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'I cry myself to sleep': Tia Sharp murderer's self-pitying letters from jail reveal his upset at 'nasty stuff' said by other prisoners

th1sf8te — Sun, 19 May 2013 14:33:31 -0400

Child killer Stuart Hazell wrote a series of self-pitying letters from prison, complaining that he was bullied by other inmates and cried himself to sleep as he awaited trial. In the letters, written to a pen pal before he pleaded guilty to the murder of 12-year-old Tia Sharp, he complains that he cannot get counselling at Belmarsh maximum security jail in South East London. The 37-year-old, who was jailed for 38 years without parole last week, also proclaims his innocence in the mistake-littered letters and claimed to be a man with a gentle nature who would never hurt a woman. He wrote: 'I feel like I'm stuck in a bubble, it sounds soft but I even cry myself to sleep. 'Like I said when my cell door closed then I sit and cry, I won't deny it, it truly hurts when people say nasty stuff about me, but if they knew me as me a bloke who would do anything for anyone it would paint a different picture.' His letters, published in the Sunday Mirror , also moan that the prison authorities could not offer him any psychiatric support as he was a remand prisoner, while counselling is only for sentenced prisoners - a situation he brands a 'joke'. Tia's body was found in the attic of the home in New Addington, South London that Hazell shared with Tia's biological grandmother Christine Bicknell, a week after the girl went missing in August last year. Hazell suffocated the 12-year-old during a sex attack after months of trawling vile internet pornography sites and filming her as she slept. Children's charities demanded tighter internet controls and detectives said his obsession with online child porn 'shaped his behaviour' Hazell had insisted for nine months that Tia's death was a 'tragic accident'. The father of one claimed she slipped and broke her neck while he was babysitting her at the home he shared with Miss Bicknell. But in the letters he claims he would never have hurt a child or hit a woman, claiming he himself had suffered physical abuse as a child. He added: 'I am a loveing, careing, generous bloke who would do anything for anyone and I would go out of my way to help friends and family anyway I could.' He also compares himself to Robert Stroud - the famous 'Birdman of Alcatraz' - after he befriended a pigeon outside his cell window. Stroud, a convicted killer, kept hundreds of canaries in his sell and even wrote books about them. He was portrayed by Burt Lancaster in a 1962 film. Hazell wrote: 'Strange how something so small can take my mind of the cayos (chaos) and madness and this last ten months have been full of cayos and madness believe me.' The letters also mention his love of football club Tottenham Hotspur, Wasps rugby club and TV shows Scrubs, Hollyoaks and How I Met Your Mother. Hazell's criminal past included convictions for racially aggravated common assault in 2002, dealing cocaine in 2003 and possession of a machete in a public place in 2010, for which he was jailed for 12 months. He also has convictions for burglary and theft. Steve Carter, Tia's father, last week called for his daughter's killer to be hung. He said: 'The four days of trial here were very hard to deal with, hearing the vile things Hazell did to Tia. 'He should serve his time and then be hung. 'I do not see today's events as justice for Tia, merely a legal conviction.' Hazell also wrote to his father Keith from Belmarsh in August last year, saying he had made 'one mistake and my whole world has collapsed'. He told his father that he wishes he could 'turn back the clock' and that he was unable to eat or sleep in prison. The letter had two pictures of sad faces drawn on it and had two words written at the top: 'Forgive me'. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2326870/Stuart-Hazell-Tia-Sharp-murderers-self-pitying-letters-jail-reveal-upset-nasty-stuff-said-prisoners.html

Smoothjc1

Cornholio1 — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:54:15 -0400

This is the partial story of my friend Douglas (and he is going to be pissed when he sees this) you know him as (Smoothjc1) Douglas is and will always be (from now on, well sense 99 ) one of the biggest assholes you will ever meet, but he will also be one of your best friends, he would give the last dollar in his pocket, come and pick you up when you are stupid drunk and can't drive, he quit 5 yrs ago and it pisses him off when he has to do it, but the alternative for him is worse if you hit someone. Douglas is 50 yrs old, born 1962 and he had a normal childhood, Same one we all had in 70's & 80's We met when we were 16 and became drinking buddies (Yukon Jack) he was already losing his hair and had a mustache so he could buy and that he did for everyone that wanted to pay us in Yukon Jack. And for alooooong time that's what happened . You may wonder why he calls MOST motorcycle riders douche bags, That's because he was hit by a guy showing off for his girlfriend, he hit Doug and broke his leg in a couple places and he hasn't rode sense he's not afraid to, he just can't trust other people not to ride/drive like idiots he prefers a little steel around him now. He met his wife in 95 and for first time in a long time he was happy and they were married in 97, I was his best man, and she died in 99 ( she had kept a nasty little secret from him (Aids) and never told him about it untill about three months before she died ) That's when Doug's drinking and (drugging to the tune of $50.000 I three months (a female friend turned him on to crack) and he tried to blow up his heart using that shit) bloomed out of control, several drunk drivings and $ 75.000 dollars later he started sobering up, After losing his house and car and quite a few friends he had to move back to his parents house ( which turned out to be a blessing his dad his Parkinson's disease ) he watches his dad during the day while his mom works, then goes to work him self when she gets home. Douglas is one bitter mother fucker. but he is working on that with help from Bill. W. and new friends. You might wonder why says and does what he says and does, He doesn't like to be lied to and craves information can you blame him after his wife and female fucked him over so hard. If he smells or sees bullshit he is most likely to call you on it. But like I said he might be an asshole to people (everyone in fact) till he gets to know you, but he is one greatest friends you will ever find , He won't give a shit if you flame him with info I just gave you because he does not give a shit about you or the 99.9 % of the other people on this planet, but try and see where he comes from. Peace. Thomas Had too add a poll to post it does not matter.

A Clockwork Orange 1971 - Filming Location Tour 2011

Donegal — Tue, 14 May 2013 10:47:07 -0400

A Clockwork Orange is a 1971 darkly satirical science fiction film adaptation of Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel of the same name. The film, which was made in England, concerns Alex (Malcolm McDowell), a charismatic, psychopathic delinquent whose pleasures are classical music (especially Beethoven), rape, and so-called 'ultra-violence. Locations : - Droogs attack the old tramp : southern underpass, between Trinity Road and Swandon Way, Wandsworth Road, London - Alex is walking home: it's Binsey Walk and Yarnton Way Bexley, London SE2 9UJ, UK. - Alex's Flat, 56 Stratfield Rd, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire WD6, UK -The 'Flat Block Marina' Binsey Walk on the Lake's western shore overlooked by the tower blocks of Yarnton Way. - Alex and the tramp revenge :Albert bridge, Chelsea Embankment at Oakley Street, SW3 - Ludovico Medical Facility: the campus of Brunel University in Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH - Main lobby entrance Alex'flat with broken elevator is supposed to be Tower D Lobby, Brunel University, Uxbridge -Lecture Center is the theater where Alex's eyes are pulled open and he is forced to watch the films as part of his treatment. Lecture Room E 302 - CatLady House : AKA manor lodge school Shenley, in Hertfordshire at Blackhorse Lane/rectory lane by the M25 motorway WD7 9BG -Alex leaps in attempt to commit suicide Edgwarebury Country Club, Barnet Lane, Elstree, England, WD6 3RE -Exterior road "HOME" Night: School Lane in Brickett Wood.

China land grabbing scheme puts China and India on Edge

cathy winslow — Sat, 11 May 2013 00:41:41 -0400

India's Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid has met with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing, just days after the resolution of a confrontation between the armies of the two countries, thousands of kilometers to the west near the Karakoram mountain range. The stand-off lasted three weeks and looked like it might seriously damage ties. Nonetheless, Khurshid and Wang signed an agreement to strengthen bilateral relations. The incident took place in a high altitude region fought over by India and China in a 1962 border war. Since then, the two countries have agreed on how to avoid further conflict, but not on a permanent boundary between them, which remains a vaguely defined "line of actual of control". Reports say Chinese troops set up camp inside Indian territory, only withdrawing once the Indians had agreed to demolish a recently built line of defensive bunkers. While the Chinese government has denied entering Indian territory, Indian leaders have denied making any concessions. In private, Indian analysts say their army had merely been trying to match much better infrastructure built on the Chinese side. Chinese analysts, meanwhile, say that given their country's increasingly confrontational territorial disputes with Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines, it might not be a good idea to open up a spat with India. At China's Foreign Ministry, spokeswoman Hua Chunying declined to give details of the dispute. Li Keqiang has said India will be the destination of his first overseas visit as Prime Minister. http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/05/10/302816/india-china-hold-talks-amid-border-tension/

Banking Mafia Exposed !!

omniradar — Thu, 09 May 2013 14:15:42 -0400

These are the very people trying to take over Syria & Iran & then impose a central banking system. and the very ones who stole lb6 billion of gold from Libya, the biggest physical robbery ever carried out ! The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (hereinafter - the Committee) is closely associated with supranational organisations like the Bank for International Settlements in Basel (BIS), which is often called the <>, the <> of central banks or the <>. The Committee's office is situated in the BIS building. At the end of 1974, following the disequilibrium of international currencies and banking markets caused by the collapse of the Herstatt Bank in West Germany, the heads of central banks in the G10 countries established the Committee under the auspices of the BIS to develop common international rules with regard to banking supervision. The Committee formulates common standards for banking supervision and recommendations for their implementation, on the assumption that national authorised bodies (first and foremost central banks) will push them forwards in their own countries. With regard to G10, this is the group of countries that signed a general agreement on borrowing with the IMF in 1962 (Belgium, Great Britain, West Germany, Italy, Canada, the Netherlands, France, Sweden, the USA and Japan). Switzerland, which was not a member of the IMF, joined in 1964, but the name of the group remained as before. Representatives from Luxembourg were also included in the Basel Committee from the very beginning and, from 2001, the Committee has included representatives from Spain. At present, the Committee includes representatives from central banks and national authorities on banking supervision from 27 countries (the 13 countries already mentioned along with Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa and Turkey, which all joined the Committee in 2009). Over almost four decades of its activities, the Committee has published tens of documents on different areas of activity, including general issues on the organisation of supervision, capital adequacy, all kinds of risk, the corporate governance of lending and borrowing organisations and so on. The Committee's key area of activity is the definition of standards on capital adequacy for banks. All of the Committee's documentation is centred around an incredibly simple ratio: equity : a bank's capital = capital adequacy ratio. Kabbalists of the money world are looking for this ratio's magic number, which would guarantee the stability of the banking system. In fact, the Committee is seeking to legitimise what is a crime. In Europe, a system of so-called partial, or incomplete, coverage of obligations by banks as borrowing and lending organisations has already existed for a long time (at least since the 18th century). Figuratively speaking, this system allows banks to make money <>. For example, for every 1 dollar of lawful money that depositors place in a deposit account, banks are allowed to release 5 or 10 dollars of non-cash (credit) money by way of credit. This used to be called counterfeiting and was strictly punishable by law. Nowadays, it is called the <> or <> of banking, legalised by national laws, and in economic textbooks it is known as the <>. The principle of <> coverage (reservation) is <> by a supranational structure called the <>, which lends the principle an appearance of respectability. No cunning standards and formulae will remove the main effect of the <> coverage (reservation) of obligations - the banking crises. In the almost four decades that the Committee has existed, the world has been witness to a countless number of banking failures and crises. In order to prevent such problems, obligations need to be covered 100 percent, but then banks would be deprived of the opportunity to engage in their own <>. There is a strict taboo on the honest and frank discussion of <> reservation both in central banks and the Committee: they are trying to convince the public that it is possible to invent a <> for capital adequacy so that banks can continue to make money <> as before. This is outright deception. Basel I and Basel II - straws for the drowning Up to the end of 2012, two fundamental documents had been implemented by the Committee that defined the <> for capital adequacy and recommended that this formula be used by national authorities on banking supervision - Basel I and Basel II. The first of these came into existence in 1988 and had the very respectable name of the <> (Basel I). This agreement defined the minimum capital adequacy ratio as 8 percent, calculated as the ratio of equity (regulated by the supervisory authority) to risk weighted assets. Only credit risks are taken into account (although a bank's capital can be made up of investments as well as credits). In fact, the Committee gave the go-ahead for a financial-monetary orgy, respectfully called <> in economic textbooks. The markets began to <>, the <> began to burst and the real economy and ordinary people suffered the most. To date, more than 100 countries in the world adhere to the rules of Basel I, according to the official declaration. At the turn of the century, a new version of the standard began to be prepared called Basel II, which was to start in 2004. The new version contained extremely feeble attempts to take account of new banking risks (besides credit risks), especially in view of the rapid development of derivatives markets, the emergence of hedge funds and other institutional speculators, with which banks were extremely closely linked. At the height of implementing the new standard, the financial crisis of 2007-2009 broke out. It once again demonstrated that the Basel standards are no more than a fig leaf covering the tyranny of the world's usurers. Basel II was unable to cure the world's moneylenders of their greed, the global banking giant Lehman Brothers sank to the depths in front of everybody's eyes and, in order to save others, America was forced to spend upwards of three trillion dollars from the public purse, with Europe spending about the same. There were even attempts to prove that it was the implementation of Basel II that had caused the start of the financial crisis, since in order to make up for the lack of equity, banks decided to use extremely risky methods to attract capital and had to go as far as falsification and outright deception (accounting offences, the use of off-balance sheet transactions, etc.). During the financial crisis, the Committee began to spasmodically introduce changes and amendments to the Basel II standard. The features of Basel III At long last, a new document emerged called Basel III. Proposals for Basel III were approved at the G20 Summit in Seoul in November 2010. Participants at the Summit also approved the timeline for the phased implementation of the standard. 1 January 2013 was given as the start date. The new document is exceedingly complex and voluminous, numbering nearly 800 pages. I would like to draw your attention to the following features: 1. The timeline for implementing the standard stretches to 2018; in other words, the standard is not <>, it gives banks enough time for manoeuvre; 2. The bar for the capital adequacy ratio of banks was raised, but not so much that it would avoid new crises; 3. The role of the <> in the assessment of banks by supervisory authorities was increased; and 4. Within equity, a special role has been given to gold as a financial asset. In my opinion, the last feature is the most important; it is a high-quality innovation that distinguishes Basel III from Basel II. In previous Basel standards, only cash (which comes under the heading of <> in all countries) and government debt securities - Ministry of Finance and Treasury bonds - were regarded as high-quality equity. Moreover, this did not include all bonds, only those given the highest rating by leading international rating agencies. For a long time, the highest quality form of equity was considered to be US Treasury bonds. In other words, the banks in those countries that took part in Basel I and Basel II must have been helping Uncle Sam by purchasing US bonds and covering up the holes in the US budget, thereby supporting the US dollar and working against gold as the main rival to <>. <>: the partial rehabilitation of gold Before the 1970s, when the Bretton-Woods currency system existed in the world and there were not yet any <> standards, everything was different. Banks were principally valued in terms of the amount of gold in their equity. The more gold there was relative to the total amount of capital and the total amount of assets, the safer the bank was believed to be. It was all simple, clear and logical. However, those good old times came to an end with the collapse of the gold standard and the IMF's decision to carry out a full and final demonetisation of gold. Gold was demoted to a run-of-the-mill exchange commodity like oil, wheat or coffee. As a last resort, banks could use gold as an investment medium, but the metal stopped being regarded as a valuable financial asset. Up to now, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has stored the gold in its <>, so to speak. On the whole, the rules of the game were such that there was no benefit in banks hoarding their gold. At best, bankers regarded the yellow metal with the eyes of speculators buying and selling gold to make short-term profits. Basel III has raised the status of gold dramatically. New rules have been provided to transfer gold to a bank's tier 1 capital at 100 percent of its value. Banks now have the opportunity to replace their paper assets (primarily US Treasury bonds) with gold. Experts have calculated that such a practice will create additional demand for the precious metal to the extent of at least 1700 tonnes. There have been even higher estimations of up to 3000 tonnes. A number of experts believe that the development of Basel III was carried out with powerful lobbying from the Rothschilds, who have an interest in restoring the monetary status of gold in the world. For the last two centuries, the Rothschilds have had control over the main gold reserves, been involved in the extraction of gold and are <> in the precious metals market. In September 2012, before the Basel Committee's new standard had even come into force, the heads of one of the world's largest banks, Deutsche Bank AG, which falls within the Rothschilds' sphere of influence, made a public statement that gold had again been transformed from a commodity into money. The statement caused a painful reaction on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, first and foremost in the US Federal Reserve System. The chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, once again issued a standard statement that gold was far from the best type of money. It is not difficult to see that Basel III is a blow to the US dollar and the American economy. America's reaction was sufficiently prompt and harsh. At the end of last year, America's monetary and financial regulators (the Federal Reserve system, the Deposit Insurance Agency and the Office of the Comptroller of Currency) reported that they had been sent a petition by leading American banks stating that the new Basel standards were crippling for lending and borrowing organisations. After this, the Federal Reserve System and other US financial regulators went to the Committee and announced that the introduction of Basel III in America was being postponed, and no date for transition to the new standard was given. At this point, European banks started to feel anxious, believing that if they began the transition to the new standard, they would find themselves uncompetitive in comparison with American banks. Therefore, they also refused to shift to Basel -III. So who exactly has embraced Basel III since 1 January 2013? The list is not very long, with a total of 11 countries in all: Australia, Hong Kong, Canada, China, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Thailand, Switzerland, South Africa and Japan. It is also possible to add India here, which announced it would be joining Basel III from 1 April 2013. It is remarkable that the list contains just four countries from the <> zone: Australia, Canada, Switzerland and Japan. Turkey's absence from the list is mysterious. The country actively encourages the wide use of gold in banking operations, and the proportion of gold in the equity and assets of Turkey's banks compared with other countries is high. In reality, the Turkish banking sector is completely ready to implement the Basel III standards. As the London newspaper the Financial Times observed, the policy of the governor of the Central Bank of Turkey, Erdem Basci, has yielded impressive results for Turkish banks: they have attracted 8.3 billion US dollars in new deposits through gold programmes over the last 12 months and are now able to channel these resources into lending. One can observe that nearly all the leading gold producers are on the list given above: China, South Africa, Canada and Australia. A number of the countries on the list are leading importers of gold (China, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia and India). China, which has been included on the list of <> leaders, has long been hinting at the possibility of transforming the Yuan into a gold standard. Switzerland, meanwhile, is pushing forward a project to introduce a parallel currency within the country in the form of a gold franc. <>: banks' U-turn on gold The implementation of the new Basel rules could lead to a radical change in the positions of individual countries' banks in the global financial system. To begin with, it is expected that the positions of Chinese banks will become stronger, bearing in mind that for several years in succession, China has ranked first in the world in terms of the volume of gold both extracted and imported. The positions of those banks that bravely embraced Basel III will also become stronger, since the price of gold over the last 12 years has shown an unprecedentedly high growth rate - an average of 17 percent per year. In 2012, a troy ounce of gold cost 1700 dollars. According to many gold traders, meanwhile, the <> (<>) value of metal is at a level of no less than 5000 dollars. Whoever managed to get on the <> by buying low-cost tickets will be much more likely to find themselves on the global financial Olympus tomorrow. Even those banks that have still not entered the zone of Basel III activities understand that their future depends on how quickly they will be able to turn towards gold. IMF and World Gold Council statistics do not give a clear picture of gold purchases by the entire banking sector. However, there are statistics for the purchase and sale activities of central banks in the gold market. Following the collapse of the Bretton-Woods currency system, central banks across the world sold more gold than they bought for more than three decades. After the recently concluded financial crisis, the situation changed dramatically. In 2011, net purchases of gold by the world's central banks amounted to 457 tonnes. This is more than 10 percent of the total demand for precious metals on the world market (4400 tonnes). During the 15 years preceding the crisis, meanwhile, net purchases totalled an average of 400 tonnes per year. Thus, the central banks made a sharp about turn and started to purchase gold in the kinds of volumes that had not been observed since the 1960s. Last year was a record year in terms of the amount of net purchases of gold by the world's central banks since 1964. According to preliminary data released by the World Gold Council, a new record will also be set in 2012: the net purchase of gold by the world's central banks rose to 536 tonnes. With regard to commercial banks, before the introduction of the Basel III standard they only saw gold as a way to increase their own profits through speculation and/or investment, but they had no incentive to establish their own considerable reserves of precious metals. I think their attitude to gold is going to change in 2013, they will buy it for themselves with a view to improving the sustainability of their business and attracting clients. The validation of the Basel III standards in a number of countries in 2013 is a serious indication that gold has returned to the world of money. We are not yet talking about the classical gold standard, of course, whereby banks are able to freely exchange paper money for metal. But metal may become more widely used to cover banks' liabilities and be a financial asset of the <>. Who knows, maybe in the future, when banks have accumulated enough gold, the issue of the reinstatement of the gold standard will be put back on the agenda...

(Declassified) Strategic Air Command: Command Post

BloodyPeasant — Tue, 07 May 2013 13:32:03 -0400

Very little information is currently available about the production of "SAC Command Post" by the the 1365th Photo Squadron, and no evidence has surfaced that it was ever shown. The film provides a detailed picture of the Strategic Air Command's command-and-control system lodged in the lower levels of SAC headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base, near Omaha, Nebraska. Describing tight civilian control over decisions to use nuclear weapons, the film emphasizes SAC's place in the chain of command and the mechanisms for preventing the "unauthorized launch" of bombers and missiles that could start a nuclear war. Internal evidence suggests that work on the film began during 1963 because the issue of the Omaha World Herald that one of the SAC officers is shown reading appears to have a June 1963 date on it. That production began in 1963 cannot have been coincidental. Air Force leaders were no doubt concerned that writers and film producers had been raising questions about loose command-and-control arrangements over nuclear weapons, even the scary prospect that a SAC commander could launch nuclear strikes on his own authority. In April 1963, only a few months before the Air Force was working on this film, The New York Times published an article about Kubrick's London studio, quoting the director that Doctor Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb was about a "psychotic general, who believes that fluoridation of water is a Communist conspiracy to sap and pollute our precious bodily fluids, has unleashed his wing of H-bombers against Russia." Kubrick was working with British writer Peter George, who in 1958 had published Red Alert, about a deranged general initiating a nuclear attack on Russia. Also showing that fear of loose control over nuclear weapons was entering the popular culture, American novelists Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler had written Fail-Safe, published in 1962, about a U.S.-Soviet crisis caused by the accidental transmittal of attack orders to SAC bombers (That the plot was close to Red Alert led to a plagiarism lawsuit). In this context, Air Force leaders may have decided to present their side of the story to the general public and that is what "SAC Command Post" does. Depicting SAC as the "greatest deterrent to general war in the world today," the film depicts the Command's nuclear forces, ground and airborne-alert operations, and the decision-making system that controlled those forces. Taking the viewer into the underground command post, the narrator describes the component parts: the intelligence situation room, the entrance to the offices of the Joint Strategic Target Planning Staff (which kept the "strategic war plan integrated"), and the SAC controllers with the Gold Phone that kept commanders in touch with Washington and which would relay Presidential orders to go to war. The coverage of SAC's alert procedures shows the warning systems used to detect incoming missiles (Ballistic Missile Early Warning System) and the detonation of nuclear weapons on U.S. territory (Bomb Alarm System). In the event of an attack, or warning of an attack, the "positive control" (or fail-safe) system would ensure that bombers would return to their bases if their pilots did not receive a "go" message. If SAC units received attack orders, presumably originating with the President, SAC bomber and ICBM crews could not drop bombs or launch missiles unless they acted together beginning with steps to authenticate their orders. In the event a nuclear strike took out SAC headquarters, the Command had established continuity of operations plans centering in an airborne command post that had been flying since February 1961. Through well established procedures, SAC would "prevail if we have to fight." A specific organizational need may have provided the impetus for the film's production, but why it was never used publicly needs to be explained. It is possible that by the time that the film was nearing completion it may have become a problem in its own right. With President Lyndon Johnson determined to avoid crises with Moscow, higher-ups may have seen an official documentary trumpeting SAC's readiness for nuclear war as off-message, even though it was consistent with the president's public rhetoric about centralized control over nuclear use decisions. Although "SAC Command Post" was not classified, perhaps the presentation of so many SAC activities raised the film's sensitivity making it more difficult to show publicly. Perhaps the film was used for internal training purposes but there is no evidence of that either. If any Air Force or other Pentagon retirees have any recollections of what might have happened with "SAC Command Post," they are welcome to share them. Viewers, however, should be aware of the degree to which the film slides over significant command-and-control and safety problems, for example, the extent to which bomber crews had the capability to make autonomous nuclear use decisions as well as the risks that inhered in the airborne alert program. Also unmentioned is the program initiated during the Eisenhower administration to predelegate presidential nuclear use decisions in the event of a emergency conditions; although predelegation figured prominently in Dr. Strangelove as Plan "R", it was one of the most sensitive official secrets of the Cold War. View similar videos at: http://declassified.liveleak.com

(Declassified) Development of the Soviet Ballistic Missile Threat

BloodyPeasant — Tue, 07 May 2013 12:43:38 -0400

This film, depicting a once secret Air Force briefing on the prospective Soviet missile and bomber threat in the years ahead, illuminates the difficulties of intelligence analysis. Delivered by Director of Warning and Threat Assessment, Office of Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Col. Linscott A. Hall, and one of his assistants, Lt. Colonel Joel Parks, the briefing was representative of Air Force intelligence thinking at the height of the "missile gap" controversy over the degree of the Soviet ICBM buildup. The intended audience for the briefing may have been other intelligence agencies, senior officials in the Pentagon, and possibly civilians and officers who worked on nuclear targets, so they would have their agency's angle on the prospective threat. The Air Force had a reputation for threat inflation during the Cold War, but in 1960 all U.S. intelligence offices and agencies produced exaggerated estimates and "worst-case scenarios" of Soviet capabilities to produce and deploy ICBMs. In keeping with that trend, Parks declared that the Soviet ICBM program was in an "advanced state of development," which would put Moscow in a position to threaten the United States with a "crippling blow." The Soviets would have 125 ICBMs by 1961, 288 by 1962, and 490 the next year. (The actual numbers would turn out to be far fewer: 16, 56 and 122.) Parks also saw Moscow making significant progress in producing nuclear weapons and fielding long-range bombers. According to Colonel Hall, this rate of progress was consistent with Moscow's search for a "mixed offensive force" to "achieve decisive military superiority as soon as practicable." With the briefing given at the secret level, it did not cover the top secret U-2 program or highly classified communications intelligence programs, which played important roles in strategic intelligence. Nevertheless, Colonel Parks's briefing was informative on the electronics intelligence (elint) collected by the Air Force to monitor the missiles test centers at Tyura Tam and Kapustin Yar. Parks discussed how monitoring stations at Shemya Island, Alaska, and Diyarbaldr, Turkey, picked up telemetry from long-range missile tests that could be used to ascertain the rate of Moscow's progress. It was not until 1961, however, when the U.S. intelligence establishment was getting reliable data from Corona satellite photography, that it recognized that the "missile gap" was on the other side and that Moscow had only a few ICBMs. Nevertheless, some Air Force leaders disputed the new intelligence findings, perhaps because they were so inconsistent with previous positions taken by their agency. Visit http://declassified.liveleak.com for similar videos.

Facebook helps cops crack 45 year old case

Gorilla Biscuit — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 21:01:08 -0400

Carolee Sadie Ashby's family has spent the past 45 years wondering who was driving the car that fatally struck the four-year-old girl as she crossed a street in her upstate New York hometown on Halloween night. Thanks to a retired detective's Facebook post, authorities provided an answer Wednesday: A man who police say misled them when questioned about the girl's death in 1968 and then sat on the secret for more than four decades. Douglas Parkhurst, 62, of the town of Oswego, has been identified as the driver of a car that failed to stop after hitting Carolee, the Fulton Police Department said. Parkhurst won't be charged because the statute of limitations has expired, police said. An Oswego County phone number for him has been disconnected. The girl, her sister and a cousin were returning from a neighborhood store after buying candles for the sibling's 15th birthday when Carolee was hit. The other two weren't hurt, but Carolee later died from her injuries. Parkhurst was questioned at the time when police learned he had been in an accident that same night. He confirmed a crash, but said it occurred in the neighboring town of Volney, police said. Although his claims that he had hit a guard post didn't match up with the damage to his vehicle, Parkhurst wasn't questioned again, police said. The mystery endured for nearly a half-century. The woman, who police did not identify, told police that she was approached by a member of the Parkhurst family soon after the accident and asked to say she was with Parkhurst and his brother on Halloween night. The woman refused to do so and was never told why they wanted her alibi, but she assumed it was related to the accident, police said.Police checked out hundreds of leads over the years and reopened of the case in 2000, but the break came early last year after retired Fulton police Lt. Russ Johnson posted details of the case on a local history Facebook page. According to Fulton police, a former resident now living in Florida saw the posting and came forward with new information. Her information prompted investigators to go to Parkhurst's home 35 miles north of Syracuse and question him again, said Fulton police Sgt. Stephen Lunn Jr. "He invited us into his home," Lunn said. "At the time, he didn't give any indication that he had any guilt to this, so to speak." Over the course of several interviews, Parkhurst admitted he was drinking beer the night of the accident and was driving through Fulton with his brother passed out in the back seat when he hit something, Lunn said. Parkhurst told the investigators he believed at the time he had hit an animal, but now knows it was Carolee. He admitted that he initially lied when questioned about the accident in 1968, Lunn said. Carolee's mother, Marlene, and the sister she was walking with, Darlene McCann, still live in the Fulton area. Attempts to reach them Wednesday by phone and Facebook were unsuccessful. The car Parkhurst admitted driving that night, a tan 1962 Buick Special, was later junked in his sister's backyard in the nearby town of Mexico, Lunn said. The rusted-out vehicle has been resting on its roof in a field for about 40 years and investigators were unable to glean any evidence from it that would tie it to the hit-and-run, he said. Lunn said various members of the police department in his city of 12,000 had worked at attempting to solve the case. "It's always the goal of the Fulton Police Department to attempt to bring whatever closure we could bring to the family," he said. Source: http://www.today.com/tech/facebook-solve-45-year-old-hit-run-death-girl-4-6C9632677

Fatal Boxing Accident Of Benny "Kid" Paret 1962

CuntSeeShitDude — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 06:24:08 -0500

Fatal Accident of Benny "Kid" Paret during fight against Emile Griffith 1962. His severe brain injuries induced a coma causing his death on April 3rd in 1962.

Christian church to be converted into Mosque in Turkey

religion_brings_death — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 04:58:34 -0400

One of the most important monuments of late Byzantium, the 13th-century Church of Hagia Sophia in the Black Sea city of Trabzon, which is now a museum, will be converted into a mosque, after a legal battle that has dramatic implications for other major historical sites in Turkey. Many in Turkey believe that the Church of Hagia Sophia is a stalking horse for the possible re-conversion of its more famous namesake in Istanbul, the Hagia Sophia Museum (Ayasofya M"uzesi). For around 50 years, responsibility for the Church of Hagia Sophia in Trabzon has rested with Turkey's Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The courts now accept the claim made by the General Directorate of Pious Foundations, the government body responsible for most of the country's historical mosques, that this has been an "illegal occupation". The court has ruled that Hagia Sophia is an inalienable part of the foundation of Sultan Mehmed II who first turned the church into a mosque after his conquest of the Empire of Trebizond in 1462. "A building covenanted as a mosque cannot be used for any other purpose," says Mazhar Yildirimhan, the head of the directorate's office in Trabzon. He declined to speculate on whether this would mean covering up nearly half the wall space taken up with figurative Christian art, including the dome depicting a dynamic Christ Pantocrator. "There are modern techniques for masking the walls," he says. The church was rescued from dereliction (it had been used variously as an arsenal and a cholera hospital) between 1958 and 1962 by the University of Edinburgh under the direction of David Talbot Rice and David Winfield. This included restoring the original ground plan and removing a prayer niche constructed into an exterior porch. The church also has an exterior frieze depicting "the Fall of Man". "It is the whole ensemble-architecture, sculpture and painting-that makes Hagia Sophia unique," says Antony Eastmond of London's Courtauld Institute of Art, who is an authority on the building. " This is the most complete surviving Byzantine structure; there is no 13th-century monument like it. " Concern for the building is prompted by the fate of Istanbul's Arab Mosque-originally a 14th-century Dominican church-also administered by the directorate. An earthquake in 1999 shook loose plaster from the vaults revealing frescoes and mosaics. The conservation of these paintings was finished last year but they were immediately re-covered. Like its namesake in Trabzon, Hagia Sophia in Istanbul was also turned into a mosque, after Mehmed II's conquest of the city in 1453. It was famously made into a museum in 1935 by cabinet decree-unlike the informal arrangement in Trabzon. The re-conversion of Istanbul's Hagia Sophia into a mosque has long been the "golden apple" sought by Turkey's religious right. For such a thing to happen would have major implications for the country's standing as a custodian of world heritage, according to one senior Western diplomat based in Istanbul. Yet already the current government has been working on a list of historical properties administered by the Hagia Sophia Museum. In January, Istanbul's oldest surviving church, the fifth-century St John Stoudios, which became the Imrahor Mosque in the 15th century before fire and earthquake left it in ruins, was transferred from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to the General Directorate, which plans to rebuild it as a mosque. Shrouded in secrecy Turkish scholars are also up in arms at the directorate's decision to transform another ruin, the Kesik Minare in Antalya, into a mosque. The local chamber of architects has gone to court to prevent this happening. Originally a Roman temple, the Kesik Minare has a Byzantine, Seljuk and Crusader past. A plan had already been drawn up to turn the site into an open-air museum. Recent experience suggests that the directorate reconstructs mosques without regard for the millennia of history they contain . The restoration of the sixth-century Church of Sts Sergius and Bacchus (now the Small Ayasofya Mosque) was shrouded in secrecy and completed in 2006 without the academic community being allowed to conduct a proper survey. Similar complaints have been leveled against the re-purposing of yet another Hagia Sophia-the fifth-century basilica in Iznik where the Second Council of Nicaea was held in AD787. It was a museum, but now it is a mosque. Contrary to accepted archaeological practice, the walls were capped with an attached rather than freestanding roof. "It has lost most of its original character," says Engin Akyurek, an archaeology professor at Istanbul University. "There is a great difference between conserving a historical building and reconstructing it so it can be used as a mosque," he says. http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Mosque-conversion-raises-alarm/29200

Israel: 65 years of war crimes

Catalytic — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 16:43:21 -0400

The green light for Zionism's ethnic cleansing of Palestine By Alan Hart I find myself wondering how many of our present-day leaders, President Barack Obama in particular, are aware of what happened in Palestine that became Israel on 10 March 65 years ago today. On that day in 1948, two months before Israel's unilateral declaration of independence in defiance of the will of the organized international community as it then was at the UN, Zionism's in-Palestine political and military leaders met in Tel Aviv to formally adopt Plan Dalet, the blueprint with operational military orders for the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. They did not and never would refer to the crime they authorized as ethnic cleansing. Their euphemism for it was "transfer". As noted in an excellent anniversary briefing paper by the American-founded Institute for Middle East Understanding - IMEU), from the earliest days of modern political Zionism its advocates grappled with the problem of creating a Jewish majority state in a part of the world where Palestinian Arabs were the overwhelming majority of the population. The earliest insider information we have on Zionism's thinking is from the diary of Theodor Herzl, the founding father of Zionism's colonial-like enterprise. He wrote: We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our own country... expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly. Those words were committed to paper by Herzl in 1895 but they were not published (in other words, they were suppressed) until 1962. ...Ben-Gurion, the Zionist state's founding father, was a man with no sense of what was morally right and wrong. By August 1937 "transfer" was a discreet but hot topic for discussion at the 20th Zionist Congress in Zurich, Switzerland. All in attendance were aware that the process of dispossessing the Palestinian peasants (the fallahin ) mainly by purchasing land from absentee owners had been underway for years. Referring to this, David Ben-Gurion, who would become Israel's first prime minister, said: You are no doubt aware of the activity in this respect. Now a transfer of a completely different scope will have to be carried out. In many parts of the country new settlement will not be possible without transferring the Arab fallahin ... Jewish power , which grows steadily, will also increase our possibilities to carry out this transfer on a large scale. A year later Ben-Gurion told a meeting of the Jewish Agency that he supported compulsory transfer. He added: "I don't see anything immoral in it." In my view that's a most revealing statement. It tells us - does it not? - that Ben-Gurion, the Zionist state's founding father, was a man with no sense of what was morally right and wrong. Joseph Weitz was the director of the Jewish National Fund's Lands Department, which was responsible for acquiring the land for Zionism's enterprise in Palestine. One of his diary entries for December 1940 reads as follows: There is no way besides transferring the Arabs from here to the neighbouring countries, and to transfer all of them, save perhaps for (the Arabs of) Bethlehem, Nazareth and Old Jerusalem. Not one village must be left, not one (Bedouin) tribe. And only after this transfer will the country be able to absorb millions of our brothers and the Jewish problem will cease to exist. There is no other solution. Plan Dalet called for: Mounting operations against enemy population centres located inside or near our defensive system in order to prevent them from being used as bases by an active armed force. These operations can be divided into the following categories: Destruction of villages - setting fire to, blowing up, and planting mines in the debris - especially those population centres which are difficult to control continuously. Mounting search and control operations according to the following guidelines: encirclement of the village and conducting a search inside it. In the event of resistance, the armed force must be destroyed and the population must be expelled outside the borders of the state. Before the Zionist state declared itself to be in existence on 14 May 1948, more than 200 Palestinian villages had already been emptied and about 175,000 Palestinians were already refugees. Some had fled in fear; others were expelled by Zionist forces. ...the bloodbath at Deir Yassin was "the psychologically decisive factor in the spectacular exodus of the Arabs from the Holy Land and the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem." (Arthur Koestler) The prime fear factor was the slaughter by Zionist terrorists of more than 100 Palestinian men, women and children at Deir Yassin near Jerusalem. As Arthur Koestler was to write, the bloodbath at Deir Yassin was "the psychologically decisive factor in the spectacular exodus of the Arabs from the Holy Land and the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem." It was, however, Menachem Begin, Zionism's terror master and subsequently prime minister, who provided the most vivid description of how well the slaughter at Deir Yassin served Zionism's cause. In his book The Revolt , he wrote: Panic overwhelmed the Arabs of Eretz Israel. Kolonia village, which had previously repulsed every attack of the Haganah , was evacuated overnight and fell without further fighting. Beit-Iksa was also evacuated. These two places overlooked the road and their fall, together with the capture of Kastel by the Haganah, made it possible to keep open the road to Jerusalem. In the rest of the country, too, the Arabs began to flee in terror, even before they clashed with Jewish forces... The legend of Deir Yassin helped us in particular in the saving of Tiberias and the conquest of Haifa... All the Jewish forces proceeded to advance through Haifa like a knife through butter. The Arabs began fleeing in panic, shouting "Deir Yassin!" Three decades later, in an article for The American Zionist , Mordechai Nisan of the Truman Research Centre of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem expressed his concern about the failure to understand the major significance of terrorism in the struggle for Jewish sovereignty. He wrote: "Without terror it is unlikely that Jewish independence would have been achieved when it was." By 1949 more than 400 Palestinian towns and villages had been systematically destroyed or taken over by Israeli Jews; and at least 750,000 Palestinians were refugees, dispossessed of their land, their homes and their rights. After the Zionist state declared itself to be in existence, its government set up an unofficial body known as the "Transfer Committee". Its job was to oversee the destruction of Palestinian towns and villages and/or their repopulation with Jews. The purpose of this Zionist strategy was to prevent dispossessed Palestinians returning to their homes. By 1949 more than 400 Palestinian towns and villages had been systematically destroyed or taken over by Israeli Jews; and at least 750,000 Palestinians were refugees, dispossessed of their land, their homes and their rights. In his book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine , Ilan Pappe, Israel's leading "revisionist" (meaning honest) historian, documents in detail Zionism's systematic reign of terror which, from December 1947 to January 1949, included 31 massacres. (Deir Yassin was only the first). In a videoed conversation with me in 2008, Dr Pappe said this: Probably more surprising than anything else was not the silence of the world as Zionist ethnic cleansing was taking place in Palestine, but the silence of the Jews in Palestine. They knew what had happened to Jews in Nazi Europe, and some might even have seen it for themselves, yet they had no scruples in doing almost the same thing to the Palestinians. On this 65th anniversary of the authorization of the ethnic cleaning of Palestine, the questions I would like to see put to our leaders today, President Obama in particular, are the following: Are you aware of Plan Dalet? If not, why not? If you are aware of it, could it not said be said that your refusal to call and hold Zionism to account for its crimes makes you (and your predecessors) complicit in those crimes by default?http://www.redressonline.com/2013/03/israel-65-years-of-war-crimes/

People's Liberation Army Versus the US Military

USMC5816 — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 21:32:22 -0400

Who is on First? PLA Versus USA - 24 Achievements Milestone China year gap year USA 1st H-bomb test CHIC 6 1967 13 1954 TX-14 Atomic Submarine, launch Type 091 1970 16 1954 Nautilus Supersonic Aircraft, 1st flight Q5 1965 18 1947 X-1 1st A-bomb test CHIC 1 1964 19 1945 Trinity 5th Generation Fighter, 1st flight J-20 2010 20 1990 F-22 ICBM, 1st flight DF-5 1979 22 1957 Atlas SLBM, 1st flight Jl-1 1982 22 1960 Polaris Ballistic Missile Submarine, launch Type 092 1981 22 1959 Washington Anti-Satellite Interceptor, 1st flight SC-19 2007 22 1985 ALMV 4th Generation Fighter, 1st flight J-10 1996 24 1972 F-15 Stealth Aircraft, 1st flight J-20 2010 29 1981 F-117 Solid ICBM, 1st flight DF-31 1992 31 1961 Minuteman Long Range SLBM, 1st flight Jl-2 2001 34 1977 Trident I Large Unmanned Air Vehicle Tian Yi 2009 36 1973 YQM-94A Attack Helicopter, 1st flight WZ-10 2003 38 1965 AH-1 Piloted Spacecraft, 1st flight Shenzhou 5 2003 41 1962 MA-6 Heavy Cargo Aircraft, 1st flight Y-20 2012 44 1968 C-5A Dock Landing Ship, launch Type 071 2006 64 1942 Ashland Special Armor Tank none N/A 35 1978 M1 Abrams Manned Lunar Landing none N/A 44 1969 Apollo 11 Supersonic Bomber, 1st flight none N/A 49 1964 B-70 Amphibious Assault Ship, launch none N/A 53 1960 Iwo Jima Indigenous Aircraft Carrier, launch none N/A 59 1954 Forrestal Heavy Bomber, 1st flight none N/A 61 1952 B-52 NOTE: includes only USA and PRC domestic designs, excludes Chinese copies PLA Versus the US Military (As of January 2011) China United States Defense Expenditure (Billions USD) Published Budget, current exchange rate 78.6 (2010) 91.5 (2011) 739.2 (FY10)1 741.2 (FY11)2 Defense Expenditure (Billions USD) Purchasing power parity (PPP) 380 741 Total Servicemembers (Active) 2,285,000 1,580,255 Total Servicemembers (Active and Reserve) 2,795,000 2,444,802 Army Personnel ~1,600,000 553,044 Marine Corps Personnel 10,000 198,513 Total Nuclear Weapons ~400 5,1133 Total Fighter Aircraft 1,605 3,6954 Modern Combat Aircraft 5 307 3,695 Stealth Fighter Aircraft 1 139 Bomber Aircraft ~1126 154 Heavy Bombers 0 154 Large Cargo Aircraft 547 7488 Aerial Refueling Aircraft 21 574 Total Surface Combatants9 38 111 Total Major Surface Combatants10 4 79 Aircraft Carriers 1 11 Amphibious Assault Ships 0 11 Amphibious Landing Ships11 1 24 Ballistic Missile Submarines 3 14 Nuclear Attack Submarines 6 54 Nuclear Cruise Missile Submarines 0 4 Diesel Submarines 52 0 Notes: 1 - This includes $75.5 billion in supplemental appropriations for 2009 and $130.0 billion for 2010 to support ongoing overseas contingency operations. 2 - This includes $33.0 billion for a 2010 supplemental request and $159.3 billion for 2011 to support ongoing overseas contingency operations. 3 - As of 30 September 2009 4 - Includes A-10 and OA-10 types 5 - Excludes Vietnam-era designs 6 - Does not include any residual number of obselete H-5/Il-28 types 7 - B-737-200, Il-76MD, Tu-154M, and Y-8 8 - C-5, C-17, and C-130s (less AC-130, HC-130, KC-130, and MC-130 types) 9 - 0ver 3000 tons 10 - 0ver 7500 tons 11 - Landing Ship Dock, Landing Platform Dock types