Revealing News: Intelligence Revolt, Documents Reclassified, Aspartame Concerns, More

[Guest guest]

Dear friends,

Below are one-paragraph excerpts of important news articles you may have

missed. Each excerpt is taken verbatim from the major media website listed at

the link provided. If any link fails to function, These news

articles include revealing information on an intelligence officers revolt,

55,000 documents being reclassified, torturers going free, concerns about

aspartame, and more. By choosing to educate ourselves now and to spread the

word, we can and will build a brighter future.

With best wishes,

Fred Burks for the WantToKnow.info Team

 

Former language interpreter for Presidents Bush and Clinton

 

MI5 rebels expose Tube bomb cover-up

February 26, 2006, London Times

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2059046,00.html

 

MI5 is facing an internal revolt by officers alarmed about intelligence

failures and the lack of resources to fight Islamic terrorism. To illustrate

their concern, agents have leaked more topsecret documents to The Sunday Times

because they want a public inquiry into the “missed intelligence” leading up to

the July attacks in London.

 

They believe ministers have withheld information from the public about what the

security services knew about the suspects before the bombing of July 7 and the

abortive attacks of July 21. The documents include an admission by John

Scarlett, head of SIS, the secret intelligence service (also known as MI6), that

one of the July 21 suspects was tracked on a trip to Pakistan just months before

the attempted bombings.

 

MI5, which is responsible for national security, allowed the July 21 suspect to

travel to Pakistan after he was detained and interviewed at a British airport.

It stopped monitoring him because it said “the Pakistani authorities assessed

that he was doing nothing of significance”.

 

They are critical of Blair, who has ruled out an inquiry saying it would

distract the security services from fighting terrorism. The assessment echoes a

decision by MI5 to halt surveillance on two of the July 7 bombers 16 months

before the attacks. Both were filmed and taped by MI5 agents as they met two men

allegedly plotting to carry out a terrorist attack in England.

 

Abusive G.I.'s Not Pursued, Survey Finds

February 23, 2006, New York Time/Associated Press

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/23/international/middleeast/23abuse.html

 

The longest sentence for any member of the American military linked to a

torture-related death of a detainee in Iraq or Afghanistan has been five months,

a human rights group reported Wednesday. In only 12 of 34 cases has anyone been

punished for the confirmed or suspected killings, said the group, Human Rights

First, which is based in New York and Washington.

 

Beyond those cases, in almost half of 98 known detainee deaths since 2002, the

cause was never announced or was reported as undetermined. " In dozens of cases

documented here, grossly inadequate reporting, investigation and follow-through

have left no one at all responsible for homicides and other unexplained deaths, "

it said in the report, based on military court records, news reports and other

sources. The Pentagon says it conscientiously investigates such deaths.

 

When asked Wednesday for a status report on investigations and prosecutions in

individual cases of abuse, the Pentagon said it could not offer a comprehensive

compilation because the information was too scattered. Army lawyers at the

Pentagon do not " have access to the information because other Army commands have

the documents, " Maj. Wayne Marotto, a spokesman, said.

 

U.S. Reclassifies Many Documents in Secret Review

February 21, 2006, New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/politics/21reclassify.html

 

In a seven-year-old secret program at the National Archives, intelligence

agencies have been removing from public access thousands of historical documents

that were available for years, including some already published by the State

Department. The restoration of classified status to more than 55,000 previously

declassified pages began in 1999, when the Central Intelligence Agency and five

other agencies objected to what they saw as a hasty release of sensitive

information after a 1995 declassification order signed by President Bill

Clinton.

 

It accelerated after the Bush administration took office and especially after

the 2001 terrorist attacks. But because the reclassification program is itself

shrouded in secrecy — governed by a still-classified memorandum that prohibits

the National Archives even from saying which agencies are involved — it

continued virtually without outside notice until December.

 

Historians say the program is removing material that can do no conceivable harm

to national security. They say it is part of a marked trend toward greater

secrecy under the Bush administration, which has increased the pace of

classifying documents, slowed declassification and discouraged the release of

some material under the Freedom of Information Act. " I think this is a

travesty, " said Dr. Nelson. " I think the public is being deprived of what

history is really about: facts. "

Note: More on this in the National Security Archive:

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB179

 

The basics of alternative 9-11 theories

February 21, 2006, Village Voice (alternative NY newspaper - liberal)

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0608,murphy,72255,6.html

 

Operation Northwoods. This 1962 white paper from the U.S. Joint Chiefs of

Staff suggested possible justifications for a war against Cuba, including a

never executed idea in which the CIA would detonate a drone aircraft to make it

look like Fidel Castro had shot down an American passenger plane.

 

Project for the New American Century [PNAC]. As evidence of the motives behind a

government-planned 9-11, theorists point to one 28-word passage in a September

2000 [PNAC] report written with help from the likes of Scooter Libby and Paul

Wolfowitz: " The process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary

change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing

event—like a new Pearl Harbor.

 

" Theorists point to Attorney General John Ashcroft's decision to stop flying

commercial [planes] in the summer of 2001, as well as a San Francisco Chronicle

report that Mayor Willie Brown received a warning of 9-11, as evidence that some

people had foreknowledge of the attack.

 

World Trade Center 7. This building—the last to fall on 9-11—is key to all

controlled-demolition theories. Its sudden fall onto its own footprint, and

developer Larry Silverstein's reference on TV to telling the FDNY to " pull it, "

are seen as evidence that WTC7 was rigged to fall. Meanwhile, a convincing

official explanation hasn't exactly been forthcoming.

 

Note: We generally avoid partisan sources, but as so few are reporting the

vital questions around 9-11, we've included this article. You can find another

informative article from the same newspaper on the same day at

http://villagevoice.com/news/0608,murphy,72254,6.html. For our highly reliable,

verifiable information on the 9-11 cover-up, see

http://www.WantToKnow.info/911information. For an amazing free video with

testimony from dozens of survivors on all of this, see

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psP_9RE0V2I

 

The suppression of Able Danger

February 18, 2006, Toledo Blade

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060218/COLUMNIST14/602180351\

/-1/NEWS01

 

Mr. Kleinsmith and the two colleagues who testified with him in [a House Armed

Services Committee] open session are convinced that had the information they

developed been acted on, not only 9/11, but also the October 2000, attack on the

destroyer USS Cole in which 17 sailors died could have been prevented.

 

Through computer scanning of some 2.5 terabytes of classified and unclassified

data, the Able Danger team identified five " nodes " of al-Qaeda activity. One was

in Brooklyn. Another was in the port of Aden in Yemen, where the USS Cole was

attacked. Able Danger linked Mohamed Atta and three other 9/11 hijackers to the

Brooklyn cell, said Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, who was the liaison between the

Defense Intelligence Agency and the Able Danger team.

 

Colonel Shaffer testified he tried three times to have Able Danger data on the

Brooklyn cell presented to the FBI, but that on each occasion Pentagon lawyers

forbade the meeting. In a commentary in the Wall [street] Journal last November,

 

Louis Freeh, who was FBI director at the time, said that if he had been told

about what Able Danger had learned, 9/11 likely would have been prevented. In

March, 2000, Mr. Kleinsmith was ordered to stop all work on Able Danger, and,

later, to delete all the information collected. It is clear there is a cover-up.

One would think a Washington press corps obsessing about a hunting accident in

Texas would be more curious about it.

 

Note: Though Able Danger received wide media coverage when first reported six

months ago, the amazing revelations of the recent hearings have received very

little attention, which is why we include this article from the leading

newspaper of Toledo, Ohio. For lots more reliable, verifiable information on

Able Danger, see http://www.WantToKnow.info/abledanger911

 

UK radiation jump blamed on Iraq shells

February 19, 2006, London Times

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2047373,00.html

 

Radiation detectors in Britain recorded a fourfold increase in uranium levels

in the atmosphere after the “shock and awe” bombing campaign against Iraq.

Environmental scientists who uncovered the figures through freedom of

information laws say it is evidence that depleted uranium from the shells was

carried by wind currents to Britain. Government officials, however, say the

sharp rise in uranium detected by radiation monitors in Berkshire was a

coincidence and probably came from local sources.

 

Each detector recorded a significant rise in uranium levels during the Gulf war

bombing campaign in March 2003. The reading from a park in Reading was high

enough for the Environment Agency to be alerted.

 

“This research shows that rather than remaining near the target as claimed by

the military, depleted uranium weapons contaminate both locals and whole

populations hundreds to thousands of miles away,” [Liverpool University's Chris

Busby] said.

 

Busby’s report shows that within nine days of the start of the Iraq war on March

19, 2003, higher levels of uranium were picked up on five sites in Berkshire. On

two occasions, levels exceeded the threshold at which the Environment Agency

must be informed, though within safety limits. The report says weather

conditions over the war period showed a consistent flow of air from Iraq

northwards.

Note: For more on the depleted uranium cover-up:

http://www.WantToKnow.info/050405depleteduranium

 

The deadly terror lurking around the corner

may not be such a big, ominous threat after all

February 19, 2006, San Francisco Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/02/19/INGDDH8E2V1.DTL

 

Americans receive a steady stream of warnings and alarms about new and

horrific perils that await them. Pandemics, dirty bombs, cyber attacks,

bioterror and other exotic threats are always on the verge of being unleashed

onto a shamefully unprepared republic. Yet, judging from statistics on life

expectancy, violent deaths and war, we live in much less perilous times than any

generation before us.

 

Avian flu, for example. We are cautioned that a pandemic...is only months away.

One World Health Organization estimate says 2 million to 7 million people will

die in the next pandemic. But it is not 1918. The WHO reports that since 2003,

there have been 152 cases of avian flu, resulting in 83 deaths. A flu pandemic

has been regularly predicted since 1997 and (knock on wood) it has never

arrived.

 

Dirty bombs -- conventional explosives mixed with radioactive material --

present another example of overreaction. In 2004, experts warned in the normally

staid Wall Street Journal that a terrorist

attack with a dirty bomb was an imminent certainty.

 

They announced: " Shame on our leaders and on us if the lamentations of the next

blue-ribbon panel will be intoned over the graves of hundreds of thousands of

Americans, the collapse of our economy, and perhaps a fatal blow to our way of

life. " But the Nuclear Regulatory Commission says a dirty bomb would contaminate

" up to several city blocks. " The commission's advice, if one goes off, is to

walk away and take a shower.

 

Note: This informative article, by a program director of the Center for

Strategic and International Studies in Washington, demonstrates clearly how the

hype and fear around terror is much more damaging than terrorism itself. For

more on this from both BBC and my own experience:

http://www.WantToKnow.info/powerofnightmares

 

Risk to U.S. of withering terrorist hit is overblown

February 19, 2006, San Francisco Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/02/19/INGDDH8E2T1.DTL

 

Conventional wisdom says that none of us is safe from terrorism. The truth is

that almost all of us are. In most years allergic reactions to peanuts, deer in

the road and lightning have all killed about the same number of Americans as

terrorism.

 

In 2001, their banner year, terrorists killed...one fifteenth the number killed

by car accidents. And if something far worse than Sept. 11 does occur, the

country will recover. A disaster of biblical proportions visited New Orleans.

The Republic has not crumbled. The terrorist risk to the United States is

serious, but far from existential.

 

Human psychology leads us to overestimate the likelihood of dangers that are

novel and uncontrollable. The news media and social interaction reinforce these

common errors. People overestimate terrorism's risk and demand excessive

protection from it. From government bureaucrats seeking larger budgets, to

contractors hawking technology, to congressmen campaigning, danger sells. It

delivers money and votes.

 

It also sells newspapers. Careerist think tank and academic analysts learn that

grants, invitations to Capitol Hill and jobs are more likely to go to those who

trumpet threats and defenses against them than those who tell Americans to worry

less. America tends to exaggerate national security dangers. Victory is

persuading...regular Americans not to be afraid. Conventional pundits of

homeland security worry that the public will become complacent. We should worry

that it won't.

 

The Lowdown on Sweet?

February 12, 2006, New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/business/yourmoney/12sweet.html

 

When Dr. Morando Soffritti...saw the results of his team's seven-year study on

aspartame, he knew he was about to be injected into a bitter controversy over

this sweetener.

 

Aspartame is sold under the brand names Nutra-Sweet and Equal and is found in

such popular products as Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi, Diet Snapple and Sugar Free

Kool-Aid.

 

Hundreds of millions of people consume it worldwide. Dr. Soffritti...oversees

180 scientists and researchers in 30 countries. Dr. Soffritti's study

concluded...that the sweetener was associated with unusually high rates of

lymphomas, leukemias and other cancers.

 

The study...involved 1,900 laboratory rats and cost $1 million. Soffritti said

he was inspired to look at aspartame because of what he calls " inadequacies " in

the cancer studies done by Searle in the 1970's. Others have also challenged

Searle's studies.

 

Years before the F.D.A. approved aspartame, the agency had serious concerns

about the accuracy and credibility of Searle's aspartame studies.

 

From 1977 to 1985 — during much of the approval process — Searle was headed by

Donald H. Rumsfeld, who is now the secretary of defense. Searle was acquired by

Monsanto in 1985. Dr. Soffritti said...more research and open debate were needed

on whether aspartame was a carcinogen. " It is very important to have scientists

who are independent and not funded by industry looking at this. "

 

Note: If you want to understand the influence of big money on your health,

this article is well worth reading. Our Health Information Center at

http://www.WantToKnow.info/healthinformation has lots more.

 

Bush v. Science

February 6, 2006, Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/02/06/BL2006020600817.htm\

l

 

Bush's relationship to science can be illustrated by the fact that he is

speaking rapturously of producing ethanol from (of all things) switch grass --

but not saying a word about what many scientists say may be the greatest

disaster facing humankind: global climate change.

 

[in] a Time magazine cover story...Mark Thompson and Karen Tumulty write that

" growing numbers of researchers, both in and out of government, say their

findings -- on pollution, climate change, reproductive health, stem-cell

research and other areas in which science often finds itself at odds with

religious, ideological or corporate interests -- are being discounted, distorted

or quashed by Bush Administration appointees.

 

In the past two years, the Union of Concerned Scientists has collected the

signatures of more than 8,000 scientists -- including 49 Nobel laureates... --

who accuse the Administration of an unprecedented level of political intrusion

into their world.

 

Says Francesca Grifo, director of the group's Scientific Integrity

Program, " 'What's new is its pervasive and systemic nature. We get calls every

week from federal scientists reporting stuff to us. Rarely, however, are they

willing to put their jobs and their research grants at risk by going public with

their complaints. " 29-year NASA veteran James Hansen, who is director of the

Goddard Institute for Space Studies, charged on the front page of the New York

Times that he has been muzzled by the agency. Melissa Block interviewed Bransby

on NPR and found out that politics played a role in Bush's mention of switch

grass.

 

Final Note: Remember that with your help, we can and will build a brighter

future for us all. And for some deeply inspiring stories to provide balance to

all of this: http://www.WantToKnow.info/coverupnews#inspiration

 

See our collection of cover-up news articles at

http://www.WantToKnow.info/coverupnews

 

 

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Jimi Hendrix

 

http://www.lightmovie.com/thelight/TheLight.html