Al Qaeda Sleeper Agent, Held As Enemy Combatant Then Criminally Charged Pleads Guilty

Al-Marri

Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, 43, a dual national of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to al Qaeda. Al-Marri entered his guilty plea at a hearing this afternoon before Judge Michael M. Mihm in U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois. In so doing, al-Marri admitted that he agreed with others to provide material support or resources to al Qaeda in the form of personnel, including himself, to work under al Qaeda’s direction and control with the intent to further the terrorist activity or terrorism objectives of al Qaeda.

Judge Mihm scheduled sentencing for July 30, 2009. At sentencing, al-Marri faces up to 15 years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, a life term of supervised release, and a $100 mandatory special assessment.

“Without a doubt, this case is a grim reminder of the seriousness of the threat we as a nation still face,” said Attorney General Holder.

Al-Marri was accused of attending terrorist training camps and was then sent to the United States to carry out terrorist attacks.

“Ali al-Marri was an al Qaeda ‘sleeper’ operative working on U.S. soil and directed by the chief planner of the 9-11 attacks. Al-Marri researched the use of chemical weapons, potential targets and maximum casualties,” said Arthur M. Cummings, II, executive assistant director of the FBI’s National Security Branch.

Al-Marri admitted that he traveled to central Illinois as an al Qaeda operative the day before the Sept.11, 2001, attacks to plan and prepare for future acts of terrorism within the United States.,

Just after taking office, President Obama directed the attorney general to lead an inter agency review of the case involving al-Marri, who had been detained as an enemy combatant by the Defense Department since June 2003. As a result of that review and an examination of the evidence gathered during the long-term investigation of al-Marri, the Justice Department decided to charge al-Marri in federal court. In February a federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment charging al-Marri with conspiring with others to provide material support to al Qaeda and providing material support to al Qaeda.

Al-Marri was later transferred from the custody of the Defense Department to the custody of the Justice Department and brought to the Central District of Illinois for trial on the two-count indictment. As part of the plea agreement announced today, the Justice Department has agreed to dismiss the second count of the indictment.

Al-Marri acknowledged that between 1998 and 2001 he attended various terrorist training camps where he learned the use of weapons and operational security trade craft that al Qaeda employed to avoid detection, conceal their communications and protect their operations. These methods included prearranged codes and other techniques to protect communications, counter-surveillance techniques and the protection of information on computers.

During these trips, al-Marri stayed in al Qaeda safe houses in Pakistan. While in the terrorist training camps and safe houses, he used the nickname Abdul-Rahman al-Qatari and provided al Qaeda operatives with his family contact information so they could inform his family should he be killed or “martyred” during an al-Qaeda mission.

In 2001, al-Marri was approached by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was then the external operations chief for al Qaeda and agreed to participate in terrorist attacks in the United States. He acknowledged that he was aware at that time that al Qaeda was responsible for the 1998 bombings of two U.S. Embassies in East Afric, and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole. In addition, he was aware of the 1996 and 1998 fatwas issued by Osama bin Laden against the United States.

Al-Marri was instructed by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to enter the United States no later than Sept. 10, 2001, with an understanding that he was to remain in the United States for an undetermined length of time. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed also directed al-Marri to meet with Mustafa al-Hawsawi in Dubai where al-Hawsawi, who al-Marri acknowledges was a primary financer of the 9/11 attacks, provided him with $10,000.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and al-Marri also set up a code through which they communicated. Al-Marri was instructed to conceal telephone numbers and other numbers to be used in e-mail addresses by using a numeric code known as a "10-code." This code was used by al Qaeda members, including al-Hawsawi and some of the Sept. 11th hijackers to conceal telephone numbers. Al-Marri was also provided contact information for several al-Qaeda associates which he stored in his personal PDA using the 10-code.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and al-Mari also used a pre-arranged code to disguise their e-mail communications. The pre-arranged communication method referred to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as “Muk.” Al-Marri was to refer to himself as “Abdo” in these communications and to send e-mails to an account used by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Through these e-mails, al-Marri was to keep Khalid Sheikh Mohammed apprised of his efforts to enter the United States, his contact information and his efforts to advance al-Qaeda’s mission in the United States. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was to use these e-mails to pass on instructions to al-Marri.

Details of the prearranged code were stored in an address book that was found in an al Qaeda safe house in Pakistan. The book contained the e-mail address to be used by al-Marri along with the identification number for al-Marri of “038.”

In the summer of 2001, leading up to the September 11 attack, al-Marri kept in close e-mail contact with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the U.S. on a student visa. He received the visa after applying online to Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois using the same e-mail address with which he communicated with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. .

After he was accepted at Bradleym, al-Marri traveled to Dubai and met with al-Hawsawi who then gave him the $10,000. He then traveled to Pakistan to meet Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Then it was off to Qatar where he applied for a new Qatari passport. He also obtained his student visa, but did not admit on his visa application that he had taken a trip to the United States in 2000 to set up a fictitious business using a false name and stolen Social Security number, fraudulently obtaining a number of credit cards and opening several business accounts.

Al-Marri and his family arrived in the United States on Sept. 10, 2001. On Sept. 21, 2001, he traveled to another university in Illinois and created five new e-mail accounts under different aliases. By this time, he knew al Qaeda was responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and understood why Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had directed him to be in the United States before that date. Al-Marri used these new e-mail accounts to inform Khalid Sheikh Mohammed that he had arrived safely in the United States. He also provided Khalid Sheikh Mohammed with his Peoria cellular telephone number.

From Sept. 23, 2001 through Nov. 4, 2001, al-Marri made several unsuccessful attempts to call al-Hawsawi and others he knew were al Qaeda operatives. To conceal his communications efforts, he used prepaid calling cards at public pay phones in and around central and northern Illinois. Although the initial calls were made from payphones in the Peoria area, after al-Marri was interviewed by the FBI on Oct. 2, 2001, he expanded the calling area, sometimes traveling more 160 miles away to place calls.

Al-Marri also conducted online research of various cyanide compounds, including hydrogen cyanide, potassium cyanide, and sodium cyanide. He reviewed toxicity levels, locations where these items could be purchased, and specific pricing of the compounds. He also explored obtaining sulfuric acid, a well-known binary agent used in a hydrogen cyanide binary device to create cyanide gas, a method he learned in the al Qaeda training camps. .

Federal agents discovered an almanac in Al-Marri's home bookmarked at pages showing dams, waterways and tunnels that were potential targets in the United States.

Finally, al-Marri used an “anonymizer” program on his laptop when surfing the Internet. The program was designed to allow him to anonymously search Internet websites and programs, erasing all historical internet searches on a regular basis.

In December 2001, al-Marri was arrested on a material witness warrant issued in connection with the investigation of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. He was later indicted on credit card fraud, making false statements and identity fraud charges. These charges were dismissed on June 23, 2003, when al-Marri was designated by President Bush as an enemy combatant and transported to the Naval Consolidated Brig in South Carolina. Al-Marri remained detained by the Defense Department until his transfer to Justice Department custody this year at President Obama's direction.

News Talk Online April 30, 2009: Obama's Campaign Promises, Hate Crimes, Voting Rights And Chrysler's Bankruptcy

Four topics on today's News Talk Online on Paltalk.com.

We explored the campaign promises made by candidate Obama and looked at how many of them have been kept, thus far, by President Obama.

We discussed hate crime legislation pending in Congress and whether there's a need for it.

The Supreme Court challenge to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act was discussed.

And we received a report from Detroit where people are uneasy about Chrysler's bankruptcy filing.

Mujaheddin Warlord Gets Life

Bashir Noorzai, a former Mujaheddin warlord and strong ally of the Taliban, was sentenced today to life in prison on heroin importation and distribution conspiracy charges in federal court in New York today.

Noorzai, the leader of his namesake tribe - one of Afghanistan's largest and most influential - owned opium fields in the southern province of Kandahar, Afghanistan.

According to the evidence presented at his trial, people working for Noorzai convert the opium into heroin at laboratories in Afghanistan's border regions. Heroin from these labs was later imported into the United States, hidden in suitcases and on ships. As early as 1990, prosecutors charged, Noorzai had a network of distributors in New York City who sold his heroin.

The trial revealed that during the Russian occupation of Afghanistan, Noorzai raised his own army of Mujaheddin fighters, financed and armed with drug proceeds. After the Russian army quit Afghanistan, Noorzai ruled western Kandahar, establishing and controlling his own police, border guards and courts.

3 Brothers Get Life In Fort Dix Terror Case

Three brothers who were convicted of plotting to kill members of the U.S. military during an armed attack on a military base were sentenced today to life prison terms.

U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler sentenced Dritan Duka and Shain Duka to prison terms of life plus an additional, consecutive 30 years. The third brother, Eljvir Duka, received a life prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

Kugler, who presided over a 12-week trial of the Duka brothers and two other co-defendants, also ordered the Dukas to pay $125,000 in restitution for the costs of added security measures enacted after the plot was unearthed. The other two defendants, Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer and Serdar Tatar, are scheduled to be sentenced tomorrow.

They were all arrested in 2007 after Dritan and Shain Duka met with a confidential government witness in Cherry Hill, NJ to purchase four automatic M-16 rifles and three semi-automatic AK-47 rifles to be used in the planned attack on the soldiers. Last December, all five were convicted for conspiring to murder members of the U.S. military. They and Shnewer were also in a future attack on military personnel. The Duka brothers and Shnewer were also convicted on federal firearm charges.

The group had set up surveillance of Fort Dix and Fort Monmouth, NJ, Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and the U.S. Coast Guard in Philadelphia. The trial revealed that they had obtained a detailed map of Fort Dix and had planned to kill as many soldiers there as possible using assault rifles.

During the trial, the jury viewed secretly recorded videotapes of the defendants performing small-arms training at a shooting range in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania and watching training videos that included depictions of American soldiers being killed and of known foreign Islamic radicals urging jihad against the United States.

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Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nostri-imago/2877436533/

News Talk Online April 29, 2009: Your Turn To Rate Obama

Today's the day.

The 100th day of the Obama administration.

Today on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com you'll get the chance to sound off and tell us how good a job you think the new president is doing. That's at 5 PM New York time.

Meanwhile, feel free to post your comments here.

News Talk Online April 28, 2009: Striking A Balance In The Swine Flu Coverage

I can't listen to it any longer.

Some of the coverage, especially on cable TV, about the swine flu, is enough to make me - well - sick.

The breathless way such a potentially serious issue is being presented is unseemly. Can you imagine Walter Cronkite reporting the death of JFK this way?

What the hell has happened to news coverage that something that, on its own, is serious enough to warrant our full attention, needs to be hyped even more?

Some of the best coverage of the coverage can be found on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Which is on Comedy Central not CNN or Fox.

Some of the best coverage I've heard of the story itself has been on the BBC. I've heard some tough questions being asked by BBC radio presenters. But I've not been satisfied with all of the answers I've heard.

Today a BBC interviewer was pressing a World Health Organization spokesman to explain why closing off borders isn't such a good idea. His answers, it seems to me, defy logic.

As the interviewer pointed out in his follow up questions, the cases of swine flu that have occurred outside Mexico were introduced to those countries by people who had been visiting Mexico. So wouldn't it be prudent to shut down the border between the United States and Mexico?

The WHO spokesman pointed out that the border is porous which of course is an understatement. But that doesn't mean you can't minimize the threat.

And it is a threat, have no doubt about that. Because it is jumping from person to person. Meaning it can spread.

The Associated Press just released a piece that suggested that millions of people could die from the swine flu.

So what of the media coverage? Are you finding it informative or alarmist? Or, perhaps, both?

And what of the U.S. government's rejection of suggestions that the border with Mexico should be, at least temporarily, closed?

The fear I have is that once the genie is out of the bottle and this flu migrates in significant numbers it will be, obviously, too late.

The good news, thus far, of course is that the fatalities have been contained. But health officials have no explanation for the fact that, outside of Mexico, the swine flu cases have been milder than within its borders.

But do not lose sight of the fact that, unlike the deaths that typically occur with the "normal" flu strains, the fatalities in Mexico are not of the very old or the very young. Young, healthy people are dying. This may be the biggest factor that has public health officials worldwide fearing that the flu outbreak could soon become a pandemic.

We'll be discussing the media coverage and the government response to the swine flu at 5 PM New York time on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com

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Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tukatuka/3480777512/

News Talk Online April 27, 2009: Swine Flu

The reporting of swine flu has many of us concerned and confused.

Joining us to answer all our questions about swine flu and the concerns that it could become a pandemic is Dr. Davis Liu.

Dr. Liu, M.D., is a practicing board-certified family physician in northern California. His comments have appeared in Fortune, Smart Money, Remedy, Real and Simple and the New York Times. He has penned opinion pieces that have appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle and the Sacramento Bee.

Dr. Liu received his medical degree from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. He graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the Wharton School of Business and is author of the book, Stay Healthy, Live Longer, Spend Wisely.

Mortgage Pay Off Scheme Brings Charges

So many people in the United States are disparately trying to hold onto their dream homes that this was almost inevitable.

A federal grand jury has indicted four defendants, and an information has been filed against a fifth, for their alleged participation in a massive mortgage fraud scheme that the government charges promised to pay off homeowners’ mortgages on their homes but left them to fend for themselves.

According to the indictment, the five used slick promotions that, in the words of Rod Rosenstein, U.S. attorney for Maryland, concealed "empty promises."

"They convinced many victims to invest at least $50,000 by refinancing their existing homes or buying new homes at inflated prices," Rosenstein says, "while claiming that Metro Dream Homes would repay the mortgages with revenue from profitable businesses."

The indictment alleges that there was no revenue to pay the mortgage payments. Instead, it is charged, the alleged conspirators used some of the investors' money to repay earlier investors in a Ponzi scheme and spent the remainder on themselves.

"The effects of this wide-ranging mortgage fraud scheme are particularly disturbing within the backdrop of today’s economic environment," said Executive Assistant FBI Director Thomas Harringon.

He says more than 60 federal task forces and working groups have been established across the United States to uncover mortgage and other financial crimes, particularly those that target homeowners.

According to the indictment, from 2005 to 2007 the defendants allegedly used corporate names such as "Metropolitan Grapevine LLC," "Metro Dream Homes," "POS Dream Homes," and "POS DH LLC" to entice homeowners and home purchasers to participate in a purported mortgage payment program called the "Dream Homes Program." To participate, an investor had to provide a minimum of $50,000 for each home enrolled in the program, in addition to an "administrative fee" of up to $5,000. In exchange, the program promised to make the homeowner’s future monthly mortgage payments, and pay off the homeowner’s mortgage within five to seven years. Thereafter, the homeowner and MDH would own an equal interest in the home.

The indictment alleges that Andrew Hamilton Williams, Jr., 58, of Hollywood, Fla., was the founder and owner of MDH; Michael Anthony Hickson, 46, of Commack, N.Y., was the chief financial officer; Isaac Jerome Smith, 46, of Spotsylvania, Va., was the president; and Alvita Karen Gunn, 31, of Hanover, Md., was the vice president of operations. The information alleges that Carole Nelson, 50, of Washington, D.C., was the chief financial officer of POS Dream Homes.

The indictment alleges that Dream Homes Program representatives explained to investors that the homeowners’ initial payments would be used to fund investments in automated teller machines, flat-screen televisions that would show paid business advertisements, and "Touch-N-Buy" electronic kiosks that sold telephone calling cards and other items. To give the Dream Homes Program a veneer of legitimacy and financial success, the defendants marketed the program through live presentations at luxury hotels in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, Calif., among other locations. The defendants allegedly told some of the investors that they should not worry about the price of the homes or monthly mortgage payments because MDH would make mortgage payments on their behalf.

The indictment alleges that the defendants failed to advise investors that the ATMs, flat-screen televisions and kiosks never generated any meaningful revenue. It charges that the defendants used the funds from later investors to pay the mortgages of earlier investors and that MDH had not filed any federal income tax returns throughout its existence.

The defendants also allegedly failed to advise investors that their investments were being used for the personal enrichment of select MDH employees, including the defendants, to pay salaries of up to $200,000 a year as well as their mortgages. In addition, the indictment charges the money was used to hire a staff of 10 chauffeurs and maintain a fleet of luxury cars, to travel to and attend the 2007 National Basketball Association All-Star game and the 2007 National Football League Super Bowl. While there, the indictment charges, they stayed in luxury accommodations.

According the the indictment the money they took from later investors was used to pay off previous investors in a prior failed ATM investment venture that Williams had founded called Bankcard Group.

Donations of up to $50,000 each were made to charitable organizations to allegedly give MDH the appearance of being financially successful.

On Aug. 15, 2007, the Maryland Securities Commissioner issued a cease-and-desist order to Williams, MDH and other related companies directing them to immediately stop the offering and sale of unregistered securities in connection with their promotion of the Dream Homes Program. However, the defendants allegedly called additional meetings after receiving the order in which they made additional misrepresentations about the financial success of MDH’s operations.

The indictment also charges that Hickson lied under oath, in September, 2007 during a challenge in federal court to the cease-and-desist order when he testified that the financial success of the Dream Homes Program did not rely upon new investor funds.

The government says more than 1,000 people invested some $70 million in the Dream Homes Program.

The four indicted defendants each face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for the fraud conspiracy; 20 years in prison on each of the 15 counts of wire fraud; and 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering. Hickson also faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for making false statements. Smith also faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for bank fraud arising out of his alleged misrepresentation of his income in order to obtain a bank loan to purchase a new Bentley automobile. Nelson was charged by information with money laundering, which carries a maximum penalty of ten years in prison. The indictment seeks forfeiture of the fraud proceeds, including $70 million.

'Messianic' Obama On Display

Many detractors of President Obama claim that he has a "messianic" personality.

They believe that he believes that he is some kind of messiah whose job it is to "save" the rest of us.

Frankly, I think that's an over-the-top assessment of the president. But the belief, or fear, that he has these tendencies is taking hold, especially among conservatives who find his attempts to fix the economy and improve social conditions intrusive and beyond the traditional role of government.

Now an artist has painted his vision of a messianic Obama, a painting that will be on display today at New York City's Union Square.

Michael D'Antuono says his painting, "The Truth" has, during its previous private showings, raised eyebrows and spurred discourse on the nation's current political climate and deep partisan divide.

The 30" x 54" acrylic painting on canvas depicts President Obama appearing much like Jesus Christ on the Cross; atop his head, a crown of thorns. Behind him, the dark veil being lifted (or lowered) on the Presidential Seal.

D'Antuono says the piece is a mirror; reflecting the personal opinions and emotions of the viewer; that "The Truth," like beauty, is in the eyes of the beholder. D'Antuono expects that individual interpretations will vary as widely as they do in the political arena. The work, he anticipates, will be seen by one viewer at a time behind a voting booth-inspired public installation.

D'Antuono is best known for his iconic celebrity portraits and romantic narratives. This is his first foray into political subject matter.

"Aided by the media, politics has taken a nasty turn in the last decade," he says. "I firmly believe that this is one of the underlying causes of our nation's current problems."

Pakistani Troops Push Back At Taliban

Battleground district in yellow

What has all the appearances of a heated battle is underway between Pakistani troops and the Taliban. A move made necessary by the bold actions of the Taliban, moving into territory a mere 90 miles from the capital as fears rise that the government could collapse.

Among the casualties inflicted - the Pakistanis report the death of a local Taliban commander.

The battleground is located in the Lower Dir district of Pakistan.

Western nations, perhaps most notably the United States, are showing increasing concern over the recent ability of Taliban forces to strike with relative impunity. The prospect of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal in the hands of the Taliban should Islamabad eventually fall is untenable.

Michigan's Ailing Economy

DETROIT - Three real-life stories that illustrate how horrific Michigan's economy is.

I met a man from Allen Park, MI who worked at U.S. Steel for decades. Prior to that he worked at GM.

He was laid off in December for a few weeks. Now that's stretched into months and may soon be permanent. His health insurance is covered - for now. But after one-year off work he'll have to start paying COBRA, about $450-a-month. He has no idea how he'll afford that and his wife has serious health problems.

He has a commercial driver's license and is looking for work driving a truck but he has no experience and no one is hiring. He is in danger of losing his home and he is in his mid-50s and has no idea how he can start all over again at that age. Many of his friends and relatives have similar problems, so if misery loves company, Michigan is the place to be.

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I went to my niece's graduation ceremony at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids yesterday. The commencement speaker, a former chair of the board of trustees, seems like a nice lady. But her speech left the audience, and worse still, the graduates, in a less-than-celebratory mood.

Many of you, she told the graduates, will have to leave Michigan to get jobs. Others who elect to stay will likely not find jobs in their chosen careers. They'll have to settle, she said, for jobs for which they are overqualified.

It's not the dose of reality you expect to hear at a graduation ceremony. Some of the parents grumbled that they were being told, in essence, that they wasted their hard earned money to put their children through college for degrees that won't help them as they begin life in the job market. Graduates found the speech to be a downer too. "I can always get a job as a baby sitter," my just-graduated niece quipped.

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A woman I met at the graduation owns, along with her husband, a computer-related business, providing inventory software to retail stores. But none of the stores even want to talk to her, much less buy. And the number of stores still in business is dwindling.

They were up to 30 employees at one time. They've been forced to lay off two-thirds of their staff. It broke her heart, she told me, because the employees were like family to her. The one with the least seniority had been with the company for 10 years.

They're just keeping the company open so they don't have to lay off the 10 remaining workers. But she's not taking a draw most weeks. Her story is similar to those I've heard from other small business owners here. They are staying open not because they are making a profit - they aren't. But to keep some cash flow and to pay their employees in the hopes that the economy will recover before they have to shutter their doors.

Their employees, they tell me, are still getting pay checks, but they are not, at least not on a regular basis. One small business owner hasn't taken money home in a year. He and his wife are living off her pension and their savings.

Welcome to the realities of Michigan.

We talk about issues like this and more weekdays at 5 PM New York time on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com

Is There A Good Side To The Renewed Violence In Iraq?

I remember when I put together what I dubbed a Saturation Patrol in Detroit to help fight the multitude of arson fires on Devil's Night - the night before Halloween.

The police command post would contact our headquarters in the Fisher Building whenever there was a spike of fires in a neighborhood and we would dispatch cars with volunteers to patrol that area with amber lights on their cars to patrol the area.

The result was a decrease in the number of arson fires there.

But one Devil's Night, some of the arsonists fought back, tossing a brick through the windshield of one volunteer's car, slightly injuring his teenage son who was riding shotgun. I went to the hospital where he went for treatment and, for good reason, the father was angry.

I told him I was sorry about what happened and happy his son wasn't seriously hurt. But I also told him the incident had a good side to it. That had he and the rest of the patrol members not been effective, the arsonists wouldn't have been compelled to attack.

He actually took some solace in my suggestion.

I thought about that this morning when I read that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was on a surprise visit to Iraq because of an upsurge of violence over the past several days. Like my visit to the hospital, Clinton's trip was designed to urge the Iraqis that the suicide bombings that have killed scores of people were a result of concerns by the insurgents that the new government there is actually going to succeed in uniting the nation. In other words, there is a good side to the violence.



Obviously, it's not an exact parallel. In my example, there was just one act of violence and it resulted in only a minor injury. In Iraq, rather than throwing bricks, they are blowing up bombs and people are dying.

Let's hope that the Clinton assessment is as correct as was mine. That the uptick of violence in Iraq is a last desperate push by the insurgents. And not a sign that they have regrouped and are prepared to take over neighborhoods they have lost.

If it's the latter rather than the former, history will judge us much more harshly for the invasion than we've collectively judged ourselves.

We talk about issues like this and more weekdays at 5 PM New York time on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com

New Reason To Secure The Border With Mexico: Swine Flu

A new strain of swine flu has struck Mexico, sickening about 1,000 people, resulting in deaths and throwing that nation's capital into a near panic.

It's also causing grave concern among world heath officials that it spread beyond Mexico's borders. Already people have fallen ill to the swine flu in the border states of Texas and California but no deaths have been reported in the United States.

News Talk Online April 24, 2009: The Evolving Relationship Between The U.S. And Israel

Two new governments are in place in the United States and Israel. And many people are wondering what the relationship will be between President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. We'll get some insight into that when the two leaders meet next month in Washington.

Netanyahu is, thus far, rejecting the notion of establishment of a Palestinian state - a key component of Obama's vision for Middle East peace. The potentially resulting rift between the two could isolate Israel which has enjoyed extensive support of the United States no matter the party represented by the various occupiers of the White House.

And of course, whatever course is taken must ultimately be supported by the Palestinians. A daunting task given the rift between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.

News Talk Online April 23, 2009: New Information On Bush Interrogations

Congressman Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) says in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal that Congress knew about them.

He notes that former CIA Director George Tenet believes lives were saved because of the interrogation techniques.

Attorney General Eric Holder, in testimony today before the House Appropriations Committee which was carried LIVE here on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com said CIA operatives and agents that participated in the interrogations will not be prosecuted. A decision has not yet been made about those who authorized them, however.

He says, moving forward, government representatives engaged in questioning suspected terrorists will be given clear guidelines on what is, and what is not, acceptable. And said those who operate outside the guidelines will do so at their own legal peril.

He sidestepped questions about unreleased memos that a purported to support Tenet's assessment that the Bush interrogation tactics worked.

Given Hoekstra's pronouncement in today's Wall Street Journal, the question I have is whether or not those who are protesting so loudly about the Bush tactics are doing so because of partisan political politics. And whether that chorus will now be somewhat muted.

CAIR Delegation Seeks Release Of American Journalist Held In Iran

Saberi

The Council on American-Islamic Relations is sending a delegation to Iran to seek the release of Roxana Saberi who was recently sentenced by an Iranian court to eight years in prison. The delegation could leave as soon as tomorrow.

In a letter to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, CAIR Chairman Larry Shaw, a North Carolina state senator and Executive Director Nihad Awad requested permission to travel to Iran to discuss Saberi's case with the hopes of resolving it in a way that improves relations and "benefits the cause of international peace and stability."

Saberi, who was born in the United States but whose father is Iranian and, under Iranian law, is therefore considered a citizen, was first arrested on charges that she illegally purchased wine. The freelance journalist, who reports for, among other news outlets, NPR and the BBC, was then charged with reporting without a press pass. Then, finally, she was tried behind closed doors and without benefit of an attorney of espionage and was convicted in one day.

We talk about issues like this and more weekdays at 5 PM New York time on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com

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Photo credit: Eustacio Humphrey / ZUMA Press

News Talk Online April 22, 2009: Bush Interrogation Tactics Worked. But Were They Justified?

The other day, former Vice President Dick Cheney was on the Fox News Channel claiming that the questionable, some say torturous, interrogation tactics used with suspected terrorists resulted in information that thwarted major terrorist attacks. I was a bit dismissive of all this because, well, after all, this assertion comes from Cheney, believed to be the chief proponent of coercing information from terrorists in the previous administration. But now comes word that a key member of the Obama administration is verifying Cheney's claim.

The New York Times reports that a memo penned by National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair confirms that the tactics, that have been forbidden by President Obama, resulted in "high value information."

I am among those who have always felt that strong arming tactics don't work. That they only serve to get a suspect to tell you what he thinks you want to know, not what he really knows.
A former intelligence expert with the FBI who was a guest on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com echoed that sentiment.

But what if, say those on the other side of the equation, the torturing of a terrorist stops just one major attack on the United States? Wouldn't the ends justify the means.

Until now, this argument was purely academic. But perhaps, not so any longer.

The issue of the United States' reputation around the world still plays into the discussion of course. But let's put this a little bit into perspective. Most of these suspected terrorists come from nations that would not hesitate to use similar interrogation techniques - or worse.

That doesn't mean, of course, that two wrongs equal a right. But it does mean that, perhaps, we need to enter a little more information into the discourse before jumping to conclusions.

As one who watched the Twin Towers collapse I feel we owe ourselves at least another look at the issue.

We talk about issues like this and more weekdays at 5 PM New York time on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com

News Talk Online April 21, 2009: Government Helping The Ailing Newspaper Industry

Today on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com we carried live a congressional subcommittee hearing on the struggling newspaper industry. We then discussed the hearing, and the issue, on the program.

My questions is a simple "why?"

Why would the government be interested in discussing the business concerns of the newspaper industry? If Congress is considering bailing the newspapers out, then I say, it's time to draw a line in the sand.

This one is a no-brainer.

Government has no business bailing out newspapers. And newspapers have no business going to Capitol Hill looking for help.

The second the government has a financial interest in the newspapers who are pledged to watchdog that very government is the second we lose a free press in the United States.

Leave the "official newspaper" designation to Pravda in Russia or to the People's Daily in China or the Iran Daily in Tehran.

I was also concerned that some committee members used the hearing as a bully pulpit to attack certain news organizations that they felt were unkind to their political point of view. If the congressmen want to blast the news media while on the campaign trail that's one thing. But not during a committee hearing that's designed purportedly to investigate the problems of the news media.

How Chernobyl Could Happen Here

By Harvey Wasserman

A catastrophe like Chernobyl could happen here. It's the radioactive core of the second biggest lie in US industrial history.

The atomic pushers say such a disaster is “impossible” at a US reactor. But Chernobyl's explosion spewed radiation all over the world. And Sunday’s tragic 23rd anniversary reminds us that any reactor on this planet can kill innumerable people anywhere, at any time, by terror, error and more.

It further clarifies why yet another grab at billions of taxpayer dollars for new reactor construction must be stopped NOW!

The BIGGEST lie in US industrial history is that “nobody died at Three Mile Island.” Just before last month’s 30th anniversary of the central Pennsylvania melt down, critical new evidence was completely ignored by the corporate media.

Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen, a former industry executive, reported in Harrisburg that new findings show far more radiation may have been released than previously estimated. Epidemiologist Stephen Wing of the University of North Carolina joined in a study indicating human health was indeed compromised downwind.

To this day neither TMI’s owners nor the Nuclear Regulatory Commission knows how much radiation escaped, where it went or whom it impacted. The Gundersen/Wing findings cast new light on the question of building more reactors.

But they got a Stalinesque blackout from ALL corporate media, which parroted the official lie that "nobody was harmed" at the 1979 disaster.

This week comes official Radioactive Lie #2: “Chernobyl can’t happen here.”

Chernobyl Unit 4 exploded in the wee hours of April 26, 1986. It was of a different design than US reactors. But its lid was stronger than about a third of the domes covering plants here. The Soviets who ran it also said Chernobyl could not explode, and that in any event its lid would hold.

On October 5, 1966, the Fermi I fast breeder reactor nearly delivered a far worse explosion. Cooled by highly volatile liquid sodium, it teetered for a month on the brink of a radioactive eruption that could have cratered much of southeastern Michigan and permanently destroyed the biggest fresh water bodies on Earth. The accident was kept under Soviet-style wraps for years.

When TMI melted a potentially explosive hydrogen bubble formed inside the dome. Officials denied there was a melt-down (there was) but were privately terrified the trapped gas could rupture the containment. The escaping cloud would have contaminated millions along the east coast from Boston to Washington.

Chernobyl's cloud blanketed Europe with deadly isotopes. Some came down in California within ten days, killing countless birds and possibly, in the long run, even more people. The radiation then crossed the entire northern United States, contaminating milk in New England. It returned later for a second pass.

Reactor backers say Chernobyl “only” killed 31 plant workers. But the Soviets denied the accident happened, then ran 800,000 drafted “jumpers” through the radioactive corpse for a futile clean-up. They have been dying in droves for two decades.

Chernobyl’s radiation rained down on a May Day parade among citizens of Kiev who were told nothing about the catastrophe 80 kilometers away. The heartbreaking deformities plaguing the children born thereafter are the starkest reminders of that horrific day. Dr. Alexey Yablokov, former environmental advisor to the late President Boris Yeltsin, and president of the Center for Russian Environmental Policy, has estimated the known death toll at 300,000. The financial costs have topped a half-trillion dollars. The sale of lambs is still banned 2000 miles away in Wales and Scotland, where radioactive cesium still contaminates sheep farms and grazing land.

The tidal wave of cancers, miscarriages, sterility and worse that still washes over the Ukraine and surrounding regions gets ever more horrifying as time passes. Because Chernobyl 4 was a new “state of the art” unit, its core spewed far less radiation than might come from older reactors at Indian Point, New York, or Oyster Creek, New Jersey, which has just been re-licensed to run twenty years beyond its original design specifications.

Chernobyl’s design was peculiar to the Soviets. But to say only it could explode is to argue that hybrid cars can’t run people over, or that since there are no more World Trade towers, terrorists can no longer kill Americans.

On January 31, 1986, four months prior to Chernobyl’s explosion, an earthquake shook the Perry reactor east of Cleveland, which thankfully was not operating at the time. Now it is.

By accident inspectors stumbled onto a football-sized hole eaten by boric acid to within a fraction of an inch through the pressure vessel at Davis-Besse near Toledo. A worker using a candle set a $100 million fire at the Browns Ferry reactor in Alabama. A cooling tower unexpectedly collapsed to the ground at Vermont Yankee. A basketball wrapped in tape was used to stop up a pipe at a reactor in Florida. This March 28, on TMI's 30th anniversary, an unexplained tremor shut Unit Two at Fermi.

And, of course, the first jet that flew into the World Trade Center passed directly over the two decrepit reactors at Indian Point, as well as the three spent fuel pools and one dormant core shut for lack of an emergency cooling system. No reactor on this planet could withstand a similar terror attack.

Small wonder the reactor industry cannot get private financing or insurance and has no place to go with its radioactive waste. Or why its pushers are yet again demanding $50 billion in loan guarantees for new reactor construction, and still more to perpetrate the myth that nuclear fuel can be reprocessed (to help stop this madness, see www.beyondnuclear.org, www.nirs.org and www.nukefree.org).

Chernobyl remains history's worst human-made disaster. Something slightly different but even worse could be happening as you read this. Building new reactors, and keeping old ones running, will guarantee it.

The only containment strong enough to make atomic energy truly safe is the political power YOU exert. Chernobyl “can’t happen here” only if the reactors are turned off before they kill again.

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Harvey Wasserman edits http://nukefree.org. This article originally published by http://freepress.org.

Eli Wiesel Verbally Assaulted At Durbin II

Yesterday I posted video of Western diplomats walking out of the UN racism conference in Geneva when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used the forum as a bully pulpit to accuse his number one nemesis, Israel, of genocide and racism.

What happened later was far more disturbing than Ahmadinejad's speech.

Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Eli Wiesel was accused by a member of the Iranian delegation of being a "Zion-Nazi" and others shouted "shame" and "racist" at a man who has spent his entire life fighting intolerance.

This shows how misguided these haters are. Watch the video. It speaks for itself.



We talk about issues like this and more weekdays at 5 PM New York time on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com

New FBI Most Wanted Terrorist An American

Wanted

How many times have I heard this argument? "Not all Muslims are terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims."

It's a preposterous statement. Timothy McVeigh and the FLAN come immediately to mind. Now, so to, does the name of one Daniel Andreas San Diego whose name has been added to the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist list. He has the dubious distinction of being the first person alleged domestic terrorist to be included.

San Diego is not someone who is bent on terror in the name of a religion. He is one of those misguided people who allegedly think the best way to protest alleged cases of animal abuse is through bombings.

The Berkeley, California computer specialist is wanted in connection with two bombings of corporate offices back in 2003. He should be fairly easy to identify if caught. Because he reportedly sports a tattoo which proclaims, "If Only Takes a Spark." Hmmmm. Wonder what that refers to.

People who turn to terror, no matter what their motivation, have a misguided sense of a higher moral authority than the rest of us. In their minds, there is justification for their actions where no justification exists.

In fact, if anything they disservice their cause. And cause some people to think that all who agree with their positions are terrorists as well.

We talk about issues like this and more weekdays at 5 PM New York time on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com

Does Islam Stand For Ecumenicalism Or Extermination?

"I don't trust Muslims," an Israeli friend told me just the other day.

"They all hate us, no matter what they say."

By "us" she meant, not just Israelis specifically, but Jews in general.

But I have many Muslim friends who have not an anti-Semitic bone in their bodies.

"Never," said a friend from Turkey in answer to my question about this issue.

"We were never taught anti-Semitism growing up."

But the fact is, there are Islamic leaders who preach ecumenicalism. But there are others who, sadly, advocate extermination of Jews.

Two current articles highlight this dichotomy.

In one, an Imam calls for good relations with Jews. In the other, an Imam calls for elimination of Jews from Earth.

The ecumenical imam's name is Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, the most influential Shiite cleric in Lebanon. Ayatollah Fadlallah is calling for increased dialogue between Muslims and Jews.

But at the same time, a different pronouncement is offered by a Palestinian imam. Ziad Abu Alhaj accuses Jews of participating in an "all-encompassing war against Muslims." The Hamas religious leader also says that, by Allah's will, Jewish children will be "exterminated" and there will be no Jews left on Earth.



Ironically, Alhaj's participated in the Second World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace which issued a statement in which the religious leaders condemned "incitement against a faith or people."

We talk about issues like this and more weekdays at 5 PM New York time on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com

News Talk Online April 20, 2009: Ahmadinejad Lives Up To Expectations

At least Iranian Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lives up to the fears and expectations the rest of the world has for him.

The only national leader to attend the Durbin II UN human rights conference in Geneva kicked off the conference by delivering a speech where he accused Israel of genocide.

The European nations that had not previously decided to sit out the gathering walked out in protest.

Several others, including Germany and the Netherlands, had joined the United States and Israel in boycotting the conference for fear that Israel would become its focus. Ahmadinejad guaranteed that those concerns would come true.

Of course, it's popular to accuse Israel of human rights violations. That's fine, and fair game. But I guess the conference avoids the issue of rights in Iran.

Let's see ... a freelance journalist is picked up for buying wine (horrid!) then held for reporting (for the BBC, NPR and others) without a press card and then is convicted behind closed doors and without representation of her attorney of spying for the United States.

Women are routinely arrested for showing strands of hair in public.

And as Ahmadinejad has said himself, there are no gays in Iran. At least no identifiably gay people. Well, at least no identifiably gay people who are still alive.

Those nations that sat out Durbin II did so out of conscience. Those that attended wanted to give it a go because the issue is, of course, a serious one. There are human rights violations all across the globe. And all of them deserve our attention and remediation.

But those who walked out had little choice. Because if the only human rights violations the UN is going to focus on are those allegedly committed by Israel, then a lot of people suffering elsewhere in the world will find no relief. And that includes those who live under the repressive regime controlling Iran.

We talk about issues like this and more weekdays at 5 PM New York time on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com

Remembering Columbine

Columbine Memorial Littleton, Colorado

Today is the 10th anniversary of the massacre at Columbine High School and, inevitably, it will renew debate in the United States about gun control - perhaps the hottest hot button topic of our day. But a just-released book that chronicles the events leading up to and including that fateful day suggests that, perhaps it's reporter, not gun control, that's needed.

Before I go any further, let me quickly add that I am not in favor of putting constraints on reporter's First Amendment rights. But the book, appropriately titled Columbine, argues that, it wasn't a case of a couple of bullied boys who reached the end of their emotional ropes. Instead, says author David Cullen, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold's motivation was to gain them more notoriety than Timothy McVeigh.

The reporting a decade ago, however, left the impression that they were bullied to the breaking point. This is the problem with the minute-by-minute news cycle, led by cable TV and, now, the Internet. It leaves no time for reflection and proper analysis. And the early reports, which journalists are pressured to file with or without proper verification, are the ones that we remember the most. If the reports are inaccurate, then, so too, are our collective memories of events.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't be discussing the issue of guns in America. There are hearty arguments on both sides of that debate that deserve airing.

But remember, McVeigh didn't use guns when he blew up the federal building in Oklahoma City. He used fertilizer. And Harris and Klebold's original intent was not to shoot up, but to blow up the school.

Ten years after the tragedy, a more accurate explanation and analysis is warranted.

We talk about issues like this and more weekdays at 5 PM New York time on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com

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Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/keyzer/1473718448/

Letting Pirates Go

It's happened again and the law obviously needs to be changed.

NATO forces for the second time in a week have interdicted and thwarted pirates trying to take over freighters off the coast of Africa. And once again, after disarming them, the pirates have been released.

Apparently the concept of an attack one is an attack on all doesn't apply to piracy on the high seas. In both cases, the first involving Dutch NATO troops, the second Canadian, the pirates were released because the ships attacked were not flagged Dutch or Canadian nor were any nationals of those respective countries held hostage.

So the pirates were disarmed. In the first case, where hostages had been taken, the prisoners were released. But then, the pirates were allowed to go on their merry way.

Eighty vessels have been attacked so far this year. Scores of troops have been deployed and tons of money has been expended on this issue. It's time, now, to take assertive and effective action.

If you're going to deploy troops in the area to deal with the pirates, then let them be dealt with.

The NATO troops should be given the green light to incarcerate any pirates the encounter. And if necessary to take lethal action.

Ships should include additional crews. Trained private security forces to protect the crew and the assets.

And Congressman Ron Paul's suggestion that Letters of Marque and Reprisal be employed should be given seriously considered.

The concept is contained in the Constitution of the United States. It authorizes the Congress to issue the letters to, basically, permit bounty hunters to track down and capture pirates.

It's not the first time that the Texas Republican has suggested using this tactic. In 2001, just after the terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Shanksville, PA, Paul introduced legislation that would have issued letters to capture those responsible. The bounty hunters would have been motivated by money to go after Osama bin Laden and his cronies.

This brilliant idea, like so many suggestions Paul has made, went nowhere. And while it may be too late now, to issue Letters of Marque and Reprisal for the September 11th attacks, it's a tactic that can still be used to fight piracy.

Whatever action is taken, the idea of spanking the hands of the pirates and then letting them go does nothing to deter them from attacking, boarding other ships and holding the crew hostage for ransom.

Better tactics need to be enacted before the pirates take this a step further, killing hostages or spiriting them onto Somalia where they would be out of the reach of any efforts to bring them home safely.

We talk about issues like this and more weekdays at 5 PM New York time on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com

Gary's News Feed Updates

There are seven new updates on this morning's news feed that I thought you might find interesting and might spark conversation and debate on Paltalk. You can subscribe to the news feed on the right or by going to THIS LINK.

Feel free to comment on any or all of the stories here as well.

In another "one for the good guys" operation, NATO troops answering a freighter's distress call chased the pirates that were attacking the ship to a trawler where they found and released 20 fishermen who had been held for six days. Unfortunately, because of the way this all went down, they had to release the pirates. But this shows that there's a multinational coordinate effort to make life difficult for the pirates.

The news is not so good from Iran where a freelance journalist who was due to come home to the United States soon was convicted of spying. President Obama has stretched out his hand to Tehran. This would be a good time to see whether this diplomatic approach is working. The White House should demand her release.

Speaking of Iran, the Times of London reports that the Israeli Air Force is ready to attack Iran's nuclear facility within hours of getting the green light from the new government there. Many people, myself included, have said, the overtures by the United States, the UN and the EU to pressure Iran to abandon its nuclear weapons program are fine. But in the end, if sanctions and diplomacy fail, Israel must do what is necessary to protect itself, and by extension the region and the rest of the world, from Tehran's nuclear lunacy.

I tossed in a story today about Sharia Law being adopted in Somalia. A gun, both politically and figuratively, had been placed at the government's head to adopt Sharia Law. This will likely mean that the movements of women in that otherwise lawless nation will be severely restricted. Where are the women's rights activists when it comes to the loss of freedoms like this in the name of religion?

There's been a lot of hysteria surrounding legislation which would expand volunteerism in the United States. Some people have actually gone so far as to describe it at Obama's brown shirts, an obvious comparison to the Hitler Youth movement in Nazi Germany. But this essay I found argues that the concerns are much about nothing.

A gay military group has been formed to eliminate the U.S. armed forces policy of Don't Ask Don't Tell, which it argues actually encourages members of the service to lie about their sexual orientation. They want to take this out of the closet and make it to OK to be openly gay in the military.

And finally, I've added a story about a dead man who was packed in ice while legal and logistical arrangements could be made to harvest his sperm to impregnate his fiancee. What are the moral implications of this?

We talk about issues like these and more weekdays at 5 PM New York time on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com

President Obama's Summit Of The Americas Trip On Paltalk

Bacchus

President Obama is in Trinidad for the Summit of the Americas - meeting with 33 of the hemisphere's 34 other leaders. Cuba, which is not a democracy, is not invited. Though Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who supports Cuba, is expected to make waves and attempt to seize the spotlight from Obama.

In spite of the fact that Cuban President Raul Castro will not be there, Cuba is expected to be a major focus of the summit. Which comes on the heels of the Obama administration announcing that it is easing travel restrictions to the island nation for Cuban-Americans who wish to visit relatives there. But other Americans, with certain exceptions, are still not free to visit Cuba. And the trade restrictions, which date back to the Cuban missile crisis when John F. Kennedy was president, remain in place.

Obama has signaled that he might be willing to ease some of those restrictions as well, and Castro, speaking in Venezuela, has indicated that he is willing to discuss all issues, including human rights violations, with the United States. This is a striking departure from long-held policy when his brother, Fidel, was president, of not discussing internal issues with the outside world.

Joining us to put the all-important summit into perspective on today's News Talk Online on Paltalk.com will be former congressman and author of the book Trade and Freedom Jim Bacchus. Bacchus, who served in Congress as a Democrat from Florida, is the former chair of the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization and is now a partner in the Washington, DC law firm Greenberg Traurig.

Bacchus believes Obama needs to reassure the other leaders that the United States recognizes its role in the Americas. He believes that the U.S. has a history of insulating itself from the rest of the hemisphere and the rest of the world.

To talk to Bacchus on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com at 5 PM New York time CLICK HERE.

Paltalk is the largest multimedia interactive program on the Internet with more than 4 million unique users.

News Talk Online is also syndicated by CRN Digital Talk Radio to an additional 12 million households.

News Talk Online April 16, 2009: President Obama In Mexico

President Obama is in Mexico today to discuss with that nation's president, Felipe Calderon, ways to help stop the drug war there that has overflowed the borders into the United States.

The president has indicated that he supports a treaty that would commit the nations of this hemisphere to work together to fight the flow of arms to the drug cartels and the flow of narcotics to other countries.

News Talk Online on Paltalk.com will cover Obama's official arrival in Mexico City at 4:45 PM New York time. Followed by a discussion about his efforts with Laura Carlsen, director of the Americas Program of the International Relations Center

Carlsen received a Fulbright Scholarship to study the impact of the Mexican economic crisis on women in 1986 and has since lived in Mexico City.

Forced Patriotism

Let me start by saying that I am as patriotic as the next guy and I stand respectfully during the playing of the National Anthem before sporting events.

I also like the policy embraced by all the Major League Baseball teams following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks of playing God Bless America at the start of the 7th inning stretch.

But patriotism, like faith, is a personal issue. And while fans should be encouraged to stand during the playing of both, it is beyond the authority of the ball clubs and the police to force anyone to participate.

A federal lawsuit filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union alleges that a fan was forcefully ejected from Yankee Stadium by uniformed cops when he decided to go to the restroom rather than remain in his seat for the playing of God Bless America.

Apparently the Yankees force this new tradition on their fans. And they use uniformed cops to enforce the rule.

What the Yankees, and the police, are doing, is actually unpatriotic. And runs contrary to what this nation is about.

Those who founded the United States of America did so because others imposed their will on them. If the facts in the lawsuit are true, the Yankees and the NYPD should be ashamed of themselves.

We talk about issues like this and more weekdays at 5 PM New York time on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com.

News Talk Online April 15, 2009: Ex-Con Who Advises Wall Street Crooks, Live Coverage Of Tea Party

Larry Levine knows what it's like to be a federal prisoner. A former organized crime "fixer" - Levine spent a decade on the inside of a federal pen.

Now, Levine, my first guest today on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com, is putting his experiences as a con to work, by forming a consulting firm to help the fat cats on Wall Street who are getting busted for violation of federal securities laws.

His business: Wall Street Prison Consultants. Where he teaches those who are being sent up the river how to survive on the inside. He calls it Fedtime 101. And describes it as a revolutionary new program tailord specifically for white collar offenders entering the Federal Prison System.

Fedtime 101 is a unique survival program on federal prison live Levine designed and put together while serving time behind prison walls. Levine says the program provides, direct one-on-one counseling and guidance to ensure the convicted white collar criminal that he has a complete understanding of the issues lying ahead - for him and his family.

Rumor has it that Bernie Madoff's niece gave him a call. Something that Levine can neither confirm nor deny. "I get lots of calls from lots of people," he coyly says.

Levine promises to assist convicts after they are already in the joint with any concerns they or their families may have. Including helping them understand Bureau of Prisons policy and preparing them, not only for the life they will live behind bars, but also what life will be for them once they are paroled.

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Our second guest is conservative political activist Judy Davidson joining us live from one of the tax day tea parties in Phoenixville, PA.

News Talk Online April 14, 2009: Ben Bova

What if, instead of being transplanted, desperately needed hearts, livers, and kidneys could simply be re-grown within your own body?

Imagine a genetic technology involving stem cells that allows the body to regenerate injured or diseased organs—life as we know it would be utterly changed. Devastating diseases and conditions would no longer mean a death sentence, and life expectancy could reach unheard of highs. But what about the moral, legal, and ethical implications such a technology entails? Will it be available to everyone, or only the very rich? By using it, are we playing “God?

The debate over stem cell research and its funding is, periodically, prominent in the news. It's become both a scientific and religious argument.

Legendary author and science expert Ben Bova has captured the essence of that debate in his latest novel, The Immorality Factor, which hits bookstores today.

Bova, best known for his science fiction writing, captures a more contemporary theme in this book. And uses the novel to push forth arguments from both sides of the debate.

Bova says he penned the book, in part, because, even in this age of striking scientific advances and ever-accelerating technological breakthroughs, there are remarkably few engaging novels about scientists.He believes that scientific research is the most human thing that humans do.

“The drive to understand the world in which we live, and to change it to better suit our needs, is uniquely human," he says.

"Yet there are dark forces of fear and ignorance that oppose this search for understanding. Such conflict offers the novelist a truly fascinating setting for examining the human experience.”

By combining a real-life hot-button science issue and the ethical dilemmas that surround it with a top-notch storyline that pits two brothers - one a brilliant research scientist, the other a physician renowned for his humanitarian efforts - against each other.

A six-time winner of science fiction’s Hugo Award, the former editorial director of Omni, President Emeritus of the National Space Society, and past president of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Bova is the author of 120 novels and nonfiction books.

Future Of Alternative Fuel Cars Topic On Paltalk

The Alternative Fuels and Vehicles National Conference and Expo will be held next week in Orlando. An opportunity for the industry to explore fuel efficient and economically improved alternatives to the cars on the road today.

Joining us on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com on April 21 to discuss the future of the electric vehicle industry will be Rick Kasper, president and COO of Chrysler Global Electric Motorcars.

Kasper will also answer our questions about stimulus plan funding for electric vehicles, battery technology and the status of the proposed merger of Chrysler and Fiat and its impact on Chrysler's electric vehicle development program.

To talk to Kasper at 5:30 PM New York time Tuesday April 21 CLICK HERE.

Paltalk is the largest multimedia interactive program on the Internet with more than 4 million unique users.

News Talk Online is also syndicated by CRN Digital Talk Radio to an additional 12 million households.

What Happens After The Americans Leave?

What happens after he leaves?

I was listening to a conversation on Paltalk the other day about how a post-U.S. invasion Iraq may look. One person suggested that Iraq will "go back to the way it was before the invasion."

Perhaps, after the coalition troops withdraw, some Iraqis will pine for the Saddam days. When, although there was a tyrant at the helm, they didn't have to fear lawlessness.

Patrick Cockburn, writing in Counterpunch, the online political newsletter, reports that insurgent Sunnis-turned-coalition allies fear retribution once the U.S. troops depart.

Cockburn reports that there've already been attacks against the Sunnis by a weakened al Qaeda in Iraq. And the fear is that those attacks will be stepped up once Old Glory is lowered for the final time.

The United States owes the Sunni Awakening Council peacemakers who are already being targeted some sense of security once the troops withdraw. Let's hope the Obama administration recognizes this responsibility and has factored their vulnerability into its withdrawal plans.

We talk about issues like this and more weekdays at 5 PM New York time on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com

News Talk Online April 13, 2009: Margery Krevsky and Mike Wendland

Growing up in Detroit, and in an automotive family (nearly everyone I knew was associated one way or another with the auto industry) I had an early love affair with the automobile.

The Detroit Auto Show (later renamed the North American International Auto Show) as well as the new cars on display at the annual employees Christmas Party at the old Ford Rotunda in Dearborn taught me how to love, or at least lust after, the unattainable. As I stared as a youngster at the shiny new cars. It was the beginning of a love affair with the automobile that lasts to this day.

Then came puberty, and with it, an enhanced of the auto show. Because now, not only were my friends and I interested in the models on display - we were suddenly interested in the models on display as well. That is to say, we once myopically concentrated only on the cars on display. Now the beautiful women on the giant turntables that spun under the lights of Cobo Hall grabbed our attention as well.

These were, and remain, the Sirens of Chrome, the title of a book written by one of those models now turned modeling agency owner Margery Krevsky.

Sirens of Chrome is a visual joy ride through auto show history. Not simply on sheet metal, but on the distinctly human presence.

At the risk of being accused of objectifying the female body, it can be said that the models were, and are, human hood ornaments. Descendents, the author suggests, of the sirens of early Greek lore. Hoping not to dash ships upon rocks, but to entice the purchase of land ships.

The book would not be complete without dozens of photographs of hot vehicles and models, some of whom actually inspired designs in future cars.

Today the modeling is more sedate, with more men joining the ranks and with some models being replaced by the very people who build the cars, there to actually answer the serious car buyer's questions. But if you were to visit the New York Auto Show today, you'd be certain to find pretty human models there in sufficient abundance to catch your eye. Some of them, no doubt, placed there by today's

Krevsky co-founded Productions Plus in 1981, and the agency rapidly became one of the major players in selecting, outfitting and training talent for auto shows across America. Instead of bending to the prevailing demand for women in ball gowns and short shorts, Krevsky took bold steps with outfitting talent in sophisticated business attire for Pontiac, then Nissan and Toyota. Other automakers soon sought out her skills.

Productions Plus is an international company, with offices in Detroit, Chicago and Los Angeles.

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How much of your e-mail is stuff you really want or need to read?

As Don Adams might say, would you believe 3 percent?

For those of us who are mathematically challenged, that means a full 97 out of 100 e-mails we receive is junk.

People who live and die by their Crackberries, then, are spending 97 percent of the time they are punching away at their little keyboards perusing e-mail that they don't want. So a device that's designed to ease our lives is actually becoming labor intensive. And probably adding stress to our very busy days.

To the rescue, however, is our second guest today on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com, a guy we affectionately refer to as PC Mike. Journalist Mike Wendland. Who writes about all things PC and Internet related.

Wendland will answer your questions about how to counter this spam assault on your e-mail accounts. And anything else you want to know about making your cool Internet related tools work for you - not against you.

Wendland is a veteran broadcast and print technology reporter and columnist and has been doing special PCMike tech segments for NBC-TV affiliates since 1994.

As such, he was one of the first reporters to report on the World Wide Web and its huge potential as a medium of its own. Since then, his hundreds of reports have been seen by millions on more than 215 NBC-TV stations across the country and on MSNBC and CNBC.

Mike has also been the technology columnist for the Detroit Free Press and his columns and stories have appeared in hundreds of newspapers across the U.S., including the New York Times and USA Today.

He also maintains a blog that's an absolutely essential read for anyone on the Internet.

News Talk Online April 10, 2009: Roni Deutch

Deutch

It's just five days from the income tax filing deadline in the United States. A task that gives people ulcers and anxiety attacks.

But today's guest on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com says there are ways to beat the IRS. Legally.

Roni Deutch is known as the Tax Lady, and she's penned a book, called, appropriately, Beating The IRS, in which she gives tips that show you how you can pay less to the IRS.

Deutch, the founder of America's largest tax-resolution law firm, says Congress and the IRS intentionally make taxes complicated and confusing so that people live in fear of them. The result, she says, is that the average American overpays the IRS by $2,000 annually.

Roni Deutch, welcome to News Talk Online on Paltalk.com.

Yet Another $50 Billion For Rust-Bucket Nukes?

Oyster Creek

By Harvey Wasserman

The nuke power industry is back at the public trough for the fourth time in two years demanding $50 billion in loan guarantees to build new reactors.

Its rust-bucket poster child is now the ancient clunker at Oyster Creek, whose visible New Jersey rust and advanced radioactive decay are A-OK with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which just gave it a 20-year license extension.

The industry's savior may be France, whose taxpayer-funded EdF and Areva Corporations may be poised to build their own reactors on US soil using French and American taxpayer money.

And President Obama's first big test on nuke power may be how he fills a vacancy---and the chair---at the NRC.

The latest demand for a $50 billion taxpayer handout has been sleazed into the Senate budget bill. It has already been kicked out of the Stimulus Package, and George W. Bush’s Energy Bills of 2007 and 2008. Bush did get $18.5 billion in guarantees into his 2005 Energy Bill, but that is being being challenged.

This latest bailout incarnation has been widely tagged “nuclear pork” even in the right-wing Washington Times, which says the Senate accepted it “without debate, explanation or a recorded vote.” The amendment came from Sen. Michael Crapo (R-ID) with support from Budget Committee Chair Kent Conrad (D-ND). Crapo says the guarantees are part of a program created in the 2005 Bush Energy Bill is aimed at “clean energy” programs, not just “advanced” nuclear power. But no Congressional experts take that disclaimer seriously.

No independent financiers will take an unsubsidized flier on new reactors. Nuke operators can’t get private insurance on a major melt-down. With the proposed Yucca Mountain dump all but dead, the industry---after fifty years---has no certified place to take its high-level radioactive waste.

Guarantees are also part of a bill supported by Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH) and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) who chairs the appropriations subcommittee that oversees energy spending, and has been working with Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE), a pro-nuke cabal of business and retired military leaders.

Green energy groups such as Friends of the Earth, Nuclear Information & Resource Service, Beyond Nuclear, NukeFree.org, Greenpeace, Physicians for Social Responsibility and others are gearing up for yet another Congressional fight. If they win this time, they’ll have to fight it out again and yet again as the industry gloms onto new bills on a "clean energy bank," global warming, reprocessing and more. “The $50 billion in nuke loan guarantees proposed in February’s economic stimulus bill were taken out in House-Senate conference following a national outpouring of opposition,” says Michael Mariotte of NIRS. “With a similar outpouring, we can defeat these again in the conference committee that will meet after the Easter recess.”

Mariotte says green energy groups are organizing a national write-in campaign to begin next week, and a call-in effort for April 27, the day after the anniversary of the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe. No one doubts the industry will pour on one legislative scam after another in its desperate attempt to get taxpayer money as it is being priced into oblivion by rapid advances in renewables and efficiency.

Reports are also circulating that France’s heavily subsidized reactor pushers, EdF and Areva, may use newly purchased stakes in Constellation and other US utilities to strong arm their way into the American electricity market. Among other things they may use French taxpayer money to build reactors on American soil. Their foreign ownership status may insulate them from even the infamously lax NRC regulation. The Atomic Energy Act prohibits "foreign ownership, control or domination" of a US reactor project, but the industry will try to work around that. As the over-priced, inefficient French fleet wobbles at home without meaningful regulation, and with no solution to its waste problems, the EdF/Areva reactor pushers apparently view the U.S. as virgin territory.

Indeed, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has just granted a 20-year license extension to America’s oldest reactor. The Oyster Creek plant opened in December, 1969 with an expected design life of forty years. It now has visible rust around its core and has been constantly plagued by errant releases of hot water and lethal radiation.

Perched 50 miles east of Philadelphia and 75 miles south of New York City, Oyster Creek could not be licensed at all by today’s standards. Its reactor containment was never required to withstand a jet crash and is far flimsier than the lid that blew off Chernobyl Unit Four in the Ukraine in 1986, releasing massive quantities of radiation into the surrounding countryside. Because Oyster Creek’s old core is laden with far more residual radiation, a breach could blanket the densely populated American northeast with an apocalyptic cloud of death and destruction.

Owned by the Chicago-based Exelon Corporation, Oyster Creek has been bitterly opposed by area residents and nuclear experts who fear its vital internals are crumbling. The re-licensing process did not require a test of metals in the core, which can become dangerously brittle after decades of exposure to super-hot water and intense radiation.

In 1991, Massachusetts’ elderly Yankee Rowe was shut by lightening. Congressional pressure then demanded an embrittlement inspection that the reactor’s owners would not do.

Parallel issues have been contested in bitter re licensing fights at Minnesota’s Monticello, Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island Unit One, Vermont Yankee and Indian Point, 45 miles north of New York City. The first terror jet to hit the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001 flew directly over Indian Point, whose elderly containments could not withstand an airplane's impact.

But the NRC’s willingness to re-license the rickety, trouble-plagued Oyster Creek signals a willingness to ignore a wide range of serious health, safety and environmental concerns.

Thus pushers of the “Peaceful Atom” are pumping hard for taxpayer handouts and against meaningful regulation, even for the oldest and most decrepit reactors still pumping radiation into the American landscape.

Fittingly, there is now a vacancy on the five-member NRC that President Obama could fill. He could also appoint a new chair. The number of Commissioners over the past three decades who have been at all responsive to legitimate safety and health concerns has been minuscule. An independent-minded appointee would signal that the administration is serious about the health, safety and environmental issues that cut to the core of the "Peaceful Atom."

But whomever Obama appoints, it's painfully clear that the world’s most expensive failed technology is not going away without a long, hard fight.

Harvey Wasserman edits the NukeFree.org website. His SOLARTOPIA! OUR GREEN-POWERED EARTH is at www.solartopia.org.