U.S. intelligence: Syrian government undertook deadly chemical attack – latimes.com

Jan 2004: A key prewar U.S. intelligence report that said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction was “well-grounded,” based on 15 years of information, and the hunt should continue, a senior U.S. intelligence official said today.

Stuart Cohen, vice chairman of the National Intelligence Council, which produced the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate report on Iraq’s banned weapons, said he was “not at all” surprised that stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons had not yet been found.

“He’s [Saddam Hussein] had 15 years to hone his ability to hide this stuff. The footprints of these weapons is very small,” Cohen told Reuters in a brief telephone interview after an interview with ABCNEWS’ Nightline airing late today.

 

The U.S. intelligence community believes that a chemical weapons attack ordered by the Iraq Syrian government Aug. 21 killed at least 1,429 people, including at least 426 children, an intelligence document says.

“The United States government assesses with high confidence that the Iraq  Syrian government carried out a chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburbs on Aug. 21,” the report issued Friday says. “We further assess that the regime used a nerve agent in the attack.”

The report is based on spies, intercepts and satellites, as well as video evidence the world has already seen, it says.

“We intercepted communications involving a senior official intimately familiar with the offensive who confirmed that chemical weapons were used by the regime on Aug. 21 and was concerned with the U.N. inspectors obtaining evidence,” the report said.

via U.S. intelligence: Syrian government undertook deadly chemical attack – latimes.com.

Subway Kittens Finally Rescued, Will Be Put Up For Adoption: Gothamist

Yesterday, two adorable kittens frolicking on the train tracks briefly brought subway service to standstill in Brooklyn. The kitties were spotted running up and down the tracks near the third rail at the B/Q Church Avenue station in Prospect Lefferts Gardens around 11 a.m. Thursday. The kittens were briefly caught, but they escaped immediately afterwards—it took until after 6 p.m. for officials to finally wrangle them into cages.

MTA officials initially cut off power to large portions of the B/Q line around lunchtime—the B was down for 90 minutes, and the Q was down for nearly two hours! Some people were angry: “My boss is gonna be mad at me for being late. He’s not gonna believe this one!” said one rider, according to the Post. “Can you believe this? All for goddamned cats! I hate cats!” another straphanger exclaimed. It even led some bloggers to consider philosophical debates about kitten murder.

Not everyone was so put off: “The announcer said it had to stop to rescue some cats,” straphanger Sandra Polel told the News. “I didn’t mind. I wanted to get home, but I also wanted the kittens to be safe.”

via Subway Kittens Finally Rescued, Will Be Put Up For Adoption: Gothamist.

Czech neo-Nazi marches target Roma | Europe | DW.DE | 30.08.2013

Czech neo-Nazi marches target Roma | Europe | DW.DE | 30.08.2013.

David Tiser says the silence from the major parties is easily explained; unlike Mr Zeman, those parties have an election to fight in two months’ time, and defending the Roma minority is hardly a vote-winner.

But while the skinheads are largely being restrained from reaching their targets by lines of riot police, and while there has been a laudable upsurge in civic activity against the neo-Nazi demonstrations, many observers are worried about the atmosphere of intolerance in the Czech Republic.

“The situation is extremely tense in the Czech Republic at the moment, with far right groups rapidly gaining in influence. Many Roma families … fear for their safety, in particular ahead of demonstrations like those planned for [Saturday]” said Dezideriu Gergely, Executive Director of the European Roma Rights Centre, in a statement issued on Amnesty International’s website.

Amnesty concerned

“We have seen a deeply worrying trend over the past year with entrenched discrimination against Roma reaching new heights. This is a fundamental issue that the Czech authorities can’t ignore,” added John Dalhuisen, Europe and Central Asia Program Director for Amnesty International.

And while the summer “marching season” is drawing to a close, there seems to be no letup in sight; far-right groups are already planning another demonstration in Ostrava. It’s scheduled for September 27, and once again marchers will try to reach an area home to a large, socially excluded Romany population.

When you have no facts or power, you whine! Charles Krauthammer: Shamed into war? – The Washington Post

If you are going to do this, Mr. President, do it constitutionally. And seriously. This is not about you and your conscience. It’s about applying American power to do precisely what you now deny this is about — helping Assad go, as you told the world he must.

Otherwise, just send Assad a text message. You might incur a roaming charge, but it’s still cheaper than a three-day, highly telegraphed, perfectly useless demonstration strike.

via Charles Krauthammer: Shamed into war? – The Washington Post.

Taylor Farms, Big Food Supplier, Grapples With Frequent Recalls – NYTimes.com

Making your prepared food less safe

 

Bill Marler, a lawyer who specializes in food safety litigation, also said that even for a company of its size, the rate of recalls by Taylor seemed a bit high. “That’s quite a number of recalls over that time period,” Mr. Marler said.

But several of those recalls could have been prompted by random inspections by state health agencies under a federal program that is now defunct, he said.

Taylor and other large produce companies had successfully lobbied to get rid of it, arguing that by the time the program identified a pathogen, the tainted product had already long since been consumed, making it hard to recall.

via Taylor Farms, Big Food Supplier, Grapples With Frequent Recalls – NYTimes.com.

Taylor Farms, Big Food Supplier, Grapples With Frequent Recalls – NYTimes.com

Taylor Farms, the large vegetable producer whose salad mix has been linked to hundreds of sickened people in 22 states, has had an unusual number of voluntary recalls for potentially tainted products in the last three years.

via Taylor Farms, Big Food Supplier, Grapples With Frequent Recalls – NYTimes.com.

For a Veteran of the Era of a 5-Cent Subway Fare, the Retirement Age Is 91 – NYTimes.com

The family moved around Brooklyn in search of more space for relatives arriving from North Carolina. He graduated from Boys High School in 1939 and found odd jobs for a dollar a day, setting up bowling pins or delivering supplies for a doctor.

“Work was scarce,” he said. “So I came to appreciate a good job.” Drafted into the Army in November 1942, he served in northern Italy with the Buffalos of the 92nd Infantry, an all-black unit.

After the war, he applied to the transit system and was hired at 90 cents an hour, an increase from his previous clerical job.

“My first paycheck was 7 dollars and 20 cents,” Mr. Merrick said. “That was for a full day’s work.”

Six-day work weeks were then standard, and Mr. Merrick said he also worked all the overtime that was available. This week, he was doing 3-to-11 shifts.

In 1954, his family bought a house in St. Albans in Queens, and he still lives there. He did not marry, rarely travels out of the city, and said he had little time for interests outside of work.

He does cherish the employee pass that has given him free rides since 1948 and that he will continue to enjoy after this week.

“No place I’ve been to that I didn’t pine for being back in New York,” Mr. Merrick said.

“I think New York is the greatest city in the world, and the greatest thing about it is the transit system.”

via For a Veteran of the Era of a 5-Cent Subway Fare, the Retirement Age Is 91 – NYTimes.com.

Racism and the Whiteness Default | Opinion | Comment and Analysis | Mail & Guardian

As white people we are raised to think that we are central to everything – especially in relation to other races. I call this the “Whiteness Default,”which I view as a phenomenon that works against other views and indeed attempts to thwart real transformation, often willfully.

Whiteness has, for the past 350 years or so, been the spoken and visible default setting of South African life – as a result of invasion, colonisation and the systemic oppression of aparthed. Over the past two decades of democracy, however, and with the dwindling public space for open right wing discourse, the entrenchment of liberalism as the dominant discourse has resulted in whiteness becoming the invisible, unspoken default.

White liberals may be more open to other races, but this does not mean that they do not enjoy the privileges bestowed upon white folk in a system of white supremacy. White supremacy, in this case, is simply a system that favours whiteness at the expense of other races – so while we associate this term with the Klu Klux clan and the Boeremag –which is right wing white supremacy –  even middle class, liberal and politically radical whites are part of the system of white domination. We cannot escape that point and we cannot escape the unearned privileges afforded to whiteness in the global sphere. We can, however, help dismantle this system of supremacy and navigate the world of diverse humanity with consciousness.

via Racism and the Whiteness Default | Opinion | Comment and Analysis | Mail & Guardian.

E. coli Outbreak From Frederico’s in AZ Sickens 79 | Food Safety News

Who needs regulations, food and restaurant inspectors? WE DO!

The latest word from Maricopa County Public Health spokeswoman Jeanene Fowler is that 79 people have fallen ill with E. coli O157:H7 after dining at Federico’s Mexican Restaurant in Litchfield Park, AZ, around July 18.

This is probably the final count of cases, but the exact source of the contamination is still under investigation.

Of those ill, at least 23 were, or currently are, hospitalized. Most of those patients have since been discharged.

The restaurant voluntarily closed for three days to clean all surfaces and bring in new food after reports of illness tied it to the outbreak. It has since reopened, and no new illnesses have developed since the closure.

Food safety law firm Marler Clark has filed lawsuits on behalf of a number of Federico’s customers who fell ill in the outbreak, including two minors who were hospitalized and developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, a life-threatening kidney disease associated with severe E. coli infections.

via E. coli Outbreak From Frederico’s in AZ Sickens 79 | Food Safety News.

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