FEMA’s Phones hacked “old school”

Source: AP
WASHINGTON - A hacker broke into a Homeland Security Department telephone system over the weekend and racked up about $12,000 in calls to the Middle East and Asia.
The hacker made more than 400 calls on a Federal Emergency Management Agency voicemail system in Emmitsburg, Md., on Saturday and Sunday, according to FEMA spokesman Tom [...]

Bee Colony Collapse: Lawsuit seeks EPA’s pesticide data

Source: San Francisco Chronicle, August 19, 2008
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is refusing to disclose records about a new class of pesticides that could be playing a role in the disappearance of millions of honeybees in the United States, a lawsuit filed Monday charges.
The Natural Resources Defense Council wants to see the studies that the [...]

Six Questions about the anthrax attacks

I ran across this article today “Six Questions About the Anthrax Attacks That the Public Should Demand” The writer poses some pretty good questions. While it is true the US media is losing interest in the resolution of this case I don’t believe this issue will go away anytime soon.
For me number 4 is telling.
4. What [...]

Army Secretary orders review of USAMRIID at Fort Detrick

Anthrax case raises concerns about highly secure programs
Source: Greg Carlstrom - The FederalTimes.com
Bruce Ivins, the biologist suspected of sending anthrax-laced letters to politicians and journalists in 2001, began showing signs of mental illness as far back as 2000 — but he was allowed to access sensitive research facilities until as recently as last year.
And that [...]

Are we Safer?

Source: Brian Finlay-OpEd-The Baltimore Sun
The impending closure of the FBI’s investigation of the anthrax-laced mailings of 2001 has generated new interest in the question: Are we safer today than we were when anthrax was distributed up and down the Eastern seaboard, killing five people and sickening 17 others? Unfortunately, the answer is probably no - [...]

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Blackwater target letters sent, let to scapegoating begin

 

Justice Dept. Moves Toward Charges Against Contractors in Iraq Shooting
 Source: MSNBC

 
Federal prosecutors have sent target letters to six Blackwater Worldwide security guards involved in a September shooting that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead, indicating a high likelihood the Justice Department will seek to indict at least some of the men, according to three sources close [...]

Share the Outrage in Your Credit Card’s Fine Print

The Fed apparently is getting a bit nervous about the credit card industry and the possiblility it will be this next bubble to burst or to go bust, ironically because of it’s own predatory practices. When you consider that “Penalty fees make up nearly half of industry revenues” the credit card industry is “banking” on [...]

The Killers in the Lab

Source: By Elisa D. Harris, Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation National Advisory Board
The government’s charge that Dr. Bruce Ivins, a top Army biodefense scientist, was responsible for the 2001 anthrax mailings has focused renewed attention on the important question of whether we are adequately prepared to protect against a future bioweapons attack. More than [...]

Rachel Maddow, Bushed:You Call this a War on Terror?