American Taliban Caught in Karachi, Psychic Profit Indicted as Fraud

Samuel Jacobs
Michael Bennet
Tahir ul-Qadri



In addition to proposed sanctions against businesses that do business with the Revolutionary Guard, the US has also toyed with setting up a naval blockade in the Persian Gulf. To counter the West's pawn moves, Iran has announced that they are making a bunch of powerful short range missiles that can blow anything we send out of the water. Check. The US's goal is to isolate Iran both physically and financially, with the hope that this will make them play nice. The only thing that will be allowed to penetrate the cordon will be the Afghan drug traders, bringing the gift of poppies so that the citizens of Tehran can forget their miseries...

To help increase this year's soon to be bumper crop of poppies in Afghanistan, we are letting the drug lords stockpile the precursor chemicals that go into the production of heroin and morphine: "According to a survey of global counter-narcotics efforts, Afghanistan remains the world's top producer of opium despite a 22% decline in the area under poppy cultivation there during 2009. Historically, traffickers have exported raw opium produced in Afghanistan to other countries for processing into heroin and other opiates. In recent years, however, the country has emerged as one of the biggest producers of refined products.


Drug traffickers in Afghanistan deal in all forms of opiates, including unrefined opium, semi-refined morphine base and refined heroin.


The decrease in poppy cultivation has as much to do with economics as security, according to independent experts in the US. ''The decline is fueled by over-production of poppy which led to a lowering of prices,'' said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a security expert with the Brookings Institution and author of Shooting Up: Counterinsurgency and the War on Drugs. ''The market is saturated," she told Inter Press Service." Last year's crop was smaller because there was more production than demand in europe and Russia, but with the increasing outlook of the new Iranian market, things are looking up for the Afghan economy. Isn't working with the Karzai government better than that nasty old Taliban?

Richard Holbrooke isn't as effective as a special envoy these days. He doesn't get along with the Afghanis, and the Pakistanis see him as arrogant and someone they cannot work with. So they have been bonding with the spook side of our government, with the results that they have been finding and arresting all sorts of al-Qaeda members lately. This morning they caught the infamous California born Adam Gadahn who: "... has served as an important symbol for Al Qaeda. Wearing a beard and long dark hair, he speaks in an American accent on videos produced by the Qaeda media cell, Al Sahab.


He has been on the F.B.I.’s most wanted list since 2004 with a $1 million reward for information leading to his capture, and he is the first American charged with treason in more than half a century. He is believed to have been operating on the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan.


Biographical sketches of Mr. Gadahn, who is about 32, say he converted to Islam at a mosque in Orange County, California, and moved to Pakistan in 1998. Also known as Azzam al-Amriki, Mr. Gadahn apparently joined a Qaeda training camp six years later." Someone has decided to clean house in Karachi, and the end result is that Pakistan can dictate the terms of their relationship with the CIA to their advantage. They won't give up Mullah Omar, that is asking too much, but everyone else seems to be fair game. It seems as though the Mid East is tired of all of this al-Qaeda bs, the game was fun in the beginning, but now everyone is picking up all of their equipment and going home. Time to get on with the rest of our lives...

One of my favorite frauds, Sean David Morton. has been charged with securities fraud by the SEC, bilking 100 people out of over $6 million. The joke going around is that if he is psychic, why didn't he see the indictment coming?

Sean has been a guest several times on the late night radio show Coast to Coast, with host George Noory and original host Art Bell. Sean is also a compulsive liar and self promoter who has tried several different ways to make money off of the fringe elements. I used to listen to Coast to Coast when I was working all night delivering newspapers, it filled up three hours per night of wonderfully wacky guests along with more serious theorists and scientists. Oh yeah, there were the UFO folks, and a lot of the programming is geared towards those who like to hear a good scary story late at night.

Sean's biography has changed a lot over the years, he used to make a lot more claims about having psychic powers, but has narrowed it down to one or two. He used to claim to be a qigong healer and master, but took down all of those claims from his website after I confronted him on them. I guess he figured that nobody in America actually knew about a Chinese system of martial meditations. The picture above shows him doing a fake movement that has nothing to do with qigong or martial arts, the position of the hand and wrist is all wrong. Nice cat, though. One of the most basic lies in his biography is the claim that: "After a life-changing personal audience with the Dalai Lama, His Holiness instructed Sean to trek to the Black Hat monastery of T'ang Boyche in Nepal, near the foot of Mt. Everest." The Dalai Lama is not a guru and will never send anyone out on a spiritual quest, Sean is mixing up a Hindu practice from India and putting it onto a Buddhist from Tibet. And there isn't a Black Hat Monastery located at the foot of Mount Everest, except maybe in the movie Lost Horizons...

Sean and his wife live in a crappy two bedroom shack in Hermosa Beach, though it is i/1 block from the ocean. If you would like to see how well Sean does as a psychic, here is a link to an old web site that used to keep track of all of the predictions made on the Coast to Coast show... And for those gullible folks who invested their money with Sean, you know what they say about a fool and their money...

Hamas Helper, Ethically Challenged, Mahmoud Denies 9/11

David Sirota
Dana Milbank
Matthew Yglesias


I always worry when I make some kind of prediction that I have embarrassed myself, such as when I thought who was behind the murder of the Hamas official in a Dubai hotel room. Today I see that the police chief of Dubai, a most clever and honorable man, agrees with me. Thank you for reading my blog: "Admitting that he could not know for certain which faction the two Palestinians extradited from Jordan over the killing belonged, Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim told Al Jazeera television yesterday: “I believe that someone from Hamas helped the assassins with the operation.


“I understand that Hamas might be upset to hear me say that, but it’s my personal opinion and it’s clear to me that someone from Hamas helped.


“Hamas and Fatah are exchanging accusations over who the two Palestinians belong to. We don’t know. Even if one of them said that he belonged to a particular group, we cannot be sure they are not lying.”


Gen Tamim admitted that his officers had only realised al Mabhouh’s role in Hamas when the dead man’s family contacted them. He said they had not previously known the Hamas commander was in Dubai."

Two of the assassins have been said to have flown to the US although the State Department is denying that they ever entered the country. They have not offered up any proof one way or the other, so the people could have entered with US complicity and we are lying, our computer skills still aren't up to snuff and we missed them, or can't find them, or they bought tickets for the US and flew somewhere else. The FBI is said to be helping the investigation of Payoneer, the company that issued 13 credit cards that the assassins used to buy plane tickets and pay for their rooms. The results will probably not be made public, especially if it is a front for either the CIA or Mossad, or just caters to spies all over the world like Assassins-R-US, your friendly one stop shop for all things clandestine...

"Scientists in Britain have developed a new camera that can identify a terrorist by the shape of their nose. Yeah, it's all part of the new technology called 'racism.'" –Jimmy Fallon

New York Democratic Representative Eric Massa will resign his seat on Monday. He is under investigation for sexual harassment of a male staffer. I'm sure that more scandals will unfold in the near future. I guess he can double-date with the California Republican family values guy who got arrested for a DUI after coming out of a gay bar with some strange man that he was taking home. Or maybe they can join Larry Craig, David Visser, John Ensign, and Mark Sanford in creating an Old Wive's Club... The problem with Congressmen getting caught at having affairs isn't all about sex, though we are a Puritanical nation, but the hypocrisy, lying, and predatory nature of their actions. Power corrupts, abuse of power tends to cause them to abuse others.

"Representative Charles Rangel, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has temporarily surrendered his post pending an ethics investigation. They've been investigating him for three months now. And so far, they have not found a single trace of ethics." –Jay Leno

And if its not about sex then its about money. Most people want to get elected to Congress for the power, prestige, and the money. In a few cases where the publicity and public opinion becomes overwhelming and the ethics committee has to take action, for the most part they will slap your hand and exonerate you. Yesterday, the bi-partisan committee composed of five Democrats and five Republicans cleared seven members of the House: "... all on the defense appropriations subcommittee, of allegations that they had improperly given tens of millions of dollars in earmarks to political contributors.


Although investigators found indications that at least two of the members had at least implicitly rewarded donors with earmarks, the committee said that the appearance of a financial reward for donors does not amount to an ethical breach in itself.


“Simply because a member sponsors an earmark for an entity that also happens to be a campaign contributor does not, on these two facts alone, support a claim that a member’s actions are being influenced by campaign contributions,” the committee, which is made up of five Democrats and five Republicans, concluded in its report."

“In essence, unless you’re caught on the phone with a lobbyist saying ‘Contribute or else you don’t get an earmark,’ then you’re fine,” he said. “ That’s the clear message here.” - Jeff Flake, D Ariz

You are a Congressperson. An entity in your jurisdiction has a project that they would like some federal funding. It could be anything from a college sports complex to bio-research in the private sector, let your imagination go wild. The entity contracts with a lobbyist and pays them lots and lots of money to ensure that you get the federal funds. The lobbyist goes to the Congressperson and makes a deal, usually in the form of an earmark, which is a rider inserted into whatever bill that is set to pass that day, and in return the lobbyist gives your campaign a generous donation, and keeps most of the money for himself. He can't give you the money directly because that is a bribe and is illegal.

Not all earmarks, which are outside the normal budgeting and review process, are given for donations. The linking of an earmark to a campaign donation is seen as an abuse of the process until this recent ruling by the ethics committee which legitimizes the abuse by saying that it isn't really any kind of punishable offense. And we trust these people to make our laws... And those laws do not have a sunset clause... It may not be bribery but it does constitute prostitution...

This is one more example that is pissing people off, creating distrust in government. Although  both John McCain and Barack Obama campaigned on cleaning up the sleaze of earmarks, Obama so far has taken a baby step, making folks cynical that he is serious about his campaign pledges. We'll see after this healthcare boondoggle is over, if he suddenly gets a conscience... and God knows where McCain has gone, after all of his backtracking and repudiating all of his former beliefs in order to get re-elected.

"Gay marriage now legal in Washington, D.C. How about that? So, if you're a congressman, in bed with a lobbyist, if you like it, you better put a ring on it." –Jay Leno

This just freshly translated, from that ever-lovable, wacky leader of Iran. Once again embarrassing all intelligent Iranians, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proclaimed yesterday: "In remarks reported by IRNA, an official Iranian news agency, and translated by Reuters, Mr. Ahmadinejad said, “The September 11 incident was a big fabrication as a pretext for the campaign against terrorism and a prelude for staging an invasion against Afghanistan.” Mr. Ahmadinejad also reportedly described the attacks in New York as a “complicated intelligence scenario and act.” Conspiracy theorists in the Middle East have suggested that the attacks were not the work of Al Qaeda, but carried out by Israeli or American intelligence operatives."


While I love conspiracy theories, and there are many questions about 9/11 that have been unanswered, ignored, and swept under the rug, most of it comes from the US intelligence agencies not releasing all of the investigative information they have. The official report does little to answer them too, again, creating distrust in our government. In fact, the lies given to us by the Bush administration, despite the shallow protestations in Karl Rove's new book, coupled with the frustrations, pain, and death caused by the two wars is what created the atmosphere that birthed the tea parties...

Fatwa Against Terrorists, Chalabi Is Scum, The Moonbeam Party

David Brooks

Ezra Klein
Eric Alterman

"In our political system, if Democrats and Republicans are yelling at each other over something, then for the media, that is, by definition, controversy" - Ezra Klein

"A president who sets out to engineer large-scale changes in basic economic, social and legal structures at the same time he is fighting two wars and dealing with the fallout from a fiscal calamity is risking defeat. Obama has courted that risk knowingly because he thinks — as I do — the nation really is in peril. His party in Congress and its leadership are too often more narrow-minded and parochial than the president. And the Republicans have chosen the easy path of near-unanimous opposition." - David Broder

One of the most emailed news article being sent around the Mid East is a 600 page fatwa, which is a written moral opinion by an established cleric. It would be similar to an opinion written by a member of our Supreme Court: "Muhammad Tahir ul-Qadri, head of the Minhaj ul-Quran religious and educational organisation, said suicide bombers were destined for hell as he released his 600-page edict in London on Tuesday.


"They can't claim that their suicide bombings are martyrdom operations and that they become the heroes of the Muslim Umma [the wider Muslim community], no, they become heroes of hellfire, and they are leading towards hellfire. There is no place for any martyrdom and their act is never, ever to be considered Jihad," he said."

Mr ul-Qadri has written over 350 books on Islam and heads an organization that promotes peaceful dialogue throughout the Mid Eastern region. Since he is about my age, I could think of him as an ex-hippie, but he is also recognizes as a top Sufi. It's about time that someone had the cojones to step up and formally say what most people on the street have been saying, hopefully this will have some influence and effect on young potential recruits who look to interpretations of the Koran to justify killing. If nothing else, here's hoping that it serves as a deterrent for those living in Western countries, who lately have been volunteering to commit mayhem on their host countries...

"Terrorism is terrorism, violence is violence and it has no place in Islamic teaching and no justification can be provided for it, or any kind of excuses or ifs or buts,"

Speaking of fatwas, will someone please issue one against that old gonif, Ahmed Chalabi? I am amazed that this man is still living, much less trying to become the power behind the peacock throne, or even the eventual Saddam mini-me. the Christian Science Monitor reports on his latest machinations: "Mr. Chalabi, a member of a slate of electoral candidates mostly drawn from Islamist Shiite parties, was deeply involved in a de-Baathification committee that disqualified about 500 secular candidates from running in the election and briefly had some Sunni politicians inside Iraq considering a boycott.


While the boycott won't happen, Chalabi's role in the disqualification of candidates from rival parties – even as he runs on a slate the includes men alleged to have participated in the sectarian violence of Iraq's civil war – increases the sectarian tension around Sunday's election. It's also a symbol of the gains Iran has made thanks to the removal of Saddam Hussein, Iraq's secular Sunni dictator and an avowed enemy of the regime in Tehran. Chalabi has cordial relations with the leaders of the Shiite theocracy next door, as do most of the senior crop of Shiite politicians in Iraq." That's putting it mildly. When Chalabi was receiving money from the State Department and the CIA, he planted evidence from the Iranian intelligence service that Iraq had, what is now called weapons of mass destruction hidden away or buried in the sand somewhere. Further, if Bush would invade Iraq, he could build a democracy that would be friendly towards Israel. Yeah, like that happened... He did this because he is a Shia Muslim andis enamored with the Shia dominated nation of Iran, and he has nothing but contempt for the stupid Americans who even made up more evidence to strengthen the lies he spoon fed them. He had an office in Tehran, and a housing compound in a more rural area, where he keeps his expensive cars, flat tv screens, and other toys.

Ahmed Chalabi wanted the US to install himself as the leader of Iraq after the invasion, but his cloth of lies began to unravel, with the US military invading his Iraqi headquarters in 2004. Since then he has tried to insinuate his family back into Iraqi politics, most notably on the election certification committee who came up with the BS excuse to get rid of Sunni candidates and others who were considered a threat to Nuri al-Malicki. He is on a slate of candidates to be elected to Parliament, his next political goal is to become The Scum Who Would Be King... Anyway, his influence has proven that the real winner of this Iraq adventure has been Iran, who had the US get rid of their arch-enemy for them, and within the next few years may unite with Iraq as one Shia state. If you are a Sunni, be afraid, be very afraid...

"The one thing you can say for sure about Chalabi is that you can never count him out"

I certainly will be glad when the health bill gets to a vote in Congress. Then so many people can get on with their lives. The right wing conservatives would like to delay it so they can use it to get votes in the upcoming election. Once the hysteria dies down, many of the candidates will be seen not to have any clothes, much less a platform. To me, it's pathetic running around campaigning with talking points you cribbed off of a web site. Once the insurance industry stops funding the various groups and websites, will the tea parties then go away? Will they have any substance behind their mean spirited rhetoric and ugly signs, that they also copied off of web sites?

I'm hoping that all this calling Obama a socialist will stop. It's such nonsense, trying to make it into a negative connotation. They really mean to brand him a Communist, with all of the associations of military coups, dictatorial power, running over the people's desires in the name of the people, which is closer to the managerial style of the RNC and the way that Congressional Republicans ruled when they were in control of Congress. Anyway, what's so scary about socialism? I think that Sweden is a wonderful country and I don't see them invading anybody else in the name of anti-terror and democracy any time soon. In fact, that could be my next bumpersticker:

Socialism -

More Saunas, Less Terror

What I am hoping for, are more viable political parties to emerge and organize. The Democrats are inept, the Republicans are too right wing, evidently not right wing enough for many others, but those people are really marginal despite the media attention. Moderates need to form a party of their own to promote balanced, well thought out ideals. Most normal people are a mixture of liberal and conservative thoughts, and don't need a written text to tell them what to think. I don't see anyone in public life right now, besides, believe it or not, ex-Governor Moonbeam Jerry Brown, who might be able to pull it off. I'll have to come up with another bumpersticker by tomorrow for that thought, I know the campaign song would be Sinatra singing How Would You Like To Swing On A Star...

Birth Defects Ignored in Iraq, Who's the Bossier Now?

Dana Milbank
David Ignatius

About a year ago I wrote about the rising birth defect rate in Iraq, a subject that has been ignored by the press. Finally a reporter from the BBC went to Fallujah to investigate: "The Iraqi government line is that there are only one or two extra cases of birth defects per year in Fallujah, compared with the national average. But in the impressive new Fallujah General Hospital, built with American aid, we found a paediatric specialist, Dr Samira al-Ani, who told us that she saw two or three new cases every day. Most of them, she said, exhibited cardiac problems. When asked what the cause was, she said: "I am a doctor. I have to be scientific in my talk. I have nothing documented. But I can tell you that year by year, the number [is] increasing."

The specialist, like other medical staff at the hospital, seemed nervous about talking too openly about the problem. They were well aware that what they said went against the government version, and we were told privately that the Iraqi authorities are anxious not to embarrass the Americans over the issue."

The US has purposely not kept any records nor asked any Iraqi institution to begin any investigations. We are not talking about minor defects like a cleft palate or a third nipple, we are talking incredibly serious defects that result in gross deformity: "We heard many times that officials in Fallujah had warned women that they should not have children. We went to a clinic for the disabled, and were given details of dozens upon dozens of cases of children with serious birth defects. One photograph I saw showed a newborn baby with three heads. While we were at the clinic, people kept arriving with children who were suffering major problems - a little girl with only one arm, several children who were paralysed, and another girl with a spinal condition so bad I asked my cameraman not to film her."

People concerned over this rising problem claim that the defects are the result of depleted uranium from bombs, bullets, and the hardened lining in Humvees. Rubble from buildings and villages decimated gets bulldozed into rivers where it leaches into the water table. Sure, we get the kids with six toes or a missing arm, but there also are the more horrific children that look like they came from a classic horror film. And we continue to ignore it and sweep it under the rug. After all, we are supposed to be their saviors, not the instruments of pain and disfigurement. What soldier wants to come home with that on their conscience? Who would then step up and take some responsibility?

In the meantime, fellow Iraqis continue to blow the crap out of each other, this time aimed at creating havoc during the elections, which last through Sunday. I remember reading about, back in 2003, Muslim insurgents in Iraq refused to use bombs on another Muslim, now it seems they have no qualms whatsoever. Perhaps we have Iranian agents like Ahmed Chalabi to thank, he who sold the concept of WMD's to the gullible Bush administration. So maybe we could also thank Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld for commandeering that ship of fools...

So, are the birth defects from drinking radioactive water any worse than contracting cholera like every other person in Africa? It's been confirmed that the drinking water in almost every major city in the US has elements of metamphetamines and countless prescription drugs, and I am wondering if the concentration is higher in the water in Louisiana. Perhaps all of that black mold that settled in after Hurricane Katrina has induced paranoid fantasies or created psychedelic hallucinations: "The office of the Louisiana sheriff who's forming a citizen militia to defend the parish in the event of a terrorist attack says it has information about possible Islamic terrorist activity in its midst.


"We understand, based on some intelligence that we've collected over the last year, year and a half, that there have been cells and people operating even within our parish that have been trained as terrorists or went overseas to be trained as terrorists," Ed Baswell, a spokesman for the Bossier Parrish Sheriff's Office, told TPMmuckraker this morning.

"So this is not something that's far, far away," Baswell added. "This is something that is a possibility here in Bossier Parish." Sheriff Larry Deen has announced a plan to arm volunteers with shotguns, riot shields, batons, and a .50-caliber machine gun mounted on a "war wagon," and has begun training them in "hand-to-hand combat" and other techniques, as part of a program to provide security in the event of a terrorist attack or civic unrest."

"Terrorists can tend to strike anywhere and everywhere... There's not a state of paranoia, or anything like that"

The thought of terrorists training in the middle of bumfuck, Louisiana isn't all that farfetched. the leader of the 9/11 terrorists, Mohammed Atta, lived and trained in rural Florida, took lessons at an flight school that was bought overnight by a foreign national and an Arkansas man with ties to organized crime. Atta himself blended in by drinking, using cocaine, going to strip clubs like any pious Muslim would, and even living for awhile with a prostitute to make him feel more at home, which was in Austria, not the Middle East.

Besides, martial arts training for us old men makes a lot of sense, especially if I get to man the machine gun. I guess it ties into the rampant paranoia that the Obama administration is going to take all of your guns away, even though there has been no evidence in word or deed to that effect. Here in Colorado, despite the high unemployment rate, high foreclosure rate, higher divorce and domestic abuse rates, the sales of guns went through the roof. Despite the fact that we had another Columbine imitation-style shooting at a middle school last week, when the University of Colorado announced that it was going to ban handguns on its campus, 97% of my fellow citizens felt that was a wrong choice. They felt it was wiser and safer allowing kids in the midst of puberty to strut around school with a loaded handgun strapped to their body. Careful, baby, I might go off... When I read in today's NY Times an opinion piece by Nicholas Kristoff, where he said that societies that are abusive to women tend to be more violent, I thought he was referring to places like Yemen, not Colorado Springs...

This is down in the swampland where anything goes

It's alligator bait and the bars don't close

It's the real thing down in Louisiana

Did you ever see a Cajun when he really got mad

When he really got trouble like a daughter gone bad

It gets real hot down in Louisiana

And now the stranger better move it or he's gonna get killed

He's gonna have to get it or a shotgun will

It ain't no time for lengthy speeches

There ain't no time for lengthy speeches

from Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight   by Rodney Crowell

More Surveillance Cameras, Italian Arms Smugglers Busted, Local Severed Head Goes to Arizona

Maureen Dowd
Andy Borowitz

I realize now that I have no need to be paranoid over the fact that Big Brother is watching. He has been literally watching us for years now, proving that all of the paranoid fantasies from the '60's have come true, just like in a Philip Dick novel. There are security cameras in every major building in every major city throughout the world, many are posted on major streets and intersections by the police, and thermal imaging cameras are looking out to sea along stretches of coastline. With the publicity and impressive videos made during the assassination of a Hamas member in Dubai, more expensive high definition cameras, which is good news for American optical companies like ICx Technologies. For example, in Abu Dhabi: " Security chiefs are to build a network of surveillance towers around the capital. The towers will be equipped with radar-enabled cameras linked to a central communications system to protect the emirate’s critical infrastructure assets. Installation will begin in April and is expected to take eight months. The new cameras, bought from the American company ICx Technologies, will add to the CNIA’s already widespread network around Abu Dhabi, providing additional coverage and replacing some older units."

So, the next time you are in a strange country for business or out on holiday, remember to smile for the camera. Many of these systems have been working for years in places like London and New York. Surveillance is becoming so sophisticated, that in the near future, if Big Brother wants to find you, there will be an app for that...

A couple of other interesting technologies, reported in Wired Magazine's Danger Room: "In a war zone, evacuating patients under fire is one of the most dangerous jobs there is. That’s why the Pentagon’s hoping to capitalize on recent innovations in robotics to finally create ‘bots that operate as “combat casualty extraction system[s].”


And the military doesn’t just want solo robot heroes, plucking the injured from battle and rushing them to a waiting — and human-operated — vehicle. Nope. The Pentagon’s after an autonomous EMS crew, complete with an unmanned ambulance and robodocs, who can aid fallen troops “with minimal intervention by medic or other first responder operators.”


The potential benefits are obvious. Replacing humans who now help bring medical attention to wounded soldiers would reduce the number of people at risk in rescue operations. And the Army is betting that technology in the works, with developments like free-ranging robots that have human-like movement or legs strong enough to jump 25 feet, offers a chance to swap human medics with robotic versions." Who doesn't love robots? While the Japanese have concentrated on making creepy female robots, the US and Israel are concentrating on spy-bots and bots that can find roadside bombs, and bots that can work in situations that are harmful to humans, especially in wartime.

Another fascinating invention that is about 10 years out from being used in the marketplace, is the way to convert energy from walking or jogging into electricity: "Until now, researchers have been unsure how to make the crystals biocompatible. Manufacturing piezoelectric crystals requires heat that can exceed 1,000 degrees, so they’re tough to embed into temperature-sensitive materials, like rubber or plastic. So McAlpine’s team used nanotechnology, creating ribbons of the crystals on a substrate — 100 strips in a single millimeter — and then embedding them into silicone rubber. The result is a flexible strip of “piezo-rubber” that’s 80 percent efficient at converting mechanical energy (like what’s generated from walking) into electricity.


McAlpine tells Danger Room that a single PZT crystal, implanted into a shoe, could theoretically generate around enough to operate an iPod. Now imagine that instead of a single crystal, the entire shoe’s insole is lined with strips of PZT, that can convert most of the body’s energy into usable power.


Next up for the intel-funded researchers are prototype devices and some number crunching, to figure out exactly how much money the government agency could save if it switched to crystal-based people power.


More than just charging up intel gadgets, the research has clear applications across the military, including easy power harvesting for troops working in isolated, far-out terrain. But McAlpine is also anticipating widespread civilian use. Most importantly, perhaps, is replacing batteries on implanted medical devices, like pacemakers. The strips would harness power from the lungs to control the heart, and work perpetually without needing replacement parts." 


arms smuggling to Iran...

Some of the international sanctions against Iran that have been in effect for several years may have to be tweaked and tightened up. We know about the Hamas official who used to buy arms from Iran for his organization in Gaza. We know about a Russian freighter supposedly full of wood but really was carrying missiles bound for Iran was "hijacked," then returned to a Russian port after being found. There was an airplane from North Korea, staffed by Uzbeks and Georgians, that stopped for refueling in Bangkok, and was confiscated containing arms and small missiles bound for Iran. The crew of the plane were recently released to go home and the cargo taken over by some Thai generals for their personal collections...

Today, an international arms smuggling ring based in Italy was busted by police: "Five Italians and two Iranians, including "some who are believed to belong to the Iranian secret service" were among those detained, police said on Wednesday.

Authorities believe the arrests, which took place on Tuesday in several Italian cities, disrupted an operation which would have shifted large quantities of hi-tech gear including bullets, guns and explosives, to Iran." One of the Iranians was a television journalist who had worked in Italy for 17 years. Perhaps we could trade him for several of the 37 journalists who are currently in Iranian jails?

The international aspect of this case can be illustrated in how it began: "The scheme fell apart during a check by Romanian customs officials, who confiscated 200 gunsights. Another 100 were seized in London... police in Bern, Switzerland, where one of the Italian suspects resided, had collaborated with the investigation. Then, British authorities arrested a Briton implicated in the trafficking a few months ago." Italy used to be one of Iran's largest trading partners, but since Silvio Berlesconi came into office, his right wing, old school anti-Communist beliefs do not mesh with the Iranian style of right wing religious fascism, and their relationship soured. If the arms embargo can stop the arms smuggling, and this has been just the tip of the iceberg, then Iran will be in trouble. Their economy is in a downward spiral, almost half of their population is under 30 years old and currently not working. Further sanctions will affect the many Iranian businesses in the Gulf countries, and with no money or guns coming in, food in short supply, and such high unemployment, the country could fall apart internally. Which is what the US is planning on, causing a regime change from within. If a more repressive ruler takes over, we may soon be wishing for the bumbling, ranting, charmless Ahmadinejad...


mmmmm, head cheesy...

Another fun story from here in Colorado Springs that made the rounds. Usually, whenever a local news story goes national, it's always something embarrassing. A local woman got scammed by an Arizona cryogenics company called Alcor, infamous for being the home of the head of Ted Williams. Yes, they have the severed head of the late baseball player stored in some freezer, taking it out for an occasional bowling match after midnight...

This nice lady, who was enamored with immortality, but not too bright, signed a contract and gave them a $50,000 deposit to keep her head when she died, to become resurrected at an unspecified later date. Recently, she contracted cancer and decided not to go through with her nefarious plan, and wrote a letter stating her reasons.

Then, she died.

Alcor is claiming the head and offering to return the body to the family. Her family want to bury her intact. A judge ruled that, because she hadn't bothered to notorize her letter or sign a seperate contract cancelling her previous agreement, the company wins. Her body is currently being kept on dry ice while the family appeals.


The Bride of Frankenstein      by Edward Field


The Baron has decided to mate the monster,
to breed him perhaps,
in the interests of pure science, his only god.
So he goes up into his laboratory
which he has built in the tower of the castle

to be as near the interplanetary forces as possible,
and puts together the prettiest monster-woman you ever saw
with a body like a pin-up girl
and hardly any stitching at all
where he sewed on the head of a raped and murdered beauty queen.

He sets his liquids burping, and coils blinking and buzzing,
and waits for an electric storm to send through the equipment
the spark vital for life.
The storm breaks over the castle
and the equipment really goes crazy
like a kitchen full of modern appliances
as the lightning juice starts oozing right into that pretty corpse.

He goes to get the monster
so he will be right there when she opens her eyes,
for she might fall in love with the first thing she sees as ducklings do.
That monster is already straining at his chains and slurping,

ready to go right to it:
He has been well prepared for coupling
by his pinching leering keeper who's been saying for weeks,
"Ya gonna get a little nookie, kid,"
or "How do you go for some poontang, baby?"
All the evil in him is focused on this one thing now
as he is led into her very presence.

She awakens slowly,
she bats her eyes,
she gets up out of the equipment,
and finally she stands in all her seamed glory,
a monster princess with a hairdo like a fright wig,
lightning flashing in the background
like a halo and a wedding veil,
like a photographer snapping pictures of great moments.

She stands and stares with her electric eyes,
beginning to understand that in this life too
she was just another body to be raped.

The monster is ready to go:
He roars with joy at the sight of her,
so they let him loose and he goes right for those knockers.
And she starts screaming to break your heart
and you realize that she was just born:
In spite of her big tits she was just a baby.

But her instincts are right --
rather death than that green slobber:
She jumps off the parapet.

And then the monster's sex drive goes wild.
Thwarted, it turns to violence, demonstrating sublimation crudely;
and he wrecks the lab, those burping acids and buzzing coils,
overturning the control panel so the equipment goes off like a bomb,
and the stone castle crumbles and crashes in the storm
destroying them all . . . perhaps.

Perhaps somehow the Baron got out of that wreckage of his dreams
with his evil intact, if not his good looks,
and more wicked than ever went on with his thrilling career.
And perhaps even the monster lived
to roam the earth, his desire still ungratified;
and lovers out walking in shadowy and deserted places
will see his shape loom up over them, their doom --
and children sleeping in their beds
will wake up in the dark night screaming
as his hideous body grabs them.                

Meta Bank of Assassins, Iraqracy, The Ides of Dan May

Clarissa Estes
Dana Milbank
Anthony Weiner

"The Republican Party is increasingly the party of the declining white working class. Non-Hispanic whites are shrinking as a percentage of the U.S. population... To add insult to injury, the Democrats, instead of reaching out to white working-class voters, often have snobbishly dismissed them."  - Michael Lind

"I said it on Wednesday, and I'll say it again: the Republicans really are just a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry... They want to destroy Medicare, shovel money to insurance companies, and screw over the American people." - Anthony Weiner

The first two links above are about Kentucky's Senator Jim Bunning, who is being forced to retire and has been displaying angry, erratic behavior because he has Alzheimer's, or Lou Dobbs Disease, as I like to call it. The other link is to a great rant by Rep Anthony Weiner, just because I have a soft spot for grumpy men. I remember the point where I realized that it was ok to be grumpy myself, quite a liberating moment. I had spent 21 years working where I had to work with the public and always had to show restraint, behavior that was deemed politically correct. After I retired, I remember walking along the outdoor mall in Santa Cruz, California, and had a rather obnoxious street person walk up to me and say hello. This young man was pretty crazy, lived in a treehouse on property at the University, and I had kicked him off of a public bus a few times for panhandling and attempted solicitation of minor girls.

When he walked up to me I then realized that I no longer had to be nice to him, I could walk past him or I could yell at him to leave me alone, or just about anything except say hello back to him. I was so elated that I went and bought coffee for the next two street people I saw, plus a breakfast burrito... It took awhile to be able to say out-loud what I was really feeling, and why I enjoy writing this blog today... rant on, white man, rant on...

I wonder what I would do if I found out that the bank I used was actually a CIA conduit. Would I take my money out and switch banks, or re-apply for a credit card? That may be the dliemma facing customers of Meta Bank, a small, chartered bank based in Storm Lake, Iowa, of all places. Interpol and the police in Dubai have traced plane tickets bought by assassins of the Hamas official in a luxury hotel with credit cards issued by the bank.. Money spent was also traced to another company in New York, called Payoneer, owned by an ex-Mossad agent. It is like Paypal but obviously not as successful, possibly only funding Israeli operators inside of the US.

Two of the assassins fled Dubai and entered the US: "One suspect traveling on a British passport arrived in the United States on Feb. 14; the other used an Irish passport and arrived on Jan. 21. He did not say where the men entered the country, and added that there was no known record of their leaving.


Many of the 26 suspects identified in the case used stolen identities — most of them taken from people with dual citizenship living in Israel — and that appeared to be true of the two men who traveled to the United States, who used the names Roy Allan Cannon and Evan Dennings. On Friday, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz identified the real Mr. Cannon as “a 62-year-old, ultra-Orthodox father of six” who moved to Israel in 1983. Irish officials said last week that they believed that Mr. Dennings was also a victim of identity theft.


As foreign citizens, the two suspects would have been photographed and fingerprinted on arrival in the United States, and could therefore presumably be tracked. But in light of the identity theft practiced in the case, it seems possible that the men could have left the United States under false travel documents. Although Interpol is assisting in the investigation and has put out alert notices about the suspects, United States officials have been silent about it. On Monday, the State Department again refused to comment on the case." The State Department's silence may mean that they move slowly when gathering information, or that they have knowingly allowed these people here, or even that they are about to be embarrassed because they can't find the damned records, showing no better security efforts since the December incident of the underwear bomber...

Of course, every ex-spy, government hack, and mid-eastern think tank member have given their opinions, but I cynically cynically like the one by Robert Grenier, who was station chief for the CIA in Pakistan, and head of their counter-terrorism unit: "The simple, cruel truth is that in the end, no one - and here I would include all the governments concerned, including the concerned Arab states - is really going to care all that much, or for all that long, about the fate of one Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Yes, there will be a bit of unpleasantness for a while, but before long, life will go back to normal. Whether or not that is the way it should be is irrelevant; it is quite clear, on the basis of much past evidence, that that is precisely the way it is going to be..."


He is probably right. We can trace these people only so far, until they step behind the curtain and no longer get any co-operation as to their identities. It will depend on how long investigators are willing to spend, what the worth is of any human life compared to the larger geo-political schemes. We are the only mammal on this planet that kills each other for reasons other than for food, and are much more comfortable if behavior like this is confined to an hour long episode of NCIS...


iraqracy...

I have to admit that I'm jealous of the Iraqi way of electioneering.: "Gen. David H. Petraeus, the head of the United States Central Command, has offered a special name for it: Iraqracy." Everyone like free stuff, banks and businesses offer stuff all of the time to lure you. But candidates vying for votes in next week's Iraqi elections are kicking it up several notches: "In Babil Province, local candidates have imported sports equipment and thousands of running shoes from China for their constituents. In the southern marshes, politicians travel for hours to pass out toys to children, phone cards to adults and blankets to the poor... Most of the gifts from candidates are utilitarian — blankets for the poor, heating oil, propane tanks, phone cards and food. While residents have reported receiving cash directly, outright bribes are delivered more discreetly."

“I think I will vote for Hashemi,” he said with a smile. “But if someone else gives me something better, I will vote for him. Because after they win the elections, we will never see them or get anything from them. So I don’t care. I will vote for whoever gives me more.”

“We are still receiving many gifts from the parties,” said Mohamed Jumah, from Babil. One of the candidates gave his family $100 in cash, while another gave it food and building supplies. “I have not decided who I will vote for,” 

One government official said that, despite all of the free swag intended to sway the minds of the poor and uneducated: "While acknowledging that many poor people might accept the gifts, he said that their vote remained their own. “The ballot box will be covered,” he said. “Ask your conscience. Ask God.” I know there is a new proverb waiting to be written from this. I'm not sure where the tying your camel up first fits in, perhaps updating it to securing your suicide vest first before entering the voting booth...? Here's hoping that American democracy learns a lesson from our newest imperial conquest, maybe the Colorado Republican Caucus will give me a free frozen chicken for showing up...

mayday, mayday...

We have a newly elected District Attorney, Dan May, who ran for the office because his predecessor was filmed by the local television station drinking beer in a bar during working hours, then driving off in a county car. Then, he denied that what he did was wrong, because he had a strong constitution and could hold his liquor. This manly man was replaced by another conservative, Dan May.

Recently Dan had been getting complaints from his neighbors about a medical marijuana dispensary that had opened up. He says that he decided to file a complaint and this is what happened even though he is the District Attorney: "Filing the complaint against Pure Medical proved challenging, said May, who had to navigate the city’s bureaucracy to do it. He initially went to the city’s zoning office, which referred him to the code enforcement division. He said he called Vice Mayor Larry Small, told him to contact the Police Department. He said he called police Chief Richard Myers, who told him he needed to talk to the City Attorney’s Office.


May said he didn’t know whether Myers takes calls from regular citizens. “I would say that a normal citizen could pick up the phone and call me,” May said. “Of course, maybe the difference is that I’m an elected official.” The police chief is appointed by the City Council. After talking to Myers, May said he talked to Deputy City Attorney Wynetta Massey, who referred him to the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department, which directed him back to the Police Department.


“In the end, I think I got treated exactly like any other citizen,” he said." Who says that you can't fight city hall... again, we don't need a smaller government, just a shorter way to process complaints.

This story has caused a local uproar, depending on whose side you are on, because even many evangelicals are stoners in this town, certainly each Libertarian has a completely different take. We'll let Dan have the last word: “It was not my intent to unduly influence,” he said. “Certainly, that’s why I said I was a citizen. It was not my intent to intimidate anybody. It was my intent to file a complaint like any other citizen. That was my entire intent. If I’ve offended somebody, I apologize, but that was not my intent.”

We Won War on Terror, Marijuana in Our National Parks

Thomas Farr
Dexter Filkins
Paul Krugman
John Avlon

"I traced the start of the legislative stalemate crippling Obama's agenda to Limbaugh's now infamous statement, "I hope he fails." It was a criticism. Rush took it as a compliment.


That's exactly what's wrong in America right now." - John Avlon

Many international sources are claiming that al-Qaeda has been hurt by the global financial crisis and that it is no longer a major fount of terrorism. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that AIG and Goldman Sachs had sold financial instruments to al-Qaeda like they did to the governments of Greece, Portugal, and Spain. In the real world, that translates as: "No more extensive militant training camps, travel and lodging costs reimbursed, operations planned years in advance, pricey pilot classes in the United States for would-be suicide pilots."

Not only are the small donations from sympathetic Muslims drying up, but sanctions on businesses, charitable organizations, and religious donations have all come under tighter scrutiny due to the financial crisis. More attention is being paid, and more areas are opening up to find out where money has been flowing. For example, many Swiss banks that previously touted their privacy have opened their files under pressure of supporting terrorists and drug money laundering.

"If you're found to be giving money to al-Qaeda, then you suffer considerably, because your reputation, your business, all goes down the drain"

As for Osama and his band of merry men, they have retreated into survival mode, hiding out from an international manhunt, and not able to make any plans against the Great Satans of the world. According to financial terrorist expert Laura Napoleoni: "Osama bin Laden and (his deputy Ayman) Al-Zawahiri maintain a high profile, they project an image of threat. They are iconic figures, but they don't do anything, except survive. They don't plan attacks, they are icons hiding in Waziristan and that's it. They don't need a lot of money for that."

The few self-proclaimed localized groups that call themselves al-Qaeda have to scramble for funds on their own, reduced to plotting bombs in men's underwear. The Algerians make lots of money by running drugs and kidnapping European businessmen and holding them for ransom. But safe havens are shrinking, even Yemen has claimed to having killed off the al-Qaeda head there.

So, if the war on terror has succeeded against al-Qaeda, do you feel that the world is a safer place? Or has the US gone stumbling around the world like a bull in a China shop, knocking expensive stuff off of the shelves that it can never pay for? With President Obama extending parts of the Patriot Act, do you feel any safer at home, any less paranoid about big brother and federal law enforcement?

"We do not need to conquer one another, but we do need to live together"

Even though the latest offensive in Afghanistan was a military success for the NATO forces of good and light, it cost innocent lives in the recent bombings in Kabul. Unfortunately: "United States government agencies are asking why, after US$7 billion has been spent on training and salaries, Afghan police are still widely considered corrupt and inefficient. In particular, the State Department is accused of failing to oversee private contractors involved in training, and there are questions as to why there is a severe shortage of equipment." - Pratap Chatterjee

The government of Hamid Karzai has not gotten any less corrupt or interested in stability and welfare of the Afghan citizens. As soon as the Western forces leave, the place will fall apart like a house of cards, the Pashtuns being the joker waiting in the wings. Pakistan knows this, and that is why they didn't allow extradition to US custody of Mullah Abdul Baradar, the #2 Taliban head honcho. Also, the US envoy Richard Holbrooke made the rounds to the surrounding countries of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, letting them know that they still have a friend...


revenge of the coyote people...
It's been pretty difficult for many Mexican illegal immigrants, who risked life and limb to get into the US, only to wait outside of the Home Depot for hours every day hoping that some contractor would hire them for dollars paid under the table. At least until they could afford to buy a Puerto Rican birth certificate... My younger brother was notorious for hiring guys to work for him. He'd buy them some lunch and beer, then drop them back off without paying them, moving on to the next group of men waiting at the next Home Depot...

No need to worry. Some immigrants went back to Mexico, some became dog whisperers. Many have joined the drug cartels and have gone into and taken over our National Forests and Park Lands: "Pot has been grown on public lands for decades, but Mexican traffickers have taken it to a whole new level: using armed guards and trip wires to safeguard sprawling plots that in some cases contain tens of thousands of plants offering a potential yield of more than 30 tons of pot a year.


 Mexican traffickers have "supersized" the marijuana trade... All of the sites are far from the eyes of law enforcement, where growers can take the time needed to grow far more potent marijuana. Farmers of these fields use illegal fertilizers to help the plants along, and use cloned female plants to reduce the amount of seed in the bud that is dried and eventually sold... Many of the plots are encircled with crude explosives and are patrolled by guards armed with AK-47s who survey the perimeter from the ground and from perches high in the trees."


I've written about this before, about a year ago, and seen documentaries on it on the History Channel. Due to budget constraints, lack of knowledgeable personnel, and the difficulty of getting to these farms, maybe about half of them are found and eradicated every year. So, next time you go hiking or camping in your favorite neck of the woods, take along two things: a friend who speaks Spanish and your medical marijuana card... now we know why you can legally carry a gun into the park...

Here in Colorado Springs we've been bitching because we cannot afford to water the parks, and everything will eventually die off, costing us much more when we can finally afford to replant. The solution is right before our eyes: let our local Mexican gangs take over the maintenance of our parks. If they will keep them green and looking nice for the public, we will give them designated areas off limits to the public for their special farms. Heck, the city could even go into business with them, distributing to all of the local dispensaries. A win/win situation, I think. It would solve our financial problems, maybe enough so that we wouldn't need local taxes, and we could adopt a sister city in Michoacan for cultural stimulation...