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Philip Van Praag, an audio expert who co-wrote a new book titled ‘An Open and Shut Case‘ with a fellow investigator, a former American Academy of Forensic Scientists (AAFS) President Robert Joling about the Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination, are convinced more than one gunman was involved in the shooting of Kennedy. Right after winning the California primary, Senator Robert F. Kennedy was shot early on the morning of June 5, 1968. He died less than 26 hours later, at age 42.

Scientists Van Praag and Joling have extensively analyzed the only known audio tape recording, known as the Pruszynski recording, of the shooting of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, on the fateful day - exactly 40 years ago as of yesterday.

Their findings concluded that no less than fourteen shots were fired in the Ambassador Hotel Los Angeles kitchen pantry, where Senator Kennedy and five others were wounded. Sirhan Sirhan’s .22-caliber revolver had a capacity for only eight bullets. In addition, other findings of the scientists also point to a second gunman firing at Kennedy.

Sirhan Sirhan was convicted of firing his gun from a few feet in front of Kennedy; however, the coroner reported that the fatal shot was fired less than 1 inch from behind Kennedy’s right ear and that of the four shots fired at Kennedy, all came from the rear. This fact was not raised at Sirhan’s trial because his defense was based on the theory that he suffered from “diminished capacity” rather than on any challenge of prosecutors’ evidence.

The inconsistencies in the case have bred numerous conspiracy theories, including the involvement of the CIA and the idea that Sirhan - who claims not to remember the shooting and pleaded insanity at his trial - was a “Manchurian Candidate” assassin who was hypnotically programmed to kill the senator.

The famed audio tape was played live following the authors’ New Haven presentation, on Tuesday, March 25th 2008 at a one and a half hour presentation at which the media were invited for a press conference after the presentation. A presentation was also held on February 21st 2008 which was reported by BBC’s Forensic Sciences division.

Sirhan Sirhan was convicted of RFK’s murder 40 years ago, but skeptics such as Van Praag and Joling are convinced that there was more than one gunman. Sirhan Sirhan is living out the rest of his days in the California state prison at Corcoran. Now 64, he has never fully explained what happened that night other than to say he can’t remember it.

Though Sirhan Sirhan was convicted of acting out the crime alone - questions still remain about RFK’s assassination. Though Los Angeles police found his diary, in which he had written, “RFK must die.”, investigators had concluded he was angry about Kennedy’s support for Israel and had tied the assassination date to the one-year anniversary of the Six-Day War.

Last month Van Praag and Joling submitted their Pruszynski recording findings before the AAFS in Washington D.C. - the AAFS is due to release the paper later in this year. For more info:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/feb/22/kennedy.assassination

This You Tube link is the Discovery Channel’s documentary on Joling and Van Praag’s findings:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=TaF6pW45d0o

Nation Master is a massive central data source and a handy way to graphically compare nations of the world. The site is a vast compilation of data from such sources as the CIA World Factbook, UN, and OECD. Using the Nation Master form, you can generate maps and graphs on all kinds of statistics with ease.

This is a useful one-stop resource for country statistics on everything from soldiers to wall plug voltages and visitors can also view profiles of individual countries including their maps and flags, use correlation reports and scatter plots to find relationships between variables, and refer to fully integrated encyclopedia with over one million articles. Comes highly recommended.

http://www.nationmaster.com

WASHINGTON - Friday 28th 2007

US President Bush Friday called for the creation of a global fund to promote clean technology that would be led by U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and for a “strong and transparent” way for nations to measure progress on fighting climate change but said that each country should set its own approach.

Bush’s speech to a U.S.-sponsored conference of major emitting countries indicated that a long-term goal for reducing global warming was needed but that “each nation will design its own separate strategies for making progress toward achieving this.”

Bush has been under pressure from the world’s major economies to accept binding limits on emissions of greenhouse gases and to end his six years of isolation from the global task force for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. In his speech, he continued to emphasize voluntary approaches to tackling climate change and called the meeting as a precursor to United Nations talks in Bali in December, which will aim to launch a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty that set limits on industrial nations’ emissions.

More articles:

• Washington Post - Bush Seeks new image on Global Warming
• Canada National - Climate Change Progress must be measurable
• Guardian Unlimited - Europeans angry after Bush climate speech ‘charade’

Meanwhile, the Guardian Unlimited reported that:

“George Bush was castigated by European diplomats and found himself isolated yesterday after a special conference on climate change ended without any progress.

European ministers, diplomats and officials attending the Washington conference were scathing, particularly in private, over Mr Bush’s failure once again to commit to binding action on climate change.

Although the US and Britain have been at odds over the environment since the early days of the Bush administration, the gap has never been as wide as yesterday.

Britain and almost all other European countries, including Germany and France, want mandatory targets for reducing greenhouse emissions. Mr Bush, while talking yesterday about a “new approach” and “a historic undertaking”, remains totally opposed.

The conference, attended by more than 20 countries, including China, India, Britain, France and Germany, broke up with the US isolated, according to non-Americans attending. One of those present said even China and India, two of the biggest polluters, accepted that the voluntary approach proposed by the US was untenable and favoured binding measures, even though they disagreed with the Europeans over how this would be achieved.

A senior European diplomat attending the conference, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the meeting confirmed European suspicions that it had been intended by Mr Bush as a spoiler for a major UN conference on climate change in Bali in December.

“It was a total charade and has been exposed as a charade,” the diplomat said. “I have never heard a more humiliating speech by a major leader. He [Mr Bush] was trying to present himself as a leader while showing no sign of leadership. It was a total failure.”

Germany’s environment minister, Sigmar Gabriel, said after Bush’s speech at the State Department before representatives of the nations that are the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases:

“This here was a great step for the Americans and a small step for mankind, … In substance, we are still far apart.”

In his speech, Bush acknowledged that climate change is real and that human activity is a factor. He stated:

“By setting this goal, we acknowledge there is a problem, and by setting this goal, we commit ourselves to doing something about it, …. We share a common responsibility: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while keeping our economies growing.”

European diplomats welcomed Bush’s speech as the long-awaited attempt to build a bridge by the world’s No. 1 carbon polluter. Friends of the Earth US President stated:

“Instead of getting serious about reducing emissions, he proposes a voluntary approach that will lead to global warming catastrophe … Rather than joining the rest of the world and doing all he can to support the United Nations framework, he proposes separate meetings to sidetrack the UN process.”

The Guardian Unlimited reported that many US states have already embarked on their own programmes, with California leading the way. California’s governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has signed into law, a 25% cut in greenhouse gas emissions requirements by 2020, with penalties for industries that do not comply. The state’s three biggest utilities must produce at least 20% of their electricity using renewable sources by 2010.

In other words, the US Vice President’s office is rumored to have instructed a ‘propaganda campaign’ to go to war with Iran. Anyone listening? Reported in the New Yorker ‘Interesting Times’; according to the report an informant has inside information that:

They [the source’s institution] have “instructions” (yes, that was the word used) from the Office of the Vice-President to roll out a campaign for war with Iran in the week after Labor Day; it will be coordinated with the American Enterprise Institute, the Wall Street Journal, the Weekly Standard, Commentary, Fox, and the usual suspects. It will be heavy sustained assault on the airwaves, designed to knock public sentiment into a position from which a war can be maintained. Evidently they don’t think they’ll ever get majority support for this—they want something like 35-40 percent support, which in their book is “plenty.”

Postscript:

Barnett Rubin just called me. His source spoke with a neocon think-tanker who corroborated the story of the propaganda campaign and had this to say about it: “I am a Republican. I am a conservative. But I’m not a raging lunatic. This is lunatic.”

New Yorker ‘Interesting Times’ Test Marketing (link)

Gerald Ford, former US President has passed away on Tuesday 26th December, 2006. He was 93 years of age and the 38th President in America’s history.

The American Chronicle reported on December 27th 2006, that Gerald Ford, then a Congressman, did not approve of the Air Force’s explanation of UFO’s and that he requested a Congressional Investigation of the phenomena. The Air Force had put J. Allen Hynek to the task of officially investigating the phenomenon and Hynek’s apparent explanation was that UFOs were the result of ’swamp gas’. Gerald Ford had made the request formally in response to his constituents.
In President Ford’s words:”In the firm belief that the American public deserves a better explanation than that thus far given by the Air Force, I strongly recommend that there be a committee investigation of the UFO phenomena. I think we owe it to the people to establish credibility regarding UFOs and to produce the greatest possible enlightenment of the subject.

I have taken special interest in these (UFO) accounts because many of the latest reported sightings have been made in my home state of Michigan…Because I think there may be substance to some of these reports and because I believe The American people are entitled to a more thorough explanation than has been given them by the Air force to date, I am proposing either the Science and Astronautics Committee or the Armed services Committee of the House, schedule hearings on the subject of UFOs and invite testimony from both the executive branch of the Government and some of the persons who claim to have seen UFOs…In the firm belief that the American public deserves a better explanation than that thus far given by the Air Force, I strongly recommend that there be a committee investigation of the UFO phenomena. I think we owe it to the people to establish credibility regarding UFOs and to produce the greatest possible enlightenment on this subject.”

Responding to criticism that he was wasting American tax payer’s money on requesting a full investigation, he stated: “Those who scoff at the idea of a congressional investigation of UFO’s apparently are unaware that the House Armed services Committee has scheduled a closed- door hearing on the matter Tuesday with the Air Force and that rep. Joseph E. Karth, D-Minn., headed a three man sub-committee which held two days of hush-hush hearings five years ago on behalf of the Science and Astronautics Committee. Karth has confirmed in conversation with a member of my staff that he conducted these secret hearings.