Daily Rotten Archives January 4, 2004 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 America hiring Iraq's new secret policemen, assassins London Telegraph | Submitted by: Liddell "Nine months after the demise of Saddam Hussein's regime and his feared mukhabarat (intelligence) operatives, Iraq is to get a secret police force again - courtesy of Washington. The Bush administration is to fund the new agency in the latest initiative to root out Ba'athist regime loyalists behind the continuing insurgency in parts of Iraq. The force will cost up to $3 billion over the next three years... Its ranks are to be drawn from Iraqi exile groups, Kurdish and Shi'ite forces - in addition to former mukhabarat agents who are now working for the Americans. CIA officers in Baghdad are expected to play a leading role in directing their operations... Vincent Cannistraro, a former chief of CIA counter-terrorism, said: 'They're clearly cooking up joint teams to do Phoenix-like things, like they did in Vietnam.'" Read article... California won't disclose mad cow beef destinations San Francisco Chronicle | Submitted by: optional "Meat from a Washington state slaughterhouse that contained cuts from a lone cow that tested positive for mad cow disease was sold in as many as nine California counties, but current rules forbid the state or counties from telling consumers exactly where recalled meat was sold. California Department of Health Services officials have begun notifying counties that meat from a recalled lot of 10,410 pounds of Washington state beef had been tracked to retailers, but also warned counties not to identify which stores or restaurants purchased it." [Great. Just great.] Read article... Oak Ridge somehow loses 200 keys Williamson County Review Appeal | Submitted by: optional "The Energy Department's Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge discovered about 200 keys to protected areas were missing, an agency spokesman confirmed Friday. The missing keys follow similar lapses at nuclear weapons labs in California and New Mexico... Y-12, a 4,700-employee complex created in World War II as part of the secret Manhattan Project to build the first nuclear bomb, today refurbishes old warheads and is a major storehouse of bomb-grade uranium." Read article... Nation of Islam not manipulating Michael Jackson The Scotsman | Submitted by: optional "As Michael Jackson spoke for the first time since he was charged with child molestation his loyal spokesman was missing from the Christmas Day taping session for a television special. After more than a decade of service to his pop star boss, Stuart Backerman’s place was taken by Leonard Muhammad, the Nation of Islam chief of staff and newly installed Jackson confidante... Jackson's involvement in the Nation of Islam is as shrouded in secrecy as the group itself. His brothers Jermaine, a Muslim convert but not a member of NOI, and Tito are said to have called in the group to act as 'security' at the Neverland Ranch after fresh allegations of child sex abuse surfaced in mid-November." Read article... Airport security supervisor nailed for caprice New York Post | Submitted by: wingnut "According to officials, TSA supervisor William Arroyo, 27, allowed a private airport security guard, Ada Cortez, 25, past his screening station at Newark's Terminal C last Sunday at about 1:30 p.m. - even though an X-ray revealed a manicure kit, including a sharp pair of scissors, in a giftwrapped box. TSA officials did not say if Cortez was a passenger or just passing through the checkpoint on her way to work. 'It is a prohibited item,' said TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis. 'She appealed to the TSA employee to let her pass through, and the employee exhibited a lapse in judgment and allowed her through.' ... 'She was a hot-looking girl, and he told the police it was in his discretion whether or not to let her through,' a source said." Read article... Malvo's mom forswears suicide Jamaica Gleaner | Submitted by: Alter Ego "Una James has not been able to find the tears to grieve for her son, Lee Boyd Malvo, since a jury convicted him of capital murder in the Washington-area sniper case on Thursday... 'I refuse to give up. Even if they give him the death chair, I will not hang myself,' she said, her mouth set in an act of defiance... Malvo was convicted of two counts of capital murder in the October 14, 2002 killing of FBI analyst Linda Franklin, whom he shot in the head outside a store in Falls Church, Virginia." Read article... Canada dreading economic effects of terrorism Toronto Star | Submitted by: anyone other than Bush in '04 "The United States would virtually close the Canada-U.S. border if a terrorist attack were launched anywhere near it, according to documents obtained under access-to-information legislation. 'One additional terrorist attack, that had its origins in Canada or occurred at, or along, the Canada-U.S. border, would likely cause Congress to lift the drawbridge,' warn the documents from the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. The confidential government documents also sound the alarm over newly implemented U.S. anti-terrorism legislation, warning it could wreak havoc on Ontario manufacturers." Read article... Dead man briefly revivified at funeral home South Florida Sun-Sentinel | Submitted by: Alter Ego "A New Mexico funeral home owner received the surprise of his career when a man pronounced dead at a hospital came back to life just before he was to be embalmed. Russell Muffley, the owner of Muffley Funeral Home in Clovis, New Mexico, said he noticed Felipe Padilla breathing when the man pronounced dead at a hospital was being transferred to his facility on Wednesday. Padilla, 94, was rushed back to the same hospital, but did not recover... Padilla was breathing on his own but not speaking when paramedics took him from the funeral home back to Plains Regional Medical Center. He died a few hours later and was taken back to the funeral home, where arrangements had already been made." Read article... "Metrosexual" deprecated South Florida Sun-Sentinel | Submitted by: Alter Ego "In its annual compilation of language irritants, Lake Superior State University singled out 17 words and phrases that it says ought to be banned as overused, trite, euphemistic or just plain inaccurate... 'Metrosexual' topped the list. Coined in 1994 by British journalist Mark Simpson, the term refers to urban, usually heterosexual men with a keen interest in fashion, shopping and elaborate grooming. But to Bob Forrest of Tempe, Ariz., one of many to nominate the term for banishment, it 'sounds like someone who only has sex downtown or on the subway.' ... Past lists have lamented such words as 'chad' (2001), 'paradigm' (1994), 'baby boomers' (1989) and 'detente' (1976)." Read article...