Forged Evidence

The following letter was sent on June 10, 2003, from Rep. Henry Waxman, the ranking member of the House Committee on Government Reform. The full text with footnotes may be found on the minority office of the House Government Reform Web site. Democrat Henry Waxman represents the 30th District of California in the U.S. House of Representatives.

June 10, 2003

The Honorable Condoleezza Rice
Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
The White House Washington, DC 20500

Dear Dr. Rice:

Since March 17, 2003, I have been trying without success to get a direct answer to one simple question: Why did President Bush cite forged evidence about Iraq's nuclear capabilities in his State of the Union address?

Although you addressed this issue on Sunday on both Meet the Press and This Week with George Stephanopoulos, your comments did nothing to clarify this issue. In fact, your responses contradicted other known facts and raised a host of new questions.

During your interviews, you said the Bush Administration welcomes inquiries into this matter. Yesterday, The Washington Post also reported that Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet has agreed to provide "full documentation" of the intelligence information "in regards to Secretary Powell's comments, the president's comments and anybody else's comments." Consistent with these sentiments, I am writing to seek further information about this important matter. [...]

Comment: If there is one thing that is recurring when one begins trying to unravel the fog surrounding the truth of things on this planet, it is that no matter the subject, it is impossible to make sense of the facts within the confines of the standard, accepted theory, or what we might term "the academy". The twists and turns, contradictions, and competing explanations all work to to instill in the serious researcher a deep-seated unease that it is impossible to know the real facts, to uncover the "truth" of anything.

This is a very useful fundamental prejudice to encourage if your interest is in keeping the truth of things hidden. In the present case, the Democrats are finally starting to ask questions over the Bush Reich's handling of 9/11 and Iraq. However, the official opposition in the US has as little interest in anyone uncovering the real facts as does Bush or Rumsfeld. The two parties need each other to justify their existence and the little game of power-sharing they have worked out where they alternate every few years to give the impression that the American people are "free" and live in the "most democratic country" in the world. What arrogance!

In academia, the same thing happens. Competing theories in various disciplines come and go, and yet none of them pose questions outside of the framework acceptable to the continued dominance of bogus explanations, wishful thinking, and fairy tales. People who begin to question outside of the box are labelled cranks and quacks, and should one or another researcher start getting too close, he or she is bought off, killed, ridiculed, or marginalized. Also, phony researchers serving the interests of the puppet masters appear and play the Pied Piper to serious but naive individuals who are beginning to look a little more closely at the working of the world.

But the "truth" is out there, it can be seen.

But to begin to see this, one must pay attention over a long period of time. The puppet masters are masters of ambiguity. There will not be a smoking gun, but one can "see" their fingerprints everywhere. Their workings must be indirectly detected by putting together the clues. This is the purpose of this page. To pull together the clues that reveal the workings, the "fingerprints" of our hyperdimensional controllers, the puppet masters, Gurdjieff's Evil Magician. We are not at the top of the food chain. This is the great secret that must be hidden from us in order to ensure that the horror and terror of this world, the pain and suffering of those subjected to daily life the world over, can be harvested as a negative energy used as food by our unseen masters. Outrageous? Unthinkable? Of course it is. That is the whole point. Confine these ideas to the tabloids, to Hollywood blockbusters, but don't let them appear as subjects of serious scientific study.

Hyperdimensions are mathematical realities for mathematicians the world over, but when researchers move to give these mathematical realities physical reality, they become of subjects of cosmic cointelpro operations. If one has not yet begun to "see", one sees the slander and believes it. If one has begun to see, one is able to ask the question: "If what these researchers say is so foolish, why would 'someone' go to the effort to ridicule them? Why not ignore them?" So the interest shown by the cosmic cointelpro operation serves as a "fingerprint", as a piece of indirect evidence, much as the interest shown by the US military when they scramble jets to track sightings of UFOs shows that there is a real interest in these phenomena that belies the "official" position. This is not "proof", and those who prefer the comforts of the Academy are free to remain within their illusions. But it is clear that something is happening here, and you don't know what it is, do you, Mr Jones? The Big Blue Marble offers clues to those who wish to work for them. The Mister Jones will get their illusions shattered with just enough time left to generate a banquet of negative emotions for our controllers.

War may have killed 10,000 civilians, researchers say

Simon Jeffery
Friday June 13, 2003
The Guardian

At least 5,000 civilians may have been killed during the invasion of Iraq, an independent research group has claimed. As more evidence is collated, it says, the figure could reach 10,000.

Iraq Body Count (IBC), a volunteer group of British and US academics and researchers, compiled statistics on civilian casualties from media reports and estimated that between 5,000 and 7,000 civilians died in the conflict.
Its latest report compares those figures with 14 other counts, most of them taken in Iraq, which, it says, bear out its findings.

Researchers from several groups have visited hospitals and mortuaries in Iraq and interviewed relatives of the dead; some are conducting surveys in the main cities. [...]

U.S. Vows to Maintain Nuclear Weapons Preeminence

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will maintain its preeminence in nuclear weapons and could resume testing under certain circumstances, but it is not lowering the threshold for using atomic bombs, a key U.S. official said on Thursday.

Linton Brooks, who heads the agency that maintains the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, said the Bush administration has no current plans to end a decade-long moratorium on nuclear testing or develop new types of atomic arms. [...]

Belgian war crimes law sparks U.S. warning

PAULINE JELINEK
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BRUSSELS
Toronto Star Jun. 13, 2003

The United States threatened yesterday to withhold money for a new NATO headquarters and ban Americans from attending alliance meetings unless Belgium changes a law under which Gen. Tommy Franks was charged with war crimes.

The strongly worded comments by U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld overshadowed a meeting at which the NATO allies said they had taken historic steps to streamline the organization and equip it to handle new threats of the 21st century.

Rumsfeld criticized a decade-old Belgian law that claims a right to prosecute war crimes committed anywhere by anyone. Rumsfeld said the United States rejects the assertion that Belgium has such jurisdiction.

"Belgium appears not to respect the sovereignty of other countries," Rumsfeld said at a news conference, noting that Americans sued so far include Franks, the commander of the Iraq war; former Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf; Vice-President Dick Cheney; Secretary of State Colin Powell and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Comment: Once more, the psychopath's logic. The US hasn't respected the sovereignty of any country for decades! Chile, Congo, Guatemala, Cuba, Grenada, Venezuela, Iraq, Iran, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Columbia, Timor, etc. The list goes on and on. The neighborhood enforcer isn't answerable to any other power. If he were, he wouldn't be the neighborhood enforcer.

Weeks after Bush's declaration of victory, U.S. troops still fighting and dying in Iraq

By Robert Burns

WASHINGTON (AP) When President Bush declared on May 1 that major combat operations had ended in Iraq, there was little discussion of what he meant. For all practical purposes, it seemed the war was over.

It is not.

Since the president made his statement to waves of applause from sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, 47 American servicemen have died in Iraq. Commanders say there is much more fighting ahead. [...]

U.S. Troops Storm Sunni Muslim Enclave

By JIM KRANE
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Thousands of U.S. troops stormed through a Sunni Muslim enclave centered on the Tigris River north of Baghdad on Thursday, day three of a massive operation aimed at cracking down on Saddam Hussein loyalists.

Fighter jets, attack helicopters and unmanned aerial drones have backed up ground troops during Operation Peninsula Strike, one of the U.S. military's biggest assaults since Saddam's ouster. About 400 Iraqis have been captured. [...]

Resistance to occupation is growing

US and British troops are being sucked into an Iraqi quagmire

Richard Norton-Taylor and Rory McCarthy in Baghdad
Friday June 13, 2003
The Guardian

While attention has focused on the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, growing evidence that the war is far from over has been overlooked. Fighting with real weapons is on the increase.

A sudden upsurge in violence in the past couple of weeks has killed at least 10 American soldiers and wounded more than 25 in a series of attacks against checkpoints and military convoys. Iraqi fighters yesterday brought down an Apache helicopter in the west of the country.

Far more more numerous than these incidents is the unpublicised number of attacks on American positions that do not injure or kill soldiers. Attacks occur daily - more than a dozen every day in the past week [...]

As U.S. Fans Out in Iraq, Violence and Death on Rise

By PATRICK E. TYLER
New York Times

L HIR, Iraq, June 13 — American troops fanning out to reinforce allied control of Iraq came under attack again today in at least three separate places north of Baghdad. Retaliating, they killed at least seven people, military officials said.

The Americans who came under attack said that they had killed two of their assailants. Then, in a confusing encounter that produced contradictory versions of events, at least five more Iraqis were killed. Those Iraqis were characterized by local people as innocent bystanders, but the American military said they were attackers. [...]

What appeared significant was that the muscular military campaign to uproot, arrest or kill the remnants of guerrilla fighters loyal to Saddam Hussein, who remains unaccounted for, has caused civilian casualties and is inflaming sentiments among the Iraqis.

In this patch of mud-brick homes 36 miles north of Baghdad, nearly everyone was asleep Thursday night when the explosion and gunfire erupted on the main road a quarter mile away. [...]

In the heat of the night, only the moon illuminated the shorn wheat fields as men, women and children ran for the cluster of sheep and cows bedded down among the thistles, villagers said. Some of the villagers laid among the animals for cover, but some kept running.

Then came the rumble of the diesel engine armored personnel carrier and the clatter of its machine gun, they said. In a flash of tracer bullets and screams, the armored vehicle did its work, spraying the field, setting the brown wheat stubble on fire, and then roaring away. [...]

The men of Al Hir this evening were putting up the frames for the funeral tents. Across the pasture, four dead sheep killed by the gunfire lay bloated in the animal pen near the cinderblock hut where Ali Jassim al-Khazraji, the patriarch of the village, died on the pallet where he was sleeping near the flock.

His grandson, Qassim Zubar, 19, was running to reach his grandfather when he was killed. A concrete aqueduct near where he fell was pocked by machine gun fire. Hamza Ali Jassim, Abd Ali Jassim and Amir Ali Jassim died where they fell in the field. Their head wounds were so severe that two of them had to be identified by an appendectomy scar and a missing finger.

At dawn, an American armored vehicle came and took the bodies, the residents said. The soldiers searched the houses for weapons, but found none, they added. By midmorning, the soldiers returned with the bodies, which were washed and sent to the holy city of Najaf, where most Shiites bury their dead. An officer delivered the apology, the residents said.

This evening, while the men worked, the women gathered in a circle in the dirt courtyard, weeping and lamenting their losses. All the residents of the village are from the al-Khazraji clan, a prominent Shiite Muslim tribe that was sympathetic to the American and British effort to topple Mr. Hussein.

Noufa Hamoud, 60, whose eyes reddened with tears, said that before the attack on the village, her attitude had been, "Long live Bush, Long live Bush." She was an aunt of the three brothers, and her weathered face bore the small tattoos of rural Iraq.

Now, she said of Mr. Bush: "I will not forgive him. They were so young, they had children, they had never committed any crime. He has leveled our family." [...]

HILLARY DIVERSION TACTIC TO COVER BUSH

HERE WE GO AGAIN...MEDIA DIVERSION OF PUBLIC ATTENTION

By: Dorothy Anne Seese
Etherzone.com

Just as things are getting hot for the White House about the Iraq war and the missing weapons of mass destruction, lies about al-Qaeda connections and any involvement in the events of the infamous Nine-Eleven, up comes Hillary's long-awaited (?) book about her "living history" as the First Lady. How convenient. How timely. How distracting.

When Hillary isn't grabbing headlines, then some editors toss in more grist for the tabloid mind-mill by bringing in Martha Stewart and her "did she, didn't she" involvement in insider trading of ImClone shares.

Isn't it odd that Hillary never did a thing about her book, for which she was reportedly paid eight or ten million dollars in advance, until George W. Bush's little Iraq war excuses began to crumble faster than a stale cracker? Out of absolutely nowhere, the lady who hadn't written a word suddenly produced an overnight book to capture the public attention, still grossed up and goosebumpy over the Clintoons' sex scandals. The only people who should have any interest in the Clintons at this point are Congressional investigators and the federal Grand Jury.

Just as Bill Clinton would find a reason to drop a bomb on some unsuspecting aspirin factory to distract the public from his domestic problems and sex scandals, George W. Bush has now received some relief from the heat and glare of the public spotlight and media attention (but not a lot) by the publication of Hillary's book. Maybe the diversion will last long enough for Colin Powell, who has suddenly become a staunch defender of a war he initially opposed, to get some soldiers to dig a few holes and deliver enough biological weapons to make grand headlines to rescue The Dubya and his comrade-at-war, Tony Blair, before they face the congressional and parliamentary equivalent of a lynch mob. [...]

Iraqi shepherd sues Rumsfeld, seeks $200 million

Ramadi: An Iraqi shepherd is seeking 200 million dollars in damages from the US military for the deaths of 17 members of his family as well as 200 sheeps in a missile strike, in the first such suit filed through the courts of the US-led occupation administration.

The first hearing will take place on July 20 at the tribunal of Ramadi, 100 kilometers west of Baghdad.

"The trial will be Iraq's first against US troops because we believe they used excessive force against the Iraqi people who cooperated with the United States to topple Saddam Hussein's regime," Abud Sarhan's lawyer told AFP.

Lawyer Rabah al-Alwani was approached by Sarhan, 71, to file a suit against US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and General Tommy Franks, commander of US forces in Iraq, after the shepherd claimed a US missile landed on his tent on April 4.

Days before, Sarhan had left his home village of Al-Altash, near an Iraqi military base that was heavily bombed by coalition warplanes.

He had set up a tent in the nearby desert to host 20 of his family members and relatives in three distinct sections, one for women, one for men and the other for children, said his half-brother Hamad Sarhan, 25, who was wounded in the attack.

"We thought we would be safe there. There were no military positions, only shepherds and their flocks.

"Before the night prayer, a missile landed next to us, shortly afterwards another one fell right into the women's section.

"It was horrible. We could not make out whose limbs were scattered on the ground," he said.

All his family members died, except for him and his half-brother as the two had stepped outside the tent to perform their ablutions in preparation for the evening prayer.

He said 200 of their 700 sheeps also died in what he said was a coalition raid.

Missile debris, children's clothes and sheeps' carcasses were still littering the ground two months later, an AFP correspondent at the scene reported. [...]

CIA officer: Bush ignored warnings

By Jonathan S. Landay
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS

WASHINGTON -Making his case for war with Iraq, President Bush in his State of the Union address this year accused Saddam Hussein of trying to buy uranium from Africa, even though the CIA had warned White House and other officials that the story did not check out. [...]

Forgeries involved

The claim later turned out to be based on crude forgeries that an African diplomat had sold to Italian intelligence officials.

The revelation of the CIA warning is the strongest evidence to date that pro-war administration officials manipulated, exaggerated or ignored intelligence information in their eagerness to make the case for invading Iraq.
[...]

CIA Says It Cabled Key Data to White House

But Officials Say Document Lacked Conclusion on Iraqi Uranium Deal

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer

The CIA, facing criticism for its failure to pass on a key piece of information that put in doubt Iraq's purported attempts to buy uranium from Niger, said yesterday it sent a cable to the White House and other government agencies in March 2002 that said the claim had been denied by officials from the central African country.

But Bush administration officials acknowledged that the 11/2-page document did not include the conclusion of a former U.S. ambassador dispatched by the CIA to Niger the month before that documents outlining a transfer of uranium to Baghdad were not authentic. The CIA cable attributed the Niger officials' denials to an anonymous source, but failed to mention the name of the former ambassador, who was a recognized expert in Africa, or that it had sent him to Niger.

The purported Iraqi effort to buy uranium oxide was used by President Bush and senior administration officials as a central piece of evidence to support their assertion that Iraq had an ongoing nuclear weapons program. The CIA's failure to pass on the details of what it knew helped keep the uranium-purchase story alive until shortly before the war in Iraq began, when the United Nations' chief nuclear inspector told the Security Council that the documents were forgeries. [...]

Rice, in defending Bush's decision to claim that Iraq was attempting to buy uranium in Africa in his State of the Union speech on Jan. 28, said she was unaware that there were doubts about the information. "Maybe someone knew down in the bowels of the agency," Rice said on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, "but no one in our circles knew that there were doubts and suspicions that this might be a forgery." [...]

CIA EXPOSE NEW LIE IN BLAIR'S IRAQ DOSSIER

Jun 13 2003
By Mark Ellis, Foreign Editor
The Mirror
 
[...] But the CIA last night rejected any blame for Mr Bush using false intelligence information.
Spokesman Bill Harlow said that documents supplied to congressional committees would show that the CIA "did not withhold information from appropriate officials" about Iraq's alleged Niger connection.

Israel's Hamas

by George Szamuely

[...]Starting in the late 1970s Israel helped build up the most fanatical and intolerant fundamentalist Muslims as rivals to the nationalist PLO. The terrorist organization Hamas is largely an Israeli creation. A UPI story last year quoted a U.S. government official as saying: "The thinking on the part of some of the right-wing Israeli establishment was that Hamas and the other groups, if they gained control, would refuse to have anything to do with the peace process and would torpedo any agreements put in place."

The PLO has long been aware of Israeli strategy. In their 1989 book, Intifada, Ze'ev Schiff and Ehud Ya'ari write that Fatah "suspected the Israelis of a plot first to let Hamas gather strength and then to unleash it against the PLO, turning the uprising into a civil war... [M]any Israeli staff officers believed that the rise of fundamentalism in Gaza could be exploited to weaken the power of the PLO…" [...]

Diplomacy by Assassination

By Jackson Diehl

June 2001: The Bush administration was engaged in one of its sporadic efforts to end the fighting between Israelis and Palestinians. On June 28 Secretary of State Colin Powell announced in Jerusalem that the government of Ariel Sharon and the Palestinian Authority had agreed on a timeline for restarting the peace process, beginning with a complete halt to violence.

Just three days later, Israeli helicopters launched eight missiles at a car in the West Bank, killing a commander of Islamic Jihad. The cease-fire never began. On July 31 another helicopter attack killed two senior political leaders of the Hamas movement. Days later Hamas staged one of its most horrendous suicide attacks, slaughtering children in a Sbarro pizza parlor in Jerusalem. Instead of ending, the war escalated.

December 2002: Under heavy pressure from the United States, Yasser Arafat finally declared a cease-fire. For three weeks in December and early January there was no violence, though the Israeli capture of a ship bearing Iranian arms for the Palestinians nullified any political benefit. Then Hamas staged an attack against an Israeli army outpost. Several days later Israel assassinated Raed Karmi, a senior figure in Arafat's Fatah movement. The cease-fire was immediately called off, and in the following two weeks Israel suffered the worst wave of suicide bombings in its history. In March its troops reoccupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank. They are still there.

That brings us to June 2003. Another U.S.-brokered peace initiative has been followed by a Hamas attack on an Israeli military post, then a spectacular Israeli assassination strike against a Hamas political leader, then a horrendous suicide bombing in Jerusalem, and then a new wave of Israeli military raids. A couple of patterns spring out from this history. One is the bid by Hamas, a sworn enemy of a Palestinian settlement with Israel, to disrupt any attempt to start a peace process. The other is Sharon's more paradoxical habit of following up his acceptance of U.S. peace initiatives with spectacular assassination raids -- raids that without exception have been followed by the retaliatory slaughter of Israeli civilians and major escalations of the conflict. [...]

Israel Vows War on Hamas, Poll Sees Public Opposed

Fri June 13, 2003 05:40 AM ET
By Jeffrey Heller

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel pledged on Friday a "war to the bitter end" against Hamas but an opinion poll showed a majority of Israelis oppose the stepped-up attacks on leaders of the militant Islamic group.
With his peace "road map" threatened by Israeli-Palestinian violence that has killed 38 people in two days, President Bush planned to send a veteran U.S. diplomat to Israel this weekend to try to stem the bloodshed.
In the latest violence, gunmen fired at an Israeli car near the Jewish settlement of Neve Tzuf in the West Bank, wounding two women, one of them seriously, witnesses said.

"As a government responsible for the security of its citizens, we must wage a war to the bitter end (against Hamas) because no one else, at least at this stage, will do it," Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim told Army Radio.

But a poll in the Yedioth Ahronoth daily found 67 percent of Israelis wanted what the survey termed the "assassination policy" to stop, at least temporarily, to give new Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas a chance to grow stronger. [...]

A plea to the non-Jewish supporters of the "State of Israel"

SYMPATHY FOR ZIONISM IS MISPLACED SYMPATHY FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE

Outside the Omni Shoreham Hotel, 2500 Calvert Street NW
Protesting the "Interfaith Zionist Leadership Conference"

May 18, 2003 – Washington DC As we speak before a great assembly of Americans who have gathered together for many moral issues and also because of their feelings of concern for the Jewish People, we must make some very important and vital clarifications. It is of enormous importance that there are so many Americans who support strong issues like family values and the right to life, and we are grateful for that. In fact we have stood side by side in previous rallies, in support of such values. However, sympathy for the Zionist state is misplaced compassion and concern for the Jewish People. It is a great error, and everyone can see that the behavior of the Zionist state is the root cause of anti-Jewish hatred. Therefore it would be most urgent for those who are concerned about the Jewish People, to know that Zionism has been the greatest danger to the physical and spiritual well-being of the Jewish People everywhere, and especially in the Holy Land. [...]

Israeli gunships bombard Gaza

Saturday, 14 June, 2003, 01:48 GMT
BBC

Israel has killed a member of Islamic militant group Hamas and wounded about 30 other Palestinians in two helicopter missile attacks on Gaza City.

In the first attack, witnesses said missiles struck a car, killing 26-year-old Fuad al-Lidawi.

Israeli military sources said the car contained a Hamas cell that had been preparing a rocket attack on Israel.

Several children were among the injured.

In the second attack, helicopter gunships targeted what military sources described as a weapons warehouse but what Palestinian reports said was the home of a suspected Hamas member. [...]

U.S. Doesn't Condemn Strikes by Israelis

Saturday, June 14, 2003; Page A15

KENNEBUNKPORT Maine, June 13 -- President Bush's spokesman today said the administration did not oppose Israel's strikes on Hamas militants in the Palestinian territories, sharply reversing the president's criticism of such actions this week.

"The issue is not Israel," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said at a briefing here, shortly before Israel launched a new strike on Palestinian militants. "No one can let the terrorists get away with killing." Fleischer expressed sympathy for the Jewish state, saying it was "in a very dangerous time because of the terrorist attacks against Israel."

Bush, vacationing here with his family, did not make remarks on the Middle East for the second day in row.

Fleischer acknowledged the collapse of optimism that came from the summit meeting in Jordan last week between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. The spokesman characterized the current environment as "the darkest moments" in the region.

But in contrast to earlier in the week, when administration officials said Bush was "deeply troubled" by Israel's actions, Fleischer no longer called Israeli attacks a violation of the U.S. "road map" for Middle East peace.

"The issue is not Israel, the issue is not Prime Minister Abbas, the issue is not the Palestinian Authority." he said. "The issue is the terrorists, Hamas and others."

Fleischer said the administration was not calling on Israel to stop its attacks. "Once the terrorism goes down, there won't be a need for Israel to respond to terror," he said.

Comment: Sharon's clear goal is the destruction of the Palestinians, he therefore does not want peace or any settlement. Sharon and other right-wing Zionist extremists in the US administration and in Israel are the true terrorists.

Iran Cleric Urges Young Not to Fall Into U.S. Trap

By Paul Hughes
Fri June 13, 2003 10:28 AM ET

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Influential former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani warned Iran's youth on Friday not to fall into a U.S. trap after a third night of protests in Tehran against Islamic rule which have been applauded by Washington.

"I advise young people, especially students who are interested in the country...to express themselves but be careful not to fall into the trap that the Americans have dug for them," Rafsanjani said during a Friday prayers sermon in Tehran.

Several hundred students and onlookers gathered at a Tehran University dormitory in the early hours of Friday chanting "freedom, freedom" and "death to Khamenei" in a reference to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The protesters have also vented their anger at moderate President Mohammad Khatami, whom they accuse of failing to deliver promised reforms after six years in government.

Washington, which accuses Iran of building nuclear arms and sponsoring terrorism, has hailed the protests which have drawn crowds of up to 3,000 people in the last three days. [...]

Gunfire in Tehran as Vigilantes Attack Protesters

By Jon Hemming
Fri June 13, 2003 11:00 PM ET

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Automatic gunfire echoed in the Iranian capital early Saturday as hundreds of hard-line Islamic militants, some armed with Kalashnikov rifles, attacked groups of people demonstrating against clerical rule.

In the most serious violence since the U.S.-applauded pro-democracy protests began four days ago, witnesses also reported seeing hard-line vigilantes pulling young women out of cars and beating them with sticks.

Police stood by as hundreds of militiamen, who wear no uniforms and are fiercely loyal to Iran's conservative clerical leaders, manned checkpoints and roared around on motorbikes brandishing batons and chains. By 3:30 a.m. (7 p.m. EDT on Friday) there were no signs of protesters on the streets of the capital and hard-line vigilantes had complete control of streets around the Tehran University dormitory which has been the focal point of the demonstrations. [...]

FLASHBACK: UK 'sells' bomb material to Iran

Monday, 23 September, 2002

BBC

DTI is accused of approving controversial exports

British officials have approved the export of key components needed to make nuclear weapons to Iran and other countries known to be developing such weapons.

An investigation by BBC Radio 4 programme File on Four will disclose that the Department of Trade and Industry allowed a quantity of the metal, Beryllium, to be sold to Iran last year.

That metal is needed to make nuclear bombs.

Britain has had an arms embargo to Iran since 1993 and has signed up to an international protocol which bans the sale of Beryllium to named countries, including Iran. [...]

George W. Bush: Scorecard of Evil

Thinking Outside The Box: : Facing Reality In Our Time 

We come now, sober from anger, sober from reading, from writing our hearts out, from facing the lies we have been told, facing the hard cold facts that our nation is but one step away from fascism, from a Hitlerian dictatorship that has pushed America into the permanent war that Orwell wrote about a half-century ago.

By Sam Hamod  

How could we have come to this pass? How could the American people have become so dumbed down that many do not have any sense of what is happening? How could we come to a time when parents who lost their children in needless wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq are among those waving flags to cheer Bush on? How can people who have been out of work, who may lose their homes, who may never find another good paying job, continue to come out to cheer and wave flags for Bush and the men who have busted the economy and who are setting it up for the longest running depression in history? How can the American people sit night after night and watch “news casts” that are but reports allowing Bush and his cronies to monopolize the air-waves with pseudo-event stories that are but embellishments of their designs and desires, replete with false “evidence”, with outright lies and comments about fears that have no basis in fact, but are still believed by the American people? [...]

It's too early to start using the 'I-word' about Bush

Jules Witcover

WASHINGTON - The other day, I quoted some e-mails calling for the impeachment of President Bush on grounds he misrepresented or lied about an imminent threat from weapons of mass destruction to justify invading Iraq. Why, some other readers immediately asked, didn't I use the "I-word" myself?

An e-mailer from Los Angeles wrote: "You seem to be perfectly willing to use the word impeachment when you can attribute it to a reader. Why not go on record in your own words?"

Another asked: "Why not mention impeachment yourself in your articles? Start saying that Bush lied, allowed people to die and that his abuse of the Constitution equates to an impeachable offense."

My response is that I prefer to extend to President Bush the additional time he declined to give the U.N. inspectors to find those weapons of mass destruction before launching his pre-emptive war.

Rather than take the extreme step of articles of impeachment, what I believe is in order is a thorough congressional or, even better, independent inquiry into whether intelligence data were hyped or politicized by the administration to sell the invasion to Congress and the American people. [...]

Practically speaking, Mr. Bush's popularity and stature as a wartime president make it unlikely right now that anybody in Congress would consider taking the drastic step of introducing articles of impeachment against him.

In January, a University of Illinois law professor, Francis A. Boyle, drafted articles and tried to sell them to Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, a critic of invading Iraq and ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. Mr. Conyers declined. So did Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, perhaps Congess' most militant antiwar member, who was revving up his bid for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination.

Comment: It's a good idea to read those who make an attempt to appear moderate and reasonable. Notice the comment we added emphasis to, "militant antiwar member," which is an obvious attempt to poison reasonable actions and common sense. Some of us do not want their country to commit slaughter (perhaps he thinks the slaughter of civilians is reasonable) for their fascist leader's gain, all done by dancing on the graves of Americans who died during the crime of the century. This is not the time to plead for patience, it's time to demand Bush be held accountable for his actions - before it is too late. What does Jules Whitcover gain by his pleas for patience? Said from the comfort of his home, no less, while his fellow citizens die and kill in the desert, and those who make it out alive will come home sick and traumatized all based on Bush's lies. When will this type of talk come to be seen as unpatriotic?

Am I still An Unpatriotic Traitor?

By Ed Hanratty

June 13, 2003: ( Democratic Underground )When I spoke against the threat of war, that's what you called me. You told me I had forgotten about the tragic events of September 11th. You told me I was encouraging another attack. You told me I was sympathizing with terrorists. But you never proved a link between Iraq and September 11th. In fact, the only concrete link you've ever proven was the money trail from the Saudi Royal Family to Al Qaeda. But it's okay, if the President chooses to ignore the Saudi's culpability, good little Americans should lockstep behind him. [...]

Why, I just might think that you might be an Unpatriotic Traitor.

Citing illegalities, Ortiz asks feds to probe primary election

His winning rival calls allegations 'outrageous'

By DAVE DAVIES & EARNI YOUNG

City Councilman Angel Ortiz has called for a federal investigation into the May 20 primary election, citing "compelling information to suggest there were deliberate acts of voter violations and illegal electioneering" in Hispanic wards. [...]

Comment: Most Americans could not be bothered to see what the CIA was doing to the so called "banana republics", and now The U.S. has been turned into one.

New book on NSA sheds light on secrets

U.S. terror plan called Cuba invasion pretext

By Scott Shane and Tom Bowman
Sun Staff

WASHINGTON - U.S. military leaders proposed in 1962 a secret plan to commit terrorist acts against Americans and blame Cuba to create a pretext for invasion and the ouster of Communist leader Fidel Castro, according to a new book about the National Security Agency. [...]

Trading with the Enemy

The Nazi - American Money Plot 1933-1949

by Charles Higham
Delacorte Press, 1983
Preface

p xiii
...a number of financial and industrial figures of World War II and several members of the government served the cause of money before the cause of patriotism. While aiding the United States' war effort, they also aided Nazi Germany's.

p xiv
It thus came as a severe shock to learn that several of the greatest American corporate leaders were in league with Nazi corporations before and after Pearl Harbor, including I.G. Farben, the colossal Nazi industrial trust that created Auschwitz. Those leaders interlocked through an association I have dubbed The Fraternity. Each of these business leaders was entangled with the others through interlocking directorates or financial sources. All were represented internationally by the National City Bank or by the Chase National Bank and by the Nazi attorneys Gerhardt Westrick and Dr. Heinrich Albert. All had connections to that crucial Nazi economist, Emil Puhl, of Hitler's Reichsbank and the Bank for International Settlements.

The tycoons were linked by an ideology: the ideology of Business as Usual. Bound by identical reactionary ideas, the members sought a common future in fascist domination regardless of which world leader might further that ambition.

Several members not only sought a continuing alliance of interests for the duration of World War II but supported the idea of a negotiated peace with Germany that would bar any reorganization of Europe along liberal lines. It would leave as its residue a police state that would place The Fraternity in postwar possession of financial, industrial, and political autonomy. When it was clear that Germany was losing the war the businessmen became notably more "loyal.''

Then, when war was over, the survivors pushed into Germany, protected their assets, restored Nazi friends to high office, helped provoke the Cold War, and insured the permanent future of The Fraternity. [...]

Comment: Check out our Cosmic COINTELPRO Timeline.

Smart airline seat detects shifty passengers
 
Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition
 
Intelligent airline seats could automatically alert busy cabin crew to nervous, shifty passengers, who might be terrorists or air-ragers. [...]

British court upholds suit over Gulf War syndrome

LONDON (AFP) Jun 13, 2003

The British High Court moved a step closer towards recognizing Gulf War syndrome Friday, in a landmark ruling which could open the door for thousands of soldiers seeking government compensation.

The court upheld an earlier verdict in a case brought by a former soldier, which found that British troops suffered from an unspecified illness during the 1991 Gulf war.

Referring to the case brought by Shaun Rusling, the High Court judge ruled that he had shown "symptoms and signs of ill-defined conditions".

The specific ruling concerned whether Rusling, a former medical officer with a British paratroop unit, was entitled to a war pension.

The British pensions agency had originally turned down the request. Rusling sued and had his demand upheld in a lower court in May 2002.

The defense ministry appealed to the High Court, and even though it lost the case on Friday the ministry was quick to point out the ruling did not state with certainty that Gulf War Syndrome existed. [...]

Election by selection?

Panel: Change in Constitution needed to appoint lawmakers after disaster

By Jon Dougherty
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
June 14, 2003 1:00 a.m. ET

A panel formed last year to devise plans to ensure the U.S. government survives a catastrophic attack has recommended altering the Constitution to allow for the appointment, rather than election, of members of Congress killed in such an assault, a plan that has been criticized as a danger to due process. [...]

"The greatest hole in our constitutional system is the possibility of an attack that would kill or injure many members of Congress," said the report. A large and deadly attack against the Legislative branch could either prevent it from operating or, the report says, cause it "to operate with such a small number that many people would question its legitimacy."

As its example, the panel created a scenario in which most of Congress, the Supreme Court, incoming and outgoing presidents, and Cabinet members are attending an Inauguration Day event in Washington, D.C., when terrorists strike nearby with a small nuclear device. [...]

To fix the problem, the panel recommended a constitutional amendment that would "give Congress the power to provide by legislation the appointment of temporary replacements to fill vacant seats" in the House "after a catastrophic attack" and in the House and Senate to temporarily fill seats "held by incapacitated members."

According to the report, appointed House members should hold that office for the time it takes to hold a special election to properly fill the seat, "within 120 days of the vacancy." [...]

EU draft constitution agreed

Friday, 13 June, 2003, 13:37 GMT
BBC

A final version of the draft constitution for an enlarged European Union has been agreed after tough last-minute negotiations in Brussels.

The document is expected to be presented to EU leaders at a summit in Greece next week.

Former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who headed the convention that produced the text, said that history had been made.

However, several countries including Britain and Spain said the draft would need to be amended when governments start to debate it later this year. [...]

Comment: Whoopee! Now European leaders too can go about trashing their very own US style consitution...

FBI: Rigged cell phones might trigger bombs

Thursday, June 12, 2003 Posted: 1512 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Cell phones modified so they could detonate bombs by remote control were found by investigators probing the recent Saudi Arabia bombings, raising concern that such methods could be used in the United States by terrorists.

An unspecified number of rigged cell phones turned up during searches following the May 12 bombing in Riyadh that killed 35 people, including nine Americans. The FBI said Wednesday it had no information that such devices might be used in a specific terrorist plot in the United States but urged extra vigilance.

"Law enforcement agencies should remain alert to potential use of such devices and incorporate awareness into their counterterrorism preventive measures," the FBI said in its weekly bulletin to 18,000 state and local police agencies. [...]

Comment: Just in case you aren't terrified yet, here's something else to worry about: people with cell phones.

Thai police arrest man peddling nuclear materials

Friday, Jun. 13, 2003 1:19 PM EDT
Associated Press

Bangkok — Undercover Thai police, tipped off by U.S. investigators, on Friday arrested a man Friday allegedly trying to sell them radioactive material that could be used to make so-called 'dirty bombs'.

Police did not say if the man was suspected of having terrorist connections, and U.S. officials said the material was not destined for weapons against Americans, as originally suspected.

The arrest came after three alleged Islamic terrorists were arrested this week in southern Thailand, accused of plotting bombings of embassies and tourists spots here. The men are alleged members of Jemaah Islamiyah, the extremist group blamed for last year's nightclub bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali. [...]

Unidentified Object Seen Floating Outside ISS

Object Possibly From Space Station

June 13, 2003 9:31 am EDT

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA is trying to identify a small object spotted floating outside the International Space Station Thursday, according to a report.

Astronaut Ed Lu spotted the object outside the window of the U.S. laboratory and took pictures of it, Local 6 News partner Florida Today reported.

Ground controllers are analyzing Lu's photos but don't yet have enough information about the object's direction of travel to determine where it came from.

The object, which has moved out of sight, is likely from the station itself, according to the report.

NASA is reportedly asking U.S. Strategic Command to use its resources to gather more information about the object. Strategic Command was able to track a small object seen floating near Columbia shortly after the shuttle entered orbit on its last mission. [...]

Comment: If the object is not part of the space station, then what is it? And if it IS part of the station, why doesn't anyone seem concerned that the thing is falling apart in orbit?

NASA Worried Over Sun's Activity

by Mitch Battros (ECTV)

I have received several notices telling of NASA's grave concern with the unusual increase in solar activity. Since I have not received an official response to my inquisition from NASA official's, let me just say there is quite a bit of "chatter" suggesting Earth could be at some risk. I would suggest it is our satellites which are at most risk.

The rumors suggest NASA has been handed a 'gage order' issued by DoD (department of defense). The reason for this order is directed at our spy satellites. It is suggested that 'in the name of national security' we cannot confirm or deny recent and current solar activity is at dangerous levels.

Over the past week a reported 65 C-Class flares, 16 M-Class flares, and 2 X-Class flares have occurred. Just the week prior, another 2 X-Class flares and 4 M-Class flares erupted. In addition to the solar flares, perhaps as many as 45 CME's (coronal mass ejections) emerged.

Another area of concern is our 'power grids'. If Earth experiences a direct hit from any one of these M-Class or X-Class flares, it could in fact cripple our infrastructure. There is good reason to be concerned over this issue. Some of you may remember what happened in 1989 when an X-Class flare ripped through our Magnetic Field knocking out power grids all across parts of the world.

One area which suffered a devastating hit was Quebec, Canada. Power grids where knocked out for almost two months. This had occurred during winter months and people literally had to set up emergency communities to survive. Those who had homes with "fireplaces" quickly filled to as many as 20 to 30 people per household. An area of over 7 million people was reduced to using fires as a method of warmth and to cook meals. When hearing testimonies of those who experienced this historical blackout of 1989, you can easily understand the desperation and struggle one had to endure. But there was also something magical which occurred. People described knowing their neighbor for the first time. Experiencing true togetherness, community, unity, and a sense of 'singleness of purpose'. Could this be a glance of what may lie ahead?

Today's sunspot count is at 168. I am a bit nervous of region 380. It is very large and is set dead center which could produce a direct hit to Earth. The odds of an X-Class or M-Class flare erupting from this region is 90%. I would suggest it is almost certain. The question is not if an eruption will occur, but in what direction. (see equation)

Watch for "freak storms" to continue. More than likely in the way of tornadoes or tonado-like winds. Sudden rain and hail storms are likely. Also watch for 'record breaking' temperatures.

Comment: Seems that Europe is experiencing a heat wave at the moment, Rome just had the highest temperatures since 1782, the north of France experienced 43 celsius (110 fahrenheit) here in the south we were sizzling at 37 celsius (100 fahrenheit). At the same time thunderstorms and large (ping pong ball sized) hail stones in the center of France..

July 4, 1998 F, Ark, Laura.

A: All areas experience accelerating "freak weather patterns."
Q: (L) Okay, all of these freaky weather patterns and bizarre things going on the planet, how does it relate to the comet cluster and the brown star? Is it related?
A: Human experiential cycle intersects.
Q: (L) Any specific physical manifestation of either this brown star or this comet cluster or this realm border, that is related to these events on the planet?
A: Approach of wave stimulates precursor activity which in turn causes effects which in turn stimulates further "heating up" of activity...

Floods engulf central Mexico homes

Rivers overflow into four Puebla neighborhoods

Friday, June 13, 2003 Posted: 1336 GMT

PUEBLA, Mexico (AP) -- Twelve hours of heavy downpours pounded this colonial city Thursday, causing three rivers to overflow and sparking floods that damaged at least 500 homes, authorities said.

Torrential rains that fell overnight and most of the day caused the Manzinilla, San Antonio and Alseseca rivers to overflow in and around northeast Puebla, the capital of the state by the same name, 65 miles (105 kilometers) from Mexico City. A statement released by the state government said it was the most rain to hit the city in one day in 100 years.

Aids origin found in hybrid chimp virus

By Steve Connor, Science Editor
13 June 2003
The Independent

Scientists have pinpointed the origin of the Aids virus in a study showing that HIV came about when two monkey viruses hybridised in the body of an infected chimpanzee.

The scientists found that wild chimps became infected simultaneously with two simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIVs) which had "viral sex" to form a third virus capable of infecting humans and causing Aids. The findings are the culmination of 10 years of research into the origin and evolution of the Aids virus by Paul Sharp of Nottingham University and Beatrice Hahn of the University of Alabama. [...]

Mormon Crickets Invading Western States

By SANDRA CHEREB
Associated Press Writer

PALOMINO VALLEY, Nev. (AP) -- Swarms of Mormon crickets are marching across the West, destroying rangeland and crops, slickening highways with their carcasses and leaving disgusted residents in their wake.

"It's yucky," said Amy Nisbet of Elko in northeast Nevada, where this year crickets made their first appearance in recent memory. "You drive down the street and they pop like bubble wrap."

Mild winters and three years of drought have provided ideal conditions for the insects, which hatch in the spring and feed through the summer. Experts say this year's infestation in Nevada, Utah and Idaho could be the worst in decades.

Van Gogh work dated to the minute

JEANETTE OLDHAM
Friday 13 Jun 2003
The Scotsman

THE mysterious origins of a bewitching Van Gogh painting have been revealed, after an astronomical investigation in France determined the precise date and time the famous work was conceived.

Astronomers have pinned down when the artist painted Evening Landscape with Rising Moon to the nearest minute - 9:08 pm local time on 13 July, 1889.

Now, thanks to their trigonometric calculations, lovers of art will be able to see the moonrise as Van Gogh saw it 114 years ago: on the same date next month the moon will rise over a hilltop in the southern French village Saint Remy de Provence in almost exactly the same place and in the same phase as when van Gogh depicted it above the haystacks in a monastery field. [...]

Illinois Company Sold Gum With KKK Tattoos Inside

CHICAGO -- A Michigan woman said she was shocked when she found a temporary tattoo depicting the Ku Klux Klan inside a pack of bubble gum (pictured). [...]

And Finally...

Gen. Tommy Franks Quits Army to Pursue Solo Bombing Projects

WASHINGTON, DC—Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of American forces in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, announced plans Monday to step down as U.S. Central Command chief to focus on solo bombing projects.
Above: Gen. Franks tells reporters, "It's time for me to see what I can destroy on my own."

"The years I've spent with the Army have been amazing, and we did some fantastic bombing," said Franks at a Pentagon press conference. "But at this point, I feel like I've taken it as far as I can. It's time for me to move on and see what I can destroy on my own."

Franks said he is eager to seek out new challenges.

[...]"When you're in an army, you pretty much have to bomb the countries they tell you to bomb," Franks said. "Which is fine for a while. But eventually, you get tired of bombing the same old places again and again. The last thing I want is to be 70 years old, still bombing Iraq. It's important to keep things fresh." [...]

Check out the Signs of the Times Archives

Send your comments and article suggestions to us.

Contact Webmaster at signs-of-the-times.org
Cassiopaean materials Copyright ©1994-2014 Arkadiusz Jadczyk and Laura Knight-Jadczyk. All rights reserved. "Cassiopaea, Cassiopaean, Cassiopaeans," is a registered trademark of Arkadiusz Jadczyk and Laura Knight-Jadczyk.
Letters addressed to Cassiopaea, Quantum Future School, Ark or Laura, become the property of Arkadiusz Jadczyk and Laura Knight-Jadczyk
Republication and re-dissemination of our copyrighted material in any manner is expressly prohibited without prior written consent.

.