Category: crooks and liars

all who usurp and abuse authority

@ntisec Hacking the Pentagon .. Pt.1.

Anonymous, the international cyberactivist network, has announced the release of 90,000 military email logins which its members obtained in one of the biggest-ever hacking operations. The group promised that the publication of the documents on several websites on Monday is only the first in a series of leaks intended to show the intelligence community’s vulnerability.

Cyberactivist sub-group “AntiSec” penetrates database maintained by military consultancy firm Booz Allen Hamilton

Anonymous, the international cyberactivist network, has announced the release of 90,000 military email logins which its members obtained in one of the biggest-ever hacking operations.

There were hints that other similar military or intelligence contractors may be next to catch attention in the emerging “Antisec” movement.

With its support for the Arab uprisings, it went from being largely based in Western countries to gaining popularity among like-minded activists in North Africa and the Middle East.

In recent months, the movement has come under growing international pressure. Its members have been arrested in Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom, while in the US, its members have been targeted by subpoenas.

Yet, as Monday’s operation demonstrated, the Anons are growing bolder than ever. A defiant press release followed the crackdown in Italy, reiterating that the groups’ lack of leadership or structure made it impossible to dismantle.

“All Anonymous members operate at the same level. Those arrested are not ‘dangerous hackers’ as the media calls them, but people like you. They have been arrested while peacefully protesting for their and your rights. Our protest will continue louder than ever.”

Read more here

International Land Grab..Save the Commons

A massive international land grab is now underway as investors and national governments buy up millions of acres of farmlands in Africa, Asia and Latin America.  It amounts to an unprecedented and novel set of enclosures of worldwide land, much of it customary land that rural communities use and manage collectively. 

Hundreds of millions of rural poor people rely upon the land for their families’ food, water and material — but they don’t have formal property rights in the land.  Those rights typically belong to the government, which is authorizing the sale of “unowned” lands or “wastelands” to investors, who will then use the land for market-based farming or biofuels production.

The implications for global hunger and poverty are enormous.  Instead of commoners having local authority to grow and harvest their own food, they are being thrown off the land so that large multinational corporations and investors can feed their own countries or make a speculative killing on the world land market.  A commons is converted into a market, with all the attendant pathologies.

The 2008 financial crisis and the recent round of rising food prices on world markets have spurred much of the interest in buying up arable lands in poor countries.  Food-insecure countries figure they should take care of their own future even if it means depriving commoners in poor nations thousands of miles away.  So Saudi Arabia is spending $1 billion for 700,000 hectares of land in Africa for rice cultivation.  South Korea is buying up 700,000 hectares of African land as well.  India is assembling investment pools to buy up farmlands.

These are some of the disturbing facts to be found in Liz Alden Wily’s remarkable report, “The Tragedy of Public Lands:  The Fate of the Commons Under Global Commercial Pressure,” released by the International Land Coalition in January 2011.

A copy of Liz Alden Wily’s report can be downloaded here as a pdf file. Farm Land Grab is also closely monitoring this odious, little-known enclosure of the commons.  Finally, see a report by GRAIN, a small international NGO concerned about farmers’ control over biodiversity and local knowledge:  “Seized:  The 2008 Land Grab for Food and Security.”

Read More HERE

Roundup Ready for your front lawn

In press release titled “ USDA Responds to Regulation Requests Regarding Kentucky Bluegrass,” agency officials announced their decision not to regulate a “Roundup Ready” strain of Kentucky bluegrass—that is, a strain genetically engineered to withstand glyphosate, Monsanto’s widely used herbicide, which we know as Roundup. The maker of the novel grass seed, Scotts Miracle Gro, is now free to sell it far and wide. So you’ll no doubt be seeing Roundup Ready bluegrass blanketing lawns and golf courses near you—and watching anal neighbors and groundskeepers literally dousing the grass in weed killer without fear of harming a single precious blade.

According to Doug Gurian-Sherman, senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Food and Environment Program, the documents released by the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) along with the announcement portend a major change in how the feds will deal with genetically modified crops.

Notably, given the already-lax regulatory regime governing GMOs (genetically modified organisms, click here for a primer), APHIS seems to be ramping down oversight to the point where it is essentially meaningless. The new regime corresponding with the bluegrass announcement would “drastically weaken USDA’s regulation.” This is perhaps the most serious change in US regs for [genetically modified] crops for many years….

…In its July 1 response, the USDA agreed: “[N]one of the organisms used in generating this genetically engineered (GE) glyophosphate tolerant Kentucky bluegrass…are considered to be plant pests,” so Roundup Ready bluegrass “does not meet the definition of a ‘regulated article’ and is not subject” to the Plant Protection Act. In other words, go forth and multiply.

The agency also retracted its only other hook for regulating GM crops—the noxious-weeds provision. The Center for Food Safety had petitioned the USDA to classify genetically modified bluegrass as a noxious weed. The case for this is strong: bluegrass has light pollen that can be carried for miles on the wind, meaning that genetically modified bluegrass can easily transfer its genes to established conventional bluegrass.

Read lots more + photos HERE   http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2011/07/10/did-the-usda-deregulate-all-new-genetically-modified-crops/

Ex Texaco guru relegates CO2-free NH3

Geoffrey Styles, who was a director in Texaco for 22 years, is now a guru blogger promoting CO2 producing fuels. We don’t  know what financial investments he has in it but his arguments are clever, insidious, and if that doesn’t wash, just wrong

”His industry experience includes 22 years at Texaco Inc., culminating in a senior position on Texaco’s leadership team for strategy development, focused on the global refining, marketing, transportation and alternative energy businesses, and global issues such as climate change.”

How can you ask someone who has lived 22 years in Texaco Inc.  be qualified to comment on Ammonia Fuel? Having witnessed the crimes against humanuity committed over a generation by Texaco in Ecuador, and now recognized by international courts I find it impossible to accept arguments from that source, especially as I have uncovered evidence (not directly related to Geoffrey Styles) of systematic suppression of NH3 fuel technology by the Oil Corporations during half a century. One of the main thrusts of the relegation of NH3 has certainly been the financing of just such apparently scientific argument as we witness above.

You can read Geoffrey’s ANTI AMMONIA article HERE     http://theenergycollective.com/comment/reply/46324

And here are some of the replies…

Casey Stack said:

There are several inaccurate, misleading or significantly biased comments in Geoffrey Styles article which make NH3 appear less practicable than is the reality. Simply put:

In order of appearance above

– Energy Density.  wrong

The reason more than one international automotive manufacturer is currently pursuing NH3 is due to the fact that it is more practical for energy storage than CNG.  According to an automotive manufacturer this year, the reason broad CNG auto manufacturing has not caught on in 30 years is the energy density issue. More on the later.

 

– Dual Fuel Requirements. wrong

The first trans US demonstration of an NH3 fueled vehicle in 2007 did operate on a dual fuel scheme. However, today, a patented breakthrough technology, ” the flame cracker” completely solves the need for carrying dual fuels in a unit is tiny, starts instantly, self sufficient, is very low cost to manufacture..making automotive use completely practical.

– Energy Cost and GGE. wrong

Today the cost of NH3 varies dramatically based on location.  Depending on location, actual price may be only 33% to 50% of that stated above. This was also true in the early days of gasoline distribution.


Also, the cost per mile assumptions are incorrect.  Because NH3 has an octane rating 50% higher than that of gasoline, much higher engine efficiencies are attained.  This equates to as much as a 60% increase in mileage for the same total energy input. This is a great thing for everyone, and makes the fuel even cheaper.

During our cross country drive powered by NH3 in 2007, www.nh3car.com, NH3 was $425/ton and gasoline was $2.25. This was break even pricing.. today, gas is $3.00.  And energy per mile is going down with purpose-built NH3 engines as discussed immediately above.

– Pressure of Storage. wrong

I’m very surprised this issue is raised here. It’s as simple as this:

CNG = 3,500 PSI tank (with the associated weight, strength and cost of a tank rated for 3,500PSI)

NH3 = 150 PSI. This is a thin lightweight low cost tank, which improves gas mileage by reducing significant weight.

– Safety.. wrong

The hazards from gasoline outweigh the hazards from NH3 any way you look at it. There is 100 years of scientific and medical data to back this up. There is no contest.  This has been sliced, resliced, studied and confirmed by the major medical and industrial safety companies which rate risk for the petroleum industries and governments time and again.  Thousands of people are maimed or killed in the US every year by gasoline accidents.. doesn’t happen with NH3.

 

ETC  see  HERE

http://theenergycollective.com/geoffrey-styles/46324/ammonia-alternative-fuel

SEE ALL NH3 POSTS HERE  https://thefreeonline.wordpress.com/category/ammonia-nh3-co2-free-fuel/

 

 

Mexico: More Rights Activists in Danger

By Emilio Godoy

MEXICO CITY, Jul 8, 2011 (IPS) – Reports of extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances, kidnappings and assaults are some of the heavy baggage that U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay is taking home from Mexico.

In late June, the CDHM closed down its Mexican Northern Border Initiative due to threats and intimidation. The Initiative ran several shelters in border areas, providing assistance to Central American migrants attempting to reach the United States and to Mexicans deported from that country.
Since 2005, 27 activists have been killed, according to the governmental National Human Rights Commission (CNDH)

So far this year there have been at least seven cases of assault on migrant rights activists, compared to two cases between October 2009 and October 2010, according to human rights groups.

Since 2000, 73 reporters have been killed, and 12 are still missing, according to the CNDH – making Mexico the most dangerous country in Latin America for journalists.

“A large number of attacks committed by agents of the state have not been investigated, because there is complete impunity,” Juan Gutiérrez, director of the non-governmental Mexican Commission for the Defence and Promotion of Human Rights (CMDPDH), told IPS. The activist met this week with Pillay, a South African judge who was appointed U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in July 2008.

After taking office in December 2006, Calderón dispatched military troops to fight the powerful drug cartels disputing the smuggling routes to the lucrative U.S. market. Since he declared his “war on drugs”, more than 40,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence, according to government figures.

The CNDH has received 5,055 complaints against the defence ministry for abuses committed since 2006.

Read more HERE     http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=56420

Murdoch loses $450m, fails to control Internet news

Rupert Murdoch lost nearly his entire investment in MySpace the other day when he sold the failing social network to musician and actor Justin Timberlake and an ad agency he backs for some US$30 million. This was a good deal less than the US$500 million-plus Murdoch paid for it.

Why did Murdoch make such a bad investment? Because he hoped to use the network as a vehicle from which he could disseminate news. He wanted to make MySpace into a mechanism to deliver current-events content. When it didn’t work out – and he must have known that fairly soon – he obviously lost interest. And as his interest waned, so did MySpace.

This speaks to Murdoch’s desperation – and mainstream media’s generally. In a digital world, he is willing to burn US$500 million simply to confirm that a social network is not a news delivery system. I could have told him that for a much lower fee.

This also shows us the importance of news to the powers-that-be. The Anglosphere elites – for whom Murdoch evidently and obviously works – are determined (thus far without much success) to find a way to protect their failing information franchise.

Nothing in the past 300 years or so, while the elites have advanced their one-world-order, has been so devastating to their plans as the Internet and the rise of the alternative media driven Internet Reformation. It has poisoned the chalice and befouled the well; it has unbalanced the clarity of the concoction and clouded it with truth. A bitter brew … for them!

Western power elites will do ANYTHING to reclaim their news franchise. When one looks at 20th century media development one is struck by its massive size and strategic composition. Every part of Western 20th century media worked seamlessly together. The whole idea was to create an increasingly militarized society that would accept global government as part of the natural order of things..

.. Read more      here

Greece blocks Gaza Flotilla for Israel.

Greece has banned all ships in the Gaza-bound “freedom flotilla” from leaving port, dealing a further blow to activists trying to break Israel‘s blockade on the Palestinian territory.

Greek authorities said an international group of vessels planning to sail from its ports and deliver aid to the Gazan population would be stopped, a move that lends the support of the Prime Minister, George Papandreou’s administration to Israel’s contentious four-year naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.

An American boat participating in the flotilla was forced to return to shore after it tried to defy the ban and set sail from Athens on Friday. The Audacity of Hope was turned back by the Greek coastguard. Passengers claim Greek commandos pointed machine guns at those on board to stop the boat reaching open water.

Campaigners accused Israel of “outsourcing” its blockade to Greece. “Greece sold its body to the banks and its soul to Israel and the United States,” flotilla activist Dror Feiler told Israeli news outlet Ynet. “I don’t think – I know – that Israel and US pressure caused this.” Hamas also condemned the Greek decision, describing it as “inhumane” and “contrary to international regulations and norms”.

The Greek announcement is the latest in a series of setbacks for the organisers of this summer’s flotilla, which comes just over a year after a similar mission ended in the deaths of nine activists following the boarding of their boat by Israeli military forces. Participants claim that two of the 10 ships in the flotilla had been sabotaged by Israeli agents – a claim Israel dismissed as “ridiculous”.

The Israeli government has described the flotilla as an act of anti-Israeli provocation rather than an attempt to convey much-needed aid to Gaza’s 1.6 million inhabitants, who have lived under an economic blockade since Hamas took control of the territory in June 2007.

However, Israel has been embarrassed by the release of an anti-flotilla video which was later exposed as an elaborate hoax.