by Chuck Baldwin
March 17, 2010

Anyone paying attention knows that John McCain has been a Big-Government Globalist Neocon (BGGN) for virtually his entire senatorial career. As with many BGGNs hiding out in the Republican Party, McCain likes to talk about smaller government, but his track record is littered with the promotion of one big government program after another. But, what else would one expect from a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)?

Lately, however, McCain has outdone himself. He has introduced two bills in the US Senate that are about as Machiavellian as they could be. I am referring to S.3081, a bill that would authorize the federal government to detain American citizens indefinitely without trial, and S.3002, a bill that would authorize the federal government to regulate vitamins, minerals, and virtually all health and natural food products.

According to Examiner.com, "Last week, John McCain introduced a bill into the U.S. Senate which, if passed, would actually allow U.S. citizens to be arrested and detained indefinitely, all without Miranda rights or ever being charged with a crime."

The Examiner report continued by saying "This bill, introduced by McCain, who despite overwhelming evidence, claims to be a 'conservative,' would not only take away our right to a trial, but would also allow the federal government to arrest and imprison anyone the current administration deems hostile.

"Of course, that would be the same administration whose Homeland Security Secretary has classified veterans, retired law enforcement, Ron Paul [and Chuck Baldwin] supporters, and conservatives as 'terrorists.'"

The Examiner report concluded by saying "If it was not clear before, it should be now that John McCain has as little respect for the Constitution as he does for our borders."

Amen!

If Juan McCain gets his way, your constitutional right to a speedy trial by jury is gone, as well as your constitutional right to Habeas Corpus. But, of course, they would attempt to justify this by claiming it is being done in the name of national security and the war on terrorism.

See the Examiner report at:

http://tinyurl.com/examiner-mccain-s3081

Regarding McCain's desire for the federal government to take over the vitamin industry, attorney Jonathan Emord wrote, "If you had any doubt about whether John McCain is a limited government conservative, you may put that doubt to rest--he is not. On February 3, 2010, John McCain introduced to the United States Senate the Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010. Reflecting upon this poorly written bill, I am struck by the fact that John McCain apparently sees little difference between fissile material and dietary supplements. He is intent on regulating supplements as if they were radioactive enriched uranium rather than bioactive vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and botanicals that more often than not help people.

"The Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010 enjoys support from the most liberal members of Congress. It is an invitation for the FDA to assume broad new powers and replicate here the system now operating in Europe over dietary supplements where dietary ingredients are presumed adulterated and unlawful to sell unless pre-approved by the government. In short, good bye free enterprise, good bye limited government, and hello more heavy handed, arbitrary and punitive FDA bias against the beleaguered dietary supplement industry."

See Emord's column at:

http://www.newswithviews.com/Emord/jonathan118.htm

Please remember, this is the same John McCain that, during the 2008 Presidential campaign, said he would "order the secretary of the treasury to immediately buy up the bad home loan mortgages in America." Of course, McCain didn't explain where this authority would come from, because such a proposal has no legal or constitutional authority. And, by the way, this one little sentence, if implemented, would cost taxpayers some $300 billion.

McCain also said he wanted to tap Mr. Climate Change Wacko himself, Al Gore, "to work in his administration on developing a new and much tougher U.N.-sponsored global warming treaty."...

englishnews@chosun.com / Mar. 16, 2010 07:43 KST

Kim Jong-il

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has US$4 billion hidden in secret accounts in European banks to continue his lavish way of life if he is forced to flee the country, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

"The money is the profits from impoverished North Korea selling its nuclear and missile technology, dealing in narcotics, insurance fraud, the use of forced labour in its vast gulag system, and the counterfeiting of foreign currency," the British daily said. "Much of the money was held in Swiss banks until authorities there began to tighten regulations on money laundering."

"Kim's operatives then withdrew the money -- in cash, in order not to leave a paper trail -- and transferred it to banks in Luxembourg," it added.

Swiss banks kept customers' account information in closely guarded secret even in the case of criminals until Switzerland signed information exchange agreements with the U.S., France and other countries after the G20 summit in London last April warned that sanctions could be imposed on nations that refuse to cooperate.

"I believe this is the most extensive money-laundering operation in the history of organised crime, yet the final destination of the funds has not been given the proper attention it deserves," the daily quoted Ken Kato, the director of NGO Human Rights in Asia, as saying. "Somewhere in the world, there are bankers who are earning a large sum of money by concealing and managing Kim Jong-il's secret funds, and at the same time almost 9 million people in North Korea are suffering from food shortages."

A South Korean intelligence officer said, "If they know about this money, the starving North Korean people will rise in revolt against the regime."

englishnews@chosun.com / Mar. 10, 2010 12:29 KST

Curbing North Korea's illicit arms trade is difficult since the renegade country launders containers carrying weapons three or four times, a defector who was in charge of illicit arms deals told the Chosun Ilbo on Monday.

The defector revealed that a factory in Jagang Province, which is believed to produce tractors, is the center of the communist country's weapons production, including chemical warheads. The defector, who is under police protection, did not want his identity to be revealed fearing reprisal attacks against family members still in the North.

◆ Foreign Forwarders Transport Weapons

Five departments of the North Korean government are involved in arms exports: the military arms production wing of the Workers' Party, the Second Academy of Natural Sciences, the Surveillance Division of the People's Armed Forces, Operational Department of the Workers' Party and the Second Economic Committee. He said the Economic Committee, which is directly under the control of the powerful National Defense Commission, is the biggest.

The military arms production wing procures materials for the Yongbyon nuclear plant and North Korea's nuclear weapons program. "The General Bureau of Atomic Energy only produces yellow cake [the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment], while the arms production wing is in charge of the Yongbyon facility," the defector said. The Second Academy of Natural Sciences exports missiles and also provides after-sales service for exported products by upgrading performance and exchanging components.

"The main client is the research center of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, while experiments are conducted in unison," he said. Iran successfully test-fired a rocket on Feb. 3 which is believed to have been powered by the same engine as North Korean Rodong missiles.

But international sanctions against North Korea make it difficult to export weapons by conventional means. "This is where the Surveillance Division of the People's Armed Forces comes in," the defector said. Its "traders," who studied at Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies, are fluent in English and Chinese and sign deals with "forwarders" from other countries. Through this process, North Korea sends containers across the Apnok (or Yalu) River to China one third or half filled with weapons. "The forwarder who received this cargo enters a port in a third country, where the containers are filled with freight unrelated to weapons and the paperwork is completed," he said.

These "laundered" containers are laundered again in Hong Kong, Singapore or other ports. "The containers are mixed with other cargo in those transit points. They are searched, but not thoroughly," the defector added. "Even if customs or other officials roll their sleeves up and search for weapons, how can they possibly find the arms among the mountains of other containers headed to other countries?"

In this undated photo released by the North's officials Korean Central News Agency on Dec. 9, 2009, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il inspects the Kanggye General Tractor Plant No. 26 in Jagang Province.

◆ 'Tractor Factory' Is Weapons Production Base

North Korea's main weapons production base is Kanggye General Tractor Plant No. 26. Before the Korean War, the plant was based in Pyongyang and made Soviet-designed PPSh 41 submachine guns but has since been relocated. Over 10,000 workers there manufacture ammunition and even chemical weapons. The People's Armed Forces is in charge of chemical weapons production. "The Bio-chemical research center affiliated with the military is located next to the Kanggye plant," the defector said. "The toxic gases produced at the research center are loaded onto warheads manufactured at the plant."

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il makes a point of visiting the factory two to three times a year. He last paid a visit on Dec. 9, 2009.

◆ AK-47 Rifles and Ammunition Are Top Sellers

"Small arms ammunition are hot export items and the Second Economic Committee even built a factory in Ethiopia," the defector said. The rugged AK-47s, which can operate flawlessly even in the sand-filled battlefields of the Middle East, are extremely popular, he said.

Anti-tank missiles are more complicated to manufacture, so the blueprints are in Russia, while North Korean factories are merely subcontractors. North Korean arms are believed to be exported to Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and the Philippines. "North Korean weapons with engines [such as tanks] are extremely poor quality, but those carrying warheads are not bad," the defector said. Around 20 percent of the parts used to make export versions of missiles are imported. But missiles for domestic use are made using mostly North Korean-made parts, so there is a difference in performance. "North Korea tried to import Harpoon anti-ship missiles from Taiwan," he added. "This probably has something to do with the South Korean Navy's use of the Harpoon missiles.

County Sheriff Can Bust Big Brother

Keene Free Press
March 13, 2010

The duly elected sheriff of a county is the highest law enforcement official within a county. He has law enforcement powers that exceed that of any other state or federal official.

This is settled law that most people are not aware of.

County sheriffs in Wyoming have scored a big one for the 10th Amendment and states rights. The sheriffs slapped a federal intrusion upside the head and are insisting that all federal law enforcement officers and personnel from federal regulatory agencies must clear all their activity in a Wyoming County with the Sheriff's Office. Deja vu for those who remember big Richard Mack in Arizona.

Bighorn County Sheriff Dave Mattis spoke at a press conference following a recent U.S. District Court decision (Case No. 2:96-cv-099-J (2006)) and announced that all federal officials are forbidden to enter his county without his prior approval.

"If a sheriff doesn't want the Feds in his county he has the constitutional right and power to keep them out, or ask them to leave, or retain them in custody."

The court decision was the result of a suit against both the BATF and the IRS by Mattis and other members of the Wyoming Sheriff's Association. The suit in the Wyoming federal court district sought restoration of the protections enshrined in the United States Constitution and the Wyoming Constitution.

Guess what? The District Court ruled in favor of the sheriffs. In fact, they stated, Wyoming is a sovereign state and the duly elected sheriff of a county is the highest law enforcement official within a county and has law enforcement powers exceeding that of any other state or federal official." Go back and re-read this quote.

The court confirms and asserts that "the duly elected sheriff of a county is the highest law enforcement official within a county and has law enforcement powers EXCEEDING that of any other state OR federal official." And you thought the 10th Amendment was dead and buried - not in Wyoming , not yet.

But it gets even better. Since the judge stated that the sheriff "has law enforcement powers EXCEEDING that of any other state OR federal official," the Wyoming sheriffs are flexing their muscles. They are demanding access to all BATF files. Why? So as to verify that the agency is not violating provisions of Wyoming law that prohibits the registration of firearms or the keeping of a registry of firearm owners. This would be wrong.

The sheriffs are also demanding that federal agencies immediately cease the seizure of private property and the impoundment of private bank accounts without regard to due process in Wyoming state courts.

Gosh, it makes one wish that the sheriffs of the counties relative to Waco , Texas and Oklahoma City , Oklahoma regarding their jurisdictions were drinking the same water these Wyoming sheriffs are.

Sheriff Mattis said, "I am reacting in response to the actions of federal employees who have attempted to deprive citizens of my county of their privacy, their liberty, and their property without regard to constitutional safeguards. I hope that more sheriffs all across America will join us in protecting their citizens from the illegal activities of the IRS, EPA, BATF, FBI, or any other federal agency that is operating outside the confines of constitutional law. Employees of the IRS and the EPA are no longer welcome in Bighorn County unless they intend to operate in conformance to constitutional law." [Amen].

However, the sad reality is that sheriffs are elected, and that means they are required to be both law enforcement officials and politicians as well.

Unfortunately, Wyoming sheriffs are the exception rather than the rule...but they shouldn't be. Sheriffs have enormous power, if or when they choose to use it. I share the hope of Sheriff Mattis that "more sheriffs all across America will join us in protecting their citizens."

If Wyoming Sheriffs can follow in the steps of former Arizona Sheriff Richard Mack and recognize both their power and authority, they could become champions for the memory of Thomas Jefferson who died thinking that he had won those "states' rights" debates with Alexander Hamilton.

This case is not just some amusing mountain melodrama. This is a BIG deal. This case is yet further evidence that the 10th Amendment is not yet totally dead, or in a complete decay in the United States . It is also significant in that it can, may, and hopefully will be interpreted to mean that "political subdivisions of a State are included within the meaning of the amendment, or that the powers exercised by a sheriff are an extension of those common law powers which the 10th Amendment explicitly reserves to the People, if they are not granted to the federal government or specifically prohibited to the States."

Winston Churchill observed, "If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you with only a precarious chance of survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory at all, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."

In the March edition of The Oregon Observer we informed our readership of the accomplishments made on behalf of all Americans by Congressman George Hansen. The following article tells how a criminally corrupt Federal Judge by the name of Edward Lodge with the help of numerous other Federal and State accomplices repaid Hansen for all of his efforts.

 Diesel Therapy

Diesel therapy - a prison term reserved for the most inhumane, degrading and painful of punishment; normally reserved for the most violent and uncontrollable of prisoners.

A prisoner is shackled at the feet and handcuffed at the wrists, reinforced with a box-like structure which stiffens the chains and locks the wrists at a 90-degree angle. The handcuffs are connected to a waist chain that is connected to another chain which connects the shackles. Once this shackling is complete, a prisoner can barely move. The tightened manacles pinch the nerves and restrict the flow of blood causing severe pain and swelling. Legs swelling with blood are particularly damaging to the feet, as toenails under pressure from blood-blisters press up against shoes for long periods of time and soon become infected and deformed, causing such excruciating pain that they require surgery or the pulling of the toenails out by the roots.

Diesel therapy gets its name, not from the "cruel and unusual" bondage, but from being forced into bus after bus and onto plane after plane, shackled as described, and being shuttled from one prison to another, for weeks on end, 20 hours per day in chains, for no other reason than to cause pain and suffering and give the prisoner a "message."

Welcome to diesel therapy and the world of seven-term Congressman George Hansen who was found guilty in the court-room of the infamous Federal Judge Edward Lodge on bogus charges of bank fraud which were manipulated into an issue by the Idaho Department of Finance illegally using the same agents previously employed by the IRS in their failed attempt to quote "get Hansen."

People who have been reading past editions of The Idaho Observer and The Oregon Observer will recall that the Judge Lodge/Idaho Department of Finance connection has already been uncovered in the bogus securities laws violations charges levied against Boise businessman and winemaker Petro (Pete) Eliopulos, who said; "After Ed Snook of The Oregon Observer and I met with Hansen and he told me in a six-hour meeting what had happened to him, I was more shaken than I have ever been in my life. If (West One) bank officers Knox and Neaville had not subsequently been convicted of crimes which came to light in the bogus investigations of me and my businesses, they could have done to me what they did to Hansen," said Eliopulos, who was shocked that a U.S. Representative, or anybody for that matter, could be treated this way in America.

What could an esteemed member of the U.S. Congress have done to deserve such treatment?

Congressman Hansen Found Innocent

After four years of imprisonment, after ten years of persecution, after being ruined professionally and financially and after being permanently damaged physically, in December, 1995, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated Hansen's sentence for bank fraud because the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled on May 15 that Hansen's previous conviction as a member of Congress had been overturned.

But it should be known that Judge Lodge saw to it that Hansen got "diesel therapy" coming and going to prison from the Judge's court at great cost to the government, even though Hansen should have been allowed to make such trips at his own expense. On the way from his hometown of Pocatello to federal prison in Petersberg, VA , Hansen was bussed and flown, nearly immovably shackled, at taxpayer expense, to jails all over the country. Not Hansen's lawyer, his wife, nor his allies in Congress were able to locate him. Hansen had simply disappeared for a month into the custody of the Federal Marshal's Service. Hansen's wife didn't know whether he was dead or alive. And even when the Supreme Court overturned Hansen's original case and the Appeals Court vacated his current sentence, Hansen still got the Judge Lodge treatment of another dose of diesel therapy from Virginia back to Idaho.

What had Hansen, who was a model prisoner, done to deserve the most brutal, torturous and barbaric type of treatment this country's penal system is capable of inflicting on a prisoner? The answer is obvious: Hansen is Americas most famous political prisoner.

Congressional Accountability Project (CAP)

Retired Congressman Tom Kindness (R-Ohio) stated , "I believe that George's recent trial and conviction on charges of "bank fraud" was the direct result of a campaign by various members of the bureaucracy to stop the CAP."

CAP, the Congressional Accountability Project, was being launched by Hansen and a group of investors interested in good government. CAP was going to utilize nation-wide television and a national 900 number to make congresspersons instantaneously accountable to the American people for their votes on the House and Senate floors.

"This was a project which would, in my opinion, have had a major impact on the votes of congressmen since it would have made them instantaneously responsible to the people by making their votes known immediately after being cast," commented journalist John Voss.

Hansen and his associates were on the verge of making CAP fully operational and accessible to the American public when the government, through the Idaho Department of Finance with the illegal help of former IRS agents, a revenge-minded Justice Department and the corrupt Judge Lodge, manufactured bank fraud charges against him. Court transcripts reflect that justice in Judge Lodge's court, where big bank interests are concerned, is always compromised in favor of the banks, as has been proven by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in a number of civil court cases.

Judge Lodge's provably compromised court ultimately found Hansen guilty and a vengeful Judge Lodge prescribed diesel therapy to teach him a lesson.

Why did the "Honorable" Judge Lodge treat

Hansen like Public Enemy #1?

• George Hansen was the only member of Congress able to pull the strings necessary to visit the hostages in Iran in 1979, exposing the big-bank scam behind that crises.
• George Hansen was the author of the book To Harass Our People, an indictment of the IRS, where he demanded its dismantling.
• George Hansen was the congressman who was so outraged by what he discovered about the IRS while researching his book that he wrote and helped to pass the Taxpayers Bill of Rights.
• George Hansen was the first man to propose the flat tax as a damage control alternative to protect the people from IRS abuses.
• Hansen was the man who took on OSHA, WPPSS, and the INS.
• George Hansen was the man who fearlessly and repeatedly made public his findings when investigations turned up government corruption and citizen abuse.

The "system" decided it had to teach Congressman Hansen a lesson because, had he been allowed to continue serving on Capitol Hill, he would soon likely be the chairman of the powerful House Banking Committee, a fact that history has shown would have happened in 1995.

So, why did Judge Lodge, whose personal reasons for needing to keep the well documented criminal nature of the banking industry below public scrutiny, with the help of the Idaho Department of Finance, trump up a bank fraud conviction by denying the admission of exonerating evidence in court in order to throw Hansen in prison and make sure that he was punished severely with diesel therapy?

Was it because Congressman Hansen was getting close to the truth and accumulating the political power it would take to finally and totally expose the banking industry and government for its criminal abuse of the American people?

Judge Lodge's Court of Kangaroos

CAP was apparently the final straw and abusive criminal government had to shut Hansen down. On the eve of CAP becoming fully operational, powerful special interests and political enemies derailed the project and forced a domino effect of financial repercussions upon Hansen and his associates. The government then took the situation it had created and indicted, prosecuted and convicted Hansen of bank fraud. Though the treachery of Judge Lodge and the government disdained the patriotic financial sacrifices made by Hansens supporters for good government and callously prevented his efforts to repay them, it did not prevent Hansen from publicly pledging that these law breaking government bullies could never seal his lips, nor stop him from somehow paying back the people he owed and keeping his word.

"Every attorney who has read the court transcripts is concerned and confounded as to how George could have been convicted on bank fraud charges when the supervising bank officers were not only acutely aware of his financial operation and transactions, but were actively assisting him in his efforts for over ten years! "George defrauded no one and we can prove it," stated Congressman Kindness.

Hansen was not really imprisoned and tortured by "our" government for bank fraud, though that was the government's excuse to lock him up and shut him down. Hansen was actually a political prisoner who was guilty of attempting to provide the American people with the ammunition of knowledge so they could successfully fight back the senseless encroachment of government oppression which more and more is ruining the lives of all of us. Hansen dedicated his civil service to facilitating a return of a Constitutional form of government which is of, by and for the people and "our" government felt threatened enough by his noble activities to see to it that he was imprisoned and tortured for daring to tell citizens and taxpayers the truth.

Hansen was the only U.S. statesman who cared enough to risk his own safety and political career to visit the hostages in Iran in 1979. While in Iran, Hansen saw first hand what happens to political prisoners who were beaten mercilessly, who had finger and toe nails ripped out by the roots and who had been shackled until they were permanently disabled physically.

Hansen has also experienced first hand the same inhumane torture and it happened to him in the most "civilized" nation on earth, the only difference being that Hansen was denied treatment and pain-killers, and even had to rip his own deformed and infected toenails out as part of his punishment for being a defender of the people and an exemplary American statesman.

Every state and Federal official with any knowledge of the past actions taken against Congressman George Hansen are guilty if they haven't spoken out about the crimes which have been committed against this truly great American Hero. Our treacherous and shameless government is supposedly all concerned with "human rights" in places such as China, Cuba, etc., what a joke. After realizing what this man has endured for all of us, it isn't too hard to see that we have very little real leadership left in this "once upon a time great nation." It is however easy to see that we have thousands of cowards, thieves and opportunists in high places and key positions who have almost paralyzed the dynamics of the American dream.

For several months The Oregon Observer has investigated and clearly identified how the federal court and legal system has been criminally manipulated by corrupted judges and lawyers, powered by the greedy and illegal financial manipulations of big banks, to smash thousands of people in bankruptcy court, in civil court and even in criminal court like the George Hansen nightmare.

The staff of The Oregon Observer will not sleep well until Judge Lodge and all other criminals who have taking part in this destructive legal assault on the public are in prison, which is right where they deserve to be.

Forest Glen Durland asks that you alert your Congress Persons to this information. Copies of the article can be obtained from the Oregon Observer for a very nominal fee. Forest obtained twenty copies of the entire issue and is distributing them to his Congressional representatives as well as to local schools and colleges.

This article was reproduced with the kind permission of the Oregon Observer, "An Unfettered Press Seeking the Truth." The issue is April 1997. This monthly newspaper is highly recommended. Subscription rates are $29.50 for 12 monthly issues. For more details copy their web address listed below and paste it into the location space at the top of Netscape Navigator. Then press return:

www.oregonobserver. com

John McCain claims his many years in the Inner Circle of the Washington elite make him qualified candidate to be the Senator from Arizona.

Who is in McCain's Inner Circle?

When it comes to Illegal Immigration, La Raza and the Democrats are part of the McCain inner sanctum. McCain, LaRaza and the Democrats are all in when it comes to the quest to grant Illegals Amnesty

Who is LaRaza? The Amnesty Lobby! (So much for curbing special interests, Senator McCain!)

Do you remember the McCain-Kennedy Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill? Do you remember the last time John McCain tried to force Amnesty on America? That was back in 2007...

• ...After 12 to 40 million illegal aliens had invaded the U.S. from across the Mexican border, John McCain proposed Amnesty!
• ...When the economy crashed, causing the largest recession and loss of jobs since the Great Depression, John McCain proposed Amnesty (and is still pushing for illegals to come to America and take the jobs that U.S. citizens desperately need.)!
• ...And as the flow of drugs from South America and Mexico across the U.S. border increased to record levels, John McCain proposed Amnesty!

• J.D. Hayworth is a national leader in the fight to secure our borders
• J.D. Hayworth has actually "written the book" on the subject, "Whatever It Takes".
• When John McCain proposed his Amnesty Plan-the Heritage Foundation said it would cost taxpayers $2.6 Trillion-J.D. Hayworth stood up and fought against it.

Sincerely,

JD Hayworth
JDforSenate.com

englishnews@chosun.com / Feb. 25, 2010 08:40 KST

The Japanese government will officially admit that it signed two secret pacts with the U.S. in 1960 and 1972, allowing the U.S. Forces Japan to intervene in a war on the Korean Peninsula without consulting Tokyo and allowing the U.S. to deploy nuclear weapons in Okinawa in a regional emergency.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported Wednesday that an expert committee at the Japanese Foreign Ministry recently investigated the question and recommended admitting the existence of the two secret pacts. They will be made public in March.

The first pact was agreed when the two countries revised the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty. The second was concluded before the U.S. returned Okinawa to Japan, and states that the U.S. can bring nuclear weapons to the island after consultations with Tokyo.

Japan had consistently denied the existence of the secret pacts, but the new government, which pursues a policy of greater transparency and reduced dependence on the U.S., launched the investigation since its inauguration last September.

Based on a report from the committee, the Yukio Hatoyama administration will decide what to do with the secret pacts. Of the two, the 1972 nuclear pact is likely to be scrapped since it runs counter to Japan's three anti-nuclear principles banning the possession, production and import of nuclear arms.

The agreement on the USFJ's automatic intervention in a war on the Korean Peninsula could spark heated debate among Japan's neighbors.

But the committee denied the existence of a third pact, also signed in 1960, rumoured to allow U.S. nuclear-powered ships to call at Japanese ports or U.S. aircraft carrying nuclear weapons to pass Japanese airspace. "It is obvious that there were talks on the issue, but there is no evidence that the two countries reached any agreement," the committee concluded.

Google employees and outsiders tested Buzz before its launch. But privacy concerns became issue after it went live.

(CNET) -- Google may have reached the limits of what it can learn from dog food.

Ask almost any technology company what products and services they use within their own organizations, and most will enthusiastically admit to "dog-fooding" their own products. It's both a show of support for their own technology and an opportunity to test those products for flaws that won't make the light of day before they are fixed.

Google is no different. But something went wrong with the dog-fooding process for Google Buzz, forcing company engineers to scramble over a holiday weekend to calm the outcry over privacy violations with tweaks to the settings and set-up process.

Google now asks Buzz users to manually approve their followers instead of automatically including them on their Buzz lists, and improved the visibility of the privacy controls.

Buzz was just tested inside Google before it launched to the general public, said Todd Jackson, Google Buzz product manager. Several layers of Google employees participated in the process, from the initial design team to wider and wider circles of employees.

And a source familiar with the product development process said Google put Buzz through its usability lab, where it brings in outsiders to evaluate products in secret before they are launched.

However, either no one brought up the privacy concerns that Buzz users raised within a day of its launch, Google didn't ask the outsiders for their thoughts on Buzz privacy, or Google engineers dismissed those concerns as unfounded.

For whatever reason, Google has taken a hit over the Buzz launch from a public that is already skeptical about the search giant's motivations with the enormous amount of personal data it already has accumulated.

It is moving quickly to assuage those fears. Buzz and the issues surrounding its launch quickly became the center of attention at Google's weekly meeting for employees on Friday, where tradition holds that employees can speak freely on anything and everything involving the company.

People familiar with the meeting characterized it as full of "strong feelings" that led to Google's weekend push to improve the set-up options for Buzz.

The furor over the Buzz launch will subside, and Web users will turn their attentions to debating the usefulness of the service. However, the incident exposes a real problem for Google: Does its unique culture really understand the markets in which it wants to participate?

Social media has already been a minefield for Google, with stops and starts amid charges that the engineers who built Google don't understand the wider world of social networking.

By Stephen C. Webster
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 -- 10:06 pm

In the face of several electoral challenges from tea party-connected candidates, Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul cautioned in a recent interview that "neocon influence" is "infiltrating" the movement he is often credited for creating.

Speaking to MSNBC host Rachel Maddow on Tuesday night, Paul first took up for the tea parties as a natural reaction of the people when they are unhappy with government. What they are not, he explained, are entirely adherent to his ideas. Paul suggested that the group only "sometimes" represents his views.

"My message is somewhat different," he said. "The message gets somewhat diluted" with large movements of this nature.

"Everybody likes to join what looks like a popular movement, then they want to come in and influence that movement," Paul continued.

His core issues, such as creating transparency at the Federal Reserve, recalling overseas soldiers and ending the drug war, are "not what is generally heard from the Republican party," he said...

09 Feb, 2010 @ 02:14 pm ET | By Michael Pento
International Business Times

by Jane Hamsher
February 10, 2010

There's trouble brewing between the Ron Paul libertarians who staged the the first modern tea party in 2007 by dumping tea into Boston Harbor, and the neocon war hawks led by Sarah Palin who are furiously trying to hijack their message.

After I appeared on MSNBC talking about Sarah Palin's appearance at the Nashville tea party convention, several libertarians told me they were unhappy with the exchange.

I said that Sarah Palin's hawkish message on Iran was oddly out of place in a group whose roots belong to the Ron Paul libertarians, particularly as the anti-interventionist Rand Paul is looking strong in the Kentucky Senate Senate race -- and Palin just endorsed him. The woman who appeared with me representing the tea partiers disagreed with that premise, and claimed she was very much an interventionist.

My libertarian friends couldn't imagine what she was doing on TV representing the tea parties in the first place, and thought it was a sad day when the opposition stated their position more fairly than their supposed allies.

But it underscores a rift between the anti-tax, pro-civil rights libertarians who started the tea parties and the corporatist neocon grifters of the GOP who are now trying to swoop in and capitalize on all of the hype. And in the irony of ironies, tea party-identified candidates are now trying to oust Ron Paul from his Texas House seat.

Paul appeared on Rachel Maddow last night to speak about it. Rachel asked him about his relationship to the tea parties, and he said:

I think the message gets a little bit diluted when a lot of people come in and the Republican party wants to make sure that maybe there's a Neocon type of influence.

Ron Paul was reluctant to reject Sarah Palin's endorsement of his son, and mostly tried to change the subject. But this morning Doug Bandow, a Senior Fellow at the Campaign for Liberty, has a piece denouncing the Daniel Pipes foolishness (echoed by Sarah Palin last weekend) which says Obama would help himself politically by bombing the bejesus out of Iran:

There are no good solutions in Iran. The world will be a better place if Iran becomes democratic and abandons any nuclear weapons program. But initiating war likely would inhibit reform in Iraq while making the world a more dangerous place. The disastrous experience of Iraq should teach us many lessons, the most important of which is that war always should be a last resort. That standard is no where close to being met in Iran...

By Jeremy A. Kaplan
February 12, 2010
FOXNews.com

A federal appeals court Friday debated a privacy issue you probably hadn't considered: the government's ability to track your location at any time, if you carry a cell phone.

AP Photo/Seth Wenig

A case being heard by a federal appeals court today aims to investigate the government's ability to track an individual's location based on cellular phone data.

A federal appeals court Friday debated a privacy issue you probably hadn't considered: the government's ability to track your location at any time, if you carry a cell phone.

As cell phones have morphed from cordless communication devices into pocket-sized PCs, cellular providers have developed and honed the ability to pinpoint your location fairly accurately -- potentially to within 150 feet. This helps network operators connect your phone to the nearest cell tower and locate you in an emergency, a federally mandated feature called E9-1-1.

That feature could be a lifesaver if your car runs off a rural road on a dark night. But it also enables the authorities to know your location at all times when you're carrying your phone.

"Most people don't understand they are carrying a tracking device in their pockets," Kevin Bankston, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Newsweek. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit in Philadelphia heard arguments on Friday in a case that centers around Philadelphia FBI agent William Shute, who testified that he obtained records 150 times in recent years to track the location of federal fugitives.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union argued in court Friday that the practice raises serious privacy issues. And third U.S. Circuit Judge Dolores Sloviter seemed to share that concern...

by Chuck Baldwin
February 12, 2010

As far as grassroots activism goes, the surge in Tea Parties across America is one of the more encouraging developments to recently take place. It reminds me of the "Conservative Revolution" of 1994, when the GOP reclaimed both the US Senate and House of Representatives. At that time, it had been over 40 years since the Republican Party controlled both the US House and Senate. And, between the two, the House victories were the most significant.

Spurred mostly by the election of Bill Clinton in 1992, a host of young, energetic freshman Republicans marched into Washington, D.C., determined to return a burgeoning and out-of-control federal leviathan to the constitutional precepts of limited government. I'm talking about then-freshman House members such as Helen Chenoweth, Steve Largent, Bob Barr, Joe Scarborough, Sonny Bono, John Shadegg, J.C. Watts, etc. These young conservatives went to Washington, D.C., determined to reduce the growth and size of the federal government.

The vehicle used to transport these young conservatives from grassroots activism to US House and Senate seats was the highly touted "Contract with America" (CWA), which was orchestrated by House Speaker-to-be, Newt Gingrich. The CWA included a promise to the American people that if they would give the GOP a majority in Congress, they would eliminate up to 5 federal departments--such as the Departments of Energy and Education--and many federal agencies.

Obviously, not only did the GOP-controlled Congress not eliminate a single federal department or agency--or even shrink the size of the federal government at all--it expanded the size and scope of the federal government at every level. And there is one reason for it: Big Government neocons posing as champions of conservatism co-opted and destroyed the Conservative Revolution of 1994.

If one wants to put names to these treasonous wretches (and I do), I'm talking about charlatans such as Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott. Anyone who thinks that Newt Gingrich is a real conservative or that he will do anything to reduce the size and scope of the federal government needs to speak with any of those Republican members of the freshman class of 1994. (Sadly, too, some of the members of that great freshman class went on to become Big Government toadies themselves. Such is the power of that Putrid Province by the Potomac.)

The Tea Parties of 2010 remind me very much of the Conservative Revolution of 1994. And if the Tea Party Nation is not very careful, they will succumb to the same fate. The signs of a silent takeover of the movement are already appearing.

First of all, the Tea Parties were actually born during the Presidential campaign of Congressman Ron Paul of Texas in 2007 and 2008. For all intents and purposes, the Tea Parties and the Ron Paul Revolution were one and the same. These were (mostly) young people, who were sick and tired of the same old establishment Republican Party. They were tired of establishment Republicans selling out the principles of limited government; they were tired of the US Constitution being ignored and trampled by both Republicans and Democrats; they were tired of an incessant interventionist US foreign policy that keeps sending US forces overseas to advance a burgeoning New World Order (NWO); they were tired of perpetual war; they were tired of the bank bailouts; they were tired of the Federal Reserve; etc.

I know this because I met--and spoke before--the Tea Party Nation in State after State as I campaigned for Dr. Paul during the Republican primaries back in 2008. And I met them again all over America, as I was running as an Independent candidate for President--with Ron Paul's endorsement, no less. I was with them in scores of meetings (big and small) from Washington, D.C., to Spokane, Washington, and all points in between.

But now many of the Tea Parties are distancing themselves from Dr. Paul and embracing establishment players such as Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck. Even Newt Gingrich is being courted. Watch out, Tea Party Nation: you're in danger of losing your soul! Newt Gingrich is not one of you. He is not your friend. He is an imposter. He will destroy you just like he almost single-handedly destroyed the Conservative Revolution of 1994.

Plus, be careful about Sarah Palin and other establishment Republicans. Palin is currently playing both sides. She is promoting Big Government neocons such as John McCain on the one hand, and sincere conservative-libertarians such as Rand Paul on the other hand. But if one wants a real barometer of Palin's true colors, look no further than her endorsement of Rick Perry in Texas.

Perry is the quintessential establishment Republican. Perry has been in office for some 9 years, and what has he done to thwart the NWO in Texas? Nothing! Perry is even a Bilderberg Group attendee. What has he done for State sovereignty in Texas? Nothing! In fact, he supports the North American Union and the NAFTA superhighway. What has he done to resist Obama's universal health care proposals? Nothing! What has he done to protect the citizens of Texas against an emerging Police State? Nothing! What has he done to fight illegal immigration? Nothing!...

englishnews@chosun.com / Jan. 22, 2010 12:56 KST

South Korea has issued its first report on human rights abuses committed in North Korea's political prison camps. The report by the National Human Rights Commission shows the inhumanity of North Korea's political prison camps, including widespread torture and public executions. Most of the people incarcerated in the North's political prison camps were caught trying to escape to South Korea or for minor political infractions, such as failing to hang up a picture of leader Kim Jong-il. None of them were arrested with a warrant or received a fair trial. The families of inmates have also been imprisoned according to a guilty-by-association system.

The report is South Korea's first assessment of human rights abuses in North Korea and marks a significant shift in the South's approach toward the North. The NHRC plans to translate the report into English and deliver it to the UN Commission on Human Rights and other international organizations to spread awareness of the atrocities being committed in North Korea.

A protestor in Seoul calls for the release of Robert Park, an evangelical activist who crossed the frozen border river into North Korea.

◆ Abuse of Human Rights

Human rights disappear the moment a person steps inside a concentration camp. Some prison camps do not even allow inmates to marry other inmates. "If an inmate does a good job spying or works hard, he or she is allowed to marry, but only on three to four special days of the year," said a North Korean defector. Even if inmates marry and have children, the camps have no childcare facilities and in some cases babies were found dead while their mothers went out to work. The camps do not provide clothing and shoes to the inmates, only shelter and food. Household items and sanitary pads are unavailable, and this makes living conditions extremely difficult especially for women. Women are often summoned by intelligence officers to their rooms and sexually assaulted there or at the clothes and food products factories in the camps, according to testimony from defectors.

Inmates who complain about conditions spend between a month to a year at detention centers within the camps. Inmates were especially afraid of the extended torture and physical assaults that awaited them there, which often left prisoners dead. Attempts to escape led to the harshest punishments, including execution by firing squad or hanging. When a pregnant inmate suddenly disappears, she was probably secretly executed, say North Koreans who had survived the camps. "I think there were between 20 to 30 public executions at the camps. They would shoot you for 'refusing to convert,'" said one former inmate. Another former inmate said the body of a pregnant woman was discovered with a shovel embedded in her body in 1992, and the location of secret executions is a canyon around 500 m from the prison.

◆ Bribing Their Way Out of Camps

North Korean defectors who were caught in China are subject to terrible assaults and torture. Some female defectors said prison officials used their hands to check whether women were hiding money in their orifices. After the number of defections increased in 2006, there were accounts of inmates bribing prison officials to get lighter sentences or even gain freedom. "Between 60 to 70 percent of defectors caught while heading to South Korea were sent directly to political prisons or summarily executed, while those who were freed had used bribes," said one defector.

englishnews@chosun.com / Feb. 04, 2010 12:51 KST

The North Korean regime has sacked the Workers' Party's Finance Director Pak Nam-gi, letting him take the fall for the failed currency reform late last year. Until December, Pak was frequently spotted accompanying North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on his "on-the-spot-guidance" tours, but he suddenly dropped from sight in January.

Diplomatic sources in Beijing say Pak was probably removed as a sacrificial lamb after social unrest increased following the currency revaluation, which led to skyrocketing prices. When millions of people starved to death or fled the country to escape famine and flooding between 1995 and '96, North Korea accused Minister of Agriculture Seo Gwan-hee of espionage and executed him in public in the streets of Pyongyang.

North Korean defectors say the official price of rice was 20 won per kilogram, but in the month after the currency revaluation, it jumped 20 times to 30 times and now costs 600 won. In some areas, prices are said to have soared 50 times to 1,000 won. As a result, frustrated North Koreans have no qualms about making insulting comments about their leader now, even in front of state security agents.

North Korea revalued its currency because a nascent market economy began taking root in various parts of the country following the collapse of the state's ability to distribute food and other supplies in the late 1990s, which created a new class of relatively wealthy merchants who became an increasing threat to the privileges of party members. North Korea wanted to revamp the system of state distribution system and reclaim economic control to protect the communist ruling class and to ensure the smooth transfer of power from Kim Jong-il to his third son Jong-un.

The crisis demonstrates the losing battle the North Korean leader is fighting against market forces and rising public discontent. The regime is even said to have issued live ammunition to security agents and authorized them to shoot and kill protesting citizens. But the regime still had to resort to blaming its chief economic policymaker after the draconian measures failed to appease public anger, a tactic commonly used by regimes that have lost the support of the public.

If the rumors coming out of North Korea are accurate, then the country is a ticking time bomb. During the last crisis during the late 1990s, North Korea pursued the Geneva Agreement with the U.S., while sending armed infiltrators to South Korea aboard submarines and launched the Taepodong-1 long-range missile. Now it is resorting to similar tactics by demanding talks with South Korea while launching massive military exercises and firing artillery rounds near the maritime border in the West Sea.

Grand National Party leader Chung Mong-joon said on Wednesday, "I would like to be briefed by intelligence officers" on the situation in North Korea. The South Korean public is even more anxious about the situation. Cheong Wa Dae, the Unification Ministry and the National Intelligence Service are saying that the situation in North Korea is not serious enough to threaten Kim's rule. In January 1989, the West German government said there were no unusual signs coming out of East Germany, but soon after, masses of East Germans fled their country and headed to Hungary and Austria, and in November the same year the Berlin Wall came down.

This does not mean South Korea's intelligence is inaccurate. It is important to note that nobody can be certain of the fate of the North Korean regime at this point. But what is required is for the government to set aside its preconceived ideas and prepare contingency plans in case of an emergency in North Korea. South Korean officials from the president on down must be prepared to deal with any scenario.

The New York Times is displayed on Amazon's Kindle e-book reader. /AP

With its newly unveiled iPad tablet PC, Apple is threatening the dominance of online retailer Amazon in the U.S. e-book market.

Amazon, the world's largest online bookstore, has been leading the e-book market for the past two years, selling 2.5 million units of its Kindle wireless e-reader. But less than a week after the iPad's debut, Amazon has already been forced to revise its pricing policy.

Amazon had been charging US$9.99 for e-book versions of popular titles, but last weekend it was forced to raise its prices when U.S. publishing giant Macmillan demanded it charge $12.99 to $14.99. Amazon initially took a tough stance and halted all sales of Macmillan books, but later retracted the measure and said on Sunday it would accept Macmillan's demand, according to international media reports.

Apple is behind the dispute between Amazon and the publishing industry. When it unveiled the iPad last Wednesday, Apple offered to charge up to $14.99 per e-book, prompting publishers, which have been unhappy with Amazon's monopoly, to revolt against the retailer. Apple also promised to give publishers or copyright holders 70 percent of the revenue from e-book sales, as it does with developers of applications for the iPhone. That gave Macmillan leverage to demand that Amazon raise its prices.

Industry insiders predict that e-book makers including publishers and newspapers will eventually have a bigger say in distribution. They may be helped by the decision of Internet giant Google to enter the market. Google plans to only set certain standards on discount rates and give publishers the right to decide prices. That will enable publishers to choose the retailer that offers the most favorable terms.

Dear Family, Friends, Allies & Future Friends,

by Philip Giraldi
January 28, 2010

A curious op-ed "The Tel Aviv Cluster" by the reliably neoconnish David Brooks appeared in the New York Times on January 12th.  Brooks enthused over the prowess of Israel’s high tech businesses, attributing their success in large part to Jewish exceptionalism and genius, which must have provided the ultimate feel good moment for Brooks, who is himself Jewish.  That Israel has a booming technology sector is undeniably true, but Brooks failed to mention other contributing factors such as the $101 billion dollars in US economic and military aid over the course of more than four decades, which does not include the additional $30 billion recently approved by President Barack Obama.  American assistance has financed and fueled Israel’s business growth while the open access and even "preferential treatment" afforded to Israeli exporters through the Israel Free Trade Implementation Act of 1985 has provided Israelis with the enormous US market to sell their products and services.  By act of Congress, Israeli businesses can even bid on most American Federal and State government contracts just as if they were US companies.

The reality of Israeli spying is indisputable.  Israel always features prominently in the annual FBI report called "Foreign Economic Collection and Industrial Espionage." The 2005 report states, "Israel has an active program to gather proprietary information within the United States. These collection activities are primarily directed at obtaining information on military systems and advanced computing applications that can be used in Israel’s sizable armaments industry." It adds that Israel recruits spies, uses electronic methods, and carries out computer intrusion to gain the information. The 2005 report concluded that the thefts eroded US military advantage, enabling foreign powers to obtain expensive technologies that had taken years to develop.
 
A 1996 Defense Investigative Service report noted that Israel has great success stealing technology by exploiting the numerous co-production projects that it has with the Pentagon. "Placing Israeli nationals in key industries …is a technique utilized with great success." A General Accounting Office (GAO) examination of espionage directed against American defense and security industries described how Israeli citizens residing in the US had stolen sensitive technology to manufacture artillery gun tubes, obtained classified plans for a reconnaissance system, and passed sensitive aerospace designs to unauthorized users. An Israeli company was caught monitoring a Department of Defense telecommunications system to obtain classified information, while other Israeli entities targeted avionics, missile telemetry, aircraft communications, software systems, and advanced materials and coatings used in missile re-entry. The GAO concluded that Israel "conducts the most aggressive espionage operation against the United States of any US ally." In June 2006, a Pentagon administrative judge overruled an appeal by an Israeli who had been denied a security clearance, stating, "The Israeli government is actively engaged in military and industrial espionage in the United States. An Israeli citizen working in the US who has access to proprietary information is likely to be a target of such espionage."  More recently, FBI counter intelligence officer John Cole has reported how many cases of Israeli espionage are dropped under orders from the Justice Department.  He provides a "conservative estimate" of 125 worthwhile investigations into Israeli espionage involving both American citizens and Israelis that were stopped due to political pressure from above.
 
Two recent stories that have been reported in the Israeli media but are strangely absent from the news on this side of the Atlantic demonstrate exactly what is going on and what is at stake. The first story confirms that Israeli efforts to obtain US technology are ongoing.  Stewart David Nozette, a US government scientist who was arrested on October 19, 2009 in an FBI sting operation after offering to spy for Israel has been waiting in jail to go to trial on espionage charges.  New documents in the case were presented in the Federal court in Washington last week.  The documents confirm that Nozette was a paid consultant for Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI) and it is believed that he passed to them classified material in return for an estimated $225,000 in consulting fees.  Examination of his computer by the FBI revealed that he was planning a "penetration of NASA" the US space agency and that he was also trying to crack into other scientists’ computers to obtain additional classified material.  Other documents demonstrate that he was cooperating with two Israeli scientists who were administrators with IAI, Yossi Weiss and Yossi Fishman.  Nozette made several trips to Israel without reporting them, which he was required to do because of his high security clearance.  The FBI reportedly also has incriminating letters and other documents that were obtained from the computer.
 
The second story relates to the pending sale of twenty-five F-35 fighter planes to Israel.  The F-35 is one of the most advanced fighter planes in the world.  The $130 million planes would be purchased with US military assistance money, which means they would effectively be a gift from the US taxpayer.  But Israel is balking at the sale reportedly because it wants to install some of its own local content in the aircraft.  The Pentagon has already made some concessions but is disinclined to grant approval for all the changes because to do so would require giving the Israelis full access to the plane’s advanced avionics and computer systems.  Israel also wants to independently maintain the aircraft, which would also require access to all systems.  It would be nice to think that the Pentagon wants to keep the maintenance in American hands to preserve jobs, but the Defense Department has never cared about US workers before when the issue is Israel, and the real reason for the standoff is that Lockheed-Martin and the Pentagon both know that Israel will steal whatever it can if it gains access.  It would then use the technology to market its own products at a price below that of US defense contractors. The result would be a triple whammy for Uncle Sam:  the expensive planes are given to Israel free, the technology is then stolen, and future sales vanish as our Israeli friends market their knock down versions of weapons systems reliant on the stolen technology.
 
So to David Brooks I would say that there is most definitely an economic surge taking place in high tech Israel, but it is less a miracle than the fruit of a long series of thefts and manipulations fueled by American tax money and the connivance of a Congress that is always willing to do favors for the country that it appears to love beyond all others.  I’m sure most Americans would wish the Israelis well and would applaud the prosperity that derives from their own industry and inventiveness but it is also time to put the brakes on business as usual and to take the Israeli hand out of our pocket.  I’m sure Brooks’ job is pretty secure and well paid, but many Americans are out of work and suffering, so let’s take some steps to protect our economy from the information thieves from Tel Aviv and keep our money and jobs over here...