.

The Obama administration is touting a provocative proposal to give a medical advisory council the power to help decide the scope of coverage that would be eligible for reimbursement under Medicare.
Administration officials say the proposed council would improve health care quality and control costs. But some health care industry groups object to the proposal, saying such a council would not be qualified to make those judgments.

This council would consist of doctors and health care experts who make recommendations based on extensive data and analysis of best health care practices, according to administration officials.

Proponents believe the approach would improve care and eliminate some wasteful spending by doctors who are now paid separately for each visit and procedure they authorize. Instead, this council could recommend, for example, a comprehensive approach to treat a patient with chronic heart condition or high cholesterol.

The administration says that by encouraging doctors to follow this type of plan, the government will save money by cutting unnecessary treatments and procedures. The council's recommendations would then go to the commission overseeing Medicare to determine the specific procedures and the actual reimbursement amount.

"It is not an exercise in just cutting reimbursement rates. In fact, in some cases, we may need higher reimbursement rates for certain aspects," President Obama said at a town hall meeting in Shaker Heights, Ohio, on Thursday.

The members of the proposed Independent Medicare Advisory Council would study different procedures and make recommendations.

Administration officials though say this council will not make decisions about what coverage a patient gets.

Still, opponents view this proposal as "big brother" dictating medical treatment.

The conservative Heritage Foundation describes the initiative as being "the equivalent of a federal health board determining how health care was rationed for all seniors."
The administration counters that doctors still will have flexibility to decide the best course of treatment depending on the individual patient but would be guided to a preferred course of action.

Doctors would have a set amount of money, or "bundle," to deal with each patient's problem instead of receiving money for each visit, test and procedure performed. Patients still would have the option of paying for more expensive procedures but would have to pick up the costs above what is deemed reimbursable by Medicare.

"Right now, if a hospital is reimbursed for the number of tests that it does, then that may not give them much of an incentive to make their system more efficient so that, once you take that first test and you've gone in the hospital, then you end up having that test sent around to everybody so you don't have to take five more tests," Obama told the Ohio audience.

Kevin Bohn and Jessica Yellin
CNN
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The US Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, has just signed a decree granting vaccine makers total legal immunity from any lawsuits that result from any new “Swine Flu” vaccine. Moreover, the $7 billion US Government fast-track program to rush vaccines onto the market in time for the Autumn flu season is being done without even normal safety testing. Is there another agenda at work in the official WHO hysteria campaign to declare so-called H1N1 virus—which has yet to be rigorously scientifically isolated, characterized and photographed with an electron microscope—the scientifically accepted procedure—a global “pandemic” threat?
The current official panic campaign over alleged Swine Flu danger is rapidly taking on the dimensions of a George Orwell science fiction novel. The document signed by Sebelius grants immunity to those making a swine flu vaccine, under the provisions of a 2006 law for public health emergencies.

Not so sage SAGE

That is once the WHO in Geneva, on recommendation of the WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group on Immunizations, declared H1N1 to be Phase 6 or Pandemic, automatic emergency health response programs could be activated even in countries such as Germany where reported outbreaks of even “suspected” H1N1 can be counted to date on the fingers of slightly more than one hand.

The WHO’s SAGE is also worth scrutiny. Its Chairman since 2005 has been the UK Director of Immunization at the British Department of Health, Dr David Salisbury. In the 1980’s Salisbury reportedly drew major fire for backing a massive vaccination of children with a multiple MMR vaccine manufactured by the predecessor company of GlaxoSmithKline. That vaccine was pulled off the market in Japan after significant numbers of children developed adverse reactions to the vaccine and the Japanese government was forced to pay significant compensation to the victims. In Sweden the MMR vaccine of GlaxoSmithKline was removed after scientists linked it to outbreaks of Crohn’s disease. Apparently that had little impact on WHO SAGE chairman Salisbury.

According to one independent UK investigator, Alan Golding, who obtained Freedom of Information documents on the case, in “1986 Trivirix, an MMR compound containing the Mumps Urabe strain AM-9, was introduced in Canada to replace MMR I. Concerns regarding the introduction of MMR in the UK are recorded in the minutes of the Joint Working Party of the British Paediatric Association and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) Liaison Group on June 26th of that year. Such concerns were soon to prove well grounded, as reports began to come in of an increased incidence of aseptic meningitis in vaccinated individuals. Ultimately, all MMR vaccines containing the Urabe strain of mumps were withdrawn in Canada in early 1988. This was before Urabe containing vaccines were licenced by the Department of Health for use in the UK…”

The report adds, “Smith-Kline—French, the pharmaceutical company who became Smith-Kline-Beecham and were involved in UK manufacture at that time, were concerned about these safety issues and were reluctant to obtain a UK license for their Urabe-containing vaccines. As a result of their ‘concern’ that children might be seriously damaged by one of their products, they requested that the UK government indemnify them against possible legal action that might be taken as a result of ‘losses’ associated with the vaccine, which by then was known to carry significant risk to health. The UK government, advised by Professor Salisbury and representatives from the Department of Health, in it’s enthusiasm to get a cheap MMR onto the market, agreed to this request.”

Today the same Dr Salisbury is advocating global proliferation of untested H1N1 vaccines, also manufactured by the same firm, now called GlaxoSmithKline.

The last phoney Swine Flu Disaster

The last time the US Government faced a new swine flu virus was in 1976. Thousands filed claims contending they suffered side effects from the shots. This time, the government has taken steps to prevent any possible legal remedy should thousands of US citizens suffer severe complications as a result of being given untested vaccines.

In 1976 President Gerald Ford, facing a difficult re-election campaign, was advised by the head of the CDC, David Sencer, to launch a mass national vaccination. As today with H1N1 Swine Flu, Sencer also used the scare of the alleged 1918 flu pandemic. Notably, some scientific researchers maintain that the deaths during the flu wave of 1918-1919, in the aftermath of the ghastly First World War, came not from any virus but from the governmental campaigns of mass vaccination against “Spanish Flu.” Interestingly, the Rockefeller University and Foundation was in the middle of that event as well.

Cases of what was then called swine flu were found in soldiers at Fort Dix, N.J. in 1976, including one death. That death, whose true cause is in dispute as the soldier, sick with influenza was put on a forced march despite and fell dead, was used by Sencer to convince Ford to launch one of the most infamous public health fiascos in US history, forcing Sencer’s resignation as CDC head. Federal officials vaccinated 40 million Americans during a national campaign. A pandemic never materialized, but thousands who got the shots filed injury claims, as they contracted a paralyzing condition called Guillain-Barre Syndrome or other side effects. At least 25 people died after receiving the vaccine died and 500 developed Guillain-Barre syndrome, an inflammation of the nervous system which can cause paralysis and be fatal. The US Government was forced to pay damages after vaccination victims made it a national scandal. In the end the 1976 Swine Flu vaccine proved far worse than the disease.

Sencer was fired in 1977 for the fiasco but by then the damage had already been done.

No Safety Test? Don’t worry, be happy…

The story gets worse. Now that the Obama Administration has signed a document of immunity from legal prosecution, the FDA in the United States and UK health authorities have decided to let Big Pharma put vaccine products onto the market before any tests of the possible harmful side effects of the vaccines are even known.

The first doses of swine flu vaccine will be given to the public before full data on its safety and effectiveness become available. The untested “pandemic” vaccines will be spread over two doses in a higher quantity, and one brand reportedly will contain a chemical additive, an adjuvant, to make it “go further,” dramatically potentially increasing the risk of side-effects.

Children will be among those first in line for the shots and may get the vaccine more than a month before trial results are received.

In the UK the government’s National Health Service, NHS, has been ordered to plan for a worst-case scenario in which swine flu might cause 65,000 deaths over the coming winter, including several thousand deaths among children.

The British Government has placed advance orders for 132 million doses of vaccine with two manufacturers, GlaxoSmithKline and Baxter, who have licensed “in advance” three “core” vaccines in preparation for a pandemic, conveniently enough even though we are told by WHO and epidemiologists that we cannot prepare in advance for what could be a more ominous mutation of the currently very mild H1N1 problem.

Curiously enough, a full year before any reported case of the current alleged H1N1, the major pharmaceutical company, Baxter, filed for a patent for H1N1 vaccine: Baxter Vaccine Patent Application US 2009/0060950 A1. Their application states, “the composition or vaccine comprises more than one antigen…..such as influenza A and influenza B in particular selected from of one or more of the human H1N1, H2N2, H3N2, H5N1, H7N7, H1N2, H9N2, H7N2, H7N3, H10N7 subtypes, of the pig flu H1N1, H1N2, H3N1 and H3N2 subtypes, of the dog or horse flu H7N7, H3N8 subtypes or of the avian H5N1, H7N2, H1N7, H7N3, H13N6, H5N9, H11N6, H3N8, H9N2, H5N2, H4N8, H10N7, H2N2, H8N4, H14N5, H6N5, H12N5 subtypes.”

The application further states, “Suitable adjuvants can be selected from mineral gels, aluminium hydroxide, surface active substances, lysolecithin, pluronic polyols, polyanions or oil emulsions such as water in oil or oil in water, or a combination thereof. Of course the selection of the adjuvant depends on the intended use. E.g. toxicity may depend on the destined subject organism and can vary from no toxicity to high toxicity.”

With no legal liability, could it be that Baxter is preparing to sell hundreds of millions of doses containing highly toxic aluminium hydroxide as adjuvant? Perhaps it is time to demand that all leading officials of WHO, SAGE and CDC, the US Obama Administration, Cabinet officials and members of Congress w, the US Obama Administration, Cabinet officials and members of Congress who voted the $7 billion H1N1 emergency funds and who have gone along with the declaration of pharmaceutical company immunity from subsequent prosecution for damage from their products. The same should apply as well for other national health bodies demanding its citizens take the H1N1 vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline or Baxter to see if it is really safe.

And WHO stopped even tracking H1N1

Another indication that the world is being taken for colossal suckers in the entire WHO Swine Flu scare scenario, the WHO itself, the world body entrusted to monitor outbreaks of so-called pandemics or even epidemics worldwide, has just decided to stop tracking Swine Flu or H1N1 Influenza A as they prefer to name it now, so as not to offend Smithfield Foods and other industrialized pig CAFO producers.

The World Health Organization in a “briefing note” posted on their Web site posted the baffling notice that they would no longer track outbreaks of H1N1. The last WHO update, issued July 6, showed 94,512 confirmed cases in 122 countries, with 429 deaths. The WHO apparently claims that the numbers of laboratory-confirmed cases were actually meaningless.

The briefing note said countries would still be asked to report their first few confirmed cases. It also said countries should watch for clusters of fatalities, which could indicate the virus had mutated to a more lethal form. Other “signals to be vigilant for,” it said, were spikes in school absenteeism and surges in hospital visits. The Atlanta CDC has also agreed to the WHO count drop. Dr. Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, admits that the existing tests to confirm H1N1 Influenza A are not even certain, but rather hit-or-miss. “Bad measures can be worse than no measures at all,” he stated. So the WHO has decided to drop tests that anyway did not give a scientific picture of who had H1N1 or not, and as well they have decided to drop counting any test results or cases of H1n1 around the world with the comment that “we can assume almost all cases are H1N1 Swine Flu. This is science on which basis we are told to vaccinate our young? Whoah there…Not with our children.

F. William Engdahl
Global Research

A 1973 document has emerged called Mass Media, Family Planning and Development: Country Case Studies on Media Strategy, wherein we learn something about the strategies to be implemented in the eugenics-based family planning project of the future. Based on case studies in third world countries, the document proposes the creation of a ‘family planning communication resource unit’ for every nation concerned. The reason being, so the report states, that “culturally, there is an emphasis on fertility, and the birth of children to the family is celebrated, as a symbol of prosperity and for status for women.” Because the Unesco-chieftains can’t have that, the reduction of a population should be accomplished through an elaborate media campaign, utilizing all possible avenues. Ancient tribal instincts, revolving around procreation and creativity, become suspect- as does religion and tribal mythology.

The writers however, mean not to destroy these human tendencies, they mean to use them to their own advantage and that of their masters instead. “The religion”, they say, “supports the idea that children are ‘God’s Greatest Blessing’ but can also be used to encourage the idea that every child should be given the best opportunities parents can offer. There is also a favourable attitude to economic development, a desire to raise living standards, and a desire for education. These factors are helpful in the development of a Preliminary Media Strategy.”

“A Communication Resource Unit”, the document continues, “is responsible for the implementation of media policy for one, or more than one field.” The document proceeds with outlining the functions of such a unit in regards to family planning messages: “The integration of messages is a matter which concerns the Communication Resource Unit, in that an integrated approach to family planning needs to be worked out. (…) These (messages) may be ‘family planning for maternal health’, ‘family planning for family prosperity’, ‘family planning for your figure’, ‘family planning for national prosperity’, family planning for child development.’ These messages will be pretested to find those which seem to appeal most to the eligible age groups.”

One of the many case studies (country case study nr.1) involves an unnamed “small island”, total population 3,000,000. Describing the current situation, the report states: “Mass media approaches to family planning are wholly financed by the Government and, since 1968, radio, television and the press have been used to give information about family planning and to create an awareness of the need for population control.” One of the chief objectives for the ‘resource unit’, will be to “extend(ing) the family planning coverage to 90% of the eligible population. The aim at this point is to bring the number of children per family nearer to three rather than four, and to gradually reduce this to two children per family at a later stage.”

As one of the first proposed ‘phases’ of the programme, the document describes several messages to be embedded within television commercials. “A couple are shown over one of the new Government flats. They are unable to take it, because the accommodation provided is for families with two or three children. Preference is given to smaller families. They (the large family) will have to wait longer.” Another example: “The picture shows a married woman with one child. She is stopped by a voice saying “Do you know about family planning?” “Your local clinic has all the information.”" Or: “(Picture changes to a smiling woman with clinic appearing) “Family planning is free in all clinics (…)”". How about this one: “Don’t put off family planning. Tomorrow may be too late. See your clinic today.” You gotta also love this one: “A picture on the screen could show a woman talking to a consultant about family planning. She turns to the viewers and says: “I’m glad I made up my mind about family planning.””

Jurriaan Maessen
Infowars
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US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Michael Mullen on Thursday said he believed the top leadership of Al Qaeda, including Osama Bin Laden, was in Pakistan.

Talking to Al Jazeera TV, Mullen said Al Qaeda was on top of the US list of priorities and threats around the world. When asked why the United States was not in FATA despite having the knowledge that Al Qaeda was present there, he said, “Because FATA is in Pakistan and Pakistan is a sovereign country and we don’t go into sovereign countries.”

“We have had trainers there for a significant period of time to train their trainers, which is [an] ongoing support function that is actually moving in the right direction,” he said, adding that some of the US troops were special forces and some were general purpose troops.

Threats: Mullen said there had been a positive shift across Pakistan, especially its military, in recent months against the Taliban.

“One of the things that has happened in Pakistan in recent months and weeks is the Pakistani military – really in response to the people of Pakistan – [and] the government of Pakistan [have] taken the threat against them very, very seriously,” the US joint chief of staff said.

However, Mullen said the Taliban could be politically engaged in the long run. “I think at some point [in the] long-term, they [Taliban] become part of the political process”.

Mullen said Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had to change its strategic thrust in the long run, which, he said, had been to “foment chaotic activity you know in its border countries”.

He said Islamabad’s that “view to its own survival and its own security” had to change at some point in the future.

Daily Timres Monitor

My belief in the existence of the New World Order centers around the activities, actions and writings of the members of the elite (mostly Anglo-American) inside the international banking cartel – which of course includes the Rockefeller and Rothschild families – over roughly the last century.

This cartel, through their financing of two World Wars; the revolutions of Lenin/Stalin and Hitler, among others; the creation of the IMF, World Bank and other private “central banks” like the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England; as well as their backing of international organizations like the United Nations, World Health Organization, World Trade Organization has sought to control not only the purse strings of the governments of the world, but also the policies, laws and programs that those governments and agencies implement.

Through their financing of both sides of wars (WWI and II, Cold War, War on Drugs, War on Terror, etc); their manufacture of financial crisis (Great Depression, the coming Greater Depression) and financing of ideological movements (eugenics/population control, feminism, communism, fascism, global warming, etc) the banking cartel has sought to undercut the political, economic and social sovereignty of nations around the world. As a result, their IMF, World Bank and other central bank proxies have managed to put nation after nation in massive debt to them. And as a result, they can further manipulate and control the governments (and citizens) of those nations to further enact their goal of a global government and banking system run – by them and for them – at the expense of all of humanity.

IMO, the New World Order is not a Jewish thing, it’s not a religious thing, it’s not even solely a money thing (although money is its greatest weapon). It instead is a control thing. They banking elite want to be able to control the globe and everyone in it.

However, as many who attempt to debunk the New World Order exists have said, nationalism and traditional political and ethnic hostilities have hampered the cartel’s quest for a one world government. Because of this, Russia, China and renegade states like Iran and Venezuela remain largely on the fringes of the NWO’s inner circle. Russia and China are both too big (unlike Iraq, Afghanistan, Panama) and potentially valuable to the cause to ignore or wipe out. But while political and economic relations exist between the western powers and the two outsiders; the potential for conflict with Russia and China in Eurasia or Africa remain very real.

Throughout the last century, the countries and political leaders that refused to play ball with the banking cartel got their asses kicked. Unfortunately, in the post-WWII world, the United States (both covertly and overtly) has been doing most of the ass kicking for the cartel. And we are in debt up to our eyeballs and our Constitution is hanging by a thread because of it (more on that later). Of course, we see the lesser “outsiders” Iran and Venezuela cozy up to Russia and China and use it to their advantage to thwart the banking cartel’s attempts to have the U.S., or other pro-cartel, military force take them out.

Read Entire Article @ Wake the Herd

Around 12,000 U.S. children will be used as guinea pigs for an experimental swine flu vaccine known to contain the dangerous ingredient squalene, which has been directly linked with cases of Gulf War Syndrome and a host of other debilitating diseases.

According to a report in the Oklahoman, 12,000 children nationwide will partake in “fast-tracked studies” to test the side-effects of the untested swine flu vaccine in trials set to begin next month.

“The trials will test the vaccine’s effectiveness and whether or not it has negative side effects in patients,” states the report.

Since less than 100 children in the U.S. die from regular seasonal flu each year, a reasonable estimate would be that around 100 children will die from swine flu over the course of the next year.

So in effect, the authorities will vaccinate millions of children in order to try and prevent 100 deaths. If the mass vaccination program mirrors the previous swine flu outbreak of 1976 then the vaccine is likely to kill more people than the actual virus.

Furthermore, since the swine flu vaccine includes squalene, a dangerous adjuvant that contributed to Gulf War Syndrome cases, there’s little doubt that it will lead to debilitating lifelong diseases far more deadly than the swine flu virus itself for thousands of children if a mass vaccination campaign is conducted.

According to Meryl Nass, M.D., “A novel feature of the two H1N1 vaccines being developed by companies Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline is the addition of squalene-containing adjuvants to boost immunogenicity and dramatically reduce the amount of viral antigen needed. This translates to much faster production of desired vaccine quantities.”

“Research shows that squalene is the experimental anthrax vaccine ingredient that caused devastating autoimmune diseases and deaths for many Gulf War veterans from the US, UK, and Australia, yet it continues in use today and for new vaccines development in labs,” writes Stephen Lendman.

According to award-winning investigative journalist Gary Matsumoto, there’s a “close match between the squalene-induced diseases in animals and those observed in humans injected with this oil: rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus erythematosus.”

“There are now data in more than two dozen peer-reviewed scientific papers, from ten different laboratories in the US, Europe, Asia and Australia, documenting that squalene-based adjuvants can induce autoimmune diseases in animals…observed in mice, rats, guinea pigs and rabbits. Sweden’s Karolinska Institute has demonstrated that squalene alone can induce the animal version of rheumatoid arthritis. The Polish Academy of Sciences has shown that in animals, squalene alone can produce catastrophic injury to the nervous system and the brain. The University of Florida Medical School has shown that in animals, squalene alone can induce production of antibodies specifically associated with systemic lupus erythematosus,” writes Matsumoto.

Micropaleontologist Dr. Viera Scheibner, who conducted research into the adverse effects of adjuvants in vaccines, wrote the following about squalene.

Squalene “contributed to the cascade of reactions called “Gulf War syndrome. (GIs developed) arthritis, fibromyalgia, lymphadenopathy, rashes, photosensitive rashes, malar rashes, chronic fatigue, chronic headaches, abnormal body hair loss, non-healing skin lesions, aphthous ulcers, dizziness, weakness, memory loss, seizures, mood changes, neuropsychiatric problems, anti-thyroid effects, anaemia, elevated ESR (erythrocyte sedimentation rate), systemic lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis, ALS, Raynaud’s phenomenon, Sjorgren’s syndrome, chronic diarrhea, night sweats and low-grade fever.”

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars
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A recently released legal memo describing interrogation techniques showed that Bush Administration lawyers had approved the use of "insects" in interrogations. "You would like to place [Abu] Zubaydeh in a cramped confinement box with an insect," Jay Bybee, then a Justice Department lawyer and now a federal judge, wrote in 2002. He opined that as long as the bug wasn't actually harmful, it would not violate the law to use one to scare a terrorist detainee.

That was the first mention of insects to become public. But the memo's release may make it worth looking back to a brouhaha that occurred in secret at the agency in 2005. A CIA supervisor involved in the "enhanced interrogation" program bragged to other CIA employees about using fire ants while during questioning of a top terror suspect, according to several sources formerly with the Agency. The official claimed to other Agency employees, the sources say, to have put the stinging ants on a detainee's head to help break him.

The CIA insists, however, that no matter what the man said, it never took place. In fact, even though the Bush administration lawyers condoned the use of non-harmful insects, as the memo revealed, the technique wasn't employed, the agency says. "The CIA did not use insects as part of its terrorist interrogation program," said CIA Spokesman Paul Gimigliano. "That didn't happen, period."

The CIA supervisor who purportedly bragged of using insects was, and still is, a high-level official, working at the Senior Executive Service level. Because he is still in the CIA covert side, his name cannot be published. But he was in the field and helped oversee, according to sources, the way "enhanced" interrogation techniques were used.

In fact, he was so close to the program that sources say he was caught on the CIA interrogation tapes made in Thailand inside the secret facility where Zubaydah and other terrorists were questioned. The tapes were later destroyed in circumstances currently under investigation.

"He was on the tapes," a former CIA source said. No one can know if that is true, since they were destroyed. But several sources say that although he may have been on the tapes, he actually had no direct role in interrogating anyone, but that he was present as a high-ranking supervisor. (And there were no reported insects or fire ants on the videotape.)

The official is a storied veteran of covert operations who had just returned from Bagdhad. "He's a bullshitter," said one former officer, explaining that the man had a reputation for telling tall tales and embellishing.
Aram Roston
The Huffington Post
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It seems like just yesterday that Lanny Davis was making the rounds of every news outlet that would have him, talking up Hillary Clinton's bid for the White House -- and/or pushing the Reverend Wright story.

Not too long after, the former Clinton White House counsel popped up to do damage control for hawkish Democratic congresswoman Jane Harman over the AIPAC leak story.

And now the hardest working conservative Democrat in show business has a new gig: lobbying against the Honduran leader recently deposed in a military coup.

The Hill reports that Davis has been hired by the Honduran branch of CEAL, the Latin American equivalent of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, to urge US lawmakers to support, rather than oppose, the military removal of President Manuel Zelaya, Honduras's democratically elected president.

Of course, thanks to his close ties to the current Secretary of State -- who met with Zelaya yesterday -- Davis could be particularly well placed for the job. But the Fox News contributor said he had no plans to set up a meeting between Clinton and the current and former Honduran government officials with whom he's working.

Although last month Zelaya was taken from his bed by the military and forcibly removed from the country, Davis portrayed his work for the coup's supporters as all about law and order:

Davis said the business group wants to restore order to Honduras, which has been in upheaval since the country's military ousted Zelaya on June 28 after he tried to alter the constitution.

"This is about the rule of law. That is the only message we have," Davis said, adding that Zelaya "was acting unconstitutionally and illegally" when he pushed for a voter referendum to change presidential term limits. The Central American nation's other branches of government opposed his move, and his decision to ignore them led to his ouster.

Already, Davis has lined up meetings between Senate and House foreign relations committee aides and current and former high-level officials with the Honduran government

For by no means the first time, Davis finds himself lined up with Republicans, who have charged that, since the coup, the Obama administration has offered "one-sided support" to Zelaya, an ally of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.

Hey, a guy has to make a living.

Zachary Roth
TMP

SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica — When President Óscar Arias of Costa Rica set out to find a negotiated solution to the Honduran political crisis, he hailed it as an opportunity for Central Americans to show they could resolve their own problems, and he established some simple ground rules.
The ousted president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, and the man who leads the de facto government that replaced him, Roberto Micheletti, were each to show up at his house with just four of their closest Honduran advisers.

On Thursday morning, Mr. Micheletti showed up with six, adding an American public relations specialist who has done work for former President Bill Clinton and the American’s interpreter, and an official close to the talks said the team rarely made a move without consulting him.

Then on Friday, with the negotiations seemingly going nowhere, Mr. Arias reached out for American support of his own, telling Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that pressure from the United States was crucial to ending the stalemate.

In the two weeks since the coup against Mr. Zelaya, the Obama administration has taken great pains to distance itself from the crisis as part of an effort to make the United States just one of many players in a region that it has long dominated. And Latin American leaders have publicly expressed support for what they describe as Washington’s new spirit of collaboration.

Privately, and not so privately, however, it has become clear that leaders on all sides of this crisis see the United States as the key to getting what they want.

In recent days, Mr. Zelaya and his allies, who include some of the most vocal critics of United States policy in the region, have repeatedly called on Washington to increase its pressure on Mr. Micheletti by recalling its ambassador — the United States is one of the few countries in the region that continues to keep its envoy in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital — and by imposing tougher sanctions.

Even Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chávez, made a rare call to Assistant Secretary of State Thomas A. Shannon Jr. on Friday to directly make an appeal he had issued earlier on television.

“Do something,” Mr. Chávez had said to reporters. “Obama, do something.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Micheletti has embarked on a public relations offensive, with his supporters hiring high-profile lawyers with strong Washington connections to lobby against such sanctions. One powerful Latin American business council hired Lanny J. Davis, who has served as President Clinton’s personal lawyer and who campaigned for Mrs. Clinton for president.

And last week, Mr. Micheletti brought the adviser from another firm with Clinton ties to the talks in Costa Rica. The adviser, Bennett Ratcliff of San Diego, refused to give details about his role at the talks.

“Every proposal that Micheletti’s group presented was written or approved by the American,” said another official close to the talks, referring to Mr. Ratcliff.

With or without the presence of foreigners, Mr. Arias faces long odds against success. Mr. Zelaya and Mr. Micheletti refused to meet face to face and left the talks before the end of the first day. And while there was less hostility between the two delegations on Day 2, an official close to the talks said Mr. Arias was unable to get the groups to agree on a date for the next round of talks or even to shake hands in front of the throngs of reporters gathered outside his home.

GINGER THOMPSON
New York Times
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US bank Goldman Sachs reported a net profit of $3.44bn (£2.1bn) for April to June, beating analysts' forecasts.

Less volatility in stock markets, rises in global share prices and involvement in many firms' rights issues and takeovers had boosted profits, it said.

The bank said it had set aside $6.65bn for pay and bonuses in the quarter - an average of $226,000 per employee.

Goldman has recently paid off $10bn of government loans it had taken as part of a government bail-out programme.

Its results include a one-off charge of $426m related to the repayment of its government loan under the Troubled Asset Relief Programme (Tarp).

Record revenues

Some have raised questions over whether it is right that a bank make such profits and pay hefty bonuses so soon after receiving government loans.

But analyst William Smith, of Smith Asset Management said: "Goldman should be celebrated, not demonised."

"Things are very fragile but they manage to make money in all environments, which is what you're supposed to do," he added.

Goldman's chief financial officer David Viniar said: "We are helping the economy to recover".
Goldman reported record net revenues of $13.8bn - about 47% higher than it generated in the preceding three months.

Meanwhile, staff remuneration figures takes the bank's average payout per employee for the first half of the year to $384,000.

However, bonuses are not actually finalised until the end of the year - and the figure which is paid out reflects performance over 12 months, it said.

Analysts had already predicted that the annual payout in 2009 for its staff could be nearly $18bn - or an average of more than $600,000 per person.

bbc
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Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from a training manual on “coercive” (torture) techniques used by the CIA. The section that follows is entitled “KUBARK: Counterintelligence Interrogation, July 1963.” For more on the training manual and other materials, see National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 27, The CIA in Latin America.

This manual cannot teach anyone how to be, or become, a good interrogator. At best it can help readers to avoid the characteristic mistakes of poor interrogators.

Its purpose is to provide guidelines for KUBARK interrogation, and particularly the counterintelligence interrogation of resistant sources. Designed as an aid for interrogators and others immediately concerned, it is based largely upon the published results of extensive research, including scientific inquiries conducted by specialists in closely related subjects.

There is nothing mysterious about interrogation. It consists of no more than obtaining needed information through responses to questions. As is true of all craftsmen, some interrogators are more able than others; and some of their superiority may be innate. But sound interrogation nevertheless rests upon a knowledge of the subject matter and on certain broad principles, chiefly psychological, which are not hard to understand. The success of good interrogators depends in large measure upon their use, conscious or not, of these principles and of processes and techniques deriving from them. Knowledge of subject matter and of the basic principles will not of itself create a successful interrogation, but it will make possible the avoidance of mistakes that are characteristic of poor interrogation. The purpose, then, is not to teach the reader how to be a good interrogator but rather to tell him what he must learn in order to become a good interrogator.
The interrogation of a resistant source who is a staff or agent member of an Orbit intelligence or security service or of a clandestine Communist organization is one of the most exacting of professional tasks. Usually the odds still favor the interrogator, but they are sharply cut by the training, experience, patience and toughness of the interrogatee. In such circumstances the interrogator needs all the help that he can get. And a principal source of aid today is scientific findings. The intelligence service which is able to bring pertinent, modern knowledge to bear upon its problems enjoys huge advantages over a service which conducts its clandestine business in eighteenth century fashion. It is true that American psychologists have devoted somewhat more attention to Communist interrogation techniques, particularly “brainwashing”, than to U. S. practices. Yet they have conducted scientific inquiries into many subjects that are closely related to interrogation: the effects of debility and isolation, the polygraph, reactions to pain and fear, hypnosis and heightened suggestibility, narcosis, etc. This work is of sufficient importance and relevance that it is no longer possible to discuss interrogation significantly without reference to the psychological research conducted in the past decade. For this reason a major purpose of this study is to focus relevant scientific findings upon CI interrogation. Every effort has been made to report and interpret these findings in our own language, in place of the terminology employed by the psychologists.

Infowars
CHECK OUT THE ENTIRE MANUAL

Alongside John P. Holdrens advocacy for a global planetary regime to enforce forced abortion, government `seizure of children born out of wedlock, and mandatory bodily implants designed to prevent pregnancy, Obamas top advisor also called for, “Adding a sterilant to drinking water or staple foods.”

In the wilds of Afghanistan, the civilian populace is increasingly turning to the Taliban for aid rather than U.S.-backed police forces, a published report revealed Monday. In some areas of the country, the situation has become so dire that some have begun to see the Taliban movement as ‘liberation’ rather than oppression.

“Afghans across the country complain bitterly about the country’s police, whose junior ranks earn only about $150 a month,” the Associated Press reported. “Police pad their salaries by demanding bribes at checkpoints or kickbacks to investigate complaints, and police in opium poppy-growing regions turn a blind eye to drug smuggling for a cut of the profits, many Afghans complain.”

The wire service continued: “A 2007 International Crisis Group report entitled ‘Reforming Afghanistan’s Police’ found that Afghans often view the police ‘more as a source of fear than of security.’ It said ending corruption was critical if police were to provide a ‘professional, consistent service to citizens.’”

As U.S. and British troops have been battling Taliban forces in Helmand province in one of the largest offensives since the war’s start and as they press further into the territory, more has been revealed about the abuses of government-installed Afghan police forces.

“[Villagers] say the government’s police force was so brutal and corrupt that they welcomed the Taliban as liberators,” noted The Washington Post.

The paper continued:

“The police would stop people driving on motorcycles, beat them and take their money,” said Mohammad Gul, an elder in the village of Pankela, which British troops have been securing for the past three days after flying in by helicopter.

He pointed to two compounds of neighbors where pre-teen children had been abducted by police to be used for the local practice of “bachabazi,” or sex with pre-pubescent boys.

“If the boys were out in the fields, the police would come and rape them,” he said. “You can go to any police base and you will see these boys. They hold them until they are finished with them and then let the child go.”

“On an average basis, six to 10 police lose their lives [every day] while on duty, providing security for the people,” Afghan interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told reporters.

“Last year we had an average of six police dying every day but this year we have six to 10,” he said, referring to the Afghan solar-based calendar which starts in March. Bashary was unable to give an overall toll for the year.

On Monday morning, the police chief of Jalrez, along with three of his deputies, were killed in a roadside bombing. Four other officers were injured.

With AFP.

Stephen C. Webster
Raw Story

It could be a combination of 19th-century mechanics, 21st-century technology — and a 20th-century horror movie.

A Maryland company under contract to the Pentagon is working on a steam-powered robot that would fuel itself by gobbling up whatever organic material it can find — grass, wood, old furniture, even dead bodies.

Robotic Technology Inc.'s Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot — that's right, "EATR" — "can find, ingest, and extract energy from biomass in the environment (and other organically-based energy sources), as well as use conventional and alternative fuels (such as gasoline, heavy fuel, kerosene, diesel, propane, coal, cooking oil, and solar) when suitable," reads the company's Web site.

That "biomass" and "other organically-based energy sources" wouldn't necessarily be limited to plant material — animal and human corpses contain plenty of energy, and they'd be plentiful in a war zone.

EATR will be powered by the Waste Heat Engine developed by Cyclone Power Technology of Pompano Beach, Fla., which uses an "external combustion chamber" burning up fuel to heat up water in a closed loop, generating electricity.

The advantages to the military are that the robot would be extremely flexible in fuel sources and could roam on its own for months, even years, without having to be refueled or serviced.

Upon the EATR platform, the Pentagon could build all sorts of things — a transport, an ambulance, a communications center, even a mobile gunship.

In press materials, Robotic Technology presents EATR as an essentially benign artificial creature that fills its belly through "foraging," despite the obvious military purpose.

Fox News

The federal government is committing more than $800 million to buy more of the two key ingredients to make the H1N1 swine flu vaccine, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

The money will be used to place additional orders on existing contracts with vaccine manufacturers including GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis. The former Chiron Corp. facility in Emeryville is now owned by Novartis, which makes vaccines there.

The government is placing orders for antigen and adjuvant. Antigen is the active ingredient in a vaccine that triggers the immune system to develop antibodies to fight the H1N1 virus. Adjuvant is added to boost the immune system and reduce the amount of antigen needed for the vaccine. The vaccine ingredients will become a part of the pandemic stockpile, for use if a vaccination campaign is necessary.

Cyber security is a real issue, as evidenced by the virus behind July 4 cyber attacks that hobbled government and business websites in the United States and South Korea. It originated from Internet provider addresses in 16 countries and targeted, among others, the White House and the New York Stock Exchange.

Unfortunately, the Obama administration has chosen to combat it in a move that runs counter to its pledge to be transparent. The administration reportedly is proceeding with a Bush-era plan to use the National Security Agency to screen government computer traffic on private-sector networks. AT&T is slated to be the likely test site. This classified pilot program, dubbed "Einstein 3," is developed but not yet rolled out. It takes two offenders from President Bush's contentious secret surveillance program and puts them in charge of scrutinizing all Internet traffic going to or from federal government agencies.

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States on Tuesday announced a review of its often-criticized terror alert system created in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The system includes a color-coded public warnings, which range from green, symbolizing a low risk of attack to red, which points to a severe threat.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a statement a bipartisan panel of experts would report on the efficiency of the system within 60 days.

"My goal is simple: to have the most effective system in place to inform the American people about threats to our country," Napolitano said in a statement.

The secretary -- who heads a department also created after the attacks -- said she had appointed a senior George W. Bush security adviser Fran Townsend to lead the panel.

Critics say such threat coding is too vague and provide little or no actionable information for travelers, while causing alarm.

In 2003, a congressional report warned that levels were so vague that they would lead the public to question their usefulness.

But scrapping the system is likely to provide fodder for President Barack Obama's critics, who accuse him rolling back anti-terror polices to the detriment of national security.

Former vice president Dick Cheney has frequently spared with the Obama since leaving office, accusing him of making the country more vulnerable to attack.

The current threat level is yellow, "a significant risk of terrorist attacks," where it has stood since since 2004, although specific sector or route advisories have changed.

In August 2006, the threat level was raised from orange to red for flights to the United States from Britain, after authorities in London unraveled a plot to blow up as many as 10 trans-Atlantic airliners.

The threat level is published on the Department of Homeland Security's website and features in public service announcements in US airports.

Britain has a similar system, operated by the internal security service commonly known as MI5.

source

A white supremacist's recent shooting attack at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum was part of a surge in extremist activity nationwide, according to Morris Dees
White supremacist groups are increasingly relying on US military training, Dees, co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which works to track and shut down hate groups across America, said on Friday.

Speaking at a luncheon at the National Press Club, he discussed the findings of a report the Law Center released that day.

"Large numbers of potentially violent neo-Nazi skinheads and others are now learning the art of warfare in the United States military," Dees said.

Along with the report, the Law Center sent Congress a letter urging the investigation of how racist organizations are "infiltrating" the military.

Dees identified two ways in which hate groups take advantage of military training. Some extremists enter the armed forces to learn skills they will later take back to their groups, while in other instances, these groups work to recruit frustrated veterans.

Beyond the military, Dees said his organization sees a rise in hate groups, and it now lists more than 900.

"Hate groups are on the rise in the United States," he said. "The 'perfect storm' is brewing for the buildup of these hate groups."

Anger over the election of a black president, the failing economy and Latino immigration are all causing this phenomenon, he explained. He added that at the heart of most of these hate groups is a simple belief that "Jews are the enemy."

For instance, James von Brunn, who shot security guard Stephen Johns at the Holocaust Museum, blamed the Jews for the decline of the white race and had written that "Obama was created by the Jews. Obama does what his Jew owners say."

Sam Greenberg
Jerusalem Post
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What was the point of setting up Ron Paul? He is the only the true alternative to all the fake politicians, was this a hit piece?

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