Picture of the Day

©2004 Pierre-Paul Feyte

Do you believe in life after death? Does god exist? If so, does he live in heaven and does he have a white beard? We live in an apparently material world and from a materialist or "scientific" point of view such questions might seem illogical or even ridiculous. Yet, in most societies these questions and their contemplation are considered quite "normal", and we see the unlikely cohabitation of two seemingly contradictory ideas in our world. We have modern science that allows little scope for the existence of anything which cannot be verified using physical prostheses, and we have organised religion with the requirement for belief in "unverifiable" spiritual and non-physical realities.

How is it that these two contrasting views of reality can cohabit so comfortably?

Well, when we say cohabit, it appears that the boundaries are clearly demarcated. Mainstream religions conveniently rely on the "mystery" explanation. Teachings are usually of a general nature and are rather nebulous, with talk of "heaven" and "hell," with their bottom line being that we cannot know the truth of non-material existence while we exist materially. Of course, from a control point of view, the benefits of a teaching that has a basic premise of "we know the truth, you must do as we say and maybe when you die you will know it too" are obvious. The scientists for their part seem happy to allow religious leaders to deal with the spiritual needs of humanity, just as long as they keep such "unprovable" considerations well out of the domain of "hard science".

Harris Interactive claims that 90% of Americans believe in "god". Europeans statistics show an similarly large majority of "believers". Despite the perceived materiality of our world, there is apparently an innate quality within most humans to believe that there is more to life than material existence. In this respect humanity can be divided into two camps; those who believe in the existence of an "afterlife" and/or some sort of god(s), and those who believe in neither and that as humans we are flesh, bones, and a few electrical impulses for the purpose of animation.

With humanity's strong proclivity to believe in religious ideas that disregard the laws of modern science we find it strange that there are not more options to choose from. Are we suffering from a lack of imagination? Take UFOs and extraterrestrial life for example. Is the concept that there might be other intelligent life in the universe any more bizarre than the idea of pearly gates and angels floating on clouds? What about the idea of hyperdimensional realities and an open universe? Sadly, it seems that any attempt to promote anything that is not sanctioned by popularly known scientific ideas and religious leaders will invariably get one assigned to the lunatic fringe. If we are to be honest, we might admit that we rarely use our perceptive abilities to attempt to determine the nature of our reality. Instead, we are happy for it to be presented to us by others. The human mind (and thus the human being) is in danger of becoming redundant (if it is not already so). It seems that a small number of people have a monopoly on just what constitutes "reality", and they portion it out to us on a "need to know" basis.

As such, we find a report in today's Washington Post very significant. Are our benevolent masters poised to release the next installment of "reality" to humanity?

Ike and the alien ambassadors

By Peter Carlson
Feb. 19, 2004
Washington Post

Fifty years ago tomorrow -- on Feb. 20, 1954 -- President Dwight Eisenhower interrupted his vacation in Palm Springs, Calif., to make a secret nocturnal trip to a nearby Air Force base to meet two extraterrestrial aliens.

Or maybe not. Maybe Ike just went to the dentist. There's some dispute about this.

The Ike-met-with-ETs theory is advanced by Michael Salla, a former American University professor who now runs the Peace Ambassador Program at AU's Center for Global Peace.

The Ike-went-to-the-dentist theory is advanced by the folks at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kan. And by James M. Mixson, a dentist, professor of dentistry and historian of presidential dental work.

Just to make things more intriguing: On the night in question, the Associated Press reported this: "Pres. Eisenhower died tonight of a heart attack in Palm Springs."

Two minutes later, the AP retracted that bulletin and reported that Ike was still alive.

Nuclear offer

Indeed, Ike was alive. And he continued living until 1969. But in the decades since his death, his activities on the night of Feb. 20, 1954, have become fodder for strange theories about alien beings.

Some facts are beyond dispute: Eisenhower was on a golf vacation in Palm Springs on Feb. 20, 1954. After dinner that night, he made an unscheduled departure from the Smoking Tree Ranch, where he was staying. The next morning, he attended a church service in Los Angeles. Also that morning, his spokesman announced to the press that Ike had visited a dentist the previous night because he'd chipped a tooth while eating a chicken wing at dinner.

Salla, who has a PhD in government from the University of Queensland in his native Australia, doesn't believe it. He figures the dentist trip is just a cover story. He believes Ike went to Edwards Air Force Base, where he met with two ETs with white hair, pale blue eyes and colorless lips.

These aliens -- nicknamed "Nordics" in UFO circles because they resemble Scandinavian humans -- traveled to Edwards from another solar system in a flying saucer and, Salla says, they spoke to Eisenhower.

"There was telepathic communication," says Salla, 45, as he sits in his suburban Falls Church living room. "It's as though you're hearing a person but they're not speaking."

The "Nordics" offered to share their superior technology and their spiritual wisdom with Ike if he would agree to eliminate America's nuclear weapons.

"They were afraid we might blow up some of our nuclear technology," Salla says, "and apparently that does something to time and space and it impacts on extraterrestrial races on other planets."

Ike declined the ETs' offer, Salla says, because he did not want to give up the nukes.

Abduction deal

Sometime later in 1954, Ike reached a deal with another race of extraterrestrials, known as the "Greys" -- allowing them to capture earthling cattle and humans for medical experiments, provided that they returned the humans safely home. Since then, Salla says, the "Greys" have kidnapped "millions" of humans.

Salla, author of "The Hero's Journey Toward a Second American Century," published his ET theories in his new book, "Exopolitics: Political Implications of the Extraterrestrial Presence" and in an article on his "Exopolitics" Web site (www.exopolitics.org).

For much of the '90s, Salla studied conflict resolution and tried unsuccessfully to apply that knowledge to prevent war in East Timor and the Balkans, he says. Frustrated, he began looking for an extraterrestrial connection to human misery and, he says, he found evidence of ET visitations -- including the Ike encounter -- on the Internet.

"There's a lot of stuff on the Internet," he says, "and I just went around and pieced it together."

Meanwhile, he taught at the School of International Service at American University. In 2003 he founded the university's Peace Ambassador Program, described on the AU Web site as a "summer program that combines study, meditative practices, and prayer ceremonies at selected Washington DC sites aimed at promoting individual self-empowerment and Divine Governance in Washington DC."

Salla stresses that his ET research is not connected with his work at AU's Center for Global Peace. The folks at the Center for Global Peace are also quite eager to stress that fact.

"The research that Michael Salla is doing is not research that he is conducting on behalf of the center or in collaboration with the center," says Betty Sitka, associate director of the Center for Global Peace. "This is his own personal research."

Alien specialist

Meanwhile, the question remains: Did Ike really meet with ETs 50 years ago?

"Not to our knowledge," says Jim Leyerzapf, an archivist at the Eisenhower Library. "There's nothing in the archives that indicates that."

Then Leyerzapf bursts out laughing.

He has heard this theory before. "We've had so many requests on that subject that we have a person who specializes in this."

That person is archivist Herb Pankratz.

"He specialized in transportation," Leyerzapf says, "and we decided to add UFOs to that. He does trains, planes, automobiles -- and flying saucers."

The library fielded dozens of questions about the alleged Ike-ET meeting in the late '80s and early '90s, when several UFO books advanced the theory, Pankratz says.

"It's interesting how these stories have changed," Pankratz noted in an e-mail. "Initially, the accounts claimed the President made a secret trip to Edwards Air Force Base to view the remains of aliens who had crashed at Roswell, N.M., in 1947. Later stories then claimed he had actually visited with live aliens. [...]

While this is by no means a "disclosure" of the reality of UFOs, we believe it is very significant that the idea of extraterrestrial existence is being discussed in a nonfarcical way in a mainstream paper such as the Washington Post. You can also read our commentary on the Popular Mechanics article hinting at disclosure if you missed it. It is also interesting to consider other reports on Eisenhower's presidency and how little control he, even as president, actually exerted over the path that the country was taking.

In Splitting Realities Laura Knight-Jadczyk writes:

Since the 1940s, the US Defense and Intelligence establishment has had more money at its disposal than most nations. In addition to official dollars, much of the money is undocumented. From its beginning, the CIA was engaged in a variety of off-the-record "business" activities that generated large sums of cash. The connections of the CIA with global organized crime (and thus de facto with the international narcotics trade) has been well established and documented for many years. - Much of the original money to run the American intelligence community came from very wealthy and established American families, who have long maintained an interest in funding national security operations important to their interests.

In theory, civilian oversight exists over the US national security establishment. The president is the military commander-in-chief. Congress has official oversight over the CIA. The FBI must answer to the Justice Department.In practice, little of this applies. One reason has to do with secrecy. [...]

A chilling example of such independence occurred during the 1950s, when President Eisenhower effectively lost control of the US nuclear arsenal. The situation deteriorated so much that during his final two years in office, Eisenhower asked repeatedly for an audience with the head of Strategic Air Command to learn what America's nuclear retaliatory plan was. What he finally learned in 1960, his final year in office, horrified him: half of the Northern Hemisphere would be obliterated. If a revered military hero such as Eisenhower could not control America's nuclear arsenal, nor get a straight answer from the Pentagon, how on earth could Presidents Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, or Nixon regarding comparable matters?

In his farewell speech in 1960 it appears that Eisenhower was well aware that the coup had been completed, and that the outlook for humanity was not good. He stated:

[...]We face a hostile ideology global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method. Unhappily the danger it poses promises to be of indefinite duration. To meet it successfully, there is called for, not so much the emotional and transitory sacrifices of crisis, but rather those which enable us to carry forward steadily, surely, and without complaint the burdens of a prolonged and complex struggle – with liberty the stake. [...] [T]hreats, new in kind or degree, constantly arise. Of these, I mention two only.

Here we notice that Ike prefaces his naming of the two threats to liberty with the explanation for their existence

"A vital element in keeping the peace is ourmilitary establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction. Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

So, Ike has named the two threats to liberty: the permanent armaments industry and the defense establishment.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence – economic, political, even spiritual – is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society."

And here Ike gives his warning - a warning that was not heeded, and America is now reaping the whirlwind...

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."

We find it very interesting that within the 6 years between Eisenhower's alleged meeting with the "aliens" he was issuing the above dire warning to humanity. Yet what, if anything, can we hope to do about it?..

Ill at ease with our place in the universe; instead of engaging in seeking we seek comfort and ease. Have too many of us learned to fear suffering so much that we can not endure the unknown, that we cannot give up our illusory shelter of belief and assumption for true liberty?

"Almost all people are hypnotics. The proper authority saw to it that the proper belief should be induced, and the people believed properly." – Charles H. Fort

Arkadiusz Jadczyk wrote in his series of articles the Physics of the Mysterious:

[...] So, I think that Reality is multi-faceted and multi-leveled and we are consciously experiencing only one (or a few) of the existing levels and/or facets. The multi-leveled and multi-faceted Reality includes: many worlds, many realms, parallel and perpendicular universes, higher dimensions, higher levels of intelligence and of perception, and very likely a consciousness of which we cannot even conceive.

Some of these concepts have already been integrated into theoretical physics (many worlds, parallel universes, higher dimensions), and can be studied - at least theoretically - with mathematical rigor; while those dealing with mind, consciousness, intelligence, are yet to be integrated. Once that is done, once we admit and realize that that material existence is not all that can be thought of and dealt with using mathematical rigor - new vistas, new hopes and new goals will appear on the horizon. And by doing this, WE will take charge of the evolutionary development of life. BY doing this we will choose to obey our own call from the future. By doing this we will make real what is now only virtual.

I believe that the Universe has Purpose, that it is much like a computer program of great complexity, and that "we" - the IGUS-es - have a role in its evolution. For a while our role can be described simply as "debugging units." In short, my present answer to the question "why are we here?" reads: DEBUGGING THE UNIVERSE.

Universes without life, without feedback from the "observers" have only virtual existence, their future is closed; while "our" future, as well as the future of "our universe," is in my opinion, to large extent, OPEN. [...]

Just what does an open universe mean? Probably nothing, if we are mere reaction machines responding to what ever stimulus has been decided is proper for our consumption from some upper echelons of some hierarchy. There is no need to go around pretending we know entirely how the universe works, which is a pretty good definition of the modern religious process. We really don't need solace and insurance from those who exploit our desire for safety. We can search, and network, and create. Of course, we all have some pretty horrifying truths to confront, but if one has the will of a Lion, one does not have the fate of a mouse!

For too long, too many have forgotten something rather important: Just what it means to be a human being with a soul. We all have work to DO. What it means to debug the universe is not fully known, but perhaps we can find out...

Eisenhower Was Right

by Jacob G. Hornberger
February 16, 2004

A small article on page A12 of the January 29 issue of the New York Times is revealing with respect to the extent of the power of the military-industrial complex in American life. The article reports that the Army’s chief of staff, Gen. Peter Schoomaker, told the House Armed Services Committee that he is going to increase the size of U.S. forces by 30,000.

Did Congress authorize the increase? No. And when a few congressmen indicated to the general that they’d be pleased to have Congress authorize the increase, the general responded that Congress didn’t need to trouble themselves with providing such authority — that Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld had already authorized the temporary increase under his “emergency” power — and that the “emergency” would justify the increase for the next four years. In other words, “Don’t worry your pretty little heads, elected representatives of the people; the military bureaucracy has the situation well under control. Go back to your knitting.”

Combine that kind of military power (the power to increase military forces without congressional approval) with the enormous economic dependency on military bases of states and cities all over the country and with the Pentagon’s newly claimed power to arrest, jail, and punish American citizens without due process of law and a jury trial, and you might begin to understand what President Eisenhower meant when he warned the American people back in 1961:

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. [...]

'Concerned Scientists' Accuse Administration of Manipulation

WASHINGTON —  President Bush's administration distorts scientific findings and seeks to manipulate experts' advice to avoid information that runs counter to its political beliefs, a private organization of scientists asserted on Wednesday.

The  Union of Concerned Scientists contended in a report that "the scope and scale of the manipulation, suppression and misrepresentation of science by the Bush administration is unprecedented." [...]

"It's Time to Get Over It"

Kerry Tells Anti-War Movement to Move On

By MARK HAND
Counterpunch.org
February 18, 2004

Researchers and investigative reporters are fascinated with the neoconservatives, that group of American empire peddlers who turned George W. Bush into a junkie war criminal. A similar group, the New Democrats, has been pushing its own dangerous brand of U.S. hegemony but with much less fanfare.

The leading mouthpiece for the New Democrats' radical interventionist program could be our next president. John Kerry, the frontrunner in the quest for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, has been promoting a foreign policy perspective called "progressive internationalism." It's a concept concocted by establishment Democrats seeking to convince potential backers in the corporate and political world that, if installed in the White House, they would seek to preserve U.S. power and influence around the world, but in a kinder, gentler fashion than the current administration.

In the battle to control the American empire, the neocons have in their corner the Partnership for a New American Century while the New Democrats have the Progressive Policy Institute. Come November, who will get your vote? Coke or Pepsi?

In fall 2000, PNAC released Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century. It's a blueprint for "maintaining global U.S. preeminence, precluding the rise of a great power rival, and shaping the international security order in line with American principles and interests."

In fall 2003, members of PPI joined with other tough-minded Democrats to unveil Progressive Internationalism: A Democratic National Security Strategy, a 19-page manifesto that calls for "the bold exercise of American power, not to dominate but to shape alliances and international institutions that share a common commitment to liberal values."

The New Democrats don't begrudge the Bush administration for invading Iraq. They take issue with the Bush administration's strategy of refusing to invite key members of the international community to the invasion of Iraq until it was too late. The neocons' unilateralist approach, the New Democrats believe, will do ultimately harm U.S. political and economic dominance around the world.

"We are confident that a new Democratic strategy, grounded in the party's tradition of muscular internationalism, can keep Americans safer than the Republicans' go-it-alone policy, which has alienated our natural allies and overstretched our resources," the New Democrats say in their foreign policy manifesto. "We aim to rebuild the moral foundation of U.S. global leadership by harnessing America's awesome power to universal values of liberal democracy. A new progressive internationalism can point the way."

Proponents of "progressive internationalism" are a lock to control leadership positions at the State Department and key civilian posts at the Pentagon in a John Kerry administration. How do we know this? Because these New Democrats obviously ghostwrote Kerry's campaign book, A Call to Service: My Vision for A Better America. Place the Progressive Internationalism manifesto and Kerry's chapter on foreign policy side by side and you'll immediately notice the similarities.

On page 40 of In A Call to Service, Kerry writes: "The time has come to renew that tradition and revive a bold vision of progressive internationalism." What is this tradition to which Kerry refers? As he describes it, Democrats need to honor "the tough-minded strategy of international engagement and leadership forged by Wilson and Roosevelt in the two world wars and championed by Truman and Kennedy in the cold war."

Now, turn to page 3 of the New Democrats' manifesto. It reads:

"As Democrats, we are proud of our party's tradition of tough-minded internationalism and strong record in defending America. Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman led the United States to victory in two world wars and designed the post-war international institutions that have been a cornerstone of global security and prosperity ever since. President Truman forged democratic alliances such as NATO that eventually triumphed in the Cold War. President Kennedy epitomized America's commitment to "the survival and success of liberty."

Like the neocons, Kerry was not impressed by France's stance against the U.S. invasion of Iraq. On page 51 of his book, he writes:

"I hope by the time you read this book that the UN has been usefully employed as a partner in the reconstruction of Iraq and that Jacque Chirac has ceased his foolish rebellion against the very idea of the Atlantic Alliance. America, which has always shown magnanimity in victory, should in turn meet repentant Europeans halfway, not ratchet up the badgering unilateralism that fed European fears in the first place."

There's much to digest in this paragraph. Perhaps the most interesting nugget is Kerry's statement that the United States should "meet repentant Europeans halfway." Hmmm, John, could you elaborate on what sins the Europeans committed for which they must repent?

On page 50, Kerry details his beef with Old Europe:

"The Bush administration is by no means the only culprit in the breakdown in U.S.-UN relations over Iraq. France, Germany and Russia never supported or offered a feasible policy to verify that UN resolutions on Iraq were actually being carried out. Our British, Spanish and Eastern European coalition allies are eager to rebuild European unity."

Throughout the foreign policy sections of the book, Kerry does his best to convince the reader that he would not run from his role as war criminal in chief if elected president.

Perhaps the most repulsive section of the book is where Kerry discusses the Vietnam War and the antiwar movement. On page 42, Kerry writes:

"I could never agree with those in the antiwar movement who dismissed our troops as war criminals or our country as the villain in the drama. That's one reason, in fact, that I eventually parted ways with the VVAW [Vietnam Veterans Against the War] organizations and instead helped found the Vietnam Veterans of America."

If the United States was not a villain in the "drama" of the Vietnam war, then who is to blame for the million-plus Vietnamese who were killed during the 20-year period of U.S. aggression that ended 1975? Surely, John, you don't wish to blame certain communist dead-enders in Vietnam for the carnage?

On the next page, Kerry informs his reader that it's time we stop questioning U.S. foreign policy intentions:

"As a veteran of both the Vietnam War and the Vietnam protest movement, I say to both conservative and liberal misinterpretations of that war that it's time to get over it and recognize it as an exception, not as a ruling example, of the U.S. military engagements of the twentieth century. If those of us who carried the physical and emotional burdens of that conflict can regain perspective and move on, so can those whose involvement was vicarious or who knew nothing of the war other than ideology and legend."

This last passage is probably the most unsettling part of Kerry's book and one that every advocate of the Anyone-But-Bush 2004 election strategy should read before heading to the polling station in November.

In this one passage, Kerry seeks to justify the millions of people slaughtered by the U.S. military and its surrogates during the twentieth century, suggests that concern about U.S. war crimes in Vietnam is no longer necessary, and dismisses the antiwar movement as the work of know-nothings.

Kerry and his comrades in the progressive internationalist movement are as gung-ho about U.S. military action as their counterparts in the White House. The only noteworthy difference between the two groups battling for power in Washington is that the neocons are willing to pursue their imperial ambitions in full view of the international community, while the progressive internationalists prefer to keep their imperial agenda hidden behind the cloak of multilateralism.

Comment: Kerry is spewing the same nonsensical, fascist propaganda that Bush loves so much. Like Bush, it seems John Kerry doesn't want the American people to think for themselves, either. It is clear that regardless of the outcome of the 2004 election, not much will change in the US police state. The New American Century will march forward, although it might have a different name under Kerry.

US soldiers and Iraqi children die after attacks

American soldiers were killed in three separate attacks, while two children died after a bomb exploded at a Shiite school.

Three US soldiers were killed in separate attacks around Iraq, while US overseer Paul Bremer warned that he could veto the country's temporary constitution if it did not fit the US vision of democracy.

Comment: At present, Iraq is enjoying dictatorial rule by US and Israeli overseers. These same people are orchestrating attacks such as the above to ensure that a normalised Iraq never emerges from the blood-stained rubble of "operation shock and awe". Sounds like American style "democracy" to us.

'Heads should roll' over Iraq

ERIC ROSENBERG
THE TORONTO STAR
Feb. 18, 2004. 01:00 AM

WASHINGTON — Richard Perle, a chief proponent of last year's U.S. invasion of Iraq, yesterday called for the chiefs of the Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Defence Intelligence Agency to step down because of their faulty conclusions that Saddam Hussein possessed mass-killing weapons.

Perle, a close adviser to U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, said top officials made no attempt to skew the intelligence about Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction. Instead, he implied, top policymakers relied in good faith on the conclusions of the intelligence agencies.

"George Tenet has been at the CIA long enough to assume responsibility for its performance," Perle told reporters, referring to the director of the agency. "There's a record of failure and it should be addressed in some serious way."

"The CIA has an almost perfect record of getting it wrong in relation to the (Persian) Gulf going back to the Shah of Iran," Perle said. He called for "a shakeup" in the U.S. intelligence establishment.

"I think, of course, heads should roll," he said. "When you discover that you have an organization that doesn't get it right time after time, you change the organization, including the people.

"I'd start with the head head," Perle said when asked which heads should roll at the CIA. Perle said the DIA " is in at least as bad shape as CIA (and) needs new management." [...]

Comment: If any heads roll, Perle's should be one of the first. Remember these articles?

FLASHBACK:

The Prince Of Darkness

By Ian Gurney
2-7-4

"The war in Iraq was conceived by 25 neoconservative intellectuals, most of them Jewish, who are pushing President Bush to
change the course of history."
--Israeli Journalist Ari Shavit

[...] Perle, whom some refer to as "The Prince of Darkness", is considered to be the "intellectual guru" of the hardline right wing neo-conservative hawks in the Bush administration. He has the "ear" of the President and is an advocate of America using its military superiority to "democratise" those countries around the world who don't hold to American interests and principles.

However, examining just what Perle's interests and principles are and what he has done and said over the years is extremely revealing, as it appears there are a great many conflicts of interest and even possible treachery in Mr. Perle's past.

Let's start with Perle's work with the Project for a New American Century (PNAC). Here is an organisation that, as far back as 1997, was advocating the ousting of Saddam Hussein, the take over of Iraqi oil, and the eventual American take-over of oil in Iran and Saudi Arabia. They called for the defeat of Syria and North Korea and eventual American world domination by military power.

In other words, Perle, along with the likes of Paul Wolfowitz, Dov Zakheim, Douglas Feith, John Bolton, Elliott Abrams, Dick Cheney and other founding members of the PNAC now ensconced in the White House, was calling on America to start a "total, continual war" on those it considered were acting against America's interests. As George W Bush said: "You're either with us or against us".

John Pilger, the emininent British journalist, wrote the following about Richard Perle: "I interviewed Perle when he was advising Reagan; and when he spoke about "total war", I mistakenly dismissed him as mad. He recently used the term again in describing America's "war on terror" saying: "This is total war. We are fighting a variety of enemies. There are lots of them out there. All this talk about first we are going to do Afghanistan, then we will do Iraq... this is entirely the wrong way to go about it. If we just let our vision of the world go forth, and we embrace it entirely and we don't try to piece together clever diplomacy, but just wage a total war... our children will sing great songs about us years from now."

Decide for yourself; completely, barking mad; frighteningly dangerous; or both.

During his career Perle has, somewhat disengenuously, laid claim to the moral high ground, telling anyone who would listen that he was speaking and acting on behalf of America's best interests. Yet a quick investigation of Perle's past shows that he has other interests at heart, some of which appear to be more important than those close to home. Indeed, Perle seems to be somewhat ambiguous with regards to just exactly "where" he considers home to be.

Perle has an M.A. in political science from Princeton University and a B.A. in international relations from the University of Southern California. During the Carter administration Perle was part of the "Committee on the Present Danger", which believed that the US was about to be overrun by the Soviet Union. The committee advocated huge military budgets and was totally opposed to any and all arms treaties with the Soviets.

He was a member of the U.S. Senate staff between 1969 and 1980 and during this time Perle was expelled from Senator Henry (Soop) Jackson's office after the National Security Agency caught him passing highly- classified National Security information to the Israeli Embassy. He was granted a pardon for these un-American (treasonous?) activities by George H W Bush. He later worked for the Israeli weapons firm, Soltam. From 1981 until 1987 he was assistant secretary of defence for international security policy in the Reagan administration, where he once again opposed arms-control agreements with the Soviet Union.

He has been one of US deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz's best friends since 1969, as well as the mentor of Douglas Feith, the under secretary of defence whose Office of Special Plans oversaw preparations for the Iraq invasion and the postwar occupation. A longtime ally of both Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney, Perle was described by the Washington Post last year as enjoying "profound influence over Bush policies".

Since 1987 Perle has served as Resident Fellow of the pro Israeli American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. He returned to the US administration under Bush Jr. in 2001 as chairman of the Pentagon's Defence Policy Board, a post he was forced to resign over his links to the bankrupt telecoms company Global Crossing. Though he resigned as chairman of the Defence Policy Board, he still attends their meetings.

Now comes an interesting connection between Canadian born British peer Lord Conrad Black, Hollinger International and this so called "Prince of Darkness". Perle is co-chairman of the investment bank Morgan Crucible. He is also chairman and chief executive officer of Hollinger Digital Inc. and a director of the Jerusalem Post. Both these companies are currently owned by the embattled Lord Black, whose Hollinger Corporation, which owns the Jerusalem Post, Chicago Sun Times and the UK's Daily and Sunday Telegraph is currently under investigation regarding alleged bribery, money-laundering, misuse of corporate assets and unauthorised payments to Lord Black and former directors of Hollinger International. The companies regulatory filing to the Security Exchange Commission also disclosed that Hollinger made a $2.5m investment in Trireme Associates LLC, a venture-capital firm founded by Richard Perle which had Perle's good friend Henry Kissinger as a director. The company is the general partner of Trireme Partners LP, a venture-capital fund co-managed by Mr. Perle and Gerald P. Hillman, who also served on the Pentagon's Defence Policy Board.

In December of last year, it was revealed that Perle lobbied on behalf of Boeing for an $18 billion government contract to provide air tankers to the Pentagon. In exchange, Boeing made a $20 million "investment" in Trireme Partners. Mr. Perle holds a 5% stake in Trireme and Lord Black is a member of Trireme's strategic advisory board. Mr. Kissinger served on the advisory board until this year, when he resigned because he had reached the firm's mandatory retirement age, according to Mr. Hillman. Hollinger's internal investigators are also looking at an investment by Hollinger's digital unit in a company that includes Mr. Perle as a shareholder. According to people familiar with the matter, Hollinger Digital invested $14 million in a U.K. based technology firm called Cambridge Display Technology (C.D.T.). Mr. Perle was a co-chairman of Hollinger Digital and was paid a salary by the company to help find investments. The investment, confirmed by C.D.T. Press Officer Terry Nicklan, was part of a syndicate led by Kelso Co. and Gerald P Hillman's company Hillman Capital that acquired control of C.D.T. for about $130 million. Mr. Hillman confirmed that Mr. Perle also bought a stake in Cambridge Display Technology.

Mr. Perle also served as a director of GeoBiotics, Inc. from 1996 to 2000 and currently serves as a director of E.Certify and NAPRO Biotherapeutics, Inc. He is also a director of the British software company Autonomy, Inc. Autonomy supplies the US Department of Defence, the Department of Homeland Security, and Britain's GCHQ and MI6 with tools that enable the "bugging" of computer communications. When the New Yorker's Seymour Hersh documented Perle's business dealings in the Middle East on behalf of the venture capital firm Trireme, Perle threatened to sue the journalist, saying that he was the "the closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist."

[...] Perle originally came to government from the the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA). There are those who claim he has Israeli citizenship and is an agent of Mossad, the feared Israeli secret service, whose motto is "By way of deception, thou shalt do war". [...]

...[I]n a demand that rivals Bush's assertion that the French have no word for "entrepreneur" the book calls for tough action against France. "We should force European governments to choose between Paris and Washington," it states. So, here we have a man who is advocating "total and continual" war against anyone who dares to speak out against the interests of the United States of America and its "friends". They believe China will cave in to American threats against North Korea and turn against their long term friend Kim Jong-il. Perle honestly believes that America, already militarily lacking, can overthrow the regimes in Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia and bring "American democracy" to these countries by military force without so much as a whisper from other Islamic countries. And in a final act of revenge and hubris, Perle threatens France, and by extension all of Europe, with making a choice between Washington or Paris. If Europe decides on Paris, what's Perle's advice? Nuke Marseilles?

Given that Perle, who said Americans would be welcomed as "liberators" in Iraq, has got things so badly wrong about that country, does anyone believe that he's got it right about Iran, Korea, Saudi Arabia and Syria? Perhaps people are now seeing that Perle is not quite the "intellectual" some portray him to be, just another mad warmonger who wants to "bring on" Armageddon. He argues for America to sacrifice its young people on the altar of US imperialism for the benefit of a small group of ruthless, greedy, megalomaniacs who have continually lied to the American public and do not have the best interests of the United States as their prime objective. [...]

John Pilger said he "mistakenly" thought Richard Perle was mad. I agree. What Richard Perle is transcends madness. This man wishes to extinguish perhaps four billion people in a never ending total war against those who disagree with American policies. The world should beware Richard Perle and his friends. They are the devils in the White House

"Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt
business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of today."
-- Theodore Roosevelt 1906.

There was no failure of intelligence

US spies were ignored, or worse, if they failed to make the case for war

Sidney Blumenthal
The Guardian
Thursday February 5, 2004

Before he departed on his quest for Saddam Hussein's fabled weapons of mass destruction last June, David Kay, chief of the Iraq Survey Group, told friends that he expected promptly to locate the cause of the pre-emptive war. On January 28, Kay appeared before the Senate to testify that there were no WMDs. "It turns out that we were all wrong," he said. President Bush, he added helpfully, was misinformed by the whole intelligence community which, like Kay, made assumptions that turned out to be false.

Within days, Bush declared that he would, after all, appoint a commission to investigate; significantly, it would report its findings only after the presidential election.

Kay's testimony was the catalyst for this u-turn, but only one of his claims is correct: that he was wrong. The truth is that much of the intelligence community did not fail, but presented correct assessments and warnings, that were overridden and suppressed. On virtually every single important claim made by the Bush administration in its case for war, there was serious dissension. Discordant views - not from individual analysts but from several intelligence agencies as a whole - were kept from the public as momentum was built for a congressional vote on the war resolution.

Precisely because of the qualms the administration encountered, it created a rogue intelligence operation, the Office of Special Plans, located within the Pentagon and under the control of neo-conservatives. The OSP roamed outside the ordinary inter-agency process, stamping its approval on stories from Iraqi exiles that the other agencies dismissed as lacking credibility, and feeding them to the president.

At the same time, constant pressure was applied to the intelligence agencies to force their compliance. In one case, a senior intelligence officer who refused to buckle under was removed. [...]

The Lie Factory

Only weeks after 9/11, the Bush administration set up a secret Pentagon unit to create the case for invading Iraq. Here is the inside story of how they pushed disinformation and bogus intelligence and led the nation to war.

By Robert Dreyfuss and Jason Vest
Mother Jones
January/February 2004 Issue

[...] Until now, the story of how the Bush administration produced its wildly exaggerated estimates of the threat posed by Iraq has never been revealed in full. But, for the first time, a detailed investigation by Mother Jones , based on dozens of interviews—some on the record, some with officials who insisted on anonymity—exposes the workings of a secret Pentagon intelligence unit and of the Defense Department's war-planning task force, the Office of Special Plans. It's the story of a close-knit team of ideologues who spent a decade or more hammering out plans for an attack on Iraq and who used the events of September 11, 2001, to set it into motion. [...]

Japan, Iran sign two-billion-dollar oil deal despite US concern

AFP
Thursday February 19, 4:56 PM

Japan said Thursday it had signed a two-billion-dollar deal with Iran to develop the massive Azadegan oilfield in order to assure stable oil supplies despite the US expressing "deep concern" over the deal.

A Japanese trade ministry official said the two sides signed an agreement early Thursday on the development of the Azedegan field in southwestern Iran after months of negotiations and repeated warnings from Washington that it was unhappy with the prospects of such an accord.

Ever since the 1973 oil crisis, Japan, which imports nearly all of its oil needs, has developed its own diplomacy with key oil producers in the Middle East, often putting it at odds with the United States, especially over Iran, dubbed part of an 'axis of evil' by President George W. Bush. [...]

Production is expected to start some time in 2007.

While the Japanese media said Japan went ahead with the deal after the United States had recently softened its stance on Iran, Washington appeared to be trying to deter the deal up to the last minute.

"We remain deeply concerned about deals such as this and disappointed that these things might go forward," US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Wednesday in response to reports the deal was imminent.

Boucher said Japan "is quite aware" that Washington had "fundamental concerns" about nuclear developments in Iran, its support for groups that oppose the Middle East peace process and its harboring of terrorists. [...]

Japan's 'Fortress of Solitude' in Iraq - plus karaoke

By J Sean Curtin

It's been almost a month since Japanese troops went to the southern Iraqi city of Samawah on a humanitarian mission that is taking place in a dangerous country where guerrillas target troops allied with the United States. So far so good for Japan, despite a couple of mortars fired downtown - although fortunately not at Japanese troops. Yet, in order to protect them, Japan will confine many soldiers to one of the most high-tech and expensive military camps ever constructed, one that includes a karaoke bar, massage parlor and gymnasium. Some of the facilities and gadgets in the ultra-advanced base will rival those used by the fictional hero Superman in his futuristic hideout, the Fortress of Solitude. [...]

U.S. Soldier Charged in al-Qaida Probe

By DAVID AMMONS, Associated Press Writer
February 19, 2004

FORT LEWIS, Wash. - A National Guardsman is accused of trying to pass intelligence to U.S. military personnel who were posing as al-Qaida operatives, allegedly telling the phony terrorists that "I share your cause."

Spc. Ryan G. Anderson is charged with three counts involving attempts to supply intelligence to the enemy. He was charged Feb. 12, but the Army did not immediately release that information until Wednesday.

The Uniform Military Code says attempts to aid the enemy can be punishable by death. The charges do not allege that Anderson ever actually passed information to real al-Qaida members. [...]

Bush Backs Off Forecast of 2.6M New Jobs

By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent
February 19, 2004

WASHINGTON - President Bush distanced himself Wednesday from White House predictions that the economy will add 2.6 million jobs this year, the second embarrassing economic retreat in a week and new fuel for Democratic criticism.

"Now they're already walking backwards on their own predictions," Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry said in Ohio, where unemployment has risen from 3.9 percent to 6 percent since Bush took office.

The jobs controversy came on the heels of White House economist N. Gregory Mankiw's assertion that "outsourcing" American jobs overseas was good for the U.S. economy in the long run. Bush, House Speaker Dennis Hastert and other Republicans quickly disavowed Mankiw's remarks, and the economist had to apologize for a "lack of clarity." [...]

Governor's Proposed Homeland Security Bill Under Fire

February 18, 2004

PROVIDENCE -- Legislation intended to strengthen the state's security measures drew criticism from a civil rights group that said the proposed law threatens free speech and academic freedom.

Gov. Don Carcieri's new homeland security law would create new felony charges, require annual safety audits of every public school and close some public records, including those that show whether businesses comply with state Fire Safety Code requirements.

The bill, which Carcieri introduced last week, also resurrects World War I-era laws that make it illegal to "speak, utter, or print'' statements in support of anarchy; speak in favor of overthrowing the government; or to display "any flag or emblem other than the flag of the United States'' as symbolic of the U.S. government.

The director of the Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, Steven Brown, called the proposal "extraordinarily dangerous'' and "a return to McCarthyism, when people had to be careful what they said or what organization they belonged to.''

The organization released on Tuesday a 13-page critique of Carcieri's proposal.

Jeff Neal, the governor's spokesman, said the legislation is based on laws that have been enacted in several states including New York, Virginia, Florida and Massachusetts.

Neal was quoted as saying, "In a post-9/11 America, state governments have a responsibility to update their homeland security laws in order to protect their citizens'' .

Brown wrote in his critique that the proposed law has "enormous ramifications for political protest, freedom of association, academic freedom and the public's right to now.''

One issue is Carcieri's definition of terrorism. The governor's bill defines terrorism as "a violent act or an act dangerous to human life'' that is "intended to: intimidate or coerce a civilian population; influence the policy of a unit of government by intimidation or coercion; or affect the conduct of a unit of government by murder, assassination, kidnapping or aircraft piracy.''

The language is similar to the USA Patriot Act, a federal law passed after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Critics contend that law, which clarifies and increases the powers that federal agents have when investigating crimes, threatens civil rights. [...]

FBI Can and Will Confiscate Entire Internet Servers

Peace activists' detention unlawful

Press Association
Thursday February 19, 2004

Protesters have won their High Court battle over a police decision to detain three coachloads of peace activists on their way to a demonstration against the war on Iraq.

The ruling was a victory for about 60 of the 120 passengers.

They took legal action after being prevented from attending the vigil at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire in March last year.

They accused Gloucestershire Police of acting unlawfully.

Their lawyers had argued the "unjustified" police action amounted to an abuse of power.

Today Lord Justice May and Mr Justice Harrison, sitting in London, ruled that their detention and forced return to London could not be justified under both common law and the European Convention on Human Rights.

Reforms demanded as H-1B visa limit reached

By Ed Frauenheim
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
February 18, 2004, 12:27 PM PST

The federal government has received enough H-1B visa applications to meet this year's cap, prompting one business group to call for reform of the controversial guest worker program.

No new petitions for first-time employment in 2004 will be accepted starting Wednesday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said this week. The cutoff means that the annual cap of 65,000 new workers has been reached less than five months into the fiscal year, which began Oct. 1.

The news prompted a quick response from American Business for Legal Immigration, a coalition of 200 corporations, universities, research institutions and trade associations.

"Our goal is to keep the U.S. economy growing and keep U.S. jobs in America. Sometimes this requires hiring a limited number of highly educated foreign professionals to fill technical or specialized positions," Sandy Boyd, chair of the group, said in a statement on Wednesday. "Reaching the 2004 visa limit less than halfway through the fiscal year is clear evidence that the system needs to be fixed." [...]

Congress raised the annual cap for H-1B visas to 195,000 for 2001, 2002 and 2003. In the wake of a recession and major technology industry layoffs, Congress let the cap drop to 65,000 for this year. [...]

Comment: Will hiring more foreign workers actually help the US economy, or will it help the wealthy elite who run the corporations and make the laws? An increasing number of manufacturing and technical jobs are also being moved overseas. It seems most US companies are no longer interested in employing Americans.

U.S. National Debt Tops $7 Trillion for First Time

By Jonathan Nicholson
February 18, 2004 6:09:00 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government's national debt -- the accumulation of past budget shortfalls -- totaled more than $7 trillion for the first time as of Tuesday, according to a Treasury Department report.

In its daily financial statement released on Wednesday, the Treasury said the U.S. debt subject to a congressionally set limit totaled $7.015 trillion, up from $6.983 trillion on Friday. The government was closed on Monday for the Presidents Day holiday.

While passing the $7 trillion mark itself has little practical significance, not unlike a car's odometer rolling over, it may signal some tough political times for President Bush's administration on fiscal policy. [...]

A Treasury spokeswoman said there was "no special significance" to the number. [...]

Comment: Yes indeed, the record high US national debt has no significance whatsoever. Please go back to sleep...

EU's 'big three' call for urgent action on economic goals

The leaders of Britain, France and Germany warned today that "urgent action" was needed to ensure that the EU meets its key economic goals in the coming years.

Following a summit of the so-called "big three" of Europe, the prime minister, Tony Blair joined the French president, Jacques Chirac, and the German chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, at a press conference to outline their plan to turn the EU into "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world" by 2010 [...]

Suspicion dogs 'Big Three' summit

The leaders of Germany, Britain and France officially begin their summit in Berlin on Wednesday with talks expected to focus on boosting Europe's economy. But the meeting has evoked suspicion among some other EU nations, including Italy, who are fearful the 'Big Three' are planning a "directorate" to dominate the EU agenda.

Stinging accusations of elitism have overshadowed the official agenda, which along with stimulating economic growth, also focuses on preparing the EU for an aging population and labor market reforms. [...]

Special police members restrain a protestor in downtown Munich, southern Germany, Saturday Feb. 7,2004. Defense ministers of NATO countries gathered at the 40th Munich Conference on Security Policy, being held from Feb. 6 to Feb. 8, 2004 at the nearby hotel Bayerischer Hof. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Murder Riddle of MI5 Grass

Foul play suspicion as fugitive found dead in flat

The Record told on January 10 of McLean's alleged links to MI5. And four days later, he was found dead in south London.

AN ESCAPED drug baron suspected of being an MI5 'grass' has been found dead in a London flat. Roddy McLean's body was discovered four days after the Daily Record told of fears that secret service agents had helped him disappear from jail. Police sources are convinced McLean, of Edinburgh, was an MI5 informer. Some even believe he may have been murdered. A Scots police insider said: 'This may even have been made to look like a natural death before the body was found.' But another Scots police insider said: 'I would also like to know why it took so long to come out? It seems very murky indeed.'

FLASHBACK:

MI6 'helped drugs baron escape from open prison'

Jan 18 2004

Roddy "Popeye" McLean, the drugs baron who walked out of prison just five years into his 24-year sentence, was helped to abscond by the British intelligence services, police sources believe. The Prison Service's revelation, two weeks ago, that McLean, 59, had walked out of Leyhill open prison in Gloucestershire last November, caused a storm of controversy and huge embarrassment to the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, who ordered an inquiry into the escape. But police sources have told The Independent on Sunday that they believe McLean may now be operating as an MI6 agent in Africa. [...]

Britain, France, Germany call for EU economy supremo

February 19, 2004

BERLIN (AFP) - The leaders of Britain, France and Germany issued a joint call for the appointment of a high-level European commissioner charged exclusively with pushing through economic reforms.

They said their proposed European Commission vice president would not only coordinate but also intervene in any area that affected the bloc's economy. [...]

EU opens high-powered anti-Semitism conference

February 19, 2004

BRUSSELS (AFP) - The European Union opened a high-level conference designed to find ways of tackling mounting anti-Semitism -- a "monster" that Jewish leaders warn has returned with a vengeance to Europe.

The conference was attended by luminaries including European Commission chief Romano Prodi, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Natan Sharansky and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel. [...]

EU urged to tackle anti-Semitism

Thursday, 19 February, 2004
BBC News

Jewish leaders are calling on Europe to take a tougher stand against what they see as a rising tide of anti-Semitism.

They are making their plea at a Brussels seminar which the European Commission is co-hosting with the European Jewish Congress and the Congress of European Rabbis.

The unprecedented meeting follows Jewish accusations of inaction on the part of European governments.

Attacks on Jewish targets have caused alarm among Jewish groups worldwide.

Sensitive subject

The heads of the World Jewish Congress and the European Jewish Congress argue that "anti-Semitic rhetoric and violence in Europe have reached a level unprecedented since the end of the second world war ".

Writing in the Financial Times newspaper, Edgar Bronfman and Cobi Benatoff urge national governments to set up special taskforces to monitor and combat anti-Semitism - as France and Italy have recently done - and co-ordinate action internationally.

They argue that criticism of Israel has taken on anti-Semitic undertones.

"European leaders cannot allow criticism of Israel to serve as a fig leaf that covers anti-Semitic rhetoric as a prelude to violence," they write, warning that Israel, rather than anti-Semitism, is being demonised in Europe.

Postponed

The seminar was briefly postponed after Mr Bronfman and Mr Benatoff accused the EU itself and European Commission President Romano Prodi of fostering anti-Semitism.

The charge infuriated Mr Prodi, who was recently honoured by European rabbis for his part in promoting what he calls "a Europe of diversity".

In a passionate speech to the conference, he rejected the comparison of contemporary Europe to that of the Nazi era.

"We have no right to insult the memory of the Shoah's millions of victims by putting their sufferings on a par with today's manifestations, as serious as they undoubtedly are," he added, using the Hebrew term for the Holocaust.

Comment: It is clear that someone within the Jewish ruling establishment actually wants anti-Semitism to be "on the rise".

Israeli minister says "nuclear spy", set to be freed, could be again held

February 19, 2004

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Mordechai Vanunu, the whistleblower jailed for 18 years for exposing Israel's nuclear arsenal, could be placed in administrative detention following his April release, a cabinet minister said.

Gideon Ezra, parliamentary relations minister, said the Jewish state's secret services could hold Vanunu "to keep him from divulging secrets."

Vanunu, 49, worked as a technician at the Dimona nuclear facility in southern Israel. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 1986 after giving details about Israel's secret weapons program to Britain's Sunday Times.

Israeli agents lured Vanunu from London to Italy, where he was kidnapped and brought to Israel. He was tried in secret and found guilty of "espionage".

He is due to be released from prison on April 21.

"I visited him myself in his prison cell, where he told me of his intention to continue to divulge secrets, without expressing the least regret for what he had done," Ezra told parliamentary deputies.

Israel has firmly adhered to a policy of "nuclear ambiguity", never confirming or denying it possesses nuclear weapons. But foreign experts believe the Jewish state holds at least 200 atomic warheads.

Under administrative detention regulations, Israeli authorities can detain a suspect for renewable periods of six months without charges or trial. It is a practice frequently used to detain suspected Palestinian militants.

Brussels could unblock 40 million euro aid package to Palestinians

February 19, 2004

BRUSSELS (AFP) - European Commission president Romano Prodi said he was considering unblocking a multi-million euro aid package to the Palestinians to help them cover essential costs.

Speaking after a meeting here with Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei, Prodi said he had received assurances of greater transparency within the management of the Palestinian Authority's finances and was considering making the money available. [...]

The Taliban Threat

THE Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, recently raised alarm over the menace of the Talibans in some states of the North.

Apparently worried by the danger posed by this, the first class royal father called on the Federal Government to intervene and stop forthwith the threat posed by the group in the north and indeed the entire country.

The nation's security agents should be more thorough in handling the matter so as to ascertain both the possible local and foreign backers of the group.[...]

[...] The need to check the menace of such agents of violence in our society cannot be over-emphasised, especially at a time when potential investors are being warned by their home governments not to visit Nigeria on account of alleged insecurity. [...]

Arson disrupts girls' education in Pakistan

Islamabad - Days after destroying six schools, miscreants opposing female education damaged another girls primary school in northern Pakistan, private TV channel 'Geo' reported on Thursday.

The school in the Chilas valley, about 26km north of the capital Islamabad, was damaged in an overnight attempt by the vandals to set the building on fire. Six primary schools were burnt down on Sunday evening in Diamir district near the northern mountainous town of Gilgit.

UPDATE: Few details on 2 ATF arrests

By Pat Reavy
Deseret Morning News

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms released little new information Wednesday about two Utah men arrested near Cheyenne, Wyo., after explosives were found in their trailer.

The men, both reportedly from Utah and part of a militia group, were arrested on I-80 about 5:15 p.m. Monday about 10 miles east of Cheyenne.

The duo was pulled over by a Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper for erratic driving. The trooper noticed a small amount of narcotics in the vehicle, placed the men under arrest and called for a police K-9.

The dog immediately "hit" on something in the trailer, ATF regional spokesman Tom Mangan said.

Wednesday, Mangan said eight pipe bombs were found in the U-Haul trailer. Each pipe bomb was 4 inches in length and 1 inch in diameter, and they had fuses inserted in the caps.

In addition, two "improvised explosive devices" were found inside the 2004 Dodge Durango that was rented in Utah, along with a couple of boxes with toggle switches, Mangan said. Troopers also found counterfeit credit cards, false identifications, drug paraphernalia and small CO2 cartridges filled with smokeless powder.

The men were being held Wednesday in the Laramie County, Wyo., Jail. Names of the two men were not released. Mangan said he expected more information to be released today about the men and what they may have been doing.

The incident forced eastbound traffic to be detoured on I-80 for six hours.

Comment: An interesting coincidence is that on this day in 1998, Lt. Col. Larry Wayne Harris (Aryan Nations) and William Leavitt were arrested in Henderson, Nevada, for possession of the biological toxin anthrax, military grade, enough to kill an entire city. Their Mercedes was hermetically sealed by authorities and brought to Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada for hazmat.  [Source: Dr. Mac’s Cultural Calendar] Terrorism has always been with us. It has just now been put to really "good" use for herding us all into tighter and tighter control.

Palomas police station destroyed by gunfire

By Kevin Buey
Feb 12, 2004, 01:17 pm

A late-night attack Tuesday on the office of Palomas Police sent officers scampering for safety.

"Apparently," Columbus Police Chief Clare May said, Wednesday, "at about 10:30 at night, U.S. customs officers heard a series of about 25 gunshots and another series of about 45 gunshots, then a shotgun blast or two and eight former municipal officers made their way across the border.

"I was told their office was attacked by members of a drug-trafficking family."

May said the attack resulted in destruction of the police office, a computer and a municipal car.

May and Roger Maier, the latter a public information officer with U.S. Customs and Border Protection in El Paso, said the wife of one officer and a child also sought safety in Columbus. The child is a U.S. citizen.

"When they arrived at the port of entry," Maier said of Palomas officers, "they didn't have any weapons. They had apparently abandoned their weapons in Mexico. Some were in uniform, some weren't. [...]

Comment: This strange event took place on the New Mexico/Mexico border.

FBI agent held by HK police

POLICE arrested an American FBI agent who allegedly was carrying 15 rounds of ammunition in his hand luggage as he tried to change planes in Hong Kong, officials said today.

The agent apparently was able to board a flight in New York with the bullets loaded into a pistol magazine packed in his bag, but he was detected by security in Hong Kong as he tried to board a connecting flight to Bangkok, a police official told The Associated Press. [...]

UPDATE: 309 Confirmed Dead in Iran Train Blast

Nuclear Expert Tells AP Yucca Mt. Unsafe

By SCOTT SONNER, Associated Press Writer
Wed Feb 18,11:24 PM ET

RENO, Nev. - The nation's nuclear waste dump proposed for Nevada is poorly designed and could leak highly radioactive waste, a scientist who recently resigned from a federal panel of experts on Yucca Mountain told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Paul Craig, a physicist and engineering professor at the University of California-Davis, said he quit the panel last month so he could speak more freely about the waste dump's dangers. [...]

Eitam worried over Dimona facility's ability to withstand quake (Israel)

By Zvi Zrahiya
Haaretz Correspondent

Housing and Construction Minister Effi Eitam says he is having sleepless nights worrying about the ability of the nuclear reactor in Dimona to withstand a serious earthquake. [...]

Enrichment Equipment Found on Iran Base

By GEORGE JAHN
Associated Press Writer

VIENNA, Austria - U.N. inspectors have discovered high-tech enrichment equipment on an Iranian air force base, diplomats said Thursday. The find appeared to be the first known link of Tehran's suspect nuclear program to its military. [...]

Navy Again Fails to Launch Missile in Exercises

By Vladimir Isachenkov
The Associated Press
Mikhail Metzel / AP
Thursday, Feb. 19, 2004

In a new blow to military prestige, the Navy failed for the second consecutive day Wednesday to launch a ballistic missile from a Northern Fleet submarine during maneuvers attended by President Vladimir Putin.

But Putin pronounced the strategic nuclear exercises -- the largest in more than 20 years -- a success and said they would facilitate the deployment of a new generation of strategic weapons.

"The experiments conducted during these maneuvers, the experiments that were completed successfully, have proven that state-of-the art technical complexes will enter service with the Russian Strategic Missile Forces in the near future," Putin said after watching the launch of a military satellite from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia, which was part of the massive exercises.

The new weapons will be "capable of hitting targets continents away with hypersonic speed, high precision and the ability of wide maneuver," Putin said, adding that the new weapons -- unparalleled in the world -- would "reliably ensure Russia's strategic security for a long historical perspective."

Putin insisted that the designing of new weapons was not directed against the United States. "Modern Russia has no imperial ambitions or hegemonist strivings," he said.

Despite the ambitious statement by Putin, the exercises he attended were tarnished by the Navy's failure on two consecutive days to launch missiles from nuclear submarines.

The Navy on Wednesday sent a Northern Fleet nuclear submarine to repeat Tuesday's unsuccessful launch -- only to fail again.

The missile launched from the Karelia submarine started erring from its designated flight path 98 seconds after the launch and was blown up by its self-liquidation system, Navy spokesman Captain Igor Dygalo said.

Some Russian media described the Navy's attempt on Wednesday as an effort to rehabilitate itself after the previous day's failure.

Putin went to the Barents Sea on board the giant Arkhangelsk nuclear submarine to observe that missile launch firsthand. But the launch from the Novomoskovsk submarine, which military officials had announced in advance, and which was described on the front page of Tuesday's official military daily, Krasnaya Zvezda or Red Star, did not take place.

Russian officials and media made conflicting statements about the reason for the failure. The naval chief, Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov, ended up saying Tuesday that the Navy had never planned a real launch and successfully conducted what he described as a simulated one.

Many Russian newspapers, however, assailed what they described as a clumsy cover-up of Tuesday's failed launch, saying that Kuroyedov's statement resembled official lies about the August 2000 sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea, which killed all 118 aboard and badly dented the Navy's prestige.

"Apparently they decided not to smear President Vladimir Putin's participation in the exercise with negative information," Kommersant said. [...]

Mystery Surrounds Military's War Game

By Simon Saradzhyan
Staff Writer
Itar-Tass / AP
Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2004

President Vladimir Putin thanking the crew of the Arkhangelsk nuclear submarine after observing naval exercises on Tuesday.

A submarine participating in the country's largest strategic war game in more than 20 years failed to launch a ballistic missile as planned Tuesday in what could possibly be a major embarrassment to the military and President Vladimir Putin.

Putin was on board a nuclear submarine observing Northern Fleet maneuvers in the Barents Sea when the crew of another submarine tried and failed to launch at least one RSM-54 ballistic missile, news agencies reported Tuesday afternoon, citing sources in the fleet's command.

The same agencies later ran reports denying the failure, and top military brass weighed in on Tuesday night to say the war game had proceeded exactly as planned.

State-run Channel One and Rossia television made no mention of the failed launch in lengthy accounts of the naval maneuvers Tuesday evening.

Putin was participating in the war game in a clear attempt to strengthen his undisputed lead in the March 14 presidential election by reaching out to the military and nationalist vote.

Putin arrived at the Northern Fleet headquarters in Severomorsk on Monday to take a firsthand look at the naval part of the military exercises -- a massive show of force that involves all branches of the military and has been under way since late January.

State television channels aired lengthy reports about the commander-in-chief's arrival and subsequent boarding of the Arkhangelsk submarine Monday evening for an overnight trip. The channels showed Putin, wearing a naval uniform and white gloves, touring the submarine and eating with the crew.

Putin was on board the Arkhangelsk on Tuesday morning when the Novomoskovsk nuclear submarine was to have fired two sea-launched ballistic missiles, state-controlled news agencies reported Tuesday afternoon. The Novomoskovsk was to have fired one RSM-54 at 10:15 a.m. and another one at 10:22, but neither took off because the launch command was blocked by a satellite, Itar-Tass quoted a source in the Northern Fleet as saying. RIA-Novosti also reported that two ballistic missiles failed to take off.

Gazeta.ru, however, said that only one missile was to have been launched from the submerged Novomoskovsk and that it disintegrated right after emerging from the water.

And a government source told The Associated Press that the launch of the one missile failed after it was blocked by the submarine's automatic safety system. The source did not elaborate.

Gazprom Cuts Supplies to Europe

By Catherine Belton and Valeria Korchagina
Moscow Times

Gazprom took the unprecedented step Wednesday of cutting all gas supplies to Belarus and via its territory to Germany and Poland, a hardball move in a conflict over prices and pipelines that is likely to seriously rock relations between Moscow and Minsk.

Gazprom said it was forced to block the Belarus transit route because Belarus had started siphoning off gas from its export pipeline into Europe. The alleged theft came after Minsk failed to clinch a new deal on gaining its own domestic supplies amid an escalating price dispute with Gazprom.

Gazprom supplies one quarter of all Europe's gas needs. About 17 percent of that amount, or 22 billion to 24 billion cubic meters, is supplied via Belarus. Poland has enough stored gas and alternative supply sources to keep going without any problems for several weeks, while Germany has enough for many months, analysts said.

Gazprom said it could compensate for the loss by using reserve capacity in its pipelines into Europe via Ukraine, but only partly. It would not specify how much.

"Belarus began siphoning off gas from transit pipelines. There is no longer any gas going into Belarus, or to Germany or Poland via Belarussian territory," Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said Wednesday evening.

He said the gas was cut off at 6 p.m. and could not say when it would be switched back on. [...]

Comment: A rather interesting development to keep our eyes on, realizing that it is extremely cold in that area of the world right now, and will be for some time to come. The results of such an accusation and action could prove to be disastrous. The US has also had its eye on Belarus, and like a whole lot of other places, have been trotting out excuses for potential intercession. Also keep in mind that the US has a strong presence in that region through Uzbekistan.

Belarus Says to Prepare Against U.S. Attack

MINSK (Reuters) - President Alexander Lukashenko, isolated by the West for his lack of political and economic reforms, said on Friday Belarus must be prepared to defend itself against U.S. attack. [...]

"Belarus has to be vigilant and pay particular attention to strengthening its fighting efficiency. The world has returned to times when war and brute force were real instruments of foreign policy," Official news agency BelTA quoted him as saying.

"The United States declared its particular right to use military force toward countries that dare to implement independent foreign and internal policies," he said. [...]

"We are not going to do any saber-rattling. We are not going to threaten anybody. We are talking only about defending our motherland," he said.

Panel Pans U.S. Over Saudi Arabia

By Carol Eisenberg
Newsday
May 14, 2003

The 10-member advisory panel on international religious freedom - created by Congress to prod a State Department that is historically reluctant to emphasize human rights issues - also urged the protection of freedom of belief in the political reconstruction of Afghanistan and the use of economic leverage to halt religious persecution in Vietnam, China, Sudan, Russia, North Korea, Laos and Belarus.[...]

Belarus and Iraq

[...] Despite strong denials from Lukashenko, Belarus has been a key partner of Saddam Hussein in his effort to rebuild and modernize Iraq's air defense capability. Belarus has violated international law by secretly supplying Baghdad with SA-3 antiaircraft missile components as well as technicians. Given that Iraq has repeatedly tried to shoot down U.S. and British aircraft patrolling the U.N. no-fly zone -- with more than 420 attempts this year alone -- covert Belarusian-Iraqi military cooperation is disturbing and should set off alarm bells in Western capitals. [...]

Our Military Tries to Recruit Canada's Inuit

by James Ridgeway
Village Voice

[...] The American recruiting efforts are aimed at filling the ranks of an army stretched thin by the Iraq war and by having to post troops in other world hot spots such as Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. The U.S. may well have to put a permanent military presence in the Gulf of Guinea, off the coast of West Africa, to protect oil and gas reserves against regional squabbles. [...]

HOW STUPID DO THEY THINK WE ARE?

Zbigniew Brzezinski and the CFR Put War Plans In a 1997 Book - It Is "A Blueprint for World Dictatorship," Says a Former German Defense and NATO Official Who Warned of Global Domination in 1984, in an Exclusive Interview With FTW

by Michael C. Ruppert

Summary

"THE GRAND CHESSBOARD - American Primacy And It's Geostrategic Imperatives," Zbigniew Brzezinski, Basic Books, 1997.

These are the very first words in the book: "Ever since the continents started interacting politically, some five hundred years ago, Eurasia has been the center of world power."- p. xiii.?Eurasia is all of the territory east of Germany and Poland, stretching all the way through Russia and China to the Pacific Ocean. It includes the Middle East and most of the Indian subcontinent. The key to controlling Eurasia, says Brzezinski, is controlling the Central Asian Republics. And the key to controlling the Central Asian republics is Uzbekistan. Thus, it comes as no surprise that Uzbekistan was forcefully mentioned by President George W. Bush in his address to a joint session of Congress, just days after the attacks of September 11, as the very first place that the U.S. military would be deployed...

As FTW has documented in previous stories, major deployments of U.S. and British forces had taken place before the attacks. And the U.S. Army and the CIA had been active in Uzbekistan for several years. There is now evidence that what the world is witnessing is a cold and calculated war plan - at least four years in the making - and that, from reading Brzezinski's own words about Pearl Harbor, the World Trade Center attacks were just the trigger needed to set the final conquest in motion. [...]

Senior US Officials Cozy up to Dictator Who Boils People Alive

Saddam may find refuge in Belarus

Ottawa Citizen
31.12.2002
Tony ALLEN-MILLS in Washington and Hilary MACKENZIE in Baghdad

The former Soviet republic of Belarus has emerged as a possible refuge for Saddam Hussein after American officials hinted that the Iraqi leader might be allowed to flee into exile to avert a U.S. assault on Baghdad.

A visit to Iraq by a presidential delegation from Belarus last week coincided with a suggestion by U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that Mr. Saddam and his family could "leave the country."

Mr. Rumsfeld said in a television interview: "If he doesn"t care to give up his weapons of mass destruction, then he"s got the choice of leaving."

As military preparations intensified with the mobilization of two more aircraft carrier battle groups and a 1,000-bed hospital ship, U.S. officials emphasized that no deal had been struck to allow Mr. Saddam to escape.

Mr. Rumsfeld's remark may have been no more than a psychological gambit intended to stir confusion in Baghdad.

Yet the Belarus visit heightened American suspicion that Mr. Saddam might be making contingency plans for a last-minute dash.

While it remains far from certain that the Iraqi dictator would flee, Mr. Rumsfeld recently singled out Belarus as one of the few countries that might offer him sanctuary.

"If Saddam Hussein is in a corner, it is because he has put himself there," he told a congressional committee.

"One choice he has is to take his family and key leaders and seek asylum elsewhere. Surely one of the 180-plus countries would take his regime — possibly Belarus."

Big Black Hole Rips Up Star, Then Eats the Crumbs

By Deborah Zabarenko
Wed Feb 18, 4:21 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A big black hole ripped apart a sun-like star, gobbled a bit of it and flung the rest out into the cosmic neighborhood in an act of celestial gluttony caught by two orbiting observatories, scientists said on Wednesday.

The doomed star probably went off-course and into the supermassive black hole's path after a close encounter with another star, according to astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton X-ray Observatory.

As the star approached the heart of a galaxy some 700 million light-years from Earth, the black hole lurking there stretched the star and ultimately tore it into bits. A light-year is about 6 trillion miles, the distance light travels in a year.

"Stars can survive being stretched a small amount ... but this star was stretched beyond its breaking point," said Stefanie Komossa, leader of the international team of researchers who detected the event.

"This unlucky star just wandered into the wrong neighborhood," Komossa said in a statement.

Aside from the sheer violence of the event, astronomers believe this is strong evidence to support a long-held theory that black holes are capable of pulling in cosmic bodies, stretching them until they break and then consuming them. [...]

Exposure To Low-level Magnetic Fields Causes DNA Damage In Rat Brain Cells, Researchers Find

Prolonged exposure to low-level magnetic fields, similar to those emitted by such common household devices as blow dryers, electric blankets and razors, can damage brain cell DNA, according to researchers in the University of Washington's Department of Bioengineering. The scientists further found that the damage from brief exposures appears to build up over time. [...]

Traditionally, scientists have held that low-level electromagnetic fields couldn't be harmful because they weren't potent enough to break chemical bonds in a living organism. Lai doesn't disagree – he simply suspects a more subtle mechanism is at work. He believes that the fields, rather than causing harm directly, initiate a process within the cells that leads to the damage. [...]

"People should do what they can to limit their exposure to as little as possible, especially in relation to electrical appliances that are used very close to the body."

Designers set sights on plane the size of a bee

British researchers aim to make aircraft the size of a bee that could be used to spy inside buildings or monitor dangerous environments such as nuclear reactors. The micro-aircraft would weigh between 5 and 50 grams (2oz), take their power from tiny batteries and use methods adapted from natural bird or insect flight to propel themselves, Dr Ismet Gursul, head of the aerospace sub-group at the University of Bath's department of mechanical engineering, said.

The work is being carried out with funding from the Ministry of Defence. "The idea is that they would be able to fly into buildings some distance away and report back," Dr Gursul said. "Ideally, you would want it to come back to base, but the idea is that it will be so cheap to make these that if you lose one then you haven't invested millions of pounds in it."

Exhibition to offer rare peek at secret societies

Since the beginning of time, it has been in man's nature for those of like-minded interests to form societies and clubs. Evidence of this universal inclination ranges from Yale University's Skull and Bones to Preston Jones' famous Texas-set play "The Last Meeting of the Knights of the White Magnolia," depicting the demise of a sect of the Ku Klux Klan. Based on this concept, the College of Charleston's Halsey Gallery, which specializes in contemporary art, will present the exhibition "Oft Unseen: Art From the Lodge and Other Secret Societies."

The exhibition opens Friday and runs through March 20. The extensive display will include the Bruce Webb collection of art, artifacts and ephemera from the Freemasons and other secret fraternal organizations, including the Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Knights Templar, Order of Red Men and many others.

Bigfoot And Nessie A Paranormal Problem

DALLAS (Wireless Flash) -- A cryptozoologist has an explanation for why no one has been able to catch elusive creatures like the Loch Ness monster and Bigfoot: Because they're not of this earth.

Nick Redfern believes the monsters are not part of the physical world, but instead fall in the paranormal realm.

Redfern and two other researcher buddies took a six-week whirlwind tour of known sighting areas in England and questioned locals as well as tried to track down devil dogs, lake monsters and ape-men.

What they found is that many of the so-called sightings took place near ancient stone circles -- similar to Stonehenge -- which leads Redfern to conclude that they are part of the paranormal and can not be captured by physical means.

He theorizes cryptozoologists may have to develop new methods of research, similar to the way ghost hunters use infrared photos to detect haunts.

Redfern's exploration is detailed in his new book "Men Seeking Monsters" (Simon & Schuster).

UFO SIGHTED OVER CITY

12:00 - 19 February 2004

This amazing photograph snapped over Plymouth is being called one of the best pictures of a UFO ever taken.

A city-based amateur photographer captured this image when he was trying out his new hi-tech digital camera at night. It shows what can only be described as an 'unidentified flying object' hovering above St Budeaux.

Another, equally stunning, snap shows the same brightly-illuminated object tilted at a different angle.

UFO experts are highly excited by the pictures and the Royal Navy today asked the Herald to supply them with the photos - because they want to study them.

Plymouth-based UFOlogist Bob Boyd has called the snaps among the 'best five' pictures of a UFO he has ever seen - in 25 years of spotting the phenomena. Mr Boyd, chairman of the Plymouth UFO Research Group, said: "It's the real thing."
He claimed the picture had been examined by a photographic expert who confirmed it was genuine.

The man who took the photograph, a dockyard worker living in St Budeaux, didn't realise what he had snapped until he got home and inspected his pictures.

A Plymouth City Airport spokesman said it was 'highly unlikely' it was a commercial flight. Mr Boyd does not know of anybody else reporting the UFO, but said: "That doesn't mean nobody saw it."

Comment: The reproduction of the photo at the above link is not anything to write home about. We will keep an eye out to see if any further photographic evidence is released for this case. If anyone spots it before we do, be sure to let us know. This link to the new Filer's report has so many UFO reports for the latter half of January, that it is nearly overwhelming. Either people are seeing something, or there is a world wide UFO spotting disease. Something is going on around our little planet.

Extraterrestrial visitor in Russian province

Comment: We include this Pravda article as an another example of the increasing number of stories attempting to bring the idea of an alien presence to the mainstream. We have our doubts regarding the truth of this story, despite the pictorial evidence.

Parts appear to pose no threat, but spark concern

HOUSTON - The crew of the international space station watched two more pieces of debris floating away from their orbital outpost on Sunday, according to NASA internal reports. [...]

Fake ossuary leads Israel to look into sellers of antiquities

By Dan Vergano
USA TODAY

An Israeli documentary Wednesday claimed the James ossuary, the ancient burial box bearing a discredited inscription mentioning Jesus, is just the tip of a long-running forgery ring that has duped antiquities collectors worldwide for the last 15 years. [...]

Vikings' Barbaric Bad Rap Beginning to Fade

Stefan Lovgren in Stockholm, Sweden
for National Geographic News

[...] But were the Vikings merely primitive plunderers?

Far from it, say scholars. Using archaeological and other evidence, researchers have in recent years been piecing together a more complex picture of the Vikings that sharply contradicts the stereotype of the Vikings as mere barbarians. [...]

Ghostly goings-on puzzle pub couple

(WEDNESDAY, FEB 18) THE manager of a pub on Bedgrove, Aylesbury, who believes he has more than just alcoholic spirits on his premises is calling in a medium. [...]

The 22-year-old has arrived at the pub first thing in the morning to find the cellar completely reorganised with heavy items, including crates full of drinks, having seemingly been moved to the top of a staircase in the middle of the night.

It has left staff puzzled as the premises in Queensmead have been locked and empty.

Customers have also complained about feeling a cold presence close to them and as if something unnatural is standing behind them.

The couple became convinced something unworldly was around them when Ms Ward saw what she believes was the ghost for the first time, dressed in black in the bar. [...]

Nuns on the run

Ananova.com
12:26 Thursday 19th February 2004

Six nuns have gone on the run after they were unable to pay escalating bills at the convent they ran in Romania. [...]

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