WASHINGTON — The Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a contract worth up to $385 million for building temporary immigration detention centers to Kellogg Brown & Root, the Halliburton subsidiary that has been criticized for overcharging the Pentagon for its work in Iraq. KBR would build the centers for the Homeland Security Department for an unexpected influx of immigrants, to house people in the event of a natural disaster or for new programs that require additional detention space, company executives said. KBR, which announced the contract last month, had a similar contract with immigration agencies from 2000 to last year. The contract with the Corps of Engineers runs one year, with four optional one-year extensions. Officials of the corps said that they had solicited bids and that KBR was the lone responder. A spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Jamie Zuieback, said KBR would build the centers only in an emergency like the one when thousands of Cubans floated on rafts to the United States. She emphasized that the centers might never be built if such an emergency did not arise. “It’s the type of contract that could be used in some kind of mass migration,” […]
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Grace Harbor Community Church’s young congregants meet in a crowded hotel conference room, learn Scripture via PowerPoint and listen to a “praise team” play the bongos. The Web site of the 4-year-old Southern Baptist church includes a cartoon proclaiming “God said it, that settles it!” Less than a mile away, the graying worshippers at The First Baptist Church in America prefer Bach to bongos, listen to a black-robed minister who quotes Winston Churchill and meet in a white-steepled National Historic Landmark. First Baptist’s historic congregation planted the faith in America, where 30 million people now call themselves Baptist. But in the movement’s birthplace of Rhode Island, just over 2 percent of the population is Baptist, and some of its earliest churches are struggling. Southern Baptist churches like Grace Harbor have emerged as the higher-profile public face of the tradition _ which has evolved to become far more conservative than the church’s roots in a liberal blue state would suggest. Most Baptist factions trace their roots to Roger Williams, the 17th-century minister who founded Rhode Island and organized the nation’s first Baptist congregation in 1638. The uncompromising provocateur was banished from Massachusetts for attacking […]
We are two-and-a-half generations removed from the horrors of Nazi Germany, although constant reminders jog the consciousness. German and Italian fascism form the historical models that define this twisted political worldview. Although they no longer exist, this worldview and the characteristics of these models have been imitated by protofascist regimes at various times in the twentieth century. Both the original German and Italian models and the later protofascist regimes show remarkably similar characteristics. Although many scholars question any direct connection among these regimes, few can dispute their visual similarities. Beyond the visual, even a cursory study of these fascist and protofascist regimes reveals the absolutely striking convergence of their modus operandi. This, of course, is not a revelation to the informed political observer, but it is sometimes useful in the interests of perspective to restate obvious facts and in so doing shed needed light on current circumstances. For the purpose of this perspective, I will consider the following regimes: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Franco’s Spain, Salazar’s Portugal, Papadopoulos’s Greece, Pinochet’s Chile, and Suharto’s Indonesia. To be sure, they constitute a mixed bag of national identities, cultures, developmental levels, and history. But they all followed the fascist or protofascist […]
Nearly 2,000 people in the Seychelles have been infected with an incurable mosquito-borne disease that has spread to three Indian Ocean islands prompting health alerts, officials said. Jules Gedeon, the Seychelles director for community health, said the number of people diagnosed with “chikungunya” was steadily rising since it was first reported in November and nearly 1,000 cases had been reported in January alone. “We are still counting, but the number is quickly approaching 1,000 for this week,” Gedeon told AFP, adding the country’s security forces had been drafted for a nationwide mosquito eradication drive to stall the spread. In addition, the health ministry announced Thursday it would take legal action against people who do not take measures to control mosquito breeding on their property. Authorities in Madagascar and the overseas French territory of Reunion, where some 45,000 new cases have been reported since mid-December, have reported outbreaks. Last week, the French government drafted 400 extra troops to help fight the mosquitoes that have been spreading the disease across Reunion since March. On Madagascar, about 800 kilometers (500 miles) west of Reunion, a health official said Thursday that two more people had shown symptoms of […]
Channel 4 News tonight reveals extraordinary details of George Bush and Tony Blair’s pre-war meeting in January 2003 at which they discussed plans to begin military action on March 10th 2003, irrespective of whether the United Nations had passed a new resolution authorising the use of force. Channel 4 News has seen minutes from that meeting, which took place in the White House on 31 January 2003. The two leaders discussed the possibility of securing further UN support, but President Bush made it clear that he had already decided to go to war. The details are contained in a new version of the book ‘Lawless World’ written by a leading British human rights lawyer, Philippe Sands QC. President Bush said that: “The US would put its full weight behind efforts to get another resolution and would ‘twist arms’ and ‘even threaten’. But he had to say that if ultimately we failed, military action would follow anyway.” Prime Minister Blair responded that he was: “solidly with the President and ready to do whatever it took to disarm Saddam.” But Mr Blair said that: “a second Security Council resolution would provide an insurance policy against the unexpected, […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
