“Non-lethal” crowd-control ray gun actually a “very lethal weapon designed to kill”

Dave Gaubatz, the first Federal Agent (civilian) to enter Iraq in 2003

“I coordinated the security when the truck loads of animals were being brought in during the middle of the night. Dead animals can’t speak, but if a goat or 500 pound cow can be killed almost instantly with the Ray Gun, then I believe most readers can safely assume a 175 pound man or woman could also die instantly from the intense heat.”

The Ray Gun

FrontPageMagazine.com | Apr 3, 2008

By Jamie Glazov

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Dave Gaubatz, the first Federal Agent (civilian) to enter Iraq in 2003. Currently the Director of the Mapping Shari’a project and owner of Wahhabi Counter-terrorism publications providing first-hand intelligence for law enforcement and CT professionals.

FP: Dave Gaubatz, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

Gaubatz: Thank you and again it is an honor.

FP: So tell us about the ‘Active Denial’ Program – the Ray Gun. What is it and what’s the issue? The Pentagon informed 60 Minutes (CBS) that the Ray Gun could not be used in Iraq . But your experience and evidence suggests that that is not true. What’s the story here?

Gaubatz: Before I discuss the Ray Gun issue I want to inform your readers that 60 Minutes (CBS) Producer Mary Walsh telephoned me last week to discuss my allegations pertaining to the false and very inaccurate report conducted by 60 Minutes. She asked for documentation to prove my knowledge of the system and why their report is false. I provided the documentation. She wrote back and wanted to know why the Pentagon had lied to her. I essentially informed Ms. Walsh that she should ask them since it has hurt the credibility of her and the 60 Minutes staff. Readers can view the documents on my site at http://www.kidsandterrorism.com.

FP: Ok. So tell us about the Ray Gun and what 60 Minutes did.

Gaubatz: It may be better to provide the 60 Minutes version of what it is, and its capability, and why the Pentagon informed Ms. Walsh the ‘Ray Gun’ could not be used in Iraq .

The following is from the CBS report. I have taken three of their first set of paragraphs and put the factual information under each of their statements. The readers will begin to see from my responses that the Ray Gun is exactly opposite from what 60 Minutes reported. Meaning- -The Ray Gun is a very lethal weapon and was designed to kill, not as a non-lethal weapon as described by 60 Minutes. The Ray Gun was designed at Kirtland AFB, NM, and had been tested there for many years prior to 2003. The weapon was operational in 2003 and should have been deployed to Iraq during the first month of the war. American lives could have been saved then. Now five years later the Pentagon is clearly attempting to cover up another error by using 60 Minutes as their voice piece to say the weapon is non-lethal and this is why it was not deployed. This major lapse in miscalculation is not a Republican nor Democratic problem, but a combination of both parties making mistakes. Below begins the CBS Report and my response:

(CBS) 1: What if we told you the Pentagon has a ray gun? And what if we told you it can stop a person in his tracks without killing or even injuring him? Well, it’s true. You can’t see it, you can’t hear it, but as CBS News correspondent David Martin experienced first hand, you can feel it.

Gaubatz: The Pentagon has had an operational “Ray Gun” since early in 2003. The Ray Gun was designed to be a lethal weapon. It can kill, injury the person very badly, or just slightly depending on the setting of the mechanisms. if they want to show the ‘Ray gun’ to news media and some politicians who advocate non-lethal weapons, and are usually the same politicians who have advocated getting our troops out of Iraq months before they were even sent there, they bring in a journalist and ‘feed’ him/her the non-lethal story. Otherwise know as liberals who know less about the Ray Gun than they do basic fundamentals of war.

(CBS) 2: Pentagon officials call it a major breakthrough which could change the rules of war and save huge numbers of lives in Iraq. But it’s still not there. That because in the middle of a war, the military just can’t bring itself to trust a weapon that doesn’t kill.

Gaubatz: The Pentagon officials have intentionally lied. Again the breakthrough was made in 2002/2003, at Kirtland AFB, NM. The Pentagon admits it could save huge numbers of lives in Iraq if only it were operational and a lethal weapon. The Pentagon official says this weapon can’t kill. This mystical Pentagon official purposely did not reveal his name, because he knows there are people like me who know the truth. The American public were simply lied to. The Ray Gun was designed at the AFRL/DE facility, Kirtland AFB, NM, was/is operational, and can kill.

From 2000 until I deployed to Saudi and subsequently Iraq in Jan 2003, I was the Special Agent in Charge for the protection of this technology. I was very surprised when I read the 60 Minutes article and then saw their report. This system required a Top Secret/SCI plus Security Clearance, just to get within a hundred yards of the building and adjacent field it was being tested and evaluated in. It bothered me the Government had spent millions and millions of dollars on this technology, and then released it. What wasn’t a surprise was the fact the Pentagons officials lied about the real intentions and capabilities of this weapon. AFRL/DE (Directed Energy) does not spend millions of dollars and have the worlds leading scientists develop a weapon that can only ‘hurt’ an enemy of war. The brightest scientist assigned to Kirtland AFB design weapons that are lethal (otherwise known as a weapon that can actually kill).

(CBS) 3: Col. Kirk Hymes, head of the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate, are in charge of the ray gun which is being tested at Moody Air Force Base in southern Georgia.

The targets at the base are people, military volunteers creating a scenario soldiers might encounter in Iraq, like angry protestors advancing on American troops, who have to choose between backing down or opening fire. Off in the distance, half a mile away, the operator of the ray gun has the crowd in his sights.

Unlike the soldiers on the ground, he has no qualms about firing away because his weapon won’t injure anyone.

Gaubatz: Col Hymes was not in charge of the Ray Gun in 2003, nor several years prior to this. Director Bruce Simpson from Kirtland AFB, AFRL/DE was in charge of all DE technology, which included the Ray Gun. Col Kirk Hymes is a yes man. If higher Pentagon officials tell him to inform 60 Minutes the Ray Gun is a non-lethal weapon and was only recently operational, he is the man who will salute and say ‘Yes Sir’. After myself serving 20 plus years on active duty I can sometimes agree with Col Hymes.; unless it is an unlawful order that can put American troops in harms way and will lead many of them to unnecessary deaths. Then Col Hymes has a responsibility to put the security and best interest of the troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan first. To do otherwise means 4000 current troops’ deaths will double and then triple.

I believe the loved ones of the fallen soldiers would tell Col. Hymes to either tell the truth or retire from service.

FP: Ok, so let’s crystallize this: the Ray Gun has been reported by 60 Minutes and Pentagon officials as a non-lethal weapon. You’re saying this is completely false?

Gaubatz: The Ray Gun was designed as a lethal weapon. During my conversation with Ms. Mary Walsh, she advised she was told by Pentagon officials the Ray Gun had been tested on animals. I was very surprised to hear this because Pentagon officials have just confirmed animals are used for testing of weapons such as the Ray Gun at Kirtland AFB. I coordinated the security when the truck loads of animals were being brought in during the middle of the night. Dead animals can’t speak, but if a goat or 500 pound cow can be killed almost instantly with the Ray Gun, then I believe most readers can safely assume a 175 pound man or woman could also die instantly from the intense heat.

The weapon could have been used in early 2003. Before I left for Iraq I had numerous meetings with AFRL/DE engineers and scientists. I knew the capabilities of the weapons. The scientists and their Directors asked me to test and evaluate the DE weapons at Kirtland AFB. I did this immediately after 11 Sep 2001. For several months, the weapons were operational and ready for use in Iraq .

FP: You were the Special Agent assigned from 2000-2003 to oversee the protection of this technology. Expand for us on your personal experience in — and knowledge on — this matter.

Gaubatz: I worked directly with the engineers, scientists, Security technology personnel, and the Director of AFRL/DE. During this time I received numerous awards from AFRL/DE pertaining to my knowledge of the DE weapons. It is well documented I protected this technology from getting into the hands of the Chinese, Iranians, and Russians who were daily ‘pinging’ our classified computer systems attempting to steal the technology.

FP: Then the Ray Gun could still save many American soldiers’ lives?

Gaubatz: This is my major concern. When I returned from Iraq in late 2003, I was requested to brief the AFRL/DE Director (Bruce Simpson). I informed Director Simpson the “Ray Gun” and “Boss Surveillance System” should immediately be deployed to Iraq . I provided the following examples for its operational use:

1st example: When a young soldier is at his guard post and he/she suspected a vehicle coming toward his gate is hostile and is not following commands, the soldier’s next step is to attempt to neutralize the suspected suicide bomber. The soldier aims his M-16 or 9mm at the vehicle and begins firing rounds. Sometimes this is enough, but more often than not the suicide bomber crashes into the gate and kills many innocent people. If a decision has been made to shoot at a vehicle suspected of carrying bombs, would it not protect our young soldier more if he could fire a laser shot from the Ray Gun at the suspect vehicle and its occupants? They would be stopped immediately and the only ones who would die would be the murderers attempting to kill one of our troops.

2nd example: When our soldiers are engaged in a firefight which often last hours and days, and results in many deaths from both sides, it would benefit our soldiers if we could use the Ray Gun. The Ray Gun can send a signal at least a football field in width from a long distance from the target and take out (kill) hundreds of enemies within a few seconds. Few if any American troops would need to die.

Many of the suicide attacks and firefights are in towns, cities, and residential, business areas. If the honest Iraqis knew we had a weapon that would kill everyone within a city block if an attack on American troops was made, the honest Iraqis would begin forcing the terrorists and their supporters out.

FP: So the Ray Gun is a PC problem right?

Gaubatz: Yes, the Ray Gun is a major political correctness problem. A weapon that can instantly kill entire battalions is not a weapon our politicians believe the American people could accept. If the Pentagon officials were to speak with a mother, father, wife, or other loved ones who died a very painful death by one of the terrorisst, they may disagree with the politicians. They may look the politician in the face and say, “every day my children ask where their father is and is he coming back, unfortunately I have to cry and tell them he will not be coming back.” This simply means PC comes first, and then the lives of our brave troops suffer. Possibly I have been wrong for my 48 years of life, with 23 plus being in Federal Service, but as an old Master Sergeant and then a civilian Federal Agent, I felt it was my responsibility to protect the people serving under me, even at the risk of my own life.

FP: Are there documents to legitimize your position?

Gaubatz: Yes, the Director of AFRL/DE personally wrote me a letter after I returned from Iraq. He thanked me for evaluating the DE weapons and providing the front line insight into the capabilities of the weapons use in Iraq. The AFRL/DE Director was Bruce Simspon (General Equivalent). He was a good man and leader. He wanted to use these weapons in Iraq, but people senior to even him prevented this valuable weapon from being deployed. In addition I received other U.S. Govt. awards pertaining to this issue. Several documents were provided to Ms. Mary Walsh.

FP: Why did 60 Minutes provide this information to the country without double checking it? They are putting our soldiers’ lives in greater danger, no?

Gaubatz: I want to believe Ms. Mary Walsh had good intentions and believed the information she was being provided was accurate. Ms. Walsh knows the 60 Minutes story is now false and Pentagon officials lied to her. The big question is rather: will 60 Minutes admit they made a huge mistake which continues to put our soldier’s lives in danger everyday. Each day that goes by and another soldier dies should weigh heavily on every member of 60 Minutes. Each mother who is handed a letter from a Pentagon official advising their son or daughter was killed in Iraq, should write a letter to Mary Walsh and ask her how she can continue not to reveal the truth.

I can sleep easy at night because I have always brought out the truth in regards to issues in Iraq. Can Mary Walsh, David Martin (60 Minutes), and the Pentagon officials?

FP: Dave Gaubatz, thank you for joining us.

Gaubatz: Thank you very much and as we are slowly finding out over the years, the truth will reveal itself eventually.

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Rupert Murdoch: News Corp is just like the Jesuits

“I do not like the reappearance of the Jesuits…. Shall we not have regular swarms of them here, in as many disguises as only a king of the gipsies can assume, dressed as printers, publishers, writers and schoolmasters? If ever there was a body of men who merited damnation on earth and in Hell, it is this society of Loyola’s.”

– John Adams writing to Jefferson about the Society of Jesus. May 1816

News Corp ChairmanRupert Murdoch discussed challenges the media faces as technology advances yesterday in Gaston Hall.

Georgetown Voice | Apr 3, 2008

Murdoch defends News Corp

by John Cooke

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is just like the Jesuits, he told a mostly-full Gaston Hall yesterday, “except we don’t insist on vows of poverty or chastity.”

The Australian-born Chairman and Managing Director of News Corporation, which owns MySpace, Fox and other media organizations, described the dilemma faced by newspapers and older media outlets in adapting to new technology, especially the Internet.

News Corp ChairmanRupert Murdoch discussed challenges the media faces as technology advances yesterday in Gaston Hall.
SAM SWEENEY

“You can never be sure where this industry will go,” Murdoch said, “because new technology destroys the old ways of business.”

Murdoch, whose company acquired The Wall Street Journal in August 2007, defended the role of newspapers. Although he admitted that print publications are hemorrhaging profits and audiences, Murdoch described the Journal as “the daily of the American dream,” adding that, as local papers are forced to make more cutbacks due to loss of revenue, national papers like the Journal will play an increasingly prominent role.

“The Wall Street Journal is unique; it’s a national paper read by affluent and influential people,” he said, predicting that the Journal’s reader base will likely read the newspaper for content they wouldn’t be able to find elsewhere.

During the question and answer session, Murdoch touched upon more controversial aspects of his media empire, most notably the alleged bias of the Fox News Channel and his own reputation as a far-right conservative activist.

While admitting that maintaining neutrality is difficult, Murdoch dismissed allegations that he influences the editorial stances of many News Corp outlets. “My personal views don’t affect the editorial pages,” he said, citing his publications’ endorsements of Tony Blair and the new left-wing government of Australia.

“We’ve always been a catalyst for change, so we inspire fear,” Murdoch said in reference to his critics.

In response to concerns about News Corp’s consolidated media ownership, Murdoch repeatedly defended his business tactics, indicating that News Corp facilitates a broader range of voices to be heard.

“Everything we’ve done has been to create competition,” Murdoch said. “We think it’s a public service.”

A Mormon Mason: New grand master is the first in a century who is LDS

Deseret Morning News | Mar 29, 2008

By Carrie A. Moore

It’s been nearly a quarter of a century since Freemasons in Utah rescinded a 60-year ban that prohibited Latter-day Saints from joining their fraternity. And while many remember the religious division that had characterized Freemasonry in the Beehive State from pioneer times, Glen Cook believes he is evidence that things are changing among his Masonic brethren.

Cook, a Salt Lake criminal defense attorney and Brigham Young University law school graduate, is believed to be the first member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be elected grand master in Utah in nearly a century, overseeing the activities of several lodges around the state and looking to make the group more open to public understanding.

During a recent tour of the Masonic Temple in downtown Salt Lake City following his installation in February, Cook said there are definite misconceptions about Freemasonry in Utah, particularly among Latter-day Saints, “but there’s also some reality there as well.”

Church founder Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were members of the Masonic lodge in Nauvoo, Ill., in the early 1840s, and historians have written in detail about the role of fellow Masons in the murder of the two men in June 1844. Smith’s successor, President Brigham Young, and the three succeeding presidents of the church all were made Masons in the Nauvoo Lodge, as were many who presided in church hierarchy during and following Joseph Smith’s death.

After leaving the Midwest for what was then the Utah Territory, most Latter-day Saints eventually ceased active involvement with Freemasonry, despite the fact that lodges were chartered here beginning in 1859. Cook said he thinks pioneer Latter-day Saints simply were too busy trying to build a city in the desert and serving their church to participate. Some historians have speculated about whether Freemasonry was discouraged by LDS leaders.

Whether or not that was the case, religious tension within the organization escalated to the point that, in 1925, “the Utah Grand Lodge Code precluded any Mormon … totally from any relationship whatsoever” with Masonry in Utah, according to author Mervin Hogan’s 1978 book, “The Origin and Growth of Utah Masonry and Its Conflict With Mormonism.”

That provision of the code remained in force until 1984, when it was rescinded.

Freemasonry is not a religious practice, but confusion about what it is stems in part from the fact that the fraternity is believed by many historians to have originated in the ancient world because its symbols and rituals bear some similarity to sacred ceremonies that existed among the Egyptians, Coptic Christians, Israelites and even the Catholic and Protestant liturgies — all thought to have some common biblical source.

Many believe it originated with the stone masons who worked on Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, though no definitive evidence of that legend is known to exist. Others speculate that its tenets were had by Enoch, and possibly by Adam. Scholars have documented evidence that institutional Masonry dates back only to the Middle Ages, when great European cathedrals were being built by guilds of stone masons who practiced “the craft.”

Cook said the fact that membership requires belief in a supreme being and a willingness to make obligations to fellow Masons through Masonic rituals and symbols that bear some limited similarity to LDS temple ceremonies also foster a misunderstanding of what the fraternity is, and is not.

“There is no question that elements of the (LDS temple) endowment and Masonic ritual are similar,” Cook said. “The question for faithful Latter-day Saints is whether that makes a difference. I tend to be a rather concrete thinker.”

For those who accept Joseph Smith as a prophet and believe he actually saw God and Jesus Christ in vision as a precursor to restoration of Christ’s ancient church, “then the rest, I would suggest, should be a corollary” of that belief.

“I think sometimes we spend too much time worrying about issues that don’t really matter to our salvation.”

Nothing in LDS faith or practice precludes Latter-day Saints from becoming Masons, he said, though family and church obligations may limit the amount of time Mormon men can spend in other pursuits like Masonry.

“Freemasonry should be an adjunct to your faith and not a barrier to its exercise,” Cook said. “I tell people that the only secrets we have are modes of recognition and the passwords. For those, you have to look on the Internet.”

The “Encyclopedia of Mormonism” addresses questions about the faith’s view of the fraternity, noting “the philosophy and major tenets of Freemasonry are not fundamentally incompatible with the teaching, theology and doctrines of the Latter-day Saints. Both emphasize morality, sacrifice, consecration and service, and both condemn selfishness, sin and greed. Furthermore, the aim of Masonic ritual is to instruct — to make truth available so that man can follow it.”

The ritual resemblances between the two “are limited to a small proportion of actions and words,” according to the encyclopedia, and “where the two rituals share symbolism, the fabric of meanings is different.”

Cook said he sees signs within the Utah fraternity that a new openness is developing toward the community at large, and toward Latter-day Saints in particular, evidenced not only by his recent installation in ceremonies that were open to the public, but also in a willingness to acknowledge the faith in ways it hasn’t previously been recognized.

On Feb. 2, during meetings before his formal installation took place, Cook said “a seasoned brother came to me and said, ‘We should have a moment of silence for (deceased LDS Church) President (Gordon B.) Hinckley,”‘ as his funeral was taking place. “At 11 a.m., the grand master called the Grand Lodge of Utah to silence for that.”

Later in the day, as members were having lunch together in the Masonic Temple downtown, someone mentioned that President Hinckley’s funeral cortege would be passing their building shortly. “A group of Masons gathered on the front steps for that, not limited by religion, and stood with their hands over their hearts as the cortege passed,” Cook said.

“I think those three things really signaled to me the change that has come about. … I think LDS culture has changed, and that today, civic activities are not inappropriate.”

As for what he plans to emphasize during his term as the 137th grand master of Utah, Cook said he will focus on the fraternal tenets of brotherly love, belief and truth.

“I find Freemasonry to be something at which to marvel, to be something which I view in awe,” Cook wrote in a recent message published in a fraternal newsletter. “In a world in which men war and shed the blood of the innocent based on race, ethnicity and tribe, we have united … without regard to the color of a man’s skin, caring only about the tenor of his heart.”

In short, Masons “are men who try to lead moral and upright lives. They contribute significantly not only on a private basis, but in a public way” as well, he said, noting they fund Shriner’s Hospital for Children, help with arthritis research and other community causes.

“It’s the place where I’ve found friends, men who have cared for me and my family and hold the moral values that I hold.”

6-Year Old Boy Accused of Sexual Harassment

Kindergarten student’s father fears his son will be stereotyped as a “pervert”

WSPA | Apr 4, 2008

A six-year old boy is accused of sexually harassing a teacher in Greer. The kindergarten student is now facing possible discipline.

Malory Pinkney, Sr. says his son came home Tuesday in tears from Skyland Elementary. His father is a minister and says his child has been accused of sexual harassment by one of the teachers there.

Pinkney says the boy brought home a discipline referral that says the child told his teacher that one of his classmates liked looking at her behind.

Pinkney doesn’t deny the allegation, but says his son is going to be labeled as a result of this situation.

“Here is my son is six years old,” says Malory Pinkney, Sr. “Now he’s getting ready to have something put on his record that’s going to follow him for the rest of his life. So whoever looks at his record, they have already stereotyped him as being some kind of little pervert or something like that. And I have to refuse that.”

The Greenville County School District responded with a written statement saying, “anytime you have a media account, you’re only going to have one side, one viewpoint. Since we can’t give the details, we can assure you the matter was handled appropriately at the school level.”

We did give the district a chance to tell their side in detail, but they declined. The district said that since it was a student discipline matter, they could not make any further comment.

Chinese police kill eight Tibetan protesters

‘They cried long live the Dalai Lama – then the firing started’

The Times | Apr 5, 2008

Jane Macartney in Beijing

Chinese paramilitary police killed eight people and wounded dozens more when they fired on a protest by several hundred Tibetan monks and villagers, The Times has been told.

The protesters were enraged by a government inspection team trying to confiscate pictures of the Dalai Lama.

The clash, one of the bloodiest since Tibetan protests against China erupted last month, occurred in the village of Donggu, high in the mountains of Sichuan province near the border with Tibet, after government officials entered the sprawling ancient hillside monastery of Tongkor.

They searched the room of every monk, confiscating all mobile phones as well as the pictures. The monastery’s website (www.donggusi.com) says that it is home to 350 monks. A contact telephone for the monastery was not operational yesterday.

When the officials had removed the photographs, a 74-year-old monk, identified as Cicheng Danzeng, tried to stop police from throwing the images on the ground — an act seen as a desecration by Tibetans, who revere the Dalai Lama as their god king. A young man working in the monastery, Cicheng Pingcuo, 25, also made a stand and both were arrested.

The team of officials then demanded that all the monks denounce the Dalai Lama, who fled China after a failed uprising in 1959. One monk, Yixi Lima, stood up and voiced his opposition, prompting the other monks to add their voices.

About 6.30pm, the entire monastic body marched down to a nearby river, where paramilitary police were encamped and demanded the release of the two men. They were joined by several hundred local villagers, many of them enraged at the detention of the elderly monk, who locals say is well respected in the area for his learning and piety.

Shouting “Long Live the Dalai Lama”, “Let the Dalai Lama come back” and “We want freedom”, the crowd demonstrated until about 9pm.

Witnesses said that up to 1,000 paramilitary police used force to try to end the protest and opened fire on the crowd. In the gunfire, eight people died, according to a local resident in direct contact with the monastery. These included a 27-year-old monk identified as Cangdan and two women named as Zhulongcuo and Danluo.

Witnesses said that a 30-year-old villager, Pupu Deley, was killed, with the son of a villager named Cangdan, and the daughter of a villager called Cuogu. Two other people, whose identities were not available, were also killed, the witnesses said. Among those wounded was one person with a bullet through the ear and another shot in the shoulder. About 10 people were still missing yesterday, including another monk, Ciwang Renzhen.

One witness, who declined to be identified, said: “People were very angry after the old lama was detained. He is very much loved and so many ordinary people were very excited.”

State-run Chinese media confirmed that the police resorted to force but insisted that it was only after a government official was attacked and seriously wounded by protesters. “Local officials exercised restraint during the riot and repeatedly told the rioters to abide by the law,” they reported.

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Despite Criminal Investigations, Blackwater to Keep Working in Iraq

Sources Tell ABC News the Extension, Worth About $240 Million, Was Requested by U.S. Embassy Officials in Baghdad

ABC | Apr 4, 2008

By BRIAN ROSS

Although it has been accused of tax fraud, improper use of force, arms trafficking and overbilling, the Blackwater firm will have its $1.2 billion contract for private security in Iraq renewed by the State Department, a spokesman confirmed Friday.

The one-year extension, worth an estimated $240 million, was requested by officials at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, two sources close to the arrangement tell ABC News.

Meanwhile, a grand jury, federal prosecutors and congressional investigators are probing a host of allegations against the company.

The grand jury is reportedly investigating whether Blackwater security guards used excessive force in killing 13 Iraqi civilians in a violent incident in central Baghdad last September. At the time, many speculated the incident would effectively end the firm’s work for the State Department when its contract came up for renewal in May 2008.

Federal prosecutors are probing allegations that Blackwater personnel smuggled weapons, night-vision scopes and other sensitive material into Iraq. The firm has denied any involvement in such a scheme.

A congressional panel is investigating whether the company illegally dodged millions in taxes by misclassifying its employees as “independent contractors.” The allegation, Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said at the time, was “incorrect.”

And a State Department investigation in 2005 found Blackwater sometimes double-billed employees’ time, resulting in “duplication of profit.”

Blackwater has more than 850 personnel in Iraq under contract to the U.S. government in Iraq.

Ted Turner: Global warming could lead to cannibalism

Billionaire environmentalist says world has too many people

Atlanta Journal-Constitution | April 3, 2008

By MIKE MORRIS

Failure to address global warming will have us all dead or eating each other by mid-century.

So says Ted Turner, the restaurateur, environmentalist and former media mogul whose controversial comments have earned him the nickname “Mouth of the South.”

If steps aren’t taken to stem global warming, “We’ll be eight degrees hotter in 30 or 40 years and basically none of the crops will grow,” Turner said during a wide-ranging, hour-long interview with PBS’s Charlie Rose that aired Tuesday.

“Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals,” said Turner, 69. “Civilization will have broken down. The few people left will be living in a failed state — like Somalia or Sudan — and living conditions will be intolerable.”

One way to combat global warming, Turner said, is to stabilize the population.

“We’re too many people; that’s why we have global warming,” he said. “Too many people are using too much stuff.”

Turner suggested that “on a voluntary basis, everybody in the world’s got to pledge to themselves that one or two children is it.”

Admitting that he’s “always suffered from foot-in-the-mouth disease,” Turner added, “I’ve gotten a lot better, though. It’s been a long time since anybody caught me saying something stupid.”

Turner went on to say that military budgets need to be cut “way back.”

“Right now, the U.S. is spending $500 billion a year on the military, which is more than all 190 countries in the world put together,” he said.

“The two countries that the military industrial complex and some of our politicians would like to demonize and make enemies are Russia and China,” Turner said. “China just wants to sell us shoes. They’re not building landing craft to attack the United States, and Russia wants to be our friends, too.”

He said that despite the United States’ huge military budget, “we can’t win in Iraq.”

“We’re being beaten by insurgents who don’t even have any tanks, they don’t have a headquarters, they don’t have a Pentagon, we don’t even know if they have any generals,” Turner told Rose.

Turner called the Iraqi insurgents “patriots” who “don’t like us because we invaded their country and occupied it. Nobody likes to be invaded.”

The CNN founder also said he thinks his old network has veered too far away from serious news, instead favoring lighter stories delivered by attractive female “chickies” and opinion-based news such as Lou Dobbs’ show.

Health Council Warns Of Goverment Plan To Claim Ownership Of Every Newborn’s DNA

Pending Minnesota bill will strip citizens of genetic privacy and DNA ownership rights

Infowars.net | Apr 4, 2008

by Steve Watson

A prominent Health Organization has warned that there is an ongoing semi-covert movement by state and federal governments to claim ownership of every newborn baby’s DNA for the purpose of genetic research without the consent of individual citizens.

A pending bill on the floor of the Minnesota House and Senate will strip citizens of genetic privacy and DNA ownership rights, The Citizens Council on Healthcare has warned.

“Today, a state genetic privacy law requires informed parent consent for government testing, ownership and research on the DNA of the newest Minnesota residents. The Minnesota Department of Health wants to eliminate the informed consent requirements. A bill to remove consent requirements for government ownership and genetic research will soon be voted on by the Minnesota House and Senate.” The CCHC website explains.

“Thus far, the state of Minnesota has illegally collected and claims ownership to the DNA of 780,000 children (soon to be voting adults) and has provided the DNA of 42,210 children to genetic researchers without parent consent. Approximately, 73,000 children are born in Minnesota every year. About 4.2 million children are born across the nation. All of them are losing their genetic privacy and DNA ownership rights.” the organization’s report continues.

The state treats the activity as an “opt out” program, whereby if the parents of the newborn infant do not specifically opt out of the process, the state presumes its has “informed consent” and that the parents have opted in.

CHC President Twila Brase has warned that the databases housing the DNA could form the basis for a new eugenics movement, the practice of “perfecting” the human race through genetic manipulation, previously endorsed by Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, and toyed with by the likes of Adolf Hitler.

Ms. Brase explained in a statement last month that state Health Department officials are now seeking exemption for the so called “DNA Warehouse” from Minnesota privacy law. This would enable state officials to continue to take the DNA of newborn infants without consent.

Essentially this would mean that eventually every person’s DNA would be collected at birth, warehoused by the state in what is known as a “genomic biobank”, and sold or given away to private or governmental genetic researchers, who may manipulate, alter or splice the DNA in any way they see fit.

Such information would represent a goldmine to employers, insurance companies, medical institutions, and big pharma.

Under such conditions we are faced with the prospect of a society that is literally the mirror image of the nightmarish vision outlined by Aldous Huxley in his 1932 novel Brave New World, where individuals are categorized in a social hierarchy according to their genetic traits.

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