-Caveat Lector- Tuesday, May 15, 2001 FBI Got Conflicting Bombing Advice Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON--FBI field offices were told in December that some Oklahoma City bombing records could be discarded, but those instructions were retracted a month later after archivists discovered that some offices had failed to turn over all their evidence to lawyers for Timothy McVeigh, a government official said. The initial guidance went out in December, the official said Monday, four days after it was revealed the FBI withheld thousands of pages of evidence from lawyers for the convicted bomber. The revelation was the latest twist to the FBI's mishandling of investigative materials in the Oklahoma City bombing case. The FBI failed to turn over to McVeigh's lawyers some 3,135 pages of investigative materials, including interview reports, and physical evidence such as photographs, tapes and letters. In another development, the FBI's Baltimore bureau late last week turned up seven more documents that should have been forwarded, a government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Monday night. The FBI requested last Friday that all special agents in charge and assistant directors at all field offices certify that they had turned over all documents that were required to be turned over. That certification has been completed, the source said. The Baltimore documents had already been found before that communication went out. The discovery of the seven documents was first reported in Tuesday's editions of the Los Angeles Times. During the archiving process six months ago, field offices were given instructions on what materials should be retained for archiving and what could be discarded. By January, the source said on condition of anonymity, archivists became concerned that some documents could be thrown out by mistake. So they contacted field offices again, this time with instructions to send all investigative materials to the Oklahoma City bureau, where the materials were being archived. Archivists at that early juncture had discovered that a small percentage of the reports they were receiving had never been turned over to McVeigh's lawyers, the official said. There was no indication that investigative materials that should have been turned over had been destroyed, but the possibility could not be ruled out, the official said. "The FBI is tracking down the path of every document that the prosecution turned over to defense attorneys last week," said Mike Kortan, an FBI spokesman. Asked if there are additional documents that have been discovered since the disclosure last week, Kortan said he was not aware of any. Attorney General John Ashcroft postponed McVeigh's execution, scheduled for Wednesday, until June 11 to give his attorneys time to review the documents, which were turned over last week. McVeigh's lawyers are poring over the documents; McVeigh is weighing whether the documents provide an opportunity to raise legal challenges to his conviction and execution. Government prosecutors who worked on the McVeigh case never saw the documents either. They are now sifting through them as well. Ashcroft said Justice Department attorneys have looked at the papers and don't think they contain anything that creates any doubt about McVeigh's guilt. A CBS News poll showed that 69 percent of Americans agree with Ashcroft's decision to delay the execution. McVeigh was to be executed for the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people, including 19 children. With McVeigh's execution set for May, the FBI at the end of last year was doing a routine archiving of all Oklahoma City bombing materials -standard practice in wrapping up a case -when the undisclosed documents were discovered. Archivists sent field offices instructions that established what types of documents should be archived and what could be discarded based on discussions with the National Archives and Records Administration, the official said. The second memo went out when officials decided that decisions about what should be retained should be made by the archivists. Law enforcement officials familiar with the matter have said that the newly disclosed documents are a small percentage of the millions generated during the investigation. The FBI was moving to a new computer system when investigative documents were being filed electronically and some may have never been downloaded into set of master databases housing all Oklahoma City bombing records, they said. Many of the withheld documents are interview reports about a possible McVeigh accomplice who never materialized, the so-called John Doe No. 2. Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine has launched an investigation into the belated disclosure of McVeigh documents, said a Justice Department official. Ashcroft requested the investigation on Friday. News: May 2001 Back to Archive Article 7 of 8 Carbon clock could show the wrong time [10 May 2001] Carbon dating is a mainstay of geology and archaeology - but an enormous peak discovered in the amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere between 45 thousand and 11 thousand years ago casts doubt on the biological carbon cycle that underpins the technique. The study led by physicist Warren Beck of the University of Arizona, US, could also affect estimates of how quickly the Earth can re-absorb the excess carbon dioxide generated by fossil fuels (J W Beck et al 2001 Science to appear). Stalagmite stopwatch Living organisms and some geological features absorb stable carbon-12 and radioactive carbon-14, which are present in the air in a well-known ratio. This is part of the carbon cycle - the recirculation of carbon through the oceans, atmosphere, plants and animals. Scientists use carbon dating to determine when objects ceased to absorb carbon by measuring how much of the carbon-14 - which has a half-life of 5730 years - has decayed. But Beck and colleagues believe that the ratio of stable and radioactive carbon in the atmosphere may have changed considerably over the last 50 thousand years. This raises questions about the accuracy of carbon dating for very old objects. Beck and colleagues tested slices of a half-metre long stalagmite that grew between 45 000 and 11 000 years ago in a cave in the Bahamas. Stalagmites are calcium carbonate deposits left behind when carbon dioxide evaporates out of cave seepage water. They found that carbon-14 concentrations were twice their modern level during that period. Current records of the levels of carbon-14 in the atmosphere only cover the last 16 thousand years, and this discovery extends those records a further 30 thousand years. Galactic cosmic rays create most of the carbon-14 in our atmosphere, while solar cosmic rays generate a smaller fraction. The Earth is partially shielded from galactic cosmic rays by its own magnetic field and the solar magnetic field, which fluctuates as the solar cycle proceeds. But these effects are predictable and are thought to have changed little in the last million years - which means they cannot explain the glut of carbon-14. Evidence from North Atlantic sediments suggests that the Earth's magnetic field may have dipped around 40 thousand years ago, but this would still only account for - at best - half of the observed peak in carbon-14 concentrations. Beck's team concludes that either a jump in the cosmic ray flux or a fundamental change in the carbon cycle must have produced the sudden increase of carbon-14. The team speculates that a supernova shock wave could have produced a flurry of cosmic rays. "Weaker circulation of the oceans - which are the biggest reservoirs of carbon on Earth - would explain the excess of carbon-14", David Richards, joint team leader, told PhysicsWeb. If carbon-14 is carried more slowly from the surface to the depths of the ocean, he explains, the carbon-14 content of the atmosphere will rise. The discovery also has implications for our understanding of the environment as a whole. "We should take this as a warning that climate change may affect the carbon cycle in previously unexpected way", says Beck. News: May 2001 Back to Archive Article 7 of 8 Carbon clock could show the wrong time [10 May 2001] Carbon dating is a mainstay of geology and archaeology - but an enormous peak discovered in the amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere between 45 thousand and 11 thousand years ago casts doubt on the biological carbon cycle that underpins the technique. The study led by physicist Warren Beck of the University of Arizona, US, could also affect estimates of how quickly the Earth can re-absorb the excess carbon dioxide generated by fossil fuels (J W Beck et al 2001 Science to appear). Stalagmite stopwatch Living organisms and some geological features absorb stable carbon-12 and radioactive carbon-14, which are present in the air in a well-known ratio. This is part of the carbon cycle - the recirculation of carbon through the oceans, atmosphere, plants and animals. Scientists use carbon dating to determine when objects ceased to absorb carbon by measuring how much of the carbon-14 - which has a half-life of 5730 years - has decayed. But Beck and colleagues believe that the ratio of stable and radioactive carbon in the atmosphere may have changed considerably over the last 50 thousand years. This raises questions about the accuracy of carbon dating for very old objects. Beck and colleagues tested slices of a half-metre long stalagmite that grew between 45 000 and 11 000 years ago in a cave in the Bahamas. Stalagmites are calcium carbonate deposits left behind when carbon dioxide evaporates out of cave seepage water. They found that carbon-14 concentrations were twice their modern level during that period. Current records of the levels of carbon-14 in the atmosphere only cover the last 16 thousand years, and this discovery extends those records a further 30 thousand years. Galactic cosmic rays create most of the carbon-14 in our atmosphere, while solar cosmic rays generate a smaller fraction. The Earth is partially shielded from galactic cosmic rays by its own magnetic field and the solar magnetic field, which fluctuates as the solar cycle proceeds. But these effects are predictable and are thought to have changed little in the last million years - which means they cannot explain the glut of carbon-14. Evidence from North Atlantic sediments suggests that the Earth's magnetic field may have dipped around 40 thousand years ago, but this would still only account for - at best - half of the observed peak in carbon-14 concentrations. Beck's team concludes that either a jump in the cosmic ray flux or a fundamental change in the carbon cycle must have produced the sudden increase of carbon-14. The team speculates that a supernova shock wave could have produced a flurry of cosmic rays. "Weaker circulation of the oceans - which are the biggest reservoirs of carbon on Earth - would explain the excess of carbon-14", David Richards, joint team leader, told PhysicsWeb. If carbon-14 is carried more slowly from the surface to the depths of the ocean, he explains, the carbon-14 content of the atmosphere will rise. The discovery also has implications for our understanding of the environment as a whole. "We should take this as a warning that climate change may affect the carbon cycle in previously unexpected way", says Beck. ================================================================= Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: *Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends ================================================================= <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om