In our latest podcast, (left to right) editors Henry
See, Scott Ogrin, and Joe Quinn discuss the methods
and tactics of the psychopaths in power.
Although full-blown psychopaths constitute only a tiny
fraction of the global population, many experts in the
field of psychology - including Dr. Andrew Lobaczewski,
author of Political
Ponerology - tell us that the psychopath can and
does influence a much larger percentage of the people
to act in a "pseudo-psychopathic" fashion. Combined with
the psychopaths themselves, this group is estimated to
be 6% of the population. This week, we discuss the techniques
and plans of this 6% of humanity. How do they control
and influence the rest of us? How do they use war to
further their goals? And how will their plans ultimately
affect each and every one of us on the Big Blue Marble?
If you have any
questions for the Signs Team or would like to suggest
a topic for future Podcast discussion, you can write
us at:
by Dale Allen Pfeiffer
Copyright 2003, From The Wilderness Publications
[Some months ago, concerned by a Paris statement made by Professor Kenneth Deffeyes of Princeton regarding his concern about the impact of Peak Oil and Gas on fertilizer production, I tasked FTW's Contributing Editor for Energy, Dale Allen Pfeiffer to start looking into what natural gas shortages would do to fertilizer production costs. His investigation led him to look at the totality of food production in the US. Because the US and Canada feed much of the world, the answers have global implications.
What follows is most certainly the single most frightening article I have ever read and certainly the most alarming piece that FTW has ever published. Even as we have seen CNN, Britain's Independent and Jane's Defence Weekly acknowledge the reality of Peak Oil and Gas within the last week, acknowledging that world oil and gas reserves are as much as 80% less than predicted, we are also seeing how little real thinking has been devoted to the host of crises certain to follow; at least in terms of publicly accessible thinking. [...]
None of this research considers the impact of declining fossil fuel production. The authors of all of these studies believe that the mentioned agricultural crisis will only begin to impact us after 2020, and will not become critical until 2050. The current peaking of global oil production (and subsequent decline of production), along with the peak of North American natural gas production will very likely precipitate this agricultural crisis much sooner than expected. Quite possibly, a U.S. population reduction of one-third will not be effective for sustainability; the necessary reduction might be in excess of one-half. And, for sustainability, global population will have to be reduced from the current 6.32 billion people42 to 2 billion-a reduction of 68% or over two-thirds. The end of this decade could see spiraling food prices without relief. And the coming decade could see massive starvation on a global level such as never experienced before by the human race.
Comment: In the Adventure Series - written in the Spring of 2002 - Laura wrote about her efforts to understand the nature of the many attacks against the Cassiopaea site since its launch in 1998. As she tracked the many clues, (not the least of which was her research into psychopathy which led to the material on Organic Portals), she stumbled across a very strange matter: Maximum Sustainable Human Population. In Adventures Chapter 30 she writes:
Hugh Everett's name may be familiar because of what is called The Everett-Wheeler interpretation of quantum mechanics, a rival of the orthodox "Copenhagen" interpretation of the mathematics of quantum mechanics. The Everett Wheeler theory is also known as the "many worlds" interpretation. [...]
Everett left physics after completing his Ph.D., going to work as a defense analyst at the Weapons Systems Evaluation Group, Pentagon and later became a private contractor. He was very successful, becoming a multimillionaire. In 1968 Everett worked for the Lambda Corporation, now subsidiary of General Research Corporation in McLean, Virginia. His published papers during this period cover things like optimizing resource allocation and maximizing kill rates during nuclear-weapon campaigns. [...]
I was curious about Everett's work for Lambda. A recent search of the literature turns up a paper written by Joseph George Caldwell entitled Optimal Attack and Defense for a Number of Targets in the Case of Imperfect Interceptors. [...]
Aside from the fact that we see evidence of the use of pure mathematics - Game Theory, in fact - in matters of warfare strategy, which includes source notes connecting this work to Wheeler, we find Joseph George Caldwell to be a bit interesting for other reasons. He has a website where he promotes the following idea:
"What is the sustainable human population for Earth?", I propose that a long-term sustainable number is on the order of ten million, consisting of a technologically advanced population of a single nation of about five million people concentrated in one or a few centers, and a globally distributed primitive population of about five million.
"I arrived at this size by approaching the problem from the point of view of estimating the minimum number of human beings that would have a good chance of long-term survival, instead of approaching it from the (usual) point of view of attempting to estimate the maximum number of human beings that the planet might be able to support.
"The reason why I use the approach of minimizing the human population is to keep the damaging effects of human industrial activity on the biosphere to a minimum. Because mankind's industrial activity produces so much waste that cannot be metabolized by "nature," any attempt to maximize the size of the human population risks total destruction of the biosphere (such as the "sixth extinction" now in progress).
Let's stop right here and ask the question: Who said that there was such a thing as the "Sixth Extinction," and that it was now in progress? Is this something that is generally "known" in the circles that do this kind of research? Is this WHY they are doing it? What do they know that the rest of us don't? Or better, what do they think that they aren't telling us? Caldwell writes:
The role of the technological population is "planetary management": to ensure that the size of the primitive population does not expand.
The role of the primitive population is to reduce the likelihood that a localized catastrophe might wipe out the human population altogether.
The reason for choosing the number five million for the primitive population size is that this is approximately the number (an estimated 2-20 million) that Earth supported for millions of years, i.e., it is proved to be a long-term sustainable number (in mathematical terminology, a "feasible" solution to the optimization problem).
The reason for choosing the number five million for the technological population size is that it is my opinion that that is about the minimum practical size for a technologically advanced population capable of managing a planet the size of Earth; also, it is my opinion that the "solar energy budget" of the planet can support a population of five million primitive people and five million "industrial" people indefinitely. [www.foundationwebsite.org ]
Mr. Caldwell's ideas are a techno representation of Synarchy, a clue to the REAL Stargate Conspiracy. It seems that, there is, indeed, something very mysterious going on all over the planet in terms of shaping the thinking of humanity via books, movies, and cultural themes, but at this point, we understand that most of what is promulgated is lies and disinformation. We hope to come to some idea of what the "insiders" know that they aren't telling us, and perhaps we will find some clues as we continue our investigation here.
It is amazing that the material that Laura uncovered and boldly published two
years ago is now being discovered by other researchers and even broadcast to
the masses in newspapers and on television.
By T. Christian Miller
LA Times Staff Writer
November 27, 2005
WASHINGTON - One hot, dusty day in June, Col. Ted Westhusing was found dead in a trailer at a military base near the Baghdad airport, a single gunshot wound to the head.
The Army would conclude that he committed suicide with his service pistol. At the time, he was the highest-ranking officer to die in Iraq.
The Army closed its case. But the questions surrounding Westhusing's death continue.
Westhusing, 44, was no ordinary officer. He was one of the Army's leading scholars of military ethics, a full professor at West Point who volunteered to serve in Iraq to be able to better teach his students. He had a doctorate in philosophy; his dissertation was an extended meditation on the meaning of honor.
So it was only natural that Westhusing acted when he learned of possible corruption by U.S. contractors in Iraq. A few weeks before he died, Westhusing received an anonymous complaint that a private security company he oversaw had cheated the U.S. government and committed human rights violations. Westhusing confronted the contractor and reported the concerns to superiors, who launched an investigation.
In e-mails to his family, Westhusing seemed especially upset by one conclusion he had reached: that traditional military values such as duty, honor and country had been replaced by profit motives in Iraq, where the U.S. had come to rely heavily on contractors for jobs once done by the military.
His death stunned all who knew him. Colleagues and commanders wondered whether they had missed signs of depression. He had been losing weight and not sleeping well. But only a day before his death, Westhusing won praise from a senior officer for his progress in training Iraqi police.
His friends and family struggle with the idea that Westhusing could have killed himself. He was a loving father and husband and a devout Catholic. He was an extraordinary intellect and had mastered ancient Greek and Italian. He had less than a month before his return home. It seemed impossible that anything could crush the spirit of a man with such a powerful sense of right and wrong.
On the Internet and in conversations with one another, Westhusing's family and friends have questioned the military investigation.
A note found in his trailer seemed to offer clues. Written in what the Army determined was his handwriting, the colonel appeared to be struggling with a final question.
How is honor possible in a war like the one in Iraq? [...]
When Westhusing entered West Point in 1979, the tradition-bound institution was just emerging from a cheating scandal that had shamed the Army. Restoring honor to the nation's preeminent incubator for Army leadership was the focus of the day.
Cadets are taught to value duty, honor and country, and are drilled in West Point's strict moral code: A cadet will not lie, cheat or steal - or tolerate those who do.
Westhusing embraced it. He was selected as honor captain for the entire academy his senior year. Col. Tim Trainor, a classmate and currently a West Point professor, said Westhusing was strict but sympathetic to cadets' problems. He remembered him as "introspective."
Westhusing graduated third in his class in 1983 and became an infantry platoon leader. He received special forces training, served in Italy, South Korea and Honduras, and eventually became division operations officer for the 82nd Airborne, based at Ft. Bragg, N.C.
He loved commanding soldiers. But he remained drawn to intellectual pursuits.
In 2000, Westhusing enrolled in Emory University's doctoral philosophy program. The idea was to return to West Point to teach future leaders.
He immediately stood out on the leafy Atlanta campus. Married with children, he was surrounded by young, single students. He was a deeply faithful Christian in a graduate program of professional skeptics.
Plunged into academia, Westhusing held fast to his military ties. Students and professors recalled him jogging up steep hills in combat boots and camouflage, his rucksack full, to stay in shape. He wrote a paper challenging an essay that questioned the morality of patriotism.
"He was as straight an arrow as you would possibly find," said Aaron Fichtelberg, a fellow student and now a professor at the University of Delaware. "He seemed unshakable."
In his 352-page dissertation, Westhusing discussed the ethics of war, focusing on examples of military honor from Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee to the Israeli army. It is a dense, searching and sometimes personal effort to define what, exactly, constitutes virtuous conduct in the context of the modern U.S. military.
"Born to be a warrior, I desire these answers not just for philosophical reasons, but for self-knowledge," he wrote in the opening pages.
As planned, Westhusing returned to teach philosophy and English at West Point as a full professor with a guaranteed lifetime assignment. He settled into life on campus with his wife, Michelle, and their three young children.
But amid the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, he told friends that he felt experience in Iraq would help him in teaching cadets. In the fall of 2004, he volunteered for duty.
"He wanted to serve, he wanted to use his skills, maybe he wanted some glory," recalled Nick Fotion, his advisor at Emory. "He wanted to go."
In January, Westhusing began work on what the Pentagon considered the most important mission in Iraq: training Iraqi forces to take over security duties from U.S. troops.
Westhusing's task was to oversee a private security company, Virginia-based USIS, which had contracts worth $79 million to train a corps of Iraqi police to conduct special operations.
In March, Gen. David Petraeus, commanding officer of the Iraqi training mission, praised Westhusing's performance, saying he had exceeded "lofty expectations."
"Thanks much, sir, but we can do much better and will," Westhusing wrote back, according to a copy of the Army investigation of his death that was obtained by The Times.
In April, his mood seemed to have darkened. He worried over delays in training one of the police battalions.
Then, in May, Westhusing received an anonymous four-page letter that contained detailed allegations of wrongdoing by USIS.
The writer accused USIS of deliberately shorting the government on the number of trainers to increase its profit margin. More seriously, the writer detailed two incidents in which USIS contractors allegedly had witnessed or participated in the killing of Iraqis.
A USIS contractor accompanied Iraqi police trainees during the assault on Fallouja last November and later boasted about the number of insurgents he had killed, the letter says. Private security contractors are not allowed to conduct offensive operations.
In a second incident, the letter says, a USIS employee saw Iraqi police trainees kill two innocent Iraqi civilians, then covered it up. A USIS manager "did not want it reported because he thought it would put his contract at risk."
Westhusing reported the allegations to his superiors but told one of them, Gen. Joseph Fil, that he believed USIS was complying with the terms of its contract.
U.S. officials investigated and found "no contractual violations," an Army spokesman said. Bill Winter, a USIS spokesman, said the investigation "found these allegations to be unfounded."
However, several U.S. officials said inquiries on USIS were ongoing. One U.S. military official, who, like others, requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case, said the inquiries had turned up problems, but nothing to support the more serious charges of human rights violations.
"As is typical, there may be a wisp of truth in each of the allegations," the official said.
The letter shook Westhusing, who felt personally implicated by accusations that he was too friendly with USIS management, according to an e-mail in the report.
"This is a mess... dunno what I will do with this," he wrote home to his family May 18.
The colonel began to complain to colleagues about "his dislike of the contractors," who, he said, "were paid too much money by the government," according to one captain.
"The meetings [with contractors] were never easy and always contentious. The contracts were in dispute and always under discussion," an Army Corps of Engineers official told investigators.
By June, some of Westhusing's colleagues had begun to worry about his health. They later told investigators that he had lost weight and begun fidgeting, sometimes staring off into space. He seemed withdrawn, they said.
His family was also becoming worried. He described feeling alone and abandoned. He sent home brief, cryptic e-mails, including one that said, "[I] didn't think I'd make it last night." He talked of resigning his command.
Westhusing brushed aside entreaties for details, writing that he would say more when he returned home. The family responded with an outpouring of e-mails expressing love and support.
His wife recalled a phone conversation that chilled her two weeks before his death.
"I heard something in his voice," she told investigators, according to a transcript of the interview. "In Ted's voice, there was fear. He did not like the nighttime and being alone."
Westhusing's father, Keith, said the family did not want to comment for this article.
On June 4, Westhusing left his office in the U.S.-controlled Green Zone of Baghdad to view a demonstration of Iraqi police preparedness at Camp Dublin, the USIS headquarters at the airport. He gave a briefing that impressed Petraeus and a visiting scholar. He stayed overnight at the USIS camp.
That night in his office, a USIS secretary would later tell investigators, she watched Westhusing take out his 9-millimeter pistol and "play" with it, repeatedly unholstering the weapon.
At a meeting the next morning to discuss construction delays, he seemed agitated. He stewed over demands for tighter vetting of police candidates, worried that it would slow the mission. He seemed upset over funding shortfalls.
Uncharacteristically, he lashed out at the contractors in attendance, according to the Army Corps official. In three months, the official had never seen Westhusing upset.
"He was sick of money-grubbing contractors," the official recounted. Westhusing said that "he had not come over to Iraq for this."
The meeting broke up shortly before lunch. About 1 p.m., a USIS manager went looking for Westhusing because he was scheduled for a ride back to the Green Zone. After getting no answer, the manager returned about 15 minutes later. Another USIS employee peeked through a window. He saw Westhusing lying on the floor in a pool of blood.
The manager rushed into the trailer and tried to revive Westhusing. The manager told investigators that he picked up the pistol at Westhusing's feet and tossed it onto the bed.
"I knew people would show up," that manager said later in attempting to explain why he had handled the weapon. "With 30 years from military and law enforcement training, I did not want the weapon to get bumped and go off."
Comment: Huh?! Anyone with 30 years of military and law enforcement training knows darn well that guns do not generally "go off" when they are "bumped"...
After a three-month inquiry, investigators declared Westhusing's death a suicide. A test showed gunpowder residue on his hands. A shell casing in the room bore markings indicating it had been fired from his service revolver.
Then there was the note.
Investigators found it lying on Westhusing's bed. The handwriting matched his.
The first part of the four-page letter lashes out at Petraeus and Fil. Both men later told investigators that they had not criticized Westhusing or heard negative comments from him. An Army review undertaken after Westhusing's death was complimentary of the command climate under the two men, a U.S. military official said.
Most of the letter is a wrenching account of a struggle for honor in a strange land.
"I cannot support a msn [mission] that leads to corruption, human rights abuse and liars. I am sullied," it says. "I came to serve honorably and feel dishonored."
"Death before being dishonored any more."
A psychologist reviewed Westhusing's e-mails and interviewed colleagues. She concluded that the anonymous letter had been the "most difficult and probably most painful stressor."
She said that Westhusing had placed too much pressure on himself to succeed and that he was unusually rigid in his thinking. Westhusing struggled with the idea that monetary values could outweigh moral ones in war. This, she said, was a flaw.
"Despite his intelligence, his ability to grasp the idea that profit is an important goal for people working in the private sector was surprisingly limited," wrote Lt. Col. Lisa Breitenbach. "He could not shift his mind-set from the military notion of completing a mission irrespective of cost, nor could he change his belief that doing the right thing because it was the right thing to do should be the sole motivator for businesses." Comment: Gee, can you tell she is a military psychologist?
One military officer said he felt Westhusing had trouble reconciling his ideals with Iraq's reality. Iraq "isn't a black-and-white place," the officer said. "There's a lot of gray."
Fil and Petraeus, Westhusing's commanding officers, declined to comment on the investigation, but they praised him. He was "an extremely bright, highly competent, completely professional and exceedingly hard-working officer. His death was truly tragic and was a tremendous blow," Petraeus said.
Westhusing's family and friends are troubled that he died at Camp Dublin, where he was without a bodyguard, surrounded by the same contractors he suspected of wrongdoing. They wonder why the manager who discovered Westhusing's body and picked up his weapon was not tested for gunpowder residue.
Mostly, they wonder how Col. Ted Westhusing - father, husband, son and expert on doing right - could have found himself in a place so dark that he saw no light.
"He's the last person who would commit suicide," said Fichtelberg, his graduate school colleague. "He couldn't have done it. He's just too damn stubborn."
Westhusing's body was flown back to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Waiting to receive it were his family and a close friend from West Point, a lieutenant colonel.
In the military report, the unidentified colonel told investigators that he had turned to Michelle, Westhusing's wife, and asked what happened.
She answered:
Mosinee - Gary Olson is a 52-year-old grandfather, a retired U.S. Army veteran - and soon to be a soldier again, thanks to the need for troops in Iraq.
Gary Olson, 52, accepted early retirement from the Army in 1992 after 17 years of service but had to remain on ready reserve until age 60. He's been ordered to report for duty Dec. 4.
Olson was ordered to report for duty Dec. 4 in Fort Jackson, S.C.
"They're just looking for bodies to fill in. I have been out cold turkey for 13 years," Olson said. "My philosophy is this: I'm going to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. If I have to go, I have to go." [...]
Lobaczewski: Subordinating a normal person to psychologically abnormal individuals has a deforming effect on his personality: it engenders trauma and neurosis. This is accomplished in a manner which generally evades sufficient conscious controls. [Wolves in Sheep's Clothing] Such a situation then deprives the person of his natural rights to practice his own mental hygiene, develop a sufficiently autonomous personality, and utilize his common sense. In the light of natural law, it thus constitutes a kind of illegality which can appear in any social scale although it is not mentioned in any code of law. [...]
With this understanding, we begin to get an even better idea of how psychopaths can conspire and actually pull it off: in a society where evil is not studied or understood, they easily "rise to the top" and proceed to condition normal people to accept their dominance, to accept their lies without question. [...]
What would happen if a state of affairs ensued which conferred internal peace, corresponding order, and relative prosperity within the nation?
The overwhelming majority of the country's population -being normal - would make skillful use of all the emerging possibilities, taking advantage of their superior qualifications to fight for an ever-increasing scope of activities. Thanks to their higher numbers, there would be a higher birth rate of their kind, and their power would increase. This majority would be joined by some sons from the privileged class who did not inherit the psychopathic genes. The pathocracy's dominance would weaken steadily, finally leading to a situation wherein the society of normal people take back the power. To the pathocrats, this is a known and nightmarish vision.
Thus, the biological, psychological, moral, and economic destruction of this majority of normal people is a "biological" necessity to the pathocrats. Many means serve this end, starting with concentration camps and including warfare with an obstinate, well-armed foe who will devastate and debilitate the human power thrown at him, namely the very power jeopardizing pathocrats rule. Once safely dead, the soldiers will thereupon be decreed heroes to be revered, useful for raising a new generation faithful to the pathocracy.
Any war waged by a pathocratic nation has two fronts, the internal and the external. The internal front is more important for the leaders and the governing elite, and the internal threat is the deciding factor where unleashing war is concerned. In pondering whether to start a war against the pathocratic country, one must therefore give primary consideration to the fact that one can be used as an executioner of the common people whose increasing power represents incipient jeopardy for the pathocracy. After all, pathocrats give short shrift to blood and suffering of people they consider to be not quite conspecific. [...]
Comment:Click here to read the entire article on Dr. Andrew Lobaczewski's book.
A "trophy" video appearing to show security guards in Baghdad randomly shooting Iraqi civilians has sparked two investigations after it was posted on the internet, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal.
The video has sparked concern that private security companies, which are not subject to any form of regulation either in Britain or in Iraq, could be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent Iraqis.
The video, which first appeared on a website that has been linked unofficially to Aegis Defence Services, contained four separate clips, in which security guards open fire with automatic rifles at civilian cars. All of the shooting incidents apparently took place on "route Irish", a road that links the airport to Baghdad.
The road has acquired the dubious distinction of being the most dangerous in the world because of the number of suicide attacks and ambushes carried out by insurgents against coalition troops. In one four-month period earlier this year it was the scene of 150 attacks.
In one of the videoed attacks, a Mercedes is fired on at a distance of several hundred yards before it crashes in to a civilian taxi. In the last clip, a white civilian car is raked with machine gun fire as it approaches an unidentified security company vehicle. Bullets can be seen hitting the vehicle before it comes to a slow stop.
There are no clues as to the shooter but either a Scottish or Irish accent can be heard in at least one of the clips above Elvis Presley's Mystery Train, the music which accompanies the video.
Last night a spokesman for defence firm Aegis Defence Services - set up in 2002 by Lt Col Tim Spicer, a former Scots Guards officer - confirmed that the company was carrying out an internal investigation to see if any of their employees were involved.
The Foreign Office has also confirmed that it is investigating the contents of the video in conjunction with Aegis, one of the biggest security companies operating in Iraq. The company was recently awarded a £220 million security contract in Iraq by the United States government. Aegis conducts a number of security duties and helped with the collection of ballot papers in the country's recent referendum
Lt Col Spicer, 53, rose to public prominence in 1998 when his private military company Sandlines International was accused of breaking United Nations sanctions by selling arms to Sierra Leone.
The video first appeared on the website www.aegisIraq.co.uk. The website states: "This site does not belong to Aegis Defence Ltd, it belongs to the men on the ground who are the heart and soul of the company." The clips have been removed.
The website also contains a message from Lt Col Spicer, which reads: "I am concerned about media interest in this site and I remind everyone of their contractual obligation not to speak to or assist the media without clearing it with the project management or Aegis London.
"Refrain from posting anything which is detrimental to the company since this could result in the loss or curtailment of our contract with resultant loss for everybody."
Security companies awarded contracts by the US administration in Iraq adopt the same rules for opening fire as the American military. US military vehicles carry a sign warning drivers to keep their distance from the vehicle. The warning which appears in both Arabic and English reads "Danger. Keep back. Authorised to use lethal force." A similar warning is also displayed on the rear of vehicles belonging to Aegis.
Capt Adnan Tawfiq of the Iraqi Interior Ministry which deals with compensation issues, has told the Sunday Telegraph that he has received numerous claims from families who allege that their relatives have been shot by private security contractors travelling in road convoys.
He said: "When the security companies kill people they just drive away and nothing is done. Sometimes we ring the companies concerned and they deny everything. The families don't get any money or compensation. I would say we have had about 50-60 incidents of this kind."
A spokesman for Aegis Defence Services, said: "There is nothing to indicate that these film clips are in any way connected to Aegis."
Last night a spokesman for the Foreign Office said: "Aegis have assured us that there is nothing on the video to suggest that it has anything to do with their company. This is now a matter for the American authorities because Aegis is under contract to the United States."
From correspondents in Washington
November 28, 2005
The White House has admitted it has an Iraq withdrawal plan, arguing that a troop pullout blueprint unveiled this past week by a Democratic senator was "remarkably similar" to its own.
The Bush administration also signalled its acceptance of a recent US Senate amendment designed to pave the way for a phased US military withdrawal from the violence-torn country.
The statement late on Saturday by White House spokesman Scott McClellan came in response to a commentary published in The Washington Post by Joseph Biden, the top Democrat of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in which he said US forces will begin leaving Iraq next year "in large numbers."
The United States will move about 50,000 servicemen out of the country by the end of 2006, and "a significant number" of the remaining 100,000 the year after, according to Senator Biden's article.
Speaking on US television overnight, Senator Biden said that with or without a near-term troop withdrawal, the window is rapidly closing on the opportunity for a US success in Iraq.[...]
"Are we going to have traded a dictator for chaos? Or are we going to have traded a dictator for a stable Iraq? That's the real question. And that depends on the president's actions from here out," said Senator Biden.
The plan calls for leaving only an unspecified "small force" either in Iraq or across the border to strike at concentrations of insurgents.
In the White House statement, which was released under the headline "Senator Biden Adopts Key Portions Of Administration's Plan For Victory In Iraq," Mr McClellan said the administration of President George W. Bush welcomed Biden's voice in the debate.
"Today, Senator Biden described a plan remarkably similar to the administration's plan to fight and win the war on terror," the spokesman went on to say.
Mr McClellan added that as Iraqi security forces gain strength and experience, "we can lessen our troop presence in the country without losing our capability to effectively defeat the terrorists."
Mr McClellan said the White House now saw "a strong consensus" building in Washington in favour of Bush's strategy in Iraq.
Comment: Unfortunately for Senator
Biden, the US government and military have already traded a man who posed
no threat to anyone for the lives of at least 100,000 Iraqi civilians. Regardless
or whether or not Iraq turns out to be "stable" (very unlikely) there is no way to wipe the slate clean and absolve the U.S. political establishment for its collective participation in what amounts to genocide.
By LESLIE MILLER
Associated Press
Fri Dec 2, 5:33 PM ET
WASHINGTON - Airline passengers soon will be allowed to carry small scissors and some sharp tools onto planes, but there will be a trade-off: the prospect of more thorough pat-downs and other extra security checks before they get to the gate.
The changes announced Friday by Transportation Security Administration chief Kip Hawley are aimed at catching terrorists carrying explosives, which the agency considers a greater threat than dangerous objects smuggled into an airplane cabin.
Flight attendants and relatives of some Sept. 11 attack victims strongly oppose the change, saying it will make airliners more vulnerable to terrorist attack. [...]
Hawley said screeners — recently renamed "transportation security officers" — spend too much time looking for objects that don't pose much of a risk, slowing security lines.
Since the TSA took over airport screening on Nov. 19, 2002, the agency has confiscated more than 30 million prohibited items from carry-on bags. Hawley said about one-fourth of those were small scissors and tools, which will be taken off the list Dec. 22.
As part of the effort to focus on bombs, Hawley said more than 18,000 screeners have received enhanced explosives detection training. As a result, a screener searching a carry-on bag at St. Louis airport found a bomb detonator in November. The person carrying the device was someone who worked with such items and was not a terrorist, Hawley said.
Other changes are aimed at making security checks less predictable for terrorists. All passengers still will walk through metal detectors and their carry-on bags still will go through an X-ray machine. But more will be chosen randomly at checkpoints for secondary screening, though the type of extra check may vary; they might be patted down, their shoes may be checked for bombs, their bags may be searched or they may just be checked with a wand.
"By incorporating unpredictability into our procedures and eliminating low-threat items, we can better focus our efforts on stopping individuals who wish to do us harm," Hawley said.
Pat-downs will be more thorough. Now, screeners only check passengers' backs and abdomens. Starting Dec. 22 they'll be checking arms and legs.
Passengers also may notice more bomb-sniffing dogs roaming airports. Hawley said there are now 420 teams of such dogs, 70 percent more than in 2003, at about 80 airports. The TSA also plans to increase the number of walk-through bomb-detection machines from 43 now to 340 by next September, he said. [...]
Comment: That scissors and sharp tools will again be allowed on planes is supposed to distract us from the fact that airport security will now involve more secondary screenings that will be even more thorough and invasive.
By KATHERINE SHRADER
Associated Press
Fri Dec 2, 5:52 PM ET
WASHINGTON - U.S. counterterrorism agencies have not detected a significant al-Qaida operational capability in the United States since the 2003 arrest of a truck driver who was in the early stages of plotting to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge.
Nevertheless, al-Qaida's capabilities aren't clear and the group remains dangerous, the new deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Kevin Brock, said in an Associated Press interview.
The uncertainty reflects the tension facing national security officials even though the country has gone four years without a domestic attack from al-Qaida.
Brock was the FBI's special agent in charge of the Cincinnati office that investigated Iyman Faris, now serving a 20-year prison sentence for aiding and abetting terrorism and conspiracy. Faris, a Pakistani who became a U.S. citizen in 1999, was exploring whether he could ruin the Brooklyn Bridge by cutting the suspension cables.
Brock said the case demonstrated al-Qaida's weakened state following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Faris didn't strike Brock as someone who could carry out a sophisticated plot though he was ordered by a top al-Qaida leader now in custody, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, to handle complicated operations.
"Since the Iyman Faris case and other investigations, the FBI and other agencies are just not detecting an operational capability by the al-Qaida organization in the United States of imminent significance," Brock said.
Yet he and other senior officials say now is not the time to relax.
"We have to assume that they remain a very viable and very dangerous threat," Brock said. "You almost can't define al-Qaida just as an entity that you can put on an organizational chart. It has now expanded to an ideology that has gotten quite dangerous." [...]
Comment: So, no al-Qaeda in the US "since 2003", but airport security is being beefed up anyway??
FBI agents and Homeland Security officials spent the weekend investigating the report of a possible missile fired at an American Airlines plane taking off from Los Angeles International Airport.
Sources tell ABC News the pilot of American Airlines Flight 621, en route to Chicago, radioed air traffic controllers after takeoff from LAX. He told them a missile had been fired at the aircraft and missed.
The plane was over water when the pilot said he saw a smoke trail pass by the cockpit.
FBI agents believe it was a flare or a bottle rocket, but say they may never know if that's what it actually was.
By Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
December 2, 2005, 10:41 AM PST
Computer makers can breathe a sigh of relief--people did scoop up a lot of laptops during the holiday shopping extravaganza last week.
Sales of personal computers in U.S. retail outlets during Thanksgiving week increased 35 percent over the same week the year before. Overall revenue increased by 11 percent, better than expected, according to research firm Current Analysis. In 2004, computer sales increased by only 7 percent while revenue decreased by 3 percent.
Thanksgiving week is a crucial period for retailers and electronics manufacturers, as a significant bulk of the holiday sales occur then. The most active day remains Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.
Although sales of PCs and electronics have been strong this year, part of the growth has been fueled by price cuts. The worry, among some analysts and executives earlier in the year, was that price cutting could eliminate the benefits of increased unit sales. While price cuts clearly did reduce some of the potential gain, the increase in revenue will likely buoy the outlook for some.
"This shows that the (computer electronics) industry has got some legs," said Matt Sargent, an analyst at Current Analysis, who added that the results were higher than expected. The research firm had anticipated that revenue would grow by only around 2 percent to 5 percent. The Thanksgiving week represented the single strongest week ever for notebook sales, he added. [...]
Comment: And where do we think that American shoppers found the money to fuel the extraordinary computer sales? Credit, of course! The Powers that Be might as well get everyone to max out all their lines of credit before pulling the plug on the stumbling economy.
WASHINGTON - Years of super-cheap credit are coming to an end as the world's major central banks begin to act in unison to drain excess cash that many fear could have severe repercussions for economic and price stability.
As heads of the US Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and Bank of Japan meet in London this weekend with finance ministers and bankers from the Group of Seven economic powers, they are likely to conclude there is still much to do.
By the middle of next year, all three of these central banks may be withdrawing cash from the global economy -- via higher Fed and ECB interest rates or, in the case of Japan, by ceasing to pump even more cash into the system.
Whether this is concerted or just coincidence is unclear.
The differing pace of central bank action -- the Fed is almost 18 months into its series of gradual rate hikes, the ECB is about to start on Thursday and the Bank of Japan is mulling its first move -- shows how national priorities still dictate.
But what is clear to many experts is Fed tightening alone has not been sufficient to dampen what many see as high levels of risk-taking in world markets, buoyant private credit growth everywhere and bubble-like behaviour in housing and equity markets.
Financial markets, they argue, have become so sophisticated and global in nature that they can leverage off cheap credit in Europe and Japan as much as they can in the United States.
To the extent there is a collective desire to drain global liquidity, it will require tightening from all three regions.
"There's clearly concern in Washington and Frankfurt that financial conditions are still too loose," said Jim O'Neill, chief global economist at Goldman Sachs. He added that Japan may lag, but will also need to mop up abundant global cash.
The global tightening cycle seems to have picked up since the G7 last met in Washington in September as economies in all regions brushed off this year's energy price spike.
Accelerating output alongside sky-high oil prices has left central banks with a potential headache of accelerating credit growth, rising headline inflation, low long-term borrowing rates, buoyant equity markets and regional housing booms.
The fact core inflation rates, which exclude volatile energy prices, remain low -- due largely to the effects of supply shocks such as cut-price Chinese goods and technology-related productivity gains -- only complicates the policy analysis.
Some say there is a gnawing anxiety that core consumer price inflation is not telling the full story. If interest rates remain so low, the risk is financial excess, more bubbles and even deep deflation down the line.
When the G7 met in September, a central feature of that meeting was a presentation by Fed Vice Chairman Roger Ferguson on how cheap money was allowing global markets to indulge in a very high level of risk taking.
G7 officials said this was a thinly veiled warning of the risks that a sudden shock could undermine increasingly indebted borrowers and undercompensated creditors alike.
One measure of this risk-taking is the interest rate premium on a basket of emerging market sovereign debt over relatively safer US Treasury debt. In the past year, this spread dropped by almost 30 per cent, to 2.5 percentage points.
This month Ferguson urged policy-makers to pay more attention to asset prices. "We need to be more attentive now to financial markets because asset prices affect spending to a greater degree than before and because asset prices provide us with a greater amount of timely information to guide policy," he said. [...]
A Reader Comments: The Federal reserve caused the 1929 great depression by tightening the money supply after a huge stock market boom, so maybe this is the reason they will no longer publish M-3 money supply information since they won't pump any money into the system and let the circulating cash dry up. Kind of like not putting oil in a car until it just seizes...
By John Borland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
December 2, 2005, 4:00 AM PST
LOS ANGELES--On the day after Christmas, a long-standard survey of people's television watching habits will take a first step into the digital present--and future.
For decades, the Nielsen Media Research audience measurement service has told networks and advertisers roughly how many people are watching, for example, ABC at 9 p.m. on a Wednesday. But as a growing number of people use TiVo or another service to record prime time shows for viewing later in the week or for watching on a laptop during a flight, the Nielsen ratings have gotten increasingly fuzzy.
In late December, Nielsen is finally taking one of several steps aimed at adapting to this new audience. Ratings will be broken out by how shows are watched--live, later in the day or within a seven-day period. Over time, Nielsen will also move to measure viewing that takes place via iPods, cell phones, laptops and other digital devices that are gaining TV privileges. The company also will track audiences for on-demand fare.
"I don't even try to figure out what's happening today. It's more important to try to figure out where we're going to be in 10 months, and then try to figure out how to get there."
--Steve Schwaid, senior VP, NBC Universal
The steps are a radical change for Nielsen, reflecting an overall paradigm shift that's shaking up the television world. The audience is taking control. And TV companies are scrambling to catch up.
"Viewers are tearing down the technological walls that once isolated their TV sets," Nielsen CEO Susan Whiting said Thursday at the Digital Entertainment and Media Expo here. "They represent formidable challenges, especially the younger generation, who are often more comfortable with change than their elders."
Indeed, what's increasingly evident in television's rush into the digital age is that the archetypal couch potato may be an endangered species. How companies react to this new kind of viewer, one who's increasingly as active as a video-game player, will recast the foundations of the media business over the next decade.
Executives at digital video recorder company TiVo have had a ringside seat as the change has unfolded, being able to track every click and button push of their customers' remote controls. What they've seen surprises even them. The average TiVo household clicks a button 350 times a day, and more than 70 percent of viewing involves skipping ads, said Chief Executive Officer Tom Rogers. [...]
ROME - Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas welcomed the "radical change" wrought on Israel's political landscape by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's decision to set up a new party, saying it could bring peace to the Middle East if he is re-elected.
"There has been a radical change on the political map of Israel. We now have a really new situation," Abbas told a joint news conference after talks in Rome with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
"I think that the Israeli people could opt for the choice of peace and when the will of the people is the same as the will of the elected leader, much can be achieved," the Palestinian leader said.
Sharon quit the Likud party he founded last week to set up a new centrist group which has spelled out its willingness to see the creation of a Palestinian state.
The new party, Kadima, Hebrew for "Forward", seems set to break the two-party stranglehold of Likud and the Labour party in Israel and emerge as the largest group after a general election on March 28.
Abbas, on a two-day visit to Rome and the Vatican, said Sharon had already been voted prime minister by the Israeli people "and when he left the Likud the polls indicated he would be the next prime minister."
"Without doubt he is a man to realise his convictions," he said, but he added that the Palestinian Authority was willing to work with whoever wins the elections.
He cautioned that the situation in Israel from the Palestinian point of view was still "very difficult to decipher" because of the changes within the Likud party, where there were many "new and unknown" faces.
The Palestinian leader said he had emphasised, in his one-hour meeting with Berlusconi, "the democratic course we have undertaken, and there can be no going back." [...]
WASHINGTON - A former secretary of the U.S. Commission on Fine Arts received a $5 jaywalking ticket after he was hit by a car and critically injured while crossing a busy street.
Charles Atherton, 73, was conscious when he was issued the ticket before being taken to George Washington University Hospital, District of Columbia police told The Washington Post.
However, witnesses reported that Atherton was unresponsive and struggling to breathe as he lay crumpled in the road Thursday night. They said he was knocked out of his shoes and his head hit the vehicle's windshield, leaving him bleeding from his head and nose.
Police said Atherton received the ticket because he caused the accident by crossing Connecticut Avenue in mid-block.
"He was issued a ticket because he was at fault. That's all I can tell you," Lt. John Kutniewski of the police department's major crash investigation unit, told the Post. "If he's outside the crosswalk, he would be at fault."
Michael Baker, a witness, said he overheard a police officer "reassuring" the driver involved in the accident that she was not at fault. He said he thought police wrote the ticket "primarily to assuage her."
Atherton's daughter, Sarah, 35, said she was puzzled by the police version of the accident.
"Dad always felt strongly about crossing at intersections," she said, noting that he was particularly careful after a friend was killed crossing the same street.
Atherton was secretary of the presidentially appointed commission for 40 years and reviewed countless proposed monuments and projects in Washington, including the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the National World War II Memorial.
afrol News, 2 December - Aid operations are now starting to assist the thousands displaced by this weeks eruption of the volcano Mount Karthala in Comoros. More than a third of the population of Grande Comore may have been displaced by the eruption, which mainly caused damages to water reservoirs, agriculture and livestock on the main Comoran island.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) today announced that it was "joining in emergency relief operations" in the small Indian Ocean country of Comoros, where a volcanic eruption may have displaced more than a third of the total population. Several UN agencies were now assisting national authorities in providing clean water, clearing away dust and debris and assessing damage to agriculture and livestock.
There are concerns about the impact of pollution due to volcanic debris on public health, agriculture and livestock for some 250,000 people living in 76 villages in the areas covered by the ash and smoke, OCHA said in a statement today. Approximately 175,000 people were said to have "inadequate access to clean drinking water due to the contamination of water tanks."
Affected populations had also been inhaling volcanic dust since the eruptions, OCHA warned. Many Comorans - including the elderly and children - were now "having trouble breathing freely," the UN agency stated. The eruption is estimated to have displaced between 180,000 and 250,000 people, out of a total population of about 670,000 living on the islands between continental Africa and Madagascar.
In response, national authorities had prioritised delivering clean water, cleaning water tanks and water analysis; cleaning streets, public facilities and private buildings and preventing dust inhalation; and providing technical expertise for an environmental impact assessment and establishing a system to monitor the impact of the eruption over time.
The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) was further supporting the Comoran government's delivery of clean water by providing water tanks, fuel for trucks, and financial resources to cover operational costs. On average, 200,000 litres of water had been delivered each day. UNICEF had also supported the cleaning of all schools and is ensuring their water supply.
Meanwhile, the UN World Health Organisation (WHO) was providing technical expertise to assess public health and water and sanitation conditions. Authorities still need to map which areas of the island that are intoxicated by volcano debris. Such mapping was important to determine whether some of the large number of displaced could return to their homes.
Additionally, the UN Development Programme (UNDP), together with UNICEF and WHO, were to provide material support such as computers and office equipment to the National Emergency Operations Centre. Finally, UNOSAT - a UN agency offering the humanitarian community access to satellite imagery - was working to provide accurate images of the Karthala volcano area in the next days. The images are to "help ascertain the scope of damages."
The Karthala volcano has been erupting since 24 November, with projections of ash and smoke that spread volcanic dust and debris over extensive areas of the Grande Comore, including the capital, Moroni. Although the eruptions receded after the initial day's eruptions, the Karthala Volcanological Observatory warns that the level of seismic activity remains high and that a lava lake is forming in the volcano's crater. An eruption of the volcano earlier this year, in mid-April 2005, also led to water contamination and the UN had to assist the government in providing clean water.
Mount Karthala, one of the world's largest active volcanoes, is the southernmost and largest of the two volcanoes that form Grande Comore Island (Njazidja) in the Indian Ocean Comoros archipelago.
It is documented to have erupted more than 20 times since the 1800s. Mount Karthala has a great potential of destruction, causing Comoran authorities and humanitarian agencies always to be on high alert. The volcano last erupted in July 1991. At that occasion, no persons were killed although tens of thousands of villagers had to flee their homes. Large damage was done to crops and pastures.
The volcano is known to erupt in a cycle of approximately 11 years. Two strong eruptions in 1972 and 1977 did significant damages as lava flows reached the ocean. In 1977, the coastal village of Singani was partly destroyed by lava flows. In 1860, a lava flow even reached the coast close to Moroni.
The entire Comoran archipelago - with the four major islands Grande Comore, Anjouan, Moheli and Mayotte (the latter a French colony) - is created through volcanism in geologically modern times. The volcanoes are a result of the island of Madagascar's drifting from the African continent and subsequent tensions in the stretching sea floor.
The Associated Press
Friday, December 2, 2005; 11:38 PM
HAWAII VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK, Hawaii -- About 44 acres of coastline collapsed into the ocean this week, setting loose a glowing stream of lava that shot out from the newly exposed cliffside 45 feet above the water.
The plume, 6 feet in diameter, sent up a tower of steam as it hit the water and began forming a ramp of new land.
The collapse of solidified lava shelf and sea cliff Monday was the largest since Kilauea Volcano began its current eruption in 1983.
Jim Kauahikaua, scientist-in-charge of the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, said a collapse warning was issued in June because the shelf had become large and had formed cracks. Large collapses had happened in the area before.
Rumblings tipped scientists to Monday's collapse, which took about 4 1/2 hours. Even at that relatively slow pace, the effect was spectacular.
"The cliff just caved away like a glacier," said park spokesman Jim Gale. "It just sheared off that old wall. There's this gigantic steam plume and you see the red just falling down _ an incredible fire hose display."
The collapse sent out globs of lava and head-size boulders. Sheets of volcanic glass called limu o Pele, after the Hawaiian goddess of fire, and thin strands of volcanic glass known as Pele's hair were found 1,800 feet inland.
LONDON, December 3 (IranMania) - The third earthquake hit suburbs of Qeshm Island in southern Hormuzgan Province at 01:28 hours local time on Friday (2158 GMT) Thursday night. It was measuring 3.8 on the Richter scale, IRNA said.
The seismological base of Tehran University's Geophysics Institute registered the tremor in an area measuring 26.81 degrees in latitude and 56.03 degrees in longitude.
There are no immediate reports of any damage or casualty.
Earlier in the day, the island was rattled by a 4.3-magnitude earthquake, which caused no casualty or damage to property. It occurred at 04:04 local time (0034 GMT) on Thursday morning.
The first and killer earthquake struck Qeshm last Sunday with a magnitude of 5.9, killing 10 people, injuring scores of others, and flattening several villages.
Having an area of 1,500 square kilometers, Qeshm is the biggest island of the Persian Gulf.
The island is one of Iran's lucrative commercial and fishing ports. Hara Forest nestled in the island is a must-see spot.
TOKYO - A strong offshore earthquake rocked northern Japan late Friday night, the country‘s meteorological agency said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, and no tsunami warning was issued.
Japan is one of the world‘s most earthquake-prone countries because it sits atop four tectonic plates. A 7.2-magnitude earthquake shook northeastern Japan in August, injuring at least 59 people, triggering landslides, damaging buildings and causing widespread power outages.
On the fourth anniversary of the September 11th attacks, Laura Knight-Jadczyk announced the availability of her latest book: 9/11:The Ultimate Truth.
9/11:The Ultimate Truth is the definitive book on the secrets of September 11th. Never before has so much information come together for one purpose, to reveal the hidden agenda of 9/11 and answer the question: Why?
Laura Knight-Jadczyk succeeds in laying open the clandestine
plans behind the attack on America. Revealing for the first time ever the shadowed intent of the P3nt4gon Str!ke, why the Twin Towers were selected, and finally, who was behind it all.
Now you will have the Ultimate Truth!
Published by Red Pill Press
In the years since the 9/11 attacks, dozens of books have sought to explore the truth behind the official version of events that day - yet to date, none of these publications has provided a satisfactory answer as to WHY the attacks occurred and who was ultimately responsible for carrying them out.
Taking a broad, millennia-long perspective, Laura Knight-Jadczyk's 9/11:The Ultimate Truth uncovers the true nature of the ruling elite on our planet and presents new and ground-breaking insights into just how the 9/11 attacks played out.
9/11:The Ultimate Truth makes a strong case for the idea that September 11, 2001 marked the moment when our planet entered the final phase of a diabolical plan that has been many, many years in the making. It is a plan developed and nurtured by successive generations of ruthless individuals who relentlessly exploit the negative aspects of basic human nature to entrap humanity as a whole in endless wars and suffering in order to keep us confused and distracted to the reality of the man behind the curtain.
Drawing on historical and genealogical sources, Knight-Jadczyk eloquently links the 9/11 event to the modern-day Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She also cites the clear evidence that our planet undergoes periodic natural cataclysms, a cycle that has arguably brought humanity to the brink of destruction in the present day.
For its no nonsense style in cutting to the core of the issue and its sheer audacity in refusing to be swayed or distracted by the morass of disinformation that has been employed by the Powers that Be to cover their tracks, 9/11:The Ultimate Truth can rightly claim to be THE definitive book on 9/11 - and what that fateful day's true implications are for the future of mankind.