Court: Feds Can Hide Alleged Spying on Gitmo Lawyers
A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld the government’s refusal to admit or deny it has documents related to warrantless eavesdropping on Guantanamo Bay detainees and their lawyers. In doing so, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals accepted a little-known defense called the Glomar doctrine. The doctrine, the court ruled,...
State bond lets firms profit from water
Private companies could own, operate and profit from reservoirs and other water-storage projects built with billions in taxpayer dollars under a little-noticed provision of the $11.1 billion water bond that was approved by the Legislature and goes before California voters next year. Lawmakers barely discussed the provision...
Taser ruling sets standards for police, claims
Police need reasons to believe a suspect is dangerous before firing a Taser and can’t use their stun gun simply because the person is disobeying orders or acting erratically, a federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled Monday. The decision by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sets judicial standards for police...
Uranium Is So Last Century — Enter Thorium, the New Green Nuke
Photo: Thomas Hannich The thick hardbound volume was sitting on a shelf in a colleague’s office when Kirk Sorensen spotted it. A rookie NASA engineer at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Sorensen was researching nuclear-powered propulsion, and the book’s title — Fluid Fuel Reactors — jumped out at him. He picked...
US new jobless claims dip to 17-month low
New US claims for jobless benefits fell to the lowest level since July 2008, government data showed Thursday amid signs unemployment at 26-year highs may ease as the economy recovers from recession. The seasonally adjusted initial claims in the week ending December 26 stood at 432,000, a decrease of 22,000 from the previous...
Is this Iran’s Berlin Wall moment?
It is time to start wondering out loud whether Iran’s uprising could become one of those Berlin Wall moments. This is not yet a counter-revolution. And the new “green movement” is a coalition of disparate factions — from former presidents to people who have never voted at all — who view the issues through vastly...
Economist: Health Care Bill “Is Just Another Bailout Of The Financial System”
It is obvious that many republicans oppose the proposed health care bill. But many liberals and progressives oppose it as well. For example, economist L. Randall Wray writes: Here’s the opportunity, Wall Street’s newest and bestest gamble: there is a huge untapped market of some 50 million people who are not paying insurance...
US sharply steps up military, economic aid to Yemen
The United States is sharply increasing both military and economic aid to Yemen, as it has been doing in Afghanistan and Pakistan, to fight a growing threat from Al-Qaeda, officials said Wednesday. The threat has been highlighted by the case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man who reportedly confessed to being trained...
WHO chief yet to be vaccinated against swine flu
GENEVA — World Health Organization chief Margaret Chan revealed Tuesday that she has yet to be vaccinated against the swine flu virus, which has killed over 11,500 people world-wide. “I have asked my medical service to enquire where I can go to get my vaccination,” she told reporters in Geneva, pointing out that...
Western counter-terrorism help ‘not enough for Yemen’
Yemen has said it is not getting enough support from the West to tackle al-Qaeda, as details emerge of the suspected US jet bomber’s time there. Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi told the BBC that Yemen had the will and ability to deal with al-Qaeda, but was undermined by a lack of support. He estimated that several...
Al-Qaeda ‘groomed Abdulmutallab in London’
The Christmas Day airline bomb plot suspect organised a conference under the banner “War on Terror Week” as he immersed himself in radical politics while a student in London, The Times has learnt. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, a former president of the Islamic Society at University College London, advertised speakers including...
Tempest in the Tea Party
Would a true Tea Party patriot drop nearly $1,600 in donor money for a small meal at a fancy steakhouse? Robin Stublen says no, and he’s mad as hell about the profligate expenditures of a GOP political organization that has glommed on to his grassroots movement. Stublen is the organizer of the Punta Gorda, Florida, Tea...
Was the Afghan Bomb Attack an Inside Job? – CBS Evening News – CBS News
(CBS) It all happened at a well-fortified combat outpost in Eastern Afghanistan. Somehow a suicide bomber was able to bring his explosives on the base, walk up to a group of American civilians and blow himself up. It will take an investigation to determine how he did it. But the outpost is located in the middle of a notorious...
NYPD: Van in Times Square No Threat
The NYPD bomb squad gave the all clear early this afternoon after investigating a van abandoned in Times Square which officials say has apparently not been moved for some time. Police responded around 8:30 a.m. after a 911 call about a suspicious van came in. The vehicle, a white 1992 Dodge, had tinted windows, a placard from...
Washington Times lays off top editor, dozens of staffers
The Washington Times slashed its 170-member newsroom staff Wednesday, laying off its top editor and scores of reporters, editors and photographers at the 27-year-old newspaper. The Sports and Metro sections will cease to exist as stand-alone entities after Friday’s edition, numerous sources said, and layoffs in those sections...
How Goldman Sachs Made Tens Of Billions Of Dollars From The Economic Collapse Of America In Four Easy Steps
Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs has become perhaps the most prominent symbol for everything that is wrong with the U.S. financial system, but most Americans cannot even begin to explain what they do or how they have made tens of billions of dollars from the economic collapse of America. The truth is that what Goldman...
Government to give GMAC another $3.8 billion
NEW YORK – The government gave GMAC Financial Services another $3.8 billion in cash and took a majority stake in the auto lender, aiming to stabilize the company as it struggles with big losses in its home mortgage unit. The fresh infusion is on top of $12.5 billion in taxpayer money Detroit-based GMAC has already received...
U.S. readies targeted sanctions against Iran
The Obama administration is readying sanctions against discrete elements of the Iranian government, including those involved in the deadly crackdown on Iranian protesters, marking a shift to a more aggressive U.S. posture toward the Islamic republic, U.S. officials said. Ten months after President Obama set a year-end deadline...
French Constitutional Court Rejects Carbon Tax
Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) — France’s constitutional court rejected a proposed tax on carbon emissions, saying a web of exemptions violated the principal of equality and rendered efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions ineffective. The government said it will make new proposals on Jan. 20. The tax, which would have started...
“Al-Qaeda practises beating body scanners”
A body scanner at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport would not necessarily have detected the explosives which the would-be syringe bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had sewn into his underwear. A Dutch military intelligence source told De Telegraaf newspaper that Al Qaeda has its own security scanners and has been practicing...
