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: McClatchy Newspapers
Dec 12, 2007
Seven decades after Japanese
soldiers poured through the old city walls of Nanjing
, launching a six-week killing spree known as the
Nanjing Massacre, the memories are still raw for
"I really hate the Japanese," Zhang said, dissolving
into tears."I have repeated this thousands of times.
I really, really hate them."
Now 81, Zhang was only 11 during the infamous Japanese
rampage, a seizure so violent that it's also known as
the Rape of Nanking, the city's former name.
For Z
Source: Secrecy News, written by Steven Aftergood, is published by the Federation of American Scientists
Dec 12, 2007
A bipartisan resolution to provide online public access to
Congressional Research Service reports was introduced in the Senate
yesterday.
"The Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate, in consultation with the Director
of the Congressional Research Service, shall make available through a
centralized electronic system, for purposes of access and retrieval by
the public ... all information described in paragraph (2) that is
available through the Congressional Research Service website," the
Resolu
Source: Secrecy News, written by Steven Aftergood, is published by the Federation of American Scientists
Dec 12, 2007
Even if the videotapes of interrogation sessions that were destroyed by
the Central Intelligence Agency showed nothing illegal or untoward,
their destruction could still be a violation of the federal law which
requires the preservation of official records, suggested Rep. Henry
Waxman (D-CA) yesterday.
Rep. Waxman asked Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein to
render a judgment as to whether the destruction of the videotapes was
consistent with the law."I would like your o
Source: NYT
Dec 12, 2007
BAGHDAD — For a few brief hours Tuesday, three dozen spectators — journalists, local politicians and their guards — gathered at the National Museum of Iraq here, their voices echoing through its vast, darkened halls. It was one of the few times outsiders had been allowed inside since Baghdad fell, looters stripped the galleries of some 15,000 Mesopotamian artifacts, and the museum became a wrenching symbol of the losses of the war.
Aside from a brief opening in late 2003, when offic
Source: http://www.praguemonitor.com
Dec 11, 2007
Archaeologists have uncovered parts of Prague's oldest ramparts, dating back to the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries, thus verifying the then Jewish globetrotter Ibrahim ibn Jaqub's description of Prague as "a town made of stone and lime," the daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) wrote Monday.
The fortification, the remnants of which have been uncovered at Malostranske namesti square in what is now the historical centre of Prague, were made of wood and clay and might have been up to
Source: Baltimore Sun
Dec 11, 2007
Opening the planned National Sailing Hall of Fame in a city nicknamed "America's Sailing Capital" should be smooth sailing.
But the state's recommendation yesterday to demolish or move a 19th-century home on the Annapolis waterfront to make way for the estimated $20 million facility sets up a potential battle between two groups closely identified with the Colonial capital: sailors and historic preservationists.
The recommendation, released yesterday in a repor
Source: AP
Dec 11, 2007
George Washington's commissioned gold medal that was given to Marquis de Lafayette, the French revolutionary who supported the American Revolution, was sold Tuesday at auction for $5.3 million, Sotheby's announced.
La Fondation de Chambrun, in Chateau La Grange, Lafayette's home 30 miles east of Paris, beat out two other bidders.
"The medal is a symbol of the bond and friendship between America and France," said Christophe Van de Weghe, a Manhattan art dealer
Source: Daily Mail
Dec 11, 2007
An unrepentant old Nazi officer who served in some of the worst concentration camps gives the Hitler salute in Spain where he has hidden from justice for over 60 years.
Now Paul Maria Hafner is the subject of a TV documentary called "Hafner's Paradise" which chronicles his life in exile – and how he manages to draw pensions from three countries.
Operation Last Chance, the campaign to round up the last Nazis in Europe organised by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in
Source: NYT
Dec 11, 2007
Unbeknownst to Anna Plumstead, her attic in Wiscasset, Me., held a treasure: one of the earliest copies of the Declaration of Independence, delivered to her town in 1776 as part of a campaign to spread its message through the original 13 colonies.
After Ms. Plumstead died in 1994, the document was sold at an estate auction. It changed hands several times, ending up with a private collector in Virginia who paid $475,000 for it in 2001. Now Maine is seeking to reclaim it, citing a st
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 11, 2007
The leader of a far-Right party in Germany was facing a parliamentary inquiry last night after he questioned the number of Jews who died at the hands of the Nazis.
Udo Voigt, the head of the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD), also demanded the return of land lost after the Second World War.
"Six million cannot be right. At most, 340,000 people could have died in Auschwitz," he said in an interview with Iranian journalists.
"The Jews al
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 11, 2007
More than six out of 10 English voters say they feel "British", according to a new opinion poll.
The poll suggests the concept of 'Britain' still retains a deep hold on the affections of English people
An even greater proportion - 69 per cent - want to keep the historic Union between England and Scotland, while only 24 per cent want the two countries to separate.
However, the ICM survey for The Sunday Telegraph also reveals great concern about th
Source: Secrecy News, written by Steven Aftergood, is published by the Federation of American Scientists
Dec 11, 2007
The Office of the Vice President is not an "agency" for purposes of the executive order on classification and therefore its classification and declassification activity no longer need be reported to the Information Security Oversight Office, the Justice Department finally informed ISOO Director Bill Leonard in a newly disclosed letter (pdf).In a January 9, 2007 letter to the Attorney General, Director Leonard had questioned the OVP's refusal since 2003 to submit to
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 11, 2007
France will today request the return to French soil of the remains of its last emperor and first president, Napoleon III.
After lying ignored in a crypt in an English abbey for 120 years, the exiled emperor's ashes are suddenly the subject of a French ministerial delegation intent on repatriating them to the republic he helped bring about....
After a number of foreign adventures, his forces were roundly defeated in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, prompting him to flee
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 11, 2007
Leonardo Da Vinci may have been an Arab, according to scientists who have studied a single, complete fingerprint found on one of his paintings.
The print, taken from the artist's left index finger, was discovered after an exhaustive three-year trawl through his works by researchers at the University of Chieti.
Professor Luigi Capasso, an anthropologist who led the team, said the central whorl of the fingerprint was a common pattern in the Middle East.
&quo
Source: David Corn and Jonathan Stein at the website of Mother Jones magazine
Dec 10, 2007
Is Mike Huckabee the presidential candidate shunning Mike Huckabee the preacher? Before entering politics, he was a pastor at two Baptist churches. Now his campaign tells Mother Jones it won't make his sermons available to the media and the public.
Now that he has his moment in the political spotlight, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee does not want his days at the pulpit to be scrutinized.
As Huckabee has surged to the front of the Republican pack in Iowa, his rel
Source: http://rawstory.com
Dec 10, 2007
History has a way of repeating itself.
White House press secretary Dana Perino has been front and center of the White House's push to continue to label Iran a rogue state for its pursuit of uranium enrichment technology.
This comes against the backdrop of a new intelligence estimate positing that the Islamic state abandoned its nuclear weapons in 2003.
Turns out she doesn't know quite so much about nuclear weapons as she supposes. And we're not talking abou
Source: AFP
Dec 10, 2007
The Greek myth that ancient Spartans threw their stunted and sickly newborns off a cliff was not corroborated by archaeological digs in the area, researchers said Monday.
After more than five years of analysis of human remains culled from the pit, also called an apothetes, researchers found only the remains of adolescents and adults between the ages of 18 and 35, Athens Faculty of Medicine Anthropologist Theodoros Pitsios said.
"There were still bones in the area,
Source: National Security Archive
Dec 10, 2007
Previously secret Soviet Politburo records and declassified American transcripts of the Washington summit 20 years ago between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev show that Gorbachev was willing to go much further than the Americans expected or were able to reciprocate on arms cuts and resolving regional conflicts, according to documents posted today by the National Security Archive at George Washington University (www.nsarch
Source: National Security Archive
Dec 10, 2007
As disgraced former president Alberto Fujimori goes on trial in Lima, Peru, for human rights atrocities, the National Security Archive posted a declassified Defense Intelligence Agency cable tying him directly to the executions of unarmed rebels who had surrendered after the seizure of the residence of Japanese ambassador in 1997. "President Fujimori issued the order to 'take no prisoners,'" states the secret "roger channel" intelligence cable. "Because of this even MRTA
Source: NYT
Dec 10, 2007
When editors at the New Oxford American Dictionary recently announced that their word of the year was “locavore,” which means someone who eats locally grown food, they also became the very definition of publicity.
In the last few weeks Ben Zimmer, an Oxford University Press dictionary editor, appeared on numerous radio shows and on a syndicated public radio program to talk about the word contest. The selection of locavore also had 25 mentions in major newspapers like The Philadelphi
