Army desertion rate up 80 percent since 2003

" ... Soldiers strained by six years at war are deserting their posts at the highest rate since 1980, with the number of Army deserters this year showing an 80 percent increase since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003.

While the totals are still far lower than they were during the Vietnam War, when the draft was in effect, they show a steady increase over the past four years and a 42 percent jump since last year...

[ ... ]

According to the Army, about nine in every 1,000 soldiers deserted in fiscal year 2007, which ended Sept. 30, compared to nearly seven per 1,000 a year earlier. Overall, 4,698 soldiers deserted this year, compared to 3,301 last year.

The increase comes as the Army continues to bear the brunt of the war demands with many soldiers serving repeated, lengthy tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Military leaders — including Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey — have acknowledged that the Army has been stretched nearly to the breaking point by the combat. Efforts are under way to increase the size of the Army and Marine Corps to lessen the burden and give troops more time off between deployments.

[ ... ]

Army desertion rates have fluctuated since the Vietnam War — when they peaked at 5 percent. In the 1970s they hovered between 1 and 3 percent, which is up to three out of every 100 soldiers. Those rates plunged in the 1980s and early 1990s to between 2 and 3 out of every 1,000 soldiers.

Desertions began to creep up in the late 1990s into the turn of the century, when the U.S. conducted an air war in Kosovo and later sent peacekeeping troops there.

The numbers declined in 2003 and 2004, in the early years of the Iraq war, but then began to increase steadily.

In contrast, the Navy has seen a steady decline in deserters since 2001, going from 3,665 that year to 1,129 in 2007.

The Marine Corps, meanwhile, has seen the number of deserters stay fairly stable over that timeframe — with about 1,000 deserters a year. During 2003 and 2004 — the first two years of the Iraq war — the number of deserters fell to 877 and 744, respectively.

The Air Force can tout the fewest number of deserters — with no more than 56 bolting in each of the past five years. The low was in fiscal 2007, with just 16 deserters.

Despite the continued increase in Army desertions, however, an Associated Press examination of Pentagon figures earlier this year showed that the military does little to find those who bolt, and rarely prosecutes the ones they find. Some are allowed to simply return to their units, while most are given less-than-honorable discharges. ... "

 

~ Full article ~

 

'Who wants a Jewish state'

Editorial appearing in Haaretz:

 

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has been speaking enthusiastically about "two states, two nations" ever since her conversion from the Greater Israel ideology. She can easily convince people why Israel must have a right of return only for Jews, while an independent Palestine would grant the same right only to Palestinians.

Like Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Livni has realized belatedly that this is the only way two democratic nation states could survive. This simple, rational idea could have been implemented easily had not Israel's leaders rejected it for generations - for 40 years the border line has been obstructed by settlement building.

Now on the eve of the Annapolis conference, Israel has suddenly come up with the absurd demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state - after Israel's own leaders have done everything in their power to sabotage it.

It is easy to speak about a Jewish state, but difficult to find the political courage required to do what it takes: Settlements scattered in the heart of the Palestinian population make it impossible to separate between Israel and Palestine along a plausible and viable border. With each passing day and each passing year, every settlement expansion, every outpost and every road built to reach it disrupt the chance to separate the two nations.

Therefore suspending construction in the settlements is not a prize for the Palestinians ahead of one agreement or another, but a life-saving medicine for Israel. It is already difficult to delineate a border between the Etzion, Ariel and Ma'aleh Adumim settlement blocs as the building boundaries within them keep expanding, with a wink at Washington.

Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are demanding that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state, but they should direct this demand at the Israelis. Another conference and another negotiation, another trip and another draft agreement, another escape from addressing the core issues, as though there is anything else to talk about. The Israelis, not Palestinians, are making the vision of the Jewish state impossible. A law tying the government's hands vis-a-vis concessions in Jerusalem passed the Knesset in a preliminary reading, as though Israel's interest is to annex East Jerusalem with its hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

For religious fanatics on both sides, the existing solution is charmingly simple. Islamists want a Muslim state on all the area they consider sacred. Right-wing religious Israelis want a halakhic Jewish state on all the area they regard as sacred. The only problem is, both mean the same "holy ground." So the longer partition is postponed, the nearer draws the possibility of bloody messianic chaos.

Avoiding a debate on the core issues in Annapolis is not an Israeli achievement. It is an escape from the main issues, stemming from political cowardice. Every additional round of futile talks is pushing Israel farther away from determining its borders and fate.

 

~ Link ~

 

'Microsoft Slinks In - MSLI Appears in SCO Bankruptcy'

15 Nov 2007

 

"...Now it's getting interesting. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates' father's law firm, known as the firm that represents Microsoft, has just filed a Notice of Entry of Appearance and Demand for Notices and Papers [PDF] in the SCO bankruptcy on behalf of MSLI, Inc., otherwise known as Microsoft Licensing, one of the creditors on SCO's list. In fact, one of the 20 top creditors [PDF], owed $125,000 or so. That would give them a seat at the creditors committee table, presumably, should they so desire, if a committee is formed later.

I guess filing as MSLI instead of Microsoft Licensing is like putting on sunglasses, hoping no one will notice you..."

~ Read on... ~

 

'Declassified from Star Gate - Remote Influence Techniques'

From the Transcendence Remote Viewing blog:

Here at Transcendence Remote Viewing, one of the maxims that we teach in our London-based  weekly Transcendence Remote Viewing Workshops is:

“Anyone under your influence, is also under your protection.”

This is for very good reasons that I won’t enumerate here, suffice to say that your Remote Influence session will have substantially greater results, orders of magnitude greater if you follow this guidance; you will also disconnect and shield yourself from deleterious side-effects (and I’m not talking about new age fluffy after-life promises of deific judgement or retribution.)

On to the document, here you will find 14 training procedure points from a Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) Cognitive Sciences Laboratory memorandum on work by Dr. Dolin on Remote Influence experiments.

Happy non-local influencing!

Marc

Declassified SECRET Remote Influence Techniques

 

Link: http://www.transcendence.me.uk/blog/?p=11

how a surfer dude stunned physicists with a theory of everything

via: http://www.media-underground.net/

" ... An impoverished surfer has drawn up a new theory of the universe, seen by some as the Holy Grail of physics, which has received rave reviews from scientists.

Is this the fabric of the universe?

Are we missing a dimension of time?

Beer after sport 'is good for the body'

Garrett Lisi, 39, has a doctorate but no university affiliation and spends most of the year surfing in Hawaii, where he has also been a hiking guide and bridge builder (when he slept in a jungle yurt).

In winter, he heads to the mountains near Lake Tahoe, Nevada, where he snowboards. "Being poor sucks," Lisi says. "It's hard to figure out the secrets of the universe when you're trying to figure out where you and your girlfriend are going to sleep next month."

Despite this unusual career path, his proposal is remarkable because, by the arcane standards of particle physics, it does not require highly complex mathematics.

Even better, it does not require more than one dimension of time and three of space, when some rival theories need ten or even more spatial dimensions and other bizarre concepts.

[ ... ]

The new theory reported today in New Scientist has been laid out in an online paper entitled "An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything" by Lisi, who completed his doctorate in theoretical physics in 1999 at the University of California, San Diego.

He has high hopes that his new theory could provide what he says is a "radical new explanation" for the three decade old Standard Model, which weaves together three of the four fundamental forces of nature: the electromagnetic force; the strong force, which binds quarks together in atomic nuclei; and the weak force, which controls radioactive decay.

The reason for the excitement is that Lisi's model also takes account of gravity, a force that has only successfully been included by a rival and highly fashionable idea called string theory, one that proposes particles are made up of minute strings, which is highly complex and elegant but has lacked predictions by which to do experiments to see if it works.

But some are taking a cooler view. Prof Marcus du Sautoy, of Oxford University and author of Finding Moonshine, told the Telegraph: "The proposal in this paper looks a long shot and there seem to be a lot things still to fill in."

And a colleague Eric Weinstein in America added: "Lisi seems like a hell of a guy. I'd love to meet him. But my friend Lee Smolin is betting on a very very long shot."

Lisi's inspiration lies in the most elegant and intricate shape known to mathematics, called E8 - a complex, eight-dimensional mathematical pattern with 248 points first found in 1887, but only fully understood by mathematicians this year after workings, that, if written out in tiny print, would cover an area the size of Manhattan.

E8 encapsulates the symmetries of a geometric object that is 57-dimensional and is itself is 248-dimensional. Lisi says "I think our universe is this beautiful shape."

What makes E8 so exciting is that Nature also seems to have embedded it at the heart of many bits of physics. One interpretation of why we have such a quirky list of fundamental particles is because they all result from different facets of the strange symmetries of E8.

Lisi's breakthrough came when he noticed that some of the equations describing E8's structure matched his own. "My brain exploded with the implications and the beauty of the thing," he tells New Scientist. "I thought: 'Holy crap, that's it!'"

What Lisi had realised was that he could find a way to place the various elementary particles and forces on E8's 248 points. What remained was 20 gaps which he filled with notional particles, for example those that some physicists predict to be associated with gravity.

Physicists have long puzzled over why elementary particles appear to belong to families, but this arises naturally from the geometry of E8, he says. So far, all the interactions predicted by the complex geometrical relationships inside E8 match with observations in the real world. "How cool is that?" he says.

The crucial test of Lisi's work will come only when he has made testable predictions. Lisi is now calculating the masses that the 20 new particles should have, in the hope that they may be spotted when the Large Hadron Collider starts up. ... "

~ full article ~

 

hack of the year

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/11/12/1194766589522.html

 

source: http://cryptome.org

Silencing Sources

An International Survey of Protections and Threats to Journalists’ Sources

November 2007

The first ever comprehensive global study of protection of journalists' sources has found that there is widespread legal recognition of   the right around the world.   Approximately 100 countries have adopted sources protection laws which allow journalists to keep promises to confidential sources that their identities will not be revealed. 

The recognition of the need for legal protections has been growing. In the past few years, new laws have been adopted in many countries including Belgium, Mexico, Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia, Angola, Luxembourg and El Salvador. It is now also recognized by nearly all major international bodies including the UN, Council of Europe, African Union, Organization for American States and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The most significant problems are found in those countries lacking a specific law.   The US, Canada, the Netherlands and Ireland are noteworthy as having no specific legal protections.   Many journalists have been fined or jailed for not revealing their sources.

However, in many jurisdictions, protections are being undermined by the regular use of search warrants on media offices and journalists' homes because few have specific legal protections on media-related searches. Protections are also being undercut in many countries by the use of legal and illegal surveillance. The adoption of “data retention” laws will seriously weaken protections by allowing authorities easy access to journalists communications data.

National security claims are also diminishing protections. There have been numerous cases where journalists have been arrested, prosecuted or harassed for disclosure of information under state secrets laws. New Anti-terrorism laws adopted in numerous countries have given authorities extensive powers to demand assistance from journalists, intercept communications, and gather information.

Report (97pp, PDF)

Map of sources protections around the world

~ Link ~

 

Iraq: Sex for survival

"When I came home with some food I had bought from that money and saw my children screaming of happiness, I discovered that honour is insignificant compared to the hunger of my children."

 

[ ... ]

 

"I'm sure that whatever she is, at least she is having food to eat. I have three other girls and a son and what they paid me for Lina is enough to raise the remaining ones."

 

~ full article ~