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As always, Caveat Lector! The material presented in the linked articles does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the owners of Cassiopaea.org. Research on your own and if you can validate any of the articles, or if you discover deception and/or an obvious agenda, we will appreciate if you drop us a line! We often post such comments along with the article synopses for the benefit of other readers. The links will open a new window. To return to this page, simply close the new window.
The most successful tyranny is not the one
that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the
awareness of other possibilities, that makes it seem inconceivable
that other ways are viable, that removes the sense that there is an
outside. "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." - Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong. --Voltaire-- Faith of
consciousness is freedom Life is religion. Life experiences reflect how one interacts with God. Those who are asleep are those of little faith in terms of their interaction with the creation. Some people think that the world exists for them to overcome or ignore or shut out. For those individuals, the worlds will cease. They will become exactly what they give to life. They will become merely a dream in the "past." People who pay strict attention to objective reality right and left, become the reality of the "Future." [Cassiopaea 09-28-02] March 20, 2003 Today's edition of Brought to You by The Bush Junta, Produced and Directed by the CIA, based on an original script by Henry Kissinger, with a cast of billions....The "Greatest Shew on Earth," no doubt, and if you don't have a good sense of humor, don't read this page! It is designed to reveal the "unseen." If you can't stand the heat of Objective Reality, get out of the kitchen! Lets Not Forget: Bush Planned Iraq 'Regime Change' Before Becoming President A Secret blueprint for US global domination reveals that President Bush and his cabinet were planning a premeditated attack on Iraq to secure 'regime change' even before he took power in January 2001. The blueprint, uncovered by the Sunday Herald, for the creation of a 'global Pax Americana' was drawn up for Dick Cheney (now vice- president), Donald Rumsfeld (defence secretary), Paul Wolfowitz (Rumsfeld's deputy), George W Bush's younger brother Jeb and Lewis Libby (Cheney's chief of staff). The document, entitled Rebuilding America's Defences: Strategies, Forces And Resources For A New Century, was written in September 2000 by the neo-conservative think-tank Project for the New American Century (PNAC). The plan shows Bush's cabinet intended to take military control of the Gulf region whether or not Saddam Hussein was in power. It says: 'The United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein.' The PNAC document supports a 'blueprint for maintaining global US pre-eminence, precluding the rise of a great power rival, and shaping the international security order in line with American principles and interests'. This 'American grand strategy' must be advanced for 'as far into the future as possible', the report says. It also calls for the US to 'fight and decisively win multiple, simultaneous major theatre wars' as a 'core mission'. The report describes American armed forces abroad as 'the cavalry on the new American frontier'. The PNAC blueprint supports an earlier document written by Wolfowitz and Libby that said the US must 'discourage advanced industrial nations from challenging our leadership or even aspiring to a larger regional or global role'. The PNAC report also: refers to key allies such as the UK as 'the most effective and efficient means of exercising American global leadership'; describes peace-keeping missions as 'demanding American political leadership rather than that of the United Nations'; reveals worries in the administration that Europe could rival the USA; says 'even should Saddam pass from the scene' bases in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will remain permanently -- despite domestic opposition in the Gulf regimes to the stationing of US troops -- as 'Iran may well prove as large a threat to US interests as Iraq has'; spotlights China for 'regime change' saying 'it is time to increase the presence of American forces in southeast Asia'. This, it says, may lead to 'American and allied power providing the spur to the process of democratisation in China'; calls for the creation of 'US Space Forces', to dominate space, and the total control of cyberspace to prevent 'enemies' using the internet against the US; hints that, despite threatening war against Iraq for developing weapons of mass destruction, the US may consider developing biological weapons -- which the nation has banned -- in decades to come. It says: 'New methods of attack -- electronic, 'non-lethal', biological -- will be more widely available ... combat likely will take place in new dimensions, in space, cyberspace, and perhaps the world of microbes ... advanced forms of biological warfare that can 'target' specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool'; and pinpoints North Korea, Libya, Syria and Iran as dangerous regimes and says their existence justifies the creation of a 'world-wide command-and-control system'. Tam Dalyell, the Labour MP,
father of the House of Commons and one of the leading rebel voices
against war with Iraq, said: 'This is garbage from right-wing
think-tanks stuffed with chicken-hawks -- men who have never seen
the horror of war but are in love with the idea of war. Men like
Cheney, who were draft-dodgers in the Vietnam war. 'This is a
blueprint for US world domination -- a new world order of their
making. These are the thought processes of fantasist Americans who
want to control the world. I am appalled that a British Labour
Prime Minister should have got into bed with a crew which has this
moral standing.
US offers
Israel billions in aid The US has offered $10bn
(£6.4bn) to Israel, to bail it out of the worst Israel - the biggest
recipient of US aid worldwide - initially asked for $4bn in
military aid and $8bn in loan guarantees. The US will deduct from
the loan guarantees any Israeli expenditure on "Rice told Netanyahu that
the (Bush) administration decided to raise the amount of the
guarantees by $1bn over what had been planned because the Americans
were impressed by the economic plan that has been presented to the
government," Israel's finance ministry said in a statement.
Israel's economy contracted by 1% in 2002 after a 0.9% fall in 2001
and the budget deficit is running at 6%, twice the forecast for
2003. Mr Netanyahu on Monday announced government spending cuts and
reductions in the
US
launches huge attack on Iraq 2003/03/20 19:10:59 GMT US-led
forces have launched what appears to be their first sustained
assault on Iraq in the war to oust President Saddam Hussein. Ground
troops started advancing into southern Iraq at about 1700 GMT after
a heavy bombardment by US planes and missiles. Correspondents say
the sky lit up and huge explosions could be heard as missiles
slammed into Iraq every few seconds. Soon afterwards, massive
explosions and anti-aircraft fire were heard in Iraqi television has broadcast pictures of Saddam Hussein chairing a cabinet session. It was impossible to establish when the footage was shot. In the south, a huge column of 10,000 United States armoured vehicles, including tanks, advanced across the border from northern Kuwait. Correspondents say it was an awesome display of power. Unconfirmed reports say several oil wells in the area are on fire. At a news conference, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld threatened military action of "a force and scope and scale beyond what has been seen before". He said a damage assessment of targets struck in Baghdad early on Thursday was still "pending", and repeated US advice to Iraqi troops to defect. Earlier, US officials said Iraq had fired four missiles over the border into northern Kuwait - a claim denied by Baghdad. First pictures of civilian casualties in Iraq Comment: the first of many for sure, this is "liberating the Iraqi people" US style. First Air Raid kills 10 Moscow. A correspondent for the First Channel of Russian television reported from Baghdad, citing the Iraqi Information Ministry, that 10 people were killed in a Thursday morning air raid on the Iraqi capital. No other source has been available to confirm the report Police attack anti-war demonsrators in SF Comment: Police state here we come. Protests Flare Across Globe as U.S. Strikes Iraq A wave of anti-war protests began to roll across Europe and the Middle East on Thursday after the opening salvos of the war against Iraq sparked angry demonstrations in Asia and Australia. Barely three hours after the first U.S. missiles struck Baghdad, a crowd that organizers put at 40,000 and which police said numbered "tens of thousands" brought Australia's second largest city, Melbourne, to a standstill. In Germany, 50,000 school students marched from Berlin's central Alexanderplatz past the guarded U.S. embassy and through the Brandenburg Gate. The crowd whistled and chanted and carried banners saying "Stop the Bush fire," "George W. Hitler," "No blood for oil." "The war is illegal and it should be resolved by the United Nations," said 18-year-old David Stassek, carrying a banner that read: "Stop U.S. imperialism." Pia Telschow, a 14-year-old from Berlin, said: "Bush is just carrying on his father's war." Bigger demonstrations were planned for later on Thursday in the capital and in dozens of other towns and cities. Some 5,000 pupils were also demonstrating in Cologne. In France, the most vocal Western opponent of the war, a string of organisations planned a 1700 GMT rally outside the U.S. embassy in Paris. The mission was barricaded off to the public by mid-morning and surrounded with 15-20 police vans, a water cannon and scores of police, some with riot shields. By midday a small group of pro-Iraqi protestors had gathered at the adjacent Place de la Concorde and were joined by some 70 students from an Iraqi secondary school who shouted "Bush-Blair Assassins!" and other chants in Arabic. In Italy, anti-war activists and labor unions staged demonstrations and downed tools. Protesters in Milan held a vigil in front of the city's cathedral while in Venice and Rome groups of hundreds gathered for spontaneous sit-ins. "We want to bring cities to a standstill," said Luca Casarini, one of the organizers. "We don't want people to get used to the idea of war, to think it's normal." Thousands more were expected to take part in a march to the U.S. embassy in Rome in the afternoon. Public sector workers declared a day-long strike while Italy's three biggest unions, with a combined 11 million members, said they would strike for two hours to protest against the attacks. In Greece, where there is bitter public and government opposition to the attack on Iraq, the center of Athens was turned into a huge protest arena. Nearly 10,000 people including many schoolchildren gathered to march to the U.S. embassy. Greek police rushed reinforcements to the embassy to protect it British anti-war campaigners blocked roads, boycotted schools and workplaces, and began gathering in public places. "I am surprised how quickly the protests have kicked off," John Rees, of the umbrella Stop the War Coalition, said as he dashed to a gathering in London's Parliament Square. In Spain, several hundred chanting demonstrators gathered outside the U.S. embassy in Madrid. Austria's capital Vienna saw a protest march by thousands of schoolchildren. Some 20 towns in Switzerland were preparing for demonstrations, with students and school pupils boycotting studies. In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian children marched in the Rafah refugee camp, holding Iraqi flags and posters of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, and setting fire to Israeli and U.S. flags.About 150 people marched in the West Bank city of Bethlehem waving Iraqi and Palestinian flags and carrying portraits of Saddam. Egyptian police in Cairo's central Tahrir Square beat back protesters trying to reach the nearby U.S. embassy and cordoned off the area, restoring order, security sources said. Australia, a staunch ally of the United States, deployed armed police for the first time around parliament in Canberra and increased their presence at U.S. diplomatic missions. Anti-American sentiment was
stronger still in Muslim Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan, where
many saw the attack as the beginning of an American campaign to
subjugate the Islamic world and seize control of oil. In Pakistan
there were scattered but peaceful rallies across the country
against what some called "American terrorism." Hundreds of people
took to the streets of the commercial hub of Karachi, the cities of
Multan and Lahore, and Peshawar on the northwest frontier with
Afghanistan, as well as Rawalpindi. Indonesia's biggest rally was
in Jakarta, where 2,000 people from a conservative Muslim party
sang and chanted anti-American slogans outside the
heavily-fortified U.S. embassy. There were also protests in the
cities of Bandung, Yogyakarta and Makassar. Local radio said police
in the central Java city of Semarang had clashed with 50 students
after they burned an effigy of President Bush. Several students
were slightly hurt From a resident of Baghdad No one inside Iraq is for war (note I said war not a change of regime), no human being in his right mind will ask you to give him the beating of his life, unless you are a member of fight club that is, and if you do hear Iraqi (in Iraq, not expat) saying “come on bomb us” it is the exasperation and 10 years of sanctions and hardship talking. There is no person inside Iraq (and this is a bold, blinking and underlined inside) who will be jumping up and down asking for the bombs to drop. We are not suicidal you know, not all of us in any case.
Our brightest and most
creative minds fled the country not because of oppression alone but
because no one inside Iraq could make a living, survive. And can
anyone tell me what the sanctions really did about weapons? Get
real, there are always willing nations who will help, there are
always organizations which will find his money sweet. Oil-for-Food?
Smart Sanctions? Get a clue. Who do you think is getting all those
contracts to supply the people with “food”? who do you
think is heaping money in bank accounts abroad? It is his people,
his family and the people who play his game. Abroad and in Iraq,
Iraqis and non-Iraqis.
Welcome
to Bush's Unjust War (Please Extinguish Your Conscience Before
Boarding) "The United States, as the world knows, will
never start a war. . . . we shall also do our part to build a world
of peace where the weak are safe and the strong are just." -
John
F. Kennedy
"Today I weep for my
country. I have watched the events of recent months with a heavy,
heavy heart. No more is the image of America one of a strong yet
benevolent peacekeeper." -
Sen. Robert C. Byrd Now that war is upon us,
there is little doubt it will be justified. Weapons that eluded
inspectors will be miraculously and quickly found, as will, most
likely, devious plots to use them. One only has to recall the
immediate aftermath of Sept. 11 to realize how easily these things
fall into Uncle Sam's hands -- from Mohammed Atta's suitcase,
(complete with a flight manual and Koran) to his grooming tips
letter to fellow There has been much discussion lately about whether or not this war complies with "just war criteria." Former President Jimmy Carter's March 9 New York Times op-ed piece has fueled the debate, particularly since Carter surmised that this war does not. "As a Christian and as a president who was severely provoked by international crises," he wrote, "I became thoroughly familiar with the principles of a just war, and it is clear that a substantially unilateral attack on Iraq does not meet these standards." Most scholars trace just war theory back to Saint Augustine, who grappled with the dilemma of balancing lofty Christian principles with the messy business of defending Rome. Later refined by Saint Thomas Aquinas, just war doctrine represents a standard that has lasted centuries -- and remains the moral template by which conflicts are judged. According to President Carter, to meet just war criteria, a military action must: 1) Be waged only as a last
resort, with all nonviolent Since war always involves dire moral dilemmas, (killing and maiming aside, "just wars" can be waged unjustly, just as unjust wars may be fought in accordance with the rules), most American churches have studied the second Gulf War in terms of just war theory and have concluded, as has Carter, that it doesn't meet established criteria. In an article entitled,
"War in Iraq is wrong, 51 church leaders say,"
the Miami
Herald addressed the significance of just war theory,
explaining how "most of those involved in public debate are using
[just war] doctrine to argue the pros and cons of a U.S. invasion
of Iraq." Reporting in Oct. 2002 The debate over just war theory has included the moral dilemma posed by preventative war, as well as how modern-day weapons fit the criteria, (as with the Pentagon's "shock and awe" plan, you can't wage a nuclear war without targeting civilians). Then, too, there are varied interpretations. An Oct. 2001 National Review article framed just war theory in a slightly different way. While explaining ways the theory is embraced by Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Christians and how "the teachings of Jewish tradition on war and peace are closely in line with it," Robert P. George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence Princeton University characterized just war criteria thusly: "There is a
set of principles establishing criteria for moral
evaluation of the use, or possible use, of military force. First,
war can be justified only in self-defense or defense of others...A
second principle of just war requires that the use of force have a
reasonable likelihood of success. Lives may not be sacrificed and
taken in futile causes. A third principle demands that force be
used only when nonviolent means will not suffice. A fourth
recognizes the immunity of noncombatants from deliberate attack.
Although it can be permissible to perform military actions that
foreseeable result in the death or injury of noncombatants
(so-called "collateral damage"), it is never permissible to make
the harming of noncombatants the object of the actions. Thus,
killing civilians for revenge, or even as a means of deterring
aggression by people who sympathize with them, is forbidden. A
fifth principle requires that the use of force, especially where
harm to noncombatants is likely, be "proportionate" to the evil
being opposed." Even given these broadened
definitions (used here to justify the war in Afghanistan) the
conflict in Iraq can only be viewed as being unjust. Since much of
the "evidence" this administration has provided has been based on
forgeries and fabrications, this war is not a matter of national
security or defense, but is rather, as New York Times columnist Tom
Friedman asserts, a war of choice. Depending upon which Which brings us to the
fifth principle, as defined in the National Review. Chances are,
when all is said and done, CNN will feature happy Iraqis cheering
us on, ala Kuwaitis, circa 1991. Yet adherence to criteria No. 5
depends largely upon how Iraqis feel about being "liberated" from
the dictates of one "strongman" into the oppressive rule of
another. As a
recently
leaked State Department document revealed, "The towel heads
can't hack [democracy]; the only way to achieve stability in the
country is to install another strongman drawn from Saddam's Sunni
minority." So, once again: Is this war being waged as a last resort? Is it truly defensive? Are we exacting revenge for 3,000 dead, even though Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with the World Trade Center or Pentagon attacks? Will this war protect innocent civilians? Is it sanctioned by a legitimate authority? One can only conclude that this war gives new meaning to the adage, "don't ask, don't tell." Of course, now that war is here, we're expected to ignore history, overlook lies and fall in line. But the Vatican's warning that "those who decide that all peaceful means that international law makes available are exhausted assume a grave responsibility before God, their conscience and history," rings more true to us than all of George Bush's ungodly, un-American falsehoods. And so, though we
appreciate and worry about our troops (and think of their mothers
and fathers), we can't deny our consciences. As God is our witness,
we believe Bush's warmongering is wrong, dangerous and unjust. And
we'll continue to say so. March 19, 2003 Today's edition of Brought to You by The Bush Junta, Produced and Directed by the CIA, based on an original script by Henry Kissinger, with a cast of billions....The "Greatest Shew on Earth," no doubt, and if you don't have a good sense of humor, don't read this page! It is designed to reveal the "unseen." If you can't stand the heat of Objective Reality, get out of the kitchen! A just war? Watch this video and then decide.. "There is going to be a bloodbath"Felicity Arbuthnot is a freelance journalist who has visited Iraq 26 times since the 1991 Gulf War. She worked as senior researcher on the film Paying the Price—Killing the Children of Iraq, which investigated the devastating effect of United Nations sanctions on people of Iraq. The US and the UK accuse Saddam Hussein of non-compliance with UN resolutions, but the US and the UK don’t even have any mandate from the Security Council to comply with. There is no mandate from the United Nations for them to be patrolling the no-fly zones or indeed for the no-fly zones themselves. The continuous bombings of Iraq by American and British forces is illegal. I personally am convinced that this will be a nuclear war. I think that Bush and Blair are prepared to break that sacred vow on the Hiroshima memorial, which says, “Rest in peace. The mistake will not happen again.” And I’ll give you one of the reasons why. In 1991 in Tel-Aviv, just before the Gulf War, the Israeli military gave a press conference, and one of the questions was, “What will happen if Iraq lobs anything into Israel?” And the spokesman replied, “We will turn Baghdad into a sheet of glass.”Israel has the fifth largest nuclear arsenal on earth, with two hundred nuclear warheads. Also US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his British counterpart Geoffrey Hoon have made it clear that they won’t hesitate to use nuclear weapons. Nobody has really looked at
what Britain and America are rather chillingly referring to as
“the day after”. We all remember that film in the 1980s
about nuclear war called The Day After. Who is going to take
over? There is going to be a
bloodbath that the British and the Americans have not thought
through. Not because these are a warlike people but imagine if the
Iraqis or anyone else said “OK, we’ll come in and sort
out Tony Blair.” USA lied about Iraq's weapons A US-based Norwegian weapons inspector accuses the USA and Secretary of State Colin Powell with providing the United Nations Security Council with incorrect and misleading information about Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), newspaper Dagbladet reports. Joern Siljeholm, Ph.D. in environmental chemistry, risk analysis and toxicology, said that the USA's basis for going to war is thin indeed, and called it a slap in the face to the United Nations weapons inspectors. Siljeholm told Dagbladet that Colin Powell's report to the Security Council on how Iraq camouflaged their WMD program was full of holes. "Much of what he said was wrong. It did not match up at all with our information. The entire speech was misleading," Siljeholm said. Asked if the Americans lied, Siljeholm said: "Lie is a strong word - but yes, the information Powell presented about Iraq's nuclear program was simply incorrect," Siljeholm said. "We received much incomplete and poor intelligence information from the Americans, and our cooperation developed accordingly. Much of what has been claimed about WMDs has proven to be sheer nonsense. From what I have seen they are going to war on very little," Siljeholm told Dagbladet. After 100 days in Iraq, Siljeholm, now a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, is on holiday in Florida with his family. "I strongly doubt that the
American will find anything at all. In any case I doubt that they
will find WMDs that constitute a military threat," Siljeholm said.
Siljeholm said that his thoughts are now with the Iraqi people he
met, and who cooperated with the inspectors. "It is a weary country
with many weary people. The people want peace," Siljeholm
said. Comment: Well we all knew that but its nice to
have it confirmed, even if its too late. US to use ICBMs in war on Iraq? The attack on Iraq may begin with the firing of 5-10 conventionally-armed Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles from the US mainland on Saddam Hussein "strongholds" in and around Baghdad and perhaps Tikrit. Reasons: 1) Public Relations. There is nothing more spectacular than the firey vapour trails from multiple reentry vehicles shooting through the sky at kilometres per second. [See attached pictures.]. The fireworks would be unprecedented, making the beginning of the attack on Iraq as extraordinary as the attack on the World Trade Center. Television cameras could be put in place after the arrival of the first warheads in Baghdad to capture pictures of an even greater shower a couple of minutes later, relayed to American screens in real-time. 2) Complete Surprise. There is no indication that such an attack is coming and there has been complete silence about the possibility. The only warning would be reports from the US that rockets had been launched from silos. The warheads would arrive in Iraq in about 30 minutes, before news reached the outside world. Such an attack would be consistent with Bush's declaration of a 48 hour window for Saddam to leave Iraq with an attack "at time of our choosing". 3) Specific and Personal. The attack would be an expression of American determination to fight Saddam Hussein specifically and remove him by the most direct and powerful military means possible. Having been given 48 hours to leave the country or be attacked, the US has made it clear that the first aim is to strike preemptively against Saddam himself. 4) Putative Accuracy. ICBM strike would be the clearest way to conduct a so-called " surprise surgical strike" against Saddam himself and all his doubles in numerous suspected hideouts nearly simultaneously. Each warhead could contain enough conventional explosive to destroy a significant building. Iraqi intelligence can probably give enough warning of impending cruise missile attack for Saddam to move into the open away from potential target locations. 5) Precedent Setting. The putative justification for a preemptive attack on Iraq has no precedent in United Nations history, leaving it to the US to build a case in terms of its own determination and the intensity of its own actions. After using unprecedented military means it is easier to argue that the situation required their application. By setting a new precedent the US will have an easier time threatening the use of even greater force in the future. 6) Perception. The use of ICBMs against an individual/regime makes the missiles look less like weapons of mass destruction (in American hands as opposed to Iraqi hands). The threshold between nuclear weapons (traditionally delivered by ICBMs) and conventional weapons is further blurred, serving US policy interests. 7) Testing. There has never been an opportunity to test ICBMs under "battle" conditions. Of greatest interest will be whether multiple firings have an influence on one another, especially at targets in close proximity. It will be possible to verify strike accuracy afterwards very easily. It is probable that special telemetry aircraft (rather like AWACS) will be safely deployed to gather signals from the incoming warheads. 8) Economics. The time has come to build more ICBMs to keep the arms economy going. Until their real usefulness is demonstrated and the old ones are used up, no new construction is likely to get the go ahead. Pictures and more Comment: Not that the US is new to commiting war crimes, but this reckless massacring of innocent Iraqi civilians is nothing short of "evil" The war has started British and American troops were involved in fierce fighting near Iraq's main port today as the war to topple Saddam Hussein began. The firefight broke out near Basra as men of the Special Boat Service targeted the strategically vital city and the oilfields in southern Iraq. At the same time allied troops were flooding into the demilitarised zone on the Iraqi border with Kuwait 40 miles away to take up positions for an all-out invasion. Cruise missiles were also loaded onto B52 bombers at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, a clear sign that the bombardment of Baghdad could be only hours away. British troops taking up "forward battle positions" were ordered to switch off satellite phones and allied warplanes bombed targets in Iraq after coming under fire in the no-fly zone. By lunchtime, allied forces were in position to strike from the moment the 48-hour deadline set by President Bush for Saddam to quit Iraq expires at 1am British time tomorrow. But the White House had refused to rule out a strike before that. The fighting reported at Basra was believed to involve British special forces and US marines in an operation to prepare landing sites for amphibious craft during an invasion. Other special units were deep inside Iraq on secret operations to prepare landing strips in the desert for airborne troops. Basra, Iraq's only seaport,
lies on the Shatt al Arab waterway where the Tigris and the
Euphrates open into the northern Gulf. Surrounded by treacherous
sandbanks and marshes it is difficult to approach from the sea.
Artillery, infantry and the tanks of the 7th Armoured Brigade had
already moved into Forming Up Positions, and some were already on
the start line. An attack could target Basra and proceed up
alongside the Euphrates towards the strategic cities of Nasariya,
Najaf and Karbala. Oregonians this is an urgent action alert. The Oregon Senate is fast tracking (apparently) a "terrorism" bill that seems to be broadly aimed at protesters and calls for life Imprisonment if it is passed. This bill was introduced the end of February (2/27/03 I believe), and they are holding a public hearing on it already. As weird as this bill seems, it is NOT A JOKE. You need to call your Oregon Senate legislator and the committee members or email them. The bill and action information is in the extended entry. Please spread this information as widely as possible! SB 742 is sponsored by Senator Minnis who is also the Chair of the Judiciary Committee that is holding the public hearing on the bill. Below is the first part of the bill (FYI) which among other things calls "the disruption of commerce or educational and government institutions" terrorism and makes it punishable by life imprisonment.
SUMMARY The following summary is
not prepared by the sponsors of the measure and is not Creates crime of terrorism. Punishes by life imprisonment. A BILL FOR AN ACT Relating to terrorism;
creating new provisions; and amending section 19, "Few of us can easily
surrender our belief that society must somehow make sense. The
thought that the state has lost its' mind is intolerable, and so
the evidence has to be internally denied."
RED
ALERT? STAY HOME, AWAIT WORD If the nation escalates to
"red alert," which is the highest in the "This state is on top of it," said Sid Caspersen, New Jersey's director of the office of counter-terrorism. Caspersen, a former FBI agent, was briefing reporters, alongside Gov. James E. McGreevey, on Thursday, when for the first time he disclosed the realities of how a red alert would shut the state down. A red alert would also tear away virtually all personal freedoms to move about and associate. "Red means all noncritical functions cease," Caspersen said. "Noncritical would be almost all businesses, except health-related." A red alert means there is a severe risk of terrorist attack, according to federal guidelines from the Department of Homeland Security. "The state will restrict transportation and access to critical locations," says the state's new brochure on dealing with terrorism. "You must adhere to the restrictions announced by authorities and prepare to evacuate, if instructed. Stay alert for emergency messages." Caspersen went further than the brochure. "The government agencies would run at a very low threshold," he said. "The state police and the emergency management people would take control over the highways. "You literally are staying home, is what happens, unless you are required to be out. No different than if you had a state of emergency with a snowstorm." Comment: Yeah no different other than you dont get shot if you go out in a snow storm. Boy they really are not hanging around are they? This could spell trouble for the 25% of Americans who actually have a passport, complete lockdown, anyone who disagrees and wants to travel, we have a nice enclosure in the countryside with 12 feet wire fence and guards we can send you to. Yep, its all happening folks, right under our noses, we should be priveleged that we are getting to relive history in this way, I bet many of us wondered what it was like in 2WW Germany, now we get to find out. As the saying goes, "this is not a drill". Protesters Vow to Greet War with Widespread Civil Disobedience Having had months to focus on the buildup toward conflict with Iraq, America's anti-war activists say they are ready to mark the first days of war with protests in dozens of cities coast to coast. They vow to
block federal buildings, military compounds and streets in a rash
of peaceful civil disobedience. They say they will walk out of
college classes, picket outside city halls and state capitols, and
recite prayers of mourning at interfaith services. "It is sort of
an acknowledgment that we are probably not going to be able to stop
the war," said Joe Flood, who is helping to plan a student walkout
from classes at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass. He said
more than 1,000 people have pledged to participate. Comment: Just what those guys at Homeland security need,
a bunch of
"disgruntled
individuals" to test out the new
gulags. PM under siege after committing Australian troops to Iraq war Australian Prime Minister John Howard was forced to leave home by a back door Wednesday as anti-war protesters blocked the front gates of his official residence here. Up to 15 Greenpeace activists protesting the government's decision on Tuesday to commit troops to a US-led invasion of Iraq moved in around dawn, chaining themselves to the gates and to four-wheel drive vehicles blocking the entrances of the residence. They carried banners proclaiming "Howard's war -- a bloody outrage" and "John Howard -- war criminal" in a peak-hour protest that caused major traffic congestion on one of Canberra's major arterial roads. Howard, dogged in recent days by protestors wherever he goes, came face to face with the demonstrators as he left for his early morning walk. He challenged them when he returned, telling one: "I'm entitled to my opinion, you're entitled to yours." Later the protesters prevented Howard leaving for nearby Parliament House by car, forcing him instead to use a pedestrian gate to reach a waiting car outside. Police persuaded the protesters to end their protest two and a half hours later and said they would not be arrested. Wearing blue UN berets, 10 of the protesters used bicycle locks to chain themselves underneath four-wheel drives mocked up to look like UN vehicles, and to security gates. Greenpeace spokesman Shane Rattenbury said the protesters were symbolically placing Howard under house arrest. "The prime minister said yesterday not to have an argument with the Australian troops and to bring the beef to him," Rattenbury said. "That's what we have done here, we've brought it here to the PM's house to deliver the message that Australians don't want this war in Iraq. "It's not our war. It's immoral, illegal, and Australians shouldn't be there." The protesters said they
faced no opposition as they began their action. But soon afterwards
at least 20 police as well as official security guards and plain
clothes security officers arrived to guard the compound, about 500
metres (1,650 feet) from Parliament House. Comment: Check out
Howard's ridiculous statement above, "I'm entitled to my opinion",
this is the kind of BS that we hear from Bush and Blair also. We
are told Blair has a "strong personal convition that this war is
justified", Bush
evokes his
faith in an attempt to convince us that he knows what he is
doing. Seems it has escaped these "leaders" that democracy is about
carrying out the will of the people and not the whims of one man,
that type of governance has another name. The United States was shifting on to high terrorism alert yesterday as the government announced a wartime homeland security plan, Operation Liberty Shield, that will see hundreds of asylum seekers rounded up and detained, and 11,000 Iraqis living in America invited to interviews by the FBI.[...] Setting out the thinking behind Liberty Shield, Mr Ridge said al-Qaida remained the "principal threat," but said "Iraqi state agents" or even just "disgruntled individuals" may use this time period to conduct terrorist attacks against the United States and our interests". Read more A QFS member comments: Again in a foreign newspaper do I find out what my country has planned for us. I can't believe this. I can't believe that I am sitting here typing this out. That I am in a country that is again using the pretext of a fake war to round up and more likely than not intern a race of people. I grew up in California, where we were required to learn about Manzanar. I used to go to Mammoth a lot and along the way you always passed by it. Seeing then only slabs of concrete remaining from what was a travesty within this countries history, I thought that interning was just that, part of history. I wonder if my daughter will grow up, older will she pass by where the camps were that held the middle easterners; will only fence posts and concrete slabs remain then too? And for those that are not familiar with my references to the internment camps at Manzanar, here is an excerpt from a site about such: "The remains of one of the most shameful acts committed by the United States government this century can be found between the towns of Lone Pine and Independence in California's Owens Valley at a place called Manzanar. Here and at nine other locations in the U.S., thousands of individuals, nearly two-thirds American citizens, were rounded up and held in concentration camps during World War II. Rabid anti Japanese
American racism surfaced the first days after Pearl Harbor. The FBI
and the military had been compiling lists of "potentially
dangerous" Japanese Americans since 1932, but most were merely
teachers, businessmen or journalists. Even these lists totaled only
about 2,000 names in a community of 127,000 (37% were aliens, known
as Issei, the rest American-born Nisei, who theoretically had the
same rights as other citizens). Though there was no evidence of a
single case of Japanese-American espionage throughout the war, FBI
agents on the afternoon of Dec. 7 began to detain suspected
"subversives" They swooped down on a Los Angeles baseball field,
for example, to apprehend members of a team called the L.A.
Nippons. Within two months, 2,192 "suspects" had been jailed. The
U.S. Constitution is supposed to protect citizens against arbitrary
arrest, but a U.S. law of 1924 had virtually forbidden Japanese
immigration and extension of American citizenship, so most of the
arrested suspects were classified as "enemy aliens." Further
Comment:Taking this narrative
we can easily replace things like Pearl Harbor The Psychology of War---One more time. For many people, reality is just too fuzzy. Too many shades of gray. They never stop to imagine that the primary implication of the American republic is a kind of decentralization, in which people spread out over the landscape and live highly different and individual lives. If they did stop to imagine this scenario, they wouldn't like it. Because they somehow mis-equate American freedom with the one and only righteousness AS THEY SEE IT. The one right way to think, to live, to act. And that righteousness opposes the muscular, resourceful decentralization which the American republic is supposed to embody. They spend their lives looking for the perfect black and white situation. They seek the crystallization of the right thing versus the wrong thing. That moment. They seek the defining moment. They believe everything is meant to lead up to that. And if they never do come to that moment, they can watch versions of it on television, over and over. This is the psychology that is played upon by leaders. The key men in the Pentagon and the White House and their attending warhawks have spent years trying to arrange THE DEFINING MOMENT. They have been frustrated, time and time again, by an out-of-focus state of affairs. They have been playing with the lenses of their binoculars, trying to screw in the exact essence of duality. They see the attainment of this as their triumph. The enemy is in the crosshairs. Everything they, the righteous ones, stand for, is counterbalanced against what the enemy believes. Life has been leading up to THIS. And the cannon fodder, those 300,000 American troops ready to go, and the Iraqi population, are the minor players that will make it all come true. At ground level, in the camps of Kuwait, there are many American boys and men who likewise feel that everything in their lives has been a prelude to this. Now they can prove themselves. Now they can give vent to the urge for destroying evil. Destroying evil. Who, once the filaments and the cardboard and phony facades are taken away, does not want to destroy evil? But two things characterize the players in this drama: they have forgotten that endless individual creation is the primary impulse of life; and they do not realize that, in wars, often the enemy has been created/inflated by larger powers---and that those powers who, behind the scenes, make and maintain the enemies are the real evil. For all its magnetic strength, the defining moment is an illusion---one upon which much organized religion is based. Because after the moment has been engaged and after the battle has taken place, its participants stagger off to figure out what happened. A malaise sets in. A depression. A strange time. And then a new generation is needed, to train in the psychology of simple and perfect opposition. So once again we return to the Persian Gulf. Our civilization, once again, has failed to launch an adventure that, in the mind's eye, outdistances the need for the defining moment. Comment: The author in the above article touches on a very significant point, i.e. that of the STS dynamic. It is a form of viewing the world that is always relative to the subjective feelings and understanding of the viewer. Essentially it attempts to impose the distorted inner world view of the way things "should be" on outer objective reality, ignoring to a large extent the true nature of that reality. This in essence is what has been at the root of human suffering for eons, since we all possess by default (courtesy of our 4D taskmasters) this twisted form of thinking, and we ultimately learn that we ignore "what is" at our peril. At present the warhawks and those that pull their strings are examples of an extreme version of this form of wishful thinking, yet they are in a rather unique position in comparison to the rest of us in that due to their positions of power and control they can allow thmselves the luxury of, if only temporarily, seeing their wishful thinking actually bear significant and seeminly lasting results, with the auto-deception being all the more convincing since it is done on a global scale with many millions of others buying into, and thereby bolstering, the lie . In the STS hierarchy this goes right the way up the pyramid, so to speak, with the upper echelons providing for those below both the illusion by way of false promises and the bursting of the bubble when they are invariably dispensed with having served thier function. We may well see this happen with Bush and Co, with Israel and even with the "backroom boys" whose names have never been known publicly. However for those at the pinnacle of the pyramid, those that remain fully "behind the veil", it will require the full force of the culmination of "the grand cycle" to provide them with the final terrible realisation of the stark contrast between what they wish to be true and what truly IS. And this is where we can play our part. It is of utmost importance for all of usthat feel so inclined, to strive to recognise and declare what "IS" in every aspect of our lives and the reality in which we live. In this way we provide one more "option" for the imminently branching universe and as the Cs have said "the universe likes to keep all its options open until the last instant" Thank You President Bush: By Paul Coelho March 11 2003 Thank you, great leader
George W. Bush. Thank you for showing everyone what a danger Saddam
Hussein represents. Many of us might otherwise have forgotten that
he used chemical weapons against his own people, against the Kurds
and against the Iranians. Hussein is a bloodthirsty dictator and
one of But this is not my only reason for thanking you. During the first two months of 2003, you have shown the world a great many other important things and, therefore, deserve my gratitude. So, remembering a poem I learned as a child, I want to say thank you. Thank you for showing
everyone that the Turkish people and their parliament are not for
sale, not even for 26 billion dollars. Thank you for revealing to
the world the gulf that exists between the decisions made by those
in power and the wishes of the people. Thank you for making it
clear that neither José María Aznar nor Tony Blair give
the slightest weight to or show the slightest respect for the votes
they received. Aznar is perfectly capable of ignoring the fact Thank you for making it necessary for Tony Blair to go to the British parliament with a fabricated dossier written by a student ten years ago, and present this as 'damning evidence collected by the British Secret Service'. Thank you for allowing Colin Powell to make a complete fool of himself by showing the UN Security Council photos which, one weeklater, were publicly challenged by Hans Blix, the chief weapons inspector in Iraq. Thank you for adopting your current position and thus ensuring that, at the plenary session, the French foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin's anti-war speech was greeted with applause -- something, as far as I know, that has only happened once before in the history of the UN, following a speech by Nelson Mandela. Thank you too, because, after all your efforts to promote war, the normally divided Arab nations were, for the first time, at theirmeeting in Cairo during the last week in February, unanimous in their condemnation of any invasion. Thank you for your rhetoric stating that 'the UN now has a chance to demonstrate its relevance', a statement which made even the most reluctant countries take up a position opposing any attack on Iraq. Thank you for your foreign policy which provoked the British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, into declaring that in the 21st century, 'a war can have a moral justification', thus causing him to lose all credibility. Thank you for trying to divide a Europe that is currently struggling for unification; this was a warning that will not go unheeded. Thank you for having achieved something that very few have so far managed to do in this century: the bringing together of millions of people on all continents to fight for the same idea, even though that idea is opposed to yours. Thank you for making us feel once more that though our words may not be heard, they are at least spoken -- this will make us stronger in the future. Thank you for ignoring us, for marginalising all those who oppose your decision, because the future of the Earth belongs to the excluded. Thank you, because, without
you, we would not have realised our own ability to mobilise. It may
serve no purpose this time, but it will doubtless be useful later
on. Now that there seems no way of silencing the drums of war, I
would Thank you for allowing us -- an army of anonymous people filling the streets in an attempt to stop a process that is already underway -- to know what it feels like to be powerless and to learn to grapple with that feeling and transform it. So, enjoy your morning and whatever glory it may yet bring you. Thank you for not listening to us and not taking us seriously, but know that we are listening to you and that we will not forget your words. Thank you, great leader George W. Bush. Thank you very much. Phone bugs found at EU-HQ Telephone bugging systems have been found targeting a number of delegations at EU headquarters, notably the French and the Germans, an official said. The illegal systems were found in the Council building, where meetings of EU ministers and leaders are held. An EU summit is to be held tomorrow and Friday, overshadowed by Iraq. Intelligence services from the council and the countries concerned have launched an investigation into the bugs, but "it is impossible at this stage" to determine who planted them, said the official. According to the French daily Le Figaro, Belgian police have identified "Americans" as those responsible. But Belgian authorities said police had not been involved in the case, and declined any further comment. "The investigation has only just started and we know nothing yet about who has benefited from this crime," said Dominique-Georges Marro, head of the council's press service. A spokesman for the US mission to the EU declined to comment on the report immediately. "I don't have anything on it right now ... it's something which just came to our attention," he said. France and Germany have been in a fierce standoff over the looming war on Iraq, notably with EU members Britain and Spain who support the US threat of conflict. Marro said the bugging systems were found "in recent
days" during regular inspections by security services. "Attempts
had previously been made but this is the first time that we have
found a system already in place," he said. "The investigation
should determine how long it has been in place," he added. "A small
number of delegations" were targeted, including the French and
German, he said, declining to list any other countries involved.
The bugging system was apparently put in place via the council's
switchboard to monitor telephone lines to rooms used by delegations
inside the building. EU political leaders and their civil servants
meet in such rooms in the sidelines of ministerial meetings and
summits. The French and German delegations declined immediately to
comment on the investigation. Comment:
One word. Mossad Giant computing project narrows hunt for aliens Anyone who grew up with the Clangers will have their own idea what creatures from another planet sound like. Now scientists are to investigate for themselves by analysing up to 200 "promising" noises from space that may indicate aliens of the non-knitted kind are contacting us. The signals have been picked out by the world's biggest computing project. More than 4 million people have set up special "screensavers" that look for the signals when their PCs are idle. Yesterday, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Seti) group in California visited the giant Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico to point it at the sources of notable "signals" picked out from five billion analysed in the past four years. But the scientists say intelligent life is not likely to be located for another 20 years at least. Dan Werthimer, Seti@Home's chief scientist, said: "These are the best signals that 4 million volunteers have found." Comment: 20 years??!! Am I imagining things or has the party line on this subject of alien life changed in a BIG way? Weren't we always told that finding intelligent life was extremely remote and that the chances of them contacting us or otherwise making their presence know next to nil? So where does the 20 years come from? Seems to me that there is a very sneaky ramping up to disclosure going on.
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