The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
+ Video of Whirlwind Wheelchair International's modifiable “rough rider” design (open source design)
+ Inspiring Frontline video segment of stories from Vietanam about the “rough rider” wheelchair from Whirlwind Wheelchair Intl
+ Whirlwind Wheelchair International website
This has been added to the “micro-giving” global range of needs product list
Below are interesting links/stories from our Twitter feed that were not posted to Phi Beta Iota due to time constraints, etc:
August 12, 2010 by JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The Central Intelligence Agency purposefully concealed at least four terrorism detainees from the US legal system, including the Supreme Court, according to an exclusive report by the Associated Press. The news agency has revealed that the CIA secretly transported the four to Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp on Cuba in 2003, two years before it publicly admitted their capture. It then secretly transferred them again to other sites in its black site prison network in various countries around the world, just three months before their prolonged stay at Guantánamo would entitle them to legal representation. While at Guantánamo, the four prisoners, Abd al-Nashiri, Mustafa al-Hawsawi, Ramzi Binalshibh and Abu Zubaydah, were kept at a facility known as ‘Strawberry Fields’, which is detached from the main prison site at the bay. By hiding the four, the Bush Administration managed to keep them under CIA custody while denying them legal representation for two years longer than allowed by US law.
Quil Lawrence, August 10, 2010 | wgbh.org |
Izatullah Nusrat, 42, was held at the U.S. facility in Guantanamo for nearly five years. Now he is back in Afghanistan and running for election to Parliament in the Sept. 18 election. Nusrat has harsh words for Americans, but he favors working with the current government over the Taliban and says he wants the fighting to stop.
Related:
More Lies: CIA said recordings didn't exist..9/11 interrogation tapes found under desk (Aug 17, 2010)
(From EnoughProject.org)
The Lord’s Resistance Army has depopulated a remote corner of northeastern Congo, killing and abducting hundreds of civilians, and forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes. In a new report, “‘This is our land now:’ Lord’s Resistance Army attacks in Bas Uele, northeastern Congo,” Enough Project Field Researcher Ledio Cakaj documents 51 attacks by the LRA in Bas Uele, Congo, resulting in at least 105 deaths and 570 abductions during the last 15 months.
“The LRA rampage in Bas Uele territory is brutal but strategic,” notes Cakaj, “LRA fighters have used this region as a base and transit point to the Central African Republic and beyond. The threat to civilians is increasing, since there is no meaningful military force to challenge the LRA in this area. The Congolese army remains a threat to its own population, and the United Nations is drawing down its peacekeepers in this region.”
After signing into U.S. law the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act on May 24, 2010, the Obama administration is developing a comprehensive strategy to deal with the LRA. The report argues that any viable strategy needs to take into account the importance of Bas Uele to the LRA, in order to better protect civilians and finally to end the LRA’s escalating threat across a vast region of central Africa.
New superbug could make antibiotics ‘redundant'
By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor
Telegraph UK Published: 6:30AM BST 11 Aug 2010
Continue reading “Journal: What Is the Threat? Time to Get Serious…”
(COMMENT: Retirees being targeted again…)
Tom Philpott | August 05, 2010
Advisory Panels Say Military Benefits Unsustainable
A consensus is building among current and former military leaders and defense industry executives that rising military personnel costs threaten the viability of the all-volunteer force.
FULL STORY, Excellent Quotes from MajGen Arnold Punaro, USMC (Ret) former Staff Director, Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC)
Phi Beta Iota: Health benefits would not be a problem if Congress did not insist on paying 100 times more for the top 75 prescription drugs as paid by all others (Canada only pays 10 times more). DoD can be saved, but someone somewhere is going to have to get a grip on reality, strategy, acquisition, and Whole of Government operations. We are not holding our breath.
Continue reading “Journal: DoD Falling…30-50% Cut in KR, Cuts to Benefits Next”
Rosalind S. Helderman, The Washington Post, Tuesday August 10, 2010
RICHMOND — Virginia officials reacted with bipartisan dismay on Monday to Defense Department budget shifts that will cost the state thousands of jobs in coming years and will dramatically impact the economies of the Norfolk area and Northern Virginia.
Most of the immediate reaction revolved around Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates's proposal to close the U.S. Joint Forces Command. It is a major employer in Hampton Roads, including Norfolk and Virginia Beach, whose elimination could translate into the loss of 6,100 military, civilian and contractor jobs in the region.
Phi Beta Iota: SecDef is no fool–Virginia can win BIG. We need (and Virginia can provide):
