New Article: Jupiter, Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce, and the Return of the Mongols - Laura Knight-Jadczyk

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12

Picture of the Day

Sunset in Gers
©2004 Pierre-Paul Feyte

BREAKING NEWS!

Bush admits guilt in handling of 9/11

President George W. Bush surprised reporters at a White House press conference this morning when he admitted that not only had he not done enough to prevent 9/11, but that the real perpetrators were actually members of a US shadow government that had been controlling US politics for over 100 years. Mr. Bush, who was speaking from within a human shield made up of large and bulky Secret Service agents, had decided that his Christian convictions made it necessary for him to tell the truth after seeing Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ.

"I am willing to endure the consequences," said a shaken Bush. "The Jews killed our Savior, and Mossad, working with members of my administration, attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon."

Mr. Bush also denounced the American media for their sycophantic coverage of post-9/11 events.

"While courageous French reporters were uncovering the truth, journalists from our own country were mindlessly repeating whatever Rumsfeld, Condi Rice, Cheney, and I were telling them. It has been a black day for America. We owe our French allies an apology. Let the word 'French' from this day on be synonymous with 'freedom'."

Mr. Bush then outlined what had really happened.

As many objective observers had long suspected, Bush confirmed that Al-Qaeda was a front for US intelligence. After the Afghan war against Soviet rule, deep cover CIA agents, with close links to the Pakistani intelligence service and the Bush family mafia, worked to turn the organisation against America. Given US policy in the Middle East, particularly its brazen support for the genocidal policies of Israel against the Palestinians, this was easy. A few well-placed operatives were able to turn Al-Qaeda into a useful tool for the next phase of what Mr. Bush termed Operation Save the Earth.

US shadow government planners have long been aware that the early 21st century would be a time of great upheaval. Climate change would cover vast agricultural areas under snow and ice, reducing the world's food supplies. Oil would run out, leading to major disruptions of industrial civilisation. Cometary impacts were also expected to destroy large sections of the planet. A radical solution was needed to save the world's elite, hence Operation Save the Earth was born in the 1920s.

The project drew up a timetable for the elimination of the majority of the world's population by 2010.

The first step was the backing of Adolf Hitler in Germany. This lead to millions of deaths and the perfection of technologies that would be useful later in controlling the US population. Thousands of Nazis were later brought to the US after the war to continue the development of these systems. The existence of the Communist world was the justification of the militarization of the US economy and the basis for instilling a culture of fear. Political choices were narrowed to the corporatist political parties, the Republicans and the Democrats.

World rage at the horrors of the war led to the establishment of the United Nations. This organisation was used by propagandists to scare US citizens into believing the threat of One World Government was an external threat while the US carefully put into place its hegemony.

Returning to the question of 9/11, Bush said that the shadow government, which included highly placed Israelis as well as US citizens, planned the attack on 9/11 as the justification for the penultimate phase of Operation Save the Earth. This phase would include the complete control over human communication and movement prior to population reduction. By fomenting the phony "War on Terror," the pieces would be put into place for the establishment of martial law where populations could not be controlled through propaganda and brainwashing. It would also justify US intervention across the globe to secure the resources that would be necessary for the elite after they moved into their underground cities to sit out the coming Dark Age of population reduction and the cometary holocaust.

"They felt that it was necessary to have an American presence as widely spread over the globe as possible, with the hope that no matter how bad the wars and cataclysms, some small piece of our democracy and freedoms would continue as a model for those poor wretches who faced the dangers on the surface," the President said.

The only way to mobilize support within the US for the grabbing of resources was "a new Pearl Harbor," such as had been suggested by Richard Perle and other Neo-cons prior to the Bush Presidency.

"The plans were out in the open," said Bush. "You can read the papers they published. But this was part of the game these people were playing. They were trying to see how much they could get away with in public."

The 9/11 operation was carried out over several years through the close supervision of Mossad working in the US.

"The so-called 'Islamic terrorists' were actually being run by the Israelis," confirmed Bush. By choosing Saudi nationals as the "terrorists", the Israelis sought to set US opinion against their Arab neighbor.

The plan almost unraveled when the explosion at the Pentagon only created a three-yard wide hole in the façade.

"Rummy was worried after that," said Bush. "He thought it would give the game away. But after consulting with his bosses, they convinced him that no one in the US would believe that it could have been an inside job."

Another dark moment came went word leaked out that the Pakistani intelligence chief had been caught with $100,000 to be paid to the "Islamic terrorists."

Continuing on, the President talked about Iraq.

"Of course, I wanted to pin it on Saddam. He tried to kill my Daddy. But no one ever told me anything about what was really happening. It served Rummy and Cheney's plans to go into Iraq, so I guess they encouraged my desire to blame Saddam."

Bush said he hadn't known about the shadow government until last week, although whenever he visited with his Vice President, he felt a sort of cold, evil shudder come over him.

"I never thought anything of it. I used to feel that way all the time when I was with Daddy." Bush said that he learned the truth from Condi Rice.

"She came in to see me last week complaining that 'they' were trying to make her the fall guy for the whole operation. I said, 'Well, Condi, they can't make you the fall guy because you're a woman.' That was when she had the guts to sit me down and tell me the whole truth."

"When she was done, I remembered the cold dread of evil I had felt after the space shuttle was blown out of the sky last year. I knew she was telling me the truth."

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Conclusions Anyone?

By Jim Kirwan
3-30-4

In looking over the debris that passes for the last four years, what if anything stands out among all the shrapnel, all the dead birds and broken glass, not to mention the twisted and disfigured forms of all those that have died at the hands of the self-appointed leaders in this war-torn world? [...]

While we were sleeping the landscape that we've come to know and love, that warm blanket of pervasive security has been ripped away. Now the current seekers of anointed power want to give us razor wire and triple locks, against a world which they've created, a world of hate and fear and terror of the very shadows in the brightest light of ordinary day. Even the stars and stripes have changed their meaning. It seems now cowards hide, where men and women once moved proudly, and working people are now despised by those who claim to represent them. [...]

Every day brings new outrages. Every day the rules are changed, now there is no longer even a constitutional basis for our laws. The City of New Orleans just decided that they'll begin conducting unannounced searches without warrants of anyone or any place they choose, no need for warrants anymore security must come first, at least in that ridiculously primitive place.

Maybe New Orleans needs to secede from the Union, that way they can do whatever they want, and return to the days when they had the crookedest cops in the USA.

The man in the White House would have us believe that we are here to serve him, when in fact he serves at our pleasure. The Congress is who decides what will be investigated, by whom and for how long - not the president, especially not when he is the party being investigated. The president's lackeys are not immune to the laws of these United States, any more than are all the rest of us. And now we just discover that our sainted Contessa of Lies "was the mysterious caller who warned the top dogs not to fly or be in New York City on September 11th. Don,t you wonder who told her to do that? How did she know there would be an attack that day?

Now the Dictator through a letter from his mouthpiece (Gonzalez) is telling the 911 commission that all of this (testimony by administration officials) is conditioned on the White House's decision (upon) written assurances from the commission that such a step does not set a precedent and that the commission does not request "additional public testimony from any White House official, including Dr. Rice." Does this sound like something that an innocent party or parties would demand to have in place before testifying?

As the man in charge, as the person who says he "owns 911," shouldn't Bush be just jumping at the chance to lay out the whole truth to the public, just to show us how resolute and decisive he was on that day? Because if he fails to contradict the image of himself that was what the world saw of him then: we'll be left with the image of a personal coward, a distracted, disinterested, and disoriented fool. Hey, whatever works for this congenital and proven liar!

The question is what can be done about all of it? The answer has to begin with each and every one who gives a damn. There are lots of choices, provided we do more than cast a ballot. This game of politics has been dirty for at least the last three decades now, but no one seems to even notice.

All the signs have been there. Even the official disinformation arm of government, that would be the traditional news media, has occasionally reported on the unbelievable degradation of our daily way of life. Yet all of it follows the speeding bullets of the "news cycle and only when a story is directly in that stream are we allowed to hear even the smallest part of any truth. Never are there any hardball questions, never any thought provoking words allowed. And then it's gone, replaced by celebrity gossip, lost puppies, whatever can distract. The crime is that we do not demand that anyone stay focused.

But with the 911 Commission we finally have a forum and an opportunity to get the truth, but only if we force the points that need to be investigated. Do we have the will? Is there a way to alter the script that was written by this White House before September 11, 2001: Because if the investigations are allowed to stray off target, then we are done. Finished. Cancel any plans you might have had, because the new administration will be making all decisions for you, every single one!

Think about it please.

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Raise Your Right Hand

Put Bush and Cheney Under Oath

By DAVID VEST
Counterpunch.org
March 31, 2004

So the White House has finally, reluctantly, grudgingly agreed that national security adviser Condoleezza Rice will testify in public and under oath before the 9/11 Commission.

John Lehman, a Republican panel member, says that it is important for Rice to testify under oath because "like the prospect of hanging, being sworn concentrates the mind."

Fine. But at the same time we learned that President Bush and Vice-President Cheney have cut a deal to "meet with the commissioners" together. They will most certainly not "testify." They will not be under oath. Their minds will not be concentrated on anything but their talking points, and Cheney will be there to finish Bush's sentences whenever he stumbles. As they "correct each other's memories," their executive jointedness will be neither filmed nor recorded, although details are almost certain to leak quicker than air from a bullet-riddled tire.

This is the whole ball game, people: to get Bush and Cheney into a situation where they have to raise their right hands and swear to tell the truth.

It is the one situation both Bush and Cheney must avoid at all cost in order to survive. Getting the commission to agree to meet with them in private, and not in public, on their terms, was the key point scored by the administration in the Condi Rice negotiations. [...]

Comment: And yet, why would anyone assume that under oath, Cheney or Bush would tell the truth? The people assume that, because they would tell the truth under oath, their leaders would do the same. It seems that most world leaders are in power for themselves. They are people who crave power and seek to control. Game theory dictates that those who tell the truth will lose more often than not. It is far more advantageous to lie. If one factors in the official culture that seems to have swallowed up America, it should be obvious that we are all in the soup. What if the entire Bush administration is thrown out of office? What good would it do? There will always be those waiting in the wings to implement their own agendas, to seize the reins and attempt to shape reality to their liking. If a new administration results from the election later this year, does anyone actually believe that much will change? The rulers may change. The tactics employed to deceive the people may change. But it appears that the push for control will not let up. The US Empire will march onward, affecting the entire world.

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Found: The 911 "Stand Down Order"?

Jim Hoffman has discovered a document which I believe may be very important to the 911 skeptic movement. This document superseded earlier DOD procedures for dealing with hijacked aircraft, and it requires that Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld is personally responsible for issuing intercept orders. Commanders in the field are stripped of all authority to act. This amazing order came from S.A. Fry (Vice Admiral, US Navy and Director, Joint Staff) so it appears to me that responsibility for the US armed forces "Failure to Respond" rests directly with Fry for issuing this instruction, as well as with Donald Rumsfeld for failing to execute his responsibility to issue orders in a timely fashion. [...]

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Flashback: 9-11 Chairman Kean's Link To bin Laden's Brother-in-law

Kean's pre-9/11 oil links to bin Laden's brother-in-law were severed just prior to appointment and FBI translator's letter and calls to chairman charging security and espionage breaches were unanswered for a year. Like an efficient maitre ‘d at an upscale Capitol Hill eatery, Chairman Tom Kean was graciously shepherding witnesses and fellow commissioners from one table of question topics to another. The affable ex-New Jersey governor--now college president and multiple corporate board member--punctuated time gaps between last week's September 11 hearing deponents with inventive soft-ball queries.

Kean may yet have to explain why his oil company board of directors continued to maintain a corporate relationship with an oil company backed by Osame bin Laden's brother-in-law, who was reported to be a past financial benefactor of George W. Bush. According to the FBI, the terror-linked Saudi had been funding terrorism well before September 11, 2001. Moreover, he has been linked to a U.S. law firm with a partner who was a Bush 2000 fundraiser. [...]

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Bush's pre-9/11 focus was on missiles, not terrorism: report

WASHINGTON (AFP) Apr 01, 2004

The White House's national security policy before the September 11 attacks focused on the threat of long-range missiles, not on terrorism, The Washington Post said Thursday.

National security advisor Condoleezza Rice was to give a speech on September 11, 2001, designed to promote missile defense as the cornerstone of a new national security strategy, said the daily citing former US officials who read the text.

Rice's speech, which the White House declined to release and was never delivered, criticized the administration of former US President Bill Clinton for not doing enough about the real threat of long-range missiles, the daily said.

"We need to worry about the suitcase bomb, the car bomb and the vial of sarin released in the subway," according to excerpts of the speech provided to the daily.

"(But) why put deadbolt locks on your doors and stock up on cans of mace and then decide to leave your windows open?"

The daily said the White House also refused to confirm the accuracy of the excerpts. [...]

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FOX NEWS PUNDIT BRIT HUME TELLS FAMILIES OF DEAD AMERICAN SOLDIERS TO "JUST GET OVER IT"

COUNTERBIAS.COM EXCLUSIVE

Brit Hume, a conservative news anchor on the right-wing Fox News Channel, continued his staunch support for the Republican Party when he told critics of President Bush--including families of American soldiers killed in his Iraq war-- to "just get over it", on the 28 March 2004 edition of Fox News Sunday.

Mr. Hume has long been apologetic to Republican interests, at one point playing tennis on White House courts as a guest of both Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush while an 'impartial' Washington reporter for ABC News.

As a man whose son's life was lost to suicide, Mr. Hume would be expected to show more sensitivity to the lives of those Americans who have themselves lost children.

Chris Wallace and Juan Williams, two other Fox pundits appearing in the segment with Mr. Hume, attempted to talk over Mr. Hume during the last part of his monologue ("just get over it") at the realization of the possible damaging effect of his words.

The transcript is provided below:

WALLACE: And one that got a big laugh in the room that day -- and I must say, I still think it's funny -- the day after, some Democrats and the families of some American soldiers in Iraq, some who died in Iraq, said they were offended by this kidding about the missing weapons of mass destruction. Brit?

HUME: Well, we have a society in which one of the greatest things you can do is a platform to see victim status, and one of the qualifications for that is that you have these exquisitely tender feelings about things and sensibilities which are easily offended.

And in America today, if your sensibilities are offended by something that has happened, you get an enormous amount of credibility and are taken very seriously.

My own view of this is, the president's there poking fun at himself over what goes down, I think, as one of his failures. And I thought it was a good-natured performance, and it made him look good only in the sense that it showed he could poke fun at himself. But he certainly doesn't disguise the record on weapons of mass destruction.

And you have to feel like saying to people, "Just get over it."

Comment: Spoken like a true psychopath. No wonder Hume is such good buddies with the Bush family.

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Footprints of New 9/11 Seen in Markets Says Top Analyst

Gulu Future | April 1st 2004

A leading market analyst says he has spotted suspicious trading in gold and the dollar --which could herald an imminent huge terror event in the Middle-East or Europe.

Jim Sinclair says he can see the footprints of a new 9/11 in recent trading. Sinclair says that as soon as the spiritual leader of the terror group Hamas was killed by Israeli forces, he began to see a pattern of market intervention which means that some new group or strategy is in play on world markets

Many informed insiders recall the suspicious trading in airline stocks just before 9/11 --trading which was never properly investigated at the time. Sinclair remembers it well. He is a former advisor to the Hunt Oil family and a world reknowned expert on the gold markets.

The intervention is driving up both the dollar and gold. Sinclair fears it is designed to benefit from an unthinkable event in the Middle East or Europe which triggers a flight into dollars and gold, and drives the price of oil to at least $60 if not higher. The picture his analysis paints, leaves Sinclair scared to death.

He wants the CIA or the NSA to chart the unique footprint now active in the dollar, and see if matches the airline options trading just before 9/11.

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Found notes may show Bush plan on Clarke

By Pamela Hess
UPI Pentagon Ccorrespondent

WASHINGTON, March 31 (UPI) -- The White House was worried about the damaging testimony of a former counter-terrorism chief to a commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks last week but was trying to let the issue die on its own, according to Pentagon briefing notes found at a Washington coffee shop.

"Stay inside the lines. We don't need to puff this (up). We need (to) be careful as hell about it," the handwritten notes say. "This thing will go away soon and what will keep it alive will be one of us going over the line."

The notes were written by Pentagon political appointee Eric Ruff who left them in a Starbucks coffee shop in Dupont Circle, not far from U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's home.

The notes are genuine, a Pentagon official said. They were compiled for an early morning briefing for Rumsfeld before the Sunday morning talk shows, during which administration officials conducted a flurry of interviews to counter the testimony of Richard Clarke, President George W. Bush's former terrorism czar who left the post in 2003. Rumsfeld appeared on Fox and ABC.

The Starbucks customer who found them gave them to the liberal advocacy group the Center for American Progress, which published them on its Web site Wednesday. Included in the notes was a hand-drawn map to Rumsfeld's hous e, which is largely blacked out on the Web site for security reasons.

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US government under fire for giving elite military status to Pakistan

WASHINGTON (AFP) Mar 31, 2004

Opposition Democrats assailed President George W. Bush's administration Tuesday for granting Pakistan non-NATO ally status, despite an ongoing probe on possible high-level links in Islamabad to an international nuclear scam.

Democratic party legislators said Washington should have waited for the investigations to be completed before rewarding Pakistan the elite military status.

The lawmakers grilled John Bolton, Bush's point man for arms control, at a congressional hearing Tuesday over the extent of Pakistan's government involvement in nuclear proliferation following confessions by its top scientist that he had shared nuclear secrets with Iran, Libya and North Korea. [...]

Comment: Not a surprise considering that Pakistan's ISI chief is implicated in the 9-11 attacks, and was having breakfast with Bob Graham on September 11...

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Insurgents hit U.S. convoy a day after civilian bodies dragged through street

05:58 AM EST Apr 01

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) - Insurgents attacked a U.S. military convoy and a Humvee was burned Thursday near Fallujah, witnesses said, a day after the grisly killing and mutilation of four American civilians in the city.

It was not immediately clear if there were casualties in Thursday's assault. U.S. officials said they could not confirm the attack, although American forces briefly blocked roads leading into Fallujah - a move that has often been done during recent fighting. The attack occurred on a road a few kilometres outside the Sunni Triangle city, local resident Ahmad Tarek said.

Also Thursday, two explosions near a U.S.-escorted fuel convoy wounded at least one Iraqi in northern Baghdad, witnesses said. Associated Press Television News footage showed U.S. soldiers putting a wounded person on a stretcher inside an armoured vehicle.

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Medical evacuations in Iraq war hit 18,000

By Mark Benjamin
United Press International

WASHINGTON, March 31 (UPI) -- In the first year of war in Iraq, the military has made 18,004 medical evacuations during Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Pentagon's top health official told Congress Tuesday.

The new data, through March 13, is nearly two-thirds higher than the 11,200 evacuations through Feb. 5 cited just last month to Congress by the same official, William Winkenwerder Jr., assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. [...]

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Mutilated Foreigners 'Strung Up Like Sheep' in Iraq

Jubilant Iraqis yanked the bodies of four foreign contractors – one a woman, at least one an American – out of their burning cars today, dragged the charred corpses through the streets, and hung two of them from a bridge spanning the Euphrates River. Elsewhere, five American soldiers died in a roadside bombing nearby on one of the bloodiest days this year for the coalition governing Iraq.

The brutal treatment of the four corpses came after they were killed in a rebel attack on their 4X4 vehicles in the Sunni Triangle city of Fallujah, 35 miles west of Baghdad. The city has been the scene of some of the worst violence on both sides of the conflict since the beginning of the American occupation a year ago. It was reminiscent of the 1993 scene in Somalia, when a mob dragged the corpse of a US soldier through the streets of Mogadishu, eventually leading to the American withdrawal from the African nation.

Comment: Reality has a tendency to intrude, sometimes in a rather shocking way, on illusory ideas of the truth of war and the alleged bestowal of "freedom and democracy".

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Depleted Uranium Radiation in Iraq Equals 250,000 Nagasaki Bombs

As a writer I do not have a set of words to describe what 142 Degrees in the shade is like. I've seen 120 D. in Phoenix and 110 D in the spa's sauna I use. One hundred forty-two degrees leaves me speechless. Try to imagine 142 D temperature while wearing a helmet, long sleeve shirt, long pants, a bullet proof vest, boots, and carrying a 70 pound pack.

But this story is not about the temperature in Iraq. You can bet, though, the weather will be really important for those Americans unfortunate enough to still be in Iraq this summer.

This story is about American weapons built with Uranium components for the business end of things. Just about all American bullets, 120 mm tank shells, missiles, dumb bombs, smart bombs, 500 and 2,000 pound bombs, cruise missiles, and anything else engineered to help our side in the war of us against them has Uranium in it. Lots of Uranium.

In the case of a cruise missile, as much as 800 pounds of the stuff. This article is about how much radioactive uranium our guys, representing us, the citizens of the United States, let fly in Iraq. Turns out they used about 4,000,000 pounds of the stuff, give or take. That is a bunch.

Now, most people have no idea how much Four Million Pounds of anything is, much less of Uranium Dust (UD), which this stuff turns into when it is shot or exploded. Suffice it to say it is about equal to 1,333 cars that weigh three thousand pounds per car. That is a lot of cars; but, we can imagine what a parking lot with one thousand three hundred and thirty three cars is like. The point is: this was and is an industrial strength operation. It is still going on, too. [...]

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Bush's March Madness

By W. David Jenkins III

Is it just me or does Scott McClellan look like crap lately? Come to think of it, his boss doesn't look any too good either. As a matter of fact, the whole Bush Gang has been looking like the tail end of a week-long binge-drinking festival - except for Cheney of course. He always has the look of a mortician with something mean stuck in his lower tract. But ever since King George's disaster on Meet the Press a while back, things just don't seem to be going so well for the Bushies.

Actually, things haven't been going well for the Bushies for quite some time now but lately we can actually see it in their faces. You can almost see them looking out of the corner of their eyes while they try to determine just where the life boats are.

I don't believe I've ever seen this administration on the defensive for so long but, what did they expect? They have been allowed by the media and their apathetic audience to systematically destroy any sense of stability, both here at home and around the world. When you think about it, there isn't one thing this administration has touched that has worked out that well or hasn't been completely ruined. This administration has pursued its deplorable ideology and dangled their lies in the face of the global community while brazenly daring anyone - anyone - to confront them. [...]

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Texas: FBI Issues Alert On 3/25 - Plant Explodes On 3/30

Free Press International

The FBI issued an alert March 25, 2004 to tighten security in the petrochemical industry because of unconfirmed information that al-Qaida may try to blow up pipelines and refineries in Texas to influence the November presidential election. On March 30, 2004 an explosion at the BP Amoco chemical plant happened in Texas City, Texas.

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Jewish Settlers Move Into Arab Area

Wednesday March 31, 2004 8:46 PM
By RAVI NESSMAN
Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM (AP) - Ultra-Orthodox Jews armed with assault rifles lugged boxes, sofas and potted plants into two buildings in a crowded Arab neighborhood of Jerusalem at daybreak Wednesday, sparking clashes between Israeli troops and angry residents.

Israeli officials said the group had the right to live in the buildings in east Jerusalem, which Israel annexed after capturing it in the 1967 Mideast War.

Palestinian officials said the incident proved Israel was less interested in peace than in tightening its grasp on east Jerusalem, which they want for the capital of a future state.

[...] Sharon blamed the Palestinians for not acting to stop violence. An Israeli pullout from Gaza would remove their main ``excuse,'' he said, and then, "we need to tell them, please gentlemen, when there is no Israeli presence, let's see you start to act.''

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia cautiously welcomed the Gaza plan, but only as a first step to a full West Bank withdrawal.

"In principle, we welcome the Israeli withdrawal from our Palestinian land," Qureia told Palestinian lawmakers. "But for any withdrawal to have meaning for us ... it should be followed by a complete Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, too.''

Palestinians want a state in all the West Bank and Gaza. But many in Sharon's hard-line government view his limited withdrawal plan as the most they are willing to concede.

Qureia also condemned Palestinian suicide attacks, which have killed more than 450 Israelis in the past 3 years of violence, saying they have damaged the Palestinian economy, given Israel cover to continue building settle ments and a contentious West Bank barrier, and were morally wrong.

[...] In recent years, hawkish Jewish groups, with the backing of hard-line governments and foreign investors, have bought several east Jerusalem buildings, including several in Silwan, to strengthen Israel's hold there. Settle rs said eight families are to move into the Silwan buildings. The Arab owner of the house disputed the settlers' claim.

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Russian Duma moves to curb demonstrations

By Oleg Shchedrov
31 Mar 2004 18:00:52 GMT

MOSCOW, March 31 (Reuters) - Russia's parliament gave initial approval on Wednesday to stricter rules on public protest that opposition leaders, already with little voice in the legislature, say could clear them off the streets as well.

The State Duma lower house, where President Vladimir Putin's supporters have had a huge majority since a general election in December, passed on its first reading a bill that would outlaw rallies and pickets in most public places.

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Commentary: Kremlin's anti-demonstration law

By Peter Lavelle
Moscow (UPI)
March 31, 2004

Wednesday Russia's parliament -- the State Duma -- started the process of passing legislation that would significantly curtail public protests. If finally made law -- the bill must pass two more readings and be signed by President Vladimir Putin -- expressions of "street democracy" could become mostly illegal. Is this the democracy Putin promised to protect after winning a re-election landslide earlier this month?

The draft law passed in the first reading with 294 votes to 137 -- pro-Kremlin parties supporting the bill, with the opposition in dissent. As the State Duma was voting, protesters in front of the Parliament, including a prominent opposition figure, Sergei Mitrokhin of Yabloko, were arrested, which was probably illegal.

Under the bill, protesting in most public places, including official public buildings, will become illegal. The bill also mentions other areas where protest rallies will not be allowed: embassies, schools, kindergartens, stadiums, hospitals, international organizations, religious centers, concert halls, major roads, environmentally hazardous industrial sites and pipelines. The bill's coverage is thorough; huge swaths of where public life is experienced are threatened with a Kremlin gag order.

The purpose of controlling public spaces has been defended in the name of security. Public security is a very real issue in Russia. However, the authors of the bill -- most likely functionaries in the presidential administration -- have not even tried to explain how public protests threaten public security. Passage of such legislation now is even odd: Large public demonstrations have become rarity over the pass few years. At the same time , militant acts continue to be committed. Clearly, this is a miscorrelation of events. [...]

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US chose to ignore Rwandan genocide

Classified papers show Clinton was aware of 'final solution' to eliminate Tutsis

President Bill Clinton's administration knew Rwanda was being engulfed by genocide in April 1994 but buried the information to justify its inaction, according to classified documents made available for the first time. Senior officials privately used the word genocide within 16 days of the start of the killings, but chose not to do so publicly because the president had already decided not to intervene. Intelligence reports obtained using the US Freedom of Information Act show the cabinet and almost certainly the president had been told of a planned "final solution to eliminate all Tutsis" before the slaughter reached its peak. [...]

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Priest's wife says NATO's Bosnian raid was like 'the worst horror movie'

SARAJEVO (AFP) Apr 01, 2004

A NATO raid on a priest's home in Pale in which he and his son were seriously injured in a bid to arrest Bosnian war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic was like "the worst horror movie", the priest's wife told Bosnian Serb radio.

"We were awakened by a powerful blast and then the SFOR soldiers came in," Vitorka Starovlah told the Radio of Republika Srpska in the Serb-run half of Bosnia.

The priest, Jeremija Starovlah, and his 28-year old son, Aleksandar, were seriously injured during the raid.

"They pointed a gun at me and prevented me from approaching my husband and son. My husband was crying for help, while my son fell to the floor. He did not move or speak," she said.

"It was horrible, like in the worst horror movie," she said in trembling voice. "I just pray for them to survive, nothing else matters for me."

Some 40 US and British troops used explosives to blast their way into the priest's home near the Orthodox church in the Karadzic's wartime stronghold of Pale.

But they failed for the third time to nab Karadzic, now the most wanted Balkans wartime leader who has been charged with genocide by the UN war crimes court.

A hospital source in the northern town of Tuzla, where the two men were transferred by SFOR helicopter, said the priest and his son were being treated for "life threatening injuries".

"Both of them suffered head injuries and multiple contusions," Amra Odobasic a spokesman for the Tuzla hospital told AFP.

The priest has undergone surgery and is currently on a life-support machine, while the son is still undergoing surgery.

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New French government announced, Sarkozy takes over finance portfolio

AFP
Thursday April 1, 3:47 AM

Faced with widespread voter dissatisfaction, French President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin formed a new government, with the powerful number two Nicolas Sarkozy taking the reins of the finance ministry to oversee controversial economic reforms.

Three days after the thrashing of France's ruling center-right in regional polls, the major cabinet shake-up also saw the popular Sarkozy, 49, named minister of state -- a formalization of his role as Raffarin's deputy.

Jean-Louis Borloo -- the former junior urban affairs minister who is a Chirac favorite -- will lead a bolstered labor and social affairs ministry, giving the cabinet a more compassionate look and domestic focus in the face of public anxiety about high unemployment and social inequality.

The 43-member government -- 33 men and 10 women -- was announced by a presidential spokesman after more than a day of intense consultations.

On Tuesday, Chirac asked Raffarin to stay on despite the election fiasco -- which saw voters punish the unpopular prime minister for his hard-to-swallow public sector reforms -- but ordered him to choose a new team.

In the top jobs, Raffarin did not introduce many new faces, with former foreign minister Dominique de Villepin filling Sarkozy's shoes at the interior ministry, and Francois Fillon shifting from social affairs to education.

Michele Alliot-Marie, France's first female defense minister, will stay on in her post, as will Justice Minister Dominique Perben.

The new foreign minister is Michel Barnier, formerly the European Union commissioner responsible for regional policy and institutional reform.

De Villepin -- a close Chirac ally -- had served as the face of France's staunch opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq, and will now tackle the law-and-order portfolio, judged by the French public as one of its top concerns, according to opinion polls. [...]

On the left, Socialist party spokesman Julien Dray immediately slammed the new government line-up, saying it was "worn down before it even gets started."

"The same policies will be implemented, the ones that were condemned on March 21 and 28," dates of the two-round regional election, Dray said. [...]

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Smart cameras to watch over London Tube

London Underground is likely to deploy surveillance software that alerts operators to potential terrorist behaviour across its network of 6,000 CCTV cameras.

London Underground is set to roll out high-tech CCTV surveillance software that will automatically alert operators to suspicious behaviour, unattended packages and potential suicide attempts on the capital's Tube system. The move comes as London remains on a high state of alert against a possible terrorist attack following the bombs in Madrid earlier this month. LU has been trialling the technology at Liverpool Street station during the past two months and is now evaluating the results with a network-wide rollout tipped to follow across the Tube's 6,000 CCTV cameras, which cover 95 per cent of stations.

Comment: The ridiculousness of the above cannot be overstated. People are being encouraged to report "terrorist" activity to the very government that is sponsoring the terrorism and terrorists. The main objective of such measures is to instill into the population a very subtle and pervasive fear that is undefined and therefore more likely to be irrational. The end result of this mind programming is to prevent the population from achieving any level of objective thought or understanding of what is really happening. This is of course essential if the people are to swallow the increasingly outlandish lies that governments will be presenting to them as truth. However, with the breaking news today of Bush's admission of guilt over 9/11, perhaps there is some hope for the future...?

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How revealing is an X-ray scanner?

Just as luggage is systematically x-rayed to see what's inside, the Met Police have tested a scanner which looks through clothes for drugs and concealed weapons. But is modesty preserved? In just six seconds, an X-ray scanner can produce a moving 360° digital image of the body - minus clothes. This is no coy version of James Bond's X-ray specs, in which 007 can see the hidden guns - and saucy underwear - which lie beneath a villain's garments. What shows up is the naked human form and anything concealed on the person: coins in a pocket, trouser studs, metal or ceramic knives, guns, explosives, drugs.

The shin bones, which lie close to the skin's surface, can also be seen, as can features such as the cleft between buttocks. Just such an X-ray scanner has been used by UK police for the first time, during a pub raid last Friday night. Those rounded up were given the option of a body search or this electronic strip search.

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Poll: Privacy a Concern Among Americans

Americans seem willing to surrender some personal information to the government for improved security against terrorism, but nearly three-fourths of adults expressed strong concerns that government can't be trusted with such information, according to a survey.

Comment: A glimmer of recognition perhaps? The question is, are these Americans willing to explore just how deep the "misconduct" goes?

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House panel approves copyright bill

Last modified: March 31, 2004, 4:55 PM PST
By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

A House of Representatives panel has approved a sweeping new copyright bill that would boost penalties for peer-to-peer piracy and increase federal police powers against Internet copyright infringement.

The House Judiciary intellectual property subcommittee voted for the "Piracy Deterrence and Education Act" (PDEA) late Wednesday, overruling objections from a minority of members that it would unreasonably expand the FBI's powers to demand private information from Internet service providers.

The PDEA--the result of intense lobbying from large copyright holders over the past six months--has emerged as a kind of grab-bag that combines other proposals introduced in the past but not approved. One section that first surfaced last year punishes an Internet user who makes available $1,000 in copyrighted materials with prison terms of up to three years and fines of up to $250,000. If the PDEA became law, prosecutors would not have to prove that $1,000 in copyrighted materials were downloaded--they would need only to show that those files had been publicly accessible in a shared folder.

Comment: We think the move against file sharing is the excuse the US is using to crack down on the sharing of ideas across the Internet. A story below discusses a study that came to the conclusion that file swapping was not the cause for the slow down in sales of CDs, putting the blame on the economy and the high prices for CDs.

Compare as well the US law with the court decision in Canada below.

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Judge: File sharing legal in Canada

Case of photocopiers in libraries cited as precedent

By John Borland
Updated: 3:49 p.m. ET March 31, 2004

Sharing copyrighted works on peer-to-peer networks is legal in Canada, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday, handing the record industry a sharp setback in its international fight against file swappers.

Canadian record labels had asked the court for authorization to identify 29 alleged file-swappers in that country, in preparation for suing them for copyright infringement, much as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has sued more than 1500 people in America.

But the judge denied that request. In a far-ranging decision, the court further found that both downloading music and putting it in a shared folder available to other people online appeared to be legal in Canada.

[...] Canada's debate over file-swapping flared last December, when the country's Copyright Board, which regulates intellectual property issues, ruled that downloading songs from a peer-to-peer network for personal use -- but not necessarily uploading -- appeared to be legal.

The regulators cited a long-standing rule in Canada, in which most copying for personal use was allowed. To repay artists and record labels for revenues lost by this activity, the government imposes a fee on blank tapes, CDs and even hard-disk-based MP3 players such as Apple's iPod, and distributes those revenues to copyright holders.

[...] The decision is likely to spur more legislative action in Canada, however. The country has not yet ratified World Intellectual Property Organization treaties that contain more specific language saying that only copyright holders or their licensees have the ability to make copyrighted works available to others.

In the United States, the provisions of that treaty were implemented in the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act. CRIA has lobbied hard to have a similar bill introduced in Canada, but without success yet. However, the current Canadian government has recently indicated that a WIPO implementation bill could be introduced and passed by the end of this year.

Comment: The government of Paul Martin will likely do US bidding on this issue as quickly as he can, so the days of "legal" file sharing may be numbered in Canada.

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Net music piracy 'does not harm record sales'

18:28 30 March 04
NewScientist.com news service

Internet music piracy is not responsible for declining CD sales, claim the researchers behind a major new statistical study.

Felix Oberholzer-Gee at Harvard Business School in Massachusetts and Koleman Strumpf at the University of North Carolina tracked millions of music files downloaded through the OpenNap file-trading network and compared them with CD sales of the same music.

The music industry frequently claims that illegal file-trading is responsible for reducing legitimate music sales. The industry says this argument is the reason for their legal campaign of suing individual file traders over the past year.

However, the researchers conclude: "At most, file sharing can explain a tiny fraction of this decline."

[...] The most heavily downloaded songs showed no decrease in CD sales as a result of increasing downloads. In fact, albums that sold more than 600,000 copies during this period appeared to sell better when downloaded more heavily.

For these albums each increase of 150 downloads corresponded to another legitimate album sale. The study showed only a slight decline in sales as a result of online trading for the least popular music.

"From a statistical point of view, what this means is that there is no effect between downloading and sales," say Oberholzer-Gee and Strumpf.

Comment: As we have discussed before, the Internet is a powerful means for people the world over to exchange and compare notes, outside of the influence of the mainstream media. This, of course, cannot be allowed to continue. However, the Internet cannot be closed down in one fell swoop, because that might just be enough of a jolt to wake up the sleeping public. So, slowly, one step at a time, the pieces are being put into place to radically transform the net: spam, laws against downloading that will permit the FBI to seize equipment, draconian fines, and an eventual tiered system where you will be forced to pay big bucks to have the services that are relatively inexpensive now. If you want less expensive access, you will be barraged with advertising, the US's great contribution to world culture.

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Liberal Talk Radio Network Launches

Mar 31, 4:50 PM (ET)
By SETH SUTEL

NEW YORK (AP) - Is it a radio business, or is it politics? The two seem inextricably entwined for the leaders of Air America Radio, the liberal talk radio network that launched on five stations around the country Wednesday.

As a startup media business, they need to draw in listeners fast. Air America Radio is betting that a menu of left-leaning political commentary, current affairs talk and satire will resonate with those opposed to the Bush administration.

Al Franken, who is headlining the network with a daily three-hour talk show, has made no secret of his intention to use his platform to influence the election in November.

"We are flaming swords of justice," Franken told a cheering crowd at a party to launch the network Tuesday night. "Bush is going down, he is going down, he is going down. And we're going to help him."

Comment: Excuse us while we use a Signs Logo Sickness Bag. The kinder, gentler face of the Great American Lie, Liberalism. What a joke. Convince the people that there is a choice between Kerry and Bush!

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BUSH CAN'T PROVIDE PROOF TO SUPPORT HIS JOBS CLAIM

As President Bush tours the country touting his economic record, he is trying to shift the blame for the more than 2 million jobs that have been lost since he took office (1). Specifically, he has repeatedly claimed, "over a million jobs were lost because of the [9/11] attack" (2). But a new report shows that there are no statistics to support this assertion, and that the White House itself cannot provide any evidence that this is the case.

According to the Bureau of National Affairs, "White House officials were unable to point to any specific information that supports a direct link between massive job losses and the attacks" (3). While one White House spokeswoman claimed that the President's statements were "supported by the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)," that agency's associate commissioner "said BLS has not compiled any specific study on jobs which were lost specifically because of the Sept. 11 attacks."

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Court Orders U.S. to Review Mexican Cases

By ANTHONY DEUTSCH
Mar 31, 7:17 PM (ET)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - The world court ruled Wednesday that the United States violated the rights of 51 Mexicans on death row to receive diplomatic help, and ordered Washington to review their cases.

The ruling by the International Court of Justice could mean a reprieve or another chance of appeal for the inmates, including one scheduled to die May 18 in Oklahoma. It also could have implications for other foreign citizens in U.S. prisons who were not told they could receive help from their governments.

The order raised questions from the eight states holding the inmates, but no assurances that the states will try to address the court's concerns.

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Decorated ostrich beads show symbolic thought: archeologists

Last Updated Wed, 31 Mar 2004 22:30:58

MONTREAL - Ostrich eggshell beads and other artifacts found in Tanzania suggest humans may have developed symbolic thought earlier than thought, archeologists said Wednesday.

Researchers uncovered the ostrich egg beads, ochre pencils, carved bone and stool tools from the Loiyangalani River Valley in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania.

The archeologists have not yet dated the relics precisely, but they were found in the same layer as tools from the African Middle Stone Age, between 280,000 and 45,000 years ago.

Many scientists believe humans developed the symbolic thought needed to think abstractly and create art and culture about 35,000 years ago. At that time, sophisticated artifacts started to become common outside Africa.

"The beads are unambiguous examples of symbolic behavior," said archeologist Curtis Marean from the Institute of Human Origins and Department of Anthropology at Arizona State University.

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Fears aired as locusts fly in

Thursday, April 1, 2004. 8:54 AM (AEST)

Large numbers of locusts have flown into the Mudgee, Dunedoo and Gulgong districts.

The locusts originated in Queensland and are part of the same group which flew into Dubbo last month.

Mal Leeson is a senior ranger with the Mudgee/Merriwa Rural Lands Protection Board and says like Dubbo, the Mudgee district is too populated to allow control by aerial spraying. [...]

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Weather records broken in Perth

Abc.net.au
Thursday, April 1, 2004. 7:22am (AEST)

Perth has had its driest March in 31 years.

There was no rain recorded in the city last month - the average for March is 20 millimetres.

Meteorologist Glen Cook says the figures are nothing to be worried about.

"In terms of it being dry that's not so significant but as the months go on now when we're into April we would be expecting a significantly greater amount of rainfall and so we'd want the rainfall to start soon," he said.

The Bureau of Meteorology says March 22 was the latest day on record in the first six months of a year to reach 41 degrees. It was 41.4 degrees.

A Reader Comments: The commentator in the article may be projecting his own wishes. There is deep concern in much if not most of the Australian continent during the last two years. Records that are being broken are mostly since records began in this penal colony of the British Empire, and we in North South Wales central west have just endured a plague of locusts moving through devouring crops that are barely growing due to the severity of the drought now well into its third year.

The dams in my area are now down to ten per cent capacity and are becoming toxic through algal blooms, and the rivers below them are just trickles. Nothing to worry about? I have only mowed my lawns thrice since Christmas when the norm used to be about once a week in the summer months, gives some idea of how the pattern has changed. In fact, the bizarre
is becoming the norm, as day after day the clear blue sky where I live high in the tablelands 150 miles west of Sydney shows only a rare sign of clouds. Today some clouds have appeared, but there hasn't been a day of rain for three weeks, and that last day was only the third day of rain this year, and three other thunderstorms each about an hour's duration.

Nothing to worry about. What a patronising comment, but given the lying on just about everything coming from government sources, an honest comment about the dangers the world is currently facing would be totally out of their totally tainted character. Admit the government isn't in control? Not bloody likely. I'm not sure which is worse. Them knowing and taking advantage, or, them in a state of denial of the catastrophic earth changes confronting humanity. My money is on them knowing and looting all that will result from any and all devastation due to their planned wars and genocide as well as that resulting from nature. Vultures all.

Drought? Check. Cyclones? Check. Extreme heat? Check. Plagues of locusts? Check. Floods? Check. Passover portents...... You bet. Rivers of blood coming soon.

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Double whammy link to extinctions

By Paul Rincon
BBC News Online science staff
Thursday, 1 April, 2004

What are the chances of such great events occurring together? The chances that asteroid impacts and huge bouts of volcanism coincide randomly to cause mass extinctions may be greater than previously imagined. [...]

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'Fifty planets' could have life

By Helen Briggs
BBC News Online science staff
Thursday, 1 April, 2004

Astronomers estimate about half the planetary systems so far discovered in our galaxy could contain Earth-like worlds.
And they say that space telescopes will be capable of observing these planets and investigating them to see if they support life in about 15 years' time.

Scientists have recently discovered more than 100 stars other than our Sun with planets circling about them. But they are all giant planets like Jupiter that cannot sustain life.

Planets more like the Earth should, in theory, exist too. But they are too small to be seen using current technology. [...]

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UFO like '50,000 spotlights'

The Herald Sun
01 April 2004

RESIDENTS of the outback town of Winton saw a flash 'like 50,000 spotlights' as a huge fireball crashed to earth somewhere in central Queensland late yesterday.

Authorities are trying to track down the source of a large fireball seen in the sky over the state's north and central west.

Speculation has ranged from space junk to a meteorite.

"We only know it wasn't an aircraft," a spokesman for the Australian Search and Rescue Organisation said. [...]

She said the whole of Winton either saw or felt the event, with phones ringing all over town and people coming out of their houses to see what was going on. [...]

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Cosmic fireball strikes Queensland

April 1, 2004 - 8:42AM

Residents of the outback town of Winton saw a flash "like 50,000 floodlights" as a huge fireball crashed to earth somewhere in central Queensland late yesterday.

Authorities are trying to track down the source of a large fireball seen in the sky over the state's north and central west.

Speculation has ranged from space junk to a meteorite.

"We only know it wasn't an aircraft," a spokesman for the Australian Search and Rescue Organisation said.

But in Winton Elsa Nelms and her partner Graeme East had front row seats for the spectacular light show, sitting on their verandah at dusk talking business with a friend.

"Suddenly there was this flash, it's the only way I can describe it - it was so bright it was a white flash and it lit everything up," Ms Nelms said.

"It was like somebody had turned on 50,000 spotlights."

"We all looked up in the sky and there was a white smoke trail coming from the north-east - like a firecracker smoke trail but it was too high to even be an aircraft."

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Fireball wows town of Winton

The World Today - Thursday, 1 April , 2004 12:45:16
Reporter: Tanya Nolan

HAMISH ROBERTSON: The small Queensland town of Winton was last night given a spectacular outdoor display. There was a brilliant light, which some describe as 50,000 spotlights turning on at once, followed by a loud explosion, and while there are many wild theories about what might have caused the event, the most likely explanation is a meteor, but only the size of a tennis ball.

Tanya Nolan reports.

TANYA NOLAN: It was just after 7 o'clock in the evening and many of the 1,000 residents of Winton were settling in for a night in front of the television. That's what May Cameron was doing until something out the window distracted her.

MAY CAMERON: The whole sky just started lighting up. It was almost gradual and first of all I thought it might have been the power line out the front, sort of lighting up how they do when they get a bit much electricity through them, but then it sort of went this weird colour. The whole sky was just lit up.

TANYA NOLAN: Then came the massive blast which Winton Police Sergeant, Wayne Lynn, says shook houses within a 100 kilometre radius of the town.

WAYNE LYNN: One lady in particular, she was sort of quite distressed. She sort of grabbed the children and went outside just to make sure the children were alright and to gather them up and see what had happened, but she just felt the vibration and heard the explosion.

TANYA NOLAN: The small central Queensland town of Winton is best known as the place where Banjo Paterson penned Australia's unofficial national anthem, Waltzing Matilda, and in the home of bush poetry, this latest galactic event has definitely got the locals waxing lyrical.

LOCAL: It just lit up the garden here just like an art light, you know with that really brilliant light. You could honestly read the newspaper.

LOCAL TWO: Just behind the trees there. It lit up all behind the trees. As I was coming down I was just waiting for the bang. The big stream of smoke that was left in the sky there for ages after.

TANYA NOLAN: Now the theories are abounding. Some say it could've been a plane crash, a terrorist attack, or even aliens landing. And May Cameron says with today being April Fools Day, imaginations are running even hotter.

MAY CAMERON: One of the big things at the moment is that this big piece fell in Mistake Creek, which is just out of town and all the fish and everything are out on the bank because it made such a splash. But yeah, everyone's just trying to work out what happened.

TANYA NOLAN: Doctor Michael Drinkwater is a senior lecturer in astrophysics at the University of Queensland and he seems to be the only person who can say exactly what it was.

MICHAEL DRINKWATER: What was seen is what we'd actually call a fireball. A fireball is a meteor which is a lump of rock burning up in the atmosphere, which is remarkable for its being an exceedingly bright and fantastic display of light.

TANYA NOLAN: Locals report that they heard a very loud explosion. What sort of size do you anticipate that this might have been?

MICHAEL DRINKWATER: These are actually remarkably small. They're, I would guess, maybe a tennis ball size or even smaller. They make such a show because they're coming in and hitting the atmosphere at incredible speeds. It must have been a fairly big or relatively big or slow moving one in that it came low enough that people heard the sonic boom as well as just seeing it.

HAMISH ROBERTSON: Dr Michael Drinkwater, a senior lecturer in astrophysics at the University of Queensland, and that report from Tanya Nolan.

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Mother Says She Stoned Sons to Prove Faith

By LISA FALKENBERG, Associated Press Writer
April 1, 2004

TYLER, Texas - A housewife said the first sign that God wanted her to kill her three boys came Mother's Day weekend when she saw her 14-month-old playing with a toy spear.

Deanna Laney said she resisted at first, but the signs kept coming. The baby came to her with a rock, and later in the day squeezed a frog, and she believed God was suggesting that she should either stab, stone or strangle her children.

A sobbing Laney recounted in a videotape played at her capital murder trial Wednesday how she smashed her sons' skulls with rocks to prove her faith to God.

"I was telling him no, and each time it was getting worse and worse, the way that it would have to be done," Laney said. "I thought it was the Lord saying to me, 'You're just going to have to step out in faith. This is faith. You can't see why. You just got to.'"

The state rested its case and Laney's attorneys were expected to begin presenting evidence Thursday.

Laney, 39, who homeschooled her children in the tiny town of New Chapel Hill, 100 miles southeast of Dallas, has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity in the deaths of 8-year-old Joshua and 6-year-old Luke and serious injury to a child in the beating of the 14-month-old, Aaron.

Five mental health experts consulted in the case agreed Laney met the standard for legal insanity. But prosecutors want a jury to decide, saying other evidence suggests Laney could tell right from wrong. [...]

In the videotape, Laney said she believed she and Andrea Yates, the Houston woman who drowned her children, were chosen by God to be witnesses after the world ends. Yates was convicted of capital murder in 2001 and sentenced to life in prison. [...]

Comment: Now anyone that homeschools their children or tries to discuss potential global cataclysms can be labeled insane. How convenient for the powers that be.

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'The end of the world? I can't wait'

01/04/2004

Christian fundamentalist Tim LaHaye preaches Armageddon, makes millions from religious novels - and counts George Bush a fan. Oliver Poole meets him

The last thing one might expect to discuss with one of the most influential - and, some say, one of the most dangerous - Christian fundamentalists in America is the possibility of getting laid in Heaven. But after an hour spent talking to the Reverend Tim LaHaye about the imminent nature of the Second Coming and how to spot the Antichrist in a crowd, the conversation moves seamlessly to the matter of whether there are likely to be singles' clubs in the afterlife.

LaHaye, 77, a former Southern Baptist minister, is a preacher with a populist touch and a gift for communicating his message to the masses. He is the author of the "Left Behind" series of novels, a publishing phenomenon that, like Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, proves that religion is an enormous seller in post-September 11 America.

Based on the Book of Revelations and St Paul's epistle to the Thessalonians, the 12-book series, four of which topped the New York Times bestseller list, has sold 58 million copies, including a children's version and spin-offs. The ninth book in the series was the biggest selling book of 2001 in America, ousting John Grisham from the top spot for the first time in seven years.

The books - the last of which, Glorious Appearing, has just been published with a first print run of 1.9 million copies - are good old-fashioned adventure stories. But their core is utterly theological, inspired by premillennialism: a teaching that emerged in the 19th century and which prophesies, bluntly speaking, that things are going to get much worse before they get better. Disasters and wars are good things; signs that the Second Coming is approaching.

When the big day comes, Christ will descend from Heaven and summon all "true believers", who will disappear instantly in an event called the Rapture. Left behind will be the unbelievers - not just atheists, but also Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists and everyone else.

They will suffer seven years of catastrophes (the Tribulation) before Christ reappears and defeats the Antichrist in the final battle between good and evil, after which, finally, he will rule in peace for a thousand years. [...]

Comment: Take the truth, wrap it in fantastical emotionally provocative religious speak and you have one of the main ways that the "powers that be" are planning to ensure that no one will understand the truth of what is happening on our planet.

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New Marking Process Traces Spammers, Pirates And Hackers

University Park
Apr 01, 2004

Penn State researchers have proposed a new marking process for Internet messages to make it easier to trace the originators of spam, illegal copyrighted material or a virus attack.

The new marking scheme produced less than one percent false positives per 1000 attacking addresses in simulated distributed denial of service attacks and even fewer false positives and zero missed detections tracing addresses transferring copyrighted material in another simulation. [...]

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Insurer's wacky risks

Allan Hall, Evening Standard
31 March 2004

GERMAN businessman Kunt Karsten Eicke has become a multi-millionaire through selling the world's quirkiest insurance policies.

Eicke's company insures people against being abducted by aliens, losing lottery tickets, marrying a bigamist or fathering an unexpected child.

There are also policies aimed at covering flyers against being hurt by turbulence, fathers fainting at the birth of their children, stock market crashes and employees being fired for playing a computer game at work.

One German stands to gain £5,000 should his government bring in prohibition and deny him his beer in the bar every evening after work. [...]

Sir Huckleberry Insurance was founded in 1985 and covers the usual range of house, fire, flood, life and accident policies - but is the recent inclusion of 'fun insurance' that has sent its stock soaring. [...]

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April Fools' Special: History's Hoaxes

John Roach
for National Geographic News
Updated March 31, 2004

At first glance, the headlines sound plausible enough to snooker unwary readers: Colorless, odorless, tasteless chemical kills thousands of people each year. Mild winter brings Switzerland a bumper spaghetti crop. Taco Bell Corporation purchases Liberty Bell from U.S. Government. Alabama legislature votes to change the value of the mathematical constant pi.

But they are all lies.

Happy April Fools' Day. To mark the occasion, National Geographic News has compiled a list of some of the more memorable hoaxes in recent history. They are the lies, darned lies, and whoppers that have been perpetrated on the gullible and unsuspecting to fulfill that age-old desire held by some to put the joke on others. [...]

Comment: The article includes crop circles as a "Doug and Dave" joke, so caveat lector!

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