This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: Sidney Blumenthal in Salon
September 6, 2007
On Sept. 18, 2002, CIA director George Tenet briefed President Bush in the Oval Office on top-secret intelligence that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction, according to two former senior CIA officers. Bush dismissed as worthless this information from the Iraqi foreign minister, a member of Saddam's inner circle, although it turned out to be accurate in every detail. Tenet never brought it up again.
Nor was the intelligence included in the National Intelligence Es
Source: Houston Chronicle
September 4, 2007
Two months before his death at the Alamo, the legendary Davy Crockett wrote to his children that he dreamt of finding fame and fortune in Texas, "the garden spot of the world."
The letter, which the Texas Historical Commission purchased from a Houston collector for $550,000, is believed to be Crockett's last.
If so, there's no hint of foreboding in his tone, no sign of the mythological hero who was bravely prepared to defend the Alamo to his death, if necessar
Source: National Security Archive
September 5, 2007
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals this week held that the disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act of two Presidential Daily Briefs written for President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s could “reveal protected intelligence sources and methods.” The Court rejected, however, the Central Intelligence Agency’s “attempt to create a per se status exemption for PDBs.”
In a lawsuit brought by Professor Larry Berman, a professor of Political Science at U.C. Davis and the author of P
Source: National Security Archive
September 5, 2007
The National Security Archive today sued the White House seeking the recovery and preservation of more than 5 million White House e-mail messages that were apparently deleted from White House computers between March 2003 and October 2005. [The complaint and related documents are posted at www.nsarchive.org.]
The lawsuit filed this morning in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia names as defendants the Executive Office of the Preside
Source: NYT
September 5, 2007
Two pictures on Aug. 14 with an obituary about the news photographer Joe O’Donnell carried erroneous credits, and the obituary also included one of the incorrect credits. The photograph of a saluting John F. Kennedy Jr. during the funeral for his father in 1963 was taken by Stan Stearns for United Press International, not by Mr. O’Donnell. The photographer who took the second picture, showing Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill during a wartime meeting in Tehran in 1943, is not known, although Mr. O
Source: chinaview.cn
September 5, 2007
Beijing will restrict the number of daily visits to cultural relics during the Olympic Games next year so as to ensure a sound visiting order and protect cultural relics, according to the Beijing Cultural Heritage Administration.
"All cultural relics of the capital are to undergo a thorough "facelift" in the coming few months before next August, and any renovation, except for emergency repair, will suspend during the Games," said Kong fanzhi, director of the
Source: http://www.expatica.com
August 31, 2007
he family of Spain's late dictator Francisco Franco have refused to allow regional government inspectors to examine the state of his former summer castle, local authorities said Friday.
The historical Pazo de Meiras castle, built in 1893 in the northwestern Spanish region of Galicia, was given to the dictator -- who died in 1975 -- by his own regime in 1938.
It currently belongs to his daughter, Carmen Franco Polo, 80, but since 1991 it has been included on a list of Ga
Source: http://www.chad.co.uk
September 5, 2007
THE owner of historic King John's Palace in Kings Clipstone is hoping to raise the profile of the site to save the ruins, which are in urgent need of work to stabilise the crumbling walls.
Last month, the site was added to the English Heritage's Buildings at Risk Register, which highlights important sites that are in 'grave danger of irretrievable decay'.
Only fragments remain of the Grade II scheduled ancient monument and owner Mickey Bradley — with the backing of loca
Source: AP
September 5, 2007
Archaeologists digging in northern Israel have discovered evidence of a 3,000-year-old beekeeping industry, including remnants of ancient honeycombs, beeswax and what they believe are the oldest intact beehives ever found.
The findings in the ruins of the city of Rehov this summer include 30 intact hives dating to around 900 B.C., archaeologist Amihai Mazar of Jerusalem's Hebrew University told The Associated Press.
He said it offers unique evidence that an advanced hon
Source: Telegraph (UK)
September 5, 2007
For more than 60 years the 10,000 Germans who fled their country to join the British Army and fight against the Nazi regime have remained silent.
But yesterday those veterans who have survived spoke for the first time about taking up arms against their fellow countrymen.
At the first reunion since the Second World War of those who chose to battle Adolf Hitler, 200 German and Austrian veterans met at the Imperial War Museum.
While initially only allowed to d
Source: Washington Times
September 5, 2007
An ancient inscription memorializing Jer- usalem's salvation from Assyrian invaders 2,700 years ago is to be returned to the Holy Land from Turkey for study and public display.
Israel has been trying for about 20 years to recover the artifact, which marks one of the most important turning points in Hebrew history.
Assyrian forces under King Sennacherib controlled most of the Middle East in the early eighth century B.C. and were about to march on Jerusalem, where a defia
Source: NYT
September 4, 2007
In September 1968, Hillary Diane Rodham, role model and student government president, was addressing Wellesley College freshmen girls — back when they were still called “girls” — about methods of protest. It was a hot topic in that overheated year of what she termed “confrontation politics from Chicago to Czechoslovakia.”
“Dynamism is a function of change,” Ms. Rodham said in her speech. “On some campuses, change is effected through nonviolent or even violent means. Although we too
Source: NBC Nightly News (video) scroll down
September 4, 2007
It is a searing image: a black schoolgirl facing an angry white mob. Where is she now? NBC's Don Teague reports
Source: NYT
September 4, 2007
“Italy’s patrimony has been lost because we used to intervene after the fact and not before,” said Roberto Cecchi, general director of the Architectural Heritage and Landscape Department, which is responsible for the safekeeping of Italy’s monuments.
Under the new guidelines unveiled this summer, officials at the local and national levels are to evaluate the seismic risk to individual structures in their jurisdictions and take steps to reduce the vulnerability. These steps could inc
Source: http://english.hani.co.kr
September 3, 2007
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun on Monday urged Japan to have a correct recognition of the shared history in order to foster future-oriented bilateral relations.
During a meeting with visiting Japanese politicians, including former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae, Roh said lawmakers of both countries are required to make greater efforts to resolve bilateral conflict over history issues.
"South Korea-Japan relati
Source: BBC
August 31, 2007
Bristol City Council's record office are compiling a detailed archive of Bristol's black history, in an effort to preserve it for future generations.
The city's museums, galleries and libraries are working alongside a range of African-Caribbean organisations and individuals to try to prevent the rich history of black people in Bristol being lost forever.
This project is known as the Bristol Black Archives Partnership.
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education (CHE) (Click here for embedded links.)
September 4, 2007
A Russian court fined a University of Missouri at St. Louis graduate student about $585 on Friday for purchasing Soviet war medals as souvenirs, a far lighter punishment than the prison time that she had faced.
The student, Roxana Contreras, a Chilean studying physics at the American university, was detained for two months in the Russian city of Voronezh, south of Moscow, after buying the medals at a flea market (The Chronicle, August 21). Doing so is banned under a 1994 law that ha
Source: BBC
August 30, 2007
Archaeologists working in Syria have unearthed the remains of dozens of youths thought to have been killed in a fierce confrontation 6,000 years ago.
According to Science magazine, the celebrating victors may even have feasted on beef in the aftermath.
The findings come from northeastern Syria, near Tell Brak, one of the world's oldest known cities.
Source: BBC
August 30, 2007
A council's claim that taxpayers could be hit with a £110m bill to safeguard a 4000-year-old group of stones has been labelled "ludicrous and misleading".
Herefordshire Council said £110m was the figure it had been quoted for the cost of building a tunnel underneath the Rotherwas Ribbon.
The feature was unearthed by workmen building a relief road in Hereford.
Campaigner Bob Clay said the figure was "extraordinary" and claimed the council was t
Source: UPI
September 4, 2007
British-led scientists said early European
domesticated pigs -- previously believed descended from wild boars --
actually came from the Middle East.
The researchers, led by archaeologists at Durham University, said the early
pigs were introduced from the Middle East by Stone Age farmers.
The scientists analyzed mitochondrial DNA from ancient and modern pig
remains. The findings also suggest the migration of an expanding Middle
Eastern population -- which included domesticat
