Artful Dodger: But it's not from wikileaks .... it's from

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/12/09/the_wikileaks_vindication_of_george_w_bush_108195.html




Saddam's nuclear arsenal? A scattering of yellow powder

Villagers sell deadly uranium to the US army at $3 a barrel

* Patrick Graham in Al Mansia
* The Observer, Sunday 5 October 2003 01.41 BST
* Article history

Dhia Ali makes a throwing motion as he tells how he dumped out the blue barrels of powder. The nine-year-old and his brother, Hussein, weren't looking for weapons of mass destruction when they went into the low brown buildings, known to UN weapons inspectors as Location C, near his home last April. They just wanted the blue barrels.

The yellow cake powder they poured out and breathed into their lungs - a form of natural uranium - was part of the nuclear programme which, the Iraq Survey Group's recent report claims, somewhat vaguely, was being restarted before the last war. The report won't do much for Dhia or Hussein - they haven't even been examined by a doctor yet.

'If you inhale even a small amount, it stays in your lungs,' said one of the senior scientists who worked on Iraq's atomic programme. He spoke anonymously because, like many of the country's best researchers, he didn't want any trouble from the Americans.

Even the ducks in the canal in the village of Al Mansia, where they dumped the barrels, later tested for increased radiation. When the US army offered a reward of $3 a barrel, the villagers fished them out and sold them.

The report's claim that Iraq was revamping its nuclear programme in such a way that it could constitute any serious threat was described as 'ridiculous' by the scientist. By 1991, when the he left the programme, Iraq had succeeded in producing no more than one kilogram of enriched uranium - 6 to 14 kgs short of a bomb. By 1997, the programme had been exposed and most of its capabilities destroyed.

To produce more would be impossible. Nuclear research, he pointed out, is a massive undertaking and difficult to conceal, especially under sanctions while being monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency. "

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/oct/05/iraq1

In recent reports on some of the sensitivity of information released on Wikileaks. The revealing of certain strategic installations in Europe as designated by the USA gov was condemned.

.. That they were to any person of even moderate intelligence.. known was ignored. Apart from some new ones, most have been known as significant targest logistically or economically back to the days of the KGB and the cold war.

Among the new was the gas pipeline link from Russia. Europe's main source of gas.

The Col: Maybe he should get Anonymous on his side!!

... The liberal Democrats here are under criticism especially by University students. Many signed (and as such was party policy) that there would be no increases in the maximum yearly fees cap. Yet, the cap set at £3290 is now increasing to a max of £9000.

Today, before two votes are taken.. It's a day of compromise... The whips wearing out shoe leather is a likely scenario.

2. (S) Soliman led off the New Year's Eve meeting by telling the Codel that the region is at a special, critical juncture. Egypt is America's partner. Sometimes we have our differences. But Egypt will continue to provide the USG with its knowledge and expertise on the critical regional issues, such as Lebanon and Iraq. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains the core issue; Soliman contended a peaceful resolution would be a "big blow" to terrorist organizations that use the conflict as a pretext. For this reason, President Mubarak is committed to ending the Israeli-Arab "stalemate."

3. (S) Soliman applauded the Administration's efforts, commenting that Annapolis had given hope and begun a process. The timing is right for progress based on four factors. First, the PA leadership is moderate and willing to negotiate. Second, Hamas is isolated and politically cut off in Gaza. Third, the Israelis are ready for peace; Soliman assessed that the GOI coalition is broad and strong, and larger than Rabin's coalition of the mid-nineties. Fourth, Arab states are ready to see an end to "the struggle."

4. (S) Soliman stressed that Egypt stands ready to help the U.S. effort. The GOE knows both the Palestinians and the Israelis, and knows the obstacles to peace. Soliman recommended two steps be taken. First, both the Israelis and Palestinians must be pressed hard to sign an agreement, which the U.S. and international community could endorse, to be implemented at the proper time. Second, the U.S. should insist that "phase one" of the Roadmap should be completed before the end of 2008.

5. (S) Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Soliman opined that the Palestinian Authority was ready to sign an agreement, but that establishment of a state may take between 1-3 years. While Hamas is isolated politically and unable to stop an Israeli-PA agreement, it remains entrenched in Gaza, and it was unclear to Soliman how long that would last. At one point in the discussion, Soliman seemed to imply Hamas may remain in control of Gaza for more than a year; at another juncture, he told Senator Voinovich that if negotiations proceeded briskly, Hamas may be forced to cede power in Gaza in 3-4 months. The bottom line for Hamas, according to Soliman, is that they must be forced to choose between remaining a resistance movement or joining the political process. They cannot have it both ways, he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2010/nov/28/us-embassy-cables-wikileaks

Fancy that... teething problems!!

On a more serious note. Documents leaked to Wikileaks reveal concerns Pakistan and the safety of weapons grade nuclear material being sneaked out. Not the stealing of a bomb, but over time enough material to make one.. They cannot say with 100% certainty that all of the 100,000+ people employed are without sympathies to terrorist causes.

.. China, is getting tired of N Korea, and would happily accept a united Korea. As long as it is not another satellite state for the USA.

Wow... people in the south of the USA don't like the Democrats.. Like they didn't in the 60's when they swapped from the Dem's to the Repug's.

.. North and South!!

The prince also addressed Russian influence in central Asia, stating that "the United Kingdom, Western Europe (and by extension you Americans, too) were now back in the thick of playing the Great Game. More animated than ever, he stated cockily: 'And this time we aim to win!' "

"The Great Game" originally referred to the 19th century struggle between Britain and Russia for control of central Asia.

The cable continued that Prince Andrew indicated he had little patience for the media interfering in the negotiation of business deals, condemning "these (expletive) journalists, especially from the National Guardian, who poke their noses everywhere."

According to the ambassador's account, the prince also "railed at British anti-corruption investigators, who had had the 'idiocy' of almost scuttling the Al-Yamama deal with Saudi Arabia." That deal was a multibillion-dollar defense contract between BAE Systems and the Saudi government that became the target of a U.K. Serious Fraud Office corruption inquiry.)

Warming to her theme, Ambassador Gfoeller continues: "He then capped this off with a zinger: castigating 'our stupid (sic) British and American governments which plan at best for 10 years whereas people in this part of the world plan for centuries.'"

But she saves perhaps the best for last, referring to Prince Andrew's "unmitigated patriotic fervor."

One British guest at the lunch had noted that despite the might of the American economy, British investment in Kyrgyzstan was of a similar magnitude.

"Snapped the Duke: 'No surprise there. The Americans don't understand geography. Never have. In the U.K., we have the best geography teachers in the world!'"

Übergeek 바둑이: I believe there are recorded instances of Osama Bin Laden thanking America for it's support.. and Pakistan too for helping them kill their Soviet invaders.

It is said.. that a recruitment process went on. To which.. Islamic radicals were "imported" from the rest of the world to the training camps inside Pakistan.

well.. I see Big Brother (aka 1984) rewriting of history is in place.

one instant blows everything else outta da window. Not the various uses of hijacking by various USA AUTHORITIES... not the various factions in Europe seeking homeland rule or representation.

... curious I read that Bin Laden was protected from arrest by order of various people before 9/11 despite being highly wanted.

.... Would the capture of Bin Laden cause international problems if he was interrogated over the training and support he was given by the CIA to kill Soviet troops, and how they learnt to hijack??

mmmmmmm

Vikings: .. "(muslim)" no.. Al Qaeda.. yes.

Oranges.. there are later dates for Americans of a non Muslim stance using planes for revenge.. like the one in the 90's who decided after being sacked by Fedex to do a kamikaze run on a main office.

I was using that particular era in history to show how many 'states' have used terrorism. Not as a be all and end all list.

Vikings: Old. yes, out dated... I disagree. Trivia.. without the previous decades of hijacking the precautions that were in place before 9/11 to stop hijackings have prevented many more groups from hijacking.

I was actually surprised to hear the CIA had used hijacking. I didn't know they went that far in state sponsored terrorism!! But then again that kinda info would have not been available to Joe Public or schools in the West in that era.

Between 1948 and 1957 there were 15 hijackings worldwide, an average of a little more than one per annum. Between 1958 and 1967, this climbed to 48—an annual average of about five. The number grew to 38 in 1968 and 82 in 1969, the largest number in a single year in the history of civil aviation; in January 1969 alone, eight airlines were hijacked to Cuba.[4] During the third 10-year period between 1968 and 1977 there were 414 hijackings, an average of 41 a year.

The Nixon Administration in 1973 ordered the discontinuance by the CIA of the use of hijacking as a covert action weapon against the Castro regime. The Cuban intelligence followed suit. That year, the two countries reached an agreement for the prosecution or return of the hijackers and the aircraft to each other's country. The Taiwanese intelligence also followed the CIA's example-vis-а-vis China.

Korea March 31, 1970: Japan Airlines Flight 351, carrying 131 passengers and 7 crew from Tokyo to Fukuoka, is hijacked by nine members of the Japanese Red Army group. 23 passengers were freed at Fukuoka Airport, mainly children or old aged. 108 passengers and all crew members with Red Army group left Fukuoka, bound for Gimpo Airport, near Seoul. Three days after, Red Army group ask to be flown to North Korean capital Pyongyang, before leaving from Seoul, 103 passenger and crew hostages are freed, and nine Red Army group members surrendered to North Korean authorities.

July 1, 1970: a Cruzeiro do Sul Sud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle VI R registration PP-PDX en route from Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo with 31 occupants was hijacked by 4 persons who demanded the release of political prisoners that were to be taken to Cuba. The aircraft was stormed and hijackers arrested. There were no victims and the hijack lasted less than a day.

September 1970: As part of the Dawson's Field hijackings, PFLP members attempted to hijack four aircraft simultaneously. They succeeded on three and forced the planes to fly to the Jordanian desert, where the hijackers blew up the aircraft after releasing most of the hostages. The final hostages were freed in exchange for seven Palestinian prisoners. The fourth attack on an El Al plane by two people including Leila Khalid was foiled by armed guards aboard.

October 15, 1970: Aeroflot Flight 244 was hijacked from Batumi, Adjar ASSR, Georgian SSR, to Trabzon, Turkey by a Lithuanian national and his son. An air hostess was killed and some other crew were injured in a shootout. The hijackers later received American citizenship.

January 30, 1971: Indian Airlines Fokker F27 on scheduled Srinagar-Jammu flight is hijacked to Lahore by two self-proclaimed Kashmir Separatists. All passengers were released by February 2 and repatriated to India, but the aircraft was blown-up—leading to an India-Pakistan air-travel ban, and suspension of overflight rights until 1976.

Republic of China March, 1971: Philippine Airlines flight was hijacked in March 1971 by six students from the Mindanao State University, opposed to the Marcos government. The plane landed in Guangzhou (Canton) in southern China, and the Chinese authorities let the students stay in the country. The plane was then allowed to fly back to the Philippines. No one was hurt.

May 1971: an IL-14 with 4 staff members and 16 passengers was hijacked by 6 men at the Oradea Airport (Romania), then forced to flew to Budapest (Hungary), then Vienna (Austria). The passengers and the crew were released in Vienna, while the hijackers flew to West Germany.[7]

November 24, 1971: A man who became known as D. B. Cooper hijacked Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, a Boeing 727-100 aircraft flying from Portland, OR, to Seattle, WA, received US$200,000 in ransom, and parachuted from the plane. The actual name of the hijacker remains unknown. The hijacker revealed what appeared to be a bomb to a flight attendant and demanded the ransom and parachutes. The flight landed in Seattle, and FBI agents provided the ransom money and parachutes. Cooper then released all passengers and one flight attendant. After refueling, the aircraft took off again and flew toward Reno, NV. Cooper opened the aft stairs and jumped from the plane with a parachute during a heavy rainstorm. The aircraft was forced to land with the aft stairs deployed. The FBI believes Cooper most likely did not survive, but the case remains unsolved.[8][9][10]

January 12, 1972: Braniff Flight 38, a Boeing 727, was hijacked as it departed Houston, Texas bound for Dallas, Texas. The lone armed hijacker, Billy Gene Hurst, Jr., allowed all 94 passengers to deplane after landing at Dallas Love Field but continued to hold the 7 crewmembers hostage, demanding to fly to South America and asking for US $2 million, parachutes, and jungle survival gear, amongst other items. After a 6-hour standoff, the entire crew secretly fled while Hurst was distracted examining the contents of a package delivered by Dallas police. Police officers stormed the craft shortly afterwards and arrested Hurst without serious incident.[11][12]

January 28, 1972: TWA Flight 2, Los Angeles to New York, was hijacked by con man and bank robber Garrett Trapnell while over Chicago. Trapnell demanded $306,800 in cash (to recoup the loss of a recent court case), the release of Angela Davis (as well as that of a friend of his who was also imprisoned), and clemency from President Richard Nixon. The FBI was able to retake the aircraft during a crew switch at Kennedy Airport; Trapnell was shot and wounded, no one else was hurt. Trapnell's hijacking came after a string of domestic incidents and resulted in an overhaul of flight procedures by the Nixon Administration, procedures that remained in place until the September 11, 2001 hijackings.

November 10, 1972: Southern Airways Flight 49, was hijacked by three men and flown to multiple locations in the United States, and one Canadian city. At one point, the hijackers threatened to fly the plane into the nuclear reactor at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, if their demands for $10 million in cash were not met. While stopped for refueling at McCoy Air Force Base, Orlando, the FBI shot out the plane's tires, prompting the hijackers to force pilot William Haas to take off. The hijacking came to an end when the plane landed on a partially foam-covered runway in Havana, Cuba, and the hijackers were captured after attempting to escape.

Apparently some blame this on JFK and how he turned his political campaign to one of dirty tricks and unlimited campaign funds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2cfOcP606k

Goof or stupidity

Mousetrap: Aye.. there have been many conflicts in which child soldiers are used by various factions. Seeing a kid carry an AK47 and 'ok' about it and killing.

but then again, we are in the UK not far off from when kids were cheap labour, such as going up chimneys to clean them (many got stuck and died) and other dirty and dangerous jobs where kids made ideal 'staff'... especially as they were cheaper to hire, especially in the era of the industrial revolution.

Servant: they can't enforce sharia law in the UK. It (as with Jewish courts.. "Beth Din" and Christian courts) has been allowed to deal with some civil matters (marital problems, inheritance, etc) as long as both sides agree to it.... but only as such for arbitration.

British Law is absolute in all criminal cases.

Mousetrap: A priest was the prime suspect in a bombing during the Northern Ireland war on the IRA side.. but it was covered up to stop "consequences" ... He was moved to the Irish Republic where the Irish police and government were use to covering up for the Catholic church... Such as nuns and priests abusing children.

Artful Dodger:

Pan Am Flight 103
Lockerbie... 190 Americans on that flight. Just it blew up over Scotland.

It's been in the news again recently

Artful Dodger: You forget that suicide is considered a straight to hell act in the Qur'an. And the killing of captives and the like has only added to the recruitment of active combatants. Something even ex Pres Bush knows.

Artful Dodger: According to a MI5 source quoted in a UK paper there are about 1500 white British converts to Muslim fundamentalism in the UK.

And as well known, converts tend be to be more zealous than people born into a religion.

.. you now have to reply.. is this some unwritten commandment?

Artful Dodger: Only because production of ozone depleting substances were banned.... At least they were in Europe.

Do your bloggers read at all??

rod03801: It's about safety and the prevention of deaths of American citizens as well as those of other countries affected by the emergence of the latest in terrorist groups of the 20th-21st century. Drugs (illegal legals or the illegal kind) kill.... As both Terrorists and drugs kill, I would have thought both would have been on the top two possible activities via plane been targeted.

It's called killing two birds with one stone.

The rules seem to be that if chosen to be scanned (as being trialled now), only if you decline will a body search be initiated.. yet at the moment with a body search being the only option without the scanners... the scanners is a better quicker option.

Artful Dodger: But what of the drug mules that would be caught in the process? Or has that problem in the USA that kills many many people each year now been sorted? No colour there to profile!!

rod03801: I think most terrorists (under a Muslim banner or otherwise) know that security is high. Metal detectors, sniffer dogs, x ray scanners that can pick up what is in the luggage in many ways.... chemical detectors... Which are already in place. The problems that Have been going on with planes being hijacked over the last 5 decades, drugs smuggling and other illegal activities... make the ability to smuggle anything very hard.

Maybe we shouldn't have trained the ex favourite anti USSR freedom fighters so well and we wouldn't be in this pickle. Rambo (Rambo 3) fought side by side with them.

Bernice: Yes.. I researched under the words "worlds safest airline".. and up on fatalities Quantas came up as the lowest on record... just 7 dating back to the 1950's.

I didn't look up on "blame the foreigners" .. I don't think (re the A380) Rolls Royce use cheap labour.

Artful Dodger: That's "Their shirts are brown".. and so do alot of your police officers!! It's a readily recognised colour shirt used in law enforcement.

Artful Dodger: "In criminal law and tort law, the threat or use of force on another that causes that person to have a reasonable apprehension of imminent harmful or offensive contact."

.... So would alot of arrests by police officers and preventions by body guards.

Bernice: You haven't read my post properly once again.....

"............Fatality wise....."

ie deaths not malfunctions or teething problems.

Bernice: .. Fatality wise it is the safest airline. The recent problems were teething problems with the engine... a relatively new one.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Artful Dodger: But it's your security services not a stranger. The comparison you've used is completely meaningless.

Vikings: That was for freight via cargo not passengers.

As for the safest airline... Quantas?

Vikings: Are you implying that the security people your government employees are child molesters? ... Or that we don't need security measures thanks to the mess that our world is in due to long term cold war doctrines from both sides.

... N' if it's done correctly (like a doc or nurse would) why would the child cry out unless it's head was filled with nonsense that it was a sexual intrusion.

A body x ray would stop the need for it anyway.. therefore for a child to need searching (if they feel the need to) it'd be the parents of the child making the search necessary if we end up in deeper crap.

Vikings: But the likelyhood is that if I board a plane to the USA I'll be scanned just like everyone else boarding a plane does. But having nothing to hide .. who gives a damn... so as to being profiled. Don't mean a thing.

As to finding an American 3 year old example of carrying a bomb... not recorded so far, or not (from missing records) recorded. As to drugs, money, info.. all things that can support terrorism. Can you say no child has ever been used?

Vikings: ... No, just kids can be used to carry little things around like a chip, money, chemicals.. all sorts of things bomb makers and the relevant supporting organisation needs.

btw.. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N26176341.htm

btw.. you don't consider drugs a problem?

Vikings: Born? Or that smuggling is not unknown and children have been used as 'mules'??

rod03801: ..... is all those who are American born and known to blow up things or kill others via guns suddenly stopped?

Artful Dodger: many, many peoples. Or has the history of the world been rewritten again amongst the over use of 'constitution'.... freedom, and other sound bites of the moment

US health insurers reap record profits in 2009
By Kate Randall
19 February 2010
www.wsws.org/articles/2010/feb2010/prof-f19.shtml

The five largest US health insurance companies set new profit records in 2009, while the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression sent millions of Americans onto the unemployment line and into poverty.

The five firms reported $12.2 billion in profits last year, an increase of $4.4 billion, or 56 percent, over 2008. At the same time, 2.7 million Americans who had been enrolled in private health plans the year before lost their coverage....

.....While the insurers raked in massive profits in 2009, four of the five companies insured fewer people through private coverage. At the same time, all but one of the five insurers increased the number of people they covered through public insurance programs, including Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Plans (CHIP), and Medicare. This is part of a long-term plan by insurers to shift responsibility for covering millions of sick, older, or lower-income customers to taxpayer-funded government health programs. These programs have, in turn, been increasingly hiring the big insurers to manage their care.

While their profits have soared, the proportion of dollars earned through premiums that is spent on health care expenses went down at three of the five firms, with ever-larger relative sums being funneled to administrative expenses and CEO and shareholder profits. The medical loss ratio (MLR)—the share of premiums used to pay health care providers—decreased or remained flat at most insurers.

The top five insurers continue, as well, to manipulate their capital resources carefully to benefit their Wall Street investors and corporate executives. The majority of companies report waiting six to eight weeks after receiving claims to pay doctors, hospitals, and patients, utilizing the cash to build up company reserves and boost their balance sheets.....

At Least U.S. Health Care Works For Somebody – Health Insurance Company Profits Soar in Q1 2010.

Don’t talk to the insurance industry about the failures of the U.S. health care system, especially when insurance company profits are soaring in the first quarter of 2010.

WellPoint, the company that drew attention last year by proposing a 39 percent rate hike for some insurance customers in California, showed a first quarter 2010 profit of 51 percent, shattering Wall Street expectations.

Analysts say part of the reason for huge insurance company profits is “conservative” pricing, meaning a refusal to drop premium rates even though insurers have been blasted by the Obama administration for extraordinary rate hikes in times of high profits.

Another contributing factor to insurance company profits this year was a weak flu season last year. WellPoint estimates gaining $35 – $50 million in Q1 profit due to a flu season that failed to live up to the dire warnings of global health authorities.

WellPoint earned $876.8 million in Q1 2010, up from $580.4 million a year ago, while paying 3 percent fewer claims compared to the same period last year.

Analysts say that health insurance company profits would have been larger but for worry about the affect on profits resulting from the passage of the new health care reform bill.

http://internationalliving.com/2010/04/30-insurance-company-profits/

Bernice: I thought by standards set by others anything less than 2 years old was considered brand spanking new!!

My bad...

In an interview singer James Blunt recalled how in 1999 he was ordered to attack 200 Russian troops (who had captured a politically important airfield first) by an American general.... The word "destroy" was used in the command. Thankfully he was saved from a court martial offence by telling the general "no" by a British general who stated his troops were not going to start WWIII.

He commanded them to just encircle them.. soon the Russians asked them if they had any spare water and food in exchange for sharing the airfield.

A president without vanity is like a wagon without wheels. Any 'moron' knows that.

In a recent edition of "Have I got news for you" a discussion came up over the use of torture by the USA after 9/11...

A distinguished guest commentated "It doesn't work"..... quoting examples from various previous incidents by the UK in such as Northern Ireland he stated "the information is so unreliable, they will say what they think you want to hear for it to stop."

On the subject of Global Warming, one of the biggest CO2 generators in the world are pets. The industry involved in making the pet food means one dog is the equivalent to 2 normal cars per year.

... yet one of the best most ecological insulators to use in the construction of houses is straw.

...... If you are selling a house in the USA do not say it's haunted. Such a statement is likely to reduce the price of your house by a third.

Strange world!!

Lone parents in employment
Rate at 56.3%

Lone Parent Poverty
Lone parents under the age of 25 account for just one in eight of all young adults in poverty and just a fifth all the lone parents in poverty. The stereotypical image of a lone parent in poverty as a young, teenage mum, is quite wrong. Rather, most lone parents in poverty are aged 25 or over and there are as many over 40 as under 25.5

Among children in poverty in 2005/06, half live in working families and half in workless ones. Three-fifths live in couple families while two-fifths live with a lone parent. Clearly, many families are now headed by a lone parent and millions of children live in a one parent family. However, the negative portrait of lone parenthood painted in the press and media is based on the fiction rather than the facts around being a lone parent. Nevertheless, lone parents need specific types of support in order to ensure that they do not experience exclusion from
employment and training opportunities. Support for lone parents is also key to the Government’s pledge to cut child poverty.

...less likely to live in an area of low deprivation (20% of mothers in couple families lived in an area in the least deprived quantile of the deprivation index compared with just 2% of lone mothers who did not live with other adults).....

Lone parents now enter employment at the same rate as comparable groups; the real challenge lies in their ability to maintain jobs. Research suggests that if lone parents’ job retention rate could be raised to that of other groups, the Westminster Government’s target for 70 per cent of lone parents to be in employment by 2010 could be met without further increasing job entry rates.

http://www.opfs.org.uk/files/one-parent-families_a-profile_2009.pdf


*excerpts taken from the above 7 page document.. which includes links to the stats they base their figures on.

............... you wanted figures ...............

Bernice: ... More millionaires are becoming millionaires outside the USA these days than in the USA. You can say 1% of the USA population holds 24% of the wealth, but worldwide that figure is 40%