» Corn: Limit Up

Bloomberg:

Corn rose the most allowed by the Chicago Board of Trade as concerns mounted that food costs will climb after the latest U.S. government forecasts on supplies and acreage. Soybeans and wheat also jumped.

Source

» Japan: Radiation Certificates Required to Enter Some Hospitals and Shelters

Mainichi:

At the entrance of a sports gymnasium in Fukushima city earlier this month, a doctor wearing a white hat, mask and gloves was seen holding a radiation monitor over the hands of a visiting resident.

The doctor then held it over the person’s forehead, abdomen and back. The resident was then asked to raise their heels to check the back of the shoes at the end of the procedure to get a reading on the monitor.

After the series of problems at one of the country’s largest nuclear power plant, these radiation screenings have been conducted at the entrance of shelters in Fukushima Prefecture since March 13, two days after the devastating quake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. They are intended to check if a resident has been exposed to radiation.

“Certificates” are then issued by the doctors to those who have been declared free of any abnormality.

But these certificates have come to be an unexpected function in the community that has become nervous about anything radioactive. Some shelters have started demanding that certificates be presented before any residents evacuating from the nuclear disaster are admitted.

Some officials in the central government, however, are raising their eyebrows about such documentation while demand for them appears to be growing.

Research Credit: EB

Source

» Secret X-37B Space Plane Spotted Again by Amateur Skywatchers

Space:

After an intense search, a crew of amateur satellite sleuths has spotted the U.S. Air Force’s second X-37B space plane– a robotic spacecraft that launched into orbit March 5.

The mission of the unmanned X-37B space plane, which is known officially as the Orbital Test Vehicle 2 (OTV-2), is shrouded in secrecy. The Boeing-built spacecraft is believed to be involved in reconnaissance— perhaps testing powerful sensors for a new generation of spy satellites. It looks much like a small version of NASA’s space shuttles and blasted off from the Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

While its mission is secret, the OTV-2 itself has attracted the eyes of dedicated skywatchers hoping to spot it in orbit just as they saw its predecessor– the first X-37B spacecraft, OTV-1 – during the OTV-1′s months-long flight last year.

A new video, recorded by amateur Canadian skywatcher Kevin Fetterof Brockville, Ontario, shows the OTV-2 as a bright point of light soaring across the night sky.

Fetter was successful in getting video of the OTV-2 gliding past the binary star Eta Serpentis on March 24. The OTV-2 and the star can easily be seen with the naked eye, shining at a magnitude 3 on the scale astronomers use to measure the brightness of sky objects (with the lowest numbers representing the greatest brightness).

Source

» Rodger Lynn Dickey

The Taos News:

Taos County Sheriff’s Office stated Tuesday (March 22) that they have identified the body found in the Río Grande Gorge last Friday (March 18) as belonging to a nuclear scientist from Washington state.

Undersheriff Ed Romero said that Rodger Lynn Dickey, 56, died after he jumped from the Gorge Bridge. Dickey, a scientist working on contract with Sandía Laboratory, was originally from Richland, Wash.

Related:Several Other Dead Nuclear Scientists

Source

» Radiation in Water at Fukushima Daiichi Reactor 2: Ten Million Times Normal

Kyodo:

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said early Monday the concentration of radioactive substances of the puddle was 100,000 times higher than that usually measured in water in a reactor core, correcting its earlier analysis of 10 million times higher.

—End Update—

Update: And Now…“The number is not credible”

Wow. Who would believe anything that these goons say at this point?

Via:AP:

Emergency workers struggling to pump contaminated water from Japan’s stricken nuclear complex fled from one of the troubled reactors Sunday after reporting a huge increase in radioactivity— a spike that officials later apologetically said was inaccurate.

The apology came after employees fled the complex’s Unit 2 reactor when a reading showed radiation levels had reached 10 million times higher than normal in the reactor’s cooling system. Officials said they were so high that the worker taking the measurements had withdrawn before taking a second reading.

On Sunday night, though, plant operators said that while the water was contaminated with radiation, the extremely high reading was a mistake.

“The number is not credible,” said Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman Takashi Kurita.“We are very sorry.”

He said officials were taking another sample to get accurate levels, but did not know when the results would be announced.

—End Update—

Via:Los Angeles Times / AP:

The radioactivity in water in one unit of a hobbled nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan has tested 10 million times higher than normal, the plant’s operator said Sunday.

Leaked water in Unit 2 of the Fukushima Daiichi plant measured 10 million times higher than usual radioactivity levels when the reactor is operating normally, Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman Takashi Kurita told reporters in Tokyo.

Radioactivity in the air in Unit 2 measured at 1,000 millisieverts per hour— four times higher than the occupational limit of 250 millisieverts set by the government, he said.

The readings came as workers grappled with how to remove and store the highly radioactive water pooling in four troubled units at the plant.

The discovery of puddles with radiation levels 10,000 times the norm sparked a temporary evacuation of the plant on Thursday. Two workers who stepped into the water were hospitalized with possible burns.

The development set back feverish efforts to start up a crucial cooling system knocked out in a massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami, but has helped experts get closer to determining the source of the dangerous leak.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, speaking Sunday on TV talk shows, said the radioactive water is“almost certainly” seeping from a reactor core.

On Saturday, the utility admitted that it had failed to adequately warn workers about dangerous radioactive water at the plant.

More:CNN:

Radiation levels in pooled water tested in the No. 2 nuclear reactor’s turbine building at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant are 10 million times above normal, utility company and government officials said Sunday.

Hidehiko Nishiyama, an official with Japan’s nuclear and industrial safety agency, said the surface water showed 1,000 millisieverts of radiation. By comparison, an individual in a developed country is naturally exposed to 3 millisieverts per year, though Japan’s health ministry has set a 250 millisievert per year cumulative limit before workers must leave the plant.

The 10-million-times normal reading applies to radioactive iodine-134 found in the No. 2 building’s pooled water, according to the nuclear safety agency. This isotope loses half its radioactive atoms every 53 minutes, compared to a half-life of every eight days for radioactive iodine-131 that has also been detected in recent days.

This exponentially dwindling amount of radiation means, according to Nishiyama, that it’s unlikely that sealife— and, several steps down the line, humans who might eat once contaminated seafood— will suffer greatly from the iodine-134 exposure.

Source

» Tata to Help Sun Catalytix Commercialize Revolutionary Energy Conversion Technology

Livemint:

In the first such effort, Tata group chairman Ratan Tata has signed on a leading scientist from the globally renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to commercialize cutting-edge research that promises to produce cheap power from water.

Daniel Nocera, a professor of chemistry and energy, and his group of elite scientists at MIT attracted attention from Tata when he heard they had found a way towards one of science’s holy grails—to imitate photosynthesis, the process by which plants breathe, and produce power while doing so.

…

As he did with the Nano small car and the Swach non-electric water purifier, Tata hopes Nocera’s solution will be the latest in the group’s effort to serve the “bottom of the pyramid” and turn a profit while doing so, said a Tata group executive who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Tata’s hope is that Nocera’s “personalized energy” can produce a stand-alone, mini-power plant, perhaps a refrigerator-sized box, that could reinvent rural electricity supply and bring power to about three billion people worldwide who don’t have it.

Nocera said MIT’s technique has seen more than a year of preliminary research and hopes to produce enough electricity from a bottle-and-half of water, however dirty, to power a small home.

“We hope to have a prototype in a year-and-a-half,” said Nocera, whose other backers include Bob Metcalfe, co-inventor of the Ethernet and a former director of the US’ Central Intelligence Agency.

Source

» Toyota Tells U.S. Plants‘Prepare to Shut Down’

CNN:

Toyota’s U.S. manufacturing arm is preparing for a possible shutdown because of parts shortages from Japan, a Toyota spokesman said. Word has gone out to all 13 of Toyota’s factories in the United States, Canada and Mexico. This does not mean that the plants will stop working, Toyota spokesman Mike Goss said, but that they should be ready in case the need arises.

Source

» Second ATF Agent Talks About Sanctioned Gun Trafficking to Mexican Drug Cartels

CBS:

South of El Paso, Texas, on Mexico’s side of the border, lies Juarez– the most dangerous city in the world. CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports ATF Special Agent Rene Jaquez has been stationed there for the past year, trying to keep U.S. guns from being trafficked into Mexico.

“That’s what we do as an agency,” Jaquez said.“ATF’s primary mission is to make sure that we curtail gun trafficking.”

That’s why Jaquez tells CBS News he was so alarmed to hear his own agency may have done the opposite: encouraged U.S. gun dealers to sell to suspected traffickers for Mexico’s drug cartels. Apparently, ATF hoped that letting weapons“walk” onto the street– to see where they’d end up– would help them take down a cartel.

Jaquez is so opposed to the strategy, he’s speaking out.“You don’t let guns walk. I’ve never let a gun walk.”

Yet ATF agents told us they were ordered to let thousands of weapons walk. Two of them, assault rifles, were later found at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in Arizona last December. Another gunrunning suspect under ATF surveillance was linked to the shooting of Customs Agent Jaime Zapata. And sources say many more“walked” weapons turned up at Mexican crime scenes.

Jaquez said,“I think this incidence is probably one of the darkest days in ATF’s history.”

But ATF wasn’t working alone on the case known as“Fast and Furious.” Documents show ATF had conference calls with“DHS” (Homeland Security).“USMS” (U.S. Marshals) and DEA. An“ICE,” or Customs agent, was on ATF’s Fast and Furious team. They were advised by an“AUSA,” or Assistant U.S. Attorney under the Justice Department.

Related:

ATF Let Hundreds of U.S. Weapons Fall into Hands of Suspected Mexican Gunrunners

ATF Memo On Operation That Allowed Weapons Shipments To Mexican Drug Cartels: Fortunately, Coverage By Mainstream Media,“Seems To Have Fizzled”

Source

» IBM Bribes in Asia

Wall Street Journal:

U.S. regulators accused International Business Machines Corp. of a decade-long campaign of bribery in Asia, saying employees handed over shopping bags stuffed with cash in South Korea and arranged junkets for government officials in China in exchange for millions of dollars in contracts.

The Armonk, N.Y., technology giant agreed to pay $10 million to settle the civil charges, which allege“widespread” payment of bribes by more than 100 employees of IBM subsidiaries and a joint venture from 1998 to 2009. In exchange for the payments, the Securities and Exchange Commission said, IBM received contracts for computer gear.

Source

» As U.S. Regime Fights Three Wars, Obama Pushes F-18 Fighter Jets on Brazil

Reuters:

President Barack Obama made a strong pitch for the Boeing F-18 jet fighter in a meeting with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, but she did not indicate if her government had decided to buy the U.S.-made plane, the White House said on Sunday.

“The F-18 issue did come up. President Rousseff raised it,” White House aide Dan Restrepo told reporters in Rio de Janeiro, referring to the leaders’ bilateral meeting in Brasilia on Saturday that kicked off Obama’s five-day Latin American tour.

Brazil is weighing a multi-billion dollar bid to modernize its air force, and Obama has made promoting exports to boost U.S. jobs back home a central part of his trip to Brazil, Chile and El Salvador.

“President Obama underscored that the F-18 is the best plane on offer… in that the technology transfer package… is equivalent to the packages that are offered to partners and allies around the world,” said Restrepo, Obama’s top Latin American adviser.

Research Credit: anothernut

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» War Du Jour: Libya

CNN:

Hours after French, British and American military forces unleashed cruise missiles and fighter jets, a defiant Moammar Gadhafi said Libya will fight back against undeserved“naked aggression.”

A coalition that includes Canada and Italy made good Saturday on international warnings to Gadhafi, hammering Libyan military positions in the first phase of an operation that will include enforcement of a no-fly zone.

More than 110 Tomahawk missiles fired from American and British ships and submarines hit about 20 Libyan air and missile defense targets in western portions of the country, U.S. Vice Adm. William Gortney said at a Pentagon briefing.

The U.S. will conduct a damage assessment of the sites, which include SA-5 missiles and communications facilities. A senior U.S. military official, who was not authorized to speak on the record, said the cruise missiles, which fly close to the ground or sea at about 550 miles per hour, landed near Misrata and Tripoli, the capital and Gadhafi’s stronghold.

Source

» JAPAN WEIGHS NEED TO BURY NUCLEAR PLANT

Reuters:

Japanese engineers conceded on Friday that burying a crippled nuclear plant in sand and concrete may be a last resort to prevent a catastrophic radiation release, the method used to seal huge leakages fromChernobylin 1986.

But they still hoped to solve the crisis by fixing a power cable to two reactors by Saturday to restart water pumps needed to cool overheating nuclear fuel rods. Workers also sprayed water on the No.3 reactor, the most critical of the plant’s six.

It was the first time the facility operator had acknowledged burying the sprawling complex was possible, a sign that piecemeal actions such as dumping water from military helicopters or scrambling to restart cooling pumps may not work.

“It is not impossible to encase the reactors in concrete. But our priority right now is to try and cool them down first,” an official from the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, told a news conference.

Source

» GM Closing Pickup Plant for Lack of Japanese Parts

USA Today:

General Motors plans to halt production Monday of the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon compact pickups made at Shreveport, La., because some parts come from Japan and aren’t available now.

The GM move is the first production halt directly linked to the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that wiped out portions of the northeast coast of Japan.

“We have suspended production at Shreveport for next week due to parts shortages due to the crisis in Japan. We will resume operations as soon as we can,” GM manufacturing spokesman Chris Lee tells Drive On. He wouldn’t identify the parts involved. Japanese companies often are the sole suppliers of electronics part for many vehicles.

Source

» Steepest Rise in Food Prices in 36 Years

AP:

Wholesale prices jumped last month by the most in nearly two years due to higher energy costs and the steepest rise in food prices in 36 years. Excluding those volatile categories, inflation was tame.

The Labor Department said Wednesday that the Producer Price Index rose a seasonally adjusted 1.6 percent in February— double the 0.8 percent rise in the previous month. Outside of food and energy costs, the core index ticked up 0.2 percent, less than January’s 0.5 percent rise.

Food prices soared 3.9 percent last month, the biggest gain since November 1974. Most of that increase was due to a sharp rise in vegetable costs, which increased nearly 50 percent. That was the most in almost a year. Meat and dairy products also rose.

Source

» Tokyo: Panic Buying, Evacuations

Reuters:

Panic swept Tokyo on Tuesday after a rise in radioactive levels around an earthquake-hit nuclear power plant north of the city, causing some to leave the capital and others to stock up on food and supplies.

Several embassies advised staff and citizens to leave affected areas, tourists cut short vacations and multinational companies either urged staff to leave or said they were considering plans to move outside Tokyo where low levels of radiation have been detected.

Source

» JAPAN: THREE NUCLEAR REACTORS MAY BE MELTING DOWN

CNN:

A blast at a nuclear reactor and a series of problems at a neighboring one led to a brief spike in radiation levels outside Japan’s troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant Monday, triggering even greater fears that dangerous radiation could add to the country’s devastation.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said he was not ruling out the possibility of a meltdown at all three troubled reactors at the plant.

The blast— caused by a buildup of hydrogen— also damaged the cooling system at reactor No. 2, starting a new round of problems for officials trying to contain the damage from Friday’s earthquake and tsunami.

The explosion at Fukushima Daiichi’s reactor No. 3 Monday morning injured 11 people. It was powerful enough to blow the roof and walls off a building, the Kyodo news agency reported.

More: Unit Three Uses More Toxic‘MOX’ Fuel

Via:Cnet:

The fuel used in the Japanese nuclear reactor where an explosion occurred today is more volatile and toxic than the fuel used in the other reactors there, a Japanese nuclear expert warned.

At a press conference in Tokyo, Masashi Goto, who worked for Toshiba as a reactor researcher and designer, said the mixed oxide (MOX) fuel used in unit 3 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant contains plutonium, which is much more toxic than the fuel used in the other reactors.

MOX fuel is a mixture of uranium and plutonium reprocessed from spent uranium, and is sometimes involved in the disposal of weapons-grade plutonium.

Goto added that the MOX also has a lower melting point than the other fuels. The Fukushima facility began using MOX fuel last September, becoming the third plant in Japan to do so.

Research Credit: GP

Source

» Yemen: Anti-Government Protesters May Have Been Hit with Nerve Gas

The Australian:

Earlier reports indicated that the gas used was tear gas, but doctors who have been treating the wounded refuted that claim today.

“The material in this gas makes people convulse for hours. It paralyses them. They couldn’t move at all. We tried to give them oxygen but it didn’t work,” said Amaar Nujaim, a field doctor who works for Islamic Relief.

“We are seeing symptoms in the patient’s nerves, not in their respiratory systems. I’m 90 per cent sure its nerve gas and not tear gas that was used,” said Sami Zaid, a doctor at the Science and Technology Hospital in Sanaa.

Mohammad Al-Sheikh, a pathologist at the same hospital, said that some of the victims had lost their muscular control and were forced to wear diapers.

“We have never seen tear gas cause these symptoms. We fear it may be a dangerous gas that is internationally forbidden,” Al-Sheikh said.

Source

» Hard Times Generation: Homeless Kids

CBS / 60 Minutes:

The government considers a family of four to be impoverished if they take in less than $22,000 a year. Based on that standard, and government projections of unemployment, it is estimated the poverty rate for kids in this country will soon hit 25 percent. Those children would be the largest American generation to be raised in hard times since the Great Depression.

Research Credit: ottilie

Source

» NATO Starts 24/7 Surveillance of Libyan Airspace

CNN:

NATO has launched around-the-clock surveillance flights of Libya as it considers various options for dealing with escalating violence in the war-torn country, America’s ambassador to the organization told reporters Monday.

Representatives of key Western powers also highlighted the possibility of establishing a no-fly zone in Libya— part of growing campaign to break strongman Moammar Gadhafi’s grip on power.

Source

» Private Contractor Detains Drivers on Florida Turnpike if They Pay a Toll with a $50 or $100 Bill

Courthouse News Service:

A federal class action claims Florida and a private contractor detain drivers on the Florida Turnpike if they pay a toll with a $50 or $100 bill, and won’t let them go until they cough up personal information. The class claims the detentions are dangerous and unconstitutional, and that sometimes drivers and passengers are detained and interrogated for paying tolls with bills as small as $5.

The class action in Tampa also names collections company Faneuil as a defendant. Florida hired Faneuil to provide toll collectors and supervisors on its toll roads.

Lead plaintiff Joel Chandler claims the state and Faneuil violate the Constitution by authorizing toll collectors, at their discretion, to imprison motorists and their passengers and hold them until they divulge personal information, some of which is written up on“Bill Detection Reports.”

…

“The personal information recorded by toll collectors includes, but is not limited to the vehicle make, model, color, tag number and state of issuance. Other information such as the vehicle occupants’ race, gender, and relative age has also been recorded.” The class adds:“Toll collectors have required motorists to provide additional personal information, including drivers license information in exchange for their release.”

Toll collectors trapped motorists at toll booths by holding the barrier down, even though the drivers had enough money to pay the toll.

Source

» Jeffrey Epstein: Billionaire Pedophile Kept Secret Journal Which Listed Under-Aged Victims, Celebrity Guests He‘Entertained’

Telegraph:

The Duke of York’s billionaire paedophile friend kept a secret journal, described as “The Holy Grail” by lawyers, which listed his alleged under-aged victims and the celebrity guests he entertained at his Florida mansion.

Jeffrey Epstein used the“black book” to log contact details of the girls that gave massages to him and his friends and those of his powerful and famous associates, such as Bill Clinton and Donald Trump.

A servant at the£4 million manor in Palm Beach, where Prince Andrew enjoyed daily massages during several stays, stole the journal and initially kept it secret from investigators. He is now in prison after attempting to sell it for $50,000 (£31,000).

Epstein, 58, was accused of sex offences by more than 20 under-aged girls. They alleged that after being recruited as masseuses by aides including Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of the late tycoon Robert, they were seriously assaulted and then paid hundreds of dollars.

The billionaire financier, who attended The Queen’s birthday party in 2000, was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2008, having secured a plea bargain that prevented full criminal trials. He later settled more than a dozen multi-million dollar civil lawsuits from his alleged victims out of court.

The previously undisclosed journal, however,“detailed the full scope and the extent of Epstein’s involvement with underage girls”, according to lawyers for several alleged victims.

It contained the names of girls that Epstein allegedly abused in“Michigan, California, West Palm Beach, New York, New Mexico, and Paris”, according to court papers.

It also listed extensive contact details for Epstein’s house guests, who had “no connection whatsoever” with alleged offences, including Mr Clinton, the former US President, and Mr Trump, the famous businessman.

It could not be confirmed last night whether the book contained contact details for the Duke. One lawyer for Epstein’s alleged victims said: “I would bet he is, because he is that good a friend”.

There is no suggestion that the Duke did anything wrong. However he has this week faced a string of questions about his judgment due to his association with a convicted child sex offender.

Epstein kept 21 different phone numbers for Mr Clinton, including some for his assistant and also“Clinton’s personal numbers”, the court papers state.

Alfredo Rodriguez, a servant who“saw numerous underage girls coming into Epstein’s mansion for purported ‘massages’,” took the journal and did not mention it to investigators.

“Because of the importance of the information in the journal to the civil cases, Mr Rodriguez called it ‘The Holy Grail’,” the court documents state.

He attempted to sell the book to lawyers for $50,000 (£31,000) in August 2009– by which time Epstein had already been sentenced and released from jail.

The lawyers contacted the FBI, who sent an undercover agent to buy the book from Rodriguez. He was then arrested and charged with obstruction of justice.

Rodriguez, who said in sworn testimony that he was terrified of Miss Maxwell, also said he took the book as an“insurance policy” to prevent Epstein making him “disappear”.

He was sentenced to 18 months in prison– the same punishment Epstein received for his sex offences – in June last year. His wife, Patricia Dunn, told The Daily Telegraph that he was “sorry” for his error.

Dave Lee Brannon, an Assistant Public Defender who represented Rodriguez, said:“If this book had been produced when requested, Mr Epstein’s sentence may have been significantly different.”

Details of the journal emerged in a lawsuit brought in Florida by Epstein against Brad Edwards, a lawyer representing several alleged victims.

Epstein alleges Edwards was linked to a“Ponzi scheme” run by a colleague, which lured investors by falsely claiming Epstein had agreed to settle sex-offence lawsuits for hundreds of millions of dollars.

Edwards rejects the allegation, which has already been dismissed by the Florida Bar.

Source

» Homeland Security Looked Into Covert Body Scans

USA Today:

The Homeland Security Department paid contractors millions of dollars to develop and study surveillance systems that could covertly track pedestrians and check under people’s clothing with airport-style body scanners as they enter train stations, bus depots or major events, newly released documents show.

Two contracts the department signed in 2005 and 2006 were part of its effort to acquire technology to find suicide bombers in a crowd of moving people, according to documents given to the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a privacy-rights group that is suing Homeland Security.

The department dropped the projects in a“very early” phase after testing showed flaws, Homeland Security spokesman Bobby Whithorne says.

Source

» Higher Vitamin D Intake Needed to Reduce Cancer Risk

UC San Diego:

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha have reported that markedly higher intake of vitamin D is needed to reach blood levels that can prevent or markedly cut the incidence of breast cancer and several other major diseases than had been originally thought. The findings are published February 21 in the journal Anticancer Research.

While these levels are higher than traditional intakes, they are largely in a range deemed safe for daily use in a December 2010 report from the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine.

“We found that daily intakes of vitamin D by adults in the range of 4000-8000 IU are needed to maintain blood levels of vitamin D metabolites in the range needed to reduce by about half the risk of several diseases– breast cancer, colon cancer, multiple sclerosis, and type 1 diabetes,” said Cedric Garland, DrPH, professor of family and preventive medicine at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center. “I was surprised to find that the intakes required to maintain vitamin D status for disease prevention were so high – much higher than the minimal intake of vitamin D of 400IU/day that was needed to defeat rickets in the 20th century.”

Related:Natural News

Source

» Two U.S. Warships, 1200 Marines Sent to Libyan Coast

Wall Street Journal:

Also Tuesday, the U.S. ordered two warships and 1200 Marines to the waters off of Libya, but a top Obama administration official stopped short of saying the forces would intervene in the clashes that have consumed the country following anti-Gadhafi protests here in recent weeks.

At a Pentagon briefing, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced he had ordered to the Mediterranean the USS Ponce and the USS Kearsarge, an amphibious-assault ship thatn typically carries infantrymen and troop-transport helicopters. Those ships currently have 800 marines, in addition to 400 U.S.-based Marines who will be airlifted to meet the ships. He said the ships would be ready to perform evacuations and humanitarian relief.

Mr. Gates wouldn’t specify the other military options he has offered President Barack Obama. But he sounded a note of caution about sending U.S. assets into Libya.“We have to think about the use of the U.S. military in another country in the Middle East,” Mr. Gates said.“We are sensitive about all these things.”

Source

» Seymour Hersh and The Knights of Malta: A Look at the Aftermath

WhoWhatWhy:

It seems unusual for a staid, respected publication (one that has received three National Magazine Awards in just this past decade) to start treating a celebrated journalist (who himself has won two National Magazine Awards in just this past decade) as if he were nothing more than a paranoid crank.

It seems unusual, but it’s exactly what the staff of Foreign Policy has done to Seymour Hersh, following a lecture the venerated reporter gave at Georgetown University’s campus in Doha, Qatar. You may know Hersh as the dogged investigator who exposed the My Lai Massacre during Vietnam. You may know him as the staff writer for The New Yorker who published some of the earliest pieces on Abu Ghraib in May 2004. You might even know him as the man derided and then vindicated for claiming that Dick Cheney was running a secret assassination squad right out of the Vice President’s office. (In truth, the squadwas and is a bipartisan affair, initiated under Clinton and still operative under Obama.)

Yet, given the Foreign Policy staff’s derisive commentary on Seymour’s January 17th talk, you would think he was some credulous rube midway through his first Dan Brown novel.

Research Credit: MP

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