The long running legal case by the heirs of Andrew Oenga has resulted in a federal court awarding them $4.924 million against the United States (e.g. US taxpayers - BP is not liable, of course).
For the past 16 years, British Petroleum was allowed to use the land in ways not allowed by the lease to produce oil from unauthorized areas. BP also allowed ARCO and Exxon to use Oengas’ land for a fee. The Bureau of Indian Affairs refused to tell BP to stop the unauthorized use and refused to collect additional rents from BP for authorized use.
On the early morning of February 10, Richard Hugus, a member of the New England Committee to Defend Palestine, received a knock on the door by a member of the FBI accompanied by a police detective. When Richard's lawyer called to find out why the FBI was trying to interrogate him, the agent replied that they were interested in discussing an article Richard had written in 2005/2006 and a letter to political prisoner Aafia Sidiqqui.
Americans line up to vote for two parties portraying opposing interests. We know them as the Democrat and Republican parties. They spew out mendacious discourse, which is nothing more than hyperbole about how they are going to offer change and make things better. Behind the scenes they are shaking hands, laughing and having drinks together. This is typical politics and typical business. As one independent journalist stated, what the US government is telling the people and what is really going on are two very different things. It may come as a surprise for some that almost all of the US presidents are genetically related. Some may think that intermarriage between noble families was an ancient practice such as during the royal Roman and Egyptian empires.
Okay, cut teachers. Cut state workers pay. Close state parks. Release inmates to save money. Increase transit fares. BUT PLEASE, leave those Kosher Inspectors alone!
In research published in the Journal of Transportation Security, physicists Leon Kaufman and Joseph W. Carlson of the University of California San Francisco say body scanner machines can easily be duped.
While the purpose of the scanners is to find contraband hidden on the body, some weapons and explosives would not be visible to the devices say the researchers, who are known for their work in creating magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines used in hospitals.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, who doubles as President Barack Obama's point man on Gulf Coast oil spill recovery, is pressing America's armed services to consume as much Gulf seafood as possible. A large-scale national marketing campaign will use $30 million in BP money and millions more in federal dollars, to reassure restaurants and markets across the country that Gulf seafood is safe.
Ewell Smith, executive director of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board, said he would like to see Gulf seafood as the choice throughout the public domain, "whether it's the military or prison systems or school systems."
Russia Today points out an important detail being left out of most mainstream media reports about the new body scanning devices being rolled out in airports everywhere: former Department of Homeland Security Chief, Michael Chertoff, who has been advocating this technology on any news program that will have him is personally profiting from their implementation. As a Security Consultant and Chairman of the Chertoff Group, one of his main clients is Rapiscan, a manufacturer of these devices.
Last year, the Department of Homeland Security awarded contracts of US$160 million each to two manufacturers of these back-scattering devices, one which which was Rapiscan.
The United States will store an additional $400 million in emergency military equipment in Israel.
The new equipment, which is available to Israel in the event of an emergency, will bring to $1.2 billion by 2012 the amount of American military equipment being stockpiled in Israel.
In case you missed it, since Monday an "Irish-related" attack on Britain has been "a strong possibility". At the same time, an al-Qaida attack is "highly likely" and "only a matter of time"...Britain's security/industrial complex has been allowed to run berserk under the long shadow of 9/11 and 7/7. It has been allowed to undermine civil liberty and tax the exchequer of a fortune.
In the mid-1970s, the Provisional IRA staged some 50 explosions in London, subjecting the city to far greater mayhem than today. Somehow we survived without the gargantuan counter-terror apparatus in place today. The bombing campaign came nowhere near toppling the British government or infringing the liberty of the state. The chief threat to that freedom today comes not from terrorists but from the government's response to them...I sometimes wonder who is the real terrorist.
A half dozen members of the Albuquerque-based grassroots human rights organization--the Coalition to Stop $30 Billion to Israel--explain why they are so pleased to see their billboard message up again calling for the U.S. to be a more honest broker between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority.
It’s 2010 and a few members of congress have noted that over a period of 9 years. $2.4 trillion dollars has been stolen with a dozen enquiries, dozens of reports, audits, all saying the same thing. The “war on terror” was more “pickpocketing” and not so much “Osama bin Waldo.” It’s 2010 and reports are trickling in that, just maybe, terrorist mastermind Osama has been dead for years and years. More reports tell us, finally, that he never ran a terror organization at all. For years, all those threats from a dead man.
Disclosure: I have a new Chase checking & savings account since last autumn, and I currently receive measly $20 (mostly spent on packs of ramen noodles) a month in food stamp.
