The Supreme Court’s next Second Amendment cases may decide which state and local gun-control laws can stand.
In the nearly two years since the US Supreme Court struck down the District of Columbia’s ban on handguns, more than 190 challenges have been filed seeking to overturn other gun-control laws or to reverse firearms convictions.
Now, with the justices examining a similar ban in place in Chicago, gun-rights advocates are hoping for another landmark constitutional victory – this time extending an individual right to keep and bear arms in cities and towns across the country. (To see a preview of this case, click here.)
But the ultimate showdown over gun control in America will be waged in a future legal case not yet on the high court’s radar, analysts say. At issue in that case: Are Second Amendment rights as fundamental as freedom of speech and religion, or will gun rights be subject to lesser constitutional protection?
A former US intelligence official has admitted that CIA operatives in Pakistan had held talks with the Jundallah terrorist group led by Abdolmalek Rigi.
Soon after the 9/11 attacks, a senior Jundallah member, acting on Rigi’s behalf, approached CIA agents in Pakistan and told them the group would help the US against both Iran and al-Qaeda, prominent US weekly magazine Newsweek reveals in its March 1 issue.
The former US official, who has asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitive nature of the information he was providing, said that the Jundallah representative suggested that the group would kidnap leaders of the Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and al-Qaeda and turn them over to the Americans.
However, according to the former official, US officials ”flatly” rejected any relationship with the group but “the door was left slightly ajar in case Jundallah really did capture important al-Qaeda operatives.”
US observers say such double-talk by US officials and deliberately publicized by a major magazine that is known to be heavily influenced by the Israeli lobby in Washington, is nothing new. The obvious intent of such ‘news’ items is to divert attention from facts and the overwhelming evidence that point to the collusion between Rigi and Washington.
Newsweek magazine is the subsidiary of another major news outlet in the US, The Washington Post. The are known to have a “liberal agenda” and reflect the views and values of the Democratic Party, which is heavily influenced by the pro-Israel Jewish lobby.
Last week, Iranian security forces captured ringleader of the Jundallah terrorist group, Abdolmalek Rigi, while he was on a flight from Dubai to Kyrgyzstan.
Rigi, whose group has accepted responsibility for numerous deadly attacks against Iranian civilians and security forces in southeast Iran, said after his arrest that he enjoyed the backing of Western intelligence agencies in committing acts of terror against Iran.
In a televised confession Rigi said that in a Dubai meeting with CIA agents, they promised to provide him with a military base anywhere near the Iranian border equipped with weaponry and training facilities.
“After Obama was elected, the Americans contacted us and they met me in Pakistan…. They said they would cooperate with us and will give me military equipment, arms and machine guns. They also promised to give us a base along the border with Afghanistan next to Iran,” he said.
The terrorist leader emphasized that in their meetings with him, US operatives insisted that Iran is their primary focus in the region, even more important than al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
According to Rigi’s confessions, CIA agents also explained to him that since a USmilitary attack on Iran would be very difficult, they intend to support all anti-Iran groups that have the capability of waging war inside Iran and to destabilize the country.
While the Newsweek story rejects Rigi’s confessions as “complete nonsense,” quoting the US State Department spokesman P J Crowley, it does not bother to explain the evidence that he was carrying a US-issued Afghan passport, as well as why he was flying to Kyrgyzstan, where the US operates a major military facility.
On March 1, Ryan Singel, writing for Wired, accused the government of plotting to destroy the open and freedom-loving internet. Readers of Infowars and Prison Planet have known this for some time, but it is nice to know a quasi-establishment publication is now telling the truth and warning its readers about the threat to liberty posed by the government.
“The biggest threat to the open internet is not Chinese government hackers or greedy anti-net-neutrality ISPs, it’s Michael McConnell, the former director of national intelligence,” writes Singel. “McConnell’s not dangerous because he knows anything about SQL injection hacks, but because he knows about social engineering. He’s the nice-seeming guy who’s willing and able to use fear-mongering to manipulate the federal bureaucracy for his own ends, while coming off like a straight shooter to those who are not in the know.”
The former intel boss, now vice president of the spooky Booz Allen Hamilton corporation (notorious for connections to 9/11 and a key DARPA client), has been trotted out to sell “Cybaremaggedon” (as Singel appropriately characterizes it) to the American people. McConnell insists the internet needs to be re-engineered:
We need to develop an early-warning system to monitor cyberspace, identify intrusions and locate the source of attacks with a trail of evidence that can support diplomatic, military and legal options — and we must be able to do this in milliseconds. More specifically, we need to re-engineer the Internet to make attribution, geo-location, intelligence analysis and impact assessment — who did it, from where, why and what was the result — more manageable. The technologies are already available from public and private sources and can be further developed if we have the will to build them into our systems and to work with our allies and trading partners so they will do the same.
“He’s talking about changing the internet to make everything anyone does on the net traceable and geo-located so the National Security Administration can pinpoint users and their computers for retaliation if the U.S. government doesn’t like what’s written in an e-mail, what search terms were used, what movies were downloaded,” writes Singel. “Or the tech could be useful if a computer got hijacked without your knowledge and used as part of a botnet.”
McConnell says the government needs to create a new Cold War, “one complete with the online equivalent of ICBMs and Eisenhower-era, secret-codenamed projects.”
Not directed against Muslims in remote backwater caves, mind you, but the real enemy — the American people who are increasingly aroused, thanks in large part to the internet.
The Bush era intel boss hyped the overblown Chinese hacker threat in “breathless” stories published in The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. The world’s largest security companies McAfee and Symantec have downplayed the story. Singel points out that such fear-mongering is almost completely void of facts.
The anti-open internet echo chamber includes a speech delivered by Lawrence E. Strickling, Assistant Commerce Secretary:
In fact, “leaving the Internet alone” has been the nation’s internet policy since the internet was first commercialized in the mid-1990s. The primary government imperative then was just to get out of the way to encourage its growth. And the policy set forth in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was: “to preserve the vibrant and competitive free market that presently exists for the Internet and other interactive computer services, unfettered by Federal or State regulation.”
This was the right policy for the United States in the early stages of the Internet, and the right message to send to the rest of the world. But that was then and this is now.
Now? The Pentagon wants to take out enemies with the online equivalent of ICBMs in order to prevent cyberattacks, privacy intrusions and copyright violations (and, of course, take out the real threat — the alternative media overshadowing the staid establishment corporate media).
“As anyone slightly versed in the internet knows, the net has flourished because no government has control over it,” writes Singel. “But there are creeping signs of danger.”
The primary creeping sign is the cybersecurity bill now in the Senate under the direction of the renown internet hater, senator Jay Rockefeller. If passed, Obama would have the ability to initiate “network contingency plans to ensure key federal or private services did not go offline during a counterattack of unprecedented scope,” according to Tony Romm of The Hill.
“Too much is at stake for us to pretend that today’s outdated cybersecurity policies are up to the task of protecting our nation and economic infrastructure,” Rockefeller said. “We have to do better and that means it will take a level of coordination and sophistication to outmatch our adversaries and minimize this enormous threat.”
Rockefeller and the government have but one serious adversary — the American people who are circumventing establishment propaganda via the internet.
The recently passed House cybersecurity bill and the Senate’s version now under considered are peddled as urgent action against Russian and Chinese hackers hellbent on taking down the power grid and the smart phone network.
In fact, all the fear-mongering is a smoke screen for the real purpose of this legislation — to close down the free and open internet and viciously attack those who dare tell the truth and organize opposition to a predatory and dictatorial government.
It could spell the end of the kiss and tell: public figures might, within 18 months, have the power to stifle bad news stories before they are published, a senior lawyer has warned.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is currently fast-tracking a landmark case, brought by Max Mosley, to tighten UK privacy laws. Mark Stephens, a lawyer acting for a group of media and free speech organisations opposing Mr Mosley in court, believes that the extraordinary pace with which it is proceeding suggests that the judges are about to rule in the former Formula One boss’s favour.
That would mean a change in the law that would force the press to contact anyone that they are intending to run a story about to warn them if it could potentially breach their privacy, giving public figures a chance to gag newspapers before publication.
A group of senators are trying to resuscitate global warming legislation, but the potential inclusion of a new gas tax threatens to keep action on one of President Obama’s signature initiatives stalled.
Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., have pushed aside the politically unpopular idea of passing a “cap and trade” system for regulating most emissions and would instead go after power plants, motor vehicles and manufacturers with targeted taxes and caps.
The lawmakers are hoping to get a bill together in the “coming weeks,” according to a Kerry aide, and then find a way to fit it in the already jammed Senate calendar, where the jobs agenda and now health care reform are the priorities.
“Unlike past pieces of legislation, we are taking a careful look at different sectors of the economy to determine the most appropriate policy to reduce emissions in each sector,” Kerry spokeswoman Whitney Smith said. “Based on input from all stakeholders, the idea is to take a reasonable, responsive approach to each sector to accomplish an economywide goal.”
The Canadian government is on the verge of approving the introduction of extremely bizarre genetically modified pigs into the Canadian food supply. These new mouse/pig hybrids have been dubbed “enviropigs” and are being touted as being much better for the environment. This new “breed” of Yorkshire pigs was created by scientists in Ontario at the University of Guelph, who spliced in genes from mice to decrease the amount of phosphorus produced in the pigs’ excrement. So soon millions of Canadians will be eating meat from mouse/pig hybrid creatures and most of them will not even realize it. It is expected that approval for this new “brand” of pigs will be sought in the United States as well. But this is hardly the first time that scientists have mixed two kinds of animals together in an attempt to create creatures that will be beneficial for humanity.
The truth is that scientists around the world are now creating bizarre hybrid “animals” on a regular basis. Over the past couple of decades the field of genetic modification has made extraordinary advances, and now researchers and scientists seem very eager to exploit these new technologies.
So what kind of weird, mysterious creatures have scientists been creating?
Well, what would you think of a cat that glows in the dark?
So perhaps in the future not only can your cat cuddle up to you and keep you warm – it could also serve as a night light.
But U.S. researchers were not even the first ones to do this to cats. A team of scientists in South Korea had previously created a cat that glows red under ultraviolet light.
Now why in the world would scientists do this kind of a thing?
Amid ongoing investigation of the terrorist murder of a Hamas commander in Dubai, the UAE police have asked the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to look into alleged ties of the suspects to Americans.
Dubai police asked the FBI to investigate US-issued pre-paid credit cards used by 13 of the terror suspects in the killing of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Dubai daily The National reported Tuesday.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has identified 27 suspects, mostly European passport holders, who entered the country in order to carry out the terrorist murder of al-Mabhouh in his hotel room on January 19.
“Thirteen of the 27 suspects used pre-paid MasterCards issued by MetaBank, a regional American bank, to purchase plane tickets and book hotel rooms,” the daily quoted police as saying.
According to the Police, the credit cards bore the same names as the fake passports used by the suspects to enter Dubai.
Based on a report published by The Wall Street Journal, two of the suspects traveled to the United States shortly after the murder.
According to the report, one of the suspects entered the US on February 14 using a British passport. Another suspect, using an Irish passport, entered the country on January 21, a day after Mabhouh was found dead in his hotel room.
The US State Department and the Interpol have both declined to comment on the report.
Speaking on the sidelines of the International Security National Resilience conference in Abu Dhabi, Dubai police Chief Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim did not confirm whether the US was participating in the investigation.
Observers consider the Dubai request from the FBI as merely a formality that has little chance to be followed by any action, since US is the prime sponsor of the Israeli regime and has openly backed its previous terror operations as ‘national security measures.’
Parents who buy educational DVDs to give their toddlers a head start may be doing more harm than good. A study of almost 100 boys and girls aged between one and two found that regularly watching a DVD from the Baby Einstein range did nothing to boost their vocabulary.
In fact, the younger the children were when they began to watch the programmes, the worse their word power. Researchers tested the children over six weeks. Half were given a Baby Wordsworth DVD, which their parents were told to play 15 times over six weeks.
The 35-minute disc, costing around £18, is part of the Baby Einstein range – popular with parents keen to boost toddlers’ IQs before starting school. It uses puppets and people to introduce 30 words for rooms and household appliances, including ‘fridge’ and ‘phone’.
The remaining children’s parents were told to ‘go about life as normal’. Not surprisingly, older children picked up more new words than younger ones, the California University team found. However, those who watched the DVD did no better than the others, and in fact appeared to learn little or nothing, their parents told Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine…
wgal – A new museum opened in Gettysburg on Monday. It’s called the International Museum of Spiritual Investigations.
The downtown Gettysburg museum focuses on ghosts — a subject for which the city already draws a lot of attention. Some ghost hunters have called the city the most haunted place in America.
“I have had experiences with, well, paranormal activity,” said visitor Mel Seidenzahl, of Bonneauville.
The museum’s Web site states that its mission is, “to give every patron, no matter what age, a look into investigating the spiritual realm and the evidence in locations of possible activities.”
The museum is operated by a team of paranormal investigators.
Your ‘Ghost’ Pics
Let’s face it — Pa. is prime hunting ground for spooky houses, creepy barns and phantom specters. The landscape, the history, the architecture — all of it makes for a sort of paranormal paradise.
As part of our Ghost Hunt Of The Susquehanna Valley series that aired in October, we wanted to see some of the stranger things you’ve caught on camera. Click through the slideshow below to see some of the pictures we’ve gotten through the years. Then sign up and send your photos. International Museum of Spiritual Investigations
When you send your pictures, please include where you took it and what we should look for in it. Also, if there’s any background story to the image or place, fill us in on that as well. These don’t necessarily have to be “ghost” photos. Feel free to also send pics of those places that have always just plain given you the shivers.
Thanks to my Sis, Andrea, for forwarding this article!
NOTE: I sincerely hope that this museum integrates the paranormal and real history in a respectable manner. I have spent literally thousands of hours exploring the Gettysburg battlefield and the environs and have a deep reverence for the place.
Above is an old photograph that was taken at the Low Dutch Cemetery which is located east of Gettysburg. This cemetery has been located there since before the American Revolutionary War and contains the remains of many soldiers from several early wars. As well, there was at least one cavalry skirmish at the location. This place has been known to be haunted for over 200 years and has attracted many young curious ghost seekers, including myself. A girlfriend and I were rudely interrupted during an amorous moment when ’something’ banged on the hood of the car. We got out of the car and looked around…the only thing we noticed was a terrible odor. That was enough ghost hunting for the evening. The next day, I noticed a muddy hand print in the middle of a slight dent in the hood…Lon
Prof. Ana Luisa Cid recently posted UFO/OVNI images on her website at Ana Luisa Cid – OVNI Investigations of Mexico. A few of the more interesting images are posted below. The first image, IMO, is the most interesting…Lon
Location: Sierra Estrella overlooking Phoenix, AZ – 2/24/10 – 20:30 local time
Imagine your smartphone feeding information to a virtual 15-inch Microsoft Windows PC display that sits in front of one eye, just beneath your line of sight. You speak commands using hands-free speech recognition to control both wireless access to the internet and your phone. (An adjustable speaker sits by your right ear, and there’s a snap-on wireless webcam for video conferencing.)
The device can also remotely wake your Windows PC using a Bluetooth, WiFi, or cellular link, and then offer hands-free access to PC applications. (When work is done, the PC may be placed in hibernation with a single spoken command.)
It’s expected to retail near $2,500 – running Windows CE with an 8-hour battery – and could challenge the iPhone.
NOTE: I received the following information from a reader.
Lon
Re: your recent article: Photos: UFO Lights Morphing / Readers Respond to Grapevine Canyon, CA Sighting, I may have something else for you.
This first part wasn’t my personal experience, but I was listening to Coast to Coast am on Friday Night when Ian Punnett was hosting Open Lines for George Noory. The first caller, a man named James from ‘New Mexico,’ (whom I believe was probably from Albuquerque, based on much of what he said he saw), said that a black, rectangular shaped ‘aircraft’ overflew the Sandia Crest summit from west to east, at the very top of the Sandia Mountain range, which is located in Albuquerque. It then headed out towards Edgewood, a small town on the East side of the Sandia Mountains, approximately 25 miles or so from Albuquerque. At this point, all the power where the TV and radio towers are located on the summit, the Summit Restaurant, and a ’small’ residential area, went out for a period of time.
He didn’t say anything else, and no one else called in to verify this sighting. So I don’t know if anyone saw anything else, or how long the power was out. But I do know that if those towers were without power, then essentially, Albuquerque was without a communication network, since many of the cell phone and other communication-related towers are up on the summit, as well. That’s TV, radio, telephone, Internet and Cable at least. EVERYTHING was down for a period of time. No doubt there’s redundancy, but that is some powerful equipment, and when they go out, the grid winks out and locks up. I’ve seen it happen standing on 9 Mile Hill on the West side of Albuquerque when the lights of the entire city winked out one section at a time like a wave. During that particular incident, the WHOLE city was affected. No traffic lights, few back-up power generators (though many more now, which is why the power outage seemed restricted to a ’small’ area), and even the hospitals had a difficult time functioning.
I lived in Albuquerque twice, once for 10 years, and later on again for 6 years, so I’m very familiar with the Sandia Mountains and that entire area. I am also aware that the military portion of the Albuquerque Sunport, takes up the section of the runway that abutts the Manzano Mountains and is east of the air traffic control tower.
Although from my understanding, it has always been considered fictitious, at one time there was another Air Force Base at the foot of the Manzano Mountains (though I suspect it’s still there, based on the proliferation of sightings, even since it was supposed to have been closed down), south of the Sandias on the south side of Interstate 40 (the old Route 66). My father was stationed at Manzano AFB in 1965, right before he ‘retired.’ I can assure you it was there, since I was on it several times, and it was supposedly used to house … various things, including a few top secret programs/projects, one which involved experimental and possibly other types of (i.e. back-engineered) craft. It’s now rumored that the Roswell disc or parts of it (including… J-rod) were at various times located in some of the hangers and inside a false mountain at Manzano.
Btw, in case you haven’t heard of it, Manzano Air Force Base was located to the East of Sandia Army Base which took up the SW portion of the base from the Wyoming Gate, heading south, and which is located on the North side of all 3 bases, as was Sandia Army Hospital, which has also, since been closed down. Because my father was in the Air Force, we lived in base housing off of Perimeter Drive located on the West side of Sandia Army Base, just south of the Louisiana Gate; our back fence was located to the North of the edge of the military portion of the airport runway from where my mother and I often watched various supposedly top secret military aircraft maneuvers from the early to late evening.
(A side note: My mother was also ex-Navy, as well as a cryptographer, though I have no ‘official’ confirmation that she was with Naval Intelligence, I can only assume that she based what she told me about some being experimental craft, some not from this earth, on many things she and my father were involved were over the years. Regarding what we saw landing and taking-off from the military airport, although It became more difficult to see as the evening wore on, more often than not I COULD see shapes of craft which were either outlined by lights or had other visible means of delineating the silhouettes. Several times I also saw a triangle-shaped craft which appeared black against the evening sky and had a light at each point of the triangle. Again, experimental USmilitary? Back-engineered? Don’t know. They didn’t say.
Other points of which you may or may not be aware: Sandia National Laboratories and Kirtland Air Force Base are located in Albuquerque. Los Alamos National Labs is located approximately 60 miles to the NW of Albuquerque. Dulce/Archuleta Mesa is located in Northern New Mexico, on the Colorado border. There have always been sightings in New Mexico, especially Albuquerque. I’ve seen many myself. Just recently a young boy on one of the Native American Reservations near Albuquerque was attacked in a parked car by something he claimed was an alien. Whatever the creature was, it grabbed him, leaving claw marks down the boy’s arms. Fortunately, his father and a sibling, I believe, heard him yelling, and showed up just in time to scare the creature off. They don’t know what it was, but it wasn’t anything they’d ever seen and it appeared reptilian/alien.
Additionally, Albuquerque seems to be the headquarters, or at least very large and critical centers for several military projects, like Project Pegasus, Project Talent and others. If you haven’t heard Andrew Basiago’s interview with George Noory on Coast to Coast Exopolitics.com, you might want to check out the video (posted below), with his premiere interview being done by Alfred Lambremont Webre of Exoplitics.com. Note this article, too, if you haven’t already read it: Web Bot: Andrew Basiago is predicted “planetary level” whistleblower for Mars life and time travel
I know how much work it takes to do the research for these newsletters and the blog. I applaud your dedication.
Blessings and Peace,
Kat
Click for video
______________________ Below is the official description of this facility
MANZANO BASE
Click image for larger version
The Armed Forces Special Weapons Command constucted two operational sites after World War II. One was known as Site Able, located in the foothills of the Manzano Mountains, just east of Sandia Base. The other base was Site Baker near Kileen, Texas. Construction on Site Able started in 1946, with the first operational facilities activated on 04 April 1950. Although activated in 1950, construction on the major facilities wasn’t finished until 1961. On 22 February 1952, Site Able was renamed Manzano Base, and operated by the Air Force, while Site Baker was renamed Kileen Base and turned over to the US Army.
Portions of America’s nuclear stockpile was stored in Manzano (the Spanish word for apple) Mountain for 40 years, and nuclear weapons are now secured in a modern underground complex at Kirtland Air Force Base. A presidential emergency relocation center was built deep inside Manzano Mountain as a command post for President Eisenhower. It retained this function until the advent of thermonuclear weapons, by which time it was no longer regarded as a survivable site.
In the early 1700s explorers visiting a small village on the eastern edge of these mountains discovered very old manzanos (apple trees), a tree not native to this country. No one knows where these trees came from, but the name stayed with the region.
Construction began in June 1947, and the facility became operational in April 1950. Under the top-secret project designated Operation Water Supply, construction crews carved out tunnels and blast-proof underground steel vaults to protect the small stockpile of atomic weapons. The first weapons stored at Manzano were the Mark 5, a first-generation atomic device which required assembly. The weapons were stored without plutonium, in reinforced concrete and steel bunkers throughout Manzano. Inside the complex, steel gates protected a hallway containing four chambers guarded with heavy safe door. Each vault stored a protective container called a birdcage, each of which enclosed enough plutonium for a single atomic warhead.
On 11 April 1950 a B-29 aircraft departed from Kirtland Air Force Base [Albuquerque, NM] at 9:38 PM and crashed into a mountain on Manzano Base approximately three minutes later killing the crew of thirteen. Detonators were installed in the bomb on board the aircraft. The bomb case was demolished ans some high explosive (HE) material burned in the gasoline fire. Other pieces of unburned HE were scattered throughout the wreckage. Four spare detonators in their carrying case were recovered undamaged. There were no contamination or recovery problems. The recovered components of the weapon were returned to the Atomic Energy Commission. Both the weapon and the capsule of nuclear material were on board the aircraft but the capsule was not inserted for safety reasons.
The Manzano Nuclear Weapons Storage Area was surrounded by a barbed double-fenceline (one of which was electrified) beyond which the concrete bunker entrances which span the base of the mountain range are visible.
In June 1992, the Manzano WSA was deactivated, including deactivation of the Perimeter Intrusion Detection and Alarm System, and Phillips Laboratory assumed responsibility for its maintenance. SNL continues to provide minimum security, although the Perimeter Intrusion Detection and Alarm System was deactivated with the termination of the main mission in 1992. Some of the old tunnels and vaults in the Manzanos still serve as storage. The Manzano WSA is currently being used in part for storage of a variety of items such as furniture and document boxes.
The United States must embrace a blend of tax increases and spending cuts to rein in its deficit or face a potentially crippling debt crisis like the one in Greece, a top US lawmaker warned Monday.
“It is enough to look across the Atlantic at Greece’s extreme economic crisis and understand: It can happen here. If we don’t change course, it will happen here,” said Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.
Hoyer, a close White House ally, said Democrats and Republicans in the USCongress must take the politically tough decisions needed to deflate the ballooning US deficit and tackle record-high US debt.
“It seems to me that the only solution that can win the support of both parties is a balanced approach: one that cuts some spending and raises some revenue while avoiding extremes in either direction,” he said.
A Moore Information survey conducted for Paul’s campaign showed Paul picking up 74 percent of the vote in a primary contest. Seventy-nine percent said they had a favorable impression of Paul, with 84 percent approving of his job performance.
“I personally think he’ll win that primary with 60-plus percent of the vote, even with three opponents, so I find it kind of interesting,” said Mary Anne Wyatt, chairwoman of the Victoria County Republican Party. “There’s no question that Rep. Paul is very popular in his district and has been for some time. It hasn’t been an enigma—it’s been a fact.”
“I don’t think he views any of us as a threat,” conceded Graney, who says he has spent $80,000 on his campaign.
The appearance of Phil Jones, sometime head honcho of the CRU at the “University” of East Anglia, hero of the Climategate e-mails scandal, before the Commons Science and Technology Committee yesterday was an interesting occasion. It was historic, since it afforded the whole world the spectacle of a new reality: AGW propagandists on the defensive.
That said, the Committee of Public Safety this was not, but there was still some dogged probing from committee members which Jones nervously tried to deflect until brought up against the brick wall of undeniable facts: his instructions for e-mails to be deleted, his refusal to pass on data to sceptics and the fact that he had consistently refused access to his computer codes and methodology. What particularly startled the committee members was the revelation by Jones that, in climate science – apparently as distinct from other scientific disciplines – refusing to share data was “standard practice”. One wonders why (well, actually, one does not wonder at all).
Yet the most significant part of this exchange, largely buried by subsequent discussion of the issues already mentioned, occurred very early in Jones’s evidence. Referring to the CRU’s collaboration with two other climate units in America and another two in Russia and Japan respectively, Jones said: “We may be using a lot of common data, but the ways of going from the raw data to a derived product of gridded temperatures and then the average for the hemisphere and the globe is totally independent between the different groups.”
There you have the crisis in a nutshell. That is why the Climategate stakes are so high – $45 trillion, to be precise. If the CRU/East Anglia’s research is compromised (and who now seriously believes it is not?), then the dominoes all fall by cross-contamination. Jones tried to emphasise the apparent difference between these groups on whose work the whole IPCC edifice stands or falls. But this is cosmetic verbiage. It is the raw data that matters. If that is wrong, nuances of interpretation based on it are irrelevant – and how much significant difference is there in the claims of the IPCC contributing groups in any case?
The devastating magnitude 8.8 earthquake that struck Chile early Saturday morning has killed more than 700 people and leaft 2 million homeless, wounded or otherwise affected. As some of the worst affected areas woke up to badly damaged cities Sunday, looting broke out, leading several mayors to ask the central government of to issue the extreme declaration of martial law.
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, following an emergency meeting with her cabinet Sunday, announced she would send army troops into the Concepcion area in order to restore order and assist in rescue tasks.
The country has fallen into chaos as hundreds of people raided petrol stations to steal fuel as well as supermarkets for food. Public transport services had been suspended, and the supply of power and gas had also been cut off.
Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse a crowd of looters carrying off food and electrical appliances from a supermarket in Concepcion. Local press reported that over 1,000 soldiers were deployed across the southern city of Concepcion.
Fiona Macrae writes in the 
