Stories From Around The World

\U.K. Targets Port-Smuggling Risks After Mumbai Terror Attacks 12 Mar 2009 From his harbormaster’s office, Neil Clarke can see every boat sailing into Penzance Harbor on Britain’s southwestern tip. "We’ve got a long coastline with a small amount of people trying to keep an eye on it," Clarke said. "Attacks like Mumbai do give us cause for concern."

Blocking terror on Web 'counterproductive' 11 Mar 2009 Governments who seek to block terrorist propaganda on the Internet will find that purely technological solutions are "crude, expensive and counterproductive," a new report concludes. The London-based International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence calls on governments to do more than simply "pull the plug" on websites that promote extremist messages, urging them to attack the problem at its root.

Secret State Police Report: Ron Paul, Bob Barr, Chuck Baldwin, Libertarians are Terrorists By Kurt Nimmo 11 Mar 2009 Alex Jones has received a secret report distributed by the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) entitled "The Modern Militia Movement" and dated February 20, 2009. A footer on the document indicates it is "unclassified" but "law enforcement sensitive," in other words not for public consumption. A copy of the report was sent to Jones by an anonymous Missouri police officer. The MIAC report specifically describes supporters of presidential candidates Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin, and Bob Barr as "militia" influenced terrorists and instructs the Missouri police to be on the lookout for supporters displaying bumper stickers and other paraphernalia associated with the Constitutional, Campaign for Liberty, and Libertarian parties.

D.C. Tech Official Is Accused of Bribery 13 Mar 2009 A D.C. government official [Yusuf Acar] and a business executive [Sushil Bansal] were arrested yesterday on bribery charges involving city technology contracts that included "ghost" workers and kickbacks, federal authorities said. Raiding offices in the hunt for documents, FBI agents carted away boxes and envelopes throughout the day from the Office of the Chief Technology Officer, the center of the alleged fraud.

TSA Probing Vitter Incident 11 Mar 2009 The Transportation Security Administration is examining Sen. David Vitter's much-reported decision to open the closed gateway door to his plane -- even though he was warned against it by an airline worker. "We will be reviewing the alleged incident," Lauren Gaches, a TSA spokeswoman, told On Call this evening. Heard on the Hill:

Vitter Goes From Hookergate to Gate-Crashing 11 Mar 2009 ...Sen. David Vitter on Thursday joined what we’ve dubbed the "Mile-Low Club" by going ballistic on an airline worker after missing a flight from Washington’s Dulles airport to New Orleans. According to an HOH tipster who witnessed the scene, the Louisiana Republican arrived Thursday evening at his United Airlines gate 20 minutes before the plane was scheduled to depart, only to find the gate had already been closed. Undeterred, Vitter opened the door, setting off a security alarm and prompting an airline worker to warn him that entering the gate was forbidden. Vitter, our spy said, gave the airline worker an earful, employing the timeworn "do-you-know-who-I-am" tirade that apparently grew quite heated...

Greek 'terror' group: Citibank attacked over crisis --Greek 'terror' group says Citibank attacks over financial crisis, promises more bombings 12 Mar 2009 A Greek militant group threatened in a statement published Thursday to continue its bombing campaign, saying recent attacks against Citibank were in response to the international financial crisis. The Pontiki weekly newspaper published a statement from the Revolutionary Struggle group, which claimed responsibility for a failed car-bomb attack Feb. 18 on Citibank offices in Athens and a bomb attack Monday on a suburban Citibank branch that caused damage but no injuries.

Unemployment 'is now a national emergency' 11 Mar 2009 More than 1-in-10 workers were unemployed in four U.S. states in January, the government said Wednesday in a report that pointed to a rapid deterioration in the job market.

The unemployment rate in Michigan was 11.6%, up 4.3 percentage points from a year earlier and the highest for any state, the Labor Department said. U.S. unemployment to near 10 percent as rout worsens 12 Mar 2009 U.S. unemployment will approach 10 percent as the country endures its worst recession since World War Two, leaving more than 13 million Americans jobless, according to a Reuters poll of economists. The economy will level out in the third quarter, the results showed, but the poll painted a bleaker picture than a survey conducted just a month ago.

Half of Americans Are Two Paychecks Away from Hardship 10 Mar 2009 The eroding labor market is expected to trigger additional pain for banks as job losses undercut consumers' ability to make their mortgage payments... A recent study by MetLife indicates that consumers don't have nearly enough of a financial cushion to keep them afloat should a job loss occur.

Madoff Pleads Guilty to Ponzi Scheme --After admitting to details of a huge fraud, disgraced financier Bernard Madoff is jailed until sentencing 12 Mar 2009 Bernard Madoff, the orchestrator of a massive, long-running Ponzi scheme that snared thousands of victims, from the rich and famous to small investors who entrusted their life savings to him, pleaded guilty on Mar. 12 to 11 charges related to the fraud in a packed federal courthouse in Manhattan.

UPDATE====UPDATE======UPDATE=====UPDATE======UPDATE======UPDATE

Madoff gets 150 years in prison for largest ponzi ever
Bernard Madoff gets the 150 years max sentence, Dispite pleas from his lawyer for a much lighter 12 years, The judge will have no part of a lite sentence. Gives BurnyBoy The max. Life sentence for sure.
But the question remains where is the cash? Mrs. Madoff Was Ordered to surrender The 7 mill Manhattan apt. shortly after the sentencing. And Was Allowed to keep 2+ million but where is the big cash? We Dont Know .......

EU says deadly bird flu strain found in Germany 10 Mar 2009 The European Commission says a wild duck shot in the German state of Bavaria has tested positive for the lethal H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus. The EU executive says it is the first wild bird case in the 27 nation bloc this year and was reported by German authorities.


Amazon could shrink by 85% due to climate change, scientists say --Scientists say 4C rise would kill 85% of the Amazon rainforest --Even modest temperature rise would see 20-40% loss within 100 years 11 Mar 2009 Global warming will wreck attempts to save the Amazon rainforest, according to a devastating new study which predicts that one-third of its trees will be killed by even modest temperature rises.

Bush 'executive assassination ring' reported directly to Cheney office: Seymour Hersh 11 Mar 2009 At a "Great Conversations" event at the University of Minnesota last night, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh talked about new alleged instances of domestic spying by the CIA, and about an ongoing covert military operation that he called an "executive assassination ring." Moderator U of M Political Scientist Larry Jacobs asked Hersh if presidents [get] drawn into improper covert actions that exceed their constitutional powers. Hersh replied, "Yuh. After 9/11... the Central Intelligence Agency was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state. Without any legal authority for it... the Joint Special Operations Command -- J

SOC it’s called. It is a special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently. They do not report to anybody, except in the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office.UN experts to investigate secret U.S. jails 11 Mar 2009 Two UN human rights experts said on Tuesday that they would conduct a global investigation of secret detention centers used by the United States and other countries in their 'counter'-terrorism efforts. The yearlong investigation is aimed not only to clarify facts, but also to ensure that such secret jails would not be used in the future, according to Manfred Nowak, UN envoy for torture, and Martin Scheinin, UN envoy for human rights and counter-terrorism.

Brown rejects judge-led inquiry into UK spies 11 Mar 2009 British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday declined a request by opposition parties to authorize a judge-led inquiry into the conduct of U.K. intelligence agencies in supporting the U.S. government's pursuit of terror suspects since 2001. Lawmakers in Britain, the U.S. and Europe have raised concerns over the extent to which the U.K. and other allies of Washington have been complicit in the extraordinary rendition kidnapping, secret detention imprisonment and alleged mistreatment torture of suspected terrorists.