Back On Deck

Conditions: Indifferent.

The Russians take control

Not content with taking over from Nasa in the Orbit-shuttling business, the Russians are also making moves to take over the Saving-the-world business as well.

MOSCOW — Russia’s top space researchers will hold a closed-door meeting to plan a mission to deflect 99942 Apophis, an asteroid that will fly close to Earth two decades from now, said Anatoly N. Perminov, the head of Russia’s space agency, during an interview on Russian radio on Wednesday.
[...]

Scientists have proposed various methods of averting an asteroid impact, among them a spacecraft that would land on the asteroid and, using electric motors, very gradually turn its trajectory. Another method would involve striking it with missiles or employing a satellite that used gravitational pull to change the orbit.

Mr. Perminov said the plan he envisioned would involve “no nuclear explosions; everything will be based on the laws of physics.” Once a mission has been developed, Russia will invite NASA, the China Space Agency and the European Space Agency to participate, he said.

Russell L. Schweickart, a former Apollo astronaut who is chairman of the B612 Foundation, a California group that promotes efforts to deflect asteroids, hailed much of the proposal and said Mr. Perminov was the most influential official ever to articulate a coordinated deflection plan. But he objected to using Apophis to test new deflection methods, saying there was more risk if something went wrong.

“It takes a very small change in the Apophis orbit to cause it to impact the Earth instead of missing it,” Mr. Schweickart said. “There are a million asteroids out there. Find another one.”

- NYTimes

Hmmmm. Here's a scenario for you. The Russians take the initiative in developing a system to deflect asteroids and decide to use it on one that is going to make a near miss. Because it's a near miss the Western Space agencies haven't bothered with it. But, something goes wrong, the asteroid is knocked into our path, and there's no time to do anything about it.


Scandal on a scandal

In June 2006 three men being held at Guantanamo bay committed suicide. A report now on alternet contends that these three suicides were actually murders, dressed up to look like suicide.

The key to the discovery of the murder of the three men -- 37-year old Salah Ahmed al-Salami, a Yemeni, 30-year old Mani Shaman al-Utaybi, a Saudi, and 22-year old Yasser Talal al-Zahrani (photo, left), a Saudi who was just 17 when he was captured -- is Army Staff Sgt. Joe Hickman, a former Marine who reenlisted in the Army National Guard after the 9/11 attacks, and was deployed to Guantánamo in March 2006, with his friend, Specialist Tony Davila. On arrival, Davila was briefed about the existence of "an unnamed and officially unacknowledged compound," outside the perimeter fence of the main prison, and explained that one theory about it was that "it was being used by some of the non-uniformed government personnel who frequently showed up in the camps and were widely thought to be CIA agents."
[...]

Hickman was on duty in a tower on the prison's perimeter on the night the three men died, when he noticed that "a white van, dubbed the 'paddy wagon,' that Navy guards used to transport heavily manacled prisoners, one at a time, into and out of Camp Delta, [which] had no rear windows and contained a dog cage large enough to hold a single prisoner,” had called three times at Camp 1, where the men were held, and had then taken them out to "Camp No." All three were in “Camp No” by 8 pm.

At 11.30, the van returned, apparently dropping something off at the clinic, and within half an hour the whole prison "lit up." As Horton explains:


Hickman headed to the clinic, which appeared to be the center of activity, to learn the reason for the commotion. He asked a distraught medical corpsman what had happened. She said three dead prisoners had been delivered to the clinic. Hickman recalled her saying that they had died because they had rags stuffed down their throats, and that one of them was severely bruised. Davila told me he spoke to Navy guards who said the men had died as the result of having rags stuffed down their throats.


[...]


As Horton describes it, an official "suicide" narrative was soon established, and widely accepted by the media, if not by former prisoners and the dead men’s families. With extraordinary cynicism, Rear Admiral Harry Harris, the commander at Guantánamo, not only declared the deaths "suicides," but added, "I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us." What was not mentioned were the rags stuffed into the prisoners’ mouths, even though this knowledge was widespread throughout the prison. Horton adds that when Col. Mike Bumgarner, the warden at Guantánamo, held a meeting the following morning, "the news had circulated through Camp America that three prisoners had committed suicide by swallowing rags."

He also states:


According to independent interviews with soldiers who witnessed the speech, Bumgarner told his audience that "you all know" three prisoners in the Alpha Block at Camp 1 committed suicide during the night by swallowing rags, causing them to choke to death … But then Bumgarner told those assembled that the media would report something different. It would report that the three prisoners had committed suicide by hanging themselves in their cells. It was important, he said, that servicemen make no comments or suggestions that in any way undermined the official report. He reminded the soldiers and sailors that their phone and email communications were being monitored.


Despite being "on-message," Bumgarner let slip to two visiting reporters from a US provincial newspaper -- the only ones who were not immediately hustled off the base -- that each of the men who had died "had a ball of cloth in their mouth either for choking or muffling their voices." As punishment for straying off the script, Bumgarner was soon suspended, and had his office searched by the FBI.

[...]
It is now apparent that the authorities were desperate to ensure that no word of the events of June 9 was disclosed from prisoners to their attorneys. As David Remes, the attorney for 16 Yemenis, explained, the effect of the seizure "sent an unmistakable message to the prisoners that they could not expect their communications with their lawyers to remain confidential," but as part of its mission to blame attorneys for the deaths, the authorities went so far as to claim that Clive Stafford Smith, the director of the legal action charity Reprieve, had persuaded another prisoner, the British resident Shaker Aamer, to call for the deaths from his cell. Speaking to the BBC's Newsnight in October 2006, Zachary Katznelson, an attorney at Reprieve, explained that he was told by one of his clients in Guantánamo in August 2006 that interrogators were trying to blame Stafford Smith, saying that "it was Clive's idea, Clive's brainchild, that people had to commit suicide to bring attention to the base and to then force the government to close it."

With the election of Obama these guys decided to set the story straight.

Hickman approached Mark Denbeaux of Seton Hall, and his son Josh (also a lawyer), and told his story, followed by the other three men. However, although the Denbeauxs approached the Justice Department, and had a meeting in February last year with Rita Glavin, the acting head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, John Morton, soon to be an assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, and Steven Fagell, counselor to the head of the Criminal Division, little came of it. After hearing the whole sordid story, the officials thanked the Denbeauxs for "not speaking to reporters first and for 'doing it the right way,'" and, two days later, Mark Denbeaux was called by Teresa McHenry, the head of the Criminal Division's Domestic Security Section, who told him that she was starting an investigation and wanted to meet directly with Hickman.

Hickman met McHenry, and gave her the names and contact details of corroborating witnesses, but then the trail went cold. In April, "an FBI agent called to say she did not have the list of contacts" and "asked if this document could be provided again," and soon after, Steven Fagell and two FBI agents interviewed Davila, who had left the Army, and asked him if he would travel to Guantánamo to identify the locations of various sites. "It seemed like they were interested,” Davila told Horton. "Then I never heard from them again."

In late October, as Mark Denbeaux was preparing to unveil the Seton Hall report, there was brief communication with McHenry again, but on November 2, she called to say that the investigation was being closed:


"It was a strange conversation," Denbeaux recalled. McHenry explained that “the gist of Sergeant Hickman’s information could not be confirmed.” But when Denbeaux asked what that "gist" actually was, McHenry declined to say. She just reiterated that Hickman’s conclusions "appeared" to be unsupported. Denbeaux asked what conclusions exactly were unsupported. McHenry refused to say.


Horton notes correctly that "the Justice Department has plenty of its own secrets to protect," because it "would seem to have been involved in the cover-up from the first days, when FBI agents stormed Colonel Bumgarner’s quarters," which was "unusual." He also explains that, when the Justice Department sought court approval for the NCIS seizure of all the prisoners' letters

- Alternet.org

There's lots more, about the findings of the autopsies, and the point that neither of the three had any ties to terrorism. What does it all add up to? Well, I don't mean to sound pessimistic but, well wait a minute, actually I do mean to sound pessimistic, because I'm pretty damn sure nothing more will come of it. Prove me wrong, fate!



Film Review: Wolfman

To me a good horror movie is more about atmosphere than it is about scares. A creepy setting with lots of tension gets my vote over simple blood and guts. Which is why on paper the Wolfman should be a winner. Something of a remake of the classic Wolfman film, this one stars Anthony Hopkins, Benicio Del Toro, and even Hugo Weaving. It's set in classic Victorian England, and is all about the creepy atmosphere of the woods and the moor and old run-down estates. It even sticks, as much as is possible these days, with the more classic makeup and suit effects rather than relying on 100% digital effects.

And the action is full on, with lots of Wolfman attacks and villagers getting decapitated and ripped to peices. There's even a rampage through the streets of London, and a Wolfman vs Wolfman fight. But despite all this, there's something wrong with the film. It lacks any real depth, any real heart as to why we should care for any of the characters, even the victims. There is a love interest, but it's lackluster and, well, British. Anthony Hopkins is always brilliant when he's given a character to do something with, but here it's like he's been purposely suppressed, quiet and retiring as if to contrast with the feral Wolfman. It's a shame because this film desperately needs the life Anthony can bring to a film.

Without that it's surprisingly dim and grey in tone. There's some interesting ideas but nothing is really pushed. And annoyingly the director has relied on using jump scares in startling the audience at every turn. On a regular basis there'll be a fast shot of the Wolfman and the classic musical "sting" to really sell it. It's gets a little old after the tenth time. In the end you feel that the film was good, but that it could have been even better if they'd pushed it, and surely this concept had ample scope for extra pushing. Two and a half howls out of Five.


- Peace out