Couple slips though security to crash state dinner + list of state dinner guests

The Secret Service says it’s looking into its own security procedures after determining that two people crashed Tuesday night’s state dinner at the White House.

Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan says that President Barack Obama was never in any danger. Donovan says the party crashers went through the same security screening as the 300-plus people actually invited to the dinner honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Donovan says the Secret Service first learned about the security breach Wednesday morning after media inquiries prompted by the crashers’ online boasts about having attended the private event.

The Washington Post reports that photos from the state dinner appear on the Facebook page of one of the dinner crashers.

via Couple slips though security to crash state dinner – Yahoo! News.

The hottest ticket in the free world is to the first White House State Dinner of the Obama presidency.

The Obamas are honoring visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, but in their own way — unlike prior state dinners in the high-ceilinged State Dining Room, the Obamas will gather a few hundred VIPs in a heated tent on the South Lawn. …  – nbc

Here are all of the several hundred attendees who should have been there. After seeing 2010 this is sort of like the list of people who might be invited to survive the apocalypse. Nice to see Steven Spielberg made it.  I added some links. Kind of fun to research who these people are.

1. The President & First Lady Michelle Obama
2. Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister, India & Ms. Gursharan Kaur
3. The Honorable (Rep) Gary Ackerman, United States Representative Mr. Sant Singh Chatwal (Guest)
4. His Excellency Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of the Republic of India, Indian Delegation
5. Mr. Mukesh D Ambani
6. Mr. Tim Dutta (Spouse of Ms. Pia Awal)
7. The Honorable (Mr.) David Axelrod, White House Communications Mrs. Susan Axelrod
8. Ms. Preeta Bansal, OMB – General Counsel
9. The Honorable (Ms.) Melody Barnes, Domestic Policy Council Mr. Marland E. Buckner
10. The Honorable (Rep.) Howard Berman, United States Representative (D/California) Mrs. Jane Berman, Spouse of United States Representative (D/California)
11. Mr. Om Prakash Bhatt
12. Mr. Hunter Biden Mrs. Kathleen Biden
13. The Honorable (Vice President) Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Vice President of the United States Dr. Jill Biden
14. Mr. Robert O Blake, Jr., Assistant Sec for South and Central Asian Affairs, State Department Mrs. Sofia Blake
15. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York, NY Ms. Diana Taylor
16. The Honorable (Mr.) John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Deputy National Security Advisor for Counterterrorism, Homeland Security Council Mrs. Katherine Brennan
17. The Honorable (Ms.) Lisa Brown, Office of Staff Secretary Mr. Kevin Cullen
18. Mr. Donald Browne Ms. Maria Junqera
19. The Honorable (Ms.) Carol Browner, Energy and Climate Change The Honorable (Mr.) Tom Downey
20. Mr. William Burns, Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Department of State Ms. Lisa Cart
21. General James E Cartwright, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mrs. Sandee Cartwright
22. The Honorable (Senator) Bob Casey, United States Senator (D/Pennsylvania) Mrs. Terese Casey, United States Senate Spouse (D/Pennsylvania)
23. Mr. Rajiv Chandrasekaran Mrs. Julie Chandrasekaran
24. Mr. I.S. Chaturvedi, Personal Secretary to the Prime Minister of the Republic of India, Indian Delegation
25. Senator Satveer Chaudhry, State Senator Colonel Ravi Chaudhry (Guest)
26. Ms. Rohini Chopra
27. Mr. Deepak Chopra Mrs. Rita Chopra
28. The Honorable (Secretary) Steven Chu, Secretary of the Department of Energy Mrs. Jean Chu
29. The Honorable (Secretary) Hillary R. Clinton, Secretary of State
30. The Honorable (Rep.) James E. Clyburn, United States Representative (D/South Carolina) Mrs. Emily Clyburn
31. The Honorable (Senator) Kent Conrad, United States Senator (D/North Dakota) Ms. Lucy Calutti, United States Senate Spouse (D/North Dakota)
32. Mr. David Cote
33. Ms. Katie Couric Mr. Brooks L Perlin
34. Mr. Greg Craig, Assistant to the President and Counsel to the President Mrs. Margaret D Craig
35. Mrs. Paula Crown Mr. Jim Crown
36. The Honorable (Rep.) Elijah Cummings, United States Representative (D/Maryland) Mrs. Maya Rockeymoore
37. Senator Swati Dandekar, State Senator Mr. Arvind Dandekar
38. Mr. Rajesh De, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice
39. Nancy Ann DeParle, Office of Health Reform Mr. Jason P DeParle
40. Ms. Bhairavi Desai Javaid Tari
41. Dr. Vishakha N. Desai Robert Oxman
42. The Honorable (Senator) Chris Dodd, United States Senator (D/Connecticut) Mrs. Jackie Clegg Dodd
43. Mr. John Doerr
44. The Honorable (Mr.) Thomas Donilon, Assistant to the President, Deputy National Security Advisor, NSC Ms. Cathy Russell
45. The Honorable Anita Dunn, White House Communications Director Mr. Bob Bauer
46. Mr. Ari Emanuel Mrs. Sarah Emanuel
47. The Honorable (Mr.) Rahm Emanuel, Chief of Staff to the President Ms. Amy Rule
48. The Honorable (Mr.) Jon Favreau, Assistant to the President and Director of Speechwriting
49. Ms. Sarah Feinberg, Office of the Chief of Staff
50. The Honorable (Mayor) Adrian Fenty, Mayor of the District of Columbia Mrs. Michelle Fenty
51. Ms. Michelle Flournoy ( Under Secretary of Defense for Policy of the United States.)
52. Mr. Thomas Friedman Mrs. Ann Friedman
53. The Honorable (Mr.) Mike Froman, Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs, NSC
54. Dr. Ashok S Ganguly
55. The Honorable (Mr.) Patrick Gaspard, Office of Political Affairs Mrs. Raina Washington
56. The Honorable Robert Gates
57. Ms. Charlene Gaynor Mr. Richard Heiss
58. Mr. David Geffen Mr. Jeremy Lingvall
59. The Honorable (Secretary) Timothy F. Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury Ms. Carole Sonnenfeld
60. The Honorable (Mr.) Robert Gibbs, White House Press Secretar
61. Mr. Anish Goel, Acting Senior Director, South Asia Affairs, NSC
62. Mr. Senapathy Gopalakrishnan
63. Mr. Mark Gorenberg Ms. Wendy Wanderman
64. Mr. John Gorman Mrs. Tamra Gorman
65. Representative Jay Goyal, State Representative Kiran Goyal
66. Representative Raj Goyle, State Representative Mrs. Monica Arora
67. The Honorable (Governor) Jennifer Granholm, Governor of Michigan (D) Mr. Daniel Mulhern, First Gentleman of Michigan
68. Mr. Earl G. Graves Mrs. Barbara Graves
69. Ms. Geeta Rao Gupta Mr. Arvind Gupta
70. Mr. Raj Gupta
71. Mr. Rajat Gupta Mrs. Anita M Gupta
72. Dr. Sanjay Gupta Mrs. Rebecca Olson Gupta
73. Mr. Lee Hamilton Mrs. Nancy Hamilton
74. The Honorable (Ms.) Kamala Harris Ms. Maya Harris
75. Mr. Kamil Hassan Mrs. Talat Hassan
76. Mr. George Haywood Mrs. Cheryl J Haywood
77. The Honorable Fred Hochberg, Export-Import Bank Thomas P Healy
78. The Honorable (Rep.) Paul Hodes, United States Representative (D/New Hampshire) Mrs. Margaret Hodes
79. The Honorable (Attorney General) Eric Holder, United States Attorney General, Department of Justice Dr. Sharon Malone, MD
80. Dr. John P. Holdren Dr. Cheryl E Holdren
81. The Honorable (Rep.) Eleanor Holmes-Norton, United States of Representative (D/DC) Mr. John Norton
82. Mr. Robert D Hormats, Under Secretary of State for Economic, Energy, and Agricultural Affairs, State Department Ms. Camille Massey
83. The Honorable (Rep) Steny Hoyer, United States Representative (D/Maryland) Ms. Kathleen May
84. Mr. Chris Hughes Mr. Sean S Eldridge
85. Mr. Jeff Immelt
86. The Honorable (Senator) Daniel Inouye, United States Senator (D/Hawaii) Ms. Irene Hirano, United States Senate Spouse (D/Hawaii)
87. Mrs. Deepa Iyer Mr. Parag Khandhar Mr. Vasudeva Iyer
88. The Honorable (Administrator) Lisa Jackson, Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency Mr. Kenneth Jackson
89. The Honorable (Ms.) Valerie Jarrett, Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor
90. The Honorable (Governor) Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana Mrs. Supriya Jindal, First Lady of Louisiana
91. The Honorable (General) James Jones, Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor Mrs. Diane Jones
92. Mrs. Ann Jordan Mr. Vernon Jordan
93. Mr. Anil Kakani
94. Mr. Farooq Kathwari Mrs. Farida Kathwari
95. Mr. Neal Katyal, Principal Deputy Solicitor General, Office of the Solicitor General
96. Mr. Jeffrey Katzenberg Mrs. Marilyn Katzenberg
97. Ms. Maneesha Kelkar, Manavi Vinay Vaishampayan
98. The Honorable (Senator) John Kerry, United States Senator (D/Massachusetts)
99. Dr. Harish Khare, Media Advisor to the Prime Minister of India, Indian Delegation
100. The Honorable (Mr.) Bradley Kiley, Office of Management and Administration Mr. James Coley, Jr
101. Ms. Gayle King
102. The Honorable (Ambassador) Ron Kirk, USTR Mrs. Matrice Ellis-Kirk
103. The Honorable (Mr.) Ronald Klain, Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to the Vice President, Office of the Vice President
104. Mrs. Chanda D Kochhar
105. His Excellency S.M. Krishna, Minister of External Affairs of the Republic of India, Indian Delegation
106. Ms. Gaitri Kumar, Joint Secretary (Americas), Ministry of External Affairs of the Republic of India, Indian Delegation
107. Mr. Vivek Kundra
108. Mrs. Jhumpa Lahiri Mr. Alberto Vourvoulias
109. Mr. Marc Lasry Cathy Lasry
110. Mr. Jacob Lew, Deputy Secretary, Department of State
111. The Honorable Gary Locke, Secretary of Commerce Mrs. Mona Locke
112. The Honorable (Mr.) Christopher Lu, Cabinet Affairs Ms. Kathryn Thomson
113. The Honorable (Senator) Richard Lugar, United States Senator (R/Indiana) Mrs. Char Lugar, United States Senate Spouse (R/Indiana)
114. Mr. Michael Lynton Ms. Elizabeth Jamie Alter
115. Mr. Surinder Malhotra
116. The Honorable (Chief of Protocol) Capricia Marshall
117. The Honorable (Ms.) Alyssa Mastromonaco, White House Office of Scheduling
118. Mr. Brian Mathis Mrs. Tracey Kemble
119. Ms. Kiran Mazumda-Shaw
120. The Honorable (Senator) Claire McCaskill, United States Senator (D/Missouri) Mr. Joseph Shepard, United States Senate Spous
121. The Honorable (Rep) Jim McDermott, United States Representative (D/Washington) Mrs. Therese Marie Hansen
122. Mr. Zarin Mehta Ms. Carmen Lasky
123. The Honorable (Mr.) Jim Messina, Office of Chief of Staff
124. Mr. Judd Miner Mrs. Linda Miner
125. Mr. Newt Minow Mrs. Josephine Minow
126. Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal
127. Kalpen Modi, Associate Director, Office of Public Engagement
128. Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mrs. Deborah Mullen
129. The Honorable (Secretary) Janet Napolitano, Secretary, Department of Homeland Security
130. His Excellency M.K. Narayanan, National Security Adviser of the Republic of India, Indian Delegation
131. Mr. Shantanu Narayen Mrs. Reni Narayen
132. Mr. Raju Narisetti Durga Raghunath
133. Mr. Martin Nesbitt Ms. Anita Blanchard
134. Mr. Konrad Ng Dr. Maya Soetoro-Ng
135. Ms. Indra Nooyi
136. The Honorable (Rep) David Obey, United States Representative (D/Wisconsin) Mrs. Joan Obey
137. The Honorable (Mr.) Peter Orszag, Director, Office of Management & Budget
138. Mr. Jim Owens Ms. Katie Owens
139. Mr. Deepak Parekh
140. Mr. Eboo Patel Ms. Shehnez Mansuri
141. Mrs. Diane Patrick, First Lady of Massachusetts
142. The Honorable (Speaker) Nancy Pelosi, United States Representative (D/California) and Speaker of the House Mr. Paul Pelosi
143. Mr. Dan Pfeiffer, White House Office of Communications
144. Mr. Sam Pitroda Mrs. Anjana Pitroda
145. General Colin Powell Ms. Alma Powell
146. Dr. Rachakonda D Prabhu Dr. Lata Shete Prabhu
147. Mrs. Penny Pritzker Dr. Brian Traubert
148. Ms. Kavita Ramdas
149. Her Excellency Nirupama Rao, Foreign Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs of the Republic of India, Indian Delegation
150. Ms. Preetha Reddy
151. The Honorable (Governor) Edward Rendell, Governor of Pennsylvania (D) The Honorable (Judge) Marjorie Rendell, First Lady of Pennsylvania
152. Mr. Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting
153. The Honorable (Ambassador) Susan Rice, United States Ambassador to the United Nations Mr. Ian Cameron
154. The Honorable (Governor) Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico (D)
155. Mrs. Barbara Richardson, First Lady of New Mexico
156. Ms. Robin Roberts
157. Mrs. Marian Robinson
158. Ambassador Timothy Roemer, US Ambassador to India Mrs. Mary Johnston
159. Ms. Desiree Rogers, Special Assistant to the President and White House Social Secretary
160. Mr. John Rogers
161. The Honorable (Dr.) Christina Romer, Chair, Council of Economic Advisers
162. Mr. Dennis Ross, NSC
163. The Honorable (Rep) Edward Randall Royce, United States Representative Marie Therese Royce
164. Mr. Michael Sacks Mrs. Cari Sacks
165. The Honorable (Rep.) Linda Sanchez, United States Representative (D/California) Mr. James Sullivan, Guest of Then Honorable Linda Sanchez
166. Mr. Pankaj Saran, Joint Secretary to the Prime Minister of the Republic of India, Indian Delegation
167. His Excellency Shyam Saran, Special Envoy to the Prime Minister on Climate Change, Indian Delegation
168. Mr. Jaideep Sarkar, Personal Secretary to the Prime Minister of the Republic of India, Indian Delegation
169. Mr. Parag Saxena
170. The Honorable (Rep.) Jan Schakowsky, United States Representative (D/Illinois) Mr. Robert Creamer
171. The Honorable (Mr.) Phil Schiliro, Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs Mrs. Jody Schiliro
172. Ms. Annetta Seecharran Seema Agnani
173. Mr. Stuart Seldowitz, Acting Director for South Asia, NSC
174. Dr. Amartya Sen Ms. Emma Georgina Rothschild
175. Under Secretary Rajiv J Shah, Under Secretary for Research, Education & Economics, Department of Agriculture
176. The Honorable Sonal Shah, Deputy Assist to the President, Director Office of SICP, Domestic Policy Council
177. Mr. Vinod Shah
178. Her Excellency Meera SHANKAR, Ambassador, India
179. The Honorable Susan Sher, Assistant to the President/Chief of Staff to the First Lady The Honorable (Mr.) Neil Cohen
180. Mr. M. Night Shyamalan Mrs. Bhavna Shyamala
181. Ms. Amrit Singh Mr. Analjit Singh
182. Mr. Arun K. Singh, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of the Republic of India, Indian Delegation
183. Mr. Balvinder Singh Mr. Mohinder Singh
184. Mr. Lakhwinder Singh Mrs. Sukhbir Kaur
185. Ms. Upinder Singh
186. Mr. Steven Spielberg
187. Mr. Sri Srinivasan Ms. Carla Garrett
188. Ms. Srinija Srinivasan
189. The Honorable (Mr.) Jim Steinberg, Deputy Secretary of State Ms. Sherburne Bradstreet
190. Mrs. Semonti Stephens, Deputy Press Secretary, Office of the First Lady
191. Mr. Andy Stern Ms. Anna Burger
192. Mrs. Jane Stetson Mr. Bill Stetson
193. Honorable (Dr.) Larry Summers, Director, National Economic Council Dr. Elisa New
194. The Honorable (Ms.) Mona Sutphen, Office of Chief of Staff Mr. Clyde Williams
195. Mr. Ratan Tata
196. The Honorable (Ms.) Tina Tchen, Office of Public Liaison
197. Ambassador Vinai Thummalapally, Ambassador, Embassy of Belize Mrs. Barbara Thummalapally
198. Mr. Jim Torrey Ms. Rose P Lynch
199. Mr. Richard Trumka Mr. Paul H Lemmon
200. Ms. Urvashi Vaid Ms. Kate Clinton
201. Mr. Kirk Wagar Ms. Crystal Connor
202. Dr. Eric E. Whitaker Dr. Cheryl Whitaker
203. Mr. Brian Williams Mrs. Jane Williams
204. Mr. Wellington Wilson Mrs. Wilson
205. Mr. Neal Wolin, Deputy Secretary, Department of Treasury
206. Ms. Alfre Woodard Mr. Blair E Underwood
207. Mr. Fareed Zakaria Ms. Paula Throckmorton Zakaria

 

Iraq was only fourth on WMD risk list, inquiry hears + peak oil, the unspoken “why”.

The full extent of how Tony Blair misled the public about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction before and after the Iraq War was laid bare yesterday.

The Chilcot Inquiry heard that just ten days before the invasion of Iraq Mr Blair was told Saddam had no way of using weapons of mass destruction.

And weapons experts revealed that the former Prime Minister took Britain to war based on intelligence that his own spies rated just ‘four out of ten’ for accuracy.

On the eve of the conflict, intelligence chiefs told Mr Blair that the Iraqi dictator had no warheads capable of delivering chemical weapons, dramatically undermining the Prime Minister’s case for war.

Yet Mr Blair gave the go-ahead for the invasion despite strong evidence that Iraq was no threat to Britain. Then, after the war, officials had to tell Mr Blair not to ‘declare success too rapidly’ in the quest to find WMD in Iraq as he continued to make misleading statements claiming that ‘massive evidence’ had been found.

The revelations reinforce the case that intelligence evidence that Saddam was no threat was ignored by Mr Blair to take Britain to war on a false prospectus. Sir William Ehrman, former Director General of Defence and Intelligence at the Foreign Office, said that on March 10, 2003 – ten days before the start of the war – British spies reported that Iraq had ‘disassembled’ what chemical weapons it had.

He said: ‘On March 10 we got a report saying that the chemical weapons might have remained disassembled and that Saddam hadn’t yet ordered their re-assembly and he might lack warheads capable of effective dispersal of agents.’ The evidence was summarised in a Joint Intelligence Committee report circulated in Whitehall on March 19.

Sir William blamed ‘contradictory intelligence’ for the failure to put the brakes on. But Tim Dowse, Foreign Office head of counter-proliferation between 2000 and 2002, also revealed that a month earlier, in February 2003, UN weapons inspector Hans Blix had made clear that he did not believe the mythical weapons existed.

‘He raised it at a meeting with ministers,’ Mr Dowse said. The most damning testimony concerned Downing Street’s decision to write the now infamous dossier in September 2002 to make the case for war. Both WMD experts made clear that ‘huge gaps’ in intelligence on Iraq were flagged up to ministers, leaving them with no excuse when the caveats were removed from the final dossier.

Sir William said experts concluded that there never was ‘an imminent threat’ from Iraq, describing it only as a ‘clear and present threat’. …

Asked about suggestions that the 45-minute claim referred to WMDs which could be used by Iraq to strike another nation, Mr Dowse said: ‘I don’t think we ever said that it was for use in a ballistic missile in that way.’ Inquiry panel member Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman pointed out: ‘But you didn’t say it wasn’t.’ But Mr Dowse admitted that he had pushed for the inclusion of a paragraph on how some Iraqi missiles could hit British bases in Cyprus.

That became conflated with the 45 minute claim at the time, leaving many members of the public with the impression that weapons of mass destruction could be deployed on longrange missiles to hit British targets. The dossier eventually read that Saddam’s ‘military planning allows for some of the WMD to be ready within 45 minutes of an order to use them. I am quite clear that Saddam will go to extreme lengths, indeed has already done so, to hide these weapons and avoid giving them up’.

In his foreword, Mr Blair wrote: ‘What I believe the assessed intelligence has established beyond doubt is that Saddam has continued to produce chemical and biological weapons, that he continues in his efforts to develop nuclear weapons, and that he has been able to extend the range of his ballistic missile programme.’via Iraq was only fourth on WMD risk list, inquiry hears | Mail Online.

Shouldn’t lies that get people killed be some kind of crime or something? Well, remember that all of this was after Dick Cheney’s secret energy meeting, which resulted in a final report on May 16, 2001. I guess if US and UK leaders knew about a coming disaster, they were trying to save their citizens from death and starvation which would result from a lack of Iraq’s oil when demand outstrips supply. … and see this … and now this:

The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the International Energy Agency who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic buying.

The senior official claims the US has played an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves.

The allegations raise serious questions about the accuracy of the organisation’s latest World Energy Outlook on oil demand and supply to be published tomorrow – which is used by the British and many other governments to help guide their wider energy and climate change policies.

“Many inside the organisation believe that maintaining oil supplies at even 90m to 95m barrels a day would be impossible but there are fears that panic could spread on the financial markets if the figures were brought down further. And the Americans fear the end of oil supremacy because it would threaten their power over access to oil resources,” he added.

A second senior IEA source, who has now left but was also unwilling to give his name, said a key rule at the organisation was that it was “imperative not to anger the Americans” but the fact was that there was not as much oil in the world as had been admitted. “We have [already] entered the ‘peak oil’ zone. I think that the situation is really bad,” he added.

The IEA acknowledges the importance of its own figures, boasting on its website: “The IEA governments and industry from all across the globe have come to rely on the World Energy Outlook to provide a consistent basis on which they can formulate policies and design business plans.”

The British government, among others, always uses the IEA statistics rather than any of its own to argue that there is little threat to long-term oil supplies.

The IEA said tonight that peak oil critics had often wrongly questioned the accuracy of its figures. A spokesman said it was unable to comment ahead of the 2009 report being released tomorrow.

John Hemming, the MP who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on peak oil and gas, said the revelations confirmed his suspicions that the IEA underplayed how quickly the world was running out and this had profound implications for British government energy policy.

He said he had also been contacted by some IEA officials unhappy with its lack of independent scepticism over predictions. “Reliance on IEA reports has been used to justify claims that oil and gas supplies will not peak before 2030. It is clear now that this will not be the case and the IEA figures cannot be relied on,” said Hemming. – guarduk

The responsible thing to do would be to tell the world the truth and have everyone cut back on energy use NOW. We should be using our last oil to find alternatives.  The path we are on, blindly using oil like it is unlimited, means we will hit a brick wall and face some serious problems in the next few years. Chaos, collapse of economies, starvation, dogs and cats sleeping together….

Websites ‘need to pay for news’

Rupert Murdoch has said it is time for internet search engines and other websites to start to pay for any news reports they currently take for free.

Mr Murdoch, owner of media giant News Corporation, said such sites would soon have to pay for any content taken from his firm’s many news providers.

He was speaking at the World Media Summit in Beijing, where his comments were backed by some of his competitors.

Associated Press boss Tom Curley said news providers were being “exploited”.

‘Act decisively’

“The aggregators and plagiarists will soon have to pay a price for the co-opting of our content,” said Mr Murdoch, whose company owns newspapers including the Sun and the Times in the UK, and the New York Post and Wall Street Journal in the US.

“If we do not take advantage of the current movement toward paid content, it will be the content creators – the people in this hall – who will pay the ultimate price and the content kleptomaniacs who triumph.”

The BBC’s Chris Hogg said Mr Murdoch warned global news executives who had gathered for the summit that many news providers faced going out of business unless they started to charge websites such as Google, Yahoo and Facebook for carrying their content. …

Mr Curley said news content creators had “been too slow to react to the free exploitation of news by third parties without input or permission”.

“Crowd-sourcing web services such as Wikipedia, YouTube and Facebook, have become preferred customer destinations for breaking news, displacing websites of traditional news publishers,” he added.

Mr Curley said news providers had to “decisively act to take back control of our content”.

“We will no longer tolerate the disconnect between people who devote themselves – at great human and economic cost – to gathering news of public interest and those who profit from it without supporting it.”

Mr Curley said earlier this week that Associated Press was considering selling news stories to some websites, such as Google or Yahoo, exclusively for a certain period, such as half an hour.

via BBC NEWS | Business | Websites ‘need to pay for news’.

I guess Murdoch is not a fan of Fair Use. Listen, people avoid mainstream sites because they don’t want ads and hype. I am consistently frustrated by having to view spam ads all over a page with the text I want to read threading through a maze of crap. Murdoch just doesn’t get it. The days where a few giants had a stranglehold on news is over. They blew it by lying too damn many times and by spamming us relentlessly.  If the big news outlets go to a paid model, the will lose EVEN MORE viewers and then their advertisers will drop them. They should be embracing the current technology, encouraging crowd-sourcing, providing teasers for bloggers and other social sites, with links to the details on their sites for those who are truly interested.  It is a shame that Murdoch had decided to pick a fight with his own consumers. He will not win until he understands what people really want: free interesting verified facts relevant to our lives with limited salient pithy interpretation that holds up under scrutiny.

More Hacktivism: 9/11 Pager data, where are the UFO leaks?

From 3AM on Wednesday November 25, 2009, until 3AM the following day (US east coast time), WikiLeaks is releasing over half a million US national text pager intercepts. The intercepts cover a 24 hour period surrounding the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.

The messages are being broadcast to the global community “live”, sychronized to the time of day they were sent. The first message is from 3AM September 11, 2001, five hours before the first attack, and the last, 24 hours later.

Text pagers are usualy carried by persons operating in an official capacity. Messages in the archive range from Pentagon and New York Police Department exchanges, to computers reporting faults to their operators as the World Trade Center collapsed.

The archive is a completely objective record of the defining moment of our time. We hope that its revelation will lead to a more nuanced understanding of the event and its tragic consequences.

An index of messages released so far is available here.

Twitter users should refer to #911txts. We will give status updates at twitter.com/wikileaks.

Observations may be posted to reddit. Please vote for important material.

via 9/11 Pager data.

Wikileaks has 14,263 Followers. About Wikileaks:

Wikileaks is a multi-jurisdictional organization to protect internal dissidents, whistleblowers, journalists and bloggers who face legal or other threats related to publishing. Our primary interest is in exposing oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we are of assistance to people of all nations who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their governments and corporations. We aim for maximum political impact. We have received over 1.2 million documents so far from dissident communities and anonymous sources.

We believe that transparency in government activities leads to reduced corruption, better government and stronger democracies. All governments can benefit from increased scrutiny by the world community, as well as their own people. We believe this scrutiny requires information. Historically that information has been costly – in terms of human life and human rights. But with technological advances – the internet, and cryptography – the risks of conveying important information can be lowered.

Wikileaks opens leaked documents up to stronger scrutiny than any media organization or intelligence agency can provide. Wikileaks provides a forum for the entire global community to relentlessly examine any document for its credibility, plausibility, veracity and validity. …In its landmark ruling on the Pentagon Papers, the US Supreme Court ruled that “only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government.” We agree.

We believe that it is not only the people of one country that keep their government honest, but also the people of other countries who are watching that government. – wikileaks

Have there been any UFO leaks? Not yet, AFAIK, but if Gary McKinnon had downloaded the images of the craft he supposedly saw when he hacked into a NASA computer, Wikileaks would have been the place to post them.

For ufologists… the idea that someone in government, abroad or here, eventually, might disclose the cover-up about UFOs that they contend is rampant, and can do so anonymously, should come as heaven-sent… – wikileaks

He said he investigated a NASA photographic expert’s claim that at the Johnson Space Center’s Building 8, images were regularly cleaned of evidence of UFO craft, and confirmed this, comparing the raw originals with the “processed” images. He claimed to have viewed a detailed image of “something not man-made” and “cigar shaped” floating above the northern hemisphere, and assuming his viewing would be undisrupted owing to the hour, he did not think of capturing the image because he was “bedazzled”, and therefore did not think of securing it with the screen capture function in the software at the point when his connection was interrupted.^[39] McKinnon stated the image was approximately 256 megabytes in size, yet that the craft’s details were still distinct in the greatly inferior 4-bit color and low resolution he had to reduce the viewing image to appear across his mere 56k modem connection (approximate transfer rate 5.4kbps). – wiki

A person could submit documents to wikileaks here: https://secure.wikileaks.org/wiki/Special:Leak but, of course, a person with proof of aliens would want to do something like that from an unmonitored public computer such as in a busy library to avoid being traced.  On the disinfo side of the coin, there is no reason someone could not fake some documents and leak them to “prove” something outlandish…. then again, the point of wikileaks is that you’d have a lot of people reviewing the leaked document(s) to determine if the veracity.

British intelligence fingers US Citizen in India Bombing

British intelligence tipped off the American authorities over a suspect in the Mumbai bombings, the Daily Telegraph has learned.

David Coleman Headley, also known as Daood Sayed Gilani, made frequent visits to the Indian city where he mixed with the Bollywood set as a cover for his activities, it is claimed.

He joined a local gym in the upmarket Breach Candy area and stayed at the Taj Mahal hotel, one of the targets, in April and May 2007.

According to a US indictment, Headley, 49, was a freelance reconnaissance agent for terrorist groups including Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group behind the Mumbai attacks a year ago.

Intelligence sources have told the Daily Telegraph that British officers collected the vital information that identified Headley, a US citizen living in Chicago who was arrested in October. They declined to give further details.

British intelligence was also responsible for the arrest of another US terrorist suspect, Najibullah Zazi, 24, who was allegedly planning attacks on the New York subway when he was arrested in Denver in September.

Investigators in India are still trying to piece together Headley’s activity in the country around the crucial period, when he posed as a businessman running an immigration service.

He is said to have befriended a man called Rahul who has identified himself to Indian police as Rahul Bhatt, a young actor from one of Bollywood’s leading families.

Apart from his visit to the Taj Mahal hotel in 2007, when he stayed in the heritage building attacked by the terrorists the following year, he also visited New Delhi, staying in the city’s Paharganj area, in October 2007 and March 2009.

He is reported to have rented an apartment close to his gym in Mumbai from April 2008, where his landlady has described him as a “sweet and charming man”.

Headley’s associate, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 48, a Canadian living in Chicago, stayed in a guesthouse in south Mumbai close to the Chhatrapati Shivaji railway station, another target, until November 21 last year, five days before the attacks, when he returned to North America.

Headley himself was in Pakistan at the time of the attacks working on another plan he called the “Mickey Mouse Project”. Headley and Rana both attended the Hasan Abdal Cadet College in Pakistan and were members of an internet group called the Abdalians.

Five Pakistani army officers were arrested this week in connection with their activities. One Pakistani officer, referred to in US legal documents as “Individual A,” is said to have acted as Headley’s link to Let and another group called Harakat ul- Jihad Islami, both of which are associated with al-Qaeda.

While investigations continue into Headley’s activities in India he has been charged in Chicago with a number of other terrorist offences.

He is accused of plotting an attack on the culture editor and cartoonist who published cartoons of the prophet Mohammed in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in Denmark. – telegraph

More on Headley. (Note: “carrying out a recce” = conducting a reconaissance mission.)

David Coleman Headley personally visited every target site of the 26/11 terror strikes last year, carrying out a recce on behalf of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, a police source said today. …

“He (Headley) mapped the Chhatrapati Shivaji terminus, Taj and Trident hotels and Nariman House. We are interrogating (filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt’s son) Rahul to find out when he went to Leopold Café. That he did is certain — when he did that is what we need to know,” a top officer said.

Headley had visited the Mumbai home of Rahul, who contacted police after learning of the terror suspect’s arrest by America’s Federal Burau of Investigation (FBI) last month.

The source said Headley, a Pakistani-born US national, and his associate Tahawwur Hussain Rana stayed in Hotel Outram, a seedy motel in Mumbai’s Fort area, for about a fortnight in July 2008.

Born Daood Gilani, Headley, who changed his name and passport in 2006, posed as a Jewish American during his Mumbai stay. A source close to Rahul too confirmed that Headley had claimed to be a Jew. …

The FBI seized a book called How to Pray Like a Jew from him at the time of his arrest in Chicago. He had prepared himself thoroughly to pose as a Jew,” the officer said.

I found no pictures of Headley.  How do they know he was “posing” as Jewish?  I find no such book title, but I suspect it was this book: “To Pray As A Jew: A Guide To The Prayer Book And The Synagogue Service“.

Interestingly…

It turns out that US investigators had Headley under surveillance a month before the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. They monitored him for a year before the FBI arrested him at the Chicago airport on October 3 as he planned to leave for Philadelphia en route to Pakistan. – indiaexpress

It seems some Pakistani army officers were working with a senior al-Qaida member on the Mumbai and other terror attacks.

Five Pakistani army officers have been detained for questioning over possible links to two U.S. terror suspects accused of plotting an armed attack on a Danish newspaper, intelligence officials said Tuesday. The detentions underscore long-standing allegations that elements in Pakistan support a militant group known as Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is devoted to fighting the country’s arch enemy, India. The group is blamed for last year’s terror attacks in Mumbai and other strikes in India in recent years. Last month’s arrests of David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana in Chicago have cast a fresh spotlight on the group. U.S. prosecutors said the two men were believed to be working with an unidentified senior member of the outfit and a senior al-Qaida operative. Two Pakistani intelligence officials, speaking anonymously because they are not allowed to release their identity, said phone records showed the five Pakistani officers had contacted Headley and Rana. They say the five include a retired brigadier general and two active lieutenant colonels, but did not provide more details. – yahoo

Is the unnamed retired general Mahmood Ahmed, the once head of Pakistani intelligence, the man who paid the lead 9/11 terrorist $100,000 and was (bizzarely enough) meeting with the heads of the US Senate and House intelligence committee in Washington DC on the morning of the US terror attacks of 9/11/2001? No, no. Ahmed wasn’t a brigadier general. A brigadier is a one star general. Ahmed was higher.  He was a Lt. general (a three star general) as in ISI Director Lt. Gen. Mahmood Ahmed, now retired. According to wikipedia, “He is now a member of Tablighi Jamaat and preaching the teaching of Islam.”

About “the Mumbai bombings”:

The attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay) began on November 26, 2008, and over the next three days, at least 173 people were killed, including 5 British nationals, with several hundreds injured. The famous Taj Mahal Palace hotel, scene of much of the carnage, was severely damaged by fire caused by the bombs. – noinvite

Ten heavily armed terrorists that India says came from Pakistan sneaked into Mumbai Nov 26 (2008) via the sea route and attacked various installations in the city, holding it to ransom for over 60 hours before they were neutralised. More than 170 people, including 26 foreigners, lost their lives in the carnage, while over 300 were injured. – indiainfo

The Climate Research Unit hack (64 MB, FOI2009.zip)

A few days after leaked e-mail messages appeared on the Internet, the U.S. Congress may probe whether prominent scientists who are advocates of global warming theories may have misrepresented the truth about climate change. Sen. James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, said on Monday the leaked correspondence suggested researchers “cooked the science to make this thing look as if the science was settled, when all the time of course we knew it was not,” according to a transcript of a radio interview posted on his Web site.

Aides for Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican, are also looking into the disclosure. The leaked documents (see our previous coverage) come from the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in eastern England. In global warming circles, the CRU wields outsize influence: it claims the world’s largest temperature data set, and its work and mathematical models were incorporated into the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2007 report. That report, in turn, is what the Environmental Protection Agency acknowledged it “relies on most heavily” when concluding that carbon dioxide emissions endanger public health and should be regulated.

via Congress may probe leaked global warming e-mails | Politics and Law – CNET News.

James Inhofe has been saying, since at least 2003, that there is a conspiracy. This quote is from 2005:

“As I said on the Senate floor on July 28, 2003, “much of the debate over global warming is predicated on fear, rather than science.” I called the threat of catastrophic global warming the “greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people,” – senate.gov

Inhofe’s claims have been debunked in the past. People need to understand how many independent scientists are concluding that warming is real and man is responsible.

For instance, the American Geophysical Union, which includes 50,000 earth, ocean and atmospheric scientists, among others, whose first mission is to value the scientific method (rational skepticism), has stated since 2003 that “Human activities are increasingly altering the Earth’s climate. These effects add to natural influences that have been present over Earth’s history. Scientific evidence strongly indicates that natural influences cannot explain the rapid increase in global near-surface temperatures observed during the second half of the 20th century. … The unprecedented increases in greenhouse gas concentrations, together with other human influences on climate over the past century and those anticipated for the future, constitute a real basis for concern.”

And if you, like Inhofe, value international expertise, consider the Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change. By some estimates, 2,000 scientists have participated. Their sole purpose is to state consensus about global warming, humankind’s role in causing it and its likely effects. The panel spoke clearly last year that it is nearly certain that human pollution is making the climate warmer, and that it will have dire consequences around the world.

I found this post from the Hadley Centre interesting:

As many of you will be aware, a large number of emails from the Climate Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia webmail server were hacked recently (Despite some confusion generated by Anthony Watts, this has absolutely nothing to do with the Hadley Centre which is a completely separate institution). As people are also no doubt aware the breaking into of computers and releasing private information is illegal, and regardless of how they were obtained, posting private correspondence without permission is unethical. We therefore aren’t going to post any of the emails here. We were made aware of the existence of this archive last Tuesday morning when the hackers attempted to upload it to RealClimate, and we notified CRU of their possible security breach later that day.

Nonetheless, these emails (a presumably careful selection of (possibly edited?) correspondence dating back to 1996 and as recently as Nov 12) are being widely circulated, and therefore require some comment. Some of them involve people here (and the archive includes the first RealClimate email we ever sent out to colleagues) and include discussions we’ve had with the CRU folk on topics related to the surface temperature record and some paleo-related issues, mainly to ensure that posting were accurate.

Since emails are normally intended to be private, people writing them are, shall we say, somewhat freer in expressing themselves than they would in a public statement. For instance, we are sure it comes as no shock to know that many scientists do not hold Steve McIntyre in high regard. Nor that a large group of them thought that the Soon and Baliunas (2003), Douglass et al (2008) or McClean et al (2009) papers were not very good (to say the least) and should not have been published. These sentiments have been made abundantly clear in the literature (though possibly less bluntly).

More interesting is what is not contained in the emails. There is no evidence of any worldwide conspiracy, no mention of George Soros nefariously funding climate research, no grand plan to ‘get rid of the MWP’, no admission that global warming is a hoax, no evidence of the falsifying of data, and no ‘marching orders’ from our socialist/communist/vegetarian overlords. The truly paranoid will put this down to the hackers also being in on the plot though.

Instead, there is a peek into how scientists actually interact and the conflicts show that the community is a far cry from the monolith that is sometimes imagined. People working constructively to improve joint publications; scientists who are friendly and agree on many of the big picture issues, disagreeing at times about details and engaging in ‘robust’ discussions; Scientists expressing frustration at the misrepresentation of their work in politicized arenas and complaining when media reports get it wrong; Scientists resenting the time they have to take out of their research to deal with over-hyped nonsense. None of this should be shocking.

It’s obvious that the noise-generating components of the blogosphere will generate a lot of noise about this. but it’s important to remember that science doesn’t work because people are polite at all times. Gravity isn’t a useful theory because Newton was a nice person. QED isn’t powerful because Feynman was respectful of other people around him. Science works because different groups go about trying to find the best approximations of the truth, and are generally very competitive about that. That the same scientists can still all agree on the wording of an IPCC chapter for instance is thus even more remarkable.

- realclimate.org

http://www.copenhagendiagnosis.org/press.html is the latest science – and sorry GOPers/dittoheads/Beck lovers/ Fox News believers – the SCIENCE says Global warming is real, getting worse, and the part that is man-made appears likely to destroy our grandkids lives as it is growing more rapidly than expected – with a tipping point soon

Some interesting background:

1. There was a previous data breach/leak in July 2009 or before. It appears that just one person was the recipient of the stolen data: Stephen McIntyre, who says he got them anonymously. The breach was due to an insider (”mole”) in the UK. http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=6644 http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=6634 (esp. comment #3)

(McIntyre is a skeptic of human-caused Global Warming, not a denier. He focuses on problems/weaknesses he sees in the data and methods.)

2. McIntyre has been in a long-running battle with the UEA HCC/CRU over access to their data, their “code” (data analysis software), and even their emails http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=3234. Here’s McIntyre’s philosophy and goals in this quest: http://www.climateaudit.org/index.php?p=66 . Here’s a short summary of the conflict, published just a day before the recent breach hit the wires: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704335904574496850939846712.html

3. McIntyre was actively monitoring defensive actions by UEA HCC/CRU over the summer, including “massive data purges”: http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=6673 (Is “Climate Audit reader Super-Grover” an insider, given the comment “worse than we expected”??).

4. McIntyre has just recently been denied in his appeal of the rejection of his most recent FOI. http://camirror.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/test/

Putting these together, plus imminent start of the Copenhagen Climate Summit…

… it doesn’t take a detective genuis to see that the current data breach/theft/leak is probably just a continuation of this on-going war between these parties. It’s also likely that the same “mole” is also responsible or involved in this breach.

Rapidshare still has a this leak document: http://rapidshare.com/files/309710046/FOI2009.zip

(64 MB, 157 MB when expanded.). It was originally posted to a Russian server but that link has been removed:

http://ftp.tomcity.ru/incoming/free/FOI2009.zip.

How soon until “Hactivism” hits the other side? Will we see 100 MB of Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh email hack downloads?

Summary: Yes, huge sums of money are at stake. There is indeed a battle and each side uses propaganda because it must, because you, the consumer, the voter, respond emotionally, not rationally. Despite the battle tactics, there is an objective truth about Climate Change.  This leak does not change that.

Obama to Robots: I’m Watching You

I don’t know about you, but I like a President who can throw a funny, geeky sci-fi reference once in a while. Clearly, el Comandante en Jefe has watched his Terminators and scary Big Dogs a few times. Obama said those words while presenting his “Educate to Innovate” campaign, which aims to promote the development of new inventions by students all around the country. – gizmodo

Sting urges Brazil to listen to tribal dam fears

Rock star Sting has used his latest visit to Brazil to urge the government there to listen to the concerns of indigenous peoples over a proposed new hydro-electric dam in the Amazon.

He was speaking at a press conference in Sao Paulo where he was reunited with indigenous leader Raoni Metyktire who joined him in a similar campaign 20 years ago which attracted worldwide attention.

Indigenous tribes in the Amazon say the Belo Monte project, which would be the third largest hydro-electric dam in the world, poses a threat to their way of life. …

It proved to be an attention-grabbing combination of a rock star standing alongside the striking figure of an indigenous leader whose lower lip is expanded several centimetres by a traditional plate, a trademark of his tribe.

With renewed international attention on the cause of protecting the Amazon, the original hydro-electric project was abandoned, but now the Brazilian government is proposing a new scheme which they say is more environmentally friendly.

Critics have insisted the Belo Monte dam would still flood large areas of rainforest, have a major impact on fish stocks and undermine the way of life of thousands of indigenous people.

Speaking to the BBC, Sting said while the decision was for Brazilians alone, the debate had an impact far beyond South America’s largest country.

“This is the heart of the Amazon and what happens here affects the whole world,” he said.

“This was my intuition but now the science is backing that up, I mean substantial science is saying this is true.

“We need to save this forest.

via BBC News – Sting urges Brazil to listen to tribal dam fears.

First US trial of 9/11 case was full of surprises

Zacarias Moussaoui was a clown who could not keep his mouth shut, according to his old al-Qaida boss, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. But Moussaoui was surprisingly tame when tried for the 9/11 attacks — never turning the courtroom into the circus of anti-U.S. tirades that some fear Mohammed will create at his trial in New York.

And that wasn't the only surprise during Moussaoui's six-week 2006 sentencing trial here — a proceeding that might foreshadow how the upcoming 9/11 trial in New York will go.

Skeptics who feared prosecutors would be hamstrung by how much evidence was secret were stunned at the enormous amount of classified data that was scrubbed, under pressure from the judge, into a public version acceptable to both sides.

Prosecutors were surprised when they failed to get the death penalty — by the vote of one juror.

No one was more surprised than Moussaoui himself: At the end he concluded an al-Qaida member like him could get a fair trial in a U.S. court.

“I had thought that I would be sentenced to death based on the emotions and anger toward me for the deaths on Sept. 11,” Moussaoui said in an appeal deposition taken after he was sentenced to life in prison. “(B)ut after reviewing the jury verdict and reading how the jurors set aside their emotions and disgust for me and focused on the law and the evidence … I now see that it is possible that I can receive a fair trial.”

… All that suggests the dire predictions of critics and confident assertions of proponents should be viewed skeptically as prosecutors prepare to put Mohammed, the professed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and four of his alleged henchmen on trial in a civilian federal court.

The five had been headed for a military tribunal at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, until Attorney General Eric Holder announced last week he would charge them in civilian court and expects to seek the death penalty. …

Sorting through classified evidence should be easier in the upcoming case, experts said. First, the Moussaoui case generated detailed appellate rulings to guide lower courts. Second, much that was highly sensitive in 2003 may be far less so now.

On the other hand, there was no allegation Moussaoui was tortured into confessing, but coerced confessions or statements might be significant at Mohammed’s trial. U.S. civilian courts bar evidence obtained under coercion, which could exclude what Mohammed told investigators after, as the Justice Department has acknowledged, he was waterboarded 183 times. …

Paul McNulty, U.S. attorney here when Moussaoui was prosecuted, said there is a crucial difference in the two cases: Moussaoui pleaded guilty, so the sentencing trial focused only on his punishment and there was no chance he’d go free. No one knows whether any New York defendants will contest their guilt.

McNulty wondered whether the public is willing to accept the chance of an acquittal.

McNulty expects New York judges to be as tough as Brinkema on issues like ensuring defendants access to witnesses. “It could get complicated very quickly,” he said.

“It’s not supposed to be easy,” defense counsel MacMahon said. “The law makes it very difficult to obtain a death sentence. The government basically has to pitch a perfect game to win a death penalty.”

via First US trial of 9/11 case was full of surprises – Yahoo! News.

I get sick of reporters interpreting what he said. I want to know what he actually said. Here are the transcripts from his 2006 trial. More here (pdfs).  I couldn’t find them from the recent trial.  More actual documents here, including a brief that was once TOP SECRET (now redacted) which talks about 9/11. The brief had “Top Secret//HUMINT//ORCON/NOFORM//MR” on it. What do these mean?

FAS had some info.

Top Secret =  applied to information, the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security.
HUMINT = Human Intelligence. Typically information gathered from interpersonal contact.
ORCON = Originator Control is an access control policy that requires recipients to gain originator’s approval for re-dissemination of a disseminated digital object.
NOFORM= A marking to identify classified intel that may not be released in any form to foreign governments, foreign or non-US citizens without permission of the originator.
MR = Manual Review

 

 

Obama President to acknowledge aliens today

When “The Top Secret UFO Project,” filmmaker R. J. Thomas’ parody of UFO documentaries, premiered on DVD in 2006, Mr. Thomas knew he would get reactions in all sizes and shapes.

Daily Grail.com, a UFO-themed website, said that the mockrumentary film was bound to cause some confusion. Well, they turned out to be right.

“I’ve received phone calls. I’ve received e-mails. Bloggers are arguing about whether it’s a fake or not,” Mr. Thomas said. “Some are telling me that UFOs don’t exist, and that the Bush administration had no UFO information to withold from the public. Others are saying that UFOs do exist, urging me to be patient because government UFO secrets will be exposed shortly.”

But the most unusual reaction came from a caller who left a message on Mr. Thomas’ voice mail on October 13th. In a deep and mysterious voice, the caller said, “We are not alone. On November 17th, President Obama will acknowledge about the aliens.”

“He put a big pause in-between the two sentences.” Mr. Thomas said. “I don’t know if it is just the way he talks or he was doing it for dramatic effect.”

The caller left no name, phone number, e-mail address, or even bothered to say whether he was affiliated with any UFO-related organization.

“He spoke in a deep, ominous voice,” Mr. Thomas said. “He would be perfect to do the narration of an eerie SyFy Channel documentary or be the narrator of a haunted house amusement park ride.” …

via Mysterious Caller Alerts Filmmaker to Obama UFO Disclosure.

In case the ominous voice is correct, here is a link to the White House so you can read the disclosure. I suppose they will post it there. Here is a link to White House posts with the word “alien”.