Thursday, March 06, 2008

US AGENCIES FORM INTELLIGENCE NETWORK

U.S.Agencies Form National Intelligence Network
2008-03-06 03:25:09 (5 hours ago)
Posted By: Intellpuke

Fledgling Justice Department system enables authorities to examine enormous caches of digital records and raises civil liberties concerns.

Several thousand law enforcement agencies are creating the foundation of a domestic intelligence system through computer networks that analyze vast amounts of police information to fight crime and root out terror plots.

As federal authorities struggled to meet information-sharing mandates after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, police agencies from Alaska and California to the Washington, D.C., region poured millions of criminal and investigative records into shared digital repositories called data warehouses, giving investigators and analysts new power to discern links among people, patterns of behavior and other hidden clues.

Those network efforts will begin expanding further this month, as some local and state agencies connect to a fledgling Justice Department system called the National Data Exchange, or N-DEx. Federal authorities hope N-DEx will become what one called a "one-stop shop" enabling federal law enforcement, counterterrorism and intelligence analysts to automatically examine the enormous caches of local and state records for the first time.

Although Americans have become accustomed to seeing dazzling examples of fictional crime-busting gear on television and in movies, law enforcement's search for clues has in reality involved a mundane mix of disjointed computers, legwork and luck.

These new systems are transforming that process. "It's going from the horse-and-buggy days to the space age, that's what it's like," said Sgt. Chuck Violette of the Tucson, Arizona, police department, one of almost 1,600 law enforcement agencies that uses a commercial data-mining system called Coplink.

With Coplink, police investigators can pinpoint suspects by searching on scraps of information such as nicknames, height, weight, color of hair and the placement of a tattoo. They can find hidden relationships among suspects and instantly map links among people, places and events. Searches that might have taken weeks or months - or which might not have been attempted, because of the amount of paper and analysis involved - are now done in seconds.

On one recent day, Tucson detective Cynthia Butierez demonstrated that power in an office littered with paper and boxes of equipment. Using a regular desktop computer and Web browser, she logged onto Coplink to search for clues about a fraud suspect. She entered a name the suspect used on a bogus check. A second later, a list of real names came up, along with five incident reports.

She told the system to also search data warehouses built by Coplink in San Diego and Orange County, California -- which have agreements to share with Tucson - and came up with the name of a particular suspect, his age and a possible address. She asked the software to find the suspect's links to other people and incidents, and then to create a visual chart displaying the findings. Up popped a display with the suspect at the center and cartoon-like images of houses, buildings and people arrayed around him. A final click on one of the houses brought up the address of an apartment and several new names, leads she could follow.

"The power behind what we have discovered, what we can do with Coplink, is immense," Tucson police Chief Richard Miranda said. "The kinds of things you saw in the movies then, we're actually doing now."

Intelligence-Led Policing

The expanding police systems illustrate the prominent roles that private companies play in homeland security and counterterrorism efforts. They also underscore how the use of new data - and data surveillance - technology to fight crime and terrorism is evolving faster than the public's understanding or the laws intended to check government power and protect civil liberties, authorities said.

Three decades ago, Congress imposed limits on domestic intelligence activity after revelations that the FBI, U.S. Army, local police and others had misused their authority for years to build troves of personal dossiers and monitor political activists and other law-abiding Americans.

Since those reforms, police and federal authorities have observed a wall between law enforcement information-gathering, relating to crimes and prosecutions, and more open-ended intelligence that relates to national security and counterterrorism. That wall is fast eroding following the passage of laws expanding surveillance authorities, the push for information-sharing networks, and the expectation that local and state police will play larger roles as national security sentinels.

Law enforcement and federal security authorities said these developments, along with a new willingness by police to share information, hold out the promise of fulfilling post-Sept. 11, 2001, mandates to connect the dots and root out signs of threats before attacks can occur.

"A guy that's got a flat tire outside a nuclear facility in one location means nothing," said Thomas E. Bush III, the FBI's assistant director of the criminal justice information services division. "Run the guy and he's had a flat tire outside of five nuclear facilities and you have a clue."

In a paper called "Intelligence-Led Policing: The New Intelligence Architecture," law enforcement authorities working with the Justice Department said officers " 'on the beat' are an excellent resource for gathering information on all kinds of potential threats and vulnerabilities."

"Despite the many definitions of 'intelligence' that have been promulgated over the years, the simplest and clearest of these is 'information plus analysis equals intelligence'," said the paper.

Efforts by federal authorities to create national networks have had mixed success.

The federal government has long successfully operated programs such as the Regional Information Sharing System, which enables law enforcement agencies to communicate, and the National Crime Information Center, an index of criminal justice information that police across the country can access. Though successful, those systems offer a relatively limited look at existing records.

A Department of Homeland Security project to expand sharing substantially, called the Information Network, has been bedeviled by cost overruns, poor planning and ambivalence on the part of local and state authorities, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Almost every state has established organizations known as intelligence fusion centers to collect, analyze and share information about possible leads, but many of those centers are underfunded and undermanned, and some of the analysts are not properly trained, the GAO said last year.

Federal authorities have high hopes for the N-DEx system, which is to begin phasing in as early as this month. They envision a time when N-DEx, developed by Raytheon for $85 million, will enable 200,000 state and local investigators, as well as federal counterterrorism investigators, to search across millions of police reports, in some 15,000 state and local agencies, with a few clicks of a computer mouse. Those reports will include names of suspects, associates, victims, persons of interest, witnesses and any other person named in an incident, arrest, booking, parole or probation report.

The system will be accessible to federal law-enforcement agencies, such as the FBI, and state fusion centers. Intelligence analysts at the National Counterterrorism Center and FBI's Foreign Terrorist Tracking Center likely will have access to the system as well.

"The goal is to create a one-stop shop for criminal justice information," said the FBI's Bush.

In the meantime, local and state authorities have charged ahead with their own networks, sometimes called "nodes," and begun stitching them together through legal agreements and electronic links.

At least 1,550 jurisdictions across the country use Coplink systems, through some three dozen nodes. That's a huge increase from 2002, when Coplink was first available commercially.

At least 400 other agencies are sharing information and doing link analysis through the Law Enforcement Information Exchange, or Linx, a Navy Criminal Investigative Service project built by Northrop Grumman using commercial technology. Linx users include more than 100 police forces in the District, Virginia and Maryland.

Hundreds of other police agencies across the country are using different information-sharing systems with varying capabilities. Officials in Ohio have created a data warehouse containing the police records of nearly 800 jurisdictions, while leaving it to local departments to provide analytical tools.

Same Data, New Results

Authorities are aware that all of this is unsettling to people worried about privacy and civil liberties. Mark D. Rasch, a former federal prosecutor who is now a security consultant for FTI Consulting, said that the mining of police information by intelligence agencies could lead to improper targeting of U.S. citizens even when they've done nothing wrong.

Some officials avoid using the term intelligence because of those sensitivities. Others are open about their aim to use information and technology in new ways.

One widely used Coplink product is called Intel Lead. It enables agencies to enter new information, tips or observations into the data warehouses, which can then be accessed by people with proper authority. Another service under development, called "predictor," would use data and software to make educated guesses about what could happen.

"Intel Lead is particularly applicable to the needs of statewide criminal intelligence and antiterrorism fusion centers as well as federal agencies who need to bridge the intelligence gap," said a news release by Knowledge Computing, the company that makes Coplink.

Robert Griffin, the chief executive of Knowledge Computing, said Coplink yields clues and patterns they otherwise would not see. "It's de facto intelligence that's actionable," said Griffin.

Managers of Linx are eager to distinguish their system from the commercial Coplink and its more extensive capabilities. They acknowledge their system includes data-analysis capabilities, and it will feed information to counterterrorism and intelligence authorities. In fact, the system is designed to serve as a bridge between law enforcement and intelligence.

They said Linx is not an intelligence system under federal laws, because it relies on records police have always kept. "It does not create intelligence," said Michael Dorsey, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service special agent in charge. "It creates knowledge."

To allay the public's fears, many police agencies segregate information collected in the process of enforcing the law from intelligence gathered on gangs, drug dealers and the like. Projects receiving federal funding must do so.

Nearly every state and local jurisdiction has its own guides for these new systems, rules that include restrictions intended to protect against police intrusiveness, said authorities. The systems also automatically keep track of how police use them.

N-DEx, too, will have restrictions aimed at preventing the abuse of the data it gathers. FBI officials said that agencies seeking access to N-DEx would be vetted, and that only authorized individuals would have access. Audit trails on whoever touches a piece of data would be kept. And no investigator would be allowed to take action - make an arrest, for instance - based on another agency's data without first checking with that agency.

Even some advocates of information-sharing technology worry that without proper oversight and enforceable restrictions the new networks pose a threat to basic American values by giving police too much power over information. Timothy Sample, a former intelligence official who runs the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, is among those who think computerized information-sharing is critical to national security but fraught with risks.

"As a nation, our laws have not kept up," said Sample, whose group serves as a professional association of intelligence officials in the government and intelligence contracting executives in the private sector.

Thomas McNamara, chief of the federal Information Sharing Environment office, said a top goal of federal officials is persuading regional systems to adopt most of the federal rules, both for privacy and to build a sense of confidence among law enforcement authorities who might be reluctant to share widely because of security concerns.

"Part of the challenge is to leverage these cutting-edge tools so we can securely and appropriately share that information which supports efforts to protect our communities from future terrorist attacks," said McNamara. "Equally important is that we do so in a manner that fully protects the information privacy and legal rights of all Americans."

Miranda, the Tucson police chief, said there's no overstating the utility of Coplink for his force, but he, too, acknowledges that such power raises new questions about how to keep it in check and ensure that the trust people place in law enforcement is not misplaced.

"I don't want the people in my community to feel we're behind every little tree and surveilling them," he said. "If there's any kind of inkling that we're misusing our power and our technology, that trust will be destroyed."

Intellpuke: You can read this article by Washington Post staff writers Robert O'Harrow, Jr., and Ellen Nakashima, reporting from Washington, D.C., in context here: " href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/05/AR2008030503656.html?hpid=topnews
" target=_blank>www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/05/AR2008030503656.html?hpid=topnews



VEGAS CLINIC MAY'VE SICKENED THOUSANDS

Vegas Clinic May Have Sickened Thousands

Michael Washington, 67, talks about living with hepatitis C during an interview with the Associated Press at Edward Bernstein & Associates law offices Tuesday, March 4, 2008, in Las Vegas. Washington believes he contracted hepatitis C while having a preventative colon examine at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada last July. Washington's wife Josephine, 70, is shown nearby. (AP Photo/ Ronda Churchill)

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nearly 40,000 people learned this week that a trip to the doctor may have made them sick. In a type of scandal more often associated with Third World countries, a Las Vegas clinic was found to be reusing syringes and vials of medication for nearly four years. The shoddy practices may have led to an outbreak of the potentially fatal hepatitis C virus and exposed patients to HIV, too.

The discovery led to the biggest public health notification operation in U.S. history, brought demands for investigations and caused scores of lawyers to seek out patients at risk for infections.

Thousands of patients are being urged to be tested for the viruses. Six acute cases of hepatitis C have been confirmed. The surgical center and five affiliated clinics have been closed.

"I find it baffling, frankly, that in this day and age anyone would think it was safe to reuse a syringe," said Michael Bell, associate director for infection control at the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

One of the infected patients is retired airplane mechanic Michael Washington, 67, who was the first to report his infection. On the advice of his doctor, he received a routine colon exam in July at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada.

In September, he started to get sick. He was losing weight fast. His urine turned dark. His stomach hurt. By January, it was clear what had happened.

Washington describes his virus as a "creeping death sentence" and worries that others will hear his story and think twice before getting preventive care they need.

In letters that began arriving this week, patients who received injected anesthesia at the endoscopy center from March 2004 to mid-January were urged to get tested for hepatitis B and C, and HIV.

Because all three viruses are transmitted by blood, they could have been passed from one patient to the next by the unsafe practices at the clinic.

The mass notification is the result of a health district investigation that began in January when officials linked an uptick of unusual hepatitis C cases to the clinic.

Health officials say they are most worried about the spread of hepatitis C, which targets the liver but shows no symptoms in as many as 80 percent of infections.

Hepatitis C results in the swelling of the liver and can cause stomach pain, fatigue and jaundice. It may eventually result in liver failure. Even when no symptoms occur, the virus can slowly cause damage to the liver.

Officials estimate that 4 percent of the patients already had the virus when they entered the clinic, compared with 0.5 percent for hepatitis B and less than 0.5 percent for HIV. Hepatitis C also is easier to transmit than HIV, they said.

"You put the two together and hepatitis C is really our big concern," said Brian Labus, senior epidemiologist at the Southern Nevada Health District.

Health inspectors say they observed clinic staff using the same syringe twice to extract anesthesia from a single vial, which was then inappropriately used to treat more than one patient. The practice allows contaminated blood in a used syringe to taint the vial and infect the next patient.

Of the six patients so far diagnosed with acute hepatitis C, five received treatment at the clinic on the same day in late September.

Since 1999, the CDC counts 14 hepatitis outbreaks in the U.S. linked to bad injection practices.

The largest outbreak occurred in Fremont, Neb., where 99 cancer patients were infected at an oncology center from 2001 to 2002. At least one died. The doctor involved in the case acknowledged reusing syringes and settled scores of lawsuit. But he never explained why the syringes were reused.

Bell said such improper procedures appear to be more common in outpatient surgical centers like the endoscopy center. Unlike hospitals, such centers often do not have employees whose sole responsibility is to monitor and educate staff on best practices.

In Las Vegas, clinic staff told inspectors they had been ordered by management to reuse the vials and syringes. Labus described the practice as an unwritten, but long-practiced policy.

Investigators were told the practice was an attempt to cut costs, according to a letter of complaint from the city, which revoked the facility's business license Friday. Five other facilities affiliated with the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada also had their licenses revoked.

The clinic's majority owner, Dipak Desai, a political contributor and member of the governor's commission on health care, has refused to comment on the allegations.

He released a statement expressing concern for the patients and assuring the public the problems had been corrected. He later took out a full-page ad in Sunday's edition of the Las Vegas Review-Journal insisting that needles had not been reused and that the chances of contracting an infection at the center in most of the last four years were "extremely low."

Of the thousands of people who have rushed to be tested, many will get positive results, Labus said. More than 15,000 people already have called the health district for information.

But it takes a more sophisticated test, a complete evaluation of risk factors and a clear pattern of infection to determine whether the virus was caught at the facility.

Plenty of lawyers are wading into the mess. Television ads called "health alerts" are soliciting clients. At least a handful of class-action lawsuits have been filed.

On Tuesday, the office of Las Vegas attorney Ed Bernstein was buzzing with phone calls — nearly 1,000 a day, he said. Bernstein said he represents about 1,200 patients at the facility, eight who have tested positive for hepatitis C.

Washington, the infected airplane mechanic, is one of Bernstein's clients.

His wife, Josephine, a registered nurse, wonders how any health care professional could be so reckless: "To maximize profit? For what? What are you going to save?"

Source: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i8B3EkgPbRHRxqB6l6BG6ZL1bn9QD8V7JGQ01

NEW YORK CITY



New York City

God has not executed His wrath without mercy. His hand is stretched out still. His message must be given in Greater New York. The people must be shown how it is possible for God, by a touch of His hand, to destroy the property they have gathered together against the last great day.--3MR 310, 311 (1902). {LDE 112.3}

I have no light in particular in regard to what is coming on New York, only that I know that one day the great buildings there will be thrown down by the turning and overturning of God's power. . . . Death
113
will come in all places. This is why I am so anxious for our cities to be warned.--RH July 5, 1906.
{LDE 112.4}

On one occasion, when in New York City, I was in the night season called upon to behold buildings rising story after story toward heaven. These buildings were warranted to be fireproof, and they were erected to glorify their owners and builders. . . . {LDE 113.1}

The scene that next passed before me was an alarm of fire. Men looked at the lofty and supposedly fireproof buildings and said: "They are perfectly safe." But these buildings were consumed as if made of pitch. The fire engines could do nothing to stay the destruction. The firemen were unable to operate the engines.--9T 12, 13 (1909). {LDE 113.2}

Last Day Events, Ellen G. White, pp. 112-113.

EXPLOSION ROCKS NYC'S TIMES SQUARE

Small Explosion Rocks New York's Times Square

Military Recruiting Station Targeted; Minor Damage and no Injuries Reported

Times Square Blast
New York police officers with the bomb squad unit inspect the damage done by an explosive device to the military recruitment center Thursday, March 6, 2008 in New York's Times Square. New York City police say some kind of explosive device was set off near a military recruiting station in Times Square. Police say there were no injuries in the blast early Thursday morning. The recruiting center at 43rd Street near Broadway had a large hole in the front window. (Mary Altaffer/AP Photo)

The device shattered a glass entryway to the installation, but no one was injured, police said.

Law enforcement officials tell ABC News that a single, small improvised device was tossed, apparently by a man on a bike, at the armed forces booth in Times Square early this morning, causing the center of midtown Manhattan to be locked down and subways to be diverted but no major property damage.

Sources tell ABC News that the device was made from a green ammunition can filled with explosive powder. It blew out the lower part of the glass -- it's being described as a "low explosive."

Witnesses staying at a Times Square hotel in the area said they heard a "big bang" and could feel the building shake. A large plume of smoke was also visible after the explosion, they said.

Early in the investigation, subway cars passed through the Times Square station without stopping, but normal service was restored, with some delays, before the morning rush hour.

"If it is something that's directed toward American troops than t's something that's taken very seriously and is pretty unfortunate," Army Capt. Charlie Jaquillard, commander of Army recruiting in Manhattan, told The Associated Press.

The recruiting station, located on a traffic island surrounded by Broadway theaters and chain restaurants, has occasionally been the site of anti-war demonstrations, ranging from silent vigils to loud rallies.

The incident bore strong similarities to two past incidents where small homemade bombs or incendiary devices were tossed at official buildings in New York in the last two years. Two were tossed at the British consulate and more recently two were tossed at the Mexican consulate.

In each case a man on a bike was captured in hazy video images. In this case a man on a bike was seen leaving as well. Police found no second device this time.

Emergency service officers, bomb technicians and bomb sniffing dogs were combing the scene and collecting bits of metal that may have come from the device. They were packed with black power and detonated with fuses, but incapable of causing serious harm, police said.

In October 2005 a group of activists who call themselves the Granny Peace Brigade rallied there against the Iraq War. Eighteen activists, most of them grandmothers with several in their 80s and 90s, were later acquitted of disorderly conduct.

The recruiting station was renovated in 1999 to better fit into the flashy ambiance of Times Square, using neon tubing to give the glass and steel office a patriotic American flag motif.

For a half century, the station was the armed forces' busiest recruiting center. It has set national records for enlistment, averaging about 10,000 volunteers a year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=4398877&page=1

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

SDA @ CHRISTIAN WORLD COMMUNIONS?

wcc logo

Christian World Communions

International organizations of churches of the same tradition or confession have been formed since the middle of the 19th century. Since 1957 there have been annual informal gatherings of the secretaries of such organizations; and it is from among the bodies represented at these meetings that this list is taken, although not all them would define themselves as "Christian World Communions". The links below are either to official web sites or to e-mail dialogue boxes. Not all the organizations listed have web sites or e-mail addresses.

Disclaimer

Ecumenical links is maintained by the World Council of Churches as a service to the ecumenical community. These links are to sites outside the WCC site. The contents of the sites listed here do not necessarily reflect the position or interests of the Council. Rather, we hope they are useful tools in making global connections and accessing information.

All links to other websites are provided simply for your convenience. We have no control over the functioning and contents of these websites and we take no responsibility for the contents or materials that may be found on them, the use to which they are put, or the services and products that they might distribute or sell. We decline all responsibility for any direct or indirect damage possibly arising from the use of our Website or websites with which our Website is linked, whether we know or do not know of the possibility of such damage taking place.

Source: http://www.oikoumene.org/en/ecumenical-links/church-ecumenical-organizations/christian-world-communions.html

P.S. The intent of this information is not to condemn faithful SDA brethren, or to cause them to stumble or abondon their long held beliefs (keep the faith!); But, to enlighten them on the reality of the massive ecumenical involvement (much denied), and the presence of Jesuit elements within the SDA General Conference.

How can you give the "Loud Cry", when your'e partaking with the enemies of God?

Who will you warn?

CAN TWO WALK TOGETHER, EXCEPT THEY BE AGREED? Amos 3:3

Arsenio.

When you click on SDA link at the Christian World Communion, above, you get to this banner on SDA page:

...A Christian faith community "Preparing the World for the return of Jesus Christ".

/

SIMULTANEOUS MEDIA COVERAGE

TODAY, Wednesday 3/5/08 @ 7:06 am (EST):
NBC, CBS, and ABC: Simultaneously covered Hillary R. Clinton's 'victory' intervew.


It must "really" be a slow news day when the three original Broadcast Networks coordinate their programs to feature the same person to interview. Perhaps, it's not a fluke, but a ploy. Maybe, they're colluding by/in grooming the next President. I wouldn't put it past them. They're capable of not only reporting the news, but also, making it! Stay tuned?

Arsenio

WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY JR.

William F. Buckley

William F. Buckley

AKA William Frank Buckley, Jr.

Born: 24-Nov-1925
Birthplace:
New York City
Died:
27-Feb-2008
Location of death:
Stamford, CT
Cause of death:
Emphysema

Gender: Male
Religion:
Roman Catholic
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation:
Columnist
Party Affiliation: Republican

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: National Review

Military service: US Army (1944-46)

William F. Buckley Jr. was a prominent right-wing American political commentator. His grandfather made millions in the oil business, and his father made many millions more with ownership of the Catawba Corporation, using the extended Buckley family's almost-complete control of six giant oil companies to ensure that all six companies relied on Catawba for lucrative geological, geophysical, accounting, and technical services.

Like his nine brothers and sisters, Buckley had Latin American nursemaids and French governesses, and he grew up trilingual. As a young boy, on his father's recommendation, Buckley read the works of Albert Jay Nock. He was drafted into the Army in 1944, and upon his discharge in 1946 worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, where three of his siblings have also been employed. Buckley's immediate supervisor at CIA was E. Howard Hunt, who sent him to Mexico City, where he was charged with undermining the Mexican government.

At Yale, Buckley was the star of the debating team, and earned his bachelor's degree in 1950. Upon graduation, Buckley promptly wrote God and Man at Yale, a book criticizing his alma mater for straying from its original, Christian mission. He was an editor at The American Mercury for several years, before his aggravation at the liberal policies of the Eisenhower administration led him to start his conservative magazine, National Review.

National Review quickly found its audience, making Buckley a political force. It was cited as influential by right-wing leaders such as Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. In 1960, Young Americans for Freedom (or YAF, as it was widely known through the 1960s) was founded in a meeting at Buckley's Connecticut estate. During the Watergate scandal, Buckley underwrote his former CIA boss Hunt's legal defense. Buckley's newspaper column, accurately titled "On the Right", was syndicated beginning in 1962, and in 1965 he ran for mayor of New York on the Conservative Party ticket, receiving about 13% of the vote.

In 1966, Buckley began hosting Firing Line, a political talk show on National Educational Television, the forerunner of PBS. 1,429 weekly episodes were produced over the next 33 years, until Buckley stepped down in 2000. He resigned from management of National Review, but continued writing for the magazine until his death.

When Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy rejected repeated invitations to appear on Firing Line, Buckley quipped: "Why does baloney reject the grinder?" He also once threatened to punch Gore Vidal in the face, after an exchange of insults. As AIDS became a topic of conversation in the 1980s, Buckley suggested that those diagnosed with the disease should be tattooed on their backsides, presumably to protect uninfected Americans.

Buckley was fined twice by the Securities and Exchange Commission, $1.4M for violations related to National Review stock, and $800K for trade violations involving the family's fortune.

Among his projects, Buckley found time to write a series of novels about fictional CIA spy Blackford Oakes. Oakes manifested Buckley's foreign policy against Cuba in See You Later, Alligator, against East Germany in Marco Polo, If You Can, and against the Soviets in High Jinx, among several other titles. In his last Oakes opus, 1995's A Very Private Plot, the spy was called to testify about secret operations conducted in the 1980s.

Father: William Frank Buckley, Sr. (oil millionaire, b. 12-Jul-1881, d. 5-Oct-1958 stroke)
Mother: Aloise Steiner (b. 1896, m. 1917, d. 1985)
Brother:
James L. Buckley (US Senator and federal judge, b. 1923)
Brother: Fergus Reid Buckley (journalist, novelist, former CIA agent, b. 14-Jul-1930)
Sister: Priscilla Langford Buckley (ex-CIA agent, managing editor,
National Review, b. 1921)
Sister: Patricia Buckley Bozell (book editor, b. 1924, m. Brent Bozell 1949, mother of
Brent Bozell)
Brother: John William Buckley (managed family's inherited oil-related fortune, b. 1920, d. 1985)
Sister: Carol Virginia Buckley Charlton (author, b. 1939)
Sister: Jane Lee Buckley Smith (executive at National Review, b. 1928)
Sister: Maureen Buckley O'Reilly (b. 1933, d. 1964, married Gerald A. O'Reilly, CEO of Richardson Vicks)
Sister: Mary Aloise Buckley Heath (author, b. 1919, m. oil tycoon Benjamin W. Heath 1942, d. 1967)
Wife: Patricia Austin Taylor (b. 1-Jul-1926, m. 6-Jul-1950, d. 15-Apr-2007, one son)
Son:
Christopher Buckley (author/editor, b. 1952)

High School: Millbrook School, Millbrook, NY (1943)
University:
BA Political Science, Economics, and History, Yale University (1950)

National Review
Hollinger International International Advisory Board, paid approximately $200K
American Conservative Union
Bilderberg Group
Bush-Cheney '04
Council on Foreign Relations
Club for Growth
Forbes 2000
Fund for American Studies
George W. Bush for President
The Heritage Foundation
Intercollegiate Studies Institute President
John McCain 2008
Knights of Malta
National Review Institute
Philadelphia Society Board of Trustees
Santorum 2006
Skull and Bones Society
CIA employee 1946-?
Presidential Medal of Freedom 1991
Pied shaving cream pie, New York University (1976)
Risk Factors:
Smoking, Marijuana, Diabetes

TELEVISION
Firing Line

FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Dirty Pictures (27-May-2000) Himself

Appears on the cover of:
Time, 3-Nov-1967, DETAILS: William Buckley: Conservatism Can Be Fun



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TRUE COLORS SHOWING













Hillary waves as she celebrates her 'victory' on Super 'Red' Tuesday, 3/4/08.


Hugo Chavez waves to cheerful crowds while announcing higher oil prices, last week.


Hillary Clinton, yesterday dressed in a bright red pant suit, with a red blouse. She must be taking fashion pointers form Hugo Chavez, who constanly displays his solidarity for Socialism by his affinity for the color 'red'.
Who else likes red?

USSR000 0 CHINA
VIETNAM0 TURKEY



Red is the color of bloodshed, and the color of revolutions.
Shouldn't such subtle symbols raise red flags???
From my perspective the political outlook, as well as the economic one, is bleak.
To ponder on an election of either John McCain or Hillary Rodham Clinton to preside over our nation is disheartening, and inspiring at the same time; For it means that the Lord's return can not be far away; in spite of all the corruptions, decadence and impending peril.
.
Arsenio
P.S. Today was a scarlet, cardinal 'type' of day.

PLANE MAKES EMERGENCY LANDING IN FL

Plane makes emergency landing in Florida

  • Story Highlights
  • Eight passengers fall ill on flight en route from the Dominican Republic to Canada
  • CDC official: Cause of illness unknown but appears to be food or drink
  • Flight continues to Edmonton, Alberta, after ill passengers


CNN) -- A plane en route from the Dominican Republic to Canada made an emergency landing Tuesday night in Florida after passengers complained of being sick, officials said.
art.plane.wplg.jpg

A passenger from Air Transat Flight 477 is wheeled out of Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport.

Eight passengers were taken to a hospital as a precaution after Air Transat Flight 477 landed at Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport about 11 p.m. ET, the Broward County Sheriff's Office said.

Officials said they don't know what sickened the passengers who left Punta Cana in eastern Dominican Republic about 9:30 p.m.

"Due to the multiple symptoms and unknown illness," the sheriff's office said, authorities alerted local health authorities, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the sheriff's office's homeland security unit and federal customs officials. Video Watch passengers go out on stretchers »

CDC spokeswoman Lola Russell confirmed that eight passengers on a flight had fallen ill.

She said that officials were not sure what caused the illness but that it appeared to have been something the passengers ate or drank. The passengers' illness did not seem to be contagious, Russell said.

Health officials took the sick passengers to a Fort Lauderdale-area hospital. The remaining passengers in the Airbus A310 were evaluated and allowed to continue on their flight to Edmonton, Alberta, the sheriff's office said.

The airline specializes in scheduled and charter flights from Canada to vacation destinations, according to the company's Web site. In the winter, the majority of flights are between Canada and the Caribbean and the United States.

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/03/05/emergency.landing/

LIFE'S TOP PRIORITY


Life's Top Priority


Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Matt. 6:33.


This is the first great object--the kingdom of heaven, the righteousness of Christ. Other objects to be attained should be secondary to these. {Mar 71.1}



Satan will present the path of holiness as difficult while the paths of worldly pleasure are strewed with flowers. In false and flattering colors will the tempter array the world with its pleasures before you. Vanity is one of the strongest traits of our depraved natures, and he knows that he can appeal to it successfully. He will flatter you through his agents. You may receive praise which will gratify your vanity and foster in you pride and self-esteem, and you may think that with such advantages and attractions it really is a great pity for you to come out from the world and be separate, and become a Christian. . . . But consider that the pleasures of earth will have an end, and that which you sow you must also reap. Are personal attractions, ability, or talents too valuable to devote to God, the Author of your being, He who watches over you every moment? Are your qualifications too precious to devote to God? {Mar 71.2}



The young urge that they need something to enliven and divert the mind. I saw that there is pleasure in industry, a satisfaction in pursuing a life of usefulness. Some still urge that they must have something . . . to which the mind can turn for relief and refreshment amid cares and wearing labor. The Christian's hope is just what is needed. Religion will prove to the believer a comforter, a sure guide to the Fountain of true happiness. The young should study the word of God and give themselves to meditation and prayer, and they will find that their spare moments cannot be better employed. {Mar 71.3}



Young friends, you should take time to prove your own selves, whether you are in the love of God. Be diligent to make your calling and election sure. {Mar 71.4}



Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Make this first and last. Seek most earnestly to know Him whom to know aright is life eternal. Christ and His righteousness is the salvation of the soul. {Mar 71.5}



Maranatha, Ellen G. White, Page 71.

"THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER"

Ecclesiastes 12

1Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;

2While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain:

3In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened,

4And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low;

5Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:

6Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.

7Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

8Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.

9And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs.

10The preacher sought to find out acceptable words: and that which was written was upright, even words of truth.

11The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd.

12And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

13Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

14For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

WASHINGTON MONUMENT AND NUMBER 666




The Washington Monument and The Number 666




As the Shaft of Bel, or the Washington Monument, was in its planning stage, letters were sent to Rome to get expert counsel for the proper ratio of dimensions of Egyptian Obelisks, so that the Washington Monument could be built exactly in accordance with them. The reply came back, that the base was to be one tenth of whatever was the height. With this information in hand, it only took simple mathematics to figure out that if you built the shaft to a height of 555 feet, then the base would have to be 55.5 feet long and 55.5 feet wide, to give you the sum total of 666. Now there are those who claim to have done an extensive study on the dimensions of the Washington Monument to prove that the occultic significance of the dimensions. You can be sure they did not scale to the top and drop a tape measure to the ground to verify the dimensions. In reality, it makes no difference what the true dimensions really are, even if they are off several feet. What matters is, what the occultist promote and advertise the dimensions to be, that certifies it. And there are still enough books around, that have not been censored, that tell you it is 555 feet high---and one tenth of that is 55.5 feet square at the base. End of dicussion.


THE GREATEST SECRET FINALLY TOLD

THE MAN 666 IDENTIFIED

by John Daniel, p.16.
END TIMES MESSAGES
P.O. Box 14
Crawley, West Virginia 24931
(304) 392-6155


Note: Bolds and Highlights added for emphasis. Blogman

TANKER DEAL FUELS U.S. OUTCRY

Tanker Deal Fuels U.S. Outcry

EADS-Northrop Pact
Draws Political Heat;
Boeing Seeks Answers
By DANIEL MICHAELS and AUGUST COLE
March 4, 2008 5:01 p.m.

The U.S. Air Force's decision to buy a fleet of aerial fuel tankers from a U.S.-European consortium is the biggest example yet of a trend toward trans-Atlantic cooperation in defense procurement. Now, U.S. Defense Department officials are scrambling to make sure it isn't the last.

Politicians and labor unions around the U.S. are attacking the Pentagon's selection last week of planes from a team led by Northrop Grumman Corp. and Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. The contract to supply 179 tanker aircraft, valued at an estimated $40 billion, was widely expected to go to Boeing Co., which had previously been the sole supplier of big tankers for the Pentagon.

The idea of having a U.S. company put sensitive military equipment onto a European civilian jetliner is just the sort of teaming that defense planners and arms contractors discussed in the waning years of U.S. President Bill Clinton's administration. Then, politicians and policy makers saw such deals as a way to promote competition -- precisely as occurred with the tanker deal.

But with the tanker contract weighing in as one of the biggest prizes awarded by the Pentagon, the decision to cut out Boeing in favor of a product developed by its archrival has create a crescendo of criticism that could potentially escalate into legislative attempts to sidetrack the deal. The powerful House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense is scheduled to meet Wednesday to grill top air force acquisitions officials on their choice.

"I can't think of a worse time for a worse decision," said Sen. Patty Murray said in the Senate Tuesday. "We've got to start over," said Rep. Norm Dicks, in an interview. "It should've been done by an American company." Both are Democrats from Washington state, where Boeing's tankers would have been built.

All three of the leading presidential candidates have weighed in as well, with Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama expressing their dismay while Republican Sen. John McCain, whose opposition helped scuttle an earlier deal to give Boeing $23 billion to build tankers, said he wants to know whether the air force "fairly applied its own rules" in reaching the decision. "I have always insisted that the air force buy major weapons through fair and open competition," he said.

Executives from the winning consortium say they will create thousands of jobs in the U.S. and that the airplane they deliver to the air force will have 59% U.S. content, based on dollar value. Northrop will be responsible for outfitting the airplane with its electronics and other military equipment. The engines, valued at an estimated $5 billion, will be supplied by General Electric Co.

While the decision to buy European planes has proved politically unpopular among many, it follows a growing steam of such deals. Trans-Atlantic teams are developing fighter jets, missile-defense systems, radar equipment and even helicopters for the U.S. president. Pentagon officials had planned to brief Boeing around March 12 about why it lost, but the Chicago aerospace company Tuesday requested an immediate explanation. "Given that we are already seeing press reports containing detailed competitive information, we feel that our request is more than fair and reasonable," said Mark McGraw, Boeing's vice president for 767 tanker programs, in a statement.

John Young, the Pentagon's top weapons buyer, has said the government strove to make sure the decision was based on strict technical data. "Nothing in the law allows the process to give weight to political issues or other issues," he said in a statement.

In Europe, officials have hailed the decision as both a victory and a sign of strong ties among Western allies. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the choice was possible because France and Germany are loyal friends of the U.S. EADS Chief Executive Louis Gallois said the win marked "a breakthrough" for the Franco-German company.

In the past, defense industry officials in Europe had worried that a technology gap with the U.S. would widen. Europeans thought that by aligning more closely with U.S. partners, they could jump-start European innovation, in part because Washington has long spent more on defense procurement and military research and development.

An early example of the cooperation was Euro Hawk, a version of Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle, modified with equipment from EADS. The Northrop official who championed the program as a model of trans-Atlantic cooperation was Ralph Crosby Jr., who soon after left Northrop to run EADS's North American operations. Mr. Crosby was a key architect of the recent tanker win for EADS and Northrop. But Euro Hawk was palatable to the U.S. defense industry because it was based on a U.S. product.

U.S. officials touted the Lockheed Martin Corp.-led F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which is now under development, as another model of cooperation. To help fund its development, the U.S. signed up partners in the mid-1990s from around the world, including Britain, the Netherlands, Italy and Denmark. The partners, rather than simply buying planes, would invest their own money to develop components of the plane. In return, they will get a proportional share of revenue from all fighter sales.

Other deals tested new models. Defense-electronics and missiles giant Raytheon Co. in 2001 established a ground-breaking joint venture with French counterpart Thales SA. The duo agreed to team up in third countries, but each would take the lead in its home country to avoid political problems and meet national-security requirements in the U.S. and France.

Some European defense contractors also linked to the U.S. market by acquiring U.S. companies. British companies in particular leveraged the U.K.'s close security relationship with the U.S. to make acquisitions. BAE Systems PLC, formerly British Aerospace, is now one of the Pentagon's largest suppliers following a string of U.S. acquisitions. Rolls-Royce PLC, an icon of British industry, supplies engines to many U.S. military planes and ships after its acquisition of a company in Indianapolis.

Perhaps the biggest breakthrough came in January 2005 when the U.S. Navy selected a European-designed helicopter to serve as the next Marine One for the U.S. president. Lockheed Martin led the bid, which was based on a helicopter built by Italy's Finmeccanica SpA. United Technologies Corp.'s Sikorsky helicopter, which supplied the previous Marine One choppers, challenged the selection, but it was ultimately upheld. The deal also drew political flak -- mainly from Connecticut officials -- but the more than $6.1 billion contract's relatively small size meant it didn't become the lightning rod for politicians that the tanker deal has become.

Write to Daniel Michaels at daniel.michaels@wsj.com and August Cole at august.cole@dowjones.com

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120465701297010817.html?mod=googlenews_wsj