The Human Genetics Commission (HGC) also says there is little evidence that the national DNA database, the largest of its kind in the world, is of any use in solving crimes. In its two-year report examining the database, published today, it concludes that allowing police to add anyone arrested to the DNA database damages the assumption of innocence. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/police-targeting-people-for-their-dna-1826437.html New US vaccine production techniques: Genetically modified insect cells, E. coli, caterpillar ovaries 24 Nov 2009 Spurred by $487 million in federal funding, a sprawling new vaccine factory is opening in North Carolina Tuesday that will produce shots using dog cells instead of chicken eggs. A Connecticut biotech company has also applied to sell a vaccine employing a radically different approach involving a genetically engineered virus infecting insect cells... Baxter International won approval last month to sell an H1N1 vaccine in Europe that uses a decades-old line of African green monkey kidney cells, and it is working on a vaccine for the United States. Protein Sciences of Meriden, Conn., has applied to the FDA for approval to sell a vaccine made by genetically engineering flu genes into a worm virus, which then infects cells from caterpillar ovaries to produce the necessary proteins to make vaccine. VaxInnate of Cranbury, N.J., for example, produced an experimental H1N1 vaccine using genetically engineered E.coli bacteria, and Vical of San Diego just won a $1.25 million contract from the Navy to develop an H1N1 vaccine that involves injecting DNA sequences from the virus directly into people. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/23/AR2009112302277.html 1918 RBD D225G in Lung Cases in Ukraine and Norway (Recombinomics) 21 Nov 2009 For the two 1918 HA variants, the South Carolina (SC) HA (with Asp190, Asp225) bound exclusively alpha2-6 receptors, while the New York (NY) variant, which differed only by one residue (Gly225), had mixed alpha2-6/alpha2-3 specificity, especially for sulfated oligosaccharides. The above description is from a paper analyzing receptor binding domain differences in sequences from the 1918 pandemic. The New York variant had D225G, the same change found in lung tissues from fatal swine H1N1 sequences in Brazil, Ukraine, and Norway. The above result clearly demonstrated a change in receptor specificity for D225G, which was present in A/New York/1/1918 and A/London/1/1919, demonstrating the same change I 1918 that has been described in 2009. http://www.recombinomics.com/News/11210902/D225G_1918.html NSA helped with Windows 7 development 18 Nov 2009 The National Security Agency (NSA) worked with Microsoft on the development of Windows 7, an agency official acknowledged yesterday during testimony before Congress. "Working in partnership with Microsoft and elements of the Department of Defense, NSA leveraged our unique expertise and operational knowledge of system threats and vulnerabilities to enhance Microsoft's operating system security guide without constraining the user to perform their everyday tasks, whether those tasks are being performed in the public or private sector," Richard Schaeffer, the NSA's information assurance director, told the Senate's Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security yesterday as part of a prepared statement. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9141105/NSA_helped_with_Windows_7_development Over 100 icebergs drifting to N.Zealand: official 23 Nov 2009 More than 100, and possibly hundreds, of Antarctic icebergs are floating towards New Zealand in a rare event which has prompted a shipping warning, officials said on Monday. An Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist said the ice chunks, spotted by satellite photography, had passed the Auckland Islands and were heading towards the main South Island, about 450 kilometres (280 miles) northeast. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g90cvSzRh7t3B5deKppCmnUzdtGw Previous lead stories: Hostility between British and American military leaders revealed --The deep hostility of Britain’s senior military commanders in Iraq towards their American allies has been revealed in classified Government documents leaked to the Daily Telegraph. 22 Nov 2009 In the papers, the British chief of staff in Iraq, Colonel J.K.Tanner, described his US military counterparts as "a group of Martians" [Good one! Guess who was the Top Martian --aka Commander in Thief --in 2003?] for whom "dialogue is alien," saying: "Despite our so-called 'special relationship,' I reckon we were treated no differently to the Portuguese." Col Tanner’s boss, the top British commander in the country, Major General Andrew Stewart, told how he spent "a significant amount of my time" "evading" and "refusing" orders from his US superiors. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/6631239/Hostility-between-British-and-American-military-leaders-revealed.html US 'helps build anti-Taliban militias' in Afghanistan 22 Nov 2009 The United States has begun helping a number of anti-Taliban militias [death squads] in several parts of Afghanistan in hopes for a large-scale tribal rebellion against the radical Islamic movement, The New York Times reported late Saturday. The newspaper said US and Afghan officials were planning to spur the growth of similar armed groups across the Taliban heartland in the southern and eastern parts of the country. The officials say they are hoping the plan, called the Community Defense Initiative, will bring together thousands of gunmen to protect their neighborhoods from Taliban 'insurgents,' the report said. ['Community Defense Initiative.' Gee, it even *sounds* like something straight out of Nazi Germany or Joe Lieberman's Homeland Security Committee. --LRP] http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ipBTX6_vJUYaZqcIjz3Z-eKovY9Q Army faces inquiry over 'Battle of Danny Boy' torture claims --Evidence indicating torture and mutilation allegedly includes close-range bullet wounds, the removal of eyes and stab wounds, human rights lawyers have claimed. 21 Nov 2009 Claims that British soldiers tortured and murdered up to 20 prisoners after a battle with Iraqi 'insurgents' are to be scrutinised at a public inquiry. Concern that the Army covered up the most serious accusation of war crimes that it has faced has prompted Bob Ainsworth, the Defence Secretary, to order the independent inquiry. Mr Ainsworth is due to tell MPs next week that the inquiry will centre on an incident known as the Battle of Danny Boy. It took place in May 2004 and involved soldiers from the Argyll and Southern Highlanders and the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment... Iraqi families claim that some of those killed had been captured alive before being tortured and murdered by troops at Camp Abu Naji, a British base. Evidence indicating torture and mutilation allegedly includes close-range bullet wounds, the removal of eyes and stab wounds, human rights lawyers have claimed. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article6926293.ece Those who wish to be added to the list can go here: http://www.legitgov.org/#subscribe_clg and add your name. more here: http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news
