The end of the world. This curious idea is unfortunately having a real impact on today's events. We have all seen cartoons of the outcast parading with his sign "The World Will Soon End." He is a figure of derision. Unfortunately, this derisive figure is now the occupant of the White House, preparing Armageddon and the return of his "personal savior." And he is willing to do everything in his power, and as the Commander-in-Chief of the US armed forces, that is a lot of power indeed, to bring it on.

Are we not living in insane times when the president of the most powerful country on earth treats the Bible as literal truth and is treated seriously?

But where did the idea of an "end of the world" come from anyway?

From the perspective of our experience of the planet, there is no reason whatsoever to imagine that the world would end. Nature is cyclic, not linear. The sunset is followed by a sunrise. The depths of winter are followed by the sweet greens of spring. Seasons may pass but the passing of the seasons is ongoing. Individuals may die, but the species continues. If the world passed through the deluge or a trial by fire, it was always to reemerge afterwards cleansed and reborn.

Our oldest myths and religions celebrated the cyclic, creative character of the world.

It was the monotheistic religions, whose prophets talk to burning bushes, angels with flaming swords, and voices on the tops of mountains, whose "Chosen People" claim real estate based on Divine Deeds signed with the blood of their first-born and their enemies, who offer the skin off their sons's penises to the All-Mighty, that came up with this idea of an end to everything. Could it be that the idea of an end to everything is related to the very idea of the "Chosen People." If a group believes that they are special, selected by God for a Divine Purpose, then it would be natural for them to consider that their own non-existence would signify the end of everything that mattered, the end of Divine purpose, the end of the world itself.

Pretty sick idea when one thinks about it coldly and objectively. Such arrogance and pride.

The idea of "the Chosen People" is certainly just as sick, be it on the part of the Jews or the Americans or anyone else. Where does that leave everyone else on the planet?

We can see it in the daily news-- under the jackboot of the diabolical designs of the Master Races, uh, Chosen People.

Robert Fisk is a veteran reporter of the events of the Middle East. We do not remember a previous article of his where the anger and desparation is so evident. We are included the entire piece because it says what it has to say with such eloquence:

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Comment: Fisk's anger is palpable in this text. And who could not be angry looking at the support of Bush for Sharon. To not be angry, you would have to believe that the life of an Israeli is worth more than the life of a Palestinian, that the life of an American is worth more than the life of an Iraqi. But to believe such insanities, one would have to be crazy, possessed by ideas that completely cloud one's ability to perceive objective reality. To raise one's group above another, to believe in such innate or God-given differences, is in fact to become less than human.

After Fisk's anger, turn to the psycho twins in Washington yesterday. If Blair had any reservations about genocide, he wasn't showing them during his visit with his pal George. And George, of course, is never without his pre-recorded tape spouting nonsense on "freedom."

Bush's meeting with Ariel Sharon this week was a significant turning point in the descent of our planet towards war. Although US politicians have been supportive of Israel for decades, presidents have always been careful to give the pretence of neutrality. It was enough of a pretence that Arafat got sucked into US and Israeli traps on more than one occasion. Wednesday Arafat learned what he had to show for this trust in the US. The pretence of neutrality has been dropped. By signing on to Sharon's land grab of the West Bank, Bush has proven to Sharon that the US will do nothing to curb his appetite for Palestinian land and lives. Bush has effectively joined the Likud Party, not that this is surprising because many of his top advisors are also advisors for Likud, with offices in Israel.

Blair, as usual, trots along behind his master licking Bush's heels.

Comment: Hope for a Palestinian state is dead. Sharon has openly stated that his plan's goal was to kill this hope. So what to make of the following from Tony Blair said Friday in Washington with his master, King George, at his side:

"The concept of a viable Palestinian state becomes a real possibility; not something that's put in a document and talked about or discussed in resolutions or speeches, but actually is a real, live possibility."

One is relinded of the shopkeeper responding to the complaint in Monty Python's sketch of the dead parrot: "It's not dead, it's only sleepin'."

A real, live possibility? No, this is a dead parrot. Pieces of disconnected land encircled by a wall with Israeli checkpoints preventing people from passing from one postage stamp nieghborhood of this "viable" Palestinian state to another.

Sharon put it this way:

"I said that we were going to deal them a lethal blow, and they were dealt a lethal blow."

Is this simply stupidity on Blair's part or the manipulation of the psychopath?

One has the impression that if Bush ever had a thought, the violence of it would kill him. Bush gives the appearance of being an empty shell, the ventroloquist's dummy. One can imagine that Bush believes his lies.

Blair, however, gives the impression of being able to think. He has chosen to follow Bush down this path in what one imagines is something of a conscious choice. One has a hard time imagining Bush conscious in any real sense. Saddam tried to kill his Daddy and Bush wants revenge, a simple mechanical reaction machine, making him the perfect plaything for those who are pulling his strings.

The effect of this, however, is to push Bush so far to the right that Kerry can take up the Bush line vis-à-vis Israel of last summer, that is, the Road Map, and appear as a moderate. The Road Map is not a moderate document. It already offers the Palestinians arestricted settlement, far from the demands of 1967.

The new agreement is everything Sharon wanted handed to him on a plate. One would think that the Israeli's wrote it themselves. And according to a BBC reporter, this is exactly what happened.

James Reynolds, BBC reporter covering Sharon, calls it the "blank cheque." According to Reynolds, members of the Israeli delagation wrote at least parts of the statement read out by Bush after his meeting with Sharon, the words calling Sharon courageous. No wonder the Israelis were drinking champagne on the jet back to Israel. Reynolds identifies three points in common between Bush and Sharon: Both men have a tendency to see the world in the black and white of good and evil. Each has put great faith in a simple political belief - that action is more important than consensus. And both are ranch owners. You can almost taste the excitement of the frat-boy Bush in sharing ranch stories with his buddy Sharon.

But this is no frat joke. Bush has set the US and Israel on a collision course with the Arab world, and very likely, with much of the rest of the world. How to convince the Arabs now that the US is not in the pockets of the Zionists? If Bush thinks that Sharon is courageous in killing Palestinians, why should the Arabs not find the Palestinians and Iraqis courageous in killing Americans and Israelis?

Comment: The explicit alliance of Bush with Sharon is only going to increase what the press denounces as anti-Semitism because any attempt to denounce Israel's policy of genocide towards the Palestinioans is treated as anti-Semitism.

Comment: Bush's radio contact with his trainers must have momentarily broken down...

Woodward's book also has information about the relationship between Powell and Cheney. Apparently, they are no longer on speaking terms because Powell was against the invasion of Iraq.

But like a good lackey, it was Powell who took cooked intelligence to the UN. He deserves whatever he gets.

Powell supported the war publicly because the president asked him to. Great, so much for scruples when the deaths of thousands are less important than implementing the neocon agenda. Powell served a very useful purpose in appearing to be so moderate, raising the hopes of the international community, persuading them that the Bush administration would listen. What a joke!

If Powell saw the neocons at the Pentagon as a "separate government", yet he did nothing to stop them, nothing to make this known to the public, prefering to support Bush and the neocon agenda, then he is a criminal, too. What was he afraid of?

Fear, as a natural and instinctive aspect of human nature, is also a powerful motivator. Not only does it tend to provoke "knee jerk" reactions, it also has the effect of inhibiting logical thought processes making us much more susceptible to accepting lies and propaganda as truth and reality. It seems that in pursuing their goal of maintaining a tight hold on the reins of power, which fundamentally means controlling the thoughts and beliefs of the people, every now and then the ruling elite will manufacture an event, either on a global or local scale, which sends a shockwave of fear through the population.

For example, today in 1961, US-backed Cuban exiles attempted to oust Fidel Castro from power in the ill-fated 'Bay of Pigs' invasion. Failure to gain any major support from Cuban civilians and negligible help from US supporting forces meant that the Cuban exiles were soon routed by Castro's forces. The main outcome of the invasion was Castro's fear of further attacks which lead directly to the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, an event that brought the world to the brink of nuclear devastation.

From a broader perspective, for a controlling elite to exist on this planet there is a requirement that there be a mass of the population for them to control. As such any power struggles that take place on the planet must ultimately be for the purpose of further controlling the population. It is from this perspective that we should view events like the Cuban Missile crisis or 9/11 or indeed any wars or events of world wide significance. The only real meaning in such events is determined by the effects on the only really useful resource on this planet - the people. All such events are essentially then for our benefit, as each event occurs we are faced with the choice between understanding it and responding to it as the powers that be want us to - or from the point of view that it is in fact a sort of test of our abilities to see a deeper meaning and significance to the reality of the world and the real reason why we are here and what life is really for.

Of course, if we sufficiently develop our objectivity when viewing such events we will almost always, with enough research, be able to see evidence of their illusory nature. For example, at present the Oklahoma bomb trial is in process. This event, like 9/11 and all other acts of violence that have occurred on our planet, was designed to subtly imbue the population with the idea that they are not safe, that their very lives are continually threatened, and the only solution is accept increasing control measures to ensure our protection. The reality of course is that as we do so, we are simply giving more and more power and control to the source of the attacks on our lives.

Look now at the recent report from the Oklahoma trial. In it, the terrifying events of that day are revived through the testimony of eye witnesses.

Nichols Trial Witness Recalls Okla. Blast

Fri Apr 16
By TIM TALLEY, Associated Press Writer

McALESTER, Okla. - Fighting back tears, Richard Nichols testified how his wife and nephew had driven up to the lobby of an apartment building as a bomb went off outside the Oklahoma City federal building.

Jurors in the murder trial of bombing conspirator Terry Nichols were shown surveillance pictures of the witness meeting his wife in the apartment lobby, the final frame the camera took before power was cut off.

"We heard a real, real, real loud explosion," Nichols said Thursday, his voice trembling with emotion. "It spun my wife around, almost knocked her down."

Richard Nichols — who is no relation to the defendant — said the explosion blew shards of glass, concrete and debris at the 24-story apartment building, located one block from the federal building.

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Pretty gripping stuff. It is at this point that we are all invited to share in the fear and allow it to further convince us that we are a threatened people and that we can do nothing to protect ourselves against such mindless violence and evil. However, the attention of the more observant and objective reader will perhaps be alerted to the fact that in the next part of the testimony of the eyewitness, something does not add up...

Then the twisted axle of a Ryder truck fell from the sky.

"I heard something above us, flying through the air. It sounded like a boomerang sound," said the maintenance employee for the Regency Towers apartment building. "The way it was spinning, I knew it was big."

He told his wife "to get down" and pushed her down on the rear floorboard of the car. The object, a 7-foot-long, 250-pound piece of mangled metal, struck the hood of the small Ford Festiva, pushing it back 10 feet.

Prosecutor Lou Keel rolled the scorched and shattered truck axle of the Ryder truck on a dolly within a few feet of the jury.

In the above we have an example of the aforementioned evidence for the illusory nature of the official fear inducing version of events. US authorities claim that the only bomb that destroyed the Oklahoma City federal building and 168 lives was composed of fertilizer placed in the abovementioned Ryder truck.

If this is the case, we are faced with the problem of explaining how the axle of the truck ended up being blown far into the sky, only to land some moments later on the roof of the car of the eyewitness. Surely the parts of the truck that were underneath the bomb would have ended up embedded in the ground or at least blown to the side, but certainly not many feet into the air. Of course, this little piece of evidence that does not fit with the official explanation does not constitute conclusive proof, but is surely enough to tell us that, in all likelihood we are being lied to by those in authority, and that, in this case, the real reason for the Oklahoma bombing had more to do with controlling the perception of the population at large, than the fanatical urges of some anti-government American citizen.

But when bombs don't work, there is rock'n roll...

U.S. deploys loud music, insults in Fallujah

Friday, Apr. 16, 2004

An Iraqi detainee awaits questioning after marines found a rifle in his car in northwest Fallujah

Fallujah, Iraq — In Fallujah's darkened, empty streets, U.S. troops blast AC/DC's “Hell's Bells” and other rock music full volume from a huge speaker, hoping to grate on the nerves of this Sunni Muslim city's gunmen and give a laugh to marines along the front line.

Unable to advance farther into the city, an Army psychological operations team hopes a mix of heavy metal and insults shouted in Arabic — including, “You shoot like a goat herder” — will draw gunmen to step forward and attack.

The loud music recalls the Army's use of rap and rock to help flush out Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega after the December 1989 invasion on his country, and the FBI's blaring progressively more irritating tunes in an attempt to end a standoff with armed members of the Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas in 1993.

The marines' psychological operations came as U.S. negotiators were pressing Fallujah representatives to get gunmen in the city to abide by a cease-fire.

On Friday, insurgents fired several mortars at U.S. forces. One of the shells blasted a chunk out of a house where marines are positioned, filling the building with dust and smoke. No one was injured.

A short time later, an F-16 jet dropped a 2,000-pound bomb on the city, sending up a massive spray of dirt and smoke and destroying a building where marines had spotted gunmen.

At night, the psychological operations unit attached to the Marine battalion here sends out messages from a loudspeaker mounted on an armored Humvee. On Thursday night, the crew and its Arabic-language interpreter taunted fighters, saying, “May all the ambulances in Fallujah have enough fuel to pick up the bodies of the mujahadeen.”

The message was specially timed for an attack moments later by an AC-130 gunship that pounded targets in the city.

Even if only two of its four available high-cyclic cannon are selected, Spectre is guaranteed to punch a high explosive shell into the ground every two square feet, decimating an area the same size as a football field with less than twenty seconds of continuous fire. Pinpoint precision plays no part at all in this process, which is designed to kill everyone and everything within the broad target zone.

Later, the team blasted Jimi Hendrix and other rock music, and afterward some sound effects like babies crying, men screaming, a symphony of cats and barking dogs and piercing screeches. They were unable to draw any gunmen to fight, and seemed disappointed.

As he kept watch from a roof, 18-year-old Private James Cathcart said the men were eager to attack.

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Who are the real terrorists? This is a question that we frequently ask on the Signs page, usually to point out that it isn't only those violent and more fanatical followers of Islam who are conducting terrorist activity. It seems everyone is talking about terrorism and its perpetrators these days, from the politicians in the White House to the little old lady down the street. And so, once again, we examine this particularly disturbing phenomenon.

Perhaps a good question to ask is: what is a terrorist? A terrorist can be defined as a radical who employs terror as a political weapon. Terror can be defined as an overwhelming feeling of fear and anxiety. So, a terrorist is a radical who employs an overwhelming feeling of fear and anxiety as a political weapon. Considering that the official line is that the greatest terrorist threat facing the world today is from a bunch of crazy Arabs, perhaps another good question to ask is: Just what sort of politics are these supposed terrorists pushing? Leaders like George Bush would no doubt say something idiotic like, "Al-Qaeda will not succeed in using the politics of fear. Our resolve is resolutified. We will smoke them out of their caves."

And yet when one boils down the reasons for the threat allegedly presented by groups such as Al-Qaeda, it seems that nothing of any significance remains. As in the conflict between Israel and Palestine, the group touted as the "terrorists" often appears to shoot itself in the foot. Suicide attacks on Israelis, for example, generally happen just in time to derail peace initiatives. If our process of distillation includes other possibilities outside of the official explanations, we may indeed come to some rather interesting hypotheses.

It is quite clear in the case of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict that the only group that has truly benefited is the Zionists, led in part by Ariel Sharon. Given the unquestioning support that the US provides to Israel, it is perhaps not surprising that we observe a similar trend in the Land of the Free. In recent days, we have run numerous stories on the testimony of various US leaders to the 9/11 commission. The facts are being laid out on the table for all to see, yet it seems most still have their eyes closed and are afraid to open them. If they did wake up, what they would find is a preponderance of evidence that indicates that Arab terrorists had little if nothing to do with the attacks of 9/11, and that the Bush government certainly knew that something was going to happen on US soil, and that it could possibly involve crashing airliners into important US targets.

Furthermore, we have Israelis doing the happy dance on 9/11, strange reports of Israeli moving companies in the US, and a worldwide push against Arabs that tends to further the plans of the Zionists. The Spanish train bombings in March had all the hallmarks of a Mossad operation, and the seven main suspects rather inconveniently blew themselves up in their "safe house". Today in the news, New Zealand believes it has apprehended two Mossad operatives:

Mossad agent Eli Cara

New Zealand vows "strong response" to alleged Israeli bid to get passports

Sat Apr 17, 1:03 AM ET

AUCKLAND (AFP) - New Zealand vowed to make a strong response after two Israelis reported to be Mossad spies were arrested and charged with attempting to obtain New Zealand passports.

Prime Minister Helen Clark confirmed court proceedings were underway against two Israelis in Auckland. [...]

Urie Zoshe Kelman, 30, and Eli Cara, 50, denied three joint charges including attempting to obtain a New Zealand passport and participating in an organised crime group to obtain a false passport.

Another man, Zev William Barkan, 37, has fled while authorities believe a fourth suspect is still in the country. [...]

Documents lodged in court said police allege Barkan tried to get a passport in the name of a New Zealander suffering from cerebral palsy.

The passport application was sent to the Department of Internal Affairs which noted an irregularity.

Internal Affairs investigations officer Ian Tingey said he spoke to the father of the person named in the application who said his son was wheelchair bound and in institutional care. Police were tipped off and a covert operation was set up.

According to the police allegations, Barkan left the country and the passport was to be picked up by one of the other two.

A complex operation to get the passport delivered was allegedly set up by the Israelis but it was monitored by police who picked up both Kelman and Cara.

According to the police summary, neither Cara nor Kelman had an explanation for why they were involved in wanting to obtain the New Zealand passport, nor did they say what their involvement was. [...]

Another police witness, Michael Zandvoort, said Kelman, whom he knew as John, told him he had a contract in Europe and would be away for two months, "something to do with West European embassies".

"John never told me specifics about the company he worked for but it was something to do with security and detecting bugs."

New Zealand passports have become increasingly sought-after on the black market, primarily because of their visa-free access to many countries including the United States.

There have been cases of Mossad agents trying to pass themselves off as nationals of neutral countries. In 1997, Mossad agents were caught using Canadian passports during a failed assassination attempt on an Islamic official in Jordan. [...]

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It appears there are ties between Israel and the US on multiple levels. Add to this the fact that Bush obviously has much to hide by refusing to testify under oath. While this may not be "nice" to think about, what is the most obvious reason why Bush would not want to give testimony under oath? How about because he has something to hide... and perhaps that "something" involves the Zionists in the US and Israel. There are two groups that have benefited from the crackdown on Arab terrorists across the globe: the Zionists and the Neocons. Note that although John Kerry doesn't appear to be a Neocon, his proposed policies are basically identical. Under Kerry, the War on Terror will continue and most likely grow. That means more losses of civil liberties, and more imperialist military actions around the world. For all intents and purposes, Kerry and Bush are simply two sides of the same coin.

In any case, from the reports of Halliburton/KBR's involvement in the supply and "reconstruction" of occupied Iraq, it is quite clear that the likes of Cheney and Bush are profiting or will profit handsomely from their little invasion of Iraq, even as American and Iraqi children are dying. There are no weapons of mass destruction. There were no WMD's. The fact that the term "WMD" has basically vanished from the major US media outlets should give pause to any and all Americans who consider themselves involved in their country in any way beyond simply being a US citizen with a nice house, 2.4 kids, and an SUV or two. Of course, there is another report that the US is smuggling WMDs into Iraq to plant them amidst the chaos of the current uprising. Just in time for the election!

Americans should also be very worried about the fact that numerous countries are pulling their support for their war in Iraq. Today, Portugal's Interior Minister announced that he would be pulling his countries national guard out of Iraq if the situation doesn't improve soon. If the imperialist march continues, more and more Americans will find themselves on the front lines. One soldier already on the front lines has been taken hostage by the Iraqis. They declared he is to be traded for Iraqis being held by US forces.

Returning to our definition of a terrorist: "a radical who employs an overwhelming feeling of fear and anxiety as a political weapon", let us consider the possibility that certain elements of numerous governments around the world are the real terrorists. Take Bush, for example:

1. A radical - fundamentalist Christian Bush would certainly qualify as radical, especially given his assertion that God instructs him on how to run the country and which nations to invade
2. Employs an overwhelming feeling of fear and anxiety - the Patriot Act I and II, repeated threats of annihilation or mutilation by scary Arab terrorists, the implementation of numerous Big Brother tactics to "securitize" America's "freedoms"
3. A political weapon - Bush, under the direction of his Neocon advisors, has certainly altered the political landscape considerably. Any dissent is viewed as treason; towing the party line is viewed as patriotism. Invasion of Iraq conducted without a declaration of war from Congress. Several political positions were filled by direct appointment by Bush without approval or review from the representatives of the people.

Of course, with enough dissent and disapproval, the American people could slightly alter the course of the current government - but, in the end, they are presented with choices that aren't choices when it comes to their leaders. In any case, the majority are far too happy in their illusory lives to even care. As a result, the majority willingly give their consent to the actions of their government. The fact that the government has changed over time, and that the people still blindly supported it regardless of the wars and secret operations or experiments that were conducted, is evidence that the average citizen is fast asleep. In one sense, the greatest terrorists are those who are "happy" and lost in their slumber. So, let us now consider those that are fast asleep, drowned in a world of 'A' influences:

1. A radical - When one considers that those who are asleep are incapable of perceiving objective reality, such individuals certainly appear to be radical. Their actions are not governed by objective observations of themselves and the world, but rather by a myriad of little "I's" or programs. Such people consider that anyone who disagrees with them is crazy, and yet they cannot even recognize that their thoughts are not even their own. They have no Will to speak of - their little rowboats are tossed around a sea of 'A' influences according to the will of others. From the point of view of objective reality, their views, ideas, and opinions are certainly radical in that they generally bear no relation to what is.
2. Employs an overwhelming feeling of fear and anxiety - Immersed in an internal world of programs - the Predator's mind - they are seized by the Predator's fears. The Predator's mind is contradictory and afraid of being discovered. It is afraid of the blinding light that is the Truth, so it hides itself. Under the influence of the Predator, we take on its fears as our own - we are the Predator. We are afraid of change. We are afraid of revealing ourselves to another for fear of rejection. We refuse to consider anything that will cause us to look inward upon ourselves. We have no will of our own.
3. A political weapon - From an external perspective, those individuals who lack a will of their own are willing pawns in the political games of their leaders. From an internal perspective, we seek to deny the existence of the Predator's control over us even as we continually sign peace treaties with it. We show no resistance to the occupation of our very being, because we remain under the mistaken impression that the Predator is really a part of us.

And so, before any of us go around accusing others of being terrorists, perhaps it is useful to understand what a terrorist is, and how we may be acting like one every day. Of course, it is always easier to the point the finger at another - especially one with a different skin color and/or in a different nation. But ultimately, the greatest battle that must be waged is that for our own being. If we wish to See objectively, we must strive to end the occupation of our own minds and souls. It is most interesting that America - land of the slumbering patriots - and Israel are currently involved in the physical occupation of other nations. The external world of these two countries seems to reflect the internal world of the majority of their citizens.

Two More Japanese Hostages Freed in Iraq

The Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt April 17 — Two Japanese hostages in Iraq have been released, the country's foreign ministry said Saturday, two days after three other Japanese were freed.

The two Japanese civilians, apparently kidnapped Wednesday, were handed over at a Baghdad mosque to Islamic clerics, Jiro Okuyama, a spokesman for Japan's Foreign Ministry, said. They were headed to the Japanese Embassy. [...]

The captors initially threatened to kill them unless Japan withdrew its troops from Iraq but the freed the three after an appeal by Sunni clerics.

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End human rights scandal in Guantanamo

Wednesday, 14 April 2004, 8:33 am Press Release: Amnesty International

End human rights scandal in Guantanamo and other places

"I'm in a cage like an animal No one asked me am I human or not" Former detainee at Guantanamo Bay

Sana'a, Yemen - Governments must stop undermining rights they have promised to defend, said Amnesty International Sunday at the conclusion of a two-day conference on the impact of the illegal detention of Guantanamo detainees and other detainees held after September 11 in the Gulf region.

"The situation at Guantanamo Bay is a major human rights scandal that has widespread implications for the whole world," said Javier Zuniga, senior director at Amnesty International. "This policy promotes a world in which arbitrary and unchallengeable detentions become acceptable."

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Comment: Welcome to the world according to the United States. Every American citizen can expect to experience similar treatment in the very near future. For the psychopaths who have created the society we find ourselves in, one human being is no different to another. We are all fodder for their self serving needs and ultimately all expendible.

US taxpayers pays an average of $446.00 per year for each Israeli

The President and fellow Republicans made a lot out of the decision to cut taxes and the resulting $300 tax rebate for each American tax payer. The tax rebate, though originally suggested by Democrats, was one of the very few actions President George W. Bush has taken that was sincerely popular with a majority of Americans.

One interesting thing about this rebate was that in the process, no mention was made whatsoever of the fact that this same government gives each Israeli citizen - most of whom are not even US taxpayers and contribute nothing whatsoever to the US - an average $446.00 each and every year. At a time when millions of Americans are unemployed and millions more are working for less than a livable wage; while government is cutting back Medicare and Medicade and making it illegal for seniors to buy affordable drugs from abroad; and the federal government is cutting back on all social services across the board, why is it that we are still sending literally billions to the world's last formally and officially racist state?

The answer to this question is simple enough, most of the US Congress is in fact composed of people paid specifically by the Israeli lobby to serve Israeli interests. Unfortunately, most Americans can't pay their "representatives" to represent them, so as usual, those with the money get their way. Further, since the Israeli lobbyists tend to contribute to both Democratic and Republican candidates for a particular seat, the people ostensibly being "represented" by these candidates are really given no choice in the matter.

For example, in the 2002 Colorado Senatorial race between Thomas Strickland and Wayne Allard, both had already sold their votes to various pro-Israel lobbyists. Over their careers, Strickland had already accepted $43,370 and Allard accepted $50,500 to vote for Israel at the expense of their "constituents" who didn't have the money to pay for representation. The Israeli lobby has successfully created an environment in which Israeli interests come before American ones in Washington and by buying all the major candidates, they ensure that the American public is given no choice but to support continued spending to defend Israeli Hafrada (Apartheid).

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Liberating America From Israel

By Former Congressman Paul Findley
9-12-2

Nine-eleven would not have occurred if the U.S. government had refused to help Israel humiliate and destroy Palestinian society. Few express this conclusion publicly, but many believe it is the truth. I believe the catastrophe could have been prevented if any U.S. president during the past 35 years had had the courage and wisdom to suspend all U.S. aid until Israel withdrew from the Arab land seized in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

The U.S. lobby for Israel is powerful and intimidating, but any determined president - even President Bush this very day - could prevail and win overwhelming public support for the suspension of aid by laying these facts before the American people:

Israel's present government, like its predecessors, is determined to annex the West Bank - biblical Judea and Samaria - so Israel will become Greater Israel. Ultra-Orthodox Jews, who maintain a powerful role in Israeli politics, believe the Jewish Messiah will not come until Greater Israel is a reality. Although a minority in Israel, they are committed, aggressive, and influential. Because of deep religious conviction, they are determined to prevent Palestinians from gaining statehood on any part of the West Bank.

In its violent assaults on Palestinians, Israel uses the pretext of eradicating terrorism, but its forces are actually engaged in advancing the territorial expansion just cited. Under the guise of anti-terrorism, Israeli forces treat Palestinians worse than cattle. With due process nowhere to be found, hundreds are detained for long periods and most are tortured. Some are assassinated. Homes, orchards, and business places are destroyed. Entire cities are kept under intermittent curfew, some confinements lasting for weeks. Injured or ill Palestinians needing emergency medical care are routinely held at checkpoints for an hour or more. Many children are undernourished. The West Bank and Gaza have become giant concentration camps. None of this could have occurred without U.S. support. Perhaps Israeli officials believe life will become so unbearable that most Palestinians will eventually leave their ancestral homes. [...]

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A CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER TO THE WORLD

By Kevin Toolis
The Daily Mirror - UK - 16 April 2004

He is the most dangerous man in the world.

A warmonger. A crackpot fundamentalist. A fanatic and a fool who has only the barest grasp of the killing power of the forces under his command.

His name is George W Bush and his main battle plan is to set the world on fire.

September 11 was a crime against humanity but from Afghanistan to Iraq, and now in Israel, Bush has blazed a purposeless trail of destruction and multiplied the dangers of terrorism a thousand-fold.

The War Against Terror has turned into a war of terror in Iraq as American troops butcher their way through the civilian population in pursuit of an enemy that grows stronger daily with each dead Iraqi civilian.

And in Israel Bush has overnight primed the entire region for a new cycle of slaughter by backing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's illegal land-grab of Palestinian territory and offering the Arabs nothing in return only despair.

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Congress Seeks Authority to Overturn Supreme Court Decisions

By Jimmy Moore
Talon News
April 16, 2004

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Rep. Ron Lewis (R-KY) has offered legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives that would allow Congress to overturn future U.S. Supreme Court decisions by a super majority vote.

"The Congressional Accountability for Judicial Activism Act," or H.R. 3920, would give Congress permission to override certain U.S. Supreme Court rulings if two-thirds of both houses of Congress vote for it.

Lewis said he drafted this legislation to combat the activist judges who have been "legislating from the bench" in recent years.

"America's judicial branch has become increasingly overreaching and disconnected from the values of everyday Americans," Lewis observed in a statement.

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Air Marshals Keep Close Eye on Travelers

By LESLIE MILLER, Associated Press Writer
Sat Apr 17,12:14 AM ET

WASHINGTON - When someone at an airport is sweating, is it because he's running late or trying to hide something? Could hand signals between people in a terminal be part of an inside joke or a terror plot?

A pilot program using "behavior pattern recognition" is under way at Boston's Logan International Airport, where two of the planes used by the Sept. 11 hijackers took off. Air marshals, passenger screeners and state police stationed there have undergone special training in things to look for that could indicate a terrorist plot.

Israeli officials have employed a version of the technique for years to protect air travelers against terrorists. [...]

Comment: If this report isn't bad enough, the FBI also stated that over the past three years, the number of secret surveillance requests they have requested has completely bogged down the Justice Department. But not to worry - most Americans seem to be more concerned with making sure the "bad guys" are caught than with the fact that their government and its agencies are spying on them.

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Putin makes surprise appearance at Schroeder's birthday party

Last Updated Fri, 16 Apr 2004 20:37:38

HANOVER, GERMANY - Russian President Vladimir Putin made a surprise appearance at the 60th birthday party of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Friday.

Putin arrived to the applause of a crowd of about 500 outside a private gala in Schroeder's hometown, Hanover.

Comment: And we just bet everybody was knocked off their chairs by Putin's entrance.

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Quakes hit Indonesia's Bali, Bengkulu islands

Last Update: Saturday, April 17, 2004. 3:37pm (AEST)

Two successive earthquakes measuring 6.0 and 5.0 on the Richter scale rattled Indonesia's Sumatra island and Bali overnight but there were no reports of damage or casualties, officials said Saturday.

The first quake, measuring at 6.0 on the Richter scale, occurred at 9:21pm local time on Friday in Bengkulu province and caused panic among residents.

The island suffered extensive damage in June 2000 when a strong quake hit the area, killing 94 people.

The tremor was centred 100 kilometres under the seabed and 44 kilometres north-west of the coastal town of Manna, said Armin Paimin, the head of Bengkulu meteorological office.

"There were no reports of damages or deaths but residents scattered out of their homes when the quake took place," he told AFP by telephone.

The second quake was centred 80 kilometres under the seabed and 75 kilometres north-west of the city of Denpasar, said Fauzi, a coordinator at Indonesia's earthquake centre.

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Analysis: 'Bounce' rock's cosmic portent

By Phil Berardelli
United Press International
Published 4/16/2004 6:07 PM

[...] A few days ago, on its slow roll across the Martian terrain at its landing site at Meridiani Planum, an iron-oxide-rich area near the planet's equator, Opportunity's controllers noticed an odd-looking, football-shaped rock lying in the red dust. They named the rock "Bounce," because the lander most likely hit it as it bounced along the surface, cushioned by its airbags, before coming to rest inside the little crater called Eagle.

Controllers considered Bounce an odd find because it did not resemble any of the other rocks in the crater's vicinity -- nor did it resemble anything seen before on Mars, they said.

[...] Rather more than that. Bounce's chemical composition exactly matches that of a meteorite that hit the ground in Shergotty, India, on Aug. 25, 1865.

Called the Shergotty meteorite -- and the source name for a class of meteorites called shergottites -- its chemical composition is a "matching fingerprint" to Bounce, said David Grinspoon, professor of planetary science at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

The resemblance helps confirm something meteorite specialists and planetary scientists have suspected for more than two decades but until now have been unable to prove: Micro-bubbles of gas trapped in dozens of meteorites found on Earth -- including Shergotty -- match the recipe of Martian atmosphere so closely that they must have originated on Mars.

[...] As a result, NASA scientists are convinced Shergotty, EETA79001 and Bounce -- and maybe a couple dozen other Martian rocks that found their way to Earth -- were ejected from Mars by the impact of a large asteroid or comet.

Comment: The question they are ignoring is how large an asteroid or comet must have hit Mars to throw off pieces of rock with such force that they would fall to earth. Mars has an awful lot of craters, as does the moon. How regularly do these events occur?

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Climate study shows disappearing Arctic sea ice could reduce water availability in western U.S.

By Tim Stephens
April 17, 2004

The sea ice covering much of the Arctic Ocean is melting, a trend that may have dramatic consequences for the western United States. UCSC researchers recently looked at the long-term effects of reduced Arctic sea ice on the global climate, and their most striking finding was a significant reduction in rain and snowfall in the American West.

The study highlights the vulnerability of western states, which depend on winter precipitation for their water supplies, to changes in the regional climate.

The results also show the surprising ways in which a small change in one component of the global climate system can affect particular regions, said Lisa Sloan, professor of Earth sciences.

"We were surprised at the result ourselves, but it shows how interconnected the climate system is. Here we are reducing Arctic sea ice, and the biggest climatic response is felt in an entirely different part of the world," she said. [...]

Nevertheless, the new study serves as a warning that climate change can have small effects in one location that propagate through the system to become big effects somewhere else, Sloan said.

"As the climate changes, the effects will vary a lot from one region to another, and it may be hard to predict where the effects will be felt most. What we saw in this study is not something one would have predicted in advance," she said.

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Search is on for killer asteroids

16/04/2004

Sydney - Astronomers scanning the universe for giant asteroids that could collide with earth have switched their search to the southern skies where they say they may find the biggest space rocks yet.

They are focussing on rogue asteroids which span more than a kilometre across and would cause massive, continent-wide devastation if they slammed into earth. [...]

'Large collisions might occur'

The asteroids located by the team measured between 100 metres and 300 metres across, were travelling at up to 18 kilometres a second and missed earth by between three and 20 million kilometres.

They pass through earth's orbit every year or two.

But it's the large NEOs that are worrying the astronomers most.

"Large collisions might occur every few million years or so but there's nothing to say they're not to going to happen in our lifetime," McNaught said.

It is thought by some experts that an asteroid spanning about 10 kilometres wiped out the dinosaurs when it plunged onto Mexico's Yukatan Peninsula 65 million years ago.

"Anything one kilometre or larger, it's not reasonable to expect humankind to survive unchanged," McNaught said. "Civilisation would be affected by such a collision."

"The global consequences would be in the form of dust thrown into the atmosphere, blanketing the atmosphere, blocking out the sun, affecting agriculture, acid rain and so on," McNaught said.

Colleague Garradd said the earthquake generated by the impact of a giant asteroid would destroy buildings over a large area and molten rock would set everything in its path alight.

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Undetectable Asteroids Could Destroy Cities, Experts Say

National Geographic News

When a massive asteroid, measuring ten kilometers (six miles) across, smashed into Earth off Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula some 65 million years ago, it most likely changed the shape of life on Earth.

The dust from the impact, perhaps exacerbated by other asteroid blasts, blocked the sun, darkening and cooling the Earth. When the dust settled, increasing greenhouse gases sent temperatures soaring. The violent climate change, most scientists believe, is what finished the dinosaurs, along with 70 percent of all plants and animals living at the time.

So, could such an asteroid strike again?

Absolutely. But while the dinosaurs didn't know what was about to hit them, humans probably would. Scientists have already identified more than 700 of the estimated 1,100 "Earth killers"—asteroids bigger than one kilometer (about a thousand yards) across—out there. They concluded that none are on a collision course with the Earth during the next century.

The bad news, however, is there are also about ten million "smaller" asteroids out there. These could not destroy humankind, if they were to hit Earth, but could cause widespread damage, possibly even wiping out an entire city. Because they have not been identified, the smaller asteroids could potentially strike without warning.

"Finding and cataloguing the big [asteroids] is relatively easy and inexpensive," said Brian Marsden, director of the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a clearinghouse for asteroid observations. "But when it comes to … the likelihood that there really would be an impact in the foreseeable future, it is the smaller objects that are of more concern, and to make a serious search for them would cost a fair bit of money."

Comments: There is and always has been a threat to Earth from space, and, as this article expounds, there is little if anything its inhabitants can do to prevent any future impacts.

Our own reasearch of history and cyclic catastrophes has uncovered evidence pointing to regular, periodic showering of the Earth by space debris, with it appears, the primary cause of this regular destruction being a 3600 year cycle of showers originating from a cluster of comets orbiting our Sun. A recent rise in the number of meteorite impacts recorded globally (see Signs Supplement: Meteors, Asteroids, Comets, and NEOs) and the dozens of additional moons acquired by Saturn and Jupiter in the last few years suggest we may be experiencing the first overdue "stragglers" of this comet cluster. To make matters worse, other evidence points to our Sun having a "dark" companion star that periodically "bolsters" this orbiting cluster as it passes through the Oort cloud on its journey back toward our Sun, collecting debris that is then brought back into our solar system, a senario discussed in detail in Independence Day.

All this would paint a bleak and somewhat inevitable picture for humans were it not for the theorised existence of alternate realities and an open non-linear universe. Yet all the while the hyperdimensional nature of reality is ignored or denied by scientists and the population alike, humans will remain firmly entrenched in this subjective world we call "life", a world that is quickly disappearing into an abyss. We can as individuals choose continue on this entropic path or alternatively we can choose to educate ourselves and begin the Work of freeing ourselves from our own subjective worlds. When we make this decision to strive for an objective view of the world, one which is based on truth, that is, knowledge and awareness of reality, and we apply the knowledge we gain to our everyday lives we become aligned with objective 'B infulences' and in potential we can become part of the objective reality in which the future is very much open.

Faced with the destructive turmoil here on the Big Blue Marble, one might ask what can we really do? Is the World Coming to an End? Not necessarily - but the future doesn't look bright!

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Meteorite Matches Rock on Mars

Summary - (Apr 16, 2004) NASA has reported this week that a rock analyzed by Spirit bears a resemblance to a meteorite found in Antarctica. The meteorite is called EETA79001, and it's known to be from Mars because of gases preserved in glassy material match the chemical composition of the Martian atmosphere.

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Mystery boom stumps officials

BY GREGORY A. SUMMERS - Staff Writer
The Lancaster News

No one knows the exact origin of the loud boom that shook part of the city Sunday night.

But when Robert McClain saw his neighbor's lights come on shortly after 10:30 p.m., he said it was comforting to know he wasn't the only one with rattling window panes.

McClain said at first, he thought his daughter, 5-year-old Arianna, had fallen out of her new bed. But that wasn't the case.

"I didn't know what was going on," said McClain, who lives on Marion Sims Drive. "It shook the whole house, but it didn't sound like thunder." [...]

Earthquake experts at the University of South Carolina's Seismic Network have ruled out any tremors in the area. Pradeep Talwani said nothing showed on network seismographs. [...]

The Air Force, S.C. Air National Guard and Marines all have planes stationed in South Carolina that can break the sound barrier, but SCANG Lt. Col. Les Carroll said he couldn't think of any military unit in the area that would be flying at 10:30 p.m. Sunday.

"That time of night is just an unusual time to be flying," Carroll said. "I know it wasn't us - we didn't have any aircraft in the area and it wasn't a drill weekend." [...]

Comment: See the Signs Supplement: Sonic or "Mystery" Booms for similar stories.

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