Documents Reveal TSA Research Proposal To Body-Scan Pedestrians, Train Passengers

Andy Greenberg
Forbes
March 3, 2011

Updated with the TSA’s response below, which denies implementing airport-style scans in mass transit.

Giving Transportation Security Administration agents a peek under your clothes may soon be a practice that goes well beyond airport checkpoints. Newly uncovered documents show that as early as 2006, the Department of Homeland Security has been planning pilot programs to deploy mobile scanning units that can be set up at public events and in train stations, along with mobile x-ray vans capable of scanning pedestrians on city streets.

The non-profit Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) on Wednesday published documents it obtained from the Department of Homeland Security showing that from 2006 to 2008 the agency planned a study of of new anti-terrorism technologies that EPIC believes raise serious privacy concerns. The projects range from what the DHS describes as “a walk through x-ray screening system that could be deployed at entrances to special events or other points of interest” to “covert inspection of moving subjects” employing the same backscatter imaging technology currently used in American airports.

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Why the Dollar’s Reign Is Near an End

For decades the dollar has served as the world's main reserve currency, but, argues Barry Eichengreen, it will soon have to share that role. Here's why—and what it will mean for international markets and companies.

WALL STREET JOURNAL

By BARRY EICHENGREEN

March 2, 2011 

The single most astonishing fact about foreign exchange is not the high volume of transactions, as incredible as that growth has been. Nor is it the volatility of currency rates, as wild as the markets are these days.
Instead, it's the extent to which the market remains dollar-centric.

Consider this: When a South Korean wine wholesaler wants to import Chilean cabernet, the Korean importer buys U.S. dollars, not pesos, with which to pay the Chilean exporter. Indeed, the dollar is virtually the exclusive vehicle for foreign-exchange transactions between Chile and Korea, despite the fact that less than 20% of the merchandise trade of both countries is with the U.S.

Chile and Korea are hardly an anomaly: Fully 85% of foreign-exchange transactions world-wide are trades of other currencies for dollars. What's more, what is true of foreign-exchange transactions is true of other international business. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries sets the price of oil in dollars. The dollar is the currency of denomination of half of all international debt securities. More than 60% of the foreign reserves of central banks and governments are in dollars.

The greenback, in other words, is not just America's currency. It's the world's.

But as astonishing as that is, what may be even more astonishing is this: The dollar's reign is coming to an end.

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New mini documentary exposes the truth about fluoride: Industrial waste chemicals passed off as medicine

Mike Adams
NaturalNews
March 1, 2011
Water fluoridation around the world is achieved through the purchase of chemically contaminated toxic waste chemicals from China which are then labeled “fluoride” and dumped into public water supplies in local cities and towns. That’s the conclusion of a shocking new mini documentary released today by the Consumer Wellness Center (http://www.consumerwellness.org/).



The video is now available for viewing on NaturalNews.TV:
http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=42652E035A1B1BAAAE1F340B54694975
The 12-minute video documents the history of fluoride and how this toxic chemical is produced as an industrial byproduct of the phosphate mining industry. Decades ago, fluoride used to be released into the air through the smokestacks of phosphate mining operations, but this resulted in the widespread death of cattle and plants on nearby farms and ranches. To stop the deaths, phosphate mining companies installed “wet scrubbers” that captured the toxic fluoride chemical vapors.

While consumers might think that deadly fluoride chemicals captured in these wet scrubbers are disposed of as hazardous industrial waste, the surprising truth is that they are sold to cities and towns as “fluoride” to be dumped into the local water supply where they are consumed by adults and children. This is all being done to “prevent cavities” — a medical claim that technically turns fluoride into an unapproved drug being used in an illegal mass medication scheme.

The FDA has never approved fluoride as a drug, and no recipient of fluoride has ever been medically evaluate for their “need” for the drug.

The full story of fluoride is revealed in The Fluoride Deception, available for viewing at the Consumer Wellness Center website: http://www.consumerwellness.org/

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A National ID Card For American Citizens? Get Ready – The Real ID Act Goes Into Effect On May 11

endoftheamericandream.com
March 1, 2011



..you might want to brush up on the Real ID Act because it is going to go into effect on May 11, 2011 unless something is done to stop it. 


For a moment, imagine a future where you are not able to drive a car, get on a plane, get on a train, vote, enter a federal building, open a bank account or get a job without a national ID card. You don't think that could ever happen in America? Well, you might want to brush up on the Real ID Act because it is going to go into effect on May 11, 2011 unless something is done to stop it. 

When I first learned this, I was absolutely stunned.  After all, wasn't the Real ID Act supposed to be "dead"?  A few years ago state legislatures across the nation were in an uproar over this law.  The Department of Homeland Security was forced to delay implementation of it several times.  But now it is back.  You see, this is what the federal government often does.  They will try to push something very unpopular through, and if they meet resistance they will "play dead" until the uproar has died down and then they will come right back and implement it anyway.  This is what is happening with the Real ID Act.

As of May 11, all driver's licenses across the United States will be required to conform to federal national security standards.  In essence, our licenses are now going to be federalized.

Yes, this is really happening.  A Fox News article from a couple weeks ago confirmed that these "national ID cards" will be required to board airplanes and enter federal buildings....

States must be in compliance by May with the regulations laid out in the 2005 REAL ID Act. The law, a recommendation of the Sept. 11 commission that investigated the 2001 terror attacks, creates a national security standard for state-issued identification cards to be used for purposes like boarding airplanes and entering federal buildings.

Isn't that great?
Now security goons will be able to ask us for our "papers" just like they used to do in Nazi Germany and the USSR.

Back in 2008, former U.S. Representative Bob Barr wrote the following about how not having one of these new national ID cards will automatically strip us of some of our most fundamental rights....

"A person not possessing a Real ID Act-compliant identification card could not enter any federal building, or an office of his or her congressman or senator or the U.S. Capitol. This effectively denies that person their fundamental rights to assembly and to petition the government as guaranteed in the First Amendment."

Of course the Department of Homeland Security insists that the Real ID Act is just here to "help" us and to make life "better" and "more secure".  According to their website, some of the goals of the Real ID Act are "to help prevent terrorism, reduce fraud, and improve the reliability and accuracy of personal identification documents."

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Report: US Special Forces Arrive In Libya

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
March 1, 2011


Image: Wikimedia Commons

US Special Forces have reportedly landed in Libya to train anti-Gaddafi rebels as a western-backed coup d’état in the oil-rich nation nears, with British and French “defense advisors” also arriving to set up training bases in the rebel-controlled eastern region of the country.

According to a report in the Pakistan Observer, hundreds of special forces personnel from the US, Britain and France arrived on February 23 and 24 in “American and French warships and small naval boats off Libyan ports of Benghazi and Tobruk.”

The article states that the report was confirmed by a Libyan diplomat in the region, who said that “The three Western states have landed their special forces troops in Cyrinacia and are now setting up their bases and training centres,” in a bid to bolster rebel forces resisting Gaddafi’s militia in the surrounding region.
“The Western forces are reportedly preparing to set-up training bases for local militias set-up by the rebel forces for an effective control of the oil-rich region and counter any push by pro-Qaddafi forces from Tripoli,” states the report.

In addition, efforts to “neutralize” the Libyan Air Force are underway in a bid to stymie Gaddafi’s ability to rule from Tripoli if he manages to remain in power.

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Gold Climbs on Libyan Unrest, Weakening Dollar; Silver Nears 31-Year High

Bloomberg
By Nicolas Larkin
March 1, 2011

Feb. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings, talks about his investment strategy for global stocks and commodities. Gold advanced, approaching a record, as tensions in the Middle East boosted oil prices, increasing demand for precious metals as a protector of wealth and hedge against inflation. Rogers also discusses his strategy for the U.S. dollar. He speaks in Hong Kong with Rishaad Salamat on Bloomberg Television's "On the Move Asia." (Source: Bloomberg)

Gold climbed to an eight-week high in London as unrest in Libya and a weakening dollar spurred demand for the metal as an alternative investment. Silver advanced to the highest price since 1980.

Libya’s opposition gained fresh support from the U.S. and European nations as leader Muammar Qaddafi sent forces to regain lost territory. The U.S. Dollar Index, a six-currency gauge of the greenback’s strength, earlier today fell to the lowest level in more than three months. Gold, which traded within 0.9 percent of a record, typically moves inversely to the U.S. currency.

“Prices are up as the dollar weakens slightly and concerns remain that unrest in the Middle East could lead to more significant protests,” John Meyer, an analyst at Fairfax IS in London, wrote in a report today.

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Prepare for an Economic Meltdown

Newsmax.com

By Matt Towery

February 28, 2011

In 2006, I examined a series of surveys we conducted nationwide and then predicted a collapse of the housing market. Plenty others followed with similar forecasts and postmortems over the following months and years. But my column was among the first.
 

I've made predictions about other slowdowns in the American economy. I've been mostly correct, although in 2010, I suggested that the stock market ultimately would plunge. Turned out that it climbed instead of descending. The fact is that it's easier to predict the weather next month than to get an accurate read on the future of the stock market.
 

My timing was off in predicting a plummeting of the stock market, my but theory still stands. But the sobering news may extend beyond just that. A more immediate happening could be the sudden and silent rise in the cost of living for average Americans, thanks to continuing stagnant wages, plus unemployment that is higher than the official numbers. These numbers don't take into account the many who have fallen off the unemployment rolls or have simply given up looking for work.
 

It's true enough that some of those who predict oil prices may be overstating the severity and the extent of the unrest in the Middle East and North Africa. There is little question that the outcome of this broad geopolitical conflict probably won't be decided for at least months.
 

Observers should recall that when the pro-American monarch in Iran was overthrown in 1979, most foreign policy experts in the Jimmy Carter White House believed that university students, bureaucrats and the educated classes in Iran would form a loose coalition that would transform that country into some kind of democracy. Then the Islamist Ayatollah Khomeini entered the stage. Within a year, Americans had been taken hostage in the U.S. embassy in Iran.

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