Link: http://aangirfan.blogspot.com/2009/08/jaycee-and-dutroux.html

In 1978, in the USA, Phillip Garrido began a 50-year sentence for kidnap and rape. Garrido was out of jail within 11 years. There is a suspicion that Garrido has friends in high places. In 1989, in Belgium, Marc Dutroux was sentenced to 13 years in jail for kidnapping and raping young girls. He was out within 3 years.

Link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gZ8Zlj-J4JAGBVX44URTwVV53E0QD9ADOPNO0

Firefighters tried to hold back a massive wildfire from consuming thousands of homes and an essential communications center in Los Angeles County as they mourned two of their own who were killed when their vehicle was overrun by fast-moving flames and rolled down a mountain side. About 12,000 homes, as well as crucial communications and astronomy centers atop Mount Wilson, were threatened the fire. On the blaze's northwestern front, two firefighters were killed Sunday on Mount Gleason near the city of Acton. "We ask for your understanding, for your patience as we move through this difficult time, and please, prayers for the families of our two brothers that we lost," county Deputy Fire Chief Mike Bryant said through tears at a Sunday press conference. Fire Capt. Tedmund Hall, 47, of San Bernardino County, and firefighter Specialist Arnaldo "Arnie" Quinones, 35, of Palmdale, were killed in the crash, the department said in a statement. Authorities did not give a cause for the crash. Hall was a 26-year veteran, and Quinones had been a county firefighter for eight years. LA-Late: California Fires Map! You Tube: California Wildfire Nearly Contained.

Link: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/278510

Former Vice President to the Bush administration Dick Cheney has revealed that he pushed for military action against Iran's nuclear program prior to leaving office. His Master's Voice: Netanyahu calls for 'crippling sanctions' against Iran. (AFP/Google)

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/30/cheney-accuses-obama-of-l_n_272160.html

Dick Cheney left little on the table during a taped interview Fox News Sunday, accusing the Obama White House pursuing an "intensely partisan" investigation into the use of torture under the Bush administration. Calling the "enhanced interrogation techniques" used on terrorist suspects "absolutely essential," the former vice president deemed any decision to launch an probe into the possible illegal use of these EITs an "outrageous political act" and a "direct slap at the CIA." Cheney's starting to look scared...Special Prosecutor for CIA Interrogation Probe Described as Relentless. (Google) PressTV: Cheney wants skeleton kept in closet. WSWS: Cheney defends torture policy and CIA torturers. Uruknet: Dick Cheney, in a defiant half-hour interview Sunday on Fox New, launched into a blistering attack on the Obama administration. Rebel Reports: We Need a Special Prosecutor for Blackwater and Other CIA "Contractors". Global Research: Newly Released E-Mails Reveal Cheney Pressured DOJ to Approve Torture: Dick Cheney and his lawyer, David Addington, pressured the Department of Justice in 2005 to quickly approve a torture memo that authorized CIA interrogators to use a combination of barbaric techniques during interrogations of “high-value” detainees, despite protests from former Deputy Attorney General James Comey, according to several of his e-mails released over the weekend. One of Comey’s 2005 e-mails said then Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was “weak” and had essentially allowed Cheney and Addington to politicize the Justice Department.

Link: http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/083009a.html

It seems coverage of the Bush administration’s “war on terror” has been put back on track by the editors of the Washington Post and their “sources” who are determined to highlight the supposed successes of waterboarding and other forms of torture. EmptyWheel: There is a particularly odious op-ed spinning the CIA torture innocence position in today's New York Times by self professed novelist Joseph Finder.

Link: http://www.uruknet.com/?p=m57483&hd=&size=1&l=e

Unpublished figures show thousands of ex-soldiers have sought financial help – many suffering with stress disorders.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8230158.stm

Nearly 60% of black and African people living in Russia's capital Moscow have been physically assaulted in racially motivated attacks, says a new study. Africans working or studying in the city live in constant fear of attack, according to the report by the Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy.

Link: http://www.naturalnews.com/026934_health_public_health_quarantine.html

The United States of America is devolving into medical fascism and Massachusetts is leading the way with the passage of a new bill, the "Pandemic Response Bill" 2028, reportedly just passed by the MA state Senate and now awaiting approval in the House. This bill suspends virtually all Constitutional rights of Massachusetts citizens and forces anyone "suspected" of being infected to submit to interrogations, "decontaminations" and vaccines. It's also sets fines up to $1,000 per day for anyone who refuses to submit to quarantines, vaccinations, decontamination efforts or to follow any other verbal order by virtually any state-licensed law enforcement or medical personnel.

Here's what's wrong with this bill and this whole fascist attitude:

■ Violation of 4th Amendment: Illegal search and seizure
■ Violation of 14th Amendment; illegal arrest without a warrant
■ Government price controls
■ "Involuntary Transportation" (also known as kidnapping)
■ $1,000 / day in fines
■ Forced vaccinations 
■ Forced quarantine for those who refuse (illegal imprisonment without charge)

Link: http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/08/secessionists-rally-texas/

For some folks in Texas, the prospect of a universal health care scheme isn't just cause for protest and debate -- it's reason enough to secede from the United States altogether.

Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/karzai-ahead-but-fraud-claims-persist-1779628.html

Hamid Karzai is expected in the next 48 hours to reach 50 per cent of votes cast in the Afghan elections, based on a partial count, giving him a theoretical victory in the race if the figures are reflected nationally. However, allegations of major fraud at the polls have more than doubled in the past two days to stand at 550, and these may affect the final outcome. NYT: Increasing Accounts of Fraud Cloud Afghan Vote: Afghan election officials said Sunday that the serious fraud reports that they were considering had suddenly doubled — from 270 to 550, in a development likely to stoke public outrage and perhaps even delay the official results past September.

Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=104869&sectionid=351020202

Despite mounting international pressure on Tel Aviv, Israel has accelerated settlement activity in East Jerusalem (al-Quds) in the first half of 2009.

Link: http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2009/08/29/israeli-organ-harvesting-the-new-blood-l

THE ROUGH GUIDE TO ISRAEL: Last week Sweden’s largest daily newspaper published an article containing shocking material: testimony and circumstantial evidence indicating that Israelis may have been harvesting internal organs from Palestinian prisoners without consent for many years. Worse yet, some of the information reported in the article suggests that in some instances Palestinians may have been captured with this macabre purpose in mind. Of all the articles written about Israeli organ harvesting, this probably is the best one there is.

Link: http://www.imemc.org/article/61524

The Friends of Freedom and Justice Committee in Bil’in reported that at least 40 soldiers invaded the village and broke into the house of Ashraf Mohammad Al Khatib, 29, and kidnapped him, before breaking into the house of Hamru Hisham Burnat, 24, and kidnapping him. International Peace Activists, present in the village, attempted to intervene and challenged the soldiers, but were unable to set the two kidnapped residents free. What organs were they after this time?

Link: http://snardfarker.ning.com/video/banned-on-youtube-israeli

ZIONISM-IN-A-NUTSHELL: The Israel Defense Forces officer accused of ordering a soldier under his command to shoot a bound and blindfolded Palestinian detainee failed his second polygraph test on Monday, after having passed the first test in a private institute last week. The results of Monday’s lie-detector test, held under the auspices of the military police, prove that Lieutenant colonel Omri Fruberg, commanding officer of IDF regiment 71, lied in his testimony, and suggest he did in fact give order to open fire at the Palestinian detainee.

Link: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1251145158438&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

"If he is convicted of the incredibly corrupt crimes with which he has been charged, I don't see how the court can avoid sentencing him to a long prison term," Professor Emanuel Gross told Army Radio.

Link: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/08/have-physicists-cracked-stock-market.html

New Scientist is reporting that physicists have largely figured out how to predict the end of bull markets: A team of physicists and financiers have ... successfully predict[ed] a steep fall in the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/managementIssues/idUSN2732083820090827

■ Fed urges judge not to enforce order pending appeal
■ Banks say disclosure could cause loss of confidence

Or else...Economic Disaster. Who's running this country anyway? Sure as hell not "we the people"!! Pakistan Daily: U.S Federal Reserve Must Die. Web-of-Debt: MORE THAN ONE WAY TO RECLAIM THE POWER TO CREATE MONEY: An Open Letter to the American Monetary Institute, August 28, 2009.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/08/200983072413470167.html

The US has accused Pakistan of illegally modifying US-made missiles to expand its ability to hit land-based targets, according to a report in the New York Times. The accusation, made amid growing concerns about Pakistan's increasingly rapid conventional and nuclear weapons development, triggered a new round of US-Pakistani tensions, the report says. The accusation, made amid growing concerns about Pakistan's increasingly rapid conventional and nuclear weapons development, triggered a new round of US-Pakistani tensions, the report says. "The focus of our concern is that this is a potential unauthorised modification of a maritime anti-ship defensive capability to an offensive land-attack missile," a senior administration official told the paper. "When we have concerns, we act aggressively." The US pulls out of Pakistan. No tension. Problem solved. AND: The US pulls out of Afghanistan too. No tension. Problem solved.

Link: http://enews.ferghana.ru/article.php?id=2563

Today, it is still hard for journalist or independent researcher to visit Turkmenistan. However, Elena Larina and Olga Naumov, two delicate women, Moscow-based ethnologists and PhD in History, were lucky. Last autumn they experienced extreme travel to Turkmenistan – they managed to live in remote and arduous regions of the country, Kara Kum and mountainous villages of "nohur". They shared the experience and unique pictures with Ferghana.Ru. The village of Damla is located in Kara Kum. Sixty houses in sand, no kolkhoz and no joint peasantries – each family survives independently. The local residents travel to Takhta, central villages, to pick up the gasoline coupons or to visit doctors. In October of last year, when we were in Damla, there was water crisis – two previous winters were snowless and there was almost no rain in the summer. People were saving rain water…

Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE57R01R20090830

Japan's next leader Yukio Hatoyama, fresh from a historic election win, faced the task on Monday of forming a government to tackle challenges such as reviving the economy and steering a new course with close ally Washington.

Link: http://news.cnet.com/8301-19514_3-10321671-239.html

Shuttle commander Frederick "C.J." Sturckow, forced by a leaky steering jet to use Discovery's big maneuvering thrusters instead of preferred fine-control vernier engines, deftly guided the spaceplane to a flawless docking with the International Space Station Sunday night to cap a two-day rendezvous. Approaching from directly in front of the laboratory complex as both spacecraft sailed 220 miles above the central Atlantic Ocean at 5 miles per second, the shuttle's payload bay docking port engaged its counterpart on the front end of the station's Harmony module at 7:54 p.m. CDT, about 10 minutes ahead of schedule.

Link: http://imgur.com/j9wrB.jpg

What is required to power the whole world by solar power...

Link: http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/08/30/dick-cheney-im-proud-i-tortured-to-protect-our-country-but-not-our-allies/

"The thing I keep coming back to time and time again, Chris, is the fact that we've gone for eight years without another attack. Now, how do you explain that? The critics don't have any solution for that. They can criticize our policies, our way of doing business, but the results speak for themselves." AP: Dick Cheney’s Mad as Hell.

Link: http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_56799.shtml

We are watching it happen in the streets. The recurring nightmare has become a grim, new reality for the people of Pakistan. After watching the horrors of the U.S. invasions and occupations of Iraq and neighboring Afhanistan for 8 years, the "war on terror" has finally arrived in The Land of the Pure. Obama is fulfilling his campaign promise to Pakistan. The sudden arrival of U.S. marines, U.S. military Hummers, the hired killers of Blackwater, houses barricaded for U.S. personnel in Islamabad and the construction of the world's largest U.S. "Embassy" are terrorizing this nation of 180 million people. The U.S. slaughter and destruction in Iraq and neighboring Afghanistan for the last 8 years warn them of what may lie in store for them, their families, their land. Aangirfan: OBAMA'S BREAK UP OF PAKISTAN.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXXBCFnhsUc

Canadian Doctors for Medicare hosted a celebration of Medicare in Canada. The speakers included Roy Romanow, former Saskatchewan Premiere and Commissioner on Health Care in Canada. They tell Americans that Canadian universal health care works and encourage Americans to implement a single payer universal health care system. The video also features Dr. Steven Lewis a health policy and research consultant, Dr. Danielle Martin, Dr. Ryan Meili and Dr. Robert Woolard representing the Canadian Doctors for Medicare and Linda Silas President of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions.

Link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/World/Middle-East/Former-Israel-premier-Olmert-indicted-for-graft/articleshow/4951834.cms

Israel's former Premier Ehud Olmert has been indicted on graft charges including fraud, breach of trust and tax evasion, making him the first former prime minister in the country's history to face criminal charges. He was formally indicted on three counts of corruption, including charges of fraud, breach of trust, cronyism, falsifying corporate records and tax evasion, the State Prosecutor's Office said. Following months of investigation, Olmert faces indictment in three cases, the first of which involves accepting cash envelopes from US businessman Morris Talansky. Belfast Telegraph: Former Israeli PM faces corruption charges.

Link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/World/Rest-of-World/Landslide-victory-for-Opposition-in-Japan-polls-Media-projections/articleshow/4951571.cms

Japan's ruling conservative party suffered a crushing defeat in elections today as voters overwhelmingly Yukio Hatoyama, head of Democratic Party of Japan, smiles as he marks his victory by placing a rose on the list of DPJ candidates in Tokyo. The opposition Democratic Party of Japan was set to win 300 of the 480 seats in the lower house of parliament, ousting the Liberal Democrats, who have governed Japan for all but 11 months since 1955, according to projections by all major Japanese TV networks. The vote was seen as a barometer of frustrations over Japan's worst economic slump since World War II and a loss of confidence in the ruling Liberal Democrats' ability to tackle tough problems such as the rising national debt and rapidly ageing population.

Link: http://www.washington-report.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3063

Despite the parade of various international diplomats and aid workers surveying the destruction in Gaza, virtually nothing has changed since Israel ended in January its Operation Cast Lead assault—peversely named after a line in a children’s Hannukah poem. Israel launched its assault on Dec. 27, 2008, during the Jewish religious festival. Homeless families are distressed at the lack of progress in providing adequate and safe shelter, despite pledges made by international donors at a conference held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt in early March. PCHR Weekly Report: Israeli Forces Continue Systematic Attacks against Palestinian Civilians and Property in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and Continue to Impose a Total Siege on the Gaza Strip.

Link: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/53209

President Barack Obama is asking Americans to volunteer on Sept. 11, making this year's anniversary of the terror attacks the first National Day of Service and Remembrance, organizers announced Thursday. "Our ultimate goal is to leave a positive legacy that honors the victims and those who rose in service," the president of MyGoodDeed, David Paine, said. [MyGoodDeed is one of the organizations responsible for the event.] One of Obama's goals probably is to keep the cherished "national wound" (9/11) open and to prevent it from healing. He and the hidden hand behind him presumably would want to exploit it the way the Zionists have exploited theirs (the so-called "holocaust"). There's great propaganda in this, and big money too. Such a wound (if successfully kept from healing) is a very effective method in terms of controlling vast herds of sheeple. This apparently is the ultimate goal of Obama & the Zionists. Plus of course the added benefit of having better control over the opposition / the enemy (i.e. those who have seen through the charade). [A new and interesting website here:] The Science of 9/11

Link: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/74543.html

Afghan mujahedin ("Taliban") expanding into Northern Afghanistan to counter new NATO supply route. Afghan mujahedin ("Taliban insurgents") have taken over parts of two northern provinces from which they were driven in 2001, threatening to disrupt NATO's new supply route from Central Asia and "expand" a war that's largely been confined to Afghanistan's southern half, U.S. and Afghan officials said. Global Research/TPV: Surging towards a US-NATO Military Disaster: Obama's Escalating War in Central and South Asia. + STRUGGLE FOR KABUL: THE TALIBAN ADVANCE (ICOS / The Senlis Council/TPV)

Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1209858/Jesus-Siberia-Ex-traffic-policeman-says-son-God-leads-thousands-followers-Russia.html?ITO=1490

The beard and long hair are both present and correct. And with his flowing linen robes and beatific smile he certainly does a fine impression of a holy man. But to his believers in this remote corner of Siberia, Sergei Torop, a former traffic policeman, is the literal reincarnation of none other than Jesus Christ.

Link: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2009-08/29/content_8632917.htm

The oil tanker was carrying 60 metric tons of fuel when it split for unknown reasons, said the newspaper. Egyptian officials are trying to contain the oil spill, and the cause of the accident is being investigated.

Link: http://yayacanada.blogspot.com/2009/08/truth-about-honduras.html

Take a look at the photo. It's from one of several Honduran resistance websites. The man on the left is now dead, shot to death during a street protest. He was a union leader. The woman in the middle was injured. The man on the right is José Leonidas Martinez who spoke last evening here in Ottawa about conditions on the ground in his country since the coup. The Toronto Honduras Resistance website is a good place for English speakers to get updates and find plenty of resources. This article explains the circumstances under which Zalaya was replaced by the leader of the party to which he belonged. This video talks about the attempted denial that it was a military coup. There are also rumours being spread that Zalaya was involved in the drug trade - a little known secret. Meanwhile, it is no secret at all that the CIA has long been involved in the drug trade. Nor is it a secret that the CIA is involved in regime change.

Link: http://teeth.com.pk/blog/2009/08/28/saad-khan-unilever-mindshare-accident

He did not lose his balance in the water – he was an excellent swimmer but the doctors in Thailand after carrying out an autopsy told that his muscle had pulled and he had some weight tied up to his feet as part of the challenge and so could not make it back up. He was under water for about 6 minutes.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8229114.stm

Justice Secretary Jack Straw dropped a demand to exclude the Lockerbie bomber from a Libyan prisoner transfer accord, the Sunday Times has reported. Letters leaked to the paper say Mr Straw wanted to exclude Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi from the accord. But he backed down, citing "overwhelming" UK interests in advance of a major oil deal. TimesOnline: Lockerbie bomber 'set free for oil'.

Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/fixer-the-rehabilitation-of-edward-kennedy-1779260.html

Nobody knows what happened at Chappaquiddick, and Ted Kennedy was never really trusted afterwards. But in his later years came a remarkable redemption, writes veteran reporter Fred Emery. Teddy Kennedy is benefiting in death far more than Richard Nixon did, by being judged on his whole life and achievements – and not just by the scandal that settled each man's presidential destiny. Nixon paid for Watergate by losing his dearest possession, presidential office. Kennedy was never to be president because at Chappaquiddick he panicked and left a young woman to drown – after which he was never again fully trusted.

Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/revealed-how-israel-helped-amin-to-take-power-536162.html

When Radio Uganda announced at dawn on 25 January 1971 that Idi Amin was Uganda's new ruler, many people suspected that Britain had a hand in the coup. However, Foreign Office papers released last year point to a different conspirator: Israel. The first telegrams to London from the British High Commissioner in Kampala, Richard Slater, show a man shocked and bewildered by the coup. But he quickly turned to the man who he thought might know what was going on; Colonel Bar-Lev, the Israeli defence attaché. He found the Israeli colonel with Amin. They had spent the morning of the coup together. Slater's next telegram says that according to Colonel Bar-Lev: "In the course of last night General Amin caused to be arrested all officers in the armed forces sympathetic to Obote ... Amin is now firmly in control of all elements of [the] army which controls vital points in Uganda ... the Israeli defence attaché discounts any possibility of moves against Amin." The Israelis moved quickly to consolidate the coup. In the following days Bar-Lev was in constant contact with Amin and giving him advice. Slater told London that Bar-Lev had explained "in considerable detail [how] ... all potential foci of resistance, both up country and in Kampala, had been eliminated". Shortly afterwards Amin made his first foreign trip; a state visit to Israel. Golda Meir, the Prime Minister, was reportedly "shocked at his shopping list" for arms. But why was Israel so interested in a landlocked country in Central Africa? The reason is spelt out by Slater in a later telegram. Israel was backing rebellion in southern Sudan to punish Sudan for supporting the Arab cause in the Six-Day War. "They do not want the rebels to win. They want to keep them fighting." RCPBML: Who Put Gen. Idi Amin in Power? -The following extract is from an article published by The Monitor (Uganda) on March 31, 2002: There has long been a suggestion that the British government engineered the coup. If true, the plotters certainly did not tell the Foreign Office. Richard Slater, the High Commissioner in Kampala, was caught completely unawares. His early telegrams suggest bewilderment. But he immediately goes to the embassy that he believes to be close to Amin, the Israeli. He is right. Colonel Bar Lev, the Israeli military attaché, has already met Amin on the day of the coup and has been out on the streets of Kampala. Officially the First Secretary at the Embassy, Bar Lev has been in Uganda for five years and has recently been responsible for setting up a paramilitary police force and training the army and police. The Independent: Amin: the lapdog turned butcher who destroyed Uganda. + His Excellency Field Marshal Idi Amin Dada, ex-President of Uganda, Conqueror of the British Empire, Victorious Cross, Member of the Excellent Order of the Source of the Nile, (not to mention Wife-Eater, Beer-Swiller, Pub Singer, Bloody Dictator and Damne: The coup had been well planned, well co-ordinated and relatively bloodless. Just how much Britain did to help Amin take over Uganda may be revealed on 1 January next year, when the official records are released. Britain immediately recognised Amin. He promptly reversed Obote's socialist polices, which might have led to the nationalisation of British businesses in Uganda. Amin's closest friends, however, were the Israelis. They organised his security, Colonel Bar Lev ever at his side. At that time, Africa had cut a deal with the Arabs over Israel. In return for cheap oil and support for the black cause in South Africa, the Africans delivered diplomatic support to the Palestinians. Amin's support for Israel ran against the tide.

Link: http://www.redress.cc:80/stooges/pjballes20090829

Paul J. Balles looks at how Israel and its worldwide lobbyists, aided by a complicit Western media and abetted by politicians afraid of being destroyed by the lobbyists, is getting away with blue murder while an indifferent public turns the other way.

Link: http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/08/boycotts-as-a-legitimate-means-of-resistance/

Prejudice does not always come with an ugly face. The same holds for Zionism and racism. It is entirely possible for well-intentioned people to hold a prejudice and, even worse, act on held prejudices.

Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/us-wants-20000-more-troops-to-fight-taliban-1778947.html

British and American soldiers to shoulder brunt of surge's next phase. The commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan will ask for 20,000 more international troops as part of his new strategic plan for the alliance's war against a resurgent Taliban, The Independent has learned.