Special Operations Prepared for Domestic Missions

Washington Post | Jun 22, 2007

by William M. Arkin

The U.S. Northern Command, the military command responsible for “homeland defense,” has asked the Pentagon if it can establish its own special operations command for domestic missions. The request, reported in the Washington Examiner, would establish a permanent sub-command for responses to incidents of domestic terrorism as well as other occasions where special operators may be necessary on American soil.

The establishment of a domestic special operations mission, and the preparation of contingency plans to employ commandos in the United States, would upend decades of tradition. Military actions within the United States are the responsibility of state militias (the National Guard), and federal law enforcement is a function of the FBI.

Employing special operations for domestic missions sounds very ominous, and NORTHCOM’s request earlier this year should receive the closest possible Pentagon and congressional scrutiny. There’s only one problem: NORTHCOM is already doing what it has requested permission to do.

When NORTHCOM was established after 9/11 to be the military counterpart to the Department of Homeland Security, within its headquarters staff it established a Compartmented Planning and Operations Cell (CPOC) responsible for planning and directing a set of “compartmented” and “sensitive” operations on U.S., Canadian and Mexican soil. In other words, these are the very special operations that NORTHCOM is now formally asking the Pentagon to beef up into a public and acknowledged sub-command.

NORTHCOM’s compartmented and sensitive operations fall under the Joint Chiefs of Staff “Focal Point” program, a separate communications and planning network used to hide special operations undertaken by the Joint Special Operations Command, headquartered in North Carolina, and by CIA and other domestic compartmented activities.

Since 2003, the CPOC has had a small core of permanent members drawn from the operations, intelligence and planning directorates. In an emergency, the staff can be expanded. According to NORTHCOM documents, CPOC is involved in planning for a number of domestic missions, including:

— Non-conventional assisted recovery
— Integrated survey programs
— Information operations/”special technical operations”
— “Special activities”

What are all of these programs? CPOC’s basic missions include responding to incidents of weapons of mass destruction, support for continuity of government, protection of the president, response to domestic terrorism and insurrection and (presumably) domestic intelligence collection. (“Special activities” is a euphemism for covert operations.)

A number of operations plans have been associated with these domestic operations:

— CONPLAN 0300 is the basic contingency plan for combating domestic terrorism (and may have been folded into newer such plans now under the control of U.S. Special Operations Command).
— “Power Geyser” is the contingency plan for incidents of weapons of mass destruction in the Washington area. This includes both recovery of a stolen nuclear weapon or disabling of an improvised weapon or dirty bomb.
— USNORTHCOM Antiterrorism Operations Order 05-01 deals with domestic counterterrorism and domestic intelligence against groups intent on attacking military interests.

With all this going on, for NORTHCOM to ask permission now seems beside the point. Still, it’s always better to ask. Isn’t it?

Blind Chinese political prisoner who exposed forced abortions beat up by other prisoners

Associated Press | Jun 23, 2007

Yuan said she worried about her husband’s safety. She said that as the men assaulted her husband, they told him: “Don’t you know, the Communist Party is going to give us extra points (toward early release) for beating you.”

By Anita Chang

A blind Chinese activist who was jailed after he documented cases of forced abortions was beaten by other prisoners, who also held him to the ground and shaved his head, his wife said yesterday.

Chen Guangcheng staged a hunger strike to protest the attack that left him with cuts on his legs and swelling around the ribs, his wife, Yuan Weijing, said in a telephone interview.

A shaved head is a defining characteristic of Chinese prison inmates and Chen – protesting his innocence – had refused to wear his hair any shorter than a crewcut, Yuan said.

“Ever since he went to jail … he never acknowledged that he was a criminal. He said, ‘I’m a Chinese citizen. I’m here, but I’m not a criminal,”‘ Yuan said. “He said you can give me a haircut, you can give me a crewcut, but you can’t shave my head.”

Chen was convicted in August 2006 on charges of instigating an attack on government offices in his village of Dongshigu in eastern China’s Shandong province. Police said he was upset with workers sent to carry out poverty-relief programs.

He also was accused of organizing a group of people to disrupt traffic, allegedly delaying hundreds of vehicles for three hours, including an ambulance carrying an expectant mother to a hospital.

Human rights activists say his case is an example of official retaliation and unjust imprisonment of dissidents based on phony charges. His supporters say he is innocent and that officials fabricated the charges after he documented complaints that officials trying to enforce China’s birth-control regulations had forced villagers to have late-term abortions and sterilizations.

Chen, who was blinded by a fever in infancy, told his wife when she visited Linyi Prison on Tuesday that he had been beaten three days earlier by six or seven other inmates. The men then held him down while his head was shaved, she said.

Yuan said she worried about her husband’s safety. She said that as the men assaulted her husband, they told him: “Don’t you know, the Communist Party is going to give us extra points (toward early release) for beating you.”

The human rights group Amnesty International said it believed Chen’s life was in danger.

It said Chen’s beating was ordered by prison guards as punishment for filing an appeal. He needs the help of his wife or a lawyer to draft the appeal, but so far has not been able to because he is only permitted one 30-minute visit a month, the group said.

Chen refused food and water for at least 76 hours after the attack but prison officials told Yuan on Thursday that he had started eating again, she said.

They also said a medical examination found Chen to be in good health.

“They said what happened wasn’t that others had beat Guangcheng, Guangcheng had hit others. When I heard this, I couldn’t take it,” Yuan said, her voice wavering. “I said: ‘We all saw his injuries, where did they come from? Did he hit himself?”‘

Jail officials told Yuan they didn’t have an explanation, she said.

A man who answered the phone at Linyi Prison said he did not know anything about the case. Calls to the official in charge of the facility rang unanswered Friday afternoon.

War protesters ordered to hand over their papers

War protesters ordered to hand over their papers. Who knows? They might be with Al Qaeda…..

[Googlevideo=http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=2008317969432863028&hl=en]

Secret no-fly list seriously flawed, open to Orwellian abuse

The Province | Jun 20, 2007

Transport Canada unable to supply evidence that lists prevent terror

by James McNulty

Imagine that you are the subject of a restraining order, but are not informed of it by the courts.

You then stumble into the restrained zone by accident, and when arrested, ask why you’re under the order. The authorities refuse to tell you.

The cockeyed scenario simply wouldn’t be tolerated in today’s legal system — yet the federal government deems such nonsense perfectly acceptable for its new no-fly list.

Following the jet wake of the highly suspect American no-fly list, Canada’s “Specified Persons” roster is in fact a list of suspicious people compiled by the RCMP, Canadian Security Intelligence Service and Canadian Border Services Agency.

Said to number somewhere around 1,000 people, Transport Canada’s secret list is composed of people with past involvement in a terrorist group, who, “it can reasonably be suspected,” may endanger air safety.

Other targets include those convicted of a “serious and life-threatening” offence or crime against air safety.

Those people concerned about winding up on the list for the wrong reasons — think Maher Arar — have nothing to fear, according to Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon.

“I can assure passengers that they’ll be okay,” Cannon purrs.

It is an assurance he cannot make. Innocent people will inevitably end up on the Specified Persons roster, just as U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, Canadian MP John Williams and law-abiding ordinary citizens have found themselves on the American no-fly list.

No problem, says Cannon. If that happens in Canada, the improperly specified person can then apply to the Office of Reconsideration, a new Orwellian bureaucracy in Transport Canada’s maze of mysteries.

Should the Office of Reconsideration prove troublesome, no problem. The innocent traveller can then appeal to the Security Intelligence Review Committee, the RCMP Public Complaints Commission, the Canadian Human Rights Commission, or finally ask for a judicial review in Federal Court.

All this, on the basis of suspicion.

B.C. Privacy Commissioner David Loukidelis and his federal counterpart, Jennifer Stoddart, have major worries about Cannon’s “trust us” system.

Stoddart has said the list poses “quite a nightmare” for ordinary Canadians put in the “chilling” position of being improperly added to the file.

Other civil-rights critics suggest the list is useless, given that terrorists are unlikely to travel by their own names — echoing the federal Conservative argument that gun-control registries don’t work because criminals won’t register their guns.

Lindsay Scotton of Stoddart’s office says Transport Canada has failed to supply information showing that no-fly lists work.

Faisal Kutty, legal counsel to the Canadian Council on American Relations, told reporters that “common sense should make us wonder how someone can be too guilty to fly and yet be too innocent to be charged.”

Burnaby-New Westminster NDP MP Peter Julian predicts “the no-fly list will roll back our civil liberties with a steep increase in racial and religious profiling.” The NDP wants the list scrapped and notes the European Union “has rejected the principle and practice of no-fly lists.”

New Democrats and other critics would rather see the emphasis placed on reinforcing airport ground security systems, with improved personnel training and expanded luggage and freight screening.

In the meantime, Canada now has a no-fly list that updates Salem witch trial suspicions for use in Big Brother’s paranoid 21st Century.

New Study: No Boeing 757 Hit the Pentagon

RINF | Jun 22, 2007

By Jim Fetzer

A study of the black box data provided by the government to Pilots for 9/11 Truth has confirmed the previous findings of Scholars for 9/11 Truth that no Boeing 757 hit the Pentagon on 9/11. “We have had four lines of proof that no Boeing 757 hit the building,” said James Fetzer, founder of Scholars for 9/11 Truth. “This new study by Pilots drives another nail into a coffin of lies told the American people by The 9/11 Commission”.

The new society, an international organization of pilots and aviation professionals, petitioned the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) under the Freedom of Information Act and obtained its 2002 report on American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757 that, according to the official account, hit the ground floor of the Pentagon after it skimmed over the lawn at 500 mph plus, taking out a series of lamp posts in the process. The pilots not only obtained the flight data but created a computer animation to demonstrate what it told them.

According to the report issued by Pilots for 9/11 Truth (http://pilotsfor911truth.org/), there are major differences between the official account and the flight data:

a. The NTSB Flight Path Animation approach path and altitude does not support official events.

b. All altitude data shows the aircraft at least 300 feet too high to have struck the light poles.

c. The rate of descent data is in direct conflict with the aircraft being able to impact the light poles and be captured in the Dept of Defense “5 Frames” video of an object traveling nearly parallel with the Pentagon lawn.

d. The record of data stops at least one second prior to official impact time.

e. If data trends are continued, the aircraft altitude would have been at least 100 feet too high to have hit the Pentagon.

As Robert Balsamo, co-founder of Pilots for 9/11 Truth, observes, “The information in the NSTB documents does not support, and in some instances factually contradicts, the official government position that American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon on the morning of September 11, 2001.” The study was signed by fifteen professional pilots with extensive military and commercial carrier experience. They have made their animation, “Pandora’s Box: Chapter 2,” available to the public at

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Pandora’s+Black+Box%3A+Chapter+2 .

According to James H. Fetzer, founder of Scholars for 9/11 Truth (http://911scholars.org), this result fits into the broader picture of what happened at the Pentagon that day. “We have developed four lines of argument that prove–conclusively, in my judgment–that no Boeing 757 hit the building. The most important evidence to the contrary has been the numerous eyewitness reports of a large commercial carrier coming toward the building. If the NTSB data is correct, then the Pilot’s study shows that a large aircraft headed toward the building but did not impact with it. It swerved off and flew above the Pentagon.”

Fetzer, who retired last June after 35 years of teaching courses in logic, critical thinking, and scientific reasoning, expressed pleasure over the Pilot’s results, which, he said, has neatly resolved the most pressing issue that remained about the Pentagon. He added, “We have previously developed several lines of argument, each of which proves that no Boeing 757 hit the building,” including these four:

The hit point at the Pentagon was too small to accommodate a 100-ton airliner with a 125-foot wingspan and a tail that stands 44 feet above the ground; the kind and quantity of debris was wrong for a Boeing 757: there were no wings, no fuselage, no seats, no bodies, no luggage, no tail! Not even the engines were recovered, and they are practically indestructible.

Of an estimate 84 videotapes of the crash, the three that have been released by the Pentagon do not show a Boeing 757 hitting the building, as even Bill O’Reilly admitted when one was shown on “The Factor”. At 155 feet, the plane was more than twice as long as the 77-foot Pentagon is high and should have been visible. There are indications of a much smaller plane, but not a Boeing 757.

Indeed, the aerodynamics of flight would have made the official trajectory–flying more than 500 mph barely above ground level–physically impossible, because of the accumulation of a massive pocket of compressed gas (air) beneath the fuselage; and if it had come it at an angle instead, it would have created a massive crater; but there is no crater and the official trajectory is impossible.

Flying low enough to impact with the ground floor would have meant that the enormous engines were plowing the ground and creating massive furrows; but there are no massive furrows. The smooth, unblemished surface of the Pentagon lawn thus stands as a “smoking gun” proving the official trajectory cannot be sustained.

Members of Scholars have contributed to a new book that analyses the government’s official account, according to which 19 Islamic fundamentalists hijacked four commercial airliners, outfoxed the most sophisticated air-defense system in the world, and committed these atrocities under the control of a man in a cave in Afghanistan. Entitled, THE 9/11 CONSPIRACY (2007), it includes photographs of the hit point before and after the upper floors collapsed, the crucial frame from the released videos, and views of the clear, smooth, and unblemished lawn.

“Don’t be taken in by photos showing damage to the second floor or those taken after the upper floors collapsed, which happened 20-30 minutes later,” Fetzer said. “In fact, debris begins to show up on the completely clean lawn in short order, which might have been dropped from a C-130 that was circling above the Pentagon or placed there by men in suits who were photographed carrying debris with them.” The most striking is a piece from the fuselage of a commercial airliner, which is frequently adduced as evidence.

James Hanson, a newspaper reporter who earned his law degree from the University of Michigan College of Law, has traced that debris to an American Airlines 757 that crashed in a rain forest above Cali, Columbia in 1995. “It was the kind of slow-speed crash that would have torn off paneling in this fashion, with no fires, leaving them largely intact.” Fetzer has been so impressed with his research he has invited Hanson to submit his study to Scholars for consideration for publication on its web site, 911scholars.org.

“The Pentagon has become a kind of litmus test for rationality in the study of 9/11,” Fetzer said. “Those who persist in maintaining that a Boeing 757 hit the building are either unfamiliar with the evidence or cognitively impaired. Unless,” he added, “they want to mislead the American people. The evidence is beyond clear and compelling. It places this issue ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’. No Boeing 757 hit the Pentagon.”

Delaware County police to “stop and frisk” anyone who looks suspicious

Information Liberation | Jun 22, 2007
 
by Lisa Thomas Laury

Officers will “stop and frisk” anyone who looks suspicious

One police department in Delaware County is now implementing a controversial police procedure called Stop and Frisk.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled it legal nearly 40 years ago, and the Upper Darby Police department, after seeing a tremendous increase in drug trafficking, has decided to give it a try.

Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said “stop and frisk” is working because he is operating it within the confines of the constitution and his officers are well disciplined.

“It’s a matter of who you pick, how well you train them, and monitoring and performance,” explained Chitwood.

Action News rode with the Tactical Narcotics Team in Upper Darby on several nights.

“Lots of times the drug dealer will hang in the doorways. When they see a police car coming, they’ll run inside,” said one officer.

There are many other times officers will “stop and frisk” someone who they think looks suspicious in an effort to prevent a crime.

Unlike a full search, in a frisk the officer pats down the suspect’s outer clothing. If he feels what seems to be drugs or a weapon, he may then reach inside. If nothing is felt, the person is released.

Critics argue that creates an environment of fear.

“When you stop people whether or not they are doing anything wrong, nobody is going to feel safe from police,” said ACLU attorney Mary Catherine Roper.

She said no one should be targeted because of where he or she lives or who he or she is.

“You shouldn’t be treated different or put under suspicion just because you live in a high crime neighborhood or just because you’re an ethnic minority,” she said.

University of Pennsylvania professor and criminologist Lawrence Sherman, who helped develop stop and frisk, said police can patrol those areas without being racially selective.

“This is not about what was done in the bad ole days of the Philadelphia Police Department, where police might go into entire neighborhoods and tell everybody on the street corner to get up against the wall and they were frisked. That’s illegal,” Sherman explained.

But Roper said efforts should be focused on improving neighborhoods.

“Why don’t we have stop-and-counsel? Why don’t we have stop-and-help? Why don’t we have stop-and-offer a job?” she said.

Still, Dr. Sherman said we only have to look to the nearest airport to see how effective “stop and frisk” can be.

“We’re all getting stopped and frisked every time we get on an airplane, and the issue is not the stopping or the frisking or taking off out shoes,” he said. “We’re all gonna agree with it because its under strict legislation and we have a level of trust.”

The idea of stop and frisk was a key issue during the Democratic primary for mayor in Philadelphia.

Michael Nutter wants to implement the tactic in the Philadelphia Police Department if he becomes mayor.

“Everyone has a civil right not to be shot,” said Nutter. “Our children, working people, our senior citizens have a right to be in their homes and feel safe and secure.”

It’s important to mention that the policy that Nutter is proposing involves a concentration on police officer sensitivity.

In fact, he refers to it as “Stop, Ask and Frisk.” Nutter and Professor Sherman said that research shows that the more polite officers are when they stop someone, the less aggressive and the more fair they will appear. Residents are then more likely to obey the law in the future.

Prosecution for cruelty to spiders, squid and lobsters under new animal welfare plans

While human beings are losing their rights and freedoms, animals of all phyla are gaining theirs. Peculiar yes, until you wake up and realize what’s happening. At this rate a maggot will soon enjoy far greater rights and privileges than you or I, and I am not joking around. But that is the point folks! The globalist elite are conditioning us to get used to losing our human dignity and freedoms because they see us as mere insects to be crushed. The elite’s minions can “legally” detain, torture, taser, beat and otherwise abuse human beings, but heaven help you if you step on a spider or drop a lobster in boiling water, even while the Bilderbergers dine of the finest seafood at their secret confabs.

The more they carry out false-flag terror and endless wars, dumb us down and strip away our rights, and the more we allow them to get away with it, the sooner they will begin liquidating us “useless eaters” by the millions.

They are laughing at us, but it ain’t funny.

PW

Evening Standard | Jun 23, 2007

Now even spiders, squid and lobsters could have rights under animal welfare plans

  
Pet tarantula: More protection?

People could be prosecuted for being cruel to pet spiders, octopuses and restaurant lobsters under animal welfare plans being considered by the Government.

The Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is investigating whether invertebrates – the family of animals that includes insects, spiders and molluscs – should get the same protection under the law enjoyed by dogs, cats and horses if they are kept in captivity.

Ministers are under pressure from animal campaigners, who argue that some invertebrates are capable of feeling pain.

The move follows the introduction of the Animal Welfare Act in April, which made people legally liable for the basic welfare of animalsin their care and introduced new fines of up to £20,000.

Despite claims that some higher invertebrates, such as octopuses, can feel pain, the law covers only creatures with a backbone such as mammals, reptiles, birds and fish.

While it is illegal to mistreat a goldfish, there is nothing to stop people mistreating pet tarantulas or lobsters kept in restaurant aquariums.

Although proposals to widen the range of animals protected by law appeared to have been thrown out last year when the Act was drawn up, Defra has been consulting with scientists, animal rights campaigners and lawyers since November over how animal welfare could be improved in the future.

The results of the consultation were published this week. The report says: ‘The proposal to include only vertebrate animals in the scope of the strategy was met with a mixed reception.’

It said ‘a significant minority’ of those consulted believed some of the more sophisticated invertebrates should be included in animal welfare laws.

Octopuses, squid, cuttlefish, lobsters, crayfish, prawns, shrimps and crabs were among the animals that generated concern.

Octopuses – which can be taught to make their way through mazes and open screw-top jars – are already protected under animal experiment laws, but have no such protection outside the laboratory.

Defra officials will draw up their final Animal Welfare Delivery Strategy over the summer based on the findings.

Any extension of the laws could mean restaurant owners being prosecuted for mistreating lobsters or crabs on their menu.

While they would still be able to boil the crustaceans alive to kill

them, they would have to make sure they are kept in clean, warm uncrowded tanks up to that point.

Similarly, while little boys will not be punished for pulling the legs off a back-garden spider, people with pet tarantulas will have to ensure they are kept warm and well-fed.

The RSPCA called on the Government to extend the welfare laws to include all sentient animals.

‘We are firmly of the view that cephalopods – octopus, squid and cuttlefish – which are invertebrates, are capable of feeling pain, as there is widespread scientific consensus on this point,’ a spokesman said.

‘The RSPCA works on the principle that if an animal is capable of suffering it should receive protection.’

A spokesman for Defra said invertebrates would not get protection in law unless the Animal Welfare Act was changed.

‘There are no plans to change the Act in relation to invertebrates,’ a spokesman said.

‘The Government did not include these because there was not sufficient evidence that cephalopods – squid and octopus – or crustaceans – prawns and lobsters – feel pain or suffering.’

Under the Animal Welfare Act, owners of non-farm animals must ensure they have a proper diet, are housed properly, have the ability to express normal behaviour, and are protected from pain, injury and disease.
 

‘Mile-wide UFO’ spotted by British airline pilot

Evening Standard | Jun 22, 2007

One of the largest UFOs ever seen has been observed by the crew and passengers of an airliner over the Channel Islands.

An official air-miss report on the incident several weeks ago appears in Pilot magazine.

Aurigny Airlines captain Ray Bowyer, 50, flying close to Alderney first spotted the object, described as “a cigar-shaped brilliant white light”.

As the plane got closer the captain viewed it through binoculars and said: “It was a very sharp, thin yellow object with a green area.

“It was 2,000ft up and stationary. I thought it was about 10 miles away, although I later realised it was approximately 40 miles from us. At first, I thought it was the size of a [Boeing] 737.

“But it must have been much bigger because of how far away it was. It could have been as much as a mile wide.”

Continuing his approach to Guernsey, Bowyer then spied a “second identical object further to the west”.

He said: “It was exactly the same but looked smaller because it was further away. It was closer to Guernsey. I can’t explain it. This was clearly visual for about nine minutes.

“I’m certainly not saying that it was something of another world. All I’m saying is that I have never seen anything like it before in all my years of flying.”

The sightings were confirmed by passengers Kate and John Russell. John, 74, said: “I saw an orange light. It was like an elongated oval.”

The sightings were also confirmed by an unnamed pilot with the Blue Islands airline.

The Civil Aviation Authority safety notice states that a Tri-Lander aircraft flying close to Alderney spotted the object.

“Certain parts of the report have not been published. I cannot say why,” said a senior CAA source.

Earlier this year, however, the MOD declared its intentions to open its UFO files to the public.

FDA Cracks Down on Herbal Supplements

Fox News | Jun 22, 2007

For the first time, manufacturers of vitamins, herbal pills and other dietary supplements will have to test all of their products’ ingredients, the Food and Drug Administration announced Friday.

The agency is phasing in the new rule because existing federal regulations allowed supplements onto the market that were contaminated or didn’t contain the dietary ingredients claimed on the label.

Last year, the agency found that some supplements contained undeclared active ingredients used in prescription drugs for erectile dysfunction. In the past, regulators found supplements that didn’t contain the levels of Vitamin C or Vitamin A that were claimed.

If, upon inspection, the FDA finds that supplements do not contain the ingredients they claim to contain, the agency would consider the products adulterated or misbranded. In minor cases, the agency could ask the manufacturer to remove the ingredient or revise its label. In more serious cases, it could seize the product, file a lawsuit or even seek criminal charges.

Dietary supplements — pills, liquids or other products people take to improve their diets — are a $22 billion industry.

Most companies already test their raw ingredients once they come into the plant, said Steve Mister, president and CEO for the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade association representing about 65 manufacturers.

“This raises the bar so that all have to comply,” Mister said.

The new rule goes into effect Aug. 24 and will have a three-year phase-in that gives smaller manufacturers more time to comply. The rule applies to all domestic and foreign companies that manufacture, package and label supplements for sale in the U.S. It requires them to test all ingredients that go into their products before they are distributed.

It also includes requirements for record keeping and handling consumer complaints.

The new rule took about 13 years to develop. Under the old regulations, supplements were governed by the same rules that applied to producing foods, such as cans of soup.

“The final rule will help ensure that dietary supplements are manufactured with controls that result in a consistent product free of contamination, with accurate labeling,” said Dr. Robert E. Brackett, director of FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

Related

Statistics prove prescription drugs are 16,400% more deadly than terrorists
http://www.newstarget.com/009278.html

Modern Health Care System is the Leading Cause of Death, Part I
http://www.mercola.com/2004/jul/7/healthcare_death.htm

Medical system is leading cause of death and injury in US
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2003/10/29/medical_system_is_leading_cause_of_death_and_injury_in_us.htm

Doctors May Be Third Leading Cause of Death
http://www.chattanoogahealth.com/Articles/2135/1/Doctors_May_Be_Third_Leading_Cause_of_Death.aspx

Putin: Russia ‘Shouldn’t Feel Guilty’ Over Stalin-Era Purge

Radio Free Europe | Jun 22, 2007

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned the world against trying to make Russia feel guilty about the Great Purge, one of Soviet history’s most painful episodes.

On the orders of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, hundreds of thousands of bureaucrats, military officers, and party officials were imprisoned and executed in 1936-37 throughout the Soviet Union.
 
“Other countries have done even more terrible things,” Putin said in televised remarks. “At least we’ve never used nuclear weapons against civilians, never poured chemicals on thousands of kilometers, or dropped seven times as many bombs as were used in [World War II] on a small country, as it was done in Vietnam, for instance.”
 
Putin was speaking on June 21 at the Novo-Ogaryovo presidential residence during a meeting with social-studies teachers.
 
He urged other countries to “think about themselves” instead of trying to impose a feeling of guilt on Russia.

Putin nonetheless admitted there were “terrible pages” in Russia’s history.