Grassroots Petition Signed by 120 Organizations Urges Congress to Adopt Whistleblower Protection Act

H.R. 3281 is scheduled for a long-awaited mark-up by the House Government Reform Committee on Wednesday, September 29th. S. 2628 is awaiting floor action by the Senate. The bills restore the original congressional mandate from1989 when it unanimously passed. It was unanimously strengthened in 1994, and hailed as the strongest free speech law in history on paper. But a decades worth of decisions by an obsessively hostile, activist court with a monopoly on judicial review have turned it into a cruel trap creating far more victims than are helped.

Japanese scientists claim to have found new element

Japanese scientists claim to have discovered a new element, and are considering naming it 'japonium', a researcher said yesterday.
The element, atomic number 113, would be the densest known to man if confirmed by international experts.

Code Names

In an audacious challenge to government secrecy policy, a forthcomingnew book by independent analyst William M. Arkin exposes andexplains thousands of code names of secret government programs andactivities.
"From ABLE ALLY to ZODIAC BEAUCHAMP, this book identifies more than3,000 code names and details the plans and missions for which theystand."The resulting compilation lays bare for the first time much of thesecret infrastructure of defense and intelligence today.
Arkin, who was once a military intelligence officer, is anextraordinarily adept researcher with an enviable network ofmilitary and intelligence contacts. Over the past two decades orso, he has repeatedly expanded the boundaries of public knowledge onnuclear weapons and national security policy. (from SecrecyNews)

Implications of Tort Reform

In the case of one tobacco case I covered in 1988, this was a case called Cipollone in Newark, New Jersey. The only way that we could get to see what the tobacco companies knew and when they knew it was to be in the courtroom when these documents were put into evidence -- depositions and so forth. And without trial lawyers, whatever abuses some of them commit, how would these documents have come out? They are a check and balance on corporate power -- an opportunity for the public to learn via the press, when the press does its job, of the abuses that corporations so often perpetrate.

DeLay Admonished by Ethics Committee

"The promise of political support for a relative of a member goes beyond the boundaries of maintaining party discipline, and should not be used as the basis of a bargain for members to achieve their respective goals," the committee said, saying there was evidence to find Mr. DeLay in violation of House rules.

Inspector General Says E.P.A. Rule Aids Polluters

In a rebuke of the Bush administration, the inspector general of the Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday that legal actions against major polluters had stalled because of the agency's decision to revise rules governing emissions at older coal-fired power plants.
The inspector general, Nikki L. Tinsley, took direct aim at the administration's revision of the New Source Review rule, one of the administration's most prominent - and vilified - environmental initiatives, saying that it makes it easier for power-plant operators to postpone or avoid adding technologies that reduce polluting emissions.

Richard Florida: Strangling an economy?

As of tomorrow, most visitors to the U.S will have to put their index fingers on a glass plate for an electronic scan. A digital photo will be taken, too. This is an expansion of a surveillance system put in place after 9-11. Abroad, there are complaints about civil liberties. But in the new edition of the Harvard Business Review, Professor Richard Florida of George Mason University makes the argument that the tightening of borders threatens to strangle something unique that's made America's economy remarkably strong. Q + A: Host David Brown with Richard Florida. (audio from Marketplace)
"America's Looming Creativity Crisis" by Richard Florida

Global Warming Is Expected to Raise Hurricane Intensity

By the 2080's, seas warmed by rising atmospheric concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases could cause a typical hurricane to intensify about an extra half step on the five-step scale of destructive power, says the study, done on supercomputers at the Commerce Department's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, N.J. And rainfall up to 60 miles from the core would be nearly 20 percent more intense.

Pentagon wants 'uplifting accounts' about Iraq

...the administration is moving to "curtail distribution" of reports that show the situation in Iraq growing worse. In particular, the US Agency of International Development said this week that it will "restrict distribution" of a report by its contractor, Kroll Security International, that showed the number of attacks by insurgents had been increasingly dramatically over the past few months. Attacks have risen to 70 a day, up from 40-50, since Iraqi Prime Minister Alawi took office in June.

Court Strikes Down Key USA PATRIOT Provision

The letters, issued directly by the Department of Justice without any court oversight, can be used to demand sensitive financial and communications information about citizens even if they are not suspected of any crime. When Internet Service Providers receive such demands they are forbidden from revealing their existence to anyone.

Diebold Loses Key Copyright Case

Judge Jeremy Fogel wrote in his decision that "no reasonable copyright holder could have believed that portions of the e-mail archive discussing possible technical problems with Diebold's voting machines were protected by copyright." The judge ruled that Diebold "knowingly materially misrepresented" that the students and ISP had infringed Diebold's copyright.

EFF: Don't Let Intelligence Reforms Take Away Your Rights!

Congress is moving fast on two bills that purport to implement recommendations in the 9/11 Commission Final Report, but they include far more than anyone bargained for. In some provisions, the bills use language lifted directly from the infamous "PATRIOT II" draft legislation leaked to the public last year - including a clause that would allow the government to use secret foreign intelligence warrants and wiretap orders against people unconnected to any international terrorist group or foreign nation. This poses a dire threat to the Fourth Amendment, and it doesn't belong in the 9/11 legislation. Don't let support for intelligence reform become a blank check for law enforcement - tell Congress you oppose this stealth attack on your constitutionally protected rights!

Pre-Debate Post-Debate Summary

Life imitates parody of life. Much like last night's Daily Show segment mocking the idea of pre-written post-debate analysis, here's the Associated Press' post-debate summary. And not a second too soon, what with the debate not starting for another five hours or so. (Thank you Metafilter)
Premature story was pulled from ABC site. Mirrored here:
http://www.trepanning.com/bushkerrydebate.html

Mashups from the party party

dick is a killer
is a killer is a satirical take on the george bush's proposed constitutional amendment regarding marriage.
sunday bloody sunday
the war president singing U2's sunday bloody sunday
imagine...walk on the wild side
this is a mashup of imagine and walk on the wild side, george bush on vocals.
(thanks to Michael)

George W. Bush Meets "Baghdad Bob"

"I will only answer reasonable questions."
"No, I am not scared, and neither should you be."
"Be assured: Baghdad is safe, protected."
"We are in control, they are not in control of anything, they don't even control themselves!"
"The battle is very fierce and God made us victorious."
"They mock me for how I speak. I speak better English than they do."
"I have detailed information about the situation...which completely proves that what they allege are illusions . . . They lie every day."
"I blame Al-Jazeera."

Disturbing adaptation of 'Handmaid's Tale' opens opera season

Regardless of the political climate of the day, the material is meant to be harsh, Atwood told CBC News, because the story's central theme of political and religious oppression is always topical.
"People are very fond of saying, 'It can't happen here.' I think of [the fictional nation of Gilead] as a fundamentalist regime that uses religion as its camouflage – and you've seen those around the world," she said.
"I think it always helps to picture what things would be like if they happened in your own place."

US buys town for terror training

Playas, in the state of New Mexico, will be bought for $5m from the Phelps Dodge mining company, which built it from scratch in the 1970s.
The town, once home to 1,000 people, currently has a population of 50.
Emergency workers will use the site to simulate suicide bombings, anthrax attacks and water-supply poisonings.

Serious problems found at Fannie Mae

The developments surprised financial experts and Wall Street. A little more than a year ago, Freddie Mac Fannie Mae's sister agency and competitor in the multitrillion-dollar home mortgage market disclosed that it had understated profits by some $4.5 billion for 2000-2002 in an effort to smooth earnings. Fannie Mae's accounting then came under close government scrutiny, though its leaders insisted that it had no problems of that type.

Jpeg Virus

The poisoned images were posted to a porn newsgroup at the weekend and were found by Usenet provider Easynews.
Poisoned pictures containing the bug have been widely predicted following the discovery of the Jpeg bug that afflicts more than a dozen Microsoft programs.
To fall victim to the poisoned pictures, users must view it using Windows Explorer.
Once in place, the code then tells an infected machine to contact a server on the web to download another program that lets it be taken over remotely by an attacker.
The partner server that held the remote control code has now been shut down.

Congressional Republicans try to legalize torture

The Republican leadership of Congress is attempting to legalize extraordinary rendition. "Extraordinary rendition" is the euphemism we use for sending terrorism suspects to countries that practice torture for interrogation. As one intelligence official described it in the Washington Post, "We don't kick the sh*t out of them. We send them to other countries so they can kick the sh*t out of them."

Kerry Haters for Kerry

Are you going to vote for John Kerry even though you find him unpleasant, annoying, arrogant, waffling, misguided or just generally unappealing in some profound way? Then you've come to the right place! We're Kerry Haters for Kerry -- perhaps his largest constituency! No need to hide in the Kerry-hating closet anymore while you pretend to everyone that he'll be a great president. Here you are among friends. You can speak freely and honestly. You can admit: 'He's awful! And I'm for him!'

Now on DVD: The Passion of the Bush

Though you can buy the DVD for $14.95, its makers told the right-wing news service WorldNetDaily.com that they plan to distribute 300,000 copies to America's churches. And no wonder. This movie aspires to be "The Passion of the Bush," and it succeeds.
More than any other campaign artifact, it clarifies the hard-knuckles rationale of the president's vote-for-me-or-face-Armageddon re-election message. It transforms the president that the Democrats deride as a "fortunate son" of privilege into a prodigal son with the "moral clarity of an old-fashioned biblical prophet." Its Bush is not merely a sincere man of faith but God's essential and irreplaceable warrior on Earth. The stations of his cross are burnished into cinematic fable: the misspent youth, the hard drinking (a thirst that came from "a throat full of Texas dust"), the fateful 40th-birthday hangover in Colorado Springs, the walk on the beach with Billy Graham. A towheaded child actor bathed in the golden light of an off-camera halo re-enacts the young George comforting his mom after the death of his sister; it's a parable anticipating the future president's miraculous ability to comfort us all after 9/11. An older Bush impersonator is seen rebuffing a sexual come-on from a fellow Bush-Quayle campaign worker hovering by a Xerox machine in 1988; it's an effort to imbue our born-again savior with retroactive chastity. As for the actual president, he is shown with a flag for a backdrop in a split-screen tableau with Jesus. The message isn't subtle: they were separated at birth.

Kyrgyz security agency arrest man accused of trying to sell plutonium

National Security Service agents posing as buyers arrested the man on Sept. 21 after confirming that he was in possession of plutonium-239, agency spokeswoman Chinara Asanova said.
Asanova did not say how much of the radioactive material – which can be used in atomic weapons and as a reactor fuel – was confiscated. But she said it was held in 60 small containers.

After Four Hurricanes, Ranchers Paint Phone Numbers on Horses

"The number is that if they get out on the roads or the highways, they can identify them and call the number to get them picked up or if there's a death to notify the owner that there's been a problem," Wallace said.

Kucinich Auctions Off Debt on eBay

The four items, grouped under the seller name “kucinich_winddown,” range from a plush Beanie Baby doll to a seed packet to two passes to the Democratic National Convention. Each listing notes that it was paid for by Kucinich for President Inc. and that “funds paid for this item will be counted as a political contribution to Kucinich for President, Inc., and thus are subject to contribution limits and FEC reporting requirements.” A spokesman said the auctions will help retire the campaign’s $170,000 debt.

Diebold Machines Discovered in a Bar and on the Street

Members of the State Board of Elections were surprised to hear reports Tuesday that Diebold touchscreen voting machines similar to those used in Maryland were found abandoned recently on a street and in a bar in Baltimore.
...Asked about the possible origin of the machine, Torre said, "You can buy one on eBay."

Pentagon announces billion-dollar plan to build five Afghan army bases

The Pentagon notified Congress Tuesday of plans to build five bases in Afghanistan for the Afghan National Army at a cost of up to one billion dollars.
The Pentagon said Afghanistan had requested the bases be built for the Afghan army's Central Corps in Kabul and four regional commands planned in Gardez, Kandahar, Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif.

Open Debates

Presidential debates were run by the civic-minded and non-partisan League of Women Voters until 1988, when the national Republican and Democratic parties seized control of the debates by establishing the bi-partisan, corporate-sponsored Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). Posing as a nonpartisan institution committed to voter education, the CPD has continually and deceptively run the debates in the interest of the national Republican and Democratic parties, not the American people.
Every four years, negotiators for the Republican and Democratic nominees draft secret debate contracts called Memoranda of Understanding that dictate precisely how the debates will be structured; co-chaired by the former heads of the Republican and Democratic parties, the CPD obediently implements the contracts, shielding the major party candidates from public criticism.
Such deceptive major party control severely harms our democracy. Candidates that voters want to see are often excluded; issues the American people want to hear about are often ignored; the debates have been turned into a series of glorified bipartisan news conferences, in which the candidates exchange memorized soundbites; and debate viewership has plummeted, with twenty-five million fewer people watching the 2000 presidential debates than watching the 1992 presidential debates. Walter Cronkite called CPD-sponsored presidential debates an “unconscionable fraud.”

Why We Cannot Win

Terrorising free speech. Al Lorentz is a reserve Non-Commissioned Officer currently serving in Iraq. His blazingly clear, succinct article on Iraq, titled "Why we cannot win", has raged over the wires (also at MeFi) since it was published on LewRockwell.com. Now, the military chain of command is considering charging Al with violation of Article 134 for making a statement with the intent to promote disloyalty or disaffection toward the U.S. by any member of the Armed forces. The military is also considering charging Al with violation of 1344.10, the conduct of partisan political activity, and violation of Standards of Conduct for unauthorized use of Government assets to create and email stories. (from MetaFilter.com)

Prime Minister Blair Apologizes for WMD Claim

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has flatly acknowledged that his main argument for taking a reluctant country to war — Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction — has turned out to be wrong.
Blair yesterday offered Labour party members an apology for the error in a bid to heal deep divisions over the war before a general election expected next year. But he refused to apologize for taking part in the U.S.-led invasion, even as a heckler disrupted his speech by shouting: "You've got blood on your hands."
"The evidence about Saddam having actual biological and chemical weapons ... has turned out to be wrong," Blair told delegates at the Labour party convention in Brighton, south of London.
"The problem is, I can apologize for the information that turned out to be wrong but I can't, sincerely at least, apologize for removing Saddam," he said. "The world is a better place with Saddam in prison."

Plan to Have CIA Covertly Rig the Iraqi Election - Deemed Bad Idea

Time Magazine reports that the Bush administration had had a plan to use the Central Intelligence Agency to funnel money to candidates it favored in the forthcoming Iraqi elections. The rationale given was that Iran was bankrolling its own candidates. This plan was apparently derailed in part by the intervention of Democratic Minority Leader in the House, Nancy Pelosi, who remonstrated with National Security Adviser Condaleeza Rice about it.

The article How Much US Help? from TIME Magazine

2004 MacArthur "Genius Awards" Announced

The MacArthur Fellows Program underscores the importance of the creative individual in society. Fellows are selected for their originality, creativity, and the potential to do more in the future. Candidates are nominated, evaluated, and selected through a rigorous and confidential process. No one may apply for the awards, nor are any interviews conducted.
This week, each new recipient first learned of being named a MacArthur Fellow during a phone call from the Foundation. “The call can be life-changing, coming as it does out of the blue and offering highly creative women and men the gift of time and the unfettered opportunity to explore, create, and contribute,” said Jonathan F. Fanton, president of the MacArthur Foundation. (From Press Release)

Congresswoman Wants Probe of Army's Re-enlistment Threats

Democratic Rep. Diana Degette, in a letter to House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., asked him to look into whether the "White House or civilian Pentagon officials are pressuring the military to use coercive tactics to get soldiers to re-enlist in order to maintain the force levels necessary to fight the war in Iraq and war on terror."

The Ins and Outs Of Voter Registration

Requirements under Title III of HAVA set national standards for what the types of identification voters (especially first-time voters and those who do not include some form of ID when registering by mail) need to bring to the polls. HAVA mandates that states require first-time voters who registered by mail to show one of a number of forms of ID when they vote at the polls, if they did not include verification when registering. HAVA ID requirements also extend to those that have not previously voted in election for federal office in the state or in the jurisdiction.
Acceptable forms of ID include:
current and valid photo identification (government issued photo ID) or
a copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows the name and address of the voter.

Different states will have different requirements.
Check the online registration site: YOUR VOTE MATTERS for more details.

Daily Show's 'stoned slackers'? Not quite

The folks at Comedy Central were annoyed when Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly kept referring to "The Daily Show" audience as "stoned slackers."
So they did a little research. And guess whose audience is more educated?
Viewers of Jon Stewart's show are more likely to have completed four years of college than people who watch "The O'Reilly Factor," according to Nielsen Media Research.

On Roth's "Plot Against America"

"Fear presides over these memories, a perpetual fear." He is one of America's great novelists, but you don't expect Philip Roth to be barreling up the best-seller list with a book that hasn't even been published yet. And yet "The Plot Against America" is in the top 3 at amazon.com. It spins a what-if scenario in which the isolationist and anti-Semitic hero Charles Lindbergh runs for president as a Republican in 1940 and defeats F.D.R. "Keep America Out of the Jewish War", reads a button worn by Lindbergh supporters rallying at Madison Square Garden. And so he does: he signs nonaggression pacts with Germany and Japan that will keep America at peace while the rest of the world burns. The Lindbergh administration hatches a nice plan to prod assimilation of the Jews. Innocuously called Just Folks, it's a relocation program for urban Jews, administered by an Office of American Absorption fronted by an obliging and pompous rabbi of radio celebrity. The teenage Roth character is shipped off to a Kentucky tobacco farm, to finally live among Christians. The book is about American Fascism, but while Roth is no fan of President Bush ("a man unfit to run a hardware store let alone a nation like this one"), he points out that he conceived this book (LATimes registration: sparklebottom/sparklebottom) in December 2000, and that it would be "a mistake" to read it "as a roman à clef to the present moment in America." (from MetaFilter.com)

FDA to Approve Phychedelics?

Psychedelic drugs are inching their way slowly but surely toward prescription status in the United States, thanks to a group of persistent scientists who believe drugs like ecstasy and psilocybin can help people with terminal cancer, obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, to name just a few.
The Heffter Research Institute, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies and others have managed to persuade the Food and Drug Administration to approve a handful of clinical trials using psychedelics. The movement seems to be gaining ground in recent years. Since 2001, the FDA and the Drug Enforcement Administration have given the go-ahead to three clinical trials testing psychedelics on symptomatic patients, and several more are on deck.

Pray, Vote, Pray T-shirt

Considering the crucial importance of this years' election, we must know and vote as God guides! This scriptural t-shirt offers a biblical three-step plan to do just that:
1) PRAY about the candidates. Second Chronicles 7:14 promises if we will humble ourselves, pray and seek the Lord's face and turn from our wicked ways then God will hear from heaven and will forgive our sins and heal our land.
2) VOTE for those God leads you to support, because as Edmond Burke so correctly put it, "All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for enough good men to do nothing."
3) PRAY for our next elected leaders (1 Timothy 2:2).

[remember to open your eyes during the "vote" part. -- ed.]

Homeland Security HQ

On paper, DHS is a colossus, and I had naively expected that its headquarters would be equally impressive. But at first, I couldn't even find Building 3. I wandered down the main road, past the heavy hydraulic vehicle barriers, no-trespassing notices, cameras, and some landscapers making a racket with a leaf-blower. ...The little alley was barely wide enough for a car, much less a Cabinet secretary's motorcade, and at the end of it was a dull gray steel door, such as you might see at the side entrance of a warehouse or a seedy after-hours club. A small plaque was affixed to the unpainted wall: The Department of Homeland Security.
Hamstrung by special interests, staffed with B-team political appointees, and crippled by a lack of funding and political support, DHS is a premier example of how the administration's misplaced priorities—and its obsession with Iraq—have come at the direct expense of homeland security.

DC Children's Charity Spends Less Than 1% of Donations on Kids

But tax and spending records of the Capital Athletic Foundation obtained by The Washington Post show that less than 1 percent of its revenue has been spent on sports-related programs for youths.
Instead, the documents show that Jack Abramoff, one of Washington's high-powered Republican lobbyists, has repeatedly channeled money from corporate clients into the foundation and spent the overwhelming portion of its money on pet projects having little to do with the advertised sportsmanship programs, including political causes, a short-lived religious school and an overseas golf trip.

Leaked Report: Australian Plans to Bury Greenhouse Gases a Fantasy

A report by leading energy consultants has dismissed plans by the Australian government to promote the burying of greenhouse gases as the solution to climate change and has labelled the idea as an expensive and technologically uncertain strategy.
''Carbon capture and storage (CCS) power station technology systems are not yet operating on a commercial scale anywhere in the world,'' points out the report, written by a team headed by respected energy policy analyst Hugh Saddler.

Reports Warned Bush Two Months Before Invasion

The assessments, publicised on Monday, predicted that a US-led invasion of Iraq would increase support for political Islam and would result in a deeply divided Iraqi society prone to violent internal conflict.
One of the reports also warned of a possible insurgency against the new Iraqi government or US-led forces, saying that rogue elements from Saddam Hussein's government could work with existing terrorist groups or act independently to wage guerilla warfare.
The assessments also said a war would increase sympathy across the Islamic world for some terrorist objectives, at least in the short term, the officials said.

123,000 Hours of Audio Still Untranslated by FBI

Three years after the 11 September attacks, the FBI has more than 123,000 hours of audio intercepts that it has not translated, the report said.
The report is an edited summary of a classified audit completed in July for the Justice Department.

Tobacco on Trial

The news media have devoted scant coverage to the $280 billion federal lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice against tobacco companies, but anti-tobacco activists are filling the gap with a weblog that offers blow-by-blow analysis of the trial and courtroom testimony.

Ohio rejects 1000s of voter registration applications due to paper weight

When voter registration applications were maintained for years and used to verify signatures for petitions a requirement that the cards be on 80 lb. stock paper was adopted in Ohio, that law remains on the books. Since the applications are now scanned for preservation, there is no current need to continue that requirement.
...In the final days before the registration deadline Ken Blackwell, Ohio Secretary of State, has ordered the local election boards to send out new applications to applicants who have submitted registrations on the wrong paper.
...The local boards have been bombarded with applications and will be unable to comply with Blackwell's order before the deadline to register to vote for this November's election.

1964 CIA in Chile

For the first time in forty years, CIA and White House documents on covert political intervention in the 1964 Chilean election were declassified yesterday. The documents, which detail Washington's political and operational decisions on covert action "directed at the defeat of Salvador Allende" by "increasing the organizational efficiency and campaigning ability of the Christian Democratic Party," provide a comprehensive historical record of U.S. efforts to sway the election to candidate Eduardo Frei between January and September 1964.

CORRECTION - Photo of 1954 Picture of Home Computer was Faked

All right, I got schnookered by that one. Funny prank, though.
Thanks again to Snopes.com for telling it straight. --ed.

REGISTER TO VOTE SECURELY

This is the online registration site linked to from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. --ed.

Rumsfeld Set to Music

The Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has a playful, evasive manner of speech. Some call this spin, others poetry. When musician Phil Kline ran across a collection of Rumsfeld quotes, he was so taken with the rhetoric that he composed music to accompany the text. In his “Three Rumsfeld Songs,” Kline sets remarks made by the Defense Secretary to surprisingly beautiful music. Produced by David Krasnow. (from Studio360.org)

Taking the Bull By the Horns - and Stonewalling

"After a case of mad cow disease surfaced in Washington State late last year, federal regulators vowed to move swiftly to adopt rules to reduce the risks of further problems. ... But a few weeks ago, the Food and Drug Administration, after heavy lobbying from the beef and feed industries, took steps to delay - and ... possibly kill" new animal feed regulations. Shortly after the FDA announcement, "the National Cattlemen's Beef Association broke its nonpartisan tradition and endorsed President Bush." Regulatory delays are common before elections, but some say "the tightness in the polls and the strong industry ties to the White House" have worsened the trend this year. Source: New York Times, September 27, 2004 (PRWatch.org)

Republicans Admit Mailing Campaign Literature Saying Liberals Will Ban the Bible

The mailings include images of the Bible labeled "banned" and of a gay marriage proposal labeled "allowed." A mailing to Arkansas residents warns: "This will be Arkansas if you don't vote." A similar mailing was sent to West Virginians.

Iraqi Newspaper Identifies Insurgent Groups

There are three main Sunni groups, and five separate factions within them; two Baathist groups; and two Shiite insurgent organizations, according to a recent issue of the Baghdad al-Zawra in Arabic -- a weekly published by the Iraqi Journalists Association and translated into English by the CIA.
The groups are comprised of individual cells that are only loosely affiliated, a supposition endorsed by military intelligence officials in interviews with United Press International.
The majority of these groups do not know their leadership, the sources of their financing, or who provides them with weapons, the Sunday's report stated.
A senior U.S. commander in Iraq agreed with that assessment.

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

Everyone agrees that the domestic mission of the NGA has increased dramatically in the wake of Sept. 11, even though laws and carefully crafted regulations are in place to prevent government surveillance aimed at Americans.
The agency is not interested in information on U.S. citizens, stresses Bert Beaulieu, the office director. "We couldn't care less about individuals and people and companies," he said.
But that's not good enough for Steven Aftergood, a secrecy expert who oversees a project on government secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists. "What it all boils down to is 'Trust us. Our intentions are good,'" he said.

One Shot or Two - Kalashnikov Vodka

At 82 percent proof, the drink may prove as powerful as the AK-47 assault rifle that Lieutenant General Mikhail Kalashnikov conceived during World War 2 when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union."I've always wanted to improve and expand on the good name of my weapon by doing good things," said Kalashnikov, now 82.

Apple v Apple: When Computers and Music Collide

In 1981, the two companies agreed to share the name. Apple Corps first sued in 1991, after the computer company introduced MIDI, which allows computers and synthesizers to work together to compose and record music. Apple Computers settled for $26.5 million. A judge recently ruled that the case would be tried in England. There are rumors that another settlement may be in the works, and a possible deal to make the Beatles' music available online legally for the first time. Joel Rose, of member station WHYY, reports. (NPR audio)

Jimmy Carter Fears Florida Vote Trouble

"A fumbling attempt has been made recently to disqualify 22,000 African Americans (likely Democrats), but only 61 Hispanics (likely Republicans), as alleged felons."
Mr Carter said Florida Governor Jeb Bush - brother of the president - had "taken no steps to correct these departures from principles of fair and equal treatment or to prevent them in the future".