The deafening silence on the effects of depleted uranium and white phosphorus munitions on Iraq children

I saw the grotesque photos of birth defects to the children of Iraq and I am amazed that nothing is found in the mainstream press. I hope that an organization will take up the cudgels in exposing and assigning blame and demanding just compensation for the nightmares the supposed depleted uranium munitions from US military operations has given these poor children.

Here is just ONE photo of the supposed effects of depleted uranium (there is still a nonzero dose of radiation!)and white phosphorus.

Src: http://cavnews.wordpress.com/2013/04/10/iraqi-birth-defects-worse-than-hiroshima/

Worse or ore disturbing images can be viewed from vice.com: Karlos Zurutuza on Iraq unfolding medical nightmare

More research on this!

July 5, 2013.

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Depleted_uranium claims that some photos were of deformed babies born
in the Soviet Union! The article also claims that groups against nuclear power and weapons are behind this scare of the effects of depeleted uranium.

A Marcos loyalist lament: the Philippines (A fooled Nation)?

I saw this through a Facebook page. I do not necessarily agree with the author, I only want to air his opinion. Tha author of this piece has a first name of Bryan. A thought provoking piece.

I’m actually studying International Trade Law and Economics here at Busan National University South Korea. My Professor once said that one of the economic models of East Asia as well as the South during the post war era particularly in the 1960’s are based on Japan and the Philippines. He added that the Philippines is one of the richest nations next to Japan in that time and also once envied. Having said all these I was actually proud and happy seeing all my classmates of other nationalities looked at me with smiles on their faces.

But, what struck me the most is when my professor asked me, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR COUNTRY? I couldn’t answer back. From this, I saw the sudden shift of emotions in the class. I went home having this in mind. I was quite puzzled of what really happened.

Then one day, my wife, a Korean national found a documentary about the late Pres. Marcos and his wife Imelda made by a Korean film company. He is actually very famous here in Korea and is known to be a great president.

In the documentary I saw a lot of things I couldn’t imagine happened during those days. I was surprised to see the prosperous and peaceful life the Filipinos back in those days were enjoying. I saw people wearing formal clothes (suits), a clean and magnificent city, happy people walking on the old streets of Manila, thriving communities and places everywhere and many more.

An interesting as well as quite controversial part of the documentary is the part wherein Bong Bong Marcos was interviewed. He was asked, the same question my professor asked me, WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS COUNTRY? He said, "My father loved and cared for this country a lot and my mother as well. While saying this, suddenly he paused with teary eyes and said, “We were betrayed by the Americans”. He believes that his father trusted them but they put him down. He also thinks that they used his mother’s (Imelda) lifestyle to further destroy their reputation. Though he admitted she is living an extravagant life, she also did a lot of accomplishments, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Philippine Heart Center, Lung Center of the Philippines, Kidney Institute of the Philippines, Nayong Pilipino; Philippine International Convention Center, Folk Arts Theater, and the Coconut Palace are all Imeldas' brainchildren. Nonetheless, all major social and public buildings and institutions in the country today were actually built during the Marcos’s reign.

What inspired me the most is the time when I heard the story of the late president of Korea Park Chung Hee who visited the Philippines once in the 1960’s. Mr. Marcos and Mr. Chung Hee were believed to be good friends. Pres. Chung Hee and Marcos once visited the Radial Road 8 now called North Luzon Expressway. I heard that Mr. Chung Hee literally cried on Mr. Marcos’ shoulder saying “ I wish my country would be just like the Philippines”. Right after he came back to Korea he started a plan to create expressways similar to what he saw in the Philippines to literally connect the cities all over Korea which were divided by tall mountains. He succeeded on doing this. And, it is said that this move is one of the keys of the Korean economic boom. Unluckily, he was assassinated. Some say that the Americans were behind the assassination.

I know Marcos cared for his country a lot that he wanted to put it on the map. He even bought properties at Wall Street at that time because he wanted the Philippines to be known and dominate the world market. He also initiated a group of powerful south East Asian nations (SEATO) and is believed to have been headed by the Philippines and some countries to strengthen their economic relations further which is also one of the models of economic integrations (G2, G3,G7, ASEAN, and so on) these days. Another international diplomatic accomplishment of Mr. Marcos was the joint effort of Japan and the Philippines to form the Asian Development Bank in 1966 with headquarter in Mandaluyong. Some say that it somewhat became just like the world bank of Asia and its sole purpose is to give foreign aid to poor countries at that time. Unfortunately, the Philippines is the one receiving aid nowadays.

For me, I think Marcos is the best president the Philippines ever had. During his time the economy was at its peak, unemployment was low, peso against the dollar was at its lowest, poverty rate is not that high (compared today), in short the Philippines was at its finest.

But, not until the West came to realize that the Philippines will grow strong and powerful as time goes. Some say they were afraid it will take over the Wall Street as it already started buying properties and putting up state owned investment firms on its soil. One, thing is for sure, that they should stop this. Then it all began. They had their plan of destroying Marcos’ reputation and putting him down using the media and some manipulated social and political entities whose dark aim is to privatize Mr Marcos' nationalistic legacies. The sad part is they succeeded.

And, the saddest part is, we were fooled as well.

A source of the above image is http://paulitics.wordpress.com/category/john-mccain/

What kind of airforce do we have?

We do not have modern F-16, F-15 or F-18 fighter jet planes, Instead we are still using propeller driven training planes like the Aermacchi_SF.260. What happened to the Armed Forces modernization drive?

We see that the Clarkfield air base conversion to an industrial estate is going strong. So where is the money suppossedly going to buy modern weapons for the Philippines military, and upgrading of the military structure, command and control and bases?

We are subjected to news of old OV-10 broncos crashing and killing our pilots. It is time that we stop being stupid. But first we have to get mad. For one thing, we are no match for China's powerful military.

American leaders talk so much! Stuxnet was an American cyberwarfare program!

We have a case of dangerous loose tongue in the American military. Nothing less than the former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General James Cartwright, is under investigation by the Justice Department for leaks on the industrial Stuxnet
computer virus which successfully destroyed centrifuges of Iranian nuclear facilities in 2010.

We do not know if Gen. Cartwright divulged information about Stuxnet to David Sanger, a correspondent of the New York Times, who use the material for his book "Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power."

Before we believed it was only Israel involved in creating the complex computer virus, now we know that it was a joint US and Israel program, with the US taking the initiative.

We cannot sympathize with the US if it complains that other nations are engaging in cyberwarfare or industrial espionage. This recent revelation on the Stuxnet worm is a blackeye for American security.

Richard Reid, the shoe bomber is sentenced!

I got this from a High School classmate and Facebook friend:

Remember the guy who got on a plane with a bomb built into his shoe and tried to light it?

Did you know his trial is over?

Did you know he was sentenced?

Did you see/hear any of the judge's comments on TV or Radio?

Didn't think so.!!!

Everyone should hear what the judge had to say.

Ruling by Judge William Young, US District Court.

Prior to sentencing, the Judge asked the defendant if he had anything to say His response: After admitting his guilt to the court for the record, Reid also admitted his 'allegiance to Osama bin Laden, to Islam, and to the religion of Allah,' defiantly
stating, 'I think I will not apologize for my actions,' and told the court 'I am at war with your country.'

Judge Young then delivered the statement quoted below:

Judge Young: "Mr. Richard C. Reid, hearken now to the sentence the Court imposes upon you.

On counts 1, 5 and 6 the Court sentences you to life in prison in the custody of the United States Attorney General. On counts 2, 3, 4 and 7, the Court sentences you to 20 years in prison on each count, the sentence on each count to run consecutively. (That's 80 years.)

On count 8 the Court sentences you to the mandatory 30 years, again to be served consecutively to the 80 years just imposed. The Court imposes upon you for each of the eight counts a fine of $250,000, that's an aggregate fine of $2 million. The Court accepts the government's recommendation with respect to restitution and orders restitution in the amount of $298.17 to Andre Bousquet and $5,784 to American Airlines.

The Court imposes upon you an $800 special assessment. The Court imposes upon you, five years supervised release simply because the law requires it. But the life sentences are real life sentences so I need go no further.

This is the sentence that is provided for by our statutes. It is a fair and just sentence. It is a righteous sentence.

Now, let me explain this to you. We are not afraid of you or any of your terrorist co-conspirators, Mr. Reid. We are Americans. We have been through the fire before. There is too much war talk here and I say that to everyone with the utmost respect. Here in this court, we deal with individuals as individuals and care for individuals as individuals. As human beings, we reach out for justice.

You are not an enemy combatant. You are a terrorist. You are not a soldier in any war. You are a terrorist. To give you that reference, to call you a soldier, gives you far too much stature. Whether the officers of government do it, or your attorney does it, or if you think you are a soldier, you are not-----, you are a terrorist. And we do not negotiate with terrorists. We do not meet with terrorists. We do not sign documents with terrorists. We hunt them down one by one and bring them to justice.

So war talk is way out of line in this court. You are a big fellow. But you are not that big. You're no warrior. I've known warriors. You are a terrorist. A species of criminal that is guilty of multiple attempted murders. In a very real sense, State Trooper Santiago had it right when you first were taken off that plane and into custody and you wondered where the press and the TV crews were, and he said:

'You're no big deal. '

You are no big deal.

What your able counsel and what the equally able United States attorneys have grappled with and what I have, as honestly as I know how, tried to grapple with, is why you did something so horrific. What was it that led you here to this courtroom today?

I have listened respectfully to what you have to say. And I ask you to search your heart and ask yourself what sort of unfathomable hate led you to do what you are guilty, and admit you are guilty, of doing? And, I have an answer for you. It may not satisfy you, but as I search this entire record, it comes as close to understanding as I know.

It seems to me, you hate the one thing that to us is most precious. You hate our freedom. Our individual freedom. Our individual freedom to live as we choose, to come and go as we choose, to believe or not believe as we individually choose. Here, in this society, the very wind carries freedom. It carries it everywhere from sea to shining sea. It is because we prize individual freedom so much that you are here in this beautiful courtroom, so that everyone can see, truly see, that justice is administered fairly, individually, and discretely. It is for freedom's sake that your lawyers are striving so vigorously on your behalf, have filed appeals, will go on in their representation of you before other judges.

We Americans are all about freedom. Because we all know that the way we treat you, Mr. Reid, is the measure of our own liberties. Make no mistake though. It is yet true that we will bear any burden; pay any price, to preserve our freedoms. Look around this courtroom. Mark it well. The world is not going to long remember what you or I say here. The day after tomorrow, it will be forgotten, but this, however, will long endure.

Here in this courtroom and courtrooms all across America , the American people will gather to see that justice, individual justice, justice, not war, individual justice, is in fact being done. The very President of the United States through his officers, will have to come into courtrooms and lay out evidence on which specific matters can be judged and juries of citizens will gather to sit and judge that evidence democratically, to mold and shape and refine our sense of justice.

See that flag, Mr. Reid? That's the flag of the United States of America . That flag will fly there long after this is all forgotten. That flag stands for freedom. And it always will.

Mr. Custody Officer. Stand him down."

So, how much of this Judge's comments did we hear on our TV sets? We need more judges like Judge Young. Pass this around. Everyone should, and needs to, hear what this fine judge had to say. Powerful words that strike home.


Further reading:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Reid

Careful about get quick rich schemes involving foreign exchange.

I sometimes get advertisement about an xforex site in my facebook timeline. So I started an online investigation about this getting rich in foreign exchange (buy and sell dollars) and here is what I found:

• It is quite difficult to get back your initial investment (50-100 USD)from xforex They promise you a short two week waiting to get your money back in case you drop out one already suffered three months of waiting!
• They do not have a permanent physical address.
  
  Currently xforex has this url address: http://xforex.com.
  
  
• They will get access to your credit card information.

xforex is a broker and earns (charges) about 5 pips per transaction on your electronic exchange trading post. It prides itself as the fastest growing foreign exchange broker in Europe and the Middle East. For more information: visit ramboong

Monsanto in the news.

//

Farms in Washington state are suing Monsanto over the discovery of genetically modified wheat in a nearby Oregon wheat farm. As a result of the discovery of GMO crops in the Northwest, Japan stopped ordering soft-white-wheat from Washington state!

The GMO variety might be a glyphosate-tolerant wheat developed by Monsanto which may have remained after testing was stopped ten years ago. The FDA and Monsanto claimed that the GMO in question never entered into commerce.

Further reading.

seattle times

The PRISM scandal, are you SURPRISED? Much ado over nothing!

We live now under a massive interlocking network of computers.The information which you enter through computers which now encompass cellphones, ipads or tablets, desktops and netbooks can be intercepted along the way to the web servers or to another computer. The PRISM surveillance scandal which claims that the NSA was involved in massive collection of data through cooperating commercial IT companies in the likes of Google, Apple and Microsoft is not suprising.

In the wake of terrorism September 11, 2001, the US has become somewhat paranoid over terrorist attacks. I pity the poor agent poring over communications by lovers, parents and kids, teachers or students, or company executives with clients. Actually, computers can be taught to be more selective. But the system can be subject to abuse.


The world does not give a burp to Russia's or China's rigid control of information of their citizens. Perhaps the US is held to a higher standard, a standard which is not anymore achievable and presents new problems on the conflict between freedom and public safety and security.

What was wrong with the old system requiring a court order (warrants) to eavesdrop on communications? Inconvenience? This PRISM system must be STOPPED of course, and the Senate and/or Congress should put more laws, defining what is legal to provide stronger constitutional safeguards.

From the wikipedia article, we also gleaned that a whistle blower, William Binney, (2005) has designed a simple system Thinthread for analysis of Internet communications. Perhaps it is a simple case of professional jealousy which made him a whistleblower.

There is a another new whistle blower, Edward Snowden, who came out of the open just recently! check the last link.

Further reading:

Wikipedia PRISM Surveillance Program


Wikipedia William Binney article

Jewel vs. NSA

The Guardian

On the Serendra blast.

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Image owned by copyright holders. Published in the public interest. Src: http://i.dawn.com/large/2013/06/51b196b85a1e7.jpg


Image owned by copyright holders. Published in the public interest. Src: globalnation.inquirer.net


We suspected that the Serendra 2 apartments blast last May 31 in Bonifacio Global City,Taguig City was caused by a gas leak, and verified by the probers' report. Now we have to know whether someone wanted to commit suicide, but who are we? Let the NBI and local police do their jobs. Condolences to the van driver and companions who died in this powerful blast when the wall smashed into their vehicle.

LPG is normally odorless and a chemical is added as a tell-tale odor indicator of leaks. If the owner says she did not smell anything, it only means that some valves were LEFT opened,whether accidentally or by intent, after she went to the US.

Accidents caused by gas explosions occured many times in the past. Here is a reference link: Wikipedia-gas explosion