New Column: The Hype Dimension - Jonathan Metcalfe

Picture of the Day

©2004 Pierre-Paul Feyte

Yesterday, we made the following comments:

Our task here on the Signs page, and on the web site in general, is to attempt to put the pieces of this global and historical jigsaw puzzle together, in order that we and our readers might get a clearer view of the nature and reality of the world in which we live. With each new piece of the puzzle that we have found and put in place, the picture has become clearer, and the gravity of the picture that it presents has become undeniable.

Ideally then, there should be no need for us to "bang the drum" on a daily basis. In an ideal world, everyone would be conscious enough to see and accept the Signs that are so evident all around us. Yet it appears that this is not the case, and now is not the time for wishful thinking on our part.

People are asleep. The sleep is REAL. It is not the "sleep" which we associate with bed and nighttime. It is a waking sleep. [...]

The core point which we wish to make is that it appears that this is not a game, it is not a drill. The gravity of the situation is such that our very existence may be in peril. We state again that this conclusion is not drawn from any unique information that we are in possession of, but rather as a result of looking objectively at the world in which we live and at the actions and nature of the people that appear to be at the "helm".

It is time to wake up.

In order to wake up, one must realize that one is asleep. To further understand this core issue of waking sleep, today we present an essay by A.R. Orage from his book Psychological Exercises and Essays.

Are We Awake?

How can we prove to ourselves at any given moment that we are not asleep and dreaming? Life circumstances are sometimes as fantastic as dream circumstances; and change with the same rapidity. What if we should wake up and find waking life a dream, and our present sleep and dream merely dreams within a dream?

There is a traditional doctrine, usually associated with religion, but now and then invading great literature, that our present waking state is not really being awake at all. It is not night-sleep certainly, nor is it the ordinary somnambulism or sleep-walking; but it is, the tradition says, a special form of sleep comparable to a hypnotic trance in which, however, there is no hypnotist but only the suggestion or auto-suggestion. In the first instance, from the moment of birth and before, we are under the suggestion that we are not fully awake; and it is universally suggested to our consciousness that we must dream the dream of this world - as our parents and friends dream it. Young children, it is notorious, find it hard at first to distinguish between this fancy, that is to say, their other day-dreams, and the dream their parents live in. Later in childhood, when the original suggestion has taken, auto-suggestion keeps is in the state more or less continuously. Our friends and neighbors, and all the objects we perceive, act as soporifics and dream-suggestions. We no longer, as in early childhood, rub our eyes in doubt of the reality of this world. We are fully convinced not only that it is real, but that there is no other. We dream but we do not doubt that we are awake. [...]

It is naturally difficult, of course, to convince ourselves that we are asleep. A sleeping person, in the midst of a dream, cannot usually wake himself up. The dream may be so unpleasant that it wakes him; or he awakes naturally; or he may be shaken into waking. Very seldom can one voluntarily wake oneself. It is even more difficult to wake voluntarily from hypnotic sleep. And if from these relatively light states of sleep it is hard for us to wake of our own accord, we can imagine the difficulty of waking voluntarily from the profounder sleep and dream of our waking state.

But how can we convince ourselves that we are really in a form of sleep when, as it appears to us, we are really awake? By comparing the two chief states of consciousness known to us and observing their strikingly common features. What, for instance, are the outstanding features of our ordinary sleep as known to us through our recollected dreams? The dream happens, that is to say, we neither deliberately initiate it nor do we create its figures and events. And in this respect it resembles waking life, in that we do not predetermine our experiences, nor do we create or invent the figures and events we meet from day to day.

Another common element of our sleeping and waking modes of life is the variability of our conduct. We are sometimes horrified, sometimes gratified, to recall how we have behaved in a dream situation. It is true that whatever our conduct may have been, humiliating or flattering to our pride, we couldn't have made it otherwise. Our disquiet or satisfaction is solely an account of the presumed revelation of our unconscious selves. But how, at the bottom, do these facts differ from the facts of our waking life-dreams? In life-dreams also we cut a sorry or a good figure, not by pre-determined design but as it happens; and our regret or satisfaction is equally contingent on the effect the episode has upon our self-pride. But can we truthfully say, beforehand, that, whatever happens, we shall behave ourselves thus and thus and not otherwise? Are we not subject to the suggestion of the moment and liable to be carried away from our resolution by anger, greed, enthusiasm? Exactly as in sleep-dream, our waking life is always taking us by surprise; and we are constantly behaving as we should not have imagined we could behave. Nor, in retrospect, can we truthfully say that we could have done better or worse in yesterday's situation. If it were repeated exactly, no doubt we could. But, taking it as and when it was, with ourselves as we then were, it could no more have been different than any night-dreams we have experienced.

Serious examination of the parallelism between the two states of sleeping and waking reveals many other similarities. One more only need be mentioned here - the close resemblance of our memory as regards the experience of the two states. It is true that of our waking life we preserve a more or less continuous recollection, whereas our dream-life is a series of discontinuous memories. But apart from this specific difference our actual memory-faculty appears to behave much the same in relation to both forms of experience. We know how difficult it is to recall at will a dream of the night before; the dream was vivid, and all its details were in our mind on awakening; but in an instant the whole of it has vanished, leaving not a wrack behind. Memory of yesterday's life-dream is not so treacherous, or capricious as regards its main features; but where today is the vivid details of yesterday? We saw clearly a thousand and one objects, we even attended to them. We listened to conversation, we spoke, we watched men and things in the street, we read books or newspapers, we read and wrote letters, we ate and drank and did or perceived a host, that no man can number, of objects and actions. That was only yesterday, yesterday's vivid waking dream. How many of those details remain in our memory today; or how many could we by any effort recall? As completely as the dreams of the night, the mass of our life-dreams of yesterday fade into the oblivion of our unconsciousness.

It may be feared that there is something morbid in the foregoing speculations; and that an effort to see our waking life as merely a special form of sleep must diminish its importance for us and ours for it. But this attitude towards a possible and probable fact is itself morbidly timid. The truth is that just as in night-dreams the first symptom of waking is to suspect that one is dreaming, the first symptom of waking from waking state - the second awaking of religion - is the suspicion that our present waking state is dreaming likewise. To be aware that we are only partially awake is the first condition of becoming and making ourselves more fully awake.

Indeed, awakening is not a process that can occur overnight. To realize we are asleep from an intellectual standpoint is certainly useful, but this cognition itself is not the final destination. In order to fully awaken, "shocks" are required. When sleeping at night, softly playing music may not wake us up, but a marching band certainly will do the trick. Upon awakening so abruptly, we will certainly not feel at ease. But it is possible, and even probable, to fall back asleep.

As a result, work on the self is required. Waking sleep consists of a myriad of programs, unconscious reactions which cause one to react instead of to act. As we purify ourselves of the 'A' influences of waking sleep, we will begin to see ourselves more objectively. Coincident with this internal purification, we will begin to see the outside world more objectively. Waking sleep is the dust, grime, and fingerprints on an individual's perceptual lens. Until the lens is cleaned, the Signs will not come into focus.

On the other hand, if one begins work on the self, information such as that presented on the Signs page can act as a mechanism to shock oneself. Simply reading the news and accompanying commentary will not magically wipe the lens clean - but it may provide a point of reference to which the reader can compare her own perceptions. This comparison may provide the individual an insight into personal bias, emotional programming, and the rest of the 'A' influences against which we must all battle.

Naturally, the path does not abruptly end. If we are to represent and live the concept of true creation, our learning and growth cannot end. We may awaken from waking sleep, but it is not enough to sit up, rub our eyes, yawn, and then fall back to sleep. Therefore, thinking we are awake when we are not can become quite a hurdle. One moment of awakening or seeing - or even a hundred thousand moments - does not mean that our work has ended.

As the state of the external world becomes increasingly gloomy, possibly placing even our very existence in jeopardy, we each have a personal opportunity to use the shocks provided for growth.

It is time to wake up.

US works very closely with Pakistan, says Vice President Cheney

US Vice President Dick Cheney Wednesday said the United States works "very closely" with Pakistan. He was responding to a query in an interview with Lester Holt of American news and views network, MSNBC. Asked if the U.S. had information that Osama bin Laden was on the Pakistan side of the border, would U.S. forces go and get him, Cheney said he would not want to speculate. "We work very closely with our friends in Pakistan.

Comment: Yes indeed, the US works VERY closely with Pakistan it seems. So closely, in fact, that Pakistani intelligence chief General Mahmoud Ahmad was in the U.S. on September 11, having breakfast with Florida's senator, Bob Graham - our esteemed chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The good General just happens to be the same man who Agence France Presse and the Times of India claim was the financier of Mohammed Atta, the 9-11 ringleader. Don't you find that strange?

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Mortal danger' terrorism warning

Tony Blair warned of a "new type of war" from global terrorists

BBC

Britain cannot afford to "err on the side of caution" in the fight against terrorism, Tony Blair has said in one of his starkest warnings yet.

In a speech, he argued: "The threat we face is not conventional. It is a challenge of a different nature from anything the world has faced before."

The prime minister warned of the "mortal danger" of under-estimating the threat of unconventional attacks.

Mr Blair also rebutted challenges to the legality of the war in Iraq. [...]

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Saddam wife says Uday, Qusay still ''alive'' as Saddam daughter gets his letter

The International Committee of the Red Cross is expected to deliver a message from former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to his elder daughter Raghad who resides in Jordan, according to Arab sources. The report added that Sajeda believes Uday and Qusay Hussein are still alive, and that the pictures released by US authorities were merely "fake".

Comment: Of course both men are still alive, as is their father. Fooling the American public these days has never been easier. We offer the below exhibit, which formed a part of the actual evidence that the US presented as proof that Saddam really did have WMD. Convincing, eh? Click the picture for the full hilarious story.

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Bush ads upset families of 9/11 victims

Friday 05 March 2004

The president is seeking to touch raw nerves to get votes

Families of September 11 victims have reacted angrily to images of the attacks being used in the campaign commercials of US President George Bush.

"Families are enraged," Bill Doyle, who is active in several September 11 family groups, said. "What I think is distasteful is that the president is trying to use 9/11 as a springboard for his re-election."

"It's entirely wrong. He's had 3,500 deaths on his watch, including Iraq," said Doyle, whose 25-year-old son Joseph died in the attacks on the World Trade Centre.

However, Rudolph Giuliani, the Republican who was mayor of New York when the attacks occurred, issued a statement through the Bush-Cheney campaign defending the ads.

"His leadership on that day is central to his record and his continued leadership is critical to our ultimate success against world terrorism," Giuliani said.

Controversial commercials

Two ads refer to the hijacked airliner attacks that killed about 3,000 as the Bush campaign seeks to present him as a leader. One ad shows World Trade Centre ruins behind an American flag. Another shows firefighters removing the flag-draped remains of a victim.

Ron Willett of Missouri, who lost his 29-year-old son in the attacks, said he was disgusted when he saw the ads. "I would vote for Saddam Hussein before I would vote for Bush."

"It think it is an atrocity," his wife Lucy, added. "He should not be allowed to use those images at all."

The International Association of Fire Fighters, which has endorsed the campaign for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, denounced the ads as "hypocrisy at its worst."

Comment: What more can we expect from a man who gets his orders to kill and maim directly from "God"? Bush is happy to send his loyal troops to steal the wealth and resources of another country and commit war crimes such as these (click on top file, a 5MB download). Can we be surprised then when he shamelessly uses the deaths of Americans to further his political goals?

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Bomb search of French railways: 10,000 in hunt for explosives

PARIS, March 4 (AFP) - Thousands of police and railway workers combed the French railway network in a fruitless search of bombs Thursday, as intelligence agents sought to identify the unknown group that is threatening to set off a series of explosions unless the government pays millions of dollars.

Experts on terrorism were studying the blackmail notes signed with the initials AZF which were sent to the government over recent weeks, as well as the components of a home-made explosive device planted on a railway viaduct in central France.

The most plausible theory was that the group, which described itself in one letter as a "pressure group of a terrorist nature linked to a secularist brotherhood," was motivated by political ideology of the far left or the far right, experts said.

But they were also looking at possible links with the AZF chemical factory which exploded in September 2001 in the southern city of Toulouse, killing 30 people and injuring more than 1,000 others. The blast, officially described as an accident, created enormous local resentment.

Ten thousand railway staff led the exhaustive task of scouring 32,500 kilometres (20,000 miles) of tracks in search of more devices that may have been laid by AZF.

The search was over by early afternoon with no trace found, though officials admitted a well-hidden bomb could have avoided detection.

Trains were running as normal, and most passengers displayed either indifference or resignation at the risk of an explosion.

"I have more chance of breaking my leg getting on the train than being blown up by a bomb - if there is one," said businessman Marc Schroder at the Gare du Nord in Paris. [...]

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'Torture Lite' Takes Hold in War on Terror

Rock music at full blast and the smothering darkness of a hood are sometimes enough to break a will already frayed by lack of sleep. If not, the subject can be slapped and shaken senseless, just short of permanent injury. Honed against Arab suspects in Israel and decried widely as "torture lite," such interrogation methods are now a prevalent part of the U.S.-led war on terror, human rights groups say.

"Faced with terrorism, every democracy will resort to torture if it thinks this will prevent attacks against its civilians. The issue is whether such methods are used with deniability or accountability," said Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard University law professor. [...]

Comment: The point here is that the "terrorism" that the US is faced with, is home made. The conclusion then is that the US government simply likes to have a healthy level of torture on its watch.

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North Korea's Use of Chemical Torture Alleged

A scientist who defected says he saw toxic substances being tested on political prisoners. Rights groups call his story credible. A senior North Korean chemist who defected to the South two years ago says he witnessed the government testing chemical weapons on political prisoners. Although the chemist's information is dated — he says he saw one experiment personally in 1979 and heard about others until the mid-1990s — his statements mark the first time a high-level scientist from North Korea has spoken out about human experimentation. The chemist said that the prison was known to house political prisoners. He said that they were kept in stacked cages made of concrete and wire "like rabbit hutches." The two men in the experiment, he said, were unshaven and emaciated and "they looked barely human." They were brought to the chamber in wheelchairs, he said. He could not determine their ages.

The chemist said the men were tested separately in a chamber with a large window on one side — where scientists and officials observed. It was outfitted with bright lights, a speaker system that allowed the scientists to clearly hear the prisoners' screams and a nozzle to spray the chemicals. "One man was scratching desperately. He scratched his neck, his chest. He was wearing a gray prison uniform, and he tore it off. He was covered in blood…. I tried to look away," said the chemist, who said he watched with other researchers from behind the glass. "I kept trying to look away. I knew how toxic these chemicals were in even small doses." [...]

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3 U.S. Citizens Guilty on Terror Counts

By MATTHEW BARAKAT, Associated Press Writer
March 5, 2004

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Three American Muslims accused of undergoing paramilitary training in hopes of joining up with the Taliban were convicted Thursday of conspiring to support terrorism.

Prosecutors said the three were part of a "Virginia jihad network" that used paintball games in 2000 and 2001 to train for holy war around the globe. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the group allegedly focused efforts on defending the Taliban. [...]

"These convictions are a stark reminder that terrorist organizations are active in the United States," said Attorney General John Ashcroft. "We will not allow terrorist groups to exploit America's freedoms for their murderous goals. We will not stand by as United States citizens support terrorist causes." [...]

Comment: Beware of Arabs playing video games, too - they could be training for holy war against you and your family! Better yet, beware of rich men in expensive suits who appear on television. They could be implementing a police state around you and your family while blaming it on Arabs who play paintball or video games.

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Royal genes may win Kerry the Whitehouse

LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S. presidential election will be largely fought over Iraq and the economy, but if royal genes have anything to do with the result, Democrat John Kerry is destined to dethrone George W. Bush this November.

According to a theory its British proponents say has proved surprisingly accurate over the past century, the candidate with the bluest blood in his veins will win the White House. In 2000 it was Bush. This time, it's Kerry.

"Our research is not yet complete but my bet is that Kerry has more royal connections and that he is more noble than President Bush ," said Harold Brooks-Baker, publishing director of Burke's Peerage, a guide to the aristocracy.

"But both candidates have a remarkable number of royal connections and both are related to (Britain's) Queen Elizabeth," he added.

Kerry, a Yale-educated war hero from Massachusetts, has all but wrapped up the Democratic nomination and is preparing to take on Republican Bush in what many believe will be the most bitterly fought presidential campaign in history.

The 60-year-old can trace his roots back to the first Massachusetts governor, John Winthrop, to every great family in Boston and to a host of royals in Europe, but has worked hard to dispel the notion he is a Northern liberal elitist.

"Kerry can almost certainly be traced back to King James I and to the bloodlines straight through the Windsor and Hanover families," Brooks-Baker said.[...]

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Top US general raises spectre of Iraq civil war

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Millions of Mexicans entering U.S. will be exempted from fingerprinting, photographs

SUZANNE GAMBOA, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, March 4, 2004

The Bush administration backed off plans to require that millions of visa-carrying Mexicans who make short visits to America and stay close to the border be fingerprinted and photographed to get into the country.

Asa Hutchinson, the Homeland Security department's undersecretary for border and transportation, was to publicly announce the policy change at a Capitol Hill hearing Thursday, a congressional official who was briefed on the plan told The Associated Press.

The move, a concession to Mexican President Vicente Fox, comes on the eve of his visit to President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. [...]

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Afghanistan Opium Production Levels Soar

Opium poppy cultivation levels in Afghanistan approached the highest levels ever recorded last year despite the counterdrug efforts of the U.S.-backed government, the State Department said Monday. [...]

Comment: US counterdrug efforts? One of the main reasons for the US attack on Afghanistan was to RESTART the opium production in that country, which had been greatly reduced under the Taleban. This is surely one of the most nauseating LIES we have come across in a long time.

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S Africa joins calls for probe into Aristide's departure

But US envoy says investigation would be a waste of time

Aristide claimed that he was virtually kidnapped and forced into exile, prompting the initial call by the Caribbean Community (Caricom) for a UN-led probe into the affair. The US has denied the claim. [...]

In a radio interview last night, Cobb also said she was "offended by the inflammatory language" used by Prime Minister P J Patterson on Wednesday to describe some of America's behaviour in the Haiti affair. [...]

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Russia Presidential Candidate Rybkin Quits, Agency Says

March 5, 2004

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian presidential candidate Ivan Rybkin, who last month came to prominence by mysteriously disappearing for four days, said Friday he was pulling out of the March 14 election, Interfax news agency said.

"I am withdrawing my candidacy and will not take part in this farce," Interfax quoted Rybkin, a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin, as saying. Rybkin was among six rivals of Putin, who is forecast to win the polls by a landslide.

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Fradkov confirmed as new Russian PM

Mikhail Fradkov, a former tax police chief, is to be sworn in as Russia's new Prime Minister after parliament backed a vote to elect him.[...]

His choice of Fradkov, a 53-year-old technocrat, raised eyebrows in Russia. But political analysts have seen the appointment as an indicatation that Putin intends to strengthen his already nearly absolute powers.

Fradkov is widely seen as Putin's lieutenant rather than a political player in his own right like his predecessor Kasyanov. [...]

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Russian Navy Squadrons to Go on Voyages

The Russian navy plans to sail to the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean this year - voyages apparently aimed at demonstrating a revival of the nation's military power. [...]

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Ex-Soldier Accused of Planting Bombs Aimed at Israeli Arabs

By GREG MYRE
New York Times

JERUSALEM, March 4 — A 22-year-old Israeli man has been arrested on suspicion of planting nine bombs directed against Arab citizens in northern Israel over the last three years, the police said Thursday.

Eliran Golan, a former soldier, has been cooperating with the police since his arrest on Wednesday, and his motive for the attacks was a "hatred of Arabs," according to Yaacov Borovsky, the police chief in charge of the northern city of Haifa, where Mr. Golan lives. [...]

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Israeli police uncover Jewish terror group which attacked Arab targets in Haifa

Poll: Majority of Israelis Want Sharon to Quit

China to boost military strength, build high-tech weapons

AFP
Friday March 5, 4:48 PM

China will strengthen its military and build up its arsenal of high-tech weaponry, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said at the opening of the annual session of parliament.

"Stepping up efforts to modernize our national defense and armed forces is an important guarantee for safeguarding national security and building a moderately prosperous society in all respects," Wen said in his annual address to the nation. [...]

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HK democracy leader to meet Powell, angers China further

AFP
Friday March 5, 4:49 PM

Hong Kong pro-democracy legislator Martin Lee is to meet Secretary of State Colin Powell during a controversial trip to the US to promote democracy in the former British colony. [...]

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China Asked to Allow US Cellphone Spying

By STEVE LOHR

The Bush administration stepped up its pressure on China this week to back off its plan to impose a software encryption standard for wireless computers that American technology companies regard as an unfair trade barrier. [...]

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Police seize weapons bound for Manila

Friday March 5, 09:31 AM

MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine police and soldiers have seized explosives and firearms from a man who said he planned to deliver the weapons to a buyer in a Muslim neighbourhood of the capital.

The arrest comes amid heightened security ahead of national elections on May 10 and an investigation into claims, scorned by the government, that the Abu Sayyaf group of Muslim rebels was responsible for a deadly fire on a Manila ferry a week ago. [...]

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Judge tells of murder plots to block Dutroux investigation

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Arlon
The Telegraph
05/03/2004

The Belgian judge who saved two young girls from Marc Dutroux's paedophile dungeon broke down in the witness box yesterday, alleging high-level murder plots to stop his investigation into a child-sex mafia.

Jean-Marc Connerotte choked in tears on the fourth day of the trial, describing the bullet-proof vehicles and armed guards needed to protect him against shadowy figures determined to stop the full truth coming out.

"Never before in Belgium has an investigating judge at the service of the king been subjected to such pressure," he said.

"We were told by police that [murder] contracts had been taken out against the magistrates. As the danger mounted, emergency measures were taken."

He then froze in silence and the court was adjourned until he recovered.

He alleged that "organised crime methods" were used to discredit his work and ensure that his investigation ended in "judicial failure".

A hero to millions of Belgians, Judge Connerotte was stripped of the Dutroux case after he had dinner with families of the victims in October 1996, which was deemed a conflict of interest.

The move resulted in workers going on strike and 300,000 people marching silently through Brussels in mass protest.

Seven years later, some of the families are boycotting the trial, describing it as a "circus" and saying that the inquiry effectively shut down the moment Judge Connerotte departed.

Addressing the jury of 12 at the Arlon Palais de Justice yesterday, Judge Connerotte relived the moment in August 1996 when his team rescued the two girls, Sabine Dardenne, 12, and Laetitia Delhez, 14, from the cage beneath Dutroux's house in the slums of Charleroi. [...]

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Belgium's X-Files

Thursday, 2 May, 2002
BBC News

The case of abduction and murder against Belgium's infamous paedophile Marc Dutroux remains unresolved. He has not been brought to book for these heinous crimes.

There appears to be a steel veil drawn over the facts at the highest level and no one is prepared to expose those involved in this blatant cover-up. [...]

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Storms Cause Three Deaths in Oklahoma

By ANGELA K. BROWN  
March 5, 2004

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - Emergency workers repaired downed power lines and assessed other damage early Friday after line of severe thunderstorms bore down on northern Texas and Oklahoma with heavy rain, high winds and twisters.

The storms overturned mobile homes, ripped roofs off other buildings and snarled airport and freeway traffic across the area Thursday. Three traffic deaths were blamed on the storm in Oklahoma.

Several twisters were reported in Texas, where straight-line gusts of up to 80 mph overturned tractor-trailer rigs. A number of homes were damaged or destroyed in East Texas and minor injuries were reported. [...]

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Warning' over three-headed frog

BBC

Children in a nursery were shocked when they spotted a three-headed frog hopping in their garden.

The creature - which has six legs - has stunned BBC wildlife experts who warned it could be an early warning of environmental problems. [...]

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FLYING OBJECTS NEAR A-PLANT AREA

March 4, 2004
Austin Leedom.

Small, unidentified low-flying, slow-moving aircraft have been reported in the area north of the Scioto County line in the A-plant area. Several ideas about the purpose of the aircraft have been offered.

Are the aircraft small patrol planes from Homeland Security watching for Al-Quaida intrusions at the A-plant? Or perhaps the craft are alien space ships that are flying close to the nuclear plant to recharge their batteries before zooming off to Mars, Pluto, Uranus, or other strange and unusual places such as Cleveland, San Francisco or DisneyWorld.

One sighting was in the area of the Southbound Flea Market on U.S. 23. Pike County residents said the craft was moving silently from the direction of the A-plant just at dusk with lights flashing. Are these aircraft something more sinister than mere interplanetary cruise ships? Could these aircraft be attack planes carrying weapons of mass deception? Or are they possibly reconnaisance craft from an earthly nation? Or, are they merely tourists gathering, practicing and preparing for a flying visit to busy, vibrant, downtown Portsmouth?

In another sighting it was reported that an aircraft was seen flying from the direction of Frasure’s Lake. Are the craft secretly harbored in the hills of the wilderness of western Scioto County? We don’t yet have the answers. If sightings continue to be reported we will ask Doug Deepe to investigate. He is an Air Force flying veteran; he will find the answer.

Several members of our staff think they have the answer. One unsteady fellow even offered up the demented idea that the aircraft are only silent hang-gliders powered by electricity. What do you think? [...]

Comment: This location is not so far away from the strange phenomena described in the Mothman Prophecies. Also in Ohio, certain individuals are discussing war in space...

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Generals Defend Military's Role in Space

JAMES HANNAH
Associated Press

DAYTON, Ohio -The military plays an important role in U.S. space exploration and should continue to partner with NASA, Air Force generals said Thursday.

The generals spoke on the second day of hearings before a commission studying President Bush's proposal for manned flights to the moon and Mars.

The generals defended the military's role in space exploration when commissioner Carleton Fiorina asked why the military is involved.

"Although we would like space to be a peaceful medium, the fact of the matter is history says that it may not always be that way," said Gen. Gregory Martin, commander of the Air Force Materiel Command. "We should be prepared for that." [...]

The Dayton hearing at the U.S. Air Force Museum is the second of five being held around the country as the President's Commission on Moon, Mars and Beyond prepares a report to be presented to Bush in June.

Former astronaut John Glenn was to speak later Thursday.

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U.S. USES LASER WEAPONS IN IRAQ

WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The U.S. Army has deployed laser weapons for urban operations in Iraq.

The army has deployed 312 Taser M26 conducted energy weapons in 2003 as part of the effort to stabilize Iraq. The Taser M16, manufactured by Taser International, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., has been used by U.S. law enforcement agencies in Arizona and Florida to confront urban violence.

The laser weapon has been part of the U.S. Army effort to procure non-lethal systems to quell civil unrest in Iraq. In 2003, U.S. soldiers employed live fire to disperse violent demonstrators in several Iraqi cities. [...]

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'This goes no further...'

By Brian Wheeler
BBC News Online Magazine

Following revelations about bugging at the United Nations, is there any way of ensuring that your private conversations stay that way?

News that Kofi Annan and other senior UN figures may have been routinely bugged by US or British security services has caused a huge political row around the world. But it will also have caused alarm among other people in the public eye who deal with sensitive information - or anyone, indeed, who values their privacy.

If the secretary general of the United Nations cannot prevent his private conversations from being listened to by all and sundry, who can?

It seems if someone wants to listen to what you are saying badly enough, there is very little you can do to stop it.

"Technological advances, particularly in the fields of power supply and miniaturisation, mean that its now possible to bug almost anywhere and anything," says Charles Shoebridge, a former counter-terrorism intelligence officer.

"Similar advances have enormously improved anti-bugging capabilities too, and an enormous effort has gone into making communications secure - particularly those of governments and even large commercial organisations.

"However, if security is absolutely critical, it will always pay to assume that a conversation is at least capable of being monitored."

Mobile phones

According to security experts, the most common listening device remains the electronic bug. But government agencies such as the CIA and MI5 have far more advanced systems at their disposal. Powerful uni-directional microphones can pick up conversations through open windows.

If the window is closed, radio waves or a laser beam can be bounced off the glass. The vibrations detected can be translated into speech. But potentially the most powerful tool for the modern spy is the mobile phone. Mobiles that double as listening devices can be bought over the internet.

Undetectable

But today's spies are also able to convert conventional phones into bugs without the owners' knowledge. Experts believe this is the most likely method used to gather information in the UN building.

Mobiles communicate with their base station on a frequency separate from the one used for talking. If you have details of the frequencies and encryption codes being used you can listen in to what is being said in the immediate vicinity of any phone in the network.

According to some reports, intelligence services do not even need to obtain permission from the networks to get their hands on the codes. So provided it is switched on, a mobile sitting on the desk of a politician or businessman can act as a powerful, undetectable bug.

The technology also exists to convert land line telephones into covert listening devices. [...]

Switching on the shower while you talk in the bathroom - a favoured method of celluloid spies - is also unlikely to work, as constant volume noise can easily be filtered out.

In fact, the only way to truly guarantee privacy, according to most security experts, is to take a walk in the park.

Charles Shoebridge says: "It remains the case today as it has always been, that probably the best way to avoid being eavesdropped is to pass information during a long, unpredictable and unannounced walk in the big outdoors.

"Word of mouth is always preferable to any form of electronic communication - assuming the information's recipient is entirely trustworthy, of course."

Comment: Of course, what is omitted in the above is the fact that even outside, in the remotest part of the planet, conversations can be listened to via satellite technology. There is nowhere to run or hide. The only variable in a world that is controlled to the nth degree is the fact that the future remains "open". It all depends on knowledge, will and choice.

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Humans Are Not God’s Only Intelligent Works

Can anything in the Bible be reconciled with the concept of aliens? A Jesuit astronomer mulls Mars, scripture, and more.

By Guy Consolgmagno, S.J.
beliefnet

The successes of the recent Mars probes have rekindled interest in the religious significance of planetary exploration, especially the question of how the possible existence of alien civilizations reconciles with Christianity. [...]

Is there anything in the Bible that can be reconciled with the concept of alien civilizations? I don’t mean the kind of nonsense that attributes every miracle to an alien technology zapped from UFOs. But at several junctures, we are reminded that we’re not the only intelligent life God created.

There’s that odd and mysterious passage at the beginning of Genesis describing the sons of God taking human wives and a passing reference to “The Nephilim ... the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.” [...]

Comment: This appears to be yet another article to familiarize the masses with the concept of extraterrestrials.

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Amazing Blue Band Around Jupiter!

An Amazing Disturbance In Jupiter's Clouds.....

It is a very elongated, bluish streak that runs along the interface of the dark South Equatorial Belt.

The first hint that that something unusual was taking place in the cloudy Jovian atmosphere came from Spanish amateur when he reported that a small, bicolored feature was formingt in the Southern Hemisphere a little over2 weeks ago. NOW, this disturbance has stretched, what looks like, right around the planet!

At the moment it's too early to be sure of the nature of this disturbance or its potential evolution. The wide band shown on the photograph could, quite easily measure, 3-4 times the diameter of the Earth!

Although Jupiter has, in the past, produced some unusual upper cloud features, nothing like this has ever been seen before!

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Hubble Image Said to Echo Van Gogh 'Starry Night'

Meteor seen in Mat-Su sky

By DOUG O'HARRA
Anchorage Daily News
February 27, 2004

A meteor streaked across the skies over the Susitna River Valley on Tuesday night, producing a bluish fireball seen by people in Homer and Anchorage, according to the National Weather Service.

Two witnesses reported seeing the burn last for six or seven seconds about 10:20 p.m., said meteorologist Dave Vonderheide.

"It was unusually bright," he said.

Based on their reports, Vonderheide estimated that the object entered Earth's atmosphere somewhere over Montana Creek and moved southwest toward Skwentna before fading from sight. [...]

Comment: We missed this report on the day it occurred. There have been so many articles about meteors and the inherent dangers within the first couple of months of 2004, that we had to start a new page for our Signs Supplement.

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Europe's rising temperatures

AP Friday, March 5, 2004
Int. Herald Tribune

WASHINGTON The summers from 1994 through 2003 were the hottest in Europe in more than 500 years, with the summer of 2003 by far the steamiest, according to a study by Swiss researchers.

The study said that temperatures during the summer of 2003 exceeded European summer temperatures from 1901 to 1995 by about 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit. "It appears that the summer of 2003 was very likely warmer than any other summer back to 1500," the study said.

Record temperatures were recorded in most of the major cities of Europe last summer, with many readings over 38 degrees Celsius, or 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Authorities in European countries have attributed thousands of deaths last summer to the excessively high temperatures, making the heat wave one of the deadliest weather phenomena in the past century.

In France, the death toll was estimated at 14,802. About 2,000 more people than normal died in August in England and Wales. The average number of summer deaths increased by 4,175 in Italy, 1,300 in Portugal and more than 1,000 in the Netherlands.

Altogether in Europe, based on official numbers collected by The Associated Press, there were more than 19,000 excess deaths in the 2003 summer months.

The intense heat also wilted crops, caused wildfires and continued a century-long trend of melting the continent's glaciers.

The study, led by Jürg Luterbacher of the University of Bern, Switzerland, is scheduled to appear this week in the journal Science. Luterbacher said the increased temperatures in Europe were not limited to the summers. He said the study found that the average winter and average annual temperatures in the three decades from 1973 to 2002 were the highest in 500 years.

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Sargasso study finds thousands of new species

Washington - Genome experts who took on a patch of ocean for a mass gene-sequencing project said on Thursday they had discovered at least 1 800 new species of microbes and changed some of their fundamental ideas about ocean biology.

Genome pioneer Craig Venter and other scientists analysed the tiny organisms in a sample of water from the Sargasso Sea off Bermuda and then sequenced the genetic code.

They used the technique that Venter, now at his own non-profit institute, used to accelerate the sequencing of the human gene map. Called whole-genome shotgun sequencing, it uses powerful computers to re-assemble the genetic code.

They found 1,2 million new genes and, based on what they know about the genetics of existing organisms and the sample they took, guess that represents at least 1 800 new species.

"By taking relatively small samples of water or soil and using the tools and techniques of shotgun sequence analysis, we are able to identify and characterise the vast legions of unseen organisms living in the environment," Venter, head of the Maryland-based Institute for Biological Energy Alternatives, said in a statement.[...]

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On this day in 1888..

a rather strange incident occurred that Charles Fort describes in Lo!:

[...] In attempting to rationalize various details that we have come upon, or to assimilate them, or to digest them, the toughest meal is swallowing statements upon mysterious appearances in closed rooms, or passages of objects and substances through walls of houses, without disturbing the material of the walls. Oh, yes, I have heard of the "fourth dimension," but I am going to do myself some credit by not lugging in that particular way of showing that I don't know what I'm writing about. There's a story in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Jan. 27, 1888 -- large stones that were appearing and "falling slowly" in closed rooms in the home of Mr. P.C. Martin, Caldwell County, North Carolina. (31) Madras (India) Mail, March 5, 1888 -- pieces of brick that, in the presence of many investigators, were falling in a schoolroom, in Pondicherry. (32)

I can understand this phenomenon, or alleged phenomenon, of appearances in closed rooms, no more than I can understand the passage of a magnetic field [46/47] of force through the wall of a house, without disturbing the material. But lines of this force do not transport objects through a dense material. Then I think of X-rays, which do something like this, if it be accepted that X-rays are aggregations of very small objects, or particles. X-rays do, or sometimes do, disturb materials penetrated by them, but this disturbance is not evident until after long continuance.[...]

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Seniors Brawl After Salad Bar Dispute

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - A dispute at the salad bar turned into a food fracas at an upscale retirement home, with a man taking a bite out of another's arm and other residents suffering minor injuries. [...]

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Alleged School Schooting Plans Foiled in Florida

U.S. sees cause for concern over gas

The government amplified concern Thursday about rising gasoline prices and repeated a warning of possible shortages, but it didn't offer relief for either. [...]

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Driver: I wasn't reaching for gun

A 20-year-old Wichita motorist said Friday that he was reaching for his seat belt release -- not his shotgun -- when a police officer shot him early Thursday morning. Matt Clay said from his hospital bed that he had driven up to police officers in the Westlink Shopping Center parking lot near his west Wichita home to get help after a hit-and-run driver struck his mother's parked car. He said police -- who saw a shotgun in his car -- told him to put his hands up and get out of his vehicle. "I had to have my seat belt off to get out of the car," Clay said. He said the gun was unloaded and that he carried it for protection. Police officials have said an officer fired at Clay after he made a quick move toward the shotgun after being ordered out of his car. Clay's mother, Sande Roberts, said she doesn't understand why the officer shot her son, who is now paralyzed.

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'I put my girlfriend on the train tracks'

A man admitted in a Johannesburg court on Thursday that he killed his girlfriend by hanging her from a metal structure with an electrical cord around her neck and then left her body on a train line to be mutilated.

"I realised that if she was found I would be the first suspect and so decided to put the body across the railway lines so that it would seem like suicide," Aubrey Ngwenya said in a written plea of guilty to murder.

His girlfriend, Lindiwe Josephine Madonsela, died in the early hours of October 10, 2002 in Kliptown in Soweto.

It took some weeks for her identity to be established after the body was run over by a train.[...]

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Circumcision nurse appears on sodomy charge

A traditional nurse appeared briefly in the east London regional court on Thursday in connection with allegations of sodomy, the Eastern Cape health department said in a statement.

It was alleged that the 60-year-old man sodomised two initiates while looking after them during the last initiation season in the province.

He was not asked to plead and was remanded to April 28.

During the season, the province recorded twelve deaths from botched circumcisions and assaults at initiations schools

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King Solomon demands trillions from Queen

Kampala - A Ugandan king is demanding a £1-trillion in compensation from the British monarchy for decimating the population of his kingdom in the late 1890s, a spokesperson for the king said on Thursday.

Solomon Gafabusa Iguru, head of Uganda's Bunyoro kingdom, also accuses British soldiers of plundering property, cattle and crops from his land during the British occupation between 1894-1990.

In a lawsuit, to be filed with the Hague-based International Court of Justice this month, and with the British Commission in Kampala, he claims that British colonial forces wiped out Bunyoro's two million strong population in just six years.

"We are seriously suing the Queen of England and the British government for atrocities committed and the genocide carried out during the invasion of Bunyoro Kitara. Our grandfathers never took it up because they were dehumanised, lost glory and pride," the king's spokesperson, Ernest Kiiza told the Deutsche Presse Agentur, dpa.[...]

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US court to try boys as adults in murder case

Washington - Two 13-year-old boys charged with first-degree murder in the beating and stabbing death of a playmate will be tried as adults, a judge ruled.

In a 42-page decision issued on Thursday, Grant County Superior Court Judge John Antosz wrote that there were no programmes or services in the juvenile court system that would likely rehabilitate the youngsters.

The boys were 12 in February 2003, when they are accused of attacking 13-year-old Craig Sorger at a recreational vehicle park in Ephrata, central Washington.

A medical examiner said Craig, who had mental and physical disabilities, had been beaten and repeatedly stabbed so severely that the tip of a knife was left in his skull.

The boys have maintained their innocence.

Doug Anderson, the lawyer for one of the boys, said he would appeal. He said he had never heard of anyone that young tried as an adult in Washington state. [...]

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