Some in Merkel's Party Want to Talk with the Taliban

Spiegel.de

General David Petraeus made a plea for patience on Sunday and said that the roots of progress have been established in Afghanistan. But with public support of the war down across NATO, some politicians, including those from German Chancellor Merkel's own party, want to negotiate with the Taliban.

It has not been a good couple of months in Afghanistan. July was the deadliest month for US troops there since the campaign started almost nine years ago, with 66 soldiers losing their lives. Furthermore, the website icasualties.org reported over the weekend that 2,000 coalition troops have now died in Afghanistan. And the violence is getting worse. Whereas 521 soldiers were killed in 2009, making it the deadliest year since the beginning of the war, 434 have already been killed in 2010.

And still, there is no real end in sight. In an interview with NBC television aired on Sunday, the US commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus asked for patience and said that there were "areas of progress" that now had to be linked together and extended. 

He also hinted that US President Barack Obama's July 2011 target for beginning to withdraw troops from the war-torn country might be premature. "I think the president has been quite clear in explaining that it's a process, not an event, and that it's conditions-based," Petraeus said of the possible drawdown.

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Technical Gauge and Its Creator Sense Stock Gloom; 'Good Conspiracy Theories'?

Source: Wall Street Journal

Forget about Friday the 13th. Many on Wall Street took to whispering about an even scarier phenomenon—the "Hindenburg Omen."

The Omen, named after the famous German airship in 1937 that crashed in Lakehurst, N.J., is a technical indicator that foreshadows not just a bear market but a stock-market crash. Its creator, a blind mathematician named Jim Miekka, said his indicator is now predicting a market meltdown in September.

Wall Street has been abuzz about whether the Hindenburg Omen will come to bear, with some traders cautioning clients about the indicator and blogs pondering all the doom and gloom. But Andrew Brenner, managing director at Guggenheim Securities, told his clients: "Personally, it sounds like [people] are starting their weekend drinking early."

Technical indicators, with names like "The Death Cross" and "The Bearish Abandoned Baby" have been attracting mainstream attention in recent months. Amid an increasingly volatile market, investors have been searching for any clues about stocks' direction, especially this past week where major indexes fell more than 3%.

"We always love good conspiracy theories," said Joseph Battipaglia, chief market strategist of the private-client group at Stifel Nicolaus. But he noted that market watchers sometimes make too much of what could be mere coincidences. "I for one dismiss all these things because they usually erupt most numerously during bear markets."

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Is a Crash Coming? Ten Reasons to Be Cautious

Source: Wall Street Journal

Could Wall Street be about to crash again?

This week's bone-rattlers may be making you wonder.

I don't make predictions. That's a sucker's game. And I'm certainly not doing so now.

But way too many people are way too complacent this summer. Here are 10 reasons to watch out.

1. The market is already expensive. Stocks are about 20 times cyclically-adjusted earnings, according to data compiled by Yale University economics professor Robert Shiller. That's well above average, which, historically, has been about 16. This ratio has been a powerful predictor of long-term returns. Valuation is by far the most important issue for investors. If you're getting paid well to take risks, they may make sense. But what if you're not?

2. The Fed is getting nervous. This week it warned that the economy had weakened, and it unveiled its latest weapon in the war against deflation: using the proceeds from the sale of mortgages to buy Treasury bonds. That should drive down long-term interest rates. Great news for mortgage borrowers. But hardly something one wants to hear when the Dow Jones Industrial Average is already north of 10000.

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In USA, Some Cattle 'cloned from dead animals'

Source: BBC

Some of the cattle cloned to boost food production in the US have been created from the cells of dead animals, according to a US cloning company.

Farmers say it is being done because it is only possible to tell that the animal's meat is of exceptionally high quality by inspecting its carcass.

US scientists are using a variety of techniques to assess which animals have exceptional qualities.

These attributes include meat quality, productivity or longevity.

These exceptional animals are cloned to be used as breeding stock, with the aim of raising the quality of herds on beef, dairy and pig farms in the US.

There is a long tradition of resurrecting dead animals for cloning - Dolly the sheep being a case in point.

The head of the leading US animal cloning company has said that European farmers will fall behind the rest of the world unless they are allowed to use such techniques to improve the productivity of their livestock.

The aim of livestock cloning is to clone the best animals to produce the best beef.

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General Petraeus insists he will not be bound by Obama's Afghan exit date

The US army general, David Petraeus, made clear today that he would not be bound by Barack Obama's promise to start withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan by July next year.

In his first interview since taking command of Nato troops in the country less than two months ago, the top general said he could foresee circumstances where conditions would make it impossible for him to recommend a reduction in forces.

Such an outcome would scupper President Obama's plans not to appear bogged down in a worsening Afghanistan conflict as he prepares for re-election in 2012.

Speaking on US television from his headquarters in Kabul, Petraeus said the controversial promise made by Obama in November that a surge of 30,000 US troops would be temporary and would start to be reversed in July 2011 was simply an attempt to increase the urgency of the international effort in Afghanistan.

"I think the president has been quite clear in explaining that it's a process, not an event, and that it's conditions-based," Petraeus said.

Although seen at the time as a smart way of appeasing critics of the war within Obama's own party, the drawdown announcement has been widely criticised for emboldening insurgent groups who saw it as a sign of weakening resolve.

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Gulf Health Problems Blamed on Dispersed Oil

On Aug. 5, Donny Mastler, a commercial fisherman who also works on boats, was at the Dauphin Island Marina.

“I was with my friend Albert, and we were both slammed with exposure,” Mastler, told IPS, referring to toxic chemicals he inhaled that he believes are associated with BP’s Corexit dispersants. “We both saw the clumps of white bubbles on the surface that we know come from the dispersed oil.”

Both of their eyes were watering and their throats were burning, so Albert went to sit in his air-conditioned truck, while Mastler headed home.

“I started to vomit brown, and my pee was brown also,” Mastler said. “I kept that up all day. Then I had a night of sweating and non-stop diarrhea unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.”

BP has been using two oil dispersants, Corexit 9500 and Corexit 9527, both of which are banned in Britain. More than 1.9 million gallons of dispersant has been used to date on the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster.

Pathways of exposure are inhalation, ingestion, skin, and eye contact. Health impacts include headaches, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pains, dizziness, chest pains and tightness, irritation of eyes, nose, throat and lungs, difficulty breathing, respiratory system damage, skin irrigation and sensitisation, hypertension, central nervous system depression, neurotoxic effects, genetic damage and mutations, cardiac arrhythmia, and cardiovascular damage, among several others.

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Jobless millions signal death of the American dream for many

Richard Gaines is one of the best-known faces on Camden's Haddon Avenue. It is a rough-and-tumble street, lined with cheap businesses and boarded-up houses, and is prey to drug gangs. Gaines, 50, runs a barbershop, a hair salon and a fitness business. He works hard and is committed to his community. But Haddon Avenue is not an easy place to make a living in the best of times. And these are far from the best of times.

Just how badly the great recession has struck this fragile New Jersey city, which is currently the poorest in America, was recently spelled out to Gaines. In happier times – whatever that might mean for a city as destitute as Camden – local businesses on Haddon Avenue could at least rely on a bit of trade from those who made their money on the street.

Young men bought flashy clothes and got sharp haircuts and always paid in cash. But no longer. The economy is now so bad in Camden that even the criminals are struggling and going short. "Even the guys who got money from illegal means really don't want to spend it," Gaines said.

Such a development, though, is just a snapshot of the deep problems still hitting the wider American economy.

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Dead Fish Are Washing Up Everywhere . . . Is It Due to BP Oil Spill and Dispersants?

Dead fish are washing up everywhere.

For example, numerous dead fish washed ashore in Massachusetts a couple of days ago:

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Growth Prospects Dim in U.S. After Retail Sales, Trade Reports

Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Prospects for U.S. economic growth took a hit this week after reports showed the trade deficit swelled and consumers reined in spending.

Economists at Morgan Stanley reduced their estimate for third-quarter consumer spending following a report showing retail sales rose less than forecast in July. A record jump in the trade gap for June capped figures that indicated the world’s biggest economy grew at least a percentage point less than the 2.4 percent pace the government estimated last month.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slumped 3.8 percent in the five days ended yesterday, the biggest one-week loss in a month, and a surge in Treasuries pushed the yield on the benchmark 10- year note to the lowest level in 16 months on concern the economy will relapse into a recession. Reports this week showing Chinese industrial output cooled and growth in Europe was uneven added to pessimism over the prospects for the global economy, just as the Federal Reserve said the U.S. recovery was weaker than anticipated.

“The data continued to show softening, and it does feel like the third quarter is starting off pretty weak,” said Bruce Kasman, chief economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York. “The bigger issue is whether the momentum slide we’ve seen since the second quarter will be arrested.”

Purchases at U.S. retailers in July climbed 0.4 percent, figures from the Commerce Department in Washington showed yesterday, compared with a 0.5 percent median increase forecast by economists in a Bloomberg News survey. Excluding auto dealers and gasoline stations, sales dropped 0.1 percent, the second decline in three months.

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Dr David Kelly was on a hitlist, says UN weapons expert as calls grow for full inquest

A leading UN weapons inspector last night added his voice to the growing clamour for a full inquest into the death of Dr David Kelly.

Dr Richard Spertzel claimed Dr Kelly was on a 'hitlist' in the final years of his life.

The former head of the UN Biological Section, who worked closely with Dr Kelly in Iraq in the 1990s, has written to Attorney General Dominic Grieve about the 'mysterious circumstances' surrounding the death.

The weapons inspector's body was found after he was unmasked as the source of a damaging BBC news report questioning the grounds for the Iraq war.

Officially, he took his own life.

Yesterday Dr Spertzel told the Mail that the British authorities were 'intentionally ignoring' the issue.

He believes that there is something 'fishy' and insisted that a coroner should examine the death as soon as possible.

His demands come 24 hours after nine of Britain's leading medical experts wrote an open letter to minsters demanding a full inquest.

Dr Spertzel said: 'I know that David, as well as myself and a couple of others, were on an Iraqi hitlist. In late 1997, we were told by the Russian embassy in Baghdad. I had no idea what it meant but apparently David and I were high on the priority list.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1302939/Dr-David-Kelly-hitlist-says-UN-weapons-expert-calls-grow-inquest.html#ixzz0wbaS1VPW

"Routine" Massacre of Civilians in Iraq: Former GIs Describe US Policy of Firing on Civilians

Three former U.S. soldiers involved in the infamous "Collateral Murder" helicopter gunship attack on Baghdad civilians in July 2007, say that attack was nothing out of the ordinary. The massacre---that killed more than a dozen Iraqis, two of them employed by Reuters---ignited a wave of international revulsion against the U.S. military in Iraq when a video of the massacre was released by WikiLeaks last April.

"What the world did not see is the months of training that led up to the incident, in which soldiers were taught to respond to threats with a barrage of fire---a "wall of steel," in Army parlance---even if it put civilians at risk," report Sarah Lazare and Ryan Harvey in the August 16th issue of The Nation magazine.

Former Army Specialist Josh Stieber said that newly arrived soldiers in Baghdad were asked if they would fire back at an attacker if they knew unarmed civilians might get hurt in the process. Those who did not respond affirmatively, or who hesitated, were "knocked around" until they realized what was expected of them, added former Army Specialist Ray Corcoles, who deployed with Stieber.

A third former Army specialist, Ethan McCord, said his battalion commander gave orders to shoot indiscriminately after attacks by improvised explosive devices. "Anytime someone in your line gets hit by an IED�you kill every motherfucker in the street," McCord quotes him as saying.

Corcoles told the reporters he purposely turned his gun away from people. "You don�t even know if somebody�s shooting at you. It�s just insanity to just start shooting people."

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WikiLeaks: We Won't Be Threatened by Pentagon

WikiLeaks will publish its remaining 15,000 Afghan war documents within a month, despite warnings from the U.S. government, the organization's founder said Saturday.

The Pentagon has said that secret information will be even more damaging to security and risk more lives than WikiLeaks' initial release of some 76,000 war documents.

"This organization will not be threatened by the Pentagon or any other group," Assange told reporters in Stockholm. "We proceed cautiously and safely with this material."

In an interview with The Associated Press, he said that if U.S. defense officials want to be seen as promoting democracy then they "must protect what the United States' founders considered to be their central value, which is freedom of the press."

"For the Pentagon to be making threatening demands for censorship of a press organization is a cause for concern, not just for the press but for the Pentagon itself," the Australian added.

He said WikiLeaks was about halfway though a "line-by-line review" of the 15,000 documents and that "innocent parties who are under reasonable threat" would be redacted from the material.

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Turkey Accused of Using Chemical Weapons against PKK

Spiegel.de

German experts have confirmed the authenticity of photographs that purport to show PKK fighters killed by chemical weapons. The evidence puts increasing pressure on the Turkish government, which has long been suspected of using such weapons against Kurdish rebels. German politicians are demanding an investigation.

It would be difficult to exceed the horror shown in the photos, which feature burned, maimed and scorched body parts. The victims are scarcely even recognizable as human beings. Turkish-Kurdish human rights activists believe the people in the photos are eight members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) underground movement, who are thought to have been killed in September 2009.

In March, the activists gave the photos to a German human rights delegation comprised of Turkey experts, journalists and politicians from the far-left Left Party, as SPIEGEL reported at the end of July. Now Hans Baumann, a German expert on photo forgeries has confirmed the authenticity of the photos, and a forensics report released by the Hamburg University Hospital has backed the initial suspicion, saying that it is highly probable that the eight Kurds died "due to the use of chemical substances."

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Florida University Draws Ire of Government Officials For Gulf Research

Bill Hogarth hopes the "us versus them'' mentality is over.

When University of South Florida researchers stood before television cameras and the world in May to announce they had found evidence of vast plumes of invisible undersea oil in the Gulf of Mexico, the dean of the College of Marine Science didn't get kudos from federal officials.

Instead, Hogarth said, he got grief from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"They were concerned about the data and wanted to know if we were sure of what we were saying,'' Hogarth said this morning. "They felt we were making statements that were not substantiated.''

That wasn't the case at all, the dean said. And today, even as the gusher in the Gulf has been capped, he wouldn't change a thing that he and his researchers did.

"We had taken every precaution to make sure what we did was right. As a university, we need to inform the people,'' said Hogarth, himself a former NOAA employee of 16 years. "We reacted quickly and did what we thought was right and best.''

On Monday, Jane Lubchenco, the administrator of NOAA, met with Hogarth and some USF scientists to try to get on the same page. Hogarth described the meeting as productive and said it was something that should have occurred a long time ago.

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Establishment’s Latest Desperate Rand Paul Hoax Explodes In Their Face

Prison Planet

The latest media hoax targeting Kentucky primary winner Rand Paul has exploded in the establishment’s face after a claim that Paul “kidnapped” a woman during a college prank was revealed to be completely mischaracterized, showing once again how desperate the system is to discredit Paul and prevent him from leading a populist revolt against the status quo.

The corporate media has now launched no less than three hyped or outright manufactured “controversies” in an effort to tear down Paul’s popularity in the less than three months since he won the Kentucky primary. The system is scared stiff of what Paul represents because he is a true constitutionalist with a real chance of winning in October after having brushed aside establishment Republican candidate Trey Grayson back in May.

On the very night of his primary success, the media kicked into high gear and instantly tried to characterize Paul as a hypocrite and a racist elitist simply because he held his victory celebration at a country club.

When this attempt to smear Paul fell flat on its face, the Civil Rights sideshow was ramped up, with MSNBC airing eight different segments totaling 37 minutes with every single guest attacking Rand Paul as a closet racist who wanted to repeal the Civil Rights Act, something which he never said. Indeed, although Paul expressed a nuanced view on the Civil Rights Act, he made it clear that he would not vote to repeal it. This didn’t stop Rachel Maddow and MSNBC from publishing an out of context script in a crass stunt to make it appear as if Paul had answered “yes” to Maddow’s question about whether businesses should have the right not to serve black people.

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'Taliban Has Benefited from West's Response in Pakistan'

The floods in Pakistan are devastating and 6 million people need emergency assistance. But donations from the international community have been slow and insufficient. German commentators wonder why that is and express concern that the Taliban may benefit.

The good news is that, following the United Nations appeal for $460 million (€359 million) to help victims of the catastrophic flooding in Pakistan, $90 million (€70.2 million) worth of pledges rolled in on Thursday. Furthermore, international assistance has begun gaining traction with the arrival of a US ship full of Marines and helicopters having arrived in Karachi. The helicopters immediately began delivering food and water to those still stranded in the worst-hit areas of the country a week after the disaster began.

Beyond that, though, the bad news is overwhelming. Officially, some 1,200 people have died in the flooding, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), but with as many as 6,000 villages under water and hunger and disease looming, the ultimate toll is likely to be much higher. In addition, 14 million people have been directly affected with 6 million of those requiring emergency aid.  

"Make no mistake, this is a major catastrophe," OCHA head John Holmes said this week. "We have a huge task in front of us. The death toll has so far been relatively low compared to other major natural disasters, but the numbers affected are extraordinarily high."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,711703,00.html

BP well pressure test indicates static kill failure: Is BP avoiding the relief well?

The latest round of verbal gymnastics coming from BP is hard to decipher. But regardless of how the words are framed, the conclusion is the same. BP’s static kill procedure did not work. 

BP executive Kent Wells admitted on August 10, that pressure readings from the Macondo well are at 4,200 PSI. If the cementing process has been successful, the pressure readings would be zero, according to the Daily Hurricane.

“The fact that they're getting pressure now tells me that they are indeed communicated to the reservoir below… pressure will build on the wellhead, which is exactly what's happening," said expert Bob Cavnar.

Oil Industry insiders have been saying for months that with damage to the casing, which BP quietly admitted to in May, no method of top kill could succeed. Yet BP keeps trying different types of top kill - as if the relief well were something to be avoided.

BP did not spend $100,000 (each) on two relief wells, just to try to avoid using them – unless there is something they are not revealing.

Touted from the beginning of the April 20 disaster as the best way to permanently seal the well, there could be only one reason for BP to seemingly be avoiding the use of the relief well; they may have data that indicates it could reopen the leak - or fail.

If the relief well fails, BP is out of options.

http://www.examiner.com/political-spin-in-national/bp-well-pressure-test-indicates-static-kill-failure-is-bp-avoiding-the-relief-well-1

9/11: Join our 1,000 A/E’s Washington DC Actions this September

Dear fellow AE911Truth supporters,

We have a number of important activities in Washington DC this Fall that need your attention. We will be alerting you in 6 different Action Alerts in 6 days – starting with this one. Pick one that you want to make happen – and pass the others on to your friends.

Today’s Alert – Day 1 - We are asking some of our AE911Truth supporters to travel to DC, along with our AE911Truth staff, to meet with your congress members. See details below

Next Alert – Day 2 - We will hold a major press conference and debate/discussion panel at the National Press Club on September 9 while you, once again, hold a concurrent press conference at a government location such as outside your legislator's office in your state. Stay tuned for details…

Next Alert – Day 3 - We are asking all of our AE911Truth supporters to meet with your Congressional Reps in your community – their home turf – by early October. Stay tuned for details…

Next Alert – Day 4 - Help us on Capitol Hill to deliver the AE911Truth petition, with all 1,000 A/E names, our brochure, and our DVD, 9/11: Blueprint for Truth, into the offices of all congressional reps on Sept 7 and 8. Stay tuned for details.

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U.K. Medical Experts Seek Kelly Suicide Inquest, Times Reports

By Chris Peterson

Aug. 13 (Bloomberg) -- A group of leading U.K. medical experts want a full inquest into the death of David Kelly, a Ministry of Defence scientist named by Tony Blair’s government as the source of a leak saying the official dossier justifying the Iraq war had been “sexed up,” according to a letter published in the London-based Times today.

Kelly, a former weapons inspector, was found dead in a wood near his home in 2003 after the government disclosed he was the source of a leak expressing anger within the intelligence service over the way Iraqi arms data had been used to justify the Anglo-American invasion that toppled President Saddam Hussein.

The group, including two coroners and an intensive care specialist, said in their letter it was “extremely unlikely” that Kelly had bled to death from a slit wrist.

An inquest into Kelly’s death was opened and then suspended by the then Lord Chancellor, Charles Falconer, pending a judicial inquiry into the matter by Lord Hutton, who concluded that Kelly died from self-inflicted wounds; the formal inquest was never re-opened, the Times said.

U.K. Justice Minister Kenneth Clarke and Attorney-General Dominic Grieve are examining the case in order to decide the best way forward, the newspaper reported.

The experts, who include former coroners Michael Powers and Margaret Bloom, as well as Julian Bion, a professor of intensive care treatment, said the evidence presented showed that the artery which was severed couldn’t have bled enough to cause death, according to the letter.

FBI: National Security Letter Recipient Can Speak Out For First Time

The FBI has partially lifted a gag it imposed on American Civil Liberties Union client Nicholas Merrill in 2004 that prevented him from disclosing to anyone that he received a national security letter (NSL) demanding private customer records. Merrill, who received the NSL as the president of an Internet service provider (ISP), can now reveal his identity and speak about his experience for the first time since receiving the NSL. The ACLU and New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit challenging the NSL statute and the gag order on behalf of Merrill (then called John Doe) in April 2004, which resulted in numerous court rulings finding the NSL statute unconstitutional. Merrill was the first person ever to challenge an NSL in court.

"After six long years of not being able to tell anyone at all what happened to me – not even my family – I'm grateful to finally be able to talk about my experience of being served with a national security letter," said Merrill. "Internet users do not give up their privacy rights when they log on, and the FBI should not have the power to secretly demand that ISPs turn over constitutionally protected information about their users without a court order. I hope my successful challenge to the FBI's NSL gag power will empower others who may have received NSLs to speak out."

NSLs are secret record demands the FBI issues to obtain access to personal customer records from ISPs, libraries, financial institutions and credit reporting agencies without court approval or even suspicion of wrongdoing. Because the FBI can gag NSL recipients to prohibit them from disclosing anything about the record demands they receive, the FBI's use and potential abuse of the NSL power has been shrouded in excessive secrecy.

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