statism watch

James Corbett, CorbettReport.com
November 19, 2010

TRANSCRIPT: This week marks the one year anniversary of the release of emails and documents from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia that we now know as Climategate.

Sitting here now, one year later, it’s becoming difficult to remember the importance of that release of information, or even what information was actually released. Many were only introduced to the scandal through commentary in the blogosphere and many more came to know about it only weeks later, after the establishment media had a chance to assess the damage and fine tune the spin that would help allay their audience’s concern that something important had just happened. Very few have actually bothered to read the emails and documents for themselves.

(more…)

This just keeps getting better, doesn’t it? You can read the nauseatingly breathless story on the unveiling of the ‘weapons cache’ here. They even displayed the homeless camper’s crossbow and chainsaw, even though they admitted weeks ago that guy had nothing to do with the G20. One can only speculate where Blair and his force may have produced the machetes from.

Related: Four detained journalists file complaints of assault, sexual threats against G20 police | Inside the G20 Eastern Avenue Detention Centre | Toronto Police Lied: No five-metre rule existed in G20 security fence law | Outraged G20 protesters rally against police abuse and arbitrary detention | 20 G20 detention reports: ‘I will not forget what they have done to me’ | The G20: Brutal spectacle failed a city and its people | The G20’s ignominious end: Panic, outrage as police detain hundreds for hours in pouring rain | National Post photographers arrested, spend night in G20 detention camp | Peaceful Eastern Ave jail solidarity action attacked by Toronto police | Police Raid U of T Student Union for Hosting G20 Protesters | Guardian journalist beaten, arrested at peaceful G20 protest on Esplanade | Black Bloc tactics sparked Saturday G20 vandalism, confrontation | G20 protesters clash with Vancouver police | ‘Anarchists’ leave trail of destruction, peaceful 3hr march forgotten | Four alleged G20 violence ringleaders appear in court | Pre-dawn raids in Toronto homes result in four arrests | Naomi Klein and 500 marchers crash party at tent city | Protesters flood the streets on first day of Toronto G20 summit | First G20 ‘secret law’ arrestee plans Charter challenge | G20 law gives police sweeping powers to arrest people | Huntsville G8: Military, locked down security, few protesters | CP Reporter: How I was detained by G8 security | G20: Activists Arrested, Others Denied Entry into Canada | UK: Filmmaker Captures Absurdity, Empty Threats Of Police Terror Stop Laws | Canada flunks on indigenous rights: G20 native protesters | Marcus Gee: Why the G20 protesters won’t condemn violence | Peaceful protests continue in Toronto as G20 nears | No legislation, no precedent to limit G20 police powers | Anti-poverty activists occupy ESSO station during Monday G20 protest — for ten minutes | Toronto activists launch G20 alternative media centre | Ban G20 summit agents provocateurs: activist groups to PM | Oxfam astroturf march leads early G20 protest for bank tax | Activists plan walkout and tent city to protest G8/G20 summits | G20 centre for protesters set to open | Rights group files for injunction against G20 ‘sound cannon’ | G20 activists accuse CSIS of intimidation | Anarchists plan ‘militant’ protests at Toronto G20 | Toronto labour, native protesters ready for G20 demonstrations | Toronto G20 protest area moved to Queens Park | All Toronto G20 protests will be directed to Trinity Bellwoods Park | Protesters and police get ready to square off at G20 summit | Hundreds of Toronto G20 delegates granted diplomatic immunity | For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature

The Canadian Press
June 30, 2010

Toronto’s top police officer misled the public by displaying fake weapons used in a medieval-themed role-playing game to help justify their actions during G20 protests, their owner said Wednesday.

Brian Barrett said everything in the backpack police confiscated from him “was safe enough for toddlers.”

Barrett’s “spell-balls,” foam-covered batons and scale-mail vest were among items police Chief Bill Blair showed reporters on Tuesday.

“He turns around and states that they are specifically dangerous terrorist items that were solely intended to hurt police,” Barrett said. “That’s unacceptable to me.”

Barrett, 25, of Whitby, Ont., was en route to a west-end park for a role-playing fantasy game called Amtgard when police stopped him at Union Station on Saturday.

(more…)

Related: Obama Can Shut Down Internet For 4 Months Under New Emergency Powers | US Senator: China Can Shut Down The Internet, Why Can’t We? | Internet ‘kill switch’ proposed for US President | U.S. seeks international organization in battle against cyber terror | Homeland Security’s Cyber Bill Would Codify Executive Emergency Powers | Lieberman Bill Gives Feds ‘Emergency’ Powers to Secure Civilian Nets | Cyber Command: We Don’t Wanna Defend the Internet (We Just Might Have To) | Pentagon: Let us monitor your network or else | US appoints first cyber warfare general | NSA head confirmed as chief of US cyber command | Cybersecurity event seeks to spur international talks | Danger Room What’s Next in National Security Prospective U.S. Cyber Commander Talks Terms of Digital Warfare | Canadian researchers reveal another botnet in China, call for state cybersecurity | U.S. cybersecurity bill introduced in Senate | Cyberattacks push CSIS to reach out to business | United States weighs massive expansion of Internet monitoring | Cyberwar Hype Intended to Destroy the Open Internet | Google, NSA may team up to probe cyberattacks | UN agency calls for global cyberwarfare treaty, ‘driver’s license’ for Web users | Death Of The Internet: Censorship Bills In UK, Australia, U.S. Aim To Block “Undesirable” Websites | Australia introduces web filters | Obama Wants Computer Privacy Ruling Overturned | UK Internet surveillance plan to go ahead | Security boss calls for end to net anonymity | Case for Internet spying not closed | Planned Internet, wireless surveillance laws worry watchdogs | UK ISPs condemn Internet surveillance plans | UK to found new ‘cyber-security’ units attached to national eavesdropping centre | ISPs must help police snoop on internet under new bill | UK plans to integrate ‘cybersecurity’ centre with US, Canada | Cybersecurity Is Framework For Total Government Regulation & Control Of Our Lives | Obama Set to Create A Cybersecurity Czar With Broad Mandate | EU wants ‘Internet G12′ to govern cyberspace | UK Home Secretary has secret plan to surveil, ‘Master the Internet’ | Should Obama Control the Internet? | Cybersecurity law would give feds unprecedented net control | Munk Centre researchers discover botnet, call for international cyberspace ‘legal regime’ | NSA Dominance of Cybersecurity Would Lead to ‘Grave Peril’, Ex-Cyber Chief Tells Congress | Do We Need a New Internet? | Defense Contractors See $$$ in Cyber Security | RCMP to helm a Canadian “cyber-security strategy” | Sweden approves wiretapping law | Law Professor tells tech conference: plans to shut down Internet already on deck

Mike Masnick, Techdirt.com
June 25, 2010

Earlier this year, we noted that government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton had been making the rounds ringing up the moral panic over “cyberterrorism,” without any significant evidence of it actually existing in any real form. The key to all of this was the hiring of former director of national intelligence Michael McConnell as a VP, whose main job seems to be scaring the press into repeating Booz Allen fear mongering talking points and attributing them to him without even bothering to mention that he’s employed by a company that is making a ton of money from this fear mongering. And, boy, has Booz Allen raked in the money. Since the fear mongering began, the firm has secured at least hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts.

Of course, that’s good for the firm, but what about its investors? Well, now that it’s scared the government and the public into handing over all this cash, it looks like its investors want to cash out. The company has now announced plans for an IPO so they can walk off with the cash, built off of scaring the public over a supposed threat for which they have little actual evidence. What a deal!

(more…)

The indications are that the inspectors were turfed because, Iran contends, they lied about Iran lying about an electrochemical cell having been removed from a pyroprocessing experiment. Read more about the contentious report here.

Related: Iran Threatens to Stop Western Ships if Subjected to Cargo Inspection | Tucker Bilderberg 2010 Wrapup: Attack on Iran discussed, World Treasury Dept delayed | Iran has ‘fuel for 2 nukes’: UN report | Israel rejects UN call to come clean on nuclear program | MIddle East arms treaty a go despite US ‘deep regret’ over focus on Israeli nuclear arsenal | Disclosure of apartheid-era warhead negotiations with South Africa tip Israel’s nuclear hand | Obama starts massive US Air-Sea-Marine build-up opposite Iran | US claims Security Council backing for Iran sanctions | Iran brokers deal with Turkey for uranium enrichment | Dublin Trilateral attendees let slip need for world govt, war with Iran, Bilderberg oversight | UN-led uranium deal still on table: Iran | Robert Gates says White House lacks plan to deal with Iran nuclear threat | China sells petrol to Iran while talking at UN about sanctions | Nuclear summit urges anti-terror treaty | Enriched uranium going back to U.S.: PM | Iran unveils new uranium centrifuges | Barack Obama to limit use of US nuclear weapons | Russia claims breakthrough in historic nuclear reduction agreement with US | Israeli preparations for war with Iran troubling | Russia to push ahead on Iran missile deal | Iran could be making nuclear warhead, says new director of IAEA | US media omission: Iran calls for global nuclear disarmament | Obama threatens actions against Iran over nuclear program | UN sanctions urged over Iran’s uranium plans | Western powers voice scepticism over Iran uranium offer | U.S. deploys land and sea-based missile shield in the Gulf to deter attack from Iran | UK: Tony Blair attempts to shift focus to Iran as ‘global threat’ at Iraq war inquiry | Chomsky says Israel, ‘US military base’ | Russia has no evidence of Iran nuclear bomb-Putin | IAEA members question Iran nuclear intel authenticity | US military could strike Iran, but at what cost? | Another War in the Works | Iran to allow nuclear site inspection | Iran plays into Obama’s hands with disclosure of nuclear facility | UN approves nuclear ‘disarmament’ resolution | Obama scales back missile defence shield in Europe | Israel ‘will attack Iran this year’ if West does not cripple Tehran with sanctions | Brookings Publication mentions possibility of ‘Horrific Provocation’ to Trigger Iran Invasion | Blast at Iranian mosque raises tensions in run-up to presidential election | Netanyahu: We may be forced to attack Iran | Proposed Missile Shield seen as Provocation by Russia | Neo-cons still preparing for Iran attack | Russia threatens to ’strike’ Poland in wake of U.S. missile plan | Cheney Considered False Flag Operation to Justify War with Iran | US scales up covert destabilization efforts in Iran, continues funding ‘al-Qaeda’ | Israelis ‘rehearse Iran attack’ | Israeli official says attack on Iran ‘unavoidable’ | Bush ‘plans Iran air strike by August’ | U.S. Navy starts exercises in Gulf waters | U.S. National Intelligence Estimate: Iran stopped nuclear weapons work in 2003 | Cheney Orders Media To Sell Attack On Iran | U.S. sending third aircraft carrier to the Middle East | US aircraft carriers in Persian Gulf | Investigative Reporter Seymour Hersh: US Indirectly Funding Al-Qaeda Linked Sunni Groups in Move to Counter Iran | How the USA Gave North Korea The Bomb | Former CIA Officer — US Plans Nuclear Attack On Iran

Hossein Jaseb, Sylvia Westall, Reuters
June 21, 2010

TEHRAN/VIENNA–Iran has barred two U.N. nuclear inspectors from entering the Islamic Republic, adding to tension less than two weeks after Tehran was hit by new U.N. sanctions over its disputed atomic program.

Officials accused the two unnamed inspectors of providing false information in a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and declared them persona non grata.

They made clear Iran would still allow the Vienna-based U.N. agency to monitor its nuclear facilities, saying other experts could carry out the work.

“Inspections are continuing without any interruption,” Iran’s IAEA envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh told reporters in Vienna.

(more…)

Steven Hynd at Newshoggers.com also makes the interesting point that the timing of the Afghan minerals announcement is not merely opportunistic. Afghanistan’s mineral wealth was “very well known to the Soviets in 1985″ and “a US government Country Study in 2002 went into detail about their knowledge”, he writes. No, the interestnig point is that we should consider also the intended audience for the announcement. The audience is not the American public, but the elite policy makers who govern decisions around the debacle that is the Afghan conflict. Hynd writes:

“…guaranteed U.S. access to ”strategic reserves” of “strategic minerals”, where possession is nine tenths of the game and the resources are just as valuable still in the ground as mined and processed for market, is a heady brew to mostly-hawkish senior policymakers and Very Serious think-tankers, especially if the end of the sentence goes ‘and China doesn’t get them”. Risen’s stenography isn’t aimed at us, but at them and will be used to add some geopolitical weight to the arguments McChrystal and others are already beginning to make as to why they should be allowed to break their promise to Obama and the U.S. should stay in Afghanistan a few years longer.”

Related: Lithium, gold, iron, copper: Massive mineral discovery in Afghanistan could alter the war | LSE Report: Pakistan ISI backs Taliban | Karzai’s Afghan peace conference ends with agreement on Taliban amnesty | NATO to begin handing control to Afghans | UN in secret peace talks with Taliban | Afghanistan conference agrees on exit timetable, Taliban bailout | General McChrystal indicates talks with Taliban to be discussed | UK ‘backs Taliban reintegration’ | Pipeline Opens New Front In Afghan War | Canadians could be defending Afghan gas pipeline | US Allowed Taliban, Al-Qaeda Airlift Evacuation

Paul Jay, Huffington Post
June 14, 2010

Did a 2007 report of massive mineral deposits in Afghanistan affect President Obama’s 2009 decision to widen the scope of the Afghan war?

Is a recent New York Times article omitting that possibility?

A U.S. Geological Survey has shown that Afghanistan is one of the worlds’ biggest depositories of minerals and precious metals. Include on that list, a lithium find that could be as large as Bolivia’s, now the world’s major source of the rare mineral.

The New York Times reported on Sunday, June 13, 2010 “The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials. The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.”

(more…)

Let’s see the warmists explain that away. Now, when will the wider public realize how utterly they’ve been misled?

Related: Scientist says Arctic getting colder | Climate sceptic wins landmark data victory ‘for price of a stamp’ | Climategate whitewash: Climate-change partisans find mere sins of omission | Climategate Investigation A Monumental Whitewash | New chief Climategate investigator failed to declare eco directorship | A perfect storm is brewing for the IPCC | UK: University at center of Climategate accused of misleading MPs, deleting information | Global warming panel to get independent review | Climate scientists withdraw journal claims of rising sea levels | Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since 1995 | Leaked climate change emails scientist ‘hid’ data flaws | Canadian scientist says UN’s global warming panel ‘crossing the line’ | Manufactured ‘Science’: Another IPCC Scientist Reveals How UN Scientists talked about ‘trying to make IPCC report so dramatic that US would just have to sign Kyoto Protocol’ | Glacier scientist: I knew data hadn’t been verified | UN wrongly linked global warming to natural disasters | The IPCC glacier meltdown: More global warming fraud exposed | Taxpayers’ millions paid to Indian institute run by UN IPCC climate chief | Climategate: A 2,000-page epic of science and skepticism – Part 2 | Climategate: Al Gore lies | Climategate: A 2,000-page epic of science and skepticism – Part 1 | If Climategate Is No Big Deal, Why Are Questions About It Met With An Armed Response? | Climategate: Investigations into climate fraud fixed | ‘Independent’ United Nations panel to examine Climategate evidence | Bombshell UN Climate Documents Reveal Planned “End Run” Around National Sovereignty | Climategate: Global Warming scientists placed under investigation | Latest Climategate revelation: Climate change data dumped | Climate change: this is the worst scientific scandal of our generation | Obama’s ‘Science Czar’ John Holdren Friend of Climate Deception Lab | “Climategate”: Peer-Review System Was Hijacked By Warming Alarmists | Top Climatology Lab Hacked, E-Mails Reveal Biased Science | E-mails indicate EPA suppressed report skeptical of global warming | Polar bear expert barred from conference by global warming advocates | Top Japanese Scientists: Warming Is Not Caused By Human Activity | IPCC caught with false figures, doubt cast on accuracy of global temperature record

Lawrence Solomon, The National Post
June 13, 2010

The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change misled the press and public into believing that thousands of scientists backed its claims on manmade global warming, according to Mike Hulme, a prominent climate scientist and IPCC insider. The actual number of scientists who backed that claim was “only a few dozen experts,” he states in a paper for Progress in Physical Geography, co-authored with student Martin Mahony.

“Claims such as ‘2,500 of the world’s leading scientists have reached a consensus that human activities are having a significant influence on the climate’ are disingenuous,” the paper states unambiguously, adding that they rendered “the IPCC vulnerable to outside criticism.”

Hulme, Professor of Climate Change in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia — the university of Climategate fame – is the founding Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and one of the UK’s most prominent climate scientists. Among his many roles in the climate change establishment, Hulme was the IPCC’s co-ordinating Lead Author for its chapter on ‘Climate scenario development’ for its Third Assessment Report and a contributing author of several other chapters.

Hulme’s depiction of IPCC’s exaggeration of the number of scientists who backed its claim about man-made climate change can be found on pages 10 and 11 of his paper, found here.

(more…)

You have to look pretty hard, according to some reports, to find much evidence of development in Afghanistan. Not as though the Canadian media has been allowed to report on it that much. Apparently we’re building a dam somewhere – yes, Dhala Dam. Try finding any new information on the progress of this signature project. The government’s dam webpage was last updated October 2009. Of course, we’ve a limited number of troops available for development so it’s not their fault, the point is that the lies and evasion and spin have to stop.

Update (2010/06/09): Well, that explains why we haven’t been hearing much about Dhala Dam – there was an armed standoff between Canadian security contractors and the Karzai-affiliated Watan group back in February.

Related: Harper’s Privy Council message control system is unprecedented, critics say | Prime Minister’s Office tells Tory MPs not to answer Citizen reporter’s questions on expenses | Canada’s new information czar vows to take on delays in access system | Harper government secretly monitoring online chats about politics | Cabinet ministers’ offices regularly interfere in access to information requests, says Tory staffer | Conservatives accused of hiding information | Aspiring government economists must reveal views on stimulus plan | Ottawa won’t budge on secrecy laws | McGuinty won’t deny political interference with Freedom of Information requests | Canadian media watched closely in Afghanistan | Information commissioner quits, Ottawa chided for lacking ‘guts’ | Canadian Parliament Threatens People For Posting Video Of Proceedings Online | Government secrecy ‘grim,’ watchdog says | Watchdog alarmed by Harper’s information clampdown | Listeria files withheld due to ’systemic’ problems with access to information | Public access vs. government secrecy the issue in Supreme Court of Canada case | Radical change needed in privacy protection, Ont. watchdog says | Files tagged as `sensitive’ cause unfair delays, watchdog says | Tentacles of Secrecy Grip Tightly | Parliament losing power, author says | Over 100 complaints about access to govt. info on Afghan mission: report | Information lockdown: How Harper Controls the Spin | Tories kill access to information database | Harper to create government-run media centre: report

Mike Blanchfield, Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press
June 7, 2010

The Harper government used a pervasive message-control tool to persuade Canadians their foremost purpose in Afghanistan was building schools and fostering democracy rather than waging a war that was turning bloodier by the day.

An investigation by The Canadian Press shows The Conservatives systematically drafted “Message Event Proposals” as part of a quiet campaign to persuade Canadians their country was primarily engaged in development work to rebuild a shattered nation rather than hunting down and killing an emboldened insurgency.

The government used MEPs to literally script the words it wanted to hear from the mouths of its top diplomats, aid workers and cabinet ministers in 2007-2008 to divert public attention from the soaring double-digit death toll of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.

While the message was being massaged in Ottawa, the reconstituted Taliban unleashed a fresh wave of attacks on NATO troops and innocent Kandaharis.

“Desired soundbite: ‘Canada’s mission in Afghanistan is refocusing its mission towards development, reconstruction and diplomatic efforts,’” says an MEP prepared by the Privy Council Office, the bureaucratic wing that serves the Prime Minister’s Office.

(more…)

Benjamin Netanyahu continues to insist the Mavi Marmara was full of terrorist sympathizers spoiling for a fight as he rejects an international inquiry into the events of that bloody morning. Iran, meanwhile, has stupidly offered military escort to any future aid convoys to Gaza, fueling paranoia that Gaza will become a beachhead and weapons drop for Iranian forces. Bay of Pigs, anyone?

Update: It came to light today as well that Israel has admitted to editing (not doctoring) the audio released of ship-to-ship communications prior to the attack. Sharp-eared citizens online had already commented on the audio disconnects between communications of known persons on the aid flotilla and anti-semitic comments, which Free Gaza accuses the Israeli government of inserting. While Israel denies this, it admits it is unable to confirm the source of the comments since the channel used was an open channel, and so any vessel in the water, or anyone on land within range, could have jumped in with a comment.

Related: Israel’s seizure of Gaza aid boat Rachel Corrie sparks further condemnation | Autopsy: Gaza flotilla activists were shot in head at close range | Gaza flotilla activists unarmed: Canadian | Gaza flotilla attack: British activists tell of abuse by Israelis | Israel to reject UN call for flotilla raid probe, MV Rachel Corrie under steam | IDF: ‘Activists threw stun grenades’ | Israel to deport all detained aid flotilla activists by end of day | Ex-Mossad agent: Gaza flotilla raid ’so stupid it’s stupefying’ | Knesset member and eyewitness: Israel fired before boarding ship | Protests in Middle East, Europe, follow deadly Israeli attack on flotilla as UN convenes emergency session | Israeli troops attack ship carrying aid to Gaza killing 16 | Israeli navy prepares for action as activists’ flotilla nears Gaza | George Galloway, on aid mission to Gaza, is deported from Egypt | Cynthia McKinney Demands Immediate Release After Her Gaza-Bound Boat is Seized by Israeli Navy | Israeli troops kill apartheid wall protester | Gaza relief boat carrying former Congresswoman rammed by Israelis | Former US congresswoman, presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney barred from boarding plane to human rights conference

Catrina Stewart, The Independent
June 6, 2010

Protesters say Israel had an assassination list. Israel says soldiers fired only in self-defence. So what really happened on 31 May?

Jamal Elshayyal, a journalist with al-Jazeera, woke with a start to the opening salvos of an Israeli assault that would transform the decks of the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish vessel bound for Gaza, into a bloodbath.

From the ship’s position deep in international waters, satellite images of Israeli speedboats and helicopters approaching the vessel were beamed across the globe before communications were abruptly cut off, leaving the events on the Marmara to unfold away from the eyes of the world.

Six days after the bloody assault that left nine foreign protesters, mainly Turks, dead, nobody can recount with any conviction precisely what happened that night. The convoy of ships, whose passengers included writers, politicians and journalists, had been expected for weeks, with organisers loudly broadcasting their plans to run Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip and draw international attention to the situation there.

From the beginning, it was clear that Israeli forces were concentrating in their largest numbers on the Marmara, a ship carrying some 550 peace activists. The remaining five boats were much smaller and easily commandeered. After the Marmara was subdued, the passengers silenced, and their recording equipment confiscated, Israel disseminated a carefully choreographed account of the events that night that would dominate the airwaves for the first 48 hours.

(more…)

The WHO should really give it up, though there’s very little chance of their regaining any credibility to judge by comments on this story at the CBC site. Almost everyone knows by now you redefined the meaning of the word right before declaring H1N1 a pandemic.

Related: Low H1N1 vaccination rate alarms health experts | H1N1 pandemic call to be reviewed | EU Council Health Chair: Swine Flu Pandemic Was A Hoax | WHO to examine its H1N1 response | Flu Inc.: How vaccines became big business | Swine flu pandemic ‘less lethal than expected’ | Dr. Richard Schabas — How they larded H1N1 facts with fear | H1N1 overplayed by media, public health: MDs | Elite Council Recording Suggests Creating False Scarcity To Drive Up Demand For H1N1 Vaccine | WHO pandemic definition too broad, doctor contends | Flu Season Has Already Peaked in US, Little Benefit to H1N1 Jab: Study | GlaxoSmithKline profit rises on flu drug | UK: National Health Service frontline staff shun H1N1 vaccine | Swine flu death rate similar to seasonal flu: expert | Swine flu unlikely to become superbug | UK Government Swine Flu Advisor On Vaccine Maker Payroll | Swine flu: How scared should we be? | Top Epidemiologist Slams Swine Flu Fearmongering | Lessons of 1976: swine flu, fear, mass vaccinations, wasted millions

CBC News
June 3, 2010

The peak of the H1N1 pandemic flu activity seems to have passed, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

WHO director-general Margaret Chan said the agency’s committee of advisors unanimously said while the period of most intense pandemic activity has passed for most parts of the world, pandemic disease is expected to continue.

The committee will meet again by mid-July to review the pandemic status after more data from the flu season in the southern hemisphere is available.

The pandemic alert level has been at its top level of phase 6 since June 2009.

(more…)

Related: Pakistan Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud is alive, says spy agency | Pakistani Taliban leader reportedly killed in U.S. strike | Killer of CIA agents in Afghanistan called for revenge for Baitullah Mehsud | Has Osama Bin Laden been dead for seven years — and are the U.S. and Britain covering it up to continue war on terror? | Pakistani militant leader dead: Taliban | Pakistani president Asif Zardari admits creating terrorist groups | Western Governments Funding Taliban & Al-Qaeda To Kill U.S. Troops, Destabilize Countries | Whistleblower Who Linked “Taliban” Leader To US Intelligence Is Assassinated | CIA: Bin Laden still in Pakistan | The Main Result of the “War on Terror”: The Destabilization of Pakistan | Al-Qaeda Chief In Iraq: Captured, Killed, Never Actually Existed, Now Captured Again | Report: CIA runs secret bases in Pakistan | Key Benazir Bhutto assassination witness shot dead | CIA, Pakistani ISI have long, complicated relationship | US Allowed Taliban, Al-Qaeda Airlift Evacuation

Steve Watson, PrisonPlanet.com
June 2, 2010

Three really does seem to be the magic number

The next time you consider voicing opposition to the illegal bombardment of Pakistan with drone delivered U.S. missiles, consider this — the drones are effective. So effective, in fact, that they can kill terrorists who have already previously been killed.

Once again this week we have been reliably informed by U.S. officials via the ever present SITE intelligence group via the terrorists themselves, that a drone delivered missile has successfully taken out Al Qaeda’s number three man:

The operational leader of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan was killed in an American missile strike in Pakistan’s tribal areas in the last two weeks, according to a statement from the terrorist group issued late Monday that American officials believe is correct.

The militant leader, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, an Egyptian, was a top financial chief for Al Qaeda as well as one of the group’s founders, and was considered by American intelligence officials as terrorist organization’s No. 3 leader behind Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, another Egyptian.

al-Yazid a.k.a. Saeed al-Masri is thought to be a long time associate of Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. The 9/11 Commission pinpointed him as a possible direct financier of the attacks. He also most notably was alleged to have claimed responsibility for the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007.

The timing of al-Yazid/al-Masri’s reported demise is remarkable as it comes at exactly the same time as a major UN report that says the drone strikes are illegal and should be stopped immediately.

(more…)