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Boucle de Barnard
©2004 Pierre-Paul Feyte

The Real Wonderland

RICHARD M. DOLAN
Senior Editor, Phenomena Magazine
Dateline: Thursday, August 5, 2004

Unless you consciously look for such news, you would never know that UFOs continue to be seen by people every day, around the world.

The difference between the reality of the phenomena, and how it is ignored, reminds me of what Alice experienced when she jumped down the rabbit hole into Wonderland. But the twist in our society is that the reality of UFO experience is part of the normal, topside world, while mainstream media coverage is part of Wonderland.

Indeed, our mainstream media has become so incompetent and downright screwy, our political and corporate leaders such self-serving liars, and our common culture so escapist and empty-headed, that I think "Wonderland" describes this warped reality quite well.

Ironic that UFOs are considered to be "bizarre" by the official, Wonderland, culture. But then again, maybe not so ironic.

It's astonishing when I reflect on this. In my personal life, outside of my "ufological" world, I have probably spoken to 120 to 150 people who have shared their personal UFO experiences with me. Basically, they find out that I write on this subject and soon confide to me something they often haven't even told their close friends – sometimes not even their spouse.

Last week, yet again, a person I met in Wonderland told me about her reality on the topside. This was an encounter from back in 1975, when she was a high school student and witnessed an enormous aerial object hovering low over a building in Rochester, New York, the town where I have lived these past nineteen years. It was late fall, at a time (unbeknownst to her) when there were quite a few military UFO sightings along the northern U.S. border. The object was dark and huge, she said to me. It was absolutely not anything of human origin, she maintains. She never reported this anywhere, and in fact has hardly told anyone after nearly 30 years.

Another person I know – someone who is a fairly well-known celebrity in Western New York State – had a UFO sighting in May of 1980, just outside Syracuse. It was late afternoon on a sunny day. Driving with a friend, in the small town of Manlius, this person asked his companion if she could see the large object outside her window.

She answered, "I'm really glad you mentioned that, because I didn't know what I was going to tell you."

According to this person (who also never reported his sighting to any organization), he and his companion got out of the car and watched what he described as "right out of a Steven Spielberg movie." It was a classic flying saucer. Silent, hovering over trees, "as large as a football field." It has rotating lights around the perimeter – red, green, and yellow, as he recalled. The object wasn't doing anything – merely hovering silently and impossibly in broad daylight.

Not surprisingly, my acquaintance was rather startled. "If we're seeing this thing," he decided, "other people have to be seeing it as well."

Sure enough, a light commercial aircraft flew by, which he maintains had to have seen the object. At around the same time, a news traffic helicopter – "Eye in the Sky," as he described it – was in the vicinity. He assumed at the time that the crew on board had video equipment and was filming the amazing object.

Then, about a minute or two later, two fighter planes, probably F-15s, buzzed by this object. At this point, it took off "like a bullet." In the time it takes to snap your fingers, it was gone. No sound at all.

"It's a good thing it left when it did," he said to me, "since I was about to dive into my car to get the hell out of there."

The kicker of the story is this. He was sure that this would be on the T.V. news that night, and stayed up till 11 p.m., specifically to hear the much anticipated report about a massive UFO seen just outside Syracuse. But not only was there no story on any UFO, but it seemed to him as though the talking heads in Wonderland went out of their way to downplay anything odd at all. The new announcer actually said, "another boring day in Syracuse."

I recall the words of singer and composer Gil Scott-Heron: "The revolution will not be televised."

In Wonderland, reality is upside down. Living in this world is like living on a nonstop LSD trip, in which the "reality" we are being fed bears little to no resemblance to the actual experiences of people. In Wonderland, UFOs are imaginary.

Unfortunately for Wonderland's managers, the operators of those imaginary UFOs don't seem to get the message.

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Comment: One would think that science would welcome the opportunity to investigate those phenomena that push the boundaries of knowledge the furthest. Certainly the question of UFOs falls in that category. Obviously there is more to this question that meets the eye. If we were to find proof that there existed beings who visited Earth, able to slip under radar, avoid scrambled jets, etc, it might put a major crimp in our self-importance. If it were to be established that these beings were hostile and that they were not physical in the sense that we are, but came from some other dimension or higher reality, our entire world view would come crumbling down.

Richard Dolan's landmark book, UFOs and the National Security State, goes a long way in explaining why science does not take up these questions. It is extremely important because it documents government hypocrisy on this topic. While the official government line has always been that "UFOs don't exist", the various arms of the military and security agencies have been spending large amounts of time, energy, and money investigating these "non-existent" objects. Dolan confirms with reams of documents extracted from these agencies, that the government does indeed take the question very seriously. Yet again, the public "Wonderland" does not match the deep reality. We are led to believe that "real" science has debunked the topic, that "real" scientists are not interested.

Dolan compares the division between the real life experiences of people, where UFOs are seen regularly all around the world, and the official reality where UFOs do not exist, to Alice in Wonderland. We agree. What is worse, those who see them or who are open to the idea that they exist are ridiculed. UFOs are not part of "acceptable" reality, not because they do not exist and those who see them are crazy, but, on the contrary, because they do exist and proof of their existence and open discussion of the ramifications would turn official reality upside down...or, rather, right-side up.

This attitude is not new as witnessed by this article on The Newton Project, an on-line repository of Sir Isaac Newton's writings on theology and alchemy.

The unknown Newton

By DAN FALK
Globe and Mail Update

When we think of Isaac Newton, we usually think of his insight into gravity (remember the falling apple?), or perhaps his work on optics, or his invention of calculus. Yet if we go by sheer word count, physics was only one of Newton's intellectual priorities.

He devoted more time to what we would now regard as non-scientific topics such as theology and alchemy, writing treatise after treatise on early church history and biblical prophecy.

Scholars have long known that Newton dabbled in the occult, but the sheer magnitude of his devotion to such matters has only recently come to light, bolstered by a British-led project trying to put all of his writings -- about 10 million words in all -- on the World Wide Web.

"We think of Newton, obviously, primarily as a scientist," says Stephen Snobelen, a historian of science at King's College in Halifax. "So this awareness that there is this four-million-word corpus of theological texts, and another one million words on alchemy, is quite a revelation for many people."

Prof. Snobelen is the leading Canadian contributor to the Newton Project, which is based at Imperial College, London, and also involves researchers at Cambridge and at universities in France and the United States.

The project was also a major topic of discussion at a conference held at King's College this week. The conference, titled Circulating Knowledge, was jointly organized by the Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science and the leading British and U.S. history-of-science associations.

The Newton Project began in 1998 with a £330,000 (about $800,000) grant from the British Arts and Humanities Research Board, and may take 20 years or more to complete. It is by far the largest and most technologically sophisticated such project dealing with Newton, and one of the largest Web-based projects involving any single historical figure.

The project will involve Web versions not only of transcriptions of Newton's writings, but also colour images of the original documents, as well as the annotations and margin notes from the books he kept in his personal library -- most of it never before made public.

[...] Perhaps the most startling aspect of the Newton Project is what it is revealing about the magnitude and depth of Newton's non-scientific output, as well as the contrast between his private writings and those he made public.

"The sheer amount of manuscripts on the Whore of Babylon, the two-horned and 10-horned beasts, the two witnesses, all this stuff -- is amazing," Prof. Iliffe says. "It is 50 years of his work. That's what he spent most of his time on. He never stopped."

Many early-Newton scholars, eager to secure his place as Britain's greatest scientist and an icon of the Enlightenment, played down his non-scientific interests. "The old Enlightenment view was that Newton did his theology when he was senile," Prof. Iliffe says. "But that's not true. He did it when he was at his most powerful as a thinker."

Although Newton was a deeply religious Christian, he held starkly anti-Catholic and anti-Trinitarian views. For him, there was only "God the father." (Denying the Holy Trinity was a criminal offence in England in Newton's day.)

He also obsessed over the early history of the church, especially the third, fourth and fifth centuries, when, in his view, Christianity became corrupted.

Not surprisingly, Newton kept most of his theological musings to himself. And yet he often wrote in a very formal style -- not at all like the kind of writing you would expect to see in notebooks to be read only by their own author.

"I've argued -- I hope it's not banal -- that he's writing it for God," Prof. Iliffe says. "Or maybe for some other people who are yet to come. But there's no evidence that he showed most of this material to anybody."

Comment: This reference to "people yet to come" is interesting in the light of Gurdjieff's Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson which might be interpreted in the same way.

And yet he did allow an "inner circle" of friends and colleagues -- like-minded individuals whom he could trust to keep his secrets -- in on his speculations.

For example, he once sent an apocalyptic time chart to philosopher John Locke. The chart covers most of the events described in the Book of Revelation, from the appearance of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse to the time when "the Word of God makes war with ye Beasts & Kings of ye earth" and to the creation of a "new heaven, new earth & new Jerusalem."

Yet even some of Newton's published writings seem to contain allusions to his theological beliefs.

For example, Prof. Snobelen argues that Newton left clues to those beliefs hidden "between the lines" even in some of his most famous works. Much of Newton's writing is "layered," he says -- the surface layer being accessible to everyone, with a deeper layer accessible only to an elite group of followers.

For Prof. Snobelen, this aspect of Newton's character is reminiscent of Pythagoras, the ancient Greek mathematician who led a cult-like group of young thinkers, all of whom were sworn to secrecy.

"Newton was extremely careful about his wording," he says. "He was walking on a knife edge. If he presented [his theology] too openly, then he would have been caught. If he didn't present it openly enough, no one would have seen the message."

Comment: Considering that Pythagoras was killed because of his teachings, it sounds like perhaps his times were little different than those of Newton, when promoting the wrong ideas was a criminal offense. In such a case, having "secret teachings" was a question of life and death, and the need to be careful, that is, to espouse them only to a restricted group, was a reasonable choice. Notice, however, that this is labeled "cult-like".

Meanwhile, the larger scholarly debate continues to focus on the links between Newton's theological views and his science. Part of the problem is that so much has changed since his day. For example, we now think of science and theology as completely separate disciplines. But even the term "scientist" is relatively new; it was coined only in the 1830s.

Newton would have seen himself as a "natural philosopher," someone whose interests included -- but were not limited to -- what we would now call science.

He also clearly saw God as an essential part of nature, the "first cause" on which everything else depended. "He thought that doing natural philosophy was a religious activity," Prof. Iliffe says.

In Newton's view, God revealed himself in two books -- Scripture and the "book of nature." The latter Newton investigated directly through his science; the former, presumably, was equally worthy of his attention. "There's certainly a religious and a theological element to his science," Prof. Iliffe says.

And yet scholars are still struggling to comprehend how such a rational thinker -- the man who gave us three laws of motion, the law of universal gravitation and so much more -- could have simultaneously immersed himself so deeply in arcane matters. It almost seems, at times, like there were two Isaac Newtons -- or, at the very least, one man who led two very different lives.

"He's one of the most prominent public officials in the country, he's president of the Royal Society, he's Master of the Royal Mint," Prof. Iliffe says. "And then when he goes back to his Chelsea home, he does all this stuff on the Apocalypse and the Whore of Babylon. . . . This is a guy who lives out his day in the public sphere and deals with this world -- and then he goes home and he deals with the third, fourth, fifth century."

Part of the answer, Prof. Iliffe suggests, is the scope of Newton's hunger for knowledge. Whatever facts he had obtained, whether about nature or theology, were never enough.

"He's just incredibly ambitious," Prof. Iliffe says. "He's supremely confident he's a 'chosen one' -- a chosen person who can overturn centuries and millennia of error. And now is the time when truth is being revealed. And that's the case in both his private theology and in science and mathematics."

The Newton Project will let scholars probe the connections between the many facets of Newton's persona more closely than ever before.

"Not only can you read his manuscripts about theology and church history and heresies, but you can actually 'drill down' and have access to the original manuscripts and books in his own library that he's using to construct his arguments," says Dolores Iorizzo, a colleague of Prof. Iliffe at Imperial College. "And that's a completely new idea about how to do research."

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Comment: The separation of science from the other areas of human existence has become so complete in the last century that people tie themselves in knots trying to understand how Newton the "Scientist" could also do research on theology and alchemy, now considered "mumbo-jumbo". Science has decided that there are certain questions that are "off-limits". UFOs are one topic, as we saw in Dolan's article above. This world-view is based upon Newton, according to its defenders, but it is based upon a castration of Newton the man, ignoring his "non-scientific" work, labeling it the work of a man in his senility.

From the above article on Newton, we read the following:

"We think of Newton, obviously, primarily as a scientist," says Stephen Snobelen, a historian of science at King's College in Halifax. "So this awareness that there is this four-million-word corpus of theological texts, and another one million words on alchemy, is quite a revelation for many people."

Perhaps a good question to ask is WHY is this such a great revelation for so many people? The vast majority of those who have learned anything about Newton's ideas and life really don't have any clue that subjects such as alchemy should have been included in their lessons. In fact, Newton is not alone. In Ancient Science - Anti-gravity, Alchemy, the Ark and the Holy Grail: A Radical Reassessment of Myth and History, Laura Knight-Jadczyk writes:

Sir Isaac Newton studied alchemy until his death, remaining convinced that the possiblity of transmutation existed. The great philosophers and mathematicians, Descartes and Leibnitz, both were convinced that transmutation was a reality. Even Robert Boyle who wrote a book entitled The Sceptical Chymist, was sure until the end of his life, that transmutation was possible!

Why? These men were scientists. And, the argument that their ideas or observations were less scientific that those of the present day simply does not stand up to scrutiny.

If many great thinkers, philosophers, and "scientists" throughout human history have had such an interest in matters esoteric or alchemical, how does one rationalize this fact against such individuals' scientific achievements? Perhaps the problem lies not with the alleged "eccentricities" of great thinkers, but with the definitions that the masses have accepted for esotericism, alchemy and science.

If one reads a book by Boris Mouravieff, for example, one might happen to mention some of the ideas in the book to one's friends or family. The reader may tell her friend that Mouravieff writes about esoteric Christianity. The friend may only hear the word "Christianity". As a result, the assumption will be made that Mouravieff writes about matters relating to the Christian faith. On the other hand, the word "esoteric" may actually register in the friend's mind, but the term may be registered through a narrow perceptual window. "Esoteric" may be incorrectly understood as relating to "cultic" or "heathen" activities. In this case, the question is: where did this perception originate? On what research - if any - is the perception based?

It seems we are conditioned to desire and accept explanations and definitions that are in a summarized - and often oversimplified - form.

It is clear that as with any course of study, the fundamentals must be clearly understood before an "advanced" course can be properly assimilated. Ask anyone in the world today if they could understand chemistry or physics without first being able to add, and the response would no doubt be an incredulous, "No, of course not!"

Getting back to Ancient Science, we read the following:

It is generally accepted that nobody can go on to secondary school without having completed an elementary education. Nor can a person be admitted to a university without having a secondary education. These graduations automatically "select" those able to become active members of the cultural elite of human society.

Exactly the same is true in the esoteric Tradition.

However, in our modern world, we encounter a curious phenomenon. For example: we would not seek to discuss Newton's binomial theorem without having studied algebra, for without this, every opinion we expressed on the subject would be worthless.

Yet, in the esoteric field, we find a host of "experts" who declare their opinions on esotericism without having ever learned even the rudiments of this knowledge.

At the same time, some of them demand "simplicity" from esoteric teachings on the generally accepted principle that Truth itself must be simple. They conclude from this that access to Truth ought to likewise be simple. Then they assert that the methods to access Truth must be easily assimilable.

This argument would be perfectly correct if human beings and the problems they face were simple and just. However, that is not the case. There is a long road to travel from our state of distorted inner disorder to any "original simplicity."

In practice, the doctrine of "simplicity" - if regarded as an axiom - turns the student aside from the strait gate and the narrow way that leads to Life. Impelled by this counter-truth, he believes he stands before this door, when he is in reality - although undoubtedly in perfectly good faith - walking the wide path that leads to perdition, ad majorem Diaboli gloriam, of course.

The Doctrine of Simplicity, correct in itself, but wrongly interpreted, becomes a snare for hearts and minds that are already too corrupt; a danger which should be recognized and avoided.

Some people complain that the subject of the fundamentals of esotericism is not simple. Others have said that it leads to great clarity. This apparent contradiction is explained by the fact that esotericism is addressed to readers who are predisposed to esoteric culture by their nature, formation or personal experience.

It is obvious that a foundational understanding is required - and certainly expected - in most official disciplines. If one lacks this foundation, or if one has a weakened foundation based on the acceptance of lies as the truth, it appears that the accurate processing of any subsequent ideas related to the foundation is actually impossible. Looking again to Ancient Science, we discover the following excerpt from a rather instructional exchange between the author and Gordon Clason:

Isn't it amazing that Newton couldn't discover universal gravitation until 50 years after Descartes created the mathematical method of analyzing geometric data in an algebraic equation? It would take about 50 years for the method to disseminate, become second nature, raise a new generation immersed it, and who then began noticing phenomena that these new mathematical expressions did a really good job of modeling. It was more than 40 years after Hamilton created quaternions that Maxwell discovered how well they fit for formulating the equations of electromagnetism. It was 50 years after Riemann created his general, curvilinear, non-Euclidean geometry that Einstein, with help from Minkowski, noticed how well it expressed the relations of special and general relativity.

My theory is that people can't notice something until they have the reference point to understand what it is they are observing. Specifically, scientists can't notice, "hey, these new patterns fit together" until they have a mathematics that describes this kind of relationship as being a pattern, rather than random marks on a graph. Think about what it would be like to discover that all of your data fit into a parabolic shape, but you don't know what a parabola is. How disappointed you would be to realize it doesn't make a straight line, when straight lines are all you know. "I guess there was nothing to that hypothesis after all," you say as you discard the data. Tomorrow some brilliant mathematician will create a method of graphing quadratic equations thinking he has invented the perfect pure math, which couldn't possibly have any practical application. Fifty years from now, your grandson will review your data, or recreate your experiments. He will get the same data points that you did, but now he recognizes the pattern as a parabola. It was a parabola all along, but you didn't know it, because parabolae hadn't been invented yet when you plotted the data.

If you don't recognize the pattern, then your brain interprets it as random - no pattern at all. This means you pay it no attention. In this way, mathematicians create the world we live in. What an outrageous statement! No Physicist would admit the validity of that, after all, they are trained to observe the real world, not confirm some dreamer's fantasy! Yeah, right. Only problem with that is, history tells us that over and over, Physicists were unable to see the patterns in front of their eyes until someone had invented a mathematics that made this kind of pattern recognizable and distinguishable from random noise.

Therefore there is a very real sense in which the only reality we can recognize is that of the patterns for which we have a mathematical template. Therefore we can only observe that part of infinite reality for which some enterprising mathematician has invented the pattern. The mathematician does NOT describe an objective reality, which he observes; he instead creates relationships, which he considers "beautiful", or "elegant", or perhaps "entertaining". He doesn't think his creation has any practical application, but it always does. Because any time somebody describes the template for a new pattern, now (in about 50 years) people will begin noticing those parts of the infinite universe, which fit into to this new pattern. Before they just seemed random, but now that we recognize the pattern, it's so obvious we don't understand how Aristotle overlooked it. And a new generation of historians will write books about how Archimedes was actually on the verge of inventing this himself just before the Romans killed him.

Yet even if we discover that a man like Newton was not crazy, that in fact his studies in "other" subjects were at least partially valid, we cannot then accept without question all conclusions he may relate to us. There is another interesting phenomenon to be noted among the majority of people around the world today: the blind acceptance of the "expert" opinion. It is an obvious fact that just because one has the letters "PhD" after one's name, one is not automatically correct on all matters related to one's chosen course of study. Physicists make incorrect statements, assumptions, and theories. Like everyone else, they make honest mistakes. They also err due to personal prejudices. Laura writes:

Newton, as we will see, devoted many years to historical and chronological studies. He made up his own tables that came to be the generally accepted timeline. A lot of people are not aware that some of the important events of Greek history were arbitrarily moved forward by him as much as 300 years, and those of the Egyptian were moved forward up to a thousand years. Naturally, penetrating minds were able to discern the problems and as early as the sixteenth century. A.D., Professor of Salamanca University de Arcilla published two papers in which he stated that the whole of history earlier than the fourth century AD, had been falsified.

On the Signs page, we have repeatedly pointed out instances where the "experts" brazenly stated opinions as fact - yet the facts did not support anything they were saying.

Two days ago, we ran some research into the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. There are many, many opinions on this case. The facts seem to be that there are inconsistencies in everyone's stories of what happened, there are "arguments" against Abu-Jamal that amount to emotional bunk, and the FBI was apparently involved in a covert COINTELPRO operation against him. One might conclude any number of things from this information, but ultimately a broad background on the topics involved is required. What is COINTELPRO? What has the FBI been up to over the past several decades? What is the history of Abu-Jamal, as well as the organizations to which he belongs? Is the lock down on civil liberties in the US related in any way? Why is it that we are noticing more incidents of police brutality and corruption in the news, instead of less? Are there patterns to be found, and - as Clason mentions above - are we capable of distinguishing such patterns from the noise? And so on...

In Jamal's case, as with any other subject, the moment we accept an "expert" opinion - or allow our own bias or emotion to cloud our vision - the door to the truth slams shut in our face. The devil is in the details - always.

Another similar example is the reaction to the latest US terror alerts and the bombing of Christian churches in Iraq...

FLASHBACK!

US terror alert becomes political football

By Thomas C Greene
Published Tuesday 3rd August 2004 15:15 GMT

As we reported recently, the latest ratcheting up of the terror threat level in the United States was based on captured documents dating back some time. In that article, we observed that it was "not clear whether any of the information recently obtained relates to current or future schemes."

We can now address that question with some confidence. According to the New York Times, "much of the information that led the authorities to raise the terror alert at several large financial institutions in the New York City and Washington areas was three or four years old, intelligence and law enforcement officials said on Monday. They reported that they had not yet found concrete evidence that a terrorist plot or preparatory surveillance operations were still under way."

One may well wonder why the cities of New York, Washington, and Newark suddenly began burning taxpayer dollars to stage a grand security rain dance - guarding sites that might have been attacked during the past four years, or may be attacked four years hence. With such a vast window of opportunity, one must ask why there should have been a sudden rush to security starting on Monday of this week.

It certainly sounded like an emergency, at least to hear Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge tell it. "The quality of this intelligence based on multiple reporting streams in multiple locations, is rarely seen, and it is alarming in both the amount and specificity," he said.

Ridge also gushed about "the President's leadership in the war on terror," to which he conspicuously credited this lifesaving, four-year-old information.

Predictably, President Bush and Senator Kerry went tit for tat on Monday, slagging each other and bickering over who can "protect us" better, and even answering each other in subsequent speeches. Meanwhile, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card staged a lengthy press conference with National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice to emphasize Junior's deep respect for the 9/11 Commission report, and in particular its recommendation that a cabinet-level coordinator of intelligence be created.

No fewer than eight different "terrorism experts" were interviewed on CNN, MSNBC and Fox, which simply would not let go of the terror alert story, leading with it every half hour for over twenty-four hours.

After her press conference, Condoleeza Rice later appeared on the NBC Nightly News to peddle her views on the fine job the President is doing to eradicate Al Qaeda and protect the Fatherland, and to explain why his new initiative on the intelligence coordinator is so crucial to that mission.

Why now? If anyone is wondering why terrorism, and especially attacks at home, should have been so fully hyped on such thin evidence, it's useful to consider the news cycle.

Last week, John Kerry did a surprisingly good job of introducing himself to the nation as a plausible replacement for Bush. Last week, a devastating car bomb claimed the lives of 68 Iraqis, just as US Secretary of State Colin Powell was in country to deliver several absurdly optimistic speeches. Christian churches in Iraq have for the first time become the targets of terrorist attacks [See next article for more on this - SOTT], in which eleven lives have so far been claimed. And the infamous Abu Ghraib Military Police unit has just returned Stateside to answer charges of torture.

Not to put too fine a point on it, last week sucked for the Bush Administration. It's no wonder, then, that a multi-city security rain dance should be choreographed - no wonder that police in paramilitary jumpsuits and helmets and boots should appear on the streets and in the subways with fully automatic weapons. It's no wonder that streets should be closed to traffic and cars stopped at random. The rest of the news is just too depressing.

Practicalities One hates to rain on the Administration's parade of media misdirection, but practical matters do apply. Guarding these sites, which have been under careful surveillance by Al Qaeda for four years without incident, is expensive. The question is, when does one stop guarding them? [...]

Politics But this rain dance was not undertaken from a security point of view. It was concocted with a political motive, and its purpose was to distract the public from the additive disasters in Iraq, and the unexpectedly strong showing by the Democrats in Boston last week. It was designed to make Junior look like the "strong leader" that his cheerleaders insist, against all evidence, that he really is. (We note that the true Prince of Darkness, Dick Cheney, has been dutifully silent, and conspicuously absent, during the recent national security festivities, to vouchsafe the limelight to Junior.)

But it would be unfair not to point out Democratic exploitation of the Republican exploitation. On at least two occasions Monday, John Kerry took the terror warnings at face value, rather than as examples of Tom Ridge's exceptional proclivity for crying wolf, and insisted that he would have overreacted sooner than Bush, and at even greater expense.

And thus national security has become firmly established as a key campaign issue, and a dangerous political football that can only bring us harm regardless of who wins the election.

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Comment: Slipped in this mostly intelligent and lucid commentary is the line about the Christian Churches being blown up, showing that the author hasn't gone as deep in his analysis as he might. For another look at this question...

Iraqi Muslims Did Not Blow Up Christian Churches

Sam Hamod

Having discussed the matter in detail with other experts on the Middle East, Christianity in Iraq and on Islam in Iraq, we have all concluded this is not the work of any Muslim group. There has never been any animosity between the Christian and Muslim communities in Iraq, in fact, they have stood toe-to-toe against the American occupation and they have resisted efforts by the Israeli office in Baghdad to become allied with Israel.

With these matters in mind, it appears as if this new "attack on the Christian churches" is just another attempt either by the American CIA or its operatives, or the Mossad of Israel, to paint Islam with terrorism and to split the Muslim and Christian communities in Iraq. They tried to do the same thing in Palestine, but the Palestinians wouldn't buy it. As you may remember, the Israelis shelled the holy churches of the Church of the Nativity and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Both events were condemned by Christian and Muslim alike. Even today in Iraq, all Iraqis interviewed said they knew no Iraqi or Muslim would do such a thing. But, in America, where we are fed the news as it is planned by Bush and by Zionist influence, the story plays big to the evangelical group and to Christians who believe the U.S. propaganda media.

This is another sad chapter in the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Since the early days of the war, the Iraqis complained about the treatment of prisoners taken by the Americans. Unfortunately, no one would listen to the Iraqis or those of us who reported these atrocities. You all know the truth by now, how we were lied to by our government and by the U.S. media; so much for truth and "embedding." So, once again, we have to report to you, this is just another American cover-up to create more chaos in Iraq, just as America did in Viet Nam to keep us in that war, and to justify more attacks on Muslims groups in Iraq. This will also help justify the continuing immoral and unjust shelling of Fallujah to allegedly kill Zarqawi. The townspeople keep saying, "There is no Zarqawi here, and there never was"; yet our U.S. military keeps lying in order to justify the bombings of civilians in order to punish the Fallujahns for having kept the American forces out of their city.

At this point, there is no telling what the U.S. or the Israeli Mossad will do in Iraq in order to foment civil war among the Iraqis and to justify the continuation of an American occupation in Iraq. Some of you may remember that JFK felt he had to go into Viet Nam in order to protect the Christian Catholic leadership in the south. We have a replay of this today in Iraq, with this "news."

As for me, I've just about given up on believing anything the Bush administration or the major American media tells us; they've lied to us too often. We think this is just another s self-serving lie by the Bush or Mossad team.

Comment: Yup. But many Americans support Bush for his "Honesty. Truth. Integrity." [See the article below, The Church of Bush.]

It's going to get worse, a whole lot worse, before it gets better, folks. We ain't touched bottom yet. One impediment to seeing how bad the situation is, is our belief that people are basically good and that "the president wouldn't lie". He was misled. Although Thomas Greene, the author of the article before this one, can see that terror alerts are being used as a political football, is he able to consider the possibility that the CIA and/or Mossad are behind the bombing and kidnappings of Westerners in Iraq? And if he is unwilling to admit such a possibility, he is deciding beforehand that his answers will always remain within the limits of his preconceptions and prejudices.

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Furthermore, the first article in the above flashback indicates that the death toll at the time in the Iraq church bombings was eleven Iraqis. The Signs team today received an e-mail from a friend whose spouse still has family in Iraq. According to the spouse, the word from inside Iraq is that the death toll in the church bombings was more along the lines of 1,000 innocent people. Apparently, five or six bombs were dropped on one church while services were being held.

Is this private report true? We can't say. But it shows us that we can always collect more data, and that the truth may be far from what we originally believed - and from what is being reported on the news, the point being made by Dolan. It is the news that is the Wonderland, the world turned upside-down, bearing little or no resemblance to the world of everyday life, a world where UFOs appear and where thousands of Iraqis are being slaughtered by the US occupation forces in order to "bring democracy" to the Middle East.

But our models of the world, even in science, are only models, that is, abstractions from the reality.

Newton's discoveries in physics permitted us to elaborate a model of the universe as a large machine, moving according the laws of cause and effect. Once set in motion - and according to Newton, this was the work of God - the universe would continue to function like a giant clock. Great advances were made using this metaphor. This was followed by the revolution of Einstein and his theory of relativity, followed shortly thereafter by quantum theory. Physical laws, as they are elaborated, become important metaphors for understanding our world. We can now imagine a world where everything exists at the same time, where past and future are laid out in space-time, where the model of the mechanical, causal universe has been surpassed.

Modern science is the bastard child of what was once known as Natural Philosophy. We find this definition of natural philosophy at wordIQ.com:

Natural philosophy is the objective study of nature and the physical universe before the development of modern science.

In other words, all forms of science historically developed out of philosophy or more specifically natural philosophy. According to the history of science, basic science really did not become a true form of science until the second half of the 19th century. [Note that the exact same definition is found at wikipedia with the same links. Is this one of the ways that "official culture" propagates?]

This definition reeks of scientific arrogance. Notice that "basic science really did not become a true form of science until the second half of the 19th century"! While it is true that what we know as "modern science" arose in that period, the subtext is a judgment on all that came prior, diminishing the work in some way as "unscientific".

One could lose oneself following the interrelations of the various words and their links. For example, science is defined thusly:

Science is both a process of gaining knowledge, and the organized body of knowledge gained by this process. The scientific process is the systematic acquisition of new knowledge about a system. This systematic acquisition is generally the scientific method, and the system is generally nature. Science is also the scientific knowledge that has been systematically acquired by this scientific process.

Some of the findings of science can be very counter-intuitive. Atomic theory, for example, implies that a granite boulder which appears as heavy, hard, solid, grey, etc. is actually a combination of subatomic particles with none of these properties, moving very rapidly in an area consisting mostly of empty space. Many of humanity's preconceived notions about the workings of the universe have been challenged by new scientific discoveries. [There are many more links in this text that we did not transcribe.]

If you take out the qualifier about "scientific method", there is nothing in this definition that demarcates it from the work of men like Newton, Galileo, Copernicus, or even Aristotle or Pythagoras. The question of scientific method is especially interesting, as it appears to be what separates science from mumbo-jumbo. While philosophers of science have spent long hours cataloging it and attempting to draw lines between scientific and non-scientific methods, the sociology of science and the work of people like Paul Feyerabend shows us that this is pretty much a futile endeavour. As Feyerabend put it in his work Against Method, "anything goes" would better describe the scientific method.

Those who take the hard-line, materialist view of science, the bastard-child of natural philosophy, refuse to recognise one of the parents, the one that has been studied as spirit or consciousness, reducing this parent to an epiphenomenon of matter as opposed to a co-creator, the force that infuses matter and shapes it. The world today is the playground of this Science, and anyone with two neurons firing can see that it is leading us to the road of destruction.

Separated from spirit, science no longer searches for meaning: its most noble pursuit is function. Purely functional man, practicing purely functional science, is interested only in application, and given that application has been cut from conscience, the results are nuclear weapons, biological weapons, antiperspirant, mind-control drugs such as Prozac, and 100,000 ways to make your counter shine with chemicals. All the while millions are starving, millions are blown to bits or maimed, millions are poisoned by the pollution in the air and the chemical residues accumulating in their homes.

And somebody is making big bucks.

As the article states, however, Newton wasn't even able to discuss his theological work openly during his lifetime. Some of his ideas were criminal offences. Might this censorship, this refusal to be open in one's research, defining what answers are acceptable and what are not prior to beginning the research, have something to do with the sorry state of affairs?

Today ridicule works in place of criminal offence, although with the new theocracy in the US, that may not be long in changing. Newton's "non-scientific" work was hidden from view for hundreds of years, available for the most part only to scholars, that is, to those who would be willing to see it "in context". The strictures of what is "science" have become as dogmatic and inflexible as the strictures of what was true and permissible under the reign of the Catholic Church. The Protestant Churches, especially those in the United States are no better. The period prior to Newton, the period of Copernicus, Tyco Brahe, Giodorno Bruno, Kepler, and Galileo, was the moment when the old Ptolemaic system, a model of the solar system with the Earth in the centre, was replaced by the heliocentric model. Church dogma taught that the Earth was the centre of the universe because it was the home of Man, that being made by God in his image to rule over Creation. An assault on this vision of the cosmos was seen by the Church as an assault on Christian Truths. This dogmatism was found equally in the new Protestant churches.

When Copernicus published his heliocentric model, the defenders of Christian faith said that it could be allowed if it were understood to be a mathematical model only, that is, a model with no physical meaning. In a preface to Copernicus's De revolutionibus, the Lutheran theologian Andreas Osiander argues that:

For it is the duty of an astronomer to compose the history of the celestial motions through careful and expert study. Then he must conceive and devise the causes of these motions or hypotheses about them. Since he cannot in any way attain to the true causes, he will adopt whatever suppositions enable the motions to be computed correctly from the principles of geometry for the future as well as for the past. The present author has performed both these duties excellently. For these hypotheses need not be true nor even probable. On the contrary, if they provide a calculus consistent with the observations, that alone is enough.

John Losee elucidates the importance of this debate:

Copernicus was working in the tradition of those astronomers who freely invent mathematical models in order to predict the positions of the planets. Osiander declared that it does not matter whether the planets really revolve around the sun. What counts is that Copernicus has been able to save the appearances on this assumption. In a letter to Copernicus, Osiander tried to persuade him to present his sun-centred system as a mere hypothesis for which only mathematical truth was claimed.

Copernicus, however, did not subscribe to this approach to astronomy. As a committed Pythogorean, he sought mathematical harmonies in phenomena because he believed they were "really there". Copernicus believed his sun-centred system was more than a computational device.

Copernicus recognised that the observed planetary motions could be deduced with about the same degree of accuracy from his system, or from Ptolemy's system. Hence he acknowledged that selection of one of these competing models was based upon considerations other than successful fit. Copernicus argued for the superiority of his own system by appealing to "conceptual integration" as a criterion of acceptability. He contrasted his own unified model of the solar system with Ptolemy's own collection of separate models, one for each planet. He noted, however, that the sun-centred system explains the magnitudes and frequencies of the retrograde motions of the planets. The sun-centred system implies, for instance, that Jupiter's retrograde motion is more pronounced than that of Saturn, and that the frequency with which retrogression occurs is greater for Saturn than for Jupiter. By contrast, Ptolemy's Earth-centred system provides no explanation of these facts. [John Losee, A Historical Introduction to the Philosophy of Science, Oxford University Press, 1980, p. 44-5]

This quote raises several interesting issues: the trouble that new ideas have being accepted, the idea of "conceptual integration" as a basis for judging a theory, and the curious idea that an idea could be accepted as a "mathematical truth" as long as it claimed no physical meaning or reality.

We would like to look at the third issue. The arguments used against Galileo were based upon the same idea. It has a particular relevance today regarding research into the existence of hidden dimensions, what are known in physics as hyperdimensions. Einstein was able to elaborate his theory of relativity by proposing time as an extra dimension, the fourth dimension. A few years later, Kaluza proposed a fifth dimension within which our four dimensional space-time was embedded. This idea was later picked up by Einstein. The idea that there exist hidden dimensions is now accepted by the majority of physicists. However, very, very few are willing to consider that these dimensions have more than a mathematical truth to them. They are in the same role today as the dogmatists of the Church hundreds of years ago. Laura Knight-Jadczyk discusses this in her new book, The High Strangeness of Dimensions, Densities, and The Process of Alien Abduction. The title itself tells you why the scientific mainstream prefers to consider these dimensions as only having a mathematical reality!

While these ideas might seem more suited to science fiction than science proper, in fact, some of the most well-known physicists have proposed models and research programs that in no way contradict our hypothesis. They may one day demonstrate the mathematical proof of such a perspective.

For example, Paul Dirac wrote:

There are, at present, fundamental problems in theoretical physics the solution of which will presumably require a more drastic revision of our fundamental concepts than any that have gone before. Quite likely, these changes will be so great that it will be beyond the power of human intelligence to get the necessary new ideas by direct attempts to formulate the experimental data in mathematical terms. The theoretical worker in the future will, therefore, have to proceed in a more direct way. The more powerful method of advance that can be suggested at present is to employ all resources of pure mathematics in attempts to perfect and generalize the mathematical formalism that forms the existing basis of theoretical physics, and after each success in this direction, to try to interpret the new mathematical features in terms of physical entities.

Dirac was not alone in suggesting that mathematical features might need to be interpreted as physical entities.

In considering the general theory of relativity science usually utilizes a four-dimensional space-time continuum. In classical general relativity, the metrical properties of the continuum are intrinsic to the continuum, but a fifth dimension in which our normally sensed space-time is embedded can also be used to account for the curvature and properties of physical space.

In the space-time continuum one can say that all parts of the four-dimensional world exist simultaneously, in the sense of a mathematical formalism, and this would naturally lead to a complete collapse of the philosophical ideas of causality.

However, many scientists who work with these ideas do not think that this continuum is "real" in a physical sense, such that physical beings could move back and forth at will in and out of time as easily as changing direction in three-dimensional space.

We, on the other hand, think that it is not only possible, but extremely likely based upon the data we have collected from fields of study that fall outside the range of quantum or classical mechanics: myth, history, and religion, for example. This great specialization and separation of knowledge into little boxes of awareness, or is that boxes of lack of awareness, serves its purpose in preventing us from seeing the whole picture, from finding data across many fields of study that can shine the light of understanding on the nature of reality.

In relativity theory, time intervals between events are not completely fixed relative to moving systems or frames of reference. This has led to some speculation that there may also be analogies between precognition and anomalies. However, "time dilation", the contraction of time intervals between moving reference frames, is too small to account for precognition and would still require any information transfer to travel faster than light, and the special theory of relativity, when narrowly interpreted, does not allow for physical travel backwards in time but relegates this concept to an imaginary mathematical formalism.

Even though it is almost forbidden to question Einstein's restriction on superluminal travel, Einstein did, at one point, propose to consider the hyperdimensional world as "real". In 1938, with P. Bergmann, he wrote a paper entitled On a Generalization of Kaluza's Theory of Electricity:

So far, two fairly simple and natural attempts to connect gravitation and electricity by a unitary field theory have been made, one by Weyl, the other by Kaluza. Furthermore, there have been some attempts to represent Kaluza's theory formally so as to avoid the introduction of the fifth dimension of the physical continuum. The theory presented here differs from Kaluza's in one essential point; we ascribe physical reality to the fifth dimension whereas in Kaluza's theory this fifth dimension was introduced only in order to obtain new components of the metric tensor representing the electromagnetic field. [Our emphasis.]

Einstein was somewhat nervous about this idea, but he followed it anyway, writing in his paper:

If Kaluza's attempt is a real step forward, then it is because of the introduction of the five dimensional space. There have been many attempts to retain the essential formal results obtained by Kaluza without sacrificing the four dimensional character of the physical space. This shows distinctly how vividly our physical intuition resists the introduction of the fifth dimension.

But by considering and comparing all these attempts one must come to the conclusion that all these endeavors did not improve the situation. It seems impossible to formulate Kaluza's idea in a simple way without introducing the fifth dimension.

We have, therefore, to take the fifth dimension seriously although we are not encouraged to do so by plain experience. If, therefore, the space structure seems to force acceptance of the five dimensional space theory upon us we must ask whether it is sensible to assume the rigorous reducibility to four dimensional space. We believe that the answer should be "no," provided that it is possible to understand, in another way, the quasi-four dimensional character of the physical space by taking as a basis the five dimensional continuum and to simplify hereby the basic geometrical assumptions.[…]

The most essential point of our theory is the replacing of …rigorous cylindricity by the assumption that space is closed (or periodic).[…]

Kaluza's five dimensional theory of the physical space provides a unitary representation of gravitation and electromagnetism. […]

It is much more satisfactory to introduce the fifth dimension not only formally, but to assign to it some physical meaning. [Einstein, A, Bergmann, P., Annals of Mathematics, Vol. 38, No. 3, July 1938. Emphases, ours.]

Notice particularly Einstein's remark about the assumption that space is "periodic". We believe that Einstein was following a path that was later to prove very fruitful even if, shortly after, Einstein publicly repudiated this idea. When Einstein describes space as "periodic", he means that it loops back upon itself.

We think that we should take the idea these mathematical formalisms have physical meaning seriously. Physics has stagnated in the period since Einstein made such a daring proposal. Might one of the reasons lie in our refusal to take such "outlandish" ideas as serious hypotheses for further research? The universe has already shown itself to be much more "unbelievable" than scientists working prior to Einstein and Dirac might ever have imagined. If we continue to draw the line a priori over the results we expect and accept from our research, we are saying that we prefer our current understanding of the world over the truth and will never move forward. We are closing ourselves off from possibilities that either we cannot imagine or that we find at odds with our current beliefs.

But if these mathematical dimensions are to be taken as having physical existence – whatever the term "physical" might mean given the nature of the "physical" laws that would apply – what about the idea that these other dimensions could be inhabited, could be populated with beings with some form of consciousness?

Hmmm. This opens a whole new can of worms, bringing us right back to Richard Dolan's article at the top! The existence of such beings, their proprietary nature over us, and the fact that we are raised as cattle is what don Juan has called the "topic of topics"; it is the meaning of Gurdjieff's phrase that we are "food for the moon". It is also a subject, the serious discussion of which can get one labeled as a cultist. However it is modern science which is the cult, the cult of death, using man's intelligence not to uncover the truth of the mysteries of the universe and man's place within, but to maintain a system of slavery, slavery that begins in the mind.

Just look at the state of the world! Radio Canada, the French service of the Canadian Broadcasting System, had this report today [our translation]:

September: Terrorist Alert Month in the US

Mise à jour le mardi 10 août 2004 à 16 h 41

The Bush Administration will soon proclaim September Terrorist Alert Month in the US so that Americans become aware of the threats of attack that weigh on their country.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, the authorities want American to better understand the means to prepare for an emergency and become better aware of the threats that could touch their communities.

The month will be officially launched on September 9 at Congress in Washington in presence of the Congressmen. The Department of Education, the Red Cross, the governors of the American states and about fifty other organisations will participate at the event.

Come on down and Celebrate! It's National Terrorist Alert Month!

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Bin Laden hints at major assassination

By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
August 11, 2004

U.S. intelligence officials say a high-profile political assassination, triggered by the public release of a new message from Osama bin Laden, will lead off the next major al Qaeda terrorist attack, The Washington Times has learned.

The assassination plan is among new details of al Qaeda plots disclosed by U.S. officials familiar with intelligence reports who, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the killing could be carried out against a U.S. or foreign leader either in the United States or abroad.

The officials mentioned Saudi Arabia and Yemen, two nations that are working with the United States in the battle against al Qaeda, as likely locales for the opening assassination.

The planning for the attacks to follow involves "multiple targets in multiple venues" across the United States, one official said.

The new details of al Qaeda's plans were found on a laptop computer belonging to arrested al Qaeda operative Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan of Pakistan.

"We're talking about planning at the screwdriver level," one official said. "It is very detailed."

Khan was arrested July 13 in Lahore, Pakistan, along with Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian who was indicted in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa and was on the FBI's list of most-wanted terrorists.

U.S. and allied counterterrorism officials are pursuing leads on other terrorists based on the data from Khan's seized laptop. At least one arrest in Britain has been made so far, and others are expected, the officials said.

Additionally, U.S. intelligence officials said they think that several al Qaeda terrorists already in the United States are part of the plot, although their identities and locations are not known.

The targets, in addition to the financial institutions in New York, Washington and Newark, N.J., that have been the subject of public warnings, include such economic-related targets as oil and gas facilities with a view toward disrupting the November election.

"The goal of the next attack is twofold: to damage the U.S. economy and to undermine the U.S. election," the official said. "The view of al Qaeda is 'anybody but Bush.' "

Comment: Well, let's see... The US economy is already in shambles. Bush already stole the 2000 election, so "Al-Qaeda" affecting the 2004 election wouldn't be much of a change. And as for Al-Qaeda wanting anyone but Bush for president, the only other option being given to the American people is Kerry. As we have already pointed out, Kerry has made no indication that America would be any less hostile towards the alleged Arab terrorists if he is "elected".

The officials also said the terrorist group has begun using female members for preattack surveillance and possibly as suicide bombers, thinking that women will have an easier time getting past security checkpoints at airports, borders and ports.

The al Qaeda attack plans call for bombings using trucks and cars, and hijacked aircraft, including commercial airliners and helicopters.
"There is a particular concern that chemical trucks will be used," one official said.

Regarding the new bin Laden message, the officials said there are intelligence reports, some of them sketchy, that a new tape from the al Qaeda leader will surface soon.

In the past, video and audio messages by bin Laden or his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, were broadcast days or weeks before an attack, the officials said.

"The message likely will be the signal for the attack to be launched," one official said.

A second U.S. official said one intelligence agency was aware of unconfirmed reports of a new bin Laden tape.

"There may be such a tape, but it hasn't surfaced and we haven't seen it," this official said.

Bin Laden last released a taped message in April. The CIA said that the audiotape probably was the voice of bin Laden and that the mention of the March 11 Madrid train bombings shows that the tape was current.

That tape offered a "truce" for any European state that pledged to stop attacking Muslims and end cooperation with the United States. [...]

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The "Official" Operative Clique For The Next 9/11?

Chaim Kupferberg

Surveying the recent headlines, Kupferberg surmises that an "official narrative" is already being put in place for potential use in advance of a 9/11 Follow-Up Attack.

A unified narrative is taking shape in advance of the next expected attack. In calibrated drips and dollops, the mainstream media, in partnership with the 9/11 panel, are laying the evidentiary trail pointing to the next "Atta" and his insular cell, which apparently already seems to be "in place" stateside.

Having no access at all to any insider reports, one can almost foretell the Official Legend that will follow in the wake of this clique's first big explosion into the public consciousness - just by reading the mainstream news.

Certainly, three of these major operatives - Adnan Shukrijumah, Abderrouf Jdey, and Aafia Siddiqui - are already being linked together. But Shukrijumah and Jdey are the ones to watch, for they are being intimately seeded into the Padilla/dirty bomb and Ahmed Ressam/Canadian clique/West Coast threads of 9/11.

Recently, Shukrijumah was mentioned as the guy likely doing surveillance of the New York buildings in the latest terror alert. But that was supposed to be old information. Yet Shukrijumah has been showing up all over the radar in the past year alongside Jdey and Siddiqui.

When Abu Musab Zarqawi was publicly unveiled by Colin Powell before the UN in February 2003, he had yet to make his very public splash as the next Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. But in the opening months of 2004 - as I surmised back in October 2003 - Zarqawi would lay his own foundation in the public mind (particularly by way of the Daniel Pearl-like Berg killing) as the guy tagged to head up the next "big one."

If the Ressam-connected Canadian clique is involved, the likely target is the U.S. West Coast. I suspect this is the case due to three items: the bulletin last May that alerted the public to Shukrijumah, Jdey, Siddiqui, Gahdan, el-Maati, and others; a reported sighting the next day of Shukrijumah and Jdey at a Denny's in Colorado (they stated that they were "from Iran" and were en route to the West Coast from New York); the release, two weeks later, of the official 9/11 staff report that now placed Jdey (in cahoots with Moussaoui) as an original member of an aborted 9/11 "second wave" attack on the West Coast; and a reported sighting of Shukrijumah at a nuclear research facility in Ontario (while el-Maati had previously been reported casing nuclear facilities near Ottawa).

Ressam's Canadian clique was part of the "botched" West Coast millennial operations. No doubt, Canadian operatives like el-Maati are part of this clique. It also seems that - in light of the flurry of strange articles coming out of Canada - that the Syrians are being set up to be the next proxy/patsies, particularly in regards to their "handling" of the el-Maati brothers and their unfortunate cohorts. What are the Syrians doing? Apparently, they seem to be "extracting" confessions out of some Canadian Muslims - or, unwittingly, playing their part to set up the legends for el-Maati et al. in Canada.

Shukrijumah (aka "the next Atta") apparently seems to be threaded into the 1993 bomb plots by way of his father's connection to Clement Hampton-El. But more strangely, it seems that Shukrijumah will make his way into the Oklahoma City Bomb thread by way of his Florida connection with "dirty bomb" guy Jose Padilla. To shore up the Oklahoma thread, we also have the Zarqawi/Moussaoui/ Nick Berg connection.

But let's step back and take a stab at guessing at what is happening here. The new legends will be used to strengthen the foundations of the old ones. In parallel to the official account, however, the existing counter-legends will also be beefed up. In short, the narratives are getting all too muddled with the growing interlinking chains. The growing complexity of these new interlinking legends will operate to turn off a good portion of those who might be seriously interested in examining the truth behind 9/11.

And what of the rest of us? Will we be locked in a never-ending cycle of polarized argument - with each of us picking his favorite conspiracy thread? How many of us will look at Shukrijumah and see the fingerprints of Iran? How many of us will look at the Canadian clique and sense the hand of Syria behind it all? And if they find that the next operation was pulled off with forged New Zealand passports, how many of us will dig up the newspaper account of the Mossad/ New Zealand passport scandal and go "Aha! Once again the Israelis!"

And what about the anthrax thread? In recent months, a writer by the name of Ross Getman has been posting accounts that read like excerpts from a future Official 9/11 Sequel Report. Going by Getman's writings, it would appear that a possible Boston connection would involve anthrax by way of Aafia Siddiqui's connection to Brandeis University and its anthrax facility. Also note that a first sighting of Shukrijumah and Jdey a year ago occurred in Maine, where they were spotted driving with a Massachusetts license plate.

So, to sum up: Shukrijumah seems to be part of a "dirty bomb" or radiological thread, while Siddiqui seems to be part of an anthrax thread. Perhaps the Shukrijumah/Jdey/Siddiqui clique is planning a bi-coastal attack involving radiological materials (or perhaps an attack on a nuclear facility) and a simultaneous attack involving anthrax. Shukrijumah has been marketed as an "Atta-level" pilot.

Whatever the case, a definite evidentiary trail seems to be clearly laid so as to give the impression of the dots connecting up. Shukrijumah was also spotted recently in the Honduras, but I wouldn't give that one much credence. The Denny's item seems the most likely to be resurrected post-facto as an example of institutional incompetence and blindess. Perhaps the Honduras item was meant to give the impression that Shukrijumah was not yet in the U.S.

According to Getman's writings, al-Qaeda bigwig Ayman al-Zawahiri attaches significant symbolic value to the dates of September 17 and October 6 (or possibly October 7, as it is the date of entry into Afghanistan). September 17 is the date for the anthrax thread, as well as the signing of the Camp David Accords (i.e. the catalyst for Zawahiri's original "crusade"). October 6 is the date of the Sadat assassination (which has symbolic value, as many of the Egyptian operatives involved with the 1993 bomb plots were born out of the Sadat "op" - and then subsequently run as CIA assets in Afghanistan.) So I regard these dates as "danger" dates. But somehow, I find myself wondering if the Official Legend would have far more credibility if any follow-up attack occurred under Kerry's watch. In other words, maybe all this "pre-election attack" speculation by the government is similar to the "millennial attack" warnings that lulled us into complacency when they didn't materialize.

In the aftermath of this next one, there will be those who will point to new instances of incompetence and blindness - who will say that the dots couldn't be connected. Hopefully, perhaps none of the above will ever come to pass. Perhaps Shukrijumah, Jdey, and Siddiqui will never make their "historical" mark - and we've all been treated to nothing more than a cunningly orchestrated campaign of fear-mongering by the government.

Whatever the case, it seems that a very clear narrative - with accompanying threads - is being built up for potential use. In the event this particular chapter of the narrative ever goes "operational" ... well, at least you'll all know that the mainstream media had put the dots in place beforehand.

Comment: Indeed, there are many different threads being laid out for us. The one thing that almost no one seems to be talking about is an attack at the upcoming Olympic games. What better way to pull numerous other countries into the "war on terror" than to arrange an attack against athletes and spectators from around the world - and in a European country, no less...

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Sofia Airport Reopens After Bomb Threat

August 11, 2004

An unidentified caller triggered a bomb scare that shut Sofia Airport for more than an hour on Wednesday, but a search by Bulgarian authorities found nothing.

Police evacuated hundreds of travelers, including members of Bulgaria's Olympic team bound for Athens, after an anonymous man said a bomb had been planted in the main terminal, the Interior Ministry said.

Following a search by a bomb squad and explosive-sniffing dogs, authorities later reopened the building.

"At 10:47 (0747 GMT), the airport was reopened. Nothing was found. Everything is now working as before," an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

Ministry officials said the caller spoke Bulgarian but could give no further details.

The poor Balkan country, a strong supporter of the United States' policy in Iraq, is on heightened alert following threats of attacks on Bulgarian soil from an Islamic militant group in July.

Sofia airport said no flights had been canceled, although news agency BTA said an incoming Turkish Airlines flight had been delayed by 20 minutes. Fake bomb threats are not unusual in Sofia.

A terminal at Rome's Fiumicino Airport was also briefly evacuated on Wednesday after a security alert at the check-in desk of Israeli airline El Al. Police confirmed it was a false alarm and passengers were allowed to return after 10 minutes.

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Shoes Trigger Security Alert at Rome Airport

Wed Aug 11, 9:02 AM ET

ROME (Reuters) - A passenger wearing anti-static shoes triggered a security alert at Rome's main airport on Wednesday, forcing the partial evacuation of a terminal housing Israeli airline El Al and major U.S. carriers.

Airport officials said staff at El Al's check-in desk hit the panic button after a man passed through their metal detectors wearing shoes that had copper earthing wires embedded in them to ward against static.

Some bystanders were herded through security gates to get away from the suspect passenger, while scores of other people were ordered out of Terminal C at Fiumicino Airport.

"All the alarms sounded as the security doors were opened to allow people to pass through. There was a panic. Two girls from Alitalia couldn't stop crying," cleaning lady Maria Grazi Zumbardi told Reuters Television at the airport.

U.S. passenger Alex Kurac who had been waiting to check in for a flight to America close to the El Al desk said airport staff forced him to leave the terminal for about half an hour.

An airport source said the man who set off the alarm was eventually allowed to board the Tel Aviv-bound flight after security staff had checked his unusual footwear.

A pair of anti-static shoes set off a similar alarm at Rome airport a year ago.

A U.S. court sentenced British national Richard Reid to life in prison last year after he admitted to trying to blow up a transatlantic airliner using explosives hidden in his shoes.

Wednesday's scare comes as Italy steps up security following a stream of threats from Muslim militants.

A militant group claiming links to al Qaeda has warned that it will strike at Rome unless Italy withdraws its troops from Iraq by Aug. 15 -- a demand rejected by the Italian government.

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Comment: El Al is supposed to have the greatest security in the universe, yet they didn't seem to learn anything from the first episode of anti-static shoes setting off the metal detector. Perhaps there is a reason...

Speaking of manufactured hysteria...

CBS Newsman Mike Wallace Issued Summons

AP
Wed Aug 11,12:14 AM ET

NEW YORK - Veteran "60 Minutes" correspondent Mike Wallace was handcuffed and driven to a police station Tuesday night after arguing with city inspectors over where his driver had parked.

The dispute began at about 8:30 p.m., as Wallace was leaving a Manhattan restaurant, WCBS-TV reported. Wallace, 86, saw two inspectors interviewing his driver, who they said was double-parked.

The Taxi and Limousine Commission said Wallace became "overly assertive and disrespectful" and interfered with the inspectors, according to WCBS.

At one point, Wallace lunged at one of the inspectors, according to the commission. The other inspector then handcuffed Wallace and drove him to a police station, where he was issued a summons for disorderly conduct. He was later released. [...]

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Comment: The following article offers a slightly different account of what happened...

TLC Peace Officers Arrest Journalist Mike Wallace

By Eyewitness News' Lucy Yang
WABC
August 11, 2004

(New York) — Journalist Mike Wallace of "60 Minutes" spent part of Tuesday night in police custody. He was arrested outside of a restaurant in Manhattan. Lucy Yang has the scene with late details.

Mike Wallace is certainly no stranger to controversy. He was in the center of it Tuesday when he was reportedly handcuffed and hauled away by peace officers with the Taxi and Limousine Commission who claimed they had no choice but to arrest him. Wednesday Update: Wallace Speaks Out about Arrest

It happened outside of "Luke's" Bar and Grill on 79th Street and Third Avenue. We're told Mike Wallace went there to pick up a takeout dinner, when his driver was stopped by TLC inspectors for double parking.

A spokesperson for the TLC says when the two inspectors tried see if there were any other violation, things quickly got heated.

One police officer reportedly said he thought Wallace was going to lunge at the other inspector, so he handcuffed the 86-year-old journalist and hauled him off to a police precinct where he was issued a summons for disorderly conduct.

Ernesto Cavalli, Witness: "He is 86 years old. The poor guy can not... the inspector can say what he wants. It is a lie. It is a lie. Plain and simple. I saw the whole thing. If I have to, I will be a witness."

Diane Dawson, Witness: "They threw him in cuffs. There were policemen and, I mean, it was unbelievable. It was appalling. He didn't do anything."

The TLC reports the police officers did not know they were arresting a celebrity and treated Wallace no better or worse than anyone else. It says they were only doing their job.

Wallace is apparently a regular here. The owner of Luke's tells me Wallace called him after the incident to say he was home enjoying the meatloaf dinner he had come here to pick up hours earlier.

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Comment: Perhaps they thought Wallace was a terrorist...

FLASHBACK!

Al-Qaeda might use limos, helicopters, FBI says

AP
Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - Page A10

Washington -- Al-Qaeda might attempt to launch attacks in U.S. cities using helicopters or rented limousines packed with explosives as weapons, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has warned.

Terror operatives could attempt to hijack commercial, charter or tourist helicopter flights and use them in suicide attacks, said one of the bulletins, issued last Friday and seen yesterday.

Helicopters and limousines could both help terrorists get closer to targeted buildings.

Separately yesterday, documents showed that the U.S. Justice Department obtained video surveillance tapes in 2002 suggesting that terrorists were targeting Las Vegas casinos -- but authorities never alerted the public as they discussed whether it might hurt tourism or increase the casinos' legal liability.

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Skateboard scofflaws: Parents outraged by sons' arrests

By JOE McGEE
The Patriot Ledger
August 11, 2004

WHITMAN - Two boys were handcuffed, shackled and hauled off to court for skateboarding on the street in front of their homes.

Joshua Saltzman, 12, and Ryan Maxwell, 14, were arrested on disturbing the peace charges.
Their parents are outraged.

"When I heard the 'clink, clink' from the leg shackles, I said, 'You've got to be kidding me,''' Stephanie Salzman, Joshua's mother, said. "For skateboarding? Don't the police have anything better to do?''

Michael Maxwell, Ryan's father, agreed.

"It was like they caught him with a loaded gun,'' Maxwell said.

"What possible good could this serve?'' Maxwell asked.

Deputy Police Chief Raymond Nelson said other skateboarders have been arrested.

He said skaters have been ignoring Whitman's bylaw that prohibits skating on streets and sidewalks. And some are just being "pains in the neck'' when asked to vacate public property, he said.

"It's very sketchy for us,'' Nelson said. "Nobody wants to stop them from having fun, but we don't want to put people in danger, either. It's a public safety problem. Our guys have better things to do than to collect skateboards.''

A judge ordered the boys to perform 15 hours of community service. [...]

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U.S. to Give Border Patrol New Powers to Deport Illegal Aliens

By RACHEL L. SWARNS
August 10, 2004

WASHINGTON - Citing concerns about terrorists crossing the nation's land borders, the Department of Homeland Security announced today that it planned to give border patrol agents sweeping new powers to deport illegal aliens from the frontiers abutting Mexico and Canada without providing the aliens the opportunity to make their case before an immigration judge.

The move, which will take effect this month, represents a broad expansion of the authority of the thousands of law enforcement agents who currently patrol the nation's borders. Until now, border patrol agents typically delivered undocumented immigrants to the custody of the immigration courts, where judges determined whether they should be deported or remain in the United States.

Homeland Security officials described the immigration courts — which hear pleas for asylum and other appeals to remain in the country — as sluggish and cumbersome, saying illegal immigrants often wait more than a year before being deported, straining the capacity of detention centers and draining critical resources. Under the new system, immigrants will typically be deported within eight days of their apprehension, officials said. [...]

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Seven Israeli border police wounded as car bomb explodes near Jerusalem

August 11, 2004

QALANDIYA, West Bank (AFP) - Seven Israeli border policemen were wounded in a suspected suicide car bombing near a military checkpoint on the outskirts of Jerusalem, Israeli security and medical sources said.

"The explosion was caused by a probable suicide bomber," national police spokesman Gil Kleiman told AFP.

"Our suspicions are that when the bomber was approached by the border police he blew himself up," he added.

Military sources confirmed that seven border policemen were wounded in the blast near the Qalandiya checkpoint.

"Two of them are in a serious condition, one of them is moderately injured while the rest are slightly injured," one source said.

Kleiman said that the casualties had all been evacuated to the Hadassa hospital in Einkarem on the western outskirts of Jerusalem.

Officials from the Magen David Adom, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross, said that in addition to the Israeli casualties, several Palestinians had also been injured.

Security sources said that the device appeared to have gone off after the vehicle had passed through an earlier checkpoint and was approaching a temporary roadblock near Qalandiya, which is home to a large Palestinian refugee camp.

Large numbers of ambulances were immediately dispatched to the scene of the blast, witnesses said.

The area immediately around the scene of the explosion had been sealed off to vehicles and reporters to allow medics to attend to the casualties and forensics experts to sift through the wreckage of the vehicle.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a radical offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's mainstream Fatah movement, swiftly claimed responsibility for the attack.

"We have done this in response to the genocide that the Israeli authorities are perpetrating in the Gaza Strip and West Bank," Zakaria Zubeidi, leader of the Brigades in its Jenin stronghold, told AFP by phone.

A more detailed statement would be released later, Zubeidi added.

The Al-Aqsa Brigades has been behind a number of recent attacks in Jerusalem, including a suicide bus bomb in late February which killed 11 Israelis.

Security forces had been on a high state of alert in east Jerusalem following intelligence that an attack in the area was imminent, public radio reported.

The attack came hours after the Israeli army pulled out of the Khan Yunis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip following an overnight offensive in which at least 15 Palestinians were wounded in an air strike.

"Our troops left the Khan Yunis refugee camp this morning at around 6:00 am (0300 GMT)," an Israeli army spokesman told AFP.

Palestinian sources said 10 houses had been demolished in the operation although another Israeli source claimed that only two inhabited buildings were destroyed.

"Twelve roofless structures which were being used as firing positions for attacks against Israelis were destroyed in the camp," the source added.

"Our forces came under attack from automatic arms fire, and four explosive devices were thrown at us," but there were no casualties, he said.

Palestinian medical sources had earlier announced that 15 people were wounded in the operation when an Israeli helicopter gunship fired a missile at the refugee camp.

Medics said three of the casualties were in a critical condition at Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis.

Shortly before the strike, around 20 Israeli tanks, jeeps and bulldozers moved into the western side of the camp and began destroying houses.

Exchanges of fire between troops and gunmen were also heard in the area, Palestinian security sources said.

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Comment: Well, isn't that convenient? Yet another "suicide attack" against the Israelis. This time, the attack occurred just after a raid against the Palestinians involving multiple deaths and the destruction of numerous houses. What better way to distract from the atrocities you just committed than to stage a "suicide attack" against your own people and blame it on the enemy?

Magnitude 5.4 Quake - EASTERN TURKEY

USGS
2004 August 11 15:48:27 UTC

A moderate earthquake occurred at 15:48:27 (UTC) on Wednesday, August 11, 2004. The magnitude 5.4 event has been located in EASTERN TURKEY. (This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.)

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Drought halts cargo ships on Germany's Elbe river

BERLIN (AFP) Aug 11, 2004

Cargo ship traffic has been brought to a halt on the Elbe river in eastern Germany as dry weather forces down water levels and the authorities said Wednesday that they expect the problem to get worse.

"No shipments are in place in the ports of Riesa, Dresden and Torgau," said a spokesman for the Saxony state inland ports.

Several Czech freighter ships were stuck in port in Magdeburg waiting for the water to start rising, water and navigation authorities there said.

Levels on the Elbe sat at 87 centimetres (34.25 inches), compared to the summer average of 189 centimetres (74.4 inches), and are expected to drop to 65 centimetres (25.6 inches) by Monday, they said.

Traffic was last halted on the Elbe in 2003 amid record summer temperatures.

Water levels are also low on the Rhine river in western Germany and while a tanker carrying 1,500 tonnes of fuel ran aground there on Tuesday, water authorities said it was probably due to navigator error.

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Mini-tornado on French island kills man, destroys campsite

LORIENT, France (AFP) Aug 11, 2004

A small tornado tore through a camping site on an island off France's Atlantic coast Wednesday, tossing several people into the air including an 18-year-old man who died of multiple injuries, firemen called to the scene said.

"Several people were really lifted off the ground, some of them were thrown up to 20 metres (66 feet). A young woman fell on the sand, but the young man, he fell on the cliff," one of the fire officers said.

The violent wind hit the island of Houat before dawn, carrying off some people sleeping in their tents, devastating the campsite and sinking five boats in the port.

Eight people were injured. The surviving 80 campers were taken to a municipal building in shock and were being transported back to the mainland.

An alert for a force seven gale, considered moderate but dangerous, was issued for the area later in the day.

The phenomenon struck during France's peak summer vacation period, when many holidaymakers were on the island.

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UFO Town Seeks Aid for Earthly Visitors

August 11, 2004

WARSAW (Reuters) - A Polish town plans to ask the European Union for the equivalent of $126 million to help it build facilities for hundreds of visitors lured by its mysterious crop circles, a local official said on Tuesday.

Crop circles -- areas in farmers' fields where grain has been flattened, often in complex interlocking patterns -- have been appearing in Wylatowo, western Poland, for four years.

The circles have drawn interest from UFO enthusiasts who believe they are made by alien spacecraft, while others dismiss them as hoaxes.

"We are drawing up a formal request -- we'd like to fix the sewer system and put up a campsite for visitors, both from Poland and from elsewhere in Europe," Wylatowo town councilor Tadeusz Filipczak told Reuters.

"I've got an exhibit for tourists set up in my place where they can come and ask questions -- I mean, you can't just send people out in the fields," he said.

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