ARTICLES - HOT OFF THE FAGGOT

'Tortured' US citizens allowed to sue Donald Rumsfeld

Amplify’d from www.bbc.co.uk

'Tortured' US citizens allowed to sue Donald Rumsfeld

Two former US security contractors may sue former Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for his role in their alleged torture in Iraq, a court has ruled.

Donald Rumsfeld
Under President George W Bush, Donald Rumsfeld was one of the architects of the war in Iraq

US citizens Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel said they were held for months by US troops under harsh conditions.

They said they were detained in retaliation for efforts to reveal illegal activities by their employer.

A federal appeals court on Monday ruled that former Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld had no immunity in the case.

"Plaintiffs have alleged sufficient facts to show that Secretary Rumsfeld personally established the relevant policies that caused the alleged violations of their constitutional rights during detention," the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Chicago, ruled in a 2-1 decision on Monday that upheld a decision by a lower US district court.

Related Stories

'Nightmarish scene'

The decision is the second this month in which US judges have ruled Mr Rumsfeld may be sued by US citizens who alleged torture in Iraq at the hands of US troops.

Last week, a US district judge in Washington ruled separately that a former American military contractor who also claims he was tortured in Iraq could sue Mr Rumsfeld.

The government said the contractor was suspected of helping pass information to the enemy, although he was never charged.

According to court records filed in the latest case, in 2005 and 2006 Mr Vance and Mr Ertel were working in Iraq for Shield Group Security, a privately-held security company, when they became suspicious the company was making improper payments to Iraqi officials in exchange for influence, and that its employees were engaged in illicit weapons-trafficking and other illegal activity.

The men began feeding information to US government officials in Iraq until, in April 2006, the company confiscated their credentials to enter the Baghdad Green Zone, effectively barring them from the safest part of the war-ravaged country, according to their court pleadings.

Then, US military personnel detained them, confiscated their belongings, handcuffed and blindfolded them and took them to a military base in Baghdad, where they were fingerprinted, strip-searched and locked in a cage.

They were then taken to Camp Cropper near Baghdad International Airport, where they "experienced a nightmarish scene in which they were detained incommunicado, in solitary confinement, and subjected to physical and psychological torture for the duration of their imprisonment - Vance for three months and Ertel for six weeks", the court wrote, reiterating the men's allegations.

'No immunity'

The men claim they were deprived of sleep, food and water, held in extremely cold cells without warm clothing, and threatened with beatings.

They were ultimately released at the Baghdad airport and were never charged or designated security risks.

"Vance and Ertel both allege that they were devastated physically and emotionally by what they endured at the hands of their own government," the court wrote.

The men later sued Mr Rumsfeld, who was secretary of defence from 2001 to November 2006 under former President George Bush, and other unnamed US officials.

In seeking to have the case dismissed, Mr Rumsfeld and the administrations of Mr Bush and current President Barack Obama argued among other things that Mr Rumsfeld had immunity for actions taken while working as defence secretary and that US citizens cannot sue for violations of their rights that occurred in war zones.

The defendants also argued the courts may not have a say in US military and detention policy.

In rejecting the request to dismiss the case, the court ruled on Monday the plaintiffs had sufficiently alleged that Mr Rumsfeld had played a personal role in authorising the harsh treatment to which they had been subjected while in US custody.

War 'second-guessed'

But the court said it remained to be seen whether Mr Rumsfeld had actually done so.

In a statement, a lawyer for Mr Rumsfeld said the decision to allow the suit "saps the effectiveness of the military, puts American soldiers at risk, and shackles federal officials who have a constitutional duty to protect America".

"Having judges second-guess the decisions made by the armed forces halfway around the world is no way to wage a war," David Rivkin said in a statement.

The US justice department could appeal against the ruling to the full panel of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals or to the US Supreme Court.

Read more at www.bbc.co.uk
 

Keep the commandments

Amplify’d from www.youtube.com
Keep the commandments
See more at www.youtube.com
 

Keep the commandments (Hebrew Israelite Song)

Japan ignored own radiation forecasts: lessons for other countries: similar warning systems are used around the world

AP Photo
In this photo taken July 26, 2011, playground equipment stands in front of Karino Elementary School which was used as an evacuation shelter in the town of Namie, Fukushima prefecture, northeastern Japan. Japan's system to forecast radiation threats was working from the moment its nuclear crisis began. As officials planned a venting operation certain to release radioactivity into the air, the system predicted the elementary school would be directly in the path of the plume emerging from the tsunami-hit Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant. But the prediction helped no one. Nobody acted on it. The school, just over six miles (10 kilometers) from the plant, was not immediately cleared out. Quite the opposite. It was turned into a temporary evacuation center. (AP Photo)









NAMIE, Japan (AP) -- Japan's system to forecast radiation threats was working from the moment its nuclear crisis began. As officials planned a venting operation certain to release radioactivity into the air, the system predicted Karino Elementary School would be directly in the path of the plume emerging from the tsunami-hit Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant.



But the prediction helped no one. Nobody acted on it.



The school, just over six miles (10 kilometers) from the plant, was not immediately cleared out. Quite the opposite. It was turned into a temporary evacuation center.



Reports from the forecast system were sent to Japan's nuclear safety agency, but the flow of data stopped there. Prime Minister Naoto Kan and others involved in declaring evacuation areas never saw the reports, and neither did local authorities. So thousands of people stayed for days in areas that the system had identified as high-risk, an Associated Press investigation has found.



At Karino Elementary in the town of Namie, about 400 students, teachers, parents and others gathered in the playground at the height of the nuclear crisis stemming from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Many ate rice balls and cooked in the open air.



They were never informed of the predictions that they were at risk. In an interview with the AP, Namie's mayor said it took more than 24 hours for him to realize - from watching TV - that the evacuees were in danger. He sent buses to move some of them out. But, unaware of the risks, they were taken to another part of town also forecast to be in the plume's path. Most were left to fend for themselves.



"When I think about it now, I am outraged," Principal Hidenori Arakawa said. "Our lives were put at risk."



Documents obtained by the AP, interviews with key officials and a review of other newly released documents and parliamentary transcripts indicate that the government's use of the forecast data was hamstrung by communication breakdowns and a lack of even a basic understanding of the system at the highest levels.



It's unclear how much radiation people might have been exposed to by staying in areas in the path of the radioactive plume, let alone whether any might suffer health problems from the exposure. It could be difficult to ever prove a connection: Health officials say they have no plans to prioritize radiation tests of those who were at the school.



But the breakdown may hold lessons for other countries with nuclear power plants because similar warning systems are used around the world. This was their first test in a major crisis.



The Japanese network - built in 1986 at a cost of $140 million (11 billion yen) - is known as SPEEDI, short for the System for Prediction of Environment Emergency Dose Information. It has radiation monitoring posts nationwide and has been tested in a number of drills, including one the prime minister led for the Hamaoka nuclear facility just last year.



Even so, according to the prime minister's office, Kan and his top advisers never asked for or received the data. Despite taking part in the Hamaoka drill, Kan admitted he didn't understand how SPEEDI worked or how valuable the data was.



"I had no idea what sort of information was available," he told Parliament on June 17. "I didn't know anything about it then, and there was no way I could make a judgment."



In two post-crisis assessments, a report to the International Atomic Energy Agency and an annual white paper on science and technology, his government has said the network "failed to perform its intended function."



A senior member of Kan's crisis team, Nuclear Safety Commission chief Haruki Madarame, went so far as to say the SPEEDI data was no better than "a mere weather report."



He said the predictions were of no value because they lacked accurate radiation readings. Some of the system's monitoring capabilities were compromised by the tsunami and ensuing power outages, and the utility that runs the Fukushima plant, TEPCO, did not provide readings of its own.



But SPEEDI officials say Madarame's position reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of what their system is designed to do.



When the amount of radioactivity that has been leaked is known, that is entered into its system, along with weather and terrain data, and a hazard map is generated. If the amount is not known - as was the case with Fukushima - a standard and relatively low value of one becquerel is used.



While that won't show the actual radiation risk, it will show the general pattern and direction of the plume. Then when the size of the leak becomes known, the map can be updated. If the actual leak turns out to be 100 becquerels, for example, the results would be multiplied by 100.



That technique allowed SPEEDI to produce reports hours before officials began venting disabled reactors - when there would have been less radiation to measure outside the nuclear plant even if the system's monitoring equipment had been working perfectly.



In the Fukushima case, later data proved the forecasts to be highly accurate. Most of Namie, for example, has since been declared too dangerous for habitation.



"We are offended by allegations that SPEEDI failed to function the way it was supposed to," Akira Tsubosaka, a senior official in charge of operations, told the AP. "SPEEDI was not used to determine evacuation zones. It should have been."



SPEEDI, run by the education and science ministry, provides its data to other government agencies such as the nuclear safety agency for passage up the chain and then dissemination to local authorities.



Officials won't say why that didn't happen, sticking to their position that the data was useless anyway.



But the government response has been sharply criticized by one of Kan's top science advisers, who later quit in protest, according to a confidential report to the prime minister that was obtained by the AP.



"The SPEEDI radiation forecasts were not properly utilized and a situation was invited in which residents were made vulnerable to more exposure than necessary," Toshiso Kosako, also a professor at the University of Tokyo, wrote in late April.



Ironically, low-level officials were quick to seek the SPEEDI data.



Bureaucrats familiar with SPEEDI commissioned at least 18 tailor-made forecasts in the first 24 hours, as the government was pushing TEPCO to open vents to avert an explosion.



The venting would release radioactive substances into the air. So, according to documents obtained by the AP, the forecasts included several to gauge that danger.



One issued at 3:53 a.m. - about 13 hours after the crisis began - predicted the plume would drift across Namie and several other towns.



The forecasts were relayed to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency but they did not reach decision-makers.



In Japan, the legal responsibility for setting evacuation zones falls on the central government and the prime minister. Local officials then are tasked with implementing the orders.



Instead of following the patterns of radioactive dispersion suggested by SPEEDI, the central government simply set up a six-mile (10-kilometer) evacuation zone around the plant. That did not include a broad swath of land that SPEEDI predicted would be affected.



The mayors of two towns that have since been almost completely evacuated told the AP that the government did not inform them of even that decision - let alone provide SPEEDI data - so they had to act on their own. They said they were unable to assess the risks adequately because they were not privy to the SPEEDI reports.



"We got nothing until more than a week later," said Katsunobu Sakurai, the mayor of Minami-Soma. "People were unnecessarily exposed to possible dangers. We believe the central government must come clean on this."



"The first I heard of the 10-kilometer zone was when I saw the news on TV," said Namie Mayor Tamotsu Baba. Namie's municipal government has since been evacuated to Nihonmatsu, a city 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the plant.



Because Karino Elementary sits just outside the six-mile (10-kilometer) evacuation zone, it was used as a gathering area for evacuees.



Later in the day, at the mayor's order, some evacuees were taken by bus to another part of Namie called Tsushima, which SPEEDI data suggested was also dangerous. Others, including Principal Arakawa and his family, went in the same direction by car.



Masako Mori, a senior opposition member of Parliament from Fukushima, told the AP that two alternative routes would have led away from the areas identified as high-risk by SPEEDI. The third - to Tsushima - led along the plume's expected path.



"We didn't have any information. But it turns out we were taking the most dangerous route," Arakawa said. "None of us knew."



Mori said SPEEDI data should have been used to get people out of the area much faster.



The evacuees at shelters in the Tsushima district - including about 8,000 residents of Namie - were not told to move farther away until March 16, five days into the crisis.



Mori, who also is a trial lawyer, raised the possibility of lawsuits against the government.



"The government unnecessarily exposed people to radiation, failing to observe its legal obligation to protect the citizens," she said. "It could be held responsible for compensation for the possible damage caused by its errors."



Exposure to radiation can lead to a variety of cancers - as it did in Chernobyl. Babies, children and pregnant women are at the highest risk.



Mori, along with Namie's mayor and the school principal, are seeking full-body radiation tests for all children who were at the school. The tests measure internal exposure such as inhaled radioactive particles and could be key to understanding the health impact. But Fukushima health officials say they have no particular plan to test the Karino evacuees, because they don't have the resources and are instead focusing on groups, such as pregnant women, from the general area.



Thousands across the region have requested full-body tests, and only 340 have gotten them so far. None had dangerously high levels of contamination, though that does not rule out future health problems.



The Fukushima health office said it is looking into ways to speed up the process.



---



Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo.






The U.S. Economy


Check Out The Major World Index LIVE


Planetary Alignments with Comet Elenin Causing Big Earthquakes

NASA Elenin 2011 Comet - Planetary Alignments with Comet Elenin Causing Big Earthquakes



There seems to be a pattern forming every time Elenin lines up with Earth and another planet or the sun we have an earthquake, the nearer Elenin gets the bigger the earthquakes.

Past Alignments
Date
Location
Magnitude
Elenin - Earth - SunFeb 20 2008Indonesia7.4
Elenin - Earth - SunFeb 25 2008Indonesia7.2
Elenin - Earth - NeptuneMay 12 2008China7.9
Elenin - Earth - SunFeb 18 2009Kermadec Islands7.0
Elenin - Earth -JupiterMay 18 2009Los Angeles, US4.7
Elenin - Mercury- EarthJuly 15 2009New Zealand7.8
Elenin - Mercury - EarthAug 09 2009Japan7.1
Elenin - Sun - EarthSept 09 2009Sunola islands8.1
Elenin - Earth - VenusFeb 18 2010China/RU/N.Korea6.9
Elenin - Earth-SunFeb 25 2010China5.2
Elenin - Earth-SunFeb 26 2010Japan7.0
Elenin - Earth- SunFeb 27 2010Chile8.8 [Earth knocked off axis]
Elenin - Earth- SunFeb 27 2010Argentina6.3
Elenin - Earth - MercuryMar 04 2010Taiwan6.3
Elenin - Earth - MercuryMar 04 2010Vanuatu6.5
Elenin - Earth - MercuryMar 05 2010Chile6.6
Elenin - Earth - MercuryMar 05 2010Indonesia6.3
Elenin - Earth - MercuryMar 08 2010Turkey6.1
Elenin - Earth - NeptuneMay 05 2010Indonesia6.6
Elenin - Earth - NeptuneMay 06 2010Chile6.2
Elenin - Earth - NeptuneMay 09 2010Indonesia7.2
Elenin - Earth - NeptuneMay 14 2010Algeria5.2
Elenin - Earth - JupiterJan 03 2011Chile7.0
Elenin - Earth - SunMarch 11 2011Japan9.0 [Earth knocked off axis]
Future Elenin Alignments:

Future Alignments
Date
Note
Aug 31 2011
Comet Elenin will become visible by the naked eye
Elenin- Mercury - Mars
Sept 06 2011
Sept 14 2011
Comet Elenin (tail may touch Earth) will pass between the Earth and Sun
Mercury - Sun - Elenin
Sept 25 2011
Sept 26 2011
Elenin's minimum angle to the Sun will be 1.9º.
Oct 8 2011
Elenin will make its closest apparent pass in the night sky to Comet 45P/Honda
Oct 11 2011
Elenin 0.246au from Earth; that’s a quarter of the distance to the sun.
Oct 17 2011
Elenin closet to earth 0.232au
Oct 20 2011
Elenin will enter Earth orbit and we will experience a gravitational pull.
Nov 02 2011
Earth will enter Elenins tail/ previous path
Venus - Earth- Elenin - Mercury
Nov 11 2011
Sun - Mercury - Earth - Elenin
Dec 04 2011
Mars - Elenin - Jupiter
Dec 25 2011
Last Alignment


Earth-Sun-Elenin


June 21 2012
Elenin - Earth - Sun
Dec 21 2012
Comet Elenin:



On 10 December 2010, Leonid Elenin, a little known amateur Russian astronomer from Lubertsy City, in Russia, discovered Comet C/2010 X1, a comet now universally known as Elenin. The researcher from the Russian Academy of Sciences spotted the C/2010 X1 while reviewing four-minute footage from the ISON-NB Observatory (International Scientific Optical Network's Robotic Observatory) in New Mexico.



At the time of discovery, an analysis of its orbit predicted that its perihelion (closest orbital distance to the sun) was a very negligible 8.8 Astronomical Unit (1a.u equals 149,598,000 kilometers) from us.



Recalculation of its orbital path one month later shows that the Elenin’s perihelion has shrunk to a projected 0.15 to 0.24 a.u.



Scientific paper on planetary alignments causing Big Earthquakes:



According to Mensur Omerbashich he used the comet C/2010 X1 (Elenin) for his research, as it has been adding to robustness in terms of very strong seismicity since 2007 (in terms of strongest seismicity: since 1965).



The Elenin will continue intensifying the Earth's very strong seismicity until August-October, 2011. Approximate forecast of earthquakes based on my discoveries is feasible. This demonstration proves my hyperresonator concept, arrived at earlier as a mathematical-physical solution to the most general extension of the georesonator concept possible. read it all

Elenin Planetary Alignment and Earthquakes





Comet Elenin Path:







Other related articles:








Bill Cooper - Alien Agenda - Are Aliens Real? Nephilim, Mars, Moon, Pyra...

"Do you think there was television 3,000 years ago?"

"Do you think there was television 3,000 years ago?" said Rex

Boucher, as we got into the car.



"Maybe," I mumbled. "But have you heard of the ancient 'magic

mirrors' that transmitted pictures like television?



"Or the book containing pictures that appear, then just vanish?

You look through the book. You see the pictures. Then, with a

wave of the hand, the pictures are gone?"



"Tell me more," coaxed Rex.



"Well, it does seems inescapable that there were some wonders like

that in the past. In fact..."



Just then, I looked up.



The night sky was brilliant with stars. And suddenly my eye caught

one of them moving.



"Look, Rex. What do you think," I asked, "Is that a satellite?"



"Where?"



"Just there - going across the belt of Orion. See?"



"Yes," said Rex. "I believe it is. And that's technology for you.

Scores of satellites overhead at this moment that havea resolution

that can read the print on a postage stamp lying on the ground.



IS SOMEONE LISTENING TO YOU?



"You are aware, of course, they can track us, listen to our

conversations and watch our movements?"



Rex started getting wound up about this. "Satellites now orbiting

the earth are linked to equipment which already can monitor every

telephone call you make or receive.



"And how about this, intelligence agencies now monitor every local

and long distance phone call worldwide… every one of them!



"Did you know, their supercomputers listen for 400 key words.



"If you unknowingly say certain key words, then they down load it

and it is listened to by a human. Of course, if you don’t use those

words, no one ever listens."



Rex was right. If you didn't know, in the United States, the

Justice Department is today swallowing an overwheming amount of

information about almost 100 million households; also information

about all toll calls made from hundreds of thousands, perhaps

millions, of telephones; information from the private conversations

of almost one million individuals in just one recent year.



Even as early as 1990, computers in the FBI inventory could handle

203 MIPS (million instructions per second).



How many times when you replace the phone on the hook do you

realise that the actual telephone is still on when you hang up?



There are devices which intelligence agencies use, by which

they dial a code. Your phone doesn’t ring, but everything in

your office or home can be heard and recorded.



An article in Nexus magazine, titled “No Place to Hide From State-

of-the-Art Satellites”  (August-September 2001 issue), citing

Pravda, July 14, 2001, observed:



“Unknown to most of the world, satellites can perform astonishing

and often menacing feats…



“A spy satellite can monitor a person’s every movement, even when

the ‘target’ is indoors or deep in the interior of a building or

travelling rapidly down a highway in a car, in any kind of weather

(cloudy, rainy, stormy).



“There is no place to hide on the face of the earth. It takes just

three satellites to blanket the world with detection capacity.



"Besides tracking a person’s every action and relaying the data to

a computer screen on earth, the amazing powers of satellites

include being able to read a person’s mind, monitor conversations,

manipulate electronic instruments and physically assault someone

with a laser beam.”



As you very well know, the attack on the Twin Towers on September

11, 2001, sent the world into shock.



On October 11, 2001 (precisely one month after the disaster, in a

front page news story, the New Zealand Herald reported:



“Spy planes equipped with listening devices and super-optic cameras

are ready to begin a round-the-clock hunt for Osama bin Laden.



“After quickly gaining mastery of the skies against the ill-

equipped Taleban forces, the United States and Britain will draw on

the world’s most advanced airborne cameras and spying equipment for

the next phase of their operation.



“The US has requested use of an RAF Canberra bomber, which has been

converted into a spy plane. Its electro-optical camera can take

photographs from 48,000 ft. One source said it could identify ‘paper

in your back garden’.



“Other devices can peer into secret mountain spots from more than

60 km away.



“The aerial surveillance will lead to a more dangerous phase of the

military campaign, in which ground forces will pursue bin Laden.”



TELEVISION THAT CAN WATCH YOU



Even television sets are being equipped with monitors that scan

a room every two seconds to record the movements and actions of

every person in the room.



Originally designed to test viewing audiences for the benefit of

advertisers, the devices could be used to monitor the whereabouts

and actions of certain people for surveillance purposes.



That's clever technology.



Even then, I still suspect that the ancient world may be still

ahead of us in certain television matters. "What about those 'magic

mirrors?" prodded Rex.



PAIRED TV SCREEN TRANSMISSION



Yes, that's an interesting one. You see, all descriptions of

scientific development in China in the first millennium B.C. refer

to “magic mirrors”.



They are mirrors which have extremely complicated high reliefs on

the back of the looking-glass.



When direct sunlight falls on the mirror, the high reliefs which

are separated from the surface by a reflecting glass, become

visible.



This does not happen in artificial light. If they are set up in

pairs, they transmit images, like television.



The phenomenon is scientifically inexplicable, by present

knowledge.



Some of these mirrors are still supposed to exist in private

collections. We do not understand how they were made or what they

were used for.



BOOK TV WITH VANISHING PICTURES



Early this century, Maxim Gorky, the celebrated Russian writer,

met an Indian yogi in the Caucasus, who asked Gorky if he wanted

to see something in his album. Gorky said he wished to see

pictures of India.



The Indian put the album on Gorky’s knees and asked him to turn

the pages. These polished copper sheets depicted beautiful cities,

temples and landscapes of India, which Gorky thoroughly enjoyed.



When he finished looking at the pictures, Gorky returned the album

to the Indian.



The Indian blew on it and smilingly said: "Now will you have

another look?"



Gorky opened the album and found nothing but blank copper plates

without a trace of any pictures!



It seems like our ancestors knew some astonishing science - which

in many respects we have not re-discovered!



But that only scrapes the surface.



http://www.beforeus.com/mlw.php



If you have any questions, please email me at

info@archaeologyanswers.com



or write to

Surprising Discoveries

Pacific Coast Hwy

PO Box 785

Thames

New Zealand

Gerry ODonovan Speaks on the Cloyne Report 08/06 by Hiddenfromhistory | Blog Talk Radio

Gerry ODonovan Speaks on the Cloyne Report 08/06 by Hiddenfromhistory | Blog Talk Radio