‘In January 1968, the US Navy electronic surveillance ship USS Pueblo was quietly lurking off the east coast of North Korea, its assorted antennae pricked to absorb any kind of interesting electronic transmissions. There was little doubt that the North Koreans would cease any intelligence-worthy communications if they learned that the “environmental research” ship was eavesdropping, so the Pueblo’s crew operated under radio silence to avoid detection. Nevertheless, there was surprisingly little for the sophisticated electronics to observe; in terms of signals, Soviet-friendly Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) was uncharacteristically quiet. With so little information to pore over, the only interruption in the monotony was the occasional task of chipping the thick frosting of ice from the deck.
But on 22 January, something out of the ordinary happened. [..]’
There’s another website with a link to the captain’s Final Confession which is hilarious. π
`Israel is using nanotechnology to try to create a robot no bigger than a hornet that would be able to chase, photograph and kill its targets, an Israeli newspaper reported on Friday.
The flying robot, nicknamed the “bionic hornet,” would be able to navigate its way down narrow alleyways to target otherwise unreachable enemies such as rocket launchers, the daily Yedioth Ahronoth said.
It is one of several weapons being developed by scientists to combat militants, it said. Others include super gloves that would give the user the strength of a “bionic man” and miniature sensors to detect suicide bombers.’
`An ABC News undercover investigation showed Army recruiters telling students that the war in Iraq was over, in an effort to get them to enlist.
ABC News and New York affiliate WABC equipped students with hidden video cameras before they visited 10 Army recruitment offices in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
“Nobody is going over to Iraq anymore?” one student asks a recruiter.
“No, we’re bringing people back,” he replies.
“We’re not at war. War ended a long time ago,” another recruiter says.’
`A Marine pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and conspiracy to obstruct justice before testifying that his squad was ordered to execute a known insurgent who turned out to be a civilian. [..]
Three members of Jackson’s unit went into the village of Hamdaniya on April 26 and returned with a prisoner who was then shot by the side of a road on the orders of squad leader Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins, Jackson said.
“Sgt. Hutchins ordered us to get on line,” Jackson testified. “Everyone fired rounds, including myself, but I fired my rounds above him. I knew he was going to be shot, but I didn’t want to be the one to do it.”
Military judge Lt. Col. Joseph Lisiecki told Jackson that even if the man he had shot at was a known insurgent, it was still unlawful to kidnap and kill him.’
`As many as 20 rocket launchers have been smuggled into Australia from the Middle East and are on sale for as much as $50,000 each in Sydney’s underworld.
The weapons were obtained by a Sydney criminal gang to fight a turf war, but authorities fear they could end up in the hands of terrorists.
A Sunday Telegraph investigation has revealed the B-7 type rocket launchers, also known as RPG-7 rocket-propelled grenades, are being offered for sale on the black market for between $15,000 and $50,000.
The rocket launchers have been in the possession of at least one Sydney crime gang since about 2002, police believe.’
`German Chancellor Angela Merkel called photos of German soldiers in Afghanistan playing with a skull “shocking and disgusting,” and Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung said those involved will be dealt with harshly.
One image was published on the cover of the national tabloid Bild, under the words “Schock Fotos.”
In the picture, a soldier seems to be slightly smirking as he poses with the skull in his raised right hand. A black banner covers his face.
Other images show the skull displayed like an off-center hood ornament on the front of a jeep. Another picture shows a soldier holding the skull near his exposed penis.’
`A day after George Bush conceded for the first time that America may have reached the equivalent of a Tet offensive in Iraq, the Pentagon yesterday admitted defeat in its strategy of securing Baghdad.
The admission from President Bush that the US may have arrived at a turning point in this war – the Tet offensive led to a massive loss of confidence in the American presence in Vietnam – comes during one of the deadliest months for US forces since the invasion.’
`One of Britain’s most experienced journalists was unlawfully killed by U.S. soldiers in Iraq, an inquest into his death ruled on Friday, prompting calls for the perpetrators to be tried for war crimes.
Veteran war correspondent Terry Lloyd, 50, who worked for ITN, was killed in March 2003 in southern Iraq as he reported from the front line during the first few days of the U.S.-led invasion.
“He was fired on by American soldiers as a minibus carried wounded people away,” Coroner Andrew Walker said at the conclusion of the inquest, which U.S. soldiers declined to attend.’
`Canadian troops fighting Taliban militants in Afghanistan have stumbled across an unexpected and potent enemy — almost impenetrable forests of marijuana plants 10 feet tall.
General Rick Hillier, chief of the Canadian defense staff, said Thursday that Taliban fighters were using the forests as cover. In response, the crew of at least one armored car had camouflaged their vehicle with marijuana. [..]
Even successful incineration had its drawbacks.
“A couple of brown plants on the edges of some of those [forests] did catch on fire. But a section of soldiers that was downwind from that had some ill effects and decided that was probably not the right course of action,” Hiller said dryly.’
`A new study asserts that roughly 600,000 Iraqis have died from violence since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, a figure many times higher than any previous estimate.
[..] President Bush in December said “30,000, more or less” had died in Iraq during the invasion and in the violence since. [..]
This study, “The Human Cost of the War in Iraq,” puts civilian fatalities at 426,369 to 793,663, with a 95% certainty that the figure falls in that range, and the highest probability given to the figure of 601,027.’
`When Pfc. Steven Price of Utah volunteered to join the Army in January, he couldn’t do it alone. Because he’s 17, recruiters needed his parents to give their written permission.
Now, an Army spokesman says a Utah-based recruiter has admitted forging the signatures of Price’s parents to enlist him.
Price reported for duty at Fort Stewart in southeast Georgia in June after he completed basic training. He credits the Army with restoring his pride after a troubled adolescence but said that doesn’t justify his recruiters’ actions.
”There was harm and foul play on their part,” the Ogden teen said. ”It was very deceiving what they did.”’
`Congress is on the verge of barring the construction of permanent bases for U.S. forces in Iraq, a move aimed at quelling concerns in the Arab world that American forces will remain in the war-torn country indefinitely. [..]
Pentagon and State Department officials have insisted that the U.S. military is not building permanent American bases in Iraq and that all facilities under construction will be handed over to the Iraqi government.
But the massive American bases in Iraq have long fueled speculation that the United States plans to maintain a military presence there, as it does in other parts of the Arab world.’
`Thailand’s coup leaders have banned go-go dancers from performing for troops on the streets of Bangkok, fearing soldiers may be distracted.
A troupe of scantily-clad women danced for soldiers near the Royal Plaza on Monday, as part of entertainments paid for by a local radio station.
But the coup’s leaders – who had earlier told soldiers to keep smiling – have now banned all dancing near tanks.
“We have to maintain the seriousness of the coup,” a military spokesman said.’
`The Iraq war is a “cause celebre” swelling the ranks of Islamist terrorists, who are likely to grow in numbers for the next five years, a newly declassified US intelligence report has said.
The National Intelligence Estimate, which represents the consensus of the 16 US spy agencies, said the US-led campaign since September 11, 2001, had significantly hurt al Qaeda, but that extermists were nevertheless growing in number across the world.
It said this would lead to “increasing attacks worldwide” for the next five years.’
`In all this time however, every attempt at biological warfare has been essentially offensive. The idea has always been to incapacitate or kill the enemy. Except once, in Poland, during World War II, where a pair of quick-thinking doctors used a little-known organism to keep the Nazis at bay.
The microorganism is Proteus OX19. In most ways its an entirely ordinary little bacterium. Its one remarkable feature is that human antibodies for Proteus OX19 cross-react with the antibodies for Ricksettia the bacterium responsible for the deadly disease typhus. Blood from a patient infected with Proteus Ox19 will give a false-positive in the most common typhus screening method, the Weil-Felix test.
Enter the Nazis into Poland. [..]’
`Nonlethal weapons such as high-power microwave devices should be used on American citizens in crowd-control situations before being used on the battlefield, the Air Force secretary said Tuesday.
The object is basically public relations. Domestic use would make it easier to avoid questions from others about possible safety considerations, said Secretary Michael Wynne.
“If we’re not willing to use it here against our fellow citizens, then we should not be willing to use it in a wartime situation,” said Wynne. “(Because) if I hit somebody with a nonlethal weapon and they claim that it injured them in a way that was not intended, I think that I would be vilified in the world press.”‘
`One of the CIA’s most bizarre Cold War efforts was Operation Acoustic Kitty. In declassified documents from the CIA’s super-secret Science and Technology Directorate, it was revealed that some Cold-War-era cats were surgically altered to become sophisticated bugging devices. The idea was that the cats would eavesdrop on Soviet conversations from park benches, windowsills and garbage containers. The cat was meant to just stroll up to the sensitive conversations, completely unnoticed. The clandestine cat’s electrical internals would then capture and relay the audio to awaiting agents.’
`The Bush Administration has drafted amendments to a war crimes law that would eliminate the risk of prosecution for political appointees, CIA officers and former military personnel for humiliating or degrading prisoners of war, US officials say.
The amendments would alter a US law passed a decade ago that made violating the Geneva Conventions a criminal offence they said. The conventions generally ban the cruel, humiliating and degrading treatment of wartime prisoners without spelling out what all those terms mean.’
`Do you believe in Iraqi “WMD”? Did Saddam Hussein’s government have weapons of mass destruction in 2003?
Half of America apparently still thinks so, a new poll finds, and experts see a raft of reasons why: a drumbeat of voices from talk radio to die-hard bloggers to the Oval Office, a surprise headline here or there, a rallying around a partisan flag, and a growing need for people, in their own minds, to justify the war in Iraq.
People tend to become “independent of reality” in these circumstances, says opinion analyst Steven Kull.’
`The Mediterranean is threatened by its worst ever environmental disaster after Israel’s bombing of a power plant in Lebanon sent thousands of tonnes of fuel gushing into the sea, the environment minister charged.
“Up until now 10,000-15,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil have spilled out into the sea,” after Israel’s bombing of the power station in Jiyeh two weeks ago, Lebanese Environment Minister Yacub Sarraf told AFP Saturday.
“It’s without doubt the biggest environmental catastrophe that the Mediterranean has known and it risks having terrible consequences not only for our country but for all the countries of the eastern Mediterranean.”‘
`The U.S. military has begun developing an ultrasonic tourniquet in an effort to stop life-threatening bleeding during combat.
Called the Deep Bleeder Acoustic Coagulation (DBAC) program, it aims to create a cuff-like device that wraps around a wounded limb. Rather than applying pressure to the wound to stem the flow of blood, the device would use focused beams of ultrasound (sound waves above the audible frequencies) to non-invasively clot vessels no matter how deep they are.’
`The Bush administration spelled out plans overnight to sell $US4.6 billion ($6 billion) of arms to moderate Arab states, including battle tanks worth as much as $US2.9 billion ($3.78 billion) to protect critical Saudi infrastructure.
The announcement came two weeks after the administration said it would sell Israel its latest supply of JP-8 aviation fuel valued at up to $US210 million ($273.7 million) to help Israeli warplanes “keep peace and security in the region.”
The United States also rushed a delivery of precision-guided bombs requested by Israel after launching its airstrikes against Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon 17 days ago, The New York Times reported last week.’
`Last month, Hamas militants tunneled into Israel and kidnapped an Israeli soldier. Israel immediately invaded Gaza. Hamas began lobbing rockets into Israel. The Lebanese group Hezbollah kidnapped two more Israelis near the Lebanon-Israel border. Israel responded by carrying out airstrikes against Lebanon. Egypt and Saudi Arabia condemned Hezbollah for instigating the violence. Syria, Iran, and Lebanon called Israel’s retaliation an excessive use of force.
Confused? [..]’
With an interactive table showing who’s buddies with who.
`Israel said today it regretted the deaths of four UN military observers in southern Lebanon and would investigate the air strike that killed them.
“Israel sincerely regrets the tragic death of the U.N. personnel in south Lebanon,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.
“We do not target UN personnel and, since the beginning of this conflict, we have made a consistent effort to ensure the safety of all members of (the UN peacekeeping force). This tragic event will be thoroughly investigated,” Mr Regev said.’
`Israel’s bombing of a crowded Beirut neighbourhood where Hezbollah had its headquarters has breached humanitarian law, a senior UN official has said, as reports emerged of heavy fighting on Lebanon’s southern border.
“It is horrific. I did not know it was block after block of houses,” Jan Egeland, the UN emergency relief co-ordinator, told reporters as he toured the shattered Haret Hreik district. “It makes it a violation of humanitarian law.”
Mr Egeland was visibly shocked by the devastation in the Shiite Muslim quarter where air raids have flattened a Hezbollah compound. He said it was hard to distinguish between military and civilian targets.’
`At first, Bushra Khayyat tried to ignore the incessant ringing of the phone at her house in Lebanon’s southern port city of Sidon. It was 4 a.m., but she finally got out of bed.
“I said hello and got a recorded message from Israel,” she told Reuters.
In clear Arabic, the strong voice on the phone said: “Oh Lebanese people, we tell you not to follow Hizbollah. We will continue to strike and no one will bring your prisoners back from Israel except the Lebanese government.”‘
‘US President George W Bush has been caught on microphone using an expletive to show frustration with Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel.
Mr Bush was heard telling UK Prime Minister Tony Blair privately that Syria should press the Lebanese militants to “stop doing this shit”.
The remarks were picked up by closed-circuit TV at the G8 summit which both leaders are attending.’
Update: now with video of George Bush swearing.
(1.5meg Windows media)
see it here »
`US War Dept produced comic strip included in the first edition of the “POCKET GUIDE TO CHINA”, a 75-page booklet distributed to US soldiers (Army and Navy) during their stay in China during World War II.’
`The U.S. Army will investigate charges that American soldiers were involved in the killings of four Iraqi relatives, including a woman who had been raped, military officials said Friday. It’s the sixth current inquiry into the alleged slayings of Iraqi civilians by American troops.
Some of the five soldiers also allegedly burned the body of the woman they are accused of assaulting in the March incident, a U.S. military official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.’
`Wives and family members of soldiers fighting in Iraq have received telephone calls, believed to include death threats, from insurgents, according to military documents seen by The Sunday Telegraph.
The “nuisance” calls have been made with increasing frequency over the past few weeks after insurgents managed to obtain home numbers from soldiers’ mobile telephones. [..]
It is understood that the threats range from claims that a husband or son is dead or will be killed fighting in Iraq, to verbal abuse. Many of those who have received calls say that they were made by people with a poor command of English or with a Middle Eastern accent.’
