Jan. 7
Ford Motor Company — whose founder, Henry Ford, was a noted anti-Semite and Hitler admirer — has long insisted that it did not manufacture war goods for Nazi Germany after the US entered the war. Not true, reports frequent MoJo contributor Ken Silverstein in THE NATION.
New documents reveal that, as late as the attack on Pearl Harbor, Ford’s US headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan was making substantial profits from the European manufacture of Third Riech war toys. Ford insists that, after the US joined the war in early 1941, the Nazis seized its German factory and cut Dearborn out of the loop.
The US government knew about US Ford’s collaboration at the time. A US Army report prepared in 1945 says that German Ford served as an “arsenal of Nazism” with the consent of the firm’s US headquarters. And according to a Treasury Department report from the same era, the Ford family encouraged Ford of France assist German occupiers, and the plant did so well after the US joined the war.
—KS
NATO’s deadly Kosovo deception
Jan. 6
After two NATO missiles hit a passenger train during the Kosovo war last April, killing 14 civilians, the alliance showed the world video tapes from missile-mounted cameras to “prove” that the strike was an accident caused by the fact that the train was traveling too fast for the pilot to avert his first missile. Trouble is, those films were shown at three times their actual speed, the German newspaper FRANKFURTER RUNDSCHAU reports.
According to a follow-up story by the AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, NATO acknowledges the mistake, claiming they became aware of it last October but didn’t tell the public. A NATO spokesman told AFP that the tape speed increase was caused by a “technical problem.”
See for yourself! Video of the first strike (still speeded-up) can be found here (it takes a while to download).
http://www.f-r.de/english/401/t401013.htm
—JB
Jan. 5
Sinister hackers get all the bad press, but the biggest threats to companies’ computer systems are actually their own disgruntled cubicle dwellers — followed by their corporate competitors.
APBNEWS.COM reports that a new survey by a New York security firm shows that 35 percent of proprietary information stolen from US corporate computers is lifted by unscrupulous employees. Other companies, domestic and foreign, swipe another 29 percent. Those much-maligned hackers come in a sorry third, with 28 per cent. Total losses: some $42 million last year.
http://www.apbnews.com:80/newscenter/internetcrime/…
—VB
Jan. 04
The prescription drug naloxone has proven to be a life-saver for heroin users, reports the VILLAGE VOICE. Injections of the drug have reputedly resuscitated several overenthusiastic smackheads who were on the brink of a fatal overdose.
Most experts agree that naloxone is not dangerous. So why isn’t it being handed out out at needle exchanges and service agencies to prevent overdose deaths?
Predictably, drug-phobic bureaucrats argue that making naloxone available would encourage the use of heroin by making it seem safer. Others say that the medical establishment just doesn’t like non-physicians (like most heroin addicts and their friends, for example) intervening in life-and-death medical situations. But don’t hold your breath waiting for flocks of concerned doctors with syringes at the ready to show up on city street corners.
—JG
Jan. 3
When Jordan recently bought 42 metric tons of wheat from the United States, it didn’t expect it to come quite as, uh, enriched as it did. According to the WASHINGTON POST, the shipment arrived last month containing 57 mice, 13 birds, seven toads, one rat and one snakeskin (the snake seems to have escaped).
Many Jordanians have complained that the US was trying to pawn off cheap grain unsuitable for human consumption on its Arab ally. Jordan’s population has struggled with shortages of bread in recent years, and the US donates 300,000 tons of wheat yearly to the country to help alleviate the problem. No extra charge for the critters, either.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…
—BSB
