Israeli Supermarket Chain Gloats Over Dubai Assassination In TV Ad

Sophie Tedmanson
Times Online
March 11, 2010

“Mossad mania” continued in Israel this week when a supermarket chain filmed a television commercial inspired by the assassination of a Hamas commander in Dubai.

The commercials for the Mahsaney Kimat Hinam (Almost Free Warehouse) chain shows actors carrying tennis rackets and wearing hats, glasses and wigs — the same disguises worn by the alleged killers in surveillance images released by Dubai police — as they make their way along store aisles.

The actors are seen through the supermarket security cameras surreptitiously slipping products into their shopping trolley. One actor wearing a tennis outfit browses the frozen food section while an actress wearing a wide-brimmed floppy hat mimics Israel’s policy of neither confirming nor denying involvement in the assassination, saying she “couldn’t admit to anything”.

The advertisement even carries the slogans “Eliminate the prices” and “We offer killer prices”.

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a founder of the military wing of the Islamist Hamas movement which controls Gaza, was found dead in his room in the Al Bustan Rotana hotel near Dubai airport on January 20. Mr al-Mabhouh had been drugged and then suffocated.

Dubai police have released extensive surveillance camera footage which they say shows the team of 27 suspects from the hit squad they have linked to the Mossad, the Israeli spy agency.

Sefi Shaked, an advertising executive, said that the campaign was inspired by the footage released by Dubai police. He denied that the advertisement was in bad taste, saying that the company hoped to capitalise on the huge amount of media attention generated by the Dubai killing.

“It’s a funny take of this event,” Mr Shaked said. “We were fascinated by the technique of using surveillance cameras instead of high-production commercial cameras, and the latest events in Dubai gave us a great opportunity.

“All the Israeli television comedy shows have done it, so why shouldn’t we?” Read more…

US Intelligence Human Rights Violations

A Study of the History of US Intelligence Community Human Rights Violations and Continuing Research

By Peter Phillips, Lew Brown and Bridget Thornton
www.projectcensored.org

This research explores the current capabilities of the US military to use electromagnetic (EMF) devices to harass, intimidate, and kill individuals and the continuing possibilities of violations of human rights by the testing and deployment of these weapons. To establish historical precedent in the US for such acts, we document long-term human rights and freedom of thought violations by US military/intelligence organizations. Additionally, we explore contemporary evidence of on-going government research in EMF weapons technologies and examine the potentialities of continuing human rights abuses.

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CIA laced French bread with LSD

A 50-year mystery over the ‘cursed bread’ of Pont-Saint-Esprit, which left residents suffering hallucinations, has been solved after a writer discovered the US had spiked the bread with LSD as part of an experiment.

Henry Samuel
www.telegraph.co.uk
11 Mar 2010

In 1951, a quiet, picturesque village in southern France was suddenly and mysteriously struck down with mass insanity and hallucinations. At least five people died, dozens were interned in asylums and hundreds afflicted.

For decades it was assumed that the local bread had been unwittingly poisoned with a psychedelic mould. Now, however, an American investigative journalist has uncovered evidence suggesting the CIA peppered local food with the hallucinogenic drug LSD as part of a mind control experiment at the height of the Cold War.

The mystery of Le Pain Maudit (Cursed Bread) still haunts the inhabitants of Pont-Saint-Esprit, in the Gard, southeast France.

On August 16, 1951, the inhabitants were suddenly racked with frightful hallucinations of terrifying beasts and fire.

One man tried to drown himself, screaming that his belly was being eaten by snakes. An 11-year-old tried to strangle his grandmother. Another man shouted: “I am a plane”, before jumping out of a second-floor window, breaking his legs. He then got up and carried on for 50 yards. Another saw his heart escaping through his feet and begged a doctor to put it back. Many were taken to the local asylum in strait jackets.

Time magazine wrote at the time: “Among the stricken, delirium rose: patients thrashed wildly on their beds, screaming that red flowers were blossoming from their bodies, that their heads had turned to molten lead.”

Eventually, it was determined that the best-known local baker had unwittingly contaminated his flour with ergot, a hallucinogenic mould that infects rye grain. Another theory was the bread had been poisoned with organic mercury.

However, H P Albarelli Jr., an investigative journalist, claims the outbreak resulted from a covert experiment directed by the CIA and the US Army’s top-secret Special Operations Division (SOD) at Fort Detrick, Maryland.

The scientists who produced both alternative explanations, he writes, worked for the Swiss-based Sandoz Pharmaceutical Company, which was then secretly supplying both the Army and CIA with LSD. Read more…

Ex-policeman admits shooting cover-up

Irishtimes.com
Thursday, March 11, 2010

A former New Orleans police detective who now works as a US immigration agent has pleaded guilty to helping cover up the shooting dead of two people by police days after Hurricane Katrina, the Justice Department said today.

Jeffrey Lehrmann (38) pleaded guilty to covering up the shooting and failing to report the conspiracy to prevent discovery of the incident on the Danziger Bridge in eastern New Orleans on September 4th 2005, the department said.

He is the second former New Orleans police officer to plead guilty in the case, and he could face up to three years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

He admitted that he participated in the creation of a report that included false statements by the officers involved in the shooting, including about the gun that had been planted, according to the Justice Department.

Hurricane Katrina flooded much of New Orleans and killed some 1,500 people in 2005. With the city in chaos for days, police officers opened fire on a group of men on the opposite side of the bridge.

The police were responding to a call for help from a fellow officer who said he thought the men were armed, but ultimately investigators found the victims had no weapons and concluded that it was a “bad shoot,” according to court papers. Read more…

9/11 TRUTHERS LOCKED UP FOR LIFE UNDER NEW US LAW

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FEMA CAMPS WILL BE OPENED SOON EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT A US CITIZEN! A new bill QUIETLY INTRODUCED by congress last week is causing quite a stir among civil liberties groups. The brainchild of senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman, the bill would give the United States government the power to indefinitely detain terror suspects without charge or trial. It would also allow the government to interrogate them for the intelligence value and it doesn’t make a distinction between US citizens and non-citizens.

The Enemy Belligerent, Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010-

http://assets.theatlantic.com/static/…

From RTAmerica-
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Hundreds More Town Hall Staff To Get Police-Style Powers In UK

Hundreds more town hall staff and private security guards are to be handed police-style powers in a fresh Home Office drive to create an army of civilian “spies”.

By Tom Whitehead
www.telegraph.co.uk
08 Mar 2010

Almost 1,700 people, also including car park attendants and dog wardens, already have powers to hand out a string of fines and even take photographs of low level offenders under the Community Safety Accreditation Scheme.

But the Government has quietly announced it plans to review the scheme with chief police officers to see how it can be expanded further.

Rank and file officers warned the move is “blurring the lines” of legitimate law enforcement and is creating a “third tier” of policing.

Even chief constables are now cautious over the scheme following it’s rapid growth, which has seen numbers increase by a fifth in just 12 months.

It will further fuel concerns that, with increasing budget pressures, the Government is keen to push for policing on the cheap.

Under CSAS, a chief constable can give employees of local authorities or private companies limited powers such as the right to hand out on-the-spot fines for offences including disorder, truancy and littering; stopping vehicles for roadside tests and confiscating alcohol.

They have their own uniform and badge and can demand names and addresses as well as take photographs of offenders.

There are 1,667 so-called “accredited persons” in England and Wales with 109 organisations, including 31 private companies, involved across 26 forces.

A further 478 civilians have been given the power to stop vehicles to check for out-of-date tax discs.

But a section buried in a recent Home Office neighbourhood policing strategy document read: “The Community Safety Accreditation Scheme (CSAS) is a powerful way for the police to work with partners and to make the most out of other people whose job is to keep their neighbourhoods safe by giving them a limited range of powers to tackle ASB (anti-social behaviour).

“The Government and ACPO (Association of Chief Police Officer) will review CSAS to see how it can be expanded to more forces and organisations.”

The review is to be carried out this summer but Peter Davies, Nottinghamshire assistant chief constable and ACPO lead on CSAS, said: “Accredited persons do play a part in building safe and secure neighbourhoods.

“However, their role must remain distinct from that of police officers whose task is to uphold and enforce the law, tackling all forms of harm to the public and communities.”

The move also raises fresh fears over the future of policing, especially with chief officers under pressure to cut costs. There are already more than 16,000 police community support officers and now a growing number of accredited civilians.

Simon Reed, the vice-chairman of the Police Federation, said: “It is just growing out of control. The growth rates are phenomenal.

“It is blurring the lines between police as the legitimate law enforcement organisation and these pseudo agencies springing up.

“It is effectively a third tier of policing. We are having all these police powers devolved to anyone and there does not seem to be any boundaries to law enforcement. Where will it end?” Read more…

Hundreds killed in Nigerian ethnic strife

JODY CLARKE in Nairobi
The Irish Times
Tuesday, March 9, 2010

PREGNANT WOMEN and children were among the hundreds killed in central Nigeria on Sunday morning in the latest round of ethnic and religious clashes to hit the region.

Local rights activists put the death toll at more than 250, while government-run radio is already reporting that 500 people were slaughtered in a nocturnal raid on three villages on the fringes of Jos, the capital of Plateau state.

According to locals, Muslim Hausa-Fulani fighters raided the mainly Christian villages some time after midnight on Sunday morning, firing gunshots into the air in order to scare villagers out of their beds.

Many of those fleeing were then caught and hacked to death with machetes in what is believed to be revenge for attacks on Fulanis in January, in which about 326 were reported killed.

According to Mark Lipdo, of the Christian charity Stefanos Foundation, the village of Zot had been almost wiped out. “We saw mainly those who are helpless, like small children and then the older men, who cannot run; these were the ones that were slaughtered.”

Security forces have now been put on red alert, as acting president Goodluck Jonathan ordered troops into the region to stop outsiders from coming in with more weapons and fighters. He called an emergency meeting yesterday with all security service chiefs to discuss strategies to prevent clashes from spreading to neighbouring states.

According to Robin Waudo of the Red Cross, 800 people have since fled Jos, as hospitals struggled to deal with the influx of injured people.

“We are seeing multiple lacerations from machetes, abdominal wounds as well as burn injuries”, thought to be a result of houses being burned down, said Dr Simon Jekat Yiltok of Jos University Teaching Hospital, by telephone from the city.

“It was dark and people couldn’t see” he said, leaving them little chance when they ran into the Fulani fighters waiting along the roadsides.

Mr Wuado said the security situation was still in disarray, and that the Red Cross had only managed to evacuate 23 people to hospital, as they could so far only reach one village. Read more…

Bombing kills 15, destroys spy office in Lahore

www.presstv.ir
08 Mar 2010

A car bomb blast in Lahore has destroyed the offices of a Pakistani state spy agency, killing 15 people and injuring 83 others, security officials say.

In the incident, a two-storey building used by the Special Investigation Agency (SIA), a police anti-terrorism unit in Punjab province, was destroyed by a bomber using a car laden with up to 600 kilograms of explosives.

Later, pro-Taliban militants claimed responsibility for the latest bloody attack in an upmarket area of the capital of Punjab.

Javed Akram, the head of Jinnah Hospital, said eight intelligence officials were among the dead. A woman who was taking her daughter to school was also killed. The girl is in critical condition.

The bombing severely damaged a neighboring Muslim seminary and several other buildings and vehicles around the blast site, creating a panic in the area.

Rescue workers and volunteers digging with their bare hands pulled injured employees and bodies out from under the rubble of the collapsed building, which was used to interrogate suspected militants.

Pakistan has experienced a wave of violence since 2007 in which nearly 3,000 people have been killed in bomb attacks and other terrorist operations across the country.

Washington Concerned Over Blackwater’s Work

Rabi-ul-Awwal
www.thenews.com.pk
Sunday, March 07, 2010

WASHINGTON: US Defence Secretary Robert Gates is concerned about possible misconduct in Afghanistan by the private security firm formerly known as Blackwater and has promised to review the issue, the Pentagon said.

Gates made the pledge to lawmakers after receiving a letter from Carl Levin, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who urged the defence secretary to reconsider awarding a possible one billion dollar contract to the firm, now known as Xe, due to allegations of wrongdoing.

“He is looking into it and he takes it seriously,” press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters Friday.

Gates has told the senator that “he shares his (Levin’s) concerns,” Morrell said.

The letter dated February 25 and released publicly on Thursday notes that the Defence Department is reportedly preparing to give a contract to Xe for “highly sensitive work” to train Afghan national police, despite its controversial record in Iraq and amid fresh allegations of misconduct.

The letter cites a recent Senate hearing on a contract given to a Blackwater affiliate to provide weapons training in Afghanistan. Levin’s committee heard evidence that alleged that Blackwater may have used a front company for the contract, lied to Pentagon officials in its proposal documents, “misappropriated” government weapons, carried weapons without approval and hired staff with serious criminal records including larceny and substance abuse.

Blackwater’s conduct may have “contributed to a shooting incident that has undermined our mission in Afghanistan,” it added. Levin has also written a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder in light of accusations that the firm gave false statements to the Justice Department.

While acknowledging concerns about Blackwater’s conduct, Morrell said there were strict legal standards that applied to government contracts and that a company could not be excluded without adhering to the criteria.

He added that the firm had “technical expertise” that had to be taken into account for tasks that few companies were ready to take on.

“Like it or not, Blackwater has technical expertise that very few companies do have. And they have a willingness to work in places that very few companies are willing to work,” he said. Read more…

SAS in Afghanistan suffers worst losses for 60 years

Michael Smith
The Sunday Times
March 7, 2010

BRITAIN’S special forces have suffered the worst blow to their fighting strength since the second world war, with 80 members killed or crippled in Afghanistan.

Serious injuries have left more than 70 unable to fight, while 12 have been killed. It means the forces have lost about a sixth of their full combat capacity.

The Sunday Times has established that the Special Air Service (SAS) and Special Boat Squadron (SBS) have mounted “several hundred” operations targeting Taliban leaders since 2007.

British special forces operations in southern Afghanistan now centre on persuading mid-ranking Taliban leaders that they are better off working with the Afghan government.This involves a mixture of “hard arrests” — snatch operations to grab key Taliban leaders to gather intelligence — and “offensive action” in which Taliban leaders are killed.

A senior special forces source said: “There are ops happening every day and very big ops, hard arrests, offensive actions — it’s having a lot of effect on the Taliban leadership.”

Sources say commanders are putting pressure on the SAS and SBS reservists to fill the gaps in manpower. The high casualty rate is a result of both the scale of special forces operations in the past three years and the Taliban’s increasing use of roadside bombs.

“The operational pool has been severely depleted,” the source said. “It’s largely because of the numbers of injuries. There are lots of Hereford [SAS] and Poole [SBS] guys walking round with missing limbs.”

Read more…

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