THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: A Foolproof Plan

Lee:

In 2010, the last year when stats were compiled nationwide, over 10,000 people died in alcohol-impaired vehicle crashes. That far outnumbers the people killed by crazies with assault weapons. Clearly, the only way to deal with this tragedy is to prohibit the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages. We should call the initiative... Prohibition. It’s bound to work.

Then, we’ll go after the big one - we’ll make the smoking of any plant illegal (excluding the serious mind-altering ones, of course, since they’re harmless). That will save hundreds of thousands of lives every year, and an estimated 5 million worldwide, once the United Nations adopts and enforces the policy globally.

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG? The U.N.'s Internet Surveillance Document Leaked

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) is an agency of the United Nations, a world body largely populated with dictatorships, oligarchies, violent theocracies and other delightful governments. The ITU is, as you may have heard, making a play to takeover control of the Internet.

Yesterday morning, I wrote about the closed-door [ITU] meeting where they were working on standardizing "deep packet inspection" -- a technology crucial to mass Internet surveillance. Other standards bodies have refused to touch DPI because of the risk to Internet users that arises from making it easier to spy on them. But not the ITU.

The ITU standardization effort has been conducted in secret, without public scrutiny. Now, Asher Wolf writes:

I publicly asked (via Twitter) if anyone could give me access to documents relating to the ITU's DPI recommendations, now endorsed by the U.N. The ITU's senior communications officer, Toby Johnson, emailed me a copy of their unpublished policy recommendations.

OOOPS!

5 hours later, they emailed, asking me not to publish it, in part or in whole, and that it was for my eyes only.

Please publish it (credit me for sending it to you.)

Also note:

1. The recommendations *NEVER* discuss the impact of DPI.

2. A FEW EXAMPLES OF POTENTIAL DPI USE CITED BY THE ITU:

"I.9.2 DPI engine use case: Simple fixed string matching for BitTorrent"
"II.3.4 Example “Forwarding copy right protected audio content”"
"II.3.6 Example “Detection of a specific transferred file from a particular user”"
"II.4.2 Example “Security check – Block SIP messages (across entire SIP traffic) with specific content types”"
"II.4.5 Example “Identify particular host by evaluating all RTCP SDES packets”"
"II.4.6 Example “Measure Spanish Jabber traffic”"
"II.4.7 Example “Blocking of dedicated games”"
"II.4.11 Example “Identify uploading BitTorrent users”"
"II.4.13 Example “Blocking Peer-to-Peer VoIP telephony
with proprietary end-to-end application control protocols”"
"II.5.1 Example “Detecting a specific Peer-to-Peer VoIP telephony with proprietary end-to-end application control protocols”"

Hit the jump for more of Asher's analysis and the download link:
3. Security threats against DPI entities is listed as:
- Destruction of DPI-related information;
- Corruption or modification of DPI-related information;
- Theft, removal or loss of DPI-related information;
- Disclosure of DPI-related information;
- Interruption of services (specifically mentions DoS.)

Giving the U.N. control of the Internet is akin to giving a 16-year old boy keys to the new Porsche and a fifth of Southern Comfort.

HEADLINE O' THE DAY: Yep, the Science Is Settled

Al Gore hardest hit:

Last week The Mail on Sunday provoked an international storm by publishing a new official world temperature graph showing there has been no global warming since 1997... The figures came from a database called Hadcrut 4 and were issued by the Met Office and the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at East Anglia University.

But the Met Office, whose lead was then followed by climate change campaigners, accused The Mail on Sunday of cherry-picking data in order to mislead readers. It even claimed it had not released a ‘report’, as we had stated, although it put out the figures from which we drew our graph ten days ago.

Another critic said that climate expert Professor Judith Curry had protested at the way she was represented in our report. However, Professor Curry, a former US National Research Council Climate Research Committee member and the author of more than 190 peer-reviewed papers, responded: ‘A note to defenders of the idea that the planet has been warming for the past 16 years. Raise the level of your game. Nothing in the Met Office’s statement .  .  . effectively refutes Mr Rose’s argument that there has been no increase in the global average surface temperature for the past 16 years... ‘Use this as an opportunity to communicate honestly with the public about what we know and what we don’t know about climate change. Take a lesson from other scientists who acknowledge the “pause”.’

The Met Office now confirms on its climate blog that no significant warming has occurred recently: ‘We agree with Mr Rose that there has only been a very small amount of warming in the 21st Century.’

In other words, all of the monstrous social engineering programs, the takeover of industrial policy-setting, and the rest of the hysteria fomented by the Eco-Statists -- and especially the Leftist kooks at the EPA -- are completely, utterly groundless.

There's no global warming occurring on this planet.

Which, by my count, is reason 6 kajillion that this administration must be removed from office in November. And, if you're an Eco-Kook reading along, remember: election day is always the first Wednesday in November.


Hat tip: Pirate's Cove.

Good News: Obama To Trash First Amendment in Speech to U.N.

How else would you interpret this story?

Obama to Condemn Christian Filmmaker Before United Nations

Not only are we seeing the White House and State Department call more attention to the Mohammed-mocking "Innocence of Muslims" than any terrorist network ever could've hoped for, but the President's indefensible scapegoating of the film and filmmaker to draw attention and blame away from U.S. security failures apparently knows no bounds.

Next week, Obama will denounce the film in a speech before the United Nations General Assembly:

"As he has in recent days, the President will make it clear that we reject the views in this video, while also underscoring that violence is never acceptable[.]"

As Obama's appalling policy of disengaging in the Middle East comes to fruition in the form of the region exploding and al-Qaeda's targeted assassination of an American ambassador -- the media spen[t] two weeks savaging Mitt Romney and directing our sorrow, rage, and helplessness on [a filmmaker].

For weeks this administration, aided and abetted by The State Media, has shamelessly lied to us about what happened in Libya. Moreover, in order to cover up and distract for unforgivable security lapses, this hapless filmmaker has been targeted for all of the blame -- certainly more blame than the Administration's failure to secure a consulate on 9/11 (of all days), but even more blame than the actual murderers.

And now, even though we know the truth about what really happened in Libya, it won't stop. It will never stop. Because Obama knows his media will never make him pay a political price for lying and scapegoating...

And so, next week, as Obama condemns this film, and therefore the American ideal of freedom of speech, before the entire world -- all in an effort to quadruple-down on a brazen lie that's already been exposed as such -- it will truly be the ultimate Big Brother moment of this presidency.

Not only has the administration lied about and covered up its failures in Libya, but today The Hill reported something even more bizarre:

Senate Republicans are furious the Obama administration rebuffed their attempts to learn details of the Benghazi attack, only to give the coveted information to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Senators say they were rebuffed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when they pressed for more information about the attack that killed U.S. envoy Christopher Stephens in Libya.

“That is the most useless, worthless briefing I have attended in a long time,” Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) told reporters after the closed-door session.

GOP lawmakers were incensed to find many of the details they tried to learn Thursday were in a front-page article in The Times the following morning.

That's right: the "President of All the People" gives better intelligence briefings to The New York Times than to Republican Senators.

Circulate this far and wide. November is coming.


Hat tip: BadBlue News Service.

Start the Week Off With a Laugh [Dan from NY]

Dan from NY:

11 Mar 2012

Kofi Annan optimistic over Syria deal

U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan concludes he is "optimistic" after meeting with president Assad.

11 Mar 2012

Syria: Assad rebuffs Kofi Annan peace bid

Syrian government offensive against rebels leaves more than 130 dead.

* * * * * * * * *
Did you know this week is Diplomat Lifetime Employment week?

Gaia hammers more nails in the coffin of global warming: global sea level... drops during 2010

Brought to you by the right-wing, racist, Tea Party extremists at... NASA:

NASA Satellites Detect Pothole on Road to Higher Seas

The red line in this image shows the long-term increase in global sea level since satellite altimeters began measuring it in the early 1990s. Since then, sea level has risen by a little more than an inch each decade, or about 3 millimeters per year.


While most years have recorded a rise in global sea level, the recent drop of nearly a quarter of an inch, or half a centimeter, is attributable to the switch from El Niño to La Niña conditions in the Pacific. The insets show sea level changes in the Pacific Ocean caused by the recent El Niño and La Niña (see NASA for more information on these images). Image credit: S. Nerem, University of Colorado.

Faux scientists and United Nations eco-Marxists hardest hit


Hat tip: Free Republic.

"CO2 Lies": German Media Destroys the Global Warming Scam; Al "Three Mansions" Gore Unavailable for Comment

And the hits just keep on coming for the United Nations' global warming scam:

“THE CO2 LIES … pure fear-mongering … should we blindly trust the experts?”

That’s what Germany’s leading daily Bild (see photo) wrote in its print and online editions today, on the very day that renowned publisher Hoffmann & Campe officially released a skeptic book – one written by a prominent socialist and environmental figure.

This is huge. More than I ever could have possibly imagined. And more is coming in the days ahead! The Bild piece was just the first of a series.

Mark this as the date that Germany’s global warming movement took a massive body blow.

Today, not one, but two of Germany’s most widely read news media published comprehensive skeptical climate science articles in their print and online editions, coinciding with the release of a major climate skeptical book, Die kalte Sonne (The Cold Sun)...

What has set it all off? One of the fathers of Germany’s modern green movement, Professor Dr. Fritz Vahrenholt, a social democrat and green activist, decided to author a climate science skeptical book together with geologist/paleontologist Dr. Sebastian Lüning. Vahrenholt’s skepticism started when he was asked to review an IPCC report on renewable energy. He found hundreds of errors. When he pointed them out, IPCC officials simply brushed them aside. Stunned, he asked himself, “Is this the way they approached the climate assessment reports?”

Vahrenholt decided to do some digging. His colleague Dr. Lüning also gave him a copy of Andrew Montford’s The Hockey Stick Illusion. He was horrified by the sloppiness and deception he found. Persuaded by Hoffmann & Campe, he and Lüning decided to write the book. Die kalte Sonne cites 800 sources and has over 80 charts and figures. It examines and summarizes the latest science.

Conclusion: climate catastrophe is called off.

Hey, John Boehner: you listening? The EPA needs to be de-funded completely.

That agency is a multi-billion dollar organization built on a series of lies and crimes, as the horrific story of DDT reminds us.

And if Boehner won't do it, we need to find a House Speaker -- like Michele Bachmann or Allen West -- with the stones to shred this taxpayer-funded boondoggle benefiting the Marxist Left.


Hat tip: Vicki.

Warmal Colding strikes Europe: record cold snap kills hundreds; thousands trapped by "heaviest snow... ever recorded"

Al Gore hardest hit.

Bosnian authorities on Sunday used helicopters to evacuate sick people and deliver food to thousands of people who have been cut off by the heaviest snow the country has ever recorded... Across Eastern Europe thousands of people were digging themselves out from heavy snow that followed a weeklong cold snap that has killed hundreds.

More than 100 remote Bosnian villages are cut off by snow over 6 1/2 feet high in the mountains. More than three feet has fallen in the capital Sarajevo, where a state of emergency has been declared...

London's Heathrow Airport—Europe's busiest—canceled a third of Sunday's flights and warned of delays amid heavy fog.

...Rome is struggling under its first heavy snowfall in 26 years, and snow has also fallen on Spain's Balearic islands in the Mediterranean... Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday said the snowfall was beautiful, but he is wishing spring will come soon.

Please take note of the reaction of the global warming cult to news stories like these. When record cold temperatures savage the planet -- which some scientists believe herald the onset of a new ice age -- they screech that "weather isn't climate".

But when temperatures hit 100° in Manhattan during the month of July, they're the first to shriek about "evidence" of warmal colding.

How stupid do they think we are? Stupid enough to think that they can continue to pull off the United Nations' latest multi-billion dollar scam, courtesy of corrupt scientists seeking grant money and the Marxist left, who desperately want to regulate the economies of the West through cap-and-trade.

Israeli officials: Former UN atomic chief ElBaradei was an Iranian agent

Chalk this up as another U.N. success story. Dan from New York explains:

Apparently, when the findings of the latest IAEA report on Iran’s nuclear weapons program are compared to earlier reports crafted by “moderate” Egyptian Mohamed ElBaradei, the obvious conclusion is that ElBaradei was working for the Mullahs. ElBaradei has since moved on. He’s now one of the leading candidates vying to be Egypt’s president.

###

ynetnews.com, 11/9/11

Israeli officials: ElBaradei an Iranian agent

Senior state officials accuse former IAEA chairman of covering up for Islamic Republic during his term, allowing Iranians to move ahead with nuclear program while playing for time. 'He is a despicable person,' one of them says.

Senior Israeli officials said Tuesday night that the International Atomic Energy Agency report stating that Iran has been working on developing a nuclear weapon design proves that the former UN nuclear watchdog chairman "was an Iranian agent".

The former IAEA chairman, Mohamed ElBaradei, is an Egyptian diplomat who even won the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize.

For years he defended the Iranian nuclear program, claiming that it was peaceful, thus allowing the Iranians to continue their activity with the nuclear watchdog's seal of approval.

According to one of the state officials, the new report published Tuesday proves "just how much he was working for the Iranians.

"He simply rescued Iran and was constantly busy covering up for them, causing serious damage by allowing the Iranians to fool the entire world and play for time. History may judge him as the person who helped Iran obtain a nuclear weapon.

"The things exposed now are not new. These are old things which were hidden and not published," the official added. "Now it turns out that ElBaradei led an active policy of concealment and disregard. This is very serious. He is a despicable person."

"ElBaradei didn't just mess us up, he messed up the entire sane world," added Uzi Eilam, former head of Israel's Atomic Energy Agency. "He was dishonest his entire term. He is the one who stopped the Security Council from imposing serious sanctions, providing the Iranians with precious time."

Gee, after the multi-billion dollar Oil-for-Food scandal; the IPCC Global Warming Bunko Scam; mass-murder in Darfur; the Rwandan genocide; accusations of rape and child pornography in the Congo, Haiti, Liberia, and Sudan; and ties to a North Korean counterfeiting operation, who could have suspected a corrupt U.N. was helping the Iranians acquire nukes?


Related: "The Atomic Mahdi."

ClimateGate Redux: Co-Author of Seminal Climate Change Paper Refutes Its Conclusion: There's No Damn Warming

The scamtabulous theory of warmal colding hardest hit:

It was hailed as the scientific study that ended the global warming debate once and for all – the research that, in the words of its director, ‘proved you should not be a sceptic, at least not any longer’.

Professor Richard Muller, of Berkeley University in California, and his colleagues from the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperatures project team (BEST) claimed to have shown that the planet has warmed by almost a degree centigrade since 1950 and is warming continually... [their] work was cited around the world as irrefutable evidence that only the most stringent measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions can save civilisation as we know it...

...But today ... a leading member of Prof Muller’s team has accused him of trying to mislead the public by hiding the fact that BEST’s research shows global warming has stopped.

Prof Judith Curry, who chairs the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at America’s prestigious Georgia Institute of Technology, said that Prof Muller’s claim that he has proven global warming sceptics wrong was also a ‘huge mistake’, with no scientific basis... Curry is a distinguished climate researcher with more than 30 years experience and the second named co-author of the BEST project’s four research papers.

...She said this affair had to be compared to the notorious ‘Climategate’ scandal two years ago...

...In fact, Prof Curry said, the project’s research data show there has been no increase in world temperatures since the end of the Nineties – a fact confirmed by a new analysis that The Mail on Sunday has obtained...

...a report to be published today by the Global Warming Policy Foundation ... drawn from the BEST project’s data and revealed on its website ... shows that the trend of the last decade is absolutely flat, with no increase at all – though the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have carried on rising relentlessly...

...In fact, she added, in the wake of the unexpected global warming standstill, many climate scientists who had previously rejected sceptics’ arguments were now taking them much more seriously... They were finally addressing questions such as the influence of clouds, natural temperature cycles and solar radiation – as they should have done, she said, a long time ago.

Rumor has it that Dr. James Hansen, the infamous, taxpayer-funded climate kook, is on suicide watch.


Salacious background details: Inside the U.N.'s Global Warming Scam. Hat tip: Memeorandum.

Good news: media controlled or influenced by George Soros reaches a third of a billion people a month

Like some sort of Bond villain, the malevolent financier George Soros directly reaches 330 million people through 180 different media outlets he funds, controls or otherwise influences. And his agenda is nakedly partisan and outright Statist, from the pathetic Media Matters to Think Progress; from NPR to the hilariously named Center for Public Integrity.

Books, newspapers, radio stations, TV stations, websites and cutting edge videos... [the] pieces of the George Soros media empire are as diverse as the nations of the world and just as widespread. From nakedly partisan left-wing media like Think Progress, the blog for the Center for American Progress, and a TV show on MSNBC, to the supposedly impartial National Public Radio, Soros has impact on the flow of information worldwide.

It gives him incredible influence. Every month, reporters, writers and bloggers at the many outlets he funds easily reach more than 330 million people around the globe. The U.S. Census estimates the population of the entire United States to be just less than 310 million.

...Just counting 13 prominent operations of the 180 media organizations he has funded equals 332 million people each month. Included in that total are big players like NPR, which received $1.8 million from Soros, as well as the little known Project Syndicate and Public News Service, both of which also claim to reach millions of readers.

And that's really just the beginning. That tally takes into account only a few of the bigger Soros-funded media operations. Many numbers simply aren't available. 'Democracy Now!' - 'a daily TV/radio news program, hosted by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez' - is known for its left-wing take on global news. Its vitriol ranges from attacks on Blackwater founder Erik Prince and supporters of Andrew Breitbart (whom it calls 'Electronic Brownshirts'), to claims the U.S. is opposed to Arab democracy. Just that one Soros-funded operation is heard 'on over 900 stations, pioneering the largest community media collaboration in the United States.' But it posts no formal audience numbers. Phone calls to 'Democracy Now!' were not returned.

Laughably, Soros denies he has a media empire, despite spending easily more than $48 million on that empire and having top journalists from more than 30 major news organizations serving on the boards of groups he funds...

And people are worried about the power of Google or Fox News?

George Soros and Barack Obama are partners in a global effort to undermine the United States Constitution and American exceptionalism. Of that, there can be no doubt

The Reviews Are In: Goldstone Will Still Rot in Hell [Dan from New York]

Dan from New York:

"The South African jurist delivered his mea culpa in a Washington Post op-ed that is astonishing for its self-justifying apologetics.”

-WSJ

“Goldstone opinion piece changes nothing at UN”

-Jerusalem Post

“Despite Richard Goldstone's thirteenth hour confession, his diabolical legacy demonizing the state of Israel lives on at the United Nations.”

-Eye on the U.N.

"By his own admission, the man stands revealed as at best an abject idiot and at worst a moral and judicial bankrupt.”

-Melanie Phillips

“Goldstone backed away from his report? Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

- NY Times subscriber

“Retraction? We don’t need your stinking retraction, shmuck!”

-Dan From New York

Two news snippets sure to warm the cockles of your heart

Two news snippets, brought to our attention by Stratfor Research, help shine a spotlight on the impressive diplomatic achievements of SmartPower™.

• A-bomb manufacturing equipment missing in Iran: Iran has officially denied the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) claim that critical nuclear enrichment equipment was discovered missing from a facility in Tehran. The "sensitive equipment... could be used to extract plutonium for an atomic bomb."

• Radical Islamist group Muslim Brotherhood endorses former IAEA head Mohamed El Baradei: One of the most powerful groups of Islamist extremists in the world -- the Muslim Brotherhood -- says it will support Mohamed El Baradei's efforts to reform Egyptian politics.

The executive summary: the very man -- El Baradei -- who dissembled, deflected and delayed scrutiny of Iran's nuclear program is now in a position to help further destabilize Egypt. The former IAEA head is arguably the man most responsible for Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons; and El Baradei himself is endorsed by radical Islamists whose stated goal is to kill and/or convert the world's billions of infidels while it establishes a global Caliphate. Dee-lightful.

Those crazy, whacky nuts at the United Nations: they're worth every penny we spend on 'em.

Get Rich or Die Warming: Climategate Scientist Admits the UN's Global Warming Alarmism Is a Fraud and There is No Consensus

The scientist at the heart of the Climategate scandal -- the Climate Research Unit's Dr. Phil Jones -- has admitted what any sensible person had figured out long ago. The United Nation's global warming initiative is a complete and utter fraud:

• The data used to create the infamous 'hockey stick graph' is missing
• There has been no global warming since 1995
• Warming periods have happened before and were obviously not due to man
• It's likely that the Earth was warmer in medieval times than now

Sceptics believe there is strong evidence that the world was warmer between about 800 and 1300 AD than now because of evidence of high temperatures in northern countries... But climate change advocates have dismissed this as false or only applying to the northern part of the world.

Professor Jones departed from this consensus when he said: ‘There is much debate over whether the Medieval Warm Period was global in extent or not. The MWP is most clearly expressed in parts of North America, the North Atlantic and Europe and parts of Asia...

Sceptics said this was the first time a senior scientist working with the IPCC had admitted to the possibility that the Medieval Warming Period could have been global, and therefore the world could have been hotter then than now.

The actual text of the BBC's interview with Jones makes it clear that the entire jig is up.

[Question] - When scientists say "the debate on climate change is over", what exactly do they mean - and what don't they mean?

[Jones] - ...I don't believe the vast majority of climate scientists think this. This is not my view. There is still much that needs to be undertaken to reduce uncertainties, not just for the future, but for the instrumental (and especially the palaeoclimatic) past as well.

...

[Question] - If you have confidence in your science why didn't you come out fighting like the UK government's drugs adviser David Nutt when he was criticised?

[Jones] - I don't feel this question merits an answer.

Putting the last nail in the global warming coffin, the Times of London reported today that top atmospheric scientists have stated "the world may not be warming".

“The temperature records cannot be relied on as indicators of global change,” said John Christy, professor of atmospheric science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, a former lead author on the IPCC...

The doubts of Christy and a number of other researchers focus on the thousands of weather stations around the world, which have been used to collect temperature data over the past 150 years... These stations, they believe, have been seriously compromised by factors such as urbanisation, changes in land use and, in many cases, being moved from site to site.

Christy has published research papers looking at these effects in three different regions: east Africa, and the American states of California and Alabama.

“The story is the same for each one,” he said. “The popular data sets show a lot of warming but the apparent temperature rise was actually caused by local factors affecting the weather stations, such as land development.”

The IPCC faces similar criticisms from Ross McKitrick, professor of economics at the University of Guelph, Canada, who was invited by the panel to review its last report.

The experience turned him into a strong critic and he has since published a research paper questioning its methods... "We concluded, with overwhelming statistical significance, that the IPCC’s climate data are contaminated with surface effects from industrialisation and data quality problems. These add up to a large warming bias," he said... Such warnings are supported by a study of US weather stations co-written by Anthony Watts, an American meteorologist and climate change sceptic.

His study, which has not been peer reviewed, is illustrated with photographs of weather stations in locations where their readings are distorted by heat-generating equipment... Some are next to air- conditioning units or are on waste treatment plants. One of the most infamous shows a weather station next to a waste incinerator... the weather station at Rome airport... catches the hot exhaust fumes emitted by taxiing jets... a weather station at Manchester airport was built when the surrounding land was mainly fields but is now surrounded by heat-generating buildings.

I've got the perfect name for the movie that will inevitably document this despicable fraud: Get rich or die warming.

INTERPOL, a "global policing doctrine", and the President of the World

A curious Presidential Executive Order, signed recently by Barack Obama, has raised considerable confusion and perturbishment (is that a word?) by some observers on the right. The order related to INTERPOL and was originally reported by Steve Schippert of ThreatsWatch (emphases mine):

The White House released an Executive Order "Amending Executive Order 12425." It grants INTERPOL (International Criminal Police Organization) a new level of full diplomatic immunity... By removing language from President Reagan’s 1983 Executive Order 12425, this international law enforcement body now operates – now operates – on American soil beyond the reach of our own top law enforcement arm, the FBI, and is immune from Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

The initial reactions to this order raised several ominous portents:

• "A 'separate' Interpol agency has been created in the DOJ – let that sink in for a moment... This action could also be used to divulge American military secrets and a whole host of horrific practices having to do with going after our military. It’s the road to internationalism on steroids."

• Andy McCarthy asked: "Why Does Interpol Need Immunity from American Law?"

• Ed Morrissey: "...it appears to mean that Americans who get arrested on the basis of Interpol work cannot get the type of documentation one normally would get in the discovery process, which is a remarkable reversal from Obama’s declared efforts to gain “due process” for terrorists detained at Gitmo. Does the White House intend to treat Americans worse than the terrorists we’ve captured during wartime?"

A few minutes ago, WBK emailed me some pertinent articles from October that could explain the administration's haste to protect INTERPOL from sovereign oversight.

A 10/11/2009 article by The New York times' Doreen Carvajal may provide needed perspective:

Interpol and U.N. Back ‘Global Policing Doctrine’

Interpol and the United Nations are poised to become partners in fighting crime by jointly grooming a global police force that would be deployed as peacekeepers among rogue nations riven by war and organized crime, officials from both organizations say.

On Monday, justice and foreign ministers from more than 60 countries, including the United States and China, are gathering in Singapore for a meeting hosted by the two international organizations.

It is the first step toward creating what Interpol calls a "global policing doctrine" that would enable Interpol and the United Nations to improve the skills of police peacekeepers, largely by sharing a secure communications network and a vast electronic trove of criminal information, including DNA records, fingerprints, photographs and fugitive notices...

Somehow, all of this seems a tad -- how do I say? -- unconstitutional?

There is no law in the United States above that of the Constitution. And yet, somehow, INTERPOL now transcends our law, at least according to President Axelrod Obama. Make a note of it, Danno.

The Milli Vanilli of Science: CRU Emails Unpeel the Warming Scam

The hacked climate research files -- at the heart of the global warming debate -- are now indexed and may be searched. It is obvious from reading through the files that a cover up of the first order was underway from the start.

In 2007 I wrote that the UN's climate change panel had engineered a trillion-dollar bunko scam. But it wasn't just the bureaucrats, consultants and businessmen who hoped to make some easy money out of the grift; even the scientists appear to be in on the game.

A small sample of emails (emphases mine) help illustrate the fraud.

"I'll delete the file rather than send to anyone"

From: Phil Jones 
To: "Michael E. Mann" 
Subject: Re: For your eyes only
Date: Thu Feb 3 13:11:46 2005

Mike,
It would be good to produce future series with and without the long
instrumental series and maybe the documentary ones as well. The long
measurements can then be used to validate the low-freq aspects at least
back to 1750, maybe earlier with the documentary. There are some key
warm decades (1730s, some in the 16th century) which the Moberg
reconstruction completely misses and gives the impression that all
years are cold between 1500 and 1750.
Away Feb 6-10 and 12-20 and 22-25 (last in Chicago - on the panel to
consider the vertical temp work of CCSP).
Cheers
Phil
Cheers
Phil
At 15:26 02/02/2005, you wrote:

Thanks Phil,
Yes, we've learned out lesson about FTP. We're going to be very careful in the future
what gets put there. Scott really screwed up big time when he established that directory
so that Tim could access the data.
Yeah, there is a freedom of information act in the U.S., and the contrarians are going
to try to use it for all its worth. But there are also intellectual property rights
issues, so it isn't clear how these sorts of things will play out ultimately in the U.S.
I saw the paleo draft (actually I saw an early version, and sent Keith some minor
comments). It looks very good at present--will be interesting to see how they deal w/
the contrarian criticisms--there will be many. I'm hoping they'll stand firm (I believe
they will--I think the chapter has the right sort of personalities for that)...
Will keep you updated on stuff...
talk to you later,
mike
At 09:41 AM 2/2/2005, Phil Jones wrote:

Mike,
I presume congratulations are in order - so congrats etc !
Just sent loads of station data to Scott. Make sure he documents everything better
this time ! And don't leave stuff lying around on ftp sites - you never know who is
trawling
them. The two MMs have been after the CRU station data for years. If they ever hear
there
is a Freedom of Information Act now in the UK, I think I'll delete the file
rather than send
to anyone. Does your similar act in the US force you to respond to enquiries within
20 days? - our does ! The UK works on precedents, so the first request will test it.
We also
have a data protection act, which I will hide behind. Tom Wigley has sent me a worried
email when he heard about it - thought people could ask him for his model code. He
has retired officially from UEA so he can hide behind that. IPR should be relevant
here,
but I can see me getting into an argument with someone at UEA who'll say we must adhere
to it !
Are you planning a complete reworking of your paleo series? Like to be involved if
you are.
Had a quick look at Ch 6 on paleo of AR4. The MWP side bar references Briffa, Bradley,
Mann, Jones, Crowley, Hughes, Diaz - oh and Lamb ! Looks OK, but I can't see it
getting past all the stages in its present form. MM and SB get dismissed. All the
right
emphasis is there, but the wording on occasions will be crucial. I expect this to be
the
main contentious issue in AR4. I expect (hope) that the MSU one will fade away. It
seems
the more the CCSP (the thing Tom Karl is organizing) looks into Christy and Spencer's
series, the more problems/issues they are finding. I might be on the NRC review panel,
so will keep you informed.
Rob van Dorland is an LA on the Radiative Forcing chapter, so he's a paleo expert
by GRL statndards.
Cheers
Phil
At 13:41 02/02/2005, you wrote:

Phil--thought I should let you know that its official now that I'll be moving to Penn
State next Fall.
I'll be in the Meteorology Dept. & Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, and plan
to head up a center for "Earth System History" within the institute. Will keep you
updated,
Mike

Prof. Phil Jones
Climatic Research Unit Telephone +44 (0) 1603 592090
School of Environmental Sciences Fax +44 (0) 1603 507784
University of East Anglia
Norwich Email p.jones@xxxxxxxxx.xxx
NR4 7TJ
UK
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

______________________________________________________________
Professor Michael E. Mann
Department of Environmental Sciences, Clark Hall
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA 22903
_______________________________________________________________________
e-mail: mann@xxxxxxxxx.xxx Phone: (434) 924-7770 FAX: (434) 982-2137
[1]http://www.evsc.virginia.edu/faculty/people/mann.shtml

Prof. Phil Jones
Climatic Research Unit Telephone +44 (0) 1603 592090
School of Environmental Sciences Fax +44 (0) 1603 507784
University of East Anglia
Norwich Email p.jones@xxxxxxxxx.xxx
NR4 7TJ
UK
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

References

1. http://www.evsc.virginia.edu/faculty/people/mann.shtml

"Don't any of you three tell anybody that the UK has a
Freedom of Information Act !"

From: Phil Jones 
To: mann@xxxxxxxxx.xxx
Subject: Fwd: CCNet: PRESSURE GROWING ON CONTROVERSIAL RESEARCHER TO DISCLOSE SECRET DATA
Date: Mon Feb 21 16:28:32 2005
Cc: "raymond s. bradley" , "Malcolm Hughes" 


Mike, Ray and Malcolm,
The skeptics seem to be building up a head of steam here ! Maybe we can use
this to our advantage to get the series updated !
Odd idea to update the proxies with satellite estimates of the lower troposphere
rather than surface data !. Odder still that they don't realise that Moberg et al used the
Jones and Moberg updated series !
Francis Zwiers is till onside. He said that PC1s produce hockey sticks. He stressed
that the late 20th century is the warmest of the millennium, but Regaldo didn't bother
with that. Also ignored Francis' comment about all the other series looking similar
to MBH.
The IPCC comes in for a lot of stick.
Leave it to you to delete as appropriate !
Cheers
Phil
PS I'm getting hassled by a couple of people to release the CRU station
temperature data.
Don't any of you three tell anybody that the UK has a Freedom of Information Act !


"I've just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the
real temps..."

From: Phil Jones 
To: ray bradley ,mann@xxxxxxxxx.xxx, mhughes@xxxxxxxxx.xxx
Subject: Diagram for WMO Statement
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 13:31:15 +0000
Cc: k.briffa@xxxxxxxxx.xxx,t.osborn@xxxxxxxxx.xxx


Dear Ray, Mike and Malcolm,
Once Tim's got a diagram here we'll send that either later today or
first thing tomorrow.
I've just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the real temps
to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd from
1961 for Keith's to hide the decline. Mike's series got the annual
land and marine values while the other two got April-Sept for NH land
N of 20N. The latter two are real for 1999, while the estimate for 1999
for NH combined is +0.44C wrt 61-90. The Global estimate for 1999 with
data through Oct is +0.35C cf. 0.57 for 1998.
Thanks for the comments, Ray.

Cheers
Phil


"We don't need to show that result necessarily, unless the
editor/reviewers demand to see proof"

From: "Michael E. Mann" 
To: Keith Briffa , Tim Osborn 
Subject: [Fwd: Re: GKSS results]
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2006 12:04:50 -0400
Reply-to: mann@xxxxxxxxx.xxx
Cc: Caspar Ammann 


Keith,

I also figured this might be what you say, and I understand where you've
coming from. This represents a bit of a dillemma too, as it seems
unprofessional at best that Zorita and Von Storch have not made their
code public, when we of course have made ours public.

There are other sources where we could have gotten the GKSS data--I'm
checking w/ Caspar for confirmation. I know that the Cane group has it,
and I believe other groups have it nows too. So frankly, it is
effectively now 'public domain' whether VS and Zorita like it or not!

I propose, hoping that their is no loud objection, that we will include
a line in our response indicating that we have confirmed that we get
similar results using the GKSS Erik simulation. We'll leave it at that.
We don't need to show that result necessarily, unless the
editor/reviewers demand to see proof, and we certaintly don't have to
reveal where we got the GKSS data. As I mentioned, there are enough
groups out there that now have it, that VS and Zorita would not know the
source, and we would not reveal it.

We feel as if we cannot completely hide the fact that we have confirmed
our result w/ GKSS, hence the "compromise" suggested above. Meanwhile,
we can pursue a more thorough, official collaborative effort in the future.

Thoughts on this?

thanks,

mike

-- 
Michael E. Mann
Associate Professor
Director, Earth System Science Center (ESSC)

Department of Meteorology Phone: (814) 863-4075
503 Walker Building FAX: (814) 865-3663
The Pennsylvania State University email: mann@xxxxxxxxx.xxx
University Park, PA 16802-5013

http://www.met.psu.edu/dept/faculty/mann.htm

"...whether it is true or not is not what the publishers
care about -- it is how the journal is seen by the
community that counts"

From: Tom Wigley 
To: Timothy Carter 
Subject: Re: Java climate model
Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 09:17:29 -0600
Cc: Mike Hulme , Phil Jones 

Tim,

I know about what Matthews has done. He did so without contacting Sarah
or me. He uses a statistical emulation method that can never account for
the full range of uncertainties. I would not trust it outside the
calibration zone -- so I doubt that it can work well for (e.g.)
stabilization cases. As far as I know it has not been peer reviewed.
Furthermore, unless he has illegally got hold of the TAR version of the
model, what he has done can only be an emulation of the SAR version.

Personally, I regard this as junk science (i.e., not science at all).

Matthews is doing the community a considerable disservice.

Tom.

PS Re CR, I do not know the best way to handle the specifics of the
editoring. Hans von Storch is partly to blame -- he encourages the
publication of crap science 'in order to stimulate debate'. One approach
is to go direct to the publishers and point out the fact that their
journal is perceived as being a medium for disseminating misinformation
under the guise of refereed work. I use the word 'perceived' here, since
whether it is true or not is not what the publishers care about -- it is
how the journal is seen by the community that counts.

I think we could get a large group of highly credentialed scientists to
sign such a letter -- 50+ people.

Note that I am copying this view only to Mike Hulme and Phil Jones.
Mike's idea to get editorial board members to resign will probably not
work -- must get rid of von Storch too, otherwise holes will eventually
fill up with people like Legates, Balling, Lindzen, Michaels, Singer,
etc. I have heard that the publishers are not happy with von Storch, so
the above approach might remove that hurdle too.

These emails are a death blow for the "global warming" scam artists. And the corrupt officials, scientists, consultants and corporatists who conspired to profit from the scam should be run out of town.


Update: Legal Insurrection has additional detail.

Update II: Thomas Lifson: "Climate fraud continues unraveling."

Uncanny. Qadhafi Reads Obama's Mind.

Qadhafi: Obama should be president forever

Hat tip: Dan from New York.

News Digest: The Israeli "Dry Run" on Iran's Nuclear Facilities

Looks like there would be a side benefit from an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities: the blind, toothless UN atomic "watchdog" -- Mohamed El Baradei -- promised to resign if Iran is targeted.

US officials reported on Friday that more than 100 Israeli F-16s and F-15s staged a complex operation over the Mediterranean during the first week of June. The aircraft traversed more than 900 miles, about the distance from Israel to Iran's Natanz nuclear enrichment facility; the exercise also tested the refueling of planes and helicopters tasked with rescuing downed pilots.

El Baradei wasn't pleased.

He warned that any attack on Iran would turn the entire Middle East "into a fireball."

"I don't believe that what I see in Iran today is a current, grave and urgent danger. If a military strike is carried out against Iran at this time ... it would make me unable to continue my work," he said.

El Baradei, of course, insists that there's no evidence Iran is actually building atomic weapons (as recently as May); criticized Israel for flattening Syria's nuclear reactor (but did not criticize North Korea or Syria itself); and even pilloried the US for not sharing the intelligence with the IAEA.

Iran's response: Earlier today AFP reported that Iran promised any attack on its facilities would warrant a "limitless response." Bemoaning Israel's efforts as "psychological operations," Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najar stated that Iran would "punish any aggressor with force. With determination and using all the options -- without limit in time and space -- we will give a destructive response to any hostile action."

Russia's response: as Iran's preeminent nuclear technology supplier, Russia is concerned with its cash flow. It also warned Israel not to attack. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov instructed Israel not to use force, claiming there is no proof Iran is trying to acquire atomic weapons.

Israeli media: Many believe that the US leak of the information was a warning shot over Tehran's bow. Alex Fishman, the military affairs correspondent of Israel's biggest newspaper, said "[w]hen the diplomacy of economic and political pressure fails to produce results, a shift is made to gunboat diplomacy... As the Iranian regime discusses the European Union representative's most recent offer to halt its nuclear program in exchange for extensive benefits, the Americans opted to add a bit more pressure in the shape of Israel's air force."

Stratfor: The well-known research firm's summary is succinct: "Israel is deliberately leaking reports that it plans to attack Iran's nuclear facilities in order to shape Iranian behavior. An actual attack would not be announced and would face significant obstacles."

John Bolton: On Sunday, former US ambassador John Bolton was asked how Iran might respond to an Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities. He stated that Iran's options are limited and, in his opinion, most Arab countries would prefer to see its nuclear ambitions thwarted. As for timing, Bolton felt it would come between the presidential election in early November and the inauguration in January.

The UN's most important mission

LGF:

United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance Doudou Diène has another mission on his visit to the United States, in addition to investigating contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in the US Presidential election.

...Diène will also be looking into the dreaded scourge of “Islamophobia.” And he’ll have plenty of help from the usual merchants of victimhood.

The UN could have chosen from several missions:

The slaughter, rape and starvation of hundreds of thousands of innocents in Darfur.

Ongoing plagues, unrest and starvation in Somalia.

A spate of chaos, violence, radical extremism and rocket attacks against innocents in Hamas-controlled Gaza as Egypt keeps its border sealed to keep its Palestinian brothers out.

A continued humanitarian disaster in Myanmar as its fascist government prevents widespread aid operations from entering the country.

Thousands of displaced refugees in South Africa as immigrants flee ongoing violence due to rampant unemployment.

But those are trivial concerns when compared to the continued racism, discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance related to the U.S. Presidential election.

I think we can all give thanks that the United Nations and its Special Rapporteur -- Doudou Diène -- are on the case.

Another UN Scandal: Carbon offset market bogus from day one!

Executive Summary: the UN has facilitated a "fraudulent" market worth tens of billions of dollars that was justified by a critical report; this report was authored by the very project developers and "auditors" who would profit from the report's publication. This appears to be a major UN scandal that could surpass the Oil-for-Food Program in terms of total economic impact.

This weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported that the multibillion-dollar experiment created to control global warming is faltering as officials questions the program's efficacy.

[Companies] ...can pay for the right to pollute by buying "carbon credits," essentially permission slips to spew carbon dioxide. Sale of the credits is supposed to help fund clean-air projects in China and other developing countries that would otherwise be too costly to build...

...U.N. regulators are... concerned that some independent auditors of these projects, who are responsible for vetting their environmental legitimacy, have been letting project developers push through ventures of questionable environmental value.

...Developing-world projects like [wind farms and palm-oil plants] are part of the burgeoning global carbon trade [which] last year was worth 40.4 billion euros...

The carbon market was created by the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 global treaty underlying environmental rules...

A dozen or so project developers, most based in Europe, dominate the business. Among the largest is EcoSecurities...

Three auditors dominate the business... Det Norske Veritas, Tüv Süd AG, ...and SGS Group...

Let's hit the pause button right there. Those company names sound familiar.

Let's rewind to the year 2000. The World Rainforest Movement published a bulletin ("Sinks that stink") decrying the emerging carbon trade as suffering "the taint of intellectual corruption". In effect, the WRM and other evironmentalists assert that the entire carbon market is a "scam", "fantasy", "fiction", "nonsense", "fraudulent" and worse.

But why? WRM states:

...some of the most polluting countries are trying to find ways out of their commitments, using potential loopholes in the Protocol which may allow them to plant millions of hectares of trees in Southern countries as a substitute for cutting emissions at [the] source...

in order to assess the scientific validity of this approach, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) appointed a panel to put together a Special Report on Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry. The report, released in May, has disappointed many activists by giving a "scientific" stamp of approval to a carbon market which would generate profits for a small number of mostly Northern companies and consultants...

...one of the reason's for the report's failure is, sadly, surely quite simple: some of the authors (and the companies they work for) will benefit financially from having drawn the conclusions they drew... [just] a few examples:

Pedro Moura-Costa, another important author of Chapter 5, is a UK-based executive of Ecosecurities..

Gareth Philips..., another Lead Author of Chapter 5, works for Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS) Forestry of Geneva...

The bulletin concludes:

These and many other authors and editors of the IPCC Special Report on Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry had vested interests in reaching unrealistically and unjustifiably optimistic conclusions about the possibility of compensating for emissions with trees. They should therefore have been automatically disqualified from serving on an intergovernmental panel charged with investigating impartially the feasibility and benefits of such "offset" projects...

That's where I've heard of EcoSecurities and SGS before.

In short, the very authors of the original UN climate report that justified the carbon market were themselves poised to profit from that market. And, now, the UN does business directly with firms like Ecosecurities and SGS, enriching the authors of the original report!

Furthermore, the project developers and the "auditors" co-wrote the chapter justifying the carbon offset market! In what other field -- aside from the UN, that is -- would companies and their "auditors" both be permitted to conspire in such a fraudulent manner?

If any of us thought the corruption in the UN ended with the "Oil-for-Food" scandal, it appears we were all sadly mistaken. The UN has no right doing business with any of these firms. By continuing to do so, they are reinforcing America's image of the organization: that it is utterly useless and thoroughly infested with corrupt officials.

Related: The World Rainforest Movement, which buys into anthropogenic global warming (note: I do not) runs a website completely devoted to monitoring the carbon offset trade: SinksWatch.org.

Update: Linked by Pajamas Media. Thanks!