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The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities, that makes it seem inconceivable that other ways are viable, that removes the sense that there is an outside.
Allan Bloom The Closing of the American Mind

It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong. --Voltaire--

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Sept. 14, 2002

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Hope and Glory

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The Winds of Change

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Splitting Realities

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To Be or Not to Be

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December 4, 2002 - "Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it." - Woodrow Wilson, The New Freedom (1913)

The War on Terrorism is a LIE.

The pretext to wage this war has been created and executed by the Bush Reich and their minions.

The September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon are the biggest frauds in American History.

The Bush Reich and the Mass Media continue to manipulate public opinion, to make their Fraud appear to be an indelible truth.

The American People have been misled from the very beginning regarding the causes and consequences of the September 11 "attack on America."

The EVIDENCE, including MOUNTAINS OF OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS that get no Media play at all, confirms that the 9-11 event was part of the ongoing globalization plans of the Bush Reich. The way they deal with this documentation is to pass laws to suppress it and to protect their illegitimate rule.

To disarm this threat to our planet, the inner workings of this Evil Agenda MUST be shared. Indeed, many of the intellectuals and writers in the U.S. are fully cognizant of the true state of affairs.

The unfortunate thing is that the masses of ordinary people are completely under the influence of the Mass Media which is in the pocket of the Bush Reich, and promotes the New World Order agenda of the Military-Industrial Complex. If Peter Jennings or Dan Rather don't say it, for them, it isn't even real. They are duped and mind controlled by television talking heads.

We are being set up for a war against Saddam The inspections are going unhindered. And what does Bush tell us? 'The signs are not encouraging' - In North Carolina last month, a woman attending a lecture I was giving asked me when America would go to war in Iraq. I told her to watch the front page of The New York Times and The Washington Post for the first smear campaigns against the UN inspectors. And bingo, right on time, the smears have begun. - One of the UN inspectors, it's now stated – a man appointed at the behest of the State Department – is involved with pornography. Another senior official, we're now told – again appointed at the urging of the State Department – was previously fired from his job as head of a nuclear safety agency. Why, I wonder, did the Americans want these men on the inspection team? So they could trash it later? - What does this mean? Simply that America plans to go to war whatever the UN inspectors find.

The New York Times – which is now little more than a mouthpiece for scores of anonymous US "officials" – has persuaded itself that Iraq's Arab neighbours "seem prepared to support an American military campaign". Despite all the warnings from Arab leaders, repeated over and over again, month after month, urging America not to go to war, this is the kind of nonsense being peddled in the United States. -

And now the British government has come up with another of its famous "dossiers"on Saddam's human rights abuses. Yes, again, we all know how vicious Saddam is. We knew about his raping rooms and his executions and his torture when we eagerly supported his invasion of Iran in 1980. So why is it being regurgitated all over again? -

Just take one little point in the latest British "dossier". It reveals that a certain Aziz Saleh Ahmed, a "fighter in the popular army", held a position as "violator of women's honour". Now I happen to remember that name. Was this not the same Aziz Saleh Ahmed who turned up on page 287 of a book published back in 1993 by Kanan Makiya, who formerly called himself Samir al-Khalil? Why, indeed it was. Aziz Saleh Ahmed is listed as a "fighter in the popular army" and – you've guessed it – "violator of women's honour". -

There was a controversy about the translation back at the time, but I've no doubt that there are raping rooms in Saddam's Iraq. I went inside one in the northern city of Dohuk in 1991, women's underclothes still lying on the floor. But the point is, what are we doing rehashing the Aziz Saleh Ahmad story all over again as if we've just discovered it when it's at least eight years old and – according to Makiya – was first seen more than a decade ago? -

And yet again, the Americans are trying to establish links between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein in a desperate attempt to hitch the "war on terror" to the war for oil (which is what, of course, the Iraqi "crisis" is all about). Vice President Cheney has been parroting all the same nonsense about "terror" leaders and Saddam, even though Bin Laden loathes the Iraqi leader. No one – absolutely no one – has produced the slightest evidence that Saddam had anything to do with the international crimes against humanity of 11 September. But still we are forced to listen to this trash. [...]

In the meantime, Mr Bush's foreign policy advisers are busy hatching up the conflict of civilisations. Take Kenneth Adelman, who is on the Pentagon's Defence Policy Board. He's been saying that for Mr Bush to call Islam a peaceful religion "is an increasingly hard argument to make". Islam is "militaristic" in the eyes of Mr Adelman. "After all, its founder, Mohammed, was a warrior, not a peace advocate like Jesus."

Then there's Eliot Cohen of the Johns Hopkins School of International Studies, who is also on the Pentagon board. He now argues that the "enemy" of the United States is not terrorism but "militant Islam". Mr Adelman and Mr Cohen have not vouchsafed their own religion, but Islam is clearly being targeted.

Pat Robertson, the religious broadcaster – who used to run a vile radio station in southern Lebanon which uttered threats against Muslim villagers and UN troops – says that "Adolf Hitler was bad but what the Muslims want to do to Jews is worse." Jerry Falwell, one of the nasties of the religious right, called the Prophet a "terrorist", while Franklin Graham, son of the same Billy Graham who made those anti-Semitic remarks on the Nixon tapes, has called Islam "evil". And Graham, remember, spoke at Bush's inauguration.

Saddam Hussein set himself on a potentially suicidal collision course with George Bush yesterday when it emerged that the Iraqi document being submitted to the UN on Saturday, 24 hours before the deadline, would declare that the country possesses no illegal weapons of mass destruction. Iraqi officials promised to deliver a 'huge' 7,000 page document on the state of the country's biological, chemical, missile and nuclear technologies in both Arabic and English. The document will declare that all the technologies it possesses are within the limits set by the UN itself. But Washington openly stated yesterday that it will prove that Iraq is making a false declaration about its arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. - The US is pressing the UN weapons inspectors to carry out more aggressive searches by running multiple, simultaneous checks. "We believe, and we have said it publicly, they continue to have weapons of mass destruction – biological weapons and chemical weapons," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

Inspectors find only mushrooms amid ruins of bombed reactor - Twisted pieces of metal rise from the rubble, rainwater lies in craters gouged into the earth, a scorched chimney leans into a jagged wall – reminders of how Saddam Hussein's nuclear ambitions were destroyed. United Nations inspectors revisited the old Osirak site yesterday to check whether Iraq has once again embarked on a nuclear programme, as Washington and London claim. Tony Blair recently made public satellite photographs which, he maintained showed that the Iraqis were engaged in secret new construction. - Another group of UN inspectors visited al-Muthanna, 60 miles north west of Baghdad, once the nucleus of Iraq's chemicals production. But the facility was severely damaged in the Gulf War by more than 30 Tomahawk missiles and 2000lb laser-guided bombs

Jack Straw issued a direct warning to members of the Iraqi regime yesterday not to make the "wrong career choice" by collaborating in attempts to deceive United Nations weapons inspectors. - Tony Blair also stepped up the pressure last night by warning Saddam he believed Iraq still possessed WMD.

Saudi Arabia has launched an unprecedented public relations offensive in America to counter accusations that it is a financial accomplice of global terrorism, saying it has imposed a host of measures to control charitable donations from the Kingdom and clamp down on money laundering.

UN demands end to Israeli 'killing and beating' of staff - "For two years, United Nations staff have been subject to escalating harassment and violence by Israel's military, so that the protection supposed to be afforded by the blue letters of the UN is being steadily eroded," said the petition, which was signed by 64 UN staff working in Israel and the occupied territories. - The petition follows a UN demand for an explanation from the Israeli army over the destruction of food worth $270,000 (£172,000) that was to be distributed to Palestinians. - The warehouse was destroyed during a raid on the Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya on Saturday night. It appears the Israeli army destroyed the building because they believed a wanted militant was hiding inside. There were apartments on the upper floors. "The landlord told the soldiers food from the UN was being stored on the ground floor," said Jean-Luc Siblot, the country director for WFP in Jerusalem. "There was a WFP sticker on the door. There was a UN flag on the building. They entered it and searched before destroying the building. They knew. That's the fact I find a little bit difficult to swallow."

Israeli soldiers shot dead a 95-year-old Palestinian woman yesterday. Fatima Hassan is believed to be the oldest person to be killed in the intifada, which began two years ago. She was travelling in a taxi that was fired on by troops in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Rami Jawdat, the driver of the taxi, said he had stopped at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Ramallah, when an Israeli soldier approached his car and smashed one of the windows with his gun. He said the soldier then opened fire on the car from one metre away. Mrs Hassan was killed, and a 41-year-old woman, Kifaya Ra'fat, was wounded. What provoked the soldier to open fire was not clear.

Sustaining the Illusion of Democracy - The Bush administration requires "legitimacy" in the eyes of public opinion, namely, that in launching the War on Terrorism, it is acting in the best interests of society, with the full endorsement of the American people and with the backing of the "international community." To effectively build this "legitimacy," the Bush administration not only needs to uphold the falsehoods behind the "war on terrorism," it also needs to sustain the illusion that constitutional democracy continues to prevail. Sustaining the "freedom and democracy rhetoric" is part of the process of building a totalitarian state. While "legitimate dissent" is encouraged, democracy requires that "civil liberties be balanced against public safety." [...]

We are at the juncture of the most important social struggle in world history, requiring an unprecedented degree of solidarity and commitment. America's New War, which includes the "first strike" use of Nuclear Weapons, threatens the future of humanity as we know it. This is by no means an overstatement.

Comment: Some people think that the New World Order can be dealt with by developing new ideas, or by simply protesting against war. They think that the government policy will somehow adjust and respond to their concerns. They want dialogue, debate and discussion with our elected politicians. They want to talk about "reforms" and "alternatives."

The primary thing that is NOT being addressed is the illegitimacy of the presence of George W. Bush in the White House. The people do not realize that there are EVIL men behind this administration, and that America is NOT engaged in a War against Terrorism - America is engaged in a war of Global Conquest and international terrorism has been effectively created BY the Bush Reich as the excuse.

If the anti-war protesters continue to organize and march, they will only bring on us more "terrorist acts" so that the Bush Reich can further justify their agenda. Bush WILL HAVE HIS WAR. And if protest against it grows too loud, it will be silenced by new attacks that will justify it.

The Bush Administration through Dick Cheney, cut off any possibility of public inquiry when he initiated the Fear and Disinformation campaign with the following words: "I think that the prospects of a future attack on the U.S. are almost a certainty. [...] It could happen tomorrow, it could happen next week, it could happen next year..." And he should know... Because, as we will see further on in today's news and commentary, Islamic Terrorists are not just a creation of the CIA back in "old times" who got out of control - they are an active, current, "intelligence asset." And if there are going to be more "attacks," the CIA will be "the first to know."

The 9-11 Terrorists did not act in a vacuum. They were instruments in a carefully planned intelligence operation supported by Pakistan's ISI, which owes its allegiance and existence to the CIA.

The purported 9-11 ringleader - Mohammed Atta - according to ABC news, was financed by "unnamed sources in Pakistan." According to Agence France Presse and the Times of India, an official Indian intelligence report informs us that the 9-11 attacks were funded by money wired to Mohammed Atta from Pakistan, by Ahmad Umar Sheikh, under orders from Pakistani intelligence chief General Mahmoud Ahmad. The report said: "The evidence we have supplied to the U.S. is of a much wider range and depth than just one piece of paper linking a rogue general to some misplaced act of terrorism."

Guess what? General Mahmoud Ahmad was in the U.S. on September 11. He arrived on the 4th on a "routine visit." It was confirmed by news sources that Ahmad met with a number of U.S. officials. Here is the list: Colin Powell, Richard Armitage, Marc Grossman, CIA Director George Tenet, Senator Bob Graham, chairman of Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator John Kyl, Senate Intelligence Committee, Rep. Porter Goss, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Senator Joseph Biden, Chariman of Foreign Relations Committee.

Where was General Mahmoud on the morning of September 11, while Dubya was in Florida reading upside down books?

Why, the good general just happened to be having breakfast with Florida's senator, Bob Graham - our esteemed chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Also present at breakfast was Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S. Maleeha Lodhi. There were other members of the Senate and House Intelligence committees present.

Now, I know that this is not a smoking gun, but don't you find it the least bit curious that so many darned bizarre things get done in Florida, or in connection to Florida? After all, it was in Florida that Bush stole the election. Florida is a "safe zone" for all kinds of nefarious activities because the Bush Brother is governor here. It also looks like the Bush Reich have the Florida Senator in their pocket, and even if he votes against any of the legislation desired by the Bush Gang, you can bet it is all for show.

Comply by Sunday or it's war, says Bush - Saddam Hussein's failure to provide a "complete and credible" list of his weaponry by Sunday would justify war against Iraq, President George W Bush said last night. - The President's comments threatened to drive a wedge between the United States and European allies who have welcomed Saddam's acceptance of a new inspections process as a sign that he is bowing to the UN's will. - "On or before Dec 8, Iraq must provide a full and accurate declaration of its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programmes," Mr Bush said. "That declaration must be credible and complete - or the Iraqi dictator will have demonstrated to the world once again that he has chosen not to change his behaviour." The use of the term "credible" differed subtly from resolution 1441, which states that the list should be "accurate, full, and complete", and introduced an element of subjective judgment of Saddam's actions.

Comment: In other words, George Bush will decide whether or not he believes the list. And we already know that George Bush has a "schedule" to meet and that the puppet masters who are pulling his strings have told him that he must have the war going by such and such a date. So, no matter what Saddam or anybody else says or does, there WILL be a war. And it will be against the human race. Those of you who think we are "predicting" stuff, think again. We are "reading" what IS. We are attempting to expose the "unseen forces" acting on the world stage live, in real time. And knowing what those forces are, being able to "read" them, gives one a strong indication of the direction they are going. Indeed, as time goes by, our earliest commentary about the 9-11 event is being confirmed on a daily basis. All of this indicates that there is something that the "puppet masters" know that they are hiding. There is something driving their agenda. And based on the research and evidence we have collected, most definitely Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Uncle Sam wants your kid - A little-noticed provision in a new federal education law is requiring high schools to hand over to military recruiters some key information about its juniors and seniors: name, address and phone number. The Pentagon says the information will help it recruit young people to defend their country. But the new law disturbs parents and administrators in some liberal communities that aren't exactly gung-ho about the armed forces. - The No Child Left Behind law, signed last January, pumps billions into education but also gives military recruiters access to the names, addresses and phone numbers of students in 22,000 schools. The law also says that schools must give the military the same access to their campuses that businesses and college recruiters enjoy. School systems that fail to comply could lose federal money. The measure also applies to private schools receiving federal funding. But Quaker schools and others that have a religious objection to military service can get out of the requirement.

Flashback: U.S. Defends Burying Iraqi Troops Alive

Guaranteed to induce Nausea - George W Bush has announced he will celebrate the history of pets with his family this Christmas. The fir tree in the White House Blue Room will be decorated with 400 birds native to the United States, making it the centrepiece of this year's Bush Christmas theme - "all creatures, great and small." First Lady Laura Bush said: "Families around the United States are comforted and amused by the animals that they get to watch out in nature, like bird watching, or that they live with in their own homes, their own pets." The Bushes have three pets dogs Barney and Spot, and cat India. "Our animals have been a great source of comfort to us since September 11, 2001," she said.

King FAISAL AL-SAUD declared to the WASHINGTON POST on Sept. 17, 1969: "WE, THE SAUDI FAMILY, are cousins of the Jews: we entirely disagree with any Arab or Muslem Authority which shows any antagonism to the Jews; but we must live together with them in peace. Our country (ARABIA) is the Fountain head from where the first Jew sprang, and his descendants spread out all over the world."

Comment: Among the most troubling of the "connections" of the 9-11 event, is the "hob-nobbing" of members of the Bush Reich with the Saudi Royal family all the while 15 of the purported "hijackers" were Saudi nationals. As it happens, Osama bin Laden, the Western Media's new "Boogie Man," is Saudi born. The recent "revelation" about the funding of some of the terrorists through the medium of an "innocent Saudi Princess" with "philanthropic tendencies" amounts, basically, to a Red Herring - an irrelevant topic that is presented in order to divert attention from the real issue: the connections between the Bush Reich and the Saudis. In order to come to some understanding of the problems we are facing, a little history is in order.

In 1979, the CIA launched a covert operation in Afghanistan. The CIA used Pakistan's military intelligence apparatus as a "go-between" so as to "cover" their own activities. Pakistan had a big bone to pick with Russia, and willingly assisted. Pakistan wanted to turn the Afghan Jihad into a war waged by all muslims against the Soviet Union. The CIA sponsored guerrilla training that was integrated with the teachings of Militant Islam. Osama bin Laden was a recruit into this operation, and it is even possible that he didn't know that his training, the funding, and the idealogy came straight from the CIA. In other words, Osama was an "intelligence asset," as opposed to an "intelligence agent." An "asset" is somebody whose ideas and activity can be manipulated from behind the scenes to serve a certain purpose even if they are not aware of the true puppet master.

So, Pakistan had a bone to pick, the CIA promised to help them to achieve their goals of breaking up the Soviet Union, and proceeded to pour money and expertise into Pakistan, which was then used to train tens of thousands of Muslim radicals in Pakistani Madrasahs.

Now, it is common knowledge that the U.S. and the CIA supported the Mujahideen. This was certainly discussed in the Congressional record. It was seemingly in response to the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. Everybody nodded their heads and said: "yes, that's okay. Certainly we want to protect those poor Afghanis from the Russian bear eating them up." What is not generally known - and little noted by the mainstream media, is that the CIA's military-intelligence operation in Afghanistan had been launched PRIOR to the Soviet invasion. It was, in fact, designed to deliberately trigger a civil war, to engage the Soviet Union, and bring it down. In 1998, Zbigniew Brzezinski - National Security Advisoer to Jimmy Carter - said: According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahideen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan on 24 Decempber 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise. Indeed, it was July 3, 1979, that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the President in which I explained to him that in my opinion, this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention. [...] We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowlingly increased the probability that they would. [ Interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter's National Security Adviser Le Nouvel Observateur, Paris, 15-21 January 1998]

In other words, when the Soviets justified their intervention by saying that there was a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, they were telling the truth, but nobody in the West believed them. Brzezinski further said:

That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap... The day that the Soviets officialyy crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: "We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam War. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire. [ Interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski]

And it was for that purpose that the Taliban was given aid by the CIA via Pakistan, that Islamic Fundamentalism was promoted, and arms and training were given to future terrorists.

Michael Chossudovsky, Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa tells us:

"While the "Islamic Jihad" - featured by the Bush administration as "a threat to America" - is blamed for the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, these same Islamic organizations constitute a key instrument of U.S. military-intelligence operations not only in the Balkans and the former Soviet Union, but also in India and China. While the Mujahideen are busy fighting on behalf of Uncle Sam, the FBI - operating as a U.S. based Police Force - is waging a domestic war against terrorism, operating in some respects independently of the CIA, which has - since the Soviet-Afghan war - supported international terrorism through its covert operations.

"Confronted with the evidence and history of CIA covert operations since the Cold War era, the U.S. Administration can no longer deny its links to Osama. While the CIA admits that Osama bin Laden was an "intelligence asset" during the Cold War, the relationship is said to "go way back" to a bygone era.

"According to the CIA, an "intelligence asset" - as distinct from a bona fide "intelligence agent" - need not be committed to the pursuit of U.S. interests. Rather, it is meant to act and/or behave in a way which serves U.S. foreign policy interests. Intelligence assets are invariably unaware of the precise functions and roles they are performing on behalf of the CIA on the geopolitcal Chessboard. In turn, for these covert operations to be "successful," the CIA will use various proxy and front organizations such as Pakistan's extensive military intelligence apparatus. Most post-September 11 news reports consider that these Osame-CIA links belong to the "bygone era" of the Soviet-Afghan war. They are invariably viewed as irrelevant to an understanding of the September 11 crisis. Lost in the barrage of recent history, the role of the CIA, in supporting and developing international terrorist organizations during the Cold War and its aftermath, is casually ignored or downplayed in the Western Media.

"A blatant example of post-September 11 media distortion is the "blowback" thesis: "Intelligence assets" are said to "have gone against their sponsors; what we've created blows back in our face." In a display of twisted logic, the U.S. government and the CIA are portrayed as the ill-fated victims. [ War and Globalisation, Chossudovsky, 2002]

In other words, the CIA, the Bush Reich, the Media - everybody and his brother - are clucking and nodding about that bad Osama who "went against his father" and tricked his CIA/Pakistan intell handlers. Nothing could be further from the truth. The CIA has NEVER SEVERED ITS TIES TO THE Islamic Militant Network. What is more, Congressional documents confirm that members of the Senate and House of Representatives KNOW about the relationship of the current administration to international terrorism. They are fully cognizant of the links between the Bush gang and Osama. They know exactly that Osama was a pawn in the hands the Clinton administration, and now the Bush administration. They also KNOW that the "War Against Terrorism" is really a War against the American People by their own government. Republicans and Democrats have given their full consent to Bush and the gang to take America apart. In other words, a major war in Central Asia, supposedly to "crush" international terrorism, has been launched by the U.S. government, which created "international terrorism" as a part of its foreign policy. The whole thing has been fabricated to act on America exactly as it was fabricated to act on Russia as described above.

Tomorrow, we will talk about the "missing link" that ties the Bush gang directly to Osama bin Laden via the Saudis and Pakistan. Not only did "Bush know," his gang created and programmed the machine that executed the attacks on the World Trade Center. And then, under cover of a manipulated "terrorist attack," they fabricated an attack on the Pentagon itself to allay suspicion, to make the conspirators themselves, look like targets of their own conspiracy.

George W. Bush has said he believes al Qaeda was involved in attacks in Mombasa last week, as police announced the arrest of three men in Kenya. - "I believe that al Qaeda was involved in the African bombings in Kenya," Bush said on Wednesday. "I believe al Qaeda hates freedom. I believe al Qaeda will strike anywhere they can in order to disrupt a civil society, and that's why we're on the hunt." Bush said the United States and its allies were "slowly but surely" dismantling al Qaeda and he promised to "bring them to justice." Comment: Horse feathers!

Southeast prepares for icy storm - "This will be a significant storm," said CNN meteorologist Chad Myers. "On a scale of 1 to 10, this is going to be an 8 from Charlotte up to Greensboro, into the Triangle area." And, Myers said, it won't be a hit-and-run storm. "This (precipitation) is going to last another 24 hours and the ice is not going to stop," he said. "For the next three days, temperatures are not going above 32 degrees (Fahrenheit)." - Myers said the storm could knock out power for as many as a million people -- and in some cases, power could be out for weeks.

Israeli authorities said Wednesday they had arrested a U.S. citizen on allegations he funneled money to terrorist groups linked to the al Qaeda network.

Cheers and gasps as clouds clear for full solar eclipse - CEDUNA, Australia, Dec 4 (AFP) - The total eclipse lasted just 32 seconds, but for the 15,000 people who gathered in this remote coastal town despite forecasts that cloudy skies would likely hide the show, it was well worth the visit.

Hezbollah calls for global attacks - The leader of the Lebanese Muslim group Hezbollah is urging a global suicide bombing campaign, increasing the prospect that the regional conflict between Arabs and Israelis will expand to mimic or even merge with al Qaeda's war against the West.

Comment: Just keep in mind that the Militant Islamic groups are very likely created and funded by the CIA. U.S. foreign policy is not geared towards curbing Islamic fundamentalism. The development of radical Islam in the wake of September 11, in the Middle East and Central Asia, is consistent with Washington's hidden agenda. They plan to sustain rather than combat terrorism with a view to destabilizing societies around the world and to prevent the creation and growth of possible genuine social movements that might combat the New World Order plans of the Bush Reich. You can bet that the CIA continues to support the development of Islamic Fundamentalism, Christian Fundamentalism, Jewish Fundamentalism, and New Age Fundamentalism.

In the short term, Fundamentalism creates social and ethnic divisiveness. It makes it impossible for large groups of people to organize against the New World Order of the Bush Reich. We are, indeed, experiencing a Global COINTELPRO program that has something for everyone - the Devil's Supermarket of religions and beliefs, so to say. These organizations often foment "opposition to Bush" or the "American Agenda" in a way designed by the CIA handlers so that it does not constitute any real threat to the Bush Reich's main, global agenda.

To convey the illusion of democracy, "the globalisers" must "fabricate dissent." In other words, they must create and finance their own political opposition. In order to appear legitimate, they must actively encourage the type of "criticism" which does not challenge "their right to rule."

"This libertarian "counter-discourse" - which serves to disarm a genuine mass movement against war and globalisation - constitutes part of the foundations of this evolving totalitarian system. Leaders of trade union confederations and mainstream NGOs, together with selected "academics" and critics, are invited to participate in policy formulation together with bankers, corporate executives and politicians.

"The ploy is to selectively handpick civil society leaders "whom we can trust" and integrate them into a "dialogue." The idea is to cut them off from their rank and file, make them feel that they are "global citizens" acting on behalf of their fellow citizens, but make them act in a way which serves the interests of the corporate establishment. ...It requires "progressive" leaders to accept the fundamental premise that the Bush administration is waging a campaign against international terrorism [which it is NOT - it is CREATING the terrorism for its own agenda] In the words of Edward Herman and David Peterson, "this ['leftist accomodation'] ...of leaning over backwards to dwonplay the U.S. terrorist role, merges into a serious misreading of ongoing events."

"Once the fundamental premise that the U.S. Administration is committed to curbing international terrorism is accepted, these leftist intellectuals and civil society critics are invited to express their "reservations" regarding America's conduct of the war, the impacts on civilians or their humanitarian concerns regarding the derogation of the Rule of Law.

"In this ritual, the main justification for waging the war, which is a complete falsehood, is never questioned despite documented evidence that the "war on terrorism" is a fabrication. [...]

"By failing to denounce the falsehoods behind the "war on terrorism," [the mainstream protests] have contributed unwittingly to the failure of any real opposition being mounted agsainst the New World Order. In the words of AFL-CIO preseident John Sweeney: "We are all angry; let our anger be directed at the real enemy. the terrorists and those who supported them must be brought to justice." [ War and Globalisation, Chossudovsky, 2002]

"We are on the verge of global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will accept the New World Order." David Rockefeller, Statement to the United aNations Business Council, 1994

December 3, 2002 - "Since the human race insists on being completely crazy - since everybody from the Pope down to the humblest of village priests, from the richest of men to the most miserable of paupers, from the lady in her silks and satins down to the slut in her calico dressing gown - since the whole world has set its heart against using its God-given brain but insists upon letting itself be guided by its greed, its vanity, and its ignorance, why in the name of a reasonable Deity should the few really intelligent people waste so much of their time and their effort in trying to change the human race into something it never wanted to be?" from 'In Praise of Folly' by Desiderius Erasmus (1466 - 1536)

Strong earthquake rocks Zakynthos, Kyllini, cracks in buildings reported - the 5.8 quake was recorded at 6:59 a.m. at a distance of 230 kilometres west of Athens, with its epicentre in the sea region between the islands of Zakynthos and Kyllini and an epicentral depth of 18 kilometres. The quake was felt in sections of the surrounding prefectures of Arkadia, Ileia and Corinthia.

The U.N. General Assembly approved a string of resolutions aimed at promoting Palestinian rights and pressuring Israel to withdraw from Palestinian territories. - In what has become an annual exercise in the 191-nation assembly, just a handful of nations -- led by Israel and its closest ally the United States -- voted against the six resolutions although more than 50 countries abstained on three of the texts. But one of the resolutions -- expressing "grave concern" over Middle East violence and urging Israel to withdraw from Palestinian territory it has occupied since the 1967 Middle East War -- passed 160-4, with just three abstentions. - The Marshall Islands and Micronesia joined Israel and Washington in voting "No" on all six resolutions. -

Israeli soldiers on Tuesday shot dead a 95-year-old Palestinian woman who was taking a taxi home after a medical check-up in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian witnesses and medics said. Israeli military sources said soldiers shot at the tires of a Palestinian vehicle traveling on a prohibited road north of Ramallah after the driver ignored orders to halt. Another of the resolutions adopted on Tuesday dismissed as "null and void" Israeli attempts to impose laws on Jerusalem -- a holy city for Muslims and Christians as well as Jews. Yet another demanded Israel's withdrawal from the Golan Heights, seized from Syria in the 1967 war.

Should Uncle Sam know as much about you as MasterCard does? In essence, that may be the key question posed by the Pentagon's new Total Information Awareness (TIA) project. - This effort - whose Latin motto translates as "knowledge is power" - aims to create huge databases that sift through the purchases, travel, immigration status, income, and other data of hundreds of millions of Americans. Its purpose: to sniff out the terrorists among us. - "Data files that become available [to the government] are likely to be used beyond their initial purpose, and we need to guard against that somehow," says Robert Pfaltzgraff, professor of international security at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Medford, Mass.

Israeli Arabs and Palestinians set to outnumber Israeli Jews within 20 years - A demographic study released Tuesday shows the Jewish population outside Israel declining and predicts that in Israel and the Palestinian territories, Arabs will outnumber Jews by the year 2020. - the world Jewish population stands at 12.8 million, with 5 million in Israel and 7.8 million elsewhere. While the number of Jewish Israelis has doubled since 1970, boosted by a million immigrants from the former Soviet Union, the Jewish population overseas has shrunk by 2.2 million, much more than the number of emigrants to Israel. The largest Jewish community outside Israel is in North America, where the survey showed a population of 5.6 million, virtually unchanged over the past 32 years. The number of Jews in the world is declining with a net loss of 300,000 American Jews in the last decade, according to a new study following a preliminary examination of the recent census of American Jewry, according to the Jewish Agency's Institute for Jewish People Policy Planning.

Two 16-year-old boys from Cass Lake, Minn., were arraigned Monday in Walker on charges of beating a blind man to death with an ax handle in what authorities say appears to have been a random act of violence. - Residents of Cass Lake, a town of about 900 people on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation, said the killing fits a years-long trend of increasing violence and other criminal activity by juveniles in the area.

The United States and Russia, long at odds over what to do with Iraq, disagreed Tuesday over what items Saddam Hussein should be allowed to import under the terms of the U.N.'s humanitarian program. The latest row threatens to disrupt the oil-for-food program which allows Iraq to use its oil revenue to buy humanitarian goods. Items with possible military applications however, must be reviewed by the U.N. sanctions committee before they can be purchased.

Property tax bills reflecting a whopping 18.5% increase will be mailed Thursday, after Mayor Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Gifford Miller officially signed the largest-ever hike into law early yesterday.

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks produced the single deadliest day in the history of U.S. law enforcement — 72 officers killed — yet almost as many died in nonterrorist incidents during 2001 as violence against police rose to a four-year high. - Still, the nonterrorism deaths are far below those recorded in the 1970s, when it was common for more than 200 officers to die violently or in accidents every year, said Craig Floyd, chairman of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund in Washington. That number for 2001 would be about 148. "Fewer police are being killed in the line of duty than there were 30 years ago," Floyd said. "We've got more police on the street than we've ever had. They have better training and they're no longer outgunned by the criminals."

Israel's Mossad came under fire again as it emerged the spy agency knew of a terror threat in Kenya before last week's attacks, while the army triggered "war crimes" charges after soldiers shot dead a 95-year-old Palestinian woman in Ramallah. - The head of a rival military intelligence service, General Yossi Kuperwasser, told a parliamentary committee that Mossad had "received advance information on planned Al-Qaeda attacks in Africa and notably Mombasa in Kenya." Three Israelis were among the 13 victims of last Thursday's suicide car-bomb attack on a hotel in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa.

Denmark has rejected a request from Moscow to have top Chechen envoy Akhmed Zakayev extradited to Russia on terrorism charges, and has released the rebel negotiator from detention. - The justice ministry again said shortly before the deadline that the extradition case did not match statutory requirements and asked Moscow to provide further documentation, citing what it said were inconsistencies in translations of Russian documents in the case.

An Iraqi vessel fired on two Kuwaiti coastguard patrol boats Tuesday near the emirate's northern island of Warba. - Iraq has repeatedly accused Kuwait, which it invaded in 1990 and occupied for seven months, of "piracy" against its shipping in Gulf waters. Kuwait in turn regularly announces the interception of Iraqi boats carrying goods in violation of the embargo imposed by the United Nations on Baghdad since the invasion.

Family tells how Israelis buried deaf father alive - Maher Salem described yesterday how his 68-year-old father was killed when the Israeli army demolished the house on top of him. When he found his father, Mr Salem said, the old man's head was "like a bar of chocolate, it was only two centimetres thick". - The Israeli army swept into Beit Lahiya, a sandy town in the north of the Gaza Strip, late on Saturday night. The man they came for was Mr Salem's brother, Hisham, a senior Islamic Jihad militant and the man who ordered a suicide bombing on Tel Aviv's Dizengoff Street in 1996 that killed 20 Israelis.

UK Government accuses Saddam of presiding over 'terrifying' regime of torture - In a new dossier on the human rights abuses in Iraq, the Foreign Office pinned the responsibility for those violations squarely on the shoulders of the Iraqi leader himself. In the introduction to the document – titled Saddam Hussein: Crimes and Human Rights Abuses – the Foreign Office said: "Iraq is a terrifying place to live. "People are in constant fear of being denounced as opponents of the regime. They are encouraged to report on the activities of family and neighbours. The security services can strike at any time. "Arbitrary arrests and killings are commonplace. Between three and four million Iraqis, about 15 per cent of the population, have fled their homeland rather than live under Saddam Hussein's regime. "These grave violations of human rights are not the work of a number of overzealous individuals but the deliberate policy of the regime. Fear is Saddam's chosen method of staying in power."

Comment: The United States, UK, and Canada are becoming terrifying places to live. People are in constant fear of being denounced as opponents of the Bush Reich. The Patriot Act and Homeland Security Act in the US are set up to encourage people to report on the activities of family and friends and neighbors. The security services of the Bush Reich can and do strike at any time. Arbitrary arrests and killings are commonplace by the CIA and other alphabet soup agencies, including the assassination of a sitting American President. Many people are leaving the US and UK and Canada rather than live under the Bush Reich. These grave violations of human rights are not the work of a few overzealous individuals, but the deliberate policy of the regime. Fear of manufactured terrorism is George Bush's and Tony Blair's chosen method of justifying the repeal of constitutional rights and the Rule of Law at home.

Under the Bush administration, the military and intelligence apparatus has clearly taken over the reins of foreign policy in close affiliation with Wall Street. Civilian political institutions, including the U.S. Congress, have become mere facades producing the illusion of a "functioning democracy."

Under this New World Order that is now, effectively in place, the military, acting on behalf of the global banks, the oil and energy giants, the biotech and pharmaceutical congomerates, and the media and communications giants, daily fabricate the news to overtly influence the course of world events by blatant lies and distortion of facts. The same State Department officials implicated in the Iran-Contra scandal now occupy key positions in the Bush Reich. The same gang that are screaming daily that "Osama is Under the Bed" are the very architects of the U.S. covert support to the Mujahideen and the Militant Islamic Base. This support, believe it or not, has not been fundamentally altered! It continues to constitute an integral part of covert U.S. foreign policy.

Since 9-11, the resources of the U.S. State apparatus have been redirected towards the military industrial complex, while social programs are being daily slashed or dispensed with. All of this is occurring at the outset of a huge global economic depression marked by the downfall of State institutions, mounting unemployent, the collapse of living standards in all major regions of the world, including Western Europe and North America, and the outbreak of famines over large areas. This will be the most devastating global depression ever seen in modern history. The Depression of the 1930's will pale in comparison.

Since the terrorist attacks, "love of country," and patriotism are the slogans with which the public is bombarded daily by the mass media and the daily political discourse. Meanwhile, the shift of economic emphasis from civilian to military production daily pours wealth into the hands of the defense contractors at the expense of the poor.

The "war on terrorism" will in no way resolve the mounting tide of unemployment in America except insofar as it will diminish the numbers of people needing employment by housing them in cemetaries. Instead, this new direction of the U.S. economy will generate hundreds of billions of dollars of surplus profits to line the pockets of a handful of large corporations.

The Big Five defence contractors, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Boeing and Raytheon, have been shifting staff and resources from "civilian" into "military" production lines. Lockheed Martin - America's largest defense contractor - has moved resources from its troubled commercial/civilian sectors into the lucrative production of advanced weapon systems including the F-22 Raptor. Each of these high tech fighter jets will cost $85 million, but will only require the creation of three thousand direct jobs, each costing the taxpayer $20 million.

Boeing, while confirming that some 3,000 jobs will be created for defense purposes, admits that it will fire as many as 30,000 workers in other project areas. At Boeing, each job created in the Joint Striker Fighter program will cost the taxpayers over $66 million.

9-11 announced the death of Western Democracy. The ostensible objective is the corporate take-over of all public services and State infrastructures, but the predictable results of these actions will be the deaths of enormous masses of humanity from war, famine and plague.

When they planned and implemented the 9-11 "terrorist attack," the Bush Gang opened wide the door to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

If Saddam is such a monster, why did we arm him and trade with him? - According to the Foreign Office dossier, Saddam Hussein: crimes and human rights abuses , "Iraq is a terrifying place to live". It certainly is, and even the most vociferous anti-war campaigner would have to agree that Saddam heads a brutal, cruel, murderous regime. There is something vaguely pornographic about the Government's little compendium of sadism, with its graphic, stomach-turning descriptions of eye gouging, acid baths and electric drills. But there is no reason to doubt that these things are commonplace in Baathist Iraq, and that the Iraqi people, the Middle East and the world generally would be happier and safer without Saddam. -

Why then, one is forced to ask, did the British and American governments show such enthusiasm for supporting and arming this monster during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s? - Why, also, were Western governments at the time so utterly indifferent to the fate of the Kurds gassed at Halabja in 1988? One of the images that outrage left behind is reproduced in the Government's dossier. It has retained its chilling quality, but it didn't move the British or American governments of the day to action. The neglect of Iraq, and indeed of Afghanistan, of East Timor and countless other obscure territories, until they became a nuisance, are not just scars on our national conscience, but, on a long-term view, entirely inimical to our national interests. -

So we should be impatient when ministers, so energetically pursuing the (familiar) case against Saddam, make excuses for the human rights abuses perpetrated by our "friends". From the Israeli army's abuse of Palestinian civilians in the occupied territories to General Dostum's ill-treatment of prisoners of war in Afghanistan to the endemic cruelty of Algeria's near civil war, we hear little protest from the United States and governments in the European Union. Still less do Western governments dare to criticise abuses by powerful trading partners or close strategic allies such as China, Saudi Arabia or Uzbekistan. Indeed the treatment of prisoners at Camp X-Ray and our own policy towards refugees are not exactly a model of liberal practice.

A sick joke: vilify Saddam while closing Sangatte Yesterday's publication of the Government's 23-page document, Saddam Hussein: crimes and human rights abuses, has been roundly condemned by Amnesty International, a group dedicated to the exposure of human rights abuses. Amnesty International has no quibble at all with the information contained within the publication. So why is the global justice organisation being so shirty? -

Because, of course, it seems pretty obvious that the dossier (coinciding as it does with such matters as the establishment of a US military command centre in Qatar) exists only to make imminent war with Iraq more palatable to the British public. Amnesty International has been banging on about these and other abuses for years, but until now had found the Government none too keen to publicise them. -

And what else could possibly account for the timing of the document, which, if you leave the US agenda out of the equation, is disastrous. The dossier recounts rape, torture and killings under Saddam, declares that "Iraq is a terrifying place to live", and asserts that up to four million Iraqis, about 15 per cent of the population, have fled the country. If a little gory detail is needed to help to concentrate the mind on what torture might look like, then turn straight to the revelation that amputation of the tongue is now a punishment for "slander or abusive remarks about the president". A few examples have already been made of a few people, and broadcast on the Iraqi network. Say what you will about Saddam, but there's no doubt at all that his reality television is absolutely hardcore. -

Sick joke? I don't think it can compete. Not when you consider that the dossier was released on the very day that Britain managed to strike a deal obliging the International Red Cross to shut down an operation that exists to feed and shelter some of those very four million people fleeing from that very regime. Is it not shameful that the Government had the gall to publish this document on the day it agreed to take just 1,000 mainly Iraqi refugees from the Sangatte camp?

Which country in Europe, supported the Gulf War more exuberantly than Britain? None. Which country in Europe, since the Gulf War, has been more belligerent in the bombing of Baghdad, or in the implementation of sanctions? None. Which European country has been more steadfast in its support of the US in its desire for regime change? None. No wonder those who wish to escape Saddam dream of a sympathetic hearing in Britain. We're really rooting for them. As long as they stay in the line of fire.

You'd think the Government would be only too aware of the problems stored up for the future by regime change. After Iraqi Kurds, the largest group of people still in Sangatte are Afghans. The French government has already tried offering them £1,250 to go home, but not many are biting. Why not? Our government, oddly enough, does not feel it necessary to publish dossiers on the human rights abuses that continue in Afghanistan. Instead, it is determined to behave as though it has built the country fit for heroes that it promised in the run-up to the toppling of the Taliban.

Meanwhile, in a sickening irony, government lawyers are attempting to cut the legal aid of an Afghan family sequestered in Germany as they wait to see if their adjourned appeal hearing will find that Britain violated their human rights in deporting them. Farid and Feriba Ahmadi, who fled Afghanistan before the Taliban were deposed, were evicted from an West Midlands mosque in July, after entry was gained with a battering ram. A private plane was chartered at a cost to the taxpayer of £30,000 to deport them to Germany. At the time lawyers argued that the mental state of the mother and her four- and seven-year-old children would deteriorate if they were deported. Feriba Ahmadi is now in a German mental health facility.

Mr Blair and his government are keen always to emphasise the interplay between rights and responsibilities, and they are correct in doing so. But the question today is whether the Government has the right to use the plight of the Iraqi nation as propaganda for its own ends, when it has no intention of taking adequate responsibility for the future of those people.

December 1-2, 2002 - Antiwar effort gains momentum - Mothers Against War spend hours a day on the Internet, reading and spreading information on Iraq and the United States and planning for marches, e-mail campaigns and teach-ins. Having lived through the Vietnam antiwar movement, which took years to build, the Mothers Against War are buoyed to find themselves part of a fast-growing movement of people from every walk of life, from every political stripe. -

The extraordinary array of groups questioning the Bush administration’s rationale for an invasion of Iraq includes longtime radical groups such as the Workers World Party, but also groups not known for taking stands against the government. There is a labor movement against war, led by organizers of the largest unions in the country; a religious movement against the war, which includes leaders of virtually every mainstream denomination; a veterans movement against the war, led by those who fought Iraq in the Persian Gulf a decade ago; business leaders against the war, led by corporate leaders; an antiwar movement led by relatives of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks; and immigrant groups against the war.

There are also black and Latino organizations, hundreds of campus antiwar groups and scores of groups of ordinary citizens meeting in community centers and church basements from Baltimore to Seattle. It has reached a point where United for Peace, a Web site started by the San Francisco-based human rights organization Global Exchange for groups to list events commemorating the Sept. 11 anniversary, has morphed into a national network coordinating events for more than 70 peace groups nationwide.

“We’re taking the . . . Web site and rebuilding it as a one-stop shopping for the antiwar movement,” said Andrea Buffa, who co-chairs the new network. “It’s a campaign of all different kinds of groups, from the National Council of Churches to the International Socialists organization; I just got a call from the Raging Grannies of Palo Alto, who want to join. We’re bringing groups together to develop a consensus statement and a calendar of coordinated antiwar events.” -

After large rallies in Washington and San Francisco on Oct. 26, the next big day to test the antiwar movement’s might is Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day. Hundreds of groups plan events, rallies and civil disobedience to capture the nation’s attention, including demonstrations in Lafayette Park across from the White House and at a military recruitment center in downtown Washington.

Otherwise, antiwar groups, which tend to rely on the Internet to receive and spread information, operate largely without the attention of the media or Capitol Hill. Yet many of those speaking out against an attack on Iraq represent large numbers of Americans, including John J. Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO (with 13 million members); the National Council of Churches (which represents 36 Protestant and Orthodox denominations, with 50 million members); and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (the leadership arm of 65 million Roman Catholics).

The National Council of Churches, which includes Lutherans, Episcopalians and President Bush’s denomination, Methodists, is facilitating antiwar events for traditionally liberal institutions and conservative churches, said the Rev. Robert Edgar, its general secretary. -

“Average, ordinary people,” Edgar said, “who come from evangelical Christian conservative roots are organizing against the war.” On December 8 through 15, there will be a series of actions across the country.”

The biggest day, he said, is Dec. 10, which is significant not only because it is Human Rights Day but also because it is the day that former president Jimmy Carter is to receive his Nobel Peace Prize. “Carter, as an evangelical Christian, represents a great number of people in the antiwar effort,” Edgar said.

Indeed, on that day, religious groups across the country plan to stage mass acts of civil disobedience. Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, founder of Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, plans to join church groups in New York and get arrested, he said, for the first time. “I’ve never engaged in civil disobedience before,” he said. “But if some country was going to do this to us-have a little preemptive war with the U.S., bomb our people, kill or maim people because they thought that at some time we might bomb them, we’d say that’s a war crime. I feel that getting arrested is the biggest statement that I could make to say that what the Bush administration is doing is wrong.”

Damu Smith, founder of the Washington-based Black Voices for Peace, said his group plans to begin a poor people’s peace movement similar to the one King was organizing before his murder in 1968. Black Voices is planning its own rallies and forums in Washington, as well as participating in planning national events as a member of the steering committee for United for Peace, he said. “Before Doctor King died,” Smith said, “he was speaking out forcefully against the United States involvement in Vietnam. He made the point that the money being spent on bombs was money that could never be spent on addressing poverty. We are taking up Doctor King’s legacy.”

Hundreds of Students Walk Out of Classes to Protest Possible War With Iraq

Women Start Four-Month Peace Vigil - Women from the Washington area and across the country gathered in front of the White House yesterday to kick off a four-month, 24-hour vigil to protest the possible war with Iraq. "We feel that this is a time when our country is in great danger," said organizer Medea Benjamin, 50, of San Francisco. "The Bush administration has begun a course of militarism and violence that will beget more violence."

Poor foot the bill as New York goes bankrupt - The steps of City Hall, for many years empty of angry protests - especially since 11 September - were crowded and noisy again last week as New York City plunges towards bankruptcy, with the poor and middle class picking up the tab. First there were pensioners armed with placards reading 'Seniors Vote!', furious at the proposed closure of 32 daycare centres for the elderly. Then the firefighters - the heroes of 9/11 - demanding that eight fire stations due for closure be rescued. But these are just two measures on the table as the financially rotting Big Apple faces a deficit more awesome that at any time since the Seventies, an era all New Yorkers like to forget, since when the city is seen to have risen, phoenix-like.

FLASHBACK:

Federal civilian workers won't see the full pay raise they were promised with President Bush's decision to cut the planned salary hikes because of the war on terrorism. The workers were to have received an average increase of 18.6 percent, but will now get a 3.1 percent raise. Comment: Now, let me try to remember... hmmm.... didn't we read some stories a few days ago about Bush's spending??? Ah, yes, here they are:

Homeland a megamerger mess - Last week, the Senate followed the House in approving the Homeland Security bill. The legislation will combine 22 existing agencies and 170,000 federal employees to create a new government department with at least a $35 billion annual budget request.

Israel will ask the United States for 8 to 10 Billion Bux to bail out its failing economy. - The request for guarantees on foreign bank loans would be in addition to the $2.9 million in direct loans and grants that Israel receives annually from the United States, the official said. - More than 10 percent of the work force is unemployed and inflation has risen to about 8 percent this year. The official said the economic outlook could worsen if the United States attacks Iraq – which many fear could prompt Baghdad to fire missiles, or chemical or biological weapons, at Israel.

A federal appeals court Tuesday ruled that the U.S. government does not owe free lifetime medical care to World War II and Korean War veterans who agreed to serve 20 years in exchange, despite promises made to them when they were in the armed forces. The ruling represents a victory for the federal government, which had argued the veterans were not entitled to the benefits. The ruling will potentially save the government billions of dollars in health care costs.

Comment: Meanwhile, of course, we realize the Bush couldn't care less about the American People. Toronto Star: Bush is a Psychopath - When Mark Crispin Miller first set out to write Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder , about the ever-growing catalogue of President George W. Bush's verbal gaffes, he meant it for a laugh. But what he came to realize wasn't entirely amusing. - Since the 2000 presidential campaign, Miller has been compiling his own collection of Bush-isms, which have revealed, he says, a disquieting truth about what lurks behind the cock-eyed leer of the leader of the free world. He's not a moron at all... [...]

In studying Bush's various adventures in oration, he started to see a pattern emerging. "He has no trouble speaking off the cuff when he's speaking punitively, when he's talking about violence, when he's talking about revenge. "When he struts and thumps his chest, his syntax and grammar are fine," Miller said. "It's only when he leaps into the wild blue yonder of compassion, or idealism, or altruism, that he makes these hilarious mistakes." While Miller's book has been praised for its "eloquence" and "playful use of language," it has enraged Bush supporters. [...]

By stumbling blithely along, he has been able to push his image as "just folks" — a normal guy who screws up just like the rest of us. This, in fact, is a central cog in his image-making machine, Miller says: Portraying the wealthy scion of one of America's most powerful families as a regular, imperfect Joe. But the depiction, Miller says, is also remarkable for what it hides — imperfect, yes, but also detached, wealthy and unable to identify with the "folks" he's been designed to appeal to. An example, Miller says, surfaced early in his presidential tenure. "I know how hard it is to put food on your family," Bush was quoted as saying. "That wasn't because he's so stupid that he doesn't know how to say, `Put food on your family's table' — it's because he doesn't care about people who can't put food on the table," Miller says. [...]

Kissinger trots back into news on Turkey Day eve - All presidents attempt to manipulate the news cycle for their own benefit. The Clinton administration was fond of releasing troublesome documents to the press after the Friday night news shows so that the revelations would appear in the little-read Saturday papers. George W. Bush tried an artful variant on the same trick by announcing a stunning personnel decision on the day before Thanksgiving. - Rather than dwelling on Kissinger's controversial conduct three decades ago, it might be more useful to review the Bush administration's resistance to an independent 9/11 inquiry. -

Small wonder that all through the summer, the White House steadfastly opposed legislation calling for an independent commission. In an early June briefing, press secretary Ari Fleischer gave the official line: "There is an appropriate forum, and it is the (congressional) intelligence committees, and they are doing their work." At the time, it was easy for the Bush administration to defer all questions to the slow-moving congressional inquiry, which still had not gotten around to holding any public hearings. -

The Bush team was unrelenting on two demands, which take on new significance in light of the Kissinger appointment: The president must have the power to select the chairman and all subpoenas must be approved by a majority of the 10 commissioners, evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. -

But why did the White House keep the dramatic return of Henry the K under wraps until Wednesday? Surely, this bombshell was more newsworthy than Tuesday's prosaic signing of the terrorism insurance bill and the ritual pardoning of the national turkey. -

It is hard to imagine a commission chairman more likely to be sympathetic to White House requests that certain information be kept from the public, not on national-security grounds but to prevent embarrassment. -

But so far, the facts lead to the conclusion that the White House not only acceded reluctantly to the commission but also handpicked a chairman who knows how to keep secrets.

Author who claims 9/11 attack was faked coming to NYC - A French author who suggests that the Sept. 11 attacks were concocted by a faction of the U.S. military is planning to promote his book on a tour that will begin in New York City. The English title of Thierry Meyssan’s book is “9-11, The Big Lie,” which also suggests that the Pentagon was hit by an American missile, and not American Airlines Flight 77. USA Books, a subsidiary of the book’s French publisher, says he could launch the tour as early as this month. - In the book, Meyssan suggests that the attacks were schemed in order to promote a U.S. military agenda that included waging war in Afghanistan. When asked what did happen to Flight 77 and the 59 passengers and crew aboard, he says it’s “one of the questions I don’t have a response for.” But he says that the shape of the gash in the Pentagon, where 125 people were killed, is not consistent with an airliner. - The U.S. Defense Department has called the allegations in the book “more than insulting.”

Comment: It may be "insulting," but sometimes the truth hurts. And in this case, it could hurt a LOT! It certainly would explain the attempt to first stonewall a congressional investigation and then the current race to do damage control with Henry Kissinger at the helm...

Flashback: US invented air attack on Pentagon, claims French book - Mr Meyssan's conspiracy theory argues that American Airlines flight 77, which killed 189 people when it smashed into the headquarters of the US defence department, did not exist, and that the whole disaster was a dastardly plot dreamed up and implemented by the US government. The French media has been quick to dismiss the book's claims, despite the fact that Mr Meyssan is president of the Voltaire Network, a respected independent thinktank whose left-leaning research projects have until now been considered models of reasonableness and objectivity.

Police Seize 'Obscene' Bin Laden T-Shirt - Australian police said on Monday they had confiscated a T-shirt showing President Bush and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden engaged in a sexual act and were investigating whether it broke a 1931 obscenity law. - There were no details about the sexual act depicted on the shirt.

Pennsylvania Goes After Thought Crimes - A bill passed by the Pennsylvania legislature may make it illegal for preachers to quote Bible passages condemning homosexuality, according to a group that opposes the measure. - According to Devlin, "This bill is so broad that if you have an attender at your church who feels offended or intimidated by what is said from the pulpit, you and your church leadership will be receiving certified letters inviting you to either a deposition or a court appearance."

School Superintendent Sends Police After Homeschoolers - Bruce Dennison, regional superintendent of schools in Bureau, Stark, and Henry counties in Northeastern Illinois, has contacted more than 22 families, insisting that they need his approval to conduct education at home.

Kissinger Promises Thorough 9/11 Probe - Henry Kissinger, chairman of the commission to investigate the Sept. 11 attacks, said Sunday he will have no qualms recommending an examination of possible involvement by foreign countries if facts point that way.

Comment: Question is, what will Hank do if the facts point to the involvment of the man who appointed him to the commission??? However, our guess is that Kissinger will synchronistically discover an "Israili/Mossad" link ...

New York Times Editorial - The Kissinger Commission - Indeed, it is tempting to wonder if the choice of Mr. Kissinger is not a clever maneuver by the White House to contain an investigation it long opposed. It seems improbable to expect Mr. Kissinger to report unflinchingly on the conduct of the government, including that of Mr. Bush. He would have to challenge the established order and risk sundering old friendships and business relationships. - The new inquiry will be undone if the 10-member panel is hesitant to call government organizations and officials to account. There can be no place for the kind of political calculation and court flattery that Mr. Kissinger practiced so assiduously during his tenure as Richard Nixon's national security adviser and secretary of state. Nor is there any tolerance for the kind of cynicism that Mr. Kissinger applied to the prosecution of the Vietnam War.

Supreme Court Could End Miranda Warnings - The blanket requirement for a Miranda warning to all suspects that they have the right to remain silent could end up in the rubbish bin of legal history if the court concludes police were justified in aggressively questioning the gravely wounded Martinez while he screamed in agony.

Debunking Chemtrail Debunkers - This has been a commonplace in the United States, and apparently, numerous other countries, as well, for about six years now! Those who examine these phenomena have termed them "chemtrails", to distinguish them from contrails, and to emphasize the evident presence of foreign substances in the clouds. Since about 1997, these tracks have been a constant presence in the skies of the country. - It appears that many different purposes are being served by chemtrails, and, for each, different substances are being sprayed into the air. To claim one unique purpose for every case of aerial spraying is to run the risk of not identifying correctly what is being done in each particular area. - There seems little plausible reason - if any - to doubt that chemtrails are deliberately produced, and not normal contrails. - Someone in government, it appears, doesn't want the people to think for themselves about what they see going on around them.

The 1971 flowchart provides absolute evidence of the United States' intent to kill its own citizens and others...

Party Uses "Magic Teapot" to Raise Funds - Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jewish party Shas has deployed a new weapon to boost fund-raising for its January election campaign: a magic teapot. The daily Yediot Aharonot said Shas supporters were lining up to drink from the plain metal teapot and paying up to $1,000 for a cuppa, which comes with the blessing of rabbi Rafael Ben Harush, who received the sacred samovar from the so-called "miracle rabbi" Yaakov Abu Hatzira.Comment: So, our House Raffle is actually a DEAL - and you get more for your money, too! Not to mention that it is - in our opinion at least - a much better cause! If you haven't contributed and received your raffle ticket, please do so today! House Raffle

UN Agency Raps Israeli Army for Razing Food Store - The U.N. World Food Program (WFP) said the army blew up the warehouse in the Gaza Strip's Jabalya refugee camp during Sunday's incursion, destroying more than 500 metric tons of food after preventing aid workers from removing it first. - She said Israeli liaison officials in Gaza had not been informed of the warehouse's existence and had therefore not known they should steer clear of the building. The WFP said in a statement the building was clearly marked "with a large WFP flag and three WFP stickers on the doors." "WFP should have been permitted to remove the food. This act has been carried out against basic humanitarian principles," local program director Jean-Luc Siblot said in the statement. "WFP is asking the government of Israel to conduct a thorough investigation of the incident and take full responsibility for the losses incurred by the agency," he said. The statement estimated the WFP's losses at $271,000.

US policy on aid is 'wicked' ? - Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique and other southern African countries have refused to accept GM food from the US even though some 12 million people in the region are threatened with famine. The US , for its part, refused to supply the non-GM grain they requested. Top American officials claim that Americans were eating GM food without ill-effects. One said: "Beggars can't be choosers." - Mr Meacher has been told by experts that plenty of non-GM food is available. He told a meeting last week: "It is wicked, when there is such an excess of non-GM food aid available, for GM to be forced on countries for reasons of GM politics. If there is an area where anger needs to be harnessed, it is here."

UN struggles to explain away presence of weapons inspector with S&M fetish - Senior officials were trying to explain yesterday how such a crucial mission came to include an American former Secret Service officer who has no specialised degree in any of the relevant sciences, but considerable expertise in unusual sexual practices. Harvey John "Jack" McGeorge was nominated for the mission by the United States government. The revelation of his personal details has also led to the disclosure that no background checks have been made on any of the monitors. - Mr McGeorge offers training seminars of a different kind involving "various acts conducted with knives and ropes". This relates to his role as co-founder of Black Rose, a "pansexual S&M group" based in Washington, and also as a founder of Leather Leadership Conference IN, which "produces training sessions for current and potential leaders of the sadomasochistic/ leather/fetish community". Mr McGeorge said a State Department official invited him to apply for a job with the UN team, and neither the Americans nor the United Nations asked about his S&M background. He was interviewed by Hans Blix, the chief inspector, and trained with Unmovic in February 2001.

US increases pressure on Saudis over terrorist funds - step likely to worsen already strained ties between the US and the kingdom. - This friction follows allegations that charitable donations from the wife of Riyadh's ambassador to Washington may have found their way to two of the 11 September hijackers...

Britain 'bombed itself to fool Nazis' - the tactic of committing terrorist acts on one's own people is an old one it seems.

Morocco Floods Kill at Least 37 People - Heavy rain Sunday and Monday, which came amid a four-year drought in Morocco, caused flooding that left 30 people dead in the rural farming area of Settat, the official MAP news agency said. Eight others were reported missing in the Settat region, about 45 miles southeast of Casablanca.

 

 

 

 

 
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