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The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities, that makes it seem inconceivable that other ways are viable, that removes the sense that there is an outside.
Allan Bloom The Closing of the American Mind

"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." - Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural

It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong. --Voltaire--

Faith of consciousness is freedom
Faith of feeling is weakness
Faith of body is stupidity.
Love of consciousness evokes the same in response
Love of feeling evokes the opposite
Love of the body depends only on type and polarity.
Hope of consciousness is strength
Hope of feeling is slavery
Hope of body is disease. [Gurdjieff]

Life is religion. Life experiences reflect how one interacts with God. Those who are asleep are those of little faith in terms of their interaction with the creation. Some people think that the world exists for them to overcome or ignore or shut out. For those individuals, the worlds will cease. They will become exactly what they give to life. They will become merely a dream in the "past." People who pay strict attention to objective reality right and left, become the reality of the "Future." [Cassiopaea 09-28-02]

 

May 11, 2003 Today's edition of Brought to You by The Bush Junta, Produced and Directed by the CIA, based on an original script by Henry Kissinger, with a cast of billions....The "Greatest Shew on Earth," no doubt, and if you don't have a good sense of humor, don't read this page! It is designed to reveal the "unseen." If you can't stand the heat of Objective Reality, get out of the kitchen!

Bush ally set to profit from the war on terror - James Woolsey, former CIA boss and influential adviser to President George Bush, is a director of a US firm aiming to make millions of dollars from the 'war on terror', The Observer can reveal. Woolsey, one of the most high-profile hawks in the war against Iraq and a key member of the Pentagon's Defence Policy Board, is a director of the Washington-based private equity firm Paladin Capital. The company was set up three months after the terrorist attacks on New York and sees the events and aftermath of September 11 as a business opportunity which 'offer[s] substantial promise for homeland security investment'.

The first priority of Paladin was 'to invest in companies with immediate solutions designed to prevent harmful attacks, defend against attacks, cope with the aftermath of attack or disaster and recover from terrorist attacks and other threats to homeland security'. Paladin, which is expected to have raised $300 million from investors by the end of this year, calculates that in the next few years the US government will spend $60 billion on anti-terrorism that woul not have been spent before September 11, and that corporations will spend twice that amount to ensure their security and continuity in case of attack. The involvement of one of the most prominent hawks in Washington with a company standing to cash in on the fear of potential terror attacks will raise eyebrows in some quarters.

Twister Caps Nation's Worst Tornado Week - Capping what may be the nation's most tornado-stricken week ever recorded, residents of Oklahoma City got a double dip of both devastation and enormous good luck. For the second time in as many nights, a massive tornado hopscotched across the city's outskirts, laying waste to homes and spraying debris through Oklahoma's highest population concentration. Yet somehow, no one was killed in either storm. Five injuries were reported - one person was critical - after Friday night's twister tore up a southwest-to-northeast swath. It did not appear injuries would climb above a dozen, ``which is unbelievable when you look at the pictures and that it went right across the metro,'' said Paul O'Leary, a spokesman for the Emergency Medical Services Authority.

New York Times: Reporter routinely faked articles - OThe New York Times has concluded, after an extensive internal investigation, that one of its former reporters committed "frequent acts of journalistic fraud." In a 7,500 word article published Saturday on its Web site, the prestigious newspaper accuses the report

New York Times: Reporter routinely faked articles - OThe New York Times has concluded, after an extensive internal investigation, that one of its former reporters committed "frequent acts of journalistic fraud." In a 7,500 word article published Saturday on its Web site, the prestigious newspaper accuses the reporter of making up reports from other cities while writing from his apartment in Brooklyn. The paper says the reporter invented quotes, wrote about scenery from published photographs and stole material from other news organizations. The article, to be published in Sunday's print editions, details how reporter Jayson Blair, 27, was quickly promoted through the ranks from intern to the national desk despite a history of corrections, sloppy reporting and lectures from his editors.

Iraq in danger of starvation, says UN - Iraqi agriculture is on the brink of collapse, with fears that many of its 24.5 million people will go hungry this summer, according to a confidential report being studied by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation. A special assessment prepared by the UN agency's staff in Rome, which has been seen by The Observer, reveals a catastrophe in the making, with crops and poultry being especially hard hit. Government warehouses that would have served as the main suppliers of seeds, fertilisers and pesticide sprays have been looted, particularly in the centre and south of the country.

Iraqi farmers should now be planting tomatoes and onions, potatoes, cucumbers, water melon, peppers, beans and squash. But without seeds, fertilisers and pesticides, that will be hard - a situation exacerbated by the collapse of the pumping stations that powered the irrigation schemes on which the vegetable crop depends. 'Vegetables and poultry are particularly important because they are the main source of protein, vitamins, minerals and a host of micro-nutrients that are missing from the oil-for-food basket which is also why malnutrition is endemic in Iraq,' said spokesman Barry Came.

US blocks return of UN arms inspectors - Washington still refusing to allow Blix's teams access to Iraq as it scales down expectations of finding banned weapons. The United States is continuing this weekend to block the return of United Nations weapons inspectors to Iraq, even though its own teams of experts have so far failed to find any definitive evidence of banned biological, chemical or nuclear materials in the country, let alone any actual armaments. The UN inspectors, headed by the Swedish diplomat Hans Blix, did not even warrant a mention in the sweeping draft resolution on Iraq submitted by the US and Britain to the UN Security Council on Friday, giving them power to adminster and control its oil revenues for at least 12 months. France and Russia, in particular, may push to remedy the omission.

US officials remain adamant, however, that the coalition forces in Iraq have no need for Mr Blix, who is due to retire at the end of June as chairman of Unmovic – the UN Monitoring and Verification Commission – or for his teams of inspectors. Yet the work done so far by America's own technical experts in Iraq has hardly been comprehensive. Some critics are voicing suspicions that the hunt for weapons has a lower priority than the Bush administration previously claimed.

US rivals turn on each other as weapons search draws a blank - One key argument for war was the peril from weapons of mass destruction. Now top officials are worried by repeated failures to find the proof - and US intelligence agencies are engaged in a struggle to avoid the blame. The Iraqi military base at Taji does not look like a place of global importance. It is a desolate expanse of bunkers and hangars surrounded by barbed wire and battered look-out posts. It is deserted apart from American sentries at the gate. Yet Taji, north of Baghdad, is the key to a furious debate. Where are Saddam's weapons of mass destruction? Was the war fought on a platform of lies? Taji was the only specific location singled out by Secretary of State Colin Powell in his address to the UN when he argued that evidence compiled by US intelligence proved the existence of an illegal weapons programme. 'This is one of 65 such facilities in Iraq,' Powell said. 'We know this one has housed chemical weapons'

But The Observer has learnt that Taji has drawn a blank. US sources say no such weapons were found when a search party scoured the base in late April. By then it had already been looted by local villagers. If Taji ever had any secrets, they are long gone. That is bad news for Britain and the United States. The pressure is building to find Saddam's hidden arsenal and time is running out.

Last week the US flew 2,000 more experts into Iraq. The Iraq Survey Team will join 600 experts already there. Organisations in Iraq hunting for weapons now include teams from the US and British armies, the CIA, the FBI and the Defence Threat Reduction Agency. Yet at more than 110 sites checked so far they have found nothing conclusive. It has been an exercise in false alarms. Suspect white powder at Latifiyah was only explosives. Barrels of what was thought to be sarin and tabun nerve agents were pesticides. When a dozen US soldiers checked a suspect site and fell ill, it was because they had inhaled fertiliser fumes. Each setback ratchets up the political pressure. Infighting between government departments and intelligence agencies is becoming vicious on both sides of the Atlantic. Having fought a war to disarm Iraq of its terrible weapons, neither the US nor Britain can admit that Iraq never had them in the first place. The search for weapons of mass destruction cannot be allowed to fail.

Women Walkers Face Harassment by Teens - Walking is a popular form of exercise, and unlike others it is free. The Corniche is a focal point for people who want to exercise and relax, but some women are finding that trying to keep in shape that way is more hassle than it is worth. The reason? Constant harassment from youngsters. Fayeqa Ali, a victim of harassment, told Al-Madinah newspaper that while walking was her favorite exercise, it was becoming more and more difficult to go out unmolested. “Teenagers drive slowly alongside me when I am out walking,” she said. “They try to talk to me using all sorts of sweet words. It’s unacceptable. They say it’s our fault for leaving the house, but I think there is nothing wrong with wanting to get some exercise.”

The ‘Beautiful’ American - Months after Sept. 11, I was walking with a couple of Saudi friends toward the White House. We were part of a Saudi press group invited by the State Department. One of us suggested going on a guided tour of the White House, so we approached one of the guards to ask for directions. She told us that tours were canceled at the moment except for school kids, but suggested this could change the following week. Then she asked in a friendly tone: “Where are you from?” I thought to myself: “Oh boy, here comes the tough part.” One of my friends wore a beard. We all fitted the profile of young Middle Eastern males suspect in American airports and government offices. That very morning we had had to undergo rigorous checks at the National Security Council, and a colleague’s passport was kept for extra checking. The bearded friend cut my thoughts short with a clear and loud answer: “We are Saudi, madam.” I looked carefully at the guard’s eyes as she answered without any apparent change in tone or attitude: “Welcome to America.” Then she went on to suggest alternative landmarks to visit that day, reminding us to check next week for possible change in the White House tour policy. After we left, I said to my friends: Now this is the real America, and those are the real Americans.

May 10, 2003 Today's edition of Brought to You by The Bush Junta, Produced and Directed by the CIA, based on an original script by Henry Kissinger, with a cast of billions....The "Greatest Shew on Earth," no doubt, and if you don't have a good sense of humor, don't read this page! It is designed to reveal the "unseen." If you can't stand the heat of Objective Reality, get out of the kitchen!

 

CANADIAN BROADCASTER: " U.S. government's "official" version of 9/11 is the greatest deception ever launched." - The greatest deception ever launched. That is how Canadian broadcaster Barrie Zwicker described the U.S. government's "official" version of 9/11 at an activist-organized event in San Francisco April 21. A hand-vote indicated a majority of those who packed Herbst Theatre, which is directly across from the city's Civic Center, agreed with him.

Zwicker called the government's story of 9/11 "The Big Lie" and likened it to the Reichstag Fire which Adolph Hitler and the Nazis used to launch their murderous attacks against people they deemed undesirable. Some historians believe the Nazis, not the Dutch Communist found guilty and executed, started the German Parliament fire. A day after the February 27, 1933, fire, the German government suspended civil liberties. A month later, the Parliament granted Hitler dictatorial powers.

Zwicker said the 9/11 deception was "perpetrated by powerful special interests to jumpstart the war on terrorism," which he called the "toxic tip" for world domination, and was leveraged by neo-conservatives in the U.S. government who have "hijacked U.S. foreign policy at the behest of Big Arms and Big Oil."

Passports to carry eye prints - Passports will be equipped with chips capable of storing details of the holder's fingerprints and eyes under plans agreed by David Blunkett and other G8 ministers yesterday. The patterns in the iris - the coloured area around the pupil - are individual and impossible to duplicate, making them a virtually foolproof way of checking identity. The Home Secretary agreed with his counterparts in the other industrialised countries to develop the technology that would allow biometric chips to be introduced in British passports in two years.

He confirmed that the technology could be expanded for use in national identity cards - the "entitlement cards" he wants to introduce as a way of controlling asylum seekers. Within five years, travellers crossing borders can expect to have automatic checks on their irises or the distance between certain facial features.

Speaking after the meeting of interior ministers in Paris, Mr Blunkett said: "We need to be ahead of the game in using technology in the fight against international crime and terrorism. These criminals operate without respect for international boundaries." Britain has carried out trials of the technology, checking details of frequent travellers between Britain and America against a database.

Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said the proposals could make it unnecessary to introduce identity cards, which could pose a threat to civil liberties by including all sorts of further details about an individual. "I am sceptical about lots of information being held by the state," he said. "I think this is a way of avoiding those concerns."

Events mark Nazi book-burning - There could hardly be two more different diaries than those of Anne Frank and Joseph Goebbels: one a testament to humanity, the other to barbarism. Yet extracts from the two are being merged together to musical accompaniment on Berlin's main street this weekend - just one of the many events marking the 70th anniversary of the Nazi book-burning. There are lectures, exhibitions, discussions and of course, readings. The burnt works of many familiar authors will be read out - Albert Einstein, Bertold Brecht, Franz Kafka, Vladimir Mayakovski, to name but a few. But there are also lots of new works read by their authors. "This is the victory of the books. They were not destroyed. The decline of culture didn't happen," says writer Steffen Mensching.

The American Library Association : Terrorist Sanctuary - The American Library Association has signed up for battle in the War on Terrorism; unfortunately, it has signed up to fight the Bush Administration and the USA PATRIOT Act. Siding with civil libertarians against public safety is just the ALA’s most recent leftist act of political defiance. However, this is their most corrosive stance for the well-being of all Americans, undermining and sabotaging public efforts to stave off terrorism. Comment : Better burn all those books now, just to be on the safe side, eh?

Two-Front Rumsfeld - Brace yourself. The Defense Secretary is pushing a 205-page bill through Congress that would -- take a deep breath: * Strip Defense Department employees of their unions, whistleblower protections, annual pay raises, and rights to appeal disciplinary actions; * Let the Defense Secretary dole out no-bid, no-oversight, no-accountability contracts worth billions (one observer calls it "the Halliburton Bill of Rights"); * Exempt the military from environmental and wildlife protection rules on more than 23 million acres of American lands; * Free the Pentagon from dozens of requirements it report to Congress. Dissing Congress seems only fair. As long as the Pentagon is offering contempt to taxpayers, the environment and its own workers, why should it pretend it respects our elected representatives? Especially since Congress doesn't respect itself: Rumsfeld's bill is moving up Capitol Hill with a bullet. It was being discussed this morning at a House subcommittee hearing, and soon could make its way into the front pages.

Bush Gives Terrorists U.S. Military Uniforms - MKO agents in U.S. uniform deployed close to Iranian border. US troops are closely cooperating with members of militant Iranian opposition, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), allowing the terrorist group to dress American military uniform for controlling border checkpoints between Iran and Iraq, press said Tuesday. The Persian daily Jomhuri-ye Eslami cited a witness which the paper said had just returned from Iraq, as saying that MKO operatives had been assigned to search bodies of those who crossed the border. "The Munafeqin (MKO) forces are disarmed at these checkpoints but they move around with arms in several other cities such as Samera (which is a religious city with a major Shiite Muslim population)," the paper said. "Some Munafeqin wear Arabic dress at pilgrimage sites and are closely cooperating with invading forces on security issues," Jomhuri-ye Eslami cited the witness as saying. US has reportedly been seeking to use MKO in suppressing opposition to Iraq's occupation by American-led coalition forces. Washington, which has included MKO among terrorist groups, made a U-turn recently as it confirmed it had reached an accord with the group, which included letting the clique to keep its arms and bases in Iraq and continue their hit-and-run operations against Iran. MKO has internationally been classified as a 'terrorist organization', including by the European Union.

Has an unknown Russian quietly solved a puzzle that has baffled the finest mathematicians for a century? - For almost a century Poincaré's Conjecture has tempted, taunted and ultimately vanquished some of the brightest minds in mathematics. Now, a little-known Russian scholar has astonished the rarefied world of topology – the science of surfaces – by coming up with what appears to be the first formal proof – probably. For eight solitary years, Grigori Perelman, from the Steklov Institute of Mathematics in St Petersburg, has quietly toiled away on one of the hardest problems in mathematics, proposed in 1904 by the French-man Henri Poincaré.

It deals with the properties of surfaces in two, three or more dimensions, and, in essence, posits that all shapes can be reduced to spheres or doughnuts – but there is more to it than that, of course. Most people would find the simplest explanation of the conjecture a puzzle, never mind its solution. But solving it could lead to understanding the shape of the universe, as well as earning Dr Perelman $1m (£620,000) in prize money. For the past month, Dr Perelman has been touring universities in America explaining his proof to his peers for the first time. Many have come away convinced that he has done it, but nobody is prepared to say for sure.

What women want are Mel Gibson's earsl - Scientists find link between sperm quality and male body symmetry. Women looking for a more productive sex life should beware of men with different size feet or one ear smaller than the other. According to scientists who have measured almost everything on the male body that comes in twos, there is a definite association between semen quality and the degree of bilateral symmetry. The greater the difference between one side of the body and the other, the poorer the quality will be. And that may explain why women are attracted to men with symmetrical faces, and why men who are considered to be attractive, such as Mel Gibson, often have big families.

Blair tops worst Britons poll - Prime Minister Tony Blair has been branded the most unpopular figure in Britain after he topped a poll to find the nation's "worst" person.

Saudi Inmate of Guantanamo Says He Is Doing Fine - Abdullah Al-Anazi, a Saudi prisoner held in Guantanamo, recently sent a letter to his family in the northeastern city of Qaisuma, saying he is fine. “I am comfortable here. Don’t worry about me,” he said in the letter, a copy of which was sent to Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News. Al-Anazi, 24, expressed his hope that he would be able to meet his family soon. According to Pentagon officials, US authorities have already released 13 Guantanamo prisoners and sent them to Afghanistan. Miteb, a brother of Al-Anazi, told the Arabic daily that he hoped Al-Anazi would be released soon. Miteb has been communicating with his brother by exchanging letters through the Red Cross. Referring to the prison in Guantanamo, Al-Anazi said: “I am staying at a special cell and I have my personal belongings, including books and furniture. I am comfortable.” Al-Anazi, who injured his leg when he was taken prisoner by the US forces in Afghanistan, said he has now fully recovered. He inquired about the health of his father, wife, mother, brothers and sisters. He had married six months before leaving the Kingdom. Al-Anazi was born and brought up in Qaisuma and worked for a charitable organization after completing his intermediate schooling. He asked his family to send letters.