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Topic: Wim Wiewel at fault for destruction of Portland State University?

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Dim Weasel


Portland State University sits dead center of the Portland Hills Fault:


http://www.oregonlive.com/special/earthquake/index.ssf?%2Fnews%2Foregonian%2F01%2F03%2Flc_11quake04.frame


Dr Wim Wiewel, president of PSU is supposedly an expert in urban planning, but the way he just keeps confiscating land, constructing new buildings, and enticing more students to enroll at PSU, one certainly must suspect some ulterior, genocidal, motive?


http://www.pdx.edu/sites/www.pdx.edu.president/files/media_assets/biography.pdf


Perhaps it could be merely a simple matter of greed; or is he just following orders?


http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2010/09/oregon_university_researchers.html


The Portland Hills Fault runs from the northern edge of Forest Park, goes along the foot of Portland's West Hills and beneath Portland State University, crosses the Willamette River and heads southeast to Milwaukie.


http://web.engr.oregonstate.edu/~sundberb/report.html

about a week ago



Dim Weasel
The recent Earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand, and Japan, were just the beginning of more to follow, as foretasted for the next few weeks, independently by both Jim Berkland and Stan Deyo.



about a week ago · Delete Post



Dim Weasel



Earthquake Predicted for Oregon, Washington and California This Week, March 19-25!

Jim Berkland FOX with Neil Cavuto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQdhOl-9wwg

about a week ago · Delete Post



Dim Weasel

Anchoring for the future
Portland State standing behind mayor’s urban renewal proposal


By Vinh Tran


Vanguard staff


Published: Friday, March 4, 2011


Updated: Friday, March 4, 2011 02:03



*

*
*


Mark Gregory


Adam Wickham/Vanguard staff



Economic benefits: Associate Vice President for Finance and Administration Mark Gregory believes that the urban renewal project will be economically beneficial for the surrounding district.
urmap


Photo courtesy of Mark Gregory



Urban renewal: The map above outlines the proposed boundaries for the project.
urbox


Sometimes bigger is not always better. At least that's the case when it comes to urban renewal projects.


Around the end of last year, Portland Mayor Sam Adams shelved an ambitious urban renewal proposal that sought to redevelop 345 acres of downtown land, after he deemed the project too large for the city's budget.


Nearly five months later, during his State of the City address in February, Adams came back with an equally ambitious, but perhaps more realistic proposal of an urban renewal project for the downtown area. The latest proposal is smaller in size but places bigger emphasis on Portland State as an "anchor" point in the area.


University administrators are reportedly excited about the new proposal. As a growing institution with about 28,000 students, PSU's bid to be seen as a major player in the city's economy may finally be recognized.


PSU was one of the key stakeholders that pushed for last year's proposal, along with the Portland Development Commission. The plan was met with concerns from the Multnomah County Chair Jeff Cogen over the scope and impact of the project on his county's budget. While the old proposal called for the redevelopment of 345 acres of land, Adams' new proposal calls for only 130 acres of downtown area.


What this potentially means for students is that properties in the surrounding PSU area could be turned into affordable housing and academic space. According to an early map outlining the district, the space allocates at least 45 properties to be developed into housing or academic space, which include classrooms and research facilities.


According to Mark Gregory, associate vice president for finance and administration at PSU, the university believes that there is a strong case to be made for the economic benefits that could come from developments around the university district. A large part of those economic benefits come from the university itself, he said.


In a recent booklet produced by PSU, in 2010 the university's economic impact exceeded $1.4 billion, an amount that represents the multiplying effect of the dollars spent by the school. In real estate alone, PSU spent $62.8 million in new construction, repairs and renovations last year, and the research expenditures stood at $58.2 million.


Gregory said if the urban renewal works the way it's supposed to, there are huge potential benefits to be realized for the university. But with any real estate projects, there is a risk that the result may not be as one expected. Gregory himself pointed out that in the past, the Lent and Gateway neighborhood urban renewal projects have not produced the revenue the city hoped for. Still, Gregory said he believes that in this project because its potential benefits outweigh such risks, at least for PSU.


According to Gregory, the purpose of urban renewal is to channel property taxes in a designated area into a separate account, which is then used by the city to stimulate property developments. This brings property value up and drives economic activities.


In the case of the PSU urban renewal project, people living within the district would still pay taxes. However, the county would have to wait 25 years before it received any of the tax revenue. Cogan expressed concerns that taking money away from public goods—such as money that goes toward Portland Public Schools—during the current difficult economic times may not be a wise move.


Dave Austin, communications director for Multnomah County, said given the fact that Cogen's office learned about the project only recently, it is still early for him to comment on whether he thinks it is good or bad for the county.


According to Austin, Cogen is also interested in learning how and when the mayor will put together a committee of stakeholders to discuss it.


"What we're doing is…trading in money today that's going toward public goods, for future growth and more public goods," Gregory said. " People who look at it conservatively say, ‘I'd rather have the dollars today,' while others say they'd rather take it tomorrow."


According to Gregory, usually the money that is redistributed toward development projects only covers about 5 or 6 percent of the total cost of the projects. However, to developers, that "seed" money is enough to encourage them to choose one land over another, he said.


Kimberly Schneider, communications director for the mayor, said the Mayor's Office has not officially identified the major stakeholders in the PSU urban renewal project yet. But due to PSU's master planning, the mayor is more convinced this time around that an urban renewal proposal is the right step to take.


"We haven't heard anybody coming forward with opposition to the project at this point," Schneider said.

15 hours ago · Delete Post



Dim Weasel
The more land they condemn and confiscate, the less land remaining on the property tax rolls. This will not result in more student housing because PSU plans to steal a bunch more apartments which students are already renting from private land owners.


Portland State University already occupies more city blocks of buildings in Southwest downtown, than all the privately owned properties combined. All day and all night, 24/7, the lights are all turned on, and the heat is maintained at a toasty 75 degrees.


The PSU safety patrollers make sure that nobody steps foot on campus, after hours, to make certain that no one can receive benefit of that heat; especially the homeless.


The recent devastating Earthquakes, tsunami, and nuclear meltdowns in Japan have created hundreds of thousands of homeless people with no place to go. Portland has yet to be hit, but from the vast number of homeless around PSU, you'd think that the pending 9.2 had already occurred.


What would it hurt, to open up the old Peter Stott Recreation Center at night, and let the homeless people sleep on the floor and take a shower in the locker room in the morning? The safety patrollers could stand watch and make sure that every body slept nice and peaceably, instead of chasing them all away.


Abusive bunch of pricks!







14 hours ago · Delete Post



Dim Weasel
http://www.psuvanguard.com/anchoring-for-the-future-1.2505143

14 hours ago · Delete Post



Dim Weasel

Oregon Senate approves bill lowering tuition for undocumented students

Reported by: The Associated Press
By: Jonathan J. Cooper


SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon Senate has voted to allow some illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at Oregon public universities.


Lawmakers approved the measure Tuesday on an 18-11 vote.


Supporters of the legislation say students shouldn't be punished because their parents brought them to the United States illegally. And, the bill's backers say, the state should help students be productive residents after investing in years of public education.


Opponents say illegal immigrants shouldn't get a benefit that isn't available to American citizens who live in other states.


Immigrants who have completed at least three years of high school education in Oregon would be eligible.


The measure now goes to the House, where a bipartisan group of lawmakers has signed on to support it.


The Associated Press.


http://www.koinlocal6.com/news/local/story/Oregon-Senate-approves-bill-lowering-tuition-for/ULPZEWgfGEOlsOeTPRoogQ.cspx

3 minutes ago · Edit Post · Delete Post



Dim Weasel
Is the hypocrisy here lost on anyone? Illegal aliens who are trespassing in the country, are not only given sanctuary at Portland State University, but they now have been afforded low, in-state, resident rates of tuition, while American citizens are beaten, pepper maced, arrested for trespassing, and excluded from campus all together!


Even under the illegitimate, 14th Amendment, this is not Equity!



http://www.facebook.com/notes/dim-weasel/wim-wiewel-at-fault-for-destruction-of-portland-state-university/121826277892409

The Daily Vanguard
Wed Oct. 11

From Riyadh to Portland
New scholarship boosts enrollment of Saudi students,
whose numbers dropped after Sept. 11
By Nicholas M. Deshais
February 09, 2006

The Multicultural Center’s coffee hour was packed last Wednesday with faces from every part of the globe. Some stuck by their friends, content with their conversation. Some women talked only to other women, some men with only men. A few wandered in search of a friendly face. But everyone looked comfortable, drinking complimentary coffee, snacking on the free cookies and enjoying the company of those just as far away from home as they are. Among this large group of students from distant lands was a smaller group, one that Portland State has not seen for awhile: exchange students from Saudi Arabia.

Thanks to a scholarship from their government, and an agreement between President Bush and King Abdullah, these students have come to study at Portland State. Most of the students are straight out of high school and are planning to stay here for five years, the time allotted in their scholarship, ample time to receive their bachelor’s degrees.

“We admitted more than 200 [Saudis] for fall term,” said Christina Luther, assistant director of international studies. “The university was in a bit of a panic.”

Of the 200, 38 enrolled in classes. This winter term saw another 200 students apply and receive admission to Portland State, but again only 40 students enrolled. In the fall of 2004, the enrollment of international students was 200. This term, there are nearly 300 students.

“There is no cap,” said Katherine Morrow, program administrator of international affairs. “We’ll let anyone in who passes admission.”

When Bush and the then-Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia met in the spring of 2005, they agreed the two countries “must work to expand dialogue, understanding, and interactions between our citizens.” Among the ways to achieve this was to “increase the number of young Saudi students [who] travel and study in the United States.”

In the months that followed, Bush promised to relax the visa process in the U.S. and the Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia announced they would issue 5,000 scholarships a year over the next five years. Each scholarship supplies a student with five full years of study in the United States. The scholarships quickly became highly sought after.

“It wasn’t easy [getting the scholarship],” said Yara Alhumaidan, a computer science major who came here in the fall.

Alhumaidan, who has been to the states a number of times, hails from Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. One of the traits that set her apart from many of the other students is her fluency in English. Many of the other students are in an intensive English language program until they pass an aptitude test. The program has five levels, so the Saudi students will be entering regular Portland State classes sometime next year.

“They find it difficult, but they’re really participating,” said Maher Issa, a young Lebanese man who has been at Portland State studying Marketing and Management for three years. Issa has found himself acting as a translator for the new arrivals on occasion, but more often as a liaison to learning opportunities, like work shopping, English practice and conversation. “It’s not a tourism thing - they really want to learn,” he said.

Most of the Saudis chose Portland State because family members had studied here before in the 1970s or 1980s. This is true for Alhumaidan and Mohamed Alkhars, a young man who plans on studying business and finance. Alkhars, who comes from the town of Alhasa and said he is a bit tired of the Portland weather, was motivated by his father to apply for the scholarship and come to here. His father studied electrical engineering at Portland State in the 1970s.

“Saudi Arabia was built from the ground up in the 1950s, some would even say 1960,” said Jon Mandaville, a professor in the history department and the director of the Middle East Studies Center at Portland State. This is why there were such a large number of Saudis studying here in the 1970, so they could go back and teach at the newly built universities back home. Mandaville said there were over 300 Saudi exchange students a year then. “You’d see nothing but Saudis sitting around the cafeteria, talking with their American friends.”

That number fell a little in the intervening decades, but remained fairly high into the new millennium. According to director Luther, there were around 90 students from the gulf states of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait in the beginning of 2001.

After Sept. 11, 2001, many of these students went home because they were “simply afraid,” said Luther. Their respective governments transferred them to other universities around the country so they weren’t so concentrated, thinking this would make them safer. Additionally, visas became harder to obtain after Sept. 11, usually taking six months or more.

But with the new agreement between the two governments, the chilling effects of Sept. 11, 2001 seem to finally be thawing, at least for Saudi exchange students.

Alhumaidan is the only woman that has come to Portland through the scholarship program so far. But she doesn’t let this lonely status get to her. “It’s pretty cool that I’m the only one.”

When Alhumaidan’s mother heard the news of the scholarship this summer, she ran into her daughter’s room and shoved a newspaper into her sleeping face, too excited to wait.

“It was really big news,” Alhumaidan said. “Big, big news.”

Professor Mandaville does not see this distinction lasting long, though. “Sometime over the next five years I expect to see equal numbers.”

According to Mandaville, a large number of the students in the 1970s were women.

(image)
Saudi Arabian students gather for a meet and greet in the Multicultural Center. From left: Haidar Algharash, Haitham Alsalem, Fadel Aljutail and Wail Alwail. Photo by Sahoko Kakutani

"While Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi trained at Huffman Aviation, which was owned by the notorious Rudi Dekkers, terrorist pilot Said Al-Jarrah was at Venice's other flight school, Florida Flight Training Center, which was owned by Arne Kruithof. Eight members of the 9/11 terrorist cadre trained at these two flight schools, as did Zacharias Moussaoui. In what Hopsicker facetiously calls the Magic Dutch Boy Theory, two Netherlands citizens, months apart, purchased flight schools at the same airport and then Arab pilots began to arrive in Venice in unprecedented numbers. An eyewitness said both flight school owners knew one another prior to Venice, although Dekkers denied this, and both worked with a German named Pascal Schreier who recruited trainees for the flight school."


http://www.konformist.com/2005/911-flight-school.htm

9/11 Flight School Cover-Up
By Len Bracken

As the result of a two-year investigation, an intrepid journalist has disclosed evidence of a cover-up concerning the flight schools in Florida that trained three of the four terrorists who piloted the hijacked planes. Daniel Hopsicker saw Venice, Fla., as the biggest unexploded crime scene in the September 11, 2001 attacks and arrived there two months later. He fearlessly pursued leads down dark alleys peopled with intelligence types and drug-running gangsters and tenaciously tracked down highly revealing witnesses, such as Mohamed Atta's girlfriend.

The case that emerges from his multitude of facts is alarming, although not airtight. First, Hopsicker discloses evidence that shatters the FBI's timeline of Mohamed Atta's movements. Second, Hopsicker demonstrates that Atta's relationship with flight school executive Rudi Dekkers was not what he testified it was under oath. Third, Hopsicker provides testimony of FBI witness intimidation. Furthermore, by personally going the extra mile with bold interviews, aviation industry research, and following up on local reporting, Hopsicker simultaneously shows, in a fairly convincing way, that the CIA "was actually running the operation" that brought Arab pilot trainees into Florida and that the national media, he notes with sarcasm, have been willfully ignorant of these scandalous facts. Hopsicker surely needed his sense of humor to sustain his quest as he wandered through this dark maze of Florida flight schools and aviation companies.

While Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi trained at Huffman Aviation, which was owned by the notorious Rudi Dekkers, terrorist pilot Said Al-Jarrah was at Venice's other flight school, Florida Flight Training Center, which was owned by Arne Kruithof. Eight members of the 9/11 terrorist cadre trained at these two flight schools, as did Zacharias Moussaoui. In what Hopsicker facetiously calls the Magic Dutch Boy Theory, two Netherlands citizens, months apart, purchased flight schools at the same airport and then Arab pilots began to arrive in Venice in unprecedented numbers. An eyewitness said both flight school owners knew one another prior to Venice, although Dekkers denied this, and both worked with a German named Pascal Schreier who recruited trainees for the flight school.

"Rudi Dekkers said Atta and his sidekick just showed up at his facility one day," Hopsicker writes. "He had, instead, been actively marketing his flight school," according to reports in local papers, "in Germany at the exact time Mohamed Atta and his terrorist cell left Hamburg and moved to Florida."

Dekkers asserted that Atta left Venice around Christmas 2000, and the shifty Dutchman said in sworn congressional testimony that he never saw Atta again. But in his video, Mohamed Atta's Venice Flying Circus, and now in his book, Welcome to TerrorLand: Mohamed Atta and the 9-11 Cover-Up in Florida, Hopsicker reveals that eyewitnesses who spoke with him and with local reporters said Atta lived in nearby North Port from January 2001 until early March. And Atta lived with Amanda Keller in the Sandpiper Apartments in March and April of 2001, four months after the FBI said he left Venice. Several witnesses saw Atta with Dekkers in Venice two weeks before the attacks and another said Atta bought a sandwich from her in Venice one week before 9/11.

In the FBI biography of Atta, no mention is made of Venice, Fla., but the FBI knows from its debriefing of Venice Yellow Cab driver Bob Simpson that Atta and Dekkers shared cab rides in August 2001. "They knew each other well, really well," Simpson told Hopsicker. "They were going to a nightclub in Sarasota, talking and very sociable with each other." According to Hopsicker, the FBI lied to protect Dekkers, and the Dutch flight school owner lied to Congress regarding his relationship with Atta. The 9/11 Commission has conspicuously ignored the issue of flight schools in Venice.

The facts Hopsicker compiles against the shady flight school owner stagger the imagination. While running another flight school in nearby Naples, Fla., Dekkers crashed airplanes, violated air space, chartered airplanes without a license, and was reported to the FAA for several other violations. He reportedly had tax problems and was the subject of an arrest warrant for smuggling computer chips. Naples aviation executive John Vellada said that DEA and U.S. Customs had investigated him, adding, "Everything he ever did, from A to Z, was illegal." Although he was "thrown out of Naples as a con artist," according to a local aviation observer Rob Tillman, Dekkers was able to buy Huffman Aviation, which was Venice Airport's fixed base operator or FBO, a position which carries with it civic responsibilities.

In short order, as was reported in the Venice Gondolier, Dekkers was repeatedly threatened by the city of Venice with eviction for not paying rent. The money he was making from training Atta and other terrorists apparently went into the improbable scheme of launching a statewide airline with slim prospects, a venture that won high praise from passengers Governor Jeb Bush and State Secretary Katherine Harris. Dekkers was, according to Hopsicker, a CIA asset and therefore somehow able to pay up his rent one month before the 9/11 attacks. While the rest of the industry suffered and were behind on payments, he never missed after that.

Hopsicker quotes local investigator Bill Warner as saying, "There are enough judgments in his name and his companies name to paper his office walls," yet he was somehow able to pay off a series of lawsuits after the 9/11 attacks. According to Florida State's Attorney Jonathan Greene, Dekkers was wanted in the Netherlands where he reportedly owed the government $3 million. He was also the target of a multiagency federal investigation in the mid-90s, yet not even an eyebrow of suspicion was raised when he spoke on CNN or Larry King Live, or when he testified to Congress on how to prevent more attacks. Moreover, Dekkers repeatedly changed his story to the press regarding his relationship with Atta and Al-Shehhi, although none of these accounts match those of Hopsicker's eyewitnesses.

Hopsicker's sobering accounts of the FBI intimidating witnesses, such as the bar manager who first said Atta drank Stolichnaya like a Russian and then retracted his story and amended it to cranberry juice, are too numerous to recount here. The case of his star witness, Amanda Keller, deserves brief mention that will not do justice to the amazing testimony in the book. She is the one Hopsicker tracked down after numerous calls to the police and child protective services workers, and she draws an intimate portrait of Mohamed Atta in Welcome to TerrorLand as a coke-snorting foot fetishist. Keller, like other Sandpiper Apartment residents, was bullied by the FBI into not talking about what she knows.

A reporter from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune's Venice bureau, Earle Kimel, helped break the story about Atta's American girlfriend. But the paper, which is owned by the New York Times, pulled Kimel off the case and ran a story in which Keller allowed herself to appear to have been mistaken "because of the intimidation by the FBI." So now it was another Mohamed she had been living with for two months. When a New York Times reporter attempted to interview Keller, she put him on the line with the FBI. "I don't know what was said," Keller told Hopsicker, "but after that he left me alone." The constant FBI surveillance and phone calls continued when she moved away from Venice, to the point where she was ordered by a G-man not to burn leaves because it could be evidence.

Hopsicker's previous book-length work, Barry and the Boys, which is about Barry Seal and clandestine flights to and from Mena, Ark., gave him experience examining the aviation industry public record, and it shows. The journalist traces the ownership of flight schools, airlines and planes from Washington State, to Las Vegas, to an extremely wealthy man named Wally Hilliard. Hopsicker is being sued for Barry and the Boys so it's no surprise that when commenting on TerrorLand and the stories on Hopsicker's Mad Cow Morning News website, Hilliard brought up the question of libel. He told his hometown paper in Wisconsin, the Green Bay Press-Gazette, he had spoken with friends in the FBI and they said a suit was not worth the trouble because laws protect the writer.

The paper quotes him as saying he lives as morally as he can, "trying not to do anything immoral, illegal or fattening," whereas Hopsicker sees him as the person who funded the operation that brought many bin Laden operatives to a flight school only nominally owned by Dekkers. Hilliard told his hometown paper he received thirty cents for every dollar he invested in Huffman Aviation; Hopsicker contends that part of the point about Hilliard is that so many of his operations made no business sense. To mention another example, after losing possession of a Lear Jet due to a 43-pound heroin bust, Hilliard was loaned a Beechcraft King Air 200 for a dollar by Truman Arnold, but the transaction wasn't recorded until a year later, in January 2002.

The best link that Hopsicker can make to the CIA came via a tip from a local reporter at the Lynchburg News & Advance. Business reporter Chris Flores alerted the author to a dispute in the Virginia town regarding Britannia Aviation. Hilliard had invested heavily in Huffman Aviation and it was there that Britannia worked under Huffman's FAA license. In another deal that did not make business sense, Lynchburg gave a contract to Britannia even though it did not have the proper FAA license and was undercapitalized. At a town hall meeting, the Britannia representative let on that the company had done aviation maintenance for Caribe Air while at Venice Airport, not realizing that it would quickly be recognized as a CIA proprietary airline by local reporters.

In his December 29, 2003 interview on PowerHour, Hopsicker is quite explicit: "I discovered that we were dealing with flight school owners who are CIA assets. ... Mohamed Atta was in this country as a result of a program being run through the Central Intelligence Agency." He is so confident of his evidence that he wants his day in court. "Sue me," Hopsicker said on radio, "if this is incorrect information." On the same broadcast, the journalist told listeners what he thought were the broad strategic considerations: "Somebody in the U.S. government was trading with Osama bin Laden and the deal, almost, very likely, was oil and heroin for guns and training. Either the CIA was secretly trading with Osama bin Laden or people who were able to manipulate the CIA were trading with Osama bin Laden. And his people, the representatives of his drug-trafficking Islamic organization, turned around and double-crossed us."

Hopsicker doesn't speculate much about this double cross possibility in his book, although he does go into Atta's early work for a US government program in Hamburg. On a trip back to Egypt during this period, Atta made unconvincing indications that he had gone through an Islamic conversion. Hopsicker's unnamed source places Atta at Maxwell Air Force Base's International Officer's Training School, and the author covers the significant leaks made by individuals in the military regarding these connections. The Air Force's partial denial that covered all of the purported hijackers explicitly did not rule out Atta's attendance at Maxwell. If, after so much effort went into training the hijackers, the CIA or DIA or the Secret Team as Fletcher Prouty identifies it, was double crossed, then this is the main point - once again the people who are so intent on spying, for example, intent on having assets as pilots on Arabic airlines, do more harm than good.

Such a colossal failure by the intelligence community is never mentioned in the mainstream press or in the hearings of the 9/11 Commission. The reason is simple. Instead of being a positive asset - which is already more than the intelligence community wants to admit - Atta and his ilk were more likely negative assets, which is to say they were al-Qaeda infiltrators who actually or only purportedly wanted to directly attack the United States. To his credit as an investigative journalist, Hopsicker steers clear of speculating on this, although someone must ask, in light of these assertions, a key question: Was Atta led to believe that he could get away with his conspiracy, that he could double-cross his case officers, or was he aware that the US government backed the operation and perhaps helped plan aspects of it?

In his May 3, 2004 dispatch on Hilliard, on his Mad Cow Morning News website, Hopsicker writes that Hilliard and Dekkers were implicated in a federal complaint accusing them of making "unauthorized and unsupervised flights," without an operating certificate, during April and May of 1999. Hopsicker's sources tell him that Hilliard and Dekkers were "ferrying Saudi princes" all over the United States. The government claims that the complaint is unrelated to 9/11, but this appears to be another unconvincing denial given that these covert flights were never investigated by any of the oversight committees looking into the attacks.

It will come as little surprise to readers of My Times: A Memoir of Dissent by veteran newspaperman John Hess that major dailies such as the New York Times play by national security rules. Hopsicker, who effectively used local papers in his research, writes it was just a strange coincidence that of the over 220 flight schools in Florida, the Times ran an article about only two particular ones for its two-year anniversary story on 9/11. One was Arne Kruithof's Florida Flight Training Center and the other, Pelican Flight Training Center, is where Pascal Shchreirer's wife works. These well-connected schools may still cater to the same Europeans - the Germans, Swiss and others - who were close to Atta, the drug-smuggling pilots or sinister people like them.

Although his self-produced book and video, which, inevitably, would benefit from more editorial and directorial oversight, don't outline a perfect case so much as reshape his Internet essays with the colorings of hard-hitting journalism with what are at times self-mocking and distracting tones, the investigation by Daniel Hopsicker takes on increased significance given at least three considerations: 1) the FBI's investigation of 9/11, according to a regional FBI office, was directed from the White House; 2) the investigation was impeded by the shift of resources to the subsequent anthrax attacks; and 3) the records from the Venice police station and from Huffman Aviation were deemed so sensitive that the president's brother, Governor Jeb Bush, personally escorted them to Washington immediately after the attacks.

The 9/11 Commission must investigate Hopsicker's accusations of covert CIA activity with the hijackers and the cover-up of the facts by the FBI using witness intimidation and other underhanded tactics. Each commissioner should at least watch Mohamed Atta and the Venice Flying Circus to sample the journalist's bemused indignation at the spies from the famous clown school. Even for someone like Hopsicker, who has seen plenty of government corruption, the goings on in Florida were extraordinarily shameful because of their terrible consequences. If the 9/11 Commission fails to investigate the CIA and its use of flight schools in Venice for training Arabs as kamikazes, it will have been complicit in the cover-up.



Len Bracken is the author of Shadow Government: 9-11 and State Terror (Adventures Unlimited Press, 2002).

EnviroReporter.com
Highest Radiation in L.A. Air Yet
Michael Collins | Mar 07, 2012

Our last HEPA filter measurements January 22 produced some astonishing results. Doing a spot test on the Honeywell barrel-style filter and a Kenmore Plasmawave machine, we found radiation ~351% of normal background. The machines had been running for 42 days. The combined aggregate dust came in even hotter at 538% of normal background radiation at Radiation Station Santa Monica.

The California Highway Patrol considers anything over three times background, 300% of background and above, a trigger level to a hazardous materials situation.

Now, 43 days later, we tested the same HEPA filters in the same environment and setup using the same protocols to assure the high level of accuracy and quality control we have maintained for a year performing over 1,500 radiation tests in response to the triple meltdowns at the destroyed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor complex in Japan some 5,000 miles upwind and upcurrent of Southern California. This time, as you can see in the video, the dust was a lot hotter. A spot check was ~377% of the previous background. Then we vacuumed out the filters with a HEPA filter Eureka vacuum cleaner and tested the aggregate.

The March 6 test of the combined dust came in at a sizzling ~668% of background or ~6.7 times normal. Since the last testing period, the radiation detected has risen another ~130% indicating a continued upward trend. These readings, not impacted by radon progeny as noted in Beta Watch, are the most serious indication yet the Southern California may be experiencing a rise in radiation due to the triple meltdowns at Fukushima in Japan.

That radiation may be rising in Los Angeles comes as no surprise considering the enormous amount of radioactive ‘buckeyballs’ filled with 60 uranium uranyls apiece that continue to be produced at the stricken nuclear reactor site for almost a year. A just-released U.C. Davis report describing the phenomena is also examined in Beta Watch.

A sign that buckeyballs could be being detected at Radiation Station Santa Monica is a comparison with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s RadNet detection station high on a building somewhere in Los Angeles, its location a secret. While the RadNet graph for gross beta radiation count from November 8, 2011 to March 7, 2012 has plenty of beta activity, the relative rise seen here in Santa Monica, much closer to the coast and therefore Pacific waters strongly buckyballs as a potential source. In this scenario, our Santa Monica location would pick up more of these radioactive nanospheres in much greater proportion than would a detecting unit miles farther inland, according to several British and European studies.

One year after the Fukushima meltdowns began, these readings indicate that ocean-borne radiation may be making its way into waters off of Southern California months before the inevitable tide of radioactive goo that will wash upon So Cal shores later this year through 2014.

EnviroReporter.com now posits that this radiation ahead of the main swell through repeated aeration resultant of choppy Pacific water in storms, may be picked up and moved on the winds as sea spray and mist moving ahead of the current.
No other explanation is more compelling than this mechanism of increased mobility of these hearty buckyballs. “[B]eing thermodynamically stable and kinetically persistent in the absence of peroxide, they can potentially transport uranium over long distances,” the U.C. Davis report reads adding, with dire implications for all 44 nations of the Pacific Rim, “The fuel matrix at the Fukushima-Daiichi site is mainly UO2, whose behavior will largely dictate release of matrix-incorporated plutonium and various other radionuclides into water used as a coolant.”

http://www.enviroreporter.com/2012/03/highest-radiation-in-l-a-air-yet/

Reed Research Reactor
About the Reed Reactor

* Introduction
* Reactor Uses
o Instruction
o Research
o Industry
* Reactor Irradiation Facilities
o Pneumatic Transfer System
o Rotating Specimen Rack Facility
o In-Core and In-Pool Facilities
o Reactor Flux
o Nuclear Science Laboratory
* Neutron Activation Analysis
* Neutron Activation Autoradiography


Introduction

The Reed College Reactor Facility has been used for research and educational projects in the Portland area since its establishment in 1968. Cooperative programs between Reed and several public and private high schools, colleges, and universities in northwestern Oregon were established in 1970 through the Nuclear Science Consortium of the Willamette Valley. These programs have been an important part of the educational picture of the region.

THE REACTOR
glow The Reed College Reactor is a TRIGA Mark I water-cooled, "swimming pool" reactor at the bottom of a 25-foot-deep tank. It uses 58 zirconium hydride/uranium hydride fuel elements in a circular grid array. The uranium fuel is enriched to 20 percent in uranium-235. The reactor is surrounded by a graphite ring which minimizes neutron leakage by reflecting neutrons back into the core. Most reactor components are clad with aluminum.

The reactor can operate at any power up to the license ceiling of 250 kW. This makes it possible to provide a defined neutron flux as required for the experiment. The power level is usually maintained for periods ranging from a few minutes up to eight hours. Continued or repeated operation over several days is possible for longer irradiations.

[ Top | Intro | Uses | Facilities | Activation | Autoradiography ]
Reactor Uses

INSTRUCTION
Chloe The Reed Reactor Facility is primarily used for instruction, research, and analysis, especially trace-element analysis. Since the initial startup, the reactor, in addition to providing student research opportunities, has worked to educate the surrounding community on the principles of nuclear energy and fission-reactor operation.

The reactor and associated facilities are used to some extent in chemistry and physics courses, but they are mostly used for research projects. The reactor is operated almost entirely by undergraduate students who are licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. This allows them to conduct their own research and to be hired by the facility to conduct irradiations for educational organizations, private research organizations, and for industrial applications. A one year non-credit seminar is open to all interested students to prepare them for the licensing examination. Students and faculty from other institutions are also welcome to attend the seminar.

The facility provides tours for interested high school and college classes and other special groups in the Portland area. These tours include description and observation of the reactor and associated facilities, and most incorporate hands-on experiments demonstrating fundamental facts about the nature of radioactivity. The facility is also available to advanced classes and other special programs such as the Talented And Gifted (TAG) student program of the Portland Public Schools and the Mathematics, Engineering and Science Achievement (MESA) program which provides special experiences for minorities and disadvantaged middle and high school students.

RESEARCH
Conwit Research at the Reed Reactor has centered around quantitative neutron activation analysis for trace-element concentrations. To facilitate this work a multi-channel analyzer and an intrinsic germanium gamma-ray spectrometer are used. A major research area for students using the reactor is the determination of trace-element concentrations in biological and environmental samples. More examples are included in the sections on neutron activation analysis and autoradiography.

INDUSTRY
The reactor facility is available as a neutron source for industrial applications. The most frequent use in the past has been for quality control and purity testing in manufacturing and electronics industries, and for environmental monitoring of industrial effluents.

[ Top | Intro | Uses | Facilities | Activation | Autoradiography ]
Reactor Irradiation Facilities

PNEUMATIC TRANSFER SYSTEM
The pneumatic transfer system consists of an irradiation chamber in the outer ring of the core with its associated pump and piping. This allows samples to be transferred in and out of the reactor core very rapidly while the reactor is at power.

Routine use of the pneumatic transfer system involves placing samples into vials which in turn are placed into special capsules known as "rabbits." The capsule is loaded into the system in the radiochemistry laboratory next to the reactor and is then transferred pneumatically into the core-irradiation position for a predetermined time. At the end of this period, the sample is transferred back to the receiving terminal where it is removed for analysis. The transfer time from the core to the terminal is about seven seconds, making this method of irradiating samples particularly useful for experiments involving radioisotopes with short half lives. The flux in the core terminal is approximately 5 x 1012 n/cm3·s when the reactor is at full power.

ROTATING SPECIMEN RACK FACILITY
The rotating specimen rack ("lazy susan") is located in a well on top of the graphite reflector which surrounds the core. The rack consists of a circular array of 39 tubular receptacles. Each receptacle can accommodate two TRIGA-type irradiation tubes, so that up to 78 separate samples may be irradiated at any one time. Vials holding up to 17 ml (four drams) are routinely used in this system. Depending upon its geometry, a sample up to about 40 ml could be irradiated by joining two vials. Samples are loaded in the specimen rack prior to the startup of the reactor. The rack automatically rotates during irradiation to ensure each sample receives the same neutron flux. Typically the rotating rack is used by researchers when longer irradiation times (greater than five minutes) are required. The average thermal neutron flux in the rotating rack position is approximately 1.7 x 1012 n/cm3·s with a cadmium ratio of 6.0 at full power.

The specimen rack can also be used for gamma irradiations when the reactor is shutdown. The shutdown gamma flux in the specimen rack is approximately 3 R/min.

IN-CORE AND IN-POOL FACILITIES
The central thimble, which is a water-filled irradiation chamber about 3 cm in diameter, provides the highest available neutron flux, about 1 x 1013 n/cm3·s. However, it holds only one specially positioned irradiation container containing a cavity 7.5 cm in length and 2.5 cm in diameter. The chamber fits into a fuel-element position within the core itself. Use of the chamber as an irradiation facility necessitates special arrangements.

Foil-insertion holes, 0.798 cm in diameter, are drilled at various positions through the grid plates. These holes allow inserting special holders containing flux wires into the core to obtain neutron flux maps of the core.

IN-POOL FACILITIES
Near core in-pool irradiation facilities can be arranged for larger samples if required by the experimenter. Neutron fluxes will be lower than in the lazy susan and will depend on the sample location.

REACTOR FLUX
The thermal neutron flux at 240 kW in the various irradiation facilites is:
Rotary specimen rack 2 x 1012
Pneumatic transfer system 5 x 1012
Central thimble 1 x 1013
In-core 2 x 1013
In-pool



NUCLEAR SCIENCE LABORATORY
In addition to the reactor itself, the radiochemistry laboratory is available for experiments involving radioactive materials. Equipment can measure simple and complex half-lives by both periodic counting and multi-scaling, verify the inverse square law, and measure the attenuation of radiation in shielding materials. Equipment for more complex measurements using sodium iodide crystals, intrinsic germanium gamma spectrometry, beta spectrometry, and alpha spectrometry can be performed. Sample preparation facilities are also available.

[ Top | Intro | Uses | Facilities | Activation | Autoradiography ]
Neutron Activation Analysis

INTRODUCTION
Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) is a very important tool for trace element detection. NAA yields abundance data for many elements by measuring the characteristic gamma-ray energies of radioactive nuclides. It can be performed as a non-destructive examination. NAA can achieve sensitivity several orders of magnitude greater than other commonly used analytical methods, down to tenths of a part per billion for many elements. The sample may be in any form: solid, liquid, or gas.

METHOD
The principle of NAA consists of irradiating a sample with neutrons in a nuclear reactor thereby producing specific radionuclides. After the irradiation, the characteristic gamma rays emitted by the radionuclides are quantitatively measured by suitable radiation detectors yielding a gamma-ray spectrum. The activity or number of detected gamma rays of a particular energy is directly proportional to the disintegration rate of the specific radionuclide, which in turn is directly proportional to the amount of its parent isotope in the sample. Data reduction of gamma-ray spectra by means of a computer yields the concentrations of the parent elements in the samples. Accuracies for quantitative measurements of trace and rare elements are generally in the range of ±1 to 10 percent depending on the concentration of the particular trace element and the background from other radioactivities induced in the sample.

APPLICATIONS
NAA has been used at the Reed Reactor Facility in the fields of geology (rock sample analysis), anthropology (tracing trade routes by elemental fingerprinting of sources), medicine (detection of selenium concentrations in the internal organs of rats), archeology (age dating), chemistry (identification of contaminants), biology (trace element analysis), forensics (matching powder to guns), computers (silicon wafer analysis), and environmental science (testing for elements in factory air filters).

[ Top | Intro | Uses | Facilities | Activation | Autoradiography ]
Neutron Activation Autoradiography

INTRODUCTION
Autoradiography is a photographic method for recording the distribution of radioactive materials within a specimen. With this method large areas can be examined quickly for elemental content.

METHOD
Autoradiography involves irradiation in the core followed by exposure of film by radiation from the irradiated sample. In practice, a flat radioactive sample is placed in contact with a photographic emulsion which, after exposure and development, yields an autoradiograph. Both single and many element autoradiographs can be obtained.

APPLICATIONS
Autoradiography has been used in many fields including geology and biology. Projects at Reed in recent years have included localization of elements in rock samples and monitoring of the uptake of iridium in plants.

http://reactor.reed.edu/about.html

http://reactor.reed.edu/staff.html

Below please find one prime example of the third world lack of education, provided for the sake of diversity by Portland State University.

This instructor at Portland State University gave me an undeserved failed grade for this online course, despite the fact that I completed all the course work and met all requirements for full participation.

Porland State University refused to even acknowledge my complaint about this. Unfortunately, this course and this teacher are not the only such damages inflicted upon me at Portland State University.

_____________________________________________
Message no. 1135 Naderi
Author: Pooya Naderi (soc200pn)
Date: Friday, April 14, 2006 1:03pm

In looking at the current war in Iraq, the United States government
has stated that one of our original intents for invading was due to
the exploitation of the Iraqi of people under the dictatorial
regime of Saddam Hussain. Our primary goal is to promote a
democratic nation where there are no second class citizens.

Although our choosing to liberate the nation of Iraq is valid and
heroic, there are countless other countries in South America,
Africa and the Middle East, where the people are experiencing far
greater inequalities imposed upon them by the dictatorial regimes
that rule their country. In looking at this, why do you think the
U.S picks and chooses countries like Iraq to infuse democracy, when
there are other countries that some say are experiencing far
greater inequalities and in dire need of liberation?

======================================================

Let's examine that assignment in detail.

"In looking at the current war in Iraq, the United States
government has stated that one of our original intents for invading
was due to the exploitation of the Iraqi of people under the
dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussain. Our primary goal is to
promote a democratic nation where there are no second class
citizens."

Fist of all, have you ever heard anyone from the Bush
Administration or United Nations Resolution, which says that "our
original intents for invading was due to the exploitation of the
Iraqi of people"? (Naderi actually says: "Iraqi OF people.")
Exploitation is a typical, communist, term, and Saddam used to
spell his last name, in English, Hussein, not Hussain, as Naderi
misspelled it, but I'm sure I've got a few type-o's, here, of my
own.

Secondly, he doesn't state the source of reference for the supposed
"primary goal". It may be a fair paraphrasing of a secondary goal,
but the original as mandated by United Nations Resolution, was to
enforce Saddam's compliance with the terms of surrender, of which
he was found to be in violation of.

"Although our choosing to liberate the nation of Iraq is valid and
heroic, there are countless other countries in South America,
Africa and the Middle East, where the people are experiencing far
greater inequalities imposed upon them by the dictatorial regimes
that rule their country."

Naderi says "our choosing" to liberate Iraq, as if it weren't the
United Nations which mandated by resolution, to take some action,
if not specifically "to liberate" as Naderi puts it.

Naderi claims there are "countless other countries," but there he
is clearly exaggerating. The number of countries in the world is
not countless; there are exactly 192, and the only country not a
member of the United Nations is The Vatican. It may be besides the
point, but of all the countries, critical of the War in Iraq, not
one of them tried to rescind the UN Resolutions which mandated for
the coalition forces to go back to Iraq.

Naderi cites "inequalities" as a worthy cause for war, but that was
not the cause for the war in Iraq. "Inequalities," or more aptly
put, "disparity" is a Marxist style, red herring. A Democratic
cause would be for 'freedom, liberty, and justice'. In the case of
returning to Iraq, Saddam Hussein had violated the terms of
surrender, which he, himself, had personally signed; agreeing to
allow UN inspectors to witness the destruction of his weapons of
mass destruction, of which he had claimed to have been in
possession of.

"In looking at this, why do you think the U.S picks and chooses
countries like Iraq to infuse democracy, when there are other
countries that some say are experiencing far greater inequalities
and in dire need of liberation?"

What countries has the US unilaterally picked and chosen? It was
the United Nations that mandated for the US and Coalition forces to
enforce the UN resolution. It is the Iraqi people who have bravely
voted for democratic government, while under the threat of death.
Voting is an act of Western Democracy, the very act of which is a
defiance and rejection of Islamic, Shira Law. The great majority of
Iraqis showed up at the polls and voted, in much greater majority
than American voters usually do, and they turned out, even while
being shot at. That was not "infusion" from anybody.

Naderi asks a question, which is based upon fallacious assumptions.
The double-bind, assignment with which the student is conflicted to
confront, is like asking a bachelor, the simple yes or no question:
'have you stopped beating your wife, yet'?

This is academic fraud. The fact that students have paid money for
the course, for which in return they have been deceived, is
financial fraud. Requiring students to concede to a fraudulent
premise for a basis for grade, is extortion.

This is only one example, out of many others, by teachers at
Portland State University, who use similar type tactics, although
admittedly, Pooya Naderi, is arguably the most inept.

How about a rags to riches story on Tom Hastings who got his master's degree in prison and coerces students to participate in law breaking demonstrations and agreeing with the unsubstantiated claims of the book that he wrote in order to get a passing grade?

Vanguard - Faculty member arrested, and it's not the first time
http://www.psuvanguard.com/2.4060/faculty-member-arrested-and-it-s-not-the-first-time-1.312498

10/24 - The Daily Vanguard - Faculty member arrested, and it's not the first time

PSU adjunct faculty member spent time in jail for activist work, but says he has no regrets

By Stover E. Harger III

October 24, 2006

Link to story in The Daily Vanguard
http://www.psuvanguard.com/2.4060/faculty-member-arrested-and-it-s-not-the-first-time-1.312498

Tom Hastings stood before a judge in community court last week after being arrested for refusing to leave Senator Gordon Smith’s office in late September.

The judge asked him if he admits to refusing to leave the office and Hastings said that he not only refused to leave, but wanted recognition for it.

An author of many books and fixed-term faculty in the PSU Conflict Resolution department, Hastings said he is married to the peace movement. He said that his efforts for promoting peace stretch beyond just regular activism and go into many other areas. Hastings’ goal is to combine activism and academic work.

“I’m not claiming to be a big deal activist,” Hastings said. “My time is seriously devoted to teaching.”

Along with teaching, Hastings is a published author many times over (with a book coming out this month), a traveling lecturer, and the founder of the Portland Catholic Worker House where he also lives. He said his spare time is essentially spent the same way his professional life is spent. Hastings said writing for him is a form of therapy, albeit a very laborious one.

Hastings, who started teaching at Portland State in the spring of 2001, was arrested Sept. 21 outside of Smith’s office along with eight others, including PSU student Rachel Joy. He said they were asking the senator to sign a pledge for peace as part of the “Declaration of Peace Week” that ran from Sept. 21 to 29. He said it was a minor incident.

Hastings came to Portland State from a job directing Peace and Conflict Studies at Northland College in Wisconsin. When he decided he would move, he looked in a directory of peace studies programs and found that Portland was ranked second after Boston for the number of peace programs the city had.

Hastings said the peace studies program is constantly viewed as an unwanted stepchild to the university, but he sees it as very important.

“We offer as much to humanity as cancer research,” Hastings said.

Hastings was charged with a felony for property destruction in 1996 after personally cutting down three command center poles at a U.S. thermonuclear navy site with a handsaw. He beat a sentence of sabotage, but was convicted for three years on the charge of property destruction. He spent one year in prison, one in house arrest, and one in probation, which he served coincidently while teaching in Wisconsin.

“This is legally a crime and I did my time,” Hastings said, “but society doesn’t hold that view in reality.”

Hastings was sentenced for two months of community service last Tuesday for the incident at Smith’s office. He said he is avoiding jail time because of his responsibilities to teaching, even though he sees jail as a possibility. He said arrest is always a likely possibility.

“We are happy to go to court,” Hastings said. “Let’s put the war on trial.”

“Civil Resist Portland” is the group that organized the Smith office protest and consists of about 80 members in the Portland area.

Hastings said they have strict criteria of acceptable actions. He said their ultimate goal is to gain attention for the peace movement, but they will not lie to gain access to a building or give any more trouble to law enforcement officers than is necessary. He said when they are arrested they will go with the police willingly.

“As soon as they say ‘You’re under arrest,’ we leave with them,” Hastings said. “We won’t make them throw their backs out over us.”

All members must go through nonviolence training, sign a pledge and carry it with them at all times. The pledge details several items of behavior, such as no yelling, no treating anyone with disrespect and no weapons.

Hastings said he also does not agree with hiding your agenda or concealing your face while protesting. He said it alienates the mainstream when protesters are so confrontational.

“Without the support of mainstream America the movement will not succeed,” Hastings said. “I’m alienating enough as I am.”

Hastings said he has been traveling to conventions and seminars far too much lately, but will stop until next year. This last week he was just outside Buffalo, New York speaking at the “Concerned Philosophers for Peace” conference.

Hastings also serves as the co-chair of the National Peace and Justice Studies association. He is currently planning a conference to be held at Portland State in 2008 and has begun fundraising activities.

Hastings said his 12 years of experience as a single dad has helped him learn how to balance his busy lifestyle.

“They say if you want something done, ask a single mother,” Hastings said. “I’ve also acquired that ability by being a single dad for so long.”

http://declarationofpeace.org/published/10-24-the-daily-vanguard-faculty-member-arrested-and-i