High blood pressure alert!
(Via Junkyard Blog) ABC News has a story that has the potential to elevate blood pressure levels significantly. You have been warned! Check out Called Off the Trail? and see what you think.

In a dramatic interview with ABCNEWS, FBI special agents and partners Robert Wright and John Vincent say they were called off criminal investigations of suspected terrorists tied to the deadly bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. U.S. officials say al Qaeda was responsible for the embassy attacks and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

"September the 11th is a direct result of the incompetence of the FBI's International Terrorism Unit. No doubt about that. Absolutely no doubt about that," Wright said. "You can't know the things I know and not go public."

In the mid-1990s, with growing terrorism in the Middle East, the two Chicago-based agents were assigned to track a connection to Chicago, a suspected terrorist cell that would later lead them to a link with Osama bin Laden. Wright says that when he pressed for authorization to open a criminal investigation into the money trail, his supervisor stopped him.

"Do you know what his response was? 'I think it's just better to let sleeping dogs lie,'" said Wright. "Those dogs weren't sleeping. They were training. They were getting ready."
...
The suspected terrorist cell in Chicago was the basis of the investigation, yet Wright, who remains with the FBI, says he soon discovered that all the FBI intelligence division wanted him to do was to follow suspected terrorists and file reports ? but make no arrests.

"The supervisor who was there from headquarters was right straight across from me and started yelling at me: 'You will not open criminal investigations. I forbid any of you. You will not open criminal investigations against any of these intelligence subjects,'" Wright said.

Ah yes, we must definitely have reports to narrow the yawning report gap. And I've got the paper, rolls and rolls of it.

In 1998 al Qaeda terrorists bombed two American embassies in Africa. The agents say some of the money for the attacks led back to the people they had been tracking in Chicago and to a powerful Saudi Arabian businessman, Yassin al-Kadi. Al-Kadi is one of 12 Saudi businessmen suspected of funneling millions of dollars to al Qaeda and who had extensive business and financial ties in Chicago.

Yet, even after the bombings, Wright said FBI headquarters wanted no arrests.
...
On Sept. 11, 2001, the two agents watched the terror attacks in horror, worried that men they could have stopped years earlier may have been involved.

The White House confirmed their fears. One month after the attacks, the U.S. government officially identified al-Kadi ? the same man the FBI had ordered Wright and Vincent to leave alone years earlier ? as one of bin Laden's important financiers.

But wait, the best is yet to come!

Perhaps most astounding of the many mistakes, according to Flessner and an affidavit filed by Wright, is how an FBI agent named Gamal Abdel-Hafiz seriously damaged the investigation. Wright says Abdel-Hafiz, who is Muslim, refused to secretly record one of al-Kadi's suspected associates, who was also Muslim. Wright says Abdel-Hafiz told him, Vincent and other agents that "a Muslim doesn't record another Muslim."

"He wouldn't have any problems interviewing or recording somebody who wasn't a Muslim, but he could never record another Muslim," said Vincent.

Wright said he "was floored" by Abdel-Hafiz's refusal and immediately called the FBI headquarters. Their reaction surprised him even more: "The supervisor from headquarters says, 'Well, you have to understand where he's coming from, Bob.' I said no, no, no, no, no. I understand where I'm coming from," said Wright. "We both took the same damn oath to defend this country against all enemies foreign and domestic, and he just said no? No way in hell."

What the bloody hell? Is this some sort of goddamn joke? And what do the cretins at FBI HQ do about this agent?

Far from being reprimanded, Abdel-Hafiz was promoted to one of the FBI's most important anti-terrorism posts, the American Embassy in Saudi Arabia, to handle investigations for the FBI in that Muslim country.

And there the FBI claims he "contributed significantly". One can't help but wonder how they could tell.

Blogspot again
Today, Blogspot/Blogger has a interesting new variant of the missing archives disease. Most older individual archive pages seem to exist, but the archive index page and (at least) the most recent archive page have gone AWOL. Therefore permalinks have intermittent utility at best. I am performing various arcane rituals in the hope of restoring normality.

What a way to go!
(Via Wog Blog) AFP reports that Baklava kills man:

A TURKISH man died after eating two kilograms of sweets following a bet with a friend, Anatolia news agency reported.

Necati Ceylan, a 45-year-old father of five, died in hospital in the southern city of Gaziantep after spending three weeks in coma, the agency said.

Ceylan was hospitalised last month after eating two kilograms of baklava, a traditional Middle Eastern dessert with heavily sugared syrup.

He won the bet.

4.4 lbs. is rather a lot, but I am hard pressed to figure out why it killed him. (Unless he was a diabetic, which would clearly make him a Darwin award finalist.) In any case, skip the fruitcake, I'll take baklava!

You've got porn!
The AP astounds with Suspected Porn Site Burglar Arrested:

GILLETTE, Wyo. -- The case of the mystery porn downloader may have been solved.

A 17-year-old Gillette, Wyo., boy has been arrested on suspicion of breaking into homes and using computers to access pornography on the Internet.
...
Police said one victim discovered nearly $671 worth of unauthorized charges to her checking account, all of which were for companies handling transactions for pornography Web sites.

The alleged victim told police that "she keeps her bank statements on or around the computer desk, and that her checking account information is in a Quicken software program on the computer," the arrest affidavit states.
...
Another victim wound up with $164 worth of long-distance charges because an autodialing program had apparently been downloaded, telling the computer to regularly call phone numbers in Africa and Germany, according to police
...
"These particular people had their passwords saved, so you just click on an icon and dial in," said Dave Adsit, the Police Department's technology and computer crime manager. "Then when (the suspect) was in there he would go onto pornographic sites and fill out a membership form using a stolen checking account number for payment."

In some cases, the suspect returned to a home repeatedly to use the computer.

Other victims became aware after seeing pornographic material displayed on their Internet browsers, he said.

Some sites will "change a lot of your browser settings, automatically go to the porn sites, make it a home page," Adsit said.

Yeah, that would tend to make you suspicious.

Weapons Inspector Hijinks!
The AP says:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A second known snag for U.N. weapons inspectors took place Thursday, when they were delayed getting into a military guest house north of Baghdad.

Al-Jazeera, the pan-Arab satellite television channel, said the inspectors were kept out for 30 minutes because they had not given notice they would visit.

Jay Leno says:

A minor setback today for the UN inspectors: They had to wait two hours outside a locked door. These Iraqi officials, they're very smart. They go, 'We're wrapping presents. Don't come in yet. Hang on. We'll be ready in a minute. You don't want to ruin the surprise.'

Pond scum
The Telegraph (UK) incenses with Compensation for Sept 11 sackings:

Two cleaners who were sacked after disrupting a silent tribute to the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks by throwing paper planes have each been awarded £7,000 compensation.

Arshad Ali and Aqeel Khan were dismissed for gross misconduct after enraging colleagues during the two-minute tribute but took their case against their employer to an industrial tribunal, claiming unfair dismissal.

The tribunal was due to meet next year but the pair were offered, and accepted, an out-of-court settlement.

While most staff at the Land Rover plant in Solihull, West Midlands, stood in silence, Mr Ali and Mr Khan were said to have jeered, made jibes and made paper planes, which they threw around.

Their actions angered other staff so much that they had to be escorted off the site by a senior manager. They were sacked from the contract cleaner Commando shortly after.

More than we really want to know
'CAU rejects tape of reporter getting a taste of 'Fear':

Vai Sikahema can swallow almost anything, but apparently WCAU viewers can't.

That's why 'CAU news boss Chris Blackman has decided not to air a tape of Sikahema bravely nibbling horse rectum (we're not making this up) as a promotional stunt for NBC's loathsome Fear Factor.

Sikahema, along with reporters from NBC stations in St. Louis; Seattle; Grand Rapids, Mich.; and Oklahoma City, Okla., sampled it while visiting the Fear set in L.A. in October.

The idea was for the out-of-towners to run their tapes as local teasers for the Jan. 6 episode of Fear, to feature contestants eating the equine organ. For money. (We feel so much better.)

"We watched the tape and decided to go with our gut," says Blackman, a regular laugh riot. "It wasn't particularly appetizing."

Maybe this is why the broadcast numbers are down?

"They pulled out this pot of what looked like animal intestines - big, long, thick and stretching forever. I stood there, wondering what it was."
...
The organ "was awful. Fatty. Chewy. Tasteless. I almost gagged, but I managed to get it down. Had the camera not been rolling, I might have thrown up."

Q: What was Hans Blix doing in the pot of boiling water?
A: He thought it was a hot tub?

"Video killed the radio star..."
The Hollywood Reporter says Cable claims first TV title:

2002 was the year cable outperformed broadcast, grabbing a higher aggregate share of the audience for the first time ever.

With a few weeks left until the final numbers are calculated, Nielsen Media Research projects that ad-supported basic cable networks grabbed 48% of the viewership compared with 45% for all seven broadcasters (including Pax). Broadcast dropped from 49% in 2001.

Which reminds me of Hollywood and video/computer games:

Indeed, the video game market is big business. It racked up $9.3 billion in revenues last year, outgunning Hollywood's box office take of $8.1 billion by a cool billion dollars. According to research firm InStat/MDR, console games accounted for nearly $7.4 billion in revenue in 2001.

But they're still working out the perks.

Frankensugar alert!
The AP reports that Cuba looks to genetic engineering to help save sugar crop:

HAVANA - Can biotechnology save Cuba's sugar industry? Something has to.

Some 100,000 fewer machete-wielding cane cutter and factory workers are taking to the Cuban fields and mills this month in the saddest sugar harvest here in recent memory.

Since June, Cuba has shuttered 71 of its 156 sugar mills and ordered more than half the country's sugar fields used for other crops. The country is bracing for a historic low sugar output, and it will be more difficult than ever to sell what they produce.

World sugar prices continue to plunge to all-time lows as the cost of the petroleum needed to process Cuba's once all-important crop rises. Long gone are the days when the Soviet bloc paid Cuba above-market prices for sugar while supplying the island nation with cheap fuel.

"We have analyzed this at the highest government levels," said Nelson Labrada, vice minister of Cuba's Sugar Ministry. "We have arrived at the conclusion that we have to innovate."

Well yeehaw! The "highest levels" in the Cuban thugocracy are going to innovate. That ought to be a sight to see!

According to the ministry, last year's sugar harvest brought in US$80 million. That's US$120 million less than the year before and far from the US$1 billion annually Cuba could count on a decade ago. This year's sales could plunge by another 50 percent.

Hmm ... 1 billion to $200 million to $80 million to $40 million - that's quite a trend line! But not to worry!

That's where Havana's Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology comes in.

Gil Enriquez and other scientists at the center in a Havana suburb are tinkering with the sugar cane's genes, splicing in material from a bacterium that produces fructose.
...
Closer to attaining the open field is sugar cane genetically modified to make it more pest resistant. About a dozen of these plants are growing in a greenhouse behind the Havana biotech center, promising to reduce growing expenses by requiring less pesticide.

Others at the center are tinkering with sugar cane's genome to make it more resistant to weed killers and disease. Labrada also talks about using sugar cane to fuel electric generators, as a source of ethanol and even as a source for cancer-fighting drugs.

And I thought the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology was just a germ warfare facility! But there's a problem with this clever plan.

The European Union, the biggest market currently open to Cuba, has temporarily banned all new imports of genetically modified foods in the face of consumer resistance.
...
There's growing international concern about the health consequences of genetically modified food. No illness has ever been attributed to eating modified food - but no long-term health studies have been done either.

"They've really put a lot of scientific effort into reducing fertilizers and pesticides," said Doreen Stravlinsky of Greenpeace, which opposes most biotechnology. "But there are so many unknown impacts of genetically modified organisms."

Stravlinsky said Cuba - and other developing nations where farmers are thinking about using biotechnology - should look at other, natural ways to improve their crop yields.

The bearded rogue versus the ecoweenies. Kewl!

Bad Publicity Alert!
Tesco (the big UK supermarket chain) has been having a run of bad luck lately. First it was the black widow spiders in the grapes and then there was the £1 Christmas bonus - if the employee spent £100 in the store. But now they have a real winner - Tesco demands baby death proof:

A supermarket chain has apologised after demanding a grieving couple prove their baby had died.

Matthew and Rachel Hartnett, whose five-month-old son Louis died of pneumonia, wanted his name removed from Tesco's Baby and Toddler Club mailing list.

But when they asked a family friend to contact the company, they were stunned to be asked for the baby's death certificate.

Mr and Mrs Hartnett, from Shepton Mallet, Somerset, were told Louis could not be removed from the list until they could prove he had died.

Tesco's slogan is "Every Little Helps".