How easily our logic fails us in the face of the all-knowing mainstream media. Ex-Russian intelligence agent Alexander Litvinenko has succumbed to the effects of a radioactive isotope polonium 210, one of the rarest substances on the planet, and one few could obtain according to Dr Andrea Sella, lecturer in chemistry at University College London. Litvinenko may, or may not have ingested the deadly isotope at a sushi bar in London

Litvinenko, a critic of Putin, had been investigating the killing of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, also a vocal critic of Putin, who was gunned down at a Moscow flat last month. Litvineko had also penned a piece back in July 2006 for the, now-defunct, Chechen press where he claimed that Putin was a pedophile. See here for the google cached article.

So, case closed? I mean, all the evidence would seem to point to Putin as the cause of Litvinenko's untimely demise. Thinking logically about it, or rather, thinking 'conspiratorially' about it (since this is, after all, a very clear case of conspiracy) it is far more plausible that Litvinenko's murder was carried out by an enemy of Putin. As with all cloak and dagger cases, in the absence of any empirical evidence, the closest approximation to the truth is generally achieved by asking "who benefits?"

Consider how utterly masochistic the Putin government would have to be to murder a man who had been publicly attacking Putin himself. Consider further how amazingly crass it is for Putin, having supposedly decided that Litvinenko had to be "taken care of" to opt for a method of assassination that was absolutely certain of being identified as poisoning. Has the Russian SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service) never heard of "accidental death"? What about a "heart attack"? For god's sake, even pushing the man under a number 9 bus would have been less obvious than poisoning him with an "extremely rare radioactive isotope".

Language deliberately distorted to veil its true meaning is commonly referred to as 'doublespeak' (from Orwell's 'newspeak' and 'doublethink'). This distortion of words is becoming increasingly severe and overt. Even modern cinema, as evidenced in the immensely popular V for Vendetta, has noticed and commented upon this fact. The meanings of words are being changed.

We all catch snippets of reports that tell of Palestinians civilians being killed due to "mistakes" by the Israeli military, or who were sadly caught in the "cross-fire" as Israeli troops "rooted out" "Palestinian terrorists", but few are aware of the true story, or the true horror of what the Zionist Israeli leadership is deliberately doing to the 1.5 million innocent people, over half of them children, in the Gaza strip.

Forty-three years ago, John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Although it was obviously the work of a powerful group, the blame was placed on patsy Lee Harvey Oswald. Independent researchers have proposed explanations that point the finger at the mob, the CIA and anti-Castro Cuban forces, and Lyndon Johnson and the oil magnates. Michael Collins Piper, author of Final Judgement, an investigation of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, demonstrates that Mossad played an important role in the murder, as part of the master puppeteer pulling the strings and involving all of the groups mentioned above. Piper talk with Laura Knight-Jadczyk.

Running Time: 01:24:27

Download: MP3

Today is the 39th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 242. This resolution was passed following the war in June 1967 in which Israel invaded its Arab neighbors after claiming it had been attacked. This excuse never seems to fail. It was also the war in which the Israelis, fearing that the US government would become aware that Israeli had precipitated the war, attacked and destroyed the US communications ship the Liberty, killing 34 US Navy personnel.

To be honest, we tire of stating endlessly that which is patently, almost absurdly obvious to anyone with two firing neurons. While we understand that it is very tempting for many people to just accept the official story that Oswald murdered Kennedy, or any of the other blatant government lies we have been asked to swallow as fact, that understanding in no way lessens our disgust at the fact that those guilty of the very worst crimes are never called to account because they are usually found in positions of almost absolute political or corporate power.

There is a saying of sorts that, if you are going to do something, do it well, and given the serious consequences involved, nowhere is that more true than when you plan to engage in criminal activity. Today in Basra, Southern Iraq, two members of the British SAS (Special Ops) were caught, 'in flagrante' as it were, dressed in full "Arab garb", driving a car full of explosives and shooting and killing two official Iraqi policemen.

This fact, finally reported by the mainstream press, goes to the very heart of and proves accurate much of what we have been saying on the Signs of the Times page for several years.

The following are facts, indisputable by all but the most self-deluded:

For years the mainstream scientific community has fed us the line that there is nothing to worry about down on Earth from meteor impacts because the really big ones only happen once every 500,000 to 1,000,000 years. Now, a small group of scientists are challenging that view:

Relieved that the Republicans lost the recent U.S. mid-term elections? Maybe you shouldn't be. The two U.S. political parties are Tweedledum and Tweedledee. A change of course at mid-term works wonders for putting discontented Americans back to sleep. "See! The system works!". All we can say is, "It sure does. Only not in your favour." What's in store now that Bush "lost" the election?

Running Time: 00:40:16

Download: MP3

Ken McElroy - the common or garden variety 'failed' psychopath	Karl Rove - The smart, professional psychopath who never gets caught

I just finished reading the book In Broad Daylight, by Harry MacLean. It is an account of a murder in Skidmore, Missouri. To sum it up in a sentence, Ken McElroy, who could be described as a child molester, rapist, wife-abuser, thief (he had no other source of income), stalker - in short, a violent psychopath - was eventually murdered by citizens of the town he terrorized, after it became clear he would never be arrested or charged for any of his crimes - his lawyer was too good, and he always managed to threaten witnesses not to testify.