Paul E. Ester's Flogger

WASHINGTON (AP) – The military secretly tested sarin nerve agent in a Hawaii forest preserve in 1967, the Pentagon (news – web sites) acknowledged Thursday in the latest disclosures about Cold War-era testing of biological and chemical weapons.


Other secret tests in Hawaii in 1966 and the Panama Canal Zone in 1963 released a germ meant as a harmless stand-in for the bacteria that cause anthrax, the Defense Department said. A 1966 experiment in an undisclosed “tropical jungle type environment” involved spraying tear gas on unprotected U.S. military volunteers. … Rest of Article

She said Mr. Maher was approached at that time by an RCMP investigator who reportedly wanted to discuss Mr. Maher’s relationship with a member of Ottawa’s Syrian community alleged to have terrorist connections.

Mr. Maher then contacted a lawyer, and gave him the RCMP investigator’s number. That was the last her husband ever heard from the RCMP, Ms. Mazigh said. She believes her husband’s name was later forwarded by the RCMP to the United States.
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The mystery surrounding a Syrian-Canadian engineer accused of being an al-Qaeda terrorist deepened further with information that he may have spent about 12 days in Jordan after being deported from the United States.

Ottawa is asking Amman for an explanation.
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OTTAWA – Syria has agreed to let a Canadian diplomat visit an Ottawa high-tech engineer deported by U.S. authorities two weeks ago.The consular access visit should allow Arar to explain one of the most unusual parts of the story: why was he apparently in Jordan until Monday?

The Syrians have also admitted that Maher Arar is being held in prison, but haven’t said what charges, if any, the Canadian citizen faces.

During the diplomat’s visit, Arar should be able to answer some of the questions that have been plaguing both his family and the Canadian government.

U.S. officials have refused to explain why they arrested Arar as he transited through New York on a flight from Zurich to Montreal, or what they did with him after.

But the Syrian government is being somewhat more forthcoming.

“The Syrian authorities do fully realize the importance of this caseÉgiven the fact also that this situation has been widely publicized in Canada,” said Reynald Doiron, a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs. “So, consular access will be granted later this week in Syria.”

Doiron says the Syrians weren’t obliged to grant consular access, since Arar is also a citizen of Syria.

Human rights activists said that by acknowledging his presence in a Syrian jail, Damascus has sent a positive signal about his treatment.

“We welcome it because, in the past, one of the great difficulties with respect to Syria has been an unwillingness to acknowledge when individuals are detained or to provide any kind of information or updates,” said Alex Neve, secretary-general of Amnesty International Canada.

The consular access visit should allow Arar to explain one of the most unusual parts of the story: why was he apparently in Jordan until Monday?

The Syrian government says he only crossed into that country two weeks after U.S. authorities were supposed to have deported him there…. Rest of Article

Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, upset by what he felt was a partisan tone of a memorial service to honor the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, said he will try to appoint an independent instead of a Democrat to fill Wellstone’s seat until a new candidate is certified. … Rest of Article

But in some circles, the photo spread is having the opposite effect. Some Navy officers say the Air Force is composed of a bunch of “whiners” and “crybabies.”
ÊÊÊÊÊ”It’s about time they grew up and learned the hard lessons of expeditionary warfare,” said a Navy officer. “I expect that our Marines have been dealing with equally poor or worse conditions on the ground in Afghanistan, and I’m sure they haven’t been complaining.”
ÊÊÊÊÊEven some Air Force officers fear the photo presentation may brand the Air Force as being full of complainers. What’s the use of complaining about tacky volleyball nets when most of Afghanistan lives in poverty, asks one officer. “The Army and Navy would laugh at us,” he said…. Rest of Article

AMMAN: The US diplomat gunned down in the Jordanian capital yesterday was probably killed by a professional using a gun equipped with a silencer, sources close to the investigation said.

ÒThe assassin probably used a silencer, which would explain why none of the Foley familyÕs neighbours heard any gun shots,Ó one of the sources said, following the early morning murder of Lawrence Foley. … Rest of Article

TOKYO, Oct. 25 — An opposition lawmaker known for his aggressive probing into corruption scandals involving the governing party was stabbed to death today in what could be Japan’s first political assassination in more than four decades.

Police said Koki Ishii, 61, a member of parliament from the Democratic Party of Japan, was attacked in front of his home in central Tokyo by an unidentified man in his fifties who escaped on foot.

The motive for the crime was unclear. Japanese legislators have sometimes been attacked by right-wing extremists with links to gangsters. But the last political assassination of a Japanese lawmaker occurred in 1960, when a Socialist leader was killed by a right-wing youth…. Rest of Article

Project Paperclip: Nazi Scientists Who Performed Human Experimentation in the U. S.
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For the first time since 9/11, Bush’s job-approval ratings have dropped below those Bill Clinton maintained throughout his second term, even in the midst of impeachment proceedings. … Rest of Article