United States: Blood for Money Scheme

17 December 2009
by HRM Deborah

US Federal officials visited the Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson, Illinois, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) west of Chicago on the 16 November 2009. The Obama administration officials are considering the now minimum security Illinois prison as a possible location to house alleged foreign terrorism suspects moved from the Guantanamo Bay Concentration Camp in Cuba.

The plan being considered for the Thomson Correctional Center, pitched by Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn in a recent meeting with US President Barack Obama, calls for the Federal Bureau of Prisons to operate it as a maximum-security “prison” and lease a portion to the US Defense Department to house an estimated 200 Guantanamo detainees. The plans could include a purchase of the facility by the federal government, Quinn said.

Which this comes at a time when the small economic depressed town of about 600 people seems excited towards a minute opportunity to work at the facility if it does comes into reality for the contention that the US military as in Guantanamo Bay will still be the overseers, which such as this on US soil brings once again into International legal focus of not just an actual populated concentration camp there and not a normal prison setting; but the continued noncompliance of the majority of innocent political hostages being held not just currently on Cuban soil; but now possibly within the US itself.

It also stands into question of the same practices of torture, religious discrimination, murder and other human rights violations will be initiated at Thompson and when will the US Concentration Camp system cease.

Pakistani Shia Muslims Stand for Human Rights

Pakistani Shia Muslims gather during a demonstration in front of parliament house in Islamabad on 2 August 2009.

The protest was held against the killing of Shia Muslims in tribal areas and to protest US drone attacks upon these civilians.

Pakistani Shia Muslim women gather during the demonstration.

We Have Full Equality, How About You?

This woman is a Medical Physician.

You will find’s us in countless field‘s all over the globe, even head’s of government.

As to any form of discrimination towards woman, has never been acceptable nor is it allowed to occur in Palestine; instead women are greatly respected and treated as equal’s in the sphere‘s of society.-HRM Deborah

The Blood from a Turnip

It is tax time again; for the majority of American’s and it is assured your mouth is watering with the hope of that nice return check, but this year think again.

US President Barack Obama passed a bill to nix that income tax return check, instead the majority of American’s rather it is state or federal will have to pay until the pain can not even be relieved by an aspirin.

If American’s where wondering about the issue of how Obama was going to come up with money for his current beat the government over the head stimulus package, here is one idea.

What is saddened by this, is how American’s are struggling to make end’s meet now and those who took out loans with the hope to pay them back with the now invisible tax return check; it is a wonder of how far the American people will have to suffer before their government stripes everything away from them.

Keeping the Faith

A downloaded and printed Muslim prayer schedule sits next to a prayer rug, inside a cell at Guantanamo's Concentration Camp 5 (detention center) at the U.S. Naval Base, on 21 January 2009; in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Guantanamo Bay war crimes court came to an abrupt halt yesterday as military judges granted U.S. President Barack Obama's request to suspend proceedings while he reviews his ‘predecessor's strategy for prosecuting terrorists.’

As it is a known fact that the majority of Muslim’s in Guantanamo's Concentration Camp are innocent and while many have became Martyr’s do to the horror’s of torture and camp life, it is a hope they stay strong in there faith and holding tight to the Quran.

As it is said Obama plans to close Guantanamo Bay within a year, while it is not being published so much in the forefront, that he has planned to move these men to other camps; which has not set well with the whole Islamophobic Concentration Camp system among not just Muslims, but the global community.

As to the heart break of this type of mistreatment towards another human being is ongoing; Nevertheless, the Concentration Camp system has always been an outrage since the Jewish Holocaust.

No one with true humanity within the heart should rest, until the Concentration Camp system is abolished forever and the innocent can smell the sweetness of the fresh air with their freedom. For this type of maltreatment is unacceptable, to subject anyone that is innocent too; for the memories and heartache while it maybe buried it should not be a shroud one must bare.

Finally, as to being brought to one’s attention of the U.S. accusations of saying someone is a known suspect of the Taliban or Al-Qaeda to continue these atrocities, has became a watershed word to create what they consider justification without in the majority of cases; honesty.

Banner reads: 'Stop racism against Jews and Muslims'

People demonstrate on 14 December 2008 in Paris, after 500 graves of French Muslim war veterans were daubed with swastikas and anti-Islam slogans at the Notre-Dame-de-Lorette cemetery in Ablain-Saint-Nazaire, near the northern town of Arras, on 7 December.

The banner reads: 'Stop racism against Jews and Muslims'.

From L : Mouloud Aounit, president of the MRAP (Movement Against Racism and for Friendship between People), Djelloul Seddiki, director of the Musulman Al Ghazali Institute, Joel Mergui, president of France's Jewish central Consistory, and Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Paris' Grand Mosque, attend a demonstration, on 14 December 2008; in Paris.

Kristallnacht Pogrom 70 Years Anniversary

Jews and non-Jews attend a commemorative service for the 70th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom at the beautifully restored Rykestrasse Synagogue, on 9 November 2008; in Berlin, Germany.

On 9 November 1938, Nazi SA and SS paramilitary troops attacked Jewish establishments across Germany, burning 200 synagogues, ransacking Jewish businesses, killing 92 people and deporting 25,000 to 30,000 Jews to concentration camps.

Central Council of Jews in Germany head Charlotte Knobloch speaks at a commemorative service for the 70th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom at the beautifully restored Rykestrasse Synagogue, on 9 November 2008; in Berlin, Germany.

The Rykestrasse Synagogue is Germany's largest synagogue and reopened in 2006 after meticulous renovation; which is thought with much happiness among the Jewish people.

One who was thought hidden, but now is seen (for 'it was time'): A young Jewish man attends a commemorative service for the 70th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom at the beautifully restored Rykestrasse Synagogue, on 9 November 2008; in Berlin, Germany. I studied for a short time to learn to read Hebrew, but I will sadly admit, like Arabia it is poor; because of my situation.

Commentary:
I was reminded recently by an old friend how when we where children and while I did not understand at the time of why we where singled out and further through school the same thing would happen or sometimes worse; which I will admit at times it got so bad, I would go home and ask my mother if there was something wrong with me; for me to be treated in such a way and she always said no or it was not me.

Prior to 9/11, if you had a Semitic background in the US, one could be subjected to Anti-Semitism, which being me; I could not understand people even thinking of being mean to each other. I started to understand more in Adulthood and still as most people know do not agree in any manner.

After 9/11, people where singled out and Islamophobia was born, so if one was Jewish they where mistreated because of Anti-Semitism and if one was Muslim, here came the Islamophobia. To here again, I have gotten the joy of having both; which is assured there are many more like myself; especially in my thinking if one actually comes from Palestine or ones ancestry is such.

Then we step back in time to WW2 and what became known most sadly as the Jewish Holocaust, while the Nazi’s apparently could tell the difference of someone being Jewish or Arab Palestinian we still ended up in the camps and worse, the gas chambers. So in further thinking, prior to 9/11 anyone Semitic had the honor of walking together with something in common, racism.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) and Central Council of Jews in Germany head Charlotte Knobloch arrive at a commemorative service for the 70th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom at the beautifully restored Rykestrasse Synagogue, on 9 November 2008; in Berlin, Germany.

While my old friend, happened to remind me of this fact recently, for at the time when we saw each other on about a daily basis; I was only six years old and had to my understanding in the outside world the first taste of this type of maltreatment and as then to now, what is still a wonderment is most simply when will it stop or when will people stop mistreating one‘s differences; to instead appreciate these differences?

Bushonomics: Bush in the Militarized Flying Zone

US President George W. Bush, onboard Marine One with two extra security helicopter gun ships, arrives back at the White House from a weekend spent at the Camp David, on 2 November 2008; in Washington, DC.

While Bush has put on a front of all is good in Washington, the economic protests have became increasingly heated; especially closer the elections come.

Apparently, Bush must be getting extremely afraid of the American economic protestors, to order flying security gun ships; which is more long the line of Bush threatening to murder Americans.

Nevertheless, this current situation with Bush reminds me of another leader long ago in Rome; and his name of Nero.

Be it ever so crumbly, there's no place like Rome.
Nero, he was the emperor, and the palace was his home.
But he liked to play with matches and for the fire yearned;
So, he burned Rome to ashes and fiddled while it burned.

Roman Emperor Nero (54to 68) was in Rome when it burned for five days and some old historical writings did assert that Nero did start this famous fire and played the fiddle while it burned.

Nero's rule is often associated with tyranny and extravagance, with a number of executions; including his mother and adoptive brother.

He was also known as an early persecutor of Christians before the coliseum.

Nero in numerous respects was not only dysfunctional in the whole scope of his life, but was a great warmonger with intentions at global conquest. When Nero was facing execution after a military coup within his own government, he committed suicide; which is to often the case with these type of people.

Notwithstanding, Nero will always be known as the crazed emperor who "fiddled while Rome burned.”

The only wonder is does Bush know how to play a fiddle, for in a manner of speaking; America is already alit.

Americans Stand up for Your Human Right’s, for You can make the difference!

Bushonomics: Bush Tree Hiding from Economic Protestors

US President George W. Bush walks along the White House Colonnade, on 30 October 2008. Bush was leaving to traveling to Quantico, Virginia to make remarks at the graduation ceremony for Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agents at the FBI Academy.

As to Bush hiding, he has been trying to do this a lot in numerous ways since the economic protestors start arriving, because some contend; that since he has made so many mistakes during his presidency, he is a bit nervous by them.

What is most interesting towards Bush this time is he appears to be trying to hide behind a tree, it is well known that the economic protestors in Washington DC has became extremely huge and at times somewhat aggressive over Bush’s mishandling of not just the economy; but the whole of the country with the US in both economic and social collapse, it was reported.

Vietnam War Protest in Washington DC, 1967.

The crowd of protestors from my understanding at this time is so huge, it would make the Vietnam protests, look like a picnic lunch.

Furthermore, American’s are coming still in ever increasing numbers of the already huge crowd at this protest, to actually make there voice heard and make a difference towards what is becoming a dire situation for all Americans; towards every facet that is harming there capabilities to just live.

For the majority of American’s are now refusing to listen to Bush’s lie’s regardless of what facet of the media, to stand up for truth and make America a place that is actually suitable to live in or American’s determined to take back America.

There is also organizations at this protest, to help those with essential need’s such as food for example, to my understanding numerous other types of help; I apologize I have not been given a list of all the specific’s, but I have been told it is improving with agencies all the time.

Further Reading:
Bushonomics: Bush Gestures to Growing Numbers of Economic Protestors
Bushonomics: America Tell Bush How You Feel (About the Protest and How to Join.)

Stand up for Your Human Right’s, for You can make the difference!

Bushonomics: Bush Gestures to Growing Numbers of Economic Protestors

US President George W. Bush gestures as he walks across the South Lawn, on 20 October 2008 upon return to the White House in Washington, DC.; amidst the growing numbers of American economic protestors, who are standing up for there human rights among other issues towards the US economic collapse.

It has been brought to my attention, that those at the economic protest are helping each other with needs for example; some families that has showed up starving for lack of food and are being fed; among other dire need’s caused by the economic collapse.

It has also been further brought to my attention, that Orthodox Islamic and Jewish organization’s in America are also helping with living need’s, among the economic protestors.

While the ever growing crowd of protestors are standing up for there belief’s and no longer listen to Bush’s lies, they believe that they are not only helping America; but creating better lives, as well as learning the truth about there country.

The security personal, that Bush tried to get to attack the protestors have refused to do so and allow the economic protestors to continue to what they feel is necessary with the hope to create a better America and not one created by Bush‘s vision.

Furthermore, it is becoming a growing consensus among American’s for a revolution, against the present problems they are facing with the failed Bush government.

To learn more about this protest visit here.


Stand up for Your Human Right’s, for You can make the difference!

Update:
My understanding, is the economic protest is moving ahead and other helping organizations are taking interest; in aiding the American protestors.

The latest Bush trick’s from my further understanding are a complete failure, as to the current situation in America and as far as the American‘s are concerned.

It should always be known, when people stand up for there right’s especially when it comes to there very survival; they usually succeed.

Bushonomics: Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

20 October 2008

It has been reported, after US President George W. Bush left the White House amidst mass numbers of economic protestors and then flew to Alexandria, Louisiana; because of the mass of Hurricane Katrina survivors that went to Washington to protest.

From there, Bush began touring America and it was further reported, he is actually apologizing for being a disastrous president, with the majority of American’s so angry over the current conditions in the country; that they are actually talking of taking the country back and working to solve the problem themselves.

Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

Bushonomics: Bush Run's from Economic Protestors

Economic protestors watch the Marine One, with U.S. President George W. Bush aboard, take off from the White House, on 20 October 2008 in Washington, DC.

Bush was heading to Alexandria, Louisiana to participate in a five minute type of roundtable on the economy; which some sources say, Bush is trying to run and hide from the continuous incoming of protestors; which plan to stay as long as the US is in social and economic collapse.

It was also reported, that there is a major turnout of Hurricane Katrina survivors.

This economic protest is for the “America Tell Bush How You Feel,” campaign; for human right‘s in America, as well as all issues damaging the very fabric of the countries future.

It is also understood, that the response to this campaign; is overwhelming due to American‘s worries and dissatisfaction over the countries full collapse and all issues effecting American’s across the board.

For more details towards this protest and how American's need to take part, visit here.

America Need's YOU!

Bushonomics: America Tell Bush How You Feel

Lafayette Park, also known as Presidents Park
16th & Pennsylvania Ave., NW (across from the White House), Washington, DC.

Park Description: The seven-acre park provides a prominent arena for public protests, ranger programs and special events. It was named to honor the Marquis de Lafayette, the French hero of the American Revolution. An equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson is located in the center and in the four corners are statues of Revolutionary War heroes: France's General Marquis Gilbert de Lafayette and Major General Comte Jean de Rochambeau; Poland's General Thaddeus Kosciuszko; Prussia's Major General Baron Frederich Wilhelm von Steuben. Buildings surrounding the park include the White House, the Old Executive Office Building, the Department of the Treasury, Decatur House, Renwick Gallery, The White House Historical Association, Hay-Adams Hotel and The Department of Veterans Affairs.

Open: Every day
Admission: Free
Hours: 24 Hours a day
Park Website

American’s are you feeling depressed because of Bushonomics due to you having lost your home, job, health care, retirement, loss business or the ever increasing rise in the cost of living and you just can not seem to make it on a daily basis to just your feelings against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the proposals of new ones against your tax dollar, lost loved ones, to these global human rights violations; I came up with an idea of how to let US President George W. Bush know, how you feel.

Go to Washington and set up a tent in the park across the street from the White House and every time Bush appears, tell him exactly what is in your heart about the ever increasing economic collapse; as others have done in the same park throughout American history before you, most notably the old Hooverville’s from the 1930’s Depression or the 1960’s Peace protests; you may even wish to wear that flower in your hair or preference to your religious affiliations, such as thoughs who wear the Islamic hijab, Kippah, for example.

By getting together, you will have a camaraderie with other’s like yourself; to achieving united, for a common stance to make yourself heard in Washington.

Stand up for Your Human Right’s, for You can make the difference!

Updates:

Bushonomics: Bush Run's from Economic Protestors

Bushonomics: Bush Gestures to Growing Numbers of Economic Protestors

Palestine Believes in Human Right's and the Eradication of Poverty

Palestinian children take part in the parade on the occasion of International Poverty Eradication Day in the West Bank city of Jenin, on 19 October 2008.

Last Friday marked the UN's International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, which commemorates the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Whether it is poverty or human rights, we as people across the globe should do our part to make a happier world for everyone.

Furthermore, as to these issue‘s, the Palestinian people are very strong advocates for a better world, free of poverty and stand firm on the issue of human right‘s especially right now in a world where too many people are having there basic right‘s violated; through such means as war, slavery, oppression, torture, terrorism and genocide.

Personally, it is a hope that in the future, these types of violations as well as other’s similar; become the past and with the valuable resources that we have as a global community, to one day irradiate poverty from our landscape completely.

Nevertheless, it should always be a reminder, that all people are important and we should always appreciate with the values to work together to actually resolve these global problems.-HRM Deborah

Palestinian elementary school girls walk next to a banner bearing anti-poverty pictures on the occasion of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, on 19 October 2008.

Iraq : A Right to Freedom

Iraqi followers of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr hold up copies of the Quran during a protest, on 18 October 2008; in Baghdad against the US occupation of Iraq.

Followers of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr marched through the Iraqi capital shouting anti-US slogans to protest the American occupation and the planned security deal between the two countries.

This came at a time, when Washington and Baghdad are negotiating a security deal that is not being accepted apparently, by the majority of Iraqi people and is also under much scrutiny for illegalities towards the US.

Since Iraq is being considered in an illegal war with occupation by a foreign country namely the US, it stands to reason that the US foreign presence would never be acceptable under any circumstance; let alone the continuous genocide of numerous innocent Iraqi’s, which include men, women, children and the elderly.

The Martyr’s of Iraq and Afghanistan

Furthermore what is substantially so hideous in this occupation, is the wanton genocide of whole villages; numerous times in the middle of the night or late evening when the Iraqi people would appear more helpless, by US military personnel.

It is also understood, one can hear the people in the village’s blood curdling screaming for a long distance, as they are being murdered one by one as though they are nothing; by the US military and to further understand, it is not just Shia but also Sunni Muslims.

Nevertheless, it is being found that Afghanistan is also going through the same horror and it is a further wonder, how the US can feel justified to be in two illegal wars propagated by lies; let alone commit such senseless wholesale murder, to even wish to initiate more of these type of atrocities around the globe.

Philippine Children Parade to Raise Awareness of Children's Rights

Children from a poor district of the Philippines' capital, Manila, parade to raise awareness of children's rights during United Nations Children's Month, on 17 October 2008.

While I do not know the whole situation that created this particular parade, one thing it should be said, is children like anyone else does have rights and should be appreciated for there importance to not just humanity; but as well too there particular society.

One thing I will always be reminded of, is how Allah (God) sees children as a blessing and it doesn’t matter what there financial situation is in life.- HRM Deborah

Trouble the Water

New doc looks at one New Orleans family's ordeal during and after Hurricane Katrina

16 October 2008
BY BILL O'DRISCOLL

After the flood: Kim Roberts (left) and Scott Roberts and friends.

The grim and maddening story of Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward is familiar. In some minds, the episode has even passed into history.

But there are many reasons to see the new documentary Trouble the Water. Topping the list is Kim Rivers Roberts, the dauntless young woman whose story, family and home-video footage are the film's core.

When Katrina hit, in August 2005, Roberts, her husband, Scott, and many neighbors lacked the wheels to obey the evacuation order. When the Industrial Canal levee broke, three blocks from her house, they climbed to their attic, later relocating to higher ground nearby. And when they fled the flooded city, they met Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, visiting filmmakers whose own attempts at a Katrina doc had been stymied.

Trouble the Water builds from Kim Roberts' rawly candid and charismatically narrated first-person footage: howling winds; submerged streets; the naked joists of that attic refuge; Scott's brother's heroic shuttling of neighbors to safety, his rescue craft a boxer's buoyant yellow heavy bag. Then Lessin and Deal document Kim and Scott's relocation to Memphis and bittersweet return home.

Lessin and Deal, who also co-produced Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine, make sure we remember the way that poor Orleanians were left to die. (Roberts discovers one uncle's body herself.) We hear from an uncle whose mother was stranded in a hospital, and surely died there, and her younger brother, who rode out the storm in jail, nourishing himself on paper and toothpaste. We see federal aid slow to arrive; the oblivious complacency of President Bush and FEMA chief Michael Brown; and the ongoing neglect of places like the Ninth, while French Quarter tourism rebounds.

The filmmakers also investigate how Kim, Scott and their neighbors, all homeless, were chased at gunpoint from a mostly empty naval base. "If you don't have money, you don't have status, you don't have a government," says one of Kim's cousins.

Yet none of it would be half as vivid without Roberts, 24, a former teen-age drug-dealer who survived with her faith in God and dreams of a rap career intact. Roberts' footage and impromptu voiceover are as unfiltered as they are funny and personable. Stuck in her attic, videotaping wavelets in her street, she quips, "You could go surfing and s**t, if you wanted to." Her most memorable moment, though, is when she performs along with "Amazing," a song on her lone professionally produced recording -- the sole remaining copy of which was miraculously saved by a friend.

The track, a survival story, is startlingly good, and it's somehow Trouble the Water in miniature: a clear-eyed assessment of life's woes framed by indefatigable optimism, an expression of individual pride in the embrace of a family, a community, no disaster can erase.

Britain withdraws terror detention law after defeat

13 October 2008

by Alice Ritchie

LONDON -The British government on Monday withdrew a plan to extend the time suspected violent extremists can be held without charge after the House of Lords voted against it.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said she would remove plans to extend the limit from 28 to 42 days from a proposed counter-terrorism bill, but could re-introduce the measure in a separate law at a later date.

Opponents of the proposal, including opposition lawmakers, civil liberties campaigners and some members of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour Party, declared it a "humiliating retreat" and a victory for individual rights.

Earlier Monday, peers in the unelected upper chamber of parliament defeated the move by 309 votes to 118. In June, the 42-day measure scraped through the House of Commons by just nine votes after a rebellion by 36 Labour lawmakers.

Speaking to lawmakers afterwards, Smith said Britain faced a "severe" threat and accused opponents of being "prepared to ignore the terrorist threat for fear of taking tough but necessary decisions".

"My priority remains the protection of the British people. I do not believe, as some MPs clearly do, that it is enough simply to cross our fingers and hope for the best," the minister said.

"That is not good enough because when it comes to national security, there are certain risks I'm not prepared to take.

"I am not prepared to risk leaving the British people without the protections they need."

As a result, a new bill had been drawn up which could be put to parliament "if and when the need arises", she said. It would enable the chief prosecutor to apply to a judge to hold suspected extremists for a maximum of 42 days.

Opposition parties welcomed what they saw as a defeat for the government, and strongly rejected Smith's claims they were a soft touch.

"We on this side of the House are perfectly prepared to be firm on terrorism, to take resolute measures and, if necessary, pass difficult bills," said Dominic Grieve, home affairs spokesman for the main opposition Conservatives.

"But they have to be credible, they have to be based on evidence and they must not be put forward in a way that smacks of mere political posturing and gimmicks."

Chris Huhne, a lawmaker with the smaller opposition Liberal Democrats, said the government was in "humiliating retreat", adding: "These excessive powers were a dagger thrust to our hard-won liberties."

Rights groups also welcomed the decision. Shami Chakrabarti, director of campaign group Liberty that had lobbied hard against the plan, said: "Common decency says we don't lock people up for six weeks without charge."

The pre-charge detention time limit was increased from 14 to 28 days by Brown's predecessor Tony Blair in the wake of the July 2005 London suicide attacks which killed 56 people, including four bombers.

At that stage, Blair's government was defeated in a bid to introduce 90-day detention without charge and 28 days was a compromise measure.

U.S. Senate panel to study military eavesdropping

10 October 2008
By Scott Shane

WASHINGTON-The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator John Rockefeller IV, said Thursday that the committee would investigate claims by two military eavesdroppers that they routinely listened in on private calls home from American military officers, aid workers and journalists stationed in Iraq.

Rockefeller, Democrat of West Virginia, called the accusations "extremely disturbing."

"Any time there is an allegation regarding abuse of the privacy and civil liberties of Americans it is a very serious matter," he said.

The two former intelligence officers, Adrienne Kinne, an army reservist, and David Murfee Faulk, a navy linguist, spoke Thursday to ABC News. They also were interviewed for a book on the National Security Agency by James Bamford, a former ABC producer and author of two earlier books on the agency, that is scheduled for publication next week.

Kinne and Faulk, both Arabic linguists, were based at Fort Gordon, Georgia, where the NSA has a large listening post focused on the Middle East. Kinne was there from 2001 to 2003 and Faulk was there from 2003 to 2007, Bamford said.

Kinne, who became an anti-Iraq-war activist, has spoken about her experiences as an eavesdropper to several Web publications since last year, but her accusations have not drawn broad attention. Faulk does not appear to have spoken out before.

Faulk told ABC that he and his colleagues listened to "personal phone calls of American officers, mostly in the Green Zone, calling home to the United States, talking to their spouses, sometimes their girlfriends."

He said the eavesdroppers would swap recordings of intimate calls for entertainment. "At times I was told: 'Hey, check this out. There's some good phone sex,' " he said.

Faulk said that when another eavesdropper protested that they were personal calls and should not be transcribed, a supervisor replied, "My orders were to transcribe everything."

Under so-called minimization rules, an eavesdropper who inadvertently picks up an American's private call is required to cut off the monitoring immediately and not to transcribe or keep a recording of the call.

Kinne spoke of listening to aid workers and journalists. She said the calls had often involved "personal, private things with Americans who are not in any way, shape or form associated with anything to do with terrorism."

It was unclear whether the intercepts the two former intelligence officers described were part of the program of surveillance without warrants that President George W. Bush approved shortly after the 2001 terrorist attacks. He and other officials said that program intercepted only calls of people believed to be linked to Al Qaeda.

A statement issued by the NSA on Thursday night said, "Some of these allegations have been investigated and found to be unsubstantiated; others are in the investigation process."

The statement said the agency operated within the law and took accusations of wrongdoing seriously. "When we find misconduct, we take swift and certain remedial action," the statement said.

Mark Mansfield, a spokesman for General Michael Hayden, who was director of the NSA from 1999 to 2005 and is now director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said he had never approved illegal eavesdropping. "The notion that General Hayden sanctioned or tolerated illegalities of any sort is ridiculous on its face," Mansfield said.

Sanctions can do nothing to Iranian nation: Ahmadinejad

8 October 2008

Tehran-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday in the northeastern city of Bojnourd that the Western governments should know that imposition of sanctions can do nothing to Iranian nation.

Addressing a large group of people of North Khorassan province, he said the advocates of liberalism and democracy think that the Iranian nation would retreat from its inalienable rights.

They have always been harbingers of war and conflicts throughout the globe, he said, adding that they have waged over one hundred wars in the world on the pretext of support for freedom and human rights.

He added that even the eight-year Iraqi imposed war on Iran was waged by these so-called advocates of democracy.

As to financial crisis in the US, Ahmadinejad said the American authorities have become distressed and have lost their self-confidence.

Most of world population suffer from threats, war, insecurity and instability created by the bullying powers, he said, adding that the big powers try to transfer their problems to other world countries.

President Ahmadinejad, along with cabinet members, arrived in Bojnourd this morning on the second round of his provincial tours started in the current Iranian year to follow up implementation of the projects that had been approved during the first round of his provincial visits.

He made the initiative to visit different provinces since he took office in 2005 in order to bring closer the government to ordinary people.