WASHINGTON - The nation's attention of late has focused on a nuclear bomb or an intense solar storm as the source of an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, assault on the nation's vulnerable electrical grid system that could fry our electronics and wreak havoc on critical infrastructures.

Estimates are that tens of millions of fatalities could occur in the aftermath of such an event as food, fuel and power supplies evaporate and the nation is transported instantly back to the 18th-century lifestyle without a power grid or anything else electronic.

However, a similar threat has emerged from the so-called lone-wolf terrorist who can devise a portable EMP device and aim it at computers in a building, telecommunications linkages and banking automated teller machines - all on which the society has come to rely heavily for present-day existence.

And it can be done without a trace of who did it.

Recent concerns have been raised by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that the lone wolf - someone who strikes out on his or her own without any group affiliation - is considered a larger threat than one from al-Qaida or other organized groups.

Such individuals either may see themselves as supporting the views of various terrorist groups or may have a personal grudge.

Such an individual with a penchant for electronics can pull together components from a Radio Shack or electronic store - even order the components off of selected Internet websites - and fashion a radio frequency, or RF, weapon.

As microprocessors become smaller but more sophisticated, they are even more susceptible to an RF pulse. The high power microwave from an RF weapon produces a short, very high power pulse, said to be billions of watts in a nanosecond, or billionths of a second.

This so-called burst of electromagnetic waves in the gigahertz microwave frequency band can melt electrical circuitry and damage integrated circuits, causing them to fail. Ironically, this type RF weapon won't affect humans, although there are some forms that experts say can affect the body's own electrical system.

The pulse from an RF weapon travels at the speed of light and can be fired without any visible emanation. These weapons can come in ultra-wideband or narrow-band, with the latter acting like a laser emitting a single frequency at very high power. This pulse then is directed at a specific electronic target.

What makes RF weapons so dangerous is their compactness and ability to be powered by hand-carried energy sources. Experts say that their range of intensity is from 200 meters to 1,000 meters, or from some 656 feet to 3,281 feet.

Concern over the effects of RF weapons has been known to the U.S. Congress since at least 1997 when retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Robert L. Schweitzer testified before the congressional Joint Economic Committee on RF weapons and their impact on the U.S. infrastructure.

His concern then was that readily available technology, much of it off-the- shelf, places the capability of making RF weapons in the hands of lone wolves or more organized terrorists.

Here's the documentation of the danger: "A Nation Forsaken - EMP: The Escalating Threat of an American Catastrophe."

Given the rush to decontrol critical technologies due to the downward spiral of Western economies, they are often available to other countries without the needed scrutiny of U.S. licensing officials and are readily available for people residing in the U.S.

When he testified, Schweitzer called for drawing up a list of those technologies needed to make RF weapons and placing them on what was then called the Militarily Critical Technologies List, or MTCL, which was developed by the U.S. Department of Defense. While the MTCL wasn't a control list, it did show how technologies relate to the development of weapons systems.

However, many of the items listed on the MTCL were not placed on control lists of dual-use technologies administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce or the munitions list overseen by the U.S. Department of State.

Today, that list remains only as a reference and no longer is updated. Everything on the MTCL isn't subject to export controls and isn't referred to that often to show how certain technologies relate to developing weapons systems.

Part of the reason for virtually ignoring the MTCL today is economic, but the basis for eliminating the MTCL mostly was political, since calling them "critical" suggested that they be subject to export controls and then would interfere with the ability to conduct business in a competitive world.

At the time of Schweitzer's testimony, however, consideration of placing certain technologies under export control was meant to deflect the ability of countries and terrorist groups from easily gaining access to those technologies.

One of the items Schweitzer gave as an example of technology that should be controlled was Reltron tubes. He said that these tubes can be small or large, generate intense radio frequency pulses and can be used as RF weapons.

While RF weapon components are on the MTCL, Schweitzer said at the time that even then there were no up-to-date guidelines or directives on limiting their access to end-users. He added that several countries have RF weapons programs and Russia admits to selling some technologies to various countries, making them readily available.

"Users of new weapons can be criminals, individuals, or organized gangs of narco or domestic terrorists - or a determined, organized, well-funded foreign adversary, either a group or nation who hates us," Schweitzer said.

RF weapons emit a non-nuclear electromagnetic pulse, even though they project the same type of pulse that a nuclear weapon does.

"As a practical matter," Schweitzer testified, "a piece of electronic gear on the ground, in a vehicle, ship or plane does not really care whether it is hit by a nuclear magnetic pulse or a non-nuclear one.

"The effect is the same," he said. "It burns out the electronics. The same is true of the computers in this Senate office building, in industry, or on Wall Street."

Schweitzer also referred to the possible existence of radio-frequency munitions which contain high explosives that produce radio frequency energy "as their primary kill mechanism."

"Applications or potential targets would include all military computers, circuit boards or chips, of any description and include ...key components of our military and national infrastructure," he said. "They would have equal impact on civilian targets with the advantage less power would be required."

Schweitzer pointed out that the effects of RF and EMP weapons have been known to presidential commissions, the Infrastructure Protection Task Force, a Critical Infrastructure Working Group, an Information Warfare School at National Defense University as well as divisions on the Joint Staff in the Pentagon.

At the time, Schweitzer pointed out that there were some 90 to 100 references in 26 pages of the 70-page Quadrennial Defense Review that speaks to this new threat and there were some 2,800 references "while a more thorough search found many tens of thousands of documents where the key words 'radio frequency weapons' appear.

"For many reasons the knowledge is diffused," Schweitzer testified. "In the public sector the subject has yet to draw any real attention or concerted action."

Schweitzer added that while the federal government is aware of these threats from RF weapons, "a general understanding is lacking. This is true not only of RF weapons, but of their immediate threat to our (Department of Defense) and national infrastructure."

Nevertheless, Schweitzer said that vulnerable targets include airplanes, ships and vehicles.

"Of interest is the fact that we are doubly vulnerable because we are, and will remain, in an era of dual-use of military and civilian systems," he said.

As an example, Schweitzer pointed to military communications.

"Our military communications now passes over civilian networks," he said. "If an electromagnetic pulse takes out the telephone systems, we are in deep trouble because our military and non-military nets are virtually inseparable.

"It is almost equally impossible to distinguish between the U.S. national telecommunication network and the global one," Schweitzer said. "What this means is that it is finally becoming possible to do what Sun Tzu wrote about 2,000 years ago: to conquer an enemy without fighting.

"The paradigm of war may well be changing," Schweitzer said. "If you can take out the civilian economic infrastructure of a nation, then that nation in addition to not being able to function internally cannot deploy its military by air or sea, or supply them with any real effectiveness - if at all."

Schweitzer warned that in addition to the advanced countries, "pariah" nations have similar interests in developing RF weapons and some have the financial resources to develop or procure them.

"Russian information on RF weapons has been moving across borders for many years," he said. "The horse is out of the barn."

To determine whether cheap, home-made RF weapons could be built by people with little technical know-how, the U.S. Army a few years ago conducted tests at its Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.

The tests, conducted on behalf of the Department of Defense, were successful.

"The message here is that any number of groups in the U.S. or other countries can do just this, relatively easily and at relatively low cost," said Mike Powell of Schriner Engineering in Ridgecrest, California. Schriner Engineering made the weapons.

The RF weapons were made from components readily available from electronic stores and out of catalogs. They generated an extremely short but powerful pulse of electromagnetic radio waves.

Powell said that such RF weapons also would be capable of bringing down an aircraft.

"Our whole nation is vulnerable," said David Schriner, who helped design the RF device. "We dance along with all this high technology, and we're very dependent on it. But if it breaks, where will we be?"

As a side note, Schriner sought to bring to the U.S. Capitol an RF weapon he made himself for display purposes when he testified before the Joint Economic Committee as far back as February 1998.

When the Sergeant-at-Arms to the U.S. House of Representatives heard what the capability of the device was - namely, capable of frying the electronics of computers that were in all the Capitol office buildings - Schriner was not allowed to bring the device into the building.

In his testimony titled "The Design and Fabrication of a Damage Inflicting RF Weapons by 'Back Yard' Methods," Schriner told of how he made one in his own garage.

His point was to show that the low-end technology needed to fashion together an RF weapon was readily available at very reasonable cost. In fact, his testimony went into detail on how a person can fashion such a device in his own home.

Schweitzer similarly had told the congressional Joint Economic Committee that he had challenged a group of young scientists from a national laboratory to devise an RF weapon. He testified that they had gone to a Radio Shack and bought the components needed to make the RF weapon. They then mounted it on top of a minivan.

"I had suggested a pickup truck and they didn't have a pickup truck, so it went on top of a minivan," Schweiter said.

"So, you've got a situation on the one hand where you could put components from Radio Shack inside of a van no bigger than a UPS (United Postal Services) truck with an antenna. And, that's really what an RF weapon often looks like, a radar or antenna showing, and drive it around the Dirksen (Senate Office) Building, make a series of passes over the Pentagon or the White House, or the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration facility out at Langley) and pulse," Schweitzer said.

The FAA facility at Langley, Va., just outside Washington up the George Washington Parkway shares a highly guarded campus with the Central Intelligence Agency.

With a radar loaded in the back of a van or pickup truck, it can be directed at whatever target is intended. Because the radar is directional, it won't have any effect on the vehicle carrying the radar as long as it is pointed away from its electronics.

"You make a number of passes around the building and emit these pulses," Schweitzer said. "They go through concrete walls. Barriers are no resistance to them. And, they will either burn out or upset all of the computers or the electronic gear in the building."

Given such power, it may be able to penetrate the walls at CIA, even though the windows are covered with a fine copper mesh to avoid listening devices picking up on classified conversations inside the buildings.

A surplus radar which operates at a multiple Gigahertz level and capable of reaching out over a thousand kilometers easily can be fashioned into a directional RF weapon.

Schweitzer in his testimony had pointed out that a radar mounted in the back of a truck and aimed toward traffic or buildings would make a very effective RF weapon.

Open source information also has documented how an RF weapon can be used against aircraft in an Intentional Electro Magnetic Interference, or IEMI. In a 2005 technical paper titled "Potential IEMI Threats Against Civilian Air Traffic," D. J. Serafin outlined such a scenario.

"An airport area could be a selected target for (Electro Magnetic) terrorism due to the high concentration of electronics equipment likely to be perturbed by EM threats, so producing broad chaos," Serafin wrote.

Serafin said that the main areas for a terrorist RF attack would be the airport terminal, including registration and transit areas, the traffic control tower, the parking areas for the planes and the touch down and take-off runways.

"Potential targets inside these areas include communication and navigation systems devoted to flight aircraft and safety...as well as computer networks..."

Sarafin gave the scenarios on introducing a small RF weapon concealed inside a suitcase, placed near terminal computer networks and a truck-mounted RF weapon, which could be located near an airport with direct view of the runways with a range extended to 1,000 meters, or the length of three 100-yard football fields.

In the case of Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., like many airports throughout the U.S., such a van or car could park at a lot adjacent to the runway where planes take off or land. On the flight path of the aircraft flying into Reagan National Airport, they fly over the Potomac River coming from the north and either fly across or near Roosevelt Island, which is a U.S. Park Service-administered site complete with woods and deer, with a statute dedicated to the first environmental president, Theodore Roosevelt.

There are many areas on the island in which someone easily could set up a radio-frequency weapon under the cover of a canopy of trees and through the various openings aim the device at aircraft that either are making their approaches or taking off, depending on wind direction.

In his scenario of introducing RF weapons into the area of the airport, Sarafin provided detailed descriptions of the microwave bandwidth, distance and megahertz ranges for the most effect - something which a technically competent terrorist would easily understand and duplicate.

Targets for the RF weapon would include such aircraft equipment as onboard navigation and global positioning systems. Because of the antenna on top of the aircraft's fuselage, these systems would be vulnerable, as would the display unit or computer inside the cockpit.

While the scenario concerned aircraft, there are reports that RF weapons have been used to defeat security systems, disable police communications and disrupt bank computers.

More advanced RF weapons can jam satellites, cause aircraft to crash, create pipeline explosions and large gas spills and cause life-saving medical equipment to malfunction. They also can be used to cause public water systems to malfunction and potentially create flooding as a result.
by Jerome R. Corsi, a Harvard Ph.D., is a WND senior staff reporter. He has authored many books, including No. 1 N.Y. Times best-sellers "The Obama Nation" and "Unfit for Command." Corsi's latest book is "Where's the REAL Birth Certificate?"

NEW YORK - In the wake of the $1.92 billion settlement HSBC reached with the Justice Department, banking experts and customers in India and London have joined U.S. whistleblower John Cruz in demanding criminal prosecution of top HSBC officers and directors globally.

Evidence suggests HSBC has pursued a policy of exploiting and defrauding customers in the developing world to supplement illegal profits obtained in the developed world by working money launderers, terrorists, organized criminals, corrupt public officials and others, as charged by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in a staff report issued at a public hearing July 17.

As WND reported Tuesday, Cruz, who exposed HSBC's money laundering in February in a series of WND stories, called the $1.92 billion fine the U.S. government imposed on HSBC "a joke" and filed a $10 million lawsuit for "retaliation and wrongful termination."

Significantly, the HSBC settlement with the Justice Department announced Tuesday allows all bank officers and directors who may have been aware of or participated in the alleged criminal banking activities to be free of criminal investigation and prosecution in exchange for HSBC agreeing to pay the $1.92 billion fine.

Whistleblowers in India and London are joining Cruz in charging the HSBC settlement amounts to a massive "cover up." Avoiding criminal investigation and prosecution, they say, allows not only HSBC bank officers and directors to avoid further public scrutiny but also any government officials who may have turned a blind eye to HSBC improprieties.

Cruz has insisted to WND that it is impossible to believe HSBC laundered billions of dollars in Mexican drug cartel money, worked with terrorists through affiliate banking operations in Saudi Arabia and circumvented Obama administration banking sanctions against Iran - all activities specifically charged by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations - without the knowledge and perhaps complicity of U.S. government officials in the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the CIA and the NSA in an era in which government officials are capable of reading the emails of ordinary citizens.

With the HSBC settlement announced this week, any criminal investigations under way are officially brought to a halt.

In response to WND's reporting earlier this year of Cruz's evidence, HSBC lodged a complaint that blocked Internet access to one of the WND stories, and senior reporter Jerome Corsi was fired by the New York City investment firm he had worked with for two years as a senior managing director, Gilford Securities.

In June, WND reported evidence Eric Holder's Justice Department has not investigated money-laundering charges in deference to bank clients of his Washington-based law firm, where Holder was a partner prior to joining the Obama administration.

WND reported in October HSBC was engaged in a systematic scheme to defraud citizens of India who live abroad out of billion of dollars in investment accounts, according to an Indian source who provided evidence.

'Demon bank'

In emails to WND, Indian journalist Ajit Ujjainkar has charged HSBC with operating as "an illegal and corrupt" bank that he characterizes as "a demon bank."

Writing in the December 2012 issue of gfiles Magazine, published in India, Ujjainkar charged "the reported money-laundering and terror financing operations run by HSBC bank pose a threat to the safety and integrity of not only the banking industry (in India) but to the security of the country itself."

Ujjainkar further alleges that operating in developing countries like India, HSBC has found profits from laundering money can further be supplemented through various banking schemes aimed at defrauding bank retail customers.

Ujjainkar gave as an example the case of a customer named Ravi Shankhar (not the legendary sitar player who died Tuesday).

"HSBC issued Ravi Shankhar a credit card he neither applied for nor received," he explained to WND. "This did not stop HSBC from asking Shankhar to pay fees for the card and, when Shankhar refused to pay, from selling his name to debt collectors who destroyed Shankhar's credit and blocked him from getting a home loan, even though Shankhar objected he knew nothing about the HSBC credit card."

Shankhar, along with hundreds of other HSBC customers, posted on a website in India set up for complaints against HSBC. The customers found that HSBC banking policies in India are made by management in London. But when Indian customers present formal complaints to London, the London management refuses to solve the problem, choosing instead to respond with form letters.

"Someone has applied (for a) credit card in 2007 on behalf of my pan card copy," Shankhar wrote in a May 16 posting on the site. "And HSBC has issued that card. All mandatory personal detail/information (mother's name, address, etc.) are not matched, except my date of birth. This is a really big blunder fault of HSBC Bank LTD. I have never applied this credit card as well as never seen this card and used this card."

Shankhar continued to explain he applied for a home loan and got a call from his banker, who said that a huge sum had been charged against the credit card and a default statement had been published regarding his account on CIBIL, the Credit Information Bureau Limited, based in India.

Shankhar threatened to sue the bank and make his case public with the media if HSBC did not remove the adverse information from the CIBIL website within two days.

Ujjainkar told WND this particular form of credit card fraud is particularly detrimental to customers in India, a country where a blemish on a person's credit history might block him from ever obtaining credit in the future.

"There is a deep malice in the way the bank operates in India," Ujjainkar claimed.

Ujjainkar said the Department of Justice decision not to prosecute HSBC officers and directors sends an unfortunate message to international bankers around the world.

"Shareholders and customers around the world should demand justice instead of being blinded by the dollar sign," he insisted. "All the U.S. settlement with HSBC accomplished is to send a signal to bankers around the world that crime does pay."

WND previously reported on a scheme in which HSBC allegedly defrauded non-resident Indian customers who were asked to sign open-ended powers of attorney giving HSBC officers in India complete discretionary authority to invest the customers' funds in the Indian stock market.

'Where is the justice?'

London-based HSBC shareholder activist Michael Mason-Mahon shares Ujjainkar's frustration after being stymied by HSBC bank officers in London in hundreds of cases, including that of Ravi Shankar. Since early 2010 he has tried to address grievances and banking irregularities claimed by HSBC customers in India.

"I have found that The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited in London has been abusing customers by the illegal use of CIBIL, refusing to register complaints, threatening customers and demanding money illegally," Mason-Mahon wrote WND in an email.

He said HSBC "has breached all the rules and regulations of the Reserve Bank of India, the Standard Board of India, as well as the Code of Commitment to Customers."

Mason-Mahon, who has charged that Chairman Douglas Flint and the board of directors of HSBC Holdings PLC in London are "fully aware of the criminal behavior of HSBC in India," is also extremely upset that no criminal prosecutions were pursued by the U.S. Justice Department.

The settlement came after an extensive investigation of HSBC by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

"Where is the justice in the $1.92 billion fine the U.S. government charged HSBC?" he asked WND. "This is just shareholders' money to a man like Douglas Flint, the chairman of HSBC Holdings in London. Why not suspend the bank's license to operate in the United States for a year or two?"

Mason-Mahon told WND he had supplied attorneys with Democratic Sen. Carl Levin's committee with information about alleged criminal behavior by HSBC in India, although no reference to his allegations can be found in the 334-page staff report issued by the committee at its public hearing July 17.

"Sen. Levin's subcommittee seems completely unaware that HSBC merely factored in to its international business plan the $2 billion fine the U.S. government imposed on the bank," he said. "To HSBC internationally, even a fine of this magnitude was simply considered the cost of doing business when the bank had no intention of complying with rules and regulations."

Negligible fine

Cruz and WND handed over to Department of Homeland Security bank-fraud experts 1,000 pages of customer accounts documenting alleged money laundering activity. Along with the records copied from HSBC computers before he was fired, Cruz made audio recordings of more than a dozen HSBC bank officers admitting their knowledge and participation in the money laundering scheme.

In emails and interviews with WND, Cruz disputes the statement Tuesday made by Sen. Levin that the HSBC settlement "sends a powerful wake-up call to multinational banks about the consequences of disregarding their anti-money laundering obligations."

Cruz told WND that HSBC "reserved $2 billion to pay these fines years ago."

He argued that a fine even of that magnitude was negligible, compared to the profits HSBC made laundering money for drug cartels and terrorist groups and violating U.S. sanctions against doing business with Iran.

Levin's subcommittee has evidence supporting Cruz's claim.

On page 2 of the July 17 report, the Senate Permanent Investigating Subcommittee's staff noted HSBC is "one of the largest financial institutions in the world, with over $2.5 trillion in assets, 89 million customers, 300,000 employees, and 2011 profits of nearly $22 billion."
Man who knew him says new movie project 'Genius' gets it right

Conducting interviews on this topic is the author of the new book "The Beatles, God and the Bible" as well as a new video, "Genius," Ray Comfort.

Guest Profile and Information Click Here: http://superstore.wnd.com/The-Beatles-God-and-the-Bible-AutographedHardcover-Genius-DVD-BUNDLE

The man called upon by the Beatles to run their record division, and named as the U.S. manager of their Apple Records beginning in 1968, says a new short movie project, "Genius," gets the story right about John Lennon.

The project, by evangelist Ray Comfort, has been described as a new and chilling movie on the life and tragic murder of Lennon.

"It's chilling because it reveals what people will do for money," said Comfort. "There are ordinary people out there who would kill you. All they need is the right money and the belief that they won't get caught."

Just before he was murdered, John Lennon told Playboy magazine that he didn't want to die at 40. Ironically the famous singer was gunned down at the age of 40 by a man who killed him just because he wanted to become famous.

"John Lennon was a musical genius," says Comfort. "All I have to do is think of some of his songs and even the titles make me feel good...and I'm not the only one. His music has crossed cultures and even generations. The Beatles have sold more than 2,303,500,000 record albums, and in June of 2012 they hit number one on iTunes. They are as big now as they ever were and they're half dead - with the tragic loss of Lennon and Harrison."

Ken Mansfield, who was a member of the Beatles inner sanctum for years and was on top of the Apple building in London as the Fab Four played for the last time, said, "'Genius' will open your eyes."

He says he knew the real John Lennon, and "That's who we have portrayed in 'Genius' - the real John Lennon."

Comfort said, "It has twists and turns that you don't expect. 'Genius' shows another unheard of side of John Lennon and that will certainly 'open your eyes,' as Ken Mansfield so aptly said."

The movie was released for free viewing on GeniusTheMovie.com. and is available online.

Scheduled for release this weekend is the companion book written by Comfort,
"The Beatles, God and the Bible."

The book and video are in the tradition of his stunning "1803 short feature that accompanied Comfort's "Hitler, God and the Bible."

Not too many people know that John Lennon met Paul McCartney while at a church function, or that John was a choirboy. Nor do they know that at the height of their fame in 1965, all four Beatles professed to be atheists.

Yet in 1980, John had moved from proudly stating that they were more popular than Jesus, to humbly saying: "I'm a most religious fellow ... I was brought up a Christian, and I only now understand some of the things that Christ was saying in those parables." As a young man, George Harrison wrote, "I want to find God. I'm not interested in material things, this world, fame - I'm going for the real goal." Later in life, Ringo Starr said, "For me, God is in my life. I don't hide from that." In the 1990s, Paul McCartney said, "I'm not religious, but I'm very spiritual." He prayed for his wife when she was having trouble giving birth to their daughter, and his 2001 song "Freedom" spoke of freedom as "a right given by God."

Little has been said of the spiritual side of the world's most famous music group. "The Beatles, God, and the Bible" changes that with its unique and fascinating insight into the spirituality of the Fab Four.

Mansfield also wrote the forward for the book.

Ray Comfort is the founder/president/CEO of Living Waters Publications. From humble beginnings, the ministry has become internationally recognized, reaching the lost and equipping Christians with every necessary resource to fulfill the great commission. In addition to his main ministry, Ray is co-host (with Kirk Cameron) of the award-winning television program "The Way of the Master," which airs in 70 countries around the world. He also co-hosts a daily radio program by the same name, airing on the Sirius Satellite Radio Network and hundreds of terrestrial stations. Ray is a bestselling author of more than 60 books. He and his wife, Sue, live in Southern California, where they have three grown children.

http://www.wnd.com/2012/12/the-real-john-lennon-revealed-at-last/#AvAExMI1v1mTBB36.99
(Politico) - Bo, come out, come out wherever you are! America needs to see more of you.

That's the opinion of Kathleen Kinsolving, the author of the new book, "Dogs of War," which looks at the pooches of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Gen. George Patton and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

"I don't think he gets as much attention as Barney and Miss Beazley," said Kinsolving, referring to the previous administration's dogs. "I think they need to think of something for Bo to do, like the way the Bushes had the 'Barney Cam.' Barney was featured on magazine covers with Laura Bush. I think the Obamas could include Bo more."

Besides providing first families with magazine covers and cute photo-ops, dogs can also serve presidents within the walls of the White House.

Discussing the dogs of Roosevelt, Patton and Eisenhower, Kinsolving said, "I really think that these three dogs played an instrumental role in helping defeat Hitler."

Huh?

"These animals are incredibly beneficial to humans as a stress reliever," said Kinsolving. "Can you imagine the stress and pressure those leaders were under? It's great to read about powerful leaders having a soft place in their hearts for their dogs and how that helped them run the country even better."

Problem is, presidential dogs today just ain't what they used to be.

"We're living in a very divisive time in our country, politically, and I just thought that, with World War II, the country was more unified," she said. "It was the greatest generation, and i just thought this would be a nice respite for people, that they could go back and enjoy some nostalgia."

Even though the selection of presidential animals, nowadays, seems to be preceded by their own political focus groups, Kinsolving says that modern pets just can't hold a candle to Roosevelt's.

"Fala is considered the most famous of all the presidential pets," said Kinsolving. "He has a statue erected at the FDR Memorial!"
The nation is commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War, but General Patrick Brady says that the real story of the conflict is not being told. In his new book, "Dead Men Flying: Victory in Viet Nam - The Legend of Dust Off, America's Battlefield Angels" (Release date: October 9, 2012), General Brady reveals that America achieved a victory unparalleled in the history of warfare through its humanitarian efforts.

General Brady, a recipient of the Medal of Honor who is considered by some pundits to be America's most decorated living veteran, writes that humanitarianism was the great untold story of the Vietnam War. American soldiers risked their lives not just for each other but for the Vietnamese people, sometimes even enemy soldiers.

At the heart of this effort was "Dust Off," the helicopter rescue program that was the most dangerous of all aviation operations. General Brady headed the 54th Medical Detachment, which rescued thousands of both enemy and friendly personnel while accumulating 26 Purple Hearts.

The selfless bravery of helicopter rescue pilots has often been overlooked in histories of the Vietnam War that present the conflict as an endless series of carnage. However, General Brady exposes the perseverance of compassion, courage, and faith even in the midst of war.

He also shows how air ambulance operations were critical to the morale of American soldiers in Vietnam and how he had to fight to maintain the autonomy of "Dust Off" as a separate unit. Even today, the controversy continues as bureaucrats attempt to remove air medical rescue's ability to operate as distinct units. The story of "Dust Off" is more relevant than ever.

"Dead Men Flying" is a new perspective on the Vietnam War, an insightful study of airborne military operations, and a tale of courage and sacrifice that no American can afford to ignore.

Major General Pat Brady served over 34 years in the Army in duty stations across the world: In Berlin during the building of the Wall; as commander of the DMZ in Korea; in the Dominican Republic; in the Pentagon as chief spokesman for the Army and for 2 years in Vietnam. In two tours in Vietnam he rescued over 5000 wounded and flew over 2500 combat missions. He is identified in the Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War as the top helicopter pilot in that war and is one of two Vietnam soldiers to earn both the Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Service Cross, our nation's second highest award.

His awards include : Two Distinguished Service Medals; the Defense Superior Service Medal: the Legion of Merit; six Distinguished Flying Crosses; two Bronze Stars, one for valor; the Purple Heart and 53 Air Medals, one for valor. He is a member of both the Army Aviation and Dust Off Halls of Fame. Brady is a former president of the Medal of Honor Society and a past Commissioner of the Battle Monuments Commission during the construction of the WWII memorial. General Brady has a bachelor's degree in psychology from Seattle University and an MBA from Notre Dame University.
Conducting interviews on this topic is the senior staff writer for WND and the author of new book The Great Oil Conspiracy: How the U.S. Government Hid the Nazi Discovery of Abiotic Oil from the American People, Dr. Jerome Corsi.

Guest Profile and Information, Click Here: http://superstore.wnd.com/books/The-Great-Oil-Conspiracy-How-the-U-S-Government-Hid-the-Nazi-Discovery-of-Abiotic-Oil-from-the-Am

Website adjusts major surveys by 'removing Democratic Party bias'

WND
by Jerome R. Corsi

Arguing that most of the major polls reported by establishment media are "skewed" in favor of the Democratic Party and incumbent Barack Obama, a website contends that a true gauge of the presidential race, based on more realistic models, shows Republican challenger Mitt Romney leading by an average of nearly eight points.

In its daily readjustment of the polling data, UnskewedPoll.com also produces a table showing the spread in President Obama's approval/disapproval ratio is an average of 8.8 percent more disapproval, as of Monday.

Not a single major poll or approval/disapproval index favors Obama when Unskewed.com's analysis is applied.

The website says there is Democratic bias in polling because of over-sampling Democrats based on voter exit polls in the 2008 presidential election, when enthusiasm for a then relatively unknown but charismatic presidential candidate boosted Democratic Party voter registration and turnout to historic levels.

Link to Polls: http://www.wnd.com/files/2012/09/UNSKEWED-POLLS-Sept-24-2012.jpg

Republicans have complained that the establishment media's voter-turnout models can serve a partisan purpose by presenting margins that keep discouraged Republican voters at home thinking the election is already lost.

Signs Obama losing

Despite the establishment media narrative that the Romney campaign is behind and in disarray, there are abundant signs the Obama campaign is behind and scrambling not to lose further ground:

On Saturday, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina insisted to reporters that despite national polls showing Romney and Obama locked in a tie, Obama is still winning.

WND reported last week Obama's chief financier, Penny Pritzker, has entered the Hawaii housing market to buy a retirement home for the president and his family that will be available not in 2016, but in January 2013.

On the eve of the opening session of the General Assembly, the Obama administration's Middle Eastern policy appears to be imploding in the wake of the murder of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens in an attack that intelligence sources believe was coordinated by jihadists tied to al-Qaida. The administration, nevertheless, insisted the attack was a response to an anti-Muslim movie trailer produced in the U.S.

Initial jobless claims for the week ending Sept. 15 were a seasonally adjusted 382,000, exceeding forecasts of 375,000, suggesting no improvement in the percentage of Americans unemployed could be anticipated before the November election, as reported by Wall Street Journal Market Watch.

Politico has reported that in the latest Politico-George Washington University Battleground Poll with middle-class families, which constitute approximately 54 percent of the electorate and usually split their vote between Democratic and Republican candidates, Romney holds a 14-point advantage, 55 percent to 41 percent.

http://www.wnd.com/2012/09/unskewed-polls-show-nearly-8-point-romney-lead/
First, kudos to Mitt Romney for choosing Paul Ryan as his running mate. Now, the danger: Romney, Ryan, their surrogates, their supporters and the American people will continue to treat election 2012 as just another contest to determine whose hand is at the helm of state for the next four years.

No, this election is for keeps. If Barack Obama doesn't lose his bid for a second term, he and his vast, left-wing support network of Marx-inspired think tanks, strategists and elected officials will fulfill Obama's 2008 campaign promise to "fundamentally" transform this nation, thus bringing the American experiment in liberty to what could be the final curtain.

This is not idle hyperbole. I have just finished Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliott's chilling new book, "Fool Me Twice: Obama's Shocking Plans for the Next Four Years Exposed" (WND Books). I recommend it as must-reading for all Americans, but particularly for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. In their run for the White House, the GOP standard-bearers don't seem to realize what they are up against - and, by extension, what lies in store for us all if they are not victorious in November.

"Fool Me Twice" is Klein and Elliott's third in-depth political study of Obama. "The Manchurian President" (2010) examines Obama's lifelong ties to anti-American radicals; "Red Army" (2011) explores Obama White House links to the Marx-inspired policy world where, in research papers and "progressive" legislation, the foundations of Obamacare, for example, went unnoticed for years before being passed in 2010.

Having learned to track the left's policymaking subculture, the authors now turn to what an Obama second term likely holds. To this end, they examined thousands of documents, including initiatives from the Center for American Progress, or CAP (the Obama administration's "idea factory," as Time magazine calls it); sundry pieces of legislation introduced by "progressives" in Congress; and both well-known promises and little-known executive orders issued by Obama himself. The book-length result is what Klein describes as "the secret template for Obama's next four years - the one actually created by Obama's own top advisers and strategists."

In meticulous detail, the authors lay out the plans of Obama and his allies to, among other things: reconceive of U.S. defense as a fight against "climate change," national sovereignty and other leftist bogeymen; "green"-ify the U.S. energy industry; open U.S. borders and register illegal aliens who are soon to be given amnesty by Obama (and who overwhelmingly vote Democrat); and, of course, move to a single-payer government health-care system. From the morass of technical jargon and policy wonkdom the authors sift through emerges a terrifyingly sharp image of centralized federal control of practically everything - even political dissent on the airwaves via the so-called Fairness Doctrine.

This not-so-nascent form of totalitarian power is what the 2012 election is all about. Whether they realize it - and they don't - Americans are about to decide whether to empower the increasingly dictatorial executive branch of Barack Hussein Obama, whose future plans to distort "checks and balances" promises to transform the U.S. government out of all recognition, or to break the momentum of government centralization by electing Romney-Ryan.

Most Americans, ill-served by mum media and silent politicians, will be shocked at the executive branch usurpation of powers Klein and Elliott describe as being in the hopper, and always at the expense of the people through the steady attrition of congressional powers. For example, there are plans "to wrest budgetary control from Congress" of Pentagon purse strings and vest them in an "independent panel," and ideas to strip Congress of its powers over immigration by empowering a White House panel to allocate all visas. Other centralizing and, in fact, truly fascist ideas afoot include plans for a federal "green bank," which would use taxpayer dollars to finance "clean" energy companies (such as the notorious and now-bankrupt company Solyndra), as well as a national infrastructure "bank," which, as the authors put it, "would concentrate even more power in Washington while creating a giant cesspool for government cronyism and corruption."

All of which is to say, this election is not merely about jobs or deficit spending or fixing Medicare, as the Romney-Ryan ticket would have us believe. Such blinkers only lull the electorate into complacency and, worse, preserve the Obama machine's politics-as-usual cover.

Election 2012 is anything but politics as usual. It is an existential crisis. For many reasons, I would vote for my dog over Obama-Biden, not least of which is that she always warns me of danger. Romney-Ryan must find the courage and love of country to do the same.

www.wnd.com/2012/08/why-republics-fate-really-does-hang-on-election/


ABOUT YOUR GUEST: Aaron Klein is a New York Times bestselling author, journalist and radio host. He is senior reporter for WND and hosts "Aaron Klein Investigative Radio" on New York's WABC Radio, the nation's largest talk station. Klein's program is one of only two weekend shows in the U.S. to make the Talkers Heavy Hundred official list of top American radio shows. His previous books include Red Army, The Manchurian President, The Late Great State of Israel and Schmoozing with Terrorists.

ABOUT YOUR GUEST: Brenda J. Elliott is an award-winning historian, researcher and New York Times bestselling author. She is the blogger who created RezkoWatch (RW), TheRealBarackObama (RBO) and RBO2. She has appeared on hundreds of radio shows, contributed to numerous investigative articles and publications and is the co-author of Red Army and The Manchurian President.
Conducting interviews on this topic is the author of Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance, Pamela Geller.

Author Profile and Information, Click Here: http://superstore.wnd.com/books/Current-Affairs/Stop-the-Islamization-of-America-A-Practical-Guide-To-The-Resistance-Autographed-Hardcover

***FROM WND BOOKS***

You've seen the reports:

A police officer is told to attend an Islamic religious service at a new mosque, and is punished for refusing.

A major airline confirms it is setting up new service, and it involves discriminating on U.S. soil against Jews and others.

A popular and prominent radio talk show host is pushed out because he won't follow instructions to ease up on criticism of Islam.

A court has to intervene before ads can be posted offering an option for religious choice - in the United States.

And Christians are arrested for talking about their faith on public property.

What would you do in any of these scenarios?

"The First Amendment's free-speech guarantee is central to America's character and our fundamental liberties. Equally important, and stemming from the same philosophical roots, is the amendment's twinned protection of religious freedom and its prohibition of establishing religion," said John R. Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

"These pillars of liberty are under attack around the world, and even here in America. If you want to preserve the Constitution, read this book."

In the United Kingdom, signs have been going up in neighborhoods occupied mostly by Muslims that "Shariah," the religion's own law, is being "enforced."

The book explains how Americans need a strategy to defend the rights and freedoms that are guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution - but denied by Islamic law.

It is called a "practical primer for patriots" - and offers the fruit of a veteran national activist's years of experience fighting Islamic supremacist efforts.

Author Geller is the founder, editor and publisher of AtlasShrugs.com and executive director of the American Freedom Defense Initiative and Stop Islamization of America. She is author of the acclaimed book "The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America" with Robert Spencer. She is a regular columnist for WorldNetDaily, Andrew Breitbart's Big Government and Big Journalism, the American Thinker, and other publications.

After leading the fight against the Ground Zero Mosque in 2010, Geller received the Annie Taylor Award for Courage from the David Horowitz Freedom Center. She has been profiled on 60 Minutes and in the New York Times, and has appeared on NBC Nightly News, ABC, CNN, the Sean Hannity Show, the Bill O'Reilly Show, Geraldo, the Mike Huckabee show, and many other programs.

Among the revelations in this book:

Startling new information about the full extent of Muslim Brotherhood infiltration in the Department of Justice, and its brazen pro-Muslim activities, including its "Monthly Outreach Meetings" with Muslim and Arab groups at the Civil Rights Division - and the Muslim Brotherhood's goal of "eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within."

Close ties between the Justice Department and the Islamic Society of North America, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and the Muslim Students Association - all linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.

The connections of the organizers of the Ground Zero Mosque to the Muslim Brotherhood.

How the Justice Department is fighting for Shariah in the U.S.

How public officials in Detroit, New York, San Francisco and elsewhere are kowtowing to Islamic supremacists' demands to curtail free speech about Islam.

Islamic schools that receive public money - right here in the U.S.

How the meat you buy at your local supermarket could be halal - even though it is not labeled or advertised as such.

Lt. Gen Jerry Boykin, former U.S. Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, and author of "Never Surrender: A Soldier's Journey to the Crossroads of Faith and Freedom," said, "Americans are searching for ways to get involved in stopping the encroachment of Shariah law on the U.S. Constitution and the takeover of our nation by the Muslim Brotherhood. Pamela Geller provides practical steps for every American to get involved in stopping the attack on our nation by the forces of evil. I hope that every concerned American reads and heads this book."

"This book fills an urgent need. Pamela Geller has brought together all her experience fighting the stealth jihad and Islamization to create the first practical guide to stopping the spread of Shariah and Islamic supremacism in America. Every patriot, everyone who loves the freedom we enjoy in America, must get this book and use it to equip themselves for the great struggle that lies ahead," said Wafa Sultan, a former Muslim and the author of "A God Who Hates."

Read more: Stopping Islamic supremacists: A how-to guide that works http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=329517#ixzz1WZqlU4Cf


ABOUT YOUR GUEST: Pamela Geller is the founder, editor, and publisher of AtlasShrugs.com. She is the executive director of Stop Islamization of America (SIOA), as well as the Freedom Defense Initiative (FDI), and is a regular columnist for WND, the American Thinker, Human Events, and other publications. She is the author of "The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America."


ABOUT THE BOOK: How can we defend America against Islamic supremacist encroachment?

In Stop the Islamization of America, renowned activist Pamela Geller provides the answer, offering proven, practical guidance on how freedom lovers can stop jihadist initiatives in local communities.

Today Islamic supremacists are demanding more accommodation of Islamic principles and practices than ever, and daily growing more aggressive in eroding our freedoms-with politically correct public officials only too happy to oblige them. Speaking from the fruit of her experience as the national leader of the fight against the Ground Zero mega-mosque and numerous other initiatives, Geller's guidebook provides a much-needed wake-up call about a sinister agenda that could do nothing less than destroy the United States - with unique instructions about how we can, and must, fight back now to defend our nation and civilization.

Packed with current information drawn from Geller's front-line experience in the struggle against Islamist organizations and creeping Shariah in the United States, Stop the Islamization of America is an indispensable guidebook for everyone committed to defending American liberty.

Here is just a small sampling of what you'll find in this book:

*Startling new information about the full extent of Muslim Brotherhood infiltration in the Department of Justice, and its brazen pro-Muslim activities, including its "Monthly Outreach Meetings" with Muslim and Arab groups at the Civil Rights Division -- and the 14,000 documents the DOJ won't release that reveal the full, shocking extent of this cooperation.

* A primer for protest against Islamic supremacist mosques and other initiatives in your local area.

* A primer for how freedom fighters can deal with an adversarial media.

* The shocking details of the travesty that is the 9/11 victims memorial, which is planning to put the unidentified remains of 9/11 victims seven stories underground inside a museum that charges admission -- and which will include lavish profiles (above ground, of course) of the 9/11 hijackers.

* The Sheepshead Bay mosque initiative and other mega-mosque initiatives nationwide: the sinister forces behind them and their insidious agenda.

* Never-before-released details of the Islamic honor murders of the Texas teenagers Amina and Sarah Said.

* The American Bar Association's coverup of its work to resist anti-Sharia initiatives.

* The Islamic schools that receive public money.

* The truth behind Virginia's failing to mail military ballots in time for them to be counted in the election of 2008.

* Links between the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and the Islamic Society of North America, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and the Muslim Students Association.

Product Details:
*Hardcover: 198 pages
*Publisher: WND Books (September 6, 2011)
*Language: English
*ISBN: 978-1-936488-36-0