I have reluctantly added a form to this site, by which folks can donate to further the work. I don't normally request money, as I realize that many are struggling financially today.

What has pushed me to go ahead and do so, is the fact that I have a $119 bill due by November 26th or the Sweet Liberty web site will disappear from the Internet. The annual web hosting bill is due for that site. Normally, this is not a problem as I am usually able to start saving up for the event, months in advance.

However, a series of several events — including a change in my wife's employment — has made things very tight. I honestly don't know where the money is going to come from, folks. Additionally, I had an extra phone line installed for the radio broadcast and that is an additional bill that needs to be paid as well.

I understand that with all of the deviant tricks the globalist bankers are playing upon all of us today, that most people are in dire financial positions. I certainly understand if you are not able to give.

But if God has blessed you in some way, and you want to help out a person who is trying to get good information out to educate the people about the crisis that our country faces, then your assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Unlike many, I don't do this stuff for self-gratification and ego. And I certainly don't do this for money! Believe me, there's no one getting rich here!

If you can help, even if it's a small amount, then thank you. If you cannot, then I understand. Either way, thank you for being interested in the information we share in our effort to restore our country to its former greatness.

May God bless you and restore our republic,

Darren Weeks

P.S. I plan on launching the new design for Sweet Liberty on November 1st. We will also be putting up the rest of the Jackie Patru archives soon.

By YURI KAGEYAMA
Associated Press

We wield remote controls to turn things on and off, make them advance, make them halt. Ground-bound pilots use remotes to fly drone airplanes, soldiers to maneuver battlefield robots.

But manipulating humans?

Prepare to be remotely controlled. I was.

Just imagine being rendered the rough equivalent of a radio-controlled toy car.

Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., Japans top telephone company, says it is developing the technology to perhaps make video games more realistic. But more sinister applications also come to mind.

I can envision it being added to militaries' arsenals of so-called "non-lethal" weapons.

A special headset was placed on my cranium by my hosts during a recent demonstration at an NTT research center. It sent a very low voltage electric current from the back of my ears through my head _ either from left to right or right to left, depending on which way the joystick on a remote-control was moved.

I found the experience unnerving and exhausting: I sought to step straight ahead but kept careening from side to side. Those alternating currents literally threw me off.

The technology is called galvanic vestibular stimulation _ essentially, electricity messes with the delicate nerves inside the ear that help maintain balance.

I felt a mysterious, irresistible urge to start walking to the right whenever the researcher turned the switch to the right. I was convinced _ mistakenly _ that this was the only way to maintain my balance.

The phenomenon is painless but dramatic. Your feet start to move before you know it. I could even remote-control myself by taking the switch into my own hands.

There's no proven-beyond-a-doubt explanation yet as to why people start veering when electricity hits their ear. But NTT researchers say they were able to make a person walk along a route in the shape of a giant pretzel using this technique.

It's a mesmerizing sensation similar to being drunk or melting into sleep under the influence of anesthesia. But it's more definitive, as though an invisible hand were reaching inside your brain.

NTT says the feature may be used in video games and amusement park rides, although there are no plans so far for a commercial product.

Some people really enjoy the experience, researchers said while acknowledging that others feel uncomfortable.

I watched a simple racing-car game demonstration on a large screen while wearing a device programmed to synchronize the curves with galvanic vestibular stimulation. It accentuated the swaying as an imaginary racing car zipped through a virtual course, making me wobbly.

Another program had the electric current timed to music. My head was pulsating against my will, getting jerked around on my neck. I became so dizzy I could barely stand. I had to turn it off.

NTT researchers suggested this may be a reflection of my lack of musical abilities. People in tune with freely expressing themselves love the sensation, they said.

"We call this a virtual dance experience although some people have mentioned it's more like a virtual drug experience," said Taro Maeda, senior research scientist at NTT. "I'm really hopeful Apple Computer will be interested in this technology to offer it in their iPod."

Research on using electricity to affect human balance has been going on around the world for some time.

James Collins, professor of biomedical engineering at Boston University, has studied using the technology to prevent the elderly from falling and to help people with an impaired sense of balance. But he also believes the effect is suited for games and other entertainment.

"I suspect they'll probably get a kick out of the illusions that can be created to give them a more total immersion experience as part of virtual reality," Collins said.

The very low level of electricity required for the effect is unlikely to cause any health damage, Collins said. Still, NTT required me to sign a consent form, saying I was trying the device at my own risk.

And risk definitely comes to mind when playing around with this technology.

Timothy Hullar, assistant professor at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo., believes finding the right way to deliver an electromagnetic field to the ear at a distance could turn the technology into a weapon for situations where "killing isn't the best solution."

"This would be the most logical situation for a nonlethal weapon that presumably would make your opponent dizzy," he said via e-mail. "If you find just the right frequency, energy, duration of application, you would hope to find something that doesn't permanently injure someone but would allow you to make someone temporarily off-balance."

Indeed, a small defense contractor in Texas, Invocon Inc., is exploring whether precisely tuned electromagnetic pulses could be safely fired into people's ears to temporarily subdue them.

NTT has friendlier uses in mind.

If the sensation of movement can be captured for playback, then people can better understand what a ballet dancer or an Olympian gymnast is doing, and that could come handy in teaching such skills.

And it may also help people dodge oncoming cars or direct a rescue worker in a dark tunnel, NTT researchers say. They maintain that the point is not to control people against their will.

If you're determined to fight the suggestive orders from the electric currents by clinging to a fence or just lying on your back, you simply won't move.

But from my experience, if the currents persist, you'd probably be persuaded to follow their orders. And I didn't like that sensation. At all.

Sheriff Denies Rancher Due Process of Law Protections

Paragon Foundation

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 25, 2005

GREENLEE CO. AZ-Since Saturday, twenty armed Forest Service employees and rented cowboys including neighboring rancher, Daryl Bingham and sons, have been gathering 300 head of cattle, valued at approximately $250,000, in a para-military raid on the Dan Martinez Ranch in Greenlee County, Arizona.

Greenlee County Sheriff, Steven Tucker, refused to uphold the law by allowing the federal government to seize the cattle without the necessary court order, denying Mr. Martinez his Constitutional procedural due process of law protections.

On October 3, 2005, in an apparent direct violation of both state and federal laws, the State of Arizona Department of Agriculture entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Forest Service, which by edict removed the Constitutional obstacle requiring the Forest Service to first obtain a court order prior to the seizure of property, in this instance, cattle. The State previously required a court order to impound livestock and this about-face in policy came on direct orders from Governor Napolitano. In addition, contrary to the terms of the MOU, the Forest Service blocked Mr. Martinez from removing his cattle from the grazing allotments last week.

"The Forest Service, apparently disturbed that Mr. Martinez did not renew his voluntary grazing permit with the federal government, has been attempting for the last three years to run him out of business, even going so far as to trump up criminal charges for maintaining his road as an 1866 Mining Law right-of-way. Now, with the State's help, they may succeed in breaking him," commented G.B. Oliver, Executive Director, Paragon Foundation. "If the State isn't careful, some rancher may end up owning a court house before this is over," he added.

Martinez, a second generation owner of the 160-year old Martinez ranch, which includes the Hickey and Pleasant Valley grazing allotments, commented from his home in Santa Fe, NM, "I'm not in dispute with the Forest Service. I have always agreed to do anything they ask of me as long as they could show me where they had the authority and jurisdiction to manage my private property such as my vested water rights, forage, improvements and rights-of-ways on my grazing allotments. They have never come forth with any such evidence. As it was, I could not afford to run cattle under the punitive terms and conditions of their voluntary grazing permit program."

Under the MOU, which has no force of law, the Martinez cattle may now be seized as "stray" livestock. The branded cattle clearly do not fall within the lawful definition of "strays", meaning unbranded and unclaimed livestock.

Retired Congressman, Helen Chenoweth-Hage (R-ID) and Chairman of the Nevada Livestock Association, which battled and stopped similar cattle seizures in Nevada, pointed out that, "The State of Arizona, under this MOU, is depriving Mr. Martinez of his Constitutionally guaranteed procedural due process of law protections. The State is allowing the federal government to drive away, sell and slaughter his cattle, depriving Mr. Martinez of his livelihood without ever having a day in court. The State is clearly exposing itself to liability for civil rights and Constitutional Fifth Amendment "takings" of property violations."

The grazing permit has become a contentious issue in the West where the Forest Service has often used the terms and conditions of the permit to harass, intimidate and bankrupt family ranchers. Traditionally, ranchers voluntarily signed grazing permits in order to participate in the cooperative range improvement fund, financed by their grazing fees. As the requirements of these permits become increasingly punitive and onerous, some ranchers have opted out of the range improvement fund.

"The land management agencies, fearful of a mass exodus from the grazing permit program, have turned to mafia-style fear and intimidation tactics to ensure ranchers renew their permits," commented Chenoweth-Hage. "Most ranchers don't want to risk loosing their livestock and livelihood at gun point. It's a very effective tool of intimidation. Three years ago I publicly issued a $1,000 challenge to anybody who could produce the law requiring ranchers to sign grazing permits. I still have my $1,000."

Paragon Foundation, Inc.
1200 N. White Sands Boulevard · Suite 110
Alamogordo, NM 88310
Office (505) 434-8998
Fax (505) 434-8992
Toll Free 877-847-3443

Contacts:

Dan Martinez, (505) 984-8386

G.B. Oliver, Executive Director, Paragon Foundation (505) 434-8998

Helen Chenoweth, Member of Congress (Ret.) (775) 482-4187

By Darren Weeks

A follow up to my post early this morning that I text-messaged to the site...

First, the correct call letters to the station are WWL, not WLW.

More importantly, WWL is what we call in the broadcast industry as a "clear channel" station, not to be confused with the broadcast company which goes by the name of Clear Channel.

Being a "clear channel" station means that they have held their broadcast license longer than any other AM station that is assigned that frequency by the FCC. Therefore, they have clear rights to broadcast on their assigned frequency at full power day and night. No other FCC-licensed station can interfere with their signal. Studies are done to determine which stations might interfere with "clear channel" stations. Those stations that could interfere must either turn their power down or turn their transmitters off completely at night.

Low frequency radio waves are subject to numerous atmospheric phenomena. While much of the atmospheric adjustments interfere with broadcasts, there are a few things that aid the transmission of broadcast signals.

About 60 to 80km above the earth's surface, there is a layer of electrically-charged molecules that were created by the sun. During the day, radio waves from a broadcast tower penetrate the ionosphere. At night, when the sun goes down and the atmosphere cools, this layer of particles, called the ionosphere, come together and the ionosphere becomes less penetrable. Low frequency radio waves like those from far-away AM radio stations are then able bounce off the gaseous layer. That's how we're able to hear the New Orleans station.

There are several broadcast stations in the New Orleans area that are simulcasting their broadcasts together. WWL is one of those stations. They are calling their joint effort "The United Broadcasters of New Orleans".

When I was listening last night, they were taking calls from listeners from the local area. One man said he had lost his father in the storm. He had several people staying at his house, and announced their names, along with a website where any of their loved ones could get ahold of them.

I'm not sure how much of the country the signal covers. As I said, I'm in Michigan and I can hear it at night. In fact, it comes in almost as good as any local station. I can only assume that there are several states that can get it at night.

While I'm sure the broadcasts are somewhat controlled (if not entirely), given the filter of the national media and the reality that some things are reported on a local level that are filtered by the national media, it might be worth a listen. That is true especially for someone who has family or friends from the area that are still missing.

Check it out, if you want. Again, it is 870AM WWL after sunset.

FELICITY BARRINGER
New York Times

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 - The National Park Service announced revisions to its core management policy on Tuesday, giving new emphasis to working with businesses, foundations and state and local governments but abandoning a proposal that would have meant more cellphone towers, snowmobiles and human activity to the parks.

A draft rewrite of the management policy by Paul Hoffman, the deputy assistant interior secretary, that was leaked to the press in August, was roundly criticized by the National Parks Conservation Association, a lobbying group, and a coalition of retired park service employees.

Mr. Hoffman proposed relaxing a ban on any impairment of the land, historic buildings, scenery or other park resources, saying that before park managers could rule out an activity, they had to determine that it would "irreversibly" harm park resources. That language was stricken from the new proposal.

That and other definition changes, critics said, undermined the agency's legal obligation to preserve parks unimpaired for future generations. The proposal underscored the perennial tension between leaving parks as unchanged as possible and giving the public maximum access to them.

Stephen P. Martin, a deputy director of the park service, said in a conference call with reporters Tuesday that the document, to which more than 100 park service employees contributed, "does nothing to change the park service's mission."

"Passing the resources on in as good, or better, condition to future generations is a key premise of the draft," Mr. Martin said.

The new draft, which will be open to public comment through mid-January, encourages park managers to involve a broad array of interests when setting priorities and planning projects. Managers also are asked to extend existing partnerships through which the park service has received foundation money or volunteer help, as with search-and-rescue operations and educational programs.

Mr. Hoffman, who also participated in the conference call, said that after senior park service managers had balked at his suggestions, he backed off. His initial draft was prompted, he said, by his "engagement with a lot of different groups" and "that certain aspects of" the policies of the Clinton administration "had the appearance of being anti-enjoyment." He did not name any groups with which he discussed the policies.

One policy from the Clinton era criticized by recreational groups and overturned by the Bush administration would have phased out snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park.

Robert Arnberger of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, who was superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park from 1994 to 2000, said he had not reviewed the 277-page document fully. In general, Mr. Arnberger said, it seemed to be an improvement on Mr. Hoffman's proposals, but "a Woodsy Owl comic book would have been better."

Investigation continues into what occurred during Katrina ordeal

CNN

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana — Three days after Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans, staff members at the city's Memorial Medical Center had repeated discussions about euthanizing patients they thought might not survive the ordeal, according to a doctor and nurse manager who were in the hospital at the time.

The Louisiana attorney general's office is investigating allegations that mercy killings occurred and has requested that autopsies be performed on all 45 bodies taken from the hospital after the storm.

Orleans Parish coroner Frank Minyard said investigators have told him they think euthanasia may have been committed.

"They thought someone was going around injecting people with some sort of lethal medication," Minyard said. (Watch the report on possible euthanasia in New Orleans)

Dr. Bryant King, who was working at Memorial when conditions were at their worst, told CNN that while he did not witness any acts of euthanasia, "most people know something happened that shouldn't have happened."

Over the course of several weeks, CNN spoke with staff members from Memorial, who recounted the dismal situation inside the hospital after levees protecting New Orleans were breached on Monday, August 29, and most of the city filled up with water. By Wednesday, the situation had become desperate.

"We weren't really functioning as a hospital but as a shelter," King said. "We had no electricity. There was no water. It was hot. People are dying. We thought it was as bad as it could get. Why weren't we being evacuated? That was our biggest thing. We should be gone right now."

Food was running low, sanitation wasn't working, and temperatures inside soared to 110 degrees. Floodwaters had isolated the hospital, where about 312 patients -- many of them critically ill -- were being treated when Katrina hit.

Hospital officials said as many as 11 patients had died before the hurricane, their bodies placed in the morgue. Family members of patients and staff filled the hospital, taxing the dwindling resources.

No one knew when rescuers would arrive. Without power to operate medical devices, staff could only provide basic care. Evacuations were sporadic -- an occasional boat or helicopter picking up patients.

"It was battle conditions," said Fran Butler, a nurse manager. "It was as bad as being out in the field."

The staff was desperate, Butler said.

"My nurses wanted to know what was the plan? Did they say to put people out of their misery? Yes. ... They wanted to know how to get them out of their misery," she said.

Butler also told CNN that a doctor approached her at one point and discussed the subject of putting patients to sleep, and "made the comment to me on how she was totally against it and wouldn't do it."

Butler said she did not see anyone perform a mercy killing, and she said because of her personal beliefs, she would never have participated.

She also said hospital staff "put their heart and souls into patients, whether that patient lived or died."

But King said he is convinced the discussion of euthanasia was more than talk. He said another doctor came to him at 9 a.m. Thursday and recounted a conversation with a hospital administrator and a third doctor who suggested patients be put out of their misery.

King said that the second physician -- who opposed mercy killing -- told him that "this other [third] doctor said she'd be willing to do it."

About three hours later, King said, the second-floor triage area where he was working was cleared of everyone except patients, a second hospital administrator and two doctors, including the physician who had first raised the question of mercy killing.

King said the administrator asked those who remained if they wanted to join in prayer -- something he said had not occurred at the hospital since Katrina ripped through the city.

One of the physicians then produced a handful of syringes, King said.

"I don't know what's in the syringes. ... The only thing I heard the physician say was, 'I'm going to give you something to make you feel better,' " King said.

"I don't know what the physician was going to give them, but we hadn't been given medications like that, to make people feel better, or any sort of palliative care," he said. "We hadn't been doing that up to this point."

King said he decided he would have no part of what he believed was about to happen. He grabbed his bag to leave. He said one of the doctors hugged him.

King said he doesn't know what happened next. He boarded a boat and left the hospital.

Earlier this month, investigators from the attorney general's office visited King and asked him to recount his story.

The coroner said the attorney general's office has requested autopsies but, because of the condition of the bodies, it may be difficult to determine why so many patients died at Memorial.

Tenet Healthcare, the company that owns Memorial, told CNN that most of the 45 patients who died were critically ill.

Tenet said about 11 patients had died the weekend before the hurricane and were placed in the morgue.

Twenty-four of the dead had been patients of an acute care facility known as LifeCare that rented space inside Memorial.

But King said he finds it hard to understand how that many patients could have died at the hospital, even under such grim conditions.

"There was only one patient that died overnight," he said. "The previous day, there were only two. From Thursday to Friday, for there to be 10 times that many, just doesn't make sense to me."

During the past several weeks, CNN has reached the three people who King said were in the second floor area with him.

The hospital administrator told CNN, "I don't recall being in a room with patients or saying a prayer," later adding that King must be lying.

The doctor King identified as having first broached the subject of euthanasia with him declined to talk to the media.

The doctor King alleged held the syringes spoke by phone with CNN on several occasions, emphasizing how everyone inside the hospital felt abandoned.

"[We] did everything humanly possible to save these patients," the doctor told CNN. "The government totally abandoned us to die. In the houses, in the streets, in the hospitals. ... Maybe a lot of us made mistakes, but we made the best decisions we could at the time."

When told about King's allegations, this doctor declined to comment either way.

In a statement e-mailed to CNN, Steven Campanini, a spokesman for Tenet, for said that "in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the physicians and staff at Memorial Medical Center performed heroically to save the lives of their patients under incredibly difficult circumstances.

"About 2,000 patients, families, physicians and staff were safely evacuated from the hospital by boat and helicopter during a continuous evacuation that began Wednesday morning, August 31, and was completed by Friday, September 2," Campanini said.

"We understand that the Louisiana attorney general is investigating all deaths that occurred at New Orleans hospitals and nursing homes after the hurricane, and we fully support and are cooperating with him."

LifeCare, the long-term acute care facility that rented space at Memorial, also e-mailed a statement to CNN.

"LifeCare employees at Memorial Medical Center during that week exhibited heroism under the most difficult of circumstances. ... LifeCare is not aware of any discussions of involving euthanasia at Memorial Medical Center."

CNN's Jonathan Freed, Sean Callebs and Colleen Kamen contributed to this report.

By Darren Weeks

In 1968, Congress passed legislation creating the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), purportedly in response to the rising costs associated with flood disasters. The results of the Congressional action is written into Title 42, Chapter 50, Subchapter I of the United States Code. Section 4011 authorizes the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to develop and oversee the flood insurance program.

The Mitigation Division of FEMA administers the NFIP, and according to FEMA, there are 20,000 communities currently taking part in the program.

In order for communities to take part in the NFIP, they must adopt a Floodplain Management Program, which represents conformity to a myriad of zoning laws and ordinances that are established by FEMA. Without the adoption of the Floodplain Management Program, communities are not eligible for NFIP participation.

The NFIP Flood Insurance Manual, a guide for insurance companies, reads,

Participating (Eligible) Communities Flood insurance may be written only in those communities that have been designated as participating in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

This flood insurance program is a great example of how Regional Governance is changing the face of government at a local level. FEMA says,

"Prior to the creation of the NFIP, floodplain management as a practice was not well established - only a few States and several hundred communities actually regulated floodplain development. For many communities, the NFIP was the community's initial exposure to land use planning and community regulations."

By their own admission, FEMA states that the NFIP was the catalyst in introducing bureaucratic regulations into communities that had heretofore been free of such burden.

Through Flood Hazard Mapping, FEMA outlines which areas are high flood risk areas, sets ordinace standards for buildings in participating communities. Those communities who find themselves in violation of the FEMA standards, are put onto probation, "during which time a $50 surcharge is applied to all NFIP policies". If a community still doesn't comply by imposing and enforcing regulatory dictates, it may be suspended from the NFIP.

Community participation is voluntary, although flood insurance is not available to property owners unless your community chooses to participate.

FEMA is divided into ten regions, in accordance with the ten federal regions that were established under the Nixon administration by executive order.

For what purpose do we have a federal agency, through its ten regional offices, controlling all flood insurance in the country? Why is flood insurance only from the federal government? As the flood insurance manual states,

"Flood insurance may not be sold or renewed in communities that are suspended from the NFIP. When a community is suspended, coverage remains in effect until expiration. These policies cannot be renewed."

Additionally, flood insurance is required by law in certain areas. At one time, we'd call this regulatory bureaucracy a form of taxation without representation. Today, it's just benevolent Big Brother trying to help.

I've received the following by e-mail from fellow patriot Tim Revere,

"I just heard on the local news ... FEMA is fixin to redraw floodplain maps around rivers AND creeks in the Austin area. I'm quite sure it's going on all over. That means if someone in that area has a mortgage they MUST buy flood insurance "from FEMA". That's federal stuff them folks GOTTA buy or loose their home."

Tim is correct. A Google News search reveals people in various states are having to pay more for existing flood insurance, while others are having to begin buying it. Still others are having to make costly renovations to their properties in order to be in compliance with FEMA Floodplain regulations.

The federal government is in the business of disaster management. Weather manipulation is a reality, and is the key to creating "natural disasters". The more disasters there are, the more justification exists to take hard-earned dollars out of the hands of the American people, while imposing ever more harsh ordinances upon them.

The name of the game is control.

By Darren Weeks

If all goes as planned, assuming we don't have trouble with the phones again like we have the past three times we've done this, I'll be joining Jackie Patru tonight on her program at 9:00 PM Eastern on WWCR at 5.070 MHz and on the First Amendment Radio Network. (Listen links above)

I really have no idea what we're going to be talking about yet.

Also, Jackie might be hanging around for a couple of extra weeks to raise money to offset the enormous debt she has incurred with the radio station. I will be keeping a running total of her balance with WWCR on the Sweet Liberty site as time progresses.

More later.

By GARDINER HARRIS
New York Times
October 8, 2005

WASHINGTON, Oct. 7 - A plan developed by the Bush administration to deal with any possible outbreak of pandemic flu shows that the United States is woefully unprepared for what could become the worst disaster in the nation's history.

A draft of the final plan, which has been years in the making and is expected to be released later this month, says a large outbreak that began in Asia would be likely, because of modern travel patterns, to reach the United States within "a few months or even weeks."

If such an outbreak occurred, hospitals would become overwhelmed, riots would engulf vaccination clinics, and even power and food would be in short supply, according to the plan, which was obtained by The New York Times.

The 381-page plan calls for quarantine and travel restrictions but concedes that such measures "are unlikely to delay introduction of pandemic disease into the U.S. by more than a month or two."

The plan's 10 supplements suggest specific ways that local and state governments should prepare now for an eventual pandemic by, for instance, drafting legal documents that would justify quarantines. Written by health officials, the plan does not yet address responses by the military or other governmental departments.

The plan outlines a worst-case scenario in which more than 1.9 million Americans would die and 8.5 million would be hospitalized with costs exceeding $450 billion.

It also calls for a domestic vaccine production capacity of 600 million doses within six months, more than 10 times the present capacity.

On Friday, President Bush invited the leaders of the nation's top six vaccine producers to the White House to cajole them into increasing their domestic vaccine capacity, and the flu plan demonstrates just how monumental a task these companies have before them.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Bush administration's efforts to plan for a possible pandemic flu have become controversial, with many Democrats in Congress charging that the administration has not done enough. Many have pointed to the lengthy writing process of the flu plan as evidence of this.

But while the administration's flu plan, officially called the Pandemic Influenza Strategic Plan, closely outlines how the Health and Human Services Department may react during a pandemic, it skirts many essential decisions, like how the military may be deployed.

"The real shortcoming of the plan is that it doesn't say who's in charge," said a top health official who provided the plan to The Times. "We don't want to have a FEMA-like response, where it's not clear who's running what."

Still, the official, who asked for anonymity because the plan was not supposed to be distributed, called the plan a "major milestone" that was "very comprehensive" and sorely needed.

The draft provided to The Times is dated Sept. 30, and is stamped "for internal H.H.S. use only." The plan asks government officials to clear it by Oct. 6.

Christina Pearson, a spokeswoman for Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt, responded, "We recognize that the H.H.S. plan will be a foundation for a governmentwide plan, and that process has already begun."

Ms. Pearson said that Mr. Leavitt has already had one-on-one meetings with other cabinet secretaries to begin the coordination process across the federal government. But she emphasized that the plan given to The Times was a draft and had not been finalized.

Mr. Leavitt is leaving Saturday for a 10-day trip to at least four Asian nations, where he will meet with health and agriculture officials to discuss planning for a pandemic flu. He said at a briefing on Friday that the administration's flu plan would be officially released soon. He was not aware at the briefing that The Times had a copy of the plan. And he emphasized that the chances that the virus now killing birds in Asia would become a human pandemic were unknown but probably low. A pandemic is global epidemic of disease.

"It may be a while longer, but pandemic will likely occur in the future," he said.

And he said that flu planning would soon become a national exercise.

"It will require school districts to have a plan on how they will deal with school opening and closing," he said. "It will require the mayor to have a plan on whether or not they're going to ask the theaters not to have a movie."

"Over the next couple of months you will see a great deal of activity asking metropolitan areas, 'Are you ready?' If not, here is what must be done," he said.

A key point of contention if an epidemic strikes is who will get vaccines first. The administration's plan suggests a triage distribution for these essential medicines. Groups like the military, National Guard and other national security groups were left out.

Beyond the military, however, the first in line for essential medicines are workers in plants making the vaccines and drugs as well as medical personnel working directly with those sickened by the disease. Next are the elderly and severely ill. Then come pregnant women, transplant and AIDS patients, and parents of infants. Finally, the police, firefighters and government leaders are next.

The plan also calls for a national stockpile of 133 million courses of antiviral treatment. The administration has bought 4.3 million.

The plan details the responsibilities of top health officials in each phase of a spreading pandemic, starting with planning and surveillance efforts and ending with coordination with the Department of Defense.

Much of the plan is a dry recitation of the science and basic bureaucratic steps that must be followed as a virus races around the globe. But the plan has the feel of a television movie-of-the-week when it describes a possible pandemic situation that begins, "In April of the current year, an outbreak of severe respiratory illness is identified in a small village."

"Twenty patients have required hospitalization at the local provincial hospital, five of whom have died from pneumonia and respiratory failure," the plan states.

The flu spreads and begins to make headlines around the world. Top health officials swing into action and isolate the new viral strain in laboratories. The scientists discover that "the vaccine developed previously for the avian strain will only provide partial protection," the plan states.

In June, federal health officials find airline passengers infected with the virus "arriving in four major U.S. cities," the plan states. By July, small outbreaks are being reported around the nation. It spreads.

As the outbreak peaks, about a quarter of workers stay home because they are sick or afraid of becoming sick. Hospitals are overwhelmed.

"Social unrest occurs," the plan states. "Public anxiety heightens mistrust of government, diminishing compliance with public health advisories." Mortuaries and funeral homes are overwhelmed.

Presently, an avian virus has decimated chicken and other bird flocks in 11 countries. It has infected more than 100 people, about 60 of whom have died, but nearly all of these victims got the disease directly from birds. An epidemic is only possible when a virus begins to pass easily among humans.

Lawrence K. Altman contributed reporting for this article.

Ian Sample
The Guardian

Scientists have recreated the 1918 Spanish flu virus, one of the deadliest ever to emerge, to the alarm of many researchers who fear it presents a serious security risk.
Undisclosed quantities of the virus are being held in a high-security government laboratory in Atlanta, Georgia, after a nine-year effort to rebuild the agent that swept the globe in record time and claimed the lives of an estimated 50 million people.

The genetic sequence is also being made available to scientists online, a move which some fear adds a further risk of the virus being created in other labs.

The recreation was carried out in an attempt to understand what made the 1918 outbreak so devastating. Reporting in the journal Science, a team lead by Dr Jeffery Taubenberger at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Maryland shows that the recreated virus is extremely effective. When injected into mice, it quickly took hold and they started to lose weight rapidly, shedding 13% of their original weight in just two days. Within six days, all mice injected with the virus had died.

In a comparison experiment, similar mice were injected with a contemporary strain of flu, and although the mice lost weight initially, they recovered. Tests revealed that the Spanish flu virus multiplied so rapidly that after four days, mice contained 39,000 times more flu virus than those injected with the more common strain of flu.

The government and military researchers who reconstructed the virus say their work has already provided invaluable insight into its unique genetic make-up and helps explain its lethality. But other researchers warned yesterday the that virus could escape from the laboratory. "This will raise clear questions among some as to whether they have really created a biological weapon," said Professor Ronald Atlas at the centre for deterrence of biowarfare and bioterrorism at the University of Louisville in Kentucky.

Publication of the work and the filing of the virus's genetic make-up to an online database followed an emergency meeting last week by the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, which concluded that the benefits of publishing the work outweighed the risks. Many scientists remained sceptical. "Once the genetic sequence is publicly available, there's a theoretical risk that any molecular biologist with sufficient knowledge could recreate this virus," said Dr John Wood, a virologist at the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control in Potters Bar.

Related: Killer flu of 1918 caused by bird virus

By Dave Moniz
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department is embarking on a multimillion-dollar research program to revolutionize upper-body prosthetics after a surge in troops who have lost hands and arms in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
The technology for artificial hands and arms hasn't improved much since World War II. During the next four years, the Pentagon will spend almost $35 million to develop improved artificial arms, aiming for one a Defense Department report says will "feel, look and perform" like a real arm guided by the central nervous system.

The commitment is the largest pool of funding for prosthetics in at least a decade, says Jan Walker, a spokeswoman for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which will award the contracts.

Improved body armor has led to the increased injuries to arms and hands, says Lt. Col. Paul Pasquina, medical director of the amputee program at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The armor protects the upper torso but not the limbs and in some cases saves troops who would have died in previous wars. Also, Pasquina says, insurgents' use of rocket-propelled grenades and roadside bombs causes devastating injuries that lead to amputations.

A total of 337 U.S. troops have lost at least one limb in Iraq or Afghanistan and have been treated at Army military hospitals. Of those, 93, or more than a quarter, are hand or arm amputees.

Overall, hand and arm amputees make up only about 5% of all Department of Veterans Affairs patients who have lost a limb from wartime injuries, accidents or disease, department spokesman Terry Jemison says.

Artificial legs are more sophisticated than upper-body prosthetics, because there's a larger market for them, says Todd Kuiken, director of the amputee program at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. It's difficult, he says, to design artificial arms and hands light enough to be practical and to replicate the hand's fine motor skills.

Amputees control artificial hands and arms by moving muscles attached to the prosthetic devices. Some artificial legs run on computer chips and can closely replicate human movements.

An estimated 1.2 million Americans are missing at least one limb, according to the Amputee Coalition of America, a non-profit group in Knoxville, Tenn.

"Investment into artificial limb research tends to follow wars. This war has encouraged more research," Kuiken says.

By Darren Weeks

CNN is reporting at this hour, that the United States military has launched a major offensive against what it deems as "insurgents" in Iraq.

"Operation Iron Fist" was launched this morning, as military personnel began kicking in doors in the hunt for those who are fighting the American/U.N./Israel takeover of their country.

At a time when Americans are being invaded from the south by both foreigners and foreign troops, "our" military is out of the country, engaging in "nation-building" activities which include the routing out of perceived "bogeymen". These "insurgents" would have likely never bothered us had we just stayed out of their country and left them alone. They clearly were not behind 9/11.

Much has been said about the U.S. role in "liberating" the people from the "iron-fisted dictatorship" of Saddam Hussein. Army Captain Jason Burke joined the chorus when he wrote,

Unlike the first Gulf War, coalition forces do not have the luxury of pushing Iraq's war machine back and leaving the region. Soldiers in Iraq know that this is the last stand for the Ba'ath Party and Saddam Hussein's regime, which ruled Iraq with an iron fist for nearly three decades. It was the job of the coalition forces to loosen Saddam's grip over his people and liberate them, and the U.S. army did precisely what it was trained to do...

Thousands of Americans have been wounded and killed, along with countless Iraqis, so that the will of the U.S./U.N./Israeli shadow government could be imposed upon the people of Iraq. Hussein wasn't a threat to the world, and according to the New York Times and others, he wasn't much of a threat to his own people.

The belief that Saddam wasn't as evil as White House propagandists have portrayed him to be, is futher evidenced by the fact that the Iraqi people were well armed. Evil dictators have good reason to fear the people they rule. Dictators who fear the people tend to make quick work of disarming them — kind of like the U.S. government has been doing in New Orleans recently. Contrarily, by all news accounts, the Iraqi people were well armed.

Now that the Iraqis have been "liberated" from Hussein, they get to taste the "freedom" of having their doors kicked in by military police. If the Hussein regime was iron-fisted, a new fist of iron is pounding. "Operation Iron Fist" has begun. It is the iron fist of global democracy; Communism has been renamed.