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: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 22, 2009
Pope Pius XII told senior bishops that should he be arrested by the Nazis, his resignation would become effective immediately, paving the way for a successor, according to documents in the Vatican's Secret Archives.
The bishops would then be expected to flee to a safe country – probably neutral Portugal – where they would re-establish the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church and appoint a new Pontiff.
That Hitler considered kidnapping the Pope has been documented bef
Source: Deutsche Welle
Apr 22, 2009
Brandenburg state Interior Minister Joerg Schoenbohm said the search was to begin on Wednesday - the 64th anniversary of the liberation of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
The mass grave, which is believed to hold the remains of 753 prisoners, is on the grounds of the former Lieberose forced-labor camp, a satellite camp of Sachsenhausen, located around 120 kilometers (75 miles) southeast of Berlin. The grave is thought to be the largest in Germany outside the walls of a former
Source: BBC
Apr 22, 2009
US government backing for the CIA's harsh interrogation methods set the tone for abuses by US troops towards detainees in Iraq, a US report says. It was not appropriate simply to blame low-ranking officers for what occurred at Abu Ghraib prison, the report by the Senate Armed Services Committee said.
Top officials had sent the message that such acts were appropriate, it stated.
The report follows the release of Bush-era memos that justify the use of what some criti
Source: Huffington Post
Apr 22, 2009
Philip Zelikow, a longtime diplomat who worked as counselor to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and was the executive director of the 9/11 Commission, has been forthright in his opposition to the harsh interrogation techniques used under the Bush administration.
Zelikow disagreed with the legal reasoning employed by Bush's Office of Legal Counsel to justify the use of harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding. And he claims that copies of memo he circulated to d
Source: NYT
Apr 22, 2009
Give or take, it is 5,000 miles from the Indian Ocean off Somalia to the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan. That is a vast distance, but few places on earth can match New York for its history of hospitality to pirates.
On Tuesday, the accused Somalian pirate man — or gullible boy, if you believe his parents, or possible victim of kidnappers, as his lawyer speculates — arrived in shackles and jumpsuit for arraignment on charges that he committed piracy on the high seas. Even wors
Source: http://www.ynetnews.com
Apr 21, 2009
A member of Iran's official delegation to the UN's anti-racism conference verbally assaulted Shoah survivor and Nobel Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel in Geneva, referring to him as a "Zionazi."
The incident was captured on film by Sergio Wider of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. The video features the Iranian official repeatedly screaming at Wiesel, who chose to remain silent and ignore the reprehensible comments.
Source: Newsweek
Apr 21, 2009
It's widely debated how exactly it started, but the roots of the
modern environmental movement trace back to the 1960s. Early in the
decade, Rachel Carson published her nonfiction work"Silent Spring" as
a wake-up call to current and impending environmental concerns.
Several years later, U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson (of Wisconsin), one of
the government's first eco warriors, sought to harvest general
awareness and turn it into a movement. He hit on the idea of an event,
modeled after the a
Source: McClatchy
Apr 21, 2009
The Bush administration applied relentless pressure on interrogators to use harsh methods on detainees in part to find evidence of cooperation between al Qaida and the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, according to a former senior U.S. intelligence official and a former Army psychiatrist.
Such information would've provided a foundation for one of former President George W. Bush's main arguments for invading Iraq in 2003. In fact, no evidence has ever been found of operati
Source: NYT
Apr 21, 2009
President Obama’s national intelligence director told colleagues in a private memo last week that the harsh interrogation techniques banned by the White House did produce significant information that helped the nation in its struggle with terrorists.
“High value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al Qa’ida organization that was attacking this country,” Adm. Dennis C. Blair, the intelligence director, wrot
Source: http://www.wsls.com
Apr 21, 2009
VMI unveiled this plaque Tuesday to commemorate Captain Henry du Pont of the union army, who helped rebuild the college, after destroying it during the civil war.
Historian Colonel Keith Gibson said, “he shelled, burned, and completely destroyed the barracks and at that time the barracks were the institute.“
In the video box there are some pictures of what the college looked like after it was bombarded with cannon-fire. It was Captain du Pont’s efforts 50-years l
Source: AP
Apr 21, 2009
A bomb squad carefully removed a Civil War-era relic from the Porter County Museum after determining that it could be an explosive grenade.
The metal ball and two other items were removed from the museum in Valparaiso last week and taken to a secure location.
Source: AP
Apr 21, 2009
Nearly nine years after 17 sailors were killed in a terrorist attack on the USS Cole, some relatives of the victims are set to receive at least $200,000 each from Sudan, a lawyer said Tuesday.
The 33 spouses, parents and children of the sailors have fought in court for the compensation for six years. They successfully argued the Sudanese government provided support, including money and training, that allowed al-Qaida suicide bombers to attack the Navy destroyer at a refueling stop a
Source: NYT
Apr 21, 2009
In a series of high-level meetings in 2002, without a single dissent from cabinet members or lawmakers, the United States for the first time officially embraced the brutal methods of interrogation it had always condemned.
This extraordinary consensus was possible, an examination by The New York Times shows, largely because no one involved — not the top two C.I.A. officials who were pushing the program, not the senior aides to President George W. Bush, not the leaders of the Senate a
Source: NYT
Apr 21, 2009
How does a professional writer discuss “The Elements of Style” without nervously looking over his shoulder and seeing Will Strunk and E. B. White (or thousands of readers of their book) second-guessing him? (Is “second-guessing” hyphenated or not? Is posing a question the same as using the passive voice?)
William Strunk Jr. wrote and self-published the famous “Little Book” as a professor of English. White, his student at Cornell in 1919 and later an author and essayist, first revise
Source: BBC
Apr 21, 2009
Fossils found in China may give clues to the evolution of Tyrannosaurus rex.
Uncovered near the city of Jiayuguan, the fossil finds come from a novel tyrannosaur dubbed Xiongguanlong baimoensis.
The fossils date from the middle of the Cretaceous period, and may be a "missing link", tying the familiar big T rex to its much smaller ancestors.
The fossils show early signs of the features that became pronounced with later tyrannosaurs.
Source: BBC
Apr 21, 2009
A website offering free access to rare manuscripts, books, films and maps from around the world is being launched by the UN's cultural agency.
Unesco says the World Digital Library will help to promote curiosity and understanding across cultures.
Among the artefacts are a 1,000-year-old Japanese novel and the earliest known map to mention America by name.
About a tenth of the 1,200 exhibits are from Africa - the oldest an 8,000-year-old painting of bleed
Source: Inscience
Apr 21, 2009
Archaeologists from Bristol’s Museum and Art Gallery, working in advance of redevelopment at the University of Bristol, have uncovered the remains of one of the most significant fortifications from the English Civil War (1642-53): the Royal Fort, located on a hill overlooking the City of Bristol.
For many years, considerable doubt has surrounded the Fort’s exact location, as it was largely destroyed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the few remains that survived were
Source: The University of Texas at San Antonio
Apr 21, 2009
UTSA Center for Archaeological Research (CAR) researchers are examining artifacts they recently discovered that date from 3700 B.C. to 600 A.D. The artifacts were discovered during a three-month dig at Miraflores Park, east of Brackenridge Park.
CAR researchers were hired by the San Antonio design firm Rehler Vaughn & Koone to conduct an archaeological site inspection before construction of a pedestrian bridge over the San Antonio River from Brackenridge Park. What was expected
Source: Times (UK)
Apr 21, 2009
The Israeli government used the potent, emotionally-charged platform of Auschwitz concentration camp today to rebut President Ahmadinejad’s latest tirade against the Jewish state.
Standing under the notorious wrought-iron gateway to the camp with its cynical slogan “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work Makes Free), the Israeli Deputy Prime Minister, Silvan Shalom, said Iran was advocating no less than the Nazi-style elimination of the Jews.
“What Iran is trying to do right now is
Source: NBC News video
Apr 21, 2009
Tourists flock to see Saddam's digs.
