Terror suspect says ammonia in his "Cool Packs" not for bombs

BANGKOK, Thailand -- An imprisoned Lebanese-Swedish terror suspect said he stockpiled medical "cool packs" which "contained ammonia" for commerical export, and is not a Hezbollah member, after being arrested for possessing 10 gallons (38 liters) of ammonium nitrate which can be used to build bombs.

"I am 100 percent not guilty in the terror crimes I am accused of," Hussein Atris, a dual Lebanese-Swedish citizen, told the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.

"This is a conspiracy. I deal only with ordinary business operations," Mr. Atris, 47, said in Swedish, describing why he repeatedly came to Thailand during the past two years while exporting items to Lebanon, Liberia and other countries from a building he rented on the outskirts of Bangkok.

"We bought goods in Asia and exported them to other countries, including Lebanon. It was fans, photocopier paper and cool packs used to relieve pain. These bags contained ammonia," Mr. Atris said.

"Snowed in in Seattle": A plea for peace to the White House

Most people know about being "Sleepless in Seattle." Well, I am "snowed in in Seattle!" But even six inches of snow in Seattle don't keep me from becoming steamed when I read the latest news reports on the activities of the U.S. war machine:

Tell Governor Kasich - Time Out on Executions in Ohio!

Joe D’Ambrosio has just become the 140th death row exoneree, and the sixth man exonerated from Ohio’s death row. Joe was wrongfully convicted of murdering 19-year old Anthony Klann in Cuyahoga County in 1989. Following a 2006 ruling that overturned his conviction, Joe was eventually freed in March 2010 and all charges were dismissed.

Since March 2010, prosecutors and the attorney general’s office have been appealing the dismissal but appeals courts have upheld the ruling. The exoneration is made official because today (January 23, 2012) the United States Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal by prosecutors.

Ohioans to Stop Executions and the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty welcome Joe to freedom, and congratulate everyone on the legal team and everyone else who has stood by Joe and advocated for him all of these years.

Now it is time to Take Action!

Booing the Golden Rule

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. An important rule to live by. So is this corollary: Friends don't let friends watch presidential primary debates.

I think the clip at this link is a safe dose bit.ly/xVAIF6 and I have survived it myself or I would not urge it on others.

I recommend it to you only because I believe it is important for us to stop and ask what it means for a group of people who tend to promote both Christianity and the combination of Christianity with politics to have just booed the golden rule.

In this video Congressman Ron Paul describes Pakistan as a sovereign nation and suggests that the United States should not be bombing it. Paul also proposes that there should have been some attempt to capture Osama bin Laden rather than murdering him. Paul promotes the rule of law and goes so far as to advocate that the United States only fight wars that have been declared by Congress (a standard that would eliminate the past 70 years' worth of wars). To that the response is cheering from at least some section of the audience.

Ohio is on the frontlines to protect Roe v Wade

Today, as we celebrate the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade which legalized abortion in America, Ohio is making headlines for all the wrong reasons. We are at the center of the battle over whether abortion will remain legal for the next generation.

Senate President Niehaus announced this week that he would resume hearings on the so-called “heartbeat” bill. This is an extreme bill that would outlaw abortion before many women know they are pregnant. There are no exceptions for rape and incest survivors.

Write to Senate President Niehaus TODAY and tell him to defeat the so-called “heartbeat” bill.

Supporters of this bill have turned the Ohio statehouse into a circus, hiding their efforts to outlaw abortion behind cutesy slogans and theatrics. But make no mistake about it, if enacted, their legislation would endanger the health and lives of thousands of women every year. We need your help to stop them.

Alleged terrorist reveals stockpile of bomb-making chemicals in Bangkok

BANGKOK, Thailand -- When the United States Embassy issued a travel advisory about "foreign terrorists" in Bangkok last weekend, the warning may have prevented a massive car bombing in an area popular with Western tourists.

But in a surprising diplomatic rebuke, Thailand complained about the impact of Washington's counter-terrorism strategy on its economically crucial tourism industry.

Hussein Atris, an alleged Lebanese-born Hezbollah member traveling on a Swedish passport, led police on Monday (January 16) to a rented building packed with potential bomb-making ingredients after he was arrested in Bangkok on Friday (January 13).

"The suspect told us the bomb-making materials were not for terrorist attacks in Thailand, but were intended to be smuggled out of the country," National Police Chief Priewpan Damapong on Monday (January 16).

Police charged Mr. Atris, 47, with illegal possession of restricted chemicals, but said he may face additional charges.

The building held 9,656 pounds (4,380 kilograms) of urea fertilizer and 10 gallons (37.8 liters) of liquid ammonium nitrate, police told reporters.

Medical Cannabis Amendment certified by Ohio Attorney General

The OMCA2012 team is proud to announce that, on January 20, 2012, the Ohio Attorney General certified the Ohio Medical Cannabis Amendment of 2012. On January 12, 2012, the OMCA2012 proposed ballot language and summary were submitted to the OAG's office along with 212 petitions containing the signatures of almost 3,000 purported registered Ohio voters, 1,727 of which were deemed valid.

Certification by the OAG represents the first step in a process that will place this proposed amendment to the Ohio Constitution on the statewide ballot in the fall of 2012. After the OAG certified that the measure's summary is an accurate reflection of its full text, the OMCA2012 proposed ballot language was referred to the Ohio Secretary of State for determination by the Ohio Ballot Board that the amendment contains only a single issue. We are confident that our language will meets this requirement.

Watch the outsourcing of votes today in South Carolina!

The Free Press received an email from Bev Harris of Black Box Voting that stated: "100% of South Carolina election results will be routed through Barcelona-owned Scytl/SOE before being released to the public." This should not surprise anyone who follows the freepress.org or blackboxvoting.org. The 2004 highly-suspect Ohio election results were routed through Smartech in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the company under the control of Jeff Avebeck, a far-right Pentecostal Christian. This has not been properly investigated by authorities.

Black Box Voting also sent a video entitled "Video the Count: What to do on Election night." We're posting this to urge activists, especially in South Carolina, to watch the polls. Last November's elections in Franklin County, Ohio, home of Columbus -- the state's largest city -- the final poll tapes from the voting machines at all precinct sites failed to print, leaving no check or balance against the central tabulating and processing of votes in other locations.

Watch Black Box Voting video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3_xFb1sWKU

Corporations Are Not People. Money Is Not Speech.

Those two key ideas were written on protest signs and they were sung and shouted thru the 25 degree air when about 70 people of a variety of ages gathered near the federal courthouse on Marconi Boulevard. Columbus joined communities all over the country to mark the second anniversary of the US Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Three of our city's organizers for Occupy the Courts spoke with the Columbus Free Press recently. Two of them also spoke with WCRS Columbus.

Bob Krasen, Doug Todd, and Michael Greenman work with Move to Amend, Central Ohio. Krasen said the word about today's protest is out to a fairly good number of organizations.

"Nobody really knows how many are going to come, but we’re hoping for a crowd of a couple hundred.”

Krasen said the demonstrations against the Citizens United decision can also be celebrations of activists coming together in common cause to defeat this threat to our democratic republic.

Ohioans Call for Moratorium on Fracking

Cheryl Johncox of Buckeye Forest Council at protest in Columbus Ohio for a moratorium on fracking Cheryl Johncox said she and fellow activists with Buckeye Forest Council are not being perfectionists about the environment at the expense of society’s need for energy. She said they want better regulations. “I can’t believe they can put a pit with radioactive fluid a hundred feet from my house and not even have to fence it in.”

Johncox said that as of 2010, companies no longer have been required to submit a radioactivity log, and that fracking fluid from Marcellus shale and Utica shale contain radioactive particles at a thousand times the recommended limit

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