Among the many comments we have read and received on the alleged death of Gaddafi, the one most often repeated goes something like this: 'Gaddafi was a brutal dictator who deserved what he got'. The widely-held belief (at least in Western nations) that Gaddafi was a 'brutal dictator' is the result of over 30 years of (primarily) US, British and French propaganda against the former Libyan leader. The reasons for this long-running propaganda campaign are many, but chief among them is the fact that Gaddafi was not only fiercely independent as regards his native land, but he persistently sought to bring financial independence to other African nations.

It's The Media Stupid!

The average person in the street seems to find it difficult to grasp the idea that the 'national interests' of democratic governments often run counter to democratic ideals and that, in pursuing such interests, governments will attempt to maintain the appearance of remaining faithful to democratic ideals. Another way to say this is that governments will lie about their undemocratic activities in order to maintain a facade of democracy and thereby avoid disturbing the population. (For those who may have, understandably, forgotten the core democratic principles, check this link for a short refresher course.)

The maintenance of a democratic façade while pursuing undemocratic 'interests' is today only possible with the committed and almost unanimous connivance of the mainstream media, which unfailingly disseminates government propaganda to the people, and which the people in turn accept as gospel truth in the belief that the press is free and independent of government control. But virtually all Western mainstream media outlets today are owned by a handful of powerful corporations and mega-wealthy individuals who count high level members of Western governments among their close friends and confidants. The truth of this can easily be verified by anyone with a computer and a little time to do some research of their own. The extent of the actual freedom of the 'free press' can also be ascertained by revisiting the way in which the Western media blindly accepted and reported as truth government lies prior to and after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. It is reasonable then to conclude that the Western media, by and large, acts as a 'Ministry of Propaganda' for Western governments, especially in situations where government(s) are pursuing policies that are at variance with democratic ideals.

So, in light of all that, let's consider the question: "was Gaddafi really a 'brutal dictator'?"

At the time, much was made of the capture of Saddam Hussein. Touted by the US government-controlled American mainstream press as a fatal blow to the insurgency that would lead to rejoicing in the streets of Baghdad, the reality, as we have seen, has turned out to be rather different. Iraqis, logically enough, seem to be less concerned about Saddam's capture and trial than about the fact that a brutal US military force of occupation has essentially taken possession of their country and its resources and has caused the deaths of 655,000 of their fellow citizens.

After his initial capture in December 2003, Saddam was paraded in front of the press at his first court appearance in July 2004 where he stood accused of up to 12 crimes, including the alleged gassing of the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988. But fate (and in Iraq these days "fate" wears the red white and blue ) has decreed that "Saddam" will not suffer the ignominy of answering those particular charges because his first trial for the killing of 148 people in a Shiite town in 1982 was enough, it seems, to convict and sentence him to death. The sense of relief in the White House over the fact that the "gassing" allegation will not have to be dissected is surely palpable, given that, if Saddam gassed anyone, it was with the chemical weapons supplied to him by the US government.

"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves." - Abraham Lincoln

I was born in Iran in 1985 when the country was recovering from the effects of the 1979 revolution and the fascist take-over of the Islamic Republic. That, however, is not what I want to write about today. I'm writing about my experiences throughout my life with smoking and anti-smoking, and how closely the anti-smoking lobby, and the social attitudes it has produced, resembles fascism.

My father was a smoker, and my mom was not. In fact, after my parent's divorce, my mom became a complete anti-smoker. One reason was perhaps because she associated smoking with my father, whom she had begun to dislike. I had a different idea of smoking. Most of my father's family smoked, and I had nothing but fond memories from smokers - especially my father. The smell of tobacco on his clothes when he held me, the look of pleasure when he lit up a smoke after a nice meal and the hours of conversation that was spent between adults around the hookah.

My first experience with the anti-smoking lobby came one day at school, when my school (which, I should mention, was a complete by-product of the Islamic Republic's religious belief system) dedicated a whole day to inform children about the harmful effects of smoking and how we should all convince our parents to stop smoking if we wanted them to live. They even gave us stickers to take home with us that said, "Dear parent: do you want to live to see me grow up? Then stop smoking now!"

I remember being quite shocked and scared after that 'lesson' about smoking. I cried thinking my dad was surely going to die because he smoked a lot! My parents had divorced at that time, so when I went home I waited for my dad to come pick me up from my mom's house for our daily visit. When I returned home, I was still quite upset so my mom asked me what was the matter and I told her that I thought my dad was going to die because he smoked. She didn't say much except that smoking was indeed very bad and to go ahead and give my dad the sticker. When my dad came to pick me up, he was shocked to see my sad face and my puffy eyes from crying all day. I told him what had happened, gave him the sticker and begged him through tears to stop smoking. He became upset too, and in a low voice he said, "I'll try." But that wasn't good enough for me. I told him, "But don't you want to live to see me grow up?" He said, "Of course I do, but life is more complicated than that." Then he faced my mom and asked, "What kind of crap have they been teaching her in school?!?" My mom replied, "I happen to agree with what they taught!" And he replied, "Since when do you agree with the fascists of Islamic Republic?" My mom went silent and said nothing else.

"Never ascribe to malice those things which may be explained by stupidity." That is an important phrase, and a necessary one; it keeps people from being paranoid. However, it has a corollary most people don't know: "One MAY ascribe to malice those things which stupidity cannot explain." Robert Canup

As the mail continues to come in on the COINTELPRO issue, a number of questions have been raised - mainly about how to tell the difference between Truth and Lies - and I thought I would take some time this morning to try to cover a few aspects of this issue.

I've covered many aspects of this issue here and there on our websites, but since google manages to ensure that we are suppressed on search results, many people have not yet discovered these collections of observation, evidence, and supporting material. (Regarding google, we have been collecting data and making experiments for over a year now and will soon publish some of the results, but don't expect to them to be trumpeted by google!)

On 28 Feb 2007, SOTT ran the following item:

Extremist rabbis call for return of animal sacrifice

CNN/Associated Press
Wed, 28 Feb 2007 17:23 EST

Jerusalem-- A fringe group of extremist rabbis wants to resume the biblical practice of animal sacrifice at an explosive religious site in Jerusalem, members said Wednesday.

The request defied centuries of religious bans and triggered a stiff protest from a Muslim leader.

When the Jewish Temples stood in the Old City of Jerusalem more than 2,000 year ago, animal sacrifice was a centerpiece of the religion. After the destruction of the Temples, sacrifices were banned and rabbinical teachings took their place as the focus of Judaism.

Now a group, called the "Re-established Sanhedrin" after the Temple-era religious high court, has decided to buy some sheep and try to find one that is ritually perfect for sacrifice, with an eye toward resuming the practice at the Jerusalem site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.

The site is the most hotly disputed in the Middle East, home today to the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, where Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven. [...]

We thought it was a good opportunity to re-examine the following, horrifying material.

The accusation "cult" is almost literally a "kiss of death" in our world, most particularly since September 11, 2001 when - allegedly - 19 fanatical Islamic terrorists - brought the most powerful nation on earth to its knees (or seemingly.) There were years of preparation for this event, including numerous very public "cult" events - Jonestown, Waco, Heaven's Gate, Solar Temple, Satanic Ritual Abuse cases, etc - that set the stage in the minds of the masses. By the time 9-11 rolled around, all you had to do was whisper "cult" and the nation was ready to march on the castle with firebrands and pitchforks.

So, it is not a good idea to use the word "cult" lightly in view of this hystericized societal state. (Never mind the fact that the word itself has drastically changed in meaning.)

As I mentioned in my article yesterday, on first reading about Eric Pepin accused of being a cult leader, having been falsely, slanderously, and libelously accused of same myself, my first instinct was to think "hang on a minute!" But, as I noted, reading further, there were too many troubling signs of a lot more below the surface of this glitch in the life of Eric Pepin when he was caught, literally, with his pants down.

We have been collecting data about Eric from the net (and elsewhere) so as to be better equipped to deal with someone who has egregiously attacked our right to investigate our world and warn our readers of potential dangers. This information is continually being added to the forum thread about Eric Pepin that is the object of his lawsuit as reported yesterday. Curiously, Rick Ross's pages about Eric Pepin have disappeared except for google cache...

And so, in view of the current situation of Eric Pepin and the Higher Balance Institute vis a vis sott.net, we thought it would be helpful to our readers to reprise an older article that lays out a lot of informational background to the psy-op games being played in our world and on the internet in terms of social and ideological vectoring. Remember, different ideologies can mask the same pathological behavior...

Over the weekend, I went to the OWS demonstration and they surely didn't disappoint. Saturday's group was organized and calm as four building to sidewalk blocks were taken up with the group. Although there was a fire in their bellies, they showed a dignified grace under pressure as they walked flanked by police officers on foot, motorcycles and black SUV's.

Dear readers,

You may have noticed that we have removed articles and updates on the investigation of SOTT.net by the Toulouse Police.

Our motivation in publishing these articles, which included details of our interviews by the police and our analysis of them, was to express our frustration and dismay at being unjustly denounced as a 'cult'. Having had time to reflect on the situation we have come to the following conclusion:

We believe that our initial response to being, as we see it, unfairly accused, was both normal and understandable. However, we do not believe that we can reasonably justify directing our frustration at the Toulouse Police, or any other official law-enforcement institution in France.

In short, we are willing to take it on good faith, that in pursuing an investigation of SOTT.net, the Toulouse Police are simply fulfilling, in the normal procedural way, their duty to pursue an official complaint they received. As such, we would like to make it clear that we are willing to co-operate with the Police investigation in any way that is required of us, in the hope that our own good faith in this matter is duly recognised as swiftly as possible.

We trust we can count on your continued support.

The Editorial Board of SOTT.net

Since the 1990s, there have been several legal entities created in France that are supported by the government whose sole purpose is to mandate what people can think and believe. These organizations have the capability (expressly designed into them) of bypassing and/or superseding any rulings of the European Court of Human Rights. These French organizations, for instance MIVILUDES, are essentially full-spectrum Fascism created and run by psychopaths and their Authoritarian Followers. Anybody who is discovered to have the slightest tendency to adopt alternative views is seemingly a danger because they are undoubtedly going to turn into an "apocalyptic cult" at any moment! The examples of the mass suicides of the People's Temple, the Solar Temple and Heaven's Gate are trotted out at the beginning of the 2010 MIVILUDES report, thereby making the label "cult" as scary as "Muslim Terrorist". (Never mind that those events were CIA PsyOps designed as a sort of '9-11' against non-mainstream thinking, the way 9-11 was designed to initiate the War on Terror. For more information check our recent SoTT focus articles.)

Particularly targeted by these organizations are any and all individuals or groups which advocate practices such as alternative medicine (including nutritional approaches to getting and staying healthy), non-mainstream cancer therapies, yoga, meditation and other stress-relieving techniques, especially if such discussions include scientific support. Additionally targeted are any individuals who discuss 'conspiracy theories' (especially about 9-11, but also including economic collapse and NWO topics), UFOs/aliens, psychology other than Freudianism (especially if such discussions include cutting edge scientific support; Jungian psychology is especially targeted), Earth Changes and cometary bombardments (especially if it includes scientific support), increasing earthquake and volcanic activity (especially if it includes scientific support) and more. All of these activities, or even thoughts about these activities, will get you labeled as a cult or a follower of a cult and subject to some pretty frightening procedures designed to "help" you reorganize your thinking more in line with what is accepted by the mainstream authorities such as the American Medical Association (AMA), Big Pharma, Big-Agri, NASA and certainly the CIA. Anything that is not handed down from those authorities is labeled "pseudo-science", no matter how credible the scientist or how accurate the research. In short, it is as much a war against real science - as opposed to the corrupt science that has dominated the world for the past 100 years and is used to support wars more than anything else - as it is against religious beliefs. Moreover, if you are researching religions (Bible scholars beware!), mysticism, ancient wisdom and alternative history, you are also a cult. And if you have no apparent cultic beliefs, it's just a ruse; you are just trying to appear like a researcher to lure people in, waiting to turn into an apocalyptic cult at any moment. The whole approach is reminiscent of the Bush gang's claims about WMDs vis-a-vis Iraq and Saddam Hussein, and I think you all realize what that kind of rhetoric led to.

The 2010 MIVILUDES report tells us:

The fact of offering people the possibility to search for mysticism, wisdom and a forgotten ideal world, all the while assuring them of happiness, can be an extremely efficient bait.

There exists as well the risk that current social topics may be used (such as ecological aspirations) in order to play on people's anguish and anxiety such as: frustration concerning the meaning of life, solitude, the pervasive anonymity and isolation, the lack of interpersonal communication and social acceptance, the need for the religious and the sacred in one's life, refusal of a crushing social way of life.

By feeding into this environment of social anxiety via the use of references to pseudo-scientific elements, even those which have not been verified, in reality these beliefs are a tool that promotes collective fear, with the purpose of exerting more power over people and, in extreme cases, this can possibly lead to a vital risk [risk of mass suicide!] for the members of the group, or to questioning mainstream society through more or less violent actions.

I think that the perceptive reader can see what this organization is set up for and what it is they are really afraid of: they are afraid of people waking up and recognizing that the lunatics have taken over the asylum! It is clear to any normal person with empathy that the authors of this report are inquisitors set up to defend the status quo of the rule of a pathological elite who are not fit to rule as evidenced by their psychopathic behavior and intolerance towards anything truly human and who are able (and have been able) to get away with the most outrageous human rights violations in modern day France.

Did you know that alternative medicine and homeopathy are labeled as cults in France? People have gone to jail and have had their children taken away from them for giving alternative treatments to their children even when they were told in advance by their doctors that the child's case was terminal and they would die even with the mainstream treatments (chemotherapy and radiation?!). The parents were destroyed for seeking something, anything, that might save the life of their child or, at least, not subject them to the horrors of modern cancer treatments. (See Maître Jean-Marc Florand, avocat de monsieur et madame de M, in French.)

Laws enacting restrictions on supplements and herbs is not all there is to it. At this rate of things going really south so quickly, you - the reader - will probably be experiencing first hand, in the near future, what we here at QFG/SOTT have been going through! This is not just about us; it is about what we have discovered as a result of our inquiry into the conditions that can support a jilted lunatic in denouncing as a cult a group of researchers who engage in lawful scientific research and publish it for the public to assess on its own merits, for free.

On the 22nd of September, Ark and I were on the road to Marseille where he was scheduled on the 23rd to give a seminar at Luminy for a select group of French scientists. The expenses for our trip were covered by the French University system. Thus, it was particularly ironic to receive a phone call from my children telling me that convocations from the Police Judiciaire in Toulouse had just been delivered by the local police (most of whom know us and can't figure out what is up with those people in Toulouse - but they do their jobs). Needless to say, this was disturbing. But, our trip wasn't entirely spoiled because we had a good time meeting with Ark's colleagues and telling them about the witch-hunt over dinner.

Monday morning of this week, I received two books in the mail from a professor of psychology in Montenegro (educated in the U.S.) which had been rudely torn open, and stapled shut. The next day, a package from Germany, sent to me, but for my daughter, containing a set of coloring markers, had similarly been ripped open and barely re-closed. The following day, a letter from my insurance company arrived having been slit open, and then taped shut at the top. Today, a package sent from a friend containing sheep's butter had been opened...