May 2, 2007

2,176 Secret Warrants Issued in 2006

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8ORR5TG0&show_article=1

In all, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court signed off on 2,176 warrants targeting people in the United States believed to be linked to international terror organizations or spies. The record number is more than twice as many as were issued in 2000, the last full year before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. One application was denied in part, and 73 required changes before being approved. The disclosure was mandated as part of the renewal of the Patriot Act, the administration's sweeping anti-terror law. It was released as a Senate intelligence panel examined changes to the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that could let the government more easily monitor homegrown terrorists. But in its three-page public report, sent to Senate and House leaders, the Justice Department said it could not yet provide data on how many times the FBI secretly sought telephone, Internet and banking records about U.S. citizens and residents without court approval. The department is still compiling those numbers amid an internal investigation of the FBI's improper—and in some cases illegal—use of so-called national security letters. The letters are administrative subpoenas that do not require a judge's approval. A March audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine concluded that some FBI agents had demanded personal data without official authorization, and improperly obtained telephone records in non-emergency circumstances. It also found that the FBI for three years underreported to Congress how often it used national security letters to ask businesses to turn over customer data. Assistant Attorney General Richard Hertling said the FBI would give Congress updated numbers for 2007, and corrected data for last year, when it finishes "taking steps to correct the identified deficiencies in its tracking of NSLs." In 2005, the FBI reported issuing national security letters on 3,501 citizens and legal residents.

Bush, lawmakers to discuss Iraq

http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-05-02-voa38.cfm

President Bush vetoed a spending measure that would force him to start withdrawing troops by October, because he says leaving now would bring short-term satisfaction at the cost of long-term disaster. In a speech to a convention of general contractors, the president again sought to link the war in Iraq with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. He said his new strategy for success in Iraq is beginning to show significant progress in reducing sectarian violence. The president meets with congressional leaders later Wednesday to discuss a possible compromise. White House Spokesman Tony Snow says if Democrats come with another timetable for troop withdrawal, they will get another veto. Because the measure passed the House and Senate by close votes, it is highly unlikely Democrats can find the two-thirds majority needed to override the presidential veto. Party leaders say they will not back down.

Army Squeezes Soldier Blogs, Maybe to Death

http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2007/05/army_bloggers

The U.S. Army has ordered soldiers to stop posting to blogs or sending personal e-mail messages, without first clearing the content with a superior officer, Wired News has learned. The directive, issued April 19, is the sharpest restriction on troops' online activities since the start of the Iraq war. And it could mean the end of military blogs, observers say. Army Regulation 530--1: Operations Security (OPSEC) (.pdf) restricts more than just blogs, however. Previous editions of the rules asked Army personnel to "consult with their immediate supervisor" before posting a document "that might contain sensitive and/or critical information in a public forum." The new version, in contrast, requires "an OPSEC review prior to publishing" anything -- from "web log (blog) postings" to comments on internet message boards, from resumes to letters home. Failure to do so, the document adds, could result in a court-martial, or "administrative, disciplinary, contractual, or criminal action." Despite the absolutist language, the guidelines' author, Major Ray Ceralde, said there is some leeway in enforcement of the rules. "It is not practical to check all communication, especially private communication," he noted in an e-mail. "Some units may require that soldiers register their blog with the unit for identification purposes with occasional spot checks after an initial review. Other units may require a review before every posting."

Pentagon to Merge Next-Gen Binoculars With Soldiers' Brains http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/news/2007/05/binoculars

In a new effort dubbed "Luke's Binoculars" -- after the high-tech binoculars Luke Skywalker uses in Star Wars -- the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is setting out to create its own version of this science-fiction hardware. And while the Pentagon's R&D arm often focuses on technologies 20 years out, this new effort is dramatically different -- Darpa says it expects to have prototypes in the hands of soldiers in three years. The agency claims no scientific breakthrough is needed on the project -- formally called the Cognitive Technology Threat Warning System. Instead, Darpa hopes to integrate technologies that have been simmering in laboratories for years, ranging from flat-field, wide-angle optics, to the use of advanced electroencephalograms, or EEGs, to rapidly recognize brainwave signatures. In March, Darpa held a meeting in Arlington, Virginia, for scientists and defense contractors who might participate in the project. According to the presentations from the meeting, the agency wants the binoculars to have a range of 1,000 to 10,000 meters, compared to the current generation, which can see out only 300 to 1,000 meters. Darpa also wants the binoculars to provide a 120-degree field of view and be able to spot moving vehicles as far as 10 kilometers away. The most far-reaching component of the binocs has nothing to do with the optics: it's Darpa's aspirations to integrate EEG electrodes that monitor the wearer's neural signals, cueing soldiers to recognize targets faster than the unaided brain could on its own. The idea is that EEG can spot "neural signatures" for target detection before the conscious mind becomes aware of a potential threat or target. Darpa's ambitions are grounded in solid research, says Dennis McBride, president of the Potomac Institute and an expert in the field. "This is all about target recognition and pattern recognition," says McBride, who previously worked for the Navy as an experimental psychologist and has consulted for Darpa. "It turns out that humans in particular have evolved over these many millions of years with a prominent prefrontal cortex." That prefrontal cortex, he explains, allows the brain to pick up patterns quickly, but it also exercises a powerful impulse control, inhibiting false alarms. EEG would essentially allow the binoculars to bypass this inhibitory reaction and signal the wearer to a potential threat. In other words, like Spiderman's "spider sense," a soldier could be alerted to danger that his or her brain had sensed, but not yet had time to process.

EU steps into Estonian embassy row

http://rawstory.com/news/dpa/3ND_Russian_defiant_as_EU_steps_int_05022007.html

The Russian Foreign Ministry sounded a defiant note on Wednesday as it responded to criticism of its handling of a row with Estonia by laying the blame at Tallinn's door. Only hours before, the European Commission had stepped into the row with a statement expressing its "deep concern regarding the increasing violence of demonstrations around the Estonian embassy in Moscow" and demanding that EU missions be "protected adequately." The comments came shortly after demonstrators broke into a Moscow press conference at which Estonia's Ambassador to Russia Marina Kaljurand was scheduled to talk about the ongoing siege of the Estonian embassy building by pro-Kremlin youth groups. The intruders attempted to physically attack the ambassador, but were kept back by security guards using gas. Other demonstrators outside the building attacked her car, snapping the Estonian flag off its bonnet, ministry spokeswoman Ehtel Halliste said. And almost simultaneously, demonstrators at the embassy itself attacked the car carrying Sweden's Ambassador Johan Molander as he was leaving the area. They snapped the car's state flag and damaged a window, but the passengers were not hurt, Swedish sources said. Meanwhile on Wednesday, Russian Railways reported it had "changed the schedule for oil deliveries to Estonia," citing track repair work. It was unclear what exactly that change would mean, as Russia is by far the biggest source of oil and gas for Estonia and Europe. Last Thursday the Estonian government ordered that a Red Army monument in central Tallinn be relocated to a nearby war cemetery. The move sparked protests, which rapidly spilled over into the worst rioting Estonia has seen since the Russian Revolution. Estonians see the monument as a symbol of their country's illegal occupation by the Soviet Union, but most ethnic Russians see it as a tribute to Russians' sacrifice in the victory over Nazism.

Feinstein's $Bn conflict of interest

http://thehill.com/david-keene/feinsteins-cardinal-shenanigans-2007-04-30.html

From 2001 to late 2005, she was the top Democrat on the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies (or "Milcon") sub-committee. During this period, URS of San Francisco and the Perini Corporation of Framingham, Mass., were controlled by Feinstein's husband, Richard C. Blum, and were awarded a combined total of over $1.5 billion in government business thanks in large measure to her subcommittee. Melanie Sloan, the executive director of Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington, or CREW, told a California reporter earlier this month that while "there are a number of members of Congress with conflicts of interest … because of the amount of money involved, Feinstein's conflict of interest is an order of magnitude greater than those conflicts." And the director of the Project on Government Oversight who examined the evidence of wrongdoing assembled by California writer Peter Byrne told him that "the paper trail showing Senator Feinstein's conflict of interest is irrefutable." It may be irrefutable, but she almost got away without anyone even knowing what she was up to. Her colleagues on the subcommittee, for example, had no reason even to suspect that she knew what companies might benefit from her decisions because that information is routinely withheld to avoid favoritism. What they didn't know was that her chief legal adviser, who also happened to be a business partner of her husband's and the vice chairman of one of the companies involved, was secretly forwarding her lists of projects and appropriation requests that were coming before the committee and in which she and her husband had an interest — information that has only come to light recently as a result of the efforts of several California investigative reporters.

Iran president goes all Richard Gere on his old teacher

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200705/s1912815.htm

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been accused of indecency after he publicly embraced and kissed on the hand an elderly woman who used to be his schoolteacher. At a ceremony on Tuesday ahead of Iranian teachers' day, Mr Ahmadinejad was photographed and filmed by state media stooping to kiss the woman's hand and then clasping her arms in an embrace. The ultra-conservative Hezbollah newspaper, which is not related to the group in Lebanon of the same name, criticised him on the front page. The elderly woman, who was not named, wore thick gloves along with a headscarf and long black coat, meaning that Mr Ahmadinejad avoided any skin contact. But his action raised eyebrows because according to sharia law, it is forbidden for a man to have any physical contact with a woman to whom he is not related. While Mr Ahmadinejad is considered an ultra-conservative in the West, this is not the first time he and his Government have been attacked by hardline elements even further along the spectrum. He courted controversy when he unsuccessfully proposed women be allowed to attend football matches, and one of his vice presidents came under huge pressure last year after allegedly watching a woman dance at a ceremony in Turkey. But other hardline publications published the images of the latest incident without further comment. "A kiss on the hand for the teacher," was the headline in the government daily Iran. Mr Ahmadinejad's action appeared to be a public gesture of humility before Iranian teachers, who have publicly protested against low salaries and accused the Government of not doing enough to improve their work conditions.

Joan Baez banned at Walter Reed hospital

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070502/ap_en_ot/people_baez_4

Joan Baez says she doesn't know why she was not allowed to perform for recovering soldiers recently at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as she planned. In a letter to The Washington Post published Wednesday, she said John Mellencamp had asked her to perform with him last Friday and that she accepted his invitation. Baez, 66, told the Post in a telephone interview Tuesday that she was not told why she was left off the program by the Army. "There might have been one, there might have been 50 (soldiers) that thought I was a traitor," she told the paper. The Post reported that Walter Reed officials did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday, but that in an e-mailed statement published Monday on RollingStone.com, spokesman Steve Sanderson said the medical center received the request for participation by Baez just two days before the concert.

Cigs make you smarter

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070501172318.htm

UC Irvine researchers have identified a new class of compounds that could be used for drugs to treat cognitive disorders that accompany schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease and ADHD, according to an article published in the online version of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The compounds target receptors in the brain that are activated by nicotine. They impart the beneficial effects of nicotine – specifically enhanced cognition – without the numerous health threats associated with smoking. Anecdotally, the effect of nicotine in the brains of schizophrenics has been noted for years. Many people with the mental illness use tobacco as a sort of self-medication to help them think more clearly. The three-year study conducted with rodents supported the anecdotal evidence, showing that activating a certain nicotinic receptor in the brain improved working memory and made it easier to filter sensory input. Additional animal work is needed to confirm findings and make sure the compound is safe before testing can be done with human subjects.

U.S. Supreme Court puts limit on patents

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/01/news/patents.php

The U.S. Supreme Court, in its most important patent ruling in years, has raised the bar for obtaining patents on new products that combine elements of existing inventions. If the combination results from nothing more than "ordinary innovation" and "does no more than yield predictable results," the court said Monday in a unanimous opinion, it is not entitled to the exclusive rights that patent protection conveys. "Were it otherwise," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the opinion, "patents might stifle, rather than promote, the progress of useful arts." Because most inventions combine previously known elements, the court's approach to deciding what sort of combination is so "obvious" as to be ineligible for patent protection will make U.S. patents harder to obtain and defend.

Bee Swarm Shuts Ark. Hospital 's ER

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8ORQTLG0&show_article=1

A swarm of bees clustered outside the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Medical Center shut down the emergency room Monday, as officials waited for a beekeeper to come vacuum up the 7,000 insects. Although no one was stung, the Little Rock emergency room still decided to be closed for ambulance traffic. Beekeeper Harvey Johnston arrived Monday afternoon to remove the beehive. "Somewhere around here was a beehive that got overcrowded," he said. "When bees get crowded, (the queen) leaves and takes a portion of the bees with her."

U.S.-EU Air Transport Agreement http://newsblaze.com/story/20070501175642nnnn.nb/newsblaze/WORLDNEW/World-News.html

The United States and European Union have signed a comprehensive, first-stage Air Transport Agreement that will have significant economic benefits for America and Europe. The Agreement will replace existing bilateral agreements between the United States and EU member states and establish an Open-Skies Plus framework between the United States and all 27 EU Member States. The Agreement will authorize every U.S. and every EU airline to:

· fly between every city in the European Union and every city in the United States;

· operate without restriction on the number of flights, aircraft, and routes;

· set fares according to market demand; and

· enter into cooperative arrangements, including codesharing, franchising, and leasing.

In addition, the Agreement will foster enhanced regulatory cooperation in areas as diverse as competition law, government subsidies, the environment, consumer protection, and security. It establishes a consultative Joint Committee through which the U.S. and the EU can resolve questions and further develop areas of cooperation.

World Bank ethics chief says Wolfowitz broke rules
http://news.asiaone.com.sg/a1news/20070502_story3_2.html

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz broke staff rules when he intervened directly in the personnel matters of his girlfriend even though he said he wanted no part in a deal to transfer her outside the bank, the head of a bank ethics panel at the time said on Tuesday. In a statement to a bank committee examining Wolfowitz's role in arranging a high-paid promotion for his girlfriend, the former official, Ad Melkert, said it would have been better if Wolfowitz had instructed one of his deputies to handle the transfer for Shaha Riza, to avoid conflict of interest issues. In a late-night statement, the World Bank's overseeing board of directors, said the special committee had completed interviews on the matter and would now draw up a report.