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WE GROW UP, NOW, OR WE DIE By Mathew Kristin Kiel December 8, 2005 Completed and Revised January 1, 2006 An Analysis: Many among the current "opposition" and its alternative and independent media, press and online journalism are actively delivering us to the Pathocracy. The Human Race must either begin to work in a united and coordinated resistance to the advancing global Pathocracy, all of us together, or we will lose everything. The so-called opposition to the global menace is, thus far, a global disgrace, either utterly ineffectual against or downright collusive in the antihuman insanity about to destroy all of us and the planet with us. There is no limit to the harm intended and sought by the force(s) seeking to visit ruination upon all Humanity and Planet Earth, nor to that Enemy's deviousness in devising means to prevent our becoming aware of that Fact. Unfortunately, as if by design, a not entirely far fetched possibility, we are being made almost helpless to confront and defeat the Monster by two simple elements of basic semantics: Terminology and Nomenclature. If we do not find and establish a set of terms that all of Humanity can understand, clearly and carefully defining just who and what it is that we oppose, we will have no hope of successfully resisting the Monster, let alone of ever defeating it. We are perishing under a plethora of descriptions so widely variant across Human languages and cultures as to render them contradictory and useless, divisive and baffling in the extreme. As but one example of this problem please consider that the precise, same group of individuals, Paul Wolfowitz currently at the top of their echelons, are being identified, globally, by two diametrically opposite terms. All of them are members of the same, solitary, world destroying financial and economic consortium. They all pursue the same policies, regulations and laws that amount to a war of economic rape, robbery and pillage, globally, against the humble peoples of the Earth. These members of the global Elite are identified, on two or more continents, in one separated and largely ineffectual opposition's movement, as the "Neo Liberals" and their pogroms labeled "Neoliberalism." While on another continent or two, in another, not coincidentally, entirely separated and also largely ineffectual opposition movement, the exact same consortium and its individual members are identified and known as the "Neo Conservatives" and their pogroms are labeled "Neoconservatism." It IS the same Monster being called by different, opposite names, and described by contradictory, opposite terms. This is gravely endangering all of Humanity by slowing our responses and scattering our counteractions in multiple directions, nearly all of them misleading or outright false. However, this dismal failure to find and hold an essential unity of focus and purpose cannot be assigned only to the deplorably imprecise and contradictory semantics in use. Neither can it be allayed entirely to the lack of access to mainstream media and press outlets by the numerous and widely divergent opponents of one partial element or another of the real Monster. There are far too many dedicated purveyors of hysterical thinking, hatred, divisiveness, myths, illusions, cons, lies and plain old, nasty and low down in-group vs. out-group programming, in somewhat cosmetically revised "packages," who are firmly lodged in the center and heart of the ranks of "truth movement," "opposition," alternative, "indy" and other counter cultural media, press and online information outlets and forums. It is they who could and should have long since addressed these problems and begun working toward establishing a workable and uniting, global dialogue. But, being apparently arrogant unto the death of all Humanity, they would rather keep on spewing out their standard, confusing and fragmentary fare, often repeating purely false information and reinforcing the lies illusions and myths keeping the global Pathocracy going and growing contentedly. These "journalists" seem to simply be too busy making sure they get to loudly grind their own socio-political or "moral" axes each and every time to bother with taking the time and making the efforts to ascertain whether all of the information and conclusions they declare to be factual are in fact supported by the evidence established by solid data and documentation. Writing an article that is one third fact and two thirds self-posturing hype and Pathocratic myths is not helpful. They are misleading us with allegedly truth and fact based material that compounds the serious semantic difficulties and raises the level of confusion and obfuscation. The modern resistance falls flat through its abysmal failure to find, challenge and eradicate from its own communications, publications, networks and organisations, and likewise from its own consciousness and behaviours, the persistent, irrational beliefs, emotional "hot buttons," reactionary trigger words, name-calling, spear-chucking and other mind twisting, unity defeating, anti-resistance conditioning, and the persistent myths, illusions and lies at the core of the Monster's control of us. Likewise, it is destroyed from within by its failure to tune out and shut out those who continue to pour further inaccuracy, deceit and fragmentation into the already chaotic, deliberate confusion as to what is and is not true and factual. Some of the most respected and widely known counter cultural leaders and voices are the worst of the emotive spear-chuckers and muck-rakers, railing vehemently against all but their own rigidly defined political and demographic identity groups. Only by dint of their also bashing Bush or other figureheads and fragments of the most visible problem, the U.S. government, have they managed to gain what little credibility they have, and it seems a poor substitute for objective, hard hitting facts. Any journalist who resorts to name calling and inflammatory rhetoric is actively creating more problems, not helping to oppose and solve them. Rather than to help us unite in making our common cause against a far more lethal Real Enemy, these mud-slingers still depict the old, standardised and demonised "enemies", such as the communists, or the socialists, or the Democrats, or the liberals, or the Republicans, or the conservatives, or whites, or blacks, or anglos, or gringos, or Asians, or immigrants, or atheists, or Catholics, or hippies, or right-wing, or left-wing, or Neoliberals, or Neoconservatives, or whatever else, etc., etc., et al, ad nauseum and nearly ad infinitum. Each of these "alternative" rabble rouser vows, as always, that his or her own most hated group is the one and only real and true "enemy" of us all, or the one and only "wrong" ideology, philosophy, political party, economics, religion, or whatever, that has caused this entire mess. It really is, with a few rare and notable exceptions, a truly tiresome and noisome crock of tired old clichés passing itself off as "opposition" journalism. Simple logic dictates that there cannot be so very many "one and only true enemies" out there. Logic says that either none of these groups is the Real Enemy or else that all of them are a part of it, but absolutely not the heart of it. It is all just the same, old in-group, an arbitrarily and narrowly defined, always patently enhanced and egotistical "us," pitted as ever against the, same, old, tried and false, exaggeratedly dangerous and demonised out-group of "them." The formulaic output coming from some of these "journalists" is making a very direct contribution to the ongoing failure of Humanity to effectively identify and resist the destruction unleashed against us all. It intentionally promotes scapegoating and finger pointing, two of the habits of conditioned pathological thinking that I would personally vote among the top 10 things most likely to get us all killed. If these self-proclaimed insiders and experts, each claiming to be the revelator of entirely factual content, at least according to the claims of most of them, do sincerely desire to inform and alert the rest of us to the dangers and threats we face, in contrast to simply basking in the glows of their own self-inflamed egos, they might want to first commence to make some real efforts to educate themselves as to the Facts of the global menace. All they have done up to now is to guarantee an old fashioned, ongoing "divide and conquer" victory to the real Enemy. So far, that old strategy is working superbly, and we have stupidly fallen for it and continued to give both merit and credibility to a bunch of self-important posturers who as yet care nothing for the truth of our dreadful, True situation. To persist in their customary tactics in not a simple matter of free speech or style. It is a significant part of the defeat, thus far, of attempts to make possible an effective and dedicated pan-Human opposition to the literally global menace deployed against us. They need to stop inflaming the emotions of their readers, merely adding reactivity and vulgarity to already massive confusion, and stop increasing the contradictions and errors in a situation that is already desperately misidentified and poorly understood. They cannot be permitted, by all of us, to continue with impunity in their total disregard for the consequences of their, at best, mistaken and misguided assumptions and assertions presented as facts. If they make no attempt whatsoever to promptly amend both their inflammatory rhetoric and the faulty "informational" content and tone of their missives, then they need to be "outed" as deliberate disinformation specialists and propagandists, and ignored until they cease to have enough readership to keep themselves afloat. The trash they spout is nothing but "twists" on the same old hate mongering that was used to get us into this nightmare in the first place. If any of these self-proclaimed journalist-patriots are real fighters for the good of all Humanity they will stop the hype, dispense with the emotional button-pushing and the political name-calling, stop all of the petty and divisive crap at once, and begin dealing with the Truths of who and what is really destroying us all and how we can all go about fighting back. They are selling us all to the Enemy with every rant and rave that pits one demographic, racial, social, political or religious group of Humans against another, or that portrays any one group as either more wronged or more right than another. We are still falling victims to the artificially constructed "differences" that were foisted upon us to deliberately confuse us and obfuscate the Truth of our nature, the Enemy's nature and our dire situation as a race and a planet. Of course, with them as with any of us, the hardest battle to win is the one that takes place internally. It is at the level of personal responsibility to achieve the highest possible levels of honesty, integrity, courage, humility, and much else, (in the individual and supremely personal war for control of our Minds and Souls) that these journalists have truly failed. They seem to have not yet bothered attempting to fight for even their own freedom from their lifelong indoctrination in bigotry, bias, prejudice and irrational beliefs. At the level of their internal dialogues and thoughts, to some it is racism, to others communism or socialism, to others fascism or militarism, to others religious fanaticism, to others political and economic extremism, right and left equally accused, to others sexism, to others party politics, to others class warfare, on and on. In the most resistant places of all, their own minds, the irrational beliefs and assumptions they are ignoring within themselves is working to keep us all powerless. So long as they continue, publicly and privately, to avoid ridding themselves of their conditioning, keeping with the old and comfortable lies, familiar labels, favorite epithets and treasured stereotypes, old and invented divisions and differences that have kept us separated, they are lost and they are helping to deliver us all to the slaughter houses of the real Enemy one way or another. While the behemoth coming to devour us is all of these old things, and more,those are all just symptoms of the Enemy's Real nature and presence. Fighting the symptoms, one at a time, from a hundred different directions, will not cure the cause of the cancerous and pandemic disease of the Body Human that is eating us all. Treating the symptoms, only, will result in the death of the patients, in this case potentially the entire human race and Planet Earth. This time we must confront the cause and eradicate it, or else all will perish. Those are the Real stakes, and Real issues. Let it sink in. Get used to it. The Truth over and above all other geopolitical, socio-economic, demographic, military, personal and psychological Truths is we are nearly all targeted for extermination by a truly global Pathocracy. Of all the terms I have ever yet encountered and tried out to describe and name the Enemy, Pathocracy is by far the best, and by far the most accurate. It contains within it both the cause(s) of the condition afflicting us and the keys to a means of establishing the necessary unity to fight back. If we do not now accept and internalise, then live by and for the hard Truths that could, if only we would let them, bring us to unity and hope, we may as well lie down and die right now. Any action other than confronting previous failures to grasp the Reality of this situation and respond appropriately is the same as taking action on behalf of the Pathocracy . When the self-proclaimed opposition, indy and alternative pundits keep on handing out the old, false labels, fables and myths, harping on old strings and lines, they are selling us all out, and it is time we stopped accepting it. It matters not whether they do so from a basic lack of personal integrity, or to make a few more bucks, or to get away with laziness in researching the Facts, they do harm to us all whenever they reinforce and reiterate things that have long been known and shown to be false, or when they use words that are designed to create the kind of emotional reactivity that cancels out higher thought. All hopes of our own simple survival, depend upon our winning, personally and collectively, the battle to confront and defeat the emotionality, inaccuracies, distortions and Lies, the “dark glasses” of the learned and conditioned projective processes and the habits of pathological thinking lodged within ourselves . We must identify and eliminate our own conditioned viewpoints as to the definition of what is the nature of the evil we confront. The minds of all Humanity are the biggest and hardest to win of all the battlegrounds in this war for our own survival. Essay : Only one dividing line between Humans is Real, or ever was. We must learn what it is and learn to live by it. All of the human race, every last single member thereof, suffers an equal jeopardy . To quote that notable and humble man of Truth, Benjamin Franklin, "If we do not all hang together, they will hang us all separately." In other words, it is already a serious, worldwide threat. We have been ridiculously locked into our old and utterly useless definitions and thus into the many old divisions from one another, exactly as were created by those old definitions. Far too many who do sincerely care about others and want both the earth and the ordinary folks therein to live in peace, are fighting with each other over just what kind or flavour of evil is afoot. We seem lost, unable to discern just which direction is, in reality, opposite to them, the Pathocracy, so as to then apply resistance in the correct direction. Our labeling of them by a hundred different negative words that they've invented, manipulated, twisted and long been expert at using to divide us, must be mighty entertaining for them, but, frankly, I do NOT want to entertain them any longer. How about you? It is imperative that we quickly find a common terminology to precisely define clear meanings that can be grasped readily, then start making effective use of it at once. Let us stop using the same old, useless labels for ourselves, each other and the enemy so that we can all get busy bringing the Pathocracy's entrenched and sophisticated system down instead of wasting our efforts fighting each other and their illusions and chimeras. Our obsolete terminology distracts us from the Facts. It blinds us to Reality. What is painfully true of the old demographic, social and political categories with which we are so familiar, and here is the danger sign, which are so comfortable and automatic to us, is that we need to largely throw them out and start over. All of our old socio-political and demographic terms are inherently divisive and lethally incorrect. It is their purpose to bring friction and to force distance between various groups by demonising and emphasizing ways in which they actually differ only at the very slightest, surface level, and differ to such minimal degrees as to amount to no significant difference at all in their essential natures. The Truth is all of those old "differences" were used as window dressings and smoke screens, helping to divide, conquer and subjugate most all of us throughout the course of human history. The old terms, all of them, deceitfully pit against each other, on the basis of group identity, individuals who are essentially far more like than unlike. Those who could and would willingly battle together, side by side against a common foe, for the sake of all Humankind's survival, if they but knew who to fight and how, simply continue failing to recognise and use their core commonality to oppose our real Enemy. Those who have thus far identified the fast approaching, absolutely criminal world government and world economy as being either "right wing" or "left wing," "neo conservative" or "neo liberal," "Bushevik" or "Fascist," "Communist" or "Socialist," or any other kind of previously known and used name or descriptive label, are all wrong. All of us who have been opposing it have fallen right into one of its biggest traps: "define the battle in your own terms." Let us now and henceforward simplify the process of opposing it by calling it what it IS , and in doing so we will correct the previous errors, eliminate the reactive emotional triggers from the public discourse and confront the Enemy with the Truth about its own nature. That is perhaps the single most definitive blow we can strike against them. They are a literal, global, PATHOCRACY , united in their drive and determination to destroy all who are not of, among, with and like themselves, in other words, the vast majority of the Human Race. We must extend our fight to include accurately naming and opposing them at all levels, in all ways. Henceforward we must refuse to enable or support any who persist in attempting to disguise the Pathocracy's real nature by using other terms to describe it. Those who have assisted the criminal government(s) by silently and tacitly allowing them to proceed with their crimes without making a strong, open opposition and public protest to it are not the only culprits we must now expose as collaborators. Those who have kept dissent and resistance invisible and inaudible to the world at large are fully culpable, but so too are those who've helped to fragment it and misdirect it by using inflammatory, divisive ideological rhetoric and loaded terms to manipulate the emotions and dull the critical capacities of their readers or audience. The war for this fundamental Truth about the Enemy's nature and name must be fought with equal vigour against all who have suppressed or hidden factual information and evidence of the crimes against Humanity, regardless of which means they've employed, whether overtly, in the mainstream media and press, or covertly, from within the opposition. If they will and do adopt the correct name, Pathocracy, and make use of it in lieu of those that have previously blinded us, then they were sincerely uninformed, as were we all until recently. But, if they do not make such changes, and soon, then it is our right and duty to know them for who and what they are, agents of the Pathocracy itself, determined to keep it hidden from public view still by preventing their own readers from ever hearing the term. Those who encourage emotional reactivity by persisting in the use of the old triggers are deliberately preventing their followers from thinking straight or encountering the truth. That IS one of the Enemy's primary tactics and always has been. It is high time for those of us who really do care about the Facts to tell the purveyors of such doggerel that we will no longer support their "journalism" by giving it our attention. We must stand against a majority of the major governments, religions and religious organisations, corporations and businesses, financial entities, institutions and banks, media outlets, production companies and owners of the press, television industry, publishers, broadcasters, reporters, commercial concerns, industrialists, military officers and leaders and wealthiest private individuals on the face of the Earth. But now we can truly Name them for what they are, what they do, and why they do it: All such is contained within that one, specific, highly empowering and unifying term PATHOCRACY. The old labels will only bring continuing discord and disunity, rather than cooperation and unity of purpose. Every time two or more groups meet and allow the old definitions of their identities and goals to take over, regardless of their very Real, very urgent need to cooperate and unite for their common good against the Pathocracy, those old ideas and terms, such as conservative or liberal, homosexual or evangelical, will cause them to lose focus on the Real threat, Pathocracy, and the Real issue , exposing and stopping the Pathocracy's War Against Humanity . They will quickly wind up back on the same old merry go round of old, petty differences that are irrelevant to the actual cause and heart of the problem. When we think in the old, standard terms, we remain exactly what the real enemies of Humankind want us to be, easy prey, unable to stand together firmly enough to make an effective stand against them. It is no longer a matter of politics, or wealth, or race, or class, or sexual preference, or sex, or religion, or any of the other divisive labels we have been indoctrinated to place upon, around and between ourselves and each other. We either grow up, right now, and learn to practice the living reality of "Live and Let Live," by ending for good and for all our own bigotry, or else we die. Ridding ourselves of discrimination or prejudices against all others who are also capable of living in and with good will toward all, regardless of any other  identifying characteristics, is now utterly mandatory. Otherwise, they, the Pathological, who cannot and will not extend to anyone or anything other than themselves even so much as the right to live, will destroy us. As a worldwide Human Race, we can no longer afford the childish luxuries of homophobia, heterophobia, racism, classism, sexism, or any other phobia or ism, especially not any form or brand of bigotry and fanaticism, religious or otherwise. Our laziness and tardiness in identifying, confronting and putting a halt to these things within ourselves is now killing us. In the face of a totally united and ruthless Pathocracy that will stop at nothing to feast on us all, to continue behaving thusly is insane . We are all either members of the worldwide Human race who DO wish to live in peace and harmony with our neighbours, globally and individually, without the desire to conquer and/or convert them to being exactly like ourselves, or else we are among the Pathocratic Enemies of all humankind and the Earth . Those who continue to engage in rivalries with others based on any divisions other than the one and only True division in all of the world and humanity, are agents of the Pathocracy. All the other dividing lines ever known have been inventions of the Enemy designed to divide us, keep us under their control and blind us to their real nature and intentions. Those who seek to stand against the true Enemy must get rid of their unthinking and illogical biases and their points of petty contempt for others who are different from themselves, no matter what the specific "difference" might be. We must now unite in the broadest possible, worldwide coalition. Only by acting in concert for the largest conceivable purposes, as a worldwide Human Race with a worldwide purpose for the benefit and defence of all Humanity do we stand any chance. To change the language, the words of our thoughts and speech, consciously, diligently, and logically, is to change both the inner being and our relationship to all outside ourselves. That is known as dialectics , and it is one of the most powerful tools for human growth and change that there is, when used in a sane, logical and truth-affirming manner , both within ourselves and in the world at large. When used as the Enemies of humanity use it, dialectics is a powerful weapon in the mind control arsenal. Until this moment, they have invented and controlled the dialectics of our awareness and all of our discourses regarding themselves. Again: they have invented and controlled the dialectics of our awareness and all of our discourses regarding themselves, until now. We can and must have a new set of weapons. The Four good, solid, clearly defined Identifying Terms us with suggested below will provide firm dialectic foundation stones from which to resist them and expose them for who and what they are. They know this Fact: Much of the real power lies in owning and defining the terms of the conflict. That is why they keep changing the WORDS they use to describe themselves, their motivations, their goals, to describe and define their enemies, etc., etc. Slippery, confusing, shifting words are their greatest weapons. That is why our allowing them to define the battleground by continuing to use their old terms and by automatically adopting their new terms has cost us so dearly. There is but ONE valid dividing line. Once we throw out the old, automatic thinking and the emotional biases that underlie most of it, we find there is only one real hard set, universal difference between human beings that can, and does, remain applicable in all cultures, all religions, all languages and all other previous points of separation, the world around . All humans fall into one of the two following types , behaviourally, psychologically, emotionally, intellectually and in all other regards. Type 1 Humans: Those who are devoid of conscience and empathy. They are pathologically selfish, self-involved and self centered. They crave and seek to own, control and consume without restraint or consideration for others’ needs and rights to live and be. Even unto all of the earth, and their drive to either enslave or eliminate every human being thereupon in the pursuit of their selfish pleasures and purposes, there is no such thing as "enough" for them , not in all of creation, to satisfy their insatiable lusts and greed. To get more until they own and rule everyone and everything of a material nature on this planet, one way or another, without regards to who is hurt or what gets destroyed by them to do so, is all they care about. And when they get it all, they will still want more. They are without the capacity to become full. Material, worldly, psychological, or other, satiation in any form or regard is impossible for them to achieve. They cannot feel its presence. (Note: At most, 6% of all Humans will be totally, dedicatedly Type 1, with a maximum of another 12% who can easily become enslaved to Type 1 individuals and groups. A figure taken from Political Ponerology by Andrew M. Lobaczewski, MD. and Laura Knight-Jadczyk.) Type 2 Humans) Those who do not want and seek to do as Type 1. They have conscience inherent to their nature, and a full capacity to identify with and share in the experiences and emotions of others; empathy. If initially acquisitive, they are capable of becoming filled at a certain point, and they will not engage in deliberate acts of harm or deprive others of necessities and rights in order reach their goals. They prefer and strive to live in a state of peaceful, mutual live-and-let-live, in a sharing, respectful, give and take manner seeking an interactive and integrated, dynamic community with others , regardless of what differences from themselves those others may have. TYPE 1 HUMANS ARE the absolute predators: THE truly and incurably INSANE , pathologically selfish and greedy . They always crave more , no matter what they have or how much, it is never enough. These people are absolutists: they cannot reason; they cannot negotiate; they cannot compromise; they cannot peacefully agree to disagree; they cannot, ever, not in the slightest regard, live-and-let-live as the co-equals of others. They are the ruthless, the egotistical and arrogant, the absolute competitors, the destroyers, the takers and users, the discompassionate, the cheaters and liars . TYPE 2 HUMANS ARE the traditional prey of Type 1, THE SANE : They are the satiable, the rational, the logical . When they do crave gain or achievement, for them there IS a limit , a point at which they will stop acquiring and be content with what they have . They are able to share what they have with others. To live and let live with others, to be at peace in a world where there is enough for all is their real goal and desire. They are capable of making reasonable compromises , of making and living by good faith negotiations with others, of behaving with objectivity and honesty, of considering the good and the needs of the many to be a higher priority than the satisfaction of their personal wants. They are the coexistentialists, the reasonable, the negotiators, the carers and sharers, the peacemakers, the compassionate, the givers and builders, the humble, the cooperative, the objective, fair-minded and amenable.  We must now cease to have pasts, no more old hippies, no more libertarians, no more of any of the past affiliations, identifications and perspectives we've wasted our time on thus far. We cannot be what we were, never again, in light of this new awareness. If any of us, maybe even most of us, are to survive, we must become what is needed now . Today holds a threat that is total, and failing to meet it because we want to hang on to those old and false differences, deliberately conditioned into us to prevent our unity, is not acceptable. The old ideas and old habits of our personal and group identities are stinking (as is rotten and deader than a five days old fish out in the summer sun) thinking, and they will get us all killed if we do not relinguish them. The entire planet and most of the human beings and other life forms upon it, will perish unless we grow up and stop calling each other and ourselves by names that were taught and assigned to us by the Type 1 Human, global Pathocracy now making every possible kind of covert and overt War upon us all. Let us begin by simply telling it like it is: WE ARE THE SANE. THE ENEMIES OF HUMANKIND ARE THE INSANE. WE ARE THE LOGICAL. THE ENEMIES OF HUMANKIND ARE THE PATHOLOGICAL. The following Four Identifying Terms will provide us with all the names and labels we need . With them we can at last have some dependable descriptive clarity and accuracy when referring to the pathological conditions and structures to which we've become accustomed and by which we've been indoctrinated all of our lives. TO BREAK OUR VERBAL CHAINS AND HABITS IS TO BREAK THE CHAINS THEY'VE PLACED UPON OUR MINDS, EMOTIONS AND THOUGHTS. Four Identifying Terms apply to all Pathocratic systems: 1.  For the system of government they seek to inflict upon all of humanity: ABSOLUTE TOTALITARIANISM . This term, long in use, describes any system that deprives any of the people under its control of their personal rights, liberties, and the freedom to live, associate and express themselves as they choose, in every regard, so long as they do no physical harm to others. From monarchies, to democracies and other elective systems, to military dictatorships, theocracies and all else, if and when any government punishes or imprisons citizens for any of the following four types of offences it is totalitarian : We must never again allow ourselves or any who would demand either our attention or respect for their opinions and actions to use any other terms to describe any government or other entity with the authority to command the actions and lives of others when that government or authority engages in the 4 activities listed below. "BY THEIR WORKS YE SHALL KNOW THEM.”  EVIL IS AS EVIL DOES: TOTALITARIAN IS AS TOTALITARIAN DOES . The 4 essential characteristics of all totalitarian systems : a) Convicting and punishing its citizens or other subjects for committing behavioural "crimes." This is a category of “crimes” created by the outlawing of the individual's rights to engage in certain lifestyle choices and activities that actually do no specific harm to others than themselves. Excellent examples are anti-drug laws, anti-smoking laws and anti-homosexuality statutes, among many others, mandatory seatbelt use, motorcycle helmet laws, etc. Behavioural crime laws are obtained through the terrorising and intimidation of the public by means of using false statistics and "scientific" or other invented "factual" information, in other words myths, hyped into propaganda and prominently run in news and other media programmes to brainwash the public into allowing or supporting the passage of such laws in the name of “the public good.” b) Convicting and punishing citizens or other subjects for violating the "rights" and "safety" of material goods and property as a crime placed above or equal in importance to violating the rights and safety of organic human beings and other organic life ; A prime example was the utilising of the police, National Guard and military to shoot or arrest looters while thousands were still drowning in the attics and on the rooftops after hurricane Katrina, or ruling that a homeowner in Florida who shot and killed a clearly unarmed burglar who was fleeing from him and already outside of his house had acted in "self defence." c) Convicting and punishing citizens or other subjects for breaking laws designed to censor, stifle or destroy those who dispute the government's "rights" to do as it does to its citizens or who seek to freely disseminate information ; Includes banning certain political parties or activities, demanding complex registrations, permits, licenses and so forth to assemble and speak or to produce and distribute written materials, insisting upon governmental, covert or overt monitoring and/or police control of peaceful marches, meetings, demonstrations, festivals, etc. d) Convicting and punishing citizens or other subjects for breaking any one of a large body of obscure and complex business regulations and codes, tax laws and other personal and private financial conduct laws; Such laws are passed to gradually and surely increase governmental or other authorities controls over the lives, finances, employment, career choices, sharing and distribution of resources, efforts and wealth, including both material and interpersonal assets and activities, of all whom it governs. EITHER A GOVERNMENT OR OTHER CIVIL CONTROL SYSTEM IS TOTALITARIAN IN ITS ESSENTIAL CHARACTERISTICS OR IT IS NOT . NO OTHER DEFINITIONS OR NAMES NEED BE CONSIDERED. All other terms are just distractions from the Fact of totalitarianism. Not coincidentally, there is not one government of any nation on this earth at this time that has NOT crossed the line into at least the mildest attributes of totalitarianism as defined by these criteria. We need never again waste our efforts and time in discussions of which current or previous government or part thereof is the "best" or "right" one, because they are ALL infected with the seed of totalitarianism. All else is but a matter of degree, with the underlying reality being they will inevitably get to absolute totalitarianism, with time, unless we use this new awareness to keep them in check and/or reverse the trend. 2.  For the type of society the Pathocracy seek to impose: ORWELLIAN . Rigidly conformist in every regard, with very limited access to factual information and intellectual pursuits, such as higher education, public libraries, and open press or media sources, for the citizenry. An abundance of mindless pastimes will be provided, strongly supported and encouraged, with nearly unlimited access to pointless entertainments and distractions available for all. Many of them, such as television shows and competitive sports, are given far more attention and importance than is reasonable or even sane, and are used skillfully to programme the populace to ignore the realities of their circumstances and the nature of their governments. 3.  For the Pathocracy's intended economic system : FEUDALISM . Fascism (which is the best, in purely economic terms, to describe the current "globalist Corporatocracy") is but a stepping stone to where the Pathocracy wants to take us. They will, in the end, if not stopped, have the very few of us left alive on the wasted Earth living in conditions at best equal to that of the average feudal serf or peasant, and serving them from birth to an early grave. It is the hidden character within any and every economic system allowing the few at the top to have far more than is necessary or even reasonable without first providing that ALL HAVE ENOUGH . All economic systems in which this attribute is present will inevitably lead to absolute feudalism if allowed to continue unrestrained. That is their sole purpose, kept hidden until now. 4.  For the Pathocracy's state religion : BLIND FANATICISM . The flavour is utterly irrelevant to them. They use religions to achieve mind control, spiritual blackmail, conformity, emotional control, etc. They care only that a religion's followers be programmed to sufficient fanaticism to then be easily manipulated by their religious beliefs and conditioned emotional responses. Despite the appearances the Pathocracy carefully maintains, all that any religion is to them is a very useful tool for stifling logical thought and inciting emotional reactions in individuals and thus controlling the masses. (Like it or not, Marx was right about that part.) They are as incapable of sincere religious feelings as of any other profound or normative emotions. These four terms clearly describe the essential attributes and goals of those now attempting to make themselves the rulers of this planet, and, in most regards, of all their dedicated followers and cohorts . Now we can Know them and See them and Name them as they are, not as they have claimed to be . Using these four terms will empower reasonable people to communicate with one another about the Pathocracy sweeping down upon us without bringing the old and useless, divisive concepts into the discussion. It will lead to far greater clarity in our thoughts, our dialogues and most of all our abilities to See who is and is not among the members of the Type 2 Human Family. (Only Type 2 Humans CAN become a true family.) The quickest way to rid ourselves of limiting thought patterns is to stop using, even in our thoughts, the old words that have been our habitual choices. Just as one small example of how this liberates and empowers us all, one need never again wonder about what brand name should be stated as the flavour of religion an opponent professes. One can instead go to the heart of the matter, See and state whether he or she is a "Blind Fanatic," or promotes a religion that practices Blind Fanaticism. The brand of religion is NOT the problem: It is the fanaticism that always does, and must by its very nature, seek to rule and destroy all who disagree. This rule applies to socio-political, economic, demographic and other "differences" as equally and as universally as it does to religion. Being fanatic socialist is no more or less fanatic, and thereby pathological, than is being a fanatic Christian, Muslim or Jew. As with totalitarianism, fanaticism is as fanaticism does. No more does one need to say whether oneself or another is this, that or the other old label, for all that truly matters is whether anyone or anything is LOGICAL or PATHOLOGICAL, SANE or INSANE . All else is mind cluttering noise, junk, only confusing and obscuring the reality, the facts . Outside of the purely global focus on the Pathocracy's War Against Humanity, there is a valid, but very limited place and time where there is good use for many of the old terms. They do help us describe ourselves in the process of getting to know one another at the individual and personal levels, where finer details are required. For the purposes of fighting effectively against the Pathocracy however, we need to describe others, ourselves and that for which we hope and strive only by the few essential terms: the Sane and Logical are opposed to those four goals, and the Insane and Pathological embrace them and seek to impose them upon one and all . If we are to be opposed, one side against the other, then let these terms and these facts be the only lines by which we make that division . All who would join me in a do-or-die-trying battle to halt and bring down the Insane and Pathological, individuals, governments, religions, economies and all else of theirs in this world, are invited to join me in using these terms in that struggle.  This entire struggle is the final invitation to us to mature into fully aware, fully conscious, fully focused and fully, personally and collectively responsible Beings who can and will embrace one another in a unity of purpose never seen before, globally. We must now become, act and live as a true Human Family, dedicatedly giving all that we are and have to bringing the ways of peace and community into a full, global flowering, and equally dedicated to defeating and extinguishing the destruction of the fully matured and no longer latent Pathocracy that has been unleashed upon us. Now is the moment, Humanity, when we either grow up or die.

The Political Folly Awards of 2005 By Tom Engelhardt As with bestselling books by big authors from publishing conglomerates and Oscar-winning films from giant studios, so, when it comes to the Political Folly Awards, the famed PFs, ever fewer members of the Bush administration and associated bureaucrats, spooks, and Pentagon officials took ever more of them in 2005. Unfortunately, our secret panel of judges, all former members of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (or FISA) courts, saw no alternative but to distribute the PFs as they did. We want, however, to give you our ironclad guarantee of probity as we run through the winners for 2005: No unwarranted decisions were made this year. The newly minted "Complete Victory" Award, known in previous years as the "Mission Accomplished" Award, goes to President George W. Bush. It was bestowed to honor his sudden declaration on November 30, 2005, against a backdrop of "Plan for Victory" signs, that we would settle for nothing less than the whole shebang in Iraq, right down to the unconditional surrender of whomever it was we were fighting. The President drove home his point by using the word "victory" a record-breaking 15 times in that speech and once in its title ("President Outlines Strategy for Victory in Iraq"); meanwhile, the administration issued a 35-page "strategy document," supposedly from the Pentagon, on how to successfully fight the insurgency. The document was, in fact, written by Peter D. Feaver, a Duke University specialist on wartime public opinion, and as Peter Baker and Jim VandeHei of the Washington Post commented, was "principally designed to prove" that Bush had a strategy. All this left our heads spinning! The citation for this award -- that accompanied the traditional winged plastic turkey statuette -- was written for our judges by an Iraqi commentator, Ghassan Attiyah, who summed up their feelings in a single mission-accomplished sentence: "In two and a half years Bush has succeeded in creating two new Talibans in Iraq." And Ghassan, ever modest, didn't mention the half of it. After all, in the same blindingly short period, our President managed to spread democracy to the Middle East by opening the way for a Shiite theocratic government in Baghdad guaranteed to be closely aligned with the theocratic government of Iran whose shaky leader recently declared the Holocaust to be a figment of the modern Jewish and European imagination! Congratulations, George. And it all comes from skipping the frills and emphasizing the fundamental(ism)s! The Most Imperial Vice President Award proved, for yet another year, to be a contest of one... and the winner was [redacted]. Please note, if you read further, you will be investigated. If, however, some branch or agency of the U.S. government is already investigating you, as is likely if you are an American or have ever sent an e-message like, "Virginia, the Afghan rug is unraveling. I'd love another one for my birthday. Your loving niece [name withheld]," then read on -- the damage is already done. The Mission Leap Award (until this year, the Mission Creep Award, also known as the Security Begins Under Your Bed Award) went to the Pentagon's Counterintelligence Field Activity or CIFA. This new counterterrorism agency grew in three brief years from a small coordinating office located in a five-sided broom closet into "an analytic and operational organization with nine directorates and ever-widening authority" (as well as a sizeable secret budget). Without oversight itself, it now oversees a data-mining operation including a database codenamed Talon that contained surveillance reports on peaceful American civilian protests and demonstrations. It was, one PF judge commented, the best mission-leap example of the militarization of civilian counterintelligence seen in years. According to our panel of judges, this was the most hotly contested category in the competition. After all, as the year ended, we learned that the National Security Agency (NSA) was warrantlessly harvesting unknown but vast numbers of domestic conversations and emails via the American telecommunication system's main arteries (and passing some of the information gleaned on to other government agencies); that FBI and Department of Energy teams were trolling Washington DC Muslim communities and institutions (and entering private property without warrants) looking for nuclear bombs, while the FBI was obtaining controversial "national security letters" to gain secret access to the personal records of tens of thousands of Americans (and depositing anything learned, even from those not suspected of wrongdoing, in permanent government data banks); that the New York City Police Department was conducting illegal surveillance of "people protesting the Iraq war, bicycle riders taking part in mass rallies and even mourners at a street vigil for a cyclist killed in an accident"; and that, despite much negative publicity this year, the CIA program known as GST, which includes the Agency's "extraordinary rendition" or kidnapping operations, its secret fleet of planes to transport kidnapped terror suspects around the globe, its network of secret prisons outside the U.S., and its enhanced ability to mine financial records and eavesdrop on suspects, has not even been slightly dented. For this, according to A. John Radsan, assistant general counsel at the CIA from 2002 to 2004, the CIA can thank the "personal commitment" of a President who "seems to relish the secret findings and the dirty details of operations." Note that the ceremony for the well-attended Intelligence Community (or IC) Tradecraft and Technical Awards was held several days earlier at an undisclosed location. The following awards were given out: * The Most Mistaken Kidnappings Directly Off Foreign Highways and Byways Award went to the CIA since, according to the agency's own conservative count, there have been up to 10 mistaken-identity "extraordinary renditions" of perfectly innocent people out of the 100-150 snatch operations the Agency has reportedly undertaken. * The IC High-Living Award also was corralled by the CIA. Agency renditioners in Italy received this La Dolce Vita award -- according to the judges' citation -- "for most macadamia nuts consumed at a single five-star hotel while on a kidnapping assignment." The site was Milan where hordes of CIA operatives were sent to kidnap a single Muslim cleric named Abu Omar and, in the course of their operation, rang up $9,000 in room charges alone at the Principe di Savoia (where your run-of-the-mill club sandwich costs $28.75 and your basic single room, $588 a night). The CIA's bill at the Principe for seven operatives -- only one of several five-star hotels cleverly absorbed into their spycraft for this single operation -- came to $39,995, not counting meals, parking, and other hotel services -- or nuts. * The Most Crimping Travel Restriction in the War on Terror Award went again to the same lucky winners! European Union arrest warrants for twenty-two of them (or their tradecraft alter egos and fake names) were recently issued by an Italian judge. Next year, the Principe di Savoia may, sadly, have fewer Agency guests and 22 more covert visits are likely to be paid to the Pyramids, the remains of the Bamiyan Buddhas, and other touristic hotspots of the world. * The Most Useful Intelligence Hobby of the Year Award was given by the judges to the community of civilian plane-spotters who managed to put the CIA's secret airline (and the extraordinary renditions that went with it) on the map. The other six Tradecraft Awards, including The George Tenet "Slam Dunk" Intelligence Assessment Award, can be viewed at www.extraordinaryrendition.com. (A security clearance is needed; otherwise you will simply see an error screen.) The Bush administration language awards are always a highlight of the Political Folly ceremony. No administration has ever reached for its dictionaries more often to redefine more terms to suit its own desires. This year, the judges decided to eliminate the Donald ("stuff happens") Rumsfeld or Rummy Award on the grounds, as one wrote, that "every news conference the Secretary of Defense holds is a linguistic Folly," and so pared these awards down to four: The Most Ubiquitous Uncivil Servant Award goes to... John Yoo. The ubiquitous Yoo last won this award for redefining torture almost out of existence ("equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death.") in one of a series of 2002 memos he wrote justifying the Bush administration's urge to manhandle suspects in its "war on terror." Then deputy director of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, he is now a law school professor at Berkeley, churning out books and articles on that foundational American dream of an unfettered presidency. A 2001 memo of his proved the key document justifying the President's order to the National Security Agency to engage in its warrantless wiretapping scheme. It "said the White House was not bound by a federal law prohibiting warrantless eavesdropping on communications." For that, our judges thought Yoo deserved this year's award too. By the way, he's already in the running for the 2007 Uncivil Servant Award. Known for four memos he authored providing "legal" support for almost unfettered presidential power, he was reportedly the author of at least another dozen such memos that "have not yet come to light... The overriding theme of them all is that the president can ignore congressional acts." The Thomas Friedman Mixed Metaphor Award went to the year's grand winner, our Veep, Dick ("in the throes of") Cheney. Back in June 2005, the Vice President ventured onto the Larry King Show to summarize our increasing good fortune in Iraq by declaring, "I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency." As the insurgents continued to writhe -- and then writhe some more -- in the throes of those "last throes," Cheney redefined "throe" for CNN's Wolf Blitzer as a nearly endless expanse of time: "If you look at what the dictionary says about throes, it can still be a violent period -- the throes of a revolution." Recently, the Vice President traveled to Iraq under the sort of cloak of secrecy that is now de rigueur for top Bush officials anywhere on Earth. (The reporters accompanying him on Air Force Two had no idea where they were going; nor did the Iraqi Prime Minister know that Cheney was showing up when he appeared for a meeting with our ambassador.) In Iraq, the Vice President answered the questions of American soldiers and found himself in the throes of the following exchange with Marine Corporal Bradley Warren: "'From our perspective, we don't see much as far as gains. We're looking at small-picture stuff, not many gains. I was wondering what it looks like from the big side of the mountain - how Iraq's looking.' "Cheney replied that remarkable progress has been made in the last year and a half. 'I think when we look back from 10 years hence, we'll see that the year '05 was in fact a watershed year here in Iraq. We're getting the job done. It's hard to tell that from watching the news. But I guess we don't pay that much attention to the news.'" The judges awarded the Vice President the Thomas Friedman Mixed Metaphor Award in honor of his urge to throe a little water(shed) on the conflagration in Iraq. A single judge demurred, refusing to cast a ballot but writing the following sardonic comment: "Out of the throes, over the waterfall, into the watershed we go, hi-ho!" The Most Tortured Justification Award proved the second most competitive category of 2005. After all, Secretary of State Condoleezza ("not a lawyer") Rice hit just about every country in Europe insisting we never torture anyone; the American ambassador to England Robert Tuttle insisted we hadn't sent anyone to Syria for rendition. ("I don't think there is any evidence that there have been any renditions carried out in the country of Syria… And I think we have to take what the secretary [Rice] says at face value."); the President insisted many times over that we didn't do torture even while his Vice-President, also insisting that we are no torturers ("I can say that we, in fact, are consistent with the commitments of the United States that we don't engage in torture, and we don't"), was lobbying for an exemption from John McCain's anti-torture bill. Our judges nonetheless were firm in their decision that no justification was more tortured than the eye-water[shed]ing, throes-inducing set of explanations offered by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales for the way this administration evaded the FISA courts -- essentially secret American equivalents of star chambers -- which, in 2003, turned down no administration requests for warrants; in 2004, only four; and since 2001 have modified only 179 out of 5,645 warrant requests. He claimed that the President has the "inherent" power to order otherwise illegal surveillance and spy warrantlessly on citizens thanks to the congressional resolution ("Authorization for the Use of Military Force") of September 18, 2001. That, however, "made no reference to surveillance or to the president's intelligence-gathering powers," and the administration, evidently fearing a lack of inherency in the resolution, tried at the time to insert the words "in the United States," which were rejected by the Senate. Gonzalez also insisted that the FISA law was simply "outdated" -- and what do we do, if laws are outdated in the United States? The President changes them for us in secret and then, if discovered, claims the right to do so based on the sagacity of, as the Attorney General put it, "many lawyers within the administration who advised the president that he had an inherent authority as commander-in-chief under the constitution to engage in this kind of signals intelligence." (See John Yoo above.) I'm sure all of you remember this from that ninth-grade textbook you were supposed to study on the checks and balances of the American system -- or were you, like top officials of this administration, playing tic-tac-toe at the time? The Most Timely Image Award went to... the President. For the last several years, the administration has been justifying its torture policies, in part, based on the "ticking-bomb" argument. (What if a... and he knew about a nuclear weapon ready to go off under your... in X minutes... and you could...) Okay, so there haven't actually been any ticking-bomb suspects? Who cares? Let's move on, as our judges did, because -- to explain the illegal spying the National Security Agency does not do -- the ticking-bomb has just been replaced by the "two-minute phone conversation." (You can almost hear that cell phone ticking.) As the President put it: "We know that a two-minute phone conversation between somebody linked to al Qaeda here and an operative overseas could lead directly to the loss of thousands of lives. To save American lives, we must be able to act fast and to detect these conversations so we can prevent new attacks." The Political Nostalgia Award went to... the Vice President, giving him his third Folly of the season for teaching us, in the manner of Martin Luther King, that we can have all have a dream -- in his case, of a time when men could be men, torturers torturers, and Presidents felonious. Imagine a heaven of unwarranted wiretaps and spying; then think of Richard Nixon or, as the Veep put it to reporters in the cabin of Air Force Two somewhere over the Middle East, "Watergate and Vietnam served... to erode the authority I think the president needs to be effective, especially in the national security area." Like Superman faced with kryptonite, somebody needed to get rid of the evil elements so that our President could regain the unwarranted lost powers of Richard Nixon. (Of course, one lovely dream invariably leads to another; and so, with the return of the power to do unwarranted surveillance on American citizens, the mind wanders to... Articles of Impeachment.) Every year the corps of Folly judges offer two awards aimed at the year to come (based, of course, on performance the previous year): The Terminator Award was given not to the governor of California (who showed every sign of being terminated this year) but to... lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Our panel believed him the year's most likely candidate to make a deal with federal prosecutors and terminate a significant part of the Republican Congress. Back before he took up his cowboy-and-Indian line of work (shuffling casino money largely into Republican coffers and taking members of Congress on golfing jaunts in Scotland), he actually produced two Hollywood movies: Red Scorpion (1989) and Red Scorpion II (1994) with the following, potentially prescient tagline: "He's a human killing machine. Taught to stalk. Trained to kill. Programmed to destroy. He's played by their rules... Until now. They think they control him. Think again." The No-Matter-How-Bad-It-Is, It's-Worse-Than-You-Think Award was bestowed collectively on the American Intelligence Community for its valiant efforts in over- (under, around, below, beyond, and second) sight. This year, when any aspect of illegal governmental surveillance was revealed, it always proved both worse than expected -- and, not long after, worse again. On that basis, the judges believe there is a 99.99999% certainly that, bad as it looks today, it's far worse than we know. (Just keep in mind John Yoo's twelve or more still-unrevealed memos.) When an administration proves capable of turning a secret FISA court into a bulwark of our liberties, you know that they're doing something right. So, congrats, Dick and George for another award-winning twelve months of Folly, and welcome to the New Year, where if peace isn't war, privacy isn't snooping, and the price of freedom isn't freedom, then all's not wrong with the world. Thank you for attending this year's Political Folly Awards. As you leave the ceremony and enter 2006, just smile, you're on CIA/ CIFA/FBI/DIA/NSA camera!

Support for Bush drops among US military: poll 2 January 06 AP Support for President George W. Bush's Iraq policy has fallen among the US armed forces to just 54 percent from 63 percent a year ago, according to a poll by the magazine group Military Times. In its annual survey of the views of military personnel, the group reported on its website that support for Bush's overall policies dropped over the past year to 60 percent from 71 percent. While still significantly more supportive of the president than the broad US population, the fall in support by military personnel tracks a similar decline in the president's popularity among the general public. "Though support both for President Bush and for the war in Iraq remains significantly higher than in the public as a whole, the drop is likely to add further fuel to the heated debate over Iraq policy," Military Times said. "In 2003 and 2004, supporters of the war in Iraq pointed to high approval ratings in the Military Times poll as a signal that military members were behind ... the president's policy." However, it said, the new poll "found diminished optimism that US goals in Iraq can be accomplished, and a somewhat smaller drop in support for the decision to go to war in 2003." Military Times, which publishes popular magazines for each of the US military branches including Army Times and Navy Times, cautioned that its poll, of 1,215 active-duty servicemen, is not necessarily representative of the military as a whole. The respondents were "on average older, more experienced, more likely to be officers and more career-oriented than the military population." But the declining numbers for Bush tracked other polls. According to the CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll, support for Bush's performance as president fell from 49 percent to 43 percent over the year to December 22. The Military Times poll also showed a significant decline in the armed forces' views of US military policy and management. With 61 percent of respondents saying they had served in Iraq or Afghanistan, only 58 percent believed that Bush had the military's best interests at heart, a sharp decline from 69 percent a year before. Only 56 percent felt the US should have gone to war in Iraq, compared to 60 percent a year before. And 64 percent felt the same about the Pentagon leadership, compared to 70 percent a year ago. Addressing key issues facing the Pentagon, the poll showed that almost two-thirds of the soldiers felt the US military is "stretched too thin to be effective", but the number was less than a year ago. At the same time, there was a fall in resistance to restoring the draft in the United States. Opposition fell from 75 percent a year ago to 68 percent this year.

A Gestapo Administration: Bush's Witchhunt Against Truth-Tellers By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS 2 Jan 2006 Caught in gratuitous and illegal spying on American citizens, the Bush administration has defended its illegal activity and set the Justice (sic) Department on the trail of the person or persons who informed the New York Times of Bush's violation of law. Note the astounding paradox: The Bush administration is caught red-handed in blatant illegality and responds by trying to arrest the patriots who exposed the administration's illegal behavior. Bush has actually declared it treasonous to reveal his illegal behavior! His propagandists, who masquerade as news organizations, have taken up the line: To reveal wrong-doing by the Bush administration is to give aid and comfort to the enemy. Compared to Spygate, Watergate was a kindergarden picnic. The Bush administration's lies, felonies, and illegalities have revealed it to be a criminal administration with a police state mentality and police state methods. Now Bush and his attorney general have gone the final step and declared Bush to be above the law. Bush aggressively mimics Hitler's claim that defense of the realm entitles him to ignore the rule of law. Bush's acts of illegal domestic spying are gratuitous because there are no valid reasons for Bush to illegally spy. The Foreign Intelligence Services Act gives Bush all the power he needs to spy on terrorist suspects. All the administration is required to do is to apply to a secret FISA court for warrants. The Act permits the administration to spy first and then apply for a warrant, should time be of the essence. The problem is that Bush has totally ignored the law and the court. Why would President Bush ignore the law and the FISA court? It is certainly not because the court in its three decades of existence was uncooperative. According to attorney Martin Garbus (New York Observer, 12-28-05), the secret court has issued more warrants than all federal district judges combined, only once denying a warrant. Why, then, has the administration created another scandal for itself on top of the WMD, torture, hurricane, and illegal detention scandals? There are two possible reasons. One reason is that the Bush administration is being used to concentrate power in the executive. The old conservative movement, which honors the separation of powers, has been swept away. Its place has been taken by a neoconservative movement that worships executive power. The other reason is that the Bush administration could not go to the FISA secret court for warrants because it was not spying for legitimate reasons and, therefore, had to keep the court in the dark about its activities. What might these illegitimate reasons be? Could it be that the Bush administration used the spy apparatus of the US government in order to influence the outcome of the presidential election? Could we attribute the feebleness of the Democrats as an opposition party to information obtained through illegal spying that would subject them to blackmail? These possible reasons for bypassing the law and the court need to be fully investigated and debated. No administration in my lifetime has given so many strong reasons to oppose and condemn it as has the Bush administration. Nixon was driven from office because of a minor burglary of no consequence in itself. Clinton was impeached because he did not want the embarrassment of publicly acknowledging that he engaged in adulterous sex acts in the Oval Office. In contrast, Bush has deceived the public and Congress in order to invade Iraq, illegally detained Americans, illegally tortured detainees, and illegally spied on Americans. Bush has upheld neither the Constitution nor the law of the land. A majority of Americans disapprove of what Bush has done; yet, the Democratic Party remains a muted spectator. Why is the Justice (sic) Department investigating the leak of Bush's illegal activity instead of the illegal activity committed by Bush? Is the purpose to stonewall Congress' investigation of Bush's illegal spying? By announcing a Justice (sic) Department investigation, the Bush administration positions itself to decline to respond to Congress on the grounds that it would compromise its own investigation into national security matters. What will the federal courts do? When Hitler challenged the German judicial system, it collapsed and accepted that Hitler was the law. Hitler's claims were based on nothing but his claims, just as the claim for extra-legal power for Bush is based on nothing but memos written by his political appointees. The Bush administration, backed by the neoconservative Federalist Society, has brought the separation of powers, the foundation of our political system, to crisis. The Federalist Society, an organization of Republican lawyers, favors more "energy in the executive." Distrustful of Congress and the American people, the Federalist Society never fails to support rulings that concentrate power in the executive branch of government. It is a paradox that conservative foundations and individuals have poured money for 23 years into an organization that is inimical to the separation of powers, the foundation of our constitutional system. September 11, 2001, played into neoconservative hands exactly as the 1933 Reichstag fire played into Hitler's hands. Fear, hysteria, and national emergency are proven tools of political power grabs. Now that the federal courts are beginning to show some resistance to Bush's claims of power, will another terrorist attack allow the Bush administration to complete its coup? Paul Craig Roberts has held a number of academic appointments and has contributed to numerous scholarly publications. He served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. His graduate economics education was at the University of Virginia, the University of California at Berkeley, and Oxford University. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be reached at: paulcraigroberts@yahoo.com

Friends Don't Let Friends Commit War Crimes By CINDY SHEEHAN 2 January 2006 "You're like an ambassador for peace," a Spanish journalist told me as we finished one of the dozens of interviews I gave in Europe. I did this interview right before I went to meet with the Spanish Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs. In reality, I did feel like an ambassador for peace as I traveled around Europe for 16 days in December. The Mayor of London held a reception in honor of our peace efforts at the new and very modern City Hall, near the impressive and intimidating Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. Mayor Ken Livingstone has always been an outspoken critic of the Iraq war and the war crimes of Tweedledum and TweedledeeBush and Blairthe corrupt, yet sadly comical, mis-leaders of two of the most powerful countries on the planet. I believe Bush and Blair are too far gone for redemption. They both need to be removed from their power and tried for their war crimes and betrayals. Until they are removed, the murder and the mayhem will continue. In Ireland, I met with that country's equivalent of Condi Rice, the dignified Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern. As a matter of fact, he had just met with the "steely" Condi the week before. Incredibly, he accepted assurances from her that the CIA airplanes (up to 60 documented by peace activists) that are landing in Shannon airport are not transporting prisoners for extraordinary rendition ( i.e., torture). That's like accepting a pirate's assurance that he's not going to steal your boat as he's boarding it with a drawn sword! I tried to impress on Mr. Ahern that the leaders of my government are known pathological liars, and can't be believed on this or anything. The torture planes are landing on Irish soil, so Ireland should inspect them for human rights violations. If Condi and her "husband" George aren't doing anything wrong, they have nothing to be concerned with. Ireland declined to send troops as part of the CoaIition of the Killing, but they do allow US planes to re-fuel at Shannon airport (Mr. Ahern: We did it during Vietnam!). I delivered a stack of petitions to Mr. Ahern of 10,000 signatures from pro-peace, anti-killing citizens of Ireland demanding that their government stop allowing my government to land torture planes and troop transport planes at Shannon airport. My own son, Casey, went through Shannon. I urged Mr. Ahern to please make the US refuel their planes elsewhere. The occupation of Iraq is illegal by most standards and immoral by all standards. Being accomplices to war crimes makes one culpable for these war crimes. I can say he listened and I believe he genuinely wants to do what's right for Ireland. The people of Ireland need to keep the pressure on their government to act rationally and responsibly in this matter. Scotland is the birth place of impeachment and also the birthplace of both of my great-grandmas. I met with many Scottish MPs who are very anti-war and anti-Bush and anti-Blair. They are doing all they can to end the Scottish involvement in the war. The First Minister wouldn't meet with me. But my friend, Rose Gentle, has been trying to meet with him since her son, Gordon, was tragically killed in Iraq. When leaders of countries are co-conspirators in lies and corruption and don't even have the courage or integrity to meet with the people whose lives their unpunished felonies have damaged beyond full repair, that is a scandal. The Spanish government is relatively new and they did bring their troops home from Iraq after the old government was kicked out in 2004 because the people of Spain had it with the lies and corruption of their Bushite regime. The recurring theme when I met with Spanish government officials, including the Vice President of Spain, Manuel Marin, and the deputy foreign minister and heads of some of their parties, was "shared values." We the peoples of both countries need to find common ground on which to stand. We urged the Spanish government to loudly denounce what the US is doing because the US government has no positive, life-affirming values. The US government has negative, life-ruining values such as the use of WMDs and torture as means to satisfy its ends of greed for power and mammon. The Spanish officials, like the other government officials we met, told me and the other Gold Star Families for Peace members and local peace activists who attended the meetings, that their countries are "great friends and allies of the USA." We want friends and allies of the American people, but not of the current regime. The government is not identical with the people, despite what the right-wing hatemongerers say. Indeed, that is fascist notion. Not only do we not need to love our government's policies. When they are evil, we have a patriotic obligation to oppose them with all our strength. When the Bush administration uses white phosphorous on innocent men, women, children, and babies, when it uses illegal imprisonment and immoral torture on fellow members of the human race, when it invades and occupies another country that is no threat to the USA, we must say No. BushCo is an out of control entity which needs to be reined in by us! The longer the horror of Iraq continues, the more war crimes are committed and the more innocent lives ruined! During my visit to Europe, I was invited to other countries as a peace emissary. People in Italy and Australia are particularly anxious to have me visit, because their governments are accomplices to BushCo in Iraq. I will be speaking to the European Union Parliament twice in 2006 to urge them to pressure our administration to stop its killing policies in Iraq and try something new: diplomacy and peace. Heads up, Condi: peace is NOT spread by killing and war. Although, our visits to the various governmental officials in Europe did not have an immediate effect, perhaps seeds were planted. The international peace community is energized and refocused. However, by just meeting with me, the officials of each country are showing a minor tear in the fabric of support with the illegitimate residents of the "Casa Blanca." Each little sign gives hope. As Dermot Ahern told me: It's going to get back to Washington that I met with you. They won't be happy. But I don't care. It was the right thing to do.

Bush's drinking and drug use must be investigated By DOUG THOMPSON Publisher, Capitol Hill Blue Jan 3, 2006 It is my belief that President George W. Bush is drinking again. Even worse, he may be mixing alcohol and anti-depressants -- a dangerous combination for anyone, let alone the so-called leader of the free world. No, I don’t have any proof of this, just random events and comments from those who work in and around the Bush administration and who tell me the President has acted in ways that suggest the use of alcohol and drugs. I’m a recovering alcoholic (sober 11 years, six months and 24 days) and I’ve run across a lot of relapsed drinkers who show the same symptoms as the President, including: * Blacking out while watching television alone; * Slurred speech and stammering responses to simple questions; * Anger and hostility in front of staff members; * Unexplained bruises on his face; * Trouble remembering recent events or comments. During his trip to Mongolia last November, Bush openly sampled the local drink Airag, which is fermented milk with an alcohol content ranging from three to twelve percent. In other words, booze. This was the same trip where Bush tried to evade reporters’ question by attempting to walk out a locked door and then turned sheepishly to the cameras and said he was “jet-lagged.” Some at the event said his stride was unsteady and his speech slurred. “According to reports, President Bush may be drinking again,” David Letterman said in a late-night monologue. “And I thought, "Well, why not? He's got everybody else drinking.” Rumors that Bush was hitting the bottle surfaced in Washington two years ago. Sources told us the President was using anti-depressants in 2004 and we reported the story. The same sources told us last year he was drinking again and we reported it in August. The National Enquirer also ran a front page story on it but no mainstream media outlet picked up on the story. On August 27 of last year, the Houston Chronicle reported on a party at Bush’s ranch, noting that: Nothing the president said could be quoted, but it's rare that reporters get uninterrupted access to him for 90 minutes, particularly when beer is served. Bush, who gave up drinking years ago, drank a non-alcoholic Buckler. In Alcoholics Anonymous, we are warned to stay away from so-called “non-alcoholic” beers or “near beer” as it is called. The brew does, in fact, contain some alcohol and can trigger a renewed desire for more. The November issue of the Journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, cites a study by team of California scientists who report that just the smell of non-alcoholic beer may be enough to trigger cravings and a subsequent relapse among certain alcoholics. In my original articles about Bush’s bouts with anger and depression, I quoted Dr. Gerald Frank, a George Washington University psychiatrist and author of the book: Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President. “Two questions that the press seems particularly determined to ignore have hung silently in the air since before Bush took office,” Dr. Frank says. “Is he still drinking? And if not, is he impaired by all the years he did spend drinking? Both questions need to be addressed in any serious assessment of his psychological state.” Dr. Frank’s analysis of the President, which is based on watching and reading and not actual treatment of Bush, agrees with those who have told me the President is also taking anti-depressants. “In writing about Bush's halting appearance in a press conference just before the start of the Iraq War, Washington Post media critic Tom Shales speculated that ‘the president may have been ever so slightly medicated,’” he said. Dr. Frank explains Bush’s behavior as all-to-typical of an alcoholic who is still in denial: “The pattern of blame and denial, which recovering alcoholics work so hard to break, seems to be ingrained in the alcoholic personality; it's rarely limited to his or her drinking,” he adds. “The habit of placing blame and denying responsibility is so prevalent in George W. Bush's personal history that it is apparently triggered by even the mildest threat.” None of this, of course, proves Bush is drinking again or taking anti-depressants. The only evidence we have of Bush drinking is the sampling of a local, alcohol-based drink in Mongolia and his consumption of so-called non-alcoholic beer at a party in Crawford, Texas. But my instincts tell me he is doing both alcohol and drugs and I believe as both a journalist and a recovering alcoholic that he needs to prove to Americans that he is not attempting to govern while under the influence. Blogger Mark Kleiman, writing in The Reality Based Community, notes: Moreover, with rare exceptions (e.g., the John Tower affair) the press seems very reluctant to mention heavy drinking by officials, even when it's widely known. Ted Kennedy's drinking gets an occasional mention, but I'd bet that most of Pat Moynihan's constiuents never knew their brilliant senator faced a permanent battle with the bottle. If Gary Hart's drinking problem has ever made the newspapers, I've missed it, though his behavior in the Donna Rice affair made it pretty obvious. Those in the know understood that the frequent media references to Bill Weld's "laziness" as Governor of Massachusetts referred to his persistent difficulty in keeping himself vertical after lunch, but again the voters didn't. Even foreign leaders get the same delicate treatment: Boris Yeltsin's "erratic" behavior was in fact quite regular and predictable, once vodka was entered into the equation. Kleiman is right about Moynihan’s drinking. You could find the Senator at Capitol Hill watering holes most any night, lurching in many different directions at once while slurping down his drinks. A number of members of Congress are notorious drunks but their antics are almost never reported by the press unless they get nailed for DUI or caught frolicking nude in the Tidal Basin. As a journalist, it is my duty to raise questions about the fitness of any elected leader. One may argue over whether or not it is proper to print speculation but, in this case, I believe it is justified. I’m doing my job. I just wish the so-called “mainstream” media would do theirs. © Copyright 2005 by Capitol Hill Blue

War on Terror: The global war By Rupert Cornwell 01 January 2006 Already the "war on terror" has led America to embrace a new doctrine of preventive war. In its name, the US has invaded two countries - Afghanistan and Iraq - and some urge it to attack others. This amorphous conflict has already lasted longer than the Korean War and US involvement in the Second World War, and this may be only the beginning. [..] Since 9/11, despite many scares, there has been no terrorist attack on US soil, or even solid evidence of sleeper cells, similar to those that carried out the 2001 attacks. Hundreds of suspects have been rounded up, but only one person has been charged in connection with 9/11, and even now the precise role of Zacarias Moussaoui in the plot is far from clear.[...] For the rest it has been one false alarm after another. [...]...the astonishing fact remains that for more than four years terrorists have not struck on US soil. After all, what could be simpler than a suicide bomber blowing himself up at a shopping mall in the unprotected American heartland? "Suiciders", as Mr Bush calls them, cost little and are virtually impossible to thwart. Nor can it have escaped the attention of America's enemies that in the world's most avid consumer society, and one far less inured than Europe to terrorism, such an attack would have consequences - psychological and economic - far exceeding its intrinsic importance. But nothing has happened. ...the conclusion is inescapable. Either the threat has been much exaggerated, or somebody must be doing something right. It's hard to believe - but less than five years ago there was no "war on terror". You could make the case that terrorism, the use of violence for political ends, is the world's third oldest profession. This century especially, it has flourished - from the Middle East to Europe. Sometimes, in its Irish, Basque and Palestinian versions, it has been driven by nationalism. Other varieties, in Italy and former West Germany, have been fuelled by left-wing ideology. But it had primarily been a law enforcement and intelligence problem. Then came 11 September 2001 - and America's new war. The new enemy is radical Islam, driven by both ideology and nationalism, and embodied by al-Qa'ida, its fury directed against the West in general and the US in particular. Already the "war on terror" has led America to embrace a new doctrine of preventive war. In its name, the US has invaded two countries - Afghanistan and Iraq - and some urge it to attack others. This amorphous conflict has already lasted longer than the Korean War and US involvement in the Second World War, and this may be only the beginning. For George Bush and his promises, 2005 has not been a vintage year. But in the "war on terror", in one respect at least, he has been as good as his word. "Our response involves far more than instant retaliation and isolated strikes," he told Congress nine days after the attacks. "Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign, unlike any other we have ever seen." And so it has been - and much has been accomplished. The al-Qa'ida of 11 September 2001, it may be argued, no longer exists. Its leadership has been decimated. In Afghanistan, the Taliban regime that long gave Osama bin Laden shelter has been swept away. Intermittently, Bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, issue videos and audio tapes, sometimes taunting, sometimes menacing, but whose main practical purpose is to remind the world they are still at large. The pair are assumed to be penned up in the tribal lands and mountain fastnesses of the Afghan-Pakistan border, their communications uncertain at best, their control over their followers a matter of increasing debate. Regularly, reports surface that Bin Laden is dead or dying, and that Zawahiri is the senior operational figure of the old guard. In their place, a new terrorist reality is emerging, of a network of groups perhaps less sophisticated than al-Qa'ida in its prime, but no less difficult to counter. It is inspired by Bin Laden but probably no longer run by him. Even between al-Qa'ida and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq, its best known field commander and a former Bin Laden protoge, the relationship is unclear. Some counter-terrorism experts now see Zarqawi as the most important figure in the movement. Confirmation of a kind came last summer with a letter, purporting to be from Zawahiri to Zarqawi, that fell into US hands in Iraq. In it, the old commander complains that Zarqawi's brutal methods, the videotaped beheadings of hostages and the rest, alienate ordinary Muslims and reduce radical Islam's appeal. In some respects, military success against the terrorists has made the job of fighting them harder. Now there are new adversaries, less well known to intelligence services, with fluid command structures and ad hoc alliances that are hard to expose. The old al-Qa'ida and its allies have the ability to strike targets almost anywhere in the world: a nightclub in Bali, commuter trains in Madrid, Underground trains and a bus in London, banks and consulates in Istanbul, foreigners' compounds in Saudi Arabia, and a wedding party at a hotel in Amman, Jordan. Yet there is one striking omission from the list. Since 9/11, despite many scares, there has been no terrorist attack on US soil, or even solid evidence of sleeper cells, similar to those that carried out the 2001 attacks. Hundreds of suspects have been rounded up, but only one person has been charged in connection with 9/11, and even now the precise role of Zacarias Moussaoui in the plot is far from clear. For the rest it has been one false alarm after another. In mid-2002 the US government announced with much fanfare that it had caught José Padilla, an American citizen who converted to Islam, as he was plotting a radioactive "dirty bomb" attack. It held him incommunicado in a naval prison for three-and-a-half years. That charge has been quietly dropped. Padilla will now go on trial in civil court this month as outrider in a terrorist group active in Afghanistan, not in the US. In December, Sami al-Arian, a Palestinian-American professor from Florida, was cleared of charges that he was a leader of the Islamic Jihad terrorist group which has carried out bombings against Israel - a case under investigation since the mid-1990s. Meanwhile, the June 2003 convictions of three Detroit men accused of being part of a "sleeper operational combat cell" have been overturned. The case had been the only successful post-9/11 prosecution of terrorists. But a federal judge ruled that some evidence against them had been fabricated, while exculpatory evidence had been withheld. These episodes have not been a glowing advertisement for US justice. However, the astonishing fact remains that for more than four years terrorists have not struck on US soil. After all, what could be simpler than a suicide bomber blowing himself up at a shopping mall in the unprotected American heartland? "Suiciders", as Mr Bush calls them, cost little and are virtually impossible to thwart. Nor can it have escaped the attention of America's enemies that in the world's most avid consumer society, and one far less inured than Europe to terrorism, such an attack would have consequences - psychological and economic - far exceeding its intrinsic importance. But nothing has happened. This absence is even more striking given the strictures of the bipartisan commission set up to investigate the 9/11 attacks over how little has been done to head off future terrorist attacks. But the conclusion is inescapable. Either the threat has been much exaggerated, or somebody must be doing something right. Unarguably, US information-gathering has improved, especially since the appointment of John Negroponte as the country's first director of national intelligence, in overall charge of 14 previously feuding agencies. US authorities have become better at tracking the financing of terrorism. But this is a war on many fronts, so many that the question arises: is the GWOT - as Washington calls the "global war on terror" - really a war, in the normal sense of the word? The foe, after all, is not a country or an army but a world view and an ideology, whose troops are invisible, nameless and countless. As with America's decades-old and unresolved "wars" on drugs and poverty, many of the tools for this war are not military. Briefly last summer, Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, and others began to talk about "the global struggle against violent extremism", in an effort to play down the military component. But within a month the new moniker had disappeared. Mr Bush underlined the point by citing the "war on terror" a dozen times in a single speech. And war it is. Events in Iraq have made sure of that. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 - indeed the dislike between Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden was mutual and intense. Moreover, the 2003 invasion distracted the administration from the original goal it might otherwise have achieved in Afghanistan, the capture of Bin Laden and Zawahiri. Now, thanks to the invasion, Iraq and the war on terror have become one. Just why Mr Bush attacked Iraq remains a mystery. But the "war on terror" is the prime reason US troops are still there. Americans may be fed up with the conflict in Iraq. Despite the administration's continuing attempts to link Saddam and 9/11, a majority now believe that pre-war Iraq was never a direct threat to the US - and that the war to remove him, in which about 2,200 US troops have died, has made them less safe. But the word "terrorism" still scares them stiff. Even Mr Bush admits that the largest segment of the Iraqi insurgency is not foreign terrorists but ancien régime Sunnis. But that has not stopped the President, Rumsfeld and others from latching on to a part of the alleged Zawahiri letter that outlines a grand strategy of terror - starting with the establishment of an Islamic state in Iraq and then exporting this revolution to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. The third stage would be the destruction of the interloper, the Jewish state of Israel. Al-Qa'ida insists the letter is a CIA fake. The administration, however, brandishes it as proof that radical Islam is out to establish a new caliphate, stretching from Spain to Indonesia, governed by sharia law and casting the world back into the Middle Ages. The chances of that happening are less than zero, but it serves the President's purpose of linkage. The Iraqi insurgents, he declared in one of four major speeches on Iraq last month, "are a direct threat to the American people". The US, he insisted, would accept nothing less than total victory. For the President, the "war on terror" started after 11 September 2001, when the US "took the fight to those who attacked us and those who shared their vision". Now, however, "the terrorists have made clear that Iraq is the central front in their war against humanity ... Bin Laden and al-Qa'ida are directly responsible for the suffering of the Iraqi people". Zarqawi and his ilk "shared the goals of the 9/11 hijackers". But events over the next three months will be far more important than words from Mr Bush. The gamble is that last month's parliamentary election - denounced by al-Qa'ida as a "satanic project" - will lead to a government with enough authority and support to hold the country together and fend off civil war. If so, the US troop reductions yearned for by the public can take place. About 20,000 servicemen will come out early next year. If all goes reasonably well the force will be drawn down by a further 30,000 or more by the mid-term elections in November. Fewer troops should mean fewer targets for attacks, and fewer casualties. That is Washington's strategy - or, more exactly, its hope. But, be it in Iraq or in the broader GWOT, what constitutes victory? In neither is a purely military solution possible. American soldiers, tanks and unmanned missile-carrying drones outclass anything on the other side, but in an "asymmetrical" war, they are only a part of the equation. Genuine victory will require political and societal change. It will require radical change in the Arab world's view of the US, and in Arab society itself. The roots of terrorism lie in poverty, resentment and despair, stoked by prejudice and religious bigotry. Extremism is bred by a lack of political opportunity, a sense of inferiority to the West, and the belief the Arab world is not master of its destiny. Instead, it is subordinate to an America that, for all its talk of promoting democracy, is ultimately interested only in protecting Israel and its access to Middle Eastern oil. For that reason, whatever it says, Washington will continue to prop up the repressive regimes in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. In the last resort - as Iraq has already proved and Syria and Iran may yet prove in their turn - it will use force to have its way. Reversing this mindset will be a colossal task. Somehow, the US and its allies must convince the Islamic world that they are not waging a religious war, or discriminating against Muslims. Unfortunately, deeds suggest otherwise. Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, the kidnapping and "rendition" of terrorist suspects, alleged secret CIA prisons - all have created the impression that where Muslim radicals are concerned, anything goes. Nobody in a high position has been sacked for outrages that have stained America's reputation. Most astounding of all is that US leaders, self-proclaimed champions of democracy and human decency, appear to be resisting a legal ban on torture. For every terrorist captured, half a dozen potential new ones are born. The image of the US is in tatters. The Arab world has long since made up its mind about Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, and their policies. No change of attitude is likely until they leave office. But the problem lies in the messengers as well as the message. America's outreach is hampered by the fact that the State Department has only 27 people fluent in Arabic - equivalent to roughly one per embassy and consulate in a region of 300 million people. September brought the bizarre spectacle of Karen Hughes, Bush's old Texas consigliera, traipsing around Arab capitals as the newly appointed head of US public diplomacy, with barely the faintest knowledge of the culture in which shehoped to create a more favourable impression of her boss. In short, hostility to the US will persist. Americans, in all probability, will develop a more European, more fatalistic attitude to terrorism: that it is a scourge to be contained, rather than eliminated once and for all. From this perspective, the real challenge is to prevent chemical, biological and nuclear weapons falling into the wrong hands. That risk is real. The Abdul Qadeer Khan affair in Pakistan was a chilling example of how a scientist could provide nuclear technology to countries such as North Korea, Libya and Iran. If Qadeer Khan, then why not underpaid scientists from the former Soviet Union? And what about possibly unsecured Soviet nuclear and other WMD materials? In the 2002 filmThe Sum of All Fears, terrorists detonated a nuclear bomb in a packed sports stadium in Baltimore, levelling the city centre. That was a movie, to be sure. But 11 September too, at first seemed like a disaster movie. Today reality ventures where fiction fears to tread. A nuclear attack, even in the lesser form of a "dirty bomb", on a US city is the recurring nightmare of those whose job is to keep America safe. Whether or not Bin Laden is captured, and what happens in Iraq - even if a genuine Arab democracy takes root and every American soldier leaves - hardly affects this prospect. In the modern era, a guerrilla war lasts an average of nine years; the Iraq insurgency has been under way for less than three. As the lone superpower, perceived as malign puppet-master of the Middle East, the US will remain the target of choice for Islamic terrorists. The "war on terror" may yet acquire another name. But whatever it's called, it's here to stay. WORLD EVENTS January 23 Canadian federal elections 23-24 African Union summit to be held in Khartoum, Sudan 25 Elections to the legislature of the Palestinian National Authority 25-29 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland 31 Retirement date of Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States February 5 Presidential and parliamentary elections in Costa Rica March Al-Jazeera will launch its new satellite service, al-Jazeera International, in Europe, Asia, and North America. BBC World Service ends broadcasts in Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Kazakh, Polish, Slovak, Slovenian and Thai. 12 Parliamentary elections in Uganda 26 Parliamentary elections in Ukraine 28 Israeli general election April 9 Parliamentary elections in Italy 9 Presidential and parliamentary elections in Peru May 28 Presidential elections in Colombia June Vladimir Putin hosts the annual meeting of the G8 countries in St Petersburg, Russia 2 Presidential and congressional elections in Mexico August 9 United States population is expected to top 300million 13-18 XVI International Aids Conference will be held in Toronto, Canada September 17 Parliamentary elections in Sweden October General and presidential elections in Brazil November Nato summit takes place in Riga, Latvia 7 US mid-term elections which include: all 435 seats of the House of Representatives, 33 of the 100 seats in the Senate and gubernatorial elections in 36 states

No Sympathy for Bush's Misery By Friedemann Diederichs Braunschweiger Zeitung Translated By Marianne Casson December 27, 2005 Revelations that President Bush approved surveillance that may have breached the constitutional rights of Americans also shows that he 'lied to the public.' According to this op-ed article from Germany's Braunschweiger Zeitung, the Bush Administration 'has only itself to blame' for the mess it finds itself in. President Bush most certainly did not have a Merry Christmas. If most of the media reports coming out of the U.S. are true, then it's also quite possible that during his clarification of the ongoing anti-terrorism measures, Mr. Bush also became guilty of lying to the public last week. It is also true that few people are surprised that in politics, truthfulness is not always strictly followed. However, now we are dealing with the revelation that countless law-abiding citizens have been place under surveillance, either via telephone calls or e-mail, without prior court-approval. How the opposition [Democrats] will react to these highly damaging disclosures remains to be seen. As soon as the first reports of the Administration's zealous and controversial data-gathering operation surfaced, so did the word: "impeach." Under orders of the Democrats, several experts in constitutional law are in the process of investigating this option. The public latitude for George W. Bush's mistakes is vanishing fast, as it looks increasingly like the President's conduct can be construed as infringing on constitutionally protected rights. This despite the fact that some of his actions after September 11. 2001 may have been justified and have contributed to making the U.S. safer. For example, the very recent disclosure that mosques and other Islamic institutions are being monitored for possible radiation.

I Shouldn't Watch the Local News: The Media Spin of "Bad Luck" by Lori Lippitz Dear Editor, I am stunned after watching a report tonight on ABC about a man whose "bad luck" included losing his job, 20% of his VA benefits, and then his home in a fire caused by a candle memorial to his son who died in Iraq. While I commend the station on publicizing a collection on this poor couple's behalf, the idea that the offense which needs to be corrected by legislation is prohibiting war protesters from protesting near a funeral (sensible enough) is astouding. Friends, look again at this man's "bad luck." An economy crafted by an administration that values its richest citizens put this man out of a job. A policy decision to save money by cutting VA benefits deprived him of enough to get by. A war which a majority of Americans now believe was waged on false premises and wasn't worth the sacrifice claimed his son. Folks, these events were not some freakish tsunami. This man's life has been devastated by the wholesale neglect of the welfare of plain folks like this man by a government that does not hear the cries of folks like him. War protesters are the least of his problem. Imagine his life in a world in which job security was valued by the government enough to act upon...in which VA benefits were honored by the government...in which wars were not waged and youth sent to die on faulty premises. Forget the protesters and get your reporters to put two and two together--bad policy is not bad luck, and ignoring malignant neglect of human beings is not patriotism. Lori Lippitz Skokie Lori Lippitz is the founder of Maxwell St. Klezmer Band and a progressive in her spare time. She can be reached at maxwellst@aol.com.

Bush Bombs With Iraqi Democracy and Helps Fundamentalist Iranian Theofascists by Mary Geddry The problem with the December parliamentary elections in Iraq is that once again, Shi’ites voted for Shi’ites, Sunnis for Sunnis and Kurds for Kurds cementing the already sectarian division inherent in the constitutional vote. The ultimate result is an Iraq keenly aligned with Iran’s hard line fundamentalist president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. No one has benefited more by the overthrow of Hussein’s Ba’ath Party and the Taliban than Iran’s recently elected hard line government. If the Bush administration believed that an Iraqi democracy would be a model for the Middle East where Iran’s theocratic democracy was not, it was most certainly mistaken. Fundamentalist Shi’ites garnered control of all future petroleum finds in the oil-rich south with the October vote. Iran, flush with petroleum profits due to the high price of oil has offered to pay for pipelines that would span the border of the two countries. Iraq, unable to match pre-invasion production despite billions of dollars being spent on infrastructure has every reason to establish friendly ties with Iran. Shutdown of Iraq’s largest refinery last week has added to already severe shortages and sky rocketing prices at the pumps. When Iraq Oil Minister Bahr al-Uloum objected to raising prices the Iraqi government relieved him of his duties. He has been replaced by Deputy Prime Minister and Bush administration ally Ahmed Chalabi, a figure so distasteful to the Iraqis that he received less than 1% of the vote. Essential services such as water and electricity are sporadic with even Baghdad, the capital, being without power these last few days. Unemployment is at 70% and after three years of US occupation, security is non existent. The Iraqis are ripe for a change. Der Spiegel now reports that Washington may be planning an attack on Iran as soon as 2006. Iran is certainly trying to get nuclear energy, if not also a nuclear weapon. By investing so heavily in Iraq, which had no nuclear program, the Bush administration has weakened our options in Iran. The Pakistan Asia Times reports that the regrouping Taliban resistance and al Qaeda have tapped into Afghanistan’s richest cash crop, poppies. Working through the Liberation Tigers of Tamil large purchases of fully automatic weapons and surface to air missiles will now escalate the battles ongoing in Iraq and Afghanistan with US forces to a whole new level. Pepe Escobar wrote in the December 23, 2005 edition of The Asia Times – “Bush has opened a Pandora’s box with his shock and awe tactics. The ultimate quagmire will keep mutating and unleashing its deadly new powers for years on end. And there is nothing anyone - not even the “indispensable nation” - can do about it. We have all been, and will remain, shocked and awed.” When the US allowed bin Laden to escape in Tora Bora turning its attention instead to a regime change in Iraq, it did much more than squander the global outpouring of goodwill America received after the 9/11 attacks. It effectively packaged and delivered the proverbial mountain unto Mohammed and he hath filled it with a terrible resolve. Mary Geddry is a writer living in Coquille, Oregon. Her son is a Marine corporal who served two tours in Iraq. She is an anti-war activist and has written extensively about her son's experiences as a grunt in Ramadi. Her stories have been published up and down the west coast as well as online.

Veterans with PTSD Face Campaign of Misinformation, Disinformation and Outright Lies by Larry Scott 2 Jan 2006 When the Washington Post prints a front page story about the politics and money surrounding veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), it attracts lots of attention. And, when that story spells out plans by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) to redefine PTSD and restructure veterans’ compensation, it forces the conservative “spin machine” into action to try to minimize any information that indicates PTSD is a problem in the veteran community. The trouble with trying to minimize accurate information about the PTSD issue is that misinformation, disinformation and outright lies are the only tools available to make the disorder seem like a minor problem instead of the colossal mental health crisis that it is. Just a few hours after the Post published their well-balanced article about PTSD, the arch-conservative Washington Times and their UPI news service had “borrowed” it and published a severely-edited rewrite. The Times/UPI story referred only to the high cost of PTSD compensation and concerns over veterans making fraudulent claims. The timing is more than coincidence. I received an email from a public affairs officer at a large veterans’ service organization who doesn’t believe in coincidence, either. His view of the situation was that the VA bosses read the Post article and got angry, ordered the VA public affairs people to rewrite it to fit the current right-wing anti-PTSD sentiment and then told politically-likeminded media people to run it. A day later, the conservative military web site Strategy Page dot com published an unsigned “news” piece3 about PTSD which dealt mainly with the high costs of compensation, the issue of fraud and the argument that the disorder “could always be faked.” Again, hardly a coincidence. Why is so much energy being expended to minimize the issue of PTSD? Money! Currently the VA pays disability compensation to 215,871 veterans with PTSD. That comes to over $4.3 billion a year and that is just for compensation. When medical care and other benefits are added in, the cost could approach $7 billion, or nearly ten per cent of the VA’s total budget. By minimizing the PTSD crisis in the veteran community and characterizing veterans’ claims as fraudulent, conservatives are trying to create a public climate of acceptance that will allow the VA to go forward with their redefinition of the disorder. That could then lead to a new diagnosis, new treatment protocols and restructured (lower) compensation for veterans. The VA’s effort to seek a new definition for PTSD was outlined in an article I wrote for OpEdNews dot com in December. That article was also published on a popular, commercial military/veteran web site. Within a few hours, the VA had called the parent company of the web site and demanded that the article be pulled. It was. The editor of the site told me they had to “consider the business model” in making the decision. He indicated that the site could lose valuable advertising contracts with government agencies, such as the armed services, if the article was not pulled. The long reach of the conservative “spin machine” even found its way into the Washington Post story. In the article, VA spokesman Scott Hogenson is quoted. Hogenson is hardly a “spokesman.” Hogenson is a political appointee brought on by the VA to control the spin. Prior to working for the VA, Hogenson was Executive Director of the Conservative Communications Center (CCC). Hogenson was the CCC’s “hit man” who badgered any media outlet believed to be disseminating information contrary to conservative policy. The CCC’s stated mission is: To provide the conservative movement with the marketing and communications skills and vehicles to deliver their vision and ideas, undistorted, to the American people. Also quoted by the Post was Chris Frueh, PhD, Staff Psychologist, at the VA Medical Center in Charleston, South Carolina. Frueh has made a name for himself by conducting studies that try to show fraud among veterans who seek treatment for PTSD. His work is published on the ultra-conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI) web site. In one of Frueh’s latest attempts at research he studied just 100 veterans who sought treatment for PTSD with the aim of proving combat exposure. His conclusion was that veterans may misrepresent their service record when seeking treatment. He then goes on to discuss the “disability benefit incentive,” an issue which has nothing to do with treatment. One is left with the feeling that veterans are routinely committing fraud to get PTSD compensation. Of note is the fact that Frueh lists B. G. Burkett, of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, as a co-author of this study. Frueh’s research is flawed and misleading. Veterans who seek treatment for PTSD must go through rigorous examinations and receive a proper diagnosis before they are even considered for compensation. Then, the compensation review process can routinely take five to ten years. If compensation is granted, the veteran must continue treatment to verify the diagnosis and compensation can be raised or lowered depending on “return to function.” Veterans do not just say they have PTSD and get compensation. Frueh’s implications of fraud are meaningless and denigrating to veterans with PTSD. Proof of that came late last year when the VA conducted a review of veterans receiving 100 per cent compensation (about $2,300 a month) for PTSD. In a test group of 2,100 identified by the VA’s Inspector General, NOT ONE CASE OF FRAUD WAS FOUND! Dr. Sally Satel is also quoted in the Post article. Satel is the AEI’s “hired gun” – give her a subject and she’ll spin it. Satel has published for the tobacco lobby. And she has, while working for the White House, urged “coercive,” “intrusive,” and “involuntary care” for the mentally ill. So, Satel’s assertion in the Post article that there is “an underground network [that] advises veterans where to go for the best chance of being declared disabled,” rings hollow. Veterans who suffer from PTSD have much to fear from the Bush administration. They do not trust the VA system. Why? VA Secretary Jim Nicholson has publicly stated that PTSD can be cured although there is no medical evidence to indicate that is the case. The VA’s former Inspector General espoused the concept that compensation was an incentive for veterans to exaggerate their symptoms. VA disability compensation has been likened to welfare by Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN), Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. The majority of the 215,871 veterans who receive compensation for PTSD are from the Vietnam-era. It has taken them this long to seek and get treatment from the VA and to qualify for disability compensation. With a few hundred thousand more troops coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan, one mental health expert has predicted a “tsunami” of woe. Caring for the broken bodies and broken minds of our veterans is just another cost of war. But, the Bush administration will do anything to keep that cost to a minimum; from gagging the media to spreading misinformation and disinformation to asking one medical organization to second-guess another and redefine PTSD in such a way that disability compensation can be reduced to an absolute minimum. Larry Scott (larry@vawatchdog.org)served four years in the U.S. Army with overseas tours as a Broadcast Journalist in Korea and the Azores and a stateside tour as a Broadcast Journalism Instructor at the Defense Information School (DINFOS). He was awarded DOD's First Place Thomas Jefferson Award for Excellence in Journalism. After the Army, Larry was a news anchor on WNBC Radio in New York City. He receives VA compensation for a service-connected disability. Larry is a regular on the Thom Hartmann show on KPOJ radio in Portland, Oregon. Today, Larry resides in Southwest Washington and operates the website VA Watchdog dot Org.

A Nation Under Siege by Liars and Law Breakers in the White House BUZZFLASH 2 Jan 06 Over the New Year's weekend, the Busheviks tried another rope-a-dope to get them off the mat. This time they brazenly decided leaks were once again harmful to the United States. It's odd, because the Bush White House leaks all the time to spin things their way. That's why the Washington Post and New York Times are always quoting anonymous sources in the Bush Administration. They even sometimes leak pro-administration propaganda saying they have to be anonymous because they are not supposed to leak! And Bush certainly didn't think his closest aides outing a CIA operative specializing in tracking the illicit sales of WMDs was important. He's still defending those leakers. But if you leak information to the press that proves beyond a reasonable doubt that Bush broke the law, then you are a leaker who needs to be summarily investigated and prosecuted. So, it's not the president who violates the law who is to be investigated and charged; it's a witness to the crime! And we have to tragically laugh when Bush tosses out the totally fallacious notion (at the urging of Mr. Rove) that whoever leaked the story about the illegal NSA wiretaps was alerting the enemy and assisting them. This is so post-9/11 fear mongering redux. How does he get away with it? Because the Dems in Congress, with few exceptions, don't know how to voice sustained outrage and demand the rule of law apply to Bush. When we say demand, we don't mean to politely ask the radical mob enforcers, Frist and DeLay, to investigate the crime. It's like putting Al Capone in charge of seeing who carried out a mob hit. But back to the blatant absurdity of Bush's public relations lie. Does one really think that Al-Qaeda members would not assume that the Busheviks would try and listen into their conversations? After all, the Busheviks had the right to eavesdrop under the FISA Court; all they had to do was ask. Al-Qaeda members knew this; Americans knew this; everyone knew this. Bush didn't do anything that everyone -- including potential terrorists -- knew he could do with FISA approval. He just did it illegally. So, there is no truth whatsover to the leak about Bush's lawbreaking endangering the national security. The only people it endangered were Bush, Andrew Card, and Alberto Gonazles -- the latter two who went to John Ashcroft's hospital bed to get him to agree to the illegal wiretapping, after the number two person in the Department of Justice balked because he knew that Bush was engaging in illegal activity. So, now, Gonzales, who was an accomplice to the crime, is in charge of finding out who ratted on him. And they call this justice! It's a shameful violation of the Constitution and degrading to America to have such thugs running the nation. They believe that they can commit crimes with impunity and intimidate the witnesses. Just ask Joe Wilson and countless others. This has happened so many times before, it's a bit tiring to see the Mafia dons still running the town and shooting down witnesses to their crimes. But, in the absence of a sustained and unrelenting "push back" on behalf of truth, justice, and accountability from the Democratic leadership, many -- if not most -- Americans will believe the Bush lies that they hear blaring from their television sets. It's that simple. He may get away with breaking the law, again. To those Democratic leaders who "cower in politically-calculated caution" based on the notion that Bush has the bully pulpit and that they can't change American public opinion by proclaiming the truth until the lies are buried in the rubble of Bushevism, we say remember that Newt Gingrich turned Congress from Democratic to Republican under a Democratic president. And Gingrich grabbed onto two media messages like a junkyard dog; 1) He alleged that the Democrats in Congress were corrupt; and 2) He ran a national campaign (not 435 separate campaigns), based on a phony "Contract With America" that was fashioned by polling and focus groups conducted primarily by Frank Luntz. The Democrats don't even need to allege that the Republicans in Congress are corrupt; the GOP Capitol Hill Corruption is oozing out of the Capitol Dome. Most of the Democratic "leaders," like the hapless Joe Biden on a recent Sunday morning pundit fest discussing Tom DeLay, claim they don't know much about it. The abundant and corrosive Republican corruption has been given to the Democrats lying on a platter. All they have to do is start carving the turkey up. And then you have Bush as a chronic, daily liar who threatens, not increases, the national security of the United States. And senate leaders like Kerry and Clinton think that you can criticize a bit and then quibble at the margins. This is not a formula for seizing the hearts and minds of Americans and alerting them to the truth. As for a Democratic Contract with America, if you went out there today with focus groups and polls, we could assure you that a promise to end corporate corruption, a promise to uphold the privacy and liberties of Americans, a promise to run the government with integrity, a promise to effectively defend America from terrorism by rejoining the world community and an accelerated withdrawal from Iraq combined with a strategy for not creating more terrorists....well, that these among others, trumpeted far and wide across America, would beat back the bully pulpit of the lying "Baby Doc." You can't just make mild criticisms when you have a criminal running a Constitutional government. You have to act like it is outrageous and unacceptable; you have to create a groundswell of passion for the law that will roll like a tidal wave across the land. It's not a dream; it's not an impossibility. Newt Gingrich took back the House in just this way -- and he was running on bunkum. The Democrats have a criminal in the White House -- surrounded by accomplices -- and the Democrats have truth, justice and the Constitution on their side. Like the lion in the "Wizard of Oz," all they need is courage.

Paul Rogers: Peace studies in our time Huw Richards January 3, 2006 The Guardian For a native east Londoner, Paul Rogers does an excellent impersonation of a country boy. The Professor of Peace Studies at Bradford University is known chiefly as a commentator on strategic issues who has enjoyed a particularly high profile since the 9/11 attack on the US, but has little doubt about one of his proudest achievements. "Building a house-sized barn on our smallholding," he says proudly, flourishing a photograph of a solid four-square construction to be found at Kirkburton, on the edge of Huddersfield. The family home contains a facility less often associated with Yorkshire smallholdings - a broadcasting studio installed in reaction to the frequency with which he has been called by radio stations at home and abroad. The juxtaposition of the two reflects the differing influences on his life. Rogers started as a biologist, taking his degree at Imperial College, then winning an appointment to a lecturership in plant pathology at the age of 24, before joining an overseas development ministry project in Uganda. "The idea was to improve crops, specifically a new variety of sugar cane. I ran my own unit - the idea was that I'd train a very good Ugandan plant pathologist to take over from me. It was a great learning experience." He was already interested in trade and development issues, working in the 1960s with the Haslemere Group, an early pressure group concentrating on this field, and began the transition that would take him in disciplinary terms from biological science to international relations on his return to Britain, taking up a lecturership at Huddersfield Polytechnic in 1971. "I was appointed as a biology lecturer, but rapidly developed an interest in international relations and conflict. The polytechnics were very lively and interesting places at the time. Staff- student ratios were very good and there was a lot of freedom to develop ideas. Huddersfield offered a degree in human ecology, and in 1973 we ran a conference on human ecology and world development, asking a lot of questions about social and economic development and the environmental constraints and consequences that look pretty prescient 30 years on." The oil shock following the 1973 Arab-Israeli war was the direct stimulus for his shift of focus. "I had to learn about the issues around this for a course I was teaching. If you want to learn a subject, one of the best ways is to have to give a lecture course on it." Then in 1979 came the move to Bradford and what was still a relatively new department of peace studies. "It is a marvellous department, extremely strong and it has grown hugely. There's a remarkable range of experience and knowledge here and I wouldn't want to work anywhere else. I hope to be contributing for another 15 to 20 years, since there is an excellent tradition of asking retired members of staff to come back and teach," he says. He has always resisted offers to join higher-profile universities. He adds that in one highly specific respect the department lives up to its name. "There's plenty of vigorous debate, as there should be, but in 15 years we've never had members of staff not on speaking terms with each other." His own work sits firmly within the cross-disciplinary and often collaborative traditions of peace studies - in the 1980s he worked with Malcolm Dando, also a biologist by academic origin, on arms control - and he admits to some embarrassment that he gets so much of the department's media attention. He has, however, accomplished a fair bit by himself to justify this. In particular, his book Losing Control: Global Security in the Twenty-first Century (2000), gives him a legitimate claim to be regarded as one of the prophets of 9/11. He explains the thesis: "The real long-term conflict in the world is between an elite and the marginalised majority." In it he describes the spectacle of a World Bank conference on poverty cocooned in a five-star hotel amid the squalor of Dhaka, in Bangladesh, and the grotesqueness of a gated community in South Africa surrounded by a 33,000-volt fence. Rogers says: "The one certainty is that every so often the marginalised will revolt. Much of modern politics is concerned with what I call 'lidism', measures aimed not to address the underlying issues but to keep the lid on. But what you can't predict is exactly where or how radical social movements will erupt and that is what makes control impossible - nobody except perhaps a couple of real experts foresaw the Maoist rising in Nepal or the Zapatistas in Mexico." Similarly, pre-9/11 he and Dando expected some sort of attack on America. "But we didn't know where and we thought that a chemical attack was the likeliest means." He remembers their conversation two days after the attack: "We were very clear that the hawks would be able to do what they wanted for the next few years." When Iraq was invaded he made three predictions: "One was wrong, which was that I thought Saddam had a small cache of biological weapons for use as a last resort. The others were that there would be a high level of civilian casualties and a high risk of insurgency." That analysis has been developed and consistently updated through monthly reports for the Oxford Research Group and weekly commentary on the Open Democracy website. The Oxford reports have been re-published by Pluto Press as A War on Terror: Afghanistan and After (2004) and his latest book, Iraq and the War on Terror: 12 Months of Insurgency (IB Tauris, 2005). His next book, A War Too Far, is due out in February. To see those reports consolidated in book form is to see a pattern of consistent official over-optimism endlessly dashed. Rogers says: "I remember an interview with a British soldier who said his sector had its first insurgent attacks on the very day that Bush declared 'Mission accomplished'." Rogers's Losing Control analysis argues that any "war on terrorism" is likely to fail. But even he is surprised by quite how spectacularly counterproductive the invasion of Iraq has been. "It has given al-Qaida and other radical groups an extraordinary recruitment opportunity - it can now say that the site of the Abbasid Caliphate, a hugely important centre of Arab culture, is under the control of Christians and Zionists. The events in Falluja have echoed across the entire Muslim world. And it has provided a new training ground for jihadists - Afghans are now learning from what is going on in Iraq." He finds it extremely hard to be optimistic for Iraq. "It is an unholy mess, causing great disquiet in the British armed forces. The Americans will find it almost impossible to disengage and I can't see British forces leaving while Blair is prime minister." Iraqi misery may, though, bring benefits for the wider world. "It is such a disaster that it may force a serious rethink on the discredited control paradigm. I lecture to people in the military who are smarter and more aware on this than politicians or business people." So what should take the place of 'lidism'? "We need more effective, sustainable development underpinned by proper debt relief, trade reform and effective development assistance. At an environmental level, we need to get serious about climate change, which dwarfs every other issue." Half a lifetime of smallholding has made him peculiarly attentive to the way winters, in particular, have changed. "I like being able to grow sweetcorn in the open air and having a small vineyard. But the changes that make that possible have frightening implications." Curriculum vitae Born: London, February 10 1943 Education: McEntee school, Walthamstow. Imperial College (BSc, PhD) Job: Professor of peace studies, Bradford University Before that: Imperial 1967-70; Huddersfield Polytechnic 1971-79 Likes: Smallholding, building, bellringing Dislikes: Smoky pubs Married: with four children

What Fate Awaits NSA Spying Whistleblower by David Swanson 1 Jan 2006 Can there be any doubt that if the White House finds out who leaked the story of its illegal spying, fierce retribution will follow? Another way of asking that question is: Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? Remember what happened to Ambassador Joseph Wilson? The White House leaked to the media his wife's identity as an undercover agent for the CIA, putting her life and those of her colleagues in danger and ending her career. And let us recall what became of General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, who dared to accurately predict how many troops would be needed to occupy Iraq. Defense Department officials leaked the name of his replacement 14 months before his retirement, rendering him a lame duck commander and embarrassing and neutralizing the Army's top officer. We should also bring back to mind the fate of Major General John Riggs. He told the Baltimore Sun that the Army needed at least another 10,000 soldiers because it was being stretched too thin between Iraq and Afghanistan. General George W. Casey told Riggs to "stay in your lane" and not discuss the troops. Riggs retired and was denied his full rank, officially for "minor infractions." Does anyone remember Army Spc. Thomas Wilson, a 31-year-old member of a Tennessee National Guard unit? After asking Donald Rumsfeld why vehicle armor was still scarce nearly two years after the start of the war, Wilson was trashed as an insubordinate plant of the "liberal media." We can't forget former Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill. He was punished twice by the Bush Administration, once for opposing Bush's tax policy, for which he was forced to resign in January 2003, and later for providing a first hand account of the Administration's decision-making process in the lead up to the Iraq war. The Administration sought to discredit him by launching an investigation into his use of classified documents and whether he shared them with 60 Minutes in his interviews. The investigation did not uncover any improprieties. The White House also sought to discredit O'Neill through numerous anonymous comments in the press. Let's remember former senior White House economic adviser Larry Lindsey. Mr. Lindsey angered the White House in September 2002 when he made a prescient prediction that a war with Iraq would cost between $100 billion and $200 billion, an estimate Administration officials at the time insisted was too high. In December 2002, the White House requested that Lindsey resign from his post. And we should keep in mind the smear campaign against Richard Clarke, the former counterterrorism czar who published a book recounting how the Bush Administration had been fixated on invading Iraq. Dan Bartlett, White House communications director, dismissed Clarke's accounts as "politically motivated," "reckless," and "baseless." Scott McClellan, President Bush's spokesman, portrayed Clarke as a disgruntled former employee: "Mr. Clarke has been out there talking about what title he had . . . He wanted to be the deputy secretary of the Homeland Security Department after it was created. The fact of the matter is, just a few months after that, he left the administration. He did not get that position. Someone else was appointed." National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice alleged that: "Dick Clarke just does not know what he is talking about. He wasn't involved in most of the meetings of the Administration." Vice President Cheney stated that Clarke "wasn't in the loop, frankly, on a lot of this stuff . . . It was as though he clearly missed a lot of what was going on." The media ate that stuff up, but it was pretty tame compared to the attacks on Gold Star mother Cindy Sheehan, who managed to find a voice in the media for expressing opposition to the war. Fred Barnes of Fox News labeled Sheehan a "crackpot." Conservative blogs then started talking about Sheehan's divorce, her angry Republican in-laws, her supposed political flip-flops, her incendiary sloganeering and her association with known ticket-stub-carrying attendees of Fahrenheit 9/11. Rush Limbaugh said her "story is nothing more than forged documents – there's nothing about it that's real. Bush himself declared Cindy unrepresentative of most military families he meets, and labeled anti-war protestors as dangerous isolationists who embolden terrorists. And what about members of the media who reported unpleasant truths? Well, let's bear in mind the tale of Jeffrey Kofman, an ABC reporter. On July 15, 2003, one week after Donald Rumsfeld told certain troops they would be going home, Kofman covered a story in which American soldiers in Falluja described low moral in Iraq and spoke angrily of how their tour of duty had been extended yet again. The White House retaliated, using Matt Drudge. His Drudge Report website posted the headline: "ABC News Reporter Who Filed Troops Complaint Story -- Openly Gay Canadian." When asked about the story, Drudge pointed to the White House as his source. And then there's Jose Bustani, a Brazilian diplomat and former director of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which oversees the destruction of two million chemical weapons and two-thirds of the world's chemical weapon facilities. The Bush Administration attacked and ultimately ousted him for failing to cooperate with the Administration's decision to attack Iraq. The Bush Administration also sought to undermine the IAEA and its Director General Mohammed ElBaradei as retribution for revealing the Niger documents (allegedly evidence of an Iraqi nuclear program) to be forgeries. Cheney denounced the IAEA on television, and the White House made a push to oust ElBaradei from the agency. The Administration's retaliation campaign included a complete halt of intelligence-sharing with the agency, recruitment of potential replacements and eavesdropping on his calls in search of ammunition to use against ElBaradei and the IAEA. There are so many people to remember, but let's not leave out Bunnatine Greenhouse, the chief contracting officer at the Army Corps of Engineers. In October 2004, Ms. Greenhouse came forward and revealed that top Pentagon officials had shown improper favoritism to Halliburton when awarding military contracts. Greenhouse stated that when the Pentagon awarded Halliburton a five-year $7 billion contract, it pressured her to withdraw her objections, actions which she claimed were unprecedented in her experience. The Army demoted Ms. Greenhouse, removing her from the elite Senior Executive Service and transferring her to a lesser job in the corps' civil works division. The Bush Administration also undermined and used the CIA and its analysts as a scapegoat for its own failings. Among other things, the White House blamed the CIA and George Tenet for the Niger reference in the State of the Union address after the CIA had sought to modify, if not delete, the reference. Tenet was gone by early 2004. The Bush Administration also retaliated against two officials who sought to provide accurate information regarding the Administration's inappropriate reliance on the Iraqi defector known as "Curveball" and his alleged statements regarding mobile chemical weapons laboratories. The first is "Jerry," who led a CIA unit that went to Iraq and found Curveball's claims to be blatantly false and misleading. After he did so, he was chastised and transferred. According to The Los Angeles Times: "Back home . . . Jerry was 'read the riot act' and accused of 'making waves' by his office director, according to the presidential commission. He and his colleague ultimately were transferred out of the weapons center." Another victim was David Kay, head of the Iraq Survey Group, which found the Bush Administration's WMD claims to be inaccurate, including its reliance on Curveball. "In December 2003," according to the LA Times, "Kay flew back to C.I.A. headquarters. He said he told Tenet that Curveball was a liar and he was convinced Iraq had no mobile labs or other illicit weapons. C.I.A. officials confirm their exchange. Kay said he was assigned to a windowless office without a working telephone. On Jan. 20, 2004, Bush lauded Kay and the Iraq Survey Group in his State of the Union Speech for finding 'weapons of mass destruction-related program activities. . . . Had we failed to act, the dictator's weapons of mass destruction program would continue to this day.' Kay quit three days later and went public with his concerns." In spring 2001, according to the New York Times, an informant told the CIA that Iraq had abandoned a major element of its nuclear weapons program. However, according to a CIA officer, the agency did not share the information with other agencies or with senior policy makers. The officer, an employee for the agency for more than 20 years, including several years in intelligence related to illicit weapons, was fired in 2004. In his lawsuit, the officer states that his dismissal was punishment for his reports questioning the agency's assumptions on a series of weapons-related matters and with the agency's intelligence conclusions. Each of these cases of retribution for truth-telling is discussed and documented in Congressman John Conyers' report, "The Constitution in Crisis; The Downing Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution, and Coverups in the Iraq War." See pages 113 – 133. http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/5769 http://www.davidswanson.org DAVID SWANSON is a co-founder of After Downing Street, a writer and activist, and the Washington Director of Democrats.com. He is a board member of Progressive Democrats of America, and serves on the Executive Council of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, TNG-CWA. He has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director, with jobs including Press Secretary for Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign, Media Coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association, and three years as Communications Coordinator for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Swanson obtained a Master's degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia in 1997.

Safire Recalls How He Was Victimized in a 'Leak' Probe By E&P Staff January 01, 2006 NEW YORK In a free flowing roundtable discussion on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, former New York Times columnist, and Nixon White House speech writer, William Safire, suddenly said, "I have a thing about wiretapping." This was apparently a reference to the current controversy over the Bush White House approval of warrantless eavedropping on Americans. From the transcript: MR. SAFIRE: I was writing a speech on welfare reform, and the president looks at it and says, "OK, I'll go with it, but this is not going to get covered. Leak it as far an wide as you can beforehand. Maybe we'll get something in the paper." And so I go back to my office and I get a call from a reporter, and he wants to know about foreign affairs or something, and I said, "Hey, you want a leak? I'll tell you what the president will say tomorrow about welfare reform." And he took it down and wrote a little story about it. But the FBI was illegally tapping his phone at the time, and so they hear a White House speechwriter say, "Hey, you want a leak?" And so they tapped my phone, and for six months, every home phone call I got was tapped. I didn't like that. And when it finally broke --it did me a lot of good at the time, frankly, because then I was on the right side-- but it told me how easy it was to just take somebody who is not really suspected of anything for any good reason and listen to every conversation in his home, you know, my wife talking to her doctor, my...everything. So I have this thing about personal privacy. And I think what's happening now is that the -- as a result of that scandal back in the '70s, we got this electronic eavesdropping act stopping it, or requiring the president to go before this court. Now, this court's a rubber-stamp court, let's face it. They give five noes and 20,000 yeses. MR. RUSSERT: The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, FISA. MR. SAFIRE: Right. But the very fact that the FBI has to do a little paperwork beforehand slows them down and makes them think for a minute. It doesn't slow them down as much as the president has made out to believe, because there's a wrinkle in it saying that if it's a real emergency and you have to get this information, then you can get it and get the approval within 72 hours afterwards. So there's always this struggle in a war between liberty and security. Doris [Goodwin], you go into that in your book, and Lincoln did, indeed, suspend habeas corpus, but there it is in the Constitution, "It shall not be suspended except in invasion or a rebellion," so he had the right to. He didn't have the right, I think, to close the Brooklyn Eagle [newspaper] or see the arrest of the leading dissident, Vanlandingham, and he made some mistakes. But just as FDR later made a mistake with the eight saboteurs and hanged them all, and just as we made a terrible mistake with the Japanese-Americans in World War II and have apologized for that. During wartime, we have this excess of security and afterwards we apologize. And that's why I offended a lot of my conservative and hard-line friends right after September 11th when they started putting these captured combatants in jail, and said the president can't seize dictatorial power. And a lot of my friends looked at me like I was going batty. But now we see this argument over excessive security, and I'm with the critics on that.

Middle-Class Job Losses Batter Workforce By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN Associated Press Sun Jan 1, 8:53 PM ET LANSING, Mich. - Thirty years ago, Dan Fairbanks looked at the jobs he could get with his college degree and what he could make working the line at General Motors Corp., and decided the GM job looked better. He still thinks he made the right choice. But with GM planning to end production of the Chevrolet SSR and shut down the Lansing Craft Centre where he works sometime in mid-2006, Fairbanks faces an uncertain future. "Back when I hired in at General Motors 30 years ago, it seemed like a good, secure job," said Fairbanks, president since June of UAW Local 1618. Since then, "I've seen good times and I've seen bad times. This qualifies as a bad time, in more ways than one." Many of the country's manufacturing workers are caught in a worldwide economic shift that is forcing companies to slash payrolls or send jobs elsewhere, leaving workers to wonder if their way of life is disappearing. The trend in the manufacturing sector toward lower pay, fewer benefits and fewer jobs is alarming many of them. "They end up paying more of their health care and they end up with lousier pensions — if they keep one at all," says Michigan AFL-CIO President Mark Gaffney. As wages and benefits drop, "it's the working class that's paying the price." West Virginia steelworkers are all too familiar with the problem. The former Weirton Steel Corp., which 20 years ago had some 13,000 employees, today has just 1,300 union workers left on the job. The steel mill has changed hands twice in two years, and just last month, Mittal Steel Co. told the Independent Steelworkers Union it would permanently cut the jobs of 800 people who'd been laid off since summer. Larry Keister, 50, of Weirton, W.Va., has 31 years in the mill that his father and brothers all joined. His son tried, but got laid off quickly. "I'm too old to go back to school. I've worked there all my life," says Keister, who drives a buggy in the tin mill. "I went there straight out of high school. It's all I know." Though Keister is safe for now from layoffs, he wonders what will happen to the hundreds of friends and co-workers who will be jobless by the end of January. Gary Colflesh, 56, of Bloomingdale, Ohio, said there are few jobs in nearby Ohio or Pennsylvania for workers to move to. "They're destroying the working class. Why can't people see this?" asked the 38-year veteran. "Anybody who works in manufacturing has no future in this country, unless you want to work for wages they get in China." Abby Abdo, 52, of Weirton, said workers once believed that if they accepted pay cuts and shunned strikes, they would keep their jobs. Not anymore. "Once they get what they want, they kick us to the curb," he said. "There's no guarantee anymore. No pensions. No health care. No job security. We have none of those things anymore." Fairbanks of the Lansing GM plant said the changes are going to force a lot of people to retrench to deal with the new economic reality. For some, it will make it harder to send their children to college or be able to retire when they want. For others, it will mean giving up some of the trappings a comfortable income can bring. "You're going to see lake property, you're going to see boats, you're going to see motorcycles hit the market," he said. "People get rid of the toys." Economists agree the outlook is changing for workers who moved from high school to good-paying factory jobs two and three decades ago, or for those seeking that lifestyle now. "It was possible for people with a high school education to get a job that paid $75,000 to $100,000 and six weeks of paid vacation. Those jobs are disappearing," says Patrick Anderson of Anderson Economic Group in East Lansing, Mich. "The ... low-skill, upper-middle-class way of life is in danger." General Motors Corp. has announced that it plans to cut 30,000 hourly jobs by 2008. Ford Motor Co. is scheduled to announce plant closings and layoffs in January that could affect at least 15,000 workers in the United States and Mexico, analysts say, and is cutting thousands from its white-collar work force. GM and Ford have won concessions from the United Auto Workers that will require active and retired workers to pick up more of their health care costs, and DaimlerChrysler AG is seeking similar concessions. Thomas Klier, senior economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, says the transition for manufacturers toward leaner, lower-cost operations has been going on for some time. But the bankruptcy of the nation's largest auto supplier, Delphi Corp., pushed the issue into the headlines. Its 34,000 hourly U.S. workers could see their pay cut from $27 an hour to less than half of that, although the company is still trying to work out a compromise unions will support. Workers also could have to pay health care deductibles for the first time and lose their dental and vision care coverage. Delphi worker Michael Balls of Saginaw, Mich., hears the argument that U.S. companies' costs are too high to compete with plants that pay workers less overseas, but he doesn't buy it. "I think if Delphi wins, they lose," he says. "If I'm making $9 an hour, I'm not making enough to buy vehicles." Unfortunately for workers like Balls, the old rules no longer apply in the new global economy, says John Austin, a senior fellow with the Washington-based Brookings Institute. "We're in a different ball game now," Austin says. "We're going to be shedding a lot of the low-education manufacturing jobs." Some of those workers are likely to try to move into the growing service sector, Austin says. But he says the transition can be tough, even if the jobs pay as well as the ones they had — and many don't. "Pointing out a medical technician job is available if they go back and get a certificate doesn't solve the issue today for those 45-year-olds who are losing their jobs at Delphi," he said. Dick Posthumus, a partner in an office furniture system manufacturing company in Grand Rapids, Mich., says that "basic, unskilled manufacturing is going to be done in China, India, places like that because we are in a global world, and there's nothing anyone can do about that." His company, Compatico Inc., buys much of its basic parts from South Korea, Taiwan, Canada and China, where Posthumus has toured plants he says rival modern manufacturing plants in the U.S. But the company still saves its sophisticated parts-making and assembly for its Michigan plant. "The manufacturing of tomorrow is going to look somewhat different from the manufacturing of yesterday," Posthumus says. "It doesn't mean that we no longer manufacture ... (But) it's going to be a painful adjustment."

Dollars to doughnuts, Bush's drug benefit is no bargain By Robert Kuttner The Boston Globe December 31, 2005 THE NEW YEAR brings with it congressional midterm elections. Here is an issue that should be a real political gift to the opposition party -- the colossal Medicare drug-benefit mess. It was clear back in 2003, when the Bush administration rammed this bill through the Republican Congress, that the purpose was not to devise an affordable prescription drug program for seniors. Rather the administration wanted to help two friendly industries, the pharmaceutical companies and the HMOs, and to get bragging rights for the 2004 election that President Bush had helped seniors. Few voters would grasp just how bad the law was, since its effective date was deliberately put off until 2006. Now, as the year of reckoning arrives, the true cynicism of Bush's program is becoming evident to each senior citizen (or adult child of senior citizen) who attempts to fathom what Bush and the industry lobbyists wrought For starters, coverage is woefully inadequate. You pay a $250 deductible and then a 25 percent copay on the first $2,250 of drug benefits each year, plus roughly another $450 a year in premiums. So if your prescriptions cost $2,250 a year, or about $190 a month, you pay $1,200 a year all told and the plan pays just $1,050. That's pretty shabby. But then, the truly bizarre feature of the plan kicks in. Coverage simply disappears for the next $2,850 in drug expenses and only picks up again when you have incurred a total of $5,100 in prescription costs. This is the infamous ''hole in the doughnut." A great many seniors will never get the coverage because the plan is a bad bargain, and they just won't sign up. Of if they do sign up, they will run out of the ability to pay enough out of pocket before qualifying for needed benefits. Even with these disgracefully skimpy benefits, the plan is expected to add over half a trillion dollars to the federal budget over the next decade. Why would anyone have designed such an insane program? Because the political purpose was never to deliver good benefits. One administration goal, running the program through the private insurance industry, conflicted with the imperative of a clear, cost-effective plan. Seniors must evaluate innumerable competing private plans, each with subtle differences in costs and benefits that make an impenetrable program even less fathomable, and raise total costs because each of these private plans tacks on a profit. This was a case of privatizing something done far more efficiently through a direct government program. The second administration goal, fattening the drug industry, led to a provision explicitly prohibiting the government from negotiating bulk price discounts from drug companies, as the veterans hospitals do. As a result, according to a study by Families USA, drug prices obtained by the US Department of Veterans Affairs are about 48 percent less on average than those expected to be charged to people enrolled in the Medicare drug program. Among the 20 most widely prescribed drugs for seniors, for instance, a year's supply of Protonix (for ulcers) costs the VA $253, but the seniors in the Bush Medicare program, which prohibits such bulk discounts, pay a sticker price of $1,080. That will give you ulcers! A year of Zocor, the cholesterol-reducing drug, costs the VA $251. Seniors in Bush's drug plan get whacked for $1,323. It was these inflated costs that necessitated some gimmick to keep down the overall cost to taxpayers. Hence the notorious doughnut hole. If the Democrats have the moxie and the wit, they should propose a straightforward fix, take it to the country in the 2006 elections, and dare Republicans to oppose it: First, get rid of the costly crazy-quilt of private programs and bring the ''Medicare" drug program back into public Medicare. Second, allow Medicare to negotiate bulk discounts the way the VA does. Third, get rid of the doughnut hole, and design a simplified benefit structure with modest copays and then 100 percent coverage after a set annual cap on out-of-pocket costs. Finally, if the savings from the bulk price discounts are not quite sufficient to cover the costs of filling in the doughnut hole, take back a little of Bush's tax cuts to the richest 1 percent. This debate will also remind voters of a useful meta-lesson: A party whose mantra is to hate government, and that sees government mainly as a vehicle for rewarding special-interest allies rather than serving ordinary citizens, can never be trusted to run government competently. A happier New Year to all. Robert Kuttner is co-editor of The American Prospect. His column appears regularly in the Globe. Comment: As we have said before, Two years ago, almost NONE of the mainstream media sources were calling Bush and Cheney liars theives, cheats, and destroyers of America; that was the purview of the alternative news sites and bloggers. But the issues have grown so large, so frightening that even the moderates and former Bush supporters are joining the general clamor for something to be done. There's a problem, however, as Eleanor Clift points out above: "The polls show that a majority of Americans no longer trust this team, which is why Bush and Cheney are hitting back hard at their critics. ... We have no mechanism to deal with a president who has lost the trust and confidence of the American people and has three years remaining in office. Impeachment is a nonissue; it’s not going to happen with Republicans in control of the House and Senate." Recent polls (uncooked ones, that is) show that over 80 % of the American People want Bush impeached. But, as we pointed out a day or so ago, that's not the answer. If you impeach Bush, you get Cheney, if you impeach Cheney, you get Hastert, if you impeach Hastert, you get Stevens. What we need is a way to get rid of an entire government. The problem seems to be that our Founding Fathers did not include in their deliberations, any situation such as the United States is faced with today: a gang that has fixed elections, assassinated opposition, blackmailed and stacked the Congress to pass laws that essentially create a dictatorship. Some other democratic governments have made provisions for just such contingencies. Typically, when parliaments vote 'no confidence,' or where it fails to vote confidence, a government must either: 1. resign, or 2. seek a parliamentary dissolution and request a General Election. We think that such provisions still leave something to be desired in that there is no way to factor in the voice of the people In view of the situation, we here at Signs do have an idea. Since it is now obvious that 80 % or more of the American people want Bush OUT, it is not very likely that any of them will be voting Republican in the next congressional elections. If a Republican majority is returned to Congress, we can then be almost certain of vote rigging. So, the thing to do first is deluge all state governments with demands for voting systems that have a paper trail to ensure that no more elections are stolen. Then, the people must put their energy into demanding new legislation. This legislation should be a bill introduced in Congress to the effect that a petition of citizens can invoke a national referendum of confidence/no confidence. Such a referendum will be 1 person = 1 vote, no "electoral college," no steps between the will of the people and the representatives of the people. If the will of the people is "no confidence" in the reigning government, they must all resign and a new election will be held. There ought to also be new legislation regarding elections, election financing, Congressional perks and power brokering.

A letter from a victim of the Republican giveaway to big Pharma by Dreama Runyon I am 48 years old and disabled. I have been thrown into this cruel and complex Medicare Part Plan. I am speaking out on behalf of all disabled as we are not mentioned by any media as having to lose our Medicaid Drug coverage and sign on to a Medicare plan. We also will not have a lot of our very vital life-saving medications paid for and now have premiums and co-pays. I would like the fact to be known that all disabled Americans were given only 6 weeks from November 15, 2005 to December 31, 2005 to get enrolled into a plan, as our Medicaid prescription coverage would not exist after December 31, 2005. I have no idea how we are going to survive but I do know that I am tired of all of the focus being on just the elderly and forgetting the disabled that are being "tossed" into this horrible drug plan. Please, at least give the American disabled a mention? Sincerely, Dreama Runyon, Wellington

Independence Air to Shut Down on Thursday By DERRILL HOLLY Associated Press January 2, 2005 CHANTILLY, Va. - Independence Air, which won fans with its low fares, announced plans Monday to cease operations just days into the new year. The carrier said its money troubles will force it to cancel all departures after 7 p.m. Thursday. The end came less than 19 months after the airline's first takeoff. "Things traditionally in the airline industry slow down drastically in January, so the total number of people that are going to be affected by this is much less than it would have been during the holiday season," said Rick DeLisi, a spokesman for Independence Air. It was not immediately clear how many people had tickets, which DeLisi said the airline would continue selling through Thursday. On Monday afternoon — hours after the announcement — flights could still be purchased on its Web site. "A lot of people have described the current economic conditions in the industry as the worst ever in history, and that's certainly proved to be the case in our situation," DeLisi said. Thursday will be last day of work for most of the 2,700 employees, though about 180 will remain to close out the carrier's affairs. The airline filed for bankruptcy protection in November. Parent company FLYi Inc. tried in vain to find a major investor or buyer. "There has not been a firm offer put forward that meets the financial criteria necessary to continue operations," Kerry Skeen, Independence Air's chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement Monday. Last week, the carrier reportedly sent letters to its unionized pilots, flight attendants and mechanics, warning of the looming shutdown. Passengers with roundtrip tickets are being contacted to see if they can return before the shutdown. Independence Air will ask a bankruptcy court to give refunds to those who cannot, as well as to people who booked flights for Friday and beyond. There will be no refunds for vouchers or free tickets. Other U.S. airlines operating on the same routes as Independence Air are required to offer standby seats for $50 each way to passengers holding unrefunded tickets, according to a message posted on the Independence Air Web site. The requirement is part of a federal law passed in November, 2001, to protect airline passengers following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Passengers must make their requests to the carriers within 60 days after Independence Air halts it service. Decisions on outstanding aircraft leases and gate space at dozens of airports will be determined through bankruptcy proceedings. Independence Air's hub at Washington Dulles International Airport — about 30 miles west of Washington — was busy Monday. More than a dozen clerks were checking in streams of passengers. "We knew there was a possibility this would happen, but I'll just hope it works out for the best," said a ticket agent who did not want to be identified. "We've flown them quite a bit. They had a lot of flight options and good prices," said Chris Turpin, 37, of Indian Rocks Beach, Fla., who also gave high marks to the friendly staff. "I've never been made angry by this airline," said Adrian Burns, 25, as he waited to check in for a flight to Columbus, Ohio. At Dulles, Independence Air vied with discount carriers JetBlue Airways Corp., AirTran Holdings Inc. and UAL Corp.'s Ted. It also faced major competition from Southwest Airlines Co., which flies out of Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. The company was formerly known as Atlantic Coast Airlines. It operated as a contract carrier for United Airlines and Delta Air Lines Inc., but when United sought to renegotiate its contract with Atlantic Coast at lower rates, Atlantic Coast executives decided they had a better future as an independent carrier. After a year of planning, flights began with great fanfare at Dulles on June 16, 2004. A water cannon salute greeted the first outbound plane on what was then a schedule of 39 departures. The first flight, to Atlanta, was full. Independence Air expanded to fly to most states on the East Coast and major cities on the West Coast. In recent months, it was forced to drop several routes.

Analysts: 2006 Pivotal Year for Airlines BY DAVID KOENIG AP Business Writer Mon Jan 2, 2:55 PM ET DALLAS - The U.S. airline industry is coming off an up-and-down year that saw two major carriers file for bankruptcy but others begin to pull out of a nosedive that began in 2001. Losses at the biggest U.S. airlines since the economic downturn in 2001 were expected to approach $30 billion. Still, 2005 was nearly a good year. Some companies, including the parent of American Airlines, the largest U.S. carrier, could have turned a profit if fuel prices hadn't shot so high. Some airlines narrowed their losses by sharply cutting costs other than fuel, including wringing wage concessions out of their workers. Some analysts think 2006 will be a pivotal year. Michael Linenberg of Merrill Lynch says fewer planes flying, rising fares and lower fuel prices could lift the stock of airlines. He calls it a reversal of the perfect storm — costly fuel, growth of low-cost carriers, and too many seats on sale — that swamped the carriers in red ink. The new year started off with news of some of that extra capacity disappearing: FLYi Inc., the bankrupt parent of Independence Air, said it would shut down its operations on Thursday evening. The low-cost airline competed against discount carriers JetBlue Airways Corp., AirTran Holdings Inc. and UAL Corp.'s Ted from its Dulles, Va., hub. It also competed with Southwest Airlines Co., which flies out of Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. Dallas-based Southwest Airlines has been the only carrier to be consistently profitable in the current slump. Chief Executive Gary C. Kelly agreed that trends are looking up. "The economy is continuing to grow at a healthy rate, business travel is continuing to pick up, and industry capacity (measured in seats times miles flown) has moderated and even shrunk in some areas," Kelly said. "If all those underlying conditions continue, we ought to have robust revenue production for the industry next year." Southwest's goal is to boost profit 15 percent in 2006. Analysts think it will do even better — a 25 percent increase in earnings per share, according to a survey by Thomson Financial. Analysts predict five other carriers also will earn a profit in 2006: American's parent, Fort Worth-based AMR Corp.; Houston-based Continental Airlines Inc.; Alaska Air Group Inc.; JetBlue; and AirTran. Of the five, only Alaska Air was expected to be profitable for 2005. Analysts expect nine of the 10 largest U.S. carriers to increase their revenue next year — only bankrupt Northwest Airlines Corp. is expected to see sales decline. Southwest's Kelly said the wild card will be fuel. Southwest insulated itself from high prices by hedging. Over the past several years, it took options to buy fuel at set prices, a gamble that looked brilliant after prices surged beginning in 2004. Other carriers, such as American Airlines, either didn't or couldn't afford to hedge. Executive Vice President Daniel P. Garton said American was pleased with its ability to control other costs and to increase sales. American is also searching for other ways to make money, including doing maintenance for other airlines at its facility in Tulsa, Okla. "We're not where we need to be, but we end the year with a little bit of a cash cushion and with positive momentum," Garton said. Continental officials did not respond to a request for an interview, but in comments to investors last month, Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey J. Misner said the carrier believes it has costs under control. Continental has cut nonlabor costs about $1 billion a year and another $418 million in labor costs, and flight attendants will vote on $72 million more in annual concessions this month. Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest filed for bankruptcy in September, joining UAL Corp., the parent of United Airlines, which has been operating under bankruptcy protection since 2002. With so many airlines in financial troubles, some analysts believe the industry is poised for consolidation. Last fall, America West bought US Airways and formed US Airways Group Inc. There has been speculation that Continental could make a move for United in the new year. Continental's Misner said the airline would be "very happy to go it alone" but that the two carriers would make "a knock-'em-dead worldwide network." Southwest is the strongest carrier financially but professes no interest in an acquisition. Instead, Southwest added service to Pittsburgh in 2005 and will return to Denver in January after pulling out many years ago. It is also expanding flights elsewhere and plans to add nearly 30 jets next year. Comment: If the airline industry's financial problems existed in a vacuum, then sure, consolidation might just solve everyone's problems. Unfortunately, the industry's difficulties are not unique; they are part of a much larger economic picture that doesn't look too bright as 2006 starts rolling.

Britons in debt to the tune of £1.13 trillion By Martin Hickman Consumer Affairs Correspondent 03 January 2006 * 66,000 people predicted to go bust this year; * Average household debt is £7,650 (exc. mortgage); * Two-thirds of EU credit card debt is British; * One in five students owes at least £15,000; * 40% of women keep debt secret from partners; * Half of all heavy debtors suffer from depression A debt-fuelled spending splurge at Christmas is set to push thousands of individuals into crisis and cause record bankruptcies in coming months as consumers struggle to pay off credit cards. According to the accountancy firm Grant Thornton, at least 20,000 people in England and Wales will become insolvent by the end of the quarter in March, and 66,000 individuals by the end of 2006. Both figures would be the highest since records of personal debt began 45 years ago. Shoppers are thought to have been tempted into splashing out more than they could afford on food and presents at Christmas and on bargains in the new year sales. After a slow start retailers reported brisk business in December, and the bill for Christmas is almost certain to top the £10bn of 2004. The spree comes as personal insolvency surges at an annual rate of more than 30 per cent. Citizens' Advice Bureaux are reporting "huge numbers" of debt calls, and the Consumer Credit Counselling Service predicts bankruptcies will double in the next few years. Personal debt in Britain amounts to £1.13 trillion, a figure that is growing rapidly. One-fifth of that total is unsecured lending, and UK consumers account for two-thirds of total credit card debt in the EU. Experts predict that a recent boom in "easy" credit offered on relatively lax criteria will end in catastrophic debt levels for many individuals. Debt-fuelled spending has helped to keep the UK economy afloat by maintaining high consumer demand. But it causes serious problems for about 5 per cent of borrowers, who cannot manage their finances or whose relationships break down or who lose their jobs. Some rack up unsecured debts of more than £100,000 before their finances eventually collapse. Thirty-four per cent of men and 40 per cent of women keep their financial meltdown secret from their partners. Catherine Thomson, 27, is a City worker who, though not in fear of bankruptcy, faces a lean start to the new year after spending £600 at Christmas, which she will have to pay off in addition to thousands of pounds of student debt. She said: "The expenses surrounding Christmas really add up and probably cost more than presents themselves - train tickets to visit family, wine when you visit friends for lunches, going out for dinner with friends and work colleagues." Grant Thornton estimates that some 6,500 of the 20,000 personal insolvencies in the first quarter will stem from "excessive Christmas spending". Mike Gerrard, Grant Thornton's head of personal insolvency, said: "A little overspend will not break the bank for most, but for those who are already financially stretched, spending that little bit more during the festivities may represent the last straw, plunging individuals in already precarious financial positions further into debt and quite possibly towards bankruptcy." He explained: "An individual with serious debts will typically have a mortgage in the region of £50,000 to £100,000 and commonly credit and store card debts of £50,000. While this may sound like a warning call to stay away from the high street, the fact remains that we regularly see people, especially over Christmas, add to their problems in quite a substantial way." Anyone who can no longer meet their monthly repayments may be forced into insolvency, either through an Individual Voluntary Arrangement, a repayment plan with lenders, or bankruptcy. Bankruptcy has become an easier option for individuals in the past 18 months with the introduction of the 2002 Enterprise Act. For a fee of £500 most borrowers are freed of debt and bankruptcy ends after one year, though there may be continuing problems obtaining credit. The Government believes that the overall level of debt is manageable. But the banks are becoming concerned about the number of individuals who overstretch themselves and cannot pay back their capital. Last month four credit card companies - Barclaycard, Egg, Co-op and Abbey - agreed to share information about individuals and launch an early warning system for borrowers in trouble. According to the Government's figures, more people became insolvent in the first nine months of last year, 48,703, than in the whole of 2004. In Scotland, insolvency soared by 50 per cent year-on-year in the summer of 2005. Mortgage repossessions are also up - by 66 per cent in the third quarter of last year - triggering fears that a sudden rise in interest rates or unemployment could cause widespread financial distress. The average debt of clients approaching the Consumer Credit Counselling Service is £29,000. The number with "extreme" debts of more than £100,000 has almost doubled in the past year. Malcolm Hurlston, the charity's chairman, believes bankruptcy is an increasingly tempting and acceptable way out of debt. "There are two things that stop people going bankrupt," he said. "One is stigma and one is the cost. Out of the people we advise, we advise far more people to go bankrupt than do go bankrupt, and there is scope for a very substantial increase as the social climate changes. There is little to stop the number of bankruptcies doubling in the new few years."

Support for Bush drops among US military: poll AFP Mon Jan 2, 8:22 PM ET WASHINGTON - Support for President George W. Bush's Iraq policy has fallen among the US armed forces to just 54 percent from 63 percent a year ago, according to a poll by the magazine group Military Times. In its annual survey of the views of military personnel, the group reported on its website that support for Bush's overall policies dropped over the past year to 60 percent from 71 percent. While still significantly more supportive of the president than the broad US population, the fall in support by military personnel tracks a similar decline in the president's popularity among the general public. "Though support both for President Bush and for the war in Iraq remains significantly higher than in the public as a whole, the drop is likely to add further fuel to the heated debate over Iraq policy," Military Times said. "In 2003 and 2004, supporters of the war in Iraq pointed to high approval ratings in the Military Times poll as a signal that military members were behind ... the president's policy." However, it said, the new poll "found diminished optimism that US goals in Iraq can be accomplished, and a somewhat smaller drop in support for the decision to go to war in 2003." Military Times, which publishes popular magazines for each of the US military branches including Army Times and Navy Times, cautioned that its poll, of 1,215 active-duty servicemen, is not necessarily representative of the military as a whole. The respondents were "on average older, more experienced, more likely to be officers and more career-oriented than the military population." But the declining numbers for Bush tracked other polls. According to the CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll, support for Bush's performance as president fell from 49 percent to 43 percent over the year to December 22. The Military Times poll also showed a significant decline in the armed forces' views of US military policy and management. With 61 percent of respondents saying they had served in Iraq or Afghanistan, only 58 percent believed that Bush had the military's best interests at heart, a sharp decline from 69 percent a year before. Only 56 percent felt the US should have gone to war in Iraq, compared to 60 percent a year before. And 64 percent felt the same about the Pentagon leadership, compared to 70 percent a year ago. Addressing key issues facing the Pentagon, the poll showed that almost two-thirds of the soldiers felt the US military is "stretched too thin to be effective", but the number was less than a year ago. At the same time, there was a fall in resistance to restoring the draft in the United States. Opposition fell from 75 percent a year ago to 68 percent this year.

White House to withdraw funding for rebuilding Iraq By Andrew Gumbel 03 January 2006 The US government is not planning to continue funding reconstruction projects in Iraq, in what appears to be a major climbdown from the White House's one-time pledge to build the best infrastructure in the region. According to officials cited in yesterday's Washington Post, the Bush administration will not be adding construction funds to the $18.4bn (£10.7bn) it has allocated since the 2003 invasion. In future it will be up to other foreign donors and the Iraqi government to do what it can to complete even basic tasks such as supplying reliable electricity and water to the country's 26 million people. It is a badly kept secret that reconstruction has gone badly. Essential services have been very slow in coming back on line and roughly half the money earmarked for reconstruction has been diverted into the military effort against the insurgency. The newspaper quoted Brigadier General William McCoy, the commander overseeing construction projects, saying the US funding was never meant to be more than a "jump-start ... The US never intended to completely rebuild Iraq," he said. If confirmed, the withdrawal of reconstruction funds from America would be a further signal that the Bush administration is looking at ways to lessen the US commitment to Iraq as it faces increasing political pressure to start finding a way out. It is also one further sign that US ambitions for Iraq have been thwarted by realities on the ground. Iraq's oil production, seen before and after the war as a key strategic asset, has been so hampered by infrastructural problems and sabotage that it remains significantly lower than it was at the time of the invasion. The output of Iraq's national electrical grid is also lower than it was prior to the invasion. The average Iraqi household has electricity for only half the day at best - and in Baghdad there is electricity for no more than six hours a day. * The Lincoln Group - set up by Christian Bailey, an Oxford graduate - has been paying Sunni clerics for consultations on how to write pro-US propaganda that would persuade Sunnis to participate in elections and oppose the insurgency. The company received $100m from the US government to place the stories.

The 'Honest Mistakes' of Vietnam and Iraq By Ko Colijn Translated By Meta Martens December 28, 2005 Recently declassified documents from the U.S. National Security Agency reveal that just as in Iraq, the escalation of the Vietnam War was based on mistaken intelligence. According to this op-ed article from Vrij Nederland of The Netherlands, lies that originated somewhere down the bureaucratic chain take on a life of their own when intelligence officials cover up their own errors, and political leaders seize on bad information to launch the nation into war. According to some historians, on August 4th 1964, American citizens began to mistrust their own government. Back then, a North Vietnamese attack on an American destroyer in the Gulf of Tonkin was reason enough for a ten-year war to stop the communist threat. About 59,000 American soldiers and millions of Vietnamese would die, in a war which in retrospect was waged for nothing. But it was only four weeks ago that we told with almost complete certainty the [Gulf of] Tonkin incident was a sham used to wage that war. The comparison with Iraq and the mistaken intelligence about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction is obvious. But it may take 41 years before we know beyond doubt that the Iraq War wasn’t only about bad information but rather information composed of lies. For years of course, there has been a buzz about the [Gulf of] Tonkin incident. The official reading was that on August 2nd 1964, an American destroyer, the USS Maddox, was on patrol along the North Vietnamese coast. [RealVideoOfficial Chronology]. Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked the Maddox. Two days later they are said to have attacked the Maddox again, after which President Johnson ordered retaliatory air strikes. On August 7th, Congress passed the notorious [Gulf of] Tonkin resolution, which was the start of the Vietnam War. There are many doubts about this official version. The legendary journalist I.F. Stone was the first to raise doubts. Within a few weeks he questioned whether the second attack had really taken place. Even President Johnson joked: "As far as I know, our Marines returned fire on whales," which didn’t stop him from shipping thousands of Marines to Vietnam. At the height of the war in March, 1969, more than half a million Americans were fighting in the Vietnamese jungle, as B-52s turned the country into one big bomb crater. During those years, there was no mention of an Axis of Evil, but a variation thereof. It was called the Domino Theory. Washington argued that America was forced to take action against this relatively unimportant regime because if the communist regime in Hanoi were permitted to take power in South Vietnam, other regimes in Southeast Asia would one by one fall into communist hands. But this wasn't quite a black and white case; and those who are now reflexively saying "I told you so, it is a lie" in regard to the war against Saddam Hussein should pay attention. In December of 2001, an article appeared in Cryptologic Quarterly, the internal publication of the National Security Agency, written by the NSA historian Robert Hanyok. In this article he investigated the role of the intercepted North Vietnamese communication messages during the Tonkin incident. After patient insistence this article was released to the public on December 1, 2005. And what does Hanyok write? The alleged second attack on the Maddox was partially based on bad translations (honest mistakes) by decoders in the American intelligence service of North Vietnamese army messages. When diligent NSA employees discovered the error, they chose to cover it up instead of correcting the mistake. Higher officials passed "the honest mistakes" on to politicians who used the intelligence to escalate the war they wished to fight in the first place. What is now making headlines as "the lie of Tonkin" is a rather nuanced tragedy. While there is every indication that President Johnson and his Secretary of Defense used the August 4th attack as a pretext and made no effort to halt the story, the lie itself originated somewhere down the bureaucratic chain and started to take on a life of its own. Just imagine, the pathology of the bureaucracy has remained unchanged during the 40 years between Tonkin and Iraq. In the present case, the debacle of Bush in regard to Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction could well have been the result of a cover-up by a frightened intelligence bureaucrat and the myopic vision of a president on the war path. The lie of one enabled the other to make an "honest mistake" - but in 40 years Bush will not be judged with that type of distinction.

New Book Reveals Secret War Operations AP January 2, 2005 WASHINGTON - A new book on the government's secret anti-terrorism operations describes how the CIA recruited an Iraqi-American anesthesiologist in 2002 to obtain information from her brother, who was a figure in Saddam Hussein's nuclear program. Dr. Sawsan Alhaddad of Cleveland made the dangerous trip to Iraq on the CIA's behalf. The book said her brother was stunned by her questions about the nuclear program because — he said — it had been dead for a decade. New York Times reporter James Risen uses the anecdote to illustrate how the CIA ignored information that Iraq no longer had weapons of mass destruction. His book, "State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration" describes secret operations of the Bush administration's war on terrorism. The major revelation in the book has already been the subject of extensive reporting by Risen's newspaper: the National Security Agency's eavesdropping of Americans' conversations without obtaining warrants from a special court. The book said Dr. Alhaddad flew home in mid-September 2002 and had a series of meetings with CIA analysts. She relayed her brother's information that there was no nuclear program. A CIA operative later told Dr. Alhaddad's husband that the agency believed her brother was lying. In all, the book says, some 30 family members of Iraqis made trips to their native country to contact Iraqi weapons scientists, and all of them reported that the programs had been abandoned. In October 2002, a month after the doctor's trip to Baghdad, the U.S intelligence community issued a National Intelligence Estimate that concluded Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear program. In the book, which quotes extensively from anonymous sources, Risen said the NSA spying program was launched in 2002 after the CIA began to capture high-ranking al-Qaida operatives overseas, and took their computers, cell phones and personal phone directories. The CIA turned the telephone numbers and e-mail addresses from the material over to the NSA, which then began monitoring the phone numbers — in addition to anyone in contact with the telephone subscribers, the book said, saying this led to an expansion of the monitoring, both overseas and in the United States. The book said the NSA does not need approval from the White House, the Justice Department or anyone else in the Bush administration before it begins eavesdropping on a specific phone line in the United States. In another chapter on a "rogue operation," the book said a CIA officer mistakenly sent one of its Iranian agents information that could be used to identify virtually every spy the agency had in Iran. The book said the Iranian was a double agent who turned over the data to Iranian security officials. The book said the information severely damaged the CIA's Iranian network, and quoted CIA sources as saying several of the U.S. agents were arrested and jailed.

Iraqi clerics are paid to spin for US By Andrew Buncombe in Washington 03 January 2006 A company headed by a young British businessman at the centre of a controversy over the Pentagon's information war in Iraq has been making payments to Islamic clerics in exchange for advice on how to target Sunnis with pro-American propaganda. Since early last year the Lincoln Group - set up by Christian Bailey, an Oxford graduate - has been consulting Sunni clerics on how to write messages that would persuade Sunnis to participate in national elections and oppose the insurgency. Three or four have been retained by the company to advise US troops preparing "positive spin messages" as part of a propaganda campaign. Lincoln Group secured a contract worth more than $100m to place stories written by US troops in Iraqi newspapers and make cash payments to Iraqi journalists to write similarly uncritical stories for their newspapers.

Following Orders by Mark A. Goldman 2 Jan 2006 If I have my facts straight, Hitler killed only one person in his lifetime: himself. All the other atrocities that are attributed to him were carried out by people who were only following orders. If it is true that the war in Iraq is illegal, as I and others believe it is—including the Secretary General of the United Nations—then all the deaths and atrocities that have occurred to date, inflicted by our coalition forces, are the acts of individuals who, knowingly or unknowingly, with good intentions or not, have been willing to break the law in order to follow the orders of superiors. Each member of the US military took an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Each also took a pledge to follow the legal orders of the Commander in Chief. Under the Constitution, no soldier is required to follow an illegal order. But that's what many Americans have been doing now for quite some time. And this is not confined to our military personnel, but also to members of the FBI, the CIA, the NSA (the folks who have been carrying out those illegal wire taps), outsourced contractors, the media, and perhaps most egregious of all— elected members of Congress, who for all intents and purposes, put their conscience and oversight responsibilities on hold as they get their marching orders from the Oval Office or from party leaders. I believe the reason that many of those who do follow illegal orders, or otherwise fall into line under pressure, is that if they refused, they would be subject to severe ridicule and/or punishment. They know that if they subjected themselves to this ridicule or punishment, that we would not do anything to protect them from that injustice. And so, in pursuit of this war, we have suspended the Constitution. Many members of Congress have supported the administration in carrying out illegal acts, rationalizing that such behavior is in the name of national security. That's what Hitler said too. Innocent people have been killed, wounded, tortured, rendered, humiliated, had their privacy invaded, and their lives dismantled all in the name of national security. Anyone who objects can now be put under suspicion and may be targeted for future intimidation or worse. According to members of Congress, nothing this administration does is egregious enough to qualify them for impeachment. The stories of individuals who have been damaged by the illegal acts of our government and their agents are beginning to filter through. But the damage that's been done is far greater than the stories yet told. Damage done to our Constitution and to our self respect will likely take a heavy toll for generations to come. And yet for most Americans their sensibilities are not disturbed by what's been happening… many do not want to hear about it. Those who do hear about it, make up their own rationalization of why it's ok. Many simply don't know what to think or do. This all leads me to believe that with every victory this administration experiences, the light of liberty and freedom will dim a little more. If we were to achieve the victory that Bush talks about in Iraq, it would not help the cause of freedom, it would help to kill it. It would only encourage his hubris, his arrogance. He doesn't want democracy, he only wants stability. He wants the oil. He doesn't believe in the Constitution or the rule of law. He has the sensibilities of a despot. Since the atrocities and illegalities for which his administration is responsible have not been repudiated by Congress or the American people, he and his conspirators will continue to conclude that there is no limit to their power… all they have to do is take however much they want... but do it just a little bit at a time. And there is no reason to suspect that they will not do just that and use that power for their own purposes, whatever that might be. I say to you: the ends do not justify the means. If we do not identify, explore, and repudiate the illegal acts of this government, soon the fist of injustice will come knocking at every door… if history teaches us anything at all, it surely teaches us that. There is good reason for secrecy in the Bush administration. The reason they don't want to conduct or discuss their activities in the light of day is because eventually the American people would figure it out: they would come to the conclusion that the reason the so called terrorists are out to kill Americans is because secretly the American government has been responsible for murder and the disenfranchisement of decent people all over the world. The United States has been active in destroying democratic institutions for a long time. We have done this to satisfy American greed for resources that don't belong to us, oil being supreme among them. We have caused people in middle eastern countries to suffer tyrants like Saddam Hussein and the Saudi family. American leaders favor tyrants. We help install them. We work very hard to keep them in place. We like tyrants because we can buy them off in a protection racket. We use our money and our military power to support their illegitimate regimes in exchange for cheap oil, or whatever the resource happens to be. In all countries it works pretty much the same. And in these countries it is ordinary people who suffer because of our policies. When some of these people finally decide to strike out, fight back, to get us to stop, our leaders call it terrorism and then they ask us to send our children to die in battle fighting these 'bad' guys. They tell us that we are being attacked for no other reason than that they hate our freedom and our democracy. And we believe them; and we send our children to die and to kill because we don't have the knowledge or courage not to believe them. We are so afraid, we are even willing to send our beautiful children to die and to kill. What a price to pay for ignorance and blind faith. No one in Congress has been willing to stand up and say what I just said. It is only the truth that will save us. Nothing less will do. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Stand up. Speak out. Remove the traitors from their perches or they will take our children and turn them into criminals like themselves. Mark A. Goldman is a financial planner who lives on Vashon Island, WA . He has written three books of political commentary since Bush took office in 2000. Additional information and commentary can be found at his web site: www.gpln.com. You can email Mark at: mark@gpln.com Comment: "Under the influence of politicians, masses of people tend to ascribe the responsibility for wars to those who wield power at any given time. In World War I it was the munitions industrialists; in World War II it was the psychopathic generals who were said to be guilty. This is passing the buck. The responsibility for wars falls solely upon the shoulders of these same masses of people, for they have all the necessary means to avert war in their own hands. In part by their apathy, in part by their passivity, and in part actively, these same masses of people make possible the catastrophes under which they themselves suffer more than anyone else. To stress this guilt on the part of the masses of people, to hold them solely responsible, means to take them seriously. On the other hand, to commiserate masses of people as victims, means to treat them as small, helpless children. The former is the attitude held by genuine freedom fighters; the latter that attitude held by power-thirsty politicians." Wilhelm Reich, The Mass Psychology of Fascism

US forces step up Iraq airstrikes Sarah Baxter, Washington, Ali Rifat, Baghdad and Peter Almond The Sunday Times January 01, 2006 AMERICAN forces are dramatically stepping up air attacks on insurgents in Iraq as they prepare to start the withdrawal of ground troops in the spring. The number of airstrikes in 2005, running at a monthly average of 25 until August, surged to 120 in November and an expected 150 in December, according to official military figures. The tempo looks set to increase this year as the Americans pull back from urban combat, leaving street fighting increasingly to Iraqi forces supported by US air power. “The bottom line will be that as the Iraqi army and police gain in competence, they will be able to take on more and more of the territory,” said General Peter Pace, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, announcing a cut in troop numbers from 160,000 to fewer than 138,000 by March. The intensification in the air war comes as Iraqi politicians struggle in the aftermath of last month’s elections to put together a coalition government that will satisfy the disaffected Sunni minority, which ran Iraq under Saddam Hussein. “We are insisting on a national unity government,” said Adel Abdel Mahdi, a leading member of the Shi’ite United Iraqi Alliance, the likely election winner. The Sunni bloc, allied to the secular party of Iyad Allawi, the former prime minister, has been secretly discussing the terms of a possible political deal with insurgent groups. But those groups’ leaders have a long list of demands, chief of which is a timetable for American withdrawal as well as the release of prisoners, an effective rehabilitation of Saddam’s former ruling Ba’ath party and the disbanding of Shi’ite and Kurdish militias. Insurgent sources said that they are also including Al-Qaeda in Iraq in their talks as its involvement was vital if a deal was to work. President George W Bush promised in a pre-Chistmas speech that America will leave Iraq only when “victory” has been achieved, but the term is being quietly redefined. Dov Zakheim, a senior Pentagon official during Bush’s first term in office, said: “The goal is not democracy, it is a united Iraq that doesn’t bother its neighbours. There is no law that says American troops have to be in the most hostile areas.” The shift to air power is part of that policy. Determined to reduce “collateral damage”, the American military is relying on laser or satellite-guided bombs that can strike rooms or buildings without killing large numbers of civilians. Comment: Yeah, right. American munitions are SO precise that the explosions they cause will magically whiz around innocent civilians and only take out the "bad guys". It is amazing that anyone can still even think about claiming that US use of laser-guided smart bombs will magically reduce civilian casualties when there are mountains of evidence to show that the primary beneficiaries of such weapons to date in Iraq have been innocent men, women, and children. The bombs are also getting smaller: 500lb devices are becoming the norm, rather than those of 1,000lb or 2,000lb common in recent conflicts, and 3,000 new 7in 250lb devices are on order. Allen Peck, a US air force general, said that in some cases the 100lb Hellfire missile is used: “It won’t knock down a house, but it can be effective in taking out a car.” Comment: While these new weapons may sound "safer", the Hellfire missile is an anti-tank weapon - and they're going to fire them at cars?! In an example of the strategy, two US F16 fighters last week dropped two 500lb laser-guided bombs on three men planting roadside explosives in Kirkuk province, killing them and seven others. Comment: And seven others??? However, some experts insist that even the smallest, most precise bombs cannot replace boots on the ground. “It’s transitory. You hit it, even occupy it, but then the insurgents return when you’ve gone, like Falluja last year,” said Wing Commander Andrew Brookes of the International Insititute for Strategic Studies. [...] Comment: Bush is taking the heat at home, so the obvious solution is to pull out the troops and start bombing the heck out of Iraq again. He is probably hoping that most Americans will be much happier when US casualties drop, and that they won't care about the increased Iraqi deaths.

U.S. Has End in Sight on Iraq Rebuilding By Ellen Knickmeyer Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, January 2, 2006; Page A01 Documents Show Much of the Funding Diverted to Security, Justice System and Hussein Inquiry BAGHDAD -- The Bush administration does not intend to seek any new funds for Iraq reconstruction in the budget request going before Congress in February, officials say. The decision signals the winding down of an $18.4 billion U.S. rebuilding effort in which roughly half of the money was eaten away by the insurgency, a buildup of Iraq's criminal justice system and the investigation and trial of Saddam Hussein. Just under 20 percent of the reconstruction package remains unallocated. When the last of the $18.4 billion is spent, U.S. officials in Baghdad have made clear, other foreign donors and the fledgling Iraqi government will have to take up what authorities say is tens of billions of dollars of work yet to be done merely to bring reliable electricity, water and other services to Iraq's 26 million people. "The U.S. never intended to completely rebuild Iraq," Brig. Gen. William McCoy, the Army Corps of Engineers commander overseeing the work, told reporters at a recent news conference. In an interview this past week, McCoy said: "This was just supposed to be a jump-start." Since the reconstruction effort began in 2003, midcourse changes by U.S. officials have shifted at least $2.5 billion from the rebuilding of Iraq's decrepit electrical, education, water, sewage, sanitation and oil networks to build new security forces for Iraq and to construct a nationwide system of medium- and maximum-security prisons and detention centers that meet international standards, according to reconstruction officials and documents. Many of the changes were forced by an insurgency more fierce than the United States had expected when its troops entered Iraq. In addition, from 14 percent to 22 percent of the cost of every nonmilitary reconstruction project goes toward security against insurgent attacks, according to reconstruction officials in Baghdad. In Washington, the office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction puts the security costs of each project at 25 percent. U.S. officials more than doubled the size of the Iraqi army, which they initially planned to build to only 40,000 troops. An item-by-item inspection of reallocated funds reveals how priorities were shifted rapidly to fund initiatives addressing the needs of a new Iraq: a 300-man Iraqi hostage-rescue force that authorities say stages operations almost every night in Baghdad; more than 600 Iraqis trained to dispose of bombs and protect against suicide bombs; four battalions of Iraqi special forces to protect the oil and electric networks; safe houses and armored cars for judges; $7.8 million worth of bulletproof vests for firefighters; and a center in the city of Kirkuk for treating victims of torture. At the same time, the hundreds of Americans and Iraqis who have devoted themselves to the reconstruction effort point to 3,600 projects that the United States has completed or intends to finish before the $18.4 billion runs out around the end of 2006. These include work on 900 schools, construction of hospitals and nearly 160 health care centers and clinics, and repairs on or construction of nearly 800 miles of highways, city streets and village roads. But the insurgency has set back efforts across the board. In two of the most crucial areas, electricity and oil production, relentless sabotage has kept output at or below prewar levels despite the expenditure of hundreds of millions of American dollars and countless man-hours. Oil production stands at roughly 2 million barrels a day, compared with 2.6 million before U.S. troops entered Iraq in March 2003, according to U.S. government statistics. The national electrical grid has an average daily output of 4,000 megawatts, about 400 megawatts less than its prewar level. Iraqis nationwide receive on average less than 12 hours of power a day. For residents of Baghdad, it was six hours a day last month, according to a U.S. count, though many residents say that figure is high. The Americans, said Zaid Saleem, 26, who works at a market in Baghdad, "are the best in destroying things but they are the worst in rebuilding." [...] Comment: "Reconstruction costs" causing you trouble back home? No problem! Just fire up the Iraqi "security services", pull out your troops, cut off the flow of money, and watch Iraq descend into civil war and a new brutal dictatorship as you and your Neocon pals pull the strings from behind the scenes.

Iraq Oil Minister Resigns Under Pressure AP Mon Jan 2, 9:09 AM ET BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's oil minister said Monday he resigned after the government last week gave him a forced vacation and replaced him with Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi following criticism about fuel price increases. Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum said he quit because the government raised fuel prices by nine times on Dec. 19, a decision he had strongly criticized. "This decision will not serve the benefit of the government and the people. This decision brings an extra burden on the shoulders of citizens and caused an increase in the prices of all essential materials. It also caused a reaction on the Iraqi streets," al-Uloum said. The price increases and the mid-December closure of the country's biggest refinery led to protests in many cities around Iraq and riots in northern oil-rich Kirkuk, where police shot and killed four protesters during unrest Sunday. Officials at the Beiji refinery reopened it Sunday nearly two weeks after shutting it down because of insurgent threats to kill drivers of fuel trucks. "We started to supply the tankers with oil products after the government promised to secure them along the highways," said Ahmed Ibrahim Hamadi, the director of distribution at the refinery. The decision came after the Iraqi army sent more troops to guard the tanker trucks that supply the capital, including its main storage facilities in Dora, and to other Iraqi cities. "Well-equipped and developed Iraqi army and police forces are guarding all the tankers which are trucking oil products from Beiji refinery to Dora, to Baghdad and other provinces," said Maj. Gen. Abdul Aziz Mohamed-Jassim, director of the Defense Ministry's operations room.

Abbas may postpone Palestinian elections Last Updated Mon, 02 Jan 2006 11:03:17 EST CBC News Palestinian Leader Mahmoud Abbas says he will postpone the Jan. 25th parliamentary elections if Israel stops Jerusalem Arabs from voting. The announcement comes after top members of his Fatah party pressured him to delay the election because of a fierce challenge from the Islamic group Hamas. They are worried Hamas will have a strong showing at the polls. "We all agree that Jerusalem should be included in the elections," Abbas said in Doha, Qatar. "If it is not included, all the factions agree there should be no elections." His comments were carried on the Al-Jazeera satellite channel. Abbas's comments suggest Hamas would also accept a delay. The Islamic group has repeatedly said it expects the vote will be on schedule. The Palestinian leader was scheduled to meet with Hamas Leader Khaled Mashaal in Qatar. It was not clear whether the meeting had taken place. Israeli officials say they have not yet decided whether to allow Jerusalem's 200,000 Palestinians to vote. Abbas's comments come amid chaos in the Gaza Strip, with daily reports of gunmen kidnapping foreigners or the takeover of government buildings. Palestinian police have been unable to halt the violence that has gripped Gaza since Israel withdrew in September. Observers say the violence could weaken Abbas and benefit Hamas, which is running on a campaign pledging clean government and law and order. But with campaigning to begin officially on Tuesday, Abbas may be running out of time to delay the election. Comment: And why should Israel have any say in who votes and who does not in a Palestinian election?

A Glossary of Dispossession December 25, 2005 By Paul de Rooij During 2005 the Israelis and most main media trumpeted the "disengagement" from Gaza, and claimed that bold steps had been taken to resolve the conflict. Despite these claims, the reality is that more Palestinian land has been stolen, many have been dispossessed, and ethnic cleansing has been exacerbated especially in Jerusalem. Meanwhile Israelis are orchestrating a propaganda campaign to hide this latest sordid chapter of dispossession. The main feature of this campaign is its invisibility: Israel and its media surrogates are effectively diverting attention from what is happening on the ground. There are virtually no reports about the progress of the construction of the wall and the effect it is having on those caught in its path. Furthermore, it is evident that events have been stage-managed and over hyped to divert media attention elsewhere, e.g., the hoopla surrounding the eviction of the settlers in Gaza [1]. The third feature is the adoption of propaganda-tainted words; these are a subtle means of altering the perception of the Palestinian condition and the nature of Israeli actions -- and these are the focus of this article. Words are very important. Words frame issues, palliate, mollify, exculpate or even hide sordid acts. Words like "disengagement", "viable state", "barrier or fence", etc., alter our understanding of the Palestinian condition under the unrelenting ethnic cleansing that has been the norm during the past decades. Invariably western media and its coterie of "analysts" use propaganda-tainted words when referring to Israeli actions and the Palestinian condition. The list below analyses a few of the prevalent words that hide or exculpate the dispossession of millions [2]. Abused terms or curious new terminology (alphabetic order) Translation American arbitration "Honest broker" -- all over again The Israelis refuse to engage in any negotiations with the Palestinians; all the "disengagement" measures were imposed unilaterally. However, the semblance of negotiations is necessary and the US has adopted the role of arbitrator. The US seeks to create the appearance that negotiations are taking place even though the Israelis refuse to have face-to-face talks. The US has taken on this role despite the fact that it funds Israel to the tune of billions of dollars, shields them diplomatically from international censure, and so on. Usually a mediator is a neutral party without a conflict of interest. Never mind, for propaganda purposes the US still can be called "honest broker" or "arbitrator". Apartheid lights Traffic lights favoring Jews "... a B'Tselem researcher from the Shuafat refugee camp, cites the existence of a relatively new term in the lexicon of discrimination in the eastern part of the capital, "Apartheid traffic lights." There are almost no traffic lights in the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem. Stoplights exist mainly in those rare locations where there is Jewish traffic. In these cases, for example the stoplights north of the French Hill intersection, the time allotted to Arab traffic from the direction of Shuafat is much less than the time allotted to cars coming from the Jewish neighborhood. As a result, during many hours of the day there are long lines of vehicles waiting at the intersection on the "Arab" roads." [3] Concessions Desire for a goodwill response to Israeli unilaterally imposed measures In mid-2005, when the Israelis unilaterally imposed measures in what came to be known as the disengagement, the Israelis and their apologists expressed a desire for Palestinian "concessions" in response to Israeli "goodwill". Their assumption is that Israeli actions are permeated with goodwill towards the Palestinians -- surely the first case of ethnic cleansers demonstrating goodwill towards their victims. There are numerous counter-examples demonstrating sheer Israeli mean-spiritedness towards Palestinians. It is instructive to read about the recent negotiations surrounding the border crossings between Gaza and Egypt, or the transport link between Gaza and the West Bank. In Gideon Levy's words: "Anyone reviewing these press accounts will discover the main components characterizing Israel's behavior toward the Palestinians -- the evasiveness, the lack of a modicum of goodwill and the failure to honor agreements." [4] Conflict Management Suppressing the resistance; alternative to peace Israel is imposing a "solution" on the Palestinians, and this is called the "disengagement". Since there are no negotiations, there is no reason why the Palestinians should accept the outcome and some may decide to pursue the armed struggle. "Conflict management" talks are discussions with Palestinian collaborators to suppress the armed resistance. (q.v. peace) Controversial Illegal Mainstream journalists are incapable of suggesting that building colonial settlements is illegal. The euphemism of choice is "controversial". Of course, later on they will suggest that it is "not reasonable" to remove the colonial settlement -- it was merely controversial, not illegal or unethical [5]. (q.v. it is not reasonable) Disengagement Occupation by other means and an intensification of ethnic cleansing The so-called disengagement was the imposition of a series of unilateral measures that led to the redeployment of Israeli forces in Gaza, limited removal of the settlement colonies, and an acceleration of the dispossession and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and Jerusalem. While the propagandists sought to emphasize the pullout from Gaza, it is clear that they sought to hide the sordid developments in the West Bank, or the implications for the Gazan population of the Israeli control from the perimeter of the enclave. Ethnic thinning Retail ethnic cleansing Jerusalem city officials recently revealed a new master plan for the city: "The plan involves thinning out the population in all quarters of the Old City, except the only one restored so far -- the Jewish Quarter -- as a means of slowing down the rapid population growth." [6] Internal security Repression on the Palestinian reservations The only role accorded by the Israelis to Palestinian Authority is for "internal security", i.e., repressing its own people. Israel would dearly like to see the PA repress all the armed groups, and "dismantle the terrorist infrastructure." Israel Proper Conceded theft (proper theft) "Israel proper" is a propaganda term for Israeli land over which there cannot be negotiations -- this land was stolen, but now it should be considered to be "Israeli" without referring to its dubious origins. All of Israel was established on land stolen from the native Palestinian population, and the implication of "proper" is that the land has now been granted to Israel by whoever uses this term. The implication also is that one shouldn’t discuss the 1948 ethnic cleansing and the mass dispossession of the native population. The fact that this term concedes most of the land stolen in 1948 is part of the problem: it views the conflict only in terms of the 1967 conquest to the exclusion of the land and rights of the Palestinian refugees and those who managed to remain in what is now Israel. Furthermore, since Israel doesn’t have defined borders it follows "Israel proper" has no defined borders either. The demarcation of UN resolution 181 should have been a border for Israel, but until recently the Green Line demarcated "Israel proper", and slowly the wall will be considered the border of Israel "proper"; that is, until Israel decides to annex yet more land to incorporate one of its colonies in the West Bank or to appropriate another section of Jerusalem. And, of course, one should not forget that "Israel proper" also includes land stolen from Syria in 1967. The meaning of "proper" is constantly expanding. The "proper" designation seems to apply only to Israel, and there isn’t another country with border or land disputes which is referred to in the same manner. For example, there isn't a term "Britain proper", although it has an illegitimate claim over some islands, Gibraltar... Or the US with a dubious claim over Guantanamo, Diego Garcia (although it was the British who ethnically cleansed the islands for the US), Puerto Rico... It is not reasonable to expect the settlers to be removed... The thieves cannot be evicted If removing 8,000 settlers from Gaza created such a ruckus, then "it is not reasonable" to expect to remove the settlers from the West Bank or East Jerusalem. Even though the colonial settlements are illegal under international law, and their construction was rightly seen as a means of precluding a peaceful negotiated settlement, the Israelis and their apologists aim to portray the settlements in the West Bank as permanent and beyond contention -- soon they will be considered part of "Israel proper". Light killing Sanctioned murder "Even before the current intifada, in Hebron in 1996, an Israeli settler fatally pistol-whipped 11-year-old Hilmi Shusha. An Israeli judge first acquitted the murderer, saying the child "died on his own as a result of emotional pressure." After numerous appeals and under pressure from the Supreme Court, which termed the act "light killing", the judge reconsidered and, as the Aqsa Intifada was raging, sentenced the killer to six months, community service and a fine of a few thousand dollars. The boy's father accused the court of issuing a "license to kill." Gideon Levy of Ha'aretz eloquently described the fine as the "end-of-the-season clearance price on children's lives," referring to the findings of B'tselem, Israel's leading human rights organization, which documented dozens of similar cases in which perpetrators were either acquitted or received a slap on the wrist." [7] Look forward and find innovative solutions Ignore history and avoid references to justice At a recent Harvard Univ. lecture, Shimon Peres stated that: "we should look forward and find innovative solutions." This was deemed to be such a sagely remark that it was used as a preface to the Dershowitz vs. Chomsky Harvard Univ. debate on 29 Nov. 2005. What Peres is suggesting is that the history of the conflict be ignored, and that proposed solutions shouldn’t address the injustice perpetrated in the past, i.e., ruling out restitution, compensation. The Rand Corporation's recent plans are "innovative solutions": railroads, tunnels, bridges, high tech checkpoints -- preferably paid for by the US or the EU. All of these don't address the need to rectify the injustice of the 1948 and 1967 phases of the ethnic cleansing and the incessant house demolitions. Restitution is necessary, but Peres will not consider it an "innovative solution". Of course some history is more equal than others; when it comes to WWII, then one should never forget history, and always seek restitution for former Jewish property. When it comes to the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, then this chapter should be ignored -- one should only "look forward" -- and there should be no suggestion of restitution. However, it is up to the victims of a conflict to declare "let bygones be bygones" or to forsake their claim to restitution; it is certainly not up to Shimon Peres, a representative of the ethnic cleansers, to say so. Managing resources Stealing resources A few years ago Israeli water management experts met their Palestinian counterparts to agree on managing water resources. Some agreements were obtained, but later the Palestinians discovered that the Israelis would be pumping more water than agreed (Israelis installed a 40 inch pipe, far larger than that stipulated in the "agreements"). Palestinians also found that they would have to purchase most of their water from the Israeli water companies instead of pumping it themselves [8]. Furthermore, Palestinians found that future increases in water demand would have to be met from "new sources", i.e., buying it from Israeli desalination plants -- while at the same time Israelis will pump more water from the West Bank aquifer. Natural gas fields off the coast of Gaza are "managed" by an Israeli company, and no revenue from this resource is forthcoming to the de jure owners of the resource. Under the Geneva conventions, an occupying power is not allowed to exploit natural resources belonging to the occupied territories unless the occupied population consents. Moderate Right-wing extremist Now that Ariel Sharon has decided to split away from the Likud party, commentators often state that his new party will be "centrist", and that Sharon should be viewed as a "moderate". Gideon Levy's interpretation is very revealing: "Sharon and Mofaz, the moderates, are responsible for the most brutal policy Israel has ever conducted in the territories. In fact, they are today the two most extreme politicians on the right. Shimon Peres, who is portrayed as even more moderate than them, has given his full support to their policy. Therefore, he is also an extremist. Avi Dichter and Moshe Ya'alon, the next great hopes of the right and the "moderates," stood at the helm of the two organizations that carry out violent and brutal actions, without restraint, against a helpless civilian population. They cannot be considered moderates by any standard. They are responsible for much more injustice, killing and destruction than the entire "extreme" right. ... The distinction between extremists and moderates in Israeli society must, therefore, undergo an urgent revision. The use of these terms in their current formula is misleading. In this way, Sharon and, in fact, Peres have succeeded in deceiving Israelis and the entire world in presenting themselves as moderates. But a moderate is only someone who recognizes the existence of the Palestinians as a people with equal rights and who is ready to draw the obvious political conclusions from this. Whoever does not recognize the rights of the other and ignores its existence is an extreme rightist, regardless of whether his name is Feiglin, Mofaz, Netanyahu or Sharon." -- Gideon Levy, "Feiglin is preferable", Haaretz, 25 December 2005 Near East Nearer to you AIPAC, the principal pro-Israeli political action committee in the US, created a pro-Israel think tank with this curious name: Washington Institute for Near East Policy. One wonders why it wasn’t named the "W.I. for Israeli Affairs". Reason: Israel doesn’t want to be seen as part of the Middle East, and prefers to be seen as part of the "near" East. That is, nearer to Europe. Negotiations If it is yours, we negotiate Israelis have an attitude that if there is a land or resource dispute, then they are willing to negotiate as long as they are putatively under control of the other party. However, when the land or resource is within "Israel proper" then no negotiations should be countenanced. (q.v. managing resources, and Israel proper) Any right to which the Palestinians aspire is a bargaining chip. The right to travel, travel documents, communications between the West Bank and Gaza, allocation of fisheries, etc., all are bargaining chips used by Israel to get more concessions, especially on "security". Negotiations don't deal with anything substantial, but with basic rights that "westerners" would take for granted. New anti-semitism Criticism of Israel Consider that Israel is currently ethnically cleansing large areas of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. It is implementing draconian measures against the remaining Palestinian population with the intent of forcing them to emigrate. Yet, when one criticizes these actions, or let alone condemns them, then one is accused in turn of "anti-semitism"! The claims of "new anti-semitism" are a smokescreen to deflect attention away from sordid Israeli deeds. Consider also that those who are prone to label criticism of Israel as anti-semitism are themselves anti-Arab racists and prone to negate the humanity or even the existence of the Palestinians. Outpost Demarcation for a new colony "An Israeli structure (civilian or military) beyond the 1949 Armistice Line that did not get official recognition by the Israeli government. More often than not, these outposts have the tacit approval of the Israeli government and are the precursors to new colonies. Israeli governments usually delay their recognition of those outposts for political considerations." [9] Peace (NB: Ariel Sharon's pronunciation of this word is closer to "piss"). Yep, a dirty word Arnon Soffer is one of Israel's Dr. Strangeloves, and the "father of the wall". Consider what he thinks of "peace": Question: What will the end result of all this killing be? Arnon Soffer: The Palestinians will be forced to realize that demography is no longer significant, because we’re here and they’re there. And then they will begin to ask for "conflict management" talks -- not that dirty word "peace." Peace is a word for believers, and I have no tolerance for believers -- neither those who wear yarmulkes nor those who pray to the God of peace [10]. Peace is indeed a dirty word when it is uttered without reference to justice. Justice is a more potent concept than peace, and maybe a superior slogan for those concerned with the Palestinian condition. Population register Prison warden register book Before the "disengagement" Israel controlled the population register, and all Palestinian births, deaths, marriages, and change of residence had to be reported to the Israeli authorities. After the so-called disengagement the Palestinian Authority in Gaza is still required to report these data despite the fact that it putatively has gained more independence [11]. Preserving the settlers' security Security for the ethnic cleansers... "On the ground, the creation and maintenance of [the colonial settlement of] Ariel entailed and continues to entail untold hardships to the Palestinians who happen to live in the nearby town of Salfit and in numerous villages a long distance all around. Palestinian inhabitants are exposed to ongoing confiscation of their land so as to feed the land hunger of the ever-expanding Ariel settlement, and their daily life are subjected to increasingly stringent travel limitations in the name of 'preserving the settlers' security'." [12] Respond Collective punishment After each suicide bombing or violent action against Israelis there are incessant calls for a "response". The Israeli cabinet meets to determine which act of collective punishment will be implemented. The Israeli government uses the Palestinian population in the occupied territories as hostages, and inflicts collective punishment as a means of "deterrence". Israelis are always allowed to respond; this is the prerogative of the occupier. Palestinians are never allowed to respond, that would be referred to as "terrorism". This is what Dr. Majeed Nassar, a doctor in Beit Sahour, has to say about this: "The absolute security notion expresses Israel’s narrow-minded ideology revealed through [...] its policy and its psychological structure: [...] The transformation of the notion of security for the Israeli citizen into an abhorrent racism that allows Israel to imprison an entire population by putting them under siege in an attempt to force the Palestinian resistance movement to surrender." [13] Road map Road to nowhere Dov Weisglass's (Ariel Sharon's right-hand man) statement that negotiations had been placed in formaldehyde and the subsequent US approval of the so-called "disengagement" process put a stake through the heart of the "road map" and rendered the Quartet arbitration group meaningless. Even though the "road map" was clearly dead, US State Dept. officials, the US president, and media commentators still suggest that Palestinians should follow the "road map". That is, Israel imposes unilateral measures, and yet some still suggest that the Palestinians should follow a defunct "road map". On 26 Dec. 2005, when the BBC reported on the construction of more houses in the occupied territories it stated that the "move appears to breach commitments by Israel to freeze settlement activity in occupied territory, under the US-backed 'road map' peace plan [BBC Online, "Israel to build new settler homes"]." The frequent references to the "breaching of the roadmap" have all to do with propaganda. That is, the BBC or CNN prefer to state that a certain Israeli policy, say, building more houses on occupied territory, "breach the road map", instead of stating that it "breaches international law". The "road map" remains as a subterfuge to avoid stating that Israeli actions violate international law. Security barrier or fence The Wall To give an impression that a journalist or a newspaper is "balanced" when reporting on the wall, the term "barrier" will be used. Pro-Israeli media will usually refer to it as a "fence". Furthermore, "security" is the adjective often attached to the "barrier" term, e.g., Donald MacIntyre, The Independent journalist, always uses the joint term: "security barrier". However, the word security in this context prejudges the purpose of the wall, and it is an Israeli-centric interpretation of its purpose. In reality, the wall is a means to annex more land, create miserable conditions for the Palestinians, and to impose a boundary. Chomsky has described the wall as a weapon, and this is a more accurate assessment of its purpose [14]. Security zone Free fire zone In late December 2005, Israel declared a security zone, i.e., an arbitrary area next to the border with Gaza (on the Palestinian side) where anyone found there would be shot. Furthermore, Israel is also developing automatic machine guns emplaced on the wall which will shoot at anything within an arbitrary distance. Even when the nature of these killing zones is known, some journalists refer to them as "security zones", e.g., Donald MacIntyre, "Israel launches Gaza air strikes amid reports of 'security zone'", 28 December 2005. In Vietnam, the US army instituted "free fire zones", i.e., whoever was seen there would be killed (similar to the Israeli plan), land mines scattered, or artillery would fire at random into an area. NB: This amounted to a war crime. The "security zone" is a euphemism for "free fire zones" which was itself a euphemism for "killing zone". Removal of settlements Partial measures Israel is willing to give up some of its colonial settlements, but it isn’t willing to give up "settlement blocks". This is a crucial distinction made by Prof. Jeff Halper, founder and director of ICAHD. Israel seeks to keep control over the settlement blocks, i.e., a far larger area [15]. It is important to note that one of the recommendations made by military strategists to smash the intifada was to: "carry out 'temporary' withdrawal of Israeli settlers from exposed and strategically low value isolated settlements..." [16]. Sovereignty Palestinian reservation management Danny Rubenstein, a Ha'aretz correspondent, recently stated on a US radio program that the Palestinians should make the most of their newly acquired "sovereignty" granted to them under the disengagement plan. Consider that the Palestinian Authority has no control over its borders, resources, must still supply Israel with a detailed population register, and can't even issue travel documents...[17] When General Amos Yaron, the architect of the wall, was asked if the construction of the wall was taking into account the environmental impact on the Eastern side of the wall (the Palestinian enclave), his answer was: "As a matter of fact, in reality we consider both sides as ours, we are the masters. For us there is no difference between the two sides" [18]. So much for "sovereignty". Suicide bomber! The poor man's precision bomb Transportation contiguity Bridges and tunnels between the quartered reservations Israel has been busy building exclusive roads between the colonial settlements and the main Israeli population centers. These roads intentionally quarter the West Bank into isolated enclaves to preclude the formation of a Palestinian statelet on the West Bank. And now, to fulfill Bush's vision of a "viable" state, there must be "transportation contiguity." This refers to the bridges and tunnels that need to be built to connect the disjoint Palestinian enclaves. It is impossible to create direct roads between the colonial settlements and the main Israeli cities, and at the same time create a coherent transportation network that will join the Palestinian population centers. The infrastructure created to demolish the potential of a Palestinian state cannot coexist with a coherent transportation infrastructure meant to unite it. Of course, Palestinians will not be allowed to use the roads built for the colonial settlements -- for the most part these roads are for Jews-only. Viable state Palestinian reservations Just like a "viable erection" doesn’t portend the onset of high impact sex, a "viable state" doesn’t indicate the formation of a sovereign state or a vibrant economy. Casting further doubt on what is meant by "a viable Palestinian state" is the fact that on several occasions an AIPAC audience cheered the term every time president Bush uttered it [19].  The term "viable state" is a codeword for a state bereft of sovereignty, a dependent economy, and subject to further Israeli whims, e.g., veto on policies, political candidates, control over resources, acquisition of armaments, etc.  The main function of such a state is to become a dumping ground for the Palestinian population from areas Israel seeks to colonize.  Palestinians should consult the American Indians to determine how "viable" their reservations are. Vision The vision thing President Bush seldom refers to his "vision", and just like his father, derisively refers to it as the "vision thing".  However in 2002, Bush stated that he had a "vision of a Palestinian state", and predicted that it would be established in 2005. What the transcript of his statement doesn’t capture is Bush's composure when he uttered this statement -- chuckling before and after the statement.  The establishment of the state was later delayed because of Palestinian violence (of course!) -- another vision postponed [20]. Paul de Rooij is a writer living in London.  He can be reached at proox@hotmail.com (NB: all emails with attachments will be automatically deleted.) Paul de Rooij © 2005 Endnotes [1]        The construction of the wall is barely covered, and the consequences for those isolated by wall seem to be ignored.  Some of the villages on the Western side (seam area) of the wall have been devastated by the wall's construction, yet a search of the internet reveals that their cases haven’t been mentioned by the major media!  It is also very likely that the avian-flu threat has been over hyped for similar reasons. Proof that the avian-flu coverage has been used for propaganda purposes is the fact that this issue will die down and disappear in short order.  After a few weeks another "mega threat" will be conjured up, e.g., Iranian nukes, an asteroid on a collision course with the earth... [2]        For an earlier glossary of abused language see my "Glossary of Occupation", 12 September 2002 (www.counterpunch.org/rooij0912.html).  There is a more detailed description of why it is important to understand the hidden meaning of words, and why one should be careful with the words one uses. [3]        Danny Rubinstein, "The battle for the capital", Ha'aretz, 31 March 2005.  There are several other articles on the same topic; however this summarizes it rather well. [4]        Gideon Levy, "The safe passage: The history of a farce", Ha'aretz, 11 December 2005. [5]        See for example: Jonathan Marcus, "'Greater Jerusalem' takes shape", BBC Online, 25 March 2005.  [6]        Nadav Shragai, "New Jerusalem master plan seeks to curb Old City overcrowding", Ha'aretz, 14 September 2004 [7]        Omar Barghouti, "Executing Another Child in Rafah", CounterPunch, 25 October 2004. [8]        Lecture by a Palestinian water resources expert at SOAS October 2004. [9]        Glossary of terms compiled by Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem (ARIJ) http://www.poica.org/glossary/glossary.php#a4 [10]      Arnon Soffer, interview with Ruthie Blum, " ONE on ONE: It’s the demography, stupid", The Jerusalem Post, May. 20, 2004. [11]      It is instructive to read Amira Hass's articles about this issue.  See her "Go study in Australia?", Ha'aretz, 14 December 2005. [12]      Uri Avnery, "You brought the boycott upon yourselves: Gush Shalom letter to Bar Ilan University", 26 April 2005. (http://www.corkpsc.org/db.php?aid=17646). [13]      Dr. Majeed Nassar, "Israel’s Strategy of Absolute Security", 25 February 2002 (later published in Arabic). [14]      Noam Chomsky, "A Wall as a Weapon", New York Times, 23 February 2004. [15]      Talk by Prof. Halper at SOAS, 2004. [16]      Anthony Cordesman, "Israel versus the Palestinians: The Second Intifada and Asymmetric Warfare", October 2000. http://www.corkpsc.org/db.php?aid=22619<

Israel detains Palestinian candidate in East Jerusalem www.chinaview.cn 2006-01-03 20:11:49 RAMALLAH, Jan. 3 (Xinhuanet) -- Israeli police detained a campaigning Palestinian candidate in East Jerusalem on Tuesday, Palestinian sources and witnesses said. Mustafa Barghouti, head of the independent Palestine list for the coming Palestinian legislative elections due on Jan. 25, was detained for not having a permission to enter the Old City, the sources said. Israeli police also detained an aide to Palestinian parliament member Hanan Ashrawi at a press conference held by him in East Jerusalem, witnesses said. Officers confiscated a sign showing Ashrawi with a slogan "the third way" and arrested the aide for attempting to interfere withan officer, according to the witnesses. Ashrawi who heads the list of "The Third Way" launched group campaigns from Bab al Amod in East Jerusalem on Tuesday. An Israeli spokesman said earlier that political campaign activities will not be allowed until Israel decides whether to allow East Jerusalem residents to participate in the January elections. According to the election law, campaigns for all candidates that are running in the elections start as of midnight Jan. 3, and will continue till Jan. 24, one day ahead of the polls. However, if Israel prevents East Jerusalem residents from running and voting, the polls might be postponed. While the election campaign began all over the Palestinian territories, East Jerusalem is still waiting for a positive answer from Israel to the Palestinian request to allow them to hold the elections in East Jerusalem.

German skating rink collapses, 15 feared dead By Kerstin Doerr Reuters Tue Jan 3, 3:57 AM ET BAD REICHENHALL, Germany - Up to 15 people, including children, were killed or feared dead after the roof of a skating rink in southern Germany collapsed in heavy snow, police and officials said on Tuesday. Schools in the region were on holiday and many children and their parents were inside the building in the Bavarian town of Bad Reichenhall, by the Austrian border, when the roof, weighed down by masses of snow, fell in on Monday. Rescuers worked through the night, lifting away half of the collapsed structure. By early morning they had identified the bodies of nine people -- a woman, two teenagers and six children aged between nine and 12. Hubertus Andrae, police director of the nearby town of Traunstein, told a news conference that six additional people were known to be buried in the wreckage and that another three were believed to be missing. Relatives faced an agonizing wait as rescuers with sniffer dogs and heavy cranes worked in bitter cold through the night to clear masses of snow and debris but there were few signs of life coming from under the piles of rubble. Police denied reports of knocking coming from under the collapsed roof. "It's unfortunately deathly quiet in the hall," a spokesman said. Officials said around 50 people were thought to have been in the sports complex when the roof collapsed. Around 30 were injured and several others escaped from the collapse unscathed. Relatives of the victims and missing were receiving counselling in a makeshift tent set up in front of the rink. Some were being taken around by police in small groups to view the hall. "EVERY MINUTE COUNTS" Rescue work was hampered by driving snow and by the danger that large lumps of concrete and twisted metal could collapse on emergency services but officials were keenly aware that freezing temperatures made speed an imperative. "Every minute counts," a police spokesman said. A girl was brought out from the rubble some six hours after the roof collapsed at around 4 p.m. (1500 GMT) on Monday afternoon but there was little other cause for cheer. German public television reported that state prosecutors were examining the case to see if charges of negligence could be brought. Shortly before the collapse officials canceled a training session of a local ice hockey team scheduled for the afternoon amid concern over the volume of snow building up. But officials said measurements showed the quantities of snow on the roof were within normally safe limits and there was no indication of any immediate safety threat.

Russia to boost gas supplies to Europe Last Updated Mon, 02 Jan 2006 17:33:14 EST CBC News Russia has promised to increase natural gas shipments to Europe by Tuesday after a price dispute with Ukraine left several European nations reporting shortfalls in their own supplies of gas. France, Italy, Austria, Hungary and Poland said Monday that gas piped to them through Ukraine had slowed by as much as 40 per cent since Sunday. That's the day Russian energy monopoly Gazprom cut off gas shipments to Ukraine after it refused to pay a four-fold price increase. Russia has accused Ukraine of siphoning off $25 million worth of gas intended for European customers. "If the theft will continue at such a tempo, then the value of the stolen goods will be extremely significant," Gazprom deputy chairman Alexander Medvedev told reporters. Later in the day, Medvedev said Gazprom would increase gas shipments to Europe by Tuesday to make up for the gas it says Ukraine is stealing. "By tomorrow evening, full connections with Europe will be restored," said Medvedev, according to Russian media reports. Ukraine has denied the theft allegations and called for a resumption of price negotiations. Russia has invited an independent Swiss-based company to monitor how much gas enters Ukraine's pipe network. German Economy Minister Michael Glos has called on Russia, which recently took over the presidency of the G8, to "act responsibly." State-owned Gazprom supplies about 25 per cent of the gas consumed in Europe and about 30 per cent of Ukraine's gas supplies. Most of it is channelled through Ukraine. Romania, Serbia and Moldova have also seen their gas supplies drop drastically since Sunday. Gazprom wants Ukraine to pay $230 per 1,000 cubic metres of gas, up from the $50 current price. Ukraine has refused to pay the increase, accusing Russia of trying to undermine its economy because of its increasingly pro-Western leadership.

Europe feels pinch as Russia-Ukraine gas row deepens 2 Jan 2006 AFP Europe has started to feel the pinch after Russia cut gas supplies to Ukraine in a politically-charged price dispute, while Moscow accused Kiev of stealing some of the supplies meant to cover 25 percent of the European market. Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland reported drops in supplies by as much as 30 percent on Monday, a day after Moscow turned off the taps to Ukraine because of Kiev's refusal to pay a four-fold increase for Russian gas imports. "The volume of gas stolen by Ukraine from the pipeline to Europe on January 1 was close to 100 million cubic metres, valued at 25 million dollars at the market price," Alexander Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russian energy giant Gazprom, said at a news conference in Moscow shown on Russian television. As Ukraine's 48 million people braced for shortages, Kiev accused Moscow of seeking to destabilise the country's economy, which depends on Russia for around a third of its natural gas import needs. Ukrainian Energy Minister Ivan Plachkov denied that any Russian gas destined for western countries was being siphoned off, but warned Kiev would be forced to do so if temperatures plunged below freezing. "Today no gas is being withheld" but "if the temperatures fall below zero, minus three or minus five, we will consume the Russian gas that we receive," Plachkov was quoted as saying by Interfax-Ukraine news agency as temperatures in the Ukrainian capital hovered around minus one degree celsius. Ukrainian officials said earlier that Kiev had the right to siphon 15 percent of Russian gas transiting through Ukraine bound for European markets as payment for gas transit through Ukraine . Kiev said its gas needs were currently being met by domestic reserves and supplies from Turkmenistan under a separate agreement, but Gazprom said it was holding back all exports from the Central Asian state, which have to travel through Russian pipelines. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko told reporters on Sunday he would seek fresh talks with Moscow to resolve the energy crisis after negotiations appeared to break down on Saturday and a deadline for Kiev to agree to Russian demands passed. The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, has already expressed its "concern" at the worsening crisis and has called a special meeting on Wednesday to review supplies. Reflecting mounting concern in Western capitals, the United States warned that the dispute had created "insecurity" in Europe's energy sector and criticised Moscow for its "sudden" move to cut supplies to Ukraine. "Such an abrupt step creates insecurity in the energy sector in the region and raises serious questions about the use of energy to exert political pressure," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement. "As we have told both Russia and Ukraine, we support a move toward market pricing for energy but believe that such a change should be introduced over time rather than suddenly and unilaterally." Hungary, which depends completely on Russian gas imports, noted a 40 percent drop in gas pressure at its border with Ukraine on Monday and other European countries reported supply shortages. Around a fifth of European gas imports come from Russia via Ukraine along a single trunk pipeline that splits off after entering Ukraine into smaller branches to supply the Ukrainian network and western Europe. Ukraine's emergency situations ministry set up a special crisis centre on Sunday and officials warned stations that provide central heating for residential homes and industrial enterprises in southern and eastern parts of the country could face gas supply reductions. Kiev has so far been paying 50 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres (35,316 cubic feet) of natural gas from Russia. Gazprom, which controls a third of the world's natural gas reserves, wants 230 dollars (195 euros) for the gas, arguing that Soviet-era tariffs no longer apply and the price needs to be aligned with market rates. Kiev has said it can pay more but only over a transitional period. Ukraine imports some 25 billion cubic metres per year from Russia, and many ordinary Ukrainians have expressed alarm, despite official assurances that the country has enough reserves to last the winter.

Russia, Ukraine to Resume Gas Talks 3 Jan 2006 AP MOSCOW - Russian and Ukrainian officials agreed to resume talks Tuesday on resolving a dispute over the price of natural gas that has reverberated across the continent. A spokesman for Gazprom, Russia's state-owned gas monopoly, said Ukrainian officials were already on their way to Moscow. Sergei Kupriyanov did not specify who would be taking part but said the talks would be "at a sufficiently high level." Russia cut off natural gas supplies to Ukraine on Sunday after Ukraine refused to meet its demand for a fourfold price increase. Gazprom said it would continue to send full supplies to other European customers that get Russian gas through pipes crossing Ukraine. However, other European countries reported supply falloffs. Gazprom contends the falloff was because Ukraine was stealing Europe-bound gas, a charge that Ukrainian officials deny. Gazprom on Monday announced it was increasing the volume being pumped into trans-Ukrainian pipelines in order to compensate for the amount allegedly being siphoned off. European countries on Tuesday reported supplies were back to normal.

France approves end to state of emergency www.chinaview.cn 2006-01-03 18:59:15 PARIS, Jan. 3 (Xinhuanet) -- The French government on Tuesday approved the lifting of a state of emergency imposed two months ago amid nationwide riots. The order, which was made by the cabinet, will take effect on Wednesday. The state of emergency was introduced on Nov. 8 under a law dating back to 1955, which gives local authorities or prefects the powers to impose curfews, order house arrests and searches, and ban public gatherings in order to calm down the violence, which began in Paris suburbs on Oct. 27. The violence was triggered after two teenagers were accidentally electrocuted while hiding in an electrical sub-station to flee a police identity check. The unrest, which left nearly 12,000 vehicles torched across the country, was seen as France's worst civil unrest since student and worker protests in 1968.

Churchill proposed 'three for one' bombing of German villages in retaliation for massacre of Czech civilians Ian Cobain Monday January 2, 2006 The Guardian Winston Churchill wanted the RAF to wipe out German villages in retaliation for the massacre of Czech civilians in the village of Lidice, wartime cabinet documents have revealed. The same declassified papers show that Churchill also wanted Adolf Hitler executed "like a gangster" in an electric chair borrowed from the Americans, if the dictator were captured alive by British troops. The plan to attack small villages "on a three-for-one basis" was formed in the summer of 1942 five days after German forces murdered most of the 450 occupants of Lidice, a village north of Prague, in retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, deputy leader of the SS. Article continues Churchill abandoned the plan only in the face of opposition from cabinet colleagues, who feared that the lives of aircrews would be placed needlessly at risk. Clement Attlee, the dominions secretary and future Labour prime minister, said he believed it unwise "to enter into competition in frightfulness with the Germans". On June 15 Churchill conceded, saying: "My instinct is strongly the other way ... I submit unwillingly to the view of cabinet against." The existence of the village raids plan is disclosed in notebooks kept by Sir Norman Brook, the wartime deputy cabinet secretary, who recorded cabinet meetings. His notes, now made public by the National Archives at Kew, south-west London, also show that Churchill was determined to execute Hitler. "Contemplate that if Hitler falls into our hands we shall certainly put him to death," Sir Norman recorded the prime minister as saying in December 1942, on one of the few occasions that the cabinet discussed what to do with the Führer. "Not a sovereign who could be said to be in hands of ministers, like Kaiser. This man is the mainspring of evil. Instrument - electric chair, for gangsters, no doubt available on lease-lend." He was referring to the arrangement with the US which helped to fund the British war effort. In April 1945, the home secretary, Herbert Morrison, expressed the opinion, seemingly popular with his colleagues, that a "mock trial" for Nazi leaders would be "objectionable", and said that it would be "better to declare that we shall put them to death". Churchill agreed that a trial for Hitler would be "a farce", adding that "all sorts of complications ensue as soon as you admit a fair trial". Churchill supported a proposal to circumvent the allies' commitment to such trials by writing to the Soviets and Americans explaining Britain's justification for summary justice, and then carrying out the executions before either had time to reply. A list of Nazis who were to be shot without trial was to have been prepared. As the war came to an end, and with many of Germany's wartime leaders taking their own lives, Churchill apparently decided that it was not worth "a big fight" with the other allied nations. Even then, however, he was asking cabinet colleagues whether they could, in theory, negotiate with Himmler, "and bump him off later?" Churchill's ruthlessness emerges elsewhere in Sir Norman's notes, where he is quoted as saying that German PoWs in British hands should be shot if the Nazis began killing British captives. 'Gandhi can die' Winston Churchill was prepared to let Mahatma Gandhi die if he went on hunger strike while interned during the second world war, according to declassified war cabinet documents. The wartime prime minister felt that the Indian leader should be treated like any other prisoner if he stopped eating after he had been detained in 1942 for condemning Indian involvement in the war against Hitler and for calling for civil disobedience. Some leading figures feared an uprising if Gandhi died. But Churchill was incensed by the prospect of granting him a moral victory: "I would keep him there and let him do as he likes," the papers quote him as saying. "But if you are going to let him out because he strikes, then let him out now." Eventually, ministers decided in January 1943 that although they could not publicly give in to a hunger strike, they would be willing to release Gandhi on compassionate grounds if he seemed likely to die. He was freed the following year. Other papers show that British troops were told to show respect for the US army's racial segregation policies by showing "reserve" when meeting black troops stationed in Britain during the war. The guidance was issued after anguished debate in Churchill's cabinet over how to deal with discriminatory American rules. Hundreds of thousands of black troops, mostly from colonies, were expected to be treated equally in the British Empire's armed forces, while white US soldiers ate and slept separately from their black comrades.

Fires and floods leave America reeling By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles 03 January 2006 Wildfires driven by unseasonably warm and dry weather tore through parts of Texas and Oklahoma yesterday, reducing at least two border towns to cinders, destroying dozens of homes and threatening to overwhelm several populated areas including Oklahoma City. [...] Adverse weather of a very different kind, meanwhile, was assailing California yesterday, as the West Coast was buffeted by its second major rainstorm in three days. Wildfires driven by unseasonably warm and dry weather tore through parts of Texas and Oklahoma yesterday, reducing at least two border towns to cinders, destroying dozens of homes and threatening to overwhelm several populated areas including Oklahoma City. Rescue helicopters and air tanker planes were out in force along with fleets of fire trucks as the flames, fanned by moderate winds, consumed tens of thousands of acres of brush and grassland. No new deaths were reported beyond the four people who perished at the start of the fire outbreak last week but handfuls of firefighters were said to have suffered burns and other injuries in their efforts to contain the damage. In Eastland County, about 125 miles west of Dallas, the single biggest fire stretched over 22,400 acres. Further north on the Oklahoma border, the hamlets of Ringgold and Kokomo were reported to have been entirely destroyed in a fast-moving 13-mile-long blaze. Several major roads, used by residents to evacuate, have been closed for hours at a time, among them Interstate Highway 35 which connects Oklahoma City and Dallas. A grass fire broke out in the north-eastern suburbs of Oklahoma City on Sunday afternoon and destroyed several homes before firefighters managed to contain it. The city's fire chief said yesterday the danger was far from over. "At this point, we consider the whole city a target for grass fires," Chief Brian Stanaland said. In Texas, dozens of towns were under threat. Some residents fleeing in their cars and their pick-up trucks looked back to see their houses and barns erupting in flames behind them. In Dallas, a fire broke out in a cemetery. Temperatures in the region have been close to summer levels. The reading at Dallas-Forth Worth international airport reached 83F at one point - a record for this time of the year. The dry heat has caused problems in other parts of the American West, with smaller brush fires also being reported in western Texas and parts of New Mexico. Adverse weather of a very different kind, meanwhile, was assailing California yesterday, as the West Coast was buffeted by its second major rainstorm in three days. The banks of the Napa and Russian rivers, north of San Francisco, burst over the weekend, causing extensive damage in the United States' premier wine-growing region. About 750 homes and businesses were flooded out in the city of Napa alone. Three deaths were reported across the region. In hard-hit San Anselmo, just north of San Francisco, police said the flood that swept through the small city was the worst since 1982. It caused an estimated $30m (£15m) in property damage, Last night, the worst of the weather was hitting the Los Angeles region, with up to five inches of rain forecast and winds reaching 70 mph in the mountains and along some stretches of the coast. The rain was a disruption to the Rose Parade in Pasadena, a street carnival that precedes the Rose Bowl, the final match in the college football calendar.

Crews Rush to Reach Trapped W.Va. Miners By VICKI SMITH 3 Jan 2006 AP TALLMANSVILLE, W.Va. - A coal mine explosion that may have been sparked by lightning trapped 13 miners 260 feet below ground Monday, and rescuers went in to find them after waiting almost 12 agonizing hours for dangerous gases to clear. The condition of the miners was not immediately known. Four co-workers tried to reach them but stopped because of contaminated air, and the blast knocked out the mine's communication equipment, preventing authorities from contacting the miners. It was not known how much air they had or how big a space they were in. The miners had air-purifying equipment but no oxygen tanks, a co- worker said. "You just have to hope that the explosions weren't of the magnitude that was horrific from the beginning," Joe Manchin, governor of the nation's No. 2 coal-producing state, told CNN. He added: "There's always that hope and chance that they were able to go to part of the mine that still had safe air." The first of eight search-and-rescue teams entered the Sago Mine, more than 11 hours after the blast trapped the miners and reported making steady progress. Rescue crews were kept out of the mine for most of the day while dangerously high levels of carbon monoxide _ a byproduct of combustion _ were vented through holes drilled into the ground, authorities said. Company officials believe the miners were about two miles inside the mine, about 260 feet under the ground. The crew entered the mine on foot for fear of sparking another explosion. Roger Nicholson, general counsel for the mine's owner, International Coal Group, said late Monday that mine officials had not heard from the trapped miners since the explosion 16 hours earlier. Officials refused to estimate how long it would take to reach the miners. The company was drilling a six-inch hole at the explosion site that would allow it to monitor air inside the mine and drop a listening device. They expected to need four to six hours to complete the drilling. Gene Kitts, a senior vice president at ICG, described the rescue effort as "a very slow, very careful, methodical process." The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration sent a rescue robot to the mine, about 100 miles northeast of Charleston. Some 200 co-workers and relatives of those trapped gathered at the Sago Baptist Church, across the road from the mine. Anna McCloy said her husband, Randall, 27, was among those missing. She said he had worked at the mine for three years "but was looking to get out. It was too dangerous." Coal mine explosions are typically caused by buildups of naturally occurring methane gas, and the danger increases in the winter months, when the barometric pressure can release the odorless, colorless and highly flammable gas. Lara Ramsburg, a spokeswoman for the governor, said the blast may have been sparked by lightning from severe thunderstorms. Nicholson, general counsel for ICG, said that it was not clear what caused the blast and that there was no indication it was methane- related. The mine had been idle over the weekend for the New Year's holiday, and two groups of miners were to resume production on Monday. A "fire boss" went into the mine before the first group entered the mine at 5:51 a.m. and declared it safe. "That just adds to the mystery of what happened when the production crew went underground," Kitts said. The second group of miners entered at 6:30 a.m., just before the explosion knocked out power in the mine. The second group withdrew. The mine has a single entrance, and the shaft winds its way for miles underground. The miners were supposed to be working about 160 feet below the surface, said the wife of one of the trapped men. But it was unclear how far into the shaft they had gone when the blast struck. Kitts said if the miners reached the section where they were headed, they would be 10,000 feet from the mine's entrance. "If the miners are barricaded, as we hope they are, they would prepare themselves for rescue by rationing," Kitts said. The miners would probably have only their lunches and water on hand. "These miners are experienced, they are well-trained," Kitts said. "We are just praying they had an opportunity to put their training to use." The miners had three to 30 years of experience working in the mining industry, Kitts said. The company declined to release their names. Samantha Lewis, whose 28-year-old husband, David, was among those trapped, said he worked the mines so that he could be home every night to take care of their three daughters while she worked on a master's degree in health care administration. "This was a good way to make a living until we could find something else," said Lewis, whose father, grandfather and stepfather also worked in the mines. "It's just a way of life. Unless you're a coal miner or you have a college degree, you don't make any money." Miners who work in the mine carry individual air purifying systems that would give them up to seven hours of clean air, said Tim McGee, who works at the mine and was among those at the church. They do not carry oxygen tanks, he said. "What I want to hear is he is alive, but they can't tell me that," said Loretta Ables, whose fiancee, 59-year-old Fred Ware Jr., was one of the trapped miners. "He's worked in this mine for six years. He said that's the way he's gonna go _ in the mines." Another trapped miner, 61-year-old Jim Bennett, planned to retire this year, said his son-in-law Daniel Merideth. "Every day he would come home and pray for who was going in," said Merideth, who stood outside the mining complex. "Right now, he is probably in there witnessing to people. He would be organizing and praying." ICG acquired the Sago Mine (pronounced SAY-goh) last March when it bought Anker West Virginia Mining Co., which had been in bankruptcy. In 2004, the latest year for which figures are available, the Sago Mine produced about 397,000 tons of coal. Federal inspectors cited the mine for 46 alleged violations of federal mine health and safety rules during an 11-week review that ended Dec. 22, according to records. The more serious alleged violations, resulting in proposed penalties of at least $250 each, involved steps for safeguarding against roof collapses, and the mine's plan to control methane and breathable dust. The mine received 208 citations from MSHA during 2005, up from 68 citations in 2004. The state Office of Miners' Health Safety and Training issued 144 notices of violation against the mine in 2005, up from 74 the year before. West Virginia ended 2005 with three mining deaths, the lowest since 2000. Last year, 22 coal miners were killed on the job in the United States, a record low, according to Suzy Bohnert, spokeswoman for the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration. The previous record low was 27 in 2002. In February 2003, three contract workers were killed by a methane explosion while drilling an air shaft at a Consol Energy coal mine near Cameron. In September 2001, 13 coal miners were killed in a series of explosions at a mine in Broached, Ala. That was the nation's worst mining accident since 1984, when fire killed 27 coal miners near Orangeville, Utah. In July 2002, nine coal miners were rescued after being trapped for 77 hours in a mine near Somerset, Pa. The deadliest coal mining disaster in U.S. history was an explosion in 1907 in Monongah, W.Va., that killed 362 people.

Origin of a big idea January 3, 2006 By Andrew Dodd The Age Crackpot or genius? Danny Vendramini may be labelled both. The anti-religious amateur biological theorist is challenging mainstream evolutionary thought. Danny Vendramini didn't wake up one morning and say to himself: "Today, I'll shatter half of the accepted beliefs about evolutionary biology." It has been more gradual than that. In fact, his theory, that a second evolutionary process is at work alongside natural selection, has been percolating away for quite some time, emerging from the primordial soup of the subconscious and slowly taking form over several years. It's a theory that seems both preposterous and wonderful, taking, as it does, the core of Darwinian biology and cladding it with some truly extraordinary ideas about trauma, the genetic transmission of emotions and the origin of instincts. Could his evolutionary process - known as "teemosis" - really explain the explosion of new species 543 million years ago? Does it really provide a plausible means for environmental information to be passed on to offspring? Does it truly describe the evolutionary purpose for the "junk DNA" that makes up 98.5 per cent of our genome? And, even if it all ends up as discredited hocus, there's another equally fascinating question. What's it like to generate a brand new theory that challenges many of the big assumptions about the origins of living organisms? How does an amateur without any formal training in biology pull off a feat like that without getting locked up, or, perhaps worse, completely ignored? Well, according to the infectiously enthusiastic Vendramini, the solution is to read a lot - about 8000 academic papers to be precise-— on anything to do with the human genome, NeoDarwinism and even palaeontology. Initially, his mission was to decipher the gobbledegook but later, as his theory took shape, his task was to find anything that disproves the ideas underpinning his theory. So far, he says, he hasn't found anything. In fact, Vendramini's website, thesecondevolution.com, lists supportive comments from a range of academics, including Noam Chomsky of MIT. We're sitting under the veranda of a cafe as he explains all this. He has made a day-trip to Melbourne from his home in Sydney and he knows he's in for a long chat. Somehow, he has to outline the evolutionary process of both his idea and every multicellular species on earth. And, along the way, he's going to have to distance himself from all those crackpot anti-evolutionists by stressing he's not a Christian, has little time for creationists and reveres Darwin deeply. For the 57-year-old sculptor, scriptwriter and all-round Renaissance man, this is an important chat. After six long years developing his ideas, the time has come for some mainstream exposure. So the chinotti are ordered as he takes a deep breath and starts at the beginning. We're not talking about the Big Bang. Instead, Vendramini chooses the moment when he first started thinking that Darwin might have missed something and that perhaps there was an evolutionary process working in tandem with natural selection. He came to this conclusion after thinking about myths and the way so many cultures have sagas in which catastrophic floods are meted out as God's retribution for bad behaviour. He became curious about the way different nations have the same epic stories about monsters, dragons, good and evil. "It's as if they're hard-wired into our genes," he says. So he looked for the scientific literature to explain this and, apart from some "esoteric stuff by mythologists", he says he found a "nothingness". Eventually, he came up with the hypothesis that it may have something to do with the inheritance of emotional memories. Comment: How much better can one sleep at night thinking that these stories of monsters, dragons, good and evil have nothing to do with the outer world and are at most some form of emotion coded into our genes. How much more reassuring than the "nothingness" found in "esoteric stuff by mythologists". Vendramini believes that environmental factors, if powerful enough, can trigger changes in non-coding or "junk" DNA, which in turn are passed on to offspring and govern their behaviour. He calls these "teems" or Trauma Encoded Emotional Memories and he believes they're triggered by lifethreatening events such as attacks by predators or profound emotions such as sexual arousal. When these emotions are encrypted into an animal's noncoding DNA, they can be passed on so that subsequent generations begin life with that teem already archived in its emotional memory. The teem then affects the offspring's behaviour. Whereas Darwin argued that a creature such as a woodpecker would evolve over many generations based on the random selection of mutations giving certain birds thick skulls, Vendramini argues that a starving woodpecker once experienced a powerful emotion associating pecking with satiating hunger. This emotion was encoded into the bird's DNA, and passed on so that eventually all woodpeckers were genetically programmed to peck at trees for food. But this works only in certain life forms. To experience a teem you'll need not only non-coding DNA but also a central nervous system and sensory organs. Vendramini says these are important because it's the central nervous system - not the brain — that is the real emotion-producing organ and because sensory organs are the means of collecting the data that generates the emotion. Vendramini then goes a step further, proposing that teemosis helps explain something Darwin could not, namely the rapid profusion of species, especially multicellular organisms, during the period palaeontologists describe as the Cambrian Explosion, about 543 million years ago. It was at the moment he made this link that Vendramini reckoned his theory started feeling good because, suddenly, organisms had some control over their destiny and weren't completely dependent on random mutations for evolutionary success. He believes Darwin explains incremental or microevolution whereas teem theory explains the complexity of creatures, biodiversity and behavioural evolution. But because Vendramini's theory questions some aspects of Darwin, he says he is often befriended by creationists. So the time has come to shatter that illusion. When I ask him about intelligent design - the stream of creationism that is sweeping the US and claims life is too complicated to be left to chance - he reacts impulsively, jerking his hand forwards and knocking over a pepper shaker. It's as if his own fear-of-religion teem has reacted violently to this external threat. "There is absolutely no need for an intelligent designer. It's all a lot of crap," he fires off before sitting back to reflect, "Yeah, that'll stir ‘em up." This is a lapsed Catholic speaking, the son of Italian immigrants who grew up in Melbourne's working-class northern suburbs in the 1950s and who "had the faith literally beaten out of me by a pack of aged, malevolent and extremely sadistic Good Samaritan nuns". There's a maverick streak in Vendramini. He calls himself a theoretical biologist, but happily tells you his only qualification is this theory. He says he relishes his amateur status because it has allowed him to escape the shackles that bind professionals. "Being an amateur is usually a disadvantage, but, for me, it was fortunate because I didn't have the normal respect for the paradigms that scientists work within." He says established scientists won't leap at his theory because "if they've been teaching a certain paradigm all their lives and then discover that Darwin needs updating, it would be a violation of their core beliefs". So I went in search of academics to make a comment on the theory. The first port of call - a leading biologist in one of our prominent universities - appeared to vindicate Vendramini's pessimism. After offering the scientist a potted overview of teemosis, he replied in a derisive tone. "It sounds to me like the second cousin to the flying saucer. I'd prefer not to run with it. There's enough genuine stuff based on natural history and, if it's coming off a website rather than proper scientific study, I'd prefer not to be quoted. It sounds like a great Doctor Who story," he concluded. When I explained that Vendramini had published his work in the British journal Medical Hypotheses, there was a haughty laugh down the phone. "Well the name says it all," he scoffed. Would you like to have a look at the website," I inquired? "No, I'd rather not run with it." Dr Martin Burd of Monash University's School of Biological Sciences was more accommodating and, after reading Vendramini's paper and navigating his way round his website, he concluded that he was "very sceptical" about the theory for at least two reasons. The first is that plants have as much repetitive non-coding DNA in their genomes as animals, a fact not explained by Vendramini. He hints that Vendramini might be tempted to argue that repetitive non-coding DNA serves a different function in plants than the teem function in animals. But, according to Burd, this would amount to "special pleading" - something scientists frown upon. He also accuses Vendramini of failing to explain the mechanics of it all adequately. He concludes it's "not very convincing" because Vendramini doesn't reveal how teems are actually written into non-coding DNA and how that affects emotions or creates instincts. "We now know about many specific genes that affect behaviour so any theory that claims to explain emotions, instincts and behaviours needs to have a pretty convincing biochemical and genetic mechanism to be up to current standards of plausibility." Philip Bock, a research fellow at Deakin University, describes the theory as "certainly interesting" and gives it sufficient credence to encourage further research. He envisages loads of PhDs from budding scientists all testing individual strands of Vendramini's work. But he echoes the caution of Burd. He is troubled by the lack of evidence that shows how an emotional event triggers a physiological change in the non-coding DNA and then how that DNA makes its way into the gene line in order to be reproduced and inherited. He's also worried about the lack of detail about how this inherited DNA then drives emotional or behavioural changes in the offspring. "There are a lot of gaps in that chain that are glossed over," he says. Vendramini responds to this criticism with characteristic optimism. "Given that the history of science shows that radical new scientific ideas are initially almost universally disparaged, these comments seem quite moderate. I'm encouraged." He points to a handful of papers on his website where he fleshes out the mechanics further and cites recent laboratory evidence. However, Vendramini also admits this evidence is still on the light side. "I'm the first to concede these five papers don't provide the kind of detailed, precise molecular and genetic evidence I'd personally like to see. This, of course, doesn't mean the theory is flawed. It simply reflects the fact that theory precedes observation, often by many years." He refers to Darwin, who went public with his theory of natural selection in 1859. "It wasn't until the 1950s that the mechanical-molecular mechanisms of natural selection - including DNA itself were fully understood." So now the maverick Vendramini is seeking acceptance - or at least the courtesy of having his ideas tested to assess whether they have anything to offer. And, as he braces for the reviews, he has taken heart from Darwin himself: "Darwin loved to have his mistakes pointed out. I'd have an enormous sense of pride if my theory adds just a little to his noble edifice, but if I see evidence that it's wrong, I just have to admit it."

Inside TeenScreen: The Making of Mental Patients by Sandra Lucas In October, 2004, after taking TeenScreen, a 10-minute computer test developed in the psychiatric department of Columbia University, 16-year-old Chelsea Rhoades of Indiana was told she had two mental health problems, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and social anxiety disorder. The diagnoses were based upon Chelsea’s responses that she liked to help clean the house and didn’t “party” much. Chelsea is one of countless children who get labeled with fraudulent diagnoses every day. The difference in her case is that her parents, who were unaware that TeenScreen had infiltrated their daughter’s school and had not given permission for the screening, reacted quickly. They filed a lawsuit against the officials of the high school who allowed the test to be administered and the TeenScreen program. In doing so, the Rhoades took a stand for all parents across the nation. The unscientific nature of psychiatric labeling was admitted to by the American Psychiatric Association’s own president, Steven Sharfstein, when he stated on June 27, 2005, during an interview on the Today Show, “We do not have a clean cut lab test [for diagnosing mental illness or chemical imbalance of the brain.]” His admission was quickly followed by another similar statement from psychiatrist Mark Graff, Chairman of the American Psychiatric Association Committee of Public Affairs, “Chemical imbalance: it’s a shorthand term really, it’s probably drug industry derived. We don’t have tests because to do it, you’d probably have to take a chunk of brain out of someone - not a good idea.” Graff did more than admit to there being no science behind the chemical imbalance theory. He also pointed out the incestuous relationship between the drug industries and psychiatry. TeenScreen is definitely a child born of that union, nothing more than an unscientific written mental health survey which professes to discover “mental illnesses”, but in fact trolls for lifelong psychiatric patients in our schools. TeenScreen has been cleverly sold to numerous schools across the country as a suicide prevention program with no scientific evidence backing up the claim. The 1996 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force found no evidence that screening for suicide risk reduces suicide attempts or mortality. The individuals pushing TeenScreen make every effort to hide evidence that mental health screening is of no use in combating teen suicide. In order to gain wide acceptance in our nation’s schools they paint youth suicide as an epidemic and their program as the cure-all. According to the latest Census Bureau information, gathered in 2000, the U.S. population of 14-19 year olds was around 19,800,000 and suicide for that year accounted for 0.0008% of the total teen population. Each teen suicide is an unfathomable tragedy, yet the actual numbers prove that suicide is not an epidemic. In fact, suicide among American youth fell 25 percent in the last decade. TeenScreen’s executives are well aware of the actual situation. Rob Caruano, former TeenScreen director, was quoted in the South Bend Tribune on December 22, 2004, “Teen Suicides, while tragic, are so rare that [any] study would have to be impossibly huge to show a meaningful difference in mortality between screened and unscreened students. You’d have to be screening almost the whole country to reach statistical significance.” TeenScreen is far from being the solution. In fact, some experts agree that widespread screening will increase the number of teen suicides. Jane Pearson, PhD. who chairs the National Institute of Mental Health Suicide Research Consortium said, “ […] a prevention program designed for high-school aged youth found that participants were more likely to consider suicide a solution to a problem after the program than prior to the program...” She also stated, “[…] suicide is a very rare occurrence compared to other causes of deaths. […] when researchers have tried to predict suicide using as many known risk factors as possible, they are still unable to predict who will and who will not commit this act.” The TeenScreen test is a 14-item, self-completion questionnaire. It usually takes 10 minutes to complete and is used to screen youths from ages 11 to 18 who read at a 6th grade level. It asks questions such as “have you often felt very nervous when you’ve had to do things in front of people?”, or, “Are you the kind of person who is often very tense, and finds it very hard to relax?”, or, “Has there been a time when nothing was fun for you and you just weren’t interested in anything?” One would be hard pressed to find a teenager who wouldn’t at one time or another answer yes to those sorts of questions. TeenScreen refuses to release copies of the questionnaire, even to parents and elected officials who have requested to see the test. TeenScreen, in an effort to make the program appear innocuous, claims that it does not recommend or endorse any particular kind of treatment for the youth who are identified by the screening. But, in one of many conflicting statements Laurie Flynn, TeenScreen’s director, reveals that the long-term goal of TeenScreen is not just identification, but treatment for those in need, and that parents of youths found to be at possible risk are notified and helped in identifying and connecting to local mental health services. Particularly distressing is the data released by a recent survey, printed in JAM Academy Adolescent Psychiatry 2002, showing that nine out of ten children who see a psychiatrist are given psychiatric drugs. A recent survey showed that between 1995 and 1999, the use of antidepressants increased 151% for 7 to 12 year olds and 580% for children under six. Between 1998 and 2003, there was another 49% increase in children taking antidepressants. Sales of the drugs have now reached more than $13 billion a year. To make matters worse, on September 15, 2004, the FDA stated that a causal role for antidepressants in inducing suicidality had been established in pediatric patients, and that children given psychiatric drugs were twice as likely to commit suicide as those given a placebo. As a result of this finding, the FDA ordered drug manufacturers to place a Black-Box warning on all antidepressant labels. The Black-Box warning is the most serious measure that the FDA can take regarding a prescription medication, short of an outright ban. That initial Black-Box warning label requirement has since been followed by 15 more official warnings on psychiatric drugs. Eileen Dannemann of the National Coalition of Organized Women describes the TeenScreen approach as a telling omission. “We’ve got eight million American kids on psychiatric drugs,” she said. “While TeenScreen asks the kids if they are using street drugs, they omit to find out about the use of psych drugs. Antidepressants play a major role in youth suicide. If [TeenScreen] really wanted to help they would worry about that. The fact that they don’t shows their real intention.” It becomes obvious that teens will not benefit from TeenScreen. The question that begs to be asked is “Who will benefit?” Psychologist, author and director of Texans for Safe Education, John Breeding, doesn’t mince words, “TeenScreen is nothing more than a government sponsored marketing tool created to serve the interests of the corporate pharmaceutical industry and psychiatrists. It is a shame and a disgrace that the United States is putting millions of children on psychiatric drugs today. This is obviously not enough to satisfy the insatiable greed of big pharma. We must stop TeenScreen and protect our children from more deadly poisoning.” TeenScreen is the brainchild of psychiatrist David Shaffer of Columbia University. Shaffer is a paid consultant for pharmaceutical companies Hoffman la Roche, Wyeth, and GlaxoSmithKline. Shaffer is also the director of the Division of Child Psychiatry at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. A New York Post article dated January 31, 1999, State Testing Prozac on 6-Year olds; Parents Not Told About Risks Including Suicide and Mania, read, “The New York State Psychiatric Institute in Manhattan is performing little-known but extensive Prozac experimentation on troubled kids as young as 6 years old, according to internal records. While the potentially deadly danger was cited in the researchers’ documents, it was not included in the consent forms given to children and their parents to read and sign.” Laurie Flynn, the current director of TeenScreen is also the former director of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI). While Flynn was the director of NAMI, a group that bills itself as “a grassroots organization of individuals with brain disorders and their family members”, NAMI received $11.72 million from various drug companies between 1996 and mid-1999. One drug company went as far as “loaning” one of its executives to NAMI, still paying for his salary while he worked at NAMI’s headquarters. In view of Flynn’s cozy relationships with drug companies, officials of the program are working hard at minimizing any link to the drug companies by saying that they are not funded by drug money. Yet, the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities newsletter, Update - May/June 2002, revealed that a recent local TeenScreen survey was partly funded by pharmaceutical giant, Eli Lilly. The goal of TeenScreen is one item they are not afraid to reveal: to provide mental health screening for every single American teen. If TeenScreen’s goal is achieved, all 19,800,000 youths will receive a “mental health checkup”. Considering that 71% of teens who were screened in Colorado were labeled with a mental disorder, should TeenScreen succeed in its goal, it is possible that 71% of our teens would end up being labeled. This means that no less than 14,058,000 American youth would end up labeled mentally ill. Since nine out of ten children who receive “treatment” are given mind-altering psychiatric drugs, the inevitable conclusion is that 12,652,200 would be drugged. The average price of a prescription for psychiatric drugs is $102 per month. TeenScreen’s endeavors would increase the pharmaceutical companies’ monthly revenues by $1,290,524,400. To ensure success, TeenScreen officials prefer the Passive Consent form which requires parents to return a form to the school only if they do not want their child to participate in the screening. Flynn is quick to deny promoting the use of Passive Consent to schools. However, Flynn’s statement, like many others, is far removed from the truth. Numerous high schools only use Passive Consent forms and, as in the case of Flager Palm Coast High School in Florida, the passive acceptance style was discussed by school officials to increase the numbers of participants from 50% for Active Consent to near 95% for Passive. Incentives such as pizza or movie coupons are distributed to the kids because, as TeenScreen co-director, Leslie McGuire, said during a national conference, “Getting the kids to buy-in is such an essential thing because for the most part, you’re distributing the consent forms to the kids to bring home to their parents and bring them back. So you have to get their buy-in, you have to get them interested.” TeenScreen goes as far as to advise local schools on how to circumvent federal law. The Protection of Pupil Rights Act (PPRA) protects the rights of parents by making instructional materials available for their inspection if the materials are to be used in connection with a survey, analysis, or evaluation in which their child is participating. It also requires written parental consent before minors are required to take part in such a survey, analysis, or evaluation. The TeenScreen News (Fall 2003, Vol. 2, Issue 2) instructs schools that making the TeenScreen survey a part of the curriculum will help them get around the PPRA, “[…] if the screening will be given to all students, as opposed to some, it becomes part of the curriculum and no longer requires active parental consent.” But even if active consent forms were used for all children being tested by TeenScreen, it still would provide no protection for unsuspecting parents. Before parents can make a truly educated decision they must be told all the facts. Then, and only then, can they provide informed consent. A true informed consent form would tell parents the following: • Chemical imbalance of the brain is only a theory with no science of proof to back it up • While screening is not a scientific and medical test it might still result in the child being labeled depressed or mentally ill • Should the child be labeled, the likely recommended course of treatment will be psychiatric drugs • Psychiatric drugs are known to cause children to commit suicide • Should parents refuse the recommended course of treatment, a referral to the local child welfare agency might be made, which could result in the child being taken away from home and forcibly drugged Flynn has made it clear that she will go to any length in getting acceptance for TeenScreen, including perjury. While testifying in front of a Senate Committee in Washington, she claimed to be in partnership with the University of South Florida in piloting district wide mental Health screenings of 9th graders in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, Florida. Wilcox Clayton, Pinellas County School Board Superintendent, was quick to set the record straight. He emphatically stated that no such screening was taking place and added, “If this person [Laurie Flynn] said what they allegedly said, I would have serious reservations about partnering with such an organization.” Flynn and Shaffer have proven that what they care about is the money they receive from the drug companies, not our children. TeenScreen is designed only to increase psychiatric and drug company revenues by turning normal children into lifelong mental patients. Now is the time for anyone who cares about children and the future to step up and demand that mental health screening not be allowed in any schools at any time. Sandra Lucas is the Executive Director of the Utah Chapter of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, a mental health watchdog group. She was born in Sydney, Australia, raised on the French South Pacific island of New Caledonia. She moved to the United States at the age of 15 and has lived in Salt Lake City with her family since 1992. She can be reached at lucsan@yahoo.com www.teenscreenfacts.com www.teenscreentruth.com www.psychsearch.net/teenscreen/html

Pill linked to reduction in women's sexual desire By Jeremy Laurance Health Editor The Independent 03 January 2006 Millions of sexually active women who rely on the contraceptive pill may be putting themselves at risk of long-term sexual dysfunction. Scientists believe they have uncovered the mechanism that leads to mood swings, health problems and sexual difficulties among some users of the pill which persist even when they stop taking it. They say GPs should be aware of the pill's physiological effects before assuming women's sexual problems are psychological. But family planning experts said it was almost impossible to show a true association between the pill and loss of sexual desire, or sexual problems, because there were many other confounding factors. The latest American study of 124 women with sexual problems lasting more than six months showed they had reduced levels of "unbound" testosterone. Testosterone is the male sex hormone, but it is also present in females at lower levels and plays a key role in sexual, metabolic and mental health. The researchers found high levels of a protein that binds testosterone, rendering it unavailable to the body, in users of the pill. The high level of the protein persisted in women who had stopped taking it. Long-term exposure to the oestrogens in the pill may lead to gene imprinting which results in over-production of the protein called sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), the researchers say. This may lead to long-term problems with low levels of "unbound" testosterone. The pill is the most common contraceptive in the UK with 3.5 million users. Worldwide that figure is 100 million. André Guay, co-author of the study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine and director of the Centre for Sexual Function in Peabody, Massachusetts, said: "This study is a revelation. For years we have known that a subset of women using oral contraceptives suffer from decreased sex drive. We know that the pill suppresses ovulation and the male hormone [through production of SHBG]. Therefore these pills decrease a woman's male hormone availability by two separate mechanisms. No wonder so many women have had symptoms." Claudia Panzer, an endocrinologist in Denver and co-author of the study, said: "Physicians prescribing oral contraceptives should point out to their patients potential side effects." She added: "If women present with these complaints, it is crucial to recognise the link between sexual dysfunction and the oral contraceptive." Several studies in the past 30 years have suggested the pill may cause problems. But Toni Belfield, director of information for the UK Family Planning Association, said: "Sexual relationships are very complex. How we feel and what we do all relate to what we feel sexually. The pill does have side effects in some women and may affect their mood. "But women on the pill may be going through other things - the break-up of a relationship, leaving home for the first time - that affect them. Most studies have been unable to draw a true association with sexual problems." Comment: The title and main focus of this article emphasise that oral contraceptives may decrease sexual desire in women. Less attention is paid to the other two issues, which are obviously far more important: "mood swings" and long-term "health problems". When so little attention is paid to the very real effects of the variety of powerful drugs so many people are taking these days, it is curious that things like smoking can be so easily blamed for increased incidences of heart disease, stroke, cancer, etc.

Storm Moves Into Southern California By JUSTIN M. NORTON Associated Press Writer January 3, 2005 GUERNEVILLE, Calif. - Homeowners shoveled away mud and other debris and authorities worked to repair damaged levees Monday after a pair of storms that flooded Northern California's wine country moved south. The rain let up over the hard-hit region and moved into Central and Southern California, drenching the Rose Parade for the first time since 1955 and threatening mudslides on hills stripped bare by last summer's wildfires. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger toured parts of Napa on Monday and declared a state of emergency in seven counties. He pledged to work with state and federal officials to get disaster relief money and to fortify the areas for the next deluge. "We want to make sure we don't get hit by something like Katrina where you level an entire city," Schwarzenegger told a crowd. Initial estimates put the damage throughout Northern California at more than $100 million. The storms were blamed for at least three deaths, all caused by falling trees. The Russian River at Guerneville was receding Monday after remaining for hours at 41 feet — 9 feet above flood stage — but officials said it probably wouldn't fall below flood stage until Tuesday morning. Hundreds of homes were flooded in the scenic community, but most of the downtown was spared, Sonoma County spokesman Dan Levin said. "When it goes down below its banks, that's when the real cleanup begins," he said. The Marin County town of San Anselmo, north of San Francisco, sustained an estimated $40 million in damage when a creek inundated downtown under 4 feet of water and coated streets in mud. About 70 businesses and 100 homes were damaged. About two miles west in Fairfax, mudslides nearly wiped out three homes. Water also receded below flood stage in the heart of wine country along the Napa River, which rose out of its banks at the town of Napa and inundated several downtown blocks. Napa officials said about 1,200 homes and 250 businesses were flooded, and damage was estimated at nearly $75 million. There were no immediate reports of serious damage to wineries. Grapevines are largely dormant this time of year. The weather threatened several levees across the state, including at least two in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, where a levee was weakened near Collinsville, forcing about 40 people from their homes. Many residents began returning late Monday, according to Paula Toynbee, a sheriff's spokeswoman. In Novato, authorities repaired a levee breach that flooded a rural field. Elsewhere, rain fell from the San Francisco Bay area to Los Angeles, drenching the route of the Rose Parade for the first time in a half century. The parade, in Pasadena, went off on schedule, but a clear poncho covered the white gown of Rose Queen Camille Clark and soggy wind bent spectators' umbrellas and snapped rain slickers. The crowds were thin. "We came all this way, rain or shine, we can't go back now," said Ted Pettyjohn, 43, of Houston. Hundreds of plastic ponchos for musicians and parade volunteers were ordered, horses were fitted with skid-resistant shoes, and float-builders rolled out sheets of plastic to protect orchids and other delicate flowers. The glue that holds decorations to the floats is waterproof and the floats are designed to withstand 50 mph winds. Also in Southern California, storm-churned seas eroded a sand berm in Santa Barbara Harbor. A building on pilings at the Santa Barbara Yacht Club was threatened. The storm was drenching the central coast on its way south Monday, causing flooding and mudslides throughout Santa Cruz County. Heavy snow fell across the Sierra Nevada on Monday, where several avalanches shut down Highway 395, a main north-south route, officials said. About 89,000 Pacific Gas and Electric Co. customers from Bakersfield to the Oregon border remained without power Monday. Officials said crews had restored power to more than 1.25 million customers since Friday.

Tornadoes Hit Parts of Eastern U.S. By The Associated Press Jan 02 11:16 PM US/Eastern Unseasonably warm weather brought severe storms to parts of the Ohio Valley and the South on Monday, spawning tornadoes, dropping hail and contributing to the death of a utility worker in Indiana. Tornadoes were reported in Georgia and Kentucky. Three people were hospitalized with minor injuries in Georgia's Pike County, about 50 miles south of Atlanta. In suburban Atlanta, at least seven houses were damaged or destroyed near Tyrone by what residents said was a tornado. Near Palmetto, a tornado damaged about four houses, police said. At least two tornadoes were reported in Kentucky, in Hardin and Lincoln counties. They leveled a food store, damaged several homes and toppled trees and power lines. No injuries were reported in either county, authorities said. In Indiana, the storm caused scattered power failures. A utility worker died when a piece of equipment overturned on him as his crew worked about 20 miles east of Evansville. Across the region, temperatures were more like April than January. It hit 69 degrees in Evansville, Ind., and 74 in Bowling Green, Ky. Temperatures in Georgia were in the 60s and 70s. That warmth had much to do with the unsettled weather, said Joe Skowronek, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "When it gets real warm like this, up in the 60s, that's a lot of fuel for the fire so to speak for thunderstorms," he said. "When the ingredients come together for thunderstorms, it doesn't really matter what time of year it is." Comment: Nothing to worry about folks! Tornadoes happen in January all the time! Go back to sleep!

Small Earthquake Shakes Southern Illinois AP Jan 03 12:38 AM US/Eastern EQUALITY, Ill. - No major damage was reported after a minor earthquake shook areas around this small town in southern Illinois on Monday. The quake struck at 3:48 p.m. and registered magnitude 3.6, according to Rafael Abreu, a geologist at the National Earthquake Information Center in Denver. It was centered near Equality, which is about 120 miles southeast of St. Louis. Abreu said calls from people who felt tremors came from Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky, but the quake was unlikely to have caused any damage. "There might have been some rattling of objects, but not much more," Abreu said. Small earthquakes hit southern Illinois several times a year, said Jim Packett, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Paducah, Ky.

Major earthquake hits South Pacific near Fiji www.chinaview.cn 2006-01-03 09:51:03 CANBERRA, Jan. 3 (Xinhuanet) -- An earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale hit under the South Pacific near Fiji on Tuesday, but it is unlikely to trigger a major tsunami and there were no reports of casualties or damages from the region. The US Geological Survey website reported that the tremor took place 579 km below the sea level at 22:13 GMT on Monday. The quake occurred some 100 km northeast of Ndoi island of Fiji. And reports reaching here from Fiji quoted a seismologist at Fiji's Mines and Resources Department as saying the quake was too deep to have been felt any where in the Fiji islands. Earlier, the Hong Kong Observatory said the earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale hit the seas near Guam at 6:25 a.m. Hong Kong time (2225 GMT Monday) on Tuesday. It said the epicenter was initially determined to be 19.8 south latitude and 178.1 west longitude, about 430 kilometers east-southeast of Suva, Fiji. There have been no reports of casualties or damages from the region. Other reports reaching here quoted the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center as saying that the quake is unlikely to trigger a major Pacific-wide tsunami.

Australia battles wildfires as new year brings record heatwave Bernard O'Riordan in Sydney Monday January 2, 2006 The Guardian Sydney sweltered through its hottest New Year's Day on record yesterday as blowtorch conditions pushed the mercury to 44.2C (112F), causing power blackouts and sparking more than 40 bushfires along Australia's east coast. Homes and cars were destroyed, towns isolated and roads cut off as firestorms raged across parts of New South Wales, Victoria and the capital, Canberra. At least 35 people were treated for heat exhaustion at Sydney's beaches and 100 people were rescued by lifeguards. Five separate blazes burned out of control near Gosford, 50 miles north of Sydney, where at least three houses and seven cars were destroyed by fire. Six other homes were severely damaged. Residents of the coastal town of Woy Woy and nearby Mount White were told to evacuate as two separate blazes joined to create a single front with 65ft flames, cutting the main freeway to Sydney and disrupting rail services. One local resident said the inferno was like a scene from hell. "Black smoke covering the sun, just scorching hot, 44 degrees. It's burning up here," he told ABC Radio. Peter Williams, a motorist caught by the blaze on the F3 motorway north of Sydney, said: "We went round one corner and there were a lot of flames just beside the road not too far away. We went around the next one and there was fire all across the road. It's very hot, very smoky." The Australian Reptile Park at Somersby, a popular tourist attraction, was in the path of the fire as it burned through dense, dry bushland. Seven water-bombing aircraft and 30 tankers were used to fight the fires, which authorities said may have been deliberately lit. "Unfortunately it looks like we have had human intervention but whether that's accidental or deliberate remains to be seen," said Rebel Talbert from the Rural Fire Service. Emergencies were also declared at Cootamundra and Junee in the Riverina fruit-growing region, where a farmer was taken to hospital after receiving burns to 60% of his body. Fires were also burning at Appin and Bulli, south-west of Sydney. Lawrence Ryan, who owns a historic 1884 homestead in the Riverina, said a helicopter dropped four water bombs on his home just as flames reached its doorstep. "We had buckets and hoses and a fuel pump in our swimming pool. We were just about to start losing valuable carriages and all sorts of things when the helicopter bomber came in and dumped four loads of water on us," he said. The extreme heat was caused by north-westerly wind gusts moving from Australia's parched interior towards the coast. The NSW weather bureau said yesterday's temperature was the highest recorded in Sydney on January 1. The previous hottest was in 1928, when the mercury reached 38C. Yesterday was also the second-hottest day ever in Australia's biggest city, which rarely experiences temperatures much higher than 30C. The hottest day was 45.3C in 1939. Yesterday the temperature peaked at 44.2C in central Sydney at 4.30pm, while in outback New South Wales the temperature almost reached the half century, topping 47 degrees at Ivanhoe. A cool southerly change packing winds of 70mph reached Sydney around 9.30pm, and by midnight the temperature had dropped to 23C. But the winds brought down trees and power lines and fanned embers, making conditions hazardous for firefighters. "The fires are going to be driven in a northerly direction now, our whole strategy has to change," said Phil Koperburg, the Rural Fire Service commissioner. In Victoria, five houses and tens of thousands of pounds worth of crops, sheds and equipment were destroyed in a blaze at Stawell. About 22,000 acres of bushland were burnt out as 750 firefighters battled to contain a 19-mile fire front. Fire crews were also on alert in Canberra where several small grassfires burned on the city's northern outskirts.

Bushfires raze homes as Australia reaches 47C By Kathy Marks in Sydney 02 January 2006 Bushfires razed at least 10 homes and threatened dozens more in south-eastern Australia yesterday as a heatwave brought temperatures of up to 47C (117F). At least three houses were destroyed in Woy Woy, on the central coast 50 miles north of Sydney, and another 50 were evacuated. The fire service said that at least four fires were burning out of control in the area, with flames up to 20 metres high fanned by scorching winds. Seven cars were also ablaze in Woy Woy. Thousands of firefighters tackled the blazes, supported by helicopters that dropped water on the flames. Major roads from Sydney to the central coast were closed, stranding thousands of holidaymakers who had flocked to the beaches to seek relief from the searing heat. It was the hottest New Year's Day on record in New South Wales and the second hottest January day. In Sydney, the temperature reached 45C. An air-conditioning unit broke down at the airport and the heat caused power failures and delays in city train services, which were hit by faults in overhead wiring. Sydney hospitals treated a stream of patients affected by the heat, particularly the elderly. One man suffered burns to 60 per cent of his body after a fire scorched 58,068 acres of land in Junee, 180 miles south-west of Sydney. "The fires are widespread and breaking out right across the state," said Rebel Talbert, a spokesman for the New South Wales Rural Fire Service. The central coast fires were the worst of 44 burning across the state yesterday. In Victoria, a major fire destroyed seven homes as it swept across a 20-mile front, burning through bush and farmland and damaging dozens of properties. Two people were injured. Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, had its hottest New Year's Eve ever, with a high of 42.9C. Authorities say a wet winter and spring followed by dry summer conditions have created an abundance of flammable material around the country, particularly in the New South Wales countryside. Cooler conditions were expected by late yesterday evening but they could prompt fresh problems, with wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour making fire behaviour very erratic.

Drought looms over Tanzania www.chinaview.cn 2006-01-03 14:43:52 DAR ES SALAAM, Jan. 3 (Xinhuanet) -- The Tanzania Meteorological Agency (TMA) has warned that a drought is looming large over the country due to widespread failure of rainfalls in the short-rain season. The unpredictably sporadic rainfalls, that stretched between October and December last year, are expected to continue over the next two months, up till the start of the country's long-rain season, TMA said. The three Tanzanian annual seasons also include a dry spell in between June and September. TMA Director-General Mohammed Mhita said that the rains would be insufficient compared to normal seasonal averages. The drought situation that had existed since October last year would impact negatively on crop production, power generation and availability of water supplies for domestic and livestock use, according to the TMA chief. Tanzanian President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete has already appealed to the country in his New Year message to be frugal in the use of available food stocks so as to avoid famine.

Rescuers hunt for Indonesian flood victims as toll rises to 57 3 January 2006 AFP Rescuers combed through debris and mud for victims of flash floods that inundated villages in Indonesia's East Java as the death toll rose to 57, officials said. Thousands sought shelter, medical care and food on Tuesday in the wake of the disaster, which environmentalists have blamed on rampant illegal logging on the island of Java, one of the world's most densely-populated. Local police officer Agus Ilham said the hunt for more victims after the floods, which swept away hundreds of homes in Jember district, 800 kilometres (500 miles) east of the capital, continued in poor weather. Rescue efforts were also hampered by transport difficulties, he told AFP. Erman Harjoprayitno, from the disaster coordinating agency in the city of Surabaya, said the toll stood at 57 dead and 50 injured. "The injured have been taken to local clinics and hospitals," he said. The floods followed two days of monsoon rains which caused a river to swell and burst its banks. A local journalist, Budi Sugiharto, said the scene in the flooded zone was reminiscent of the December 2004 tsunami that devastated Indonesia's Aceh province on Sumatra island. Some 168,000 Acehnese were killed in the catastrophe. "The devastation in areas near the river banks reminds me of the destruction caused by the tsunami. Houses were flattened, with only the foundations remaining," he told AFP. He said rescuers working only with hand tools had built emergency bridges to provide access to isolated areas in the hills and move villagers to safer areas. Children clung to soldiers as they were removed from the affected zones. Teduh Tedjo, who coordinated the police relief team, said most survivors from isolated areas had been moved to shelter by late afternoon, bringing the number of refugees in schools, mosques and government buildings to 5,000. "There is still a group of 19 villagers who are trapped. We are sending people to give them food," he said. About 300 police and 100 soldiers were involved in the relief effort, he said. More than 100 people in the isolated village of Kemiri were desperate for food, while hundreds of refugees at the Kemiri village hall were receiving medical treatment, the state Antara news agency reported. "The condition is very worrying, especially among children," resident Salimah was quoted as saying. Chalid Muhammad, chairman of prominent Indonesian environmental group Walhi, blamed deforestation for the tragedy. "Floods on Java are closely linked to the worsening condition of forests on the island," he told AFP. He said around half of the 3.1 million hectares (7.6 million acres) of forests on the densely-populated island of Java had been destroyed due to land conversion and illegal logging. "Unless action is taken to address the problem, we can imagine what will happen to Java in the future. The government must make a breakthrough to save Java island, where 65 percent of Indonesia's population live," he said. The Jember area and its surrounds are home to tobacco, coffee and tea plantations. Severe flooding is not unusual during Indonesia's rainy season. More than 200 people were killed in 2003 when flash floods tore through Bahorok, a popular riverside resort in North Sumatra, destroying more than 450 buildings.

Big freeze to sweep over China 2 Jan 2006 AFP China, already enduring its coldest winter in 20 years, is preparing for a cold snap that will see temperatures drop by as much as 16 degrees Centigrade (29 degrees Fahrenheit). Northern China, where temperatures are already as low as minus 15-20 degrees Celsius, will feel the strongest effects of the cold front, which is sweeping in from Mongolia and western Siberia, the China Daily reported. In the capital of Beijing, which enjoyed a relatively warm start to the New Year with temperatures just above freezing, the thermometer is expected to plunge 10 degrees on Monday night, according to the paper. The Beijing News advised the city's residents to return home from New Year holidays early on Monday to avoid expected overnight snowfalls. Even in the warmer southern regions, the temperatures are expected to drop sharply. "Upon the heels of the cold front ... more snowfall can be expected in the north with rain or snow flurries possible in the south," the paper quoted Yang Guiming, a senior official with the Central Meteorological Office, as saying. Wang Bangzhong, a deputy director with the China Meteorological Administration, said temperatures across China had already been 1.5 degrees lower than the historical average throughout December. "China is experiencing the coldest winter in 20 years," Wang told the paper. He said three more successive "winter freezes" were expected to affect China during January, usually the coldest month of the year.

Death toll in Indian cold snap tops 100 1 January 06 AFP NEW DELHI, India : A cold snap sweeping northern India has killed another five homeless people, taking the toll to 101 since the start of December. Most of the fatalities were reported in northern Uttar Pradesh state, India's most populous and one of its poorest states. One-fifth of its population are homeless. "Five persons including an old beggar woman froze to death overnight. The toll stands at 82," Manoj Srivastava, a government spokesman said Sunday in the state capital Lucknow. The cold weather has also claimed 16 lives in the northern state of Punjab and three more in neighbouring Haryana since the beginning of December. Winter usually takes a heavy toll around impoverished South Asia. Last year, some 400 people died from cold in Uttar Pradesh alone. Comment: One fifth of the population is homeless??? !! We find that difficult to understand when you consider all the Western industry and money that has been outsourced to India... Obviously, somebody isn't planning things very well.

UK Prisoners skip lunch to help solve food shortages Associated Press in Nairobi Monday January 2, 2006 The Guardian Thousands of prisoners skipped their annual New Year's lunch yesterday and instead sent the food to hundreds of thousands of Kenyans affected by food shortages. Most of the country's estimated 50,000 prisoners gave up their ration of beans and stiff porridge made from maize on the day that President Mwai Kibaki declared the food shortages a national disaster in an attempt to speed up relief efforts. Prisoners wanted to help after watching starving Kenyans on television, reading about food shortages in newspapers and discussing the situation with visiting relatives.

China overtakes Canada in outer space search for aliens By Judi McLeod Monday, January 2, 2006 The Peoples Republic of China will give "life-on-other-planet" Canadians a run for their money on pushing the UFO agenda in 2006. Canada already has a welcoming committee at the ready to establish diplomacy with "ethical Off-Planet cultures now visiting earth". Since 1964, Canada has been home to the world’s first UFO landing pad in St. Paul, Alberta, a 130-ton concrete structure built as that city’s Centennial project. Boasted to be among the famed visitors who dropped by to see the UFO landing pad by its promoters were Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and Mother Teresa. The Canadian Exopolitics Initiative, presented by NGOs to a Senate Committee panel hearing in Winnipeg on March 10, 2005, proposes that the Government of Canada undertake a `Decade of Contact’ with extraterrestrials. The proposed document is "a 10-year process of formal, funded public education, scientific research, educational curricula development and implementation, strategic planning, community activity and public research concerning our terrestrial society’s full culture, political, social, legal and governmental communication and public interest diplomacy, with advanced, ethical Off-Planet cultures now visiting earth." If the idea of ETs already visiting earth is a mind stretch for some, the Decade of Contact initiative is supported by former Canadian Minister of Defense Paul Hellyer, among others. In 1938, an Orson Wells radio program claimed that a real time alien invasion was in progress. Now that they’ve got the money, China may get to ETs before Canada ever does. "Government officials in Guiyang, capital of Guizhou Province, announced on Tuesday that they had received $20 million from a Taiwan-based company to build a UFO research facility in China." (TCV News, Dec. 11, 2005). According to TCV News’ Jim Kouri, the project is a result of several people in the city’s Baiyun District claiming they were visited by extraterrestrials in 1994. With the new research facility, scientists hope to reproduce the mysterious moment through photos and historical documentation. "In 1994, more than 27 pine trees in a forest farm in the district mysteriously fell down. However, nearby plastic shelters stood intact. "A nearby motor vehicle factory reported similar unexplained events: steel pipes were strangely broken; a huge truck was found more than 20 metres away from its original place; and a factory employee claims he was mysteriously pulled up in the air by an "unknown" force." While some chalk up the mysterious events to ET, scientists stated after a field trip to the locations that thunder, lightning and tornadoes were the probable cause. Wang Fangchen, a biologist who visited the site right after the event, said the city’s plan to build a UFO research base is "ridiculous". "Where do they recruit scientists for the research?" he asked, before adding: "I won’t oppose it if they just want to promote local tourism through the programme." Zhou Xiaoqiang, a secretary-general with the Beijing UFO Research Association, said, "People often mistake planes, clouds and insects, as well as strange shadows on photographs, as being UFOs. "If aliens came, they would more likely appear before our eyes politely than hide themselves, said Xiaoaqing. On Sept. 22, 2005, Prime Minister Paul Martin declared to the UN General Assembly, "Space is our final frontier. It has always captured our imagination. What a tragedy it would be if space became one big weapons arsenal and the scene of a new arms race." Martin stated, "In 1967, the UN agreed that weapons of mass destruction must not be based in space. The time has come to extend this ban to all weapons…" Meanwhile, the same US detractors, who argue that there never were Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, worry about the possibility of stockpiling WMD in outer space.

Religion loses out to belief in paranormal Mon 2 Jan 2006 The Scotsman PEOPLE are more likely to believe in ghosts and the paranormal than have faith in an organised religion, a new survey has found. A research by the Scottish Paranormal organisation of amateur enthusiasts showed that more than two thirds of people surveyed said they believed in the existence of ghosts and supernatural spirits. This compares to only 55 per cent of the 2000 people questioned who said they had faith in a religion and believed in a god. On Friday, ghost hunters affiliated to Scottish Paranormal will be gathering in Edinburgh to determine where the city's most haunted areas are. The team has already carried out investigations in Mary King's Close and the Edinburgh Vaults - two of the city's most notoriously haunted spots. The Close was inhabited in the 16th and 17th centuries but was abandoned and sealed after an outbreak of plague, leading to chilling claims of paranormal sightings of former inhabitants. Edinburgh medium Ewan Irvine, a member of the team, said: "It must always be the case that these areas are looked at in an unbiased way with both sceptics and believers coming together to look at these locations."

Cat Calls 911 to Help Owner, Police Say AP Mon Jan 2, 6:39 AM ET COLUMBUS, Ohio - Police aren't sure how else to explain it. But when an officer walked into an apartment Thursday night to answer a 911 call, an orange-and-tan striped cat was lying by a telephone on the living room floor. The cat's owner, Gary Rosheisen, was on the ground near his bed having fallen out of his wheelchair. Rosheisen said his cat, Tommy, must have hit the right buttons to call 911. "I know it sounds kind of weird," Officer Patrick Daugherty said, unsuccessfully searching for some other explanation. Rosheisen said he couldn't get up because of pain from osteoporosis and ministrokes that disrupt his balance. He also wasn't wearing his medical-alert necklace and couldn't reach a cord above his pillow that alerts paramedics that he needs help. Daugherty said police received a 911 call from Rosheisen's apartment, but there was no one on the phone. Police called back to make sure everything was OK, and when no one answered, they decided to check things out. That's when Daugherty found Tommy next to the phone. Rosheisen got the cat three years ago to help lower his blood pressure. He tried to train him to call 911, unsure if the training ever stuck. The phone in the living room is always on the floor, and there are 12 small buttons — including a speed dial for 911 right above the button for the speaker phone. "He's my hero," Rosheisen said.

Ark's Quantum Quirks SOTT January 3, 2005

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