7 Tips for Training Link Developers

We all know the vital role of backlinks in search engine visibility. Many companies devote an entire department to link promotion. Therefore, let's discuss some important tips for training link developers.

Many of these tips can be implemented on an individual or group basis. They can also be useful for companies in the preliminary stages of starting a link promotion department.

The tips below range from encouraging creativity to teaching negotiation tactics for overcoming obstacles when dealing with Webmasters.

Promote Creativity

Encourage creativeness and thinking outside the box. This is probably one of the best qualities to promote during link training.

There are many different angles and methodologies to successful link building (define). Don't constrain people to using the same techniques that have been used and overused during the last few years.

This is especially true if you work in competitive industries and your competition is active in link building. Your site needs better links than theirs.

Instead of training your staff on the specific steps they must follow as if they worked for a fast-food chain, empower them to find creative solutions. The end results are better links and happier employers. It also helps to hire people who are creative and innovative.

Conduct Brainstorming Sessions

Once a week, perhaps even once a day, get together, if only for 15 minutes, to brainstorm new ideas and different ways to get better links. Encourage people to contribute their ideas no matter how off-the-wall or impossible they may seem. Encourage randomness.

Often in these brainstorming sessions, new ideas will stem from someone else's idea. It's all about the group interaction and collective thinking. Plus, it helps to keep people motivated and builds a better group dynamic at your company.

Group Review and Strategy Meetings

Once a week, perhaps even once a day, have your team get together to discuss how they're going about link development. Find out what's working and what isn't.

If one person is having more success than the others, have that person lead the discussion to guide the others in the right direction. Find out this person's approach. Find out what he or she is doing to get better results.

Negotiation and Sales Training

Provide books, CDs, videos, and articles on negotiation and sales training. Unless your staff comes from a sales background, this is essential. Your link developers need to be able to sell your site, overcome obstacles, and then finally secure the link.

This is an excellent topic for the group meetings -- to find out how people have overcome specific obstacles. Find out the tactics or approaches used that are getting the best results. It would also be helpful to have one of your sales or marketing people participate to give advice and guidance.

Experiment, Experiment, Experiment

Allow time each week to test out new ways to get links. Such tests could range from different methods for contacting Web sites to viral marketing techniques.

This is the best way to find out what works and what doesn't. Even if some of the methods are unsuccessful, there are still lessons to be learned that can be applied to other areas.

Teach Link Value

Educate your staff on the real value of links. Show them examples of how sites have risen in the rankings after getting a couple dozen trusted links. Run experiments to show them how a link from a trusted site can influence rankings.

By being educated, they'll gain a better understanding of the power of links. It'll also give more meaning to their work when they can see the final results.

Study Competitive Industries

Allow time for your staff to study the way sites in hyper-competitive industries are handling their link development. While some of the more aggressive techniques used must be avoided, there's always something to be learned. It'll also help your staff identify sites that have more advanced link development methods.

Why reinvent the wheel when you can learn from others?

All of these link training tips are easy to implement individually, or as a group. Many can be combined into a weekly meeting, such as the brainstorming, link value, and negotiation training sessions.


http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3627963

Poveromo's Seminars Teach Angling Skills

PARKLAND — For the past two decades, George Poveromo's name has been synonymous with saltwater fishing how-to. Through television shows and articles in magazines and newspapers, he has built a career out of sharing fishing knowledge with enthusiastic anglers.

From January through early March, Poveromo will conduct nine day-long seminars designed to bring the latest and greatest tips, techniques and know-how to the saltwater angling public. The 2008 Saltwater Sportsman Magazine National Seminar Series presented by Boater's World Marine Centers will include three stops in Florida. The two seminars nearest to Treasure Coast anglers will be Feb. 2 in Titusville and Feb. 9 in Coral Springs.

As the touring series begins its 21st year of packing auditoriums and meeting halls, Poveromo can't help but smile at its longevity.

"The only two gigs that have been around that long are us and The Rolling Stones," he joked. "The way I see it, if we weren't successful at providing top-rate instruction, we wouldn't be around."

Over the years, more than 100,000 anglers have attended the seminars for the how-to and where-to information, Poveromo said. Many have returned because one day spent absorbing expert angling wisdom translated into many more satisfying fishing trips with family and friends.

"It really is a crash course on the most successful fishing information available for a given type of fishing," he said.

The seminars are tailored toward fishing opportunities and popular methods in the region in which they take place.

For example, the Coral Springs stop will pull from North Miami, Boca Raton, North Palm Beach, Stuart and Port St. Lucie. As a result, it is loaded with expert captains and anglers who have fresh information on daytime swordfishing — one of the hottest current trends in South Florida sport fishing. Poveromo also has arranged for skippers to share tips on high-speed trolling for wahoo, how and where to find dolphin, stalking big kingfish and how to catch trophy tarpon and snook.

The Central Florida seminar will pull anglers from Daytona, Orlando, Sebastian, Vero Beach and Fort Pierce. One topic will help owners of center consoles under 30 feet learn how to target yellowfin tuna on the eastern edge of the Gulf Stream.

"We'll explain how to best use the radar to locate the right kind of birds and demonstrate the right kind of rigs to use," he said. "We'll also share how to employ chunking tactics that are very successful for tuna fishermen in South Florida."

Grouper, snapper and cobia fishing techniques offshore as well as inshore techniques designed for trout, redfish, flounder, snook and tripletail also will be covered by Poveromo's team of experts.

SALTWATER SPORTSMAN NATIONAL SEMINAR SERIES

• Hosted by George Poveromo, senior editor with Saltwater Sportsman magazine and host of ESPN2's "George Poveromo's World of Saltwater Fishing" and Dr. Ray Waldner, marine biology professor and accomplished light tackle angler.

• Fee: $55 per seat. Registration includes one-year subscription to Saltwater Sportsman magazine ($24.95 value), a 330-yard spool of Sufix fishing line, one Roffer's Ocean Fishing Forecast analysis (tuna, dolphin and marlin only), a 16-ounce bottle of OrPine Wash and Wax and one tub of Chum-King Chum. A drawing will take place at the end of each Florida seminar to win a bonefishing excursion to the Bimini Sands Resort and Marina. The attendees of the 2008 seminars will be entered into a drawing for the grand prize — a Mako 212 Center Console with Float-On trailer.

• Seminars begin at 9 a.m. and last until 4 p.m.

• For complete information on all nine seminar dates and to register online, visit www.nationalseminarseries.com or call (800) 448-7360.

DATES NEAREST TREASURE COAST

TITUSVILLE, FEB. 2

Astronaut High School Performing Arts Theater, 800 War Eagle Blvd., Titusville

Speakers include: Capt. Troy Perez, Indian River and Mosquito Lagoon guide for 30 years; Dave Workman, three-time Southern Kingfish Association Angler of the Year; Capt. Brent Hancock, Port Canaveral offshore trolling, live baiting and bottom fishing specialist; Ed Perry, Central Florida trophy flounder specialist and expert on fishing inlets and rivers for snook, redfish and trout; Capt. Greg Bogdan, South Florida light tackle, live bait, bottom fishing and swordfish specialist and Dr. Mitch Roffer, the nation's leading authority on locating sea surface temperatures and currents that hold fish.

CORAL SPRINGS, FEB. 9

Coral Springs Center for the Arts, 2855 Coral Springs Dr., Coral Springs

Speakers include: Capt. Greg Bogdan, South Florida light tackle, live bait, bottom fishing and swordfish specialist; Capt. Jimmy Wickett, snook and tarpon inlet and beach angling specialist; Capt. Ron Schatman, legendary big-game skipper who pioneered high-speed trolling for wahoo and specializes in swordfish; Capt. Art Sapp, Pompano-beach based tournament pro specializing in live baiting for big kingfish and tuna, and dead-bait trolling for sailfish and dolphin; Capt. Ralph Hawkins, expert with live baiting for sailfish, tuna, kingfish and dolphin; and Capt. Steve Huddleston, Fort Lauderdale-based snook, tarpon and reef fishing authority.




http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2007/dec/27/no-headline-28tpoveromo/

2007: Top 10 Embedded.com design articles

Based on the total number of views received during 2007, here are the top ten most popular Design Articles on Embedded.com this year (URL links are to the Embedded TechSearch engine containing a full listing for each part in the article series highlighted):

#1. The basics of embedded programming, by Wayne Wolf. This highly popular series covered all aspects of programming on embedded systems, from the basics of using C on microcontrollers, program design and analysis all the way to software test and validation.

#2. Building Bare-Metal ARM Systems with GNU by Miro Samek. In this intensively how to series of ten articles the author takes you step by through the process of developing embedded control designs on the ARM processor using the GNU open source tool chain, complete with the source code in both C and C++.

#3. Common multicore programming problems by Shameem Akhter and Jason Roberts. This hands-on series of four articles takes embedded developers through many of the common programming issues in multicore designs and how to solve them.

#4. Making the transition from sequential to implicit parallel programming by Rishiyur Nikhil and Arvind. Despite the common view that a parallel programming model for programming multiprocessors is 5 to 10 years away, in this eight part series, the authors delve into all the alternative approaches to to addressing the issue.

#5. Doing C-code unit testing on a shoestring, by Ark Khasin. In this informative three part series the author takes the programmer through the various ways to use the pre-processor in any standards-compliant C compiler for unit testing of software programs.

#6. Using Direct Memory Access effectively in media-based embedded applications by David Katz and Rick Gentile. In this four part series, the authors delve into the basics of direct memory access and how it can be used effectively in many embedded multimedia systems.

#7. The challenges of next-gen multicore networks-on-chip systems by Luca Benini and Giovanni De Michelli. This series of seven articles describe the architectural, programming and debug challenges of next-generation heterogeneous multicore networks-on-chip designs.

#8. The basics of embedded multitasking on a PIC by Gamal Ali Labib. In this three part series, the author provided details on how to do multitasking on the Microchip PIC18F452 microcontroller including pre-emptive and re-entrant multitasking and how to pack programs for tasks.

#9. Using block diagrams as a system design "language" by Tim Wescott. In a two-part article this long time Embedded Systems Design contributor describes how to use block diagrams as a system design language for control systems analysis and design.

#10. Tricks and techniques for performance tuning your embedded system using patterns by Peter Barry and Gerard Harnett. In this three part series the authors share some of the tricks and techniques they have picked up from their experience with real-life embedded systems they have designed.

These are the selections you made by voting with your browser. Such information is factored into our decision making about what Design Articles we will select to run on Embedded.com and in Embedded Systems Design next year. But I am open to hearing from you via email at bccole@acm.org with your opinions about what you would like to see - and what you would like to contribute.



http://www.eetimes.com/news/design/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205101030

Demarcation of the Eritrea Ethiopia Border is Final and Binding

There is a lot of talk about the Eritrea Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC) and much has been written about its decision to demarcate the Eritrea Ethiopia border by placing coordinates on maps, also known as “virtual demarcation”, as opposed to placing border markers on the ground. Eritrea considered this a positive step forward but would have also wanted to have the Eritrea Ethiopia border demarcated on the ground by placing pillar markers on the ground. Eritrea will nonetheless respect the EEBC’s decision and consider its sole mandate to demarcate the Eritrea Ethiopia border as being fulfilled.

Unfortunately, emboldened by the US-led international community’s diplomatic, financial, military and political support and shield, the minority regime in Ethiopia led by Meles Zenawi, which for 51/2 years rejected the Final and Binding decision of the EEBC and refused to allow for the demarcation of the Eritrea Ethiopia border, is now rejecting the virtual demarcation of the Eritrea Ethiopia border and calling it “legal nonsense”. It should be recalled that ever since the Eritrean Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC) delivered its Final and Binding decision on 13 April 2002, the minority regime in Ethiopia has engaged in diversionary time buying gimmicks and deceptive tactics to alter, amend, revise and reverse the Final and Binding decision.

Today, the regime while professing its belated unconditional acceptance of the Final and Binding nature of the EEBC delimitation decision, is now engaged in a deliberate and deceptive propaganda campaign to misinform the Ethiopian public and the international community about the legal applicability of demarcation of the Eritrea Ethiopia border. The Prime Minister of Ethiopia is leading the deceptive, misinformation campaign. Voice of America’s (VoA) Peter Heinlein quoted the street smart, deceptive Meles Zenawi on 30 November 2007 as saying:

“…As far as the virtual demarcation of the boundary is concerned, I have heard well-respected diplomats and lawyers describe it as 'legal nonsense'…Our lawyers agree with such characterization. Until the boundary is demarcated on the ground, it is not demarcated. As soon as it is demarcated, there will be relocation of administrations, police and so forth. But not before that. Only after actual demarcation on the ground. And we prefer to engage the Eritrean side in pushing forwards toward demarcation...”

“You are who your friends are” as they say, and judging from the list of apologists the Ethiopian Prime Minister has relied on for political and diplomatic advise and support in the past and judging from the make up of the Addis based “cocktail diplomats”, morally bankrupt and corrupt individuals who have vouched for the regime in the past, I am not sure they would be considered “well respected”. As for his lawyers, they are the same lawyers who advised him that the EEBC decision was “illegal, unjust and irresponsible”, the same decision that he is now telling the world he has accepted unconditionally.

Meles Zenawi knows that the Eritrea Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC) had no choice but to look for other legal approaches to fulfilling its sole mandate of demarcating the Eritrea Ethiopia border. Article 4.2 of the Algiers Agreements says:

“…The parties agree that a neutral Boundary Commission composed of five members shall be established with a mandate to delimit and demarcate the colonial treaty border based on pertinent colonial treaties (1900, 1902 and 1908) and applicable international law. The Commission shall not have the power to make decisions ex aequo et bono…”

The minority regime rejected the Final and Binding decision, refused to cooperate with the EEBC, refused to pay its dues, refused to provide security for EEBC personnel and refused to appoint liaison officers and refused to allow for the expeditious demarcation of the Eritrea Ethiopia border. After waiting for 51/2 years for Ethiopia to allow for the demarcation of the Eritrea Ethiopia border, the EEBC had no choice but to find another legal approach to demarcating the Eritrea Ethiopia border and fulfill its sole mandate in accordance with the Algiers Agreements, and it did.

Allow me to present the many “obstacles” placed by Ethiopia as detailed in the EEBC’s Statement issued on 27 November 2006. Ethiopia created obstacles to demarcation of the Eritrea Ethiopia border (by placing pillars on the ground) by:

·Prohibiting fieldwork within the territory under its control, thus impeding the survey of ground control points for the aerial photography and the secondary datum survey (April to July 2002);

·Filing extensive comments on the Delimitation Decision, amounting to an attempt to reopen elements of the substance of that Decision, instead of limiting itself to the requested comments on the draft 1:25,000 maps (January 2003);

·Alleging that the Field Liaison Officers appointed by Eritrea were intelligence officers and refusing to allow field work to continue in Ethiopian territory, then failing to appoint ad hoc Field Liaison Officers within the prescribed time limit following the Commission’s Order of 9 February 2003 so as to allow field work to resume without further delay (January to February 2003);

·Failing to appoint new Field Liaison Officers for the remaining demarcation activities following the Commission’s Decision pursuant to Article 15B of the Demarcation Directions (July 2003 to March 2006);

·Failing to provide assurances for the security of all demarcation personnel (August 2003 to the present);

·Failing to comment on maps which indicated the pillar locations in the Eastern Sector (September 2003);

·Repeatedly refusing to authorize necessary flight requests lodged by the Chief Surveyor;

·Eventually limiting the Commission’s field work to the Eastern Sector by statements that the ad hoc Field Liaison Officers would only be permitted to operate in the Eastern Sector;

.Complaining to the Secretary-General of the United Nations of what Ethiopia termed “illegal, unjust and irresponsible decisions” of the Commission in respect of Badme and parts of the Central Sector, and proposing that the Security Council set up an alternative mechanism to demarcate the parts of the boundary it contested (September 2003);

·Denouncing in that same letter the Commission’s Delimitation Decision by stating that it would only recognise the southern boundary of the Temporary Security Zone (“TSZ”) as the international boundary; failing to provide assurances for the security of the contractors selected for the emplacement and as-built survey of the boundary pillars (September to October 2003);

·Rejecting the Commission’s invitation to attend a meeting on 5 November 2003, claiming that the notice was too short and that there was no likelihood of anything being achieved (October 2003);

·Refusing to permit any work to be carried out by the Commission’s field staff in the Western and Central Sectors until the boundary in the Eastern Sector had been demarcated and subject to Ethiopia’s approval of the Commission’s method of demarcation (November 2003);

·Failing to make prompt payment of its share of the Commission’s expenses (February 2004 to February 2005);

·Rejecting the Commission’s invitation to a meeting to be held on 22 February 2005 on the ground that the meeting was premature, would be unproductive and could have an adverse impact on the demarcation process, as a result of which the Commission was obliged to cancel the meeting (February 2005);

·Failing again to meet its financial obligations (May 2006 to the present);

·Introducing qualifications to its previously unqualified acceptance of the final and binding quality of the Delimitation Decision (17 May 2006);

·Failing to respond to the Commission’s request for assurances of freedom of movement and security for its staff travelling to the region to reopen the Commission’s Field Offices (July to August 2006); and

·Failing to respond to the Commission’s invitation to a rescheduled meeting on 24 August 2006.

Meles Zenawi knows that it was his regime that refused to allow for the expeditious demarcation on ground in accordance with the EEBC’s Final and Binding decision and its demarcation directives and orders, thus forcing the EEBC to “adopt another approach to effect the demarcation of the boundary”.

Sir Elihu Lauterpacht, President of the EEBC, in a letter he wrote to Seyoum Mesfin, the minority regime’s Foreign Minister on 27 November 2006 addresses the reasons why the EEBC decided to demarcate the border on paper, by placing coordinates on maps, instead of placing pillars on the ground. Sir Elihu’s wrote:

“…The Commission does not contest the assertion that its approach to demarcation by way of setting out coordinates indicating precise Boundary Points was not part of its original intention. Its intention had been to go on the ground and, in consultation and cooperation with the Field Liaison Officers of the Parties, to establish the locations for the emplacement of boundary pillars. Despite repeated initiatives on the part of the Commission supported by requests of the Security Council that the Parties cooperate, Ethiopia, for one, has made this approach impossible. The Commission cannot be left in limbo…”

Furthermore, in its 26 November 2006 Statement the EEBC explained its decision to adopt a different approach to demarcate the Eritrea Ethiopia border and its legal applicability:

“…Modern techniques of image processing and terrain modelling make it possible, in conjunction with the use of high resolution aerial photography, to demarcate the course of the boundary by identifying the location of turning points (hereinafter called “boundary points”) by both grid and geographical coordinates with a degree of accuracy that does not differ significantly from pillar site assessment and emplacement undertaken in the field. The Commission has therefore identified by these means the location of points for the emplacement of pillars as a physical manifestation of the boundary on the ground. Although these techniques have been available for some time, the Commission has not resorted to them because the actual fixing of boundary pillars, if at all possible, was the demarcation method of first choice. However, it is only possible to demarcate a boundary by the fixing of boundary pillars with the full cooperation of both the States concerned…The fact that the present Commission began its demarcation activity in terms of the location and construction of fixed pillars does not mean that it is precluded from following another course when confronted by the lack of necessary cooperation by the Parties…In adopting this approach, the Commission has been guided by significant authority in State practice…”

The minority regime and its handlers squandered all opportunities for an orderly demarcation process as initially envisioned and cannot now plead ignorance as an excuse to justify continued occupation of sovereign Eritrean territories, including Badme.

The deceptive Meles Zenawi must know that placing coordinates on maps is not only legal but also a more common practice than placing border markers on the ground, or pillars, which can be removed or destroyed by ill-willed individuals (Teraros or Tererti), soil erosion, mud slides and other natural calamities.

I would advise the Prime Minister to more on and allow the people of Eritrea and Ethiopia to live in peace or face the consequences of his belligerence and lawlessness.

The minority regime in Ethiopia must unconditionally vacate from sovereign Eritrean territories it is militarily occupying. If it does not, the Security Council must shoulder its legal and moral responsibilities under the UN Charter and immediately call for the immediate restoration of Eritrea’s sovereignty and territorial integrity or …

The rule of law must prevail over the law of the jungle!!!


http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=47389

Viral Marketing - The 3 MOST Powerful Forms Of Viral Marketing

EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it. “The Money Is In The LIST!” I bet you’ve heard this catch phrase once or twice while surfing around on the Internet. I know I have, but, the question that usually arises is How do I effectively build one that won’t cost me an arm and a leg in the process?

I'm going to highlight 3 of the MOST powerful ways to build your targeted 'Opt-In List' by using the Power of 'Viral Marketing' as your engine.

And the best part about using these 3 'Viral' methods I'm about to mention are... they cost virtually Nothing to produce, are Highly targeted, give You INSTANT Credibility and are in constant demand by website owners.

So, with that said, let's move on to what these 3 'Viral' methods are and how they will benefit you and your List Building efforts.

Method #1. Writing 'Special Reports'.

- Special Reports work great because they allow you to go into more depth about the Topic or Problem in question where you'll then be able to lead them to how your Product or Service(or Affiliate product) can fix there current problem.

- They give you Instant Credibility, which builds trust in your customer that you are knowlegdable in your industry.

- Website owners are always looking for quality **Free Stuff** to give away or offer to there Visitors and/or Subscribers.

This is where you could CASH-IN, especially if you make your special report 'Brandable'. This gives the website owner even MORE incentive to give your Freebie away if they can make Money in the process.

- And your Contact Information will always be inside, no matter what. Meaning, as your report is being passed around the Internet you'll always be able to lead your potential customer back to your website where they could sign-up for your newsletter and/or read up more about your Products or Services you offer.

Method #2. Putting Together A 'Free eBook'.

- Free eBooks work great as well and have the same benefits as I outlined through the special report.

The only difference using this approach is, you can put together a free ebook in less time then it would take to produce your special report simply because it doesn't even have to be your own material inside, it can be someone else's.

Just make sure you put together a free ebook with quality information inside.

- And they also allow you to target more then one Product or Service inside because free ebooks are usually a compilation of related articles targetting a particular problem leaving you room to diversify.

Method #3. Writing 'Articles'.

- Writing Articles is probably ONE of the Best and Most Effective Ways to produce a wave of Viral traffic to your website because every website owner needs FRESH content to feed to there visitors and/or subscribers.

- They also allow you to Target your audience's problem specifically that they're dealing with.

- And at the end of the article you have a spot called the 'Resource Box' to insert your personal Bio and/or Website information.

Just imagine if your article were to be picked up by some Newsletter Editor with a large list or High Traffic website and they use it as a 'Featured Article' in there publication, you could see an INSTANT Surge of targeted traffic to your website overnight.

That's where your 'Resource Box' comes in.(Take a look at how mine is formatted at the end of this article.)

Well, that about sums it up for the 3 MOST powerful 'Viral Marketing' methods being used today by most Internet marketers, and for good reason, because they work.

Now, with all that said, what do these 3 'Viral' methods all have in common that'll put your List Building efforts on 'Auto-Pilot'?

- They're in HIGH demand by website owners.

- They're HIGHLY Targeted.

- They give You INSTANT Credibility in your industry.

- They have YOUR Contact Details leading to Your website.

...and Most important of all, they're all FREE!

Just think for a minute, by using only ONE of these methods listed above, how it could put your Opt-In list building efforts on 'Auto-Pilot'.

This article represents just a summarized version of all the different List Building techniques available online, But, in my opinion, these 3 are the most effective.

http://www.huliq.com/44437/viral-marketing-3-most-powerful-forms-viral-marketing

All that glitters is not healthy

All that glitters is not healthy So you’re in the supermarket stocking up on supplies for your new weight loss effort. Into the cart go carrots, low fat yogurt, a couple of Lean Cuisines. You get to the check out and pick up a few fashion magazines for motivation. You know they’re kind of junky but the magazines are likely to include a few diet tips and pictures of clothes you hope to fit into—and besides, they’re not fattening, so what harm could they do? Turns out, if you live with a pre-teen or teenaged girl, plenty. It is a paradox of modern life that while women are close to achieving equality in the workplace (and a woman is making a serious run for the American presidency), adolescent girls have never been more tyrannized by images of how they “should” look. In a chilling passage from her 1998 book The Body Project: An Intimate Portrait of American Girls, Joan Jacobs Brumberg notes that 100 years ago girls confided to their diaries aspirations to be better and kinder people while today “Dear Diary” is likely to contain confessions of dietary “cheating” and hopes of being as thin as a model. Exposing girls to magazines with diet articles may actually harm their health. Earlier this year, a study in the journal Pediatrics showed that 44% of middle school aged girls said they often read magazine articles about dieting. Five years later, the girls were surveyed again. Those who read about dieting were three times as likely as others to use vomiting or laxatives for weight control. They were twice as likely to smoke or fast to lose weight.

It's not just that girls who were particularly concerned about their body image or losing weight read the articles, according to the study. It was the frequent reading of the magazine articles that increased the risk. The authors saw this as further proof of just how much the media influence adolescents, especially girls.

If you are the parent of an adolescent girl, you might consider:

· Limiting your daughter's exposure to magazine articles about dieting and weight loss. As tempted as you might be to read about the latest great thing, leave the magazine in the store. Toss, or keep at your bedside, the magazines already in your house with weight loss articles in them. If your doctor or dentist has them in the waiting room, ask the staff to remove them.

· Teach your daughter media literacy. This is even more important, because you will never be able to protect her from all the media messages telling her she needs to be really thin and should do dramatic things to get that way. Talk about those messages together, and about why they can be bad for her health. Help her look critically at pictures of really thin models; talk about beauty as being healthy and happy, not skinny. Point out that the images are airbrushed and otherwise manipulated. Help her understand that there is way more to her than how she looks.

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977200021

Mac McIntosh Delivers Powerful Information on Everything Sales Lead Related on New Blog

A salesperson, if they could have the answer to any question in the universe which they would like to know, and you are likely to get an answer that deals with how to get more qualified sales leads. Thankfully, a world class consultant has created a resource rich blog for all those that are interested in lead generation, lead conversions, and other business-to-business sales and marketing information.

Mac McIntosh is a renowned speaker, writer, and all purpose expert in business-to-business marketing, specializing in lead generation and conversion techniques. McIntosh's new blog, Sales-Lead-Insights.com offers anyone with a web browser a wealth of useful information on B2B marketing and sales techniques.

Talking with people at some of the conferences I have done, it became evident that doing a blog to give them advice on B2B marketing and sales would be a good idea. The blog allows me to deliver relevant information to those interested in business-to-business marketing effortlessly.
Mac McIntosh is a regular on the seminar and conference circuit, helping to coach the world's premier marketers on the newest and most relevant business-to-business marketing and lead generation techniques. Sales-Lead-Insights.com takes Mr. McIntosh's expertise and delivers it in an easy to read blog format that allows visitors to instantly access the information they are interested in without having to turn a single page.

"Talking with people at some of the conferences I have done, it became evident that doing a blog to give them advice on B2B marketing and sales would be a good idea. The blog allows me to deliver relevant information to those interested in business-to-business marketing effortlessly." explains Sales-Lead-Insights.com founder Mac McIntosh.

Sales-Lead-Insights.com provides polished commentary on the world of B2B marketing, with an emphasis in the art of turning leads into sales. The site also provides a valuable set of links that Mr. McIntosh has gathered from his travels around the world as a consultant.

What might be the most attractive feature of Sales-Lead-Insights.com is the amount of information available totally free of charge. The site offers articles, organization files available for free download, and an email newsletter one can subscribe to for free as well.

With the ultimate goal of any growing organization to learn how to turn leads into sales, it is with little doubt that Sales-Lead-Insights.com will be online for a longtime to come.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/12/prweb575719.htm

Caught In The Act: The Dynamic Dance Of Enzymes

Nature, Brandeis University Howard Hughes Medical Investigator Dr. Dorothee Kern and collaborators pull back the curtain on the secret lives of enzymes, the ubiquitous proteins that catalyze chemical reactions in the cell. Harnessing a slew of sophisticated technologies to capture a key enzyme changing shape in near real time, Kern was able to show that these proteins are not the wallflowers of the biological world scientists had once thought, essentially passive until catalysis occurs. Rather, Kern and her team demonstrated that the enzyme adenylate kinase, and presumably many more, engages in a dynamic dance even before its catalytic date--the substrate to which it binds--shows up.
See also:
Health & Medicine

* Nutrition
* Pharmacology
* Workplace Health

Plants & Animals

* Biology
* Molecular Biology
* Biochemistry Research

Reference

* Denaturation (biochemistry)
* Catalysis
* Saliva
* Protein folding

If one of the constants of life is change over time, implicit in this truth is how macroscopic change, such as the growth of a child, is ultimately rooted in microscopic change, such as atoms moving in a protein. Kern's study is remarkable in its ability to document the tiny flutterings of enzymes just before they do their all important catalytic work.

In two Nature articles, Kern and collaborators were able, in effect, to create a motion picture of an enzyme as it actually changed shape, or conformations, in the absence of the substrate. "It's really a paradigm shift," said Kern. Earlier studies had been able only to create snapshots of enzymes frozen in time, obscuring their true restless, twitching selves.

The three-year study represents a breakthrough in scientific understanding of the dynamic personalities of enzymes. For years, Kern has dedicated herself to capturing how enzymes move and change shape through time. She pioneered the use of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), which can detect the motion of individual atoms in a protein, in this biophysical application.

But in this study, Kern, who earlier in life was the point guard on the East German national women's basketball team, knew she had to create a gold-standard strategy that would capture not only the motion of a key protein, but its structures, as well. She had to make sure that the fleeting, more infrequent shapes of enzymes couldn't essentially wiggle out of the picture. These rarer enzyme states are critical to understand, as they are the ones most relevant to better drug design.

Ultimately, Kern harnessed five different elegant techniques, including X-ray crystallography, (NMR), single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), computer simulations of molecular dynamics, and paramagnetism, to reveal the full picture of how proteins fold in those infrequent, yet lightening-fast intermediate states between inactivity and activity. Each technique provided a piece of the puzzle.

"The big goal here is to understand proteins well enough so that we can actually predict how they will behave," said Kern. These short-lived structures are most likely to have a higher affinity to drug molecules. Instead of relying on trial and error, scientists may be able to rationally design drugs to specifically bind to these intermediate conformations, according to Kern.

With the ability to capture an enzyme in real time as it is moving toward the active state, Kern and co-workers were able to detect picosecond (one millionth of one millionth of a second) changes, the fast smaller conformational motions, as well as the millisecond large-scale motions that are a result of the many fast motions.

"This work will lead to understanding the physical nature of proteins not as a static picture but as an ensemble of structures," said Kern.

The research was supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, National Institutes of Health, the Department of Energy, and the American Heart Association.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071211232813.htm

Best Online Marketing Techniques

I have been in internet marketing for over ten years and have seen marketing techniques come and go. Some are still around and some are new and innovative. Below you will find what I believe to be the best and most effectivemarketing techniques.

Article Marketing - Article marketing was and is one of the most powerful online marketing methods available. Not only does it do wonders for you and your business, it is free!

Article marketing consists of writing helpful, informative, easy to understand articles that actually help your readers, not try to sell them something. Then you submit them to article banks, directories and to ezine publishers. When your article runs in a popular ezine, it can do great things
for your business. Writing articles is not as hard as you might think so give it a try. You will be surprised at how much it can do for your business.

Remember:

Don't worry about fancy words. People are looking for help not big words.
Advertise in your resource box, not your article.

Provide real, helpful info and resources, not hype!

Write from the heart! Let your personality shine through in your articles.

Blogging - Blogging is a newer form of online marketing that just started becoming popular in the late 90's. Blog is short for weblog and means an online publication in the form of a log or journal. Blogs can increase your customer base, your traffic and your search engine ranking, thus increasing your sales!

Blogging can be done for free through such sites as: blogger.com, wordpress.com and livejournal.com

Be sure and update your blog regularly; everyday would be best, as people like fresh content, ideas and information.

Ezine Publishing - Ezine publishing has been around much longer than blogging and is far more effective, in my opinion. Your ezine needs to contain helpful resources, information, not just sales pitches. Develop a relationship with your readers. Let them know they can trust you and rely on you when they need your help.

Things to remember when putting together your ezine:

Keep it clean and easy to read.
Limit your advertising and be selective.
Always provide quality content and information.
Add your personality so your readers can get to know you.
Always provide contact info; make yourself available to your readers.
Be consistent; send your ezine out regularly as scheduled.
Be sure and proofread your ezine before sending it out.

Online Networking - Online networking, as with offline networking, is very important to your business. This is when you contact as many people as possible to learn more and share more about your business. Many leads can come from networking. There are several ways to do this online.

Email Discussion Groups - go to yahoogroups.com and search for the appropriate groups.

Message Boards - Be sure and follow the rules and offer help whenever possible.

Social Sites - Such as MySpace, Ryze, Merchant Circle, etc. These can be great ways to make more contacts and get more leads.

Joint Ventures - This is when you enter into an agreement with another online marketer that will benefit both of you.

Examples of joint ventures are:

Ezine ad swaps
Ebook ad swaps
Subscription page ad swaps
Affiliate programs
Exchanging advertising for percentage of sales and the list goes on and on. Be creative and come up with new ways you and another business owner can help each other.

Podcasting - Podcasting is using digital media files which are distributed all over the internet via syndication feeds. Podcasting is still a fairly new way of online marketing. Podcasting can be powerful because it uses voice, not words to get the message across. Offer your articles, do voice interviews, offer a chapter of your ebook via podcast, etc. Again, use your imagination and create new ways to spread the word about your business.

Ezine Advertising - Advertising your business, product, service, etc. in quality ezines can be well worth the money spent. There are a few things you can do to help you choose which ezines to advertise in.

Do a search to find ezines that cater to your target market. For example: if you are advertising kids books, you don't want to advertise in a all about cars ezine.

Once you find several target market ezines, subscribe to them so you can look them over, find out about the dependency of the publisher, read feedback from other subscribers and just overall learn what the ezine is about.

Try contacting the publisher to see if they respond to your email. Ask about testimonials from other advertisers. How many ads do they run per issue and what the ads cost.

Ask the publisher to do an ad swap to test the waters and see if you get a response to your ad. Be selective in your choices and always code your ads so you know which ezines actually deliver results.

I hope this article has given you some insight as to how to market your online/home business. I use several of these methods ( and the rest of them I should be using) and know from experience that they work!

The possibilities with the internet are endless and we need to keep up with new and innovative ways of marketing our business. And we also need to keep using the tried and true older methods of online marketing as well.

http://www.promotionworld.com/articles/se/articles/Internet_Marketing_Strategy/071212BestOnline.html

This Week On The Space Show

The Space Show, hosted by David Livingston under www.TheSpaceShow.com, will have the following guests this week:

1. Monday, December 10, 2007, 2-3:30 PM PST (22-0:30 GMT)
Retired astronaut Dr. Dan Barry comes to the program. Following graduate school at Princeton University, Dr. Barry was a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow in physics at Princeton. He then attended the University of Miami Medical School, graduating in 1982. He completed an internship and a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation residency at the University of Michigan in 1985. He was appointed as an assistant professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and in the Bioengineering Program at the University of Michigan in 1985, and his tenure was approved by the Regents in 1992. He spent the summers of 1985-87 at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, supported by the Grass Foundation for work in skeletal muscle physiology and as the Associate Director of the Grass Foundation Fellowship Program (1986-87). His research primarily involved biological signal processing, including signal processing theory, algorithms, and applications to specific biological systems. The applications included acoustic signals generated by contracting skeletal muscle, electrical signals from muscle, and heart sounds. He has also worked in prosthetic design. Dr. Barry’s work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Grass Foundation, and the American Heart Association of Michigan. He has five patents, over 50 articles in scientific journals, and has served on two scientific journal editorial boards. Selected by NASA in March 1992, Dr. Barry reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1992. He completed one year of training and qualified for assignment as a mission specialist on Space Shuttle flight crews. Dr. Barry has worked on primary payload development, the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL), portable computing issues for Space Shuttle, Chief of Astronaut Appearances, flight clinic ombudsman, source board member for the NASA Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI), Astronaut Office team lead to NASDA, the Japanese Space Agency, Chief, ISS Hardware, US and International, and a tour of duty with the Office of Biological & Physical Research and the Office of Education, NASA Headquarters, Washington D.C. A veteran of three space flights, STS-72 (1996), STS-96 (1999) and STS-105 (2001), Dr. Barry has logged over 734 hours in space, including 4 spacewalks totaling 25 hours and 53 minutes. Dr. Barry’s spaceflight experience includes STS-72 Endeavour (January 11-20, 1996) was a 9-day flight during which the crew retrieved the Space Flyer Unit (launched from Japan 10-months earlier), deployed and retrieved the OAST-Flyer, and Dr. Barry performed a 6 hour, 9 minute spacewalk designed to demonstrate and evaluate techniques to be used in the assembly of the International Space Station. Mission duration was 142 Earth orbits, traveling 3.7 million miles in 214 hours and 41 seconds. STS-96 Discovery (May 27 to June 6, 1999) was the 1st mission to dock with the International Space Station. It was a 10-day mission during which the crew delivered 4 tons of logistics and supplies in preparation for the arrival of the first crew to live on the station. The mission was accomplished in 153 Earth orbits, traveling 4 million miles in 235 hours and 13 minutes. Dr. Barry performed a spacewalk of 7 hours and 55 minute duration. STS-105 Discovery (Aug 10-22, 2001) was the 11th mission to the International Space Station. While at the orbital outpost, the STS-105 crew delivered the Expedition-3 crew, attached the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, and transferred over 2.7 metric tons of supplies and equipment to the station. Dr. Barry and Pat Forrester performed two spacewalks totaling 11 hours and 45 minutes of EVA time. STS-105 also brought home the Expedition-2 crew. The STS-105 mission was accomplished in 186 orbits of the Earth, traveling over 4.9 million miles in 285 hours and 13 minutes. Dr. Barry retired from NASA in April 2005 to start his own company “Denbar Robotics” where he currently builds robots (www.denbarrobotics.com). His full bio can be found at www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/barry.html.


2. Tuesday, December 11, 2007, 9:30-11 AM PST (17:30-19 GMT)
Taylor Dinerman returns to the program. Taylor Dinerman is a well-known and respected space writer regarding military and civilian space activities since 1983. From 1999 until 2003, Mr. Dinerman ran Space Equity.com. Taylor Dinerman has now been writing for a variety of publications including Ad Astra, The Wall Street Journal and the American Spectator. He is a regular contributor with a weekly piece for Jeff Foust’s Space Review. Mr. Dinerman’s articles on a wide range of important space topics can be read at www.thespacereview.com. He is also a political advisor for major candidates seeking national office.

3. Wednesday, December 12, 2007, 9:30-11 AM PST (17:30-19 GMT)
Christopher Stott comes to the program. President & Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Christopher Bryan Robert Stott, Bachelor of Arts with Honours in American Studies, Politics and Government (UKC), Diploma (U.C.S.D.), Master of Space Studies (ISU), Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (FRAS), Member of the Manx Astronomical Society (MAS); Member of the International Institute of Space Law (IISL); Member of the Society of Satellite Professionals International (SSPI). Mr. C. B. R. (Chris) Stott is President and Chief Executive Officer of ManSat LLC. Originator of the ManSat concept, Chris is also ManSat’s co-founder. In September 2003 Chris Stott was also appointed Honorary Representative of the Isle of Man to the Space Community by the Island’s Chief Minister and Council of Ministers. Chris left his position as Director of International Commercialization & Sales with Lockheed Martin Space Operations’ $3.4 billion Consolidated Space Operations Contract (CSOC) in Houston to found ManSat Limited. Chris came to Lockheed Martin from the Boeing Space & Communications Company in Huntington Beach, California, where he worked International Business Development for the Delta Launch Vehicle program. Chris has also worked extensively in British and American politics as an Office Manager, Staff Aide, and Speech Writer in the British House of Commons and House of Lords, and as an Intern in the US Senate and White House, and as a political aide on two US Presidential Campaigns. Prior to his work in space, Chris was Special Projects Director with Life Education International, a children’s health education and drug prevention program and United Nations Non Governmental Organization (N.G.O.). Educated at Millfield School in Somerset, England, Chris attended the University of Kent, Canterbury where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree, with Honours, in American Studies Politics and Government. While at Canterbury, Chris also received a Diploma from the University of California, San Diego where he studied International Relations at the University of California and Marine Policy and at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Chris also holds his Masters Degree in Space Studies from the International Space University (ISU), having graduated from the first class of ISU’s MSS program in Strasbourg in July 1996. In addition, Chris is a Member of ISU’s Board of Trustees and Governing Membership, and is Co-Chair of the School of Business and Management at the University. Chris is also an Adjunct Professor of Space Law at the University of Houston Clear Lake in Clear Lake, Texas, a visiting lecturer at the Bates School of Law at the University of Houston, and is also a lecturer in Space Law for the International Space School Foundation of Houston, Texas. Chris is a published Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and an invited member of the International Institute of Space Law. Chris is the co-author of Britain and Europe’s first work on space privatization and commercialization, “A Space For Enterprise; the aerospace industries after government monopoly”, Stott & Watson, Adam Smith Institute, London, 1994. ISBN #873712 48 0. Chris was a founder member of the British Space Education Council and remains active in supporting space education initiatives.

4. Friday, December 14, 2007, 9:30-11:30 AM PST (17:30-19:30 GMT)
Christophe Bonnal comes to the program. His CV from France is included below:
1984 – 1992 Aerospatiale – Space and Strategic Systems Division
Les Mureaux - France
Note: 1984 & 1985 in CR2A, consulting company working for Aerospatiale
1984 – 1987 Technical studies on Ariane 4 and Ariane 5 launchers:
Dynamic behavior of the launcher – Pogo effect
Trajectory and Transitory phases studies for Ariane 5
1987 – 1990 Futures projects – Project manager for:
ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle) and RRL (Reusable Rocket Launchers) under ESA contracts
EAL (Liquid Booster on Ariane 5) under CNES contract
PLS (Small Launcher) with Snecma, Arianespace and CNES
1990 – 1992 Member of the Ariane 5 Industrial Architect Team, responsible for:
Mission Analyses, Trajectories – Performances
Stage kinematics, Mass budgets
Since 1992 CNES – Launcher Directorate
Evry - France
1992 – 1997 Ariane 5 Programme Directorate – Systems Division
Responsible for numerous development activities:
Mission Analyses, Trajectories – Performances – Mass budgets
Phase syntheses
Responsible for Launcher System Tests:
Full scale Dynamic Mock-up tests (EPC, EAP, Upper-Composite tests)
Combined tests (EMC, shocks, separations, acoustics, thermics…)
Flight Tests: Author of the Technological Flight Tests Specifications
Measurement Plan
Previsions – Post Flight Evaluations – Chair of 502 Level 0
1997 - 2005 Future Projects Responsible for the preliminary studies of Upper Cryotechnic Stage of Ariane 5 Co-Author of the ESC Programme File
1998 Head of the Future Launchers Division (now Senior Project Manager)
CNES representative in numerous Working Groups (Groupe Prospective – Arianespace, Launcher Cooperation – JAXA, Future Launchers – Tsniimash, NASA Exploration Initiative assessment)
Division in charge of some 20 topics
Market analysis, strategy, with Arianespace, and Defense aspects
New Programmes Proposals (ESC, P80, …)
Improvements of Ariane 5 - Ariane 5 alternatives - ELV 2020 initiative
Reusable Launchers: ANGEL proposal, Pre-X proposal, …
Project manager for ESA FLPP and OURAL (with Russia)
Small, mini, micro launchers, advanced propulsion, advanced missions
Since 2005 Technical Directorate
Senior Expert, Deputy to the Technical Director
In charge of syntheses on all multidisciplinary activities on any launcher, future projects or Research and Technology activities
In charge of the organization of CNES-DLA tutorial activities, in house (Cours Lanceur) and externally (for Engineer schools, Universities, Mo Education…)
Since 1992 Responsible for Space Debris Activities (Launchers) within CNES
Member of the CNES Executive Bureau for Space Debris
Member of the European Network of Centre on Space Debris
Member of the ECSS Working Group on Space Debris
Representative of France within IADC (Inter Agency Debris Committee)
Former Chairman of IADC Working Group 4 in charge of mitigation
Member of Programme Reviews Boards for most of the European Launchers, current or future.
More than 50 professional publications (IAF, AIAA, COSPAR, ISTS, AAAF, Euroconsult…)
Author of the article “Future Launchers” in the “Encyclopedia of Physical Science & Technology”
Numerous Tutorial Sessions for various Universities and Engineer Schools in Europe every year
Numerous general presentations and articles in general reviews (La Recherche, Espace Magazine, …)
Full Member of IAA (International Academy of Astronautics) – Member of Commission III
Co-Chair of the IAA Working Group S.5.1 (Space Debris) within IAA Commission V
Chair of the IAA Working Group S.3 (Private Manned Access to Space) within IAA Commission III
Editor of the IAA Position Paper on Space Debris Mitigation rules
Coordinator of IAF Space Transportation Committee (International Astronautics Federation) and of the IAF Space Debris Committee. Senior Member of AAAF (Association Aéronautique & Astronautique de France)
Chairman of AAAF Space Transportation Committee. Member of the ANAE WG related to Space Transportation (Académie Nationale de l’Air et de l’Espace). Award: Prix de l’Innovation Aéronautique et Spatial 2005 – Aéroclub de France

5. Sunday, December 16, 2007, 12-1:30 PM PST (20-21:30 GMT)
Dr. Michael Simpson comes to the program. Dr. Michael Simpson is President of International Space University. An internationalist by education and inclination, Dr. Simpson’s academic career extends over 25 years and two continents. He has been president of Utica College and the American University of Paris with a combined total of fifteen years of experience as an academic chief executive officer. He has taught courses in political science, international relations, business management, leadership and economics at Universities in both the United States of America and France. He received his Bachelors Degree magna cum laude from Fordham University in 1970 where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He has also been elected to academic honor societies in the fields of political science and business management. After graduating from Fordham University, Dr. Simpson accepted a commission as an officer in the U.S. Navy, retiring from the Naval Reserve in 1993. Dr. Simpson completed his Ph.D. at Tufts University, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, holds the Master of Business Administration from Syracuse University; and two Master of Arts degrees from The Fletcher School. He has also completed two prestigious one year courses in Europe: the French advanced defense institute (Institut des Hautes Études de Défense Nationale) and the General Course of the London School of Economics.

http://spacefellowship.com/News/?p=3930

In China, Add a Caterpillar

Selling giant industrial machines in China sometimes feels to Mike Cai like living life in a traveling circus.

A marketer for Caterpillar Inc., Mr. Cai is working to crack the China market for earthmovers called wheel tractor-scrapers. Already a decades-old product in America, these dirt-scoopers, which weigh in at 38 tons, haven't made much headway in China, which still relies on the smaller "hex" -- industry jargon for hydraulic excavator -- and trucks on most construction sites.

To change that, Mr. Cai and his colleagues have eschewed traditional advertising techniques. Instead they've taken their show on the road, adopting a tactic popular in China's burgeoning market.
[photo]
Caterpillar's wheel tractor-scraper is on a show-and-sell tour of China.

For the past year, Mr. Cai has taken more than 40 trips, stopping in different Chinese towns to try to showcase feats that he hopes will fully create some village buzz -- and that he knows is a lot cheaper, and believes is more effective, than advertising. "Word-of-mouth is the best form of publicity for the construction industry in China," he says.

China presents immense business prospects for industrial-machinery companies like Caterpillar, Cummins Inc. of Columbus, Ind., and Japan's Komatsu Ltd. Cities and towns across the country are rapidly building airports, highways, railroads, pipelines, mines and irrigation projects as part of the country's rapid economic development. Caterpillar says it expects China revenue to quadruple to $4 billion in 2010 from about $1 billion last year.

Selling the Cat 627G Wheel Tractor-Scraper's efficiency benefits at first seemed fruitless. Chinese construction companies seldom, if ever, keep data on productivity and machine efficiency. Telling them the Cat 627G does the work of several other machines -- loading, hauling, spreading and compacting -- can be futile when the potential clients have no basis with which to compare results.

Caterpillar, Peoria, Ill., declined to discuss pricing. Still the scrapers are expected to be costlier than what Chinese customers are used to buying. "The initial outlay may be more, but in the long term you save on labor and machinery costs," says Jin Guodong, a Caterpillar dealer.

In June 2006, Caterpillar's business-intelligence group canvassed more than 100 customers and dealers across China and tested their awareness and acceptance of the new product. "Half of them had never even heard of a scraper," says Scott Bailey, Caterpillar's market-development manager for the contraption.

Caterpillar executives decided the best way to exhibit the scraper's muscle was in the field. The decision came from an insight the survey yielded: Chinese customers said they wanted the experience of watching scrapers at work. No amount of data from Australia to Europe and the U.S. would convince them. "Roadshows are very popular in China," says Scott Kronick, president for Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide/China. "Chinese customers are being introduced to a lot of products and services for the first time, so you can't advertise something that's intangible."

Starting in September, Caterpillar's marketing teams fanned out to different parts of the country, visiting ongoing or new projects that are on a large-enough scale to show off the scraper's prowess. Live events involve intense logistical work. In a demonstration that Caterpillar staged last month, executives flew more than 500 miles from Beijing to Changchun, capital of rust belt Jilin province in the northeast, before driving a further 310 miles to a remote town called Baicheng, home to two million people.
[photo]

Earlier, six scrapers were shipped from the U.S. and afterward transported on a flatbed truck to different parts of China.

At Baicheng, in the northwest of Jilin province, two demo scrapers were put to work. The city wants to turn wasteland into arable earth, by building grids of irrigation canals throughout a 900,000-plus-acre plot that can help wash away the salt -- the result of soil erosion -- that is now making the earth sterile. On the last demonstration day, an audience of local government officials, contractors, landowners and the local media turned up. The gawking helped to spin off a level of publicity Caterpillar hadn't expected.

When the project operator excitedly told reporters the scrapers could cut the work schedule by five months and bring benefits to local farmers earlier than expected, the local news station beamed a two-minute clip on its evening news about the machine's wonders.

China Central Television, the national broadcaster that reaches out to the entire country, also had sent reporters to Baicheng, intending to report on the farmland project, said to be Jilin province's biggest ever. Caterpillar says its dealers arrange the guest lists.

Days later, CCTV ran the story, which had a two-second glance of the scrapers -- free publicity that might have cost millions of Chinese yuan in paid advertising.

The local news clip has made it online, giving Caterpillar extra brand boosting. "It gave us excellent credibility, visibility and awareness," says Kate Wang, Caterpillar's spokeswoman in Beijing. In the past, the company also has advertised in trade publications but has preferred to submit academic-type articles for trade magazines that explain how its machines work, believing that this unpaid approach confers a more reliable image.

Yet cementing faith in the scraper and getting final orders may take awhile more. During the demonstration at Baicheng, the scrapers dumped soil layer by layer to form the banks of the canals, while engineers took measurements of the canal walls. But they couldn't keep up with the machines' speed.

"The scraper works faster than any traditional machine we know. Even after we buy one, we'll need to train our workers on using it," says Dang Jianyin, a Caterpillar customer in the mining sector who isn't involved in the canal project.

For now, the Baicheng operators have decided to rent two scrapers when construction resumes in March. Although Caterpillar's scrapers can run in all climates, the ground has become too hard for any digging, with snow at least two feet deep.

The company is working on a number of contracts with other customers and has had "a few successful rentals," says Mr. Bailey, the market-development manager. "The price tag shouldn't be a deal breaker once customers see the machines at work," he says. "They do get it. Chinese customers appreciate the fact that the scraper can shorten the schedule."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119724424958218765.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Interpersonal Techniques and Personal Development

It’s all in the technique. If you are game to build your personal and interpersonal development skills you must learn techniques, yet you must use only what works best for you.

The methods in which we perform an action determine our lot in life. Therefore, go online now to learn about the latest techniques and discover what works best for you.

Some of the popular techniques include self-querying, self-talk, meditation, guided relaxation, and subliminal learning.

How self-querying works:

Using your self-talk you can ask questions to find answers. You may ask, what is my problem? How does it hinder me from personal and interpersonal development? Where did the problem start? Who is responsible for the problem occurring? And when did the problem arise? By using self-query you will start the hunt to discover your problems and how to deal with them. You will explore your subliminal mind, which is a learning process.

How self-talk works?

Self-talk starts with you dialoging or interviewing self, you move to self-querying when you begin self-talk. Just relax and start a conversation with you. Try to make it fun. Develop a sense of humor so that you can relax and find rewards through self-talk.

How meditation works:

Meditation works in several ways. You want to find a quiet area to relax. Make sure that there are no distractions around you. Relax your body and mind in a sitting or lying position. Get as comfortable as possible. Once you are in a relaxed position, notice your body. Start at your toes and work your way up until you recognize the responses of your entire body. Once you achieve this level start freely allowing your thoughts to roam.

If you want to get into the subliminal mind then let all thoughts affect you, so that you can move to find hidden messages. You may have periods of discomfort. Recognize this discomfort and allow your thoughts to go.

As you continue challenge the messages coming from your subliminal mind. Once you reach this stage you can start writing down things you discover. Take notes so that you can review them later.

After reviewing your notes later you may discover something new that can help you find answers to your problems, or answers to help you with personal and interpersonal development. Take additional notes once you discover new answers. This will help you improve your memory also. Improving your memory will make it easier for you to work toward personal and interpersonal development.

Review your list often and practice this method of meditation so that you can reach your goal in personal development.

You can work toward relaxation each time you challenge these techniques so that you can work through personal development.

The more practice you put into these techniques the more you will get from them. Go online to learn the latest solutions in the new age arena. You will find a wide array of products and techniques available in case one of the techniques do not work for you.

You can find techniques to guide your body and mind to relaxation online also. If you are working toward self-development you must learn to relax often, especially while practicing the techniques. Some people do not benefit from meditation, simply because they cannot encourage relaxation. So learn some techniques here also so that you can get the most of your personal development.

Explore the Internet to learn more about subliminal learning. This process alone will do wonders as far as encouraging self-development or personal growth. You will find a wealth of articles online to train you, or help you discover the techniques listed.

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=44988

Israel and Top Zionist Leaders Attack Intelligence

The most important thing [sic] that should be said about Bush is that had I told him that I was opposed to this move (Annapolis meeting), he wouldn’t have embarked on it. I could have blocked the move. Had I been unwilling to co-operate with him, Bush wouldn’t have coerced me… I spoke to the President with unparalleled sharpness about these matters (bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities) and my comments were extremely well received — regarding the freedom (to bomb Iran) we are reserving for ourselves and what we will and won’t do.
– Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Haaretz, November 29, 2007

Introduction

During and immediately after the Annapolis meetings to discuss peace, Israel abducted the student president of Beir Zeit University for dissent, launched over 50 attacks on Gaza killing and wounding over 50 Palestinian civilians, police and militia, set in motion a vast building project of 250 new apartments in Palestinian East Jerusalem, projected permanent Israeli military posts in the West Bank, rejected any time limits or specific goals in their negotiations with the PLO and launched a virulent dismissal of the major US intelligence report (National Intelligence Estimate) on the non-existence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program.

Israel’s presence at Annapolis had absolutely nothing to do with peace or promises to negotiate in good faith: Their purpose was to deflect attention from their meat-grinder style genocidal policies in Gaza and their relentless drive to savagely dispossess all Palestinians of any territory or semblance of autonomy, literally turning off the lights (energy), gas and water to 1.4 million Palestinians residing in Gaza. Since September 11, 2001 the Israeli state, Zionists inside the US government and the entire leadership of the Major American Jewish Organizations have been entirely devoted to pushing the US into Middle East wars on behalf of Israel. In the run-up to the Iraq War, Zionists in top strategic decision-making positions in the Pentagon, the Vice President’s Office, the White House and the National Security Council designed and executed war policy, fabricated evidence, wrote Presidential speeches, organized press conferences and presidential agendas, purged critics in the military and intelligence agencies and altered intelligence reports to suit their purposes.

Israeli and Zion-Con success in destroying Iraq, however, was secured at an enormous cost in US military casualties, demoralization and one trillion dollars (and counting) in cost to the US taxpayers. As a result, public opinion dramatically shifted against the war, despite the intervention of the Israeli regime in shaping US public opinion via its army of ‘Israel-First’ academic and journalistic scribes and propagandists with broad access to the US mass media.

As I pointed out in an earlier article, the devastating effects, which the Israeli-Zioncon-promoted Iraq War have had on the US military, and intelligence agencies, led to widespread opposition within the US state to the Israeli-Zionist push for mounting a new war against Iran. This historic struggle over Iran policy split the top echelons of the Washington policy making. On the one hand, the Israeli Firsters controlled or influenced the White House, the majority of Congress and key Congressional committee chairpersons, the financing of both major political parties, the leading presidential candidates and the bulk of the mass media. The opposition was led by senior active and retired military officers, backed by the great majority of middle level officers and ground troops, especially the reserves. The entire range of top intelligence officials were disgusted by the ‘Israel Firsters’ in the Pentagon because of their distortion of their previous reports and fabrication of ‘intelligence’ via newly invented agencies and their reliance on Israeli disinformation over US intelligence.

This monumental struggle within the government was not merely about US military policy toward Iran (which is crucial) but also about who rules the US, who commands the US military and who formulates intelligence reports that inform policy, and more basically whose interests are being served. The military command in the Middle East, led by Admiral William Fallon, came out publicly opposing the Israeli-Fifth Column policy to bomb Iran. The active commanders were meekly backed by the rubber-spined Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, and surreptitiously (at first) by the top intelligence chiefs. The Zion-Cons retaliated by launching the White House and Congress in a crusade to escalate economic sanctions and to ‘keep the military option’ on the table. Every major Israel-First academic and propaganda think tank followed up the Israeli war planning with a wave of op-ed articles and interviews throughout the mass media about Iran’s immediate nuclear threat. The President, who does nothing contrary to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (as trumpeted by Olmert himself), pronounced an apocalyptic message to the world in October 2007 (six weeks before the National Intelligence Estimate was finally released) proclaiming the advent of ‘World War Three’ against Iran’s nuclear weapons program and the threat of a nuclear attack (a ‘holocaust’) by Iran against the people of the US and Israel.

The White House was privy to the findings in the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran at least 9 months before they were made public, as witnessed by President Cheney’s frequent interventions to alter their content and conclusion and repeated efforts to postpone their publication because it undermined the basis for their push to attack Iran. The Israeli government and its US Fifth Column, well aware of the forthcoming publication of the findings of sixteen top US intelligence agencies, did everything in their power to precipitate a US war with Iran, from issuing hair-raising tales of the ‘existential threats to Israel’s survival’ to encouraging, rousing bellicose speeches by AIPAC, Zionist and Jewish community leaders. Israel went to war with Iran’s ally (Hezbollah) in Lebanon, bombed Syria which has a mutual security pact with Iran, escalated Israeli-trained Kurdish terrorist attacks across the Iranian border in order to provoke Iranian retaliation — to no avail. AIPAC and its Congressional allies led by Israeli-US Senator Lieberman pulled all stops to force a conflict, increasing sanctions against bankers and corporations dealing with Iran and even labeling the Iranian military special force, the ‘Republican Guards’ as an illegal ‘terrorist organization’ and thus an automatic target of US military attacks under the doctrine of the ‘War against Terror’. The hyper-activity, the vicious military attacks, the strident rhetoric against all critics of the military option, and the urgency, with which the Israelis and their US supporters acted, was not due to any imminent Iranian nuclear threat but a desperate effort to precipitate the war before the US NIE became public and undermined their entire war propaganda campaign and military preparations for an attack.

The NIE findings temporarily closed the book on the White House-Israeli-Zionist Big Lie that Iran was engaged in developing weapons to launch a nuclear war. The NIE report refuted its own previous conclusions of 2005, which were heavily influenced by the White House and its Zionist-Israeli backers. The reversal of conclusions was not based on ‘new data’ or information techniques as is claimed. The change resulted from a dramatic shift in the balance of forces within the US government and in particular the strengthening of the US military elite versus the pro-war Zionist Power Configuration, a shift shaped by the enormous and unending American losses in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A key factor in pushing the US intelligence agencies to break with their past subjugation to White House manipulation and Israeli-Zionist fabricated intelligence was the repeated failures and incredible stupidity of the Israeli intelligence agencies – leading to a loss of their credibility. Israeli intelligence blundered and miscalculated on Hezbollah’s strength and organization which led to a debacle when Israel invaded Lebanon in the summer of 2006. Israeli estimates on Iraqi capacity to resist invasion and foreign occupation (so eagerly accepted and propagated by top Zionist Pentagon officials in the lead up to the invasion) led to the now 6 years of a US war of attrition in Iraq with no end in sight. Israel’s intelligence totally underestimated Hamas’ electoral strength in the run-up to their electoral victory over the PLO. Israeli intelligence overestimated the PLO’s military capacity to defeat and destroy Hamas in Gaza. Israel’s claim to have detected a nuclear facility in Syria, which it bombed, was an international joke — as even Moses could not have destroyed a (fictional) nuclear facility without producing a speck of radioactive dust! Learning from Israeli intelligence agencies’ tendency to feed disinformation to its clients in the US Government in order to further Greater Israel’s claims to Mid-East hegemony at the expense of Washington’s long term interests, the US national intelligence community asserted its independence and published its report denying each and every Israeli-Zionist-White House assertion concerning Iran’s nuclear weapons program and, in particular, pointing to the end of research into nuclear weapons as far back as the fall of 2003.

Israel Rejects the US NIE

While governments, the United Nations and experts around the world recognized the rigorous, systematic, comprehensive methods used to compile the data leading to the report declaring that Iran was free of nuclear weapons programs, one and only one state objected: The Jewish State of Israel. And in the USA only one nationwide configuration of organizations refused to reconcile itself to the absence of any Iranian military threat to Israel (not to speak of the US, a distant secondary consideration) and that was predictably the Zionist Power Configuration, specifically the Presidents of the Major American Jewish Organizations.

Speaking for the Israeli Government, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, with the predictable arrogance and contempt that Israeli officials treat any US policy analysis or statement that doesn’t pass their editorial approval and toe their line, dismissed the NIE: ‘We cannot allow ourselves to rest just because of an intelligence report from the other side of the earth [sic] even from our greatest friend.’ (Guardian of London, December 4, 2007) Though the NIE may weaken the White House drive to war, the fact that Israel rejects the report means that its war preparations will continue and that means that its entire Zionist Power Configuration in the US will continue to pursue Israel’s interest in destroying Iran.

Following Orwellian logic AIPAC twisted the NIE report to fit Israel’s rejectionist lead (as it never fails to do) by arguing that the NIE report bolsters the case for continued confrontation, belligerency and isolation. (Jewish Telegraph Agency, December 4, 2007) In fact, according to the perverse argument of AIPAC spokesman Josh Block, the absence of any Iranian nuclear weapons threat should result in greater pressure on Iran! ‘All in all, it’s (the NIE) a clarion call for additional and continued [my emphasis] effort to pressure Iran economically and politically to end its illicit nuclear program.’ (Jewish Telegraph Agency, December 4, 2007)

Once again the Israel Firsters — embracing all the major Zionist organizations and community councils — defy all logic, and the most comprehensive and in depth empirical intelligence report of the US in favor of the propaganda emanating from the failed Israeli intelligence agencies and the Israeli regime. In a continuous barrage of articles and television interviews, the entire Zionist Power Configuration (ZPC) buried the NIE report, refocusing attention on themes like ‘Iran’s nuclear program still a threat’ (Daily Alert, December 7, 2007). During the entire week (December 3-7, 2007) the Presidents of the Major American [sic] Jewish Organizations — covering the entire range of financially powerful Jewish organizations in the USA — published an average of nine articles (nearly 50) propagating the Israeli line. The articles disparaged, distorted and dismissed the NIE and continued to push for the ‘military option’ (euphemism for launching a massive attack on Iran) as well as new economic sanctions to destroy the Iranian economy and the livelihood of its 70 million citizens. The euphoria of anti-war critics who claim the NIE report laid to rest the threat of a new US war with Iran is premature, as is their idea that the ‘Israel Lobby’ was dealt a decisive blow. The ZPC never lost a beat: Israel Firster and Zion-Con fanatic, US Treasury Undersecretary, responsible for terrorism and financial intelligence, Stuart Levey, succeeded in convincing China to tighten trade credit, making trade more difficult and costly for Iran’s private sector. (Financial Times, December 6, 2007, p. 1)

Internationally, the United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary David Millband — a long-time supporter of Israel with close family ties to the Zionist state — predictably followed the Bush-Israel-ZPC line in all but dismissing the NIE report and emphasizing the need to ‘keep the pressure on Iran’. Millband, who on his recent visit to Israel, refused to even pass a glance at Israel’s shutdown of electricity and fuel to the 1.4 million Palestinians caged up in Gaza, spent an entire evening exchanging pleasantries with his settler relatives in Tel Aviv. He accused the non-nuclear Iran of being a major threat to the international community because it produces what he called ‘fissile material’ and ‘missiles’. Every large and medium size country in the world produces enriched uranium and possesses missiles; to impose a sinister construction on Iran’s civilian and defense projects is laughable. (Financial Times, December 6, 2007) Millband dismisses out of hand their civilian application and parrots word for word his Israeli mentors’ line about ‘hidden programs’ and other such unsubstantiated Zionist propaganda. Recent revelations of large-scale, long-term Zionist financing of the highly indebted Labor Party’s electoral campaigns by millionaire moguls and self-proclaimed ‘Labor Friends of Israel’ (Independent, December 6 2007) suggests that Millband’s rapid rise to head the Foreign Ministry had less to do with his minimal international affairs experience and more to do with the ‘special relations’ between millionaire Zionist fundraisers and past and present Labor Party leaders, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

In France, President Sarkozy appointed Zionist zealot Bernard Kouchner (a fervent supporter of humanitarian intervention including the US invasion of Iraq) to head the Foreign Ministry after ‘consultations’ with leading French Jewish organizations, which had rejected an earlier candidate, deemed not pro-Israel enough. Bernie Kouchner and Nicky Sarkozy immediately picked up the Israeli line, dismissing the NIE Report and calling for new economic sanctions even as the original justification (Iran’s so-called nuclear weapons program) was found to be a lie. Nicky and Bernie called for a new UN National Security Council resolution adding greater sanctions against Iran. (AFP, December 7, 2007) The Bush-Millband-Kouchner-Israeli logic parallels Stalinist-Nazi logic — the more the intelligence reports demonstrate the absence of a nuclear weapons program, the greater the nuclear threat; the lesser the present threat, the greater the future threat; the lesser the empirically verifiable threat, the greater the secret threat. The NIE report made liars of the White House and Congressional Democrats and the Presidents of the Major American Jewish Organizations who ‘knew’ Iran had a nuclear weapons program. Even more revealingly, it demonstrates that for the same war mongers, Iranian nuclear weapons is not the motivating force for their drive to attack Iran. Leaving out the weapons motive, it is abundantly clear that attacking Iran through sanctions and military threats is deeply rooted in the Israeli priority of destroying Iran as an adversary to its Middle East power grab and its assault and territorial dispossession of Palestinians.

The ZPC, Millband, Kouchner, Olmert, and the White Houses’ efforts to push for a third round of UN sanctions is likely to be rejected. On December 4, China’s UN Ambassador, Wang Guangya, announced that the NIE report called into question the need for new sanctions, ‘I think we all start from the presumption that now things have changed. I think council members will have to consider that.’ (Al Jazeera, December 5, 2007) China, with $17 billion dollars in direct trade with Iran and up to $30 billion via Dubai, and with Iran as a major Middle East oil supplier and with no Zionist lobby to reinforce Israeli diplomatic pressures, is free to pursue its own national interests. The case can be made that Russia, under President Vladimir Putin, will follow China’s lead and object to new sanctions. Nevertheless, the US Congress and in particular its influential Committee chairpersons continue to blindly follow Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s pronouncement post-NIE: ‘It is vital to pursue efforts to prevent Iran from developing a capability like this [sic] in the United States’. Leading Congressional Israeli-American zealot, Thomas Lantos, convoked a congressional hearing on the NIE Report and invited two top ex-government advisers and ultra-Zion zealots, David Wurmser and Martin Indyk to testify.

Conclusion

There is no question that the anti-(Iran) war groups in the US military and intelligence agencies struck a serious blow to the ongoing war plans of the White House, Israel, and their agents in the ZPC. The setback includes a temporary defeat of its massive war propaganda and their fabrication of an ‘existential threat’ to the world community (Israel)’. Nevertheless, the publication of the NIE hit the headlines for only a few days, followed by a barrage of hostile propaganda in all of the US mass media which called into question the peaceful intentions of Iran and even twisted certain probabilistic phrases to contradict the main findings.

From the vantage point of Americans trying to free their government and the American public of Israeli and ZPC tyrannical monopoly of opinion, the NIE Report struck a blow against the credibility of the White House and Zionist spokespeople in the Congress, National Security Council, Homeland Security and the Justice and Treasury Departments regarding Iran’s so-called nuclear weapons program. But the quickness, depth and scope of the Israeli response especially magnified by its representatives in the US, the French and British foreign offices, demonstrates that the pro-war Israel Firsters are still deeply embedded in positions of political power and willing to defy the US intelligence and military establishment. Without shame or substance, with aggressive outbursts and manipulative semantical skills, the ZPC moves forward toward new sanctions, despite the systematic empirical refutation of its principle argument. Only a blind, irrational tribal-ethnic loyalty to Israel can account for the ready denial of the NIE report and automatic embrace of Israel’s continued fabrications. As in the thirties when overseas Nazi sympathizers defended Hitler’s’ lies about Communists torching the Reichstag and Communist fellow travelers defended Stalin’s purges as exemplary judicial processes, our Zionists continue to deny every systematic empirical report (like the NIE) which contradicts Israel’s lies and fabrications about Iran’s nuclear weapons programs.

Beyond the important issue of dual loyalties (very much in evidence in the ZPC’s response to the NIE report), there is the re-emergence of the question of a US-backed Israeli war with Iran. The military option will be buttressed by an Israeli military intelligence propaganda report dismissing the NIE. It will claim secret Iranian nuclear weapons programs buried somewhere near the center of the earth and therefore undetected by US intelligence informants, satellite photos, UN inspectors, defecting (or kidnapped) Iranian Generals or any other US source. Only Israel’s superior intelligence agencies (which failed in Lebanon, Iraq and the Gaza Strip), based on its Chosen People (with their unassailable intelligence hot-line to the ‘Omniscient One’ — the same ‘One’ who does the ‘Choosing’) can be right — even if they have to once again ‘cook the data’ to make the case to the uninitiated.

The NIE and the US Military have struck a blow against the planners of World War III. Will this lift the US Congress off its collective knees to finally address US interests in the Middle East? Will it re-awaken a currently moribund peace movement, terrified to confront the most virulent organized warmongers? Will it allow Congress and the US public to challenge the ZPC’s stranglehold on US-Middle East policy?

Will the British public and peace movement dare to challenge a Labor Government and Foreign Office bought and paid for by the ‘Labor Friends of Israel’? Will the French public and intellectuals of Paris recover their republican credentials and reject its first and foremost Israel First regime?

Two weeks after the Annapolis Meeting, Israeli Housing Minister Zeev Boim gave US Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice the ‘bristly cucumber’ (a Mediterranean style ‘slap in the face’) when she pleaded with the Jewish state to stop building new settlements in Palestinian East Jerusalem because, ‘it doesn’t help to build confidence’. Boim went on to say, ‘Secretary of State Rice should be congratulated for her efforts in re-launching the peace process [sic]… but this cannot be constantly linked to the cessation of construction in Jerusalem… There is thus nothing to prevent construction anywhere else in Israel.’ (Al Jazeera, December 8, 2007).

Just as the Jewish state can dismiss its vague promises to the Bush regime on the so-called ‘peace process’ in short order, so does Israel reject the NIE report on the absence of a nuclear weapon program in Iran and prepare for war — backed by the entire ZPC.

Surprisingly, it is not liberal or leftist opinion leaders who have raised the relevant issues pertaining to the questions of war and peace in the Middle East, the Israeli-White House threats of starting World War III. It is the spy agencies in the US and their allies in the US military, the paragons of past wars and present destabilization campaigns (read: Venezuela). It is an irony of history. But just the same, this is the real world in which we live, where Western intellectuals and cultural heroes have abdicated their responsibility to challenge the Zionist Power Configuration operating on behalf of an aspiring Middle East colonial power.

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/israel-and-top-zionist-leaders-attack-intelligence/

Washington scrambles on destroyed CIA interrogation tapes

Washington - The question of who knew what and when about the CIA's destruction of video tapes of harsh interrogation techniques sent Washington scrambling this weekend, with the announcement of a joint investigation and reports that Congress members from both parties were briefed on the practices. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director Mike Hayden revealed on Friday that in 2005, it destroyed video tapes of officers subjecting two al-Qaeda terrorist suspects to harsh interrogation techniques. Responding to a request for a criminal probe by the Senate Intelligence Committee, the CIA and Justice Department said Saturday they would conduct a joint investigation into the destruction. The White House has said it will help with the probe. "I welcome this inquiry, and the CIA will cooperate fully," Hayden said in a statement quoted by Bloomberg news. "I welcome it as an opportunity to address questions that have arisen over the destruction back in 2005 of videotapes."The Washington Post, quoting unnamed officials, reported Sunday that at least four members of Congress were briefed about controversial techniques such as water-boarding as early as 2002. With the 2001 terrorist attacks fresh in mind, several of them even approved of the approach. The group included current Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Post reported, but it was not clear if she had condoned the methods. On Saturday, the New York Times reported that White House and Justice Department officials advised the CIA against plans to destroy hundreds of hours of the tapes. The CIA's top lawyer, John Rizzo, was not consulted on the decision, which was reportedly taken by the head of the CIA's clandestine service, the Times wrote, quoting unnamed officials. At least two tapes, made in 2002, documented the interrogations of Abu Zubaydah, an associate of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and another high-level, unidentified al-Qaeda member. The Washington Post reported that Zubaydah had been subjected to water-boarding, a controversial practice which simulates drowning, though it was unclear whether the video tapes specifically showed that technique. The method has been condemned as torture by human rights organisations. Republican Senator John McCain, a one-time victim of torture as a prisoner of war held for years in Vietnam, successfully led efforts to get Congress to specifically ban its use by US security officials. Hayden made the announcement Friday after being tipped off that US media were about to publish articles on the tapes. He said the CIA disposed of the tapes after ensuring they were not the focus of any legislative or judicial inquiries and that videotaping stopped in 2002. Hayden said the tapes were destroyed because they no longer contained valuable intelligence and posed a security risk to the agents involved if they ever became public. The American Civil Liberties Union, a US human rights group has accused the CIA of destroying the tapes to protect the operatives from legal consequences.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/155606.html