Eeyores news and view

Gates remark steals focus for Obama
Police unions voice anger

President Obama infrequently wades into issues of race, but his unscripted foray into a racially charged debate about the arrest of a prominent Harvard professor kicked up a controversy Thursday, drawing the ire of police unions and distracting from the White House's health care message.

The white Cambridge, Mass., police sergeant derided by Mr. Obama for acting "stupidly" said the president was way "off base" and suggested Mr. Obama was merely sticking up for his friend, Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., who is black.

"I support the president of the United States 110 percent," Sgt. James Crowley told WBZ Radio. "I think he's way off base wading into a local issue without knowing all the facts."

The White House has since backpedaled, with aides insisting the president was not calling the officer stupid, and with Mr. Obama telling ABC News that Sgt. Crowley, an expert in training police how to avoid racial profiling, was an "outstanding" officer.

But the president insisted that his remarks on the arrest of Mr. Gates, made at the end of his Wednesday night news conference on health care, amounted to nothing more than straightforward commentary.

"You probably don't need to handcuff a guy, a middle-aged man who uses a cane in his own home," the nation's first black president said in an interview with ABC. "Everybody should have just settled down and cooler heads should have prevailed."

Mr. Gates was arrested inside his Cambridge home on July 16 by police responding to a report that two black men were trying to break into the house. Mr. Gates said he had forgotten his key and jimmied the door but was already inside when the police arrived.

Words were exchanged and the professor was arrested but the charges were later dropped. At his press conference, Mr. Obama said he did not have the facts of the case but he thought the police had "acted stupidly" by arresting Mr. Gates after he had identified himself.

The subsequent back-and-forth has generated the same kind of cable chatter Mr. Obama often derides as a distraction from more important issues, raising questions about why a president who often avoids commenting on sensitive racial issues chose to speak so bluntly.

Police organizations - including one that backed Mr. Obama's election and one that didn't - have complained.
Mr. Obama attended Harvard Law School.

Republicans also jumped on the dust-up, asking if Rep. Michael E. Capuano, the Massachusetts Democrat who represents Cambridge, agrees with Mr. Obama's comment. The National Republican Congressional Committee said Mr. Obama had offered a "questionable rush to judgment."

Comedian and actor Bill Cosby, a prominent black social critic, said he is worried about the direction the conversation is headed and warned that people "who don't know" should probably take a step back and refrain from commenting. Asked by a Boston Fox affiliate if that was directed at Mr. Obama, Mr. Cosby responded: "Whatever the president said, I have to take into consideration that he lived in Cambridge for some time so he may know more than he's saying about situations of that sort."

Cambridge police are asking a panel to review the matter.

Mr. Gates, 58, is a renowned scholar and director of Harvard's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. He said in an interview with TheRoot.com, a daily online magazine, that he was the victim of racial profiling.

"It's clear that [the arresting officer] had a narrative in his head: A black man was inside someone's house, probably a white person's house, and this black man had broken and entered, and this black man was me," he said. "He demanded that I step out on the porch, and I don't think he would have done that if I was a white person."

Mr. Gates added: "It's not about me - it's that anybody black can be treated this way, just arbitrarily arrested out of spite. And the man who arrested me did it out of spite, because he knew I was going to file a report because of his behavior," he said.

Sgt. Crowley has insisted "I've done nothing wrong" - when asked about the charges of racism he said, "It almost doesn't even warrant a comment it's so ridiculous."

Sgt. Crowley said there was a "lot of yelling" when he encountered Mr. Gates at his home near the Harvard University campus.

"Mr. Gates was given plenty of opportunity to stop what he was doing. He acted very irrational," the officer told the radio station. "He controlled the outcome of that event. ... There was references to my mother, something you wouldn't expect from anybody that should be grateful that you're there investigating a report of a crime in progress, let alone a Harvard University professor."
Mr. Gates has asked for an apology, saying he'd been treated unfairly by the white police officer.

Mr. Obama said Wednesday, "I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played" in the arrest.

But he said it was a "fact" that there is a long history of blacks and Latinos being targeted for racial profiling in America, adding "the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home."

Chuck Canterbury, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, which endorsed Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona last year, said he has told the White House he was disappointed by the remarks and offered his support to Sgt. Crowley.

"Police officers, like all Americans, rely on President Obama's leadership to guide us through an extraordinarily difficult period of change in a variety of areas: To be successful in this effort, he will need the help and support of all of us," he said.

"Statements of this nature, made without the facts, do little to narrow the void of distrust that too often separates the community from the men and women who work to keep it safe."

In his ABC interview, Mr. Obama noted the 42-year-old sergeant's commendable record.

According to the Associated Press, Sgt. Crowley has taught a class on racial profiling for five years at the Lowell Police Academy, and the academy director called him a good role model who was hand-picked by a black police commissioner.

In 1993 Sgt. Crowley repeatedly tried to save the life of black Boston Celtics player Reggie Lewis after he collapsed during practice. Even though Mr. Lewis had no pulse, the officer, who was then with Brandeis University, kept attempting to revive the player who had died of cardiac arrest.

Sgt. Crowley's own force came to his defense, saying nothing he had done was racist.

"The whole story hasn't been told," Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Hass told reporters, adding the panel would help to "really disclose" everything that happened.

The commissioner said Mr. Gates' attorney had approached the police with a request to drop the charges, which they did this week after working with the district attorney. He also disclosed that while Mr. Gates was away there had been a break-in at his home which was investigated by Harvard police.

In his official police report on the incident, Sgt. Crowley said he could see the man he later identified as Mr. Gates in the foyer of the home through the glass paned front door. He identified himself, explained the report of a break-in, asked for Mr. Gates to come outside but the professor refused and then shouted "Why, because I am a black man in America?"

The report said Mr. Gates accused the officer of being racist and was "leveling threats that he wasn't someone to mess with." Sgt. Crowley wrote in the report that the professor kept yelling and when they went outside it drew the attention of people on the street. He then arrested him for disorderly conduct.

Mr. Gates said in his interview with TheRoot that he couldn't have been yelling since he had a severe bronchial infection.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jul/24/gates-remark-steals-focus-for-obama/



Sure looks like to me that the idiot is screaming. People throw the race card around way to easily. Racism pimps, like this professor, the President, Sharpton and Jackson, are like the little boys that cry wolf. They try to incite a riot when they are wrong. They should be arrested.

Eeyores news and view

I was reading these articles this morning and i will admit i don't have all the facts, but i bet neither does the President when he made is declaration of guilt. I bet he never even talked to the officer. The case reminds me of Cynthia McKinney in DC. She called racism when she struck at the officer for asking for her id. People should mind there own business or at least try to find out what they are talking about before they run there mouth. Makes me sick that this President will promote racism just because the black person is being attacked. If the roles were reversed, he would never said that it was racism. Does not he see he is being used like a punk

President says Cambridge cops acted ‘stupidly’
President Obama ripped Cambridge police for acting “stupidly” in the arrest of Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and said the noted scholar, a personal friend, was justified in being “angry” at his treatment.The president said he does not know whether, as Gates maintains, race was a factor in the controversial case now making national headlines. But he said racial profiling is a “fact” in America today. His remarks came in response to a question at the end of last night’s press conference on his health-care initiative Obama acknowledged that he did not know all the facts of the case in which Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct by cops investigating a report of a break-in at his Cambridge home after Gates had to force open a jammed door.
“I don’t know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that,” Obama said. “But I think it’s fair to say, No. 1, any of us would be pretty angry... (you can read the rest at)
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1186574

Officer in Henry Gates flap tried to save Reggie Lewis Denies he’s a racist, won’t apologize he Cambridge cop prominent Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. claims is a racist gave a dying Reggie Lewis mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in a desperate bid to save the Celtics superstar’s life 16 years ago Monday.“I wasn’t working on Reggie Lewis the basketball star. I wasn’t working on a black man. I was working on another human being,” Sgt. James Crowley, in an exclusive interview with the Herald, said of the forward’s fatal heart attack July 27, 1993, at age 27 during an off-season practice at Brandeis University, where Crowley was a campus police officer.

It’s a date Crowley still can recite by rote - and he still recalls the pain he suffered when people back then questioned whether he had done enough to save the black athlete.
“Some people were saying ‘There’s the guy who killed Reggie Lewis’ afterward. I was broken-hearted. I cried for many nights,” he said. Crowley, 42, said he’s not a racist, despite how some have cast his actions in the Gates case. “Those who know me know I’m not,” he said.Yesterday, Lewis’ widow, Donna Lewis, was floored to learn the embattled father of three on the thin blue line of a national debate on racism in America was the same man so determined to rescue her husband.
“That’s incredible,” Lewis, 44, exclaimed. “It’s an unfortunate situation. Hopefully, it can resolve itself. The most important thing is peace.”

Gates, 58, an acclaimed scholar on black history and a PBS documentarian, went on the attack against Crowley on Tuesday, demanding he apologize for arresting him for disorderly conduct last Thursday while investigating a reported break-in at his home. Gates, returning from a trip, was seen by a Malden woman trying to force his front door open. Police alleged he initially refused to identify himself. Though he harbors no “ill feelings toward the professor,” a calm, resolute Crowley said no mea culpa will be forthcoming.“I just have nothing to apologize for,” he said. “It will never happen.”
Attorney Charles Ogletree, Gates’ close friend and fellow Harvard savant, told the Herald, “It’s regrettable and unfortunate that the officer feels that way, and I do hope that some progress will be made in healing this wound.”

Gates, who upon his arrest allegedly bellowed to a gathering crowd on Ware Street, “This is what happens to black men in America!” believes he was targeted by Crowley - whom he called a “rogue” cop - because of his race. Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas, with Gates attorney Walter Prince’s consent, agreed Tuesday to drop the charge of disorderly conduct, calling the incident “an unfortunate set of circumstances.”Crowley, an 11-year veteran of the force, oversees the evidence room, paid details and records unit. He also coaches youth basketball, baseball and softball.
Joseph McDonald, a former director of public safety at Brandeis, said Crowley was “a real pro,” calling Gates’ racial profiling charge “strange.”

“You just do the job as a cop. You don’t look at the color of skin. You’re just trying to help people,” said McDonald, 57.
In a statement expressing its “full and unqualified support” for Crowley, the Cambridge Police Superior Officers Association called its brother a “highly respected veteran supervisor with a distinguished record. “His actions at the scene of this matter were consistent with his training, with the informed policies and practices of the department and with applicable legal standards.”
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1186567

Eeyores news and view

We are on the brink, the only time we have ever spent this far in a deficit was never. Even during the wars when we went deep into debt, it was never this far and never did we give away so much of the money. In the past the money always went into local economies not to subsidies the rest of the world. We are mortgaging not only our futures but that of great grand children. It is not the fault of either party, it is the mind set on capital hill. Governments are not any different then private individuals, it just may take longer before they go bankrupt, or before it becomes public.

Budget deficit tops $1 trillion for first time
Jul 13, 8:20 PM (ET) By MARTIN CRUTSINGER
WASHINGTON - The federal deficit has topped $1 trillion for the first time ever and could grow to nearly $2 trillion by this fall, intensifying fears about higher interest rates, inflation and the strength of the dollar.
The deficit has been widened by the huge sum the government has spent to ease the recession, combined with a sharp decline in tax revenues. The cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan also is a major factor.
The soaring deficit is making Chinese and other foreign buyers of U.S. debt nervous, which could make them reluctant lenders down the road. It could also force the Treasury Department to pay higher interest rates to make U.S. debt attractive longer-term.
"These are mind-boggling numbers," said Sung Won Sohn, an economist at the Smith School of Business at California State University. "Our foreign investors from China and elsewhere are starting to have concerns about not only the value of the dollar but how safe their investments will be in the long run."
The Treasury Department said Monday that the deficit in June totaled $94.3 billion, pushing the total since the budget year started in October to $1.09 trillion. The administration forecasts that the deficit for the entire year will hit $1.84 trillion in October.
Government spending is on the rise to address the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and an unemployment rate that has climbed to 9.5 percent.
Congress already approved a $700 billion financial bailout for banks, automakers and other sectors, and a $787 billion economic stimulus package to try to jump-start a recovery. Outlays through the first nine months of this budget year total $2.67 trillion, up 20.5 percent from the same period a year ago.
There is growing talk among some Obama administration officials that a second round of stimulus may eventually be necessary.
That has many Republicans and deficit hawks worried that the U.S. could be setting itself up for more financial pain down the road if interest rates and inflation surge. They also are raising alarms about additional spending the administration is proposing, including its plan to reform health care.
President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner have said the U.S. is committed to bringing down the deficits once the economy and financial sector recover. The Obama administration has set a goal of cutting the deficit in half by the end of his first term in office.
In the meantime, the U.S. debt now stands at $11.5 trillion. Interest payments on the debt cost $452 billion last year - the largest federal spending category after Medicare-Medicaid, Social Security and defense.
The overall debt is now slightly more than 80 percent of the annual output of the entire U.S. economy, as measured by the gross domestic product. During World War II, it briefly rose to 120 percent of GDP.
The debt is largely financed by the sale of Treasury bonds and bills.
Many private economists say the administration had no choice but to take aggressive action during the financial crisis.
"We have a deep recession hammering tax revenues and forcing the government to provide a lot of help to the economy," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "But without this help, the downturn would be even more severe."
History shows the dangers of assuming too soon that economic downturns have ended.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt made that mistake in 1936. Believing the Depression largely over, he sought to reduce public spending and to balance the federal budget, but that undermined a fragile recovery, pushing the economy back under water in 1937.
Japanese leaders made a similar mistake in the 1990s when they temporarily withdrew government stimulus spending, prolonging Japan's recession into one that lasted a full decade.
Republicans in Congress are seizing on the deficit - and the persistence of the recession - to attack Democrats.
"Washington Democrats keep borrowing and spending money we don't have," said House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio.
So far, interest rates have remained low.
This is partly because the Federal Reserve has kept a key short-term rate at a record near zero. Also, all the economic troubles in housing and the rest of the economy have depressed demand for credit by the private sector, meaning the government's borrowing costs are relatively low.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury security has risen by about a percentage point in recent weeks, but analysts note it is still trading at historically low levels of around 3.35 percent.
Geithner travels later this week to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, where he is expected to face questions about the U.S. deficit. As he did during a visit to China last month, Geithner will try to reassure investors in the Middle East that their U.S. holdings are safe from a calamitous bout of inflation.
The deficit of $1.09 trillion so far this year compares to an imbalance of $285.85 billion through the same period a year ago. The deficit for the 2008 budget year, which ended Sept. 30, was $454.8 billion, the current record in dollar terms.
Revenues so far this year total $1.59 trillion, down 17.9 percent from a year ago, reflecting higher unemployment, which cuts into payroll taxes and corporate tax receipts.
Under the administration's budget estimates, the $1.84 trillion deficit for this year will be followed by a $1.26 trillion deficit in 2010, and will never dip below $500 billion over the next decade. The administration estimates the deficits will total $7.1 trillion from 2010 to 2019.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090714/D99DSUG00.html

Boost in Food Stamps Helps Economy - Obama's stimulus plan has put more money into the hands of the poorest Americans by boosting monthly food-stamp http://beltwayblips.dailyradar.com/article/boost_in_food_stamps_helps_economy/

The Economy Is Even Worse Than You Think
The recent unemployment numbers have undermined confidence that we might be nearing the bottom of the recession. What we can see on the surface is disconcerting enough, but the inside numbers are just as bad.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics preliminary estimate for job losses for June is 467,000, which means 7.2 million people have lost their jobs since the start of the recession. The cumulative job losses over the last six months have been greater than for any other half year period since World War II, including the military demobilization after the war. The job losses are also now equal to the net job gains over the previous nine years, making this the only recession since the Great Depression to wipe out all job growth from the previous expansion.
... read the rest at
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124753066246235811.html

U.S. mulling mortgage aid for unemployed
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is mulling new ways to delay foreclosure for jobless homeowners who are unable to keep up with monthly payments, an administration official said on Monday.
The official told Reuters it was reasonable for policymakers to consider options for loan forbearance -- allowing borrowers to delay, defer or skip payments -- that are more effective than those currently available in the private sector.
The number of failing home loans has been climbing for three years as risky borrowers have defaulted on their easy-to-get loans, property values have sunk and the unemployment rate has climbed.
But the official said the idea, which is still evolving, was difficult from a policy perspective and carries potential hazards. It could help more people struggling with economic difficulty, but it also could create perverse incentives that distort the housing market, said the official, who did not want to speak on the record about internal administration debates.
The official said such a program would be in keeping with other measures to help workers who have lost jobs in the current recession.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE56D04920090714



Down the Mississippi: Barack Obama effect ends white rule in Deep South town
A tiny Mississippi delta town has elected its first black mayor after the white incumbent, unopposed for 30 years, faced a young challenger inspired by President Barack Obama's feat in winning the White House.

Here are a few quotes from the article, it is the problem with the way America thinks
...
Mr Brown was the first black man ever to stand for Mayor of Alligator and it took Mr Obama’s election to galvanise him into action. “Obama was a major influence on everybody,” he said, almost drowned out by the chirping of crickets in the sweltering afternoon heat. “He inspired me. I’m not going to take that from him.
...
"If we don’t look after our youth, what do we have? The population is dying out and I want more people here. I want better living conditions.
I just want the people to be comfortable. Small towns like this depend on government funding and that’s what we’re seeking."
...
The town’s facilities were substandard, he said, gesturing towards the humble town hall, where a “No Loitering” sign is nailed next to the door. “There isn’t even a phone or a fax machine in there. How can we communicate with the outside world and ask for things?" There was jubilation among the town’s blacks after Mr Brown’s victory.
(read the whole article link below, bolds are added by me) http: //www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/crossingamerica/5810701/Down-the-Mississippi-delta-town-elects-first-black-mayor.html

Eeyores news and view

This coin comes from an interesting source http://www.futureworldcurrency.com/ If you go to there manifesto and look at what they want it is truely amazing, look at #10

ART. 10
It will be the responsibility of the world's future citizens and the governments they put in place to make our Project a reality. This project is driven by a firm belief in the unification and co-existence of different peoples. It aims to promote an increasingly equal distribution of the planet's resources and human intellect.

Medvedev Shows Off Sample Coin of New ‘World Currency’ at G-8
By Lyubov Pronina
July 10 (Bloomberg) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev illustrated his call for a supranational currency to replace the dollar by pulling from his pocket a sample coin of a “united future world currency.”
“Here it is,” Medvedev told reporters today in L’Aquila, Italy, after a summit of the Group of Eight nations. “You can see it and touch it.”
The coin, which bears the words “unity in diversity,” was minted in Belgium and presented to the heads of G-8 delegations, Medvedev said.
The question of a supranational currency “concerns everyone now, even the mints,” Medvedev said. The test coin “means they’re getting ready. I think it’s a good sign that we understand how interdependent we are.”
Medvedev has repeatedly called for creating a mix of regional reserve currencies as part of the drive to address the global financial crisis, while questioning the U.S. dollar’s future as a global reserve currency. Russia’s proposals for the G-20 meeting in London in April included the creation of a supranational currency.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aeFVNYQpByU4

Lawmaker says CIA director ended secret program
WASHINGTON (AP) - CIA Director Leon Panetta has terminated a "very serious" covert program the spy agency kept secret from Congress for eight years, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a House Intelligence subcommittee chairwoman, said Friday.
Schakowsky is pressing for an immediate committee investigation of the classified program, which has not been described publicly. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has said he is considering an investigation.
"The program is a very, very serious program and certainly deserved a serious debate at the time and through the years," Schakowsky told The Associated Press in an interview. "But now it's over."
Democrats revealed late Tuesday that CIA Director Leon Panetta had informed members of the House Intelligence Committee on June 24 that the spy agency had been withholding important information about a secret intelligence program begun after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Schakowsky described Panetta as "stunned" that he had not been informed of the program until nearly five months into his tenure as director.
Panetta had learned of the program only the day before informing the lawmakers, according to a U.S. intelligence official. The official spoke on condition of anonymity Friday because he was not authorized to discuss the program publicly.
Panetta has launched an internal probe at the CIA to determine why Congress was not told about the program. Exactly what the classified program entailed is still unclear.
The intelligence official said the program was "on-again/off-again" and that it was never fully operational, but he would not provide details.
Schakowsky, D-Ill., said Friday that the CIA and Bush administration consciously decided not to tell Congress.
"It's not as if this was an oversight and over the years it just got buried. There was a decision under several directors of the CIA and administration not to tell the Congress," she said.
Schakowsky, who chairs the Intelligence subcommittee on oversight and investigations, said in a Thursday letter to Reyes that the CIA's lying was systematic and inexcusable. The letter was obtained by The Associated Press on Friday.
She said Reyes indicated to her the committee would conduct a probe into whether the CIA violated the National Security Act, which requires, with rare exceptions, that Congress be informed of covert activities. She told AP she hopes to conduct at least part of the investigation for the committee.
She said this is the fourth time that she knows of that the CIA has misled Congress or not informed it in a timely manner since she began serving on the Intelligence Committee two and half years ago.
In 2008, the CIA inspector general revealed that the CIA had lied to Congress about the accidental shoot down of American missionaries over Peru in 2001. In 2007, news reports disclosed that the CIA had secretly destroyed videotapes of interrogations of a terrorist suspect.
She would not describe the other incident.
Schakowsky said she thinks Panetta is changing the CIA for the better, adding that the failure to inform Congress was indicative of "contempt" the Bush administration and intelligence agencies under him held for Congress.
"Many times I felt it was an annoyance to them to have to come to us and answer our questions," she said. "There was an impatience and a contempt for the Congress."
The House is expected to take up the 2010 intelligence authorization bill next week. It includes a provision that would require the White House to inform the entire committee about upcoming covert operations rather than just the "Gang of Eight"_ the senior members from both parties on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees and the Democratic and Republican leaders in both houses.
The White House this week threatened to veto the final version of the bill if it includes that provision.
Democratic aides said the language may be softened in negotiations with the Senate to address the White House's concern.
But Schakowsky said the wider briefings are the best remedy to avoiding future notification abuses.
Republicans charge that Democratic outrage about the Panetta revelation is just an attempt to provide political cover to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who in May accused the CIA of lying to her in 2002 about its use of waterboarding.
What Pelosi knew about the CIA's interrogation program and when she knew it _ and why she did not object to it sooner _ is expected to be emphasized by Republicans during debate over the intelligence bill.
http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=27&sid=1699547

84 sick cadets isolated at Air Force Academy
AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AP) - The Air Force Academy says 84 cadets with flu-like symptoms have been isolated are being tested for swine flu.
Academy spokeswoman Capt. Corinna Jones told The Gazette in Colorado Springs Thursday that most of the cadets are "doolies", members of the incoming freshman class who began training June 25. She said the cadets under isolation in a dormitory began coughing and showing other upper respiratory symptoms over the past two days.
The academy has contacted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Air Force Surgeon General's office.
Jones says tests have been sent to a laboratory in San Antonio for analysis, and results are expected within 24 hours.
http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=29&sid=1714503

Chips in official IDs raise privacy fears
Climbing into his Volvo, outfitted with a Matrics antenna and a Motorola reader he'd bought on eBay for $190, Chris Paget cruised the streets of San Francisco with this objective: To read the identity cards of strangers, wirelessly, without ever leaving his car.
It took him 20 minutes to strike hacker's gold.
Zipping past Fisherman's Wharf, his scanner downloaded to his laptop the unique serial numbers of two pedestrians' electronic U.S. passport cards embedded with radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags. Within an hour, he'd "skimmed" four more of the new, microchipped PASS cards from a distance of 20 feet.
Increasingly, government officials are promoting the chipping of identity documents as a 21st century application of technology that will help speed border crossings, safeguard credentials against counterfeiters, and keep terrorists from sneaking into the country.
But Paget's February experiment demonstrated something privacy advocates had feared for years: That RFID, coupled with other technologies, could make people trackable without their knowledge.
He filmed his heist, and soon his video went viral on the Web, intensifying a debate over a push by government, federal and state, to put tracking technologies in identity documents and over their potential to erode privacy.
Putting a traceable RFID in every pocket has the potential to make everybody a blip on someone's radar screen, critics say, and to redefine Orwellian government snooping for the digital age.
"Little Brother," some are already calling it - even though elements of the global surveillance web they warn against exist only on drawing boards, neither available nor approved for use.
But with advances in tracking technologies coming at an ever-faster rate, critics say, it won't be long before governments could be able to identify and track anyone in real time, 24-7, from a cafe in Paris to the shores of California.
On June 1, it became mandatory for Americans entering the United States by land or sea from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean to present identity documents embedded with RFID tags, though conventional passports remain valid until they expire.
Among new options are the chipped "e-passport," and the new, electronic PASS card - credit-card sized, with the bearer's digital photograph and a chip that can be scanned through a pocket, backpack or purse from 30 feet.
Alternatively, travelers can use "enhanced" driver's licenses embedded with RFID tags now being issued in some border states: Washington, Vermont, Michigan and New York. Texas and Arizona have entered into agreements with the federal government to offer chipped licenses, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has recommended expansion to non-border states. Kansas and Florida officials have received DHS briefings on the licenses, agency records show.
The purpose of using RFID is not to identify people, says Mary Ellen Callahan, the chief privacy officer at Homeland Security, but "to verify that the identification document holds valid information about you."
An RFID document that doubles as a U.S. travel credential "only makes it easier to pull the right record fast enough, to make sure that the border flows, and is operational" - even though a 2005 Government Accountability Office report found that government RFID readers often failed to detect travelers' tags.
Critics warn that RFID-tagged identities will enable identity thieves and other criminals to commit "contactless" crimes against victims who won't immediately know they've been violated.
Neville Pattinson, vice president for government affairs at Gemalto, Inc., a major supplier of microchipped cards, is no RFID basher. He's a board member of the Smart Card Alliance, an RFID industry group, and is serving on the Department of Homeland Security's Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee.
In a 2007 article published by a newsletter for privacy professionals, Pattinson called the chipped cards vulnerable "to attacks from hackers, identity thieves and possibly even terrorists."
RFID, he wrote, has a fundamental flaw: Each chip is built to faithfully transmit its unique identifier "in the clear, exposing the tag number to interception during the wireless communication."
Once a tag number is intercepted, "it is relatively easy to directly associate it with an individual," he says. "If this is done, then it is possible to make an entire set of movements posing as somebody else without that person's knowledge."
Echoing these concerns were the AeA - the lobbying association for technology firms - the Smart Card Alliance, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Business Travel Coalition, and the Association of Corporate Travel Executives.
Meanwhile, Homeland Security has been promoting broad use of RFID even though its own advisory committee on data integrity and privacy issued caveats. In its 2006 draft report, the committee concluded that RFID "increases risks to personal privacy and security, with no commensurate benefit for performance or national security," and recommended that "RFID be disfavored for identifying and tracking human beings."
For now, chipped PASS cards and enhanced driver's licenses are not yet widely deployed in the United States. To date, roughly 192,000 EDLs have been issued in Washington, Vermont, Michigan and New York.
But as more Americans carry them "you can bet that long-range tracking of people on a large scale will rise exponentially," says Paget, a self-described "ethical hacker" who works as an Internet security consultant.
But Gigi Zenk, a spokeswoman for the Washington state Department of Licensing, says Americans "aren't that concerned about the RFID" in a time when "tracking an individual is much easier through a cell phone."
In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks - and the finding that some terrorists entered the United States using phony passports - the State Department proposed mandating that Americans and foreign visitors carry "enhanced" passport booklets, with microchips embedded in the covers.
In February 2005, when the State Department asked for public comment, it got an outcry: Of the 2,335 comments received, 98.5 percent were negative, with 86 percent expressing security or privacy concerns, the department reported in an October 2005 notice in the Federal Register.
Identity theft and "fears that the U.S. Government or other governments would use the chip to track and censor, intimidate or otherwise control or harm them" were of "grave concern," it noted. Many Americans worried "that the information could be read at distances in excess of 10 feet."
Those citizens, it turns out, had cause.
According to department records obtained by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, under a Freedom of Information Act request and reviewed by the AP, discussion about security concerns with the e-passport occurred as early as January 2003 but tests weren't ordered until the department began receiving public criticism two years later.
(AP) In this May 28, 2009 photo, a new "enhanced" United States passport lies, at left, beside an...
When the AP asked when testing was initiated, the State Department said only that "a battery of durability and electromagnetic tests were performed" by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, along with tests "to measure the ability of data on electronic passports to be surreptitiously skimmed or for communications with the chip reader to be eavesdropped," testing which "led to additional privacy controls being placed on U.S. electronic passports ... "
In 2005, the department incorporated metallic fibers into the e-passport's front cover, to reduce the read range, and added encryptions and a feature that required inspectors to optically scan the e-passport first for the chip to communicate wirelessly.
But what of concerns about the e-passport's read range?
In its October 2005 Federal Register notice, the State Department reassured Americans that the e-passport's chip would emit radio waves only within a 4-inch radius, making it tougher to hack.
But in May 2006, at the University of Tel Aviv, researchers directly skimmed an encrypted tag from several feet away. At the University of Cambridge in Britain, a student intercepted a transmission between an e-passport and a legitimate reader from 160 feet.
The State Department, according to its own records obtained under FOIA, was aware of the problem months before its Federal Register notice and more than a year before the e-passport was rolled out in August 2006.
"Do not claim that these chips can only be read at a distance of 10 cm (4 inches)," Frank Moss, deputy assistant Secretary of State for passport services, wrote in an April 22, 2005, e-mail to Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. "That really has been proven to be wrong."
The chips could be skimmed from a yard away, he added - all a hacker would need to read e-passport numbers, say, in an elevator.
In February 2006, an encrypted Dutch e-passport was hacked on national television, and later, British e-passports were hacked. The State Department countered that European e-passports weren't as safe as their American counterparts because they lacked safety features such as the anti-skimming cover. Recent studies have shown, however, that more powerful readers can penetrate that metal sheathing.
The RFIDs in enhanced driver's licenses and PASS cards contain a silicon computer chip attached to a wire antenna, which transmits a unique identifier via radio waves when "awakened" by an electromagnetic reader.
The technology they use is designed to track products through the supply chain. These chips, known as EPCglobal Gen 2, are intended to release their data to any inquiring Gen 2 reader within a 30-foot radius.
The government says remotely readable ID cards transmit only RFID numbers, which correspond to records stored in secure government databases. Even if a hacker were to copy an RFID number onto a blank tag and place it into a counterfeit ID, officials say, the forger's face still wouldn't match the true cardholder's photo in the database.
Still, computer experts say government databases can be hacked. Others worry about a day when hackers might deploy readers at "chokepoints," such as checkout lines, skim RFID numbers from people's driver's licenses, then pair those numbers to personal data skimmed from chipped credit cards (though credit cards are harder to skim). They imagine stalkers skimming RFID tags to track their targets, and fear government agents compiling chip numbers at peace rallies, mosques or gun shows, simply by strolling through a crowd with a reader.
Others worry more about the linking of chips with other identification methods, including biometric technologies, such as facial recognition.
Should biometrics be coupled with RFID, "governments will have, for the first time in history, the means to identify, monitor and track citizens anywhere in the world in real time," says Mark Lerner, spokesman for the Constitutional Alliance, a network of nonprofit groups, lawmakers and citizens opposed to remotely readable identity and travel documents.
The International Civil Aviation Organization, the U.N. agency that sets global standards for passports, now calls for facial recognition in all e-passports.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090712/D99CRDAG0.html

Gay couple detained near Mormon plaza after kiss
SALT LAKE CITY – A gay couple say they were detained by security guards on a plaza owned by the Mormon church and later cited by police, claiming it stemmed from a kiss on the cheek.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said that the men became argumentative and refused to leave after being asked to stop their "inappropriate behavior." The men say they were targeted because they are gay.
Matt Aune said he and his partner, Derek Jones, were walking home from a concert nearby on Thursday night, cutting through the plaza near the Salt Lake City Mormon temple.
Aune, 28, said he gave Jones, 25, a hug and kiss and that the two were then approached by a security guard, who asked them to leave, telling them they were being inappropriate and that public displays of affection aren't allowed on the property. He said other guards arrived and the men were handcuffed.
"We asked what we were doing wrong," Aune told The Associated Press.
Church spokeswoman Kim Farah said in a statement Friday that the men were "politely asked to stop engaging in inappropriate behavior — just as any other couple would have been."
"They became argumentative and used profanity and refused to leave the property," she said. The church did not immediately respond to a request for more comment.
Police later arrived and both men were cited with misdemeanor trespassing, Salt Lake City Police Sgt. Robin Snyder said.
"It doesn't matter what they were asked to leave for," Snyder said. "If they are asked to leave and don't they are ... trespassing."
The church has been the target of protests over its support of a ban on gay marriage in California.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090711/ap_on_re_us/us_mormon_church_trespassing_1

Mosquito pools test positive for West Nile virus
July 11, 2009 - 5:04pm
WASHINGTON (AP) - D.C. Department of Health officials say three mosquito pools have tested positive for the West Nile virus.
Officials said Saturday the mosquito pools were collected from a block on Washington Boulevard southwest, near Fort McNair.
No one in D.C. have been infected by West Nile virus this year. In 2008, six residents tested positive for the virus.
The health department recommends that residents eliminate mosquito breeding areas around their home by removing standing water.
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=596&sid=1715806

Eeyores news and view

An Agnostic is Converted
By Arthur T. Pierson
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This short story is taken from the biography of Arthur T. Pierson, who was pastoring in Detroit, Michigan at the time this encounter takes place in 1876:
"At the close of a sermon on 'Abiding in Christ,' according to my custom, I invited any person present who was impressed with his need of Christ to meet me in the inquirer's room.
"One young man of about thirty responded. He was tall, stalwart of frame, intelligent, and would have been fine looking but for a cloud that seemed to abide upon his countenance. In fact, his face seemed scarred and furrowed, as though his life had been a battle with sin and care, and be had been terribly worsted in the contest. I said to him:
"'I take it, sir, that you are here to talk with me about your spiritual interests. Will you let me into the very heart of your trouble or difficulty?'
"'Well, Sir,' said he, 'I suppose you would consider my case a desperate one. I am a follower of Robert Ingersoll [a famous agnostic/infidel in the 1800's). I am an unbeliever, a disbeliever, an infidel.'
"'But I suppose there are some things you believe. You believe the Bible to be the Book of God?'
'No, Sir.'
' You believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God?'
"'No, Sir.'
"'Well , at least you believe in a God?'
"'There may be a God; I cannot say that I believe there is, but there may be; I do not know.'
"'Then why are you here? I do not see what you want of me, if you do not believe in the Bible nor in Christ, and are not even sure there is any God.'
"'I heard you preach tonight, and it seems to me that you must believe something and that it gives you peace and comfort.'
"'You are quite right.'
"'Well, I don't believe anything, and am perfectly wretched; if you can show me the way to believe anything and to get happiness in believing, I wish you would. If you can help me, do it quickly, for I have been carrying this burden as long as I can. I am a law student, but I am so wretched I cannot study nor sit still. I wandered over here tonight, and heard the organ playing in your church, and went in expecting to hear some fine music. I heard nothing but simple congregational singing, but curiosity led me to remain and hear what you had to say, and one thing impressed me, -that you have faith in somebody or something, and you are happy in believing. My envy of you brings me in here.'
"I lifted my heart to God for special guidance, and drew my chair up close to this unhappy man and in voluntarily put my arm around him.
"'Tell me something to read,' he said.
"'I would have you read nothing but the Bible. You have been reading too much; that is partly what is the matter with you. You are full of the misleading, plausible sophistries of the skeptics. Read the Word of God.'
"'But what is the use -when I do not believe it to be the Word of God?'
"Opening my Bible, I turned to John 5:39, and with my finger on the verse slowly read: 'Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they which testify of Me and ye will not come unto Me that ye may have life.' 'Now,' said I, 'it is God's testimony and my experience that he who diligently searches the Scriptures will find that they contain the witness to their own divine origin and inspiration, and to the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ.'
"'Well' said he, 'I'll read the Bible, but what beside?'
"Turning to Matthew 6:6, I pointed to the words: 'Enter into thy closet, and when. thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret Himself shall reward thee.' 'If that means anything, it means that if you sincerely pray to God He will reveal Himself to you.'
"'But of what use to pray to God if you don't believe there is a God?'
"For an instant I was perplexed. But a thought flashed across me, and although I never had given such counsel to any man before, I gave utterance to it, for I felt guided.
"'It makes no difference,' I replied, 'provided you are sincere. God will not disregard any genuine effort to draw near to Him. Go and pray, if only like the famous Thistlewood conspirator: "Oh, God, if there be a God, save my soul, if I have a soul."'
"'Anything more?' said he.
"'Yes,' and I opened to John 7:17, and read: If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine."That means that if you act up to whatever light you have, you shall have more light. In God's school, we never are taught a second lesson till -we practice the first. "Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord."
"'I have given you three texts already to ponder and study. I wish to add one more: Matt. 11:28, 29, 30, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." That means that if you come directly to Jesus Christ, He will give you rest. Now notice these four texts. One bids you to search the Scriptures; one, to pray in secret ; one, to put in practice whatever you know ; and the last, to come to Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour.'
"'Is that all?' he inquired.
"'That is all. Will you promise me to go and follow this simple prescription?'
"'I will.'
"After kneeling in prayer together, this Ingersollite left me. Two weeks later, at the close of service, I gave a similar invitation to inquirers. The congregation was scarcely half out of the house, when this same man came towards me, with both hands extended and his face beaming. 'I have found God and Christ, and I am a happy man!'
"He sat beside me and told me the fascinating story. He had gone home that Sunday night, taken out from his trunk the Bible his mother had put there when he left home; had opened it and knelt before the unseen God. He simply, sincerely asked that if there were a God at all, and if the Bible were the Word of God, and Jesus Christ His Son and the Saviour of man, it might be shown him plainly. As he read and prayed and sought for light, light was given; he humbly tried to follow every ray and to walk in the light, and the path became clearer and plainer and the light fuller and brighter, until his eyes rested in faith upon Jesus."
http://www.biblebelievers.com/pierson1.html

Okla. lawmaker Kern heckled as she launches 'morality proclamation'
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A state lawmaker who made national headlines by claiming homosexuality is a greater threat to the United States than terrorism was heckled by protesters as she launched a campaign for a morality proclamation that opponents said promotes an atmosphere of hate.
Rep. Sally Kern said the U.S. is drifting from traditional Christian values as she sought signatures for her petition at a state Capitol rally attended by about 250 people including ministers and their followers, four other state lawmakers, and protesters who shouted "shame on you" and "hypocrite."
"You are seeing a wonderful demonstration of intolerance," the conservative Republican from Oklahoma City said of the hecklers.
Among other things, the proclamation says, "This nation has become a world leader in promoting abortion, pornography, same-sex marriage, sex trafficking, divorce, illegitimate births, child abuse and many other forms of debauchery."
The proclamation declares the federal government "is forsaking the rich Christian heritage upon which this nation was built."
Last year, gay and lesbian groups demanded Kern apologize after she told a political group that "the homosexual agenda is just destroying this nation" and poses a bigger threat to the United States than terrorism.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-07-09-kern-gay_N.htm

Pope calls for 'God-centered' global economy
Pope Benedict XVI today called for reforming the United Nations and establishing a "true world political authority" with "real teeth" to manage the global economy with God-centered ethics.
In his third encyclical, a major teaching, released as the G-8 summit begins in Italy, the pope says such an authority is urgently needed to end the current worldwide financial crisis. It should "revive" damaged economies, reach toward "disarmament, food security and peace," protect the environment and "regulate migration."
Benedict writes, "The market is not, and must not become, the place where the strong subdue the weak."
The encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth) is a theologically dense explication of Catholic social teaching that draws heavily from earlier popes, particularly PaulVI's critique of capitalism 42 years ago. And echoing his predecessor John Paul II, Benedict says, "every economic decision has a moral consequence."
Issued days before his Friday meeting with President Obama, the pope's views here are "to the left of Obama in terms of economic policy," particularly in calls for redistribution of wealth, says political scientist Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest and senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
The encyclical also echoes Benedict's many speeches, saying that to reach sound a global economy every responsibility and commitment must be rooted in the values of Christian truth.
Without that, he says, "there is no social conscience and responsibility." Neither, he says, are mere "good sentiments" enough. Human progress requires God, and today's choices concern "nothing less than the destiny of man."
Although Benedict says the church has no "technical solutions to offer," he asserts that religion has a role in the public square. His very specific suggestions on the economy, ecology and justice are addressed not just to Catholics, but to everyone, from heads of state to household shoppers.
According to the encyclical:
•Labor must be safeguarded after years of rampant market forces leaving citizens powerless in the face of "new and old risks" and without effective trade union protections.
•Elimination of world hunger is essential for "safeguarding the peace and stability of the planet," and the problem is not resources but their inequitable distribution.
"Demographic control" through an "anti-birth mentality" that promotes abortion and birth control "cannot lead to morally sound development." He blasts those who support abortion "as if it were a form of cultural progress."
•The environment is "God's gift to everyone" and we have a "grave duty to hand the earth on to future generations" in good condition, says Benedict. He laments, "how many natural resources are squandered by wars!"
•"Financiers must rediscover" ethics and not use "sophisticated instruments" to "betray the interests of savers."
•Consumers, must "realize that purchasing is always a moral — and not simple economic — act." In this context, the ecological crisis is seen as a crisis in human ecology.
"The pope is saying you need just structures and people who act justly," says Steve Colecchi, director of the office of international justice and peace for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "He's calling on every level of society to be rooted in an ethical vision of the human person."
The "true world political authority" that Benedict calls for should keep solutions as simple and local as possible but still create solidarity for the common good.
Reese notes the "strong language here on the redistribution of wealth — not something people like to talk about in the USA. If the Catholic right is against the redistribution of wealth, they're against the pope. He doesn't believe an unregulated marketplace is going to solve all the problems of economy and poverty."
Kirk Hanson, executive director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara (Calif.) University, praised Benedict for including an emphasis on "life ethics" as "essential" to a healthy social and economic order.
Lew Daly, senior fellow at Demos, a New York City-based public policy organization and author of God's Economy: Faith-Based Initiatives and the Caring State, praised the text as "a turning point for the church and particularly for the American church, because our nation and our society is both the epicenter of wealth and the epicenter of inequality.
"Nearly half of the world's population lives on less than $2.50 a day and nearly 80% live on less than $10 a day. In the meantime a relative handful of corporations and wealthy families have grown rich far beyond the greatest emperors and kings of the past.
"There may be growth, but a faithful Catholic does not call this progress, the pope argues, until the growth is more equitably shared according to the design of the Creator," says Daly.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-07-07-pope-encyclical_N.htm

Ginsburg: I thought Roe was to rid undesirables
Justice discusses 'growth in populations that we don't want to have too many of'
In an astonishing admission, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says she was under the impression that legalizing abortion with the 1973 Roe. v. Wade case would eliminate undesirable members of the populace, or as she put it "populations that we don't want to have too many of."
Her remarks, set to be published in the New York Times Magazine this Sunday but viewable online now, came in an in-depth interview with Emily Bazelon titled, "The Place of Women on the Court."
The 16-year veteran of the high court was asked if she were a lawyer again, what would she "want to accomplish as a future feminist legal agenda."
Ginsburg responded:
Reproductive choice has to be straightened out. There will never be a woman of means without choice anymore. That just seems to me so obvious. The states that had changed their abortion laws before Roe [to make abortion legal] are not going to change back. So we have a policy that affects only poor women, and it can never be otherwise, and I don't know why this hasn't been said more often.
Question: Are you talking about the distances women have to travel because in parts of the country, abortion is essentially unavailable, because there are so few doctors and clinics that do the procedure? And also, the lack of Medicaid for abortions for poor women?
Ginsburg: Yes, the ruling about that surprised me. [Harris v. McRae – in 1980 the court upheld the Hyde Amendment, which forbids the use of Medicaid for abortions.] Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don't want to have too many of. So that Roe was going to be then set up for Medicaid funding for abortion. Which some people felt would risk coercing women into having abortions when they didn't really want them. But when the court decided McRae, the case came out the other way. And then I realized that my perception of it had been altogether wrong.
When pressed to explain what she meant by reproductive rights needing to be straightened out, Ginsburg said, "The basic thing is that the government has no business making that choice for a woman."

Asked if that meant getting rid of the test the court imposed, in which it allows states to impose restrictions on abortion such as a waiting period, the justice said she was "not a big fan of these tests."

I think the court uses them as a label that accommodates the result it wants to reach. It will be, it should be, that this is a woman's decision. It's entirely appropriate to say it has to be an informed decision, but that doesn't mean you can keep a woman overnight who has traveled a great distance to get to the clinic, so that she has to go to some motel and think it over for 24 hours or 48 hours.
I still think, although I was much too optimistic in the early days, that the possibility of stopping a pregnancy very early is significant. The morning-after pill will become more accessible and easier to take. So I think the side that wants to take the choice away from women and give it to the state, they're fighting a losing battle. Time is on the side of change.
Three years ago, Ginsburg received some embarrassing national attention when she napped on the bench during a court hearing.
"Justices David Souter and Samuel Alito, who flank the 72-year-old, looked at her but did not give her a nudge," reported Gina Holland of the Associated Press.
The incident caught the attention of Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, who said:
"At first, she appeared to be reading something in her lap. But after a while, it became clear: Ginsburg was napping on the bench. By Bloomberg News's reckoning – not denied by a court spokeswoman – Ginsburg's snooze lasted a quarter of an hour.
"It's lucky for Ginsburg that the Supreme Court has so far refused to allow television in the courtroom, for her visit to the land of nod would have found its way onto late-night shows."
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=103457

Eeyores news and view

Netanyahu adviser raises "MAD" nuclear scenario
JERUSALEM, July 9 (Reuters) - Israel must have "tremendously powerful" weapons to deter a nuclear attack or destroy an enemy that dares to launch an atomic strike, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted on Thursday as saying.
National security adviser Uzi Arad, in comments to Haaretz newspaper, appeared to allude to what is widely believed to be Israel's own nuclear arsenal and a standing policy of "mutually assured destruction" (MAD). He warned other countries they could bring about their own devastation if they launched an attack.
Israel has never confirmed it has atomic arms.
In excerpts on Haaretz's English-language website of an interview to be published on Friday, Arad said he feared that if Iran became a nuclear power, five or six other states in the Middle East would follow suit. He called such a prospect a "nightmare" for Israel.
"The defensive might we have must be improved and become tremendously powerful, and create a situation in which no one will dare to realise the ability to harm us," Arad said.
"And if they do dare, we will exact a full price, so that they too will not survive."
Israel has three German-made submarines that are widely assumed to carry nuclear missiles.
One of the submarines sailed from the Mediterranean, via the Suez Canal, to Israel's Red Sea port of Eilat last week, in what officials called a signal to Iran of the long reach of its arsenal.
Israel and its Western allies fear that Iran is enriching uranium with the aim of producing nuclear weapons. Iran says it is pursuing only a nuclear power generation programme.
In a 2006 Reuters interview, then-vice premier Shimon Peres, currently Israel's president, said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be wiped off the map, should bear in mind his country also could be destroyed.
"They want to wipe out Israel ... Now when it comes to destruction, Iran too can be destroyed (but) I don't suggest to say an eye for an eye," Peres said. (Writing by Jeffrey Heller, Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
http://alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L9623800.htm

Hundreds protest in Iran, defy crackdown vow
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Hundreds of young men and women chanted "death to the dictator" and fled baton-wielding police in the capital Thursday as opposition activists sought to revive street protests despite authorities' vows to "smash" any new marches.
For days, supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi have been calling for new protests in Tehran and other cities on Thursday, their first significant attempt to get back on the streets since security forces crushed massive demonstrations nearly two weeks ago in Iran's post-election turmoil.
Tehran Gov. Morteza Tamaddon warned that any new march Thursday would meet the same fate.
"If some individuals plan to carry out any anti-security actions by listening to calls by counterrevolutionary networks, they will be smashed under the feet of our aware people," he said, according to the state news agency IRNA in a report late Wednesday.
Thursday afternoon, a stepped-up number of uniformed policemen along with plainclothes Basiji militiamen stood at intersections all along Revolution Street and at nearby near Tehran University, some of the sites where protests were called.
Still, a group of around 300 young people gathered in front of Tehran University and began to chant, "Death to the dictator," witnesses said. Many of them wore green surgical masks, the color of Mousavi's movement.
Police charged at them, swinging batons, but the protesters fled, then regrouped at another corner and resumed chanting, the witnesses said. Police chased them repeatedly as the protesters continued to regroup, the witnesses said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they feared government retribution.
Within an hour, the number of protesters grew to about 700 and marched toward the gates of Tehran University, the witnesses said. A line of policemen blocked their path, but they did nothing to disperse the gathering as the protesters stood and continued to chant, the witnesses said.
At another location, on Valiasr Street, around 200 protesters gathered, and police fired tear gas to disperse them, but the demonstrators sought to regroup elsewhere, the witnesses said.
It was the first such protests in 11 days, since the crackdown — though it did not compare to the hundreds of thousands who joined the marches that erupted after the June 12 presidential election, protesting what the opposition said were fraudulent results.
The calls for a new march have been circulating for days on social networking websites and pro-opposition websites. Opposition supporters planned the marches to coincide with the anniversary Thursday of a 1999 attack by Basij on a Tehran University dorm to stop protests in which one student was killed.
Mousavi and his supporters say he won the election, which official results showed as a landslide victory for incumbent hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared the results valid after a partial recount and warned that unrest would not be tolerated.
In the crackdown since the election, at least 20 protesters and 7 Basijis were killed.
Police have said 1,000 people were arrested and that most have since been released. But the state-run English language news network Press TV quoted prosecutor-general Qorban-Ali Dorri Najafabadi saying Wednesday that 2,500 people were arrested and that 500 of them could face trial. The remainder, he said, have been released.
Among those still being held are top figures in the country's reform movement, including a former vice president and former Cabinet members. Arrests have continued over the past week, with police rounding up dozens of activists, journalists and bloggers.
Ahead of Thursday's planned march, authorities appeared to have taken a number of other steps to prevent participation. SMS mobile phone messaging was down Thursday for a third straight day — a step believed to be aimed at thwarting protesters' communications. A similar cutoff took place from the election until a week ago, amid the height of the protests.
The government also closed down universities and called a government holiday on Tuesday and Wednesday, citing a heavy dust and pollution cloud that has blanketed Tehran and other parts of the country this week. Many saw the move as aimed at keeping students away from campuses where protests could be organized. Thursday is a weekend day in Iran, and many people used the surprise long holiday to travel to other cities where weather was better.
Iranian authorities have depicted the post-election turmoil as instigated by enemy nations aiming to thwart Ahmadinejad's re-election, and officials say some of those detained confessed to fomenting the unrest. Opposition supporters say the confessions were forced under duress.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-07-09-iran-protests_N.htm

Parts of Britain "near an H1N1 epidemic"; 14 dead
LONDON (Reuters) - Fourteen Britons who had contracted H1N1 flu have died and the rapid spread of infection in two areas of the country is close to epidemic level, health officials said on Thursday.
The Department of Health said Britain now had 9,718 laboratory-confirmed cases, the third most in the world behind the United States and Mexico.
Britain's Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson said the actual number of cases was likely to be higher.
All 14 who have died had underlying health issues and it was not clear in how many cases the patients had died as a direct result of the virus, known as swine flu.
"In London and the West Midlands we are getting pretty close to epidemic levels. We've seen big surges there," Donaldson told
BBC TV.
"For the country as a whole, the average is about the level of the flu season but in some parts of the country the levels are getting pretty big."
The World Health Organization declared on June 11 that the outbreak of the virus was a pandemic and more than 94,500 cases have been reported worldwide.
Health Minister Andy Burnham said last week the government was projecting more than 100,000 new cases a day of the flu by the end of August.
While most people who have caught the infection have suffered mild symptoms, in a small minority it has proven more severe.
The Department of Health said that 335 people in Britain were currently in hospital after contracting the infection, with 43 of those described as critical.
Donaldson said there were no signs the virus was becoming more virulent, although he warned it could mutate.
"It does tend to affect people with underlying illnesses quite severely and a small number of healthy adults can get the severe complications of flu but the majority of them get a mild illness," he said. (Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Louise Ireland and Steve Addison)
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE5685ER20090709?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=22&sp=true

Akron police investigate teen mob attack on family
Akron police say they aren't ready to call it a hate crime or a gang initiation.
But to Marty Marshall, his wife and two kids, it seems pretty clear.
It came after a family night of celebrating America and freedom with a fireworks show at Firestone Stadium. Marshall, his family and two friends were gathered outside a friend's home in South Akron.
Out of nowhere, the six were attacked by dozens of teenage boys, who shouted ''This is our world'' and ''This is a black world'' as they confronted Marshall and his family.
The Marshalls, who are white, say the crowd of teens who attacked them and two friends June 27 on Girard Street numbered close to 50. The teens were all black.
''This was almost like being a terrorist act,'' Marshall said. ''And we allow this to go on in our neighborhoods?''
They said it started when one teen, without any words or warning, blindsided and assaulted Marshall's friend as he stood outside with the others.
When Marshall, 39, jumped in, he found himself being attacked by the growing group of teens.
His daughter, Rachel, 15, who weighs about 90 pounds, tried to come to his rescue. The teens pushed her to the ground.
His wife, Yvonne, pushed their son, Donald, 14, into bushes to keep him protected.
''My thing is,'' Marshall said, ''I didn't want this, but I was in fear for my wife, my kids and my friends. I felt I had to stay out there to protect them, because those guys were just jumping, swinging fists and everything.
''I'm lucky. They didn't break my ribs or bruise my ribs. I thank God, they concentrated on my thick head because I do have one. They were trying to take my head off my spine, basically.''
After several minutes of punches and kicks, the attack ended and the group ran off. The Marshalls' two adult male friends were not seriously hurt.
''I don't think I thought at that moment when I tried to jump in,'' Rachel Marshall said. ''But when I was laying on the ground, I was just scared.''
Marshall was the most seriously injured. He suffered a concussion and multiple bruises to his head and eye. He said he spent five nights in the critical care unit at Akron General Medical Center.
The construction worker said he now fears for his family's safety, and the thousands of dollars in medical bills he faces without insurance.
''I knew I was going to get beat, but not as bad as I did,'' Marshall said. ''But I did it to protect my family. I didn't have a choice. There was no need for this. We should be all getting along. But to me, it seems to be racist.''
Akron police are investigating. Right now, the case is not being classified as a racial hate crime. There were no other reports of victims assaulted by the group that night.
The department's gang unit is involved in the investigation, police said.
''We don't know if it's a known gang, or just a group of kids,'' police Lt. Rick Edwards said.
The Marshalls say they fear retaliation at home or when they go outside. They are considering arming themselves, but they're concerned about the possible problems that come with guns.
For now, they are hoping police can bring them suspects. They believe they can identify several of the attackers.
''This maks you think about your freedom,'' Marshall said. ''In all reality, where is your freedom when you have this going on?''
http://www.ohio.com/news/50172282.html

Eeyores news and view

E-Mail Surveillance Renews Concerns in Congress
WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency is facing renewed scrutiny over the extent of its domestic surveillance program, with critics in Congress saying its recent intercepts of the private telephone calls and e-mail messages of Americans are broader than previously acknowledged, current and former officials said.
The agency’s monitoring of domestic e-mail messages, in particular, has posed longstanding legal and logistical difficulties, the officials said.
Since April, when it was disclosed that the intercepts of some private communications of Americans went beyond legal limits in late 2008 and early 2009, several Congressional committees have been investigating. Those inquiries have led to concerns in Congress about the agency’s ability to collect and read domestic e-mail messages of Americans on a widespread basis, officials said. Supporting that conclusion is the account of a former N.S.A. analyst who, in a series of interviews, described being trained in 2005 for a program in which the agency routinely examined large volumes of Americans’ e-mail messages without court warrants. Two intelligence officials confirmed that the program was still in operation.
Both the former analyst’s account and the rising concern among some members of Congress about the N.S.A.’s recent operation are raising fresh questions about the spy agency.
Representative Rush Holt, Democrat of New Jersey and chairman of the House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, has been investigating the incidents and said he had become increasingly troubled by the agency’s handling of domestic communications.
In an interview, Mr. Holt disputed assertions by Justice Department and national security officials that the overcollection was inadvertent.
"Some actions are so flagrant that they can’t be accidental,” Mr. Holt said.
Other Congressional officials raised similar concerns but would not agree to be quoted for the record.
Mr. Holt added that few lawmakers could challenge the agency’s statements because so few understood the technical complexities of its surveillance operations. “The people making the policy,” he said, “don’t understand the technicalities.”
The inquiries and analyst’s account underscore how e-mail messages, more so than telephone calls, have proved to be a particularly vexing problem for the agency because of technological difficulties in distinguishing between e-mail messages by foreigners and by Americans. A new law enacted by Congress last year gave the N.S.A. greater legal leeway to collect the private communications of Americans so long as it was done only as the incidental byproduct of investigating individuals “reasonably believed” to be overseas.
But after closed-door hearings by three Congressional panels, some lawmakers are asking what the tolerable limits are for such incidental collection and whether the privacy of Americans is being adequately protected.
“For the Hill, the issue is a sense of scale, about how much domestic e-mail collection is acceptable,” a former intelligence official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because N.S.A. operations are classified. “It’s a question of how many mistakes they can allow.”
While the extent of Congressional concerns about the N.S.A. has not been shared publicly, such concerns are among national security issues that the Obama administration has inherited from the Bush administration, including the use of brutal interrogation tactics, the fate of the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and whether to block the release of photographs and documents that show abuse of detainees.
In each case, the administration has had to navigate the politics of continuing an aggressive intelligence operation while placating supporters who want an end to what they see as flagrant abuses of the Bush era.
The N.S.A. declined to comment for this article. Wendy Morigi, a spokeswoman for Dennis C. Blair, the national intelligence director, said that because of the complex nature of surveillance and the need to adhere to the rules of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the secret panel that oversees surveillance operation, and “other relevant laws and procedures, technical or inadvertent errors can occur.”
“When such errors are identified,” Ms. Morigi said, “they are reported to the appropriate officials, and corrective measures are taken.”
In April, the Obama administration said it had taken comprehensive steps to bring the security agency into compliance with the law after a periodic review turned up problems with “overcollection” of domestic communications. The Justice Department also said it had installed new safeguards.
Under the surveillance program, before the N.S.A. can target and monitor the e-mail messages or telephone calls of Americans suspected of having links to international terrorism, it must get permission from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Supporters of the agency say that in using computers to sweep up millions of electronic messages, it is unavoidable that some innocent discussions of Americans will be examined. Intelligence operators are supposed to filter those out, but critics say the agency is not rigorous enough in doing so.
The N.S.A. is believed to have gone beyond legal boundaries designed to protect Americans in about 8 to 10 separate court orders issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, according to three intelligence officials who spoke anonymously because disclosing such information is illegal. Because each court order could single out hundreds or even thousands of phone numbers or e-mail addresses, the number of individual communications that were improperly collected could number in the millions, officials said. (It is not clear what portion of total court orders or communications that would represent.)
"Say you get an order to monitor a block of 1,000 e-mail addresses at a big corporation, and instead of just monitoring those, the N.S.A. also monitors another block of 1,000 e-mail addresses at that corporation,” one senior intelligence official said. “That is the kind of problem they had.”
Overcollection on that scale could lead to a significant number of privacy invasions of American citizens, officials acknowledge, setting off the concerns among lawmakers and on the secret FISA court.
“The court was not happy” when it learned of the overcollection, said an administration official involved in the matter.
Defenders of the agency say it faces daunting obstacles in trying to avoid the improper gathering or reading of Americans’ e-mail as part of counterterrorism efforts aimed at foreigners.
Several former intelligence officials said that e-mail traffic from all over the world often flows through Internet service providers based in the United States. And when the N.S.A. monitors a foreign e-mail address, it has no idea when the person using that address will send messages to someone inside the United States, the officials said.
The difficulty of distinguishing between e-mail messages involving foreigners from those involving Americans was “one of the main things that drove” the Bush administration to push for a more flexible law in 2008, said Kenneth L. Wainstein, the homeland security adviser under President George W. Bush. That measure, which also resolved the long controversy over N.S.A.’s program of wiretapping without warrants by offering immunity to telecommunications companies, tacitly acknowledged that some amount of Americans’ e-mail would inevitably be captured by the N.S.A.
But even before that, the agency appears to have tolerated significant collection and examination of domestic e-mail messages without warrants, according to the former analyst, who spoke only on condition of anonymity.
He said he and other analysts were trained to use a secret database, code-named Pinwale, in 2005 that archived foreign and domestic e-mail messages. He said Pinwale allowed N.S.A. analysts to read large volumes of e-mail messages to and from Americans as long as they fell within certain limits — no more than 30 percent of any database search, he recalled being told — and Americans were not explicitly singled out in the searches.
The former analyst added that his instructors had warned against committing any abuses, telling his class that another analyst had been investigated because he had improperly accessed the personal e-mail of former President Bill Clinton.
Other intelligence officials confirmed the existence of the Pinwale e-mail database, but declined to provide further details.
The recent concerns about N.S.A.’s domestic e-mail collection follow years of unresolved legal and operational concerns within the government over the issue. Current and former officials now say that the tracing of vast amounts of American e-mail traffic was at the heart of a crisis in 2004 at the hospital bedside of John Ashcroft, then the attorney general, as top Justice Department aides staged a near revolt over what they viewed as possibly illegal aspects of the N.S.A.’s surveillance operations.
James Comey, then the deputy attorney general, and his aides were concerned about the collection of “meta-data” of American e-mail messages, which show broad patterns of e-mail traffic by identifying who is e-mailing whom, current and former officials say. Lawyers at the Justice Department believed that the tracing of e-mail messages appeared to violate federal law.
“The controversy was mostly about that issue,” said a former administration official involved in the dispute.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/us/17nsa.html

Survey: Many teens use phones in class to text or cheat
One-fourth of teens' cellphone text messages are sent during class, a new survey finds, despite widespread classroom bans on cellphones at school. The survey of 1,013 teens — 84% of whom have cellphones — also shows that a significant number have stored information on a cellphone to look at during a test or have texted friends about answers. More than half of all students say people at their school have done the same.
Only about half of teens say either of the practices is a "serious offense," suggesting that students may have developed different personal standards about handwritten information vs. material stored on cellphones, says pollster Joel Benenson. "The message about doing those kinds of things on the cellphone may not be reinforced the same way," he says.
The poll found that teens send 440 text messages a week on average — 110 of them during class. That works out to more than three texts per class period. The findings also reveal a split in perception between teens and parents: Only 23% of parents whose children have cellphones think they are using them at school; 65% of students say they do.
Benenson conducted the online poll in late May and early June for Common Sense Media, a San Francisco-based education company. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-06-17-cellphones-in-class_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

Woman Shoots 2 In Home Invasion
Deputy Constables: Teen Claimed They Were 'Victims'
SPRING, Texas -- A woman opened fire when two robbery suspects broke into her Spring home on Sunday, KPRC Local 2 reported.
Harris County Precinct 4 deputy constables said the 34-year-old was alone inside the home in the Timberlane subdivision on Briarcreek Boulevard near Cades Cove Drive at about 6 a.m.
Investigators said the woman opened fire when the attackers burst through her bedroom door.
"She's in her bedroom, locked in her bedroom. And she could hear them rustling through the rooms about the house. She grabbed her weapon and you know, held up inside her bedroom. It wasn't until they forced their way into her bedroom, they kicked the bedroom door in. She fired several shots at the suspects," said Lt. Jeff Stauber with the Harris County Sheriff's Department. Investigators said Gerson Jonathon Linares and Shalom Mendoza, both 17, were wounded.
Detectives said the teenagers, who live in the neighborhood, ran out of the home and called for help, claiming to be the victims of a shooting.
"Through our investigation, we were able to tie them back to this incident on Briarcreek," Stauber said.
Investigators said the pair has admitted that they were involved in the crime.
The homeowner will not face charges.
"She was in fear of her life and literally held up inside her bedroom, by herself at home. And I could just imagine the fear that this woman was going through and this lady was just protecting herself," Stauber said.
Residents said the attack was too close to home for their comfort, and they're considering arming themselves for protection.
"We've discussed it with all the girls out here in the neighborhood," resident Rhonda Potenza said. "We're going to get gun safety courses … we've got to do what we've got to do."
http://www.click2houston.com/news/19752634/detail.html

Number of VA claims poised to hit 1 million
June 18, 2009 - 8:46am
WASHINGTON (AP) - This isn't the same as getting a free duffel bag for being the millionth person to go through the turnstiles: The Veterans Affairs Department appears poised to have hit the 1 million milestone on claims it still hasn't processed.
This unwelcome marker approaches as the agency scrambles to hire and train new claims processors, which can take two years. VA officials are working with the Pentagon under orders from President Barack Obama to create by 2012 a system that will allow the two agencies to electronically exchange records, a process now done manually on paper.
Meanwhile, veterans, some of whom were severely wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, continue to endure financial hardship while their claims are processed. They wait more than four months on average for a claim to be processed, and appealing a claim takes a year and a half on average.
Adding to the backlog are factors ranging from the complexity of processing mental health-related claims of Iraq veterans, to a change that made it easier for Vietnam veterans exposed to the Agent Orange herbicide to qualify for disability payments. The VA says it's receiving about 13 percent more claims today than it did a year ago.
The VA's Web site shows the department has more than 722,000 claims and more than 172,000 appeals it currently is processing, for a total of about 900,000. That is up from about 800,000 total claims in January, according to the site.
Since early 2007, the VA has hired 4,200 claims processors and with that has seen improvements in the number of claims it's processing. It's also working to modernize its system.
Last year, Congress passed legislation that sought to update the disability rating process. A hearing Thursday by a House Veterans Affairs subcommittee will look into whether the law's changes are being implemented and whether the VA will be able to handle a million claims.
Veterans advocates acknowledge there have been improvements in the claims process, but say it still is too cumbersome. They say some injured veterans from the recent wars are paying bills with credit cards, pending their first disability payments, at a time when it is challenging enough to recover from or adapt to their injuries.
"They keep talking about a seamless transition, but I can tell you I haven't seen it being very seamless," said John Roberts of Houston, who is national service director for the nonprofit Wounded Warrior Project, which helps veterans such as David Odom, 29, of Haleyville, Ala.
Odom, a former Army staff sergeant who did three tours in Iraq, said he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. With symptoms such as anxiety and anger, he finds it difficult to work. He said he's waited months to learn the outcome of an appeal that would give him higher compensation.
"It's added quite a bit of stress because I don't know what's going to happen. I want to know either way so I can figure out what my next step is," Odom said.
Former Marine Cpl. Patrick Murray, 25, of Arlington, Va., who was severely burned and had his right leg amputated after a roadside bomb explosion in 2006, considers himself fortunate. He got a job once he was discharged from the military, making for an easier wait as his case is processed.
"For someone that gets out of the military and doesn't have a job lined up, they have no income," said Murray, who works for a construction company. "They are sitting there making zero money, either racking up credit card bills or taking out loans, whatever it may be, all the while waiting."
Murray said the first claim he filed was lost. The second ended up at a VA office in Colorado, and the third was finally processed after a couple of months. It was mind-boggling, he said, to have spent 11 months in Walter Reed Army Medical Center and in outpatient care with stacks of medical files, only to find out he had to mail his records to the VA to prove he was injured.
"The biggest disappointment, I guess, is that it should be unnecessary," Murray said.
Ryan Gallucci, spokesman for the veterans group AMVETS, said his organization supports a law change that would make it less burdensome for a veteran to prove that an injury was from his time in war service. He said that may help with the claims process.
Rep. John Hall, D-N.Y., who is chairing Thursday's hearing, said he's confident the claims process eventually will be improved.
"Veterans who are currently waiting, it can't come soon enough to them," Hall said.
On the Net:
Veterans Affairs Department: http://www.va.gov/
House Committee on Veterans Affairs: http://veterans.house.gov/
Wounded Warrior Project: http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/
AMVETS: http://www.amvets.org/

North Korea may fire a missile toward Hawaii
June 18, 2009 - 7:48am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea may fire a long-range ballistic missile toward Hawaii in early July, a Japanese news report said Thursday, as Russia and China urged the regime to return to international disarmament talks on its rogue nuclear program.
The missile, believed to be a Taepodong-2 with a range of up to 4,000 miles (6,500 kilometers), would be launched from North Korea's Dongchang-ni site on the northwestern coast, said the Yomiuri daily, Japan's top-selling newspaper. It cited an analysis by the Japanese Defense Ministry and intelligence gathered by U.S. reconnaissance satellites.
The missile launch could come between July 4 and 8, the paper said.
While the newspaper speculated the Taepodong-2 could fly over Japan and toward Hawaii, it said the missile would not be able to hit Hawaii's main islands, which are about 4,500 miles (7,200 kilometers) from the Korean peninsula.
A spokesman for the Japanese Defense Ministry declined to comment on the report. South Korea's Defense Ministry and the National Intelligence Service _ the country's main spy agency _ said they could not confirm it.
Tension on the divided Korean peninsula has spiked since the North conducted its second nuclear test on May 25 in defiance of repeated international warnings. The regime declared Saturday it would bolster its nuclear programs and threatened war in protest of U.N. sanctions taken for the nuclear test.
U.S. officials have said the North has been preparing to fire a long-range missile capable of striking the western U.S. In Washington on Tuesday, Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it would take at least three to five years for North Korea to pose a real threat to the U.S. west coast.
President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak met in Washington on Tuesday for a landmark summit in which they agreed to build a regional and global "strategic alliance" to persuade North Korea to dismantle all its nuclear weapons. Obama declared North Korea a "grave threat" to the world and pledged that the new U.N. sanctions on the communist regime will be aggressively enforced.
In Seoul, Vice Unification Minister Hong Yang-ho told a forum Thursday that the North's moves to strengthen its nuclear programs is "a very dangerous thing that can fundamentally change" the regional security environment. He said the South Korean government is bracing for "all possible scenarios" regarding the nuclear standoff.
The independent International Crisis Group think tank, meanwhile, said the North's massive stockpile of chemical weapons is no less serious a threat to the region than its nuclear arsenal.
It said the North is believed to have between 2,500 and 5,000 tons of chemical weapons, including mustard gas, phosgene, blood agents and sarin. These weapons can be delivered with ballistic missiles and long-range artillery and are "sufficient to inflict massive civilian casualties on South Korea."
"If progress is made on rolling back Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, there could be opportunities to construct a cooperative diplomatic solution for chemical weapons and the suspected biological weapons program," the think tank said in a report released Thursday.
It also called on the U.S. to engage the North in dialogue to defuse the nuclear crisis, saying "diplomacy is the least bad option." The think tank said Washington should be prepared to send a high-level special envoy to Pyongyang to resolve the tension.
In a rare move, leaders of Russia and China used their meetings in Moscow on Wednesday to pressure the North to return to the nuclear talks and expressed "serious concerns" about tension on the Korean peninsula.
The joint appeal appeared to be a signal that Moscow and Beijing are growing impatient with Pyongyang's stubbornness. Northeastern China and Russia's Far East both border North Korea, and Pyongyang's unpredictable actions have raised concern in both countries.
After meetings at the Kremlin, Chinese President Hu Jintao joined Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in urging a peaceful resolution of the Korean standoff and the "swiftest renewal" of the now-frozen talks involving their countries as well as North and South Korea, Japan and the United States.
"Russia and China are ready to foster the lowering of tension in Northeast Asia and call for the continuation of efforts by all sides to resolve disagreements through peaceful means, through dialogue and consultations," their statement said.
The comments _ contained in a lengthy statement that discussed other global issues _ included no new initiatives, but it appeared to be carefully worded to avoid provoking Pyongyang. In remarks after their meetings, Medvedev made only a brief reference to North Korea, and Hu did not mention it.
South Korea's Lee said Wednesday in Washington that was essential for China and Russia to "actively cooperate" in getting the North to give up its nuclear program, suggesting the North's bombs program may trigger a regional arms race.
"If we acknowledge North Korea possessing nuclear programs, other non-nuclear countries in Northeast Asia would be tempted to possess nuclear weapons and this would not be helpful for stability in Northeast Asia," Lee said in a meeting with former U.S. officials and Korea experts, according to his office.
Associated Press writers Shino Yuasa in Tokyo, Jae-soon Chang and Ji-youn Oh in Seoul and Mike Eckel in Moscow contributed to this report.
http://wtop.com/?nid=385&sid=1654095