New! Cult-ivating Terror

The text of the email from Mr. Padilla is presented below. In response to Mr. Padilla's request we ask anyone with any further information about the whereabouts of Benjamin Charles Padilla or the missing airplane to contact us here at sottSPAMNOT@cassiopaea.com

"I am Joseph B. Padilla, SR. I live in Pensacola, Florida - U.S.A. I am the Brother of Ben Charles Padilla Jr. He is suspected to be the Pilot of the Missing Boeing 727 Plane that left the Airport in Angola on May 25 2003. I am tring to reach news organizations to help me locate anyone that has seen or heard anything about this missing plane or my brother. I appeared on ABC's , Good Morning Amercia alone with my Sister Benita Padilla-Kirkland on June 19 2003 in hopes to get the story out and to Locate my brother. We both also appeared on CNN's Morning show, American Morning on June 24 2003.

I hope that you will give me your help in hopes that someone seeing the story will either know something about the dissappearance of the plane and my brother or know someone that does. Here is what I have so far about the story.

As in the begining as I told ABC News on the 'Good Morning America Show' that I appeared on in New York, I thought that the Boeing 727 Plane had been sitting there in Angola for 14 months unattended and not maintained. Now, I have found out that My Brother, Ben Charles Padilla, Jr. had been in Angola for 2 months overseeing a crew of aircraft mechanics re-working the plane from one end to the other. A B-Check was done and it was found to be fine. I talked to the owner of the plane, Mr. Maury Joseph, which is also the owner of Aerospace Sales And Leasing in South Florida. I too live in florida, Pensacola, Fl. and my brother too was born and raised here.

Maury Joseph told me that he was there in Angola two weeks before the disappearance (circa 10th May 2003) to see how things were going with the re-build of the 727 and also talked to my brother 2 days before the plane went missing. He had sent my brother $43,000.00 for him to pay the fees to the airport there in Angola.

My brother paid the airport and faxed Maury Joseph the reciept. This is what Maury Joseph told me this past friday night during our two and a half hour phone conversation. My brother was also incharge of the hiring of a pilot and co-pilot. He was to be the Flight Engineer for the flight out of Angola for the repossession of the Boeing 727 plane.

My brother is not licensed to fly a 727 and never has flown an aircraft this large. He is a Licensed Aircraft Mechanic, Flight Engineer, and Pilot of smaller airplanes. I was told that he had took the plane out to the end of the runway and ran the engines to check to see how they performed. I feel that when my brother was checking the engines, someone was on the plane and hijacked him.

My brother isn't a criminal nor has never done any wrong doings. Maury Joseph told me that he trusts my brother and doesn't believe the reports of my brother stealing the plane. Maury Joseph also told me that he had talked to the Airport there in Angola and had found out that the control tower had radioed the 727 and told them as they were headed out to the runway to take off, that they didn't have clearance nor permission to take off and the tower never recieved a response from the 727.

I talked to my brother Ben Padilla, Jr. back in either Jan. or Feb. and we talked about the Sept. 11 2001 ordeal and he himself told me that if this sort of thing ever happend to him, that he would down the plane in a New York Second. So with that said, I really believe my brother was hijacked and taken prisoner and held against his will and possibly was killed.

My mother had a heart attack on Mothers day and my brother was e-mailed about this and he responded to the e-mail he recieved from another brother of ours and told him that he would contact us as soon as he could and we haven't heard anything from him. So, that tells me that something isn't right since he would of contacted the family about our mother.

I have talked to the FBI and State Department in Washington, D.C. and all they are willing to tell me is that they have not found my brother nor the plane. So, I am tring to search for any information that I can get thru news organizations. I find alot of stories on the internet and try to get any of the news organizations to run this story.

I also include a picture of my brother incase anyone knows anything or has seen him before, to please contact me. Our family has already lost 2 siblings and can not bear to lose another one. I would appreciate any help you can give me.

Missing aircraft engineer Benjamin Padilla

Thank you so much for your time."

Joseph B. Padilla, SR.

The Puppet Speaks

Last night, the psychopath in chief of the United States of "they all hate us because of our freedoms" addressed his coalition of the brainwashed to reassure them that 'all was well and going according to plan'. He repeated the Lies that he has used to justify his country's assault on Iraq and Afghanistan, but what is most interesting are all the things he did not talk about: Haliburton, oil, the dollar vs. the euro, the influence of the Zionists in his administration. If one were asleep and ignorant of the world, if all you knew was the news from Fox, you might even believe this killer with the crooked smile.

Have you ever noticed that smile, that way he seems to get a thrill out of killing people?

Here is his speech with some commentary.

Text of U.S. President George W. Bush's speech Sunday night on the situation in Iraq

04:24 AM EDT Sep 08

(AP) - Good evening. I have asked for this time to keep you informed of America's actions in the war on terror.

Nearly two years ago, following deadly attacks on our country, we began a systematic campaign against terrorism. These months have been a time of new responsibilities and sacrifice and national resolve and great progress.

Comment: We know where the sacrifices have been made: jobs, income, the standard of living of most Americans. Bush's cronies at Haliburton and in the arms industries haven't been affected by the downside of the new spirit of the times. They have seen profits and revenues increase.

Funny thing about the "deadly attacks on our country", the Bush Reich refused all calls into an official investigation on 9/11. Independent investigators have uncovered many disturbing facts:

• why the Air Force stayed on the ground;
• who did the trading in airline stocks in the days prior to 9/11;
• how did a commercial airliner fit through a ten foot hole in the side of the Pentagon;
• why were Israeli nationals seen rejoicing at the destruction of the Twin Towers;
• why were Israeli "art students" whisked out of the US without a question;
• what kind of links are there between the Bush family and the bin Laden family - aside from having had common interests in the Carlisle Group;
• how is it that the supposed "terrorist" pilots had been training in Florida at an airport well-known for its connections to the CIA and that the supposed "leader" of the "terrorists", Mohammed Atta, had been trained in the mid-nineties at a US military base in Alabama as part of a delegation from Saudi Arabia.

So many questions, so few answers.... This week, a former British Minister, Michael Meacher, raised some of these questions. He was not accusing the US of complicity, he simply said, "I am not a conspiracy theorist or making accusations that America planned this. All I was saying is there are some unanswered questions about why they didn't follow up intelligence leads about September 11 from a number of sources. I am raising unanswered and legitimate questions." And he has been jumped on by everyone from the US Government to a reporter from the BBC.

Obviously, this is very touchy territory.

Next Bush tries to outline the "successes" in the "War on Terror." This is not an easy task, but the spin doctors in the White House come up with this:

America and a broad coalition acted first in Afghanistan, by destroying the training camps of terror, and removing the regime that harboured al-Qaida. In a series of raids and actions around the world, nearly two-thirds of al-Qaida's known leaders have been captured or killed, and we continue on al-Qaida's trail.

Funny how the trail of al-Qaida led them to Saddam Hussein and Iraq. I guess the trail following Osama got a little cold. Didn't Bush once promise to track down Osama, no matter the cost?

Unfortunately for the Iraqi people and for the Truth, no one has uncovered any evidence whatsoever that Saddam had anything to do with either 9/11 or al-Qaida. This doesn't prevent Bush from insisting on such a link a little further on, nor does it prevent the American sheeple from believing that Saddam supported Osama or that some of the 9/11 terrorists were Iraqi. Which, of course, they weren't. They were Saudis, except that the passenger lists contained none of the names. More pesky questions... Convenient that Mohammed Atta's passport, clean, untouched by fire and explosion, and therefore quite readable, happened to be found on the top of debris not far from the WTC.

Praise the Lord! It's a miracle!

Other successes in this "war" apparently include:

We have exposed terrorist front groups, seized terrorist accounts, taken new measures to protect our homeland, and uncovered sleeper cells inside the United States. And we acted in Iraq, where the former regime sponsored terror, possessed and used weapons of mass destruction, and for 12 years defied the clear demands of the United Nations Security Council. Our coalition enforced these international demands in one of the swiftest and most humane military campaigns in history.

There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. In spite of months of searching, they have not been found. There is no evidence. Nothing. It is so bad that there are those who are suggesting that Saddam was only pretending to have them, thereby forcing the US to invade for no reason whatsoever.

This story makes no sense, unless Saddam was still on the CIA payroll.

But the lack of corroboration, the general agreement that there were no WMD in Iraq among those outside of the US, doesn't matter to Bush. His audience is the American electorate, not "foreigners", and the American electorate is not the brightest group.

For a generation leading up to September the 11th, 2001, terrorists and their radical allies attacked innocent people in the Middle East and beyond, without facing a sustained and serious response. The terrorists became convinced that free nations were decadent and weak. And they grew bolder, believing that history was on their side.

Well, this is true, if by "terrorists" Bush means Israel, but somehow we doubt it. Israel has been waging a relentless and vicious war to wipe out the Palestinians, an innocent people whose crime was to be living on land coveted by the Zionist thugs, known then as "terrorists", (and proud of it if statements by Menachim Begin are to be taken at face value...) and whose land was stolen from them by the Western powers after World War II. We can certainly see that there has not been a "sustained and serious response" to this aggression. It has been ignored.

Israel has ignored every UN resolution on the question, the same behaviour that so upset Bush that he invaded Iraq. Israel has been allowed to stockpile nuclear arms, without ever signing the Nonproliferation Treaty (which would force Israel to submit to inspections, something they have never permitted. Of course, Iraq was invaded after they submitted to inspections!) Israel is now developing "ethnic specific weapons", developed to target the genetic markers of Palestinians...and who else? And who else but the Israelis "believe history is on their side"? Ah, yes, the fundamentalist Christians such as Bush who want to provoke a new Armageddon.

Since America put out the fires of September the 11th, and mourned our dead, and went to war, history has taken a different turn. We have carried the fight to the enemy. We are rolling back the terrorist threat to civilization, not on the fringes of its influence, but at the heart of its power.

Which is what Brzezinski and the Neo-cons at the Project for a New American Century were suggesting prior to 9/11: "We need an attack on American soil in order to justify our intervention elsewhere." They got it, and now they are using it to put into practice plans that were drawn up long before September 11, 2001. In fact, these plans were originally drawn up by the Neo-cons for the Israeli Likud government.

This work continues. In Iraq, we are helping the long-suffering people of that country to build a decent and democratic society at the centre of the Middle East. Together we are transforming a place of torture chambers and mass graves into a nation of laws and free institutions. This undertaking is difficult and costly - yet worthy of our country, and critical to our security.

In the last few weeks, the Americans have hired Saddam's former torturers to try and bring back a modicum of "order" to the country. This is indeed "worthy" of the US, and quite in line with their actions in Chile, Guatemala, Iran under the Shah, and many other countries since the end of the Second World War. It is also worthy of that epitome of American education, the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia where hundreds of torturers were trained in the skills of extracting information from victims via the use of pain, deprivation, and psychological and physical violence, before being sent back to Latin American countries where these new skills were put into practice. The main victims of this "schooling" being those who opposed US economic and political hegemony in the region.

The Middle East will either become a place of progress and peace, or it will be an exporter of violence and terror that takes more lives in America and in other free nations. The triumph of democracy and tolerance in Iraq, in Afghanistan and beyond would be a grave setback for international terrorism.

The US and Israel are the exporters of terror and violence. It is American politics that makes America so hated: their double standard, their hypocrisy, their brutality. America shuts its eyes at Israeli violence, at Israeli violations of UN resolutions, at Israeli spying within the borders of the US, at Israeli blackmail of US politicians.

America and Israel are the problem in the Middle East, not the Arab countries. "The triumph of democracy and tolerance in Iraq" would indeed be a grave setback for American terrorism.

The terrorists thrive on the support of tyrants and the resentments of oppressed peoples. When tyrants fall, and resentment gives way to hope, men and women in every culture reject the ideologies of terror, and turn to the pursuits of peace. Everywhere that freedom takes hold, terror will retreat.

Yes. And for this reason, the peoples of the world must stand tall against the American beast. Bush the tyrant must fall. We hope that one day freedom might ring out in the United States itself. We realize this is a dream, perhaps an unrealizable dream, but nevertheless we nurture the hope that one day Americans, too, will join the club of civilized peoples.

Our enemies understand this. They know that a free Iraq will be free of them - free of assassins, and torturers, and secret police. They know that as democracy rises in Iraq, all of their hateful ambitions will fall like the statues of the former dictator. And that is why, five months after we liberated Iraq, a collection of killers is desperately trying to undermine Iraq's progress and throw the country into chaos.

In our work on psychopaths, we have learned that they telegraph their own plans. We see this in Bush's statement that "a collection of killers is desperately trying to undermine Iraq's progress and throw the country into chaos". Doesn't this accurately describe the presence of the "coalition" in Iraq?

Some of the attackers are members of the old Saddam regime, who fled the battlefield and now fight in the shadows. Some of the attackers are foreign terrorists, who have come to Iraq to pursue their war on America and other free nations. We cannot be certain to what extent these groups work together. We do know they have a common goal - reclaiming Iraq for tyranny.

Some of them have been hired by the Americans. They were financed to fight the Russians in Afghanistan. And those "foreign terrorists" (who seem to exist largely in the minds of American politicians and planners) were set into place years ago as CIA assets.

Most, but not all, of these killers operate in one area of the country. The attacks you have heard and read about in the last few weeks have occurred predominantly in the central region of Iraq, between Baghdad and Tikrit - Saddam Hussein's former stronghold. The north of Iraq is generally stable and is moving forward with reconstruction and self-government. The same trends are evident in the South, despite recent attacks by terrorist groups.

Though their attacks are localized, the terrorists and Saddam loyalists have done great harm. They have ambushed American and British service members who stand for freedom and order. They have killed civilian aid workers of the United Nations who represent the compassion and generosity of the world. They have bombed the Jordanian embassy - the symbol of a peaceful Arab country. And last week they murdered a respected cleric and over a hundred Muslims at prayer - bombing a holy shrine and a symbol of Islam's peaceful teachings.

We don't know who planted the bombs at the UN and at the mosque, but circumstantial evidence points to Israel. There is no evidence whatsoever that they were carried out by those Bush blames. The Israelis want an end to all the current regimes in the area, especially Iran and Syria. This is the political programme of the Project for a New American Century.

Various news reports after the bomb at the UN stated that the trailer it was on had come from Syria. Isn't this a little too obvious? The more chaos, the more the blame will fall upon "foreign terrorists", the more the blame falls upon "foreign terrorists", the greater the push by Bush to implement a "regime change" in Iran and Syria.

This violence is directed, not only against our coalition, but against anyone in Iraq who stands for decency, and freedom, and progress.

Bush uses words that have no concrete meaning, but which call up warm and fuzzy notions in the listener. The American sheeple have been so brainwashed for so long that they really do believe that their country is not only the bastion of democracy and freedom in the world, but is actually the only country where this democracy and freedom actually works. Nevermind that there is no real choice between Republicans and Democrats; nevermind that they are completely blinded by the dangerous notion that their "freedoms" can be protected by having automatic weapons at home or by meeting in the dark of night and carrying out militia training.

There is more at work in these attacks than blind rage. The terrorists have a strategic goal. They want us to leave Iraq before our work is done. They want to shake the will of the civilized world. In the past, the terrorists have cited the examples of Beirut and Somalia, claiming that if you inflict harm on Americans, we will run from a challenge. In this, they are mistaken.

This is in line with Bush's "Bring 'em on!" remark of several weeks ago. It isn't Bush who is on the front line. Bush is a coward who was AWOL when he was in uniform. But now that he is safe, protected by his bunkers, he can taunt and provoke all he wants.

And his yellow streak didn't disappear when his stint with the reserves was up. On 9/11 he sought refuge in Air Force One and hopped around the country until he was certain the danger had passed.

(Theirry Meyssan, a French journalist, has put together evidence that during this period, Bush was negotiating with the leaders of a coup d'état within the US Government.)

And this man has the effrontery to put the lives of others into danger.

Two years ago, I told the Congress and the country that the war on terror would be a lengthy war, a different kind of war, fought on many fronts in many places. Iraq is now the central front. Enemies of freedom are making a desperate stand there - and there they must be defeated. This will take time, and require sacrifice.

Be scared. Be very scared. The war on terror will never end. You will have to make sacrifices so my Dad's buddies and Dick Cheney can become even richer on the dead bodies of Iraqi men, women and children and Palestinian men, children and women and soon, Iranian and Syrian men, women and children.

Yet, we will do what is necessary, we will spend what is necessary, to achieve this essential victory in the war on terror, to promote freedom, and to make our own Nation more secure.

It is important to spend what is necessary because all these tax dollars go to my Daddy's friends. Forget the old Republican mantra about a balanced budget, the Republican war cry against the Democrats when they were not controlling the country. Now that the Republicans are back, let's give tax cuts to the rich, let's buy more bombs and missiles from the campaign contributors, let's cut back on the pitiful few social services that the "greatest democracy" in the world offers to its poor.

America has done this kind of work before. Following World War II, we lifted up the defeated nations of Japan and Germany, and stood with them as they built representative governments. We committed years and resources to this cause. And that effort has been repaid many times over in three generations of friendship and peace. America today accepts the challenge of helping Iraq in the same spirit - for their sake, and our own.

Here the Bush puppet starts to make his argument for getting Europe to pay for America's problems. He mentions how America "lifted up the defeated nations". The subtext is that you guys owe us one. You will always owe us one; no matter how much you pay back, you will eternally owe us one. Bush is coming to collect.

Our strategy in Iraq has three objectives - destroying the terrorists - enlisting the support of other nations for a free Iraq - and helping Iraqis assume responsibility for their own defence and their own future.

Redefining words is an important aspect of modern information warfare. The use of the word "terrorist" is a good case in point.

Imagine your country is invaded. People from a different culture arrive and start killing your friends and neighbors. They attempt to impose their way of life upon you. In response, you decide that you do not wish to live under this new way of life, so you take up arms to fight against the invader.

If you are an American, this would make you a "Patriot". If you are an Iraqi, however, this makes you a "terrorist". The French who fought against the Germans were heroes, members of the Resistance. Those who worked with the Germans were collaborators. The members of the Iraqi Governing Council, appointed by the Americans, bear more than a passing resemblance to the Vichey Government in France.

First, we are taking direct action against the terrorists in the Iraqi theatre, which is the surest way to prevent future attacks on coalition forces and the Iraqi people. We are staying on the offensive, with a series of precise strikes against enemy targets increasingly guided by intelligence given to us by Iraqi citizens.

Since the end of major combat operations, we have conducted raids seizing many caches of enemy weapons and massive amounts of ammunition, and we have captured or killed hundreds of Saddam loyalists and terrorists. So far, of the 55 most wanted former Iraqi leaders, 42 are dead or in custody. We are sending a clear message: Anyone who seeks to harm our soldiers can know that our soldiers are hunting for them.

So any and all resistance on the part of the Iraqis to the invading army of American oil robbers is to be characterized as "terrorism". This is in keeping with the legislation Bush has had enacted, with Democratic support, in the US. "Dissent" is being equated with "terrorism."

Now Bush tries to manipulate Europe into paying the bill for his violence and brutality. However, Bush knows that he doesn't really have to convince the Europeans, who will not agree to paying for Bush's folly as long as the Americans insist on remaining in charge. Bush is speaking to the American public, an ignorant public, most of whom have never left the US, who do not speak a second language, and therefore their knowledge of the rest of the world comes only from the televised evening news. If Bush can convince the American sheeple that the Europeans are shirkers because they aren't "helping", he can then put the blame for any future failures on "Old Europe."

This is convenient in an election year.

Second, we are committed to expanding international cooperation in the reconstruction and security of Iraq, just as we are in Afghanistan. Our military commanders in Iraq advise me that the current number of American troops - nearly 130,000 - is appropriate to their mission. They are joined by over 20,000 service members from 29 other countries.

Bush, with his big, Christian heart, is "committed to expanding international cooperation in the reconstruction and security of Iraq, just as we are in Afghanistan," that is, he wants other countries to foot the bill for cleaning up America's mess.

Two multinational divisions, led by the British and the Poles, are serving alongside our forces - and in order to share the burden more broadly, our commanders have requested a third multinational division to serve in Iraq.

Some countries have requested an explicit authorization of the United Nations Security Council before committing troops to Iraq. I have directed Secretary of State Colin Powell to introduce a new Security Council resolution which would authorize the creation of a multinational force in Iraq, to be led by America.

The key phrase here is "to be led by America." Bush portrays himself as understanding the concerns of his allies. He is sending Powell to the Security Council. But the Europeans do not want this UN force "to be led by America." Why should they put their troops under US command?

This is not because the Europeans are more concerned about "freedom and democracy" than the US. It has to do with oil contracts and repayment of debt. The US having annexed Iraq has refused to honour the debts to the European countries and Russia taken on by Saddam. The oil fields are completely under the control of the US. In other words, the European countries are not part of it because it is not in their economic interest to be there.

Until these 'rights' are recognized by the US, expect these other countries to stay out of it.

I recognize that not all of our friends agreed with our decision to enforce the Security Council resolutions and remove Saddam Hussein from power. Yet, we cannot let past differences interfere with present duties.

Here Bush pulls a fast one on history and says that the US was only "enforcing the Security Council resolutions." The US acted illegally when it invaded Iraq. It is attempting to justify its actions, but the world community as a whole, including the populations of most of the countries who were part of the "Coalition of the Willing", recognized Bush's lie for what it was.

Once more, Bush speaks as if it was the Americans who were slighted by the past disagreements. Bush, ever the understanding Great Leader, will forgive the errors of his allies and permit them to come back into the club...and all they have to do is pay up. This isn't going to 'sell' in Europe, but, again, his audience is the American sheeple.

Terrorists in Iraq have attacked representatives of the civilized world, and opposing them must be the cause of the civilized world. Members of the United Nations now have an opportunity, and the responsibility, to assume a broader role in assuring that Iraq becomes a free and democratic nation.

It has not been established who bombed the UN. Bush uses this, however, as the excuse to manipulate the Europeans into supporting US aggression. How? Because the attack on the UN was an attack on "representatives of the civilized world." This may well be. But the US is not a part of the civilized world and it showed its contempt for this world when it ran roughshod over the UN last winter and illegally invaded Iraq. If the "civilized world" is to ensure that "Iraq becomes a free and democratic nation", it will have to remove the US from Iraq and contain it within its own borders.

Not very likely. The US spends more on its military than the next twelve countries combined.

Third, we are encouraging the orderly transfer of sovereignty and authority to the Iraqi people. Our coalition came to Iraq as liberators and we will depart as liberators. Right now Iraq has its own Governing Council, comprised of 25 leaders representing Iraq's diverse people. The Governing Council recently appointed cabinet ministers to run government departments.

Already more than 90 per cent of towns and cities have functioning local governments, which are restoring basic services. We are helping to train civil defence forces to keep order - and an Iraqi police service to enforce the law - a facilities protection service - Iraqi border guards to help secure the borders - and a new Iraqi army.

In all these roles, there are now some 60,000 Iraqi citizens under arms, defending the security of their own country - and we are accelerating the training of more.

Iraq is ready to take the next steps toward self-government. The Security Council resolution we introduce will encourage Iraq's Governing Council to submit a plan and a timetable for the drafting of a constitution, and for free elections.

From the outset, I have expressed confidence in the ability of the Iraqi people to govern themselves. Now they must rise to the responsibilities of a free people and secure the blessings of their own liberty.

This is all nonsense to convince the sheeple that all is well in Iraq, in spite of the daily deaths of Iraqi civilians and American soldiers, in spite of the continuing violence and bombing, in spite of the news reports that indicate that something has gone seriously wrong with the game plan. The New York Times reported in May that the US was planning to reduce its troops to 30,000 or less by the fall. Now Bush is asking for more. Sounds like a rousing success to us!

If Bush is having to go begging to the UN, and this is what it is in spite of the spin he is putting on it in this speech, it is because he is in deep trouble. And he knows it. Of course, in such a great 'democracy' as the US, it doesn't matter if you are in trouble because of your own policies and actions as long as you can blame the failure on someone else. And this is what Bush is trying to do here. If the US is encountering difficulties, it is because the rest of the world, i.e., "Old Europe", is not contributing. They are benefiting from the fight against "terrorism", but they are forcing the US to carry the burden.

With an election next year, it looks like this is the best Karl Rove could come up with. Bush himself may well believe this. It is clear that he is not what the French call a "100 watt." Bush's light went out a long time ago.

Our strategy in Iraq will require new resources. We have conducted a thorough assessment of our military and reconstruction needs in Iraq, and also in Afghanistan. I will soon submit to Congress a request for 87 billion dollars. The request will cover ongoing military and intelligence operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, which we expect will cost 66 billion dollars over the next year.

So he needs more money. The American Academy of the Sciences did a report prior to the war that showed how costly it would be. They figured up to $100,000,000,000 over ten years. These are American tax dollars being recycled into the coffers of Daddy Bush's friends in the oil and armaments industries.

This budget request will also support our commitment to helping the Iraqi and Afghan people rebuild their own nations, after decades of oppression and mismanagement. We will provide funds to help them improve security. And we will help them to restore basic services, such as electricity and water, and to build new schools, roads, and medical clinics.

Afghanistan is still in turmoil. The new, US-backed government has control of the region of Kabul. The rest of the country is under the control of war lords and the Taliban. Poppy production is back up to pre-Taliban levels. (The Taliban had outlawed poppy production.) As far as the decades of oppression and mismanagement, this started in the late seventies with the Carter Administration's support for the fundamentalist Islamic forces against the Soviet Union and the pro-Soviet government. Prior to the US fomenting civil war, Afghanistan had settled into peaceful development. Women were in positions of power. There was a decided lack of oppression and mismanagement. Of course, there were communists in power and that couldn't be tolerated.

Over twenty years later, we are still paying the consequences.

This effort is essential to the stability of those nations, and therefore to our own security. Now and in the future, we will support our troops and we will keep our word to the more than 50 million people of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Later this month, Secretary Powell will meet with representatives of many nations to discuss their financial contributions to the reconstruction of Afghanistan. Next month, he will hold a similar funding conference for the reconstruction of Iraq. Europe, Japan and states in the Middle East all will benefit from the success of freedom in these two countries, and they should contribute to that success.

The neighborhood bully is going to try and put the screws to the population. Bush pulls out the "good cop" of the Reich, Colin Powell, and will yet again parade him in front of the UN. Yes, the same Powell who lied to us all in February, who showed us faked photos of mobile factories of WMD; the same Powell who worked to cover up the 1968 American atrocity at My Lai in Vietnam. Powell has a long record of justifying American atrocities. Powell also advised the first President Bush to invade Panama, an illegal invasion that shows the Bush's are not adverse to ignoring the rule of law when they see fit.

The people of Iraq are emerging from a long trial. For them, there will be no going back to the days of the dictator - to the miseries of humiliation he inflicted on that good country. For the Middle East and the world, there will be no going back to the days of fear - when a brutal and aggressive tyrant possessed terrible weapons.

And for America, there will be no going back to the era before September the 11th, 2001 - to false comfort in a dangerous world. We have learned that terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength - they are invited by the perception of weakness.

There is no going back. Be scared, be very scared. "The false comfort in a dangerous world." Remember back to those days? We were ignorant, living in a dream world. How true. We had no idea how bad it could get.

And the surest way to avoid attacks on our own people is to engage the enemy where he lives and plans. We are fighting that enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan today, so that we do not meet him again on our own streets, in our own cities.

Yeah, right. The Bush Reich and previous US administrations have been paying these "terrorists" for years. The evidence points to US complicity in the "attacks" of 9/11. Complicity in permitting them to happen in the very least, complicity in organizing them at the most. But even if this hypothesis is accepted by many people outside of North America, it is inconceivable to Americans. They are unable to simply look at the facts and allow these facts to speak. Who has benefited from the "War on Terrorism"? It has been the Israelis and the Bush Reich, that is, the most reactionary, repressive and tyrannical groups on the planet today.

Is this a coincidence?

The heaviest burdens in our war on terror fall, as always, on the men and women of our armed forces and our intelligence services. They have removed gathering threats to America and our friends, and this nation takes great pride in their incredible achievements.

We are grateful for their skill and courage, and for their acts of decency, which have shown America's character to the world. We honour the sacrifice of their families. And we mourn every American who has died so bravely, so far from home.

Remember: "Bring 'em on!" This shows how deeply Bush is concerned for the lives of American soldiers.

The Americans who assume great risks overseas understand the great cause they are in. Not long ago I received a letter from a captain in the 3rd Infantry Division in Baghdad. He wrote about his pride in serving a just cause, and about the deep desire of Iraqis for liberty.

"I see it," he said, "in the eyes of a hungry people every day here. They are starved for freedom and opportunity." And he concluded, "I just thought you'd like a note from the 'front lines of freedom."' That Army captain, and all of our men and women serving in the war on terror, are on the front lines of freedom. And I want each of them to know: Your country thanks you, and your country supports you.

Fellow citizens: We have been tested these past 24 months, and the dangers have not passed. Yet Americans are responding with courage and confidence. We accept the duties of our generation. We are active and resolute in our own defence. We are serving in freedom's cause - and that is the cause of all mankind.

Thank you, and may God continue to bless America.

Yes, "may God continue to bless America." May the god of monotheism, continue to shower his blessings upon America. May the American Jihad continue. Bush has said that it was God himself who told him to invade Iraq. The fundamentalism of American "Christians" meets the fundamentalism of Islam with the added spice of the fundamentalism of Judaism. Only the payments are coming from the same pockets. The fundamentalists are being financed by the same sources.

But as we have said, this speech is aimed at the unthinking, uncritical, fast asleep American who wishes nothing more than to be reassured that everying is fine. Confident that Bush will take care of the threats in this new, post-September 11 world, his audience can confidently find false comfort in this dangerous world from Bush's lies.

Fortunately, we were sound asleep when Bush delivered this speech. We might have put a chair through a perfectly good TV screen had we been watching...

"Political Science", Randy Newman

No one likes us
I don't know why.
We may not be perfect,
But heaven knows we try.
But all around
even our old friends put us down
Let's drop the big one
And see what happens.

We give them money,
But are they grateful?
No, they're spiteful, and they're hateful.
They don't respect us, so let's surprise them
We'll drop the big one and pulverize them.

Asia's crowded, Europe's too old,
Africa is far too hot, and Canada's too cold.
And South America stole our name
Let's drop the big one,
There'll be no one left to blame us.

We'll save Australia, don't want to hurt no kangaroos.
We'll build an American amusement park there,
They got surfin' too!

Boom! goes London, Boom! Paree
More room for you and more room for me.
And every city the whole world round,
Will just be another American town.

Oh, how peaceful it'll be!
We'll set everybody free!
You'll wear a Japanese kimono, baby
And there'll be Italian shoes for me!
They all hate us anyhow
So let's drop the big one now,
Let's drop the big one now!

Nervous system manipulation by electromagnetic fields from monitors

United States Patent 6,506,148
Loos January 14, 2003
Abstract

Physiological effects have been observed in a human subject in response to stimulation of the skin with weak electromagnetic fields that are pulsed with certain frequencies near 1/2 Hz or 2.4 Hz, such as to excite a sensory resonance. Many computer monitors and TV tubes, when displaying pulsed images, emit pulsed electromagnetic fields of sufficient amplitudes to cause such excitation.

It is therefore possible to manipulate the nervous system of a subject by pulsing images displayed on a nearby computer monitor or TV set.

For the latter, the image pulsing may be imbedded in the program material, or it may be overlaid by modulating a video stream, either as an RF signal or as a video signal. The image displayed on a computer monitor may be pulsed effectively by a simple computer program.

For certain monitors, pulsed electromagnetic fields capable of exciting sensory resonances in nearby subjects may be generated even as the displayed images are pulsed with subliminal intensity.

Inventors: Loos; Hendricus G. (3019 Cresta Way, Laguna Beach, CA 92651) Appl. No.: 872528 Filed: June 1, 2001

Powell Says U.S. Foreign Policy Is Working

President Bush's top foreign policy adviser said the president has "a vision" for creating the coalitions needed to bring countries into the "civilized world." [...]

Comment: And below we see the practical application of the above 'vision'...

For Afghans, the enemy isn't Taliban but U.S.-backed warlords

MSNBC

''This is where the new, beautiful houses begin. They belong to the commanders. Their money is from drugs, from smuggling. They will never be caught. Their soldiers are working with the Americans,'' says Jan, himself a small-time opium grower.

Nearly two years after the collapse of Taliban rule, ordinary Afghans like Jan say they are losing faith in the United States and its coalition partners.

They point to rampant corruption, President Hamid Karzai's weak leadership and the behavior of U.S-backed warlords whose private armies operate with impunity throughout most of Afghanistan.

''The big mistake is from the Americans. They want to bring peace to Afghanistan with thieves and killers. The Americans after two years have learned nothing,'' said Abdul Raouf, a car dealer in the eastern city of Jalalabad. ''Every day the situation is worse.''

The American invasion of Afghanistan relied heavily on local anti-Taliban forces, and it was inevitable that these warlords, however unsavory, would continue to be important forces in the hunt for Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaida network that masterminded the Sept. 11 attacks.

But Afghans increasingly wonder whether the trade-off was worth it.

''Everybody says warlords, but who are these warlords? They are commanders, they are government ministers,'' said Raouf. ''We didn't like the Taliban but there was security then, there were laws. But now anyone with a gun is the law.''

The opium industry, harshly suppressed by the Taliban, has made a roaring comeback.

The United Nations says production in 2002 generated up to $1.2 billion or almost a fifth of Afghan GDP. Central Asian states and Russia are complaining bitterly about the increase in Afghan drugs flowing north.

Those benefiting most are the commanders aligned to the government and working with the U.S.-led coalition, say Afghans in eastern Jalalabad who spoke to The Associated Press.

A U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the drug trade couldn't possibly flourish without the patronage of government officials and military commanders.

Human Rights Watch recently issued a 101-page report warning that ''Afghan warlords and political strongmen supported by the United States and other nations are engendering a climate of fear in Afghanistan.'' It named a string of men in senior government positions. [...]

U.S. Raid Herds Iraqi Old and Young in Barbed Wire

Iraqi sheep farmer Thani Mushlah was asleep on his roof when the American soldiers arrived before dawn. "They banged open my door, came for me and made me lie face down on the floor in front of my wife and children," he said.

Two hours later, as the heat rose with the morning sun, Mushlah, 33, was sitting handcuffed on the desert floor inside a ring of barbed wire used as a temporary prison during the U.S. military raid on the village of Hamreen.

Mid-course correction not needed: Powell

Washington, Sept. 8. (PTI): Despite suffering "casualties", US policies in Iraq and Afghanistan were working and there was no need for mid-course correction, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said today.

"We have a good strategy and we are executing that strategy. The results are that two desotic regimes are gone," he told CNN. Powell said though US was suffering casualties, it needed "to stay on course and was trying to generate more support from the international community." [...]

Comment: Perhaps it is time to check A Running Log: US Military Personnel Wounded in Iraq & Afghanistan

Most Americans haven't seen the growing legion of wounded troops returning from Iraq who are cared for at military facilities sealed off from the public. The media, in turn, have focused on the hit-and-run guerrilla attacks that claim one or two GIs in Iraq almost daily. Little attention has been paid to the long, difficult and very personal struggles that ensue in wards at BAMC and Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

Also see the website that is censored at military barracks: MILITARYCORRUPTION.COM

Time to face reality of failure in Iraq

By Steve Chapman

CHICAGO - Back when the occupation of Iraq was expected to consist of a victory parade and a glorious flowering of democracy, the Bush administration was content to handle the job alone. But this week, it finally acknowledged that the only thing worse than being mired in a catastrophe is being mired there all by yourself. So it is planning to solicit the United Nations for volunteers to share its misery. [...]

To go begging to the United Nations to help clean up a mess that the United Nations warned against in the first place is not a minor embarrassment. [...]

The Iraq mission looks doomed to failure. How many Americans have to die before we admit that? [...]

Comment: Perhaps it is not a failure in the Bush Reich's eyes. Perpetual war means perpetual profits, and now the Western world faces the terrifying prospect of real terrorists (as opposed to the U.S. government sponsored kind), now that Bush and company have stirred up a hornet's nest with their invasion. It is shaping up to be a wonderful opportunity to get the people to beg for their freedoms to be taken away so they can be safe to watch television in peace.

Toll on Body and Soul

U.S. Soldiers in Iraq Battle Combat Stress as Well as Guerrillas Combat stress is a fact of war, but U.S. troops in Iraq are facing a conflict more intense than any since the Vietnam War. With no front line, soldiers feel vulnerable to attack anywhere, anytime. To help them, more than 100 military psychiatrists and counselors are deployed around Iraq in "Combat Stress Control teams."

They offer classes in suicide prevention, anger management and stress management. The military confirms nine suicides since the start of the war, about 10 percent of all non-hostile deaths, but within the normal range for military and civilian populations. The military has also acknowledged that a number of troops have been flown home due to mental health problems.

Bush Sees Long Fight in Iraq, Soldiers Attacked

Andrew Cawthorne, Steve Holland
Mon September 8, 2003
BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON (Reuters)

U.S. soldiers came under attack in Baghdad and rounded up suspected guerrillas in Saddam Hussein's hometown Monday as President Bush prepared Americans for a long fight in Iraq.

"Enemies of freedom are making a desperate stand there -- and there they must be defeated," Bush said in a speech on Sunday night answering criticism at home and round the world of Washington's handling of postwar Iraq.

"This will take time, and require sacrifice. Yet we will do what is necessary, we will spend what is necessary, to achieve this essential victory in the war on terror," Bush said. [...]

Just hours after Bush's speech, two U.S. soldiers were wounded when their convoy struck an explosive device on a Baghdad bridge in the latest of daily guerrilla attacks. [...]

With Bush telling the world all about these mean terrorist groups ...

lets not forget that these terrorists were (are?) employed by the U.S. government with sizable paychecks straight from the U.S. tax payer pocket (and CIA drug running).

Saddam Hussein: CIA Asset

By Richard Sale
UPI Intelligence Correspondent
From the International Desk
Published 4/10/2003 7:30 PM

U.S. forces in Baghdad might now be searching high and low for Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, but in the past Saddam was seen by U.S. intelligence services as a bulwark of anti-communism and they used him as their instrument for more than 40 years, according to former U.S. intelligence diplomats and intelligence officials.

United Press International has interviewed almost a dozen former U.S. diplomats, British scholars and former U.S. intelligence officials to piece together the following account. The CIA declined to comment on the report. While many have thought that Saddam first became involved with U.S. intelligence agencies at the start of the September 1980 Iran-Iraq war, his first contacts with U.S. officials date back to 1959, when he was part of a CIA-authorized six-man squad tasked with assassinating then Iraqi Prime Minister Gen. Abd al- Karim Qasim. [...]

The CIA/Defense Intelligence Agency relation with Saddam intensified after the start of the Iran-Iraq war in September of 1980. [...]

Of course this article states that the CIA relationship ended when George HW Bush enticed Saddam to invade Kuwait, creating the excuse for the first Gulf War. Bush Sr. set up Hussein saying the U.S. would back him in the Kuwait invasion, and then doing the opposite. Kuwait was accused of stealing oil by drilling sideways on the border into Iraqi oil fields. Bush Sr. may have set up Saddam to be a future enemy or his relationship with the CIA did not end and the whole thing was just another public relations operation to justify the first Gulf war.

Osama bin Laden: CIA asset

American Free Press
By Gregory Douglas

[T]oday's savage and motivated Arab terrorists would be nothing if not for the training, support and the weapons supplied by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Osama bin Laden was recruited by the CIA to fight the Soviet occupation troops in Afghanistan. The budding guerrilla leader was trained and supplied by American taxpayers' dollars. [...]

Bin Laden and the CIA

Is Bush Guilty of Mass Murder?

By KURT NIMMO
CounterPunch

[...] Mark Zapezauer has written extensively on CIA operations in Afghanistan under the Reagan regime. Reagan and the CIA spent between five and six billion dollars to bankroll and equip the drug trafficking Afghan mujihadeen, the largest and most expensive operation ever conducted by the CIA. As Ahmed Rashid has detailed, between 1982 and 1992 some 35,000 Muslim radicals from 43 Islamic countries trained and fought with the Afghan mujihadeen. Reagan's CIA director, William Casey, orchestrated the recruitment and arming of these vicious anti-Soviet warriors.

One of these warriors was a young Saudi student, Osama bin Laden.

It's not like the CIA to let an asset like that wither on the vine, especially considering the well-documented connections between Bush Republicans and Osama bin Laden going back 20 or more years. (Read Michel Chossudovsky's "Who Is Osama Bin Laden?") [...]

Qaeda Tape Pledges Fresh Anti-U.S. Attacks

By Samia Nakhoul
Sun September 7, 2003 12:12 PM ET

DUBAI (Reuters) - A purported audio tape by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group on Sunday vowed attacks on Americans "everywhere" and so devastating that Washington would forget the horror of the September 11 suicide hijackings.

The tape, dated September 3, came a few days before the second anniversary of the September 2001 attacks on U.S. cities -- blamed on al Qaeda. Washington said last week it was on alert for possible attacks by the militant group.

"We announce there will be new attacks inside and outside which would make America forget the attacks of September 11 (2001)," an al Qaeda spokesman said in the tape broadcast by the Arabic television channel Al Arabiya. [...]

Comment: More " voice morphing" by the CIA

Another Day in the Empire

February 15, 2003
CounterPunch
By KURT NIMMO

[...] Obviously, there's a problem here, too many people are calling dibs on Osama and it creates a rather obvious credibility problem. [...]

Once the mythical Osama is out of the way (the real Osama, of course, will retire somewhere, probably Saudi Arabia or, as it may soon become known, Exxon Arabia), the US can concentrate on the leaderless al-Qaeda, which is much better for propaganda and fear quotient purposes.

Unlike single individuals, organizations can be everywhere all at once, constantly threatening, faceless and incognito yet highly visible and ominous at the same time. Like corporations, al-Qaeda is able to transcend the inherent weaknesses and limitations of the mortal human form. Like multinational corporations, it is possible for al-Qaeda to live a long and productive life scaring the hell out of our children and grandchildren. Unlike Osama, al-Qaeda is capable of mutating into many forms, of showing up in Kenya or Bali and, at the same time, lurking in the alley beyond your bedroom window.

Of course, if al-Qaeda is going to be the ultimate bogeyman, its CIA and US military intelligence handlers are going to have to get it together. It's time to show some professionalism around here [...]

Monthly costs of Iraq, Afghan wars approach that of Vietnam

By Dave Moniz, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The monthly bill for the U.S. military missions in Iraq and Afghanistan now rivals Pentagon spending during the Vietnam War, Defense Department figures show.

The Pentagon is spending nearly $5 billion per month in Iraq and Afghanistan, a pace that would bring yearly costs to almost $60 billion. Those expenses do not include money being spent on rebuilding Iraq's electric grid, water supply and other infrastructure, costs which had no parallel in Vietnam.

In Vietnam, the last sustained war the nation fought, the United States spent $111 billion during the eight years of the war, from 1964 to 1972. Adjusted for inflation, that's more than $494 billion, an average of $61.8 billion per year, or $5.15 billion per month.

President Bush announced Sunday that he will ask Congress for $87 billion for U.S. operations next year in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere — $66 billion for military and intelligence efforts, $21 billion for reconstruction. Senior administration officials said the request demonstrates that the president's commitment to fighting terrorism would not be shaken by the growing financial burden.[..]

Mosul Residents Talk of Supposed Betrayer

SCHEHEREZADE FARAMARZI
Associated Press

MOSUL, Iraq - Seven weeks after U.S. troops stormed Nawaf al-Zidani's palatial three-story villa, killing Saddam Hussein's sons, al-Zidani's neighbors are still trying to fathom why the popular man broke with Arab custom and betrayed the two brothers. Was it for the $30 million reward to pay off large debts? Was it to avenge the imprisonment of his brother?

"We were his neighbors," said Etemad Yassin Taha. "He ought to have at least tipped us off so we wouldn't be in the middle of the shooting. It was literally a war in our neighborhood."

U.S. officials have not publicly said who gave them the information that led to the July 22 capture of Odai and Qusai, but people here have little doubt it was al-Zidani who collected the reward - $15 million for each son. Al-Zidani has not been seen since U.S. troops surrounded his house at around 9 a.m. that day, then led him and his son away at gun point. He'd taken his wife and four daughters away from the villa a few hours earlier, said Abu Karam, who runs a grocery store across the road.[..]

A vital record of human rights history is in danger
 
Benjamin Nathans
IHT

The Sakharov Archives
 
PHILADELPHIA - When did the 21st century begin? If you're thinking Jan. 1, 2000, or Sept. 11, 2001, think again. The real 21st century began in 1989 with the swell of "people power" in places as diverse as Moscow, Pretoria and Prague. This was to be the dawn of global democracy and human rights - the good 21st century.
.
In the midst of the euphoria of that year, the world lost one of its most courageous advocates of democracy and human rights, the Soviet physicist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Andrei Sakharov. Now it is in danger of losing him - and his legacy - again.
.
The Andrei Sakharov Archives and Human Rights Center, established at Brandeis University in 1993, will soon cease to exist unless Congress and university officials act to save it. [...]

Comment: 9/11 came just in time to end "the swell of people power". Thanks to Bush and crew we may very well have "war for peace" for the rest of our lives instead, along with fear mongering like Gas suits and masks in the sun: London prepares itself for an Armageddon.

US, British troops should quit Iraqi cities within six months: minister

LONDON (AFP) Sep 07, 2003

[...] Iraq's new electricity minister Ayham al-Samarrai told the BBC that coalition forces should shrink away into the countryside by the beginning of next year and let the Iraqi army take over in urban areas. [...]

'Unaccounted for' Iraqi weapons may be bookkeeping glitches

Associated Press
Saturday, Sep. 6, 2003

New York — No weapons of mass destruction have turned up in Iraq, nor has any solid new evidence for them turned up in Washington or London.

But what about Baghdad's patchy bookkeeping — the gaps that led United Nations inspectors to list Iraqi nerve agents and bioweapons material as unaccounted for?

Ex-inspectors now say, five months after the U.S. invasion, that the notorious "unaccountables" may have been no more than paperwork glitches left behind when Iraq destroyed banned chemical and biological weapons years ago. [...]

It was always a "fragile assumption" to expect Iraq to provide a highly detailed, fully consistent and well documented account of all its weapons work, said U.S. defence analyst Carl Conetta. [...]

A U.S. audit last year, for example, found the Pentagon had lost track of more than one million chemical-biological protective suits, said Mr. Conetta, of the Project on Defense Alternatives, a private think-tank.

In perhaps the most striking example, U.S. government auditors found in 1994 that almost 2.7 tonnes of plutonium, enough for hundreds of nuclear bombs, had "vanished" from U.S. stocks, because of discrepancies between "book inventory" and "physical inventory."

Iran sends warning signal

George Jahn (AP)
Sept 08, 2003 Vienna, Austria

Iran's chief delegate to the UN atomic agency warned the United States and other nations ahead of a meeting today that nuclear tensions could be aggravated if too much pressure is put on Tehran to open its programs to inspectors.

Ali Akbar Salehi said Iran still was open to negotiating the inspection issue with the International Atomic Energy Agency, but indicated the offer could be withdrawn if the IAEA board meeting "disrupted the whole process."

The meeting likely will urge Iran to make its nuclear program accessible by agreeing to a protocol allowing tougher IAEA inspections without notice. Under strong international pressure, Iran last month offered to negotiate the IAEA protocol.[..]

France shuns fresh feud over Iraq

By Hugh Schofield
Friday, 5 September, 2003, 14:10 GMT 15:10 UK

(Paris) - It can have come as no surprise in Washington that President Jacques Chirac so rapidly spurned its formulation for a new United Nations resolution on Iraq.

Having warned from the start of the dangers of Middle East adventurism, France today feels a sense of profound moral vindication.

If it was right then, the government in Paris believes it is right again now.

It is not enough, it says, for the US to make more vague gestures to the United Nations in the hope of off-loading some of the military and financial burden.

In the words of Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, an "electroshock" is necessary.

The logic of "occupation" must be replaced by a logic of "sovereignty". True power must be handed over as soon as possible to the Iraqis themselves.

And to garb the process with the necessary legitimacy, it is the UN that must be unequivocally in charge.

For many in France, moral vindication is the least of it. Every new disaster in Iraq - every new terrorist attack - is further evidence of how right they were.

Memories of the insults flung in their direction before the war from the other side of the Atlantic remain fresh, and the temptation is strong to bask in the glow of schadenfreude.

"France's only mistake was to have been right too early," said the conservative newspaper Le Figaro.

"Why should it spill the blood of its soldiers and jeopardise the credibility of its diplomacy just to assure the re-election of George W Bush?

"Bush's strategy is insolent. He is calling for help, then trying to dictate the terms of the rescue," it said.

But the government knows there is no interest to be had in gloating.

The situation is far too serious for that. If France has protected itself by keeping its distance during the phase of conflict, that is no guarantee of future security if Iraq - and the whole region - threaten to implode. [...]

Comment: Not only is Bush being insolent, he is calling for help from the likes of France and Germany while Richard Boucher denounces these same countries as "the chocolate makers." Nothing has changed on the American side. Bush and his administration are still acting like true psychopaths. If there is a moral high ground, it is most certainly not Bush and America who are standing on it.

The lies and manipulations are so blatant at this point that it doesn't even take any effort to see them. Unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans seem hopelessly blind.

One Day Left to Oppose the Biggest Pay Cut in History

By Paul E. Almeida, AlterNet
September 5, 2003

This Tuesday, September 9, 2003, the U.S. Senate will vote on whether to stop what could be the biggest pay cut in U.S. history.

On March 31, 2003, the Bush Department of Labor (DOL) issued proposed regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA). The FLSA established the norm of a 40-hour work week. If you work more than 40 hours a week, you should receive pay at time-and-a-half for the extra hours.

Congress passed the FLSA to urge employers to spread work around and not to exploit the workers they have. But it did not extend the right to overtime pay to professionals, executives, and administrators, on the theory they can take care of themselves.

The proposed DOL regulations would enlarge the exceptions to swallow the rule. According to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, if the regulations become final, they will end a right to overtime pay for more than 8 million American workers. [...]

'Gates of Hell' threat sparks Israeli alert

By David Blair in Jerusalem
(Filed: 08/09/2003)

Israel and the Palestinians were braced last night for a spiral of bloodshed after Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, called the Hamas leadership "marked men" and the terrorist group said the Holy Land was entering the "gates of Hell".

Israeli troops sealed off the West Bank and Gaza to try to prevent suicide attacks as pressure grew on Mr Sharon to deport Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader.

Last night at least 11 people, including three children, were injured after Israeli helicopters fired two missiles at the home of Abdel Salam Abu Musa, a Hamas militant, in Khan Younis on the Gaza Strip.

The crisis was triggered by the resignation of Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate Palestinian prime minister. It was deepened by a failed Israeli attempt to kill Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas.[...]

Palestinian PM Nominee Asks US, European Guarantee

By Yehuda Gruber
Mon September 8, 2003 04:13 AM ET

ABU DIS, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian parliamentary speaker Ahmed Korei, Yasser Arafat's nominee for prime minister, said Monday he wanted U.S. and European guarantees of support for peacemaking before accepting the post. [...]

Israeli Health Minister Danny Naveh, of Sharon's rightist Likud party, said Korei's nomination would not bring a resumption of dialouge because "the man who is pulling the strings and controlling everything is one person, and it's Yasser Arafat." [...]

The Pentagon's New "Forward Operating Location"
The Militarization of the Americas

By LAURA CARLSON
Counterpunch.org
September 6, 2003

The Bush administration has launched renewed efforts to reach out to Central and South American countries over the past month. The recent visits of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers signal that Latin America is back on the U.S. government's geopolitical map--but the map is being significantly redrawn.

That both overtures were military comes as no surprise. The trips emphasized hemispheric security as the number-one priority for the region, and Myers and Rumsfeld noted that security depends on fighting terrorism. The U.S. has pushed its southern neighbors to support its anti-terrorist agenda both in the UN and in actions such as the recent dispatch of Salvadoran, Nicaraguan, and Honduran troops to back up U.S. forces in Iraq.

The war on terrorism has accelerated funding for establishing new U.S. military centers and beefing up old ones in the hemisphere. In the past four years, the U.S. has broadened its military presence throughout Latin America, opening new "Forward Operating Locations" in Ecuador, El Salvador, Aruba, and Curacao. [...]

France back in role as America's UN spoiler

Hugh Schofield PARIS

French newspapers urge Chirac to hold firm, asking why rest of the world should clean up America's mess?

With its quick rejection of Washington's proposed resolution on Iraq France is back in its role as America's UN spoiler, but signals suggest that it views the security situation as so serious it may not push its opposition to the limit.

On Thursday President Jacques Chirac said the draft did not go far enough to meeting France's long-standing demand for a quick transfer of authority to the Iraqi people within a clearly-defined UN framework, but he did not dismiss it out of hand and said it would be the "object of discussions."

And on Friday while repeating that the text did not "fundamentally modify the existing set-up (because) it remains essentially inspired by a logic of security," Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said nonetheless that it "went in the right direction."

"We will approach this new phase in a constructive and open spirit," he told Le Figaro newspaper. "Let us be lucid and responsible. In a world of peril and interdependence, part of our shared destiny is being played out today in Baghdad."

The comments indicated that France will present a tough bargaining partner at the UN in the days ahead, but may not ultimately oppose a compromise resolution.France led the opposition to Washington's war on Iraq, and today feels a strong sense of vindication as the financial, military and diplomatic costs of the venture continue to mount.

The Bush administration's decision on Wednesday to turn to the United Nations in the hope of sharing some of the burden is seen as further grist to the mill, and Paris now feels the pressure can only grow on Washington to make more concessions towards a greater UN role, commentators said.French newspapers Friday urged Chirac to hold firm, some asking why the rest of the world should be expected to clean up America's -- and Britain's -- mess.

"France's only mistake was in being right too early," said the conservatiuve Le Figaro. "Why should it spill the blood of its soldiers and sacrifice the credibility of its diplomacy with the sole aim of ensuring President George W. Bush's re-election?

"The Bush strategy is insolent. He is calling for help but wants to dictate the terms of his rescue," it said.

But others reflected on the quandary faced by Paris -- the temptation to let Washington stew in its own juices countered by larger anxieties for the stability of the entire Middle East. "What are the conditions under which we should agree to take part in an adventure which we condemned on principle from the start?" asked the leftwing daily Liberation. "The way is narrow. We must not let Iraq founder for the bitter and meagre pleasure of seeing Bush fail. But nor must we throw ourselves with our heads down into a quagmire which the Americans first created and now want to extricate themselves from.

"Pragmatism must take precedence over ideology, in Paris as well as in Washington," it said.

Washington's draft text calls for a multinational force in Iraq implicitly under the command of a US general, and endorses the US-created Iraqi Governing Council which is charged with preparing a programme for a new constition and a timetable for democratic elections.In his interview Friday, de Villepin said the text did not "sufficiently take into account the political necessity of quickly giving Iraq back its sovereignty and transferring executive power to (Iraqi) institutions."He said France was "ready to assume its responsibilities, but we can only do it in a framework that guarantees every chance of success ... Today the conditions are clearly not there for a French engagement."

France to Compensate Orphans of WWII

By JOHN LEICESTER
Associated Press Write

PARIS -- France will compensate thousands of people whose parents were victims of "Nazi barbarity" in World War II, including those killed in massacres or for resisting the German occupation, the government said Saturday. [...]

Coup could lead to Philippines civil war: FM

MANILA (AFP) Sep 07, 2003

The toppling of President Gloria Arroyo in a coup could plunge the Philippines into civil war, Foreign Secretary Blas Ople warned Sunday, amid concerns about attempts to destabilize the government.

Ople denounced what he described as a "systematic attempt to destabilize the Arroyo administration" six weeks after the president quelled a July 27 armed mutiny by some 300 soldiers. [...]

"The success of the coup attempts will definitely spell the end of Philippine democracy and the beginning of systematic repression and the threat of a civil war. [...]

N.Korea May Display New Missile on 55th Birthday

By Martin Nesirky
September 8, 2003

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea will hold its first major military parade in a decade to celebrate its 55th birthday, and a South Korean newspaper said Monday Pyongyang may use the event to display a new long-range missile.

Tuesday is the anniversary of the founding of the communist North in 1948. Defense analysts and South Korean media expect it to make a gesture, although probably not a missile test because that could scupper nascent nuclear crisis talks. [...]

Uproar in Parliament after editor's slaying

TamilNet, September 08, 1999 12:34 GMT

The murder of a Sinhala [Sri Lanka] journalist in Colombo caused uproar in Parliament today when the opposition raised the issue. The Speaker was forced to suspend the sittings of the house twice. Mr.Rohana Kumara, Editor of Satana, was killed on Tuesday night. [...]

The newspaper editor who is known for his anti-government writing was killed by unidentified gunmen yesterday evening. [...]

Bali suspect attacks West's leaders

A key suspect in the Bali bomb attacks told an Indonesian court on Thursday that he was only a "small fry terrorist". Mukhlas, also known as Ali Gufron, said there were many "big fish" still at large, such as US President George Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and British Prime Minister Tony Blair [...]

Japan plans biometric passports

Japan will introduce biometric passports in about a year to work with the United States to combat terrorism, officials in Tokyo said this weekend. This is a response to Washington's decision not to grant visa waivers after October 2004 to people with non-biometric passports. It is not without political cost, because recent moves toward national IDs in Japan have drawn criticism and concern about Big Brotherism.

The passports will be smart cards, the chips inside them holding fingerprints, retina scan data or other biometrics to confirm identity. Japan is one of 27 countries that do not require visas for its residents to enter the United States for short stays.

Comment: Japan joins, The USA, Australia, Canada (in progress), The United Kingdom, New Zealand in their new passports and border technology.

Monsanto's French GM Maize Crop Attacked

Reuters

An experimental genetically modified (GM) maize crop in southern France, owned by U.S. seeds giant Monsanto, has been attacked and destroyed, police said on Saturday.

Police did not say who was behind the attack on the approximately half hectare field, isolated in a forest in Magnesq, but added that it had occurred a few hours after an anti-GM demonstration on Friday. Opponents say they could trigger an uncontrolled spread of modified genes, harming the environment and people's health.

Jail alert for revealing nuclear waste shipments

Sydney Morning Herald September 9, 2003

The government is seeking to introduce laws which would jail anyone - including journalists - who flagged the shipment of radioactive waste in Australia, Greens leader Senator Bob Brown warned today. The laws also would jail any journalist who reported on the shipment in advance, he said. The nuclear non-proliferation bill had serious ramifications for democracy in Australia, Senator Brown said.

"It's in the line of some of the pieces of legislation we've seen from this government recently, trammelling civil rights and indeed the rights of journalists and citizens," he told reporters. "This bill is aimed to jail for two years, people who give out information about such things as the movement of radioactive waste in Australia. "It would mean, for example, that a councillor from the Sutherland Shire Council who flagged that a shipment was about to leave Lucas Heights to go to a nuclear waste dump somewhere, could be sent to jail. "So would the journalist who reported that matter."

Senator Brown said the bill was draconian and against transparency and the freedom of information and speech in Australia. "It's been tacked into a piece of legislation to bring Australia in line with the non-proliferation treaty. "I will be moving in the Senate to have the bill split so that the treaty is upheld but that the Senate has a much closer look at the civil liberty ramifications, the cutting of rights in Australia, which this bill's got built right into it."

He said he would vote against the bill if it was not split.

Ship to honor former President Bush

The Associated Press
NEWPORT NEWS, Va.

Former President George Herbert Walker Bush wrote his initials in chalk on a metal plate Saturday to literally mark the first milestone in the construction of a $4 billion aircraft carrier that will bear his name.

A welder then etched the initials into the plate with a torch during a ceremony at Northrop Grumman's Newport News shipyard, the nation's only builder of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.

"I hereby declare the keel of this U.S. Navy aircraft carrier true and fairly laid," Bush, a decorated World War II Navy pilot, told the 3,000 invited guests.

"A lot of nice things happen to you when you become a former president. People are for you, you know what I mean?" Bush said. "The naming of this carrier has got to be exceptionally special."

Bush saluted the shipbuilders and those who will sail in the George H.W. Bush. He also touched on the war against terrorism.

"It seems to me that ignoring the threats rising up against our way of life is to shirk our solemn responsibilities," he said. "Those who doubt our will not only underestimate the resolve of our president, they also sell short the selfless men and women who dedicate their lives in service to the American armed forces."

Genetic Changes Seen in Major Psychotic Disorders

By Patricia Reaney
Thu September 4, 2003 07:00 PM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - The two major psychotic illnesses schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, which is also known as manic depression, are related disorders which may have similar genetic causes, scientists said on Friday.

The new findings could lead to a better diagnostic test, early treatment or new drugs for the illnesses.

Researchers at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, England have shown that sufferers of the two disorders have abnormalities in key genes responsible for proteins in the central nervous system related to a compound called myelin. [...]

Mesa police kill woman

By DENNIS WELCH
TRIBUNE Sept. 7

For the second time in two weeks, Mesa police Saturday shot and killed a person who had a knife after officers' efforts to use a stun gun failed.

A 23-year-old woman was shot multiple times by a police sergeant in her home at the Citrus Grove Trailer Park, 1007 W. Main St., after police say she charged a group of officers. Her name is being withheld.

An area resident, Dolores Lowrance, 39, was skeptical that efforts to use a stun gun and bean bags could not stop the woman. "When are they going to stop shooting people," Lowrance asked, putting her arm around her teenage son.

Saturday's shooting comes just two weeks after Mesa police gunned down a suicidal 15-year-old boy in front of his parents. Mario Madrigal Jr. died shortly after 1 a.m. Aug. 25 inside his family's home in the 500 block of South Johnson, within a mile of Saturday's shooting.

The Madrigals said they called police after their son threatened to kill himself with a kitchen knife. In that shooting police said a stun gun was used and also failed. Since their son's death, the Madrigals have been outspoken critics of the Mesa Police Department.

"I would like to have justice and to prosecute these people who killed my son," Martha Madrigal said at her son's public viewing on Friday. [...]

"Cops are supposed to be people's friends," said Bill McEwen, 62, who lives in an adjacent trailer park. "So why do I have to fear going to them for help?"

Church knew of sex abuse claims for decades

By VANESSA HO
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

For 40 years, the Archdiocese of Seattle hung onto the Rev. James McGreal, despite repeated complaints that he was a serial pedophile. The archdiocese's defense: It had sent him to treatment, restricted his duties and thought he was safe. [...]

The archdiocese has said fewer than 20 men have told it that McGreal abused them. But recently filed court records say that McGreal admitted to his therapist that he molested "hundreds of victims." [...]

Kidneys removed from dying patients in Moscow

MOSCOW, (AFP) - Surgeons in Moscow hospitals are removing kidneys from patients who are not yet dead in order to supply the lucrative transplant market, according to a public television report.

Russian law bans the harvesting of organs until half an hour after death, but Moscow surgeons have taken organs from dozens of comatose patients this year, according to the report aired Sunday.

Some 37 organ-harvesting operations were carried out in the capital's hospitals between April and August. In only three of those cases had the patient been pronounced brain-dead, the television channel claimed.

School bully 'tumble dries' classmate

Associated Press
08:38 Monday 8th September 2003

Police in South Korea have arrested a schoolboy accused of forcing a classmate into a washing machine before 'tumble-drying' him for two minutes.

The 17-year-old suspect was arrested Sunday in the south-western province of North Jeolla for the alleged prank he played in June in his home, the Joong Ang Daily newspaper said. [...]

The victim had endured the treatment because his tormentor threatened to kill him if he told anyone about the abuse, police said.

Thailand's machine gunning executioner to retire

Associated Press
09:15 Monday 8th September 2003

Thailand's executioner says he is looking forward to hanging up his machine gun when the country changes its method of capital punishment to lethal injection next month. [...]

'Security Expert' Accused of Extortion Against Malls

Alexandria, Va. - A self-proclaimed security expert is accused of trying to extort money from some D.C. area shopping malls.

Federal prosecutors charge Christian Kerodin demanded more than $120,000 from the company that owns the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City. In exchange, he said, the company's malls would be kept off a report that he was allegedly planning to issue about malls he considered vulnerable to terrorist attacks. [...]

Soundless Music Shown to Produce Weird Sensations

Sun September 7, 2003
By Patricia Reaney
MANCHESTER, England (Reuters)

Mysteriously snuffed out candles, weird sensations and shivers down the spine may not be due to the presence of ghosts in haunted houses but to very low frequency sound that is inaudible to humans.

British scientists have shown in a controlled experiment that the extreme bass sound known as infrasound produces a range of bizarre effects in people including anxiety, extreme sorrow and chills -- supporting popular suggestions of a link between infrasound and strange sensations. [...]

Farthest, Faintest Solar System Objects Found Beyond Neptune

Hubblesite.org
September 6, 2003

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have discovered three of the faintest and smallest objects ever detected beyond Neptune. Each object is a lump of ice and rock — roughly the size of Philadelphia — orbiting beyond Neptune and Pluto, where the icy bodies may have dwelled since the formation of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago.

They reside in a ring-shaped region called the Kuiper Belt, which houses a swarm of icy rocks that are leftover building blocks, or "planetesimals," from the solar system's creation. The biggest surprise of the Hubble search is that so few small Kuiper Belt members were discovered. [...]

Biomolecule behaves like a wave

Belle Dumé, Science Writer at PhysicsWeb
5 September 2003

Physicists at the University of Vienna in Austria have observed wave-particle duality in a biomolecule for the first time. The team also reports observing wave-like behaviour in the most massive molecule yet - a fluorinated 'buckyball'. It is twice as large as the previously biggest molecule known to exhibit quantum wave-like behaviour (L Hackermüller et al. 2003 Phys. Rev. Lett. 91 090408). [...]

Northern Chinese province braces for new floods

TERRA.WIRE
BEIJING (AFP) Sep 07, 2003

China's northern province of Shaanxi is bracing for a new wave of flooding after having been seriously hit by floodwaters in recent days, state media said Sunday.

The Shaanxi floods have left 38 dead, with 34 missing, according to the most recent official figures.

A new flood crest is predicted to arrive at the province's Hua county Monday, and could raise water flow to 2,500 cubic meters (87,500 cubic feet) per second, the Shaanxi Meteorological Station was quoted by the Xinhua news agency as saying. [...]

Seven die as two boats sink in swollen east Indian rivers

TERRA.WIRE
PATNA, India (AFP) Sep 07, 2003

Four women and three children died when two boats sank in the monsoon-swollen rivers of the eastern Indian state of Bihar, officials said Sunday.

Three girls, all eight years old or younger, drowned when gusty winds tipped their boat into the Bohta river Saturday in Teghra village of Saran district, 135 kilometers (85 miles) north of the state capital Patna, a police official said. [...]

Drought devastates soybean, corn crops

Monday, September 08, 2003
By Jeff Dankert | Winona Daily News

Moderate drought conditions throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin have left farmers with undermined yields and soybeans and corn that will be salvaged for cattle feed. [...]

The moderate drought conditions cover the southern two-thirds of Minnesota and the southwestern three-fourths of Wisconsin. [...]

Ozone hole growing faster

Mercopress.com
Sunday, 07 September 2003

The ozone hole has grown more rapidly than usual during the last two weeks compared to the same period a year ago according to the latest World Meteorological Organization, WMO, report.

Currently the ozone layer hole appears to be 25 million square kilometres in area, 10% below the record size of mid September 2000 when it reached 27 million square kilometres. The ozone mass deficit (a measure of the depth of the ozone hole) has reached 50 million tons, which “is also 10% below the record set in mid September 2000”. [...]

Fur flies as dinosaur experts feud

BONES TO PICK: The row about what wiped out the dinosaurs has sparked allegations of deception and unethical behavior in scientific circles

BY ROBIN MCKIETHE
OBSERVER

The world's biggest bang wiped out the dinosaurs in a cataclysm that swathed our planet in choking dust -- or at least that is what many paleontologists claim. Others say dinosaurs died out gradually as Earth's climate and geology changed.

It sounds a typical academic dispute -- but last week it erupted into open warfare. Allegations have been made of deceit and unethical behavior. One scientist is even alleged to have held back inconvenient evidence.

"This affair has become an object lesson on how partisan and unethical the whole dinosaur controversy has become," said Norman MacLeod, keeper of paleontology at London's Natural History Museum.

"Young scientists are now refusing to get involved in this field because no matter what they say it will offend someone and damage their careers. It's like the nature-nurture debate. No matter what you say, someone will hate you for it." [...]

Footsteps of man over 2 m years

MADHUSHREE C. BHOWMIK

Jamshola (East Singhbhum), Sept. 7: Evidence of the oldest human habitation in India — dating back to 2 to 1.2 million years — has been found on the banks of the Subarnarekha in Jharkhand. [...]

Duck echo mystery finally quacked

Ananova.com
08:43 Monday 8th September 2003

Scientists have disproved the theory that a duck's quack doesn't produce an echo.

With the help of a farmyard duck called Daisy, scientists created simulations of quacks in the Royal Albert Hall, and quacking as she flew past a cliff face.

The conclusion was that a duck's quack definitely echoes, just like any other sound - but you might not notice it. [...]

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