IRAQ: HORRORS OF WAR DISCOVERED IN JUNKYARD

Junkyard Gives Up Secret Accounts of Massacre in Iraq

BAGHDAD — One by one, the Marines sat down, swore to tell the truth, and began to give secret interviews discussing one of the most horrific episodes of America’s time in Iraq: the 2005 massacre by Marines of Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha.


“I mean, whether it’s a result of our action or other action, you know, discovering 20 bodies, throats slit, 20 bodies, you know, beheaded, 20 bodies here, 20 bodies there,” Col. Thomas Cariker, a commander in Anbar Province at the time, told investigators as he described the chaos of Iraq. At times, he said, deaths were caused by “grenade attacks on a checkpoint and, you know, collateral damage to civilians.”


“It is one thing to kill an insurgent in a head-on fight,” Sergeant Major Sax testified. “It is a whole different thing — and I hate to say it, the way we are raised in America — to injure a female or injure a child or, in the worst case, kill a female or kill a child.”


More snips:


“We don’t put official paperwork in the trash,” said the commander, Maj. Gen. Thomas Richardson, at the meeting at the American Embassy in Baghdad.


The documents were piled in military trailers and hauled to the junkyard by an Iraqi contractor who was trying to sell off the surplus from American bases, the junkyard attendant said. The attendant said he had no idea what any of the documents were about, only that they were essential to the Americans.


He said that over several weeks, he had burned dozens and dozens of binders, turning more untold stories about the war into ash.


“What can we do with them?” the attendant said. “These things are worthless to us, but we understand they are important, and it is better to burn them to protect the Americans. If they are leaving, it must mean their work here is done.”


FULL ARTICLE:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/world/middleeast/united-states-marines-haditha-interviews-found-in-iraq-junkyard.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha22

NEWT GINGRICH FOR US PRES: an "invented" person

Ignatious O'Reilly: Newt Gingrich is an 'Invented' Person
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/238913-Ignatious-O-Reilly-Newt-Gingrich-is-an-Invented-Person

Ignatia O'Reilly
Sott.net
Wed, 14 Dec 2011 10:53 CST

Newt Gingrich is an "invented person, who is in fact the product of a mediatic experiment on mass perception and has historically been a puppet of the Israel lobby. He has also been a member of the non-Reality based community and as such cannot be said to exist in the full sense of the word. This is the most plausible explanation for Gingrich's other-wordly declarations of late."

"I do have an alternative theory", Mr O'Reilly stressed, "but it involves parallel universes and Bizarro Worlds where wrong is right, black is white, and predator drones are fluffy bunny-rabbits, but I am still waiting on the informed opinion of my contacts at the Large Hadron Collider Particle Accelerator facilities". 

Mr O'Reilly added unapologetically: "Is what I said factually correct? Yes. Is it historically true? Yes." However, O'Reilly left open the possibility of a friendly settlement with Gingrich by pointing out that he had no ill feelings against the former Speaker. "I don't have much anger to spare on a daily basis - I usually spend it all on public transport - so I choose to reserve whatever I have left for real people. Being angry at Newt would be like being angry at the Eiffel Tower or the color blue. In fact, I am thankful for the amusement that such a character can bring me every time he opens his mouth and releases jewels of nonsense capable of inspiring dadaist artists back into the creative process. Heck, I like Barney the Dinosaur too for similar reasons, and he also can hardly be called a person!

Full Article:

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/238913-Ignatious-O-Reilly-Newt-Gingrich-is-an-Invented-Person

CORONA DECLARES WAR: Huh! WHY ONLY NOW?

Corona declares war on Aquino | Inquirer News:

SNIPS:

“I have not wronged you, Mr. President. I don’t have any sins against the people,” Corona said. “I oppose this relentless persecution, intimidation and bullying. I oppose this dictatorship that President Benigno Simeon Aquino III is slowly establishing.”

“Mr. President, I am the primus inter pares (first among equals) in the Supreme Court. If you don’t understand this, it means that I should be at the forefront in the fight to defend the Supreme Court,” he said, drawing loud cheers from his supporters clad in black shirts. “We will not allow them to disrespect and trample on our democracy and the Supreme Court.”

He said he was ready to face the impeachment trial in the Senate, saying he could sleep well at night “knowing that my conscience is clean because I’m only doing my job.”

“I remain truthful to God, myself, to the law and to the people,” he said.

FULL ARTICLE:

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/111107/corona-raps-aquino-impeachment-bid

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ISRAEL: THE BASTION OF DEMOCRACY (LOL!) IN THE M.E. BANS CALL TO PRAYERS IN MOSQUES

PressTV - Bibi hailed for ban on call to prayers:

ISRAEL: THE BASTION OF DEMOCRACY (LOL!) IN THE M.E. BANS CALL TO PRAYER IN MOSQUES

SNIP:

Thousands of internet users have attacked the Facebook page of an Israeli lawmaker who has called for a ban on call to prayers (Adhan) at mosques in the occupied Palestinian territories.

In July, the Israeli regime also blocked the broadcast of Adhan from the holy Ibrahimi Mosque in the occupied West Bank.

In a Sunday cabinet meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced support for the bill, saying that there was "no need to be more liberal than Europe."

Meanwhile, many mosques in the Palestinian territories have become targets of constant attacks by Israeli settlers, who have been heavily armed by Tel Aviv authorities and enjoy near immunity.

Muslim nations have frequently blamed such acts on the Israeli regime, calling them a sacrilege of Islamic sanctities.

The Israeli foreign minister has lauded Premier Benjamin Netanyahu for supporting a bill banning calls to worship from mosques in the occupied Palestinian lands.

Avigdor Lieberman claimed that the controversial proposal was a "legitimate" one, adding that "there are similar precedents in the Western world," the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz reported on Monday.
The bill, proposed by Yisrael Beiteinu Party member Anastassia Michaeli, is believed to be the first attempt to impose a ban on calls to worship from mosques since the 1948 Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. 

FULL ARTICLE:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/215589.html

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Top 16 Pictures from Space 2011: MY TOP 3 PICKS

Top 16 Pictures from Space 2011 | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine:

I chose this one for familiarity. This photo looks the same at 30,000 feet anywhere on the planet…

This volcano from Eritrea is just across the Red Sea from Saudi Arabia

TWO ECLIPSES FOR THE PRICE OF ONE

On January 4, 2011 (so it just made this list) there was a partial solar eclipse, with the Moon cutting a chord across the Sun. Astrophotographer Thierry Legault, using some astronomy software, realized the best place to take pictures of the eclipse was in Muscat in the Sultanate of Oman. Why there? Because from that location during the eclipse the International Space Station also transited the Sun! He snapped this picture with preternatural timing; the ISS moves so rapidly as seen from the ground that it only takes 0.9 seconds to cross the Sun's face. Thierry literally had to have split-second timing to get this once-in-a-lifetime shot.

Image credit: Thierry Legault

Muscat, Oman is geographically stone-throw-away from the south of Saudi Arabia so I chose this one :-)

Read the full article here:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/12/06/top-16-pictures-from-space/

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ANTARCTICA SHINES: Icy Bastion of Space Science

Antarctica Shines as Icy Bastion of Space Science

by Charles Q. Choi, SPACE.com Contributor

Date: 09 December 2011 Time: 12:54 PM ET

Interesting snippets:

Antarctica may be the bottom of the world, but the coldest, driest, highest continent is the best place for looking up at the heavens from Earth.

Astronomers are now carrying out cutting-edge research in the South Pole that could shed light on the greatest secrets of the universe. [Images: Peering Back to the Big Bang & Early Universe]

"Amazingly, the South Pole now ranks with the grand research laboratories such as Fermilab and CERN," said theoretical physicist Francis Halzen of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

Clear skies

The Antarctic is a land of harsh extremes, ones that make it perfect in many ways for astronomy.

Antarctica is the coldest continent, meaning there is less thermal radiation to hamper astronomy that focuses on infrared light. This cold also makes Antarctica the driest continent, freezing liquid water on the ground and water vapor out of the air. As such, there is little water present to interfere with light coming from outer space that astronomers want to observe.

Antarctica is the highest continent — its icy surface rises gradually from the coast to a vast plateau, and the area of ice more than 9,800 feet (3,000 meters) high is nearly as large as Australia. This elevation also makes Antarctica the windiest continent — gravity pulls air off the plateau, and the so-called katabatic winds that result can reach hurricane speeds at the coast. Still, there is little wind on the highest points of the plateau, and the calmest spot on Earth in terms of wind speeds and lack of major storms can be found there. Overall, the stable nature of the air there is ideal for steady stargazing.

The South Pole lies on the flank of the Antarctic plateau at an elevation of 9,300 feet (2,835 meters). Here, the United States keeps the South Pole Telescope gazing at the cosmic microwave background — the oldest light in the universe — as well as millimeter-wave radiation from outer space.

IceCube

The vast amounts of pure ice in Antarctica make it ideal for absorbing and studying particles from outer space. For instance, the largest neutrino telescope in the world, IceCube, is built 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) below the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, and "transforms deep ice into the largest particle detector ever constructed," said Halzen, principal investigator of IceCube.

Neutrinos are ghostly particles that recently have drawn much attention for potentially traveling faster than light. IceCube will look at neutrinos created from the most energetic objects in space to help unlock their secrets. [Top 10 Implications of Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos]

Train for Mars and Europa

Antarctica is also the richest source of meteorites on Earth — anything that comes crashing from space is readily apparent on the otherwise featureless surface, and the cold keeps the meteorites frozen in nearly pristine conditions. Antarctic meteorites include rocks that were blasted off Mars long ago by other space rock impacts; analyzing these meteorites could shed light on whether the Red Planet could have ever hosted life.

Advances from China

China is building Kunlun Station at the highest point at the Antarctic plateau at an elevation of 13,395 feet (4,083 m). Chinese researchers have ambitious plans for telescopes that work in the optical, infrared and terahertz ranges, Burton noted. Australia is collaborating with them, and has already set up a robotic observatory there, he added.

"I think it would be a good idea for U.S. groups to support China's efforts as much as possible and take part in them if we want to remain a leader in Antarctic astronomy," Crawford said. "There's going to be exciting work there in the future."

Read full article:

http://www.space.com/13881-antarctic-astronomy-south-pole-telescopes-universe.html?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=SP_12092011

TINAGO FALLS: A Natural Wonder…

TINAGO FALLS: A Natural Wonder…

My nephews, nieces, and I were battling the current. We didn’t beat the current, but it was really fun.

What you see in this photo is not only what you get, and although its name, “Tinago” (Hidden Falls), describes how it was before its discovery, it is a misnomer. I would recommend renaming it “The Valley of Falls “or “The Waterfalls Valley” because the entire valley (not visible in the pictures) drips with breathtaking waterfalls. On the left and right of this frontal photo is likewise water cascading from the forest that I can only describe as a natural wonder beyond compare to what I have seen, neither in real life nor in photos at National Geographic. You are virtually surrounded by a cascading deluge of absolute natural wonders.

You have to see it to believe.

Going down the valley in the past, as I was told, was a sheer adventure where you had to climb down and up again with ropes through mud and the thick foliage of the forest. The government has since developed it with stairs snaking through the forest, but the steep staircase is still not for the faint of heart, especially the elderly. Some years ago, when I first visited the valley, my very young son laughably had to manually lift his legs one at a time to get to the top of the stairs :-)

This was a painting by my younger brother, a few years before he passed away, which I recently added to this blog post. 

NLK