Millions of British citizens used in secret biowar tests

The Ministry of Defence turned large parts of the country into a giant laboratory to conduct a series of secret germ warfare tests on the public.
 
A government report just released provides for the first time a comprehensive official history of Britain's biological weapons trials between 1940 and 1979.
 
Many of these tests involved releasing potentially dangerous chemicals and micro-organisms over vast swaths of the population without the public being told.
 
While details of some secret trials have emerged in recent years, the 60-page report reveals new information about more than 100 covert experiments.
 
The report reveals that military personnel were briefed to tell any 'inquisitive inquirer' the trials were part of research projects into weather and air pollution.
 
The tests, carried out by government scientists at Porton Down, were designed to help the MoD assess Britain's vulnerability if the Russians were to have released clouds of deadly germs over the country.
 
In most cases, the trials did not use biological weapons but alternatives which scientists believed would mimic germ warfare and which the MoD claimed were harmless. But families in certain areas of the country who have children with birth defects are demanding a public inquiry.
 
One chapter of the report, 'The Fluorescent Particle Trials', reveals how between 1955 and 1963 planes flew from north-east England to the tip of Cornwall along the south and west coasts, dropping huge amounts of zinc cadmium sulphide on the population. The chemical drifted miles inland, its fluorescence allowing the spread to be monitored. In another trial using zinc cadmium sulphide, a generator was towed along a road near Frome in Somerset where it spewed the chemical for an hour.
 
While the Government has insisted the chemical is safe, cadmium is recognised as a cause of lung cancer and during the Second World War was considered by the Allies as a chemical weapon.

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Fort Hood shooting 'oddities'

'Three people are involved. That, by definition, means it is a conspiracy.'

Curiouser and Curiouser: -Video surfaces of alleged shooter, Major Nidal Hasan, attending Homeland Security Task Force conference --Major Hasan's name appears on page 29 of The George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute's 'Thinking Anew—Security Priorities for the Next Administration' --Proceedings Report of the HSPI Presidential Transition Task Force - April 2008 - January 2009. The report is dated 19 May 2009.

Numerous media accounts: Major Hasan's neighbors, medical trainers, colleagues, friends, cousin -- even the store owner to where he bought his food -- all heap praise on Major Hasan's temperament. This appears to be psy-ops, six ways to Sunday. --LRP

The alleged shooter received his medical degree from the military's Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., in 2001 and is a graduate of Virginia Tech. Early on Thursday, he showed no signs of worry or stress when he stopped at 7-Eleven for his daily breakfast of hash browns, said Jeannie Strickland, the store's manager. "He came in (Thursday) morning just like normal," she said, "nothing weird, nothing out of the ordinary."

    * Video: Alleged Fort Hood Shooter Major Hasan At Homeland Security Task Force conference --Hasan's name, as Task Force member, appears on page 29 of The George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute's 'Thinking Anew—Security Priorities for the Next Administration
    * White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said earlier that officials were monitoring the incident in the Situation Room. The Department of Homeland Security said it was in the process of obtaining information.
    * Alleged shooter is alive, in stable condition --General Bob Cone:
    * Terror attack 'not ruled out'
    * The alleged shooter graduated from Virginia Tech --His cousin, Nader Hasan, actually laughed in an interview when asked if alleged shooter, Nadal Hasan, was 'violent.' He never went to Iraq.
    * Attack appears to have been carried out by multiple shooters. Two suspects are no longer in custody, but a third person has been picked up for questioned.
    * Sources say Army shooting suspect was due to be deployed to Iraq
    * 42 people shot by Army psychiatrist, promoted to Army Major in May. 12 killed; 30 wounded --US Official: Shooter was Major Malik Nadal Hasan
    * 'The individuals arrested are all US soldiers.'

Second Gunman In Custody At Army's Fort Hood -Report 06 Nov 2009 A second gunman is in custody after a shooting at the Army's Fort Hood in Texas in which at least seven people were killed and 12 wounded, reports KCEN-TV of Waco. The report comes about two hours after a first suspect was captured, shortly after gunfire broke out. Authorities say the gunmen were dressed in fatigues, though it's not confirmed whether they are military personnel. It's also not known if the victims were military personnel or civilians.

Surviving Fort Hood shooting suspect arrested at golf course, officer says Updated 2334 GMT 05 Nov 2009 A senior officer who was playing golf Thursday near Fort Hood, Texas, told CNN he witnessed the arrest of one of the two surviving suspects of the shooting at the Army installation. Shortly after the shooting, the officer said, military police told him to clear the course and he saw other MPs surround the building that held the golf carts, he said. The senior officer said he ducked into a nearby house for cover as 30 to 40 cars carrying MPs approached. He said he saw a soldier in battle-dress uniform, his hands in the air. The MPs ordered him to lie on the ground and open his uniform, presumably to ensure he was not carrying explosives, the senior officer said. He said an MP told him that authorities considered the man to be a suspect in the shootings after having overheard the man say he was with the shooter. The man was surrounded for 25 to 30 minutes, until a convoy of vehicles arrived, led by a Ford Crown Victoria and carrying men in suits, and he was taken away, the senior officer said.

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Musical Innerlube: Al Di Meola - 'Egyptian Danza'

A scene from 'The International'

God bless America, where officials may torture with impunity

From A Court Decision that Reflects What Type of Country the U.S. is :

It's not often that an appellate court decision reflects so vividly what a country has become, but such is the case with yesterday's ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Arar v. Ashcroft (.pdf).  Maher Arar is both a Canadian and Syrian citizen of Syrian descent.  A telecommunications engineer and graduate of Montreal's McGill University, he has lived in Canada since he's 17 years old.  In 2002, he was returning home to Canada from vacation when, on a stopover at JFK Airport, he was (a) detained by U.S. officials, (b) accused of being a Terrorist, (c) held for two weeks incommunicado and without access to counsel while he was abusively interrogated, and then (d) was "rendered" -- despite his pleas that he would be tortured -- to Syria, to be interrogated and tortured.  He remained in Syria for the next 10 months under the most brutal and inhumane conditions imaginable, where he was repeatedly tortured.  Everyone acknowledges that Arar was never involved with Terrorism and was guilty of nothing.  I've appended to the end of this post the graphic description from a dissenting judge of what was done to Arar while in American custody and then in Syria.

In January, 2007, the Canadian Prime Minister publicly apologized to Arar for the role Canada played in these events, and the Canadian government paid him $9 million in compensation.  That was preceded by a full investigation by Canadian authorities and the public disclosure of a detailed report which concluded "categorically that there is no evidence to indicate that Mr. Arar has committed any offense or that his activities constituted a threat to the security of Canada."  By stark and very revealing contrast, the U.S. Government has never admitted any wrongdoing or even spoken publicly about what it did; to the contrary, it repeatedly insisted that courts were barred from examining the conduct of government officials because what we did to Arar involves "state secrets" and because courts should not interfere in the actions of the Executive where national security is involved.  What does that behavioral disparity between the two nations say about how "democratic," "accountable," and "open" the United States is?

Yesterday, the Second Circuit -- by a vote of 7-4 --  agreed with the government and dismissed Arar's case in its entirety.  It held that even if the government violated Arar's Constitutional rights as well as statutes banning participation in torture, he still has no right to sue for what was done to him.  Why?  Because "providing a damages remedy against senior officials who implement an extraordinary rendition policy would enmesh the courts ineluctably in an assessment of the validity of the rationale of that policy and its implementation in this particular case, matters that directly affect significant diplomatic and national security concerns" (p. 39).  In other words, government officials are free to do anything they want in the national security context -- even violate the law and purposely cause someone to be tortured -- and courts should honor and defer to their actions by refusing to scrutinize them.

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