New Article: Jupiter, Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce, and the Return of the Mongols - Laura Knight-Jadczyk

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13

Pictures of the Day

The Rape of Iraq
Photographers Unknown
It might be your brother or son

NOTE: There are photos circulating on the net of American soldiers raping Iraqi women. We had put some of these photos on the page today. Before doing so, we discussed the possibility that the photos were fake. We decided to run them anyway because, fake or not, they depicted one of the realities of war. Then we received the following email from a reader:

I have no doubt that things like this have occurred and will occur in this war. I have grave doubts of the authenticity of these photos. It immediately jumps out that these are not the standard desert camos used in Iraq. I made a quick check of the Information Clearinghouse picture album to confirm this, and it appears from those photos that these camos would not be normal combat attire in Iraq. There are no insignias or markings of any sort apparent on their clothing. In fact the whole set of photos smacks of a b grade porn set. I am astonished that you published these photos, as they appear to be disinformation of the worst sort.

We still do not know if these photos are fakes or genuine. But we know that rape is part of war. So is killing. So is publishing these photos "disinformation" as the reader suggests?

Earlier we thought that as rape was part of war, no, this was not disinfo. Even if the photos were not from Iraq, they represent a truth about war and about what is happening in Iraq right now as you read these words. We thought the photos might shock our readers, as we ourselves had been shocked. However, in thinking about it further, and in reflecting upon the message from our reader, we have decided to remove them.

Interested readers can go here to see them and judge for yourselves.

Also, we noticed our own reactions. We wondered whether the promotion of these photos in some way was being done in order to excuse killing in some way, to make death seem more palatable than rape, more acceptable. We have seen photos of death. We have published photos of death on these pages. The photos of the rape provoked a very strong reaction in us all. We were sick. Is rape worse than killing? Does the fact that the victim lives and must deal with the memories make rape more devastating than death?

Of course, these questions are awful to pose. The wholesale destruction of a country and the society is unspeakable in its violence, destruction, and terror. It is absurd to even begin to rank or make a hierarchy of the horrors of war. War itself is a plight, a symbol of our own sorry state.

War is hell.

It's always been that way, and nothing has changed.

You never really believed that this war was any different, did you, that the "smart" weapons made any difference? We have shown you the pictures of dead babies, their heads blown open, their brains in their parents' arms.

You never really believed that US or British soldiers on the ground in a hostile country, armed, and worried about their own safety would act any different than other soldiers elsewhere under the same conditions?

You just preferred not to think about it.

2 Thessalonians:

2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
....
2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: 2:9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 2:12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

This is WAR. There are no rules. It is a criminal activity from start to finish. Just because we have been telling ourselves the lie about "War Crimes" committed by the losers for the last sixty years doesn't mean that the facts on the ground have changed. Isn't it absurd to think that there are "good" ways and "bad" ways of waging war? Good ways and bad ways of killing innocent civilians or people who are taking up arms to defend their homes? Would you do anything different if it was a foreign army at your front door?

War is a descent into savagery officially condoned and promoted by the State. This war is fueled by the hysteria of ignorance at home, in the US, a country that has never known a foreign army on its territory since its founding.

There is no way to sweeten the smell of rotting corpses. The screams of a woman being raped cannot be transformed into a great aria. A mutilated baby will never grow into an unscarred adult.

The only rule in war is to stay alive. Shoot first, ask questions later. To try and suggest that war can be waged without the Mai Lai massacre or the deaths or raping of innocents is to lie to oneself. Was the fire-bombing of Dresden less "evil" than the Warsaw ghetto?

The crimes of war are determined by the victors, but Bush and his crew of killers, waging God's war against Islam, in the name if Israel and Yahweh and the so-called Christian God of Love, deserve to be judged by the world.

Will it ever happen?

Revelation:

13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
13:2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
13:3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? 13:5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
13:6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
13:7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
13:9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.
13:10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

Words cannot describe how we are feeling today. To say that we are sick is a massive understatement. Our stomachs are literally churning. What do you do, what do you say? These people are animals - nothing more. For those that wish to accuse us of being too pessimistic, that is fine, feel free. It will not change our disgust and our conviction that there can only be one outcome for humanity. Look at the pictures today, LOOK at them, THINK about what is happening, THINK about the immense gulf between what we have been led to believe about "operation Iraqi freedom" and the horrible reality. Then think about the fact that your leaders (for they certainly never were ours) KNEW about this at least 2 weeks ago - and possibly over a year ago - and wanted to hold off so they could decide how best to spin it. Nice world isn't it? And we "fit" here...

Abuse Of Iraqi POWs By GIs Probed

Army Probes POW Abuse

April 29, 2004

It turns out photographs surfaced showing American soldiers abusing and humiliating Iraqis being held at a prison near Baghdad. The Army investigated, and issued a scathing report.

Now, an Army general and her command staff may face the end of long military careers. And six soldiers are facing court martial in Iraq -- and possible prison time.

Correspondent Dan Rather talks to one of those soldiers. And, for the first time, 60 Minutes II will show some of the pictures that led to the Army investigation.

According to the U.S. Army, one Iraqi prisoner was told to stand on a box with his head covered, wires attached to his hands. He was told that if he fell off the box, he would be electrocuted.

It was this picture, and dozens of others, that prompted an investigation by the U.S. Army. On Tuesday, 60 Minutes II asked Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of coalition operations in Iraq, what went wrong.

“Frankly, I think all of us are disappointed by the actions of the few,” says Kimmitt. “Every day, we love our soldiers, but frankly, some days we're not always proud of our soldiers."

DISAPPOINTED?? This is the emotion that is provoked from Kimmit? DISAPPOINTMENT?!

For decades under Saddam Hussein, many prisoners who were taken to the Abu Ghraib prison never came out. It was the centerpiece of Saddam’s empire of fear, and those prisoners who did make it out told nightmarish tales of torture beyond imagining – and executions without reason.

"I visited Abu Ghraib a couple of days after it was liberated. It was the most awful sight I've ever seen. I said, ‘If there's ever a reason to get rid of Saddam Hussein, it's because of Abu Ghraib,'” says Baer. “There were bodies that were eaten by dogs, torture. You know, electrodes coming out of the walls. It was an awful place."

One of the soldiers facing court martial is Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Chip Frederick.

Frederick is charged with maltreatment for allegedly participating in and setting up a photo, and for posing in a photograph by sitting on top of a detainee. He is charged with an indecent act for observing one scene. He is also charged with assault for allegedly striking detainees – and ordering detainees to strike each other.

60 Minutes II talked with him by phone from Baghdad, where he is awaiting court martial.

Frederick told us he will plead not guilty, claiming the way the Army was running the prison led to the abuse of prisoners.

“We had no support, no training whatsoever. And I kept asking my chain of command for certain things...like rules and regulations,” says Frederick. “And it just wasn't happening."

Six months before he faced a court martial, Frederick sent home a video diary of his trip across the country. Frederick, a reservist, said he was proud to serve in Iraq. He seemed particularly well-suited for the job at Abu Ghraib. He’s a corrections officer at a Virginia prison, whose warden described Frederick to us as “one of the best.”

Frederick says Americans came into the prison: “We had military intelligence, we had all kinds of other government agencies, FBI, CIA ... All those that I didn't even know or recognize."

Frederick's letters and email messages home also offer clues to problems at the prison. He wrote that he was helping the interrogators:

"Military intelligence has encouraged and told us 'Great job.' "

"They usually don't allow others to watch them interrogate. But since they like the way I run the prison, they have made an exception."

"We help getting them to talk with the way we handle them. ... We've had a very high rate with our style of getting them to break. They usually end up breaking within hours."

No doubt, how long would it take you to "break" if you were being sodomised with a floresent light tube?

[...] Attorney Gary Myers and a judge advocate in Iraq are defending Frederick. They say he should never have been charged, because of the failure of his commanders to provide proper training and standards.

"The elixir of power, the elixir of believing that you're helping the CIA, for God's sake, when you're from a small town in Virginia, that's intoxicating,” says Myers. “And so, good guys sometimes do things believing that they are being of assistance and helping a just cause. ... And helping people they view as important."

This sounds like a setup - not that it excuses the actions of the soldiers, but we must ask, why was this torture being encouraged by US intelligence and who was documenting it?

Frederick says he didn't see a copy of the Geneva Convention rules for handling prisoners of war until after he was charged.

The Army investigation confirms that soldiers at Abu Ghraib were not trained at all in Geneva Convention rules. And most were reservists, part-time soldiers who didn't get the kind of specialized prisoner of war training given to regular Army members.

Frederick also says there were far too few soldiers there for the number of prisoners: “There was, when I left, there was over 900. And there was only five soldiers, plus two non-commissioned officers, in charge for those 900 -- over 900 inmates."

Rather asked Kimmitt about understaffing. "That doesn't condone individual acts of criminal behavior no matter how tired we are. No matter how stretched we are, that doesn't give us license and it doesn't give us the authority to break the law,” says Kimmitt.

“That may have been a contributing factor, but at the end of the day, this is probably more about leadership, supervision, setting standards, abiding by the Army values and understanding what's right, and having the guts to say what's right.”

It sounds more like the right consitions were created for these atrocities to be carried out. But again, by whom, and why?

"This is international standards,” said Karpinski. “It's the best care available in a prison facility."

But the Army investigation found serious problems behind the scenes. The Army has photographs that show a detainee with wires attached to his genitals. Another shows a dog attacking an Iraqi prisoner. Frederick said that dogs were “used for intimidation factors.”

Part of the Army's own investigation is a statement from an Iraqi detainee who charges a translator - hired to work at the prison - with raping a male juvenile prisoner: "They covered all the doors with sheets. I heard the screaming. ...and the female soldier was taking pictures."

There is also a picture of an Iraqi man who appears to be dead -- and badly beaten.

"It's reprehensible that anybody would be taking a picture of that situation,” says Kimmitt.

Kimmitt says the Army will not let what happened at Abu Ghraib just pass. What does he think is the most important thing for Americans to know about what has happened?

"I think two things. No. 1, this is a small minority of the military, and No. 2, they need to understand that is not the Army,” says Kimmitt. “The Army is a values-based organization. We live by our values. Some of our soldiers every day die by our values, and these acts that you see in these pictures may reflect the actions of individuals, but by God, it doesn't reflect my army."

Horse hockey. Soldiers exist for one reason, to kill. Their training is designed to develop the most depraved and animalistic aspects of human nature and reward it when it is exercised.

Two weeks ago, 60 Minutes II received an appeal from the Defense Department, and eventually from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard Myers, to delay this broadcast -- given the danger and tension on the ground in Iraq.

60 Minutes II decided to honor that request, while pressing for the Defense Department to add its perspective to the incidents at Abu Ghraib prison. This week, with the photos beginning to circulate elsewhere, and with other journalists about to publish their versions of the story, the Defense Department agreed to cooperate in our report.

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What other crimes committed by the US military are we unaware of? What other atrocities against defenseless Iraqi women and men are being covered up?...

Group Says It Has Iraq Torture Evidence

By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press Writer
May 2, 2004

LONDON - Amnesty International said it has uncovered a "pattern of torture" of Iraqi prisoners by coalition troops, and called for an independent investigation into the claims of abuse.

The London-based human rights group said it had received "scores" of reports of ill treatment of detainees by British and American troops.

But the top U.S. military officer said Sunday there was no widespread pattern of abuse and that the actions of "just a handful" of U.S. troops at a Baghdad prison have unfairly tainted all American forces. [...]

But Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski of the 800th Military Police Brigade also told The New York Times that the Abu Ghraib prison cell block where the abuses occurred was controlled by military intelligence officers, who she said may have encouraged the actions.

"The suggestion that this was done with my knowledge and continued with my knowledge is so far from the truth," she said in Sunday's editions. "I wasn't aware of any of this. I'm horrified by this."

On Saturday, The New Yorker magazine said it obtained a U.S. Army report that Iraqi detainees were subjected to "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" at the prison near Baghdad.

The internal report by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba found that reservist military police at the prison were urged by Army military officers and CIA agents to "set physical and mental conditions for favorable interrogation of witnesses," the magazine said in its May 10 issue. [...]

Karpinski told The New York Times that she believed military commanders were trying to shift the blame for the abuses from military intelligence officers in Iraq to the reservists. [...]

Amnesty's Middle East spokeswoman, Nicole Choueiry, said she was not surprised by the pictures.

"We've been documenting allegations of torture for a year now," she said. "We have said there are patterns of torture." [...]

Comment: Exactly. So why is the US media only now paying such close attention?

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Prisoner torture 'included sex assault with broomstick'

01/05/2004

Outrage over the torture of Iraqi prisoners by United States troops intensified tonight after claims that the abuse included sexual assault and threats of rape.

The New Yorker magazine said it had obtained a US Army report that Iraqi detainees were subjected to “sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses” at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

Those abuses included threats of rape and the pouring of water and liquid from chemical lights on detainees, said the internal report by Major General Antonio Taguba.

Detainees were beaten with a broom handle and one was sodomized with "a chemical light and perhaps a broomstick," the report said, according to the magazine in its May 10 issue.

Colonel Jill Morgenthaler, spokeswoman for the US command in Baghdad, said Taguba had prepared an internal report, but she could not comment on the findings because they were classified.

The new allegations are expected to fuel a growing sense of outrage which swelled in Iraq after release of shocking pictures of prisoners being humiliated by their US captors – who invaded Iraq last year to liberate the country from Saddam’s tyranny.

Although the pictures have not been widely published by Iraqi newspapers, many Iraqis have seen them on Arabic language satellite television stations such as Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya.

Tonight, a member of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council demanded that Iraqi authorities investigate the reports of torture – which happened in the very prison where Saddam Hussein’s regime tortured and murdered its opponents.

“After what we saw, all Iraqis will attack them now,” Abdulilah Mohammed, 55, a Baghdad street vendor, said of the Americans

Comment: When I carefully consider the curious habits of dogs I am compelled to conclude that man is the superior animal. When I consider the curious habits of man I confess, my friend, I am puzzled. - "Meditatio" - by Erza Pound

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U.S.: No Widespread Abuse in Iraq Prisons

AP
May 2, 2004

WASHINGTON - Top U.S. military officer Gen. Richard Myers said Sunday there is no widespread pattern of abuse of Iraqi prisoners and that the actions of "just a handful" of U.S. troops at a Baghdad prison have unfairly tainted all American forces.

An internal Army report found that Iraqi detainees were subjected to "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, according to The New Yorker magazine, which said it obtained a copy of the report.

The abuses at the prison included threats of rape and the pouring of cold water and liquid from chemical lights on detainees, according to the published account. [...]

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said "categorically" that "there is no evidence of systematic abuse" in the U.S. detention operations in the region.

"We review all the interrogation methods. Torture is not one of the methods that we're allowed to use and that we use," Myers said. "I mean, it's just not permitted by international law, and we don't use it." [...]

Comment: International law?! The US invaded Iraq against international law. Countless "terrorists" have been imprisoned, yet they are not even considered POW's, since that would require adhering to the Geneva Convention. The "detainees" aren't even charged with a crime. It is completely absurd for Myers to suddenly run to international law as a defense against accusations of torture.

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Claim: CIA behind Iraqi prisoner abuse

Sunday 02 May 2004, 8:59 Makka Time, 5:59 GMT

A US army reserve general, whose soldiers were photographed abusing Iraqi prisoners, has said the prison cellblock involved was under the tight control of military intelligence, which may have encouraged the abuse.

Brigadier-General Janis Karpinski told The New York Times in a telephone interview that the special high-security cellblock at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad had been under the direct control of army intelligence officers, not the reservists under her command.

Her comments follow a report in The New Yorker magazine, which indicated that abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib may have been ordered by US military intelligence to extract information from the captives.

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The 'Rape of Iraq' Acquires a New Meaning

W. C. Hack 29 Apr 2004 19:03 GMT

The 'Rape of Iraq' Acquires a New Meaning The Arabic ideology could safely be summed up in one word: honour. Honour to Arabs, however, bear a very specific significance. Honour is a word that is attached to the land and chastity of women. It is the Arabic version of nobility. Trespassing on Arabian honour is the biggest sin there is to commit, be that in the name of liberation or worse still, occupation. As an Arab writer, reporting on the rape of the looted Arab honour of Muslim women is a major decision I had to make against the ethics of my culture and the morality of my society. Yet, I had to do it; someone had to do it. And here I register my very honest apology for publishing this report that opens wounds of many Arab families in Iraq and hurts the pride of the Arab nation, confirming that if we all keep our mouths shut, the illegitimate American occupation will feel free to lie to its teeth, even more.

This photo, obtained by Jihad UnSpun, shows one instance of four thousand cases of alleged rape against Iraqi women by USA soldiers since the occupation began.

[...] Their revelling in the act of sexual torture was documented by the American mercenaries themselves. An American Muslim sent the pictures to Arabia. Claims that the pictures are not authentic or that rapes are not the order of the day for occupied Iraq is no different from the claim that Saddam was a threat to the US for possessing WMDs. The rape of Iraq was on top of the American agenda since Bush Sr. ; and today, his son lives to finalize the map of de-civilisation.

[...] Dr. Younis said "Even when women come to the hospital with injuries that are consistent with rape, they often insist something else happened. “A 60-year-old woman asserted that she had been hit by a car. The mother of a 6-year-old girl begged the doctor to write a report saying that her daughter’s hymen had been ruptured because she fell on a sharp object,a common lie families tell in the case of rape,” Dr. Younis said.

On the arrest of Iraqi men at their abodes, the wives and sisters are taken hostages by American soldiers to the open desert. In most cases, children had to witness their mothers and grandmothers being beaten and ravished out of their homes by the Americans. Once a woman is taken to the desert near the camp, the soldiers ingeniously devise ways of sexual humiliation of Muslim women that range from performing group fellatios to having orgies with the cowboys in uniform. Despite the shame surrounding the events of rapes, where the youngest victim was 9 years old and the oldest was 64, four thousand cases of rapes were involuntarily exposed. In return, a series of rapes on the American troops started five weeks ago, where Iraqi citizens kidnapped and raped cowboys in combat before killing them. [...]

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They Can Already Taste blood and They are Ready to Kill... Our America

Becky Burgwin

03/15/04 "OpEdNews.Com" Who are they? Well, here’s the short list. John Ashcroft, Tom Delay, Dick Cheney, Rick Santorum, Antonin Scalia, George W. Bush, Pat Robertson, Don Rumsfeld and they taste blood. Why? Because they are just inches away from accomplishing their objective…the take over of our country by their radical, extremist, right wing, Christian agenda. What will they do when they have accomplished that? Take over the world. Think I’m kidding?

John Ashcroft, who, as we all know, lost to a dead guy in his home state, before being appointed by our first appointed president to the attorney general spot, was anointed with oil by Clarence Thomas, the supreme court justice whose wife was on Bush’s transition team when he halted the Florida recount and appointed Bush president. Let me repeat that…John Ashcroft was anointed with oil by Clarence Thomas after his attorney general appointment. This custom was started by King David sometime during the Old Testament.

Here’s what John Ashcroft is against: abortion, homosexuality, Christians making friends with non-Christians, “mixed gender” dancing, (so he’s OK with same gender dancing??? I’m confused), sexually explicit anything…books, movies, statues. Let’s just say he’s exactly the kind of guy who would have chiseled all the penises off of every work of art in the Vatican and put tacky, expensive fig leaves over them if it hadn’t already been done.

Here’s what John Ashcroft is for: speaking in tongues, being anointed with oil, government laws that reflect the teachings of Jesus Christ, abolishing attorney/client privilege, loosening restrictions on secret government surveillance of citizens, including phones, e-mail, libraries and bank accounts, a "deport at will" option to avoid all those tiresome immigration laws, increasing the list of federal death-penalty crimes, the ability to open the graves of deceased victims of terrorism without permission, restricting access to information about corporate pollution and environmental crimes, and keeping an eye on lenient judges so he can oust them when he puts himself in charge of appointing judges.

Here’s what John Ashcroft has accomplished: ALL OF THE ABOVE.

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Comment from a QFS Member

On the TV news tonight, Bush said he was disturbed by the pictures (it wasn't just the guy with the hood and wires, but many of Iraqis in sexually provocative and demeaning positions) and that this treatment of the prisoners "doesn't reflect the nature of the American people."

What was that about psychos spouting opposites?

Don't these pictures depict precisely what typical Americans think of foreigners? A current radio ad for the show of a highly regarded conservative talk-show host in my area samples him speaking about how the outside world is uncivilized and that even Canada would slip back into barbarity were it not for its proximity to the U.S.A.

For better or worse, the people of the world are getting a look at real American attitudes via all those newspaper front pages, despite the White House's damage control. And, of course, the powerful impact of this incident (and the fact that the "perpetrator" soldiers claim they were just following orders) suggests strongly that it was orchestrated to achieve an inflammatory and provocative effect in the Arab world. We know that the PTB want to draw others into this conflict. This looks like a psy-op designed to promote that aim.

Comment from a QFS Member

In the British media today, the uk army is expressing doubts as to whether the torture of Iraqis at the hands of british soldiers are fake.

When I first saw the news reports about this I and was going to write to the group something similar to what is now written about this on saturdays signs page.

I get the feeling though, that these pictures are fake. My reasoning behind this is because when I first saw this report by the BBC, the first thing that jumped out at me was the Iraq flag t shirt, apart from the t shirt being very clean, so clean in fact that it looks brand new and can be purchased here, in US$,

It is my hunch that this flag t shirt was deliberatly put on by this person to reinforce the idea that the victim is an Iraqi.

Again we have to ask the question, who benefits?

Comment on Iraq

Numerous pictures showing Americans gang raping Iraqi women have surfaced. I don't know how America can survive this. Reports are also surfacing that The Commanders in the field mutinied against the pentagon and withdrew against the wishes of those in Washington. The situation was being micromanaged by Bush. I guess the Commanders finally realized that the people in charge in Washington were insane.

Comment: How can American survive this? Easy. Nobody cares. The Arab and Moslem world may rise up. The world may explode in a war the likes of which we can't imagine. But it isn't going to change a damn thing in the United States of Our Soldiers Wouldn't Do Anything Like That.

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From Fallujah to Arab coffee houses: The US loses a round

Special to The Daily Star
Friday, April 30, 2004

Having lived in both the Arab and American worlds it is sometimes possible to see both perspectives and be in awe of how different they are. A few days ago, CNN reported that there were "chants and songs" being heard during battles in Fallujah. The reporter on the scene could not understand what he was hearing. The anchorperson in Atlanta perked up to say that those were "calls to prayer."

This battle was not happening during a prayer time. The call to prayer is fairly short and has a familiar cadence to anyone who knows anything about the Middle East. Those "chants and songs," as the station called them, went on for over an hour. The on-site reporter finally got his translator to explain that the people in the city were reading the Koran as bombs fell. The CNN reporter matter-of-factly repeated this as if it were something of interest, but otherwise of no consequence.

As I heard the comments, I was wondering how all this was playing in the coffee shops of Amman, Cairo, Casablanca and Damascus - all places where American policies receive approval ratings of about 3-5 percent. In these coffee shops one can see groups of youths sitting around smoking hubbly-bubblies while watching Al-Jazeera or other Arabic television stations, or listening to the radio. What they heard was the chanting of their holy book amid the sound of bombs and the firing of cannons.

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Palestine: Is America a Servant to the Will of Israel?

By Genevieve Cora Fraser
May 3, 2004, 18:58

[...] Since the passage of United Nations Resolution 194 (III) of December 11, 1948 Israel has thumped its nose at the guaranteed repatriation or compensation for Palestinian refugees. Now President Bush joins Israel in complete disregard for their tragic plight with the cavalier suggestion that millions of refugees will have to find homes in a new Palestinian state, rather than reclaiming land in what is now Israel. But where are they to go? Currently Palestinians have access to barely 8% of historic Palestine and that figure declines each day Israel annexes additional land for the Apartheid Wall, further expansions of the illegal, quasi-military settlements and Israeli-only roads leading to and from these outposts.

According to UNRWA statistics from 2000 there are 3.7 million Palestinian refugees with 1.6 million in Jordon; 824,622 in Gaza; 583,009 in the West Bank; 383,199 in Syria and 376, 472 in Lebanon.

The Palestinian refugee population is the largest in the world.

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Crown Prince: ‘Zionism’ behind Yanbu attack

YANBU, Saudi Arabia - The body of one of five Westerners killed in a shooting rampage in the Saudi port of Yanbu was stripped naked and dragged behind the gunmen's getaway car, witnesses and press reports said Sunday.

Saudi Arabia's de facto leader vowed to use an iron fist to crush Islamic extremists after Saturday's attack on a petrochemical plant in the Red Sea port which killed two Americans, two Britons, an Australian and a Saudi national. [...]

Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, the kingdom's de facto ruler, vowed that the Saudi authorities would crush terrorists, who he said were manipulated by "Zionism."

"Your country is targeted... Zionism is behind what is happening. This has become clear - I wouldn't say 100 percent but 95 percent," SPA quoted him as saying on Saturday.

"We will strike with an iron fist at anyone who undermines the security of this country. We will pursue this deviant group for 20 or 30 years."

Saudi security forces have been waging a relentless crackdown on Islamist extremists believed linked to the Al-Qaeda terror network since a wave of bombings against residential compounds in Riyadh killed 52 people in May and November 2003. [...]

Comment: In the above the Saudi ruler is clearly referring to Israeli intelligence agencies like the Mossad. Mossad = al-Qaeda.

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Two killed as strong quake jolts Taiwan

Two people have been killed after an earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale rocked Taiwan on Saturday.

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Why Antarctica will soon be the only place to live - literally

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
02 May 2004

Antarctica is likely to be the world's only habitable continent by the end of this century if global warming remains unchecked, the Government's chief scientist, Professor Sir David King, said last week.

He said the Earth was entering the "first hot period" for 60 million years, when there was no ice on the planet and "the rest of the globe could not sustain human life". The warning - one of the starkest delivered by a top scientist - comes as ministers decide next week whether to weaken measures to cut the pollution that causes climate change, even though Tony Blair last week described the situation as "very, very critical indeed". [...]

Comment: Depending on who you listen to, we have 8 years, 50 years, 100 years or 5 billion - but does it really matter? All that matter is what you do today, and each day. What you See. Who you are.

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What Will The End Of Society Be Like ?

By Ted Twietmeyer
tedtw@frontiernet.net
4-25-4

This is full of doom and gloom, and disturbing facts. Don't blame me if you have nightmares tonight.

There are a plethora of reasons why the end of our life as we know it could come to pass. A coronal mass ejection (CME) from the sun, a meteorite of sufficient size, and of course the ever present possibility of nuclear war. Its really a myth that the nuclear age ended in 1989 with the fall of the iron curtain. Missiles are still pointed at Russia, and Russian missiles are still pointed at us. In fact, a documentary a few years ago stated that most missile target coordinates are unchanged. And why not ? The theory of M.A.D. still prevails, because it is really an immutable fact. As the expression goes, "the names have changed, but the music is still the same."

The big differences between global thermonuclear war, and a solar event or meteor impact will be that a meteor won't have radiation with it. An event from the sun, if severe enough can cause high radiation levels. But unlike a global atomic war, radiation from a CME will virtually cover the entire earth. And it might actually be worse in some respects than a nuclear war, but not as long lasting.

BILLIARDS IN SPACE

Asteroid and comet threats are perhaps the worst threat planet earth has. The control-freak families who decide everything on earth including wars and world economies, must be frustrated over anything they can't control. Asteroids cannot be bought out, threatened, shot at, kidnapped or intimidated. They just keep on coming like a freight train without brakes. As of this writing, there were 589 asteroids that have been categorized as either continent killers, or earth life killing objects. There are tens of thousands more which are also tracked. The determination is of course, based on their size and mass. Iron is the most common component of an asteroid. One of the big problems, is that there aren't enough full-time astronomers to track them all and look for new ones.

Asteroids are mostly made of iron. This is known from those meteors that make it to earth. And you think an iron skillet is heavy ? Imagine a million of them coming into the atmosphere, at speeds of 14,000 MPH . Very bad for your car's paint job, and even harder on windows and roofs.

These objects collide with one another in space with an unknown frequency, in ways we do not fully understand or can predict. It is also believed they can cluster together as well. When this happens, radar from earth may not be able to ascertain if one huge asteroid is actually a collection of smaller rocks. Every object has gravity, and in space even very small gravity fields can cause clustering.

SOLAR THREATS

A coronal mass ejection (CME) from the sun will if severe enough, will destroy satellites. There are different types of CMEs. Some don't do any damage, yet others can cripple or temporarily stop a satellite from working. A CME at higher energy levels can ionize the atmosphere sufficiently to bring down power grids. One such event happened several years ago in the Quebec area of eastern Canada.

Their grid was down for several days, because the high voltage insulators were arcing (shorting out) and tripping circuit breakers. All that grid operators could do is wait for conditions to improve. And there are levels of severity beyond that, too. Loss of human life is possible because the jet stream could be depressed by the force of a CME, down near the surface of the earth. Normally above altitudes of 30,000 ft, this is not a mild breeze- the jet stream moves at velocities of 200 Mph or more.

So, with all that said, lets look at what the end might be like. The common denominator in all these scenarios, is the end of the infrastructure as we know it. Ever been in an ice or snow storm where you live ? Remember what that was like ? Any open store was packed, where people can be seen grabbing bread from another's hands when it was the last loaf on the shelf..

When people get scared the survival instinct kicks in, like protective programming. Now in our global disaster example we are not talking about a simple storm. In a storm scenario, everyone knows (even the food grabbers in the stores) that in a few days the power will be back on, and all will be well again.

People know they will be able to fill their cars again and continue driving when the effects from a regular storm are over. An ice storm or snow storm are minor inconveniences. Ice storms usually happen right near freezing temperatures, so one can actually do without heat in their home. And of course, everyone will live happily ever after and things will return to normal....

THE IMPACT

Now, lets examine another situation. A meteorite impact on land is far worse in the long run, than one in the ocean. Computer models have predicted what an impact on land will do. It will blast enough dust and dirt into the high atmosphere to block out sunlight for 6-8 months. Originally scientists believed it would last a year, but the impact on plants is what is most important.

An ocean impact forces the water to absorb a large part of the energy. Tidal waves of huge proportions will be generated, but the sun won't be blotted out. But the people living along the coastal areas, will be. Although the loss of life will be in the millions, many scientists believe it won't threaten the very existence of humankind on earth. These tidal waves will be the biggest ever seen in recorded history. Some predictions state these waves can reach up to 100 miles inland. Its very difficult for anyone to imagine a wave one mile high, but it can happen. This wave will wash out everything within its reach. All the coastal cities around the world will be in grave danger of being washed away from such an impact. Its also believed that the resulting shockwave will circle the planet twice. See here for what an earthquake-generated tidal wave can be like.

With an impact on land, three days without any sunlight will cause loss of most ALL plant life. Including trees, crops, grass, plankton...well, you get the idea.

WHAT IT WILL BE LIKE

If you are of the faint of heart or sickened easily, this is your last warning. It gets worse from here.

There will be several kinds of survivors. The first are those who live through the initial event and are happy and well off, because of food and shelter and being in the right place at the right time.

Then there will be those in shock, and that will be replaced by fear later. And then there will be those injured, who may never get medical attention. Hospitals everywhere will either be destroyed, or those still in operation will be swamped with emergency patients. Lines will extend into parking lots and down the road.

Remember that the key word here is survival of the human race. And this one fact will be the driving factor for any surviving law and infrastructure. A ruthless form of martial law will rule. And if the meteor hits land- you will have martial law declared and enforced in near total darkness for months. Worse than any nightmare you can imagine. Get caught out on the streets during curfew, and you will be shot.

In the following sections, we will explore how you will be PLUNGED HEAD FIRST back 200 years without electricity. And unlike a storm where you know the power will be back on at some point- this is worse because IT WON'T BE COMING BACK ON, if at all, for years. And because everyone will know it, panic and desperation will set in.

ELECTRICITY

Recall my mentioning an ice storm ? For those of you have not lived through one, here's what its like if you live in a rural area as I do, where the impact is even greater when power goes out. You quickly find out your not as self-sufficient as you thought.Your well pump won't run without power. Therefore, the only running water you have is what's left in the pressure tank. This is usually only a few gallons. When its gone, its gone. The first time that happened, I created a backup system so our quality of life won't suffer the next time it comes along. If it isn't a summer storm, then it will be a drunk driver hitting a pole, or a power equipment failure at a substation.

Flushing toilets is something people never think about. But without running water, it better be planned and limited. Of course, that creates its own problems. And when the telephone poles come down with the power, the internet and telephones will become a faded memory. Cell phones won't work either. I've been telling people for years now, DON'T just save a link to that important information- PRINT IT OUT. Don't even bother to put in your HD to "read later." Because without power- later will never come. And you can read books without electricity during the day.

APPLIANCES

Open the fridge out of habit- and its dark. The sudden realization of all your food spoiling comes to mind. The news on the car radio is not good- that power will be out for up to a week (for an ice storm or other similar event.)

Have an electric stove? Forget it. Useless. If you have a gas stove, these appliances today all have electric igniters. So the gas on the burner comes on, but it won't light. Matches or a BBQ lighter fixes that. Gas ovens today are designed so the main gas feed won't come on, until the pilot is lit. Do NOT do this, but people manually have lit the pilot down in the broiler, and when the safety sensor gets hot the main burner turns on. This is dangerous if your arm is still inside, so don't do it. Yet these are minor inconveniences compared to other problems. In the case of a global catastrophe, dead appliances will become useless. Like that washing machine and dryer that cannot run anymore.

GASOLINE

Go to the gas station to fill your car. No gas because the pumps don't run without electricity. You can find an open station, just by the long lines at the pumps. Perhaps you won't run out while waiting in line... If so, you'll be pushing your car to the pump. I've always wondered WHY most gas stations don't wake up, and install a generator to keep the pumps running. They could charge $5.00 a gallon, and people will still pay it. The great American love affair with their cars continues. But I won't pay $5.00 a gallon !

WOODSTOVES

Gasoline brings us to the "woodstove connection." Why? Because people use gas powered chainsaws to create kindling. Oops- can't run your gas or electric chainsaw can you? You're no better off now than your neighbor with the electric furnace. People think wood will always be available. But what happens when the trees are destroyed ?

HOSPITALS

These life saving institutions will be able to function for a while. Most of them are required by law to have backup generators. Remember that up until the mid 1900's, hospitals reused most of what they had after washing and sterilizing. Those days have been replaced by glorious plastic. Use it once, throw it away and bill the patient for it all. Great for preventing the spread of disease as we all know. Bad news when the supply trucks don't come anymore. And there are the drugs that will quickly run out, too. And in the case of real nationwide disaster no matter what country you live in, the military will take control of all of it. It could even come down to euthanasia for patients who have too many injuries.

FOOD

This is the part that really brings people to their knees. How many really know what REAL hunger is? You can only live about three days without food and water. What happens to the body during starvation ? Our bodies are marvels of engineering. There is an automatic survival mechanism inside you. When you don't have gas in your car, it stops point blank. But your body without food goes into survival mode...it begins to use itself to keep your organs functional. It consumes fat first, then muscle. When that runs out..it continues on to other parts of the body. The survival mechanism doesn't stop until the organs shut down. These and other recorded effects were found during semi-starvation testing under controlled conditions, are found at http://river-centre.org/StarvSympt.html

As long as you intake enough fresh water (without parasites - forget that creek, river or lake near your home) you'll live for weeks. But it won't be pleasant. After just a couple days, you begin to hallucinate. You start seeing double and cannot focus. You can even have auditory hallucinations because your brain can't function correctly or focus right. It gets worse from there. It can take a year (or more) for the food distribution pipelines to fill again AFTER the crops come in. What most people don't know, is that supermarkets today operate with little more than THREE DAYS of food in the store. Just go ask one of the local store managers.

Stores *assume* that a truck will always arrive to re-stock the store. And that brings us back to gasoline and diesel fuel - those tractor trailers don't move, unless their two 40 gallon tanks are filled. The fine men and women that drive those rigs are not fools, and are not about to start out on a trip not knowing whether a filling station will be open somewhere.

Now, you haven't lived until you been to a store when an ice storm or blizzard has happened. You reach for that loaf of bread- and someone else will literally snatch it right out of your hand. I've seen this happen. Why? Because the instinct for survival is very strong in humankind. Deep within all of us are animal instincts to live, and when "push comes to shove" people will do anything to live. Even laws won't matter anymore when the survival mode kicks in.

The solution to the food problem is to grow your own. But you will NOT be able to do that outdoors.
One main reason is lack of sun. The other is, it will be stolen from you just about the time its ready
to harvest. So, gardening outside will be impossible. You will either need to grow it indoors or have enough dehydrated storage to last you for perhaps two years.

If you think you can run to the store fast enough to get what you want, think again. The US Army
several years ago, began a quiet planning program for takeover of the stores. The small mom and pop stores they don't care about. Its the big chains that will become food distribution centers. And the men and women assigned to guard and screen store customers will be armed, and will shoot to kill anyone who attempts entry on a day they aren't assigned to come in on. In other words, a strict rationing system.

WATER

Just where does that water in your tap come from if you don't have a well ? ALL treatment plants rely on electricity for the systems they use. They may have backup generators and storage tanks, but at some point, perhaps in a few days or weeks, these will run out. No more baths, dishwashing, cleaning, showers, or even something to drink.

CRIME

Needless to say this will skyrocket. No other film could more accurately illustrate this, than the 60's movie called "Omega Man." If you haven't seen it, go rent it if you can. You will see what cities will become. Sure, there will be the military patrolling the streets in tanks. But that won't be enough. Want proof ? Look at Fallujah, Iraq today. Only one city, and we cannot secure it. Now imagine trying to restore order to all the big cities across the united states.

Bush has said he'll "put foreign troops on the streets." Now that's for a major terror attack. Yet minor, compared to a global catastrophe. Killing for just a candy bar will take place, as people become more and more hungry. Those living, will be envying those that died. They will feel there is nothing to live for, and they may be correct in many ways. The very fabric of society will unravel in just days.

BORDERS

Any country's border is only as good as its defense. Imagine you work for the government, and do border patrol. It doesn't even matter which country. When global catastrophe hits, NO government will stay solvent. Suddenly you will realize that you are just as unemployed as that steel worker from Indiana. What will you do ? Say the heck with it, and go home to your family. The borders everywhere will be unguarded. Millions will cross over into the country and join in the looting and scavenging.

CONCENTRATION/ FORCED LABOR CAMPS

People laugh at this. I took one camp name at random two years ago from a list on the web and paid it a visit. Ft. AP Hill in Virginia (estimated capacity 45,000.). Its no laughing matter when you visit one. These are REAL. And when those that are starving go to the government for help, this is their final destination. These camps will exist for several reasons- one to punish looters and those that break martial laws, to organize work groups, and extermination. Look at the great purge of the old Soviet Union. The details about this (purge is a nice polite name for MASS GENOCIDE) are here among many other places on the web. Out with the old, in with the new....slaves, that is.

Think about the country and what it could become because of a global catastrophe- millions of telephone poles down and all the cables. High tension towers flattened. Thousands of water lines and water treatment and sewer facilities destroyed. There are other plans for the camps according to govt. documents, including using them as execution centers. And Christians are on the list for pickup among others. Here is a list of camps state by state:

THE DEAD AND WOUNDED

Millions or perhaps billions of unburied corpses and wounded laying everywhere. City buildings will become mausoleums for the unprepared dead. Disease will become rampant, as the plaque from the decaying bodies will spread through animals and insects. It will boggle the mind, just thinking about where to begin. There will be people still alive, so wounded and hurt that death will be welcome to them. They will even beg for the end to come. Who will give it to them ? An injection, or a bullet ?

The military has what they call "portable crematoriums." The question will be - do they have enough of these ? Not likely, because the race against time will be about preventing the spread of disease. There won't be enough body bags for the dead - I'll leave that part out. [...]

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To Sum Up

The Signs page is a short one today. Somehow, we are feeling a little less than enthusiastic about looking any further at the state of our world - yet, more than likely, it will be the same tomorrow, just a little bit worse. The rest of today's news then, can be summed up as follows:

Bush and Co. are still lying. Americans are still asleep. Israeli extremists and Mossad are continuing to attempt to convince the world that Arabs are little more than animals, even as they carry out acts that would shame any animal. The masses of humanity are carrying on with their daily lives, ignoring the fact that their world is crumbling around them. Reality TV, the latest fashions, UFOs and water on Mars. Comets and Meteorites continue to threaten all life, children still go to school to get their daily dose of brainwashing. Volcanoes erupt, earthquakes rumble, the latest hollywood blockbuster is released. Millions pray to Jesus to take them away from their sorry lives, "drought" threatens Africa, yet again.

People talk, no one listens. Words mean nothing to the machine programmed to say them.

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