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Signs Editorials
Editorial: Osama, Death Squads and the Biggest Lie Ever Told
Joe Quinn
Signs of the Times
04/07/2006
You may have missed it, and I wouldn't blame you if you deliberately ignored it, but 'Osama' released a new audio message two days ago.
In his latest sermon, Osama warns Iraq's Shia population to stop attacking Iraq's Sunni population or they would suffer retribution. Osama message seems to be summed up thusly:
"Our brothers, the mujahedeen in the al Qaeda organization, have chosen the dear brother Abu Hamza al-Muhajer as their leader to succeed the Amir Abu Musab al-Zarqawi," bin Laden says. "I advise him to focus his fighting on the Americans and everyone who supports them and allies himself with them in their war on the people of Islam and Iraq."
So essentially, Osama's is a rallying call for ALL Iraqis to fight the Americans. However, the Bush government and its propaganda arm - the mainstream media - have gone to great lenghts to try and assign responsiblity for the apparent infighting among Iraq's Sunni and Shia groups to "al-Qaeda in Iraq". Evidence of this can be seen in CNN's coverage of the Osama tape which was headlined:
Tape: Bin Laden tells Sunnis to fight Shiites in Iraq
and where it is stated:
Osama bin Laden in a tape posted on the Web encourages Sunnis in Iraq to retaliate against Shiites, deviating from al Qaeda's stand of not promoting sectarian violence.
Al-Zarqawi had been criticized for inciting sectarian violence by targeting Iraq's Shiites. Last year bin Laden's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, wrote a letter to the al Qaeda in Iraq leader telling him to stop, according to the U.S. military, which said it intercepted the letter.
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| Patsy Extraordinaire - Osama Bin Lying |
Notice the comment above that: "Al-Zarqawi had been criticized for inciting sectarian violence by targeting Iraq's Shiites." What is not said is that it is the US government that has been claiming that "al-Zarqawi" and "al-Qaeda in Iraq" are responsible for sectarian violence in Iraq.
Getting back to basics: "Osama", "al-Qaeda", "al-Qaeda in Iraq", "al-Zarqawi" "al-Zawahiri" are, or were, all part of a US government psychological operation that pitched them as the likely suspects to take the blame for the US and Israeli government Middle Eastern predations, not to mention the imposition of a police state in the US and Britian, for starters. Oh yes! Surely you know that the reason for the burgeoning police states in the US and UK is the imminent threat from "al-Qaeda"!?
Al-Qaeda 'increased threat to UK'
The
threat to the UK from al-Qaeda is likely to have increased and the Iraq war
has provided a boost to extremist groups, a committee of MPs has found.
The terror network posed "an extremely serious and brutal threat" to the UK, the latest Foreign Affairs Committee report into the "war on terror" found.
Tackling this threat would become more difficult in the future, it concluded.
One reason was propaganda coming from Iraq which is a crucial training ground
for international terrorists, it said.
Committee chairman Mike Gapes said al-Qaeda had now broken up into smaller
groups which were harder to trace.
"We feel that there is a problem that, although there's been some successes,
al-Qaeda as a concept is actually more of a threat now than it was before."
So, the evidence for the clear and present danger from 'al-Qaeda', which leads
directly to a clampdown on civil freedoms in the US and UK, would seem to be
the existence of ongoing transmissions from 'Osama' and the claim by the US
government that al-Qaeda is responsible for the killings in Iraq. So basically,
if you are willing to believe the claims of the US government that the Osama
tapes are authentic and that his claims to be in a position to wage global
'Jihad' are realistic, then you can feel secure that your civil liberties are
being eroded for not other reason than to allow the US and UK governments complete
control over your lives, and you need read no further. If, however, you suspect
something is amiss with this scenario and you are interested in data that can
actually be corroborated, then read on.
In his latest audio, 'Osama' appeared to assert his authority over the situation
in Somalia and warned Western governments not to send their troops there, or
else. In response to Osama's warning to Western governments, the powerful Islamist
movement that currently controls Somalia more
or less ridiculed the statement and said that 'al-Qaeda' had nothing to
do with events in Somalia, and in fact called for international peacekeepers
to be sent to the Somalia. Which leads us to believe that either Osama hasn't
been keeping up with current affairs, or someone wants us to believe that 'al-Qaeda'
controls Somalia, which, of course, would require the US military to get involved.
How convenient.
Concerning the sectarian killings in Iraq that the US government and media
try hard to attribute to "al-Qaeda":
It has already been exposed that the
killings and bombings are the work of "death squads" working out of the Iraqi
interior ministry, which itself is entirely controlled by the CIA. Let
me reiterate that in every war waged by the US government against a foreign
nation, a counter-insurgency operation has immediately been implemented. Counter-insurgency
operations are required in such circumstances because when a country is invaded,
an insurgency of some form invariable arises to defend the country. Such insurgents
are very difficult for an invading army to defeat given the extensive support
and collaboration they enjoy from the general population.
Essentially, an invading army finds itself at war with the population of the
country they are invading rather than a separate and independent insurgency.
Strategies developed over the years to deal with such situations has come to
be known as "counter-insurgency", and include attempts to identify divisions
within the society, usually religious, political or ethnic, however insignificant,
and to then attempt to provoke these divisions. Of course, in the scenario
where a country has been invaded by a foreign military force, such internal
divisions become almost nonexistent as the population unites to oppose the
invaders, as is the case in Iraq. For this reason, counter-insurgency tactics
designed to sow discord must be fabricated and generally involve the creation
of a fake insurgency by the military intelligence apparatus of the invading
force.
This fake insurgency is made up of groups of armed militia who are paid by
the invading force to target and murder distinct groups among the population,
again, along religious, ethnic or political lines. In the case of Iraq, we
see militia 'death squad' attacks on both Sunni and Shia members of the Iraq
population which are blamed on the real insurgency or al-qaeda in Iraq. The
hoped-for benefits of such brutal tactics are to demoralise and confuse the
real insurgency and the population that supports them, to embroil the real
insurgency in an internecine conflict, and, in the specific case of Iraq, to
promote the US government's claim that al-Qaeda is still active and poses a
deadly threat to civlised societies everywhere.
The above scenario is EXACTLY what we are seeing in Iraq with the fake counter-insurgency
death squads being controlled, financed and run by the CIA out of the Iraqi
interior ministry, or rather, the US government's interior ministry in Iraq.
A recent article serves well to prove the assertion that "al-Qaeda" in Iraq
is indeed a creation of the US forces that are currently controlling the Iraqi
conflict:
Al-Zarqawi's cell phone reportedly yields surprises
Monday,
July 3, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had the phone numbers of senior
Iraqi officials stored in his cell phone, according to an Iraqi legislator.
Waiel Abdul-Latif, a member of former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's party,
said Monday that authorities found the numbers after al-Zarqawi, leader of
al Qaeda in Iraq, was killed in a U.S. air strike on June 7.
Abdul-Latif did not give names of the officials. But he said they included
ministry employees and members of parliament.
He called for an investigation, saying Iraqis "cannot have one hand with
the government and another with the terrorists."
Of course, it is not "Iraqis" that have "one hand with the government and another
with the terrorists", but rather the US government that has both hands controlling
the Iraqi government and the terrorists.
Comment on this Editorial
Editorial: The Blackest of Lies
by Lisa Guliani
"You told a lie, an odious, damned lie; Upon my soul, a lie, a wicked lie."
~ William Shakespeare ~
Not long ago, I said the alternative media is broken. But the alternative media is not just broken. By and large, it is controlled, co-opted, doomed, diseased, dysfunctional, and basically dead in the water. It's devolved into a stinking cesspool of lies and filth that is anything but alternative or truthful, and serves no patriot, truth seeker, or human being for that matter. The only entity it DOES serve is the enemy. More aptly put, the alternative media is fully exposed as another facet of the enemy. It is the enemy. There is no movement, patriot or otherwise. All that exists is a façade, a sham, a caricature of a movement and an alternative media. This is garbage dressed up as truth, the kind of manure that busts the pipes.
If an already extensive lineup of censors, cowards, fear-mongers, hypocrites, sell-outs, grifters, con-men, compulsive liars and weird men prancing around in black briefs promoting peak oil and population reduction wasn't enough for you to absorb, then by all means, get a belly full of the psychopaths at Revere Radio Network. Every infiltrated truth effort is allotted its share of psychopaths, I suppose. Welcome to the Cuckoo's Nest.
The boys at Revere Radio Network have kept themselves pretty damn busy over the last year circulating their particular poison far and wide, trying to climb a fecal ladder of their own design. You may have seen an ugly little story they shot across the Internet, one that proclaims me to be an "FBI Snitch". This little gem includes audio of a phone conversation between FBI Special Agent Steve Collins and Revere Radio's founder, "Robb Revere" (real name Robb Verriere) in the summer of 2005. One key piece of information that "Revere" does not bother to publicize is that while he did get permission to record the phone exchange between himself and Special Agent Collins, he was NOT granted permission to publicly broadcast this conversation on his network or on any other network. Funny how some details never make it into the final print, n'est ce pas?
The shred of truth to the ugly little Revere tale is this: I did file a complaint with law enforcement, and they did follow up on my complaint. This much of their story is true. Interestingly enough though, the boys at Revere have omitted almost all of the particulars from their version - particulars that, if exposed, clearly alter the context of this construction, as well as subsequent public perception of their little protection racket.
Revere Radio Network has crashed through some already suspect "Patriot" gates. Who unlocked the door and let the plague in? Genesis Communications Network. See Victor Thorn's article for perspective:
GCN, Jack Blood, & the Sexual Predator by Victor Thorn
The people disseminating the Revere version of events want you to know about a call I made to law enforcement last summer and the subsequent filing of a complaint against them. They want you to think I am a traitor of "patriots". What they don't tell you are the circumstances that led up to both the call and the complaint. Remember, when someone tells you a half truth, they are still telling you a whole lie. Think about that.
WING TV 2005 Alternative Media Exposes & Internet Discussion Forums
In the spring and summer of 2005, WING TV wrote and talked a lot about censorship within the alternative media. We wrote articles detailing how Alex Jones of GCN censors the writings of others after publication without obtaining the knowledge or consent of the authors. We also exposed Jeff Rense as a coward, censor, and company man. We told you how Jones has actively censored his radio show archives. In addition, we laid out for all to see, the truth about con-artist John Clayton (aka "Jack Blood"). In addition, I wrote an article showing the connection, or affiliation, between GCN and ABC, a mainstream news network. We exposed the wrong actions of several different prominent people, and these exposes elicited furious responses from various camps on the Internet. The articles quickly made the rounds of forums such as Conspiracy Central, LetsRoll911.org, Deadline Live, Revere Radio Network, Indymedia, a variety of discussion boards and countless other smaller websites.
The GCN articles eventually found their way into a variety of discussion boards. Alex Jones and Rense groupies became rabid. I was invited to post show links and WING TV articles on the Letsroll911.org web forum by Commander Pod, Phil Jayhan, which I did. Almost immediately, people I didn't know set about trashing me in the forums and discussing a plan involving multiple websites to "bring down WING TV". I was subsequently banned from the discussion boards, blamed for all the mudslinging and contention that ensued, and targeted for perpetual attack by various members of that forum, including Commander Pod himself, Phil Jayhan, who has been one of the main point men instigating these personal attacks against both Victor Thorn and me. During the course of the past year, we have added exposes about Phil Jayhan to the list. My original sin was posting links at the invitation of the forum owner.
Understand that anyone who criticizes Alex Jones or GCN within the virtual kingdom is a target for attack by any number of nameless, faceless individuals, most of them identifiable only by fake screen names and/or multiple Internet identities. The attacks against me have escalated to the point of being unconscionable: irrational, senseless, baseless ad hominem attacks, inappropriate and extremely destructive sexual insults, false accusations of serious sexual misconduct, vulgar, profane smears, intentional misquotes, cyber-stalking, harassment, profane phone calls and emails, altered photos of us, among other things. These are the kind of responses I've come to expect over the last year whenever we write about ANYTHING. The GCN Hit Squad never sleeps.
Not surprisingly, similar hate-filled, irrational and obsessive sentiments have been expressed repeatedly in regard to me, Victor Thorn, and WING TV in the Deadline Live forum, home of GCN radio show host Jack Blood. Anyone who dares to agree with anything we say is subjected to ruthless text assault, group contempt, and repeatedly insulted and banned from these discussion boards. They are then viciously and repeatedly attacked by the GCN Hit Squad at every opportunity.
Revere Radio Network
In May 2005, I was contacted by two members of the Revere Radio Network GCN Hit Squad: a guy named Rastagnostic hosts a show on the Revere network, while Robb Revere runs the network and also hosts a show. There are several others who conduct radio broadcasts on this "network". They all appear to be proponents of GCN. At least a few of them are part of the GCN Hit Squad and have continually engaged in harassing me and inciting others to directly harass me for the last 13 months. Their broadcasts have been used to conduct an increasingly virulent, pornographic, violent, hate-filled smear campaign for over a year now, which continues at this writing. Revere Radio Network communications to and about me are vile, sexist, obsessive, false, designed to discredit my writings, and they have worked extremely hard to affix a false, disgusting label to my good name. There doesn't appear to be anything these people will not do to shut me up. Maybe I should be flattered by all the attention. I'm not. Maggots creep me out. These are the tactics of a protection racket.
I had not previously heard of "Revere Radio", Rastagnostic, Robb Revere or any of their other hosts. I did initially reply to their emails, and it was arranged that the "Revere" crew would interview Victor Thorn and me on one of their upcoming broadcasts. RRN tries to present itself as an alternative patriot news source. They initially presented themselves as 'patriots" who honor, respect and value truth, which is why we linked to their website for all of two whole days. I was even praised for my stance on truth by one of their show hosts, "Rastagnostic" and have the email to prove that. The Hit Squad acted relatively polite and friendly at first. In hindsight, that was a deceptive presentation, the irony of which does not escape me now, because there is nothing polite, friendly, truthful or patriotic about the conduct they have engaged in ever since that time.
Within days of the initial email communications, and as a consequence of listening to Revere Radio's repugnant broadcasts, Victor and I decided not to have anything to do with them. This decision, coupled with the GCN/ABC article I wrote, plus the other WING TV GCN exposes, was used as a basis for the attacks that have since followed. Revere Radio decided that WING TV is the enemy. They decided that I am the enemy, and have since been harassing, defaming and stalking me on and off the internet for over a year now.
Revere Radio Network can't seem to make up its mind as to how it wants to be perceived. Is it an alternative "patriot" news source or is it "entertainment"? They flip-flop on this from one day to the next. What is clear to me is that any association with RRN has the potential of lasting like a permanent tattoo. It is an unnecessary permanent black stain on the credibility of any 9-11 researcher or genuine truth teller. Does it take a rocket scientist to figure out that tethering ourselves to Revere Radio would be self-sabotage? No. So, the link to their website was promptly removed within two days of putting it up. In addition, we decided to cancel the already scheduled interview with these people, which also didn't go over well. First they tried to talk us into changing our minds. We didn't change our minds. Then, the attacks began.
Robb Revere initially invited me to post WING TV articles on their discussion board, just like Phil Jayhan had on the "Letsroll911" forum. However, subsequent to our removal of the Revere Radio link and cancellation of the scheduled interview, my posted article suddenly became a target for attack by one of the radio show hosts, Sonny Crack. Mr. Crack is supposedly also a hip-hop producer. Please note the label: ClearChannel.
I guess nobody bothered to tell this fine 'patriot" that hip-hop is a tool of the New World Order he allegedly opposes, a tool that is being used to destroy a disillusioned segment of the teen and 20-something generation.
Crack decided he was going to ride my back on the forum, taking issue with my article in a very persistent, confrontational manner. He became more and more unreasonable and hostile in his posts to me, and then resorted to making a sexual remark. I did my best to respond to "Mr. Crack" in a polite manner up until that moment, but there was no reasoning with Crack; and once the sexual comment was made, I found no reason to further engage in that debate. Reason, civility, and politeness don't seem to appear in Sonny Crack or Revere Radio's repertoire of vocabulary words, or within their capabilities. This is but one example of Sonny Crack's impressive linguistic (and spelling) talents:
"Jayhan's site? Fuck that cracker ass cracker. And I'll tell the whole world, with my jeans down to my ankles to suck my FAT DICK! I don't give a mofuckin fuck about nothing.. Gangbanger talk? Why, because I don't speak to people in a civil tone? I'm not civil, i'm a street beating, weed smoking, beer drinking LEADER. All ya'll pussy mofuckas scared to be leaders. I lead people to shit they need to know. I CHECKED all your links, its all hearsay. Not one fuckin shred of proof. This argument wouldn't even hold up in your 9/11 On Trial Court.. And you KNOW IT! Why don't you just make a show about how Sonny Crack is a FED.. And how I'm on GCN's payroll. Fuck it, you might as well. You could find more proof in that than this dumb shit your talkin bout GCN being an ABC affiliate. Oh.. And by the way.. I'd love to suck them tittays!"
That did it for me. I'm quite willing to discuss points or issues raised in my articles, or listen to opposing viewpoints or answer questions pertaining to them, but I am not willing to continue discussion with ANYBODY if the discussion, disagreement or debate becomes an arena for inappropriate sexual commentary and sewer talk. Mr. Crack seems like a very angry white boy. Why such anger over an article that wasn't even about him or his radio network?
Sonny Crack aka Sonny Crizzle aka "Tim" was not satisfied to stop there, though. In fact, he was just warming up. Looking back now, I think the invitation to post in the Revere forum was a set-up, for the sole purpose of generating personal attacks, character assassination, and the often repeated sexually degrading assaults on my character and good name that have since followed for more than a year. What kind of person gets so irate over an article that isn't even about THEM that they feel it necessary to sexually debase and harass the author? A psychopath, perhaps? I should add that not one of the Revere Radio crew ever rebuked Sonny Crack for his unwarranted, unprovoked, unjustified rudeness, for his vicious, ongoing defamatory attacks since that time. In fact, the more disgusting "Crack" becomes, the more he is praised and applauded for his actions by his buddies and the crackhead audience that listens to his show. These sick people simply delight in his unwarranted sexually based attacks on me. They think this is HUMOR. Of course, I wonder if this same attitude would prevail if Crack's caustic, toxic insults and lies were fixed upon them. Would it still be deemed funny?
The Revere hosts and other gangsta-wanna-bees began posting vicious messages on the RRN discussion board and on Jack Blood's forum. A few, like somebody calling himself "Roxdog" (Revere radio show host) have made it their life mission to stalk me all over the Internet for the last year. Roxdog's hobby involves lifting photos of Victor and me from our website and then altering them into pornographic/profane graphics with really sick, lewd text commentary, which he then sends to us and posts around the internet. So, why do they do this stuff? Moreover, are these Revere losers representative of the kind of people that comprise the so-called patriot movement? What causes someone to go to such lengths to viciously and sexually harass another person? Is this really because we decided to have nothing to do with them and because they disagreed with issues in the articles we write? Or is it something more? The Revere boys have, as a matter of fact, engaged in a virtual gang-bang on me over time, as I'm about to prove. Their mamas must be so proud.
The "Patriotic" Sonny Crack Show
Another example of the stylings of Sonny Crack:
On his June 3, 2005 radio broadcast, Crack told his audience how to break the law and get around the police with drugs. He then declared how he will "kill any "F*cking" cop who threatens him in any way", etc. Real patriotic, wouldn't you say? I now refer you to Mr. Crack's shows dated: 05-27-05 & 06-10-05, in which you'll hear the following, presented as though it is REAL, when it is not:
a) Crack states that he knew me several years ago, personally and intimately.
This is a LIE. I've never met Sonny Crack in my life.
b) Crack states that I was a porno star.
This is a LIE.
c) That I was sodomized by several men in front of him.
Another disgusting LIE.
d) That he paid me $500.00 and I consented to being sodomized by several men while he taped it.
LIE.
e) That I consented to being sexually degraded in front of him, as well as BY him, while he taped it.
LIE.
f) Crack uses audio lifted from an apparent porn movie to falsely paint me as a prostitute. He states that I was a prostitute. In his broadcast, Mr. Crack falsely identifies me by name and also uses the Wing TV name, further attempting to portray me as the female voice in his porn audio; thereby attempting to discredit WING TV information. All complete LIES. I am not now, nor have I ever been, a prostitute.
g) Crack repeatedly uses words such as 'cunt," "whore," "slut," "ho," "bitch," and "hole" in reference to me. I do not find these offensive terms "funny". Not about me or anyone else. They are hate-inspired, defamatory, and sexually debasing words.
h) Crack's statements accuse me of serious sexual misconduct. All of it, absolute LIES.
i) Crack asks if Victor Thorn is fucking me.
j) Crack makes inappropriate and disparaging comments about my breasts, face, and clothing.
k) Crack claims to have "messed around" with me.
LIE.
Crack claims I supported Revere Radio Network in the past. I have explained our two-day linking to the RRN website, prior to listening to even one of their broadcasts. This was an error which was corrected immediately and permanently after checking out their programming.
Links to excerpts of Sonny Crack shows - mp3 audios
Sonny Crack # 1 (June 25, 2006)
Sonny Crack # 2 (July 1, 2005)
Sonny Crack # 3 (2005)
Sonny Crack # 4 (2005)
Please note: the May 27, 2005 Sonny Crack show used audio from part of a speech I gave in 2005 in Oklahoma City at a conference WING TV participated in on the 10th anniversary of the OKC bombing. He apparently didn't have any problem with me at that time, but followed up an attempt at a compliment by asking the question, "Victor, are you fucking Lisa?" He refers to my body parts and calls women "holes". Crack's broadcasts have been circulated in various Internet forums, posted on political websites, and emailed to unknown numbers of individuals and groups. In his own statements, he claims that the trouble began with my GCN-ABC article, but in fact, Sonny Crack began instigating sexual attacks against me on this May 27, 2005 broadcast - before I had even heard of him or Revere Radio. And before my GCN-ABC article was even published. My article wasn't even published until June 3, 2005.
The Revere Boys & Jack Blood
Jack Blood's Internet forum is rife with Revere Radio show hosts, and these people serve as his ever watchful attack dogs, defending Jack Blood, Alex Jones, Jeff Rense, and GCN from anyone who dares to ask the wrong kind of question or post a criticism of their gurus. In fact, Jack Blood is known as their "Blood Brother," as Victor has pointed out in the abovementioned link. They excuse/ignore Jeff Rense's lying, which has now been clearly demonstrated in previous WING TV articles. Jack Blood, Alex Jones and GCN are also added on the Revere Radio MySpace page as a "friend" in their "Friends" section, and Sonny Crack has stated that Alex Jones himself has "requested" to be added as a 'Friend" of Revere Radio Network on the Hit Squad's MySpace page. Is that so? That is a very intriguing request to me. Why would Alex Jones request to be associated with filthy liars like the RRN crew? We also know for a fact that Jack Blood condones and praises the sexual harassment, libel and defamation being perpetrated by his buddies at Revere Radio Network, although he lies to listeners who confront him directly about this "friendship".
Sonny Crack Forum Post - Jun 28, 2005 6:19 pm
"I sent Lisa an email, inviting myself on her show.. I hope that dumb hooker puts me on.. I'll do them both in by myself."
Jack Blood planned to have the Revere boys on his show to broadcast the call Robb Revere received from FBI agent, Steve Collins regarding Sonny Crack. Ted Anderson apparently intervened after Victor and I sent him the audio mp3s of Sonny Crack defaming me. This Revere appearance on Blood's show was suddenly canceled, and Crack cited "political and legal pressures" as the reason. Note that Robb Revere received permission to record the call from the agent, but did not receive permission to broadcast this call on any program or network. Despite this fact, the Revere crew brazenly broadcast the call on their network anyway, then circulated this around the Internet as part of their "FBI Snitch" story. It has been posted on Indymedia, Conspiracy Central, Letsroll911.org, Revere Radio Network and various other websites.
Harassing Phone Calls by Revere Crew to Lisa Guliani
We've received many anonymous and harassing phone calls to our home over the past year. The Revere boys have also participated in this illegal activity on multiple occasions. The following 3 calls were made by Sonny Crack and Robb Revere while in the midst of broadcasting one of their shows. During one of these calls, a profane message was left on our answering machine and the callers identified themselves. It is illegal in the state of Pennsylvania to use the telephone for the purpose of making a prank/harassing phone call.
1.) 06-29-05 - 10:18 pm EST - 727-251-8041
2.) 06-29-05 - 11:16 pm EST - 727-443-5411
3.) 06-30-05 - 12:20 am EST - 727-443-5411
On-Air Phone Harassment of Lisa Guliani by Sonny Crack & Robb Revere
On July 1, 2005, Sonny Crack used his broadcast as a weapon against me once again:
The topic of this broadcast centers around how "Lisa the fucking ho' went to the FBI about Sonny Crack. The Cracked One says I did this because I don't get 'fucked enough'. He states that I am offended by him because he wouldn't "fuck" me. Decorum and good manners at their finest, so "patriotic and alternative". More filthy lies.
On July 3, 2005, Sonny Crack posted 10 questions for WING TV on the Revere Radio Discussion Board. Two of the questions:
"Who wears the strap-on when you and Lisa are having sexual relations?"
Also, "Who does Lisa fantasize about at night?"
Revere Radio hosts have attacked/ harassed radio show host Peter Schaenk on his own forum for having WING TV on his show and for confronting the Revere crew on their lies and filth. The Hit Squad was subsequently banned from Schaenk's discussion board after numerous vulgarities and obscenities were aimed at me and others, including Schaenk himself. Roxdog and Robb Revere were the instigators in this incident. Here's what Schaenk had to say to Sonny Crack:
"WITH RE TO THE WHITE BOY WHO THINKS HE IS A "BROTHER" AND FIGHTING THE NEW WORLD ORDER BY MAKING UP LIES ABOUT WOMEN AND USING THE "F BOMB" AND THE WORD "HO" OVER AND OVER, YOU MY FRIEND, ARE A LIAR. YOUR MESSAGE IS A LIE. SO HOW ARE YOU ANY DIFFERENT FROM SEAN HANNITY, BILL O'REILLY AND RUSH (FAT BOY) LIMBAUGH??? YOU CAN CALL YOURSELF ANYTHING YOU WANT "CRACK HEAD", YOU ARE STILL A LIAR. AND YOU ARE IN GOOD COMPANY WITH YOUR FELLOW NEO CON LIARS. A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME..."
Other "friends" listed on Revere Radio's page at Myspace include GCN Uber Patriot Alex Jones (listed multiple times ) and the Genesis Communications Network. Interesting that a so-called "Christian-Patriot" network and the Christian-Patriot "Grandfather of the 9-11 Truth Movement" would even want to be remotely associated with the likes of Revere Radio Network, isn't it? Moreover, isn't it odd that Alex Jones would want to be added to Revere's MySpace page at all? What does Alex Jones have to gain by wallowing in the manure with Revere Radio Network? Does this association tell you anything about Alex Jones and GCN?
We've even contacted Ted Anderson on multiple occasions over the last year regarding the connections between the Reveres and GCN. Ted was very nonchalant in his phone responses. Apparently, Anderson doesn't give a rip what his customers think of GCN being hooked up with the foul-mouthed lying pigs at Revere Radio. Ted cares about the bottom-line: MONEY. Then again, Ted and the GCN hosts aren't exactly TELLING their listeners about this "friendship", are they? The Revere crew attacks us saying that we attack other patriots, including GCN host Jack Blood. Yet, Jack Blood doesn't consider himself a patriot, so what is Revere screaming about? Read what Jack Blood states in his own forum:
"I breath a sigh of relief knowing that I am NOT a patriot, and do not have to live by their LAWS. I encourage you to expand your own horizons as well."
Okay, Jack Blood is not a patriot. Everybody got that? Now, someone please inform the Revere Radio psychos.
Sonny Crack's Lies Continue
On June 25, 2006, Sonny Crack decided to spit some more poison in my face on his broadcast. This time, he managed to recruit yet another psycho to pretend to be my former "pimp". The statements uttered by this disgusting person on that show are some of the most revolting, obscene sentences I've ever heard a person speak about anybody. I have no idea who "Payroll the Pimp" is in real life, nor was he my "pimp". Just to repeat for the deaf, dumb and blind out there, there has been no pimp in my life, no prostitution, no meth addiction.
Moreover, there is no ex-boyfriend of mine who would ever lower himself to give the Cracked One a second glance, let alone assist him in trashing me publicly with the kind of b.s. recorded on that June 25th show. So, what exactly is going on here, you may ask? Answer: The Revere Radio Network is engaged in "Nixonian Dirty Tricks". If you're unfamiliar with this phrase, please look it up and have your eyes opened wider. After you do that, ask yourself, which alternative media venue is most closely tied to Revere Radio Network? Answer: GCN. Now ask yourself, why? What could the Hit Squad possibly ever do for GCN? Is the answer to this question becoming clearer in your mind yet?
The Revere crew tries to justify their all-out assault on my good name by saying these are "spoof" shows. Parodies. The problem lies in the fact that the content of the Crack shows is delivered in a very real, very serious, very "factual" manner. The content was not delivered as good-natured ribbing or lighthearted humor. It was bitter, injurious, venomous and noxious. This is not a spoof or parody and it sure as hell is not "art". No WING TV spoof show has EVER been portrayed as real or true. We have also clarified any possible listener confusion on subsequent broadcasts for good measure, because not everybody understands satire when they see it. An example of what a "spoof" looks like can be found on Saturday Night Live shows, where famous people are often parodied or satirized - yet, nobody ever thinks these skits are real, because they are not designed to look or sound genuine or authentic. The SNL skits are not presented as TRUE, nor are they blatantly malicious, such as the material churned out about me by the Revere Hit Squad. SNL spoofs are designed to be funny, without intent to harm.
Now take Sonny Crack's shows about me. I and other people have noticed that prior to my 2005 call to law enforcement, the Revere Radio website did not use the words "spoof" or "parody" anywhere with regard to the Sonny Crack broadcasts defaming me. It was only AFTER Robb Revere received a call from FBI Special Agent Steve Collins last summer that RRN altered its web page and added this disclaimer in parentheses. On August 2, 2005, "Somedude" posted the following on Jack Blood's forum:
"That didn't sound like a parody to me. That guy sounded quite serious." If the 2005 broadcasts were intended as parody, then why wasn't this made perfectly clear to all? Furthermore, the very nature of Crack's show content illustrates quite clearly that these were never meant to be "funny". They were meant to ruin my reputation and good name and destroy my credibility in the public eye. In case anybody has something to say about that, let me tell you all: Sonny Crack does not decide if I have a good name. Revere Radio network does not define one single thing about me. Only I can do that.
The Cracked One did not make one single attempt on any of those 2005 broadcasts to inform his audience that these programs were meant as "parodies" or "spoofs". He presented them as very real, identified me by my real name, used my real website, and informed his listeners that he was relating some supposedly "real" events from my "real" past. Many people contacted me after listening to these broadcasts asking me if they were indeed, true. Many others contacted me simply to harass me some more. I am still being contacted by perverted strangers because of these shows.
Were Sonny's statements about me true? Of course not. Why did he say them? Ask Sonny Crack. Ask Robb Revere. Or Roxdog, Rastagnostic, Rexateyfor, or any other involved Revere psycho. Ask Krisboro, administrator of Jack Blood's forum; or Roxdog, Revere Radio network show host and moderator of 6 of Jack Blood's forums, why they spew so much vitriol over my words, particularly when I have never done anything to them. Ask the other assorted lunatics in the Deadline Live forum how they can spend an entire year fixating on destroying someone who has never done anything to them. Why do my words inspire so much obsessive, irrational ongoing hatred and toxicity in these people? One would think I killed their dog or something. What can be expected from people who don't think the rules of society apply to them, yet call themselves "patriots"? What can you expect from people who don't believe that they should be held responsible or accountable for their own words - or for their outrageous lies?
We've observed similar reactions from people like Alex Jones, Greg Szymanski, and Jeff Rense, who also believe themselves to be above questioning, criticism or accountability for their words and wrong actions. Again, are these the kinds of "patriots" that comprise and shape the "Patriot Movement"? If so, then count me out of the Patriot Movement. It's not moving anyway. It's playing dead, if not truly dead.
Sonny Crack and the Revere Radio crew seem to think that LIES are protected under the First Amendment. They are not. For some reason, these people don't seem able to grasp the concept that free speech involves responsibility and self-governance and that a person is NOT protected under the First amendment if they broadcast absolute lies with active malice against someone else. The Hit Squad is under the assumption that they are free to lie about anyone or anything they choose and there is no consequence to be paid for this type of antisocial conduct. The Revere Hit Squad is dead wrong. In a potential defamation lawsuit, the only defense is TRUTH. Sonny Crack possesses no truth with which to support or defend his filthy lies or the harassment he has instigated and incited in others against me.
Yes, I called in the law because crimes have been committed against me. Crimes continue to be committed against me to this day. I expect crimes to be committed against me tomorrow, and the next day and the day after that, etc...This is why I am standing up. These are not "indignant patriots" I am up against. Nobody in their right mind gets this bent out of shape over a few articles written about censorship or mainstream media affiliations. These are Nixonian Dirty Tricksters and useful idiots at play and they have no intention of stopping until I am destroyed. Today, the following was posted by Sonny Crack on the Internet:
"And for Lisa and Victor.. .Your going........... BACK ON THE GRILL! :)"
On July 1, 2006, a fake MySpace page was created about me. It was loaded with filth relating to the June 25, 2006 Sonny Crack broadcast. The person who created this page calls himself "Smokeydogg," another Hit Squad psycho. Listed as one of my "friends" is RRN show host, "Roxdog," the photo alterer. Smokeydogg's own Myspace page lists me as his 'friend' and links back to the fake WING TV MySpace page he created. Revere Radio Network is also listed as one of his "friends". Sonny Crack is one of his "heroes". I have reported this defamatory fake page to Myspace and have screenshots of everything to prove what's been done in the event the page disappears. I hope it disappears off the 'Net, but it will never completely be erased because now I've got it - and photos of Smokeydogg, with more proof these people are attacking me unrelentingly. People like "roxdog", who continues to whine about his innocence to anyone who will give him a virtual ear. Interestingly enough, GCN is listed as a friend on Smokeydogg's page as well. GCN thanks Smokeydogg for his support. I bet they do. Another psycho page the Hit Squad has created is www.wearenarcs.com, whose URL is self-explanatory and infantile.
I guess this is how you, too, can support GCN: by helping to destroy those who expose them for their wrongdoing and strip away their false front. I'll tell you exactly what the hell is going on here. Pure evil. I am fighting pure evil. This is a soul demolition in progress. My soul. And this, dear "patriots," is your New World Order. Have a good long look at it. God watch over me, over all of us.
"The lie was dead And damned, and truth stood up instead."
~ Robert Browning ~
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Editorial: Destroying the Gaza Strip - The Score: 9,000 Prisoners to 1?
By JAMES BROOKS
July 4, 2006
CounterPunch
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert lost no time in exploiting Hamas' capture of an Israeli soldier to justify Israel's long-planned re-occupation of the Gaza Strip and mass arrest of the Hamas leadership. In his haste, he has inadvertently achieved a rare thing. He has managed to reduce the absurdity of Israel's position to a known ratio: 9000 to 1.
Nine thousand captured Palestinians languish in Israel's notorious "security prisons", including 380 children and 115 women. Every day Israeli troops and Border Police kidnap, interrogate, torture and imprison Palestinians, often by the dozen. The arrest raids never stop, regardless of summits, truces, or cease-fires. It is estimated that 650,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned by Israel since the current occupation began in 1967.
Arrest and incarceration is such a common experience that it has become a virtual rite of passage for Palestinian boys; men go to prison. In the past year we've read several reports of pre-teen boys, some as young as 8, approaching Israeli soldiers and asking, even begging, to be arrested.
But God forbid that even one of Israel's tender teen warriors should be captured in battle, as young Gilat Shalit was. That would be going too far. That would justify blowing up key bridges and destroying the electricity source of two-thirds of the Gaza Strip. Columns of invading tanks and scores of US-supplied jet fighters and combat helicopters would be required to hunt for the missing soldier, and attack the Palestinian Interior Ministry. From top to bottom, little Gaza would be subjected to yet another round of fierce shelling from land, air, and sea. All in a day's hunt.
After years of bargaining with Hizbullah "terrorists" over prisoners captured during Israel's occupation of Lebanon, Israelis know that this hysteria over a single soldier is only a ruse. But that doesn't stop them from falling for it all over again, and Olmert appears to have public support for his new version of total war on the Gaza Strip, cynically code named 'Operation Summer Rain'. The score is 9000 to 1 and the Israelis are outraged. It should be 9000 to 0.
Accelerating Humanitarian Catastrophe
The western world seemed surprised by the scale and severity of Israel's collective punishment. As if it could join the war on Hamas by destroying Palestine's economy and not also encourage lawless Israel to destroy Hamas by any means necessary.
European and UN diplomats have expressed concern that the economic siege is succeeding too quickly. The fundamentals of social order and sheer survival in the occupied territories are collapsing sooner than anticipated, while the band-aid of humanitarian aid promised by the Quartet remains on the drawing board, largely due to persistent US obstruction.
In 2003, international aid agencies compared the economy of the occupied Gaza Strip to countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Malnutrition was endemic, poverty rates were over 50 percent, and unemployment was chronically high.
It is far worse today. Prior to this week's operation, Gaza faced a "humanitarian catastrophe" according to the UN and others. The international economic embargo has compounded the damage already inflicted by Israel's repeated closures of Gaza's borders, which have been shut more than they've been open this year. Most of an entire harvest has rotted while awaiting shipment. For several months Gaza has been living a hand-to-mouth existence. More than once the Strip has run out of critical staples like flour, sugar, and salt.
Now more than 800,000 people have no electricity. The Israeli attack on the central substation's transformer was precisely devastating-repairs are expected to take several months. For most, no power means no water.
Perhaps Israel disagreed with its European allies. Perhaps it decided the Palestinians weren't starving fast enough, so thirst, disease, and heat prostration had to be added to "the mix" of tactics to "persuade" the Palestinian people to abandon the government they elected.
The citizens of Gaza now have no access to the outside world, very little food and water, no fuel, and little or no electricity, refrigeration, and air conditioning in the middle of a brutally hot summer. The Israeli army is back in force, a third of the bankrupt Palestinian Legislative Council is in Israeli jails, and the unpaid and unsupplied health care system has essentially collapsed.
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz, who is responsible for the day-to-day operations of this expanding nightmare, has assured us that he is a "man who seeks peace...I do not look forward to battle." When this Moroccan-born labor leader and Peace Now member took the helm of Israel's Labor Party last year, he was greeted with a blizzard of liberal hosannas hailing a political "earthquake", the return of Israel's peace movement, and other wonders.
As if Israel's aspiring politicians hadn't always climbed to the top on the backs of dead Palestinians. Now the peaceful Mr. Peretz is indictable for war crimes perpetrated in the planning and conduct of Operation Summer Rain. He is on his way.
Dangers of the Peace Process
In its latest step up the escalator of compound violence, Israel has deployed a new blunt instrument to ensure that "there is no partner for peace". Now, if it decides it doesn't like a Palestinian diplomat, Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar for example, it can simply imprison him on terrorism charges. And if it doesn't like the results of a free and fair Palestinian election, it can simply kidnap the elected government. This week, more than 60 Hamas party members of the Palestinian government have been arrested, including the heads of several ministries.
One challenge in following and predicting the path of Israel's foreign policy is that one can never be sure whether the next move will be a diplomatic proposal or an assassination.
The murders of Swedish diplomat Count Bernadotte in 1948 and Hamas leader Sheikh Yassin in 2004 (and probably Yasser Arafat, as well) bookend more than five decades of chronically violent diplomatic relations, in which the assassination of difficult leaders has always been an option.
It was recently revealed that in 1953, future Prime Minister Menachem Begin directed a failed plot to assassinate West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, simply to stop a reparations agreement the Chancellor was negotiating with the Israeli government.
True to form, Israel has now delivered a letter to PA President Mahmoud Abbas in which it threatens to assassinate Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh if Gilat Shalit is not released unharmed.
So now it's a soldier for a prime minister. Any equation can be made, as long as it is wildly disproportionate and morally untenable. The point is always the same: the life of a Palestinian is barely worth consideration in comparison to the life of a Jew. Their value belongs to a different order of magnitude. A number of Israeli rabbis question the very humanity of Palestinians. While attempting to apologize for the recent deaths of 14 Palestinian civilians by Israeli shelling, Mr. Olmert reportedly asserted that "threatened" Israeli lives are "even more important".
How can Israel deliberately destroy the economy and critical infrastructure of a starving people, arrest their government, and threaten to assassinate their leader, while the "international community" does nothing?
The US government's determination to join Israel in destroying the Palestinians is obvious. Perhaps the EU's obsession with gathering Israel into its future Mediterranean empire has shriveled its moral obligation to the Palestinians down to spare change and servings of Javier Solana's hypocrisy.
Or maybe today's moral paralysis is the cumulative effect of doing nothing to stop Israel's crimes for the past fifty-eight years. Perhaps moral cowardice grows with repetition, until war crimes become an 'understandable and measured response' and fascism is welcome at the front door. Whatever the causes, the trend seems clear: International law is dying with the Palestinians.
James Brooks serves as webmaster for Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel. He can be contacted at jamiedb@wildblue.net.
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Editorial: Corporate Media Ignores War Against Palestinians
Monday July 03rd 2006, 10:23 am
Kurt Nimmo
Another Day in the Empire
In a brazen attempt to sugar coat Israel's flagrant violations of the Geneva Convention, specifically Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which is intended to protect civilians, the corporate media continues to spin the situation in the Gaza Strip.
"Israel Steps Up Raids in Bid to Free Soldier," headlines the New York Times, reporting that "Israeli aircraft intensified their attacks on Palestinian targets in Gaza."
In fact, the Israelis are inflicting relentless collective punishment on the Palestinians, as B'Tselem, the Israeli human rights organization, documents.
"During its operation in the Gaza Strip following the abduction of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, Israeli air force jets have carried out low-altitude sorties over the Gaza Strip in which they intentionally cause powerful sonic booms," explains B'Tselem. "The sole purpose of these sorties is to prevent the residents from sleeping and to create an ongoing sense of fear and anxiety. Regarding the sonic booms, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that, 'thousands of residents in southern Israel live in fear and discomfort, so I gave instructions that nobody will sleep at night in the meantime in Gaza.' The clear intention of the practice is to pressure the Palestinian Authority and the armed Palestinian organizations by harming the entire civilian population."
No mention of this in the Israel-friendly New York Times, or the Washington Post for that matter. Of course, we shouldn't expect the New York Times to report this, as they have functioned obediently as a propaganda tool for the neocons, who are joined at the hip with the Likudites in Israel and have the unwavering support of millions of Stepfordized Christian Zionists who believe the Palestinians must be ethnically cleansed in order that they may realize their delusional and selfish pretribulationist rapture.
"Children, in particular, suffer from the sonic booms. In the past, the Gaza Community Mental Health Center reported that the supersonic sorties caused fear among many children, which led to a loss of concentration, loss of appetite, bedwetting, and other disorders. The Center also reported that sonic booms caused headaches, stomach aches, shortness of breath, and other physical effects that appeared among both children and adults.... The use of sonic booms flagrantly breaches a number of provisions of international humanitarian law. The most significant provision is the prohibition on collective punishment. Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which is intended to protect civilians in time of war, categorically states that 'Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.' The article also states that, 'Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited.' Air force supersonic sorties also breach the principle of distinction, a central pillar of humanitarian law, which forbids the warring sides to direct their attacks against civilians."
The Palestine Media Center (PMC) writes the following: "Using the release of the Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit as pretext, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert unleashed his occupation forces to reoccupy Gaza Strip, terrorize Palestinian civilians with sonic booms, thin them to starvation, disrupt traffic, electricity supply, and access to water, bomb soccer fields, schools, TV stations, cultural centers and charities, vandalize hospitals, and kidnap mafia-like cabinet ministers, mayors and parliamentarians, revoke Palestinian residency in Jerusalem, and bomb the offices of prime and interior ministers." PMC, filling in where the disgusting Israel-friendly corporate media has left off, notes specific incidents:
IOF warplanes bombed the soccer field of the Islamic University in Gaza late Wednesday after destroying the only power plant in the strip early in the day, plunging Gaza Strip into darkness and depriving about one million Palestinians from electricity for months to come, hitting very hard not only households but also hospitals and schools.
Water supplies were also cut early Wednesday by bombing water pipelines, after destroying three bridges linking the south and north of the Gaza Strip.
Al-Arqam school, a cultural center and a charity in Gaza city were bombed to rubble by the IOF warplanes.
The IOF also damaged the Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children's facilities in Gaza City. When IOF warplanes caused massive sonic booms and nearby explosions in air strikes, the Palestinian NGO's building windows shattered. As a result, several deaf vocational trainees were injured from the shattered glass.
According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights six power transformers were destroyed, which provide an estimated 45 per cent of the electricity in Gaza for approximately half the population.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Gaza Electrical Distribution Company estimates it will take nine months to procure replacement transformers.
The Coastal Municipalities Water Utility manages the 132 water wells in Gaza, which is powered by GEDCO. Since back-up generators are needed to keep water flowing, there is concern about the financial and physical stability of using back-up generators because the IOF closed off the energy pipeline into Gaza.
Destroying critical civilian infrastructure, targeting facilities for the deaf, pitching hospitals and charities into the dark, creating a massive refugee situation-it is all in a day's work for the neocons and their Likudite masters, from Gaza and the West Bank to the whole of Iraq.
"I take personal responsibility for what is happening in Gaza. I want no one to sleep at night in Gaza," declared Olmert, who should also take responsibility for the fact Palestinians on life support and other critical health care systems will now die; he should take responsibility for all the miscarriages and mental problems caused by sonic boom warfare; he should take responsibility for terrorizing hundreds of thousands of innocent Palestinians, the vast majority who have nothing to do with the capture of IOF soldier Shalit, who is a prisoner of war.
Ehud Olmert, claiming responsibility for crimes against humanity, should face a tribunal immediately.
But then, as Olmert's predecessor, the scurrilous terrorist leader (of Irgun) Menachem Begin, told Israel's mafia, otherwise known as the Knesset, the Palestinians "are beasts walking on two legs."
As such, according to the Israelis and their neocon co-conspirators, the Palestinians do not deserve hospitals, charities, clean water (or any water at all, as there is no electricity to drive well pumps), food, or even a night's rest. The Fourth Geneva Convention applies to humans, not beasts on two legs.
Obviously, as well, the New York Times believes the Palestinians are beasts, although as "liberals," they would not state such outright, as the leader of the terrorist Irgun Zvai Leumi, Menachem Begin did.
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Editorial: Pioneers of terrorism
Sam Kabbani
Spotlight
Below are some rarely-mentioned facts about the relationship between Zionism and modern-day terrorism:
1. The first aircraft hijacking was carried out by Israel in 1954 against a Syrian civilian airliner.
2. Grenades in cafes: first used by Zionists against Palestinians in Jerusalem on 17 March 1937.
3. Delayed-action, electrically timed mines in crowded marketplaces: first used by Zionists against Palestinians in Haifa on 6 July 1938.
4. Blowing up a ship with its civilian passengers still on board: first carried out by Zionists in Haifa on 25 November 1940. The Zionists did not hesitate to blow up their own people in protest at the British policy of restricting Jewish immigration to Palestine. The ship, Patria, was carrying 1,700 Jewish immigrants.
5. Assassination of government officials: first carried out by the Zionists against the British in Cairo, when on 6 November 1944 Lord Moyne was assassinated by the Stern Gang. Yitzhak Shamir, a member of the Irgun and later leader of the Stern Gang and Israeli prime minister, was behind the plan.
6. Use of hostages as a means of putting pressure on a government: first used by the Zionists against the British in Tel Aviv on 18 June 1946.
7. Blowing up of government offices with their civilian employees and visitors: first carried out by the Zionists against the British in Jerusalem on 22 July 1946. The toll was 91 Britons killed and 46 wounded in the King David Hotel. Menachim Begin, who masterminded and carried out the attack and later became Israeli prime minister, admitted that the massacre was coordinated with and carried out under the instruction of the Haganah Zionist gang.
8. Booby-trapped suitcases: first used by the Zionists against the British Embassy in Rome on 13 October 1946.
9. Booby-trapped cars in civilian areas: first used by the Zionists against the British in Sarafand (east of Jaffa) on 5 December 1946.
10. Beating of hostages: first used by the Zionists against the British in Tel Aviv, Netanya and Rishon on 29 December 1946.
11. Letter bombs sent to politicians: first used by the Zionists against Britain when 20 letter bombs were sent from Italy to London between 4 and 6 June 1947.
12. Murder of hostages as a reprisal for government actions: first used by the Zionists against the British in the Netanya area on 29 July 1947.
13. Postal parcel bombs: first used by the Zionists against the British in London on 3 September 1947.
14. The massacre of Qibya, northwest of Jerusalem, was carried out by Unit 101, under the command of Ariel Sharon on Wednesday 14 October 1953. The attack was the bloodiest and most brutal Zionist crimes since the infamous Deir Yassin massacre. Forty-two houses as well as a school and a mosque were dynamited over their inhabitants. Seventy-five women, men and children were killed.
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Editorial: Independence Day
Written by Mark Glenn
Tuesday, 04 July 2006
"I have to get home to my mother, she will be so worried if I am not back soon." 9 year-old Mona clutched at the gaping hole in her stomach, blood pouring out of her as if someone had turned on a faucet. There was something so terribly and indescribably out of place in her frail words, the colliding of two disparate worlds, that of a mother's child, and that of a little girl facing down the ugliest of what life and humanity had to offer.
The man who was kneeling at her side however knew better. He was a trained medical professional, and in a war zone known as Gaza of all places. He had seen this scenario a thousand times before, and a thousand times too many as far as he was concerned. This child would not be going home, at least not her earthly home, given the fact that she had just been shot in the stomach at close range by a soldier wielding a machine gun, the bullets from which produced exit wounds on her tiny body that were as large as golf balls. Had she known that her insides had just been turned to mush, it is highly unlikely that she would have been as composed as she was at this moment.
Her gesture in worrying about her mother, about not wanting to cause a beloved parent any grief was partly genuine, and partly an attempt to distract herself from the fact that she knew something terrible had just happened to her. Indeed a child's sweetness knows no bounds, irrespective of where such a child can be found in the world. As she lie in a bath of her own warm blood that increased with each passing second, while frantic adults attempt to effect that which they know is futile, all she can think is that her mother must be worried, and how she wishes she could be home with her now, if only for enough time to give her one final embrace, tell her of a daughter's love, and to say goodbye.
In the end, it all came down to sweets, an indispensable part of any child's life, even in places that have been torn apart by warfare for the last century such as this. Today, little Mona, despite having grown up in a world of bullets and mortars, allowed the carelessness of her childhood to overpower her reason just enough to persuade her towards venturing forth into that deadly world of never ending violence to buy some cookies at the corner store. The fact that Israeli soldiers were busy with their latest masterpiece in butchery nearby did not seem to arouse her concern. After all, when all things were considered, this was just another day in the life of someone who knew she had been born under a sentence of death and who had developed an intimacy of sorts with this fact as if it had been her own skin.
On her way back, humming something sweet and armed with nothing more dangerous than the cookies in her hand, she was indiscriminately shot by an Israeli soldier, who, like all the rest of his ilk, had been told by both political and spiritual leaders that it is the religious duty of all good Zionists, a mitzvah, to cleanse the promised land of any impurities that may be infecting it, a process of sterilization which included, if it can be imagined, slaughtering helpless Arab children. And so, this courageous and obedient soldier from among a group of people who fancy themselves as being a light among nations, without the slightest hesitation pulled the trigger, simultaneously swatting away at the shred of what remained of his conscience as if it were some species of annoying insect.
For little Mona, it merely felt like a lit match touching her insides momentarily, and it was not until she began to feel the sensation of warm wetness on her dress that she began to panic. Her first instinct was that she might get into trouble for having gotten her new dress dirty, since the last thing her mother told her before leaving the house was to make sure not to get it messy. Thus is the mind of a child, even when facing the awfulness of eternity that their thoughts are always to be found firmly rooted in something trivial and sweet. Perhaps it was the panic stricken appearances on the faces of those around her who were trying to help that caused her to realize the seriousness of what it was that she was facing, or perhaps it was the unseen whisper into her soul from some divine messenger telling her to hurry up, since time was running out. Either way, no one really knows.
And so in that fifteen seconds before her spirit was liberated from the hellish existence that had been imposed upon her and upon the rest of the inhabitants of the Holy Land by the self-described 'chosen people', the little Palestinian child of 9 years forgot all about her cookies, as well as about every other item of what encompasses a child's existence, grew up quickly, remembered everything she had been taught during the religion classes she had taken throughout her life, and made her last statement of faith. In her last words, there was no malice, no pulsa de nura--the infamous curses that rabbis and Orthodox Jews hurl daily at passing Christians or Muslims in Israel, no condemnations, no vows of revenge. Her composure, as she lie there in a pool of her own blood, was as graceful and as dignified as was that of any patriot or saint who has secured a rightly earned place in mankind's memory as a result of having had his or her life cut short by the actions of men hell-bent upon doing evil to others. For Mona, it would be one simple statement, without any fanfare or drama, final words that will probably be remembered by few, short of those who loved her more than they loved themselves.
The little girl whose life had been snuffed out like a candle, the last fragrance of this little Palestinian flower who had been cut down by the hatchet of Jewish supremacism had nothing more spiteful in her final curtain call other than "God is great."
From a bird's eye view, this was but one of several tragic scenes taking place on that day. A few miles away, a family of seven had just barely made it out of their home when the bulldozer crashed through where the living room was. There were no warnings that this demolition process was about to take place, and had it not been for the fact that 14 year-old Ismail went to the window to see what the noise was that was coming from outside, the entire family would most likely have been buried beneath the rubble. This was a common occurrence these days, of not ordering the evacuation of a home to be demolished, since the Israelis cared nothing about the lives of the filthy Arabs who were polluting their sacred land, and thus preferred that the entire mess be hauled away, home and dwellers included.
Under the gaze of 3 armed-to-the-teeth Israeli soldiers, the family stood by and watched helplessly as everything that encompassed their lives was reduced to rubble within a few minutes. There was nothing left of the meager example of their family's security and order now, and even though what they had called a life had been a miserable existence anyway, at least they had had a place to call home where they could eat, sleep, and find refuge from the rain. This home, which had literally stood for centuries, was just one of thousands in recent years that has been bulldozed in order to make way for a new apartment complex for "better people," the Zionists, who, if you were to ask them, were a race apart and chosen by God to be the bringers of enlightenment, peace and righteousness to the rest of humanity.
Perhaps it was the colors of it that caught his eye, the green, black, brown and white that contrasted with the sand-colored rubble of his former home's exterior. Ismail went over to where his bedroom used to be and found it jutting forth from the rubble, the Palestinian flag he cherished and which he had used to adorn his room on the same wall upon which he hung the photos of friends and family members who had died fighting to liberate their land of its oppressors. He carefully pulled it out from the rubble, paying the same respect to his country's colors that is paid by other citizens around the world to their respective countries, and forgetting where he was, or possibly, because of remembering where he was, draped the flag over the rubble in what was the only act of defiance he cold muster at this moment. 14 year-old Ismail turned and stared at his oppressors with a controlled yet determined stare.
The three armed Israeli soldiers, recently arrived from the former Soviet Union and not able to speak even one word of the same Aramaic that was the language of the Biblical ancestors from whom they claimed to be descendents, finally got what they had been hoping for that day. After all, what good were guns for anyway if they remained cold and unfired? Was there no truth to the old saying that a weapon unused was a useless weapon? Therefore, without any concern paid for what might be future consequences, one from among them chuckled, lifted the American-made rifle that had been gifted to him by virtue of his ethnic superiority from a nation that dares to calls itself Christian, aimed its sights squarely between the boy's eyes, and in the plain sight of all who were present, launched one of his .22 caliber missiles traveling at 3,300 feet per second through the boy's head, resulting in a spray of pink mist that left the smell of human blood in the air.
Even before the echoes of the gunshot had died, the family was screaming in agony and running to the spot where Ismail lie as motionless as a child's doll. His last act of defiance, of simply saluting the flag and of swearing loyalty to the land that his forefathers had inhabited for over a thousand years resulted in the execution of a death sentence under which he had lived from the moment he was born. And as the family members hold him in their arms, watching as his life flows out of him in rivers of red, wailing towards heaven and begging the Almighty who created him to spare his life, those who were responsible for authoring this misery-laden event simply walk away snickering, thinking to themselves that they are now one step closer to having finished the business of exterminating Amalek, the people whom their ancestors were commanded to eradicate in cleansing the promised land, Eretz Y'Israel and of making it racially and spiritually pure. Later that evening, there would be drinks and discussions of what kind of medals would be forthcoming as a result of the day's hard workÉ
...And these were just some of the thoughts going through his mind as he looked out the window that evening, watching the night sky as its darkness was interrupted every few seconds by brilliant displays of light. It was July 4th, 2004; Independence Day in America, but his thoughts could hardly be focused on the festivities that were supposed to mark this event. Not now, and not anytime soon. His eyes had been opened to something so horrible that precluded celebrating anything, much less the freedom that he was supposed to have as an American.
It must have been quite a scene down there in town where all the fireworks were taking place. Over-sized Americans stuffed into under-sized clothing, beer in one hand and something to shove into their mouths in the other, congregating for the purpose of celebrating something that in reality they no longer possessed. Waddling around like penguins and peppering their base and trivial discussions with language that one would hear in an x-rated film, they had painted themselves into the ultimate picture of black humor, and had it not been for the fact that such terrible consequences were attached to this situation, one could have been moved towards laughing at all of it.
But laughing was out of the question now, for to do so would have been as vulgar as telling dirty jokes at a funeral. The tragedy was too great, too monstrous, too serious. Besides the fact that it was the ultimate in contrasting images, as well it was all taking place in the midst of unimaginable suffering for millions of others around the globe. Just imagining the audacity of it all made the bile in his throat rise and caused his brain to scream out loud in pain. They were like a group of individuals who had inherited a great fortune generations past, but who today, unbeknownst to them were as penniless as street bums, and all of this the result of their having allowed shyster lawyers to administer their estate and bleed it dry of all its wealth. Tonight as they celebrate their perceived fortunes and congratulate themselves for having inherited them, that which they do not realize is that fact that they are bankrupt, busted, broke, and even now, as they drink and mingle with each other, laughing and talking as foolish heirs often do, the paperwork is being signed in remote places wherein their foreclosure and eviction is being planned and implemented. It had become the ultimate contradiction of themes, Independence Day in America, as much so as if there had been something known as Virtuousness Day in the ancient city of Sodom thousands of years ago.
Our spiritually ex-patriate American, watching all of this from a distance remembered reading something once in a medical journal about schizophrenia and about how one of the telltale signs of this condition's presence was found in an individual's ability to simultaneously hold two completely contradictory ideas, and if this wasn't a description of what had happened to this country, he didn't know what could be. They had become a nation of madmen, wild beasts who couldn't think for themselves outside of the parameters that had been constructed for them by overlords who were capable of doing nothing but evil. Here they were, celebrating their freedom in an age where their lives had been reduced to that of mice within a cage, and they were too stupid to realize it. A corporate police state had been constructed around them, and their country resembled the land of their forefathers as much as a swine resembles a ballerina, and yet they were too blind to see it. But yet, as if on Pavlovian clue, here they were, shouting and hollering like a bunch of maniacs about how wonderful all of it was and how proud they were to be Americans, the freest people on the planet, how much God loved them and blah, blah, blah. He swallowed hard in contemplating these realities, and having ingested this nauseating gruel of clashing images, felt the beginnings of a sickness in his stomach that was not going to be chased away by anything over-the-counter.
For whatever reason, he had not been infected with this virus that had gripped millions of his countrymen on September 11 2001, and in the interests of maintaining his as well as his family's intellectual and spiritual health, he had imposed upon himself and upon those who were under his charge a strict quarantine from his countrymen since that fateful day. Over the course of the following 3 years, from a safe distance he watched in horror as his nation slowly but surely came down with this plague of intellectual and spiritual paralysis, watched as his former countrymen marched uninterruptedly towards their own oblivion without so much as a trace of resistance.
And so, in maintaining this agenda of keeping his loved ones off of the political version of the Titanic, on this night our American friend was at home with his family instead of participating in the mass-suicide that was taking place down in town.
When the first "boom" had gone off, he and his wife had looked at each other simultaneously, each bearing a face that revealed the underlying sense of puzzlement mixed with a small amount of concern that each felt. It was followed by another distant "boom" and then another, and then both of them, remembering what day it was, nodded their heads and said in unison "July the 4th."
The event shouldn't have taken them by such surprise, particularly since they had spent a good part of that evening watching Independence Day, that not-so-subtle piece of propaganda that was released upon the American people just prior to initiating the wars to save Israel. Talk about blatant, this unashamed effort of pumping up the American people into supporting what was to be the biggest bloodbath in history, theirs or anyone else's for that matter. A storyline wherein the planet is suddenly threatened with complete annihilation from hostile, fanatical un-humans bent upon the destruction of everyone who is not like them, an extra-terrestrial jihad which is defeated by the combined efforts of Jewish brains and American brawn. The only thing that could have made the film more obvious would have been bearded aliens dressed in sheets and quoting verses from some religious book that inspired them to do what it was that they were doing. We should suppose though that our couple should be given some slack for having forgotten where they were and in what time period they were living, since the events of the last 2 years in America have been a whirlwind of sorts that should have left anyone with half an ounce of sense somewhat senseless.
It was only a few minutes of these distant festivities going on before there was heard the sound of small footsteps coming down the stairs. In single file, beginning with the youngest (who we can suppose were the most frightened by the noise and thus wanted to get to Mom and Dad as quickly as possible) up to the oldest came the 5 children who were suddenly awakened by what sounded like strange thunder. They made a beeline for the couch where Mom and Dad were seated, asking what all the noise was about, huddling in closely as children are biologically programmed to do. When "fireworks" came the answer, all the children turned their heads towards the window to see for themselves, relieved somewhat that there was no storm, or worse, that there was no new war that had just begun in their vicinity, a reality of present day life that they had come to understand better during the course of the last two years. The oldest boy, who by then had begun to feel the stirrings of his masculine nature already, was the first to recognize the light show for how it appeared, and walking towards the window to get a better gaze, said ominously "It looks like Iraq."
Out of the mouths of babes, as the saying has always gone.
It certainly did look like Iraq, at least that version of it that had been presented to Americans in the opening moments of the war, wherein the night sky in Baghdad was illuminated in dizzying displays of light that resembled any night in America on July the 4th. Perhaps this was how the puppet masters in Washington and Tel Aviv wanted it to be seen, this "shock and awe" as they characterized it, in trying to get the "freest" people in the world to acquiesce to the agenda of murdering 1.5 billion Muslims for Israel's benefit.
The other children, understanding the importance found in the oldest boy's words, also walked towards the window to get a better view. They stood there, saying nothing, although everyone in the room knew what was on each other's mind. They winced at each flash, recoiled a bit, not displaying the 'ooohs' and 'aaahs' that children would normally exhibit at such a performance. The light show, paired with its distant booms and crackles was just one of several obscene spectacles that their young eyes had witnessed since the beginning of the present war to erect the Israeli empire. Prior to this were the images of the little Iraqi boy whose arms had been completely blown off of his body when the Americans dropped a bomb directly on his home, killing his entire family. And as sickening as this was--the image of this boy fighting to keep himself from succumbing to utter despair, the spectacle which followed was even worse; that of the American soldiers loading him onto a military transport to take him to a medical facility and cheering as he went on his way, a grandiose attempt by the Zionist media to gloss over this tragedy that had somehow slipped past the censors and made its way before the eyes of the American people.
Of course, there were as well many other scenes that these children witnessed which brought the reality of this war to their eyes and which made them smarter than the average American as to what it was all aboutÑthe women and children of Palestine who were being shot and blown up on a daily basis for the last century by those who fancied themselves as the apple of God's eye--America's only allies in the Middle East, the Israelis, not to mention the daily destruction of all those monuments that have stood for thousands of years and which are considered sacred to billions of Christians and Muslims around the world.
And so, what had taken place over the course of the last two years of watching the war on television and of discussing its awful realities with Mom and Dad is that these children had been robbed of their youth and their innocence. They understood life and the ugly side of human nature much better than children should, and this was the reason why there was no excitement in their eyes tonight while watching the rockets' red glare and bombs bursting in air. Rather, they looked upon the images as any decent individual with open eyes should in America of 2004; a disgusting display of patriotic pornography that was a bringer of disease and death. It was pure smut, a way of defiling what would normally have been the beautiful act of expressing one's love for the country in a wholesome, healthy way and of replacing it with a whorish, cheap, and sterile performance for lustful spectators. Worse yet is the fact that the national life and vitality that should have been produced by the consummation of this political marriage was (just as had been taking place in the literal sense over 4,000 times a day during the course of the last 30 years) torn to pieces by the political and cultural abortionists in Washington, New York, and Los Angeles, leaving in their wake a trail of death and destruction for hundreds of millions.
And so, having had their fill of these ugly scenes and of being scandalized in such a frightful way, all went upstairs in single file as they had come down, a silent march, that, although not uttering a word, yet spoke volumes.
Having had enough of it herself, his wife followed suit and went to bed, leaving our friend in solitude to ponder other thoughts that refused to be chased away the night on which Americans were busy celebrating their freedom, Independence Day.
The phone ringing at 3 am in the morning could never be a good thing. It was either bad news or a prank. For this particular individual, a phone call at 3 am to this number was particularly worrisome, since, being the most popular actor in the world, he had only given it out to a handful of friends and relatives. He heard his wife and the youngest of their seven children stir as the rings continued.
"Hello?" he answered, expecting to hear the voice of his father or someone else from the family with some kind of important news.
"You think you're pretty smart don't you?" taunted the voice on the other line. It was a man's voice, menacing, with a thick Brooklyn accent. The actor had heard the voice before, since this was not the first time he had been called in this manner. The voice continued. "You made me and my friends really mad, and we're going to make sure that you pay for your crimes, you and your entire family. Think about that when you're trying to get back to sleep." The actor started to say something, displaying that angry, determined look on his face that he had famously worn in his movies and which had been seen before by millions of people around the world, but before he could get a word out, the line went dead.
"How did they get this number?" he thought in disbelief. It was a brand new number, and only about 5 people had it. The only way possible was to break into the phone company's computer banks and retrieve it, which would have required the resources of a government or at the very least, its passive cooperation.
His crime, the thing that had outraged this tiny minority of tyrants and which had driven them to the brink of madness was his decision to make a movie about the one man who was the most revered by the world's 1 billion Christians and 1.5 billion Muslims, Jesus of Nazareth. In the months leading up to the release of the movie, the Zionist organizations had gone ballistic and had pulled the levers on every machine upon which they held sway in trying to destroy this man and his project. Under their direction, every newspaper, magazine, radio and television program had devoted a considerable amount of their attention to the campaign of smearing him and of making a mockery of his film. Some of these groups, the less cautious, actually petitioned the US government to have this man and his associates arrested as terrorists under the provisions of the Patriot Act.
It was July the 4th, Independence Day in America, and not only his life, but the lives of those whom he loved had just been threatened, again, something that had become a regular event now for over a year as a result of his daring to exercise his freedom of speech and religion. He had gone to the police, the FBI of all people, but nothing was done short of periodic assurances by agency spokesmen that "they were looking into it."
Our American actor should have known better than to call them, since after all it was this same agency that had allowed over 200 spies who had been directly involved in the attacks of September 11th to be sent back to Israel immediately following what took place on that fateful day. Added to this, the fact that the Zionist group that was responsible for making such a fuss about his movie, the ADL, was a registered agency of the Israeli government and the fact that it had enjoyed a love affair with the FBI over the course of the last 5 decades should have signaled to him whose priorities were going to take precedence in this matter. And if these two items weren't enough, then that which should have brought his expectations into proper alignment with reality was the fact that the individual who was responsible for overseeing much of the FBI's investigations held dual citizenship in America and in Israel, and this fact, more than anything else should have underscored for him just how ridiculous the business of contacting them over this matter really was. In all fairness to our naive American actor though, what else could he do? He had a family whose safety he was responsible for securing, and he still, foolishly, believed in the system, at least somewhat.
Tonight, the same people who flocked to see his famous movie in droves will don their baseball hats, their t-shirts emblazoned with such recently resurrected and popularized slogans as "United We Stand" and "God Bless America" and who, while clutching in their hands the millions of miniature American flags specially made for this event will celebrate their enslavement to the very same jackals who made the threatening phone call tonight, although none among the sheep will recognize this as being the case. They will nostalgically and schizophrenically lump the triumph of this man's movie and the war in the Middle East together as being two sides of the same coin--2 fronts in the war to save Christianity and its civilization--two battles being fought in defense of the faith and freedom, refusing to see that the very same people who were responsible for running this man's life through the meat grinder are the very same who are sending America's sons and daughters off to die in the Middle East for the benefit of a foreign power who is, despite all the propagandizing that has taken place, no friend.
And while all this is taking place, in the very land where a war of liberation was waged by a peasant carpenter from Nazareth against the descendents of those who made the threatening phone call tonight a continuation of this war is raging at full throttle. At this moment, the gangsters who put to death the main character in the same film which Christians in America stampeded like buffalo to go see in 2004 have returned after being chased out in 70 AD and are attempting to impose upon the world the very same nightmare that the Palestinian carpenter-turned-revolutionary tried to prevent. Tonight, all the spots that commemorate the great events of this carpenter's life and which have stood as some of the greatest monuments to the development of Western Civilization are being bulldozed and blown up by Jewish supremacist tyrants, while a group of Arab peasants attempt to prevent this disaster from taking place, even with their life's blood.
Tonight, as Americans celebrate the memories of those who gave their lives for the liberation of their own country from a foreign invader, will at the same time curse and castigate those who are attempting to do the same in the lands of Palestine and Iraq.
Tonight, "cowards" and "terrorists," as they have been called by the President of the United States and by his Zionist overlords, are fighting with every ounce of their beings to liberate their respective countries from the foreigners who have invaded their lands and who are slaughtering their women and children in the tens and hundreds of thousands. Adults, not having the sophisticated weaponry that is used against them by their oppressors will strap themselves with explosives and blow themselves up in order to take out the assassins within the Israeli military machine and their hired mercenaries from America who murder women and children on a daily basis. Children, in what is but a modern day repeat of the battle fought between David vs. Goliath will bravely go up against tanks and machine guns, often armed with nothing more than rocks and sticks and will fight this enemy with every ounce of their beings, knowing beforehand that they stand a good chance of losing arms and legs and even their lives. These "cowards" and "terrorists" will do so for exactly the same reasons and in exactly the same manner as was done by those rare Americans who, over 200 years previously, drove out foreign invaders who were bent upon enslaving them and of robbing them of their own destinies. Every man, woman, and child in Iraq, Palestine and every other place where the beast of Jewish supremacism is on the rampage, are--whether donning a rifle, grenade launcher, bomb vest, or a vehicle laden with explosives--brilliant reincarnations of the patriots of 1776 who refused to go down without a fight, who refused to go quietly into the night, freedom fighters whose existence today has been reduced to one agenda that is beyond negotiation or surrender, which is simply, "give us liberty or give us death."
Of course we will not find an ounce of this awareness among those Americans who have chosen to tempt the patience of fate on this night, July 4th, Independence Day. As they foolishly wave their flags, put their hands over the hearts and sing with a quivering voice the national anthem with tears welling up in their eyes, what they have chosen to do is to participate in an obscene display of hypocrisy and contempt for that gem of incalculable value known as freedom, as well as for the justice that must accompany its existence if it is to remain a viable entity. The contempt that they maintain for those who are paying with their life's blood so that they themselves may experience just a tasting of the same freedom that Americans presume to be celebrating on this night has become a perfect representation of the two minute's hate of George Orwell's nightmarish novel 1984. Tonight, as it will be for many future nights in the coming years, the cursing that the Americans will display against those in the Middle East for daring to defend their beloved homelands and families from foreign assassins has become the chanting of the contradictions in that infamous, prophetic piece of fiction turned-into-non-fiction which predicted a future state of madness for humanity: war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength, and by such, has now become the process of spitting on the graves of those who gave their lives before them in the noble cause of freedom.
What they are doing in effect by championing the war against Israel's enemies, in cheering like the mob at the coliseum for the hellish precepts of the Jewish supremacist agenda is to hold in contempt the war for freedom that their forefathers waged centuries past, although today, most of them are too stupid to recognize this as being the case.
For in reality, what are they daring to celebrate this night? Freedom? They are as bankrupt of this currency as some indigent, homeless hobo on the street begging for food. Justice? Their political and cultural system is as anemic of this life-sustaining element to the point of near death. Truth? The fools who tonight are championing the slaughter of the last remaining impediment to the enslavement of the Jewish supremacist agenda stagger around aimlessly, inebriated on the drug of duplicity that they ingest on a daily basis by a government media complex furthering the cause of Zionist tyranny. Decency? Their society has become like a leper colony full of dying individuals who are rotting away from the corrosive effects of the plague, a plague that has resulted from poisons that have been deliberately poured into the wellspring of their culture by the very same assassins who bow at the feet of the Israeli agenda.
After all, what is the event being remembered this evening, and for which all of this energy and effort is being expended? The day when a group of rugged individuals refused to be enslaved by a man named George who was a puppet to the business interests and corporations that controlled him? The day in which patriots stood up to the most powerful political, economic, and military power in the world at that time for the chance to run their lives free of those who would be their overlords? The day in which they fought back against an invasion initiated by foreign powers that threatened the peace and prosperity of their lives and the lives of those whom they loved? PleaseÉno more.
It is something that, out of respect for the dead, should be put on hold for a while, this celebration of Independence Day in America. Not only out of respect for those who gave their lives fighting for this thing known as freedom 200 years ago in America, but more importantly, out of respect for those who are fighting for it today and who are being rewarded with nothing but scorn and derision by Americans for their efforts. The honor that is due to the minutemen at Lexington Bridge who were killed by the British is shamed and tarnished when remembering the event in which 35 of America's young men were deliberately murdered by the Israelis in 1967 when the ship that carried them, the USS Liberty, was torpedoed, napalmed and machine-gunned for almost 2 hours with the quiet complicity of the American government. The outrage with which Americans recall the unsuccessful assassination attempt on George Washington's life by the British is irredeemably defiled when paired next to what was successfully realized by a nuclear weapons-hungry Israel against the same John F. Kennedy who stood in her way of getting the bomb. The disdain that Benedict Arnold has suffered for 2 centuries now and counting as a result of his treachery in turning coat and siding with America's enemy at that time is but a grain of sand placed alongside a mountain when considering the manner in which today all the elected members of the American government have unflinchingly cast their lots with the worst enemy that America has ever had.
Here they were this night, standing solidly behind the man who lied to them about the reasons for America's entry into the present war being fought in erecting the Israeli empire, King George, the man responsible for the deaths of thousands of sons and daughters serving in the American military and who has promised to send even more to die in the coming years, and they cheer. This man and his coterie who silently sent back to Israel the nest of spies, 200 or more, who played an indispensable role in the deaths of 3,000 Americans on September 11th sits atop his throne receiving the adulations of a compliant and conquered American people. They hoop and holler over their ancestors having thrown off the shackles of a foreign power 2 centuries past, and yet drink themselves silly over the fact that they have become the useful idiots of a foreign power whose thirst for supremacy and blood makes what was 'British tyranny' in 1776 look like paradise. Even now, as the next terrible event is being planned that will dwarf what took place on 9/11, these individuals who today inform on their friends and family to the Zionist thought police and who would have been the hated loyalists in America's war against Great Britain 200 years ago refuse to see the obvious for what it is.
And it is in this light therefore that our American friend, watching from a distance as the fires of duplicity and treachery consume the land that he used to love becomes a refugee, a wanderer without a home and without a country to which he can swear his allegiance. He sees the circus in town for what it really is, a farce of unprecedented historical outrage that should be an abomination in the eyes of every decent human being on the planet. The presence of these individuals tonight at what should be the solemn ceremony of celebrating freedom and of commemorating the sacrifices made by selfless individuals for their beloved country is as appropriate as would be a whore clad in a red dress at someone's first communion ceremony.
In the meantime, our friend must do the unthinkable, something that he never would have imagined doing in a million years, which is to find an escape route out of this 'land of freedom' before this beast that is on the rampage snatches his own children and drags them off to fight and die for the benefit of a hostile, maniacal foreign power. He must begin preparations to flee, while there is time, to some safe haven lest the storm that is gathering comes and destroys everything that has given his life meaning. As a descendant of those who came to America looking for freedom from their respective countries, he must reverse these events and bring the family name to distant shores, someplace where his children will be safe--not only from being physically kidnapped and dragged off to die in order to serve the beast of the Zionist agenda, but as well from the highly contagious and deadly mental illness that has destroyed their countrymen.
And as he looks out the window, wincing as the mid-air explosions and percussions--meant as a celebration of this thing called independence, punctuate what would ordinarily have been a peaceful night, he thinks to himself, "If I could be president for a day, the things I would do."
In his meanderings, he envisions what would take place in a world where freedom and liberty are celebrated and honored in the spirit of true justice, where vice and bloodthirstiness are contained and then, even if only temporarily, terminated instead of celebrated.
And he concludes his thoughts by saying something that he always remembered hearing his grandfather solemnly say when speaking of future events, a man who was born in the same Holy Land where today's true patriots are fighting and who understood where life's importance lie; "Yam Yammi", which, when translated from the same Aramaic tongue spoken by the freedom fighters of Palestine 2,000 years ago against the beast of Jewish Supremacism simply means "the day will come."
The day will come wherein Independence Day, on whatever date it falls, will be a day celebrated by all the world's peoples, not just by those in America. It will be a day commemorating the event wherein mankind fought and achieved its independence from the beast of the Jewish supremacist agenda, and wherein a wooden stake was driven through the heart of a vampire that terrorized the world in such an unimaginable and unprecedented way. It will be remembered as the day wherein those who were tyrannized in such a brutal manner by the descendents of Cain rose up and finally cast into the lake of fire this animal that has prowled about humanity's homestead and who has snatched the helpless, dragged them off towards oblivion and devoured them without any mercy. It will be the day wherein from the heavens, children like Mona and Ismail and all the others who were cut down by Hell's assassins are remembered and enshrined as some of the best individuals that humanity had to offer as a result of their having given their lives in fighting for the taste of freedom. It will be celebrated as the day in which the beast and his 2,000-year agenda was finally put to the torch, and permanently made a thing of the past, never to be resurrected again.
And, with these last thoughts, our American friend turns from the shock and awe, walks towards where his wife and baby lie sleeping, thinking of the heroes whose exploits would one day tell the story of freedom and justice for all mankind.
And it was July 4th, 2004, Independence Day in America.
Original
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Raping Gaza
Deadline on captured Israeli soldier expires
www.chinaview.cn 2006-07-04 12:25:28
GAZA, July 4 (Xinhua) -- A 24-hour deadline set by Palestinian militants for Israel to free hundreds of prisoners in exchange for a captured soldier expired on Tuesday with rejection from Israel.
On Monday, three Palestinian militant groups set 6:00 a.m. (0300 GMT) Tuesday as the deadline for Israel to free Palestinian women and minors as well as 1,000 Palestinian, Arab and Muslim prisoners held in Israeli jails for information on the soldier captured in a raid on an Israeli outpost on June 25.
The militants said Israel should bear all consequences if their demands are not met.
Israel promptly rejected the ultimatum, saying it will not hold any negotiation for the release of the soldier.
At predawn Tuesday, Israel continued its air strike operation, sending Apache attack helicopters to fire one air-to-ground rocket at a target at the Islamic University of Gaza.
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Palestinian kidnappers halt mediation talks over hostage issue
www.chinaview.cn 2006-07-04 18:44:22
GAZA, July 4 (Xinhua) -- A senior member of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) said on Tuesday that the Palestinian militants taking an Israeli soldier hostage had halted talks with mediators over releasing the hostage.
Osama al-Mezeini, a senior Hamas official in Gaza, said that the reason why the militants decided to halt talks with mediators "is that Israel still rejects the militants' demands and continues its offensive against the Gaza Strip.
Israel rejected an ultimatum issued by Palestinian militants holding Cpl. Gilad Shalit to free Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails before 6:00 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Tuesday.
Shalit was captured by Palestinian militants in an attack against an Israeli army position southeast of Gaza-Israel border on June 25.
In response to the deadly attack, Israeli troops launched an operation dubbed "Summer Rains" against the Gaza Strip in a bid to rescue the kidnapped soldier.
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Israel warns of "long war" over soldier
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
Reuters
July 4, 2006
GAZA - Israel warned the governing Palestinian faction Hamas that the "sky will fall on them" if they harm a captured soldier after a deadline passed on Tuesday for the Jewish state to accept a prisoner exchange.
While Israeli tanks and infantry massed along the
Gaza Strip's northern border for a threatened ground incursion, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the campaign to free Corporal Gilad Shalit could turn into "a long war."
Three Palestinian factions, among them the Hamas armed wing, pulled out of negotiations with Egyptian mediators trying to end the standoff over Shalit, a Hamas political leader said.
Israel rejected a 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) ultimatum set by the factions, which demanded that the Jewish state free 1,000 prisoners. Unless the demands were met, the factions said, "the enemy will bear full responsibility for future consequences."
Olmert said Israel would not negotiate with the militants, and the Maariv newspaper reported the government had given the army a green light to launch a deeper incursion into northern Gaza, though there was no indication when it might begin.
"This is a long war," Olmert said. "It requires lots of patience, sometimes endless restraint. We have to know when to clench our teeth and to deal a decisive blow."
Washington has been urging Olmert to show restraint and take steps to minimize civilian casualties.
Hamas accused Israel of trying to topple its three-month-old government, which the Jewish state and Western powers have pushed to the brink of financial collapse by cutting off aid.
The smallest of the three militant groups, the previously unknown Islamic Army, said there would be no further information released on 19-year-old Shalit, who was seized in a cross-border raid on June 25.
They sent conflicting signals about his fate.
"Whether he will be killed or not killed, we will not disclose any information ... Discussion is closed," said Islamic Army spokesman Abu al-Muthana.
But he later said: "We do not kill captives. Our Islam requires that we treat captives well and fairly." He declined to say whether Shalit was alive or dead.
Osama al-Muzaini, a Hamas political leader, said the militant groups have withdrawn their representatives from the talks with the Egyptian mediators.
He compared the fate of Shalit to that of Israeli airman Ron Arad, who has been missing since bailing out of his plane over southern Lebanon 20 years ago. There has been growing speculation Arad is dead.
"They (the militant factions) may kill him (Shalit), take him to another country or may hide him. All options are open," al-Muzaini said.
ISRAELI BUILD-UP
Palestinian security sources said Israel had increased the number of armored vehicles on the northern edge of the strip, which Israel quit last year.
A small Israeli force moved deeper into northern Gaza in search of explosives and tunnels but the army said it was not part of a broader incursion. Overnight, an Israeli air strike in northern Gaza killed one militant.
Israel has hinted it could assassinate leaders of Hamas, whose government is under an international aid embargo, if Shalit is not freed. "I want to stress, none of them will be immune," Olmert said.
Interior Minister Roni Bar-On told Israel Radio: "Hamas well understands ... that the sky will fall on them if they harm Gilad Shalit."
Hamas, which advocates Israel's destruction, does not want to lose face by freeing Shalit without getting something in return. Israel says it does not want to set a precedent that could lead to more abductions.
Hamas sources said Western diplomats, whom they did not name, had told the group that Israel had prepared a 13-man hit list headed by exiled leader Khaled Meshaal and including Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar.
Israeli security sources said a commando raid to try to rescue Shalit remained an option but would be risky in Gaza's maze of alleyways. The last Israeli soldier abducted by Palestinians was killed in a failed rescue bid in 1994.
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Israel pins blame on Damascus in soldier crisis
by Jean-Luc Renaudie
AFP
July 4, 2006
JERUSALEM - Israel has stepped up the pressure on arch-foe Damascus, accusing it of supporting Palestinian militants behind the capture of an Israeli soldier that has sparked a new crisis in the Middle East.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered security forces to pursue military operations against the militants and those who command and shelter them, in a thinly veiled reference to Damascus.
"I gave the order to continue operations to strike terrorists, those who protect them and those who give them orders," he told a meeting of business leaders Tuesday in the southern city of Beersheva.
"We will hit all terrorists. No one who attempts to harm the state of Israel will be spared," he said.
Israel has threatened to kill Hamas leaders based in Damascus and repeatedly demanded Syria take responsibility for sheltering Palestinian militants in the wake of the June 25 capture of its soldier on the Gaza border.
The crisis threatened to boil over on Tuesday, as a deadline set by the soldier's Palestinian captors passed and Egyptian-led mediation appeared to have fallen flat as Israel again rejected any talks with "terrorists".
"We do not negotiate with terrorists. We act with all the necessary force but we do not give in to blackmail," Olmert said.
"We will not let anyone believe that the kidnapping is a means of sending Israel to its knees. If we give in today, numerous civilians will be the target of kidnappings because we will be sending a message that these methods pay."
On Monday, Defense Minister Amir Peretz warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that "all the responsibility falls on him".
His words were echoed by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who said after talks in Moscow that "Syria, which protects (Hamas) and grants asylum to its chiefs must understand that it can not escape responsibility for that."
Olmert has called for Syria to expel Palestinian militant leaders.
"The key to resolving the crisis is in Damascus since the directives and orders for terrorist actions originate there," he said earlier this week in a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
"The Syrian leadership must dismantle the terrorist organization command centres located in its territory," he added.
Home to exiled Hamas political supremo Khaled Meshaal, Damascus has shrugged off a stream of Israeli and US accusations as well as an Israeli jet flyover of a Syrian presidential palace last week.
Assad on Monday pledged support for the Palestinians amid "Israel's aggressive stand and its unjust accusations", but made no attempt to enter the fray over the captured soldier.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan telephoned Assad to discuss the mounting crisis, and Turkey sent a special envoy to meet with the Syrian leader in a bid to defuse the situation.
"What we are trying to do is to contribute to efforts to prevent further escalation in this problem," Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul told reporters on Tuesday.
Before sending the envoy to Damascus, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke over the telephone with US President George W. Bush, Annan and Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Gul said.
According to the Israeli daily Maariv, Egyptian and Palestinian mediators are "furious with the Syrians in general over their behavior, and with President Bashar al-Assad in particular," for Damascus's refusal to help.
The current crisis was sparked after Palestinian militants tunneled under the Gaza border and raided an Israeli army post, snatching one soldier and killing two more. Two Palestinian fighters were also killed in the shootout.
One of the three groups which claimed responsibility for the snatching of 19-year-old soldier was the armed wing of Hamas, whose politicians scored a sweeping victory in Palestinian legislative elections in January.
In response, Israel has launched a massive military incursion into Gaza, moving in troops for the first time since leaving the territory last year after a 38-year occupation.
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UN envoy warns of Gaza conditions
Tuesday 04 July 2006, 18:41 Makka Time, 15:41 GMT
The UN Middle East envoy says the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip has become "dangerous" since Israel launched an operation to win the release of an abducted soldier.
"Until just before the capture of Corporal (Gilad) Shalit, it was a dangerous humanitarian situation and there was a significant deterioration across the board," Alvaro de Soto said in an interview with AFP on Tuesday.
Israel sent ground forces into Gaza and knocked out a power station on June 28 on the first of seven straight nights of air strikes over the impoverished territory.
De Soto warned of the risk of water-born diseases without proper water distribution, sanitation and sewage system, and he urged Israel to restore fuel supplies and "cooperate energetically" to get the transformers replaced.
"We don't want to suggest that this is like Darfur... It's a dangerous situation, it's a situation that could get very serious over time," he said.
De Soto also said the United Nations "took exception" to Israel's arrest of a third of the Hamas-led Palestinian government and the bombings of the Gaza offices of Ismail Haniya, the prime minister, last week.
"Palestinian institutions which have functioned and we have relied on very heavily in order to provide for the basic needs of the Palestinian people need to be preserved if there is going to be a two-state solution," he said.
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Israeli troops raid Ramallah
Tuesday 04 July 2006, 4:26 Makka Time, 1:26 GMT
Israeli soldiers have raided a police station in Ramallah and seized three Palestinians suspected of involvement in the killing of a settler last week.
"We arrested three of the murderers," said one Israeli military source after the raid late on Monday.
At least 15 armoured vehicles and two bulldozers surrounded the police station in the West Bank town.
Troops demanded over loudspeakers that police give up the suspects.
The army fired shots at the building when the suspects did not immediately give themselves up, security sources said.
An Israeli army spokesman said soldiers had encircled a building in which "the murderer of Eliahu Asheri is hiding".
The body of Asheri, an 18-year-old Jewish settler abducted by Palestinian fighters, was found dumped in the West Bank on Thursday, adding to tensions in the worst crisis between Israel and the Palestinians since Hamas took office in March.
The Popular Resistance Committees, a group which has also jointly claimed the capture of an Israeli soldier, said it killed the abducted settler.
Israeli air strikes
Early on Tuesday, an Israeli aircraft fired a missile into the northern Gaza Strip , killing one person and wounding two, Palestinian security sources said.
The army said it had fired at militants who were laying explosive devices in an area close to Israeli forces.
Israel aircraft also fired missiles at an Islamic University building in Gaza city. The university is considered a Hamas stronghold.
The building, where the Hamas-dominated student council meets, was heavily damaged.
Israel has been building up forces at the northern edge of the Gaza Strip for a possible extension of an offensive following the soldier's capture.
Israeli soldiers also carried out a raid on a Hamas office in Nablus late on Monday.
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Osaddam bin Who?
Former U.S. soldier charged in rape, murder in Iraq
Last Updated Mon, 03 Jul 2006 23:45:38 EDT
CBC News
Prosecutors in North Carolina have charged a former U.S. army private with rape and murder after an investigation into the death of four civilians in Iraq last March.
Steven D. Green appeared in court on Monday in Charlotte, N.C., to face charges that he raped a young Iraqi woman. He is also charged with killing the woman and three members of her family to cover up the crime.
The age of the victim is not known. While the FBI estimated her to be 25, a neighbour said she was 14.
Green had been arrested earlier Monday by FBI agents.
His honourable discharge from the army is not related to the crime, prosecutors said, but was "due to a personality disorder."
An 11-page affidavit filed by the prosecution gave no further details of that.
His case is being handled in the civilian courts because he is no longer on active military duty.
Conspiracy alleged
The affidavit said Green and three fellow soldiers were posted to a traffic checkpoint in the town of Mahmoudiya - south of Baghdad - when they conspired to rape the young woman.
It said they consumed alcohol and put on dark clothing before going to her home. Green and one of the other soldiers sexually assaulted the woman, the affidavit claims.
Then, in a statement from one of the soldiers involved in the rape, the affidavit says Green took the woman and three members of her family to another room where he shot them dead.
Last week, the army confirmed that up to five members of its 502nd Infantry Regiment were being investigated in connection with the incident at Mahmoudiya.
Green is the only one to be formally charged, but officials have not ruled out additional charges. Iraqi and U.S. investigations are continuing.
The mayor of Mahmoudiya, Mouayad Fadhil, said Monday that U.S. investigators want permission to exhume one of the bodies.
Green could face the death penalty if convicted.
The military is also investigating a number of other alleged atrocities by U.S. troops against Iraqi civilians, including allegations that marines killed 24 unarmed Iraqis near Haditha last November.
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Iraqi deputy minister kidnapped
www.chinaview.cn 2006-07-04 17:22:37
BAGHDAD, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Unknown gunmen kidnapped the deputy minister of the Electricity Ministry and 19 of his guards in Baghdad on Tuesday, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua.
"Unidentified gunmen in seven SUVs, wearing Iraqi army uniforms, ambushed the convoy of Raad al-Haris, deputy minister of the Electricity Ministry, at about 7:20 a.m. (0320 GMT) on the Qanat Street in eastern Baghdad," the source said on condition of anonymity.
The gunmen abducted al-Haris and 19 of his bodyguards with four of their vehicles, the source said.
On Saturday, unknown gunmen kidnapped a female Sunni Arab lawmaker, Taiseer Najah al-Mashhadani, along with seven of her bodyguards while traveling in a Shiite neighborhood in
northeastern Baghdad.
The incident prompted the Sunni Arab bloc in the Iraqi parliament to decide on Sunday not to attend parliament sessions until al-Mashhadani is released.
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Shadows On The Wall
By Sheila Samples
Information Clearing House
07/03/06
"The power of the executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious, and the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist."
~~Winston Churchill
And so we sit, shackled by self-imposed chains of fear, captivated by shadowy forms that move discordantly across the walls of our perception. Once again we are eager to accept appearance for reality. The Supreme Court ruling last week rejecting George Bush's military commissions to try Guantanamo detainees casts a huge shadow on the wall. Many are saying it not only curbed Bush and Cheney's unlimited presidential power grab, but absolved us of the responsibility of having to do anything about it.
Everybody's talking about this stunning victory for democracy.
That'll show Bush that he doesn't get to decide everything. The New York Times opined the victory would "likely force negotiations over presidential power." In a separate editorial, "A Victory for the Rule of Law," the Times wrote the decision "is far more than a narrow ruling on the missue of military courts. It is an important and welcome reaffirmation that even in times of war, the law is what the Constitution, the statute books and the Geneva Conventions say it is -- not what the president wants it to be."
The Washington Post chimed in with, "For five years, President Bush waged war as he saw fit. If intelligence officers needed to eavesdrop on overseas telephone calls without warrants, he authorized it. If the military wanted to hold terrorism suspects without trial, he let it...Now the Supreme Court has struck at the core of his presidency and dismissed the notion that the president alone can determine how to defend the country."
The Post's David Ignatius writes, "The Hamdan ruling should be a cause for celebration, at home and abroad, because it demonstrates that the self-correcting mechanisms of American democracy remain healthy." Thanks to checks and balances from the courts, Congress and the press, Ignatius believes "this administration's mistakes are being reversed."
And you have to smile at the Post's wonderfully talented Eugene Robinson, whose relief was palatable when he wrote, simply, "Finally. It seemed almost too much to hope for, but the Supreme Court finally called George W. Bush onto the carpet yesterday and asked him the obvious question: What part of 'rule of law' do you not understand?"
Such giddiness -- wishful thinking -- can almost be excused when you consider this is the first time in more than five years Bush has been confronted with a single check or balance. Almost. The media's refusal to delve into the shadows and ferret out the reality behind them is cowardly, dishonorable -- a blot on the Fourth Estate. Anyone who thinks this Straussian pack of jackals whose thirst for power borders on madness will back up and adhere to the rule of law or obey the Geneva Conventions doesn't know Jack about George. Or Alberto. Or Donald.
The Court's ruling offers no relief to the more than 450 prisoners serving life sentences at Guantanamo, nor does it address the hundreds -- perhaps thousands -- of those detained without charge in Orwellian Room 101 prisons in other countries. These poor creatures are being held like caged animals in countries infamous for torture without legal consequence. They are of no further use to Bush. They cast no shadow on Congressional or media radar screens.
Guantanamo Bay is but a mere scab on the corrupt boil of secret CIA "rendition" operations. In a revealing Jan. 14, 2005 piece in the UK Guardian, Jonathan Steele writes that one CIA officer told the Washington Post, "The whole idea has ecome a corruption of renditions. It's not rendering to justice. It's kidnapping."
Steele says, "The administration sees the US not just as a self-appointed global policeman, but also as the world's prison warder. It is thinking of building jails in foreign countries, mainly ones with grim human rights records, to which it can secretly transfer detainees (unconvicted by any court) for the rest of their lives -- a kind of global gulag beyond the scrutiny of the International Committee of the Red Cross, or any other independent observers or lawyers." Since then, with The Decider's enthusiastic approval, Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales and the CIA have done exactly that.
So, what was the Supreme Court really up to in its shadowy 5-3 decision that did not challenge Bush's policy of indefinitely detaining enemy combatants -- the worst of the worst -- forever, if need be, without access to due process? It was simply telling him it was time for him to cover his ass by forcing Congress to make tribunals legal and then he could continue to do whatever the hell he wants. It provided a distraction from the torture, murder and suicides that have become hallmarks of the Guantanamo Bay gulag and of the United States itself. It placated the media, and calmed things down for the upcoming elections. Democracy is alive and well. Why change horses in the middle of the stream in a time of war?
When news of the ruling broke, a tight-lipped Decider stared woodenly into the cameras, saying only that he would look at the findings of the court "very seriously," while working with the Congress to continue the tribunals. Bush watchers, however, know that behind the shadow of this concession lies the stubborn insistence that he is the Commander-in-Chief; a war president who is not just above, but outside the law. Bush is prone to brag that he is the most powerful man in the world and, as such, will accept no limits on his power. Back off? Cut and run? Not likely.
The "Military Order" Bush issued two months after 9-11 concerning detention of non-citizens and their trials, if any, by military tribunals in his war on terror remains in effect. In that order, Bush flatly states that any non-citizen whom he determines from time to time in writing caused -- or even "aims" to cause -- adverse effects on the US will be detained and will "not be privileged to seek any remedy" in any court of the United States or any court of any foreign nation or any international tribunal.
The Congress was dragged reluctantly from the shadows to perform a nonpartisan role foreign to them, that of oversight. The Republicans chose instead to attack the "traitors" on the Supreme Court and the cowardly "cut and run" Democrats who are on the side of the terrorists.
Kansas Senator Pat Roberts,Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and 9-11 Commission cover-up chief, was angry and shouted indignantly at CNN's Wolf Blitzer, "The Supreme Court gave the protection of the Geneva Conventions to people who don't qualify -- the Supreme Court made a pact with Al Qaeda -- it ursurped presidential authority!"
The Democrats scrambled to assert their total alligience, not to the US Constitution and the rule of law, but to The Decider, and promised to give him everything he wants to continue his perpetual war against enemy combatant plotters and planners and killers.
And so it goes. We are oblivious to the reality of impending martial law, strict media censorship, and the vanishing power of any government entity over The Decider and his minions. We are blissfully unaware that we have been transplanted into another realm -- a dark place from which there is no escape -- and nothing to do but sit here and watch the hideous shadows on the wall.
Sheila Samples is an Oklahoma writer and a former civilian US Army Public Information Officer. She is a regular contributor for a variety of Internet sites. Contact her at: rsamples@sirinet.net. © 2006 Sheila Samples
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Iran has until July 12 to stop enrichment
By GEORGE JAHN
Associated Press
July 3, 2006
VIENNA, Austria - Western powers will reactivate efforts to punish Iran through possible U.N. Security Council sanctions unless it suspends uranium enrichment and agrees to talks on its nuclear program by July 12, diplomats said Monday.
The envoys - some of them senior U.N. diplomats, and all familiar with details of the six-nation drive to persuade Iran to compromise on its nuclear activities - spoke just two days before a key Iran-European Union meeting in Brussels meant to make clear to the Iranians that their time is running out.
On Wednesday, senior EU envoy Javier Solana will urge top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani to commit his country immediately to suspending enrichment and starting negotiations, the diplomats said.
They also said Russia and China were closer than ever to supporting the West on U.N. Security Council action - including sanctions - if Tehran refuses the package of incentives meant to wean it off enrichment.
"We are looking forward to hear from Iran ... the official response," said Cristina Gallach, Solana's spokeswoman.
A European official outlined more realistic expectations, saying Larijani would likely come back with questions - and perhaps a counterproposal.
If so, the diplomats said, Solana plans to tell him Iran must accept the terms of the package by July 12, when foreign ministers of the five permanent Security Council nations and Germany consult in Paris.
"If Iran has not answered positively by this date, the ministers will likely adopt a decision to resume negotiations on the Security Council resolution," said one of the diplomats, who, like the European official, demanded anonymity in exchange for divulging the game plan on Iran.
The European official said Russia and China were contemplating sending high-level officials to Wednesday's meeting in a symbolic show of unity with the West.
Work on a U.N. Security Council resolution was suspended May 3 to allow the six powers to draw up a plan of perks if Iran agrees to a long-term moratorium on enrichment - or punishments that include the threat of selective U.N. sanctions if it doesn't. Solana last month presented the rewards to Larijani but made no mention of the punishments, so as not to rile Tehran.
While Iran argues it has a right to the technology under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to generate power, there is increasing international concern that it wants to enrich uranium to weapons-grade levels for use in the fissile core of nuclear warheads.
Iranian officials have said they would not respond to the six-power offer before mid-August, a gambit described by one of the diplomats as an attempt to stall beyond the July 15-17 summit of the Group of Eight industrialized nations in Russia.
Before the summit, the United States and its allies on the Security Council - all G-8 members - "can apply pressure on Russia" to stand with the West on Iran, but that lever will be weakened after the St. Petersburg meeting, one diplomat said.
Possible U.N.-mandated sanctions include a visa ban on government officials, freezing assets, blocking financial transactions by government figures and those involved in the country's nuclear program, an arms embargo and a blockade on the shipping of refined oil products to Iran. Rewards include providing Iran with nuclear expertise and hardware, including reactors.
Breaking with a more than 2-decade-old ban on high-level diplomatic contact with Tehran, the United States said in late May that it was ready to join in such talks.
But the Americans, along with Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany - the six nations that endorsed the package - insist that Iran suspend its nascent enrichment activities before talks begin.
Tehran repeatedly has rejected that demand since the six powers agreed on the package in Vienna on June 1.
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Explosion in Afghan capital, several wounded
by Waheedullah Massoud
AFP
July 4, 2006
KABUL - A blast caused by explosives on a wheelbarrow has rocked an area of central Kabul near the presidential palace and various ministries, injuring four people.
It was the second explosion in the city on the same day with a policeman slightly wounded by a remote-controlled bomb earlier in the morning, police said Tuesday.
Witnesses said one of the wounded in the later blast in a busy part of the city centre lost part of his legs. The windows of the justice ministry were shattered, two cars damaged and blood was smeared on the tarmac.
"Today at 12:20 pm there was an explosion behind the ministry of justice in a wheelbarrow in which four people were wounded and two vehicles were damaged," interior ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanizai said.
"We don't know who exactly did the attack. This is the work of enemies of innocent people of
Afghanistan."
The blast happened close to the justice ministry and near the ministry of finance, national bank, five-star Kabul Serena hotel and a crowded bazaar.
It was also about 100 metres (yards) from the palace used by President Hamid Karzai, who is visiting Japan.
The NATO-led security force in Kabul confirmed the explosion but said it was not clear if it was caused by a bomb or gas. Three people were wounded, Flight Lieutenant Euan Downie said.
Kabul police criminal investigation director Ali Shah Paktiawal told AFP at the scene that it was not known where the man pushing the explosives-laden wheelbarrow was going.
"Nobody has been killed," he said, adding one of the wounded may have been the man pushing the cart.
"I heard a loud explosion," said taxi driver Mohammad Rasoul who was close to the explosion. "The windows of my car got shattered. My tyres got punctured.
"When I got out of my car, I saw one person with his legs chopped off who was lying by the side of the road," he told AFP.
A teenager selling lemon juice at the side of the road also said a man had lost his legs. "The person close to the wheelbarrow was seriously wounded. His legs were cut off," he said, refusing to give his name.
The earlier blast was close to a police bus in the Qarte-Naw suburb in the east of the city. "Only one policeman was slightly injured and taken to the hospital," the ministry of interior said.
Such bomb blasts are rare in the capital although they are occur regularly in other parts of insurgency-hit Afghanistan.
They are usually blamed on militants from the extremist Taliban movement that was removed from power in late 2001 and has been trying to regain power through an increasingly efficient insurgency.
Around 600 people have been killed since about mid-May in a dramatic spike in violence. Most have been militants killed by Afghan and foreign security forces, who are conducting one of their biggest operations in Afghanistan.
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Report: CIA Closes Unit Devoted to Tracking bin Laden
By VOA News
04 July 2006
Media reports in the United States say the Central Intelligence Agency has closed a unit that was devoted to tracking international terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants.
The New York Times Tuesday published a report quoting officials who confirmed that the unit was disbanded last year, and that its analysts were reassigned within the agency's counterterrorism center.
Initial news of the unit's closure was reported on National Public Radio Monday.
The Times quotes a CIA spokeswoman, Jennifer Millerwise Dyck, as saying bin Laden's capture remains a high priority.
Intelligence officials say the unit closure reflects a view that al-Qaida is not as hierarchical as it once was, and that terrorists may be carrying out attacks independent of bin Laden.
The Times reports that the disbanded unit, known as Alec Station, operated for a decade just outside Washington, and was staffed by 24 people.
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Obstacles to the abolition of war
By John J. Neumaier
Information Clearing House
07/03/06
Some say "What a silly idea that war could ever be abolished. You can't change human nature!" But when you think about it, human nature has actually undergone significant evolutionary change. Just consider the development of language, and with it, the complexity of human communication and thought. And when it comes to resorting to war, it has become increasingly clear - at least to some observers - that it is a societal phenomenon rather than an unchangeable quality of human nature.
It's true that violent social conflict has been around for as long as recorded history, but this doesn't make it a law of nature. Still, many a conservative persists in invoking "human nature" to deny the very possibility of resolving societal conflicts without using permanently established armed forces. Nor is it surprising that those who benefit from militarism and the arms trade defend their deadly business in the name of patriotism, and rationalize it with the notion that warfare is part and parcel of good old "human nature". (It was really memorable that even the World War II military leader President Dwight Eisenhower warned against the power of the "military-industrial complex".)
At any rate, none of these claims about an unchangeable and warlike human nature invalidate the crucial point that, theoretically at least, it is not impossible for human beings to abolish war and eventually achieve permanent peace. Whether humanity will be sufficiently rational to end the recourse to war before a nuclear holocaust puts an end to civilization (or indeed to humanity itself) is another question.
This brings us to another relevant fact about socially and nationally organized violence, namely that the nature and scope of warfare has radically changed over the millennia. For example, the (now grotesque) practice of cannibalism (eating of one's enemies' flesh) has been almost completely overcome. However, the nuclear incineration of tens of thousands of human beings became part of twentieth century war history when President Harry Truman authorized the atomic bombing of the population of Nagasaki and of Hiroshima. Further "progress" in nuclear armaments - the horrendous and instantaneous killing, the lingering deaths and maiming of millions of human beings, probably tens of millions - evokes a terrifying possibility for future wars. Most ominous of all, the ever growing nuclear capacity of the military is now part of the weapons arsenal of many of the most powerful nation states. The government of the United States, the mightiest military power in world history, has declared its unwillingness to give up the first-strike option and is projecting a new era of weapons in space.
The daily war news from Iraq, of death and maiming of thousands of U.S. troops and of a far greater number of Iraqi civilians, and the destruction of cities are heartrending illustrations of the advanced technology of modern warfare.
Still, in spite of the ever growing inhumanity of war, people the world over tend to take the fighting of future wars for granted. All too many accept their governments' recourse to war as "normal", as a legitimate tool of a nation's foreign policy. (Karl von Klausewitz famously put it "War is nothing but the continuation of politics by other means".)
The recurrent use of war as state policy helps build its legitimacy. Since the end of World War II, the United States alone has been involved in more than a dozen wars, a fact that provides a powerful reinforcement for the view that war-making is a normal state of affairs. "We are a country at war," intone the leaders, lending weight and a sense of inevitability to their unparalleled expansion of governmental power and secrecy, restrictions on civil liberties, and cutbacks in basic services.
Another way to win acceptance of recourse to war as being in the interest of the nation and morally justified, and indeed absolutely necessary, is for governments to subject their peoples to intense war propaganda. Ever more sophisticated psychological warfare, an integral part of modern war, is directed not only at the enemy but at the home front as well. It is an especially important propaganda device whenever a government is on the military offensive against another nation.
Although in the first World War (1914-1918), the government of Kaiser Wilhelm's Germany was not alone in bringing the people to a nationalist fever-pitch when war was declared, its Prussian militarist tradition made it a European exemplar. The allied governments of Russia, France, England, and eventually the United States and other nations accomplished much the same. Thus, President Woodrow Wilson promoted war fever with the slogan "To make the world safe for democracy". (Often government leaders are taken in by their own propaganda.)
While governments find it useful, even imperative, to use patriotic appeals to intensify war propaganda, they at the same time assure their people of their passionate commitment to peace. This is easier to do when a government is responding to an attack on the homeland, as when Japan attacked the U.S. navy at Pearl Harbor and the nation united behind President Franklin Roosevelt's call to arms. Still, whatever the actual reasons for going to war, governments routinely portray their wars as defensive. And in 1949, the U..S. War Department was renamed the Department of Defense.
The war in Iraq provides a textbook illustration of how a government can engineer popular acceptance of waging war. The Bush administration succeeded (at first) in persuading a majority of Americans that the invasion of Iraq was necessary in order to prevent the brutal dictator Saddam Hussein from attacking the U.S. homeland with weapons of mass destruction. The President also claimed that this allegedly defensive war was part of the war on terrorism. In fact, however there was hostility between Osama bin Laden and Hussein, and no evidence of Al Qaeda having a stronghold in Iraq, at least not before the war. Of course, the U.S. public was kept in the dark regarding the true state of affairs. Then, as now, there is official silence about how the U.S. government for years strongly supported Saddam Hussein (especially during his Iraq war against Iran) in spite of the dictator's well-known violence against his own people.
If we are concerned about the role of war in history, and more importantly, with its significance for humanity's future, all of us need to think long and hard about it. We need to learn about and discuss its many aspects: the causes, the atrocities and the mass suffering it brings, the huge costs of war and preparation for war, the various forms and examples of war propaganda, terrorism and its background, the laws of war, including the Geneva Conventions and their violations, the issue of just or necessary wars, and especially the cause of peace, and humankind's prospects for some day abolishing war altogether. Most of all we need to join in common actions in behalf of peace and social justice, here and abroad.
Poughkeepsie resident Dr. John J. Neumaier was president of SUNY New Paltz from 1968-72 and of Moorhead (Minn.) State University from 1958-68. He is philosophy professor emeritus of Empire State College, New York City. His column appears in the first Sunday Freeman of each month."
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World on Trial
Bolivian president wins mandate for reforms
www.chinaview.cn 2006-07-04 11:54:49
LIMA, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Bolivian President Evo Morales won a strong mandate for his reforms in Sunday's ballot to rewrite the country's constitution, but he will need political alliances to do it as his party failed to garner the two-thirds majority in parliament, reports from La Paz, capital of Bolivia, said Monday.
Voters in South America's poorest country went to the polls on Sunday to pick Bolivia's first elected constitutional assembly and also voted in a referendum on whether to give the country's nine provinces greater autonomy from central government.
Morales told reporters Monday he felt "enormous satisfaction" after his Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) won 135 seats in the 255-member assembly.
But as he is far from having the two-thirds majority necessary to control the assembly, he will still have to depend on smaller parties to push his proposals through the assembly, which is set to meet on Aug. 6 to begin a rewrite of the charter.
Morales also faced greater divisions in the country as Bolivia's four wealthiest provinces -- those dominated by European-descended citizens -- voted strongly for autonomy.
Constitutional reform was a key election promise by Morales. He has billed the effort as a way to cement the reforms, like his decision to nationalize the energy industry, and empower the poor, indigenous majority.
Morales took office after winning a December election with 54 percent of the vote and remains hugely popular.
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Six Frenchmen freed from Guantanamo on trial in Paris
AFP
Mon Jul 3, 2006
PARIS - Six Frenchmen have been released from the US base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba went on trial in Paris accused of undergoing combat training in an Al-Qaeda camp in
Afghanistan.
Imad Achab Kanouni, 29, Khaled Ben Mustapha, 34, Redouane Khalid, 38, Brahim Yadel, 36, Mourad Benchellali, 25, and Nizar Sassi, 26, all face charges of "associating with criminals in relation to a terrorist enterprise". The last two are also indicted on counterfeiting charges.
Their trial is expected to last until July 12.
All the suspects except Yadel, who remains in detention, were freed by French authorities in the months following their repatriation from Guantanamo in July 2004 and March 2005.
A seventh Frenchman who was held in Guantanamo and turned over to French authorities has since been cleared of any wrongdoing and faces no charges.
The prosecution alleges that the six on trial were recruited after 1998 by an Algerian, Rachid Boukhalfa, also known as Abu Doha, who is being held in a British prison. Boukhalfa is suspected of having planned Al-Qaeda attacks in the United States.
The six went to Afghanistan between March 2000 and August 2001. Prosecutors allege they underwent guerrilla training in an Al-Qaeda camp near Kandahar.
Defence lawyers say they travelled to Afghanistan to discover the country and were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
They were captured by US troops after the 2001 invasion and sent to Guantanamo when the notorious US base there was converted in January 2002 to detain fighters deemed "illegal combatants".
One of those on trial, Sassi, said in a newspaper interview published Monday that he feared being "used" by the judiciary to warn French youths of the dangers of radical Islam.
"I'm afraid of being used as a example, for judges to tell large numbers of young people: 'If you are planning to going there (to Afghanistan), here is how we are going to respond'," he told the 20 Minutes daily.
"I am going to be called to account even though I've already served a sentence," said the young man from a suburb of the southeastern city of Lyon, who was held for 30 months in Guantanamo.
He vowed in the interview "never again" to set foot in "any of those countries ending in '-an'," and said he hoped to be acquitted "if the judge examines my case closely."
"The most logical verdict would be a general acquittal to send a strong signal about what is happening in Guantanamo," he argued.
Around 460 inmates have been held in Guantanamo, mostly as "enemy combatants", since early 2002 without formal charge or access to a lawyer. Three recently committed suicide.
Sassi was detained on the Afghan-Pakistani border along with Benchellali, who described his time at Guantanamo as a three-year ordeal in a contribution published by The New York Times newspaper last month.
"I cannot describe in just a few lines the suffering and the torture; but the worst aspect of being at the camp was the despair, the feeling that whatever you say, it will never make a difference," Benchellali said.
Another suspect, Mustapha, told France's Le Journal du Dimanche on Sunday that he was a broken man from the experience, but protested that he had not fought the US-led forces in Afghanistan.
"They want to make me pay for what? The fact of having been kept prisoner in Guantanamo?" he said.
He added that he hoped to be acquitted, so that "one injustice is not piled on another".
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At least 35 killed as Valencia metro train derails
AFP
July 3, 2006
MADRID - At least 35 people were killed and 47 injured when a metro train derailed in a tunnel in the eastern Spanish city of Valencia as pilgrims gathered ahead of a papal visit, officials said.
In one of the worst metro accidents in the past 50 years, a fire brigade spokesman said that two carriages of the train had come off the rails in a tunnel.
"It seems it was an accident that was apparently brought about by speed and a failure at the wheel level," Luis Felipe Martinez, an official in Valencia, told Cadena Ser radio.
One of the injured was the metro driver. Another was a pregnant woman whose injuries were said to be life-threatening.
Regional transport chief Jose Ramon Garcia Anton warned that speculation about the cause of the crash would be premature until the train's black box recording was found.
"We have to be prudent and wait for the enquiry to uncover the causes of the accident," he said.
An interior ministry spokesman said any terrorist link had been "completely ruled out".
"Everything indicates that it was an accident, that the train derailed and was hurled against the walls of a tunnel," the spokesman told AFP.
Officials said the death toll could rise further as emergency services continued to search for bodies in the wreckage of the train. At least two of the injured remained in "very critical" conditions.
All remaining passengers were evacuated after being trapped in a tunnel between stations.
Prime Minister Jose Rodriquez Zapatero cut short a visit to India to travel to Valencia, officials said.
"My thoughts are with the town of Valencia... and I express my condolences with the victims of this tragedy," he said in New Delhi.
A passenger on board alerted emergency services at 1:03 pm (1103 GMT). Access to the area was sealed off and a security cordon installed.
The accident happened as Valencia was filling up with visitors to the Roman Catholic Church's fifth World Family Meeting this week, which is due to be closed by
Pope Benedict XVI at the weekend.
The Vatican said the pope had had been immediately informed and had prayed for the victims of the accident.
"The Holy Father was immediately informed of the tragic accident in Valencia and has followed with pain and compassion the dramatic news coming out of the town. He has prayed for the victims, their families and all those affected by this terrible event," the Vatican said in a statement.
According to the Valencia metro website, the regional government-run company was distributing half-a-million passes to pilgrims and organisers of the event to permit them to travel freely on the system's four lines.
The European Parliament observed a minute's silence following news of the accident, and the
European Commission President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso expressed his "solidarity with the people of Valencia".
The worst metro accident in recent history was in 1995 in Azerbaijan, when 290 people were killed and more than 270 injured after a fire on board a train between two stations in the capital Baku.
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Indonesia confirms 40th bird flu death
AFP
Tuesday July 4, 2006
Indonesia has confirmed its 40th death from bird flu after tests by a WHO-affiliated laboratory showed a five-year-old boy had died of the virus, a health ministry official said.
"Results from tests on a five-year-old boy from Tulungagung, East Java, have been confirmed by the WHO-affiliated laboratory in Hong Kong," senior health ministry official Hariyadi Wibisono told AFP.
The boy died after being treated for eight days at a local hospital in East Java, Wibisono said.
"Reports suggest that he had been in contact with dead chickens," he told AFP.
The death means Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, is on track to record the highest number of deaths from the H5N1 virus since 2003. Vietnam has reported 42 deaths, but none of them have occurred this year.
The archipelago nation, which has been accused of acting too slowly to curb the virus, has also reported the world's first lab-confirmed cluster of human-to-human transmission of bird flu.
The viral strain that caused the cluster of seven deaths in May however was a genetic "dead end" that could not have caused a pandemic, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.
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Mosque Destroyed in Terror Attack Near Russian Capital
Created: 04.07.2006 15:48 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 15:48 MSK
MosNews
The blast occurred in the town of Yakhroma, northwards from the capital. The building of the mosque was seriously damaged, a senior Muslim cleric told IslamNews news agency. Fortunately, no one was hurt in the explosion. Investigation into the attack has been launched.
A mosque employee told the agency that the blast had entirely destroyed the main entrance, windows were broken. "Judging by the damage inflicted the explosive device was much more powerful than a grenade," he said.
The mosque in Yakhroma was raised five years ago and belongs to the spiritual Muslim council for western Russia, led by the country's top cleric Ravil Gainutdin. The building is formally a prayer house, as the local government rejected the council's application to register it as a mosque, Gazeta.Ru reported.
Ironically, the attack occurred on the day religious leaders from around the globe convened in the Russian capital for a world religious summit to address global challenges ahead of the G8 summit in St. Petersburg
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Russia, China to Hold Second Joint War Games
Created: 04.07.2006 15:11 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 15:41 MSK
MosNews
Russia and China will stage joint military exercises for the second time following last year's first-ever Russo-Chinese war games, the chief of the Russian General Staff was quoted as saying Tuesday.
Yuri Baluyevsky said he had agreed with his Chinese counterpart Liang Guanglie that the next round of maneuvers would be held in Russia, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
Baluyevsky declined to disclose the date of the exercises.
According to Associated Press, in August last year, some 10,000 troops, mostly Chinese and about 1,800 Russians, took part in major drills in the Shandong peninsula in the Yellow Sea.
China and Russia sought to reassure the region that the exercises weren't directed against any country but the two giant neighbors have strengthened ties over shared concerns about U.S. dominance of world affairs.
The war games sparked debate in Russia over how closely the nation should cooperate with China, which many Russians see as a potential threat because of its size, economic might and proximity to sparsely populated, resource-rich Siberia.
Baluyevsky made the announcement during Russian military exercises in Siberia, close to the Chinese border.
"Joint maneuvers held by the armies of Russia and China are just another proof that the military activities of Russia and China are undoubtedly not targeted against each other," ITAR-Tass quoted him as saying.
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Recount demand could delay Mexico's election results by months
by Patrick Moser
AFP
July 4, 2006
MEXICO CITY - Preliminary results for Mexico's presidential election give conservative Felipe Calderon a razor-thin victory but a demand for a recount has raised the specter of a lengthy legal battle reminiscent of the 2000 US election.
The results issued by the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) on Monday gave Calderon 36.38 percent of the vote to 35.34 percent for leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who disputed the outcome, claimed irregularities and demanded a recount.
Electoral authorities stressed the results were not valid until the ballot count had been verified. IFE has until Sunday to complete the process, but the final outcome may not be known for months if the result is formally challenged.
The Federal Electoral Tribunal (Trife,) the final arbiter in electoral disputes, has until September 6 to give its final seal of approval.
Calderon, 43, of the ruling National Action Party (PAN) insisted there was no question he had an "irreversible" lead over Lopez Obrador.
Lopez Obrador, 52, who had initially also claimed victory after Sunday's election, called for a recount, "polling station by polling station."
"There are many inconsistencies," said Lopez Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor and the standard bearer of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD.)
He said he would use legal means to challenge the current count, while his party announced the formation of a special committee to defend his "triumph."
The statements raised fears of bitter and lengthy legal disputes reminiscent of the electoral debacle in Florida that delayed the outcome of the 2000 US presidential election by five weeks.
The political cliffhanger was being closely followed by Washington, which had hoped to see a reversal of the trend that brought several leftist leaders to power across Latin America in recent years.
But the US administration insisted on Monday it would work with whoever wins the election. Mexico "is an ally and neighbor, and obviously, we've got a great number of shared interests," said White House spokesman Tony Snow.
The Washington Post Tuesday urged both candidates to show restraint and accept the findings of the election institute. To Obrador, in particular, it implored that he "not seek to challenge the result through street demonstrations or other disruptions."
Authorities urged Mexicans to patiently await the official outcome, after both frontrunners claimed victory and thousands took to the streets in rival victory celebrations shortly after Sunday's vote.
Calderon called for an end to the bitter political rivalries that marked the electoral campaign. "Now is the time for conciliation," said Calderon, whose campaign had likened his rival to Venezuela's virulently anti-US leader Hugo Chavez, a comparison generally rejected by analysts.
A lifelong politician, Calderon has served as a lawmaker, PAN party president, and as energy minister in the cabinet of President
Vicente Fox, whose 2000 victory ended 71 years of authoritarian rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI.)
Fox is constitutionally banned from seeking reelection.
Calderon says he wants to encourage foreign investment and slash corporate taxes in order to boost economic growth and create badly-needed jobs.
But his rival claims the wealth is not trickling down to the millions who live on less than two dollars a day and, in many cases, risk their lives by crossing the northern border illegally in search of the American dream.
Mexico's next president, who will take office on December 1, will face formidable challenges in trying to fulfill campaign pledges of battling poverty, corruption, common crime and drug-fueled violence.
He will also be hampered by the lack of congressional majority.
The ruling PAN won about 34 percent of the congressional mandates, the PRD 29 percent, and the PRI 27 percent.
PRI candidate Roberto Madrazo lagged far behind in the presidential election.
The PAN kept the three gubernatorial posts that were up for grabs.
Comment: "The political cliffhanger was being closely followed by Washington, which had hoped to see a reversal of the trend that brought several leftist leaders to power across Latin America in recent years."
And it just so happens that the election is just like the 2000 presidential battle in the US...
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The Decider in Chief
Bush's Assault on Freedom: What's To Stop Him?
By Paul Craig Roberts
Lew Rockwell
07/03/06
On June 29, the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-3 decision ruled that President Bush's effort to railroad tortured Guantanamo Bay detainees in kangaroo courts "violates both U.S. law and the Geneva Conventions."
Better late than never, but it sure took a long time for the checks and balances to call a halt to the illegal and unconstitutional behavior of the executive.
The Legal Times quotes David Remes, a partner in the law firm of Covington & Burling: "At the broadest level, the Court has rejected the basic legal theory of the Bush administration since 9/11 - that the president has the inherent power to do whatever he wants in the name of fighting terrorism without accountability to Congress or the courts."
Perhaps the Court's ruling has more far-reaching implications. In finding Bush in violation of the Geneva Conventions, the ruling may have created a prima facie case for charges to be filed against Bush as a war criminal.
Many readers have concluded that Bush assumed the war criminal's mantle when he illegally invaded Iraq under false pretenses. The U.S. itself established the Nuremberg standard that it is a war crime to launch a war of aggression. This was the charge that the chief U.S. prosecutor brought against German leaders at the Nuremberg trials.
The importance of the Supreme Court's decision, however, is that a legal decision by America's highest court has ruled Bush to be in violation of the Geneva Conventions.
There are many reasons to impeach Bush. His flagrant disregard for international law, U.S. civil liberties, the separation of powers, public opinion, and human rights associate Bush with the worst tyrants of the 20th century. It is true that Bush has not yet been able to subvert all the institutions that constrain his executive power, but he and his band of Federalist Society lawyers have been working around the clock to eliminate the constraints that the U.S. Constitution and international law place on executive power.
Republicans are "outraged" that "liberal judges" have prevented Bush from "protecting us from terrorists." In the U.S. Senate, Majority Leader Bill Frist said that Republicans will propose legislation to enable Bush to get around the Supreme Court's decision. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) already had a bill ready. What sense does it make to talk about "liberal opposition" when liberal Republicans like Specter are falling all over themselves to kowtow to Bush?
Americans are going to have to decide which is the greater threat: terrorists, or the Republican Party's determination to shred American civil liberties and the separation of powers in the name of executive power and the "war on terror."
The rest of the world has already reached a decision. A Harris Poll recently conducted for the Financial Times found that the populations of our European allies - Britain, France, Italy, and Spain - view the United States as the greatest threat to global stability.
A Pew Foundation survey released the same week found that 60 percent of the British believe that Bush has made the world less safe and that 79 percent of the Spanish oppose Bush's war on terror.
Republicans and conservatives equate civil liberties with homosexual marriage, abortion, racial quotas, flag burning, banning of school prayer, and crime resulting from a lax punishment of criminals. This is partly the fault of the ACLU and left-wingers, who go to extremes to make a point. But it is also the fault of conservatives, who believe that their government is incapable of evil deeds.
In their dangerous and ill-founded belief, conservatives are in total opposition to the Founding Fathers, who went to the trouble of writing the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in order to protect us from our government. Most conservatives believe that they do not need constitutional protections, because they "are not doing anything wrong." Conservatives have come to this absurd conclusion despite the Republicans' decision to sell out the Bill of Rights for the sake of temporary power.
A number of important books have recently been published decrying America's decaying virtue. In Lawless World, the distinguished British jurist, Philippe Sands, documents the destruction by George Bush and Tony Blair of the system of international law put in place by Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. In The Peace of Illusions, Christopher Layne documents the American drive for global hegemony that threatens the world with war and destruction. Americans are enjoying a sense of power with little appreciation of where it is leading them.
Congress has collapsed in the face of Bush's refusal to abide by statutory law and his "signing statements," by which Bush asserts his independence of U.S. law. Bush has done what he can to turn the Supreme Court into a rubber stamp of his unaccountable power by placing John Roberts and Samuel Alito on the bench. Though much diminished by these appointments, the Court found the strength to rise up in opposition to Bush's budding tyranny.
Amazingly, on the very same day in England, where our individual rights originated, the High Court struck down Tony Blair's "anti-terrorism" laws as illegal breaches of the human rights of suspects. As with the Bush regime, the Blair regime tried to justify its illegality on the grounds of "protecting the public," but a far larger percentage of the British population than the American understands that the erosion of civil liberty is a greater threat to their safety than terrorists.
Thus, in the two lands most associated with civil liberties, courts have struck down the tyrannical acts of the corrupt executive. Perhaps the fact that courts have reaffirmed the rule of law will give hope and renewed strength to the friends of liberty to withstand the assaults on freedom that are the hallmarks of the Bush and Blair regimes. On the other hand, the two tyrants might ignore the courts as they have statutory law.
What's to stop them?
Dr. Roberts [send him mail] is Chairman of the Institute for Political Economy and Research Fellow at the Independent Institute. He is a former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, former contributing editor for National Review, and was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He is the co-author of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.
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For His Eyes Only: Bush's Secret Crimes
Michael Ratner
The Nation
Sun Jul 2, 2006
The Justice Department has finally taken decisive action in the mounting legal challenges to the President Bush's domestic spying program. But there's only one problem: It has acted to defend illegal spying, not stop it.
On June 15, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit to block the New Jersey Attorney General from demanding that telephone companies answer whether they have broken the law by providing records to the National Security Agency (NSA). On behalf of the Bush Administration, government attorneys argued that New Jersey cannot investigate whether the phone companies broke the law, because this could compromise national security.
Government attorneys used the same argument in May to demand a federal court drop a case challenging warrantless domestic wiretapping--without even hearing the evidence. They declared that the court case itself would compromise national security. The Bush Administration demanded the judge throw out the case without any more review.
How are these unilateral demands even possible in American courts?
In both instances, the administration is using a sweeping doctrine, the State Secrets Privilege, to dismiss cases that could challenge government misconduct. Under this privilege, established by the Supreme Court in 1953, the executive branch can halt cases that might expose government secrets. When the administration invokes state secrets, even judges are not allowed to assess the information and decide if the claim is valid. Instead, the Justice Department simply declares that continuing the case, even in a closed setting, would jeopardize national security. After that, a judge is simply supposed to throw the case out of court. So instead of the court checking the executive and keeping it within its constitutional boundaries, the President becomes the only informed judge of his conduct.
The case that the administration tried to preempt with state secrets last month is CCR v Bush, which I helped file with the Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of Americans who were targeted for warrantless electronic spying. But the case does not currently include any major secrets. In fact, the evidence cited in our briefs is not from secret government documents, but from the public record. (For example, the briefs quote public statements by President Bush and then-NSA Chief Michael V. Hayden). So it is hard to accept the Bush Administration's assertion that discussing this public information in court would expose government secrets.
This case is important because it is one of the last resorts to challenging domestic surveillance. The suit challenges illegal surveillance of attorneys' conversations and e-mails, which violates federal law, the Constitution and due process. If the administration can spy on Americans without warrants and judicial review, there will be no check to prevent the Executive Branch from spying on anyone it chooses, including political opponents challenging its power, journalists scrutinizing its actions, or attorneys challenging its conduct.
Yet the administration's state secrets claims go far beyond spying. Many of the fundamental legal challenges to President Bush's conduct over the past five years have been met with the trump card of state secrets. As the New York Times recently reported, President Bush is invoking it "more frequently" and more broadly than any other administration in history; scholars say the process has "short-circuited judicial scrutiny and public debate of some central controversies of the post-9/11 era."
The principles at stake in these controversies cut to the heart of American democracy and human decency: Can the federal government spy on you forever with no oversight? Can the police imprison you for no reason without any judicial recourse or oversight? Can the military secretly send people abroad for torture? Can the President hide mistakes that compromise our security by unilaterally shutting down any court challenge that might expose facts about government misconduct, abuse or negligence?
There are many disturbing examples of President Bush shutting down the cases that raise these questions.
For example, an ACLU case about the US kidnapping of a German citizen based on mistaken identity was stifled by state secrets. Yet the facts of the case probably risked government embarrassment more than government secrets, since the mistakenly kidnapped person did not possess any special information about the US. A similar CCR challenge to the wrongful detention and rendition of a Canadian citizen also elicited state secrets claims. (That case was dismissed for other national security reasons and it will be appealed.)
The administration has also tried to silence government whistleblowers with the privilege. An FBI translator was fired in 2002 after complaining about problems in her unit, and her suit for "retaliatory termination" was shut down by state secrets. But the woman, Sibel Edmonds, was a recently hired translator with a low security clearance, so she could not have known any national security secrets. According to newspaper accounts, the issues revolved around FEMA-style incompetence, not classified information. She told her superiors that the administration assigned underqualified translators to conduct interviews with detainees in Guantánamo, and that there was evidence of espionage and corruption within the program.
Did the administration misuse the privilege simply to hide those mistakes? That is a question the court refused to even consider.
These cases all have one thing in common: The administration can use state secrets to avoid challenges to its conduct, undermine judicial oversight and ultimately threaten American democracy as we know it.
In the end, the Bush Administration's quest for unchecked, unilateral executive power is no secret. Nor are the illegalities of this administration--from torture to warrantless electronic surveillance. If the courts continue to blindly accept the administration's unprecedented expansion of state secrets claims, the Executive Branch will operate above the law and can continue to act with impunity--a dangerous precedent for any country calling itself a democracy.
BIO: Michael Ratner is a human rights lawyer and the president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a human rights organization that represents victims of torture, rendition and domestic spying.
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NYT: Bank program not news to terrorists
AP
Sun Jul 2, 2006
NEW YORK - Published reports that the U.S. was monitoring international banking transactions were not news to the terrorists who were its target because the Bush administration had already "talked openly" about the effort, The New York Times' top editor said Sunday.
In defending his paper's decision to reveal details of the program, Times executive editor Bill Keller told an interviewer on CBS's "Face the Nation" that such operations are important to an informed public.
"I don't think the threshold test of whether you write about how the government is waging the war on terror is whether they've done something that's blatantly illegal or outrageous," Keller said. "I think you probably would like to know what they're doing that's successful as well."
Keller told CBS host Bob Scheiffer that "when lives are clearly at risk," The Times often withholds information from publication.
"But this was a case where clearly the terrorists or the people who finance them know quite well, because the
Treasury Department and the White House have talked openly about it, that they monitor international banking transactions. It's not news to the terrorists," he said.
Reports in several newspapers last month that the White House was tracking terrorist-related financial transactions in the international banking system triggered a new storm of criticism, primarily from Republicans, about news disclosures of secret U.S. efforts to pre-empt terrorist plots and activities.
President Bush said the latest revelation was "disgraceful" and did "great harm" to the country. Rep. Peter King (news, bio, voting record), R-N.Y., chairman of the House
Homeland Security Committee, reiterated his view on CNN's "Late Edition" on Sunday that The Times should be prosecuted under the 1917 Espionage Act for repeatedly revealing classified information.
"The Times can't have it both ways," King said. "They can't on the one hand say there's no harm in releasing this. Everybody knew about it. But on the other hand, we had to put it on Page One because it was so top secret."
Keller, on CBS, said it is the government that "likes to have it both ways. ... They confide in us when they want to advertise the programs that are successful. And then they rebuke us if we write about something they would prefer we didn't write about."
He added that he is only a little surprised by the level of criticism the paper is receiving.
"I mean, it's an election year. Beating up on The New York Times is red meat for the conservative base," Keller said. "But I don't think this is all politics. I think the administration is a little embarrassed. This is the most secretive White House we've had since the Nixon White House."
Columnist William Safire, who writes the weekly "On Language" column for The New York Times Magazine, defended the paper Sunday on NBC's "Meet The Press."
"I don't speak for the Times. I've been in the Times for 30 years disagreeing with Times' editorial policy right down the line. On this one, I think they did the right thing," he said.
Comment: This is the same old Bush administration tactic: distract the public from their crimes by twisting the debate into "Did so-and-so's revelations about our crimes help the terrorists?" Why doesn't the NY Times simply state the obvious in reply to this now-famous Bush tactic??
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Bush Executive Order Will Bypass Media With Orwellian Broadcast System
Cryptome
04/07/2006
President Bush has issued an Executive Order which will allow him to utilize public and private communication infrastructure to directly communicate his ideas to America.
The order creates the Emergency Alert System (EAS) which will replace existing alert systems, allowing the administration to "ensure that under all conditions the President can communicate with the American people". Mention of the existing "Emergency Broadcast System" will be replaced with the new term "Emergency Alert System".
What this means is that George Bush, like "Big Brother" in Orwell's 1984, will be able to bypass media criticism to push forward his agenda.
Below is text from the executive order (which is freely viewable online):
28 June 2006
[Federal Register: June 28, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 124)]
Section 1. Policy. It is the policy of the United States to have an effective, reliable, integrated, flexible, and comprehensive system to alert and warn the American people in situations of war, terrorist attack, natural disaster, or other hazards to public safety and well-being ... to ensure that under all conditions the President can communicate with the American people.
The project includes gaining command-and-control over existing alert systems:
(i) inventory, evaluate, and assess the capabilities and integration with the public alert and warning system of Federal, State, territorial, tribal, and local public alert and warning resources;
(ii) establish or adopt, as appropriate, common alerting and warning protocols, standards, terminology, and operating procedures for the public alert and warning system to enable interoperability and the secure delivery of coordinated messages to the American people through as many communication pathways as practicable, taking account of Federal Communications Commission rules as provided by law;
(v) through cooperation with the owners and operators of communication facilities, maintain, protect, and, if necessary, restore communications facilities and capabilities necessary for the public alert and warning system;
(ix) administer the Emergency Alert System (EAS) as a critical component of the public alert and warning system;
and
(x) ensure that under all conditions the President of the United States can alert and warn the American people
(c) The Secretary of Homeland Security may issue guidance to implement this order.
(iii) the Federal Communications Commission shall, as provided by law, adopt rules to ensure that communications systems have the capacity to transmit alerts and warnings to the public as part of the public alert and warning system;
and
(iv) the heads of agencies with capabilities for public alert and warning shall comply with guidance issued by the Secretary of Homeland Security under subsection 2(c) of this order, and shall develop and maintain such capabilities in a manner consistent and interoperable with the public alert and warning system.
Sec. 4. Reports on Implementation. Not later than 90 days after the date of this order, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall submit to the President, through the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, a plan for the implementation of this order, and shall thereafter submit reports from time to time, and not less often than once each year, on such implementation, together with any recommendations the Secretary finds appropriate.
Sec. 5. Amendment, Revocation, and Transition.
(a) Section 3(b)(4) of Executive Order 12472 of April 3, 1984, as amended, is further amended by striking "Emergency Broadcast System" and inserting in lieu thereof "Emergency Alert System".
Comment: No folks, this is not the movies, this is real.
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Money to Burn
Renault, Nissan open to GM alliance talks
By Marcel Michelson
Reuters
July 3, 2006
PARIS - French carmaker Renault SA and its Japanese partner Nissan Motor Corp. said on Monday they were prepared to start talks with General Motors Corp. about forming an alliance that would create the world's largest auto group.
Renault's board met to discuss a proposal made by billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian intended to prod GM into consideration of an expanded alliance with Renault and its partner Nissan.
"Exploratory discussions with General Motors, concerning an alliance, could start if General Motors Corporation makes the proposal," Renault said in a statement.
A GM spokeswoman was not immediately available. The automaker's board met on Friday to consider the Kerkorian proposal, saying it would take the matter "under advisement."
Carlos Ghosn, chief executive at both Renault and Nissan, also was authorized by Nissan's board to pursue discussions about an alliance.
Renault has a controlling 44-percent stake in Nissan. The French state has a 15.33 percent stake in Renault.
Kerkorian owns 10 percent of GM, and analysts have said his attempt to broker a deal between the three parties increased the pressure on GM's current Chief Executive Rick Wagoner and opened the door to a greater role for Ghosn, who is credited with driving Nissan's revival from 1999.
The latest moves came as GM posted a 26-percent decline in June auto sales from a year earlier in the U.S. market, where the automaker has been struggling to shore up its market share as it cuts 30,000 jobs and shutters a dozen factories.
A tie-up with GM, the world's largest carmaker by volume, could put the Brazil-born Ghosn at the helm of a group that would be breathing down the neck of Toyota, which has a market value of some $190 billion.
But analysts doubted that the deal would benefit Renault because of the risk involved just as it has embarked on a recovery plan drawn up by Ghosn after he turned around Nissan.
Ghosn has expressed interest in buying a stake of up to 20 percent in GM at a dinner last month with Kerkorian, a source familiar with the situation said on Friday.
GM shares rose as much as 8.56 percent on Friday on Kerkorian's proposal and prospects of a speedier turnaround at the U.S. automaker, but shed 1.28 percent on Monday.
Some analysts estimate the stake could cost Renault about 2.6 billion euros ($3.32 billion).
Renault already owns the Romanian Dacia brand and has a stake in Samsung Motors of Korea. GM is the maker of Cadillac, Corvette, Saab, Hummer, Opel/Vauxhall and Chevrolet cars and has a stake in GM Daewoo of Korea.
Renault shares closed 0.24 percent up at 84.20 euros, partly on a rise in June French car sales.
STRUGGLE
"We struggle to see short-to medium-term synergies for both sides," Dresdner Kleinwort credit analyst Christophe Boulanger said in a research note to clients on Monday.
Boulanger said the acquisition would likely prompt the three rating agencies to shave at least one-point from its credit rating to BBB-level, and a potential negative outlook given the challenges to make a three-way partnership work.
Kerkorian's suggestion about a GM stake came after media speculation several months ago that Ford Motor Co had wanted Ghosn to jump ship and head the Dearborn-Mich. based group.
UBS said that the 2.6 billion euros ($3.33 billion) needed to buy 20 percent in GM could be financed by Renault if it sold its stake in truck maker Volvo.
Bruno Lapierre of CA Cheuvreux said a tie-up would work against the interests of Renault shareholders for the next three years at least. "Renault is at the start of an ambitious plan that requires many cultural changes within the group and dearly needs Mr Ghosn's management expertise in this process," he said.
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French minister cautious on Renault-GM link
Reuters
July 4, 2006
PARIS - France reacted cautiously on Tuesday to the idea of a tie-up between carmaker Renault, its Japanese partner Nissan and U.S. rival General Motors as Renault shares fell.
Industry Minister Francois Loos said in a television interview he welcomed Renault's efforts to pursue a global strategy, but also highlighted the pension deficit and other problems faced by GM, the world's biggest car manufacturer.
Meanwhile Renault's shares fell 2.55 percent to 82.05 euros in early trade, making them the biggest loser in France's CAC-40 index. In Tokyo, Nissan's shares ended slightly higher.
"This has to be approached with enormous caution," Loos told i-Television.
"The United States is an immense market, a complicated market and General Motors is in a difficult situation because of problems that have nothing to do with cars."
The French government held 15.33 percent of Renault and 18.78 percent of its voting rights as at the end of 2005, according to the company's annual report.
Renault and Nissan said on Monday they were ready to start talks on an alliance with General Motors Corp, provided the U.S. group asked them. Together the three companies would form a $100-billion global industry giant.
General Motor's board will meet on Friday to discuss a response, Bloomberg News said on Tuesday. A GM spokeswoman in Tokyo said she had no knowledge of the meeting.
However, French business daily La Tribune saw potential advantages for Renault in any deal.
"GM's fall is such that its stock market value today is lower than that of Renault, which is only the 10th biggest automaker worldwide," the newspaper wrote in a commentary.
"Renault could therefore obtain a seat at the top table and a gateway to the North American market. At first sight that appears to be a good deal," it added.
The car industry is littered with the corpses of alliances that did not work out as expected, including BMW and Rover, DaimlerChrysler's ties with Mitsubishi Motors and GM's own past links with Italy's Fiat.
But established players remain under pressure to consolidate to cut overcapacity and costs, face new competitors from places such as China and to respond to consolidation among suppliers like steel makers.
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Consumers face challenges in handling debt
By EILEEN ALT POWELL
AP Business Writer
Mon Jul 3, 2006
NEW YORK - Rising interest rates and higher gasoline prices are putting the squeeze on consumers' budgets, and many are finding it harder to keep up with their bills. Credit counseling agencies say that consumers are coming in in droves seeking help.
"My phones are going crazy," said Howard Dvorkin, president of the nonprofit Consolidated Credit Counseling Services Inc. in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "Consumers are carrying an exorbitant amount of debt - and they don't have any savings to fall back on if things don't go right."
An important measure of consumer financial distress, late payments on credit cards, ticked up in the first quarter, according to figures from the American Bankers Association. The Washington, D.C., based trade group said the percentage of bank cards 30 or more days past due increased to 4.40 percent in the January-March quarter from 4.27 percent in the final quarter of 2005.
The Federal Reserve's decision last week to raise short-term interest rates for the 17th consecutive time will boost yet again borrowing costs for consumers, likely prompting more delinquencies on credit card bills - as well as on auto loans and mortgages.
The slowing economy also is depressing income growth, so a greater percentage of take-home pay is going toward necessities and less is left over for debt payment.
Among the consumers who recently put a call into Dvorkin's counseling center was Andreia Marshall, an assistant project manager for a builder in Delray Beach, Fla.
Marshall said that after she broke up with her boyfriend, her paycheck wasn't big enough to cover her apartment rent, higher gasoline prices and other day-to-day expenses. Soon she started falling behind on her credit card bills.
"It got to the point where the credit card companies were calling," she said. "It's overwhelming, you feel as if you're drowning and you feel bad about yourself."
With help from a credit counselor, Marshall is working out a budget and whittling down her $13,000 in card debt, which she figures could take 3 1/2 years.
"I have to think about everything I spend," she said. "Sometimes in the grocery, I have to say to myself, 'Do you really need to buy this?' And I'm looking at things like, how can I not spend $80 on dry-cleaning."
Marshall said that instead of feeling deprived, she's feeling good about it.
"I'm proud about what I'm doing," Marshall said. "I'm paying that debt and getting educated, and I know I won't make the same mistake again.'"'
Catherine Williams, a credit expert with Money Management International, a Houston-based financial counseling and education agency, said rising costs for gasoline and utilities were only part of the explanation for rising credit card delinquencies and increased consumer financial stress.
"People refinanced (their mortgages) six months or a year ago, so the 'house bank' is empty," Williams said. "Most can't go back and tap their home equity again."
In addition, she said, consumers can only juggle debt payments for a while. As she put it: "You let the car payment go one month, then the house payment. Then you make a lot of little creditors happy for one month, maybe for two months. Then it becomes obvious that you have to catch up on car payments, and everything else slides."
Williams called it "a dangerous strategy" because consumers who let accounts go delinquent risk harming their credit ratings. A poor credit rating makes it harder for consumers to get loans and can force them to pay higher rates on the loans they do get.
Consolidated Credit's Dvorkin pointed out that millions of Americans rushed to declare bankruptcy before the law change last fall made it harder for them to discharge unsecured debts. The high level of bankruptcy filings temporarily depressed the delinquency statistics and other measures of consumer financial distress, he said.
"Now we're seeing a new crop of people starting to get into trouble," he said. "They can't keep up. They're the ones most affected by increased gas prices and higher rates."
He said juggling payments is one of the "leading indicators" that a consumer is in trouble. He added that other telltale signs are:
- You only make minimum payments month after month.
- You're taking cash advances on one credit card to make the minimum payments on others.
- You delay - or are late, with important payments, such as the monthly mortgage.
- You put off necessary activities, such as doctors' appointments.
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Sleeping It Off
Docs: Comatose man's brain rewired itself
By MARILYNN MARCHIONE
AP Medical Writer
July 3, 2006
Doctors have their first proof that a man who was barely conscious for nearly 20 years regained speech and movement because his brain spontaneously rewired itself by growing tiny new nerve connections to replace the ones sheared apart in a car crash.
Terry Wallis, 42, is thought to be the only person in the United States to recover so dramatically so long after a severe brain injury. He still needs help eating and cannot walk, but his speech continues to improve and he can count to 25 without interruption.
Wallis' sudden recovery happened three years ago at a rehabilitation center in Mountain View, Ark., but doctors said the same cannot be hoped for people in a persistent vegetative state, such as Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman who died last year after a fierce right-to-die court battle. Nor do they know how to make others with less serious damage, like Wallis, recover.
"Right now these cases are like winning the lottery," said Dr. Ross Zafonte, rehabilitation chief at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, who was not involved in the research. "I wouldn't want to overenthuse family members or folks who think now we have a cure for this."
Wallis has complete amnesia about the two decades he spent barely conscious, but remembers his life before the injury.
"He still thinks Ronald Reagan is president," his father, Jerry, said in a statement, adding that until recently his son insisted he was 20 years old.
The research on Wallis, published Monday in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, was led by imaging expert Henning Voss and neurologist Dr. Nicholas Schiff at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York City and included doctors at JFK Medical Center in Edison, N.J.
Wallis was 19 when he suffered a traumatic brain injury that left him briefly in a coma and then in a minimally conscious state, in which he was awake but uncommunicative other than occasional nods and grunts, for more than 19 years.
"The nerve fibers from the cells were severed, but the cells themselves remained intact," unlike Schiavo, whose brain cells had died, said Dr. James Bernat, a neurologist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire, who is familiar with the research.
Nerve cells that have not died can form new connections; for example, nerves in the arms and legs can grow about an inch a month after they are severed or damaged. However, this happens far less often in the brain.
The new research suggests that instead of the sudden recovery Wallis seemed to make when he began speaking and moving three years ago, he actually may have been slowly recovering all along, as nerves in his brain formed new connections at a glacial pace until enough were present to make a network.
Researchers used a new type of brain imaging only available in research settings - not ordinary hospitals or rehabilitation centers - to establish the regrowth. It tracks the direction of water molecules in and around brain cells, an indicator of brain activity.
"It's a roadmap of how the connections are running," Schiff said.
Doctors compared Wallis' brain function to that of 20 healthy people and another minimally conscious patient who showed virtually no recovery for six years. All were imaged twice, 18 months apart.
In Wallis' brain, "what we first see is how overwhelmingly severe this injury was," with many abnormalities compared to the healthy people, Schiff said.
The second set of images showed changes from the first, strongly suggesting that new connections had formed. These correlated with areas of the brain that affect the ability to move and talk.
The other minimally conscious patient - a 24-year-old man who suffered a severe brain injury in a car accident when he was 18 - also had evidence of changes in nerve connections, but they were not organized in a way that made a difference in his ability to function.
"We'll have to understand more about why recovery occurred" in Wallis' case, Zafonte said. "The question is 'why?' It's not just 'wait.'"
Until that is known, imaging cannot be used to predict who will recover, or to help patients' brains rewire, he said.
The Charles A. Dana Foundation, which finances brain research, funded the scientific work. The lead author, Voss, also received money from the Cervical Spine Research Society, whose sponsors include companies that make spine care products. The British Discovery Channel and HBO paid to fly Wallis and family members to Cornell for tests.
"Most neurologists would have been willing to bet money that whatever the cause of it, if it hadn't changed in 19 years, wasn't going to change now," Bernat said. "So it's really extraordinary."
Wallis' father said his son is now able to make jokes. "That was something he wasn't able to do early in his recovery," Jerry Wallis said. "He now seems almost exactly like his old self. And he very often tells us how glad he is to be alive."
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Americans Sleep Less than They Think They Do
Robert Roy Britt
LiveScience.com
Mon Jul 3, 2006
A new study finds people aren't sleeping as much as they report in other studies.
Not wanting to rely just on diaries, researchers attached monitoring devices to 669 middle-age test subjects to record when they actually slept.
Though they spent an average of 7.5 hours a night in bed, the study participants slept just 6.1 hours.
Some studies have suggested many Americans are sleep deprived, though not all researchers buy that claim.
The new study calls the whole field of sleep research into question.
"People don't think they get enough sleep and they get less sleep than they think," said Diane Lauderdale, associate professor of health studies at the University of Chicago and an author of the new study.
Other studies have indicated that average sleep time declined from 9 hours in 1900 to 7 hours in the 1970s, and that things have gotten worse ever since as modern life has become more hectic.
"Our study tells that we can't entirely trust those earlier surveys," Lauderdale said, "because people do not know how much they sleep."
Sleeping patterns varied among the participants:* White women: 6.7 hours a night
* White men: 6.1 hours
* Black women: 5.9 hours
* Black men: 5.1 hours
The results are detailed in the July issue in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Average sleep duration in the new study is "remarkably lower" than values reported in most previous studies, writes Stuart Quan of the University of Arizona in a commentary of the research for the journal.
Lack of sleep has been linked to:* Reduced ability to concentrate
* Decreased attention to detail
* Increased risk of motor vehicle accidents
* Medical problems, including obesity, diabetes and hypertension
The study was supported by the
National Institutes of Health, a federal agency.
Comment: On the other hand, you could also say that they never wake up.
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Discovery could lead to sleep treatments
AP
Mon Jul 3, 2006
WASHINGTON - A newly discovered clue to the workings of a protein that helps regulate sleep could point scientists to better treatments for sleep-related illnesses.
A gene that affects the body clock doesn't work the way it was originally thought, researchers reported Monday in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
A mutation in the CK1 gene, called the tau mutation, had been thought to slow the gene's activity, allowing the body clock to speed up.
But researchers in Michigan and Utah now report that the mutation speeds up the body clock by increasing the activity of the gene rather than slowing it.
"The key to developing treatments for problems like depression and insomnia - disorders influenced by circadian rhythm - is being able to predict how the body's internal clock can be controlled," Dr. David Virshup of the University of Utah's Huntsman Cancer Institute said in a statement.
Virshup and Daniel Forger of the University of Michigan were co-lead authors of the report.
A protein called PER helps set the body's biological clock and the researchers studied how fast PER degraded in cells.
The theory had been that the tau mutation would cause PER to build up more quickly. But when they tested the idea in mouse cells the circadian rhythm sped up as the CK1 gene became more active and PER disappeared more quickly than normal.
Funding for the study was provided by the National Institutes of Health, the Huntsman Cancer Institute and the Sloan Foundation.
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Lifestyle trumps drugs for a healthy heart: study
By Amanda Beck
Reuters
Mon Jul 3, 2006
WASHINGTON - Even men who take medication for high blood pressure or cholesterol can dramatically cut their risk of heart disease by adopting a healthy lifestyle, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.
Middle-aged men on these medications can reduce their chances of heart problems by 57 percent by eating right, not smoking, drinking in moderation and maintaining a healthy weight while exercising regularly, the researchers said.
Those who do not take the drugs can cut their risk of heart ailments by 87 percent if they adopt these lifestyle choices.
"This shows there's no substitute for a healthy lifestyle," said Stephanie Chiuve, lead author of the study to be published in Circulation: Journal of The American Heart Association.
The study tracked 43,000 men between 40 and 75 who were free of diabetes, heart disease and other chronic conditions when the study began in 1986. They completed biannual questionnaires and researchers used the data to tease out correlations between heart disease and lifestyle habits.
The benefits of the healthy habits were apparent even if they were adopted over time.
"In other words, it's never to late to change," said Chiuve. "You can still achieve benefits if you make changes in middle age or later in life."
Men with the lowest risk of heart disease were those who practiced all five healthy habits, but not smoking alone reduced the risk of heart problems by 50 percent, she said.
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DNA group considers asking Fla. for aid
By ANDREA FANTA
Associated Press
Mon Jul 3, 2006
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Wilton Dedge is a millionaire gardener. Last year, the state gave him $2 million, compensation for the 22 years he spent in prison for a rape he didn't commit. Despite his new wealth, Dedge wanted to work in landscaping - anything, he said, to stay outside.
When Alan Crotzer walked out of jail this January, he raised his arms to the sky and thanked God. He'd served more than 24 years of a 130-year sentence for someone else's armed robbery and rape.
Most recently, 52-year-old Orlando Bosquete was released from prison in May after officials realized he didn't commit a decades-old rape in Key West. During his 55-year sentence, Bosquete escaped twice, once staying hidden for 10 years.
All are free thanks to the nonprofit Florida Innocence Initiative organization, which helped them access DNA testing that cleared their names. The group, which had never asked for state money, now wants some.
Jenny Greenberg, the group's director, suggests funding the Innocence Initiative as a state-supported, autonomous law office to protect clients' privacy. She won't say how much she is seeking, saying any amount would help. The group is operating on a $214,000 private grant this year.
"Every politician says there's no more important issue," said Greenberg, one of two paid employees. "We aren't getting a penny" from the state.
The Innocence Initiative didn't ask the Legislature for money this year for fear of jeopardizing a bill to eliminate deadlines for when prisoners can request DNA testing, she said.
The measure passed this spring and was signed earlier this month by Gov. Jeb Bush. However, since the bill also made some changes that will now prevent the Initiative from requesting federal dollars, state support might become even more important.
Bush said he'd consider a request from Greenberg.
Florida gives nonprofit organizations across the state money every year, a spokeswoman for the state's financial services department said. Greenberg already has a list for how the Initiative would spend the money.
First, hire another staffer to help respond letters from prisoners across the state. Already, 800 letters line Greenberg's office like wallpaper. Most of these letters will only warrant a brief reply, she said. Others will launch record searches that cost hundreds of dollars but lead to dead ends. Some, the golden ones, could trigger new DNA testing that helps an innocent prisoner clear his name from behind bars.
Second, launch a search for other innocent prisoners.
"Innocent prisoners should not be looking for us," Greenberg said. "We should be looking for them." She wants to set up a statewide network of workers who search for innocents among Florida's estimated 88,000 prisoners - many of whom can't read and don't know what DNA testing is, she said.
Third, offer rehabilitation services to wrongfully convicted prisoners. They're not like other inmates, who serve a full sentence or are paroled and thus eligible for post-jail counseling, Greenberg said. Rather, they live in a no-man's-land, left alone to deal with their trauma.
"Not being believed when you tell the truth is a deep, deep wound," Greenberg said. "It doesn't heal."
Not all Florida's criminal justice experts agree with funding the Innocence Initiative. Instead, they say, prisoners should turn to the system they're already in.
"I really think that our system, even though it's not perfect, is pretty much geared over to defendants," said Willie Meggs, the state attorney in Leon County. Defendants who can't afford private lawyers can get help from one of Florida's 20 public defender's offices - five of which help inmates with appeals.
Plus, prosecutors themselves are on the side of innocent people, he said.
"I don't know of a single solitary attorney who wants to put an innocent person in jail," Meggs said. "We're the first ones to step up to the plate if we find information that establishes a person's innocence."
Skip Babb, president of Florida's Public Defender Association, said he thinks Greenberg's idea is great - but unrealistic.
"Can you say, 'Never gonna happen?'" he said. "We've had to fight so hard for the funds we get in the public defender's office, they're (legislators) not about to fund anything else."
Florida has about 1,300 assistant public defenders, lawyers who start at $38,500 and sometimes represent 200 clients at a time. They could sure use the help, he said.
"It would be another level of assurance that innocent people aren't in jail," Babb said. "It would be a luxury to have that, but to get the Legislature to fund that would be a monumental task."
With or without more funds, Greenberg said she and her staff will keep working - it's the only way she can sleep at night.
"I'm doing what I can do," she said. "So long as I can say that, I have to be all right."
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Blairing Offences
Now, it's even considered seditious to read my article
Henry Porter
Sunday July 2, 2006
The Observer
The arrest of Steve Jago under anti-terror laws convinces me to support David Cameron's plan for a home-grown bill of rights
The sign that Steve Jago held on 18 June in Whitehall carried a quote from George Orwell. 'In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.' It comes from Nineteen Eighty-Four and it is perhaps worth speculating what Eric Blair would have thought of a law that allows a young man to be arrested for displaying a placard outside Downing Street. He would certainly be astounded at the direction this Labour government has taken and I suggest he would be troubled by what followed in the police station.
Mr Jago, who will appear in court in September on charges of mounting an illegal demonstration prohibited by the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (Socpa ), was searched and found to have three copies of an article from Vanity Fair.
Entitled 'Blair's Big Brother Britain', the article happens to be by me and puts together much of what I have written in this paper. But this is not really relevant. What matters is that one of the officers stated for the record that he was showing the defendant these copies and described them as 'politically motivated' material.
So, a piece of mainstream journalism critical of Blair's government was used by the police as part of the reason to charge Mr Jago. That is to say carrying any article that appears to the police to be 'politically motivated' is now an act that may help to send you to jail or receive a large fine. Just think about that for a moment.
What you have in your pocket - Private Eye, a newspaper clipping or a well-thumbed copy of Nineteen Eighty-Four - may in any of the designated areas created by Socpa and antiterrorist legislation be regarded as evidence of criminal intent.
In a week when the US Supreme Court forced the Bush administration to respect the Geneva Convention at Guantanamo and the High Court quashed control orders on six terrorist suspects, it may seem eccentric to dwell on this incident. Yet the behaviour of the police does seem to threaten the basic liberty of people to read what they want and to carry it with them where they like.
Obviously the police were groping around to support a charge against Mr Jago because, under these new laws, it is never very clear whether someone is demonstrating illegally or not. We shall see whether carrying a quotation by Orwell in a designated area (such an Orwellian phrase) is breaking the law. Would it make any difference if it was an extract from Gordon Brown's excellent speeches about endogenous growth or Tony Blair on education. Will Wordsworth do? Shakespeare?
Why did a march on Thursday by 100 businessmen protesting (rightly) against the new extradition treaty with the US, which went from Pall Mall to the Home Office and thus breached Socpa 's zone, attract little police attention, even though they had not acquired the permission of the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police? What is it that makes the offence: the words on the banner, the smile on your face, the content of your bag, the magazine you read, the absence of a tailored suit?
This is a bad law and it should be repealed. But let me note that there are grounds for slight optimism on both sides of the Atlantic in the area of rights. It is a victory for reason and due process that the Supreme Court came down against Bush on Guantanamo, where the President, as commander in chief, claimed the right to hold nearly 500 terrorist suspects.
And, here, Mr Justice Sullivan's ruling in the High Court that restrictions placed on six suspect terrorists were a breach of Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits detention without trial, does assert the rule of law. There will be an appeal heard this week, but it is difficult to see how the government's lawyers can argue that the conditions the men are held in amount to anything but detention without trial.
There are very complex issues surrounding the protection of the public against terrorists. The government does have a responsibility but that is not met by simply ignoring the law or introducing laws that remove rights such as carrying a placard. David Cameron got it right in a good speech last week when he said: 'We have seen much legislation that is at the same time authoritarian and ineffective - legislation that fails to protect our security but which, in the process, undermines our civil liberties.' That's the point: so many of the government's laws are simply futile.
He went on to mention Conservative opposition to the government's attempt to criminalise religious hatred, to the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa), trial without a jury and the 'draconian powers' proposed in the Civil Contingencies Act. At last the opposition is attacking the terrifying and generally unnoticed record of the last nine years.
Even last week, the government was seeking to add to Ripa, the act that allows official snooping of emails and the internet. Astonishingly, this measure will extend these unscrutinised centralised powers to the Driving Standards Agency, and yet only Simon Carr of the Independent was there to cover the story, which Conservative MP Richard Shepherd said afterwards represented another example of the drift into a 'controlled, police state'.
Mr Cameron's speech was more than just a critique because he successfully negotiated a path between utterly disparaging the Human Rights Act and the need for entrenched liberties and rights, an important balance to strike, given Tony Blair's and John Reid's skill at portraying anyone who stands up for freedom as a reckless liberal.
His proposal that there should be a homegrown bill of rights that would embed liberties in the British constitution, liberties that could not be repealed or modified by parliament, is historic and brave, for it challenges the supremacy of parliament, a cornerstone of our unwritten constitution. One or two Conservative grandees are fussing about a conflict that exists if, on the one hand, a Tory government abolished the Human Rights Act and stayed in the European Convention on Human Rights while, on the other, formulating our own bill of rights.
Mr Cameron will need to work out a formula that satisfies everyone. He suggests that one answer may lie in a codified constitutional document on the lines of the Basic Law in Germany, which sits comfortably alongside European law at the same time as allowing Germans a domestic guarantee of their rights.
But let's remember why we are discussing this. The major thrust of Labour's attack against liberty has taken place since the Human Rights Act became law. It has done little to protect us from the laws that infringe our rights to privacy, communication without random eavesdropping, assembly, protest, free speech, habeus corpus, punishment without a court deciding the law has been broken and the general growth of arbitrary powers, included in the Civil Contingencies Act.
Equally, we have not been able to rely on the gentleman's agreement of the unwritten constitution that parliament would not attack our basic rights. The bald fact is that parliament can no longer protect itself from a power-mad executive and nor can it protect us. And that is why David Cameron's proposal for a panel of jurists to begin drawing up a document for public discussion should be welcomed by democrats of all parties.
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'I'm no dictator', says PM Blair
BBC
04/07/2006
Tony Blair has denied being a "dictatorial" prime minister, although he admitted that issues before the Cabinet are not put to the vote.
He says discussion does take place, but it is up to him as prime minister to have a "firm idea" of what he would do.
Mr Blair was appearing before the Commons liaison committee, which meets twice a year and is made up of the chairmen of Commons committees.
He also faced questions about counter terrorism and immigration.
Legislation 'exaggerated'
Asked about his style of leadership he said: "You are either accused of being dictatorial or you're accused of being weak ... and occasionally both at the same time."
I am in profound disagreement with people who say it's systems management in the Home Office alone that's going to solve this
Tony Blair
Key points: Blair grilled
Senior Liberal Democrat MP Alan Beith accused him of "exaggerating the value of legislation", while under-estimating the problems facing government.
Mr Blair has come under fire over the amount of legislation, over 50 government bills, that have come out of the Home Office during his nine years in power.
But Mr Blair said new legislation was needed to improve the criminal justice system.
"I am in profound disagreement with people who say it's systems management in the Home Office alone that's going to solve this," he said.
"It's not that legislation is the whole of the answer, but I really do disagree with people who say it's not a significant part of it."
Mr Blair is also likely to be pressed about migration and population policies and provide an update on Iraq and Afghanistan
The two-and-a-half hour session began at 0900 BST.
Comment: Given the control that the British government exerts over the media, when it actually gets to the point where a Prime Minister is accused in public of acting like a dictator, you can bet that he has been acting like one for a long time.
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Terror attacks still a 'clear threat'
By Kate Kelland
July 04, 2006
THE threat of further attacks on Britain was "clear and active", British Prime Minister Tony Blair said today, just days before the first anniversary of the July 7 suicide bombings in London.
"I believe at the moment we have a clear and active threat. I want our police and our security services focused on dealing with that threat," Mr Blair told a committee of parliamentarians.
Mr Blair said the police and security services had foiled plots since last year's attacks on London's transport network, and were aware of groups planning similar attacks.
On Friday, Britain will hold commemorative ceremonies one year on from the bombings that killed 52 people and injured 700 when four young British Muslims blew themselves up on underground trains and a bus.
"I think the most important thing is that the security services and the police have carried out their tasks ... in an exemplary way and have actually protected us against further attacks," Mr Blair said.
"There's no doubt there are people, there are groups, we believe that are engaged in planning this type of activity," he said when asked if he believed there were more British people planning attacks on the country.
Mr Blair again rejected calls for a public inquiry into the London bombings, saying police needed to focus their resources on the current threat.
Britain's police and security services have faced criticism since the July 7 attacks. Police shot and killed an innocent man last year after they wrongly suspected he was a suicide bomber.
Another man was shot and wounded in an anti-terrorism raid on a house in London last month. No evidence of criminal activity was found in the house and police have said the raid was a mistake.
Mr Blair said he was trying to engage with Britain's Muslim community but Islamic extremism could not be defeated by the government alone.
He came under fire for failing to improve relations as a poll showed 13 per cent of Britain's 1.6 million Muslims thought the four suicide bombers should be regarded as "martyrs".
The Prime Minister said moderate Muslim leaders had to do more to change attitudes.
"Government itself cannot go and root out the extremism in these communities," he told the parliamentary committee.
"I am not the person to go into the Muslim community and explain to them that this extreme view is not the true face of Islam."
Sadiq Khan, a British-born Muslim, said some Muslims, already "some of the most disillusioned and ... disenfranchised members of our community" - would feel yet more alienated.
Mr Khan described the poll's findings as "alarming and distressing".
"It only takes one person to have those views lead to devastation," he told BBC radio.
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British minister says new attack "inevitable"
Mon Jul 3, 2006
Reuters
A new guerrilla attack on Britain is inevitable, a British junior minister responsible for counter-terrorism said on Monday.
Speaking days before the first anniversary of the July 7 attacks in London which killed 52 people and four suicide bombers, junior Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells said he did not believe al Qaeda focused simply on anniversaries.
"I don't think they care a great deal about anniversaries. They care much more about success," he said in Cyprus.
But asked if he thought more attacks were inevitable, Howells said: "Yes, I do think it is inevitable, yes. We have already foiled since the London bombings a number of very, very serious would-be attacks."
He said one planned attack foiled by authorities, which came into the public domain last week, involved individuals handling "a big sack of agricultural chemicals" which were identical to bombs used by the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
"Al Qaeda is a lot more imaginative than simply to try to bomb on anniversaries. They chose very soft targets, they chose them very judiciously, they try to make them as public and as massive as possible," Howells told a media briefing in the Cypriot capital Nicosia.
Howells, whose remit covers counter-terrorism and the Middle East, was on the east Mediterranean island to address an international conference designed to foster inter-faith dialogue which started on Monday evening.
"We need to be able to exchange ideas and start to address some of what looked like almost insoluble contradictions about discussions between religions," Howells said.
"...And that is not easy really when there are some exponents of some religions that believe that its their job to kill all infidels."
Comment: It is just unfortunate that the British government could not foil the London bombings, given that MI5 was tracking the alleged bombers for many months previously. One would almost think that they wanted the bombings to happen, which of course they did, because it was MI5 that carried them out. Imagine that!
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London 7/7 bombs show homegrown threat to Europe
Tue Jul 4, 2006
Reuters
BERLIN (Reuters) - Some 12 hours before he blew himself up on the London underground, Shehzad Tanweer was playing cricket until late evening in a park in northern England.
"He appeared perfectly normal to those around him," said a government report on the London attacks of July 2005, in which four young, apparently unremarkable British Muslim men killed 52 people in Western Europe's first suicide bombings.
Tanweer's last cricket game is one small detail that hints at the enormity of the challenge facing European security services one year later: how to spot the "homegrown" militant who betrays no outward sign of hostile or erratic behavior.
"It's like looking for a needle in a haystack," said Peter Waldmann of the University of Augsburg in Germany, one of a panel of terrorism experts whom the European Union has consulted on the issue of Islamist radicalization and recruitment.
As the British government report made clear, there is no single type of militant personality. Some recruits have been poor, but some affluent; some ill-educated but others from prestigious schools; some with criminal records but others "clean"; some single but others with partners and children.
"All the cliches that we have about the poor, the radical upbringing at home, they're just blown out of the window. There is no ultimate type of characteristic, there is no cliched person who would become a terrorist," said Sebestyen Gorka, professor of terrorism studies at the George C. Marshall Center in Germany.
GROUP DYNAMIC
According to Gorka, it makes more sense for security services to focus on certain types of group behavior than to look for individual characteristics of potential terrorists.
"Usually you see people who are friends together, who are colleagues together or who are related, people who know each other first before they become extremists and who join the terrorist organizations as a group," he said.
"If you find a group of people together who really do hang out together, who eat together, who go to the same cleric for example, that is a unit that is easier to pick up in terms of surveillance ... It's easier to pick up a large blip that is suspect than one individual who is suspect."
For Waldmann, a key stage in radicalization is the point at which the militant travels abroad and creates both physical and symbolic distance from home.
Comment: Here's a crazy theory: the "bomber" was playing cricket 12 hours before the attacks and appeared perfectly normal to those around him because he was NOT involved in the attacks! Imagine that!
So rather than looking for "Islamic terrorists" among the Islamic communities of Europe for potential bombers, perhaps police forces should be looking at the intelligence agencies that actually carry out the bombings?
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Odds 'n Ends
Roots of human family tree are shallow
By MATT CRENSON
AP National Writer
Sat Jul 1, 2006
Whoever it was probably lived a few thousand years ago, somewhere in East Asia - Taiwan, Malaysia and Siberia all are likely locations. He - or she - did nothing more remarkable than be born, live, have children and die.
Yet this was the ancestor of every person now living on Earth - the last person in history whose family tree branches out to touch all 6.5 billion people on the planet today.
That means everybody on Earth descends from somebody who was around as recently as the reign of Tutankhamen, maybe even during the Golden Age of ancient Greece.
There's even a chance that our last shared ancestor lived at the time of Christ.
"It's a mathematical certainty that that person existed," said Steve Olson, whose 2002 book "Mapping Human History" traces the history of the species since its origins in Africa more than 100,000 years ago.
It is human nature to wonder about our ancestors - who they were, where they lived, what they were like. People trace their genealogy, collect antiques and visit historical sites hoping to capture just a glimpse of those who came before, to locate themselves in the sweep of history and position themselves in the web of human existence.
But few people realize just how intricately that web connects them not just to people living on the planet today, but to everyone who ever lived.
With the help of a statistician, a computer scientist and a supercomputer, Olson has calculated just how interconnected the human family tree is. You would have to go back in time only 2,000 to 5,000 years - and probably on the low side of that range - to find somebody who could count every person alive today as a descendant.
Furthermore, Olson and his colleagues have found that if you go back a little farther - about 5,000 to 7,000 years ago - everybody living today has exactly the same set of ancestors. In other words, every person who was alive at that time is either an ancestor to all 6 billion people living today, or their line died out and they have no remaining descendants.
That revelation is "especially startling," statistician Jotun Hein of England's Oxford University wrote in a commentary on the research published by the journal Nature.
"Had you entered any village on Earth in around 3,000 B.C., the first person you would have met would probably be your ancestor," Hein marveled.
It also means that all of us have ancestors of every color and creed. Every Palestinian suicide bomber has Jews in his past. Every Sunni Muslim in
Iraq is descended from at least one Shiite. And every Klansman's family has African roots.
How can this be?
It's simple math. Every person has two parents, four grandparents and eight great-grandparents. Keep doubling back through the generations - 16, 32, 64, 128 - and within a few hundred years you have thousands of ancestors.
It's nothing more than exponential growth combined with the facts of life. By the 15th century you've got a million ancestors. By the 13th you've got a billion. Sometime around the 9th century - just 40 generations ago - the number tops a trillion.
But wait. How could anybody - much less everybody - alive today have had a trillion ancestors living during the 9th century?
The answer is, they didn't. Imagine there was a man living 1,200 years ago whose daughter was your mother's 36th great-grandmother, and whose son was your father's 36th great-grandfather. That would put him on two branches on your family tree, one on your mother's side and one on your father's.
In fact, most of the people who lived 1,200 years ago appear not twice, but thousands of times on our family trees, because there were only 200 million people on Earth back then. Simple division - a trillion divided by 200 million - shows that on average each person back then would appear 5,000 times on the family tree of every single individual living today.
But things are never average. Many of the people who were alive in the year 800 never had children; they don't appear on anybody's family tree. Meanwhile, more prolific members of society would show up many more than 5,000 times on a lot of people's trees.
Keep going back in time, and there are fewer and fewer people available to put on more and more branches of the 6.5 billion family trees of people living today. It is mathematically inevitable that at some point, there will be a person who appears at least once on everybody's tree.
But don't stop there; keep going back. As the number of potential ancestors dwindles and the number of branches explodes there comes a time when every single person on Earth is an ancestor to all of us, except the ones who never had children or whose lines eventually died out.
And it wasn't all that long ago. When you walk through an exhibit of Ancient Egyptian art from the time of the pyramids, everything there was very likely created by one of your ancestors - every statue, every hieroglyph, every gold necklace. If there is a mummy lying in the center of the room, that person was almost certainly your ancestor, too.
It means when Muslims, Jews or Christians claim to be children of Abraham, they are all bound to be right.
"No matter the languages we speak or the color of our skin, we share ancestors who planted rice on the banks of the Yangtze, who first domesticated horses on the steppes of the Ukraine, who hunted giant sloths in the forests of North and South America, and who labored to build the Great Pyramid of Khufu," Olson and his colleagues wrote in the journal Nature.
How can they be so sure?
Seven years ago one of Olson's colleagues, a Yale University statistician named Joseph Chang, started thinking about how to estimate when the last common ancestor of everybody on Earth today lived. In a paper published by the journal "Advances in Applied Probability," Chang showed that there is a mathematical relationship between the size of a population and the number of generations back to a common ancestor. Plugging the planet's current population into his equation, he came up with just over 32 generations, or about 900 years.
Chang knew that answer was wrong because it relied on some common, but inaccurate, assumptions that population geneticists often use to simplify difficult mathematical problems.
For example, his analysis pretended that Earth's population has always been what it is today. It also assumed that individuals choose their mates randomly. And each generation had to reproduce all at once.
Chang's calculations essentially treated the world like one big meet market where any given guy was equally likely to pair up with any woman, whether she lived in the next village or halfway around the world. Chang was fully aware of the inaccuracy - people have to select their partners from the pool of individuals they have actually met, unless they are entering into an arranged marriage. But even then, they are much more likely to mate with partners who live nearby. And that means that geography can't be ignored if you are going to determine the relatedness of the world's population.
A few years later Chang was contacted by Olson, who had started thinking about the world's interrelatedness while writing his book. They started corresponding by e-mail, and soon included in their deliberations Douglas Rohde, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology neuroscientist and computer expert who now works for Google.
The researchers knew they would have to account for geography to get a better picture of how the family tree converges as it reaches deeper into the past. They decided to build a massive computer simulation that would essentially re-enact the history of humanity as people were born, moved from one place to another, reproduced and died.
Rohde created a program that put an initial population on a map of the world at some date in the past, ranging from 7,000 to 20,000 years ago. Then the program allowed those initial inhabitants to go about their business. He allowed them to expand in number according to accepted estimates of past population growth, but had to cap the expansion at 55 million people due to computing limitations. Although unrealistic in some respects - 55 million is a lot less than the 6.5 billion people who actually live on Earth today - he found through trial and error that the limitation did not significantly change the outcome with regard to common ancestry.
The model also had to allow for migration based on what historians, anthropologists and archaeologists know about how frequently past populations moved both within and between continents. Rohde, Chang and Olson chose a range of migration rates, from a low level where almost nobody left their native home to a much higher one where up to 20 percent of the population reproduced in a town other than the one where they were born, and one person in 400 moved to a foreign country.
Allowing very little migration, Rohde's simulation produced a date of about 5,000 B.C. for humanity's most recent common ancestor. Assuming a higher, but still realistic, migration rate produced a shockingly recent date of around 1 A.D.
Some people even suspect that the most recent common ancestor could have lived later than that.
"A number of people have written to me making the argument that the simulations were too conservative," Rohde said.
Migration is the key. When a people have offspring far from their birthplaces, they essentially introduce their entire family lines into their adopted populations, giving their immediate offspring and all who come after them a set of ancestors from far away.
People tend to think of preindustrial societies as places where this sort of thing rarely happened, where virtually everyone lived and died within a few miles of the place where they were born. But history is full of examples that belie that notion.
Take Alexander the Great, who conquered every country between Greece and northern India, siring two sons along the way by Persian mothers. Consider Prince Abd Al-Rahman, son of a Syrian father and a Berber mother, who escaped Damascus after the overthrow of his family's dynasty and started a new one in Spain. The Vikings, the Mongols, and the Huns all traveled thousands of miles to burn, pillage and - most pertinent to genealogical considerations - rape more settled populations.
More peaceful people moved around as well. During the Middle Ages, the Gypsies traveled in stages from northern India to Europe. In the New World, the Navaho moved from western Canada to their current home in the American Southwest. People from East Asia fanned out into the South Pacific Islands, and Eskimos frequently traveled back and forth across the Bering Sea from Siberia to Alaska.
"These genealogical networks, as they start spreading out they really have the ability to get virtually everywhere," Olson said.
Though people like to think of culture, language and religion as barriers between groups, history is full of religious conversions, intermarriages, illegitimate births and adoptions across those lines. Some historical times and places were especially active melting pots - medieval Spain, ancient Rome and the Egypt of the pharaohs, for example.
"And the thing is, you only need one," said Mark Humphrys, an amateur anthropologist and professor of computer science at Dublin City University.
One ancestral link to another cultural group among your millions of forbears, and you share ancestors with everyone in that group. So everyone who reproduced with somebody who was born far from their own natal home - every sailor blown off course, every young man who set off to seek his fortune, every woman who left home with a trader from a foreign land - as long as they had children, they helped weave the tight web of brotherhood we all share.
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2 die as plane crashes into truck in Colo.
AP
July 3, 2006
MONTROSE, Colo. - A small plane crashed into a tractor-trailer rig parked on a residential street Monday and burst into flames, killing both people aboard, authorities said.
No one on the ground was injured, said Allen Weese, Montrose Fire Protection battalion chief.
Levi Hawks, a long-haul trucker who owns the tractor-trailer cab, said he didn't see the crash, just outside his home.
"There was this big bang and my wife yells, 'Oh my God, the truck is on fire,'" he said.
Neighbor Nancy Weese, the fire battalion chief's mother, said the plane would have smashed into her house if Hawks' truck hadn't been there. She said that burning fuel spilled onto her lawn and that the fire was so intense it wasn't immediately clear that a plane had hit.
"I just thank the Lord the truck was there," she said.
The neighborhood is below the flight path to Montrose Regional Airport, Montrose County sheriff's spokesman Dick Deines said.
Authorities were unsure where the flight originated, said FAA spokesman Allen Kenitzer. The cause was being investigated.
The Montrose airport, about 180 miles southwest of Denver, was the scene of a November 2004 crash that killed the son of NBC Sports executive Dick Ebersol and two others. The
National Transportation Safety Board said ice on the wings was a factor in that crash.
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Preteen mag accused of military pitching
AP
Mon Jul 3, 2006
PETERBOROUGH, N.H. - Parents and teachers are complaining that the latest issue of a popular magazine for preteens amounts to little more than an early recruitment pitch for the Army.
Cobblestone magazine, which is put out by Carus Publishing in Peterborough, is aimed at children ages 9-14 and is distributed nationwide to schools and libraries. Its latest issue features a cover photo of a soldier in Iraq clutching a machine gun and articles on what it's like to go through boot camp, a rundown of the Army's "awesome arsenal" and a detailed description of Army career opportunities.
Most controversial has been a set of classroom guides that accompany the magazine, which suggest teachers invite a soldier, Army recruiter or veteran to speak to their classes and ask students whether they might want to join the Army someday.
One of the teaching guides - written by Mary Lawson, a teacher in Saint Cloud., Fla. - suggests having students write essays pretending they are going to join the Army: "Have them decide which career they feel they would qualify for and write a paper to persuade a recruiter why that should be the career."
"Some of the teachers were like, 'Holy cow, look at this,'" said Francis Lunney, a sixth-grade English teacher in Hudson, Mass., who quickly called the publishing company to complain. He told The Boston Globe that the guides looked exactly like the official recruiting material distributed at high schools.
The dozen or so similar complaints come at a time when the military, struggling to meet recruitment goals, has become more aggressive in trying to attract young people. But Cobblestone's editors insist the idea for the special issue was theirs alone, though they received permission to use Army photos.
Managing editor Lou Waryncia said the magazine did not intend to recruit for the Army but will consider future issues in light of the criticism, which has been greater than for any previous issue. Though previous issues have dealt with the Civil War and other military conflicts, the recent one is somewhat of a departure in that the Army was a focus by itself.
"We planned to do this well over two years ago," he said. "It just happened to come out at a time when the country's feelings are in a certain place" about the war in Iraq.
Virginia Schumacher, a retired teacher and manager at the History Center in Ithaca, N.Y., wrote one of the classroom guides. She defended the magazine, saying joining the military is a career option for any child.
"That doesn't suggest that they should or should not," she said. "In that magazine, I felt they gave a wonderful portrayal of jobs that are not what everyone thinks of when they think of the Army. It was not meant to offend anyone."
Cobblestone, which has a paid circulation of 30,000, is one of a family of award-winning children's magazines published by Carus. It was started by two teachers in 1979 to promote reading and history and grew into six magazines that cover American history, geography, world cultures, world history, science and space, general studies and reading.
Comment: Recruiting problem? What recruiting problem?? There is only one word to describe the US government's glorifying of the killing fields of Iraq to entice 9-14 year olds to join the massacring of Iraqi civilians - SICK!
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Anchovy fishing in Bay of Biscay banned
Reuters
Mon Jul 3, 2006
BRUSSELS - Anchovy fishing will be banned in the Bay of Biscay until the end of the year to preserve stocks, the European Commission said on Monday.
Lying off the North Atlantic coastlines of France and Spain, the Bay of Biscay is the key trawling ground for anchovy, an essential ingredient in Spanish cooking. However, years of overfishing have pushed stocks to very low levels.
The stock of adult anchovy is "well below safe biological levels," the European Union's executive arm said in a statement, adding there was a "severe risk of collapse."
The EU had already banned anchovy fishing in the Bay of Biscay from July last year to the end of February this year, a Commission spokeswoman said.
But following intense pressure from Spain and France, it had agreed to a small annual quota of 5,000 tonnes starting in March -- nearly all for Spain -- with the provision of a review in June, and the understanding that the ban would be brought back if stocks had not recovered sufficiently.
This is precisely what happened, the EU executive said, noting that the stock of adult anchovy during spawning time had fallen to an estimated 18,640 tonnes, well below a 28,000-tonne safe threshold.
The Commission said there may be limited financial aid for those affected by the ban, but did not give more details.
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Meteor Found, May Be Largest Ever
WICHITA, Kan. July 4, 2006 (AP)
A Kiowa County man said he may have found what could be one of the largest meteorites ever reported.
Don Stimpson said he and Paul Ross were searching Ross' field recently with a giant metal detector when the device made so much noise they thought they'd found an old culvert. Instead, they began digging up pieces of meteorite. "We dug and dug and brought up a 250-pound meteorite," said Stimpson, who had thought the field had been cleared of meteorites. "And then we looked, and there was another one there. We dug it out and...well, wait a minute, there is more. We brought 1,500 pounds of meteorite from that one hole."
Experts said the find may be part of the Brenham meteorites, a collection of space rocks that fell to Earth in the present-day Brenham Township near Haviland about 20,000 years ago.
Many are among the most famous and sought-after in the world because they are pallasites. The extremely rare rocks contain crystals that look like stained glass when they are cut.
Wichita State University physics professor David Alexander, whose specialty is astronomy, said that if the pieces Stimpson and Ross found are from one meteorite, it would be the largest pallasite ever found.
Professional meteorite hunter Steve Arnold found the current record-holder, a 1,400-pound pallasite, about two miles southeast of Ross' land last fall.
Stimpson said he's still excavating the crater, which he said is covered in a thick layer of rust about 20 feet in diameter. "We do not know how far it extends," he said. "I'll keep working on the site as long as I can and submit a scientific paper with my data when we are finished."
Meanwhile, the public can get a glimpse Saturday at what Stimpson and Ross found during Haviland's annual meteorite festival.
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Woman Gets 17 Years for Eating Dead Rival's Tongue
Created: 04.07.2006 13:44 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 13:45 MSK
MosNews
A woman who strangled her rival and ate her tongue has been sentenced to 17 years in a penal colony.
In October 2005, Marina Belova, 30, fell in love with a man called Radiy Kim, and soon they moved to live together near the city of Yaroslavl in central Russia. However Marina was jealous of her boyfriend's ex, and eventually she strangled the woman with her bare hands, Regions.ru website reports.
To prove her devotion to her lover, Marina then cut off the victim's tongue and ate it. Then, she buried the body in a nearby field.
The cannibal could have gone away with the crime, had she not been so boastful. Soon she proudly told all her friends about the murder, and when nobody believed her, she took the small crowd out into the field, dug out the corpse and opened its mouth to show there was no tongue inside.
This was not the only killing committed by Marina. In a short time after the first murder, during a vodka party at the couple's place, Radiy quarreled with Marina's friend Tatiana. The two killed the woman, and buried the body near their house.
Some time later, a passer-by noticed a human body in the field and reported it to the police. It was not hard to find the murderer when the police came to investigate the case, because everyone in the village knew about the crime.
Although the prosecution demanded life imprisonment, the judge sentenced Marina to 17 years, and her boyfriend to 1.5 years in prison for concealing a crime.
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Hot Enough Fer Ya?
Fire forces evacuation of Tumbler Ridge in B.C.
Last Updated Tue, 04 Jul 2006 06:03:42 EDT
CBC News
An evacuation order forced by a forest fire has been issued for the northern B.C. town of Tumbler Ridge, affecting approximately 3,500 people.
It is one of four fires near the mining town, located about 1,150 kilometres northeast of Vancouver.
We've declared a state of local emergency and with that comes an evacuation order that we issued for all of our residents of Tumbler Ridge due to some fires that are happening within our immediate area, one in bascially close proximity," said Mike Caisley, the town's mayor.
"We wanted to make that decision while we had daylight here as opposed to having to make it in darkness."
The fire, discovered June 29, was about 20 kilometres from the town on Monday morning, the B.C. Forest Service said in an update at the time.
But Caisley said that major shifts in wind had brought fires closer to Tumble Ridge and told CBC News early Tuesday the fire is about 5 km from the town.
Helicopters and fire crews are fighting the four fires, which were caused by lightning and exacerbated by dry conditions.
Shirley Mcleod, one of the evacuees from Stanley Mission, told Press she could barely spend 30 minutes outside her home on Saturday without coughing.
"I wouldn't want to be there right now," Mcleod said Monday. "We're praying for rain so we can go home."
The residents were told to go to the nearby communities of Chetwynd and Dawson Creek and to bring enough clothing and supplies for two or three days, though it is not known how long the evacuation order will last.
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Sask. fires force 1,800 from homes
Last Updated: Monday, July 3, 2006 | 9:08 AM CT
CBC News
Northern Saskatchewan is struggling with more than 100 forest fires that have forced the evacuation of at least 1,800 people from five communities, as well as campers and cottagers.
A number of communities in the La Ronge area are facing real or potential threats from fires, despite a drop in wind gusts on Monday afternoon, which means the flames weren't spreading as quickly.
John Edwards of Saskatchewan Environment said people and equipment are stretched to the limit, even though aircraft have flown in from Quebec and Ontario and firefighters have come from New Brunswick to join the fight.
A good, heavy rain would help more than anything else, he said. But Environment Canada is predicting hot and sunny weather until Friday, when showers are forecast.
Heavy smoke and some new outbreaks prompted a complete evacuation of the community of Stanley Mission on Monday.
Nearly 600 people left the community on the weekend, said band councillor Brian Hardlotte, but there were still 400 firefighters, health and emergency workers and residents remaining.
The community declared a state of emergency, Edwards said.
Many evacuees are staying at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.
Capt. Kirk Green, with the Salvation Army, is co-ordinating volunteers who are helping to prepare and serve food.
He praised the response to the evacuees, saying volunteers are coming to Saskatoon from communities as far as 100 kilometres away.
As of Monday afternoon, about 800 firefighters, backed by helicopters, air tankers and bulldozers, had extinguished 18 fires, leaving 109 burning across the province.
Three of the blazes cover more than 1,000 square kilometres.
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Earthquake measuring 5.1 jolts Hebei
www.chinaview.cn 2006-07-04 12:28:31
BEIJING, July 4 (Xinhua) -- An earthquake measuring 5.1 degrees on the Richter scale jolted a county in north China's Hebei Province at 11:56 a.m. (Beijing Time) Tuesday, according to the State Seismological Bureau (SSB).
No casualties are reported at press time, according to the bureau.
The earthquake was a shallow-focus one, with its epicenter being around 110 kilometers from Beijing and about 80 kilometers from Tianjin. So the quake was clearly felt in the two cities, said Zhang Hongwei, a spokesman for the bureau.
But the tremor would not cause any damage to Beijing, Zhang said.
The epicenter of Tuesday's earthquake is located at 38.9 degrees north latitude and 116.3 degrees east longitude in Wen'an county, south of Beijing, according to the SSB.
As of 1:00 p.m. Tuesday, the Chinese seismological network monitored a aftershock measuring 1.6 degrees on the Richter scale.
Experts with the SSB called on citizens to keep calm and handle the emergency situation with the anti-quake knowledge they have learned. Experts also warned citizens not to believe in rumors about earthquakes but to listen to information released by the government.
The SSB has sent a 20-member working group headed by Xiu Jigang, deputy director of SSB, to the quake-affected areas to deal with possible emergency situation.
The earthquake was also felt in elsewhere in Heibei and some parts of neighboring Shanxi and Shandong provinces. No damages and casualties were reported.
Seismological experts of Hebei have rushed to the quake-hit areas to investigate the situation and help deal with the aftermath of the quake.
This month marks the 30th anniversary of an earthquake measuring 7.8 degrees on the Richter Scale that struck Tangshan city, also in Hebei Province, about 200 kilometers east of Beijing, on July 28, 1976. The earthquake left 240,000 people dead, 160,000severely injured and more than 4,000 children orphaned.
China will also commemorate those who were killed in the 1966 earthquakes, that jolted Xingtai prefecture of Hebei province claiming 8,064 lives and injuring more than 38,000 people.
According to the general office of the Wen'an County Committee of the Communist Party of China, as of 12:40 Tuesday noon, six of the county's 12 townships reported the earthquake. No causalities and loss of properties were reported.
A source with the office said possibility of casualties and loss of properties caused by the quake could not be ruled out.
The earthquake shook high-rise buildings in Beijing. Many people having lunch and working at offices felt shaking chairs. Some of them even ran out of the building to shun possible damages that might be caused by the earthquake.
Contrary to people sitting in the office, people walking on the street did not feel the tremor.
A Mr. Li was attending a meeting in a high-rise building in Tianjin, when the earthquake occurred. He said he felt his chair moving back and forth for three times as if somebody was pushing the chair underneath. Li said he also saw a cup on the windowsill shaking for a few seconds.
Xinhua learned from the Tianjin Municipal Seismological Bureau that no damages caused by the quake were reported in the city within an hour following the quake.
The bureau ruled out the possibility of a major earthquake in the city in the near future.
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Low water in Great Lakes causes worry
By Jonathan Spicer
Reuters
Mon Jul 3, 2006
TORONTO - Several massive vessels have run aground on Michigan's Saginaw River this shipping season, caught in shallow waters a few miles from Lake Huron.
The river port is as shallow as 13 feet in a passage that is supposed to be 22 feet deep, a sign of low water levels in North America's five Great Lakes -- Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario.
Water levels declined in 1998 and have remained low, forcing ships to take on lighter loads and sparking concern about shorelines and wetlands in the Great Lakes, the world's largest supply of freshwater and a major commercial shipping route for Canada and the United States. Iron ore and grain are among the biggest cargoes shipped on the lakes.
"It's a pretty different mindset to come off 30 years of above-average water levels and to suddenly, since the late 1990s, have below-average levels," said Scott Thieme, chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Great Lakes Hydraulics and Hydrology Office in Detroit.
Lakes Huron and Michigan, where water levels have declined the most, are down about 3 feet (one meter) from 1997 and about 20 inches from their 140-year average, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory.
When homeowners on Lake Huron's Georgian Bay noticed wetlands were drying up, the Georgian Bay Association funded a $223,000 report that last year concluded shoreline alterations such as dredging and erosion in the St. Clair River, at the bottom of the lake, were responsible.
In partial response, U.S. and Canadian governments approved funding for a $14.6 million study of the upper Great Lakes by the International Joint Commission, which resolves border disputes and was denied funds for a similar study in 2002.
Depending on what it finds, the commission could recommend changes to the amount of water that flows out of Lake Superior, the first and largest in the chain of lakes.
NATURAL CAUSES?
Water levels in the Great Lakes have always fluctuated, but experts point to climate change, dredging, private shoreline alterations and even lingering effects of glaciers to explain the latest changes -- the decline of Lake Huron and slightly higher water levels in Lake Erie, into which Huron flows.
The most controversial of several dredging projects was in 1962, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers deepened the St. Clair River channel by 2 feet to accommodate commercial shipping.
"When they dredge a river, it's like taking a straw and widening it," said hydrologist Cynthia Sellinger, who helped plan the upper Great Lakes study, which begins this summer.
U.S. and Canadian governments approved the 1960s dredging on condition that submerged sills be built to compensate for water lost from Lake Huron, and they started a series of studies.
But by the time the studies were completed in the 1970s, water levels in Lakes Huron and Michigan were at record highs, and no one wanted sills that would raise levels even more.
Experts are unsure why water levels in the upper lakes rose soon after the St. Clair River dredging. But they say that major climatic events usually coincide with changes in water levels.
The 1930s Dust Bowl drought coincided with then-record low levels in the Great Lakes. And the most recent decline was in 1997, when a strong El Nino brought warm, dry temperatures to North America, Sellinger said.
In addition, above-average temperatures since 1998 mean less ice forms on the Great Lakes and the rivers that flow into it, and more water evaporates away, Sellinger said.
And then there is something called post-glacial rebound, or the slow rise of the earth's crust, that could partly explain declining water levels in Lakes Huron and Michigan.
"The area around Georgian Bay (Lake Huron) is rising faster than the area around Lake Erie so it may be that the land has just tilted and more water is flowing out," Sellinger said.
DECLINING REVENUE
For every inch water levels go down, ships bound for destinations outside North America forfeit about $8,400 in freight revenue, said Dennis Mahoney, president of the United States Great Lakes Shipping Association.
Saginaw and other ports have done emergency dredging to accommodate ships and barges that can be hundreds of yards long.
But Lake Superior's largest American ships carried 3,000 fewer short tons of cargo last year than in 1997, when water levels were 12 inches higher, according to the Lake Carriers' Association.
"Obviously water levels are crucially important to this industry, and we have been in a period of decline," said Glen Nekvasil, vice president of corporate communications for the association.
"When you're not utilizing your full vessel capacity you can't give your customer the best freight rate."
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At least 32 dead as flooding hits India for second day
Last Updated Tue, 04 Jul 2006 12:12:16 EDT
CBC News
Heavy rains triggered floods and landslides across eastern India again Tuesday, killing as many as 32 people and disrupting life in the financial capital, Mumbai, for the second day in a row.
At least 22 people died in the states of Orissa and Jharkhand and others were missing in the neighbouring state of West Bengal, officials said in a report from Reuters.
Ten fishermen were presumed dead and thousands lost their homes in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, said the report.
Navy boats and helicopters were being used to distribute food and rescue people trapped on rooftops.
People in Mumbai, formerly called Bombay, were wading through knee-deep water during a second day of monsoon rains. Schools and colleges were shut.
Workers pried open clogged drain covers as the city's ancient drainage system failed to handle the 10 centimetres of rain that fell Tuesday.
Weather specialists say the bad weather is the result of a depression over the east coast.
They warn Mumbai could be in for more rain over the next few days.
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