Wednesday, February 05, 2003

Mysterious purple streak is shown hitting Columbia 7 minutes before it disintegrated In the critical shot, a glowing purple rope of light corkscrews down toward the plasma trail, appears to pass behind it, then cuts sharply toward it from below. As it merges with the plasma trail, the streak itself brightens for a distance, then fades. [San Francisco Chronicle] This story, coupled with the fact that NASA appears to be discounting the possibility that the Columbia was damaged significantly at launch, raises interesting questions about the disaster. Could Columbia have been struck by a small meteorite or "space junk" as it re-entered the atmosphere? Or, (conspiracy hat on), could it have been hit by a malfunctioning, secret space-based missile system? Or even a hacked system? Or it could just all be a hoax.   5:29:37 PM

Iraq Denounces Powell's U.N. Speech Al-Saadi suggested that monitored Iraqi conversations played by Powell were fabricated, that defector informants were unreliable, and that satellite photographs Powell displayed "proved nothing." [AP World News] Also, the moon landing was a hoax, OJ is still searching for the real killers, and pro wrestling is real!   12:46:45 PM

Mandela Would Make U.N.-Backed Iraq Peace Trip "We are going to listen to (U.N. chief weapons inspector) Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei (head of the nuclear arms teams). We are going to listen to them and them alone. We are not going to listen to the United States of America," he said. [Yahoo News] Mr. Mandela: I respect your dedication to peace. I appreciate your criticism of the United States, because it keeps our government honest. But if you close your ears to the United States simply because you do not agree with us, then you will fail to hear the complete truth. Colin Powell is submitting his evidence that Iraq has been violating Resolution 1441 as I write this. We who have been opposed to this war cannot simply close our ears because we do not like what we hear. If the truth is that Iraq has continued to stockpile weapons of mass destruction, and the United States provides evidence of that, we must consider its evidence.   7:55:44 AM