How Not To Fly (about)

The Secrets Of September 11 / White House Battles To Keep A Report On The Terror Attacks Secret

Some of the report -- including some dealing with matters that had been extensively aired in public, such as the now famous FBI "Phoenix memo" of July 2001 reporting that Middle Eastern nationals might be enrolling in U.S. flight schools -- were "reclassified."

USS Lincoln Aircrews Arrive At Navy Bases

A crew of more than 5,000 remains aboard the Lincoln, awaiting a visit from President Bush, who will address the nation Thursday evening from its deck.

What is up. with the constant. comparisons. between George W Bush. and Abraham Lincoln?

EPA Agents Allegedly Diverted For Personal Security, Errands

After the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, senior managers in EPA's Office of Criminal Enforcement, Forensics and Training were instructed to help with homeland security and Whitman's protection detail by providing agents who normally investigate environmental crimes, according to memos written last year by office heads.

• One manager said an agent on a security detail was directed by Whitman to return her husband's rental car to the airport so the Whitmans could catch a flight together.
• A second manager said an agent was told by the head of Whitman's personal security team to hold the reserved restaurant table until Whitman arrived for dinner. The agent is paid $100,000 a year to investigate environmental crimes, the manager said.
• With agents already designated for homeland security tasks, the regional offices sometimes are left without investigators for days at a time when Whitman is in town. "Up to a week all work will shut down in an area office to facilitate the protective service detail," one manager said.

EPA officials said the added security was necessitated by the post-Sept. 11 terrorism concerns and specific threats against Whitman, which they declined to describe.

War Brings Business To Feinstein Spouse / Blum's Firms Win Multimillion-Dollar Defense Contracts In Iraq, Afghanistan

• The [URS Corp] contract -- which could grow to $600 million -- is to help with troop mobilization, weapons systems training and anti-terrorism methods.
• That's on top of a $3.1 billion Army contract that URS snared back in February for weapons systems and homeland defense.
• Perini Corp., which qualified earlier this month for as much as $100 million of defense work in Iraq and elsewhere.... Blum's investment firm controls about 20 percent of Perini's shares...

Celia Wexler, research director for Common Cause in Washington, D.C., says all the defense and homeland security deals involving Blum-connected companies raise concern of political hanky-panky -- especially with talk of the United States spending $100 billion to rebuild Iraq.

Is it me, or is America now officially out of electable politicians?

Have you been in a car accident?

Have you been in a boating accident?

Has sonar rendered you infertile?

Salmon & Associates is waiting to hear from you.

GOP Largely Quiet On Santorum's Remarks

In an April 7 interview with the Associated Press that was published this week, Santorum declared: "I have no problem with homosexuality. I have a problem with homosexual acts.... And if the Supreme Court says that you have the right to [gay] consensual sex within your home... then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything."

Tempting Faith

[Bucks County, PA] Inside the Gertrude Hawk Chocolates store at the Oxford Valley Mall this week, employees had a passionate philosophical debate over whether to put a chocolate Jesus on the shelf.... Samuel said her faith followed a different set of candy guidelines. "I just don't think that you should eat anything that's Jesus. It's OK to eat the cross as long as God is not on it..."

Roberts admits she was at first reluctant to sell the religious theme treats: "Sometimes I think it could be a sacrilege. But the nuns just love them."

• Holy Communios
• Dante's Pepto Inferno
• Poplait

Cultural Leaders Protest Looting / Museum Directors Resign From Presidential Board

"Antiquity scholars have been pressing the State Department and the Pentagon for many months before the war started to protect these museums," said Sullivan, executive director of Historic St. Mary's City Commission and the former chairman of the [President's Advisory Committee on Cultural Property.] "We were assured it would be a top priority."

According to one estimate, more than 150,000 items were stolen from Baghdad's National Museum of Antiquities and other cultural institutions. Many of the objects were taken from the irreplaceable Babylonian, Sumerian and Assyrian collections that chronicled ancient civilization in Mesopotamia. The loss is valued in the billions.

11-Pound Poodle Pulls 180-Pound Load

Owner Morris Hyzer will soon be entering the little dog in the International Weight Pull Association championships. The contest will be the weekend after next in Loveland, Colo....

According to the IWPA's site, any dog breed can compete, and smaller dogs tend to pull a bigger percentage of their weight than the bigger dogs.

For First Time In Months, Chirac, Bush Speak By Phone

[Paris, France] French President Jacques Chirac and President George W. Bush spoke by telephone for the first time in more than two months Tuesday, in a possible sign of warming ties after their bitter dispute over war in Iraq.... France led European opposition to the war and has also been pushing for the United Nations to have the lead role in postwar reconstruction. French rhetoric at times irked the Americans, who charged that Paris' announcement that it would veto a U.S.-backed Iraq war resolution "no matter what" hurt diplomacy.

US 'Will Repair' Iraqi Heritage

Secretary of State Colin Powell said the Baghdad museum was "one of the great museums in the world" and that the US would take a leading role in restoring it. Coalition forces were criticised for not protecting the institution, which housed many treasures from "the cradle of civilisation," when it was ransacked on Friday.... The US would "recover that which has been taken and also participate in restoring that which has been broken," he said.

The national museum was home to artefacts that dated back 10,000 years, from one of the world's earliest civilisations.

• ...a museum in Mosul was looted and the capital's Islamic Library, which housed ancient manuscripts including one of the oldest surviving copies of the Koran, was ravaged by fire.
• The development of writing, abstract counting, the wheel and agriculture were all charted in [the looted capital] exhibitions.
• The collections from the Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian periods were particularly prized.
• Remains of the Mesopotamian cities Babylon, Ur and Nineveh were among the pieces on show.
• Antiquities included a 4,000-year-old silver harp from Ur, plus tablets and pottery from across the ages.
• After the 1991 Gulf War, 4,000 pieces disappeared when regional museums were looted.

Unesco is appealing to governments to give financial support for the recovery process. Italy is the first nation to donate money for heritage rebuilding, pledging $400,000.

U.S. May Resist Arms Checks

Outside the government, weapons experts have argued for the United States to let international inspectors help identify and destroy any unconventional weapons discovered in Iraq. They argue that independent confirmation would help convince skeptics that the war was just....

For weeks, advancing troops have reported signs of chemical arms: gas masks, protective suits, nerve gas antidotes, training manuals, barrels of suspicious chemicals and a cache of mysterious shells. None of the chemicals have been proven to be warfare agents, rather than pesticides or other legitimate chemicals.

Saddam's Playboy Son Had Pictures Of Bush Twins

The Baghdad palace of Saddam Hussein's oldest son Odai is revealing more about his so-called "playboy" lifestyle. Looters stripped the palace of most valuables, but there was still ample evidence of Odai's extravagance....

In addition to finding a lot of liquor, electronics, Cuban cigars and porn -- U.S. soldiers say they found pictures of President George W. Bush's twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara Bush. They say the pictures were hanging in one of Odai Hussein's gymnasiums.