GW Bush

Bush is World"s #1 Terrorist

911 truth

911 truth

Twitter Updates

    follow me on Twitter

    Arrest Karl Rove

    Arrest Karl Rove

    Monday, February 22, 2010

    The despicable mofo nazi John Yoo

    Padilla Sues DoJ Official for Authorizing Torture

    Here's an approach I haven't seen before. From The Chicago Tribune:

    In the latest legal contest over the treatment of detained terrorist suspects, attorneys for Jose Padilla filed a suit in a California federal district court this morning against John Yoo, the former deputy assistant Attorney General whose legal opinions formed the basis for Padilla's detention and the interrogation techniques used against him that the attorneys call torture....

    The suit filed this morning in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco, turns the spotlight of blame on Yoo, the author of a series of legal memoranda known collectively as the "Torture Memos." Drafted in 2002, when Yoo was a deputy assistant Attorney General in the Justice Department, they provided the legal justification for the interrogation techniques used on suspected Al Qaeda operatives that many, from former generals to presidential candidates, have since decried as torture.

    "John Yoo is the first person in American history to provide the legal authorization for the instiution of torture in the U.S.," said Jonathan Freiman, an attorney representing Padilla in the suit. "He [Yoo] was an absolutely essential part of what will be viewed by history as a group of rogue officials acting under cover of law to undermine fundamental rights.it never would have happened without the legal green light. That made it possible."

    Thursday, February 18, 2010

    We need to put Dick Cheney to jail !!!

    Dick Cheney is a war criminal. He belongs in prison.

    “I was a big supporter of waterboarding,” Cheney crowed Sunday, on ABC’s “This Week,” adding, “I was a big supporter of the enhanced interrogation techniques … ”

    So, what do we do with this information? The former Number Two Honcho in the United States of America has bragged, in public, that the torture buck stopped, or at least paused long enough to be fondled, on his desk.

    Here’s what we do with that information: We throw Dick Cheney in prison.

    To go on about our collective business, merely to shake our heads and hope it was a one-off (or, more accurately, a several-hundred-off), to call no one to account, does more than set a dangerous precedent: it establishes the shameful, awful, but clearly undeniable fact that we live in a country that tortures.

    That’s present tense: We live in a country that tortures. Maybe not right this minute, maybe not tomorrow or a week from Wednesday, but, that’s what we do. The Obama administration claims to have put a stop to it, and they probably have. Well, good for them, and good for us, as far as it goes, which is not very. Until we as a nation, we as a people, make our rejection of this barbarity manifest through the proper workings of our court system, we’re engaging in what used to be called — and should be called again, for my money — just so much chin music: Yeah, we tortured, and a lot of us feel pretty steamed about it, but we’re not going to do it ever, ever again...


    Read more: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2010-02-15/columns/arthur-...

    Wednesday, February 17, 2010

    Major conference about 911 truth (AE911Truth)

    News from AE911Truth


    Feb 19, 2010
    Updates: Major Press Conference: Feb 19
    — Editor

    1,000+ Architects & Engineers
    demand a new 9/11 WTC investigation!

    • Host an AE911Truth Press Conference in your cityon Feb 19

    • Luncheon price-hike delayed to Feb. 16 - last chance!

    • A/E conference (2-6pm) now open to all petition signers

    • David Ray Griffin and Steven Jones attendance confirmed

    Submit the AE911Truth Petition to your congressional reps

    • LIVE webcast via webinar at AE911Truth.org - watch in real time!

    As of January 2010, over 1,000 architects and engineers have signed our petition demanding a truly independent investigation into the destruction of the three World Trade Center skyscrapers on 9/11. This petition, along with AE911Truth literature and DVDs, will be presented to every Member of Congress on the same day by the 14,000 active supporters of AE911Truth.

    To underscore the importance of this milestone achievement, AE911Truth is launching a massive publicity campaign world-wide and holding a majorPress Conference in San Francisco, California on February 19, 2010 followed by an informative Keynote Luncheon to include David Ray Griffin and Steven Jones. We will also host a strategy and team development conference featuring our Architect and Engineer petition signers - many of whom will be flying in to San Francisco to join us. All petition signers are now welcome and encouraged to attend this very important mini-conference.

    This will be a day of events that you won't want to miss!

    DATE:February 19, 2010
    TIME: 11am – 6pm
    PLACE:Marines' Memorial Club & Hotel,
    609 Sutter St.
    San Francisco, CA

    PROGRAM:

    11:00 am - Press Conference

    Richard Gage, AIA, accompanied by other distinguished speakers and prominent petition signers, will announce this milestone event with a brief dynamic presentation of the evidence which has convinced over 1,000 architects and engineers to support the demand for a real investigation. The presentation will be followed by Q&A. Press kits will be distributed.

    • Open to the Public - Free

    12:00 pm - Keynote Luncheon
    Join us for an exclusive luncheon in honor of the thousand petition signers and supporters who have contributed to the success of AE911Truth. To mark the occasion, distinguished members of the 9/11 Truth movement, including David Ray Griffin, PhD. and Steven Jones, PhD., will make important relevant presentations. We will also present an overview of the major accomplishments achieved in 2009 along with the ambitious goals we have set for 2010.

    • Open to all AE911Truth petition signers, volunteers, and qualified members of the press
    • Reservations required (RSVP below) Note: We must have your choice of Salmon or Beef by Monday Feb 15th please RSVP now to 1000@AE911Truth.org
    • Cost per person: $50 if paying by Feb. 16, $75 if after Feb. 16

    2 – 6 pm – A/E Conference
    This conference will give us the opportunity to strategize with and empower our architect and engineer petition signers. Our goal: to develop more AE911Truth speakers and otherwise actively disseminate our message to fellow A/E professionals. We will focus on several methods of structuring and delivering the message effectively. And hear your ideas about how to make AE911Truth even more impactful.

    • Open to all petition signers & special guests
    • Reservations required (RSVP below)
    • Cost per person: $20 if registered by Feb. 16, $30 if registered after Feb. 16

    REGISTRATION:
    • AE911Truth online ticketing service:http://www.1000aes.eventbrite.com
    • Phone: (510) 292-4710
    • Email: 1000[at]AE911Truth.org

    DONATIONS & SPONSORSHIP:

    Please also consider a sponsorship to help defray our costs of organizing this historic event:

    a. Sponsor a Volunteer – honoring their hard work and dedication - enabling them to attend the Luncheon.
    b. Sponsor a Speaker with a major donation that will enable us to bring esteemed 9/11 Truth figures David Ray Griffin, Steven Jones, and other special guests to our milestone event.
    c. Sponsor the Publicity Effort with a generous donation to enable us to reach the broadest audiences possible locally, nationally and worldwide via PR Newswire, etc.

    Actions you can take - for coordinated exposure and publicity:

    1) Download and print the AE911Truth petition. Mail & fax it to your local congressional rep with a personalized message along with the letter of introduction to AE911Truth. (This letter can also be used for numerous other 9/11 awareness raising purposes!)

    2)Hold the AE911Truth press conference in your local City on Feb 19. We will help you with this.

    3)Volunteer now to contact the media in your area (or across the country) to distribute:
    Radio Interview Request
    (Email it to every radio, TV and newspaper in your community starting now to propose on-air interviews with Mr. Gage and encourage them to cover this timely story)
    • SF Bay Area Media Alert
    (Issue now to advise media to cover the event when it happens on the 19th)
    Press Release
    (To be issued only on the morning of Press Conference. Will not be available for download until midnight Feb 18)
    Please contact Abby Martin at 1000@AE911Truth.org to help.

    5) Download and print the press conference flyer for your use in raising awareness.

    Finally, please join the family of monthly sustaining donors to ensure our success in 2010.
    Thank you again for all of your efforts in the past and for being there for us at this crucial moment.

    I hope to see you in San Francisco!

    Richard Gage, AIA
    and the dedicated volunteers at AE911Truth


    Feb 16, 2010
    The Media Response to the Growing Influence of the 9/11 Truth Movement
    — Elizabeth Woodworth

    Part II: Part II: A Survey of Attitude Change in 2009-2010

    Originally published February 15, 2010 by Global Research, available here.

    Abstract

    In the past year, in response to emerging independent science on the 9/11 attacks, nine corporate, seven public, and two independent media outlets aired analytic programs investigating the official account.

    Increasingly, the issue is treated as a scientific controversy worthy of debate, rather than as a "conspiracy theory" ignoring science and common sense.

    This essay presents these media analyses in the form of 18 case studies.

    Eight countries – Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Russia – have allowed their publicly-owned broadcasting stations to air the full spectrum of evidence challenging the truth of the official account of 9/11.

    This more open approach taken in the international media – I could also have included the Japanese media – might be a sign that worldwide public and corporate media organizations are positioning themselves, and preparing their audiences, for a possible revelation of the truth of the claim that forces within the US government were complicit in the attacks – a revelation that would call into question the publicly given rationale for the military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

    The evidence now being explored in the international media may pave the way for the US media to take an in-depth look at the implications of what is now known about 9/11, and to re-examine the country's foreign and domestic policies in the light of this knowledge.

    I. Introduction

    Until 2009, doubts about the official 9/11 story were briefly entertained by the mainstream media on each anniversary of the event, allowing the independent research community only a fleeting moment once a year to publicly voice its findings.

    read more...


    Feb 10, 2010
    Major Milestone Reached at AE911Truth:
    — Editor

    1,000 Architects & Engineers demand new 9/11 WTC investigation!

    Press Conference Scheduled February 19th

    As of January 2010, over 1,000 architects and engineers have signed our petition demanding a real investigation into the destruction of the three World Trade Center skyscrapers on 9/11. This petition, along with AE911Truth literature and DVDs, will also be presented to every Member of Congress.

    To underscore the importance of this milestone achievement, AE911Truth is launching a massive publicity campaign nationwide and holding a Press Conference in San Francisco, California on February 19, 2010 followed by an exclusiveKeynote Luncheon to include David Ray Griffin, Steven Jones and others. We will also host an exclusive A/E Conference in honor of our AE911Truth petition signers– many of whom will be flying in to San Francisco to join us. Mark your calendars now! This will be a day of events that you won't want to miss!

    DATE: February 19, 2010
    TIME: 11am – 6pm
    PLACE: Marines' Memorial Club & Hotel,
    609 Sutter St.
    San Francisco, CA

    read more...


    Feb 10, 2010
    The 11th of the Month, Every Single Month: That’s When the 9/11 Truth Movement Says, 'Let’s Roll'
    — Graham Pardun

    When is high tide for the 9/11 Truth movement? When do architects and engineers, as well as physicists, journalists, actors, artists, students, policemen, firemen, pilots, doctors, veterans, professors, scientists, lawyers, politicians, peace activists, clergy, members of the armed forces, and every other manner of citizen imaginable, join with the survivors, the First Responders, and the family members of the victims of 9/11 to commemorate the terrorist attacks? On the eleventh of the month, every single month: That's when we say, "Let's roll."

    The concept was originated by TruthAction, and the idea was to publicly, consistently, and exponentially raise awareness about 9/11, showing support for the family members of 9/11 victims, as well as the sick and dying First Responders – to let them know, in a bold and visible way, that they haven't been forgotten. After all, it was primarily the 9/11 family members who pressured the Bush administration (which tried very hard to block any investigation of 9/11 at all) to form the 9/11 Commission. The 9/11 Commission turned out to be a cruel farce, and now the family members are fighting once more – this time for the real investigation they should have gotten. Should they – who have lost so much – have to do this work alone? We think not.

    read more...


    Jan 26, 2010
    Sunstein and Beck Fire Shots Across Our Bow
    — Gregg Roberts

    Officials, journalists, activists say 9/11 truth activists pose a violent threat; call for secret government disruption of our work – or worse

    Note: This article addresses issues that arguably lie outside AE911Truth's mission. We consider such a departure to be justified in this case, because the paper by Sunstein and Vermeule specifically mentioned as the targets of its advocated "infiltration," the 16% of Americans who responded to a Scripps-Howard Poll in 2006 that it was either very likely or somewhat likely that "the collapse of the twin towers in New York was aided by explosives secretly planted in the two buildings" (Conspiracy Theories, p. 2).

    You know you're getting somewhere on an issue of paramount public importance when your opponents stop making fun of you and start describing you as a threat to the established order, and supporting interference with or the elimination of your First Amendment rights, and even accuse you of being a terrorist.

    Background 1: Weitzman's Defamation

    One of the first shots in the threat campaign was fired just over two years ago by Mark Weitzman of the Simon Wiesenthal Center (to which we responded).

    Testifying in November 2007 before a House subcommittee of the Homeland Security committee,Weitzman portrayed AE911Truth in what could be construed as part of a jihadist campaign in support of "violent radicalization," " homegrown terrorism," and "ideologically based violence." The words Weitzman intoned as our homepage appeared in his presentation – "Soon, soon, soon, the attack on Manhattan" – have never appeared on our website. Alas, anyone testifying before Congress has absolute immunity against being sued for defamation. All of this is a sour irony, given Weitzman's work as an "anti-defamation" activist.

    COINTELPRO Revisited – by Harvard Law Professors

    In early 2008, Cass Sunstein and Adrian Vermeule published a preliminary draft of a Harvard Law / University of Chicago Law working paper entitled "Conspiracy Theories". The paper has become "the talk of the town" in the 9/11 Truth community. The references at the end of this article are only a small sample of what's available through Internet search engines.

    read more...


    Jan 25, 2010
    AE911Truth presents at The Commonwealth Club of California
    — Richard Shinn

    "We only propose to find truth, and turn it loose in the world." - Edward F. Adams
    (Founder of The Commonwealth Club)

    For videos on AE911Truth's presentation at the Commonwealth Club please scroll to the bottom

    Read the entire Info Item...


    Jan 25, 2010
    The Shout Heard ’Round the World on Feb 19!
    — Editor

    1,000 Architects & Engineers Call for a Real 9/11 Investigation
    Press Conference and Dinner February 19, 2010

    Read the entire Info Item...


    Jan 23, 2010
    Live Debate: Architect Richard Gage, AIA, vs. Explosives Expert Ron Craig, Round Two
    — Graham Pardun

    "We've got to follow the truth, no matter where it leads us." – Richard Syrett


    Read the entire Info Item...


    View all of the Info Items

    Monday, February 15, 2010

    Dick Cheney guilty of ordering torture !!!






    February 15th, 2010 8:42 PM

    'This Week' Transcript: Former Vice President Dick Cheney

    KARL: If you have somebody in custody like Abdulmutallab, after just trying to blow up an airliner, and you think he has information on another attack, I mean, do you think that those enhanced interrogation techniques should have been -- should have been used? I mean, would you -- do you think that he should have been, for instance, subject to everything, including waterboarding?

    CHENEY: Well, I think the -- the professionals need to make that judgment. We've got people in -- we had in our administration -- I'm sure they're still there -- many of them were career personnel -- who are expects in this subject. And they are the ones that you ought to turn somebody like Abdulmutallab over to, let them be the judge of whether or not he's prepared to cooperate and how they can best achieve his cooperation.

    KARL: But you believe they should have had the option of everything up to and including waterboarding?

    CHENEY: I think you ought to have all of those capabilities on the table. Now, President Obama has taken them off the table. He announced when he came in last year that they would never use anything other than the U.S. Army manual, which doesn't include those techniques. I think that's a mistake.

    CHENEY: You want my opinion, my view of what ought to happen, I think we have to treat it as a -- as a war. This is a strategic threat to the United States. I think that's why we were successful for seven-and-a-half years in avoiding a further major attack against the United States.

    And I do get very nervous and very upset when that's the dominant approach, as it was sometimes in the Bush administration or certainly would appear to be at times in the new Obama administration.

    KARL: Did you more often win or lose those battles, especially as you got to the second term?

    CHENEY: Well, I suppose it depends on which battle you're talking about. I won some; I lost some. I can't...

    (CROSSTALK)

    KARL: ... waterboarding, clearly, what was your...

    CHENEY: I was a big supporter of waterboarding. I was a big supporter of the enhanced interrogation techniques that...

    KARL: And you opposed the administration's actions of doing away with waterboarding?

    CHENEY: Yes.

    Tags:

      Dick Cheney guilty of ordering torture !!!

      February 15th, 2010 8:42 PM

      'This Week' Transcript: Former Vice President Dick Cheney

      KARL: If you have somebody in custody like Abdulmutallab, after just trying to blow up an airliner, and you think he has information on another attack, I mean, do you think that those enhanced interrogation techniques should have been -- should have been used? I mean, would you -- do you think that he should have been, for instance, subject to everything, including waterboarding?

      CHENEY: Well, I think the -- the professionals need to make that judgment. We've got people in -- we had in our administration -- I'm sure they're still there -- many of them were career personnel -- who are expects in this subject. And they are the ones that you ought to turn somebody like Abdulmutallab over to, let them be the judge of whether or not he's prepared to cooperate and how they can best achieve his cooperation.

      KARL: But you believe they should have had the option of everything up to and including waterboarding?

      CHENEY: I think you ought to have all of those capabilities on the table. Now, President Obama has taken them off the table. He announced when he came in last year that they would never use anything other than the U.S. Army manual, which doesn't include those techniques. I think that's a mistake.

      CHENEY: You want my opinion, my view of what ought to happen, I think we have to treat it as a -- as a war. This is a strategic threat to the United States. I think that's why we were successful for seven-and-a-half years in avoiding a further major attack against the United States.

      And I do get very nervous and very upset when that's the dominant approach, as it was sometimes in the Bush administration or certainly would appear to be at times in the new Obama administration.

      KARL: Did you more often win or lose those battles, especially as you got to the second term?

      CHENEY: Well, I suppose it depends on which battle you're talking about. I won some; I lost some. I can't...

      (CROSSTALK)

      KARL: ... waterboarding, clearly, what was your...

      CHENEY: I was a big supporter of waterboarding. I was a big supporter of the enhanced interrogation techniques that...

      KARL: And you opposed the administration's actions of doing away with waterboarding?

      CHENEY: Yes.

      Dollars for Death, Pennies for Life


      Dollars for Death, Pennies for Life

      by Norman Solomon

      When the U.S. military began a major offensive in southern Afghanistan over the weekend, the killing of children and other civilians was predictable. Lofty rhetoric aside, such deaths come with the territory of war and occupation.

      A month ago, President Obama pledged $100 million in U.S. government aid to earthquake-devastated Haiti. Compare that to the $100 billion price tag to keep 100,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan for a year.

      While commanders in Afghanistan were launching what the New York Times called "the largest offensive military operation since the American-led coalition invaded the country in 2001," the situation in Haiti was clearly dire.

      With more than a million Haitians still homeless, vast numbers -- the latest estimates are around 75 percent -- don't have tents or tarps. The rainy season is fast approaching, with serious dangers of typhoid and dysentery.

      No shortage of bombs in Afghanistan; a lethal shortage of tents in Haiti. Such priorities -- actual, not rhetorical -- are routine.

      Last summer, I saw hundreds of children and other civilians at the Helmand Refugee Camp District 5, a miserable makeshift encampment in Kabul. The U.S. government had ample resources for bombing their neighborhoods in the Helmand Valley -- but was doing nothing to help the desperate refugees to survive after they fled to Afghanistan's capital city.

      Such priorities have parallels at home. The military hawks and deficit hawks are now swooping along Pennsylvania Avenue in tight formation. There's plenty of money in the U.S. Treasury for war in Afghanistan. But domestic spending to meet human needs -- job creation, for instance -- is another matter.

      Joblessness is now crushing many low-income Americans. Among those with annual household incomes of less than $12,500, the unemployment rate during the fourth quarter of last year "was a staggering 30.8 percent," Bob Herbert noted in a February 9 column. "That's more than five points higher than the overall jobless rate at the height of the Depression."

      Herbert added: "The next lowest group, with incomes of $12,500 to $20,000, had an unemployment rate of 19.1 percent. These are the kinds of jobless rates that push families already struggling on meager incomes into destitution."

      The current situation is akin to the one that Martin Luther King Jr. confronted in 1967 when he challenged Congress for showing "hostility to the poor" -- appropriating "military funds with alacrity and generosity" but providing "poverty funds with miserliness."

      Such priorities are taking lives every day, near and far.

      Early this month, the National Council of Churches sent out an article by theologians George Hunsinger and Michael Kinnamon, who wrote: "What the Haitians obviously need most is massive humanitarian relief. They need food, water, medical supplies. They need shelter and physical reconstruction. . . . Over half of Haiti's population are children, 15 years old or younger. Many were already hungry and homeless before the earthquake hit."

      But the warfare state, with vast budgets for military purposes, has scant funds for sustaining life.

      These priorities kill.

      Thursday, February 11, 2010

      It is time to get rid of Blue Cross and other health care insurance companies

      Other insurers raising health care rates too

      Victoria Colliver, Chronicle Staff Writer

      Thursday, February 11, 2010

      Print E-mail Share Comments (576) Font | Size:
      Anthem Blue Cross customers may be hopping mad about their rate hikes, but members of other health insurers say they're also getting hit with sky-high increases.

      IMAGES


      View Larger Image
      MORE BUSINESS

      North Texas routs New Orleans 68-46 02.11.10
      USA Today mandates staff furloughs to save money 02.11.10
      Asian stocks gain on Greece support plan 02.11.10
      John McClave of San Francisco opened his mail this week to learn Health Net had jacked up his monthly premium from $345 to $462 on March 1 - a nearly 34 percent increase. This was on top of an 18 percent increase he received last year.

      "I do intend to shop around, but with others raising their rates at the same time I am not too optimistic," said McClave, 57, a freelance marketing and communications consultant.

      Anthem Blue Cross, headquartered in Woodland Hills (Los Angeles County), has come under fire this week after it told thousands of individual policyholders their premiums would increase on March 1 by as much as 39 percent and, in some cases, more. Consumers say other carriers, including Health Net and Aetna, are also raising rates.

      Officials target hikes

      The Anthem rate hikes have become a talking point for the Obama administration, with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius demanding the insurer justify the hikes. The House Committee on Energy and Commerce and its Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations are also looking into the issue.

      California legislators and regulators have announced probes, with Assemblyman Dave Jones, D-Sacramento, scheduling a hearing Feb. 23 to examine not only Anthem's proposed increases, but also those imposed by other health insurance companies.

      On Wednesday, Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, said he plans to introduce legislation to require health insurers to disclose their reasons for raising rates and for denying coverage to applicants.

      Leno, who supports a single-payer health system in the state, said he doesn't buy Anthem's excuse that higher medical costs and a shrinking membership pool made the increases necessary.

      Anthem declined to comment Wednesday.

      Attention welcomed

      Consumers said they appreciate the additional scrutiny and hope it will produce change.

      When Health Net increased Britton Jackson's coverage by 49 percent last year, the 40-year-old San Francisco real estate agent said she felt isolated in her frustration. "I think people are paying so much more attention to it now and realizing they're not alone," she said.

      Small businesses are also getting walloped. Carmel-Monterey Travel in Monterey switched last year from Anthem to Aetna to save money - only to be hit this week with news of a 40 percent rate hike for the eight-member group.

      Health Net declined to discuss the company's rates, and Aetna officials did not return a call for comment.

      Some Anthem consumers reported even higher rate increases than the 39 percent cited. Anthem, which is owned by Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. and is the state's largest for-profit insurer, has declined to say how many policyholders are affected or how high the company raised rates.

      Bay Area resident Mary Deen said Anthem Blue Cross raised her rates from $134 a month last year to $263 a month - a 96 percent increase. Deen, who is self-employed, tried to get answers from the company but was given the generic excuse of higher medical costs. "It doesn't seem fair my increase is so high and I've never filed a claim," she said.

      Therapists' rates cut

      California physical, occupational and speech therapists are also taking issue with Anthem. The therapists said the insurer cut their reimbursement rates by 30 to 50 percent on Feb. 1.

      Chris Chorak, a physical therapist and owner of Presidio Sport & Medicine in San Francisco, said she refused to agree to the new rates, even though about 30 percent of her patients are covered by Anthem. She said she couldn't afford to stay open under the new pricing structure.

      Anthem officials said the company had to adjust its physical therapy reimbursement rates to "standardize the pricing structure and to help contain escalating health care costs."

      E-mail Victoria Colliver at vcolliver@sfchronicle.com.



      Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/11/MNRS1BVIVR.DTL##ixzz0fIKd8IlS

      Monday, February 1, 2010

      'Peace Prize" President Submits Largest War Budget Ever

      'Peace Prize' President Submits Largest War Budget Ever

      Obama Seeks Record $708 Billion in Defense Budget

      WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama on Monday asked Congress to approve a record $708 billion in defense spending for fiscal year 2011, including a 3.4 percent increase in the Pentagon's base budget and $159 billion to fund U.S. military missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

      []
      The White House budget request also included $33 billion in additional funding for fiscal 2010 to pay for increasing military and intelligence operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and drawing down U.S. forces in Iraq. That comes on top of $129.6 billion already provided for the current fiscal year, which ends September 30.

      The Pentagon's base budget request of $549 billion is up $18 billion from $531 billion in fiscal 2010, and will pay for continued reforms of defense acquisitions, development of a ballistic missile defense system and care of wounded soldiers.

      The budget also calls for cancellation of several major weapons programs, including Boeing Co's C-17 transport plane, saving $2.5 billion, and a second engine for the Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jet, saving $465 million in fiscal 2011 and more than $1 billion longer-term. The White House tried to kill both programs last year, but lawmakers revived them during the budget process.

      The second engine is being developed by General Electric Co and Britain's Rolls-Royce as an alternate to the main engine built by Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp.

      The proposed budget also kills plans for development of a new Navy cruiser, scraps plans to replace the Navy's EP-3 intelligence aircraft and halts work on a missile early-warning satellite, opting instead to upgrade the Space Based Infrared System satellite already being developed by Lockheed.

      The budget proposal also calls for a delay in replacing two new Navy command and control shops until after 2015, a move the White House said would save $3.8 billion across the Pentagon's five-year defense plan. The Navy had planned to buy one command ship in 2012, and a second one in 2014.

      Procurement of a new amphibious vehicle being built by General Dynamics Corp for the Marine Corps would be delayed by one year, saving $50 million in fiscal 2011 and cutting risk by allowing more time for testing.

      The Pentagon also said it would further reduce its use of high-risk contracts in areas that related to time, material and labor hours by 17 percent through the end of 2011.

      The budget underscored the administration's commitment to a "robust defense against emerging missile threats," saying it would pay for use of increasingly capable sea- and land-based missile interceptors and a range of sensors in Europe.

      The Pentagon's budget continues to fund new weapons already under development, including the F-35 fighter, a new ballistic missile submarine, a new family of ground vehicles and the P-8 surveillance aircraft built by Boeing.

      It will also pay for more unmanned planes, helicopters, electronic warfare capabilities and cybersecurity measures.

      Overall, the budget includes $112.8 billion for weapons procurement, up from $104.8 billion in fiscal 2010, and $76 billion for research and development, down from $80 billion.

      Reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn

      Reggae Rising