The deception that launched the invasion of Iraq now increasingly shapes media coverage of the occupation

Three years after invading Iraq, George Bush and Tony Blair are still dipping into the trough of deception and disinformation that launched the war: hailing non-existent progress, declaring sanctimonious satisfaction with sectarian elections and holding out the mirage of early withdrawal. In reality, the occupation and divide-and-rule tactics have spawned death squads, torture, kidnappings, chemical attacks, polluted water, depleted uranium, bombardment of civilians, probably more than 100,000 people dead and a relentless deterioration in Iraqis' daily lives.

Much of this goes unreported in the British and American media, stripped of context or consigned to the small print.The headlines are reserved for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terrorism, Saddam Hussein's farcical trial and the perennial "exit strategy". We are fed the occupiers' spin, while words of scepticism are deemed jarring. Invited to join a popular BBC radio programme for Iraq's recent elections, I quoted George Bush's accidental brush with reality when he declared: "You can't have free and fair elections in Lebanon under Syrian occupation." An editor politely said: "Sorry Sami, but we are sticking to a positive spin on this one. I am sure we will invite you on other occasions."

A few days ago, a large-scale opinion poll conducted by Maryland University showed that 87% of Iraqis (including 64% of Kurds) endorsed a demand for a timetabled withdrawal of the occupiers. The findings were mostly ignored by the British media.

Rising global oil prices are bolstering the power of America's enemies around the world, strengthening the regimes in Iran, Syria, Sudan and Venezuela and increasing Russia's assertiveness in eastern Europe, US intelligence agencies said on Thursday.

Two days after President George W. Bush called for the US to end its "addiction to oil", John Negroponte, the Director of National Intelligence, said the combination of rising demand for energy and instability in oil-producing regions "is increasing the geopolitical leverage of key producing states".

Negroponte said in testimony to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, that the most important election on the African horizon will be held in spring 2007 in Nigeria, the continent's most populous country and largest oil producer. The vote has the potential to reinforce a democratic trend away from military rule—or it could lead to major disruption in a nation suffering frequent ethno-religious violence, criminal activity, and rampant corruption.

He said that speculation that President Obasanjo will try to change the constitution so he can seek a third term in office is raising political tensions and, if proven true, threatens to unleash major turmoil and conflict. Such chaos in Nigeria could lead to disruption of oil supply, secessionist moves by regional governments, major refugee flows, and instability elsewhere in West Africa.

For hundreds of years, the New World was the dumping ground for the misfits and criminals of Europe. The indigenous peoples of the Americas were their first victims. Will those who once cast off their rejects now stand up and face the consequences?

Hello Vatican, Europe, Britain, Africa and all of those other nations and authorities who used the "New World" as the dumping ground for their undesirables, their criminally greedy, their power mad, their intolerably dishonest, their delusional, their mentally deficient and dangerously violent members, for well over 300 years. We, the tattered, surviving remnants of the more than 500 Nations of Free and Independent Peoples of North America, once numbered approximately 300,000,000 souls before Columbus arrived. We were less than 10,000,000 within two generations after his departure, and entire Nations of us, some among them the most ancient of us, were wiped out, their civilizations destroyed completely. Next we were deliberately betrayed and exterminated, wholesale, for some 300 years thereafter, until today only a sad, official remnant of some 2,500,000 of us survive, with an unofficial estimate of as many as another 5,000,000 to 7,500,000 acculturated and living legally classified as white or black among the general U.S. population due to the racist, U.S. government established and enforced "blood quotas" designed to ever limit and diminish our numbers. We defy you to name to us any Peoples upon the face of this Earth who have endured more injustice, or for so long, and have, to this day, received so very little acknowledgment or awareness of it in the global Human community and consciousness. In order to satisfy your ancestors' lusts, and the lusts of their descendants for wealth and power and land, the largest genocide in known human history was committed against us, and it has never truly ended. For over 100 hundred years it was the official U.S. government policy, and, before that, for the previous 200 years or more, it was the official policies of the various or serial British, French, Dutch and Spanish colonies. To this day, your nations, your governments continue block all of our repeated attempts to file suits and seek redress for their crimes against us in the World Court. Now, we, the survivors of your genocides have a message for you.

Gold was up again last week closing at 571.90 dollars an ounce, up 2.3% from $558.90 the week before and up 13% since Christmas when it was at $505.90. The dollar closed at 0.8317 euros on Friday, up 0.6% from 0.8269 the previous Friday. The euro, then, closed at 1.2024 dollars, compared to 1.2094 the week before. Gold in euros, then, would be 475.63 euros an ounce, up 2.9% from 462.13 euros an ounce the week before. Oil closed at $65.37 a barrel, down 3.7% from 67.76 dollars a barrel at the previous week's close. Oil in euros would be 54.37 euros a barrel, down 3.1% from 56.03 the week before. The gold/oil ratio closed at 8.75 barrels of oil per ounce of gold, up 6.1% from 8.25 the at the previous Friday's close. In U.S. interest rates, the yield on the ten-year U.S. Treasury note was 4.53 at the end of the week, up two basis points from 4.51 the week before. In the U.S. stock market, the Dow closed at 10,793.62, down 1.1% from 10,907.21 at the close of the previous Friday. The NASDAQ closed at 2,262.58, down 1.8$ from 2,304.23 the week before.

In our latest podcast, we discuss another one of the more interesting hypnotherapy cases from the early days of the Cassiopaean Experiment with Laura Knight-Jadczyk. Laura describes a session she conducted during her years as a hypontherapist, complete with audio clips from the session itself. This time around, it seems the problem is not demonic possession, but an apparent alien abduction. It's another hair-raising podcast!

Running Time: 00:45:10

Download: MP3

So Sen. Pat Roberts has comeout and backed the idiot Bush's divine right to conduct domestic spying. Well ain't that a doozie.

WASHINGTON - National Intelligence Director John Negroponte told Congress on Thursday that Iran probably does not yet have nuclear weapons, nor has it obtained the material central to producing them.

Still, Negroponte called Iran's nuclear program a matter of "highest concern." In prepared testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, he said that Iran and

North Korea are both major threats to U.S. security.

What are we to make of the "furore" surrounding the publishing of anti-Islam cartoons by Dutch and French daily papers? The intent seems clear enough - to portray Islam, and therefore all Muslims as fanatic terrorists, and to provoke Muslim groups to confirm for the world that this portrayal is accurate - which is exactly what has happened. Flag and effigy burning has already ensued in Pakistan, Indonesia, and the Palestine territories. In Iran, hundreds of thousands of worshipers staged a protest demonstration against the insulting cartoons, shouting "Death to America," "Death to Israel" and "this insult will not remain unanswered."

Lately, I find myself in a bit of a funk. It all started with Patrick Fitzgerald riding in on his white horse and dishing out indictments left and right - at least, that's what everyone thought he would do. But that's not what happened.

There has also been a lot of talk lately about impeaching Bush and the rest of the corrupt gang in Washington. Given the rate at which things are progressing in the US at the moment, however, I suspect that in the not too distant future, I may be concluding my thoughts on the impeachment idea with another "But that's not what happened".

The question I keep turning over in my head is this: is it that not enough Americans can see what is going on in the US of A, or is it that enough Americans see, but aren't doing enough?

It is easy to see how the former could well be true. American society has always been one of ideals and saviors. The reality of the situation never mattered as much as the fact that one was working toward that ideal job or ideal moral plateau. Nowhere is this more evident than in the extreme religion that the Bush gang uses to garner support in its battle against a different "extreme" religion. Indeed, we might notice that "extremism" is the word of the decade. While many Americans seek saviors to preserve their way of life, the Bush gang warns of "dangerous extremists" - you know: "the Devil himself is at work here!" It's the black and white view that is so loved by the psychopaths in power, and it is one that has unfortunately been adopted by the masses. As long as the people believe they have a little slice of heaven, they won't want to rock the boat too much. It's all or nothing. While many citizens are pleasantly distracted by this little game, the government gets away with whatever it wants. Americans are on a "need to know" basis, and the Bush gang has decided America doesn't need to know a thing.

Today, Oil company Royal Dutch Shell reported a record annual profit for a UK-listed company of $22.94bn. This comes on top of similarly outrageous profits previously posted by other major oil exploration companies. Exxon Mobil for example made a staggering $36.1 billion in 2005. Where do these vast sums of money come from? Check your bank balance, that might give you a clue.