Soros 'speculating against dollar' (Prison Planet.com/London Independent)
"The pound surged against the dollar yesterday amid speculation that Warren Buffett and George Soros, the world's most famous speculators, are betting the US currency will plummet. Sterling powered to a five-year high against the dollar for a second day as concerns over the US current account deficit continued to outweigh evidence of a rebounding economy. Traders believe selling the dollar is a one-way bet, and some latched on to rumours that speculators were building "short" positions on the dollar - betting it will tumble in the coming months. One hedge fund manager, who asked not to be named, said: "I have heard that both Soros and Buffett are shorting the dollar. There's a growing belief on Wall Street that the dollar is looking like a one-way bet downwards."

Iraq War Critics Sue After Winding Up on 'No Fly' List (Falls Church News): "The New York Times reported Sunday that critics of the Bush administration's Iraq policy have sued the government to learn how their names ended up on a "no fly" list used to stop suspected terrorists from boarding planes. This latest politically-motivated abuse of power by the Bush administration, in particular Attorney General John Ashcroft, is only the beginning." "Ashcroft has also reversed internal regulations limiting the ability of the FBI to spy on U.S. citizens, put into place in the 1970s after the excesses under Nixon, known as Cointelpro, led to the formation of Mitchell's 'Enemies List' of anti-Nixon politicians, protesters and activists."

Diebold Folds In DMCA E-Voting Lawsuit (Slashdot)
Diebold finally quit trying to abuse the Digital Millenium Copyright Act in order to supress leaked internal memos about their software bugs. Apparently Dennis Kucinich played a role in this when he posted them to his website.

McKinney Raises US Government's "COINTELPRO" program with UN Human Rights Commissioner (truthout.org)
"The first document given to Robinson was confidential memorandum 46, written by National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski on March 17, 1978 and it details the federal government's plan to destroy functioning black leadership in the United States. This document provides a critical insight into the federal government's concern at the apparent growing influence of the African American political movement. The second document is a report entitled "Human Rights in the United States [The Unfinished Story- Current Political Prisoners- Victims of COINTELPRO]" and it was compiled by the Human Rights Research Fund, headed by Kathleen Cleaver. This document provides an overview of the counterintelligence program which, from the 1950s to the 1980s, was run in the United States against political activists and targeted organizations. The excesses of the counterintelligence program were first exposed in 1975 by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, known as the Church Committee."

Ten Thousand Gather, Condemn Militarism, Mourn its Victims (Atlanta IndyMedia)
"Ten thousand people gathered this weekend in Columbus Ga, just outside the gates of Ft. Benning, Georgia in a massive demonstration of their opposition to the US Army's School of the Americas, renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (SOA/WHISC), a combat-training school for Latin American soldiers. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, 'disappeared', massacred, and forced into refuge by SOA graduates." See also: School of the Americas Watch.

'DVD Jon' Takes Crack at ITunes (Wired)
The kid who took the fall for DVD decryption software has allegedly authored a new program for defeating Apple's Digital Rights Management system for I-Tunes.

Nachi worm infected Diebold ATMs
No explaination needed.

Failure and Crime Are Not the Same:
9/11's Limited Hangouts
"The American side of 9/11 (the suppression of warnings, the sabotage of investigative action, the stand-down, the insider trading, the Patriot Act, the pre-planning of the Afghan and Gulf II wars, the cover-up) was surely not built years in advance as a coherent and integrated plot using Al Qaida as assets. It was not hatched in some CIA basement. No, it was built the old-fashioned way, out of the accumulated toxic waste generated from preceding American adventures. This time around, these included the Carter - Reagan Afghan War against the USSR that produced Al Qaida; the Bush crime family and their Mahfouz / bin Laden ties; the matrix of oil and financial interests that Cheney, Rice, and Bush Sr. represent; the Clinton administration's systematic and relentless protection of the Taliban and refusals to capture Osama bin Laden; the abortive pipeline negotiations with the Taliban (represented by Richard Helms' niece); and the hidden alliance with Pakistani Intelligence (ISI). In other words, what led up to 9/11 was the systemic and ongoing deep politics of guns, oil, drugs, and war."

Questions about Charles Dean (Todd Brendan Fahey / Friends of Liberty / sianews)
Was the brother of Presidential candidate Howard Dean involved with CIA activity during the Vietnam War? "The remains of Charles Dean, brother of U.S. Presidential candidate Howard Dean, were purportedly found in Laos, the small, communist nation located atop Cambodia and Thailand, and which was the epicenter of unauthorized bombings by then-President Richard Nixon. Laos was also a hotbed of CIA covert activity during the Vietnam War (and also a major hub for drug-smuggling/opium-heroin production--fostered by CIA and airlifted by the CIA's Air America-front).
Questions:
1) What was Charles Dean doing in Laos in 1974, during the tumultuous last two years of the Vietnam war? It is HIGHLY DOUBTFUL that Mr. Dean would have simply been "trekking" through Laos, as an garden-variety backpacker (Laos was not letting in U.S. passport holders--other than of the CIA/miltary variety--during these years).
2) Was Charles Dean officially registered among U.S. military personnel?
2a) Was Charles Dean operating as a CIA functionary during his time in Laos?
As to 2a) Methinks he was. Call it a hunch. 'cos there's no other earthly reason he would have been in said area, in those years, other than "in official capacity."

Turkish & US Top Military Brass meet one day before Istanbul Attacks (Michael Chussodovsky / GlobalResearch.ca)
Just a coincidence, right? "The two Istanbul attacks respectively on the HSBC in the financial district and on the British Consulate were, according to media reports "timed to coincide with President George Bush's state visit to London. The Istanbul Stock Exchange (IMKB) plummeted by 7.37 percent immediately after the bombings. The stock exchange was closed down at 11 am. On World markets, the gold index moved toward the $400 an ounce level. The lira "slipped in thin trading". Banks ceased quotes on the Turkish interbank foreign exchange market. The Lira was defended by the Turkish Central Bank, which "provided the necessary liquidity.” The Central Bank statement was said to have "stopped a crisis in the foreign exchange market". Yet at the same time, the Central Bank decision was also conducive to a decline in Central Bank forex reserves and a massive capital outflow. These movements on the equity and currency markets raise the important question: Was there insider trading and speculative trade based on foreknowledge of the attacks? It is also worth mentioning that the attacks took place one day following the completion of the annual Turkish-US Joint Defense Group meeting (17-19 November 2003)."

Condoleeza Rice Warned Willie Brown Not To Fly On 9-11 (The Truth Seeker)
Flashback: On May 17, 2002, Pacifica Radio reported that Rice was the source of the call to Brown. So in case you missed it: THE ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT FOR NATIONAL SECURITY AFFAIRS CONDOLEEZZA RICE CALLED A FRIEND THE DAY BEFORE SEPTEMBER 11TH AND TOLD HIM TO STAY OUT OF THE AIR THAT WEEK Got that?

Do you support the constitution? (What Really Happened)
"If you support the constitution, that makes you a terrorist suspect," at least according to some recent brochures that the FBI has printed up for reporting suspected terrorists. Read it yourself on the inside page of the brochure. Defending the Constitution is cause to label you a terrorist suspect. Even referring to it is grounds for suspicion that you are a terrorist, with all the harassment that the suspicion implies!

Who Benefits? (unknown/resne.com)
"One by one, the world's terror attacks bear more of the hallmarks of US Intelligence, 'Black Ops,' than of Islamic terrorism. The signs are unmistakable, the CIA backed industrio-religious crusaders are staging terror campaigns throughout the world - absolutely - positively. The despicable US media giants were silent when undisputed proof surfaced that the CIA, NSA, British Intelligence, the US Secret Service and the FBI were all involved in the May 16th 2002 blast in a Philippine hotel room when their agent, Michael Meiring accidently blew his own legs off while constructing a bomb which was intended, if ignited as planned, to be a staged 'Al Queda' terror attack, justifying a tightened US- Philippine military alliance. After the totally unreported Philippines hotel bomb screw-up, the crusaders struck again in the Bali Nightclub blast... Voxnyc was the only news service on the planet with the courage, independence and skills to identify that this bombing was yet another terror strike courtesy of US based crusaders - not Al Qaida."

U.S. Running a Terror Organization? (Independent Media TV)
It appears as if the United States is in charge of an Iranian terrorist group, the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation (MKO), closely involved in the Bush Administration's claims that Iran is enriching uranium for nuclear weapons.

Diebold Memos Disclose Florida 2000 E-Voting Fraud (Scoop.co.nz)
The Diebold Memos' Smoking Gun: Volusia County Memos Disclose Election 2000 Vote Fraud
"DELAND, Fla., Nov. 11 - Something very strange happened on election night to Deborah Tannenbaum, a Democratic Party official in Volusia County. At 10 p.m., she called the county elections department and learned that Al Gore was leading George W. Bush 83,000 votes to 62,000. But when she checked the county's Web site for an update half an hour later, she found a startling development: Gore's count had dropped by 16,000 votes, while an obscure Socialist candidate had picked up 10,000--all because of a single precinct with only 600 voters."
- Washington Post Sunday , November 12, 2000 ; Page A22

Mystery Surrounds Death of State Dept. Official Who Worked on Iraqi Intelligence (Wayne Madsen/From The Wilderness)
How Did a Senior Analyst at State's Intelligence Unit Fall from the Roof of State's Headquarters This Week and Why is No One Talking About It?

Like father, not like son; Bush should have listened to his daddy (Minnesota Daily)
"On March 2, 1998, George H.W. Bush and his national security advisor, Brent Scowcroft, cut a passage from their book, "A World Transformed," and published it in Time magazine, Titled "Why We Didn't Remove Saddam." Through the book, the United States could understand the perils of occupation. Occupation is, as we have just learned, costly. George H.W. Bush and Scowcroft state, "Extending the ground war into an occupation of Iraq ... would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending (Saddam) was probably impossible." Today, our coalition is, indeed, unraveling despite the recent U.S.-forced U.N. resolution regarding Iraq. Pakistan and many other nations seem hard-pressed to send money or troops. Meanwhile, other coalition members such as Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador are sending a combined total of approximately 1,000 troops to Iraq for peacekeeping. But their funding sources are suspicious. When asked on National Public Radio last week about how Nicaragua, for example, planned to pay for this effort, the ambassador to the United States said Nicaragua received funding from a nation that wishes to remain anonymous. ... In 1991, we'd only begun to destroy Iraqi water supplies after the Gulf War, in direct violation of the Geneva Convention. In 2003, the United States again violated the Geneva Convention. According to Charles J. Hanley's recent Associated Press article, "U.S. selling off Iraq-owned companies," "The U.S. plan for Iraqi privatization is controversial."

Crimes Against Nature (Robert F. Kennedy Jr. / Rolling Stone)"
"Bush is sabotaging the laws that have protected America's environment for more than thirty years"

Scientists find mystery particle (BBC)
"Scientists have found a sub-atomic particle they cannot explain using current theories of energy and matter. The Japanese team says understanding its existence may require a change to the Standard Model, the accepted theory of the way the Universe is constructed. X(3872) does not match theoretical expectations for any conceivable quark-antiquark arrangement. To explain it, theoretical physicists may have to modify their theory of the colour force; or make X(3872) the first example of a new type of meson, one that is made from four quarks (two quarks and two antiquarks)."

Bombing in Riyadh (Rizvan, UK)
Hmmm... This brings up some interesting contradictions surrounding the alleged Al-Queda bombing in Riyadh.
Now we're supposed to believe that a millitant Islamic terrorist group is now attacking their own (Muslims) in their own land during the holiest month of Ramadan... Why would they do that? Quite simply, they wouldn't.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Backyard terrorism
"The US has been training terrorists at a camp in Georgia for years - and it's still at it. "If any government sponsors the outlaws and killers of innocents," George Bush announced on the day he began bombing Afghanistan, "they have become outlaws and murderers themselves. And they will take that lonely path at their own peril." I'm glad he said "any government", as there's one which, though it has yet to be identified as a sponsor of terrorism, requires his urgent attention. For the past 55 years it has been running a terrorist training camp, whose victims massively outnumber the people killed by the attack on New York, the embassy bombings and the other atrocities laid, rightly or wrongly, at al-Qaida's door. The camp is called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, or Whisc. It is based in Fort Benning, Georgia, and it is funded by Mr Bush's government."

COINTELPRO (???)
"COINTELPRO is an acronym for the FBI's domestic 'counterintelligence programs' to neutralize political dissidents. Although covert operations have been employed throughout FBI history, the formal COINTELPRO's of 1956-1971 were broadly targeted against radical political organizations. The origins of COINTELPRO were rooted in the Bureau's operations against hostile foreign intelligence services. Counterintelligence, of course, goes beyond investigation; it refers to actions taken to neutralize enemy agents. 'Counterintelligence' was a misnomer for the FBI programs, since the targets were American political dissidents, not foreign spies."

Truth, Lies, and The Legend of 9/11, by Chaim Kupferberg (Chaim Kupferberg / globalresearch.ca)
(description pending my completion of reading this lengthy article...)

Jessica Lynch condemns Pentagon (BBC)
"A US woman soldier who shot to fame after being taken prisoner during the Iraq war has accused the military of using her for propaganda purposes. Jessica Lynch criticised the release of false information about her capture by Iraqi forces."

Suspect [Diebold] Code Used in State Votes (Wired)
Diebold gets caught again using uncertified software in California's official gubernatorial recall election. Fortunately, California has a fair population of astute citizens which I imagine are (rightfully) going to fight tooth & nail over this. Please read Black Box Voting for important information about the integrity of your vote.