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USA

Flashback SOTT Focus: The Tortured and Manipulated 'Terrorist Threat' Evidence

Editor's note: This Sott.net editorial is being 'flash-backed' as a result of the recent Portland 'terror' scare. Details of that incident can be read on Sott.net here. This article shows in abundant detail the efforts that the US government and associated 'Intel' agencies have made over the years to manufacture 'home-grown terrorism'
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Like most normal people, by the 100th day of the Obama administration I had hoped that Bush-era freaks like Dick Cheney would have respectfully withdrawn from public view and ultimately (and ideally) ended up parked in an old people's home where staff would joyfully beat them twice a day. But alas, like a recurring nightmare, Mr. Cheney at least seems unwilling to spare us his disturbing presence just yet.

Reading his recent rants on Obama's (now reversed) plans to release more prisoner abuse photos and roll back illegal wiretapping and close Gitmo etc, we get the impression that behind Cheney's anger lies fear (I'm generously presuming that there actually is something more to old snarly face than pure primal anger). But what could provoke fear in man whose idea of private conflict resolution is to try and blow your face off with his shotgun?

While Dick is undoubtedly frustrated at the thought of an end to the vicarious pleasure he surely derives from his personal (if indirect) involvement in the water-boarding, sodomising or plain ol' beating to death of innocent people, not to mention an end to his personal assassination squad, the many degrees of separation between an order from the office of the VP and the 'enhanced interrogation' room where the 'fun' takes place ensure that Cheney need not fear any jail time for his 'enhanced misdemeanors' (especially under the increasingly pusillanimous Obama aka 'Judas Goat').

2 + 2 = 4

SOTT Focus: SOTT Exclusive: The Stench of US Economic Decay Grows Stronger

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© Sott.net
On Thanksgiving Eve, the English language China Daily and People's Daily Online reported that Russia and China have concluded an agreement to abandon the use of the US dollar in their bilateral trade and to use their own currencies in its place. The Russians and Chinese said that they had taken this step in order to insulate their economies from the risks that have undermined their confidence in the US dollar as world reserve currency.

This is big news, especially for the news dead Thanksgiving holiday period, but I did not see it reported on Bloomberg, CNN, New York Times or anywhere in the US media. The ostrich's head remains in the sand.

Previously, China concluded the same agreement with Brazil.

As China has a large and growing supply of dollars from trade surpluses with which to conduct trade, China is signaling that she prefers Russian rubles and Brazilian reals to more US dollars.

The American financial press finds solace in the episodes when sovereign debt scares in the EU send the dollar up against the euro and UK pound. But these currency movements are just measures of financial players shorting troubled EU-denominated debt. They are not a measure of dollar strength.

Ambulance

SOTT Focus: Burying The Vegetarian Hypothesis

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In 1999, Sally Fallon published the instant classic, Nourishing Traditions. It was subtitled "The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats"; a curious turn of phrase not only because the book is so much more than a cookbook, but because it promises to challenge "politically correct nutrition". What could politically correct nutrition possibly mean?

If we look at the term political correctness we see that it connotes the idea of making an effort, through language or action, not too offend anyone. Unfortunately, what it usually amounts to is trying to predict what could possibly offend others and self-censor; usually in the most ungraceful and obvious manner so as to draw attention toward the effort being made and leading to an increase in discomfort for all involved. What could be more uncomfortable than having laid bare what another person thinks would offend you, usually without any insight to who you are as an individual but rather acting on simplistic stereotypes and even then completely missing the mark?

Politically correct nutrition can be looked at in the same manner. It is eating in a way that is designed not to offend anyone, particularly those who conform to the conventional mainstream perspective of what constitutes healthy eating. It is undeniable that at least part of the answer to the vast majority of the chronic health problems currently plaguing our population is to radically change and improve our diets, but just what changes need to be made is generally a hotly debated topic. The politically correct answer is what we have been told for the last half-century or more - eat less, exercise more, lower fat consumption, avoid cholesterol and, increasingly, eat less meat.

Evil Rays

SOTT Focus: The Sott Report: The Irish 'Banking' Meltdown & TSA Feel-Ups

The Sott Report's Joe Quinn details the ways in which the citizens of the world are being enslaved through financial manipulation and fear of bogus terror threats.


USA

SOTT Focus: November 22, 1963: The Day America Died


Comment: Marking the 50th anniversary of his election to the U.S. presidency and the 47th anniversary of his death, the following Focus piece on JFK is a short excerpt taken from author Laura Knight-Jadczyk's feature article in the latest issue of the Dot Connector Magazine. By subscribing you can support Sott.net and help us to keep the lighthouse shining!


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© Unknown

I've already written - more than once - that most of what we know as history is a pack of lies and the dedicated historian has to read as fast as they can, remember as much as they can, and have a really good ability to analyze the data in order to come even within hailing distance of the truth, i.e. 'what really happened.' In the case of current events, the active and careful historian has a little bit of an edge if they can catch initial reports before they are buried or spun. That is what someone did and then put together a video entitled Evidence of Revision. I highly recommend this rather painful trek into the past via on-the-spot news reports as well as audio and video tapes that were later retrieved and added to the collection. I can assure you, seeing what was reported in real time, observing the spin machine going into action, is an experience you'll never forget.

As far as the varying books about the assassination go, "Farewell America" is one of the saddest books ever written. It was by a pseudonymous author, James Hepburn, who was widely believed to have been a member of the French equivalent of the CIA. Hepburn based his book on hard intelligence gathered from French, Russian and even American sources. It was originally published in French in 1968 and was unavailable in the United States for many years. With the coming of the internet, it became available and I truly wish that every American would read it.

With remarkable skill and insight, the book outlines the overall situation in America at the time, and describes the players and most probable conspirators involved in the horrific and brutal public execution of probably the best president America ever had. There are many reasons to think that George H.W. Bush was involved in the plot, and today, having placed his idiot son on the throne, the world is so far from that world we could be living in had Kennedy lived, that it is like we all died back then, and now we have awakened in Hell.

Comment: Also written by Laura Knight-Jadczyk:

The JFK Series

JFK: The Debris of History

The Gladiator: John Fitzgerald Kennedy

JFK: The Bushes and The Lost King

Sim City and John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy and All Those "isms"

John F. Kennedy, J. Edgar Hoover, Organized Crime and the Global Village

John F. Kennedy and the Psychopathology of Politics

John F. Kennedy and the Pigs of War

John F. Kennedy and the Titans

John F. Kennedy, Oil, and the War on Terror

John F. Kennedy, The Secret Service and Rich, Fascist Texans

John F. Kennedy and the Monolithic and Ruthless Conspiracy


Bad Guys

SOTT Focus: TSA Gestapo Empire

Amtrak TSA
© Associated PressArmed guards: Coming to a rail station near you?
It doesn't take a bureaucrat long to create an empire. John Pistole, the FBI agent who took over the Transportation Security Administration on July 1 told USA Today 16 days later that protecting trains and subways from terrorist attacks will be as high a priority for him as air travel.

It is difficult to imagine New Yorkers being porno-screened and sexually groped on crowed subway platforms or showing up an hour or two in advance for clearance for a 15 minute subway ride, but once bureaucrats get their teeth in the bit they take absurdity to its logical conclusion. Buses will be next, although it is even more difficult to imagine open air bus stops turned into security zones with screeners and gropers inspecting passengers before they board.

Will taxi passengers be next? In those Muslim lands whose citizens the US government has been slaughtering for years, favorite weapons for retaliating against the Americans are car and truck bombs. How long before Pistole announces that the TSA Gestapo is setting up roadblocks on city streets, highways and interstates to check cars for bombs? That 15 minute trip to the grocery store then becomes an all day affair.

Indeed, it has already begun. Last September agents from Homeland Security, TSA, and the US Department of Transportation, assisted by the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, conducted a counter-terrorism operation on busy Interstate 20 just west of Atlanta, Georgia. Designated VIPER (Visible Inter-mobile Prevention and Response), the operation required all trucks to stop to be screened for bombs. Federal agents used dogs, screening devices, and a large drive-through bomb detection machine. Imagine what the delays did to delivery schedules and truckers' bottom lines.

Handcuffs

SOTT Focus: SOTT Exclusive: The Stench of American Hypocrisy, Part 2

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© Desconocido

In a recent column, "The Stench of American Hypocrisy," I noted that US public officials and media are on their high horse about the rule of law in Burma while the rule of law collapses unremarked in the US. Americans enjoy beating up other peoples for American sins. Indeed, hypocrisy has become the defining characteristic of the United States.

Hypocrisy in America is now so commonplace it is no longer noticed. Consider the pro-football star Michael Vick. In a recent game Vick scored 6 touchdowns, totally dominating the playing field. His performance brought new heights of adulation, causing National Public Radio to wonder if the sports public shouldn't retain a tougher attitude toward a dog torturer who spent 1.5 years in prison for holding dog fights.

I certainly do not approve of mistreating animals. But where is the outrage over the US government's torture of people? How can the government put a person in jail for torturing dogs but turn a blind eye to members of the government who tortured people?

Under both US and international law, torture of humans is a crime, but the federal judiciary turns a blind eye and even allows false confessions extracted by torture to be used in courts or military tribunals to send tortured people to more years in prison based on nothing but their coerced self-incrimination.

Compare Vick's treatment of dogs with, for example, the US government's treatment of Canadian "child soldier" Omar Khadr. Khadr was 15 when he was captured in Afghanistan in 2002, the only survivor of a firefight and an air strike on a Taliban position. He was near death, with wounds to his eyes and shoulder and shot twice in the back. The Americans accused the boy of having thrown a hand grenade during the military encounter that resulted in the death of a US soldier.

Star of David

SOTT Focus: The Road To Hope Convoy For Gaza - Sott Report Interviews Ken O Keefe

The SOTT Report's Joe Quinn speaks with Ken O'Keefe in Athens following the abduction of members of the Road to Hope convoy that was attempting to bring much needed aid to the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza.


Cheeseburger

SOTT Focus: Big Fat Lies

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© Sott.net/Jason Martin
Earlier this year, fast food behemoth Kentucky Fried Chicken unleashed their latest atrocity onto an unsuspecting public: a junk food nightmare ominously titled the 'Double Down'. This artery-clogging 'sandwich' forgoes any of the conventions of a sandwich - like bread for example - and instead delivers only the goods: two pieces of trans fat deep-fried chicken envelope an over-processed piece of bacon and some sort of cheese-like sauce.

Reactions to KFC's announcement were mixed, as could be expected. Some hedonists lauded its approach with a great deal of fanfare while health experts expressed understandable disgust. This led to blog comments of the usual variety - those who warn of the dangers of consuming something like this and call for its ban, those who bring up the important fact that it is their right to eat like this, and then those whose plan for eating it can only be attributed to spite - eating out of spite being a model adaptation for self-preservation.

Meteor

SOTT Focus: Explosion In Scottish Forest - Meteorite Impact?

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© Steven SweeneyGaradhban Forest near Loch Lomond
At about midday on Wednesday 17th November, a member of the public reported hearing a loud explosion from the area of Garadhban forest in Gartocharn, near Loch Lomond (near Glasgow) Scotland. Ten years ago, authorities would have responded to a report of an explosion in a forest with puzzlement and an at least semi-open-mind. But the bogus 'terror threat' has closed minds all around the world, and yesterday's event was immediately responded to by the 'anti-terrorism' police. Upon observing the scene and seeing damage to trees over a wide area, explosives were suspected (naturally!)