G. Pascal Zachary
AlterNetTue, 14 Mar 2006 12:00 UTC
If U.S. troops go to Africa, it won't be for a humanitarian intervention; it will be to protect American oil interests in the troubled Niger Delta.
Africa's humanitarian needs -- today the pillage in Darfur, yesterday the famine in Niger -- dominate the headlines. Human suffering, from hunger to rape, also dominates the limited attention that Americans have for hearing about problems in the most troubled part of the world. Now that may be changing as an armed insurgency in oil-rich Nigeria threatens oil exports to the U.S. and raises the possibility that U.S. troops will dig into African soil in order to protect a resource deemed vital to American interests.
In short, Nigeria might be the next Iraq.
Putting American troops at risk in Africa would be a big change -- and speaks volumes about the new relationship between America and the sub-Saharan Africa. Ever since American troops were killed in Somalia early in the presidency of Bill Clinton, a firm rule of U.S. policy toward Africa has been to never put U.S. soldiers on African ground. For more than 10 years, American troops have studiously avoided intervening directly in African conflicts. This policy prevented the United States from trying to halt the genocide in Rwanda in the mid-1990s. More recently, this stance stopped the United States from using troops to restore order to Liberia. The policy may also stop the United States from sending troops to Nigeria.
Surveys were conducted months before the war on Iraq which showed that the American people would only support the conflict if there was a danger that Saddam was developing nuclear weapons. Other questions in the poll addressed the issues of humanitarian intervention, Saddam's abysmal human rights record, and the prospect that Iraq had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons.
None of these other potential threats mattered to the American people. The only issue that gained majority support for war was whether Saddam had nukes. It's obvious now that the findings of that poll became the cornerstone of the administration's public relations strategy.
Bottom line: The Bush-Cheney plans for shaping public opinion will continue to depend on bogus claims about nuclear weapons programs. This explains why the administration and their agents in the MSM are intentionally misleading the public about the true nature of Iran's nuclear program; it is the only way to elicit support for another war of aggression.
Where Iran is concerned, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, believes President Bush was right in keeping military leverage on the table and considering U.N. sanctions.
"Iran may be the greatest single threat to America since the end of the Cold War,"McCain told an audience at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Memphis, Tenn. "If the Iranians acquire nuclear weapons, then my friends, we are in trouble."
As far as Iraq, McCain called for more training, the formation of a government and economic development, and he stated that the United States needs to pursue positive relationships in the Arab world.
Amelia Gentleman and Robin McKie
The ObserverMon, 13 Mar 2006 12:00 UTC
The following correction was printed in the Observer's For the record column, Sunday March 12 2006
In the article below, Dr Milton Wainwright was quoted as saying that red rain lacked DNA. Dr Wainwright has asked us to make clear that currently he has no view on whether red rain contains DNA and that it is physicist Godfrey Louis who is of that view.
There is a small bottle containing a red fluid on a shelf in Sheffield University's microbiology laboratory. The liquid looks cloudy and uninteresting. Yet, if one group of scientists is correct, the phial contains the first samples of extraterrestrial life isolated by researchers.
Inside the bottle are samples left over from one of the strangest incidents in recent meteorological history. On 25 July, 2001, blood-red rain fell over the Kerala district of western India. And these rain bursts continued for the next two months. All along the coast it rained crimson, turning local people's clothes pink, burning leaves on trees and falling as scarlet sheets at some points.
Investigations suggested the rain was red because winds had swept up dust from Arabia and dumped it on Kerala. But Godfrey Louis, a physicist at Mahatma Gandhi University in Kottayam, after gathering samples left over from the rains, concluded this was nonsense. 'If you look at these particles under a microscope, you can see they are not dust, they have a clear biological appearance.' Instead Louis decided that the rain was made up of bacteria-like material that had been swept to Earth from a passing comet. In short, it rained aliens over India during the summer of 2001.
Comment: Over the last few years, we have watched with interest as the powers that be via their lackey scientists and the mainstream media have slowly been prepping the public for some kind of 'revelation' about alien life, however small, on other planets in our solar system. Due to the massive evidence, which stretches back many hundreds of years, for the reality of some kind of UFO phenomenon on our planet, the very fact that we are now being subjected to a slow release of information that is obviously leading up to some kind of disclosure, makes us very suspicious about what exactly we will be told vis a vis the reality of "life out there".
Joe Quinn
SOTT.netMon, 13 Mar 2006 12:00 UTC
With American troops sinking ever further into the "Iraq quagmire", Bush's job approval ratings hitting new lows and a growing list of respectable officials using the word
"dictatorship" in reference to the White House, the apparent plans for a U.S. attack on Iran can reasonably be taken as evidence that many members of the U.S. government have in fact gone literally, clinically insane. At the very least, anyone still in possession of the alleged human capacity for independent, critical thought is surely asking the big question:
Why?
Signs of the Times editors Scott Ogrin, Joe Quinn, and Henry See receive noted author Stanley B. Stillingfleet to discuss the subject of his forthcoming book on the trafficking of humans, drugs, and arms, a glimpse into the dark side of pathocratic society. The book will be published by Red Pill Press later in 2006.
Running Time: 00:32:46
Download: MP3
Syria has switched all of the state's foreign currency transactions to euros from dollars amid a political confrontation with the United States, the head of state-owned Commercial Bank of Syria said on Monday.
"This is a precaution. We are talking about billions of dollars," Duraid Durgham told Reuters.
Comment: Portent of impending U.S. economic collapse?
An Israeli special operations team is working undercover in Iran, according to a report Sunday in a British newspaper.
The soldiers are on a mission to prevent the Iranians from succeeding in their bid to develop a nuclear weapon. They are involved in locating uranium enrichment facilities in Iran, according to the British Sunday Times, and are currently based in neighboring northern Iraq.
The United States is supporting the move, says the paper.
Comment: The Israelis are in Iran hunting for intelligence that they can twist and distort and use to justify ethnically cleansing the Middle East of its Arab population.
Joe Quinn
SOTT.netWed, 08 Mar 2006 12:00 UTC
Last September, two of her majesty's loyal servants were arrested by Iraqi police (and then released to British forces) in the Southern Iraqi city of Basra. The two men were dresssed in full Arab garb driving a car full of explosives. They had been shooting and killing Iraqi civilians and, according to Iraqi officials, attempting to plant explosives. Almost immediately, it was clear that the arrest of the two men was evidence for what we have suspected for a long time - that most 'Islamic terrorism' is being orchestrated by agencies within the British, American and Israeli governments.
Today, another report has surfaced which appears to provide further evidence that the Western 'Democracies' that claim to be bringing freedom to Iraq are in fact determined to ignite a civil war in Iraq and set in motion a long-held agenda to embroil the greater Middle East in a massive and bloody war.
Joe Quinn
Sott.netTue, 20 Sep 2005 12:00 UTC
Two members of the British SAS captured in Iraq while attempting to carry out a car bombing against civilians.
There is a saying of sorts that, if you are going to do something, do it well, and given the serious consequences, nowhere is that more true than when you plan to engage in criminal activity. Today in Basra, Southern Iraq, two members of the British SAS (Special Ops) were caught, 'in flagrante' as it were, dressed in full "Arab garb", driving a car full of explosives and shooting and killing two official Iraqi policemen.
Comment: Over the last few years, we have watched with interest as the powers that be via their lackey scientists and the mainstream media have slowly been prepping the public for some kind of 'revelation' about alien life, however small, on other planets in our solar system. Due to the massive evidence, which stretches back many hundreds of years, for the reality of some kind of UFO phenomenon on our planet, the very fact that we are now being subjected to a slow release of information that is obviously leading up to some kind of disclosure, makes us very suspicious about what exactly we will be told vis a vis the reality of "life out there".