http://www.sott.net Signs of the Times, featuring news and commentary on world events. Never wavering in our unending search for the light of truth in a pathocracy driven world! en-us Original content Copyright 2010 by Signs of the Times. For other content, see our Fair Use Policy at www.sott.net Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:14:08 -0500 http://www.sott.net/images/sottlogo_rss.jpg SOTT.net http://www.sott.net http://www.sott.net/articles/show/202724-Video-Gaza-in-Plain-Language In articles acknowledging the one year anniversary of the assault on Gaza, blunt and unsparing language about what really happened is often avoided. Despite sympathy for and support of the Palestinian people in their struggle against dispossession and oppression, the description of what took place in January 2009 is sometimes buffered by a misguided sense of political correctness. Yes, it's terrible. Yes, it is unjust. But we don't want to be inflammatory or risk offending the sensitivities of those who through their own willful ignorance cling to the notion that Israel is a victim state, fighting for its very survival. The argument is that we should reach out to them and attempt to educate them and win them over. This video explains the situation in a more forthright manner. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/202724-Video-Gaza-in-Plain-Language Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:13:45 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/202679-Just-by-ending-the-damn-wars- "In America you can say anything you want - as long as it doesn't have any effect." - Paul Goodman Progressive activists and writers continually bemoan the fact that the news they generate and the opinions they express are consistently ignored by the mainstream media, and thus kept from the masses of the American people. This disregard of progressive thought is tantamount to a definition of the mainstream media. It doesn't have to be a conspiracy; it's a matter of who owns the mainstream media and the type of journalists they hire - men and women who would like to keep their jobs; so it's more insidious than a conspiracy, it's what's built into the system, it's how the system works. The disregard of the progressive world is of course not total; at times some of that world makes too good copy to ignore, and, on rare occasions, progressive ideas, when they threaten to become very popular, have to be countered. So it was with Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. Here's Barry Gewen an editor at the New York Times Book Review, June 5, 2005 writing of Zinn's book and others like it: http://www.sott.net/articles/show/202679-Just-by-ending-the-damn-wars- Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:41:44 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/202677-Conspiracies-of-Rich-Men-to-Commit-War-Crimes-and-Aggression The establishment derides conspiracies and, for awhile, it was fashionable to deny the existence of 'conspiracies'. In fact, conspiracies are how things get done. Very little is accomplished by one person working alone. If what is to be accomplished is illegal, the 'conspiracy' is called a 'crime syndicate' or 'orgnized crime'. If the 'conspiracy' in question is legal, however questionable, it is called a corporation or a business enterprise. Theorists on the high court have said corporations are people! But, should you call five idiots who have thus conspired to subvert the U.S. Constitution by the term 'conspirators', you are likely to be called a nut job! But SCOTUS believes mere words on paper is a real, living breathing person if it happens to have a seal on it supplied to you by the Delaware Secreatary of State! So --I ask you --who is nuts? http://www.sott.net/articles/show/202677-Conspiracies-of-Rich-Men-to-Commit-War-Crimes-and-Aggression Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:19:45 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/202665-Dr-Aafia-Siddiqui-Innocent-American-brutalized-by-American-injustice On February 3, a Department of Justice press release headlined "Aafia Siddiqui Found Guilty in Manhattan Federal Court of Attempting to Murder US Nationals in Afghanistan and Six Additional Charges." At her scheduled May 6 sentencing, she "faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on each of the attempted murder and armed assault charges; life in prison on the firearms charge; and eight years in prison on each of the remaining assault charges. Siddiqui faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years in prison on the firearms charge." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/202665-Dr-Aafia-Siddiqui-Innocent-American-brutalized-by-American-injustice Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:09:12 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/202627-Psychopath-Alastair-Campbell-Gets-Emotional-For-The-BBC Alastair Campbell - former tabloid trash peddler, bully, psychophant and Tony Blair's 'Director of Communications and Strategy', that is to say, chief spin doctor and liar. Campbell was personally responsible for molding and selling the lies to the public leading up to the Iraq invasion that has, to date, caused the deaths of over 2 million Iraqi citizens. He is also arguably the man who played the central role in the murder of Dr David Kelly. So, have you ever seen a psychopath attempt to appear "distressed"? Have a look. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/202627-Psychopath-Alastair-Campbell-Gets-Emotional-For-The-BBC Sun, 07 Feb 2010 18:50:18 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/202617-What-motivated-the-9-11-hijackers-See-official-testimony-most-didn-t http://www.sott.net/articles/show/202617-What-motivated-the-9-11-hijackers-See-official-testimony-most-didn-t Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:54:51 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/202484-Dubai-to-Issue-Arrest-Warrant-for-Israeli-PM-if-Mossad-Behind-Hamas-Killing Dubai is to issue an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, if investigators conclude that the Mossad intelligence service was behind the killing of a senior Hamas official in the emirate last month. The threat to detain the Israeli leader came as police in Dubai linked the apparent murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a senior member of the Hamas military wing, to the Jewish state for the first time. Dahi Khalfan Tamim, Dubai's police chief, claimed that the dead man was killed using methods known to be employed by Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence agency. He added that Mr Netanyahu would be held personally responsible if Mossad was identified as the culprit. "Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, will be the first to be wanted for justice as he would have been the one who signed the decision to kill al-Mabhouh in Dubai," Gen Tamim told The National, an English language newspaper in Dubai. "We will issue an arrest warrant against him." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/202484-Dubai-to-Issue-Arrest-Warrant-for-Israeli-PM-if-Mossad-Behind-Hamas-Killing Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:02:53 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/202465-As-US-formally-sanctions-extra-judicial-murder-of-US-citizens-ABC-investigation-reveals-it-s-been-going-on-for-years Rep. Hoekstra Says CIA Has Not Been Held Accountable for Deaths of Roni Bowers and Her Baby Daughter http://www.sott.net/articles/show/202465-As-US-formally-sanctions-extra-judicial-murder-of-US-citizens-ABC-investigation-reveals-it-s-been-going-on-for-years Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:00:15 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/202438-Drones-and-Death-The-Israeli-Connection Drones are remote-controlled airborne robots. They come in all shapes and sizes. These unmanned high-tech weapons are remarkably versatile. From thousands of feet in the air some reportedly have heat-detecting and surveillance instrumentation that can distinguish between an automatic weapon that has been recently fired and one that hasn't. Unlike the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Palestine, most US Americans are oblivious to drones. But we'd better wake up. Drones are poised to become tools of domestic surveillance. The Houston police are now secretly experimenting with drones. Col. Kevin Bradley, local Hancock Airbase drone commander, looks forward to having drones used for domestic police work (18 Dec.'09 Syracuse Post-Standard). ACLU please take note. In Upstate New York we're beginning to learn about the Reaper drone in our midst - "piloted" via satellite out of Hancock on the outskirts of Syracuse. Syracuse's Reaper now flies surveillance and assassination missions over Afghanistan. The Pentagon proudly describes the Reaper as a "hunter/ killer." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/202438-Drones-and-Death-The-Israeli-Connection Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:49:48 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/202344-Dr-Norman-Finkelstein-at-the-University-of-Waterloo A powerful three minute video. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/202344-Dr-Norman-Finkelstein-at-the-University-of-Waterloo Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:44:13 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/202238-The-Terror-Card-Fear-is-the-Key-to-Obedience The Terrorism Industrial Complex (TIC) Definitions of terrorism Webster's dictionary defines terrorism as the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.1 However, the United States code defined terrorism as "(An) act of terrorism means an activity that (A) involves a violent act or an act dangerous to human life that is a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any state, and (B) appears to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population: (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by assassination or kidnapping."2 This is an official congressional definition of terrorism that applies only to other nations. However, the psychological end results of terror, is always fear that eventually leads to resignation and submission. Fear and terrorism are interconnected, therefore, we should discuss their connection in order to understand their impact on our behavior, and their use to control people. Fear has been the glue that has kept people attached to their dictators and to their gods. It is worth our time to take a brief look at this phenomenon that rules our existence. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/202238-The-Terror-Card-Fear-is-the-Key-to-Obedience Mon, 01 Feb 2010 11:18:32 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/202121-Keiser-Report-12-Markets-Finance-Scandal- Every week Max Keiser looks at all the scandal behind the financial news headlines. This time Max Keiser and co-host Stacy Herbert look at the scandal behind the headlines about the Volcker plan, the Supreme Court ruling and about Central Banks robbing the middle classes. Keiser also speaks to Fred Harrison, the Renegade Economist, about property bubbles and privatizing wages. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/202121-Keiser-Report-12-Markets-Finance-Scandal- Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:19:11 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/202006-Wanted-Tony-Blair-for-war-crimes-Arrest-him-and-claim-your-reward Chilcot and the courts won't do it, so it is up to us to show that we won't let an illegal act of mass murder go unpunished The only question that counts is the one that the Chilcot inquiry won't address: was the war with Iraq illegal? If the answer is yes, everything changes. The war is no longer a political matter, but a criminal one, and those who commissioned it should be committed for trial for what the Nuremberg tribunal called "the supreme international crime": the crime of aggression. But there's a problem with official inquiries in the United Kingdom: the government appoints their members and sets their terms of reference. It's the equivalent of a criminal suspect being allowed to choose what the charges should be, who should judge his case and who should sit on the jury. As a senior judge told the Guardian in November: "Looking into the legality of the war is the last thing the government wants. And actually, it's the last thing the opposition wants either because they voted for the war. There simply is not the political pressure to explore the question of legality - they have not asked because they don't want the answer." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/202006-Wanted-Tony-Blair-for-war-crimes-Arrest-him-and-claim-your-reward Thu, 28 Jan 2010 10:13:50 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/201964-Obama-continuing-US-descent-into-barbarism-Presidential-assassinations-now-targeting-U-S-citizens The Washington Post's Dana Priest today reports that "U.S. military teams and intelligence agencies are deeply involved in secret joint operations with Yemeni troops who in the past six weeks have killed scores of people." That's no surprise, of course, as Yemen is now another predominantly Muslim country (along with Somalia and Pakistan) in which our military is secretly involved to some unknown degree in combat operations without any declaration of war, without any public debate, and arguably (though not clearly) without any Congressional authorization. The exact role played by the U.S. in the late-December missile attacks in Yemen, which killed numerous civilians, is still unknown. But buried in Priest's article is her revelation that American citizens are now being placed on a secret "hit list" of people whom the President has personally authorized to be killed: http://www.sott.net/articles/show/201964-Obama-continuing-US-descent-into-barbarism-Presidential-assassinations-now-targeting-U-S-citizens Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:30:16 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/201765-Israeli-hand-in-Iraq-s-Abu-Ghraib-exposed The former American military chief of the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq reveals more details about the Israeli involvement in the US-run facility, where hundreds of Iraqi suspects were tortured and sexually abused by US soldiers and interrogators. Shedding further light on the scandal that has served as a controversy-magnet for Washington ever since its emergence in 2004, the retired US army colonel Janis Karpinski says that Israeli agents were recruited by the US military at Abu Ghraib to interrogate the prisoners suspected of attacking US forces in Iraq. The report by the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar is set to fuel more debate on the matter as Karpinski had, until recently, refused to expound on the Israeli connection at Abu Ghraib despite admitting earlier to the presence of Israeli interrogators in the US-run compound. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/201765-Israeli-hand-in-Iraq-s-Abu-Ghraib-exposed Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:32:40 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/201755-Inside-Guantanamo-s-secret-trials The legality of holding terrorist suspects in Guantanamo Bay is once again before the US courts. Lawyers for an inmate at Guantanamo Bay, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, are arguing that his trial by military commission violates international law. The case is part of a wrenching battle in the US courts that goes to the heart of the war on terrorism and its legality. The Bush administration has argued that holding detainees without trial is imperative for national security, but lawyers for the Guantanamo Bay inmates argue that the detentions have no basis in law. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/201755-Inside-Guantanamo-s-secret-trials Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:30:37 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/201722-US-Democracy-s-End-of-the-Road This past week had the feel of "game, set, match," the end to a long string of miscalculations by the American Left and a crowning victory for the cynical American Right - a triple whammy of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling to unleash corporate campaign spending, Air America's dissolution, and the Massachusetts Senate election. Especially after the Supreme Court ruling allowing corporations to spend whatever they want to punish some politicans and reward others, it is hard to see a road back for American democracy. The United States is now at the very dark terminus of a four-decades-long journey, one in which - at nearly each fateful juncture - the Right made the smart maneuver and the Left mostly hurt itself, most notably by allowing its divisive squabbles over purity vs. pragmatism to destroy the best opportunities for progress. In retrospect, one can see key turning points as far back as 1968, the year when the Vietnam War and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy swallowed the optimism of a generation and divided the Democratic Party to such a degree that many progressives sat out the election, even though it meant that Richard Nixon would win and continue the war for four more years. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/201722-US-Democracy-s-End-of-the-Road Sun, 24 Jan 2010 17:03:16 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/201635-Under-International-Law-Blair-Bush-etc-Are-War-Criminals A four part (10 minutes each) video recording of a 2008 press conference held by John McDonnell MP, Chris Coverdale: International War Law Expert and Annie Machon of the Campaign to Make War History. MPs and the media are briefed on the war crimes committed against the people of Iraq by Britain's former Prime Minister and former Attorney General Lord Goldsmith. Well worth watching Part 1 click 'read more' for parts 2, 3, and 4 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/201635-Under-International-Law-Blair-Bush-etc-Are-War-Criminals Sat, 23 Jan 2010 15:28:23 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/201634-Founder-of-The-Weather-Channel-to-file-lawsuit-against-Gore-and-Climategate-cohorts Finally, efforts are being made by the founder of The Weather Channel, John Coleman, to sue Al Gore and his cohorts for perpetrating "the greatest scam in history" - the fraud of global warming. Thirty thousand others, comprised of scientists and experts, are also willing to join in that lawsuit. So how did this fraud all get started? It all started in Chicago shortly after Earth Day, April 17, 1995, when Al Gore went to Fall River, Mass., to give his green sermon speech. He was soon joined by Maurice Strong and Peter Knight, a registered lobbyist and Gore's former top Senate aid. It didn't take long before the Chicago Climate Exchange was formed and "a veritable rat's nest of cronyism" was formed. The largest shareholder in the Exchange is Goldman Sachs, and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley is its honorary chairman. The Joyce Foundation, which funded the Exchange, also funded money for John Ayers' Chicago School Initiative. John is the brother of William Ayers who was one of the founders of the Weathermen. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/201634-Founder-of-The-Weather-Channel-to-file-lawsuit-against-Gore-and-Climategate-cohorts Sat, 23 Jan 2010 15:27:27 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/201627-James-Hansen-Would-you-buy-a-used-temperature-data-set-from-THIS-man- Before we get too worried about NASA's latest stamping-its-little-feet claims that the world is getting hotter it is it is it IS, let us first remind ourselves why we should trust their temperature records slightly less far than we can spit. Then let's have a closer look at the character and motives of the man in charge of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), Dr James Hansen. Last year, he was described by his former course supervisor at NASA, Dr John Theon, as an "activist" and an embarrassment. Or as the Great Booker puts it: If there is one scientist more responsible than any other for the alarm over global warming it is Dr Hansen, who set the whole scare in train back in 1988 with his testimony to a US Senate committee chaired by Al Gore. Again and again, Dr Hansen has been to the fore in making extreme claims over the dangers of climate change. (He was recently in the news here for supporting the Greenpeace activists acquitted of criminally damaging a coal-fired power station in Kent, on the grounds that the harm done to the planet by a new power station would far outweigh any damage they had done themselves.) http://www.sott.net/articles/show/201627-James-Hansen-Would-you-buy-a-used-temperature-data-set-from-THIS-man- Sat, 23 Jan 2010 14:38:42 -0500