WASHINGTON, DC — Congress today approved a massive public lands bill that protects 200 million acres of wilderness in nine states and a thousand miles of rivers, a 50 percent increase in the wild and scenic river system. It establishes new national trails, national parks and a new national monument and provides legal status for the National Landscape Conservation System, which will protect some of the country’s most spectacular landscapes. The package of 164 separate bills bundled together, known as the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009 (H.R.146), has been stalled several times on its way to approval, most recently on March 11, when the measure fell two votes short of the two-thirds majority in the House required at that time. Today, only a simple majority was required and the House passed the bill by a vote of 285 to 140. The bill was approved by the Senate last week and now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature into law. President Obama is expected to sign the measure. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said today is ‘a day of celebration for all who treasure and enjoy our natural and cultural heritage.’ ‘This bipartisan legislation […]
MOSUL — On the second floor of what was once a school in east Mosul, an Iraqi Army medic stuck his chin out a hallway window and shaved over the courtyard. On either side of him in the dingy hallway light, detainees sat facing the wall, blankets cast over their heads. The Iraqi Army had brought them in on a tip from a man they caught with bomb making materials, and a U.S. Army platoon had just arrived. As the medic flicked his razor and turned his small mirror, the American soldiers stood the detainees up one by one, scanned their retinas, took their thumbprints, and photographed their faces. ‘We got a hit,’ exclaimed the soldier with the scanning device. ‘Be careful that this one cannot see the other when he stands,’ said the platoon’s Kurdish translator, pointing to the detainee. ‘This is very important.’ The translator is called Ricky, but this is not his name. None of the mostly Kurdish interpreters for the U.S. military in Mosul use their real names. Tagged on their standard issue camo shirts, Abdul becomes Mark, or Pablo, or Bill. Ricky chain-smokes and sweats heavily; earlier that day he had shown […]
BEIRUT and ABU DHABI — The sharp decline in oil prices is limiting Iraq’s ability to expand its security services and threatening plans to hire tens of thousands of new police officers this year, says Jawad al-Bulani, interior minister. This comes at a time of heightened threats to Iraq’s fragile stability as Iraq heads towards parliamentary elections in December and as the US prepares to withdraw its combat troops by August next year. ‘Inevitably this [fall in oil prices] will affect our plans, Mr Bulani told the FT. Iraq earns 94 per cent of its revenues from oil and, with oil prices now around $50 a barrel, down from a peak of $147 last July, it will this year have much less money to spend this year. The government in Baghdad is already facing a budget deficit of $20bn this year and has cut this year’s spending by $4.2bn, or 7 per cent, in an attempt to limit the damage. ‘We did have plans [to hire more police] but it has been stopped for financial reasons, Mr Bulani said. ‘So we are trying to develop an alternative plan and we are looking for new ideas, […]
WASHINGTON — As President Barack Obama tries to green the United States by slapping limits on carbon emissions, Congress has been was told to ignore his plan because climate change does not exist. ‘The right response to the non-problem of global warming is to have the courage to do nothing,’ said British aristocrat Lord Christopher Walter Monckton, a leading proponent of the ‘climate change is myth’ movement. The Third Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, who was an advisor to former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, argued before the Energy and Environment Subcommittee that for 14 years, contrary to broadly accepted scientific beliefs, ‘there has been no statistically significant global warming.’ The House hearing, titled ‘Adaptation Policies in Climate Legislation,’ discussed ways to address President Barack Obama’s cap-and-trade proposal in his 3.55-trillion-dollar budget plan, presented to Congress in February. Obama’s proposal would limit emissions of greenhouse gases for manufacturers, and permit companies to trade the right to pollute to other firms — a similar cap-and-trade system to the European model. The moves are now subject of intense political opposition in Congress, notably from lawmakers representing US states heavily invested in energy production through fossil fuels. ‘Adaptation […]
The end of the Global War on Terror — or at least the use of that phrase — has been codified at the Pentagon. Reports that the phrase was being retired have been circulating for some time amongst senior administration officials, and this morning speechwriters and other staff were notified via this e-mail to use ‘Overseas Contingency Operation’ instead. ‘Recently, in a LtGen [John] Bergman, USMC, statement for the 25 March [congressional] hearing, OMB required that the following change be made before going to the Hill,’ Dave Riedel, of the Office of Security Review, wrote in an e-mail. ‘OMB says: ‘This Administration prefers to avoid using the term ‘Long War’ or ‘Global War on Terror’ [GWOT]. Please use ‘Overseas Contingency Operation.” Riedel asked recipients to ‘Please pass on to your speech writers and try to catch this change before the statements make it to OMB.’ An OMB spokesman took issue with the interpretation of OMB’s wishes. ‘There was no memo, no guidance,’ said Kenneth Baer. ‘This is the opinion of a career civil servant.’ Referring to the phrase ‘global war on terror,’ Baer said, ‘I have no reason to believe that would be […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
