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: Deutsche Welle
Jan 20, 2011
Reinhard Gehlen was a flexible man: The former major-general and chief of the Foreign Armies East military intelligence organization within the German military once spied for Hitler; soon afterward he was in the service of the United States.
Gehlen helped set up Germany's post-war secret service for the Americans, the body that would go on to become the Federal Intelligence Service (BND).
With the Cold War looming, Gehlen did not hesitate to look to the ranks of former
Source: SwissInfo
Jan 20, 2011
After works of art plundered by the Nazis ended up in Switzerland, a report commissioned by the government says more needs to be done to trace the origins of these objects.
The report, published this week by the Federal Culture Office, said access to the results of provenance research and to relevant archives must be simplified.
“There’s a need to improve information and awareness at all levels in public and private museums,” Benno Widmer, head of the contact bureau on
Source: BBC News
Jan 20, 2011
Thousands of years of history at a remote priory in Norfolk could be unearthed after the discovery of giant medieval graffiti on its walls.
The Norfolk Medieval Graffiti Survey (NMGS) group claims to have found 8ft (2.4m) building plans etched into the stonework of Binham Priory, near Wells.
The drawings, which are too faint to photograph, seem to show how the building's west front was built.
"It was difficult to believe what I was seeing," said N
Source: National Parks Traveler
Jan 20, 2011
The Lewis Mountain area at Skyline drive milepost 57.5 in Virginia's Shenandoah National Park was once a racially segregated facility. The mystery photo shows part of a replica sign on exhibit in the park's Harry F. Byrd, Sr. Visitor Center at Big Meadows. The original sign, one side of which is shown in an accompanying photo, was removed six decades ago when Lewis Mountain ceased to be racially restricted.
Racial segregation was built into the park's original plan. In 1932, three y
Source: WaPo
Jan 20, 2011
LONDON -- A full year before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair told his chief of staff the West should be "gung-ho" on toppling Saddam Hussein, a panel looking into the conflict disclosed Friday.
Blair returned to testify for a second time before a five-member panel scrutinizing Britain's role in the unpopular war - having been recalled after witnesses raised doubts about sections of his testimony at an initial appearance a year ago.
Source: NYT
Jan 20, 2011
NASHVILLE — Shannon McCullough has a favorite lullaby, and it begins with the revving of a carbureted V8 engine. From her house on Merritt Avenue she could hear it most of her life, the hypnotic, oscillating drone as the stock cars approached and receded, approached and receded.
She has been listening to this sound for nearly all of her 48 years, and, she said, “it can put me to sleep.”
Then there’s Jean Boles, 65, a hairdresser who lives about five blocks away.
Source: NYT
Jan 20, 2011
WASHINGTON — Old habits die hard, even five decades later.
Sitting at the head of a long table at Charlie Palmer’s steakhouse, in the shadow of the Capitol, Letitia Baldrige, the White House social secretary for Jacqueline Kennedy, tapped her wine glass with a pen, to try to quiet the crowd and signal that someone should propose a toast. When that didn’t work, she tried clinking the glass with her knife. And when that still didn’t do the trick, she gave up.
“Protocol,”
Source: NYT
Jan 20, 2011
COLLEGE STATION, Tex. — The first President Bush, now 86, walked unsteadily to his seat on the stage. Former Vice President Dick Cheney, who was Mr. Bush’s defense secretary, spoke as a mechanical device pumped his failing heart. The others were grayer, balder or bearers of the scars of fresher wars.
For what could well be the last time, the major American decision-makers in the 1991 invasion that drove Saddam Hussein’s forces out of Kuwait gathered here on Thursday night, celebrati
Source: BBC
Jan 20, 2011
The complete works of Robert Burns have been made available free of charge on the iPhone for the first time.
The new iPhone application will allow enthusiasts around the world to download and instantly access Burns' poetry.
The app includes a searchable database of every poem written by Burns, a summary of facts about the poet's life and a guide to hosting a Burns supper.
The text-based app has been developed by the Scottish government....
Source: BBC
Jan 20, 2011
Three stolen works of art have been recovered more than 15 years after they were taken from museums in Glasgow.
The three paintings were retrieved as part of an continuing investigation with Strathclyde Police and Lothian and Borders Police.
One is by the Scots colourist, Samuel Peploe, another by French artist Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, and a third by Italian painter, Federico Barocci.
The paintings, worth £200,000, are now back in Glasgow museums.
Source: BBC
Jan 20, 2011
The John F Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston in the state of Massachusetts has begun chronicling the former US president's 1,000 days in office on the micro-blogging website Twitter.
The account @Kennedy1961 began posting tweets on Thursday about the former president's actions and words as they unfolded 50 years ago.
The library is linking to video and pictures from its digitised archive.
Thursday marks the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's inauguration...
Source: Fox News
Jan 20, 2011
Rep. Steve Cohen on Thursday stood by his remarks in which he compared Republican attacks on the health care overhaul to Nazi propaganda advanced by Joseph Goebbels.
The Tennessee Democrat, who is Jewish, said he regrets that anyone was offended and that his comments were used to "distract from the debate about health care." But in a detailed written statement, the congressman elaborated on and defended his analogy.
Cohen had accused Republicans of spreading
Source: AP
Jan 20, 2011
A new monument was unveiled Thursday in eastern Canada marking the country's decision to turn away a steamship carrying Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany in 1939.
The luxury liner MS St. Louis was first turned away by Cuba, then the United States and finally Canada before returning to Europe just before the outbreak of war.
Of the 900 German Jews aboard, almost a third died in the Holocaust....
Source: CNN
Jan 20, 2011
On the heels of an exiled despot's arrival in Port-au-Prince, former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide says he is ready to return to help his troubled homeland, an idea welcomed by some and reviled by others who fear a deepening crisis.
Aristide's lawyer in the United States said that the former president does not have a passport, and the Haitian government will not issue him one.
Kurzban told CNN that no talks have taken place that would allow Aristide to return
Source: CNN
Jan 20, 2011
Federal agents have backed up al Qaeda captive Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's confession in the killing of journalist Daniel Pearl by using photographs of the veins in his hands, according to a new report released Thursday.
Mohammed confessed to beheading Pearl after his 2003 arrest in Pakistan. But the U.S. admission that he had been subjected to "waterboarding" -- a practice historically treated as torture -- while in CIA custody cast doubt on the reliability of his confession
Source: CNN
Jan 20, 2011
Melissa Coleman has amazing stories to tell and some family members still can't get enough of the harrowing tales of her 33 days as a prisoner of war during the first Gulf war.
Even 20 years after the start of that war, Coleman can captivate an audience. She tells family friends or her daughters' classmates about American bombs that struck close to where she was held by her Iraqi captors.
But 20 years after her 33 days as a POW, Coleman is fighting another battle: breas
Source: Fox News
Jan 20, 2011
The 1,200-year-old tomb of a ruler of the pre-Incan Sican culture was found recently in Peru's Lambayaque region, the director of the Las Ventanas archaeological dig announced on Wednesday.
"It's an individual seated on a litter, a funerary bundle, in which has been found in situ a crown, a mask and a series of objects that accompany him," Carlos Elera told Efe from Lambayeque.
One of the most interesting objects found is a bottle representing the funerary bun
Source: Lee P Ruddin
Jan 20, 2011
In a lecture entitled Grand Strategy of Detente, Professor Ferguson warned that “you can’t make judgements, particularly moral judgements, about a foreign policy strategy if you do not take account of the circumstances of the context.”
Appearing before a packed auditorium in central London on Tuesday evening, the Harvard historian talked about Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger’s policy being crucial to America’s victory in the Cold War.
Niall Ferguson is Philippe Rom
Jan 19, 2011
The Chickahominy are still vibrant as a community on land between the Chickahominy and James River in Charles City County, Virginia, near where their ancestors lived.
The tribe has over 800 members, making it the second largest of Virginia’s Indian tribes. Hundreds of its members live within a few miles of each other -- the tribe owns about 110 acres subdivided into family lots.
At the center of tribal life are the Chickahominy Tribal Center and Samaria Baptist Church,
Source: The Local (Germany)
Jan 19, 2011
Disgruntled employees in Germany who compare conditions at their workplace to the Third Reich can be justifiably fired, according to a Hessian labour court ruling published on Wednesday.
The court rejected an appeal by a 47-year-old company driver who sued his employer of 30 years after he was fired for doing just that....
