Oregon Homeless given lethal bomb ingredients

Ever wonder what happens to your toothpaste, shampoo, lipstick, water, you leave at the airport because they may be...no no...make that, probably are , dangerous noxious pre-cursors that can be mixed into a lethal cocktail of death and destruction ?

Well, savvy, penny saving Charley Harvey, director of the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County, Oregon has been picking through the discarded potential liquid explosives at Eugene Airport since last week for distribution to the homeless at their First Place Family Center in Eugene.

City officials, who own the airport trash bins (and their contents), allowed Harvey to collect whatever he could find useful, so that the city wouldn’t have to throw it out... apparently he passsed up on the lavender body butter. Eugene officials were immediately open to the idea, said Brad Black, the airport's facilities and development manager.

But that’s just the city airport trash bins. Anything seized at a federal security checkpoint goes through a different procedure: First, the TSA screener pours the seized liquid into a single large bin, mixing it with all the other liquids seized at the checkpoint that day. Then the mixed liquids and their containers are hauled away and disposed of by a contractor......

Only in America

World wheat shortages loom - prices soar

Australia forecast the smallest wheat crop in 12 years last week as exceptionally dry, warm weather, especially during the critical month of September, shriveled wheat in most growing regions of Australia and the price jumped to US$5.085 a bushel on the Chicago Board.

Droughts in the Ukraine and mid west U.S. have sent the world's most planted cereal crop price soar by 50 % this year. U.S. production dropped by 14 % because of the drought in the Midwest this year.In Texas, wheat production is the lowest since 1971, while acres harvested for grain are the lowest since 1925. Oklahoma's production is the lowest since 1971, and acres harvested for grain are the lowest since 1955.

Market watchers forecast US$7.50 a bushel as World inventories had fallen 43 % by June to 119.3 million tons, the lowest since 1982, according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Oct. 16th.

Wheat prices are being driven by prospects for a 2006-07 world wheat crop that is 5.4 percent smaller than last year’s crop and 4.8 percent less than projected consumption. United States wheat ending stocks are projected to be the tightest since 1996 and world ending stocks are projected to be the tightest since 1988.

Put in starker terms that means that there is enough in the cupboard to keep people alive on basic grains worldwide for 57 days... 50% of the level 10 years ago.

Monthly USDA World Wheat Outlook available as Excel spreadsheets here

Australia, the third-biggest exporter, will see its wheat crop decline 61 % to 9.5 million tons. Ukraine, the sixth-largest exporter, expects its harvest will drop 10 %. Grain importing nations like Egypt and India are fighting to obtain supplies and paying up to 300% more than last year. India will mport 6 million tons this year, compared with 300,000 tons last year, making it a net importer for the first time since 2000, the USDA said.

Michigan based Kellogg are already hurting and expects higher costs for wheat, sugar and fuel will cut profit by as much as 30 cents a share this year, equal to 11 percent of last year's total. They have recently cut 220 jobs at their Old Trafford Corn Flakes plant in Manchester in a major cost cutting exercise... the last NW business to use the 250 yr old Bridgewater canal .... for carrying grain. (Q3 /06 Net sales rose 8% and diluted EPS rose 6% to 70 cents a share)

Shares in Missouri based Panera Bread Co with1,000 bakeries and trendy eateries , on Oct. 25 dropped 6.2 % after the company reported Q3 profits missed some analysts' estimates and that costs may rise next year, including expenses for wheat and flour.

In 1973 along with the oil shock , the world price for wheat went up six-fold. Wheat prices ricochet through the food supply chain -

1. Higher prices for cereal and breads eaten directly by humans
2. Higher prices for milk and meat produced from livestock fed a grain-based diet
3. Changes to the economics of using grain as feedstock to ethanol
4. Labour shortages in agriculture will affect costs as farm workers who tended livestock in barns reduced need as cows came to the grain and didn't graze on pasture grasses.

For the future expect to pay more for your bread .. RHM the major milling / baking group in the UK in a statement yesterday said ....

The lag in recovery of higher wheat costs is estimated to have had a £2m impact in the first half of the year. The full year impact will depend upon further movements in the wheat price and the timing of bread price increases.

Get out the dough bowl and buy some yeast.

Star Wars - Lord Patel afforded a preview of national Light Sabre

Pat Shanahan, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems told me about the rollout of the modified Boeing 747-400F Airborne Laser (ABL) aircraft at Wichata. Kan today.

ABL, will provide a speed-of-light capability to destroy all classes of ballistic missiles in their boost phase of flight (raining nuclear waste on the host country.Ho.Ho.) . Boeing provides the modified aircraft , the battle management system and acts as overall systems integrator Pat tells me. ABL partners are Northrop Grumman, which supplies the high-energy laser and the beacon illuminator laser, and Lockheed Martin, which provides the nose-mounted turret in addition to the beam control/fire control system.

Pat introduces me to the bulky General Henry "Trey" Obering III, Director of the Missile Defense Agency,who in a bizarre off the record remark evoked the Jedi Knights vs Evil Empire saga. "I believe", he said, his eyes glistening, his lips salivating in a pitch reminiscent of Dr Strangelove, " ... we are building the forces of good to beat the forces of evil ... We are giving the American people their first light sabre."

"This is not the prettiest aircraft I have seen. It is not supposed to be pretty. It is supposed to be mean."

.... he said and wrenched my camera from me. Trey (who hails from Alabama and smiles a lot) tells me he was in charge of a US $28 billion budget as Mission Area Director for Information Dominance on the Air Staff.

I was able to snitch this pic that someone left behind on the colour photocopier... I think there are 4 engines on the 747. I think Trey drawed it a few years ago.

Sir Nicholas Stern talks out of his arse

I don't take much notice of the weather reports on TV , not only are they inaccurate for the next 24 hours, after 7 days they are worthless. So when a former World Bank chief economist tells me what the weather is going to be like in 100 years ( a rise in the average temperature of 2 -5 degrees Celsius) I don't take much notice.

I heard him spouting his dangerous nonsense on the BBC 4 Today programme this morning ahead of launching his 700 pages of hot air and windbaggery on a frightened nation ...apparently if we continue with the current trends ..... global warming will bring many more storms like Katrina.

I sat up. Lord Patel not only forecast the consequences of the Iraq invasion

Bush's gang of mad beekeepers March 19, 2003

I've taken Baghdad what do I do now?

What is uncertain is the aftermath. This is the variable never publicly factored into the thinking(?) of the Tony Sopranos of Dubya's gang; their deeds plant the seeds of future, furious, frightening resistance. As many as half a million Iraqi soldiers may be intentionally killed and perhaps 100,000 civilians written off to collateral damage. Think of the grief of millions after this slaughter, the conversion of that grief into rage, combine that with the internecine struggles based on historical ethnic fault lines (that the Ba'ath Party has repressed), and we begin to appreciate the explosive complexity of post-invasion Iraq.

This invasion will also ignite the well financed fires of Arab and Muslim (of all shades, hues and fealties) humiliation and anger. Either in the sands of the desert or on city streets, far from this war, the body bags will build up.

Counting the cost... eventually

The course is charted, arrogant use of the military is all the US ruling class has to maintain its dominance. After Iraq, asymmetric warfare, "terrorism," will be directed at Americans, American institutions, American targets, and American allies. When the rest of the world recognizes how thinly spread the US military is, thinly spread physically, and economically, because it is not a sustainable institution in its current incarnation, rebellions will occur. Indeed they have already started.......

Military might is a sign of strength, but the US military is not invincible worldwide. America's use of force as both first and last resort is a sign of profound systemic weakness.

but also the likelihood of a Force 5 Hurricane hitting the Southern US.

The National Weather Service in the US expects a major Hurricane every 70-80 years. One is overdue. If a Force 4 or 5 step Saffir Simpson hurricane force scale hits the Gulf of Mexico this year, the impact on gas and gasoline supplies in the US will make 9/11 look like a tea party in terms of economic cost to the US economy.

The Economic Consequences of the War on Terror / Investigating New Imperialism

Not on nodding terms , but familiar with the work of Max Mayfield for 34 years the Director of the National Hurricane Center, William Gray, expert forecaster from the Colorado State University . I knew both of these world leading experts and hurricane forecasters castigated anyone who made a connection between global warming and Katrina and the post 1995 increase in Gulf Hurricanes (anyone in the Press notice what a quiet season we have had this year ?). Max Mayfield testified to Congress to that effect.

So whatever Lord Hi Pooh Bah Stern has been paid the money has been wasted. Not only has he not understood the evidence, he now wants to provide us with an array of faulty evidence.

The UK produces at best 2% of the world's CO2, if we produced no more from midnight it wouldn't make a bit of difference to the climate .. but it would certainly fuck up the economy.

Climatology shares with economics the dubious description of being the most inexact science .. so perhaps the choice of an economist did make sense. The variables are not fully known, ranging from Solar radiation to farting cows.

The tropospheric and atmospheric coccoon that surrounds the Earth reflects and returns heat due to many factors, the principal one is layers of water vapour - what we scientists call clouds. The understanding of their origin, structure, destruction and effect on climate is simply not even near to being understood. Which is why their effect is left out of all climatalogical models used to promote global warming / climate change.

Carbon Dioxide is measured in parts per million.. like homoeopathic remedies. If you imagine a scale 1 million millimetres long i.e 1 Kilometres, the levels of CO2 as measured at a few discreet spots on the Earth's surface at specific heights over a lengthy period show a change from at best 340 mm to 380 mm on that scale.... ( and the corrollary is something has been replaced by that amount).

For a period in my postgraduate studies I looked at the palynology of the English Lake District, the trapped pollen grains from the ground cover plants which followed the retreating Glaciers and colonised the land revealed were the earliest studies detailing a previous period of localised global warming.... a period blissfully unaware of Central heating and gas guzzlers.

The climate is changing - wow ! get used to it Sir Nicholas. The level of carbon dioxide as measured in a very specific and limited way has changed ... and so have many, many more variables affecting the climate.

The connection between burning fossil fuels, carbon Dioxide levels changing and global catastrophe are juvenile, simplistic and the tools of politicians fuelling the fear factory. Emissions trading - a financiers scam for trading pieces of paper and screwing the public.

Now if he could tell me what the future holds for the 3.00 at Haydock next Wednesday or the chances that BAE are going to be taken over by Boeing.... or what the Dow will be next week, month , year ...now that would be useful.

Liquid bombers "Storm in a teacup ..or serious danger" asks non-racist Ex CPS Chief Judge Calvert-Smith

No-one can or will forget the press furore amd extravagant claims of global catastrophe when Police arrested a total of 25 people in raids across Britain on Aug. 9-10 after a massive clampdown at UK airports as a result of a much hyped "liquid bomb plot" - or what the CIA fronts at the time called the "Lucozade bomb plot". IN daring countrwide swoops police arrested 25 people and charged 17 of them after uncovering an alleged plot to assemble and detonate improvised explosives on board up to 10 U.S.-bound planes. Paul Stephenson, Deputy Commissioner, media darling of the Metropolitan Police told a n exciteable pres scrum, "this was intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale."

Eleven were charged on Aug. 21 with conspiracy to murder and preparing acts of terrorism.

They are: Umar Islam, 28; Waheed Zaman, 22; Abdullah Ali, 25; Tanvir Hussain, 25; Arafat Khan, 25; Ibrahim Savant, 25; Assad Sarwar, 26; Adam Khatib, 19; Nabeel Hussain, 22 (now bailed); Mohammed Gulzar, 25, and Mohammed Uddin, 35.

Two others were charged with preparing terrorism: Usman Mohammed Saddique, 24, and Donald Stewart Whyte, 21, who is also charged with three firearms offences.

Ahmed Ali, 24, was charged with failing to disclose information, and a 17-year-old boy, (he cannot be named ), was charged with possessing material that could be used to prepare a terrorist act.

In a pre-trial hearing on Friday 28th October before Judge David Calvert-Smith at London's Central Criminal Court he refused bail to the only woman in the case 24-year-old Cossor Ali. He bailed Nabeel Hussain, 22 and the unnamed 17 year old boy. So far a trial date has been set for early 2008 - but don't hold your breath.

In astonishingly un-judge like language Judge David Calvert-Smith told the prosecution "We must get this trial on."

"Large sections of the population would want to know if this was a storm in a teacup or a serious danger to hundreds of thousands of people."

His words have extra weight as Sir David was Director of Public Prosecutions at the Crown Prosecution Service between 1998 and 2003 and previously Senior Treasury Counsel and Chairman of the Criminal Bar Association . Very famously he is reported as saying In The Sunday Times (23 June 2002), “it is my firm belief that British society is institutionally racist....."

Hugh Mullan a lawyer representing one of the defendents on a conspiracy charge said, little evidence had been received by defence lawyers. "Already things are slipping out of control," he said and claimed that the prosecution has been forced to push back dates agreed at a prior hearing for evidence to be passed to defence lawyers.

For the prosecution Colin Gibbs, acknowledged that the "size, scale and nature" of the case made some delays inevitable, and that the trial date could be pushed back but that Gibbs Ahmed Ali and the unnamed boy could come to trial in May, which would be discussed at a further pre-trial hearing on Dec. 8th 2006.

Gibbs also told the court that more than 500 witness statements had been collected from surveillance operatives, while scientists detailed with analyzing materials seized or found near defendants' homes had yet to provide any firm time frame about when they would be finished.

This post, like the few press reports so far, is based on Associated Press reports - the major media didn't bother to turn up at the appearance in court in Central London of people who planned ..."mass murder on an unimaginable scale."

Meanwhile we all wait with excitement the trial promised in October of the Flour Power bombers of 21/07. See comment from Numeral that this case (R - v - Osman & others)has been adjourned until 11 January 2007 (from scheduled date of Monday 9 October 2006) for the failed 21 July bombings, at the hopelessly overcrowded Woolwich Crown Court, Thamesmead, London.

EU telephony details available on demand - terrist threats

"The EU Data Retention Directive places serious data management and process burdens on telco service providers. "

Aurore Pettitt, Director, CACI(NYSE: CAI).

After the Madrid train bombings in 2004 the EU decided to get serious about joint action to fight terrorism and organized crime, and to erode the privacy of all their citizens even more.

One consequence is the EU Data Retention Directive which was passed on February 21st 2006 and becomes active in August 2007. The UK during its six-month presidency of the EU for the new legislation, arguing strongly for it, claiming it was necessary to help fight terrorism and organised crime.

"Agreement on retaining communications data places a vital tool against terrorism and serious crime in the hands of law enforcement agencies across Europe," said the then Home Secretary, grossly fat, rude, Charles Clarke.

The main consequence is that Internet service providers and fixed-line and mobile operators will now be forced to keep details of their customers' communications for up to two years.... including telephony, texting, email messaging, web traffic and custom applications (Intranets etc., ) .

At the telco's own cost these details must be stored and be available, including date, destination and duration of communications and providers must produce details of specific transactions as requested by authorized law enforcement organizations “without undue delay.”.

More details from lawyers Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, June 2006

Every such requirement is of course, a challenge and an opportunity ... an opportunity to make money. CACI " SMART solutions for intelligent marketing" ...

There is a solution Telco Compliance , featuring SenSage and EMC,

EMC, Intec and SenSage ????

EMC, (EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC)) Intec (Intec Telecom Systems (LSE: ITL.L))and California based SenSage Inc. have developed a joint EU Data Retention solution that significantly reduces the cost of compliant data management for service providers. The combined technology completely supports the guidelines set out by the Directive and is able to cost-effectively manage and obtain results in minutes from over 100 billion Call Detail Records (CDR).

“The EU Data Retention directive increases the cost of doing business for Telco’s and ISP,” said Jim Pflaging, president and CEO of SenSage. “This joint solution offers the rapid response law enforcement needs in a highly secure system the public wants, at the lowest cost to the service provider.”

You can read more about this wonderful opportunity "EMC, Intec and SenSage Technology Able to Identify Evidence of Terrorist Activity in 100 Billion Call Detail Records "in a Press release from SenSage on 27th September 2006

You can find more about the Detailed test results and estimates of costs at http://www.sensage.com/eudrpoc (PDF Alert) "Integrating event data management and storage management to cost-effectively support regulatory compliance requirements of European telecommunications service providers"

Broadly not only do the providers have to retain the data they have to make it available within very narrowly defined parameters, not for the providers benefit but for the law enfrocement agencies (and of course at the providers cost) ..

Telcos must maintain CDR transaction recording systems that are:
1. Capable of recording all transaction information including successful and unsuccessful calls.
2. Segregated in a manner for compliant investigation rather than business use.
3. In accordance with data privacy mandates and preserve appropriate security and access controls.

This requires that all call and message transaction data be retained:
1. For a period not less than 6 months and not more than 2 years according to each member state
authority (which can extend the retention terms).
2. With reasonably assured and demonstrable data filtering, integrity and availability safeguards.
3. In a manner that supports immediate access to support the “without undue delay” condition.

This requires that event data analysis:
1. That yields answers which narrows and optimizes data analysis as much as possible.
2. That deliver results within the “without undue delay”
condition – implying a test of generally acceptable response times measured in minutes and hours.

The Telcos need to have a scaleable system that is ready now for ..

1. Increase call detail record volume.
2. Telephony and non-telephony integrated data analysis.
3. Mergers and acquisitions.
4. Differences in member state rules on customer data transport, access and retention.
5. Expansion of Directive requirements.... which you can rest assured will happen very quickly.

The solution that is offered can retain and analyze over 100 Billion call detail records (CDR) and produce answers to required query constructs within 15 minutes to 1 hour against a 2-year retention period.

The set up cost ? US$850K to US$2Mn.... and all this using "off the shelf " Dell™ Dual Core, Dual CPU PowerEdge™ 2950 servers containing the Intel® Xeon® 5160 “Woodcrest” processors and the 64-Bit version of RedHat® Enterprise Server 4.

So, from next year the many, many authorised law enforcement authorities throughout the EU can by law call up you Telco, and demand the details of every telephony event to / from your phone(s) for up to 2 years.... and get an answer in minutes or hours.... and the system they have, will almost certainly be able to meet any "Expansion of Directive requirements" ... content ...?

Now. Does that make you feel safer ?

Bet you didn't feel a thing either as the busy legislators imposed these burdens on industry and stole a bit more of your privacy ... see passenger data provisdion for the US.

POSTSCRIPT

Digital Rights Ireland, is taking a case both against the Irish Government and the European Directive on data retention.

The action will begin in the High Court in Ireland but will probably end up in the European Court of Justice, said the chairman of DRI, TJ McIntyre. The suit argues that the Irish law breaches that country's Constitution and that the EU Directive contravenes the European Convention on Human Rights.

"It's a challenge to both Irish law and the EU Directive," said McIntyre. "We're challenging the domestic law on national constitutional grounds and the EU Directive and we're hoping for a preliminary reference to Luxembourg to assess the validity of the Directive."

Don't hold your breath.

(NYSE: CAI)... CACI ? CACI ? now weren't they the folks who .. wait a minute aren't they being sued with Titan because their employees were torturing prisoners in Abu Ghraib ?

That's right there is a 64 page detailed list of thirty one counts of complaint against CACI and Titan of a whole host of common law torts (such as assault and battery), as well as violations of international human rights, and a RICO (Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organizations ACT) conspiracy.

That's right there is a 64 page complaint which contains detailed descriptions of the torture suffered by some of the other named plaintiffs. One Haj Ali was hung from a ceiling while made and shocked with electric pulses. Umer Abdul Mutalib was dragged until he went unconscious. Jasim al-Nidawi's private parts were attacked by dogs. Other detainees were stripped naked and put in a room with a naked female detainee who had a mesh bag on her face and was screaming. The complaint also alleges that one of the private contractors raped a fourteen year old girl, and provides evidence that there may have been a rape room set up in the prison.... but you've seen the pictures (but not the videos ..yet)

It is important to recognize that all of these events were carried out by employees of American companies who were not part of the military. Significant amount of the information upon which the complaint was based came from the military's own Fay and Taguba reports. Without those reports it is unlikely that the world would have known about the abuses committed by American private contractors.

Yeh! CACI ... sounds like the sort of people to be supplying software that deals with private data "In accordance with data privacy mandates and preserve appropriate security and access controls."

Yeh! CACI

If you read nothing else, read this

The Iron Heel by Jack London

Paperback | 8.26 x 5.23in | 256 pages | ISBN 9780143039716 | Re-published as Penguin Classic 25 Jul 2006

"A truer prophecy of the future than either Brave New World or The Shape of Things to Come." -George Orwell

Part science fiction, part dystopian fantasy, part radical socialist tract, Jack London's The Iron Heel is a grim depiction of warfare between the classes in America and around the globe. Originally published in 1908, it anticipated many features of the past century, including the rise of fascism, the emergence of domestic terrorism, and the growth of centralized government surveillance and authority. What begins as a war of words ends in scenes of harrowing violence as the state oligarchy, known as "the Iron Heel," moves to crush all opposition to its power...says the Penguin blurb.

Written in the future , assembled from contemporary sources this tells the story of The Oligarchy (The Iron Heel) who are the largest monopoly trusts (viz robber barons) who have eradicated the middle class by bankrupting small to mid-sized independent business as well as reducing farmers effectively to serfdom.

This Oligarchy maintains power through a "labor caste" and the Mercenaries.

Labor in essential industries like steel and rail are elevated and given decent wages, housing, and education. Indeed, the tragic turn in the novel (and Jack London's core warning to his contemporaries) is the treachery of these favored unions which break with the other unions and side with the Oligarchy.

A a second, military caste is formed: the Mercenaries. The Mercenaries are officially the army of the US but are in fact in the employ of the Oligarchs.

If you want to make sense of the Neo-cons, Zionist, Christian Zionists, military industrial complex, Bilderberg, NATO, Guantanamo Bay, "rendition", warrantless surveillance, trashing the US Constitution ..... read it.