"Disasters involve cycles in the human experiential cycle [...] Human cycle mirrors cycle of catastrophe. Earth benefits in form of periodic cleansing. Time to start paying attention to the signs. They are escalating. They can even be 'felt'by you and others, if you pay attention."

There are a growing number of voices warning U.S. citizens of the fascism staring them in the face. A Nobel prize winner for chemistry has joined those voices. The pieces are being put in place for another terrorist attack. Then it will be time to attempt to shame who have spoken out against fascism, and are willing to speak up despite the risk and the long shadow of the Bush Reich. It appears that fascism is never farther than a flick of the switch away. We have posted yet another article pointing out the well documented links the US regime had with the Nazis.

Speaking of Nazis, more stories of Israeli terror and threats in the US to Americans who dare to question the control Israel exerts in US politics.

Prisoners disappearing into the maw of Guantánamo, Syrian hit lists, Siberian stone age descendants, Japanese earthquakes, religious visions, human experimentation, $22 million payoffs, Internet drivers licenses, vampires, illegal black magic, big ozone holes, Christian Zionists and Mount Schwarzenegger. Yep. These are the days that try humanity's souls.

Impeach Bush now

By JOHN MacARTHUR
From Thursday's Globe and Mail

Now that the U.S. government's chief weapons inspector in Iraq has, in effect, confirmed an obvious truth -- that President George W. Bush and his closest advisers promoted a non-existent nuclear and chemical weapons threat from Iraq to justify a war -- an obvious question presents itself: Why aren't Americans talking seriously about impeachment?

After all, Mr. Bush now stands plausibly accused of the lofty crime of subverting the Constitution of the United States -- that is, lying to Congress about an imminent danger to the American people in order to collect enough votes to authorize his corporate/imperial project in Iraq. Yet, outside of a few brave remarks from Senator Robert Graham, and the considered opinion of Watergate stool pigeon John W. Dean, almost nobody dares speak the "I" word.

Bush's Vanished Prisoner

He Wonders Whether He Will See the Light of Day Again

October 10th, 2003

"The Constitution creates no executive prerogative to dispose of the liberty of the individual. Proceedings against him must be authorized by law." —United States Supreme Court, Valentine v. U.S. (1936)

"Implicit in the term "national defense" is the notion of defending those values and ideals which set this Nation apart"—United States Supreme Court, U.S. v. Robel (1967)

"The word "security" is a broad, vague generality [that] should not be invoked to abrogate the fundamental law [of the Constitution]." —Justice Hugo Black, U.S. Supreme Court, New York Times Co. v. U.S. (1971)

On June 9, 2002, commander in chief George W. Bush, acting under the Authorization for Use of Military Force Joint Resolution, sent an order to the Defense Department designating Jose Padilla, an American citizen, an "enemy combatant." The president did this all by himself, even though, as I noted in a previous column—quoting a friend of the court brief to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals by a historic array of former federal judges and establishment lawyers:

"There is no constitutionally approved definition of who is an 'enemy combatant.'" Nor is there any basis in our laws for holding Jose Padilla indefinitely without charges, or access to his lawyer, Donna Newman. In the August 25 New York Law Journal, Thomas Adcock reports, "She writes frequently to her client, but military officials in South Carolina [where he is imprisoned] will not confirm that their prisoner has received her letters."

The Law Journal story adds that Donna Newman, "after . . . combing through sealed court papers the Justice Department was obliged to reveal . . . concluded that the government's case against her client relies on two informers: one with a drug problem, she said, and the other who has recanted."

Before being swept away to a military brig, Padilla—first arrested at O'Hare Airport in Chicago and then held in a high-security prison in Manhattan as a material witness—was accused by Attorney General John Ashcroft, in a dramatic television appearance from Moscow, to have somehow been involved in somebody's plan to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" somewhere in the United States.

Through Donna Newman, his case against the government, Padilla v. Rumsfeld, is now before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, where, as of this writing, oral arguments are proposed to be held the first week of November before a three-judge panel. But Ashcroft's Justice Department is striving mightily to persuade the Second Circuit that the case should be transferred to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia, on jurisdictional grounds.

Regarded by many lawyers, as well as civil libertarians, as the most conservative of all the circuit courts (which are just one level beneath the Supreme Court), the Fourth Circuit has already bowed to the president in the case of Yaser Hamdi. He is another American citizen being held indefinitely, without charges, and without access to his lawyer in a military brig. The Fourth Circuit has ruled that commander in chief Bush has the power to haul away an American citizen anywhere—at O'Hare, in Afghanistan, or on any American street. All Bush has to do is call him or her an "enemy combatant."

Whichever circuit court eventually gets the case, the Supreme Court will decide whether this president—or his successors—can, under the Constitution, strip an American citizen of his or her most fundamental due process rights. Chillingly, as the New York Law Journal points out, James B. Comey, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, speaking for Attorney General Ashcroft, has declared in a legal brief:

"A court of the United States has no jurisdiction . . . to enjoin the president in the performance of his official duties." Therefore, according to the Justice Department and the president, the separation of powers—at the core of the Constitution—has been suspended in the war on terrorism. Somebody ought to tell Congress.

Why have none of the Democratic presidential candidates, except for John Edwards, mentioned this hijacking of Padilla's rights by the president they want to replace? Why has the press in its many manifestations not stayed on this case? How many Americans know that George W. Bush believes that, as commander in chief, he is beyond the reach of the courts? [...]

And Justice Jackson, dissenting in a case about a basic denial of due process (Shaughnessy v. United States, 1953), thundered, "It is inconceivable to me that this measure of simple justice and fair dealing [due process] would menace the security of this country. No one can make me believe that we are that far gone."

Are we that far gone, Mr. President?...

Indefinite detentions at Guantánamo are challenged as a legal mistake

By FRANK DAVIES
Miami Herald

WASHINGTON - Dozens of former U.S. military leaders, federal judges and diplomats Thursday challenged the indefinite detentions at Guantánamo as a legal mistake that has undermined the rule of law, U.S. standing in the world and will endanger Americans in future conflicts. [...]

Former Adm. Donald Guter, who retired last year as the Navy judge advocate general, was in the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, and was a participant in the decisions that led to the Guantánamo detentions and military tribunals:

"I have absolutely no sympathy for terrorists," he said, "but now I'm worried that we're looking at a lot of life sentences without due process or judicial review. And that can hurt us around the world and when our own people are taken captive."

9/11 and the LA 8

by David Cole

The next time you hear Attorney General Ashcroft dismiss complaints about civil liberties abuses under the USA Patriot Act as "built on misrepresentation, supported by unfounded fear [and] held aloft by hysteria," consider the plight of Khader Hamide and Michel Shehadeh. Born in the West Bank, both men came to the United States in their college years and have now lived here thirty-two and twenty-four years, respectively. They are lawful permanent residents and hard-working fathers--Hamide supplies luxury coffee shops; Shehadeh runs an Italian restaurant. They have never been charged with even the most minor criminal offense. Yet in September they learned that the government will seek their deportation under the Patriot Act for distributing Palestinian magazines and raising humanitarian aid in Los Angeles more than twenty years ago.

Such activity was legal at that time, and it is plainly protected by the First Amendment. Yet the Bush Administration claims that the Patriot Act authorizes the government to deport the two men.

[...] The Administration's Patriot Act charges render foreign nationals deportable for providing "material support" to any group of two or more that has threatened to use or has used a weapon with intent to endanger person or property. The government need not show that the support has any connection to terrorist activity. In the Orwellian land of the Patriot Act, distributing magazines becomes "material support." And it gets worse. At the same time, the Administration also announced that it would seek Hamide and Shehadeh's deportation under the original McCarran-Walter Act charges. The statute still technically applies, because its repeal did not affect pending cases.

U.S. ambassador won't answer questions about arrest of Arar

Last Updated Fri, 10 Oct 2003 22:48:35

OTTAWA - Paul Cellucci, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, says he will not appear before a parliamentary committee to answer questions about Maher Arar.

The U.S. claimed he was linked with al-Qaeda, but Syria said it could not confirm those allegations. The House of Commons foreign affairs committee wants to ask Cellucci why the U.S. arrested and deported Arar. It also wants to know why, when asked about the Arar case last April, Cellucci said Canadians who wanted to know why the U.S. deported Arar to Syria, should ask the RCMP.

Cellucci maintained on Friday that the U.S. had good reason to deport Arar under U.S. law.

"This decision was made by U.S. authorities without consulting with Canadian authorities," he said. "The U.S. had good reason to make its decision and that's about all I can really say about it."

Bush promises crackdown on travel to Cuba

Last Updated Fri, 10 Oct 2003 19:45:25

WASHINGTON - Industry Minister Allan Rock is expressing concern over a new U.S. government promise to vigorously enforce its economic sanctions against Cuba.

Rock says he hopes the crackdown announced Friday by U.S. President George W. Bush will not impede the business interests of Canadian companies and workers in Cuba.

"Our country must understand the consequences of illegal travel," Bush said at a White House Rose Garden ceremony, adding that tourist money only helps to prop up Castro's government.

"We have our own independent foreign policy," said Rock, "and it's important that we protect our interests."

President Bush seeks ideas for changing Cuba's system of government

05:48 AM EDT Oct 11
GEORGE GEDDA

WASHINGTON (AP) - Eager to please a key Florida constituency, President George W. Bush directed his secretary of state and his Cuban-born housing secretary Friday to recommend ways to achieve a transition to democracy in Cuba after 44 years under Fidel Castro.

Secretary of State Colin Powell and Housing Secretary Mel Martinez will chair a panel that will "plan for the happy day when Castro's regime is no more and democracy comes to the island," Bush said during a Rose Garden ceremony.

"The transition to freedom will present many challenges to the Cuban people and to America, and we will be prepared," the president said.

[...] The head of Cuba's diplomatic mission here, Dagoberto Rodriguez, said Thursday that Bush should "stop acting like a lawless cowboy" and "start listening to the voices of the nations of the world."

Speaking at a news conference, Rodriguez noted that each fall, for 12 years, the UN General Assembly has urged the United States to lift its trade embargo against Cuba. He said the General Assembly is expected to approve a similar measure next month.

Bush has said he will veto any measure approved by Congress that calls for an easing of the embargo, which has been in effect for more than four decades.

Rodriguez also demanded that the administration "stop lying" about Cuba "just to please a small minority of extremists," a reference to the Cuban-American community in South Florida.

Has Rumsfeld been demoted?

By Nick Childs
BBC correspondent in Colorado Springs

From the president downwards, the Bush administration has been on the counterattack this week over criticism of its Iraq policy. But Donald Rumsfeld, in many ways the chief spokesman on Iraq up to now has been noticeably absent.

Indeed, he appeared to get a slap in the political face with the news that the National Security Council (NSC) under Condoleezza Rice has established a new committee to oversee Iraq policy.

US spy satellite identified Syrian camp

By Douglas Jehl in Washington
October 11, 2003

American spy satellites showed that the Syrian target attacked by Israeli warplanes last weekend had been the site of recent construction, possibly to prepare it for use by the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, United States officials claim.

The officials, some of whom had been sceptical of Israeli claims that the target was a terrorist camp,

said the site, about 20 kilometres north-west of Damascus, had been used for training in the past six months by two smaller, less active, Palestinian militant groups.

But the new construction, which was detected by US spy satellites, backed by human intelligence reports suggesting that Islamic Jihad might use the site, had been seen as particularly worrying.

The human intelligence had provided uncorroborated indications that the site might be used not just as a staging ground for attacks on targets inside Israel, but also for attacks against US troops in Iraq, the US officials said.

The Bush Administration has said the US had no advance knowledge of the Israeli raid, and the American officials reiterated that point on Thursday.

But they also said they assumed that US intelligence information about the Syrian site had been shared with the Israeli Government, as is customary in the relationship between the countries.

The officials said that the specific nature of intelligence information about improvements being made at the site was one reason that President George Bush, in public and in private conversations with Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, has defended the Israeli attack as justifiable.

The Israeli strike inside Syria, the first in many years, came after a Palestinian suicide bomber from Islamic Jihad carried out an attack in the northern port city of Haifa that killed 20 people.

One official said that American spy satellite monitoring at the camp had picked up indications of recent "structural improvements".

The camp had been used as recently as six months ago by at least one of two separate factions of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the officials said.

But the evidence of new construction suggested that it "was being fixed up for someone else to use".

The officials said they did not know which entity had been making improvements to the camp, but the work could have been carried out only with the knowledge and acquiescence of the Syrian Government.

Damascus has said the Ain Saheb site was a civilian area with no connection to terrorist groups.

But the Syrian authorities have refused to allow reporters to visit the site, which is in an area of steep ravines.

In a newspaper interview this week, President Bashar al-Assad dismissed the attack as an attempt by Israel "to terrorise Syria and drag it and the region into other wars". Palestinian groups in Syria have said the camp had been defunct for years.

Sharon says he will hit Israel's foes 'anytime and in any way'

Israel draws up Syrian hit list

Wednesday 08 October 2003

We know where you live.

That was the unmistakable message of the release by Israeli authorities on Tuesday of a map pinpointing the homes and offices of Palestinian leaders in Damascus.

The army said the map was intended to illustrate the extent of the "Terror Network in the Damascus Region".

It came on the same day Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Israel would attack its enemies "any place, and in any way".

Sharon would have been buoyed by President George Bush's insistence that Israel has the right to defend itself.

Bush backs 'valid defence'

"The decisions that he (Sharon) makes to defend his people are valid decisions. We would be doing the same thing," Bush told reporters when asked about Sharon's remarks.

On Sunday, Israeli planes bombed what the Israeli military said was a training camp for Palestinian "terrorists" near Damascus, after a human bombing killed 19 people in Haifa.

Syria said the target of the Damascus strike was a civilian site.

The Israeli army map showed the supposed homes of senior Hamas leaders Musa Abu Marzuk and Khalid Mashal, Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Shallah, and Ahmad Jibril, chief of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (General Command). [....]

Gaza homes razed in tunnel search

Israel has said it will demolish tunnels and come back for more if needed

The Israeli army has demolished up to 10 Palestinian homes in the Rafah refugee camp as it presses on with its search for weapons-smuggling tunnels, Palestinian sources say.

Another Palestinian is reported to have been killed in the Gaza Strip operation, which was launched on Thursday night by dozens of Israeli troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships.

Seven Palestinians - including two boys aged eight and 15 - were killed during the first day on Friday and more than 50 have been injured.

The Israeli army says it has discovered a third tunnel in the camp, which lies on the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt.

Annan condemns Gaza deaths

BBC
Saturday, 11 October, 2003, 00:32 GMT

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has condemned the killing of Palestinian civilians during an incursion by Israeli forces into the Rafah refugee camp.

Seven Palestinians - including two boys aged eight and 15 - were killed in the large-scale raid involving dozens of Israeli troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships.

Mr Annan said the "disproportionate use" of force in heavily populated areas was incompatible with international law, and called on both sides to take all necessary measures to avoid harming civilians.

Israel says its troops will stay in the area for some days as it continues to seek out and demolish arms-smuggling tunnels. Soldiers have discovered two tunnels so far - but no weapons - in the camp, which lies on the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt. [...]

Comment: Where have we heard this kind of story before... Iraq, perhaps?

Rein in Israel, Lebanese president urges US

BEIRUT (AFP) Oct 10, 2003

Lebanese President Emile Lahoud called on the United States on Friday to rein in Israel following a clash with the Jewish state and an air strike on neighbouring Syria.

Lahoud said Israel's decision to "continue the escalation threatens the stability of the Middle East and allows tension to grow," during a meeting here with US ambassador Vincent Battle.

"The latest Israeli attacks against Lebanon and Syria are more proof that Israel is not working for peace.

"On the contrary, with its aggressive tactics it is torpedoing any initiatives aimed at reinforcing calm and stability in the region," Lahoud said, according to a statement released by his office. [...]

'A naïve czar and a bunch of Rasputins'

Do Israeli considerations colour America's vision of Iraq? wonders Mohamed Hakki from Washington

[...] According to Seale, "right-wing Jewish neo-cons" tend to be pro-Israel zealots who believe that American and Israeli interests are inseparable -- much to the alarm of liberal, pro-peace Jews, whether in America, Europe or Israel itself. "Friends of Ariel Sharon's Likud, they tend to loathe the Arabs and Muslims." For them, the cause of "liberating" Iraq had little to do with the well-being of Iraqis, just as the cause of "liberating" Iran and ending its nuclear programme -- recently advocated by Shimon Peres in a Wall Street Journal editorial -- has little to do with the well-being of Iranians. What the neo-cons wished for was as improvement in Israel's military and strategic environment.

It is not surprising then to find a gathering of neo-cons in Jerusalem to honour one of their leading figures, Richard Perle, former assistant secretary of defense also known as the Prince of Darkness. Joining him in Jerusalem on 14 October will be Daniel Pipes, head of an Anti- Arab and Anti-Muslim Web sites, Alan Keys, Cal Thomas, and Frank Geoffrey, along with Ehud Olmert and Benjamin Netanyahu and other Likudniks.

American writer Charley Reese also accuses Israel of being behind the war against Iraq. In an article entitled "Israel a Danger", he says "The problem and danger to the United States is that Israel effectively dictates US foreign policy in the Middle East. Israel supporters were the architects of the war against Iraq, and if they can, they will get us into wars with Syria and Iran, thus eliminating Israel's enemies. They would like nothing better than the United States to be at war with the entire Muslim World."

[...] James Akins, former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, told me: "I have never been more depressed about my country as much as I am now. We seem to be living during the last days of the Russian empire, a weak and naïve czar, surrounded by a bunch of Rasputins."

Some see the alliance between the neo-cons, the Zionist lobby and the fundamentalist Christian right as the main danger that may end up pushing America off the cliff. Some of these same Zionist neo-cons like Joshua Muravchik concede that "there is a tremendous amount on the line" in Iraq. "If this goes wrong, of course, we will be, to degree, discredited. Justifiably so. We put forward these ideas and they are really being put to the test." It is interesting to note that Muravchik said in an interview in Europe: "If we wanted to invade a country to steal its oil, we would do Venezuela. It's got plenty of oil, it's nearby and it does not have an army that can defend it."

This trend is not going to go away. It will last as long as this alliance between the neo-cons, the Zionists and the Christian right continues. Even if President Bush disappears tomorrow, the near-total control of the media, Congress, think-tanks et al. will continue. Only the president of the US can reverse the trend, and only if he is willing to do so. Only if the Zionists, as Muravchik perceptively noticed, overplay their hands and things go wrong. Horribly wrong.

For those who think that this sounds like a conspiracy theory, ask them what Zalman Skovel, former Israeli ambassador to Washington, was doing standing beside Paul Bremer the day he took over from Ray Gardner. Ask them why Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that an Iraq-Israel oil line is not a pipe dream and that it is only a matter of time.

An Iraqi born businessman told me that when he solicited the help of a former cabinet member of the Reagan administration to introduce him to Donald Rumsfeld, he was told that Rumsfeld has no power over what happened in Iraq. "Go to Wolfowitz!" his friend told him.

Another friend, a former high ranking CIA official, told me "if you really want to know how bad things have become, those like me want to drive a point to this administration, we go to Israel, sell it to the Israelis, and then it comes back to be implemented here."

It simply goes on like this. A young Iraqi who represents a large investment group went to Baghdad to discover that all the contacts that the American authorities asked him to meet were Jewish. The Israeli law partner of Douglas Feith is responsible for advising companies on business opportunities in Iraq. Forget about the stories of Israel advising the US on urban guerrilla warfare. Maybe the next move for America is to start building a huge wall to divide Iraq into Bantustans and invite Israel to run them.

Series on Christians and Zionism

1. Christians and Zion: British stirrings

Donald Wagner

The British have had a long-term fascination with the idea of Israel and its central role in biblical prophecy that dates back to their earliest recorded literature. The Epistle of Gildas (circa. 6th century AD) and the Venerable Bede’s Ecclesiastical History (735 AD) both saw the British as “the new Israel,” God’s chosen people, who were destined to play a strategic role despite repeated invasions by their Nordic neighbors. In the British perception of being an elect, these battles were understood in the context of Israel’s battles against the Philistines, Babylonians and others.

A clear resurgence of such themes was evident in the 16th century, perhaps influenced by the Protestant Reformation and its emphasis on the Bible and varied interpretations of its texts, now that Rome had lost its control over the new clergy and theologians. One of the early expressions of fascination with the idea of Israel was the monograph Apocalypsis Apocalypseos, written by Anglican clergyman Thomas Brightman in 1585. Brightman urged the British people to support the return of the Jews to Palestine in order to hasten a series of prophetic events that would culminate in the return of Jesus.

2. Christian Zionists, Israel and the ‘second coming’

Christian Zionism differs from church doctrine, due in part to its being developed by anti-state church clergymen and theologians in England. Today its views find significant support among the charismatic, Pentecostal and independent Bible churches in Protestant fundamentalism. Christian Zionists often view mainline Protestant, Orthodox and Catholic denominations with hostility and have at times considered the World Council of Churches and related bodies to be tools of the Antichrist. In the Holy Land, Christian Zionists have been hostile toward Palestinian Christians and generally detest Muslims as evil forces worshipping another God. Recent comments by Christian Zionists such as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Franklin Graham (the son of evangelist Billy Graham) have added to the suspicion with which many Muslims view the Christian West.

3. Bible and sword: US Christian Zionists discover Israel

The first lobbying effort on behalf of a Jewish state in Palestine was not organized or initiated by Jews. It occurred in 1891, when a popular fundamentalist Christian writer and lay-preacher, William E. Blackstone, organized a national campaign to appeal to the then-president of the United States, Benjamin Harrison, to support the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.

Blackstone gained notoriety through his 1882 national bestseller Jesus is Coming, his summary of end-of-time premillennial doctrines. He saw a need to politically support the Jewish people after hearing horrifying stories of the pogroms in Russia. Blackstone appealed to multimillionaire friends such as oil magnate John D. Rockefeller, publisher Charles B. Scribner and industrialist JP Morgan to finance advertisements and a petition campaign that were carried in major newspapers from Boston to the Mississippi. Aside from wealthy financiers, Blackstone also received support from most members of the US Senate and House of Representatives and the chief justice of the Supreme Court. Despite powerful backing, his appeal went nowhere.

4. The interregnum: Christian Zionism in the Clinton years

The Netanyahu government used American Christian Zionists in another way as it sought to undermine the faltering Oslo negotiations. On Oct. 22, 1997, Israel Radio claimed that the Palestinian Authority (PA) was persecuting Christians. Two days later the Jerusalem Post published an article citing “classified information” made known to the Israeli government in which it was claimed that Palestinian Christians faced relentless and brutal persecution from the “predominantly Muslim PA.” The report alleged that “Christian cemeteries have been destroyed, monasteries have had their telephone lines cut, and there have been break-ins in convents.” It went on to claim that the PA had “taken control of the churches and was pressuring Christian leaders to serve as mouthpieces for Yasser Arafat and opponents of Israel.”

Within a month, US Congressman J. C. Watts, an Oklahoma Republican, reiterated these charges in a Washington Times opinion piece, blaming Arafat for the Christian exodus from the Holy Land and calling for a review and possible freeze on the $307 million in grants pledged to the PA by the United States. The campaign grew, thanks in part to publicity generated by the articles of A.M. Rosenthal and William Safire of the New York Times, and pressure exerted on Congress by Michael Horowitz, a pro-Israel lobbyist. Palestinian Christians were quick to denounce the charges. Mayor Hanna Nasser of Bethlehem stated: “Our churches have complete freedom, and I’ve never heard that they’ve been under pressure.”

Together with the international evangelical leader “Brother Andrew,” president of the Netherlands based Open Doors, I led a May 1998 investigation of the Israeli charges on behalf of Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding. We interviewed more than 60 Muslim and Christian leaders, people at the grass roots level throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip and officials and leaders from the PA and Israeli government. We found no evidence of PA or Muslim persecution of Palestinian Christians, although there were three isolated cases of Christian-Muslim family disputes over intermarriage.

The most telling interview was with Uri Mor, the director of the Department of Christian Communities at the Israeli Ministry of Religious Affairs, which oversees all Christian activities in Israel and the Occupied Territories. Mor said the charges were traceable to David Bar-Ilan, Netanyahu’s chief spokesman, and told our team that Bar-Ilan used shreds of information as his “bread and butter” in the propaganda campaign against the Palestinians.

We later interviewed a staff member of the US Consulate in Jerusalem, which had previously interviewed Mor and looked into the problem. The consulate had received a report on the persecution of Christian Palestinians as a confidential internal document. Upon investigation, it determined that the basis of the report came from four Palestinians who had been converted to Christianity by a Messianic Jewish evangelist who resided in an Israeli settlement. Two had criminal backgrounds and the others were suspected of collaborating with the Israeli secret services. The PA had imprisoned the converts, based on their criminal activities, not their conversions.

5. A heavenly match: Bush and the Christian Zionists

Christian Zionist organizations and the pro-Israel lobby are among the significant special interest groups whose interests have converged since Bush’s election to shape the administration’s policy toward the Middle East. In some respects, most of these groups and political tendencies were lined up and waiting to merge their ambitions even before the election. The tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, provided the spark for this.

Among these interest groups, of which we can broadly identify six, is, first of all, the right wing of the Republican Party.

[...] A second interest group was comprised of neoconservatives, among them Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who submitted a strategy paper during the first Bush administration in 1991 advocating unilateralist and pre-emptive doctrines. Baker and advisers to the president, who viewed the document as too extreme, buried it.

[...] Two other interest groups are multinational construction firms and the petroleum industry on the one hand, and the arms industry on the other:

[...] A fifth group is made up of the pro-Israel lobby and think tanks.

[...] It is crucial to understand that the range of pro-Israel groups does not merely include Jews, so that the appellation the “Jewish lobby” is simply inaccurate. Proof of this is the existence of a sixth interest group whose interests were also served during the Bush administration: fundamentalist Christian Zionists.

Zionists Threats On John Kaminski Intensify

From John Kaminski
10-10-3

From John Kaminski
10-8-3

Just thought you'd all like to know that I've been getting anonymous threatening phone calls from several people who accuse me of hating Jews. Since I have a cellphone, no one should have access to my number, but Israel controls most of the phones in the U.S. These people never tell me their names. These phone calls are characterized by the foulest language and an unwillingness to dialogue. I've been expecting them, and they're here. This is the way some Jews wish to debate, by smearing and silencing all opposition to their criminal endeavors. Just the way they treat the rest of the world, as dumb cattle who it's OK to rob and murder. Just a reminder of what happened to me when they find me with six .22 slugs in the back of my head. Jewish justice...a threat to everyone in the whole world.

From John Kaminski
skylax@comcast.net

Hi K,

The Zionist phone harassment took a turn for the worse this morning when my girlfriend received two calls before 9 a.m.

[...] The previous day I received two calls from "PRIVATE NUMBER": the first caller, a different voice than the call previously mentioned, simply said, "I am soliciting donations for Israel ... " and I replied politely that I was not interested and hung up.

A second call from "PRIVATE NUMBER" I did not answer.

Since I have a cellphone, I never get unsolicited sales calls and my number is unavailable to the general public.

Since my note of yesterday, I have received at least a dozen e-mails from e-friends explaining how in recent years they have been subjected to similar harassment over their public statements desiring justice for the Palestinians and exposure of the Zionist menace.

Cars have been vandalized and threats have been issued in the middle of the night. I am not really aware if anyone has actually been attacked by these cowardly perpetrators of terror (other than one friend who had his steering wheel covered with a caustic substance), these disgusting defenders of racism, persecution and murder of small Palestinian children. Every event of terror that has ever happened in the Middle East has happened because of an Israeli provocation, not the other way around.

[...] In recent days, I have been attempting to engage several Jewish e-correspondents in realistic dialogue about the manipulative crimes of Israel and the twisting of public consciousness by Jewish/Zionist media in the U.S. As yet I have received no reply from any of them, despite their attempt to convince me they are open-minded. One recent e-mail forwarded from a Canadian friend included a letter from a Jew saying I should try to be balanced in my pronouncements about Israel and Palestine.

My reply is that I will be as balanced as the Israelis are in their treatment of Palestinians, whose land they have stolen and whose lives they have ruined, for no reason other than their own heartless and insane greed. I will be as balanced as the Israeli official Avigdor Lieberman, who said the other day that Damascus and Beirut should be "incinerated." That's how balanced I will be.

A dozen years ago in Brattleboro, Vermont, I had a successful newspaper career severely sabotaged by "progressive" liberal Jews who became upset when I began speaking about Israel's vicious persecution of the Palestinians, and the twisting of facts by the Zionist-controlled American media.

Everyone needs to get a handle on just how much of this is happening today in America.

When you read the history of Israel from objective sources, you discover than it is an outlaw state, created by the powers that be by stealing the land from its original inhabitants, and systematically exterminating them ever since.

The current phraseology used by Zionist media in the U.S. - Israeli freedom fighters vs. Palestinian terrorists - exactly reverses reality. The Israelis are the terrorists and the Islamic Arabs are the desperate freedom fighters against the heartless, nonstop terror perpetrated by the Jewish state.

Part of my mission in life is to try to make people see they have been duped for many years by rich Zionist Jews who control virtually all of the U.S. mainstream media. Americans have been duped into believing that Israel is our ally (read the Talmud; Israel is nobody's ally) and that Arabs are persecuting them. This is the reverse of actual reality, and the United States and free people everywhere are suffering from this horrible perversion of the truth, as evil men with money try to buy their friends and persecute and eliminate those who would attempt to speak the objective truth of these matters.

And that's what all these cowardly phone calls are about.

One other note: a friend told me on the phone today that I shouldn't be too sure that these calls are from Jews, as many Christian Zionists are even more rabidly hateful than Jewish Zionists.

I accepted his counsel with gratitude, noting that whatever the case is in this hateful episode, the chief perpetrators of injustice throughout the world are Zionists, and Zionism emanates chiefly from the planet's only Jewish state. I urge all peoples of the world to take a closer look at this insidious virus of sociopathic personalities, and study the words of the Talmud that encourage all Jews to exploit, rob and kill all non-Jews without penalty, because non-Jews are just cattle, cockroaches and grasshoppers (and whatever other demeaning epithets have been mouthed by Menachim Begin, Golda Meir, Benjamin Netanyahu et al over the years).

So, when Jews quibble that I should be calling the real criminals Zionists, you'll just have to pardon my skepticism. To my mind, the biggest problem in the world is Judaism, which spawned Zionism, and how it creates misery and exploitation wherever it spreads, now even to my phone line. All because I insist on living in the world with liberty and justice for all, a goal which now even the American government which spawned the phrase has repudiated.

Best wishes,
John K.

American Satyricon: The Perverting Of Reality Part II:
You can run, but you can't hide - what will you do?

By John Kaminski
skylax@comcast.net
10-7-03

[...] Echoing the same outspoken fears as Petronius, many questions I've received lately come from people fearful of freely speaking their minds, and yearning to flee these United States to escape this integrity-free zone that America has become. At least in matters of unchecked spending and truth telling, the Bush White House is not unlike Nero's court.

[...] The Jews, of course, are everyone's top target for vilification, and justifiably so for their continuing torture and extermination of the hapless Palestinians (which for a half century has been the world's most egregious atrocity), their perverting of the governments and media of countries not their own, and the growing realization that Jewish influences have fundamentally altered the character of all societies in which they have achieved a significant foothold.

The most regrettable aspect of criticism about the Jews, however, is that most of it comes from other denominations whose own histories are not exactly spotless when it comes to human decency and open-mindedness.

Jewish depredations in the areas of media and government cannot be successfully exposed by those espousing other creeds that may only replace one brand of social manipulation and spiritual coercion with another.

The difference is that Jews don't practice what they preach, as is evidenced in the internal policies of Israel, which are racist in the extreme, contrasted with practices of diversity they champion in other countries. What is becoming obvious in the world is that Jews preach assimilation of minorities in other countries but strictly resist such notions in their own.

One other significant Jewish manifestation in other countries in recent years has been the appearance of "hate" laws. In many countries in Europe, it is a crime to question the official version of the Nazi Holocaust. Why has this clear violation of freedom of speech been permitted?

If Holocaust deniers can't prove what they say, let them be exposed and ridiculed in the court of consensual public opinion. Don't prevent them from speaking their pieces.

Preventing anyone from speaking about anything only reveals that those making such restrictive laws definitely have something to hide, which is exactly the case with their Jews and their pathological passion to hide in their own victimhood as a ruse to conceal their exploitation of others.

So those who seek to escape from the venality and bestiality of our present version of petro politics should stand forewarned that by escaping into religious dogma they run the risk of becoming part of the very problem they wish to flee.

[...] People intrepid and ingenious enough to manage to wander around the world in search of their own nirvanas, or those motivated to seek more resonant explanations of why we are all passing through this existence at this time, are both exactly who we all need providing input in this frightful era in American history, when bribery has replaced honesty and kids grow up seeking the big score rather than trying to build rewarding and purposeful lives. We need that questing honesty to repopularize morality and compassion in this current culture of pious thieves and hypocritical holy men.

So, for those out there on foreign beaches or seeking out new dimensions with either ecstatic mushrooms or eloquent epistles to the Ephesians, this is a call to come home, to come back to earth, to return to the here and now and fight for what is honest and good. The people of Earth simply can't afford to have their best and brightest wandering off disillusioned in forlorn forests or lost in imaginary battles with ancient gods of questionable intent.

Come home soon. We need you here now.

Comment: While we agree with Kaminski that chasing mushrooms in tropical forests isn't any help in the current state of the American republic, we think he has not yet awoken to the real character of the terror facing dissenters within the US with his call, "Come home soon." The people in power have rigged a federal election, murdered almost 3,000 people in the World Trade Center, and have passed legislation that makes it a crime to voice your disgust at the politics of Christian Zionism that dominate the day. They are making very long lists of people who are a threat. We think it is better to live and fight another day than to become a martyr to the cause.

Witness for the prosecution

By Ari Shavit

Playwright Joshua Sobol has decided to support the petition of the pilots against flying combat missions in the territories. Cautious of drawing historical analogies, he sees dangerous signs of fascism in the Israeli public's chorus of support of militantism.

[...] Joshua Sobol, in the past you were against refusal in the army. Now you are one of the writers who is supporting refusal. Why? What made you change your attitude?

"I became convinced that the Israeli government is not offering any alternative to the use of force. It took me time to reach that conclusion. Three years is no little time. But at the end of three years I found that the policy of this government is war. This government has no policy other than war."

[...] But still, it's not all that simple, is it? Isn't there something antidemocratic about officers in uniform rising up against an elected government?

`You may be right. Maybe the use of the fatigues and the helmets hurt the cause. It was theatrical and unnecessary. But that's not the main thing. The main thing is that these pilots are being sent to execute the policy of a government that is summed up by the use of force and solely by the use of force. They are being sent to carry out missions that are in the gray area of war crimes. When you drop a one-ton bomb on a densely populated area, it's impossible to feign innocence and say we didn't intend to kill innocent people. That's an oxymoron. It doesn't hold water."

Are you saying that Israel is today perpetrating a war crime?

"War crimes have a definition. The Geneva Convention and the annex to the Rome Convention stipulate that a systematic and prolonged policy of killing civilians is a war crime. So in the present case we have to examine whether such killing is being perpetrated or not. In retrospect, many civilians and children have been killed here. Too many innocent people have been killed here. And of the 2,400 Palestinians who have been killed, wanted individuals were not the majority. It's impossible to apologize day in and day out and say we didn't mean it. If there are so many civilian casualties on the other side, we have to stop. That is what the pilots wanted to say and in that they are right.

"There is also another point here. When the government adopts a mode of refusal, the citizens have to be war refusers. They have no other way out. The State of Israel is today refusing peace and that obligates its civilians and soldiers to refuse war."

What do you say to the fact that the vast majority of the Israeli public rejected the pilot's protest outright?

"That is exactly what is worrying me so much. The hysterical reaction proved how far uniformity of thought has taken hold in Israeli society. Apart from a few lone voices, everyone reacted as one chorus. The assault on the pilots and the assault on the writers and the assault on the university professors' petition frightened me. It was the reaction of one voice, one front, one thought. I see this as signs of a thrust toward fascism."

You see buds of fascism in the Israel of 2003?

"Certainly. The majority is still far from that, but I feel it from the side of the government establishment. I feel it in statements by army officers. In the way media people are falling into a uniform line. There is a falling into line in the Israeli society, and that term - falling into line - is a translation from the German: Gleichschaltrung."

John Pilger: "Palestine is Still the Issue" Part I

Why Has This Documentary, Never Been Broadcast On U.S. Media?

Twenty-five years ago, I made a film called Palestine Is Still The Issue. It was about a nation of people - the Palestinians - forced off their land and later subjected to a military occupation by Israel. An occupation condemned by the United Nations and almost every country in the world, including Britain.

But Israel is backed by a very powerful friend, the United States. So in 25 years, if we're to speak of the great injustice here, nothing has changed. What has changed is that the Palestinians have fought back.

Stateless and humiliated for so long, they've risen up against Israel's huge military machine, although they themselves have no arm, no tanks, no American planes and gun ships or missiles.

Some have committed desperate acts of terror, like suicide bombing. But for Palestinians, the overriding, routine terror, day after day, has been the ruthless control of almost every aspect of their lives, as if they live in an open prison. This film is about the Palestinians and a group of courageous Israelis united in the oldest human struggle - to be free.

Comment: The documentary can be found at this link. Scroll down to view it.

Iraq governor Paul Bremer takes a 'normal' stroll through 'normal' Baghdad surrounded by 'normal' bodyguards carrying 'normal' assault rifles.

Bremer: Life Is 'Normal' In Iraq

Oct. 10, 2003

"We're back at prewar levels in power, we're back at prewar levels in water, the schools are open, the hospitals are open, and we're really making tremendous progress here." L. Paul Bremer

(CBS/AP) The U.S. administrator in Iraq insisted Friday that life in that country was "basically quite normal" despite nearly daily attacks by organized extremists and widespread common street crime.

Speaking on ABC television, L. Paul Bremer also urged Congress to approve an almost $20 billion package for reconstruction to "help put Iraq on the road to complete recovery."

"We certainly still have attacks on coalition forces coming largely from organized extremists and there is certainly a problem of common street crime," he said. "You've got to remember that Saddam let 100,000 convicted criminals out of prison before the war."

But Bremer said there's lots of good news in Iraq, and "life is basically quite normal here."

Two U.S. soldiers were killed and four injured in an ambush late Thursday just hours after a suicide car bombing that killed 10 people, including the driver, in the same Baghdad neighborhood, the U.S. military said Friday.

But Shiite Muslims denied there was an ambush and said fighters loyal to a radical Shiite cleric battled U.S. troops Thursday night as the Americans approached their leader's headquarters.

Comment: A severe case of cognitive dissonance or just outright lies - you choose.

Crime puts Iraqi women under house arrest

Suzanne Goldenberg in Baghdad finds the city's female population crushed by the lawlessness under US occupation

Saturday October 11, 2003
The Guardian

Amina is putting her beauty salon up for sale. She has recovered from the episode last June when armed men burst in and robbed her clients of cash and jewellery, and she has learned to live with the gunfights that erupt with regularity at the coffee shop next door.

But within the space of a month, she says her teenage apprentice narrowly escaped abduction, a customer was held at gunpoint in another kidnapping attempt, and one of her regulars was dragged away by the hair and gang raped.

Such is the pace of events in post-war Baghdad, where the US occupation has ushered in an explosive rise in crime which has wreaked havoc on once genteel areas, and driven women indoors. [...]

Buthayna Ali, left, and her neighbor, Sadia Mohammed, search for the name of Ali's husband on a list of hundreds of detainees posted on the wall of the Iraqi Lawyers League headquarters in Baghdad Monday.

More than 5,000 detainees wait in Iraq prisons

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The lawyer, gone to the prison on other business, says he saw the man sitting in his long overshirt in the dust of the cellblock yard, a heavy man in his 60s, sunken, weary.

"He called to me. I went over," Fawzi al-Musawi said. He could see the prisoner's right foot was bandaged, putrid with gangrene, apparently from a circulatory ailment.

"He asked if I could help. He said, 'They accuse me of being a Baathist. I'm not a Baathist.' " But before al-Musawi could even ask his name, an American soldier rushed up and angrily ordered the lawyer away.

"This is wrong, this is unacceptable," al-Musawi said of the encounter Oct. 1 at Abu Ghraib, the Baghdad prison that was a place of torture and executions under Saddam Hussein and is now the main U.S.-run lockup in the Iraqi capital.

Six months after the United States and Britain ousted the Baath party government and took control of Iraq, an uncertain population of Iraqi detainees sits and waits behind prison walls -- their numbers uncertain, their legal rights in dispute, their living conditions hidden from public view. Some are accused of common crimes, others of being security threats. They are men and women who have left uncertain families behind.

"I've searched for him everywhere. I don't know whether the Americans took him or not," Buthayna Ali, 42, said of her husband, a civilian who disappeared while traveling to see relatives outside Baghdad during the war last April.

The black-veiled woman scanned a list of hundreds of detainees' names taped to the walls at the Iraqi Lawyers League headquarters. His name wasn't there. "At least I want to see his body," she said.

Thousands of angry Shiites denounce US after killings in Iraq

AFP
Saturday October 11, 4:33 AM

Anti-US fervor surged in the Iraqi capital as thousands of Shiite Muslims staged an angry funeral march following fighting here that killed two Iraqis, as well as two American soldiers.

In Washington, meanwhile, US Vice President Dick Cheney launched a fierce frontal assault on critics of the Iraq war. [...]

In Baghdad's Sadr City district, more than 10,000 Shiites gathered for the funeral procession of two of their own killed in a firefight Thursday night between the Mehdi Army militia and coalition soldiers that also left several people hurt.

Militiamen armed with assault rifles and pistols escorted the funeral procession, led by a cleric who waved a ceremonial sword.

Raising their fists in the air, the men roared, "There is no God but Allah. America is the enemy of God." [...]

Accounts of Clash in Iraq Differ

By Theola Labbé
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 11, 2003; Page A18

BAGHDAD, Oct. 10 -- Iraqis lured a squad of American soldiers into a fatal ambush here Thursday night with a plaintive cry for help, the U.S. military said Friday.

But residents of the sprawling Shiite Muslim slum known as Sadr City, where the attack took place, maintained that U.S. forces antagonized a crowd and opened fire first, killing two Iraqi men. [...]

Oil pipeline sabotaged

Associated Press
10:36 Saturday 11th October 2003

An explosion has ripped open an Iraqi oil pipeline in the latest act of sabotage to hit the industry. The pipeline that was attacked carried oil from Zab to Kirkuk. The blast occurred at 7pm on Friday, and the fire was only extinguished at 8.30am today. [...]

Islamic Nations Tell U.S. to Leave Iraq to U.N.

By Munir Boweti
October 11, 2003

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (Reuters) - Muslim nations demanded "eviction of all foreign forces from Iraq" as they began a summit in Malaysia on Saturday, with only Turkey defending plans to deploy its troops alongside the U.S.-led alliance.

Abdelouahed Belkeziz, Secretary-General of the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), said occupying forces should quickly withdraw from Iraq to give the United Nations a chance to reconstruct the country.

The OIC Summit, being held in Malaysia's new administrative capital of Putrajaya, began with meetings of senior officials. Foreign ministers will meet on Monday and the leaders' summit takes place on October 16-17.

Up to 35 heads of state are expected to attend in what will be the largest gathering of Muslim leaders since the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. [...]

Army Charges Chaplain at Guantanamo Bay

By MATT KELLEY, Associated Press Writer
Fri Oct 10, 9:07 PM ET

WASHINGTON - A former Muslim chaplain at the Guantanamo Bay prison for terrorism suspects has been charged with disobeying orders for improperly handling classified information, the military announced Friday.

Army Capt. James Yee, who also has used the name Yousef Yee, was charged with two counts of failing to obey a lawful order, U.S. Southern Command announced. He is charged with taking classified information home and wrongly transporting classified information.

The charges, as outlined on an Army document released by Southern Command, say Yee was carrying classified information when he was arrested last month and had taken secret materials to a housing unit while serving as chaplain at the base from November 2002 until last month. [...]

Up to 30 Taliban Escape from Afghan Jail

By Mohammad Ismail Sameem
October 11, 2003

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Up to 30 Taliban prisoners have escaped from jail in the volatile city of Kandahar, presenting yet another security headache in troubled southern Afghanistan, security personnel said on Saturday. [...]

He declined to say how the prisoners had escaped as said the incident was under investigation. [...]

	Cheney is screaming that al-Qaeda is everywhere, and are "doing everything they can" to get weapons of mass destruction that could kill hundreds of thousands of Americans "in a single day of horror." It looks like he can hardly wait, as he continues to dance on the graves of U.S. citizens. We are all being set up.

The Fascist Fraternity

von Gary Sudborough

A history of the collaboration of German and American capitalists during World War 2 to not only profit from war, but to spread fascism as well.

In his book Trading With The Enemy, Charles Higham designates as The Fraternity that group of American and German capitalists who were very supportive of the Nazi ideology and developed intimate financial and patent connections between their corporations. Corporations belonging to The Fraternity were ITT, General Motors, Ford, Standard Oil of New Jersey, Texaco, SKF and German corporations like I.G. Farben, Krupp and others. These corporations were so supportive of the Nazis that they built many of their weapons and supplied them with oil, while the American people suffered from oil rationing during World War 2. Individual capitalists belonging to The Fraternity were the Rockefellers, Fords, DuPonts, Morgans and the Bush family through Prescott Bush and George Herbert Walker being on the board of Brown Brothers Harriman, which invested heavily in Nazi Germany. [...]

Nobel winner to fight US terror rules

By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
The Telegraph

One of the two Americans who won yesterday's Nobel prize for chemistry said he might use some of his award money to help defend academic freedoms against restrictions imposed on scientists as part of the US war on terrorism.

"We're considering some social issues, including scientists who are being persecuted around the world and in the United States," said Prof Peter Agre, of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. [...]

1991 Gulf soldiers given risky jabs

By Michael Smith, Defence Correspondent
The Telegraph

Soldiers sent to the 1991 Gulf war were given a combination of vaccines that were known to cause serious side-effects and that were not licensed for use in Britain.

Lord Bach, the defence minister, admitted yesterday that this was done despite warnings of the risks issued by the Department of Health and the deputy chief medical officer. [...]

Comment Human experimentation did not go away with the Nazis. It just got better funding.

Nearly All U.S. Food Soon to Be Monitored

By EMILY GERSEMA

WASHINGTON (AP) - Virtually every food product in the United States will soon have to be registered along with its supplier as part of the fight against terrorism.

Figuring that the best way to protect the nation's food supply is to keep better tabs on it, the government is requiring some 400,000 facilities in the United States to register themselves and their products with the Food and Drug Administration. [...]

Drones Tested to Patrol US-Mexico Border

Friday, October 10, 2003; 1:34 PM

MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - The United States is testing pilotless drone aircraft, used in Iraq and Afghanistan, on the U.S.-Mexico border where they might be deployed to detect drug traffickers and illegal immigrants, a government spokesman said on Friday.

The Department of Homeland Security is conducting tests of the unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, in remote areas of the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, Mario Villarreal, spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, told Reuters. [...]

Woman nabbed after run at Air Force One

by Elisabeth J. Beardsley and David R. Guarino

Friday, October 10, 2003 An apparently deranged woman who claimed to be "radioactive" barreled her car through a secure tarmac gate at Manchester Airport yesterday - coming within 800 feet of Air Force One, just minutes before President Bush was slated to board after wrapping up a New Hampshire trip.

"She looked dazed, she didn't look right," said witness Frank Conery, a Bedford, N.H., resident who works across the street at MSC Industrial Supplies. "We couldn't believe they didn't shoot her."

The president was not yet at the airport, and the woman - described as mid-30s, dark-haired, slightly built and Caucasian - was subdued and under arrest by the time the motorcade arrived. [...]

Comment: Greenbaum victim?

Poor Left Behind As Courts Go High-Tech

By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN, Associated Press Writer
Sat Oct 11, 2:20 AM ET

WASHINGTON - The poor are largely being left out as the federal courts slowly transform their paper-choked courthouses into an electronic world.

The federal courts decided last month to allow the public to read criminal case files on the Internet. Six years ago, court administrators began scanning civil and bankruptcy cases into a new computer system developed at the prodding of a clerk in Cleveland who had to turn a court parking garage into a file room for an avalanche of asbestos damage suits. [...]

But little has been done to help those who cannot afford a computer or Internet access or the 7 cents per page charged for reading court records over the Internet.

"This aggressive plan seems to make no provision for self-represented litigants," particularly the poor, said Ronald W. Staudt, law professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law. [...]

Record labels want mandatory "Net drivers license?"

Glenn Reynolds

AT LUNCHTIME TODAY, I moderated a panel discussion on digital downloading and music, featuring a bunch of musicians, songwriters, and industry people from Nashville. Here's the scary bit: one of the industry guys said that their big legislative priority is to try to create a regime where you have to register with a unique, verifiable ID to access the Internet.

No doubt the next step would be to take away that ID as punishment for "misconduct" on the Internet. Shades of Vernor Vinge's True Names.

UPDATE: Declan McCullagh links this post with a reference to the RIAA, and follows up with a post in which the RIAA (humorously) denies it. I should be clear that there was no RIAA representative at this panel; it was an industry guy, but not one from the RIAA.

Powell seeks formal pact with N. Korea

www.chinaview.cn
2003-10-11 12:48:36

BEIJING, Oct. 11, (Xinhuanet) -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Friday he is trying to satisfy North Korean security concerns through a formal, written agreement in which that country's neighbors would participate.

With negotiations over North Korea's weapons programs at a stalemate, Powell said in an interview with a small group of reporters that his aides have been looking for historical precedents that could be applied to the situation.

S.Korean cabinet decides to resign

www.chinaview.cn
2003-10-11 12:22:56

SEOUL, Oct. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- South Korean Prime Minister Goh Kun and all Cabinet members along with senior presidential secretaries decided to resign early Saturday in the wake of President Roh Moo-hyun announced a plan to seek a vote of confidence in his administration.

At a Cabinet meeting held early Saturday, Goh Kun said, "We assume deep responsibility for the fact that we've come to such a situation."

S.Korean president rejects cabinet resignation

www.chinaview.cn
2003-10-11 12:22:56

SEOUL, Oct. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun,at an emergency press conference on Saturday morning, persuaded the Cabinet and his senior aides who tendered their resignations to stay.

Citing the political stability reason, Roh Moo-hyun dismissed the resignation of Prime Minister Goh Kun and other cabinet members along with his all 13 senior secretaries.

"The Cabinet should serve the nation better at a time when I ask for the nation's confidence in me," Roh said.

He said he would take measures to stabilize the situation.

One wounded in bomb explosion in southern France

www.chinaview.cn
2003-10-10 17:34:32

PARIS, Oct. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- A bomb exploded on Friday morning in front of a military casern in the southern French resort of Nice, injuring one person, French televisions reported.

A female guardian of a school in front of the casern was also lightly hurt in the face. The blast took place at about 0600 (0400GMT) and the windows of the casern, the school and neighboring buildings were blown out, the report said.

[...] The National Liberation Front of Corsica (FLNC), the separatist armed group that seeks independence for France's Mediterranean island of Corsica, claimed the responsibility of the alert against the casern last year.

S.Africa urged to intervene in Zimbabwe incident

www.chinaview.cn
2003-10-11 00:59:18

JOHANNESBURG, Oct. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- South African political parties called on government on Friday to intervene in the incident involving South Africa's High Commissioner to Zimbabwe Jeremiah Ndou this week.

Ndou was reportedly called before Zimbabwe's ministry of foreign affairs because "he had not been given clearance" to visit a farm, formerly owned by a white South African.

He was also apparently barricaded in the farmhouse for some time by a group of land invaders on the farm.

Civil conflicts in east and central Africa worsen food crisis

www.chinaview.cn
2003-10-09 23:17:12

KAMPALA, Oct. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) James Morris while in Kampala recently appealed for peace and stability in the East and Central Africa to prevent the terrible loss of life and human suffering in the region.

"Food production has been slashed, as displaced population are prevented from tending their fields. Their main chance for survival is help from international community," he said.

This region has been characterized by violent civil conflicts that have left thousands and millions of people displaced. Many of these displaced people are now facing a food crisis. Across east and central Africa, some 20 million people need food aid, representing more than half of the 40 million people in Africa facing large scale hunger. This year alone, the region requires 2.8 million metric tons of food aid.

Yet Another Mystery Blackout - This Time Oz

By Luke Morfesse and Simon Penn
The West.com
10-10-3

THE parlous state of WA's electricity supply was highlighted again yesterday when the Collie power station crashed, cutting power to 125,000 homes and businesses in the metropolitan area and key regional centres.

Late yesterday, Western Power was still unable to explain the cause of the 2½-hour blackout, which hit at 1pm and also cut traffic lights throughout the suburbs.

Reader's Comment:

So far there have been major Blackouts in the following countries:

1) Australia *(2 times)*
2) Britain
3) Canada *(2 times)*
4) Denmark
5) Finland *(recent add on)*
6) Japan(before the major earthquake a few days ago)
7) Italy
8) New Zealand
9) West Malaysia *(recent add on)*
10)United States

It seems the black-out phenomenon is not over.

Blasts in Ukrainian arms depot

October 11, 2003

KIEV: Several thousand people were evacuated from their homes on Friday after a series of explosions ripped through a Ukrainian munitions dump at Artyomovsky in the eastern Donetsk region, the emergency ministry said. The explosions, caused by a fire, shattered the windows of several apartment blocks. It was not known what had caused the fire. [...]

Taiwanese develop missiles to deter Bejing

By Hamish McDonald
October 11, 2003

Beijing - The Taiwanese Government, facing a build-up of hundreds of ballistic missiles on the nearby Chinese mainland, has revealed its own missile program and refused to rule out a "pre-emptive" attack on communist forces. [...]

Nine dead in Nepal clashes as Maoist truce ends

October 11, 2003

KATHMANDU: At least five Maoists and four security men were killed in clashes in Nepal as a temporary truce called by the rebels ended, officials said on Friday. [...]

One death a minute: toll of the booming arms trade

By Cahal Milmo
10 October 2003

In Somalia, babies are named "Uzi" and "AK" after their fathers' favourite assault rifles. In Georgia, arms are so common that English teachers have been paid in hand grenades. In Yemen, the birth of a boy is greeted by tribal leaders with shouts of: "We have increased by one gun."

Armed with these and a battery of other alarming facts, a coalition of human rights campaigners and aid groups warned yesterday that the spread of lethal weaponry was "out of control" and the war on terrorism was fuelling a rapid acceleration in the global arms trade, which is worth £17bn a year.

The group - led by Amnesty International, Oxfam and the International Action Network on Small Arms - is calling for a legally binding international arms trade treaty by 2006 that would stop governments selling arms to oppressive regimes and halt a trade which is making weaponry part of daily life in many countries. Campaigners will highlight the absence of any coherent or enforceable international regulation of the arms trade, which they say is increasing the misery of millions of the world's poor. [...]

The proliferation of weaponry, in particular small arms, is so widespread that it is responsible for the death of one person every minute and more than 500,000 killings a year, the study found. War in Africa causes economic losses of £10bn a year while the prevalence of guns in daily life is blamed in the group's report for retarding economic growth in countries including Brazil, Tanzania, Nicaragua and Uganda.

Leading industrialised countries including Britain are blamed for much of the increase in the trade. They are said to sell weaponry to favoured nations to protect their defence industries and do too little to stop the flow of arms to countries paralysed by internal conflict.

Experts highlighted the "cascade" effect of international arms sales from the wealthier northern hemisphere to the poorer south. The annual $25bn trade (£17bn) is strongest in the Middle East and north Africa, accounting for $12bn, and Asia, where it is worth $8bn.

The study pointed to what it said was a rapid increase in weapons sales by the US after 11 September, a time when arms control should be a greater priority.

Washington has increased its military aid to at least 10 countries identified by the US State Department as having poor human rights records, the report said. Last year, security assistance to Uzbekistan rose by $45m while in Pakistan it increased from $3.5m to $1.3bn despite allegations of torture and extra-judicial killings in both countries.

Britain is accused in the report of similar conduct in increasing arms exports to Indonesia from £2m in 2000 to more than £40m in 2002. "The gross abuses of human rights that armed forces allied to the 'war on terror' inflict on civilian populations are given little attention," the report says. "Arms and military assistance are being offered as a geopolitical inducement with few, if any, conditions to protect human rights."

The insidious spread of guns and assault rifles into daily life was of particular concern. Despite the presence of 639 million small arms in the world, nearly two-thirds of them privately owned, eight million more were made every year. In 2001, 16 billion units of military ammunition were made, more than enough to shoot everyone twice. [...]

Comment: Let's face it, the 'developed world' has for hundreds of years sought to stunt the growth of democracy and development in pretty much all of the 'undeveloped countries'. This has been achieved by the active destabilization and overthrow of many democratic governments in these countries and the support of usually brutal military rulers.

US State Department protests televangelist's nuclear threat

Thu Oct 9, 3:21 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US State Department has lodged a vehement complaint with prominent conservative televangelist Pat Robertson for comments suggesting that its Foggy Bottom headquarters should be destroyed with nuclear weapons, officials said.

Spokesman Richard Boucher called the remarks -- which Robertson made last week on his nationally televised "700 Club" program -- "despicable" and a senior department official said a protest had been made "at the highest level."

"I lack sufficient capabilities to express my disdain," Boucher told reporters when asked about Robertson's comments. "I think the very idea, though, is despicable."

The senior official said Robertson had been made aware of Secretary of State Colin Powell's extreme outrage at the tone and content of the remarks.

"That's not the way one expresses an opinion in Washington," the official said, adding that Robertson's conduct had been "outrageous." [...]

Mowbray's book accuses the State Department of endangering the security of the United States by allegedly cavorting with sponsors of terrorism, negligence or incompetence in the visa issuance process and ignoring the travails of US citizens abroad.

Comment: These days, it appears that there isn't any way to express an opinion in Washington - unless that opinion supports the government.

Yucca critics cite foul-up with reactor shipment

By Suzanne Struglinski
LAS VEGAS SUN
October 09, 2003

WASHINGTON -- The lack of communication involved in a radioactive waste shipment this week illustrates safety concerns for the proposed Yucca Mountain federal nuclear waste storage site, project critics said Wednesday.

Consumers Energy started shipping a 565,000-pound package filled with concrete and a nuclear reactor vessel on Tuesday from the closed Big Rock Point nuclear power plant in Charlevoix, Mich., to a low-level radioactive waste storage facility in Barnhill, S.C., company spokesman Tim Petrosky said. [...]

The truck carrying the vessel broke an axle en route between Charlevoix and Gaylord, Mich., and it pulled over to the side of a road, where it was fixed.

The company then parked the truck Tuesday night near a gas station -- that also serves as a bus stop for 13 elementary and high school students -- until the waste can be transferred to a train that stops in Gaylord. The truck was still there this morning. Company officials expected the transfer to take two to four days.

Yucca critics say the lack of communication surrounding the incident does not speak well for the future when thousands of shipment of even more dangerous material could move to Nevada. [...]

Strong earthquake shakes Japan

The Associated Press

TOKYO (October 10, 7:33 p.m. ADT) - A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.1 rocked northern Japan Saturday morning, the Meteorological Agency said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The quake was centered off the southeastern coast of Japan's northernmost main island, Hokkaido. [...]

A powerful quake slammed Hokkaido on Sept. 27, leaving more than 750 people injured.

A series of strong aftershocks have hit the area since. Some experts have warned that a major fault line in the area still has pent-up energy to release, perhaps even another magnitude-8 tremor. [...]

Mild quake jolts Metro

Felix de los Santos
The Philippine Star
10/11/2003

An Intensity 4 tectonic earthquake jolted Manila at 6:19 a.m yesterday, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs). [...]

Registering a Magnitude 4.3 on the Richter Scale, the quake’s epicenter was located at 116 kilometers northwest of Mamburao, Occidental Mindoro and had a depth focus at 84 kilometers. [...]

Tropical storm Mindy forms near Hispaniola

By MARTIN MERZER
Miami Herald
Fri, Oct. 10, 2003

Tropical Storm Mindy developed this evening near the Dominican Republic, bringing heavy rain to that nation and Puerto Rico, and compelling forecasters to post warnings in other nearby islands.

Mindy was expected to curve away from Florida and the rest of the mainland, likely to die in the open Atlantic early next week. [...]

Antarctic ozone hole brings stronger winds: study

Last Updated Fri, 10 Oct 2003 12:58:09

VICTORIA - The ozone hole over Antarctica is likely changing wind patterns and ocean currents in the southern hemisphere, a Canadian scientist has shown.

The research appears in Friday's issue of the journal Science. According to one meteorologist, the study may help scientists to understand climate variability in Canada's North.

[...] Nathan Gillett of the University of Victoria's School of Earth and Ocean Sciences has now demonstrated another worrisome consequence of the ozone hole.

Gillett, a postdoctoral researcher, has made a computer model of Antarctica. It varies levels of stratospheric ozone and then measures wind speeds and temperatures at sea level.

He has found winds around the South Pole, down into the lower atmosphere, have strengthened.

The winds "have strengthened in the model, up to four metres per second, which is something like seven knots," Gillett said.

Mountain May Be Named for Schwarzenegger

The Associated Press
Friday, October 10, 2003; 11:32 AM

TBILISI, Georgia - Arnold Schwarzenegger, who scaled to the top of California politics, could now get a mountain named after him in the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

But there's a catch: To receive the honor, the governor-elect of California must visit the country, a representative of Georgia's president said Friday. [...]

Officials resurrected the idea for a Mount Schwarzenegger after the actor won the governor's race Tuesday. [...]

The mountain in western Georgia does not currently have a name, and officials have declined to disclose its precise location and size.

September 11 revenge killer to die for shooting Sikh

Julian Borger in Washington
Saturday October 11, 2003
The Guardian

A man has been sentenced to death in Arizona for killing a Sikh in the belief that he was an Arab while on a shooting spree intended to avenge the September 11 attacks. The murder of Balbir Singh Sodhi, an immigrant from India and the owner of a petrol station, was the first and one of the worst of the reprisal attacks across the US after September 11 2001.

Many assaults were on Sikhs wearing turbans and beards in the belief they were arab Muslims.

In court, lawyers for the defendant, Frank Roque, said he had struggled with mental illness for much of his life, and that the terrorist attacks had triggered an episode of insanity in which he heard a voice telling him to "kill the devils".

But a court-appointed psychiatrist testified that, whatever Roque's mental problems, he could distinguish right from wrong. And the insanity defence was rejected by the jury.

Roque, 44, a former Boeing mechanic from Alabama, was also convicted of attempted murder in his shooting spree on September 15 2001, having fired on another petrol station where the cashier was of Lebanese descent, and at the home of an Afghan family.

Mr Sodhi's killing in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa triggered protests in India, and a complaint from its government. Since September 11, the Sikh Coalition pressure group has reported 298 other hate crimes against Sikhs across the US.

In the first three months afterthe New York and Washington terror attacks, a watchdog organisation called Intergroup Clearinghouse counted 1,700 incidents of reprisal against arabs, Muslims, south Asians, and Sikhs, including six killings.

In May, another Arizona Sikh was shot in in Phoenix. Avtar Singh Cheira was wounded in the stomach and groin by a group of men in a pickup truck who shouted: "Go back to where you belong." [...]

SS commander 'foamed at the mouth'

Associated Press
17:28 Friday 10th October 2003

A former member of Adolf Hitler's elite SS charged with murdering a Dutch prisoner during the Second World War was "foaming at the mouth" after the killing, an 81-year-old witness has testified. [...]

"He was extremely aggressive. He was foaming at the mouth," Ms Bosch told the state court in Hagen. [...]

But according to files containing his testimony from 1953, when he was in German custody, and read to the court earlier in the trial, Bikker said he shot Houtmann in the back to prevent his escape and that he had acted "in the exercise of his duty."

Vietnam hero turned novelist convicted of beating his wife to death with a poker

By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
The Independent
11 October 2003

They were two women, who died in different decades and different continents, but in uncannily similar and suspicious circumstances and in the close proximity of the same man.

Yesterday, after a trial which has transfixed America, a jury decided that the coincidences were too much and convicted the novelist Michael Peterson of murder.

In Durham, North Carolina, where he lived, the 59-year-old Peterson was a celebrity. He was a former newspaper columnist and candidate for mayor of Durham, a Vietnam war hero who had been awarded Silver and Bronze Stars for bravery, and subsequently written three successful novels. His wife Kathleen, 10 years younger, was a senior telecommunications executive and a popular hostess.

But the seemingly perfect marriage ended in tragedy and, it transpires, murder. [...]

Man found guilty of blowing up ex-wife

Associated Press
08:43 Saturday 11th October 2003

A former air traffic controller has been found guilty of killing his ex-wife with a bomb wrapped as a Christmas gift. [...]

The bomb was in a tackle box wrapped as a Christmas gift that appeared on the doorstep of the home Ms Jarvis shared with her mother, stepfather, boyfriend and daughter. [...]

Prosecutors claim Jarvis killed his ex-wife to avoid paying her £29,000 ordered in their divorce settlement.

Student Allegedly Tries To Poison Math Teacher

1:57 p.m. EDT October 10, 2003

SAN DIEGO -- A Southern California high school student who had trouble with algebra was arrested for allegedly trying to poison his math teacher, according to a report.

The 16-year-old boy allegedly put eye drops in teacher's water bottle last Friday at El Camino Real High School in Placentia, Calif., a police detective told the Los Angeles Times. Investigators said they boy was trying to give the teacher severe diarrhea. [...]

The school is a continuation school for students having trouble at regular high schools.

Man accused of killing landlord over $10

WACO, Texas -- A man has been charged with murder for allegedly beating his landlord in the head with a board in a dispute over a $10 late fee. [...]

Indian President's guards accused of gang rape

By Phil Reeves in Delhi
11 October 2003

Four members of India's presidential bodyguard, cavalrymen in one of the most prestigious military units, were behind bars last night under suspicion of gang-raping a 17-year-old student.

The attack allegedly happened in daylight in a Delhi forest reserve. And the victim was not - as is most commonly the case here - a member of the country's vast mass of the uneducated and poor.

The victim is said to have been accosted while out for a mid-morning walk. According to the police, the soldiers bundled her into a truck and drove her to an isolated area, where she was raped. According to The Indian Express newspaper, the soldiers gave her 100 rupees (£1.30) to pay for her fare home.

A medical examination reportedly confirmed she had been sexually assaulted. The soldiers belong to a detachment of mounted cavalry guarding President Abdul Kalam.

Reports of rape and sexual abuse abound in India, compounded by the reluctance of women and their families to come forward because of the stigma it brings. Last year, the issue leapt on to the political agenda after an alleged gang-rape of a 24-year-old medical student in Delhi, again during the day.

The case provoked an angry reaction among the city's intelligentsia and a debate about the scale of rape in India and the nation's failure to curb it. MPs suspended business to debate whether rapists should be given the death sentence. It prompted one of India's leading newspapers, The Hindustan Times, to release a survey of women in Delhi. More than two-thirds said they had been sexually harassed. One in seven said they had been molested.

Local boy accused of bomb threats

By Karen Polly
Oct 9, 2003, 10:09 pm

CARLSBAD — A 10-year-old boy was taken into custody by the Carlsbad police after making two calls Wednesday night claiming that local schools would be blown up. [...]

Couple accused of enslaving Nigerian girl

By A Sun Staff Writer

Federal immigration officials alleged yesterday that a Montgomery County couple enslaved a teen-age Nigerian girl for five years, forcing her to care for their five children without pay and subjecting her to physical and sexual abuse. [...]

Ex-FBI Agent Accused of Murder Conspiracy

By JEFF DONN
Associated Press Writer

Boston's FBI scandal was already disturbing enough: agents taking bribes, shrugging off gangsters' crimes, and shielding informants from police. Now, it has turned almost unthinkable: A retired agent is charged with aiding a mob hit on a reputable businessman. [...]

The arrest of H. Paul Rico is likely to complicate FBI efforts to shake off its legacy of missteps with violent mob informants in Boston, said several experts on the bureau. The arrest could further dent the agency's reputation and supply more fodder for roughly $2 billion in lawsuits accusing the government of wrongdoing in the scandal. [...]

Vatican: U.S. Catholic Sex Scandal Was Overstated

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The media has exaggerated a sex scandal that has shaken the U.S. Roman Catholic Church and unfairly tainted thousands of priests with overzealous coverage, Pope John Paul II's top aide said Friday.

"The scandals in the United States received disproportionate attention from the media," Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano told Reuters in an interview. "There are thieves in every country, but it's hard to say that everyone is a thief."

Boston was the epicenter of a scandal that swept the United States last year after it was discovered that several American dioceses had transferred priests known to have abused children from parish to parish without alerting the public. [...]

Suspected Penis Snatcher Beaten to Death

Fri Oct 10,10:53 AM ET

BANJUL (Reuters) - A 28-year-old man accused of stealing a man's penis through sorcery was beaten to death in the West African country of Gambia on Thursday, police said.

A police spokesman told Reuters that Baba Jallow was killed by about 10 people in the town of Serekunda, nine miles from the capital Banjul.

Reports of penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, with purported victims claiming that alleged sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear in order to extort cash in the promise of a cure.

The police spokesman said many men in Serekunda were now afraid to shake hands, and he urged people not to believe reports of "vanishing" genitals. Belief in sorcery is widespread in West Africa.

Seven alleged penis snatchers were beaten to death by angry mobs in Ghana in 1997.

Comment: This story may sound outrageous, but consider the similarities to the Osama-under-the-bed routine. The Bush Reich is bleeding the American people dry, and for what? Protection from Osama or Saddam's imaginary WMDs? The real question seems to be: where are the angry mobs in the US? While we certainly do not advocate beating anyone to death, there are other methods of instituting change. We fear the majority of Americans will not demand such a change until they have lost everything, and then it may be too late.

Gold fever in Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea is awash with rumours that the government is searching New Ireland province for up to 10 tonnes of gold.

The gold, worth an estimated $375m, is said to have been mined and processed by the Japanese during their occupation of the island in World War II.

When the plane carrying the gold crashed into a mountainside, villagers allegedly stashed it in a cave.

It is not the first time rumours of a Japanese gold stash have surfaced in Papua New Guinea. There are also claims of gold in the depths of a bay, based on a story that a submarine carrying some of the trove sank there after an American plane bombed it.

The latest rumous gathered pace two weeks ago, when a man reported finding rotting crates of bullion in the mountains.

The story eventually reached the government's ears and the Papua New Guinea cabinet is said to have excitedly sent defence forces and police - including helicopters and divers - to try to confirm and secure it.

NYSE's Top Execs Are Due Big Payouts

Less than a month after the disclosure of his huge pay package cost New York Stock Exchange Chairman Richard Grasso his job, the Big Board on Friday said Grasso's two top lieutenants stand to receive at least $22 million apiece when they retire.

Documents provided by the exchange revealed that the two executives, Big Board co-presidents Catherine Kinney and Robert Britz, each made about $2.7 million in salary and bonuses in 2002.

All told, the NYSE said its compensation arrangements for its 23-member senior management team could top $125 million. The exchange said the compensation packages were approved by Grasso and the NYSE board's compensation committee. In a statement, interim NYSE Chairman John Reed said the exchange would modify some of the components of its pension and deferred-compensation plans. He gave no details, ...

America probably could not have won its freedom from the British during the American Revolution without the help of the French. France provided arms, ships, money, and men to the American colonies. Some Frenchmen - most notably the Marquis de Lafayette, a close friend of George Washington - even became high-ranking officers in the American army. It was an alliance of respect and friendship the French would not forget.

Lady Liberty was conceived way back in 1865 by a group of French scholars and statesman who were enjoying a dinner meal together in Glatigny, France. These men were ardent admirers of the American system, especially its Constitution. It was suggested that a gift be sent to the American people, by way of giving homage to that nation as well as marking its centennial celebration.

A 'Cosmic Jerk' That Reversed the Universe

By DENNIS OVERBYE
New York Times

CLEVELAND, Oct. 10 — Astronomers said on Friday that they had determined the time in cosmic history when a mysterious force, "dark energy," began to wrench the universe apart.

Five billion years ago, said Dr. Adam Riess, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, the universe experienced a "cosmic jerk." Before then, Dr. Riess said, the combined gravity of the galaxies and everything else in the cosmos was resisting the expansion, slowing it down. Since the jerk, though, the universe has been speeding up. [...]

Are the Welsh progeny of stone age Siberians?

By Emyr Williams
Daily Post

[...] Mr Llywelyn explains that male chromosomes reveal the Welsh, the Basques, the Irish and Scots Gaelic, as well as a tribe called the Kets in Siberia, are all blood brothers.

He also claims the chromosomes reveal the Welsh were the original inhabitants of Britain and they suffered ethnic cleansing at the hands of the Saxon invaders after the Romans left Britain in the Dark Ages. [...]

A bill to make black magic a crime in Indonesia

Vicar tells of hate campaign by 'vampires'

By Stewart Payne
The Telegraph

A vicar told a jury yesterday how he and his family were terrorised by two young men who claimed to be reincarnated vampires who drank each other's blood.

The two men, plus a 19-year-old woman, are accused of religious harassment of a Christian. They are believed to be the first to face the little-known charge. [...]

Psychic Vampires

Date: 2003-10-10
By: Joe H. Slate, Ph.D.

Let's face it--we've probably all fallen prey to a psychic vampire, possibly without even knowing it. It may have been a chance encounter withan energy predator that left us temporarily exhausted, or possibly a long-term vampire interaction with serious wear-and-tear effects on the mind and body.

Psychic vampirism is alive and flourishing in the world today. As consumers of energy rather than blood, vampires of the psychic kind exist in many guises but with one common trait--their own inadequate energy system compels them to tap into and feed upon the energies of unsuspecting host victims. The immediate results of such a one-on-one vampire encounter are a new but temporary surge of energy for the psychic vampire and a serious loss of mental and physical energy for the unsuspecting prey. If you suddenly feel emotionally or mentally depleted, you may be under attack by a psychic vampire. The unfortunate effects of prolonged energy loss are damage to the energy system itself and in some instances, serious illness.

As consumers of energy rather than blood, psychic vampires, like their folklore counterparts, can be men or women, young or old. They can betweens, teens, or adults. They can be professionals in business suits,wealthy dot.comers, dapper CEOs, ultra-groovy rock stars, or construction workers in hard hats. They can be a business associate, next door neighbor,or even family member.

Long before the popularization of folklore vampires as blood-thirsty villains who sucked life-sustaining blood from their prey, psychic vampires as energy-sucking predators were common. There's strong evidence, in fact, that vampires as consumers of energy were the trail blazers that actually inspired the legendary version of vampires as consumers of blood. An early example with clear finger prints of psychic vampirism is the Biblical account of Delilah's cunning seduction of Samson in which she vampirized him by cutting his hair, the source of his strength. Even the Biblical version of creation in which God breathed into man the "breath (energy) of life" and then took from him a rib (of energy) to create woman illustrates the transferable nature of life-force energy. That give-and-take make-up of energy is even more dramatically illustrated in the Biblical account of the woman who, upon touching the hem of Christ's garment, was infused with energy while Christ simultaneously felt the energy leaving his body. On a very broad scale, psychic vampire themes were common in many primitive cultures that routinely used rituals to embolden and energize their warriors while simultaneously demoralizing and enfeebling (vampirizing) their enemies. Even today, military strategies often include an excessive show of force--such as shock and awe--to demoralize and dispirit (vampirize) the enemy.

[...] Early Encounters.
In my early childhood, I first became aware of psychic vampirism through a distant relative who claimed to have discovered the secret of living forever. A world traveler, she had studied under several far eastern scholars who, she claimed, taught her how to communicate mentally, travel out-of-body, and extract life-force energy from nature, including trees, streams, and even rocks. But among her most remarkable claims was the ability to mentally extinguish fire by drawing rejuvenating energy from it.

[...] Intrigued by her extraordinary claims of power and having seen many of them demonstrated, I began to suspect that she extracted energy not only from nature but from people as well. I finally collected the courage to ask her privately whether she drew energy from people. Placing a hand on my shoulder, she answered, "Well, of course. How else could I live forever?" Although I admit I was left wondering whether to believe her, I suspected that among her preferred energy sources were the well-developed young males who made up her household staff. She remained in excellent health and incredibly youthful in appearance until she finally crossed over during sleep at the age of 101.

[...] Psychic Vampirism in the Laboratory.
With these distant childhood experiences still etched in my mind, I welcomed the opportunity as Professor of Psychology at Athens State College(now University) to lead a study investigating the human energy system. The year-long study, which was funded by the U.S. Army Missile Research and Development Command, identified several important characteristics of that system. Of particular interest was the finding that the physical body's central energizing core and its surrounding energy field, commonly called the aura, are each influenced by the presence of others. Using auraphotography along with visual observations of the aura, the study found that the auras of couples whose interactions were positive tended to complement and energize each other, with each aura becoming brighter and more expansive. Conversely, negative interactions tended to constrict the aura and actually induce a state of mental and physical fatigue. When constrictions occurred in the aura, intellectual functions became slower, short-term memory declined, and physical strength decreased by as much as 50 percent.

[...] On a much broader scale, psychic vampirism can occur in a vicious, collective form as sometimes seen among organizations that feed on prejudice and hate, or corporations that blatantly vampirize their employees through deception and greed. Narcotics trafficking, organized crime, and so-called "ethnic cleansing" along with discrimination based on age, race, gender, or sexual orientation are examples of collective psychic vampirism on an alarming scale. In its most widespread collective form, psychic vampirism can exist at a global level. Reckless pollution of the environment, irresponsible disregard for endangered species, and exploitation of the globe's natural resources are examples of global vampirism that affects everyone and literally puts the future of the planet at risk.

[...] Incredible as it may at first seem, our case studies found that knowledge of the past-life sources of parasitic vampirism was often sufficient in and of itself to overcome this plight. In many cases, phobias, obsessions, and compulsions with a very long history were instantly extinguished through a sudden flash of new knowledge.

One of the great teachers of all time summed up the power of knowledge this way: "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. "Knowledge remains perhaps the most powerful force in the universe. Among our greatest challenges is finding new knowledge and applying it to empower our lives while making the world a better place for all. Who could argue with that?

30 years later, UFO incident still hovers over Pascagoula River

By LICI BEVERIDGE

GAUTIER, Mississippi-- Charles Hickson has spent the last 30 years living with something most other people couldn't even imagine.

On Oct. 11, 1973, Hickson and Calvin Parker were fishing on the Pascagoula River, enjoying the cool fall evening. What seemed to be the beginning of a peaceful night turned to chaos when the pair suddenly found themselves in a close encounter with an alien craft and its occupants.

In 1973, media reports show a rash of UFO sightings across the country, including many reported by law enforcement officials that September and October in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee.

In October 1973 alone there were more than 500 sightings reported, said John Schuessler, international director and founding member of Mutual UFO Network, which tracks sightings and contacts with alien vessels and beings. [...]

For These Believers, the Visions Endure at 'Lourdes of America'

COREY KILGANNON
New York Times

Queens - [...] After years of enduring ridicule, followers say, Mrs. Lueken's far-flung vision of doomsday redemption seems to be coming true, as witnessed by the terrorist attacks on the United States, the recent blackout, economic recession, abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church, hurricanes, and the war in Iraq.

Mrs. Lueken said that because the world had become so engulfed in sin, a "great chastisement" — an apocalyptic nuclear war, earthquakes and a comet acting as a "ball of redemption" — would come, killing billions. [...]

"Nine/eleven was awful, but that's what Our Lady prophesied," said Mr. Mangan, 44, president of St. Michael's World Apostolate, which includes a lay group of celibate men who guard the shrine and lead regular prayer services there. "We kind of knew it was coming. But 9/11 is going to pale in comparison to what's coming down the pike, and it's imminent." [...]

Comment: Probably one of the best books on religious visions is Miracles of the Gods: A Hard Look at the Supernatural by Erich Von Daniken. It is well researched, and he arrives at some surprising conclusions that make sense.

Just a housewife who sees dead people

By Karen Palmer
News Journal

[...] "It was almost like an image from the past rather than an actual ghost ghost," Woodyard said. [...]

Worst fire in the U.S.A. largely unknown

Disaster: In 1871, a firestorm in Wisconsin killed an estimated 2,500 people and scorched an area twice the size of Rhode Island.

By Greg Tasker

PESHTIGO, Wisconsin - Every school boy and girl knows the tale of how Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicked over a lantern in a Chicago barn, igniting one of the most famous fires in American history.

But few outside Wisconsin, it seems, are familiar with the story of another, more horrific fire that occurred on the same warm autumn night in October 1871.

While Chicago's business district burned, a firestorm raged in the northern Wisconsin woods, killing eight times as many people and destroying 2,400 square miles - about 1.5 million acres of woods, farms and villages, including the booming lumbering town of Peshtigo, just northwest of Green Bay. The area that burned was twice the size of Rhode Island.

Comment: There is evidence that these fires were started by meteorites. We cover these stories and more in our Signs Supplement: Meteors, Asteroids, Comets, and NEO's.

70th Anniversary Of The First Attack On An Airline

CLEVELAND -- Oct. 10, marks a sad day in history: The 70th anniversary of the first attack against a commercial airline.

On October 10, 1933, a bomb exploded on board a United Airlines flight from Cleveland to Chicago, killing four passengers, two pilots and one flight attendant -- who was the first in her profession to die on the job.

U.S. government investigators concluded the plane was destroyed by a nitroglycerin bomb which went off in the cargo hold, but police never found the culprits or uncovered their motive.

Security analyst Andrew Thomas, who writes about the incident in his book, "Aviation Insecurity" (Prometheus Books), says the attack proves that commercial flights have been and always will be targets for bad guys who aren't necessarily terrorists. [...]

20 Pregnant Cows Killed by Lightning

REDDICK, Fla. Oct. 9 — Florida, the lightning capital of the nation, lived up to its reputation when 20 prized, pregnant cows were killed by a bolt that hit an oak tree they were huddled under at a north Florida farm, police said. Two others were euthanized. [...]

WEIRD WORLD THIS WEEK

By Steve Purcell
Oct 11 2003

Bush to Pilot: "So, you're saying that if I get in a really fast plane and just keep going like this, I could get to the moon?"

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