Wednesday, October 25, 2006

US naval war games off the Iranian coastline: A provocation which could lead to War?

Michel Chossudovsky / GlobalResearch.ca | October 25 2006

There is a massive concentration of US naval power in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea. Three US naval strike groups off the Iranian coastline are deployed: USS Enterprise, USS Eisenhower and USS Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group.

The naval strike groups have been assigned to fighting the "global war on terrorism."

Tehran considers the US war games to be conducted in the Persian Gulf, off the Iranian coastline as a provocation, which is intended to trigger a potential crisis and a situation of direct confrontation between US and Iranian naval forces in the Persian Gulf:

"Reports say the US-led naval exercises based near Bahrain will practise intercepting and searching ships carrying weapons of mass destruction and missiles.

Iran's official news agency IRNA quoted an unnamed foreign ministry official as describing the military manoeuvres as dangerous and suspicious.
Reports say the US-led naval exercises based near Bahrain will practise intercepting and searching ships carrying weapons of mass destruction and missiles.

The Iranian foreign ministry official said the US-led exercises were not in line with the security and stability of the region. Instead, they are aimed at fomenting crises, he said." (quoted in BBC, 23 October 2006)

USS Boxer Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG 5) to arrive in Arabian Sea

The USS Boxer (LHD 4), --which is the flagship for the Boxer Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG 5)-- which left Singapore on October 16, is scheduled to join the three naval strikes groups. ESG 5 is comprised of USS Boxer, Bunker Hill, USS Dubuque (LPD 8), USS Comstock (LSD 45), USS Benfold (DDG 65), and USS Howard (DDG 83). ESG 5 also includes PHIBRON 5, the 15th MEU, Coast Guard Cutter Midgett (WHEC 726).

“We are about to enter a part of the world that can be very dangerous,” said Chief Aviation Ordnanceman (AW/SW) Jacques Beaver, Boxer’s flight deck ordnance chief. “We must be flexible and prepared to defend ourselves from any threats.”

Boxer has been preparing for the weapons upload for two months by completing required maintenance and electronic pre-checks. Checks ensure that the ship’s missile and launching systems are up to standard and safe to load with live ordnance.

“It has taken a lot of hard work for our people to get this done,” said Chief Fire Controlman (SW) William Lewis, combat systems, fire control division’s leading chief petty officer. “You cannot measure the importance of having these defenses guarding the lives of the Sailors and Marines in this strike group.”

BOXESG is comprised of USS Boxer (LHD 4), USS Bunker Hill (CG 52), USS Dubuque (LPD 8), USS Comstock (LSD 45), USS Benfold (DDG 65) and USS Howard (DDG 83). The strike group also includes Amphibious Squadron 5, the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, Coast Guard Cutter Midgett (WHEC 726) and Canadian Frigate HMCS Ottawa (FFH 341).

BOXESG is currently conducting operations in support of the global war on terrorism while transiting to the Arabian
Gulf." (http://www.c7f.navy.mil/news/2006/october/3.htm)

Canada is part of the Expeditonary Strike Group (ESG 5)

Canada is formally participating in this military deployment under the disguise of the "war on terrorism". The Canadian Navy has dispatched Frigate HMCS Ottawa, which is now an integral part of ESG 5, under US Command. It is worth noting that particular emphasis has been given to medical evacuations and combat medical support suggesting that a combat scenario could be envisaged.

Boxer and Ottawa, both operating in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility, know that they can play a vital role to aid humanitarian assistance operations, medical evacuations or combat medical support that would rely heavily on the medical capabilities of the Boxer strike group. Cross training Sailors from ship to ship helps ensure the success of the strike group should BOXESG have to respond to any medical scenario, according to Richardson.

“Training is a necessary part of any evolution,” said Richardson. “Anytime you’re working with another nation, it’s important that we understand their capabilities just as much as they understand ours, so in the event anything occurs we know where our assets are.”

The cross training also fostered cooperation between the two allies which provided Verville and Boxer corpsmen a forum to learn about each other’s navies and each other’s culture." (Military.com October 2006)

Dangerous Crossroads: Tonkin II?

"An incident" in the Persian Gulf could be used by the US as a pretext for war against Iran.

A war pretext incident, similar to "the Gulf of Tonkin Incident", which triggered the Vietnam war, could be used by US forces, with a view to justifying retaliatory military action against Iran. In August 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson claimed that North Vietnamese forces had attacked US destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. The Tonkin incident, which had been manipulated, contributed to unleashing a full-fledged war against Vietnam:

"A phantom attack on two U.S. destroyers cruising the Gulf of Tonkin was staged by the Pentagon and the C.I.A. The bogus attack occurred early in August, 1964. That evening President Lyndon Johnson went on television giving the grim details of the non-attack. Later, however, it was revealed that navy commander James Stockdale flew cover over the Gulf of Tonkin that night. Stockdale disclosed that U.S. ships were firing at phantom targets—targets that didn’t exist. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident that drew the U.S. into the quagmire of Viet Nam simply didn’t happen. Johnson, as presidents so often do, lied to the American people. The result was the rapid passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which was the sole legal basis for the Viet Nam War. As a result of Johnson’s lie, three million Vietnamese people and fifty eight thousand U.S. soldiers died." (Charles Sullivan, Global Research, January 2006)

ANNEX: US NAVY


Navy Personnel
Active Duty: 349,783

Officers: 51,979

Enlisted: 293,368

Midshipmen: 4,436
Ready Reserve: 131,802 [As of 30 September]

Selected Reserves: 70,500

Individual Ready Reserve: 61,302
Reserves currently mobilized: 5,996 [As of 18 October]
Personnel on deployment: 36,037
Navy Department Civilian Employees: 175,454

Ships and Submarines
Deployable Battle Force Ships: 280

Ships Underway (away from homeport): 133 ships (47% of total)

On deployment: 104 ships (37% of total)

Attack submarines underway
(away from homeport): 22 submarines (40%)

On deployment: 11 submarines (20%)
Ships Underway

Carriers:
USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) - Philippine Sea
USS Enterprise (CVN 65) - Persian Gulf
USS Nimitz (CVN 68) - Pacific Ocean
USS Dwight D.Eisenhower (CVN 69)- Mediterranean Sea
USS Ronald Reagan - Pacific Ocean

Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG):
USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) - Persian Gulf
USS Nashville (LPD 13) - Persian Gulf
USS Whidbey Island (LSD 41) - Persian Gulf

Boxer Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG):
USS Boxer (LHD 4) - Indian Ocean
USS Dubuque (LPD 8) - Indian Ocean
USS Comstock (LSD 45) - Indian Ocean

Essex Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG):
USS Essex (LHD 2) - South China Sea
USS Juneau (LPD 10) - South China Sea
USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49) - South China Sea

Amphibious Warfare Ships:
USS Tarawa (LHA 1) - Pacific Ocean
USS Saipan (LHA 2) - Persian Gulf
USS Wasp (LHD 1) - port visit, Copenhagen, Denmark
USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) - Atlantic Ocean
USS Bataan (LHD 5) - Atlantic Ocean
USS Cleveland (LPD 7) - Pacific Ocean
USS Shreveport (LPD 12) - Atlantic Ocean
USS Ponce (LPD 15) - Atlantic Ocean
USS San Antonio (LPD 17) - Atlantic Ocean
USS Ashland (LSD 48) - Atlantic Ocean
USS Pearl Harbor (LSD 52) - Pacific Ocean

Aircraft (operational): 4000+

currently/or en route in/to Persian Gulf-Arabian Sea
(according to available information)

Saturday, October 21, 2006

US Army Announces Readiness for Total Military Takeover of America

Russian Intelligence Analysts are reporting today that final steps towards a full Military Dictatorship of the United States have been taken with the US Army announcing USARNORTH has now reached ‘full operational capacity’ and is now ready to:

“Execute homeland defense and defense support of civil authorities missions”, and “Conduct the Army-to-Army portion of the theater cooperation mission with Canada and Mexico”.

According to these reports, the first of the USANORTH plans for the total military takeover of the United States, from its few remaining civilian overseers, rest with a new series of draconian laws recently enacted by their top Military Leaders and which, among other things, suspends the right of habeas corpus for Americans, and which the American Military Leaders have ordered their courts to disallow, and as we can read as reported by the Washington Post News Service in their article titled "Court Told It Lacks Power in Detainee Cases", and which says:

"Moving quickly to implement the bill signed by President Bush this week that authorizes military trials of enemy combatants, the administration has formally notified the U.S. District Court here that it no longer has jurisdiction to consider hundreds of habeas corpus petitions filed by inmates at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.

Beyond those already imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay or elsewhere, the law applies to all non-U.S. citizens, including permanent U.S. residents. Habeas corpus, a Latin term meaning "you have the body," is one of the oldest principles of English and American law. It requires the government to show a legal basis for holding a prisoner."

Not being fully explained to the American people, however, are that these new draconian laws do in fact have a direct impact upon each of them, and as explained by an American dissident group called The Future of Freedom Foundation, and which in their article titled "Jose Padilla and the Military Commissions Act", states:

"Anyone who hoped that U.S. military detention of Americans accused of terrorism expired with the transfer of American citizen Jose Padilla from military custody to Justice Department custody have seen their hopes dashed by the Military Commissions Act that the president signed into law yesterday. Although the act limits to foreign citizens the use of military tribunals and the denial of habeas corpus, any person, including American citizens, can still be labeled and treated as an “unlawful enemy combatant” in the war on terrorism.

What does that mean for the American people? It means the same thing it did for Jose Padilla. You’ll recall that Padilla was arrested in Chicago for terrorism and transferred to military custody, where, according to Padilla, he was tortured and involuntarily injected with drugs.

The government’s position is that since the entire world is a battlefield in which the war on terrorism is being waged, U.S. officials now have the power to arrest any American suspected of terrorism, place him in military custody, and subject him to the same “unlawful enemy combatant” treatment that Padilla received, until the war on terrorism has finally been won, no matter how long that takes."

More ominously for the American people is their future culpability in these actions being done in their name by their Military Leaders, and as articulated by one of the United States most celebrated reporters, Helen Thomas, and who has said about these horrific new laws:

"President Bush on Tuesday signed the law that legalizes the administration's shameful treatment of detainees suspected of terrorism. The same measure also empowers the president to define torture. It's a sad legacy for America and its already-tarnished world image.

The far-reaching legislation gives Bush the right to decide what constitutes torture. The president has often said "we do not torture," despite evidence to the contrary - and photographs from the infamous Abu Ghraib prison as well. The president also can set guidelines for interrogation of prisoners. White House spokesman Tony Snow declined to say whether "waterboarding" - in which detainees are made to feel they are drowning - would be permissible.

Under the new law, the president also has extraordinary powers to designate who is an illegal enemy combatant, which potentially subjects U.S. citizens and foreigners to indefinite detention with no power to appeal. Bush is also allowed to interpret the Geneva Conventions on Humane Treatment of Prisoners of War.

One of the reasons Bush sought a green light from the lawmakers is "to have Congress stand with him in the dock," Malinowski added. The military commissions act is law. And all Americans will be tainted by it."

Helen Thomas’ reference to American Military Leaders standing in the ‘dock’, which means standing trial for War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, rings ever truer with the decision of the International Committee of the Red Cross issuing only its second ever in history “concern” regarding the actions of a warring Nation [the first “concern” issued by the ICRC was in 1944 over the Nazi German treatment of concentration camp detainees], and which we can read as reported by the SwissInfo News Service in their article titled “ICRC "concerned" over US anti-terrorism law", and which says:

"The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) expressed concern on Thursday at the United States' tough new anti-terrorism law. The president of Swiss-run humanitarian body, Jakob Kellenberger, said that there were questions over its compliance with the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war."

To the second part of the USANORTH plan for the unsuspecting American people, Conduct the Army-to-Army portion of the theater cooperation mission with Canada and Mexico”, we can read from the Council on Foreign Relations report that first outlined the merger of the independent Nations of the United States, Canada and Mexico into a North American Union, and which says:

"Sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations in association with the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and the Consejo Mexicano de Asuntos Internacionales.

North America is vulnerable on several fronts: the region faces terrorist and criminal security threats, increased economic competition from abroad, and uneven economic development at home. In response to these challenges, a trinational, Independent Task Force on the Future of North America has developed a roadmap to promote North American security and advance the well-being of citizens of all three countries.

When the leaders of Canada, Mexico, and the United States met in Texas recently they underscored the deep ties and shared principles of the three countries. The Council-sponsored Task Force applauds the announced "Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America," but proposes a more ambitious vision of a new community by 2010 and specific recommendations on how to achieve it."

Also not being understood by the American people are how their young children are currently being trained to be administrators of this North American Union, and as we can read as reported by the World Net Daily News Service in their article titled "N[orth] American students trained for 'merger', and which says:

"In another example of the way the three nations of North America are being drawn into a federation, or "merger," students from 10 universities in the U.S., Mexico and Canada are participating annually in a simulated "model Parliament."

Under the sponsorship of the Canadian based North American Forum on Integration, students met in the Mexican Senate for five days in May in an event dubbed "Triumvirate," with organizers declaring "A North American Parliament is born." A similar event took place in the Canadian Senate in 2005.

The intentions of organizers are clear. "The creation of a North American parliament, such as the one being simulated by these young people, should be considered," explained Raymond Chretien, the president of the Triumvirate and the former Canadian ambassador to both Mexico and the U.S. Participants discuss draft bills on trade corridors, immigration, provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement and produce a daily newspaper called "The TrilatHerald."

To those dwindling numbers of Americans aware of the total destruction of their Nation, and way of life, ever harsher measures to destroy all dissent were outlined to them this past week by their Military Leaders, and as we can read as reported by these various sources:

As reported by the Reuters News Service in their October 17th article titled "Web could be terror training camp: Chertoff", and which says, "Disaffected people living in the United States may develop radical ideologies and potentially violent skills over the Internet and that could present the next major U.S. security threat, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said on Monday. "We now have a capability of someone to radicalize themselves over the Internet," Chertoff said on the sidelines of a meeting of International Association of the Chiefs of Police."

As reported by the CNET News Service in their October 17th article titled "FBI director wants ISPs to track users", and which says, "FBI Director Robert Mueller on Tuesday called on Internet service providers to record their customers' online activities, a move that anticipates a fierce debate over privacy and law enforcement in Washington next year."

As reported by an American dissident writer, Chris Floyd, in his October 17th report titled "Sentimental Education: Academia Signs Up for Tracking Down Dissent", and which says, "Why is the United States government spending millions of dollars to track down critics of George W. Bush in the press? And why have major American universities agreed to put this technology of tyranny into the state's hands?

The Bush administration already has spyware devouring reams of private information in every direction. It is now paying top universities millions of dollars to refine this data into actionable intelligence - including the automated discernment and tracking of dissent against administration policies and criticism of the president. Bush has openly declared that he has no intention of obeying privacy laws - or any other laws safeguarding the Constitutional rights of American citizens - if he doesn't want to."

More interesting, perhaps, than the simultaneous flooding of the American media this past week with ‘frightening’ reports on the ‘dangers’ of the Internet by the US Military Leaders, was the sensationalist reporting revolving around an American man posting on the Internet a hoax threat, and which has resulted in his arrest, and as we can read as reported by the KWTX News Service in their article titled "Store Clerk Arrested In Stadium Threat Hoax", and which says:

"A Wisconsin grocery store clerk is under arrest on charges he's behind the hoax that claimed there would be dirty bomb attacks during this weekend's NFL games. Jake Brahm surrendered to federal authorities Friday morning, and was due in a Milwaukee court later in the day. The US Attorney in Newark, N.J., says Brahm is charged in a sealed criminal complaint."

Russian Intelligence reports on this American ‘hoax incident’, in our opinion, have correctly stated that these events are a false flag operation intended to bring the ever growing American dissident community to heel by ‘reminding’ them that even a 20-year-old store clerk is not beyond their reach. We can rightly imagine the fear these events have caused among the American dissidents as what they are experiencing now we have lived with our entire lives.

To the greater of these issues, though, remains the fact that the total destruction of America today has long been planned, and is even now in its final stages. To the many warning signs put before these American people there have also been many, and, perhaps, none more chilling then a simple letter sent from a former US Congressman, Bill Hefner, to a constituent of his in North Carolina written in 1997, and which says:

"Enclosed is the information you requested pertaining to the Army's policy and guidance for establishing civilian inmate labor program and civilian prison camps on Army installations.

This information has not yet been published (it is currently at the printers), however, it has been funded, staffed, and does reflect current Army policy. I hope you find this information useful."

As the storm clouds continue to gather over these once great American people, one cannot wonder at their continued insistence to not look up, see what is coming, and prepare.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Only 16% Think Government Telling the Truth about 9/11

According to a new New York Times/CBS News poll, only 16% of Americans think the government is telling the truth about 9/11:

"Do you think members of the Bush Administration are telling the truth, are mostly telling the truth but hiding something, or are they mostly lying?

Telling the truth 16%

Hiding something 53%

Mostly lying 28%

Not sure 3%"

The 16% are probably a waste of energy: if they still believe the official story, then they are unlikely to change their minds based on facts. (If you have the patience to never give up, then more power to you).

The 28% who say "mostly lying" are probably already 9/11 truthers. They may, however, simply believe that the government LET 9/11 happen on purpose, without understanding that 9/11 could not have succeeded unless elements within the government had actively ASSISTED in the attacks. So you might want to discuss some of the facts regarding the war games and the Mineta testimony, for example.

The 3% who are not sure are certainly worth reaching out to.

But I would argue that the 53% who responded that the government is "hiding something" are the best use of our time. These folks already have a little knowledge or a gut feeling that the government is hiding something, but haven't learned enough facts to understand that 9/11 was an inside job. With a little education, they will understand that what the government is hiding is that it was complicit in the crime of the century, the biggest false flag attack in history.

And this is the majority of Americans, a worthwhile group to speak with. So spending time giving the facts to someone who understands that the government is hiding something is a very effective investment.

Addressing some of the basic facts proving that the government knew of and let the attacks succeed, or the many high-level people questioning 9/11 or saying building 7 was brought down by controlled demolition might be good places to start.

The poll also suggests that it is worth starting out conversations about 9/11 by asking the same sort of question asked by the poll. That way, you can quickly identify whether someone falls into the "hiding something", "telling the truth", or "mostly lying" categories.

Friday, October 13, 2006

The Coming Gay Republican Purge

Immediately after the Mark Foley scandal broke, some anti-Republican gay-rights activists composed a memo containing the names of closeted gay Republican Congressional staffers and sent it to leading Christian-right advocacy groups.
Full story

This is such a red herring to cover up the child pedophilia ring that is the real problem infesting our government! Get everyone angry about gays in office, when the real problem is they are also child molesters. Watch this film that was supposed to air on the discovery channel in 1994. But was then cancelled, thanks to the same people it was going to out, congress and the senate.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Aircraft hits Manhattan building; 2 dead

Aircraft hits Manhattan building; 2 dead

By COLEEN LONG, Associated Press Writer 7 minutes ago

A small plane crashed into an Upper East Side high-rise Wednesday, shooting flames out the windows, raining debris on the sidewalks below and rattling New Yorkers' nerves exactly one month after the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. Police confirmed 2 people are dead.

Christine Monaco, a New York spokeswoman for FBI, said there was no indication of terrorism, but that officials "have been sent to the scene as a routine." FAA spokesman Jim Peters said all three New York City-area airports were operating normally.

"The initial indication is that there is a terrible accident," said Department of Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke.

Nevertheless, fighter jets were scrambled over U.S. cities as a precaution, the Pentagon said.

The aircraft struck the 20th floor of a building on East 72nd Street, said Fire Department spokeswoman Emily Rahimi. Witnesses said the crash caused a loud noise, and flames were seen shooting out of the windows.

"It's a mob scene with police and helicopters circling," said Sandy Teller, watching from his apartment a block away. "There's a dozen ambulances and lots of firefighters waiting on 72nd, on the corner. There's lots of stretchers ready, gurneys. And lots of emergency people waiting."

The crash struck fear in a city devastated by the attacks of Sept. 11 five years ago. Witnesses said sirens echoed across the east side of Manhattan as emergency workers rushed to the scene. The crash triggered a loud bang. Broken glass and debris was strewn around the neighborhood.

"There's a sense of helplessness," Teller said. "Cots and gurneys, waiting. It's a mess."

The Federal Aviation Administration said it was too early to determine what type of aircraft was involved, or what might have caused the crash in the middle of a hazy October afternoon.

Richard Drutman, a professional photographer who lives on the building's 11th floor, said he was speaking on the telephone when he felt the building shake.

"There was a huge explosion. I looked out my window, and saw what appeared to be pieces of wings, on fire, falling from the sky," Drutman said.

He and his girlfriend quickly evacuated the building.

The address of the building is 524 E. 72nd Street — a 50-story condominium tower built in the late 1980s and located near Sotheby's auction house. The Belaire Condo, developed by William Zeckendorf Jr., has 183 apartments, many of which sell for more than $1 million.

Several lower floors of the building are occupied by doctors and administrative offices, as well as guest facilities for family members of patients at the Hospital for Special Surgery, hospital spokeswoman Phyllis Fisher said. No patients were in the high-rise building and operations at the hospital a block away weren't affected, Fisher said. The Hospital for Special Surgery specializes in orthopedic operations.

Breaking news: Plane crashes into Manhattan building

5 minutes ago

NEW YORK - A small plane crashed into a high-rise on the Upper East Side, setting off a fire and startling New Yorkers, police said.
ADVERTISEMENT

Fire Department spokeswoman Emily Rahimi said an aircraft struck struck the 20th floor of a building on East 72nd Street. Witnesses said the crash caused a loud noise, and burning and falling debris was seen. Flames were seen shooting out of the windows. Video from the scene showed at least three apartments in the high rise fully engulfed in flames.

There was no immediate word on any deaths or injuries.

It was not immediately known if it was a terrorist act.

P2OG in action

September 29, 2005
Undercover British soldiers caught red-handed: Dressed as Arabs in a car full of explosives with a remote detonator
Filed under: misc, Iraq, US Govt, headline news — ben @ 7:49 pm

This story should be THE top story for weeks as nothing is more important. Billions of dollars and thousands of lives continue to be wasted every month in Iraq under the guise that we’re making progress and that eventually we’re going to get all the terrorists… yet when British soldiers are caught dressed as Arabs, with a car full of explosive and a remote detonator… the story is dropped like the plague. Once again, the way the $$ media buries the story is indicative of the potential consequences… ie- this news would end the war, if only Americans knew.

John Pilger has the full story, Sinister Events in a Cynical War

Although reported initially by the Times and the Mail, all mention of the explosives allegedly found in the SAS men’s unmarked Cressida vanished from the news. Instead, the story was the danger the men faced if they were handed over to the militia run by the “radical” cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. “Radical” is a gratuitous embedded term; al-Sadr has actually cooperated with the British. What did he have to say about the “rescue”? Quite a lot, none of which was reported in this country. His spokesman, Sheik Hassan al-Zarqani, said the SAS men, disguised as al-Sadr’s followers, were planning an attack on Basra ahead of an important religious festival. “When the police tried to stop them,” he said, “[they] opened fire on the police and passersby. After a car chase, they were arrested. What our police found in the car was very disturbing – weapons, explosives, and a remote-control detonator. These are the weapons of terrorists.”

The episode illuminates the most enduring lie of the Anglo-American adventure. This says the “coalition” is not to blame for the bloodbath in Iraq – which it is, overwhelmingly – and that foreign terrorists orchestrated by al-Qaeda are the real culprits…

A member of the Iraqi National Assembly, Fatah al-Sheik, said this week, “There is a huge campaign for the agents of the foreign occupiers to enter and plant hatred between the sons of the Iraqi people and spread rumors in order to scare the one from the other. … The occupiers are trying to start religious incitement, and if it does not happen, then they will start an internal Shi’ite incitement.”

The Anglo-American goal of “federalism” for Iraq is part of an imperial strategy of provoking divisions in a country where traditionally the communities have overlapped, even intermarried. The Osama-like promotion of al-Zarqawi is integral to this. Like the Scarlet Pimpernel, he is everywhere but nowhere. When the Americans crushed the city of Fallujah last year, the justification for their atrocious behavior was “getting those guys loyal to al-Zarqawi.” But the city’s civil and religious authorities denied he was ever there or had anything to do with the resistance.

“He is simply an invention,” said the Imam of Baghdad’s al-Kazimeya mosque. “Al-Zarqawi was killed in the beginning of the war in the Kurdish north. His family even held a ceremony after his death.” Whether or not this is true, al-Zarqawi’s “foreign invasion” serves as Bush’s and Blair’s last veil for their “war on terror” and botched attempt to control the world’s second biggest source of oil.

To sum up:

* Undercover soldiers caught red-handed attempting to bomb civilians and place the blame on ‘crazy Iraqi suicide bombers’. (I hear this a lot ~ “those people are nuts, they blow up their own citizens- so it’s ok for us to bomb the shit out of them”)
* Iraqis believe the occupation forces are behind the car bombs, an attempt to incite the civil war the US media tells us is imminent.
* Iraqis believe there is no Zarqawi, he is like Orwell’s Goldstein in 1984, the mythical terrorist that can never be caught, because that would end the excuse for US military presence.

p2og The real reason were staying in Iraq untill 2010

(#4) Rumsfeld's Plan to Provoke Terrorists

Source:
CounterPunch (www.counterpunch.org/floyd101.html)
November 1, 2002
Title: "Into the Dark"
Author: Chris Floyd
Evaluator: Catherine Nelson Ph.D., Meri Storino Ph.D.
Student Researcher: Jennifer Scanlan

Corporate Media Coverage:
Los Angeles Times, October 27, 2002, "The Secret War", by William Arkin

According to a classified document, "Special Operations and Joint Forces in Countering Terrorism" prepared for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld by his Defense Science Board, a new organization has been created to thwart potential terrorist attacks on the United States. This counter-terror operations group— the "Proactive Preemptive Operations Group" (P2OG) will require 100 people and at least $100 million a year. The team of covert counter-intelligence agents will be responsible for secret missions designed to target terrorist leaders. The secret missions are designed to "stimulate reactions" among terrorist groups, provoking them into committing violent acts which would then expose them to "counterattack" by U.S. forces.

This means that the United States government is planning to use secret military operations in order to provoke murderous terrorist attacks on innocent people. In a strange twist of logic, it seems the plan is to somehow combat terrorism by causing it. According to the report, other strategies include stealing money from terrorist cells or tricking them with fake communications. The Defense Department already maintains a secretive counter-terror operations group known as Delta Force that is called in when a crisis happens.

Exactly what type of actions would be required to "stimulate reactions" by terrorist groups has yet to be revealed. When asked questions regarding what measures would be taken, Pentagon sources responded with, "Their sovereignty will be at risk."

The current P2OG program is not entirely new to the United States. One similar program was Operation Northwoods. In 1963, America's top military brass presented a plan to President John Kennedy that called for a fake terrorist campaign — complete with bombings, hijackings, plane crashes and dead Americans — to provide "justification" for an invasion of Cuba, a Mafia/corporate fiefdom which had recently been lost to Castro. Kennedy rejected the plan, and was killed a few months later. Now Rumsfeld has resurrected Northwoods, but on a far grander scale, with resources at his disposal undreamed of by his predecessors, and no counterbalancing global rival to restrain him.

Former president Nixon wanted such a group, but congress denied it; President Reagan tried to use the National Security Council instead, but ran into trouble with the Iran-Contra affair. Now, President Bush may finally realize the dream.

UPDATE BY CHRIS FLOYD

Appropriately enough for a story about the deepest possible covert operation — penetrating terrorist cells and provoking them into action — the saga of the Pentagon's "Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group" (P2OG) went straight back into the dark after strutting its brief hour upon the stage. There has been no new information about the group since it was first mentioned nationally in the Los Angeles Times as part of a larger story on Pentagon plans for new "secret armies." Was it funded? Is it operational? Has it "flushed out" any terrorists lately by goading them into "action"? Are any of the post-Iraq War spate of terrorist atrocities linked to P2OG activities? We don't know. And with Donald Rumsfeld's openly avowed penchant for "strategic misinformation," how will we ever know? Certainly the mainstream press has done nothing to enlighten us. Although the CounterPunch article (which appeared simultaneously in The Moscow Times) provoked a lively response in the "alternative" media (print, web and radio), there has not been a single subsequent mention of the group in the U.S. national press. In the UK, John Pilger has raised warning flags about P2OG in The New Statesman and the Daily Mirror, while The Ecologist also ran a version of the CounterPunch article. The rest is silence. At first glance, this decided lack of interest might seem a curious reaction, given the American media's insatiable—and profitable—obsession with terrorism. But the media's equally intense, and equally profitable, abhorrence of moral ambiguity—especially when it involves possible American complicity in mayhem and murder—makes the silence easier to understand.

For more information see:
"The Secret War," by William Arkin, Los Angeles Times, Oct. 27, 2002, at http://www.commondreams.org/views02/1028-11.htm.
"P2OG Allows Pentagon to Fight Dirty," David Isenberg, Asia Times, Nov. 5, 2002, at http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/DK05Ak02.html.
At excerpt from the partially classified Defense Science Board briefing that proposed the creation of P2OG at http://www.serendipity.li/more/dsbbrief.ppt.
"Friendly Fire: Operation Northwoods,"
ABCNews.com, May 1, 2001, at http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/jointchiefs_010501.html.
John Pilger, The New Statesman, Dec. 12, 2002, http://pilger.carlton.com/print/124759.

Army plans current Iraq troop levels until 2010

Army plans current Iraq troop levels until 2010
Top officer says future planning 'is not a prediction' of how war is going
The Associated Press

Updated: 10:57 a.m. ET Oct 11, 2006

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Army has plans that would keep the current level of troops in Iraq -- about 15 brigades -- through 2010, the top Army officer said Wednesday.

The Army chief of staff, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, cautioned that people not read too much into the planning, because it is easier to pull back forces than to get units prepared and deployed at the last minute.

"This is not a prediction that things are going poorly or better," Schoomaker told reporters. "It's just that I have to have enough ammo in the magazine that I can continue to shoot as long as they want us to shoot."

His comments come less than four weeks before congressional elections, in which the unpopular war in Iraq and President George W. Bush's policies there are a major campaign issue.

Bush: 'Tough times'
Bush acknowledged in a news conference Wednesday that "these are tough times" in Iraq, where sectarian violence has surged recently. But, he added, "it is in our interests that Iraq succeed."

Bush defended his Iraq policy, saying that he had adjusted tactics to reflect changing conditions on the ground.

He was asked about a recent comment by the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. John Warner, that Iraq was drifting "sideways" and that the U.S. should consider major changes if the Iraqi government doesn't get the violence under control within the next few months.

"I appreciate Sen. Warner from going over there and taking a look," said Bush. "I completely agree."

Still, he insisted, "We're constantly changing tactics."

Last month, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, Gen. John Abizaid, said the military would likely maintain or possibly even increase the current force levels through next spring.

There are 141,000 troops in Iraq, including about 120,000 Army soldiers.

In recent months the Army has shown signs of strain, as Pentagon officials have had to extend the Iraq deployments of two brigades in order to bolster security in Baghdad and allow units heading into the country to have at least one year at home before redeploying.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Washington Is Abuzz After Federal Agents Raid a Capital Prostitution Ring

BY JOSH GERSTEIN - Staff Reporter of the Sun
October 10, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal raid against the owner of an escort service that catered to clients in the Washington area for more than a decade set the Capital buzzing yesterday, though a suggestion that the service was targeted as part of an investigation into congressional influence-peddling seems to be without foundation.

A document-sleuthing Web site, thesmokinggun.com, reported that, last week, federal agents seized bank accounts and searched the California home of Deborah Jeane Palfrey, who operated an escort service known as Pamela Martin & Associates. An IRS investigator said the business was a front for prostitution.

The site said Palfrey said in an interview that the raid might have been triggered by "some Duke Cunningham-type bigwig client that got up in something."

Cunningham is a former California Congressman who was sentenced in March to more than eight years in prison in connection with a bribery scheme.

A prostitution tie to that probe is plausible in light of previous reports that one of the defense contractors who bribed Cunningham, Mitchell Wade, hired prostitutes as part of efforts to entertain lawmakers, CIA officials, and others at hotel suites in Washington.

Court records obtained yesterday by The New York Sun show that one of the items agents reported seizing from Palfrey's Vallejo, Calif., home was a "binder of notes on men for escort service." Also seized were appointment books, identification records for women, and maps of the Washington metropolitan area.

Palfrey, who has a prior prostitution-related conviction in California, told the Sun yesterday that she usually kept no record of the identity of the male clients of her service and that she had no idea whether Cunningham was among them. "He could have been. I don't know," she said.

She also said she had no knowledge of a limousine firm reportedly linked to the alleged prostitution.

Palfrey said the possibility that Cunningham was involved in her troubles was first raised by the Smoking Gun reporter.

She said she suspected that something or someone drew the federal government's interest to her escort operation but that she had no inkling about who or what that was.

"It's got to be something a whole lot bigger than me," she said. "This was a benign agency that operated discreetly and quietly for many, many, many years."

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Washington, Channing Phillips, said he believed the raid against Palfrey was the product of a task force investigating escort services in the capital. He said he was unaware of any tie-in to corruption inquiries.

"I don't know where they're getting that from," Mr. Phillips said.

Several defense lawyers involved in the Cunningham probe also said they knew of no link.

Palfrey acknowledged running the Capital-area escort business from her home across the country, but she denied knowing that the escorts provided sex. "The thing they talk about that's not true is that they would go have sex with the client," she said.

Palfrey said the seized binder about male clients dealt with individuals she blacklisted because of their behavior.

She said she stopped maintaining that list years ago. "I don't keep any information," she said.

Both the Gun and the Sun reached Palfrey in Germany, where she said she was on a "quote-unquote-legitimate" business trip relating to a home furnishing business she runs. She said she had no inkling she was under investigation until she got a call from an alarm service last Wednesday when federal agents executed the search warrant at her home. Palfrey said an investigator told her lawyer that no criminal charges have been filed in the case.

N. Korea Has Already 'Mock Nuked' Alaska - With US Government Help

New reports about threat of missile launch omit key facts

Paul Joseph Watson/Prison Planet.com | June 19 2006

Reports today concerning the completed fueling of North Korea's long range Taepodong-2 missile and its planned launch within a month omit several key aspects of the story, including the fact that North Korea already launched a missile that hit Alaska, with the help of the US government.

In March 2003, the Korea Times reported that the U.S. National Assembly included a startling admission in its final report regarding Pyongyang’s missile capabilities.

A nuclear-capable North Korean test warhead was found in Alaska.

``According to a U.S. document, the last piece of a missile warhead fired by North Korea was found in Alaska,’’ former Japanese foreign minister Taro Nakayama was quoted as saying in the report. ``Washington, as well as Tokyo, has so far underrated Pyongyang’s missile capabilities.’’

A story that would have expected to garner front page headlines for days was completely blacked out in the US, with not one single newspaper choosing to report it.

The reason?

How could the Bush administration sell a war against a country with no means to defend itself and as it later transpired with no weapons of mass destruction, when a country with WMD was firing long-range nuclear capable missiles that were hitting the western coast of the US?

The 1994 Agreed Framework deal gave North Korea the capacity to generate enough nuclear fuel to produce almost 100 nuclear bombs per year. A 1999 congressional study undertaken by the House North Korea Advisory Group warned,

“Through the provision of two light water reactors [LWRs] under the 1994 Agreed Framework, the United States, through KEDO, will provide North Korea with the capacity to produce annually enough fissile material for nearly 100 nuclear bombs, should the Democratic People's Republic of Korea [DPRK] decide to violate the Nonproliferation Treaty [NPT].”

In April 2002 the Bush administration announced that it would release $95 million of American taxpayer’s dollars to begin construction of the ‘harmless’ light water reactors. Bush argued that arming the megalomaniac dictator Kim Jong-Il with the potential to produce a hundred nukes a year was, “vital to the national security interests of the United States.” Bush released even more money in January 2003, as reported by Bloomberg News,

“President George W. Bush is seeking $3.5 million for the international consortium that continues to build two nuclear reactors for North Korea, even as the U.S. confronts the communist regime over nuclear arms.”

The company that got the contract to deliver equipment and services to build the two light water reactor stations was ABB (Asea Brown Boveri), which describes itself as, “a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve performance while lowering environmental impact.” The contract was valued at $200 million and was signed in January 2000.

It should not surprise us that our old friend Donald Rumsfeld, the man who paved the way for U.S. companies to sell Iraq chemical and biological weapons in 1983, was an executive director for ABB from 2000-2001. Rumsfeld resigned when he was appointed U.S. Secretary of Defense. Wolfram Eberhardt, a spokesman for ABB confirmed that Rumsfeld was at nearly all the board meetings during his involvement with the company. The meetings were held quarterly in Zurich, Switzerland. However, Rumsfeld again displays his uncanny ability to forget things in stating that he ‘doesn’t remember’ the issue of North Korea being brought before the ABB board. Swiss Info concluded,

“Rumsfeld’s position at ABB could prove embarrassing for the Bush administration since while he was a director he was also active on issues of weapons proliferation, chairing the 1998 congressional Ballistic Missile Threat commission.”

North Korea is controlled by a hereditary Stalinist dictatorship that has starved two million of its citizens to death in favor of building a million-man army. Some people put the figure at four million, one-quarter of the population. In the far north of the country there is a network of forced labor gulags where people who have ‘expressed a bland political opinion’ are, along with their entire families, tortured, raped and executed. Horrific bio-chemical experiments are performed on mass numbers of people. Babies are delivered and then stamped to death by the camp guards. If the mother screams while the guards are stamping on the baby’s neck, she is immediately assassinated by a firing squad. These guards are rewarded with bonuses and promotions for ripping out prisoners’ eyeballs.

The North Korean people are enslaved by a government that is using food as a weapon. Perhaps this is why the EU and the United States, via the UN World Food Program, resumed the shipment of hundreds of
thousands of tons in food aid at the end of February 2003. This goes directly to the sitting dictatorship, which then decides who gets it by their level of allegiance to the state. Food aid only increases the power of Kim Jong-Il and yet it is veiled by the UN in bleeding heart humanitarian rhetoric. The money goes straight to enabling the North Korean leadership to live in the lap of westernized luxury with casinos and lavish new cars.

President Bush publicly claims to loathe Kim Jong-Il and yet his administration, like Bill Clinton before him, has armed North Korea to the teeth with anything up to and beyond 200 nuclear bombs.

Under the 1994 Agreed Framework, the Clinton administration agreed to replace North Korea’s domestically built nuclear reactors with light water nuclear reactors. So-called government-funded ‘experts’ stated that light water reactors couldn’t be used to make bombs. Not so according to Henry Sokolski, head of the Non-proliferation Policy Education Centre in Washington,

“LWRs could be used to produce dozens of bombs' worth of weapons-grade plutonium in both North Korea and Iran. This is true of all LWRs -- a depressing fact U.S. policymakers have managed to block out.”

Sokolski has also gone on the record as saying,

“These reactors are like all reactors, they have the potential to make weapons. So you might end up supplying the worst nuclear violator with the means to acquire the very weapons we're trying to prevent it acquiring.”

The U.S. State Department contends that the light water reactors cannot be used to produce bomb grade material and yet in 2002 urged Russia to end its nuclear co-operation with Iran for the reason that it doesn’t want Iran armed with weapons of mass destruction. Russia is building light water reactors in Iran. The State Department announced on its own web site,

“In the official answer to a question asked at the January 31 State Department daily briefing, the State Department said the United States has "consistently urged Russia to cease all [nuclear] cooperation with Iran, including its assistance to the light water reactor at Bushehr.”

“We have underscored to Russia that an end to Russian nuclear assistance to Iran would allow the United States and Russia to reap the full promise of our new strategic relationship, benefiting Russia economically and strategically far more than any short-term gain from construction of additional reactors or other sensitive transfers to Iran.”

According to the State Department, light water reactors in Iran can produce nuclear material but somehow the same rule doesn’t apply in North Korea.

Despite this it seems that the Iranians are beginning to learn an important lesson.

Rogue states with absolutely no means to defend themselves are picked off by the Globalists on a whim, but countries that have amassed a nuclear arsenal, with receipts from the US government to prove it, seem to become immune to the Bush administration's global democracy drive, no matter how atrocious their human rights record.

Elvis: Amerika the beautiful

Monday, October 09, 2006

Rummy's North Korea Connection

What did Donald Rumsfeld know about ABB's deal to build nuclear reactors there? And why won't he talk about it?
(FORTUNE Magazine)
By Richard Behar Research Associate Brenda Cherry
May 12, 2003

(FORTUNE Magazine) – Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld rarely keeps his opinions to himself. He tends not to compromise with his enemies. And he clearly disdains the communist regime in North Korea. So it's surprising that there is no clear public record of his views on the controversial 1994 deal in which the U.S. agreed to provide North Korea with two light-water nuclear reactors in exchange for Pyongyang ending its nuclear weapons program. What's even more surprising about Rumsfeld's silence is that he sat on the board of the company that won a $200 million contract to provide the design and key components for the reactors.

The company is Zurich-based engineering giant ABB, which signed the contract in early 2000, well before Rumsfeld gave up his board seat and joined the Bush administration. Rumsfeld, the only American director on the ABB board from 1990 to early 2001, has never acknowledged that he knew the company was competing for the nuclear contract. Nor could FORTUNE find any public reference to what he thought about the project. In response to questions about his role in the reactor deal, the Defense Secretary's spokeswoman Victoria Clarke told Newsweek in February that "there was no vote on this" and that her boss "does not recall it being brought before the board at any time."
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Rumsfeld declined requests by FORTUNE to elaborate on his role. But ABB spokesman Bjorn Edlund has told FORTUNE that "board members were informed about this project." And other ABB officials say there is no way such a large and high-stakes project, involving complex questions of liability, would not have come to the attention of the board. "A written summary would probably have gone to the board before the deal was signed," says Robert Newman, a former president of ABB's U.S. nuclear division who spearheaded the project. "I'm sure they were aware."

FORTUNE contacted 15 ABB board members who served at the time the company was bidding for the Pyongyang contract, and all but one declined to comment. That director, who asked not to be identified, says he's convinced that ABB's chairman at the time, Percy Barnevik, told the board about the reactor project in the mid-1990s. "This was a major thing for ABB," the former director says, "and extensive political lobbying was done."

The director recalls being told that Rumsfeld was asked "to lobby in Washington" on ABB's behalf in the mid-1990s because a rival American company had complained about a foreign-owned firm getting the work. Although he couldn't provide details, Goran Lundberg, who ran ABB's power-generation business until 1995, says he's "pretty sure that at some point Don was involved," since it was not unusual to seek help from board members "when we needed contacts with the U.S. government." Other former top executives don't recall Rumsfeld's involvement.

Today Rumsfeld, riding high after the Iraq war, is reportedly discussing a plan for "regime change" in North Korea. But his silence about the nuclear reactors raises questions about what he did--or didn't do--as an ABB director. There is no evidence that Rumsfeld, who took a keen interest in the company's nuclear business and attended most board meetings, made his views about the project known to other ABB officials. He certainly never made them public, even though the deal was criticized by many people close to Rumsfeld, who said weapons-grade nuclear material could be extracted from light-water reactors. Paul Wolfowitz, James Lilley, and Richard Armitage, all Rumsfeld allies, are on record opposing the deal. So is former presidential candidate Bob Dole, for whom Rumsfeld served as campaign manager and chief defense advisor. And Henry Sokolski, whose think tank received funding from a foundation on whose board Rumsfeld sat, has been one of the most vocal opponents of the 1994 agreement.

One clue to Rumsfeld's views: a Heritage Foundation speech in March 1998. Although he did not mention the light-water reactors, Rumsfeld said the 1994 Agreed Framework with North Korea "does not end its nuclear menace; it merely postpones the reckoning, with no assurance that we will know how much bomb-capable material North Korea has." A search of numerous databases found no press references at the time, or throughout the 1990s, noting Rumsfeld was a director of the company building the reactors. And Rumsfeld didn't bring it up either.

ABB, which was already building eight nuclear reactors in South Korea, had an inside track on the $4 billion U.S.-sponsored North Korea project. The firm was told "our participation is essential," recalls Frank Murray, project manager for the reactors. (He plays the same role now at Westinghouse, which was acquired by Britain's BNFL in 1999, a year before it also bought ABB's nuclear power business.) The North Korean reactors are being primarily funded by South Korean and Japanese export-import banks and supervised by KEDO, a consortium based in New York. "It was not a matter of favoritism," says Desaix Anderson, who ran KEDO from 1997 to 2001. "It was just a practical matter."

Even so, ABB tried to keep its involvement hush-hush. In a 1995 letter from ABB to the Department of Energy obtained by FORTUNE, the firm requested authorization to release technology to the North Koreans, then asked that the seemingly innocuous one-page letter be withheld from public disclosure. "Everything was held close to the vest for some reason," says Ronald Kurtz, ABB's U.S. spokesman. "It wasn't as public as contracts of this magnitude typically are."

However discreet ABB tried to be about the project, Kurtz and other company insiders say the board had to have known about it. Newman, the former ABB executive, says a written summary of the risk review would probably have gone to Barnevik. Barnevik didn't return FORTUNE's phone calls, but Newman's Zurich-based boss, Howard Pierce, says Rumsfeld "was on the board--so I can only assume he was aware of it."

By all accounts Rumsfeld was a hands-on director. Dick Slember, who once ran ABB's global nuclear business, says Rumsfeld often called to talk about issues involving nuclear proliferation, and that it was difficult to "get him pointed in the right direction." Pierce, who recalls Rumsfeld visiting China to help ABB get nuclear contracts, says, "Once he got an idea, it was tough to change his mind. You really had to work your ass off to turn him around." Shelby Brewer, a former head of ABB's nuclear business in the U.S., recalls meetings with Rumsfeld at the division's headquarters in Connecticut. "I found him enchanting and brilliant," he says. "He would cut through Europeans' bullshit like a hot knife through butter."

None of them could recall Rumsfeld talking about the North Korea project. But if he was keeping his opinions to himself, others were not. The Republicans attacked the deal from the start, particularly after gaining control of Congress in 1994. "The Agreed Framework was a political orphan within two weeks after its signature," says Stephen Bosworth, KEDO's first executive director and a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea. It's not hard to understand why it was controversial. North Korea is on the list of state sponsors of terrorism and has repeatedly violated the terms of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Robert Gallucci, the assistant secretary of state who spearheaded the 1994 agreement, doesn't disagree, but says, "If we didn't do a deal, either we would have gone to war or they'd have over 100 nuclear weapons."

The problem, say a number of nuclear energy experts, is that it's possible, though difficult, to extract weapons-grade material from light-water reactors. "Reprocessing the stuff is not a big deal," says Victor Gilinsky, who has held senior posts at the Atomic Energy Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. "You don't even need special equipment. The KEDO people ignore this. And we're still building the damn things."

Given the Republican outcry over the reactor deal, Rumsfeld's public silence is nearly deafening. "Almost any Republican was complaining about it," says Winston Lord, President Clinton's assistant secretary of state for East Asian/Pacific Affairs. Lord can't remember Rumsfeld speaking out. Nor can Frank Gaffney Jr., whose fervently anti-KEDO Center for Security Policy had ties to Rumsfeld. Gaffney speculates that Rumsfeld might have recused himself from the controversy because of his ABB position.

By 1998 a debate was raging in Washington about the initiative, and the delays were infuriating Pyongyang. Inspectors could no longer verify North Korea's nuclear material inventory. Still, at some point in 1998, ABB received its formal "invitation to bid," says Murray. Where was Rumsfeld? That year he chaired a blue-ribbon panel commissioned by Congress to examine classified data on ballistic missile threats. The commission concluded that North Korea could strike the U.S. within five years. (Weeks after the report was released, it fired a three-stage rocket over Japan.) The Rumsfeld Commission also concluded that North Korea was maintaining a nuclear weapons program--a subtle swipe at the reactor deal, which was supposed to prevent such a program. Rumsfeld's resume in the report did not mention that he was an ABB director.

In his final days in office, Clinton had been preparing a bold deal in which North Korea would give up its missile and nuclear programs in return for aid and normalized relations. But President Bush was skeptical of Pyongyang's intentions and called for a policy review in March 2001. Two months later the DOE, after consulting with Rumsfeld's Pentagon, renewed the authorization to send nuclear technology to North Korea. Groundbreaking ceremonies attended by Westinghouse and North Korean officials were held Sept. 14, 2001--three days after the worst terror attack on U.S. soil.

The Bush administration still hasn't abandoned the project. Representative Edward Markey and other Congressmen have been sending letters to Bush and Rumsfeld, asking them to pull the plug on the reactors, which Markey calls "nuclear bomb factories." Nevertheless, a concrete-pouring ceremony was held last August, and Westinghouse sponsored a training course for the North Koreans that concluded in October--shortly before Pyongyang confessed to having a secret uranium program, kicked inspectors out, and said it would start making plutonium. The Bush administration has suspended further transfers of nuclear technology, but in January it authorized $3.5 million to keep the project going.

Sooner or later, the outspoken Secretary of Defense will have to explain his silence.

NORTH KOREA'S NUKES: HOW WE GOT HERE

Thursday, 15 June, 2000
World welcomes Korean sunshine
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/792283.stm

Expectations were running high in South Korea before President Kim Dae-jung left for his landmark summit in the North. Summit-fever had developed as the date for the first all-important handshake drew near. But in Korea and around the world, those hopes turned to astonishment as the full implications of the summit became clear. South Korean President Kim Dae-jung's "sunshine policy" towards the North appeared finally to be bearing fruit.

Saturday, 16 February, 2002
Concerns cloud Bush's Korea policy
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1824385.stm

President George W Bush's first official visit to Seoul was planned some time ago - aimed at cementing the close military and diplomatic ties between the two countries. But this visit reverberates to the waves created in his recent State of the Union address in January, in which he branded North Korea, along with Iran and Iraq, part of an "axis of evil", as a country which exports weapons of mass destruction. It has cast further dark shadows over the trademark sunshine policy of engagement with North Korea promoted by South Korea's President, Kim Dae Jung.

Oct 8, 2006
N. Korea Reports Nuclear Test
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/200601008_north_korea_nuclear_test_successful/

Reports from North and South Korea say the communist authorities in North Korea have carried out their first ever test of a nuclear weapon. The North Korean state news agency said the underground test was a success. In South Korea, President Roh Moo-hyun convened a meeting of his top security officials following the reports. North Korea said last week that it planned to test a nuclear weapon, in defiance of international warnings, because of what it called US hostility.

Well done George, you and your neocon buddies "war on terror" is certainly paying dividends!

Khan 'gave N Korea centrifuges'

Disgraced Pakistani scientist AQ Khan supplied North Korea with centrifuges and their designs, President Pervez Musharraf has confirmed.

Centrifuges enrich uranium which can be used for making nuclear bombs.

It is the first time Pakistan has given details about the type of technology Dr Khan transferred to Pyongyang.

But President Musharraf told Japanese news agency Kyodo that Dr Khan had not provided North Korea with the expertise for constructing a nuclear bomb.

Dr Khan has admitted leaking nuclear secrets to North Korea, Libya and Iran. Pakistan's government has always denied any involvement.

Stand-off

"Yes, he passed centrifuges - parts and complete. I do not exactly remember the number," President Musharraf told Kyodo.

The centrifuges are essential components for enriching uranium, which can be used as fuel for civilian nuclear power reactors or making atomic weapons.

So if North Korea has made a bomb... Dr AQ Khan's part is only enriching the uranium to weapons grade
President Musharraf

But President Musharraf said Dr Khan was not involved in the conversion of uranium into gas or other key steps needed to make the bomb.

"He does not know about making the bomb, he does not know about the trigger mechanism, he does not know about the delivery system," Gen Musharraf said.

"So if North Korea has made a bomb... Dr AQ Khan's part is only enriching the uranium to weapons grade."

Regarding the additional technology, the president said North Korea "must have got it themselves or somewhere else - not from Pakistan".

The president's spokesman, Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan, confirmed Gen Musharraf's remarks while downplaying Dr Khan's role in helping North Korea acquire a nuclear bomb.

"Saying that someone made a bomb because Khan passed on a couple of centrifuges to them, maybe a dozen of them, this does not mean they can make a bomb," he told Agence France Presse.

Until now, Pakistan has revealed few details about the transfers that Dr Khan made, particularly to North Korea, although it says it has briefed the UN's nuclear watchdog.

The international community is locked in a stand-off with Pyongyang after it announced in February 2005 that it had built nuclear weapons for self-defence.

Six-party talks aimed at persuading the nation to abandon its nuclear activities, involving the US, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea, are set to resume next week.

'National hero'

Dr Khan has been under house arrest since his public confession in February 2004 that he illegally transferred nuclear technology to countries including North Korea, Libya and Iran.

The man still regarded by many Pakistanis as a national hero was given a pardon by President Musharraf because of his services to the nation's nuclear industry.

Dr Khan has not been allowed to receive visitors and international investigators probing global nuclear proliferation have not been allowed to question him.

Pakistan this year confirmed Dr Khan had supplied nuclear centrifuges to Iran.

President Musharraf has previously said the discovery of the Khan network was the most embarrassing episode in his political career.

when the Dutch wanted to arrest Khan in 1975, the CIA told them to leave him alone!

Preacher says GOP delaying 2nd coming

Monday, October 09, 2006
Becky Gaylord
Plain Dealer Reporter

Voters should oust congressional Republican leaders because U.S. foreign policy is delaying the second coming of Jesus Christ, according to a evangelical preacher trying to influence closely contested political races.

K.A. Paul railed against the war in Iraq on Sunday before a crowd of 1,000 at the New Spirit Revival Center in Cleveland Heights, his first stop on what he hopes is a 30-city campaign.

The Houston-based preacher said he believes that the Bush administration has delayed the second coming because U.S. foreign policy has blocked Christian missionaries from working in Iraq, Iran and Syria.

"Somebody needs to say enough is enough," he said to worshippers who stood, waved and called out in support.

At just over 5 feet tall, the charismatic man in a beige three-piece suit trimmed with sparkles is the latest - and perhaps the most flamboyant - voice in the debate this fall over religion and politics in Ohio.

Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell has rallied many of the state's religious conservatives. His Democratic opponent, Ted Strickland, is an ordained minister. And a group of clergy members formed We Believe Ohio to counter what they consider threats to the separation of church and state.

Paul, who claimed to support conservative political leaders in the past, is launching "a crusade to save America from the wrath of God and Republicans abusing their power," according to his press materials.

His focus on Sunday was on national races, and he didn't single out any Ohio candidates.

"God is mad at this country," Paul told the congregation. He described the war in Iraq as "unnecessary genocide."

But his own tactics have also drawn criticism. Paul runs a group called Global Peace Initiative, based in Houston, and a ministry outgrowth called Gospel to the Unreached Millions.

Critics accuse the group of sinking cash into refurbishing and operating a Boeing 747 he calls Global Peace One.

"Paul flies around the globe using Jesus to pull in worldwide donations - unfortunately spending more money on jet fuel than orphans," according to a June article in the weekly Houston Press.

The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, a peer review group whose focus is to monitor charitable, religious and other nonprofit groups, severed its ties with the Gospel to the Unreached Millions last year when the group failed to provide information about its board of directors and the use of its resources.

It's also unclear how far this tour will go. Paul on Sunday didn't have a firm list of the cities he'll visit before Nov. 7.

The FAKE church needs to shut up

Murdered Russian Journalist Was Finishing Article on Torture in Checnnya — Editor

Created: 08.10.2006 16:06 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 16:07 MSK

MosNews

A journalist shot to death in an apparent contract killing was about to publish a story about torture and abductions in Chechnya when she was slain, her editor said Sunday as Russia’s top prosecutor took charge of the case, AP reports.

Anna Politkovskaya, famed for her unsparing coverage of abuses against civilians in Chechnya in the outspoken newspaper Novaya Gazeta, was found dead Saturday in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building. She had two gunshot wounds — one to the head.

Politkovskaya, 48, had collected witness accounts and photos of tortured bodies and the article had been due for publication Monday, her newspaper’s editors said.

“We never got the article, but she had evidence about these (abducted) people and there were photographs,” Novaya Gazeta’s deputy editor, Vitaly Yerushensky, told Ekho Moskvy radio.

In a recent radio interview, Politkovskaya said that she was a witness in a criminal case against Moscow-backed Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov, whose security forces have been accused of kidnapping civilians and other abuses.

“These are cases of kidnappings, including one criminal case concerning an abduction personally involving Ramzan Kadyrov, a kidnapping of two people, whose photographs are now on my desk,” she said in comments rebroadcast Sunday by Ekho Moskvy.

In the interview, which Ekho Mosvky said had been granted to Radio Free Europe, she said that the victims, an ethnic Russian and a Chechen, were “rounded up, kidnapped for a time and killed. Their bodies showed signs of serious torture.”

Politkovskaya was one of the most persistent critics of Kadyrov’s security forces, but she had crossed many powerful people, including in the Russian military, with her investigative reporting and human rights advocacy.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States was shocked and profoundly saddened by the murder of a journalist who devoted much of her career to “shining a light on human rights abuses and other atrocities of the war in Chechnya” and the plight of Chechen refugees.

“One thing that immediately comes to mind ... is that Anna had many enemies, said Joel Simon, executive director of the New-York based CPJ.

On its Web site, the biweekly Novaya Gazeta wrote that the killing was either revenge by Kadyrov or an attempt to discredit him.

The execution-style killing underlined the increasingly dangerous environment for journalists working in Russia since President Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, launching a crackdown on media freedoms. Her death brings to at least 13 the number of journalists killed in contract-style killings in the past six years, according to the New-York based Committee to Protect Journalists.

Politkovskaya’s death was the most high-profile slaying of a journalist in Russia since the July 2004 assassination of Paul Klebnikov, the U.S.-born editor of the Russian edition of Forbes magazine.

Prosecutor-General Yury Chaika on Sunday took personal charge of the investigation, his office said, citing the ”particular importance (of the case) and wide resonance within society.“

The Interfax news agency quoted law enforcement sources as saying that investigators would include the ”Chechen trail“ as part of their probe into Politkovskaya’s death.

Her colleagues at the hard-hitting newspaper said that they would launch their own investigation, reflecting skepticism that the official inquiry would ever find the killers.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev condemned the journalist’s killing as ”a blow to the entire, democratic, independent press.“

The 46-nation Council of Europe, a human rights watchdog whose executive body is currently led by Russia, called for her death to be investigated quickly and convincingly.

Chechen President Alu Alkhanov said he was ”shocked“ at Politkovskaya’s killing, Interfax reported.

Politkovskaya had come under threat repeatedly. In 2004, she fell seriously ill with symptoms of food poisoning after drinking tea on a flight from Moscow to southern Russia during the school hostage crisis in Beslan. Her colleagues suspected the incident was an attempt on her life.

Politkovskaya, who had two adult children, began reporting on Chechnya in 1999 during Russia’s second military campaign there, concentrating less on military engagements than on the human side of the war.

Despite the end of large-scale fighting, Russia remains locked in guerrilla conflict with a hardcore of separatist rebels and allegations of kidnappings, torture and murder of civilians blamed on Russian forces and their Chechen allies persist.

North Korea Nuke Test Derails Iran Invasion?

Has Rummy's madcap dictator arming resulted in a blowback that undermines the Neo-Con war machine?

Paul Joseph Watson/Prison Planet.com | October 9 2006

North Korea's underground atomic weapon test is a wild card that could potentially derail the Neo-Con battle plan to carry out air strikes on Iran. Will the myopic hubris of the Bushists make them blind to the incompatability of selling a war on a nation years away from nukes while another openly proliferates, or could it just make the likelihood of a false flag terror attack more likely?

Russia is now saying that the test was far greater than first reported, in the region of 5,000 tons to 15,000 tons of TNT, an upper limit which would put it on a par with the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

Reports concerning developments in North Korea's nuclear program are routinely absent the "memory-holed" fact that it was Donald Rumsfeld, former non-executive director of ABB, that signed off on a $200 million dollar contract to sell nuclear reactors to the Stalinist state in November 2000. Has Rumsfeld's wanton act of chaos-mongering resulted in a form of blowback that could eviserate the entire roadmap of his administration?

How does the test affect the global and domestic propaganda campaign to justify air strikes on Iran?

Mike Rivero over at What Really Happened reckons North Korea has "put the screws," to any US-led invasion.

"It will be hard for Bush to sell an invasion of Iran because it might someday make nuclear weapons when North Korea definitely has them now. Bush has to attack North Korea before Iran, and who will support an attack on a nation that actually HAS nuclear weapons of mass destruction."

This makes a lone Israeli attack the more likely scenario, but there is no doubt it will be backed by covert US support and a huge domestic distraction.

Fox News seemingly welcomed the nuke test as beneficial for the Bush administration in that it was the only story capable of knocking Foleygate off the air.

"Never mind the tremendous implications of this -- it's all about GOP politics, all the time, on Fox "News," write News Hounds.

The world has been made infinitely more dangerous, due not to the significantly increased danger posed by Kim Jong-il, but because the Bush regime has to go to even greater lengths to sell an attack on a nation ten to fifteen years away from producing the bomb.

The Neo-Fascists are more desperate than ever to manufacture a false flag event that can propel Iran back above North Korea in the fear stakes. Watch for the Rovian rhetoric to be shifted from Iran's pursuit of nuclear technology to their alleged support of terrorists in Lebanon and Iraq.

Kim-Jong-il may be a mentally unstable lunatic but he's not short of geopolitical nous. He knows that the Bush war machine only targets defenseless tinpot dictators and leaves real members of the nuclear club alone.

But his actions have greased the skids for a desperate lunge on the part of the Straussians - the most likely outcome being a huge attack on Jerusalem or Tel Aviv blamed on Iranian backed Hezbollah, providing the Israelis with a UN mandate to retaliate that would stifle the voices of enough critics to ractchet up the armageddon meter one more notch.

Friday, October 06, 2006

Children handcuffed in police drug raid

Children handcuffed in police drug raid
Dog also killed during bust; 18-year-old charged with misdemeanors, violation

By MIKE GOODWIN, Staff writer
Click byline for more stories by writer.
First published: Wednesday, September 20, 2006

SCHENECTADY -- A police strike team raided a woman's Prospect Street apartment and handcuffed her children and killed her dog early Tuesday in a $60 pot bust.

The woman called it excessive force and a case of mistaken identity, but officers said they stormed the home for a good reason: One of her sons was selling marijuana there.


The Police Department's tactical squad knocked down the front door of the upstairs apartment at 110 Prospect St. and flooded into the apartment shortly after 6 a.m.

"I heard a big boom. My first reaction was to jump out of bed. We were trying to find where our kids were at and all of a sudden we had guns in our faces," said 40-year-old Anita Woodyear, who rents the second-floor flat.

During the ensuing chaos, police handcuffed two of the woman's children, Elijah Bradley, 11, and 12-year-old Victoria Perez, and shot at her dog in the kitchen before killing it in the bathroom, Woodyear said.

"That seems like an awful lot of firepower for marijuana," said Fred Clark of the Schenectady chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "That's like spending $125,000 for $5."

Woodyear said she suspected police had intended to search a neighboring home, but had the wrong address on the search warrant. Neighbors said they suspect illicit drugs are dealt at other homes on the block.

"No apology, no 'sorry about your dog,' " she said.

But police said they have no reason to apologize. They said they raided the house because Woodyear's 18-year-old son, Israel M. Bradley, sold three plastic bags of marijuana there for $40 on Sept. 15. They allege he sold two other bags of marijuana in the house for $20 on Aug. 28, they said.

In addition, police said Bradley was carrying marijuana in the home on Sept. 1.

"We had the absolute right house. We had the absolute right target," said Assistant Chief Michael Seber.

Police said Bradley was one of several drug dealers they have under investigation on Prospect Street.

"The whole street is a mess right now. We'll be back," Seber said.

Bradley was arrested and charged with misdemeanor counts of criminal sale of marijuana, an offense punishable by up to one year in jail. He was also charged with unlawfully possessing marijuana, a violation.

Police Lt. Peter Frisoni said Bradley admitted he sold from the apartment in a statement to investigators after the raid.

"The moral of the story is: If you don't want officers barging into your house with their guns drawn, don't let drug dealers stay with you and deal drugs out of your apartment," Frisoni said.

Woodyear said she is appalled about the way her children were treated -- and said her 12-year-old daughter was hit with pepper spray.

The dog, a pit bull terrier named Precious, urinated on the floor in fear and tried to run from the police before it was killed, Woodyear said.

Police said the animal was aggressive and left them no choice but to shoot.

Elijah Bradley said he awoke to find armed men in his home. "They had the shotgun in my face," the 11-year-old said. "I punched at him. I didn't know who he was."

Police said they had reason to have weapons drawn. Their search warrant noted that among the things they planned to search for were firearms, although no handguns were found.

The NAACP has previously criticized how police conduct raids, most notably during an incident earlier this decade when a Hamilton Hill girl was held at gunpoint and handcuffed after her mother agreed to allow police to search their home for an armed man. The family later sued the city, but the jury awarded no damages.

But Paul DerOhannesian, a defense attorney and former Albany County prosecutor, said such a response may have been warranted if police believed there were guns in the house.

"This type of search warrant execution can be very dangerous from a law enforcement point of view," he said.

"You're going to have a heightened sense or need for security for officer safety. You literally have no idea what you're walking into."

Police state nonsense

Police issue $250 ticket for playing on Pearl Street Mall

By Vanessa Miller, Camera Staff Writer
October 5, 2006

A 17-year-old Boulder High senior faces a $250 fine — stiffer than a ticket for speeding through a school zone — for playing Hacky Sac.

His offense: "releasing projectiles" on the Pearl Street Mall.

"I had no idea Hacky Sac is a crime," Kallen Ford said.

He knows now.

A Boulder police officer clued him in just after 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Ford said he and a buddy were lobbing a Hacky Sac back and forth in the fountain area outside the Boulder County Courthouse when Officer Colin Stephens approached.

"I turned around and saw him, and I didn't think anything of it," Ford said. "I thought he was going to ask us to do it away from kids or something."

Instead, Stephens asked for the footbag and requested the pair come sit by him, Ford said. The teens did as they were told, but asked if the officer had the authority to take their sack, according to Ford.

"He said it's evidence in a crime," Ford said. "He said you can't Hacky Sac on the mall."

Stephens, who couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday, escorted Ford to the Pearl Street police annex and issued him a $250 ticket for "releasing projectiles on the mall," according to Ford. He explained that the footbag is a projectile because it flies through the air.

Signs posted along the mall warn, "Do not throw Frisbees or other projectiles."

Police spokeswoman Julie Brooks said Wednesday that she couldn't comment about Ford's ticket because she hasn't seen it. The citation and Stephens' notes on why he issued the summons have been sent to Boulder Municipal Court, where Ford is due to appear Tuesday.

"Our job is to enforce the law and protect the safety of the community. Even if it was a basic violation of playing Hacky Sac," Brooks said.

Brooks' department didn't release the minor's identity; Ford volunteered the information.

The teen said he has spent many days and nights on the mall lobbing the beanbag, and he never noticed signs that he thought restricted a game of Hacky Sac.

That was the argument Ford gave Stephens, before requesting a warning as a first-time offender.

"I guess you can't throw a football in a park in Boulder without getting a ticket," Ford said.

When the teen returned home and handed the yellow citation to his mother, Margaret Pilcher, she said she was upset and wanted to talk to the police.

"We've been told we've got to clean up the mall," is what Pilcher said she was told.

Stephen Barnes, 16, has been hacking along Denver's 16th Street Mall for years and said he's never been in trouble for it.

"It's an awesome spectator sport," he said. "And we've never gotten in trouble, not remotely."

Ford said he doesn't want to get fined again, and he would prefer to stay out of trouble.

"But I want to be able to do it still, because it's fun," he said. "I'll move off the mall if I have to. But I want to figure out a way so it's not against the law."

Pics from the Oct. 5th day of resistance!

Thursday, October 05, 2006

James Fetzer and Kevin Barrett @ UW in Madison OCT. 1 st

Well IM back after my 8 hours of driving from Madison. It was a good day beautiful day to be exact. Fetzer and Barrett put on a great presentation for the people of Wisconsin. They were handing out terror storm DVD's, deception dollars and media about 911 veterans for truth. 911 vets paid for the whole thing BTW. Including the check donated by fetzer.
I captured the video and audio from an analog video camera so theirs a bit of a hiss in the audio, and I forgot my tripod but the video is still pretty steady. Its all there anyway. I hope you guys enjoy this as it was a pain in the ass holding that camera up for as long as I did.
after it was all said and done some reporter told me "I should sell the tape" I said "nah it'll be on the net for free tomorrow" she then asked me where and I told her " conspiracycentral.net and wokensheeple.blogspot.com". She wrote down the url's and thanked me for the links and I took off for another wonderful 4 hour ride home.





Torrents here
Download part 1
Download part 2

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

An Obituary, America (1776 - 2006)

An Obituary by Larry Butts

America (1776 - 2006)

America, often referred to by her nickname “Land of the Free,” was killed today in Washington, DC, by a drunk driver. The driver has been identified only as Commander in Chief. She had been ill recently.

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 4, her parents included Thomas Jefferson, Paul Revere, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, and George Washington.

She was known in her youth as rebellious, and, after throwing off the shackles of a tyrannical dictator, she and her family pledged that they would prefer death to a life under an oppressor.

America was most proud of her offspring, Bill of Rights. She insisted that everyone be allowed to say or write anything about anybody, even in a newspaper. “My home is my castle,” she would often be heard saying. This meant that nobody had the right to come into her home or carry her off quietly during the night without a proven need to do so, and that need couldn’t be someone else’s hysteria. And, America was even comfortable agreeing to have a trial in public with impartial judges if she ever was believed to have done something wrong. Nothing made her angrier than to see someone punished when they had only been suspected of wrongdoing so she made sure that everyone had the right to confront their accusers and any witnesses in public. And, anticipating that big shots would forget or abuse the abstract ideals of justice, fairness, morality, and integrity, she made sure that all of us could get a good attorney if we ever needed one. America, just as all her brothers and sisters, hated cruel and unusual punishment. She cried all night with a broken heart when she learned that people were being tortured just for her safety. She learned well the lessons taught to her by her parents, and “Give me liberty or give me death” was not just a slogan to her.

She lived her life true to the highest ideals. Never fearful, America, Land of the Free, would enter any battle to help others. Generous with her wealth, she gave to others so that their lives might be more fulfilling. People around the world were attracted to her integrity, her sense of right versus wrong, and good versus bad. She said what she meant and meant what she said. She accepted responsibility for her own actions, and never falsely blamed others. Although her ideals were universal, many insisted that she be referred to as Christian.

Unwavering, America was never tempted to sacrifice her principles even when fired upon at Fort Sumter, bombed at Pearl Harbor, assaulted by Senator Joseph McCarthy, intimidated by night riders from the Ku Klux Klan, or mired in a winless war in southeast Asia.

Many are saddened by her demise, but those that will miss her most are Opportunity, Dreams, Promise, Honor, Hope, Vision, and Leadership.

Friends had been concerned about her illness. For six years, her doctors refused to admit there was anything wrong with her even while her symptoms deteriorated and her loved ones pleaded for intervention. Newspapers and television hastened her decline by refusing to ask her “care givers” why she seemed so out of control. This recent lack of judgment seems to have contributed to her willingness to get in the car with one who had repeatedly shown that he could not drive responsibly.

Her remains will probably be cremated, or just locked away in a vault somewhere in eastern Europe or Guantanamo Bay and forgotten.

Memorials may be made to any organization that fights for your rights.

Rabbit Hole Of Elitist Perversion Far Deeper Than Foley

Media obsession with E Mails of sicko Republican congressman overshadowed by ignored White House child prostitution scandal, Halliburton sex slavery evil

Atta's Father Says Video Fake, Credibility of 'Hijackers Tape' Crumbles

Islamic Terror Expert: "Was this a video by al-Qa'ida or by a security agency?"
"New" footage was previously used in a docudrama

Steve Watson & Paul Watson | October 3 2006

Related: Surprise Surprise, It's Another Al Qaeda Blockbuster Release

New revelations about the so-called 'laughing hijackers' tape expose its release as a stage-managed politically timed trick. The father of Mohammed Atta blasts the video as a "fake" while contradictory claims of its origin and nature baffle even mainstream terror experts - while even the media admits that the tape was released not by Al-Qaeda but by the U.S. intelligence apparatus.

Firstly, the father of Mohammed Atta, who has previously stated that his son is still alive, has blasted the video as a total fake. "The video-testament of my son is false and I continue to believe he is innocent" Muhammad al-Amir al-Sayd Atta, 71, told Saudi daily al-Watan. "The Americans tampered with and falsified that video" he alleged, " they want to change the truth in order to achieve their goals in the Middle East."

"There is a big difference between this photo and the images shown by the Americans - that one is not my boy." he went on to say.

Republicans Pass Mandatory Child Strip Search Bill? WTF!

Republicans Pass Mandatory Child Strip Search Bill? WTF!
by Soul
Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 10:37:11 AM PDT

Republicans managed to sneak a bill through recently, and from the looks of it, not many noticed. The MSM didn't seem to notice, and I haven't been able to find mention of it here. It doesn't surprise me though, the bill passed quietly with a 'Voice Vote.' Here's a glimpse

House Approves Strip Search Bill

A bill approved by the U.S. House yesterday would require school districts around the country to establish policies making it easier for teachers and school officials to conduct wide scale searches of students. These searches could take the form of pat-downs, bag searches, or strip searches depending on how administrators interpret the law.

The Student Teacher Safety Act of 2006 (HR 5295) would require any school receiving federal funding--essentially every public school--to adopt policies allowing teachers and school officials to conduct random, warrantless searches of every student, at any time, on the flimsiest of pretexts. Saying they suspect that one student might have drugs could give officials the authority to search every student in the building.

Details below the fold...

* Soul's diary :: ::
*

The text of the 'Student and Teacher Safety Act' reads, in part:

Sec 3. Searches Based On Reasonable Suspicion.

(a) IN GENERAL.-- Each local educational agency shall have in effect throughout the jurisdiction of the agency policies that ensure that a search described in subsection (b) is deemed reasonable and permissible.

(b) Searches Covered.-- A search referred to in subsection (a) is a search by a full-time teacher or school official, acting on any reasonable suspicion based on professional experience and judgment, of any minor student on the grounds of any public school, if the search is conducted to ensure that classrooms, school buildings, school property and students remain free from the threat of all weapons, dangerous materials, or illegal narcotics. The measures used to conduct any search must be reasonably related to the search's objectives, without being excessively intrusive in light of the student's age, sex, and the nature of the offense.

Sec 4. ENCOURAGEMENT TO PROTECT STUDENTS AND TEACHERS

(a) IN GENERAL.-- A local educational agency that fails to comply with section 3 shall not, during the period of non-compliance, receive any Safe and Drug Free School funds after fiscal year 2008.

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