New Hampshire Health News Digest

Yahoo! News - War Making Headlines, but Peace Breaks Out : "The chilling sights and sounds of war fill newspapers and television screens worldwide, but war itself is in decline, peace researchers report. In fact, the number killed in battle has fallen to its lowest point in the post-World War II period, dipping below 20,000 a year by one measure. Peacemaking missions, meantime, are growing in number. 'International engagement is blossoming,' said American scholar Monty G. Marshall. 'There's been an enormous amount of activity to try to end these conflicts.' For months the battle reports and casualty tolls from Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news - web sites) have put war in the headlines, but Swedish and Canadian non-governmental groups tracking armed conflict globally find a general decline in numbers from peaks in the 1990s. The authoritative Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, in a 2004 Yearbook report obtained by The ...

Socializing the introvert 'Might be hereditary' Although there aren’t any studies that show how introversion originates, Olsen Laney said it might be hereditary. “I do think it’s genetic, because there are countries (where many people) are introverted,” she said, citing Japan as an example. “There are actually are genes that decide which neurotransmitter your brain is using, and then decides which pathway your brain goes down.” Introverts and extroverts have very different thought pathways. * The extrovert is known for the “fight-or-flight” personality, which involves information shooting toward emotional parts of the brain and then being stored in the short-term memory. * Introverted personalities tend to run on a “rest-and-digest” route, where information is considered more analytically and is deposited in long-term memory. “One system is focused on our inside world and another (on) the outside world,” she said. “We have and need both those system...

Zarqawi’s Disk Demonstrates Suicide’s Pre-Nuptial Rites Many thousands of copies of a professionally produced CD-rom are being circulated in Iraq and Kuwait on behalf of al Qaeda’s man in Iraq, the Jordanian terror master Abu Musab Zarqawi. Iraqi interim prime minister Iyad Allawi is singled out as prime target. The 45-minute disk appears to be aimed at recruiting fighters. It shows footage of al Qaeda’s most striking terrorist attacks in Iraq, runs interviews with suicide bombers and airs war and religious hymns. Zarqawi is the narrator. He personally interviews his “star turn”, Abdel al Dusari, whose nom de guerre is “Abu Haras,” for a step-by-step demonstration of how a suicide terrorist goes about his mission, first stepping into a bomb truck, then connecting the detonator strapped to his body to the explosive charge, before driving off. When and how he pushes the button at the target location is explained. Zarqawi speaks of “raids,” using Prophet Mohammed’s term for hi...

National Post Montreal man downed U.S. Plane, CSIS told 'Farouk the Tunisian' involved, al-Qaeda say, but officials insist crash was accidental : "A captured al-Qaeda operative has told Canadian intelligence investigators that a Montreal man who trained in Afghanistan alongside the 9/11 hijackers was responsible for the crash of an American Airlines flight in New York three years ago. Canadian Security Intelligence Service agents were told during five days of interviews with the source that Abderraouf Jdey, a Canadian citizen also known as Farouk the Tunisian, had downed the plane with explosives on Nov. 12, 2001. The source claimed Jdey had used his Canadian passport to board Flight 587 and "conducted a suicide mission" with a small bomb similar to the one used by convicted shoe bomber Richard Reid, a "Top Secret" Canadian government report says. But officials said it was unlikely Jdey was actually involved in the crash, which killed 26...

CBS News | FBI Probes Pentagon Spy Case | August 27, 2004 : "CBS News has learned that the FBI has a full-fledged espionage investigation under way and is about to -- in FBI terminology -- 'roll up' someone agents believe has been spying not for an enemy, but for Israel from within the office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon. 60 Minutes Correspondent Lesley Stahl reports the FBI believes it has 'solid' evidence that the suspected mole supplied Israel with classified materials that include secret White House policy deliberations on Iran. At the heart of the investigation are two people who work at The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a powerful pro-Israel lobby in Washington. "

ABCNEWS.com : Bush, McCain Discuss Ads by Outside Groups : "LAS CRUCES, N.M. Aug. 26, 2004 — President Bush wants to work with Republican Sen. John McCain to go to court against political ads by "shadowy" outside groups, the White House said Thursday amid growing pressure on the president to denounce attacks on John Kerry's war record. "We want to pursue court action," Bush spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to New Mexico. "The president said if the court action doesn't work, that he would be willing to pursue legislative action with Sen. McCain on that........" Bush has criticized all outside group attack ads, including the Swift Boat Veterans group's first commercial. He has said he wants the ads to stop, but has not explicitly condemned the charges made in the Swift Boat ad. It wasn't immediately clear whether the court action envisioned by the Bush team would target all outside ads, ...

Human chips more than skin-deep- There's not a lot of middle ground on the subject of implanting electronic identification chips in humans. Safety has been a primary driver in some U.S. applications as well. An Arizona company called Technology Systems International, for example, says it has improved security in prisons with an RFID-like system for inmates and guards. The company's products came out in 2001 and are based on technology licensed from Motorola, which created it for the U.S. military to find gear lost in battle. TSI's wristbands for inmates transmit signals every two seconds to a battery of antennas mounted in the prison facility. By examining the time the signal is received by each antenna, a computer can determine the exact location of each prisoner at any given time and can reconstruct prisoners' movements later, if necessary to investigate their actions. Since the technology was installed at participating prisons, violence is down up to 60 per...

Asia Pakistan turns on itself By Syed Saleem Shahzad KARACHI - Under immense pressure from the United States, a slow and gradual operation has begun in Pakistan against the strongest political voice of Islamists and the real mother of international Islamic movements, of which Osama bin Laden's International Islamic Front is the spoiled child. In a surprise move this week, Pakistan's federal minister of the interior, Faisal Saleh Hayat, listed a number of incidences in which members of the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), the premier fundamentalist party in the country, had been tied to al-Qaeda, and called on it to "explain these links". "It is a matter of concern that Jamaat-e-Islami, which is a main faction of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal [MMA], has neither dissociated itself from its activists having links with the al-Qaeda network nor condemned their activities," Faisal said, adding that "one could derive a meaning out of its silence". T...

Saddam agents on Syria border helped move banned materials - The Washington Times: : "Saddam Hussein periodically removed guards on the Syrian border and replaced them with his own intelligence agents who supervised the movement of banned materials between the two countries, U.S. investigators have discovered. The recent discovery by the Bush administration's Iraq Survey Group (ISG) is fueling speculation, but is not proof, that the Iraqi dictator moved prohibited weapons of mass destruction (WMD) into Syria before the March 2003 invasion by a U.S.-led coalition. Two defense sources told The Washington Times that the ISG has interviewed Iraqis who told of Saddam's system of dispatching his trusted Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) to the border, where they would send border inspectors away. The shift was followed by the movement of trucks in and out of Syria suspected of carrying materials banned by U.N. sanctions. Once the shipments were made, the agent...

Robot with attitude: Armed with shotgun, WMD sensor Special to World Tribune.com GEOSTRATEGY-DIRECT.COM Monday, August 16, 2004 The U.S. Army has been testing a robot armed with a pump-action shotgun for counter-insurgency missions. The unit has already seen action in Iraq. In combat, the PackBot can be equipped with a pump-action shotgun system capable of recycling and remote firing. A soldier controls the robot through a joystick and receives streaming video from a front-mounted camera transmitting to a personal digital assistant, or PDA. The PackBot also comes equipped with a nuclear, biological and chemical sensor package capable of detecting a wide range of NBC contaminants. An infrared camera lens enables the robot to operate in low-light conditions as well. The PackBot has been tested by the 29th Infantry Regiment at Fort Benning, Ga. as part of the unit's new experimental force platoon. The PackBot weighs about 40 pounds and is propelled by heavy-duty trac...

My Way News-Olympic opening ceremonies. : "Behind him more than 10,500 athletes streamed into the stadium. There was huge applause for Afghanistan on its return to Olympic competition after an eight-year absence and with its first female athletes. The entrance of the more than 500-member U.S. team - led by basketball guard Dawn Staley - drew cheers. But some people also stood and put their thumbs down in an apparent show of displeasure for the war in Iraq. Moments later, the Iraqis entered to a roaring ovation."

Terrorism & Security | csmonitor.com Road to Al Qaeda runs through Pakistan Computer files show web of terrorist contacts reaches from Pakistan to US and Britain. by Jim Bencivenga | csmonitor.com The spotlight on Al Qaeda's plans to target big banks and financial icons in New York, Washington, and London, as well as the discovery of a terror cell intent on bombing Heathrow Airport, is about to get brighter. And as it does, Pakistan will in turn come under its glare as the United States and England rachet up efforts to crush Al Qaeda, reports the Times of India. Pakistan is "widely seen as the ground zero of terrorism," and a "flurry of arrests over the last 48 hours of suspected Al Qaeda elements, all of whose trail leads back to Pakistan," further confirms this, reports the Times. CNN reports that the recent arrests "have exposed an intricate web of Al Qaeda contacts in which the terror network's operational information flowed among ...

Where in Washington, D.C. is Sun Myung Moon?: Rev. Moon's submarines, sold to Kim Jong-Il: nuke threat? : "Rev. Moon's submarines, sold to Kim Jong-Il: nuke threat? Left: North Korean propaganda poster NOTE: Please see Thursday's post for an important clarification. Jane's Defense Weekly is reporting this week that Kim Jong-Il, unstable North Korean dictator (I wrote about his kidnapping habit in the British Guardian) may be able to target California with sea-launched missiles. His know-how, the Reuters story relates [Reiteration added Aug. 3: I said his know-how, not actual launching platforms], comes from 12 ex-Soviet submarines that fell into his hands. They came with their original launch tubes and stabilizing gear intact. Where does Kim get those wonderful toys? Funny story: According to U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency documents from 1994 (which you can browse here), they were furnished by Reverend Moon. Robert Parry, the ace reporter who broke...

FOXNews.com - U.S. & World - Iraq Evidence Led Feds to Albany Mosque ALBANY, N.Y. — Information found in Iraq led federal investigators to become suspicious of an Albany, N.Y., mosque leader, FOX News has learned. Last summer, U.S. troops discovered Yassin Muhhiddin Aref's (search) name, telephone number and address in a book left behind in a vacated terrorist training camp, a U.S. official told FOX News. The book also revealed that Ansar al-Islam, the group running the camp, had given Aref a title: "the commander." Aref, 34, is the Imam of the Masjid As-Salam mosque in Albany, N.Y. He and one other mosque leader were arrested Thursday and charged with helping an undercover informant posing as a weapons dealer who was plotting to buy a shoulder-launched missile that would be used to kill the Pakistani ambassador in New York City.

Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: Where's the Shining Armor? -- New technology aims to better protect soldiers and vehicles in Iraq : "Americans may view their soldiers as knights in shining armor, but in Iraq, soldiers are often short on protection, particularly while riding their mechanized steeds. As casualties rise, the Pentagon is rushing to equip its soldiers and vehicles with new and better armor. In the short term, soldiers will get body armor upgrades that better guard previously vulnerable areas like the groin and sides of the body. Some vehicles, meanwhile, will be getting special reactive armor designed to thwart rocket attacks. In the long term, however, a soldier's best protection may come from new technologies being developed by military laboratories such as the Office of Naval Research and the Army Research Laboratory. The shortage of effective armor for troops serving in Iraq borders on the scandalous. Body armor has been in such ...

Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: New Peacekeeping Vehicle? : "Critics contend that the military needs fast, well-protected armored cars like those used by many foreign armies for low-intensity conflicts such as those in Iraq. Heavily armored track vehicles are too slow, but neither is the current crop of wheeled vehicles well suited to the job of peacekeeping. That's because armored Humvees have limited visibility and Strykers may be under-armored and cost 10 times more than Humvees, says Christopher Lamb, a senior research fellow at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. The U.S. Marines may just have the perfect peacekeeper, however, although they're not calling it that. The Cougar looks like an oversized armored truck and is designed to be used by explosives disposal teams in Iraq. It comes in two versions: one seats four, and the other seats 12. The truck is encased in thick steel and bulletproof glass for better visibility, and ...

My Way News Two Albany, N.Y., Mosque Leaders Arrested : "WASHINGTON (AP) - Two leaders of a mosque in Albany, N.Y., were arrested on charges stemming from an alleged plot to purchase a shoulder-fired missile that would be used to assassinate the Pakistani ambassador in New York, according to court papers filed Thursday. The men have ties to a group called Ansar al-Islam, which has been linked to al-Qaida, according to two federal law enforcement authorities speaking on condition of anonymity. U.S. officials have said that Ansar's members are thought to be affiliated with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant whose network is blamed for attacks on U.S. forces and their allies in Iraq." Hmmm. Members of an Iraq-based terrorist group supported by Saddam, and having links to Zarqawi and Al Qaida, planning attacks in the United States. I thought there weren't any terrorists from Iraq?

FOXNews.com - Politics - Army Looks at New Choppers : WASHINGTON — The Army is overhauling its helicopter corps after high-profile setbacks in Iraq . A battle lost, several crashes and the cancellation of the new Comanche (search) stealth helicopter have led critics to suggest the aircraft is too fragile, vulnerable and ineffective for the modern battlefield. Army officials point to a plan to take the $14.6 billion intended for the Comanche program and use that money to deal with problems in the helicopter service. A new scout helicopter is planned. Upgrades are in the works for aging Black Hawk and Chinook transports and Apache gunships. Pilots will get more cockpit training before joining combat units. Army officials insist combat helicopters can fight in unmatched ways. "You can't get one commander in Iraq to let one helicopter come home," said Brig. Gen. E. J. Sinclair, commandant of the U.S. Army Aviation Center at Fort Rucker, Ala., in an interview. ...

The New York Times > Washington > Intelligence: Captured Qaeda Figure Led Way to Information Behind Warning : "ASHINGTON, Aug. 1 - The unannounced capture of a figure from Al Qaeda in Pakistan several weeks ago led the Central Intelligence Agency to the rich lode of information that prompted the terror alert on Sunday, according to senior American officials. The figure, Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, was described by a Pakistani intelligence official as a 25-year-old computer engineer, arrested July 13, who had used and helped to operate a secret Qaeda communications system where information was transferred via coded messages. A senior United States official would not confirm or deny that Mr. Khan had been the Qaeda figure whose capture led to the information. But the official said 'documentary evidence' found after the capture had demonstrated in extraordinary detail that Qaeda members had for years conducted sophisticated and extensive reconnaissance of the financ...

DRUDGE REPORT 2004- REPUBLICANS PLAN PUSH FOR ELIMINATION OF IRS **Exclusive** A domestic centerpiece of the Bush/GOP agenda for a second Bush term is getting rid of the Internal Revenue Service, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned. The Speaker of the House will push for replacing the nation's current tax system with a national sales tax or a value added tax, Hill sources tell DRUDGE. "People ask me if I’m really calling for the elimination of the IRS, and I say I think that’s a great thing to do for future generations of Americans," Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert explains in his new book, to be released on Wednesday. "Pushing reform legislation will be difficult. Change of any sort seldom comes easy. But these changes are critical to our economic vitality and our economic security abroad," Hastert declares in SPEAKER: LESSONS FROM FORTY YEARS IN COACHING AND POLITICS. "“If you own property, stock, or, say, one hundred acres of farmland an...

ABCNEWS.com : Sources: Al Qaeda Again Targeting New York : "Border Worries Intelligence sources say al Qaeda plans to move non-Arab terrorists across the border with Mexico. Authorities already have in custody a woman of Pakistani-origin arrested after crossing into Texas. She carried a South African passport with several of the pages torn out, $7,000 in cash and an airplane ticket to New York. New York is already on heightened alert for the Republican National Convention, which meets at Madison Square Garden in a month and will bring scores of high government officials to town. The sources tell ABC News that Wall Street firms may be among the targeted U.S. corporations based in New York City. Which corporations or how many may be targeted has not been revealed. "

Retired Gen. Tommy Franks Says U.S. Should Put Iraq On 5-Year Plan : "Franks Talks Candidly In Exclusive Interview With PARADE Magazine About War, Israel, Saddam and Osama NEW YORK, July 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Retired Gen. Tommy Franks, who led U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, says he never thought the U.S. could be out of Iraq in a year. Five years, he says, is a realistic timeline. 'It takes time to solve problems when you're talking about 25 to 26 million people,' Franks tells PARADE magazine for this Sunday's issue, noting that Iraq has to dig itself out of a '30-year hole.' Franks, 59, who retired from the military in July 2003, had a lot to say in this exclusive interview with PARADE, his first national interview since leaving command: * The biggest surprise for him was that they've found no weapons of mass destruction (WMD), the "reason we went to war." He says multiple Middle Eastern leaders, including Jordan'...