Saturday 4/5/2008 at the Texas State Capitol

Part 1/18: Jack Motley and Friends

Read more »

WASHINGTON —  The FBI has narrowed its focus to “about four” suspects in the 6 1/2-year investigation of the deadly anthrax attacks of 2001, and at least three of those suspects are linked to the Army’s bioweapons research facility at Fort Detrick in Maryland, FOX News has learned.

Among the pool of suspects are three scientists — a former deputy commander, a leading anthrax scientist and a microbiologist — linked to the research facility, known as USAMRIID.

The FBI has collected writing samples from the three scientists in an effort to match them to the writer of anthrax-laced letters that were mailed to two U.S. senators and at least two news outlets in the fall of 2001, a law enforcement source confirmed.

The anthrax attacks began shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, further alarming a nation already reeling from the deaths of 3,000 Americans. Five people were killed and more than a dozen others were infected by the deadly spores in the fall of 2001.

A leading theory is that the anthrax was stolen from Fort Detrick and then sealed inside the letters. A law enforcement source said the FBI is essentially engaged in a process of elimination.

Much of the early public focus fell on a Fort Detrick scientist named Steven Hatfill, who is suing federal authorities for identifying him as a person of interest. Now the FBI is focusing on other scientists at the facility.

FOXNews.com - FBI Focusing on About Four Suspects in 2001 Anthrax Attacks

The National Security Agency was once known for its skill in eavesdropping on the world’s telephone calls through radio dishes in out-of-the-way places like England’s Menwith Hill, Australia’s Pine Gap, and Washington state’s Yakima Training Center.

Today those massive installations, which listened in on phone conversations beamed over microwave links, are becoming something akin to relics of the Cold War. As more communications traffic travels through fiber links, and as e-mail and text messaging supplant phone calls, the spy agency that once intercepted telegrams is adapting yet again.

Recent evidence suggests that the NSA has been focusing on widespread monitoring of e-mail messages and text messages, recording of Web browsing, and other forms of electronic data-mining, all done without court supervision. Taken together, those activities raise unique privacy and oversight concerns greater than those posed by large-scale monitoring of voice communications.

Documents released last week by a security consultant (PDF) indicate that an unnamed major wireless provider has opened its network to the U.S. government, allowing customers’ e-mail, text messaging, and Web use to be monitored. And Assistant Attorney General for National Security Kenneth Wainstein said last week that surveillance of e-mail was the real concern raised by the debate over amending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

That led some high-ranking House Democrats, including Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell, to circulate a letter (PDF) advising their colleagues to look skeptically at a Republican proposal that would grant retroactive immunity to companies that illegally let the Feds plug into their networks. The Republicans’ blanket of retroactive immunity would likely cover e-mail providers, search engines, Internet service providers, and instant-messaging services too.

NSA shifts to e-mail, Web, data-mining dragnet | The Iconoclast - politics, law, and technology - CNET News.com

March 14, 12:53 AM

To hear Jesse Ventura tell it, he’s either out to become president or an expatriate.

In the opening to his fourth book, due out April 1, the former wrestler and governor of Minnesota writes: “As I begin to write this book, I’m facing probably the most monumental decision of my 56 years on this planet. Will I run for president of the United States, as an independent, in 2008? Or will I stay as far away from the fray as possible, in a place with no electricity, on a remote beach in Mexico?”

Throughout the book, called “Don’t Start the Revolution Without Me!,” Ventura seems to go back and forth on the question, pro and con:

Con: His wife, Terry, says she refuses to be first lady of anything again.

Read More here: Yeas and Nays: Ventura Will he or wont he - Examiner.com

Police initiate search for guns

By David C. Lipscomb
March 13, 2008

The Metropolitan Police Department yesterday announced a new crime initiative that will include officers going into high-crime neighborhoods to search homes for illegal guns.

“The premise is that residents can have the trust of the …department,” said police spokeswoman Traci Hughes.

Chief Cathy L. Lanier announced the program and said it focuses on parents or legal guardians who think their children have a gun in the house and are uncomfortable with searching for it themselves.

Miss Hughes said that residents would be given amnesty for illegal guns found in homes after they are tested for links to crimes. But she said police would investigate the source of the guns if they were found to be involved in a crime.

Police initiate search for guns - - The Washington Times, Americas Newspaper

It appears that the Cato Institute has fired one of its finest adjunct scholars, antitrust expert D.T. Armentano, because Professor Armentano dared to write an op-ed calling for the federal government to disclose its files on UFOs.

So there you have it: on Planet Stato, it’s okay to endorse warrantless wiretaps, but not okay to call on the federal government to open its files.

Says Cato’s David Boaz: “[T]his strikes us as not an issue that we want to have as part of Cato’s research agenda.” Yet increasing executive power to spy on Americans without a warrant — a gross violation of liberty, privacy, and the Constitution — apparently is on the Cato agenda.

I don’t think the government is hiding evidence of extra-terrestrials from us — but I don’t doubt that, with respect to some UFO sightings, it’s hiding something. And the more it doesn’t want us to know, the more we should want to know.

If Cato doesn’t want to make it a priority, that’s their business and I wouldn’t criticize them for it — as far as I’ve noticed, this website doesn’t run UFO articles either. But to can Armentano as an adjunct for a harmless op-ed in a small paper — while retaining Pilon as director of constitutional studies after his outrageous article in the Wall Street Journal — is a disgrace. And it tells you all you need to know about the beltway-libertarian mentality.

Dr. Armentano remains an adjunct faculty member of the Mises Institute. You can read his great short book, Antitrust: The Case for Repeal, for free here.

LewRockwell.com Blog: Cato’s Beltway Libertarian Bizarro World

Bonnybridge has become famous as a hotbed of UFO activity

Confidential Ministry of Defence files on Unidentified Flying Objects are set to be made public.

Hundreds of documented sightings of UFOs across the UK will be released by the MoD to the National Archive in the coming weeks.

Detailed accounts of sightings in the Bonnybridge area are expected to be among the files.

BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Tayside and Central | MoD releases secret files on UFOs