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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--
Faith of consciousness is freedom
Faith of feeling is weakness
Faith of body is stupidity
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Post your own "Signs of the Times" and network with others. |
January 13, 2003
Three New Moons Found Around Neptune - Astronomers have found three previously unknown moons around Neptune, bringing the total for the distant giant planet to 11, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics reported on Monday. These moons are the first to be discovered around Neptune since the NASA Voyager II flyby in 1989, and the first discovered with a ground-based telescope since 1949, the center said in a statement. The three new moons were difficult to detect, since they are only about 18 to 24 miles in diameter and their distance from the sun means they are about 100 million times fainter than anything that can be seen with unaided eyes from Earth. Comment: Of course, nobody has suggested the idea that these "newly discovered moons" around Jupiter and Neptune, etc just MIGHT be artificial bodies... or even cometary bodies headed our way. But it is certainly odd that all of this sort of thing is coming out just now...
A Crime to Drink? Bar Patrons in Virginia Arrested Just for Being Drunk - Mike Heidig was dressed as Santa Claus and had just finished a rousing karaoke version of "Jingle Bell Rock" at a Reston, Va., bar when a police officer asked him to step outside. Heidig, who was at the bar Champps with a group of his work colleagues, complied. After failing a breath test designed to test his sobriety, Heidig was loaded into a van and taken to jail on charges of public intoxication. "I was in a public place drinking," Heidig said on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America. "I was not driving, I didn't even have a car."
Heidig, who hired an attorney to contest the charges, said he left his car, wallet and keys two miles away at his office, and he had made arrangements to stay overnight at a friend's place in Reston. Heidig insists that he was not acting obnoxious in the bar when he was pulled outside. While reciting the alphabet he stumbled on the letter "Q" and was given a breathalyzer test. Heidig was just one of the restaurant and bar patrons were swept up last month in a joint operation of the Fairfax County police and the Virginia Department of Alcohol Beverage Control — an operation authorities say they may repeat. The agencies are trying to crack down on drunken driving by picking out drunks before anyone gets behind the wheel. -
Over the recent holidays, undercover cops went into bars in Reston and Herndon, Va., to see if bartenders were overserving customers. Police ended up raiding three bars and arresting nine patrons who failed sobriety tests. Patrons who failed were charged with public intoxication, a misdemeanor. "If the law says that if you are in a public location and intoxicated, you are subject to arrest," said Lt. Tor Bennett of the Reston District of the Fairfax County Police Department. - He said that in practice, people who are a little intoxicated but minding their own business are probably not going to be bothered by police. The person "must be drawing attention to themselves," said Bennett, who supervised the operation. "What drew their attention to Mike [Heidig] in this particular evening was not a fight or disruption out in the parking lot," Bennett said. "Mike happened to be wearing a Santa Claus suit and was seen with a karoke machine at the bar and that's how he got arrested."
Under Virginia law, a restaurant or bar is considered a public space, and public intoxication is a low-level misdemeanor that carries a fine of up to $250 and can also be punishable by a night in jail. - "I have never seen this before," [a tavern owner] said. "I've seen the Alcohol Beverage Control [teams] come in and look for intoxicated people that are possibly causing a disturbance, and they've either warned myself or the manager at the restaurant, but I've never seen 12 uniformed officers walk in and begin taking people out on the sidewalk and giving them sobriety tests."
Comments from QFS members: * I have worked in restaurants for over thirty years and have yet to see it go this far. OMG. What has been happening in this neck of the woods is that undercover cops come in with fake ID's that look very legal. If the bartender or server does not spot that it is a fake they are fined as much as $1000.00.
* I owned a restuarant/nightclub for 10 years. It was located 6 blocks from the central police station, county and federal courthouses. The cops were all still of the "serve and protect" mindset back then and, for the most part, friendly. We cooperated wholeheartedly with them and got along fine. This new militancy in law enforcement is frightening. It even spills over into firefighters. I saw a picture, a week or so ago, of a complete firehouse unit decked out in camouflage uniforms. What's with that? This ties right into Minority Report and its futurecrime department. Perhaps that is what that film was preparing us for; getting arrested for simply being capable of an offence. Orwell didn't have a clue about how bad it could get.
* On a semi-related note: I saw a copy of the current issue of National Geographic Magazine. The very last page has a short story about new military uniforms that render a body nearly invisible. Some material they are developing that transmits light, so when the person wearing such a suit is seen in a given environment that person appears as some strange distortion of light, almost like a heat wave on the road but not so pronounced as a heat wave. The article presented it as futuristic- under-development stuff. The photos in the article (simulated) seemed to me just like what they showed in the movie Predator, how the predator looked while cloaked. And it also reminded me of what the man describes in that article regarding the oddities at the Utah ranch which was posted here not too long ago. I checked the National Geo Web site but that particular story isn't there, but it's in the printed magazine.
Folks, it's here! The Fourth Reich and its "Supermen" courtesy Bush and Co. AKA Monsters, Inc. - Pentagon dark lord Donald Rumsfeld is shoveling billions of tax dollars into the research furnaces of federal laboratories and private universities across the land in the wide-ranging effort to spawn "super soldiers," fired by drugs and electromagnetic "brain zaps" to fight without ceasing for days on end. The work is being directed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)--yes, the same outfit now laboring under convicted terrorist-conspirator John Poindexter to build the "Total Information Awareness" network that will allow the government to monitor the electronic records and communications of every citizen. -
The DARPA "war fighter enhancement" programs--an acceleration of bipartisan biotinkering that's been going on for years--will involve injecting young men and women with hormonal, neurological and genetic concoctions; implanting microchips and electrodes in their bodies to control their internal organs and brain functions; and plying them with drugs that deaden some of their normal human tendencies: the need for sleep, the fear of death, the reluctance to kill their fellow human beings. -
The research is "very aggressive and wide open," says Admiral Stephen Baker of the Center for Defense Information. Indeed, the U.S. Special Operations Command envisions the creation of "iron bodied and iron willed personnel" who can "resist the mental and physiological effects of sleep deprivation" while relying on "ergogenic substances" to "manage" the "environmental and mentally induced stress" of the battlefield. Their bodies juiced, their brains swaddled in Prozacian haze, the enhanced warfighters can churn relentlessly, remorselessly toward dominion. -
And the term "creation" is not just fanciful rhetoric: some of the research now underway involves actually altering the genetic code of soldiers, modifying bits of DNA to fashion a new type of human specimen, one that functions like a machine, killing tirelessly for days and nights on end. These mutations will "revolutionize the contemporary order of battle" and guarantee "operational dominance across the whole range of potential U.S. military employments," the DARPA wizards enthuse.
Comment: And do we suspect that some of this has already been accomplished under the guise of "smallpox vaccinations" ??? We notice how soldiers, policemen, firemen, and medical workers have been particularly targeted to receive these injections...
Bushwhacked - With war looming it is no good the American public looking to its newspapers for an independent voice. For, says Matthew Engel, the press have now become the president's men - It is more than 30 years ago now, though it seems like yesterday. A Republican president, much derided by liberals, was in the White House and his opponents were being lashed by the rightwing attack dogs, led then by the vice-president, Spiro Agnew.
The elite East Coast press, exemplified by the New York Times and the Washington Post, were the special targets of his scorn: "pointy-headed liberals," he called them, and "the nattering nabobs of negativism".
But the press laughed last and longest. Agnew resigned in disgrace, to be followed by his president, Richard Nixon - forced out by the investigations of two Post reporters, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, whose doggedness revealed Nixon's role in covering up the Watergate break-in and sundry other crimes. It remains one of the greatest - maybe the greatest - moment in the history of American journalism.
Now there is a new Republican president, elected even more controversially and pursuing a far more divisive agenda. Where are the pointy-head liberals now? [...]
The worldwide turmoil caused by President Bush's policies goes not exactly unreported, but entirely de-emphasised. Guardian writers are inundated by emails from Americans asking plaintively why their own papers never print what is in these columns (in my experience, these go hand-in-hand with an equal number insulting us for the same reason). In the American press, day after day, the White House controls the agenda. The supposedly liberal American press has become a dog that never bites, hardly barks but really loves rolling over and having its tummy tickled. [...]
To some extent, journalists have felt obliged to tone down criticisms because of the sense of shared national purpose after September 11. Even that cannot explain how the papers cravenly ignored the Trent Lott story. Lott, the veteran senator from Mississippi, made his pro- segregation statement on a Thursday, in full earshot of the Washington press corps. The Times and Post both failed to mention it. Indeed, it was almost totally ignored until the following Tuesday, kept alive until then only by a handful of bloggers. If there is a Watergate scandal lurking in this administration, it is unlikely to be Woodward or his colleagues who will tell us about it. If it emerges, it will probably come out on the web. That is a devastating indictment of the state of American newspapers.
Whitley has officially gone over to the Dark Side - This item in Whitley's "journal" has elicited a number of comments from readers:
* Yup, Whitty's gone completely round the bend. Sadly the sheeple that have bought his BS up to this point will nod knowingly that he is, regrettably, correct...they'll probably even call their travel agents and cancel their trip to Washington [anti-war demonstration] on the 18th (which is probably the point of his tirade). This guy has just bared his character to the world as a bought and paid for lackey of the Shrub.
* To me, what seems schizoid about this piece is that Whitley makes the naked statement that a war with Iraq would be a war about oil (oh, not so much for the US's sake, but for those poor starving wretches in the Third World--which I suppose makes it altruistic!), and admits that one reason this society needs oil is that we have not supported conservation and alternative energy. Yet in all his praise of Dubya, there's not a whisper of admission that this administration has consistently obstructed conservation and alternative energy. On the whole, though, Whitley's piece reads like praise of a heroin addict who's planning to commit murder in order to ensure a few easy fixes--and hey, maybe once the heroin's flowing he'll give some thought to kicking the habit...
* I can only say that it must be genetic. Whitley has a lot of relatives in the military.
* Actually I would not have believed this unless I read it. I must say that after giving up TV and many frivolities I am never at a loss at being entertained at the absudities I am now witmessing that are unfolding with people like Whitley. Its the best show on earth. Its very strange that Whitley suddenly takes his strong pro war stance just at the time the sign's page has kicked into high gear. Very interesting . Not only that but "pied piper Whitley" has just yelled charge! And his faithful are right behind him.....as he goes off the cliff.
* Whitley wrote: "So not only is the president in a position where he must fight an essential war......" An ESSENTIAL war??? What this really means is made clear in my French/English dictionary. The French word ESSENCE is defined thusly: ESSENCE 1. nf (a) (carburant) petrol (Brit), gas(oline) (US)...
* Oh my God! I couldnt even finish reading this! I am totally amazed at the height of Whit's stupidity. He has totally lost it, maybe never had "it". You would think someone that has experienced abductions and what not, (as he claims), would have a total distrust in anything seemingly "real". What a puppet of the masters... and so many people under his trust and guidance...my oh my.
* Sadly, Whitley echoes what many others in the so-called New Age community already think due to their brainwashing. All they need is to have it articulated for them by the famous Whitley Strieber. Looks as though as the tide was turning on the war issue in the community - people getting active - (more and more are against it) - and "they" had to pull in some bigger guns to smack those New Agey types back into line.
My comment: I always felt that Whitley was a propagandist, bought and paid for by the "powers that be," and this idea became more concrete as I did research on our Timeline. (Also see: Ascension) Additionally, there was the strange interaction we had with him some years back at the Gulf Breeze UFO conference. But if there was ever evidence that Whitley is an agent of the STS aliens, I guess this is it. As noted elsewhere, early in the Cassiopaean contact, we had asked a few questions about Mr. Strieber:
01-01-95
Q: (L) What is the energy fueling Whitley Strieber and his work?
A: Grays.
Q: (L) He is an agent of the Grays?
A: No. Instrument of the Grays. Influenced by them. Wolfen reflects Lizzie reality.
A Crime, Not a War - Oil, money, power beyond comprehension. Plans for an Iraqi "Regime Change" are not at all -- as the administration would have us believe -- a result of the attacks of September 11th. In fact, plans for an Iraqi regime change, at the behest of Mr. Bush were scripted into the GOP's published platform statement for 2000. Why?
There are heavy connections between the Bush Administration and US oil corporations. The interests of those oil giants are the cornerstone of this Administration's policy. Control of Iraqi oil fields would be worth incalculable profits the very corporations whose former executives permeate the ranks of the Bush Administration. Oil is the Bush family business -- politics is the shield that protects it. In addition to the oil, the business of militarism itself promises a mountain of gold for those who promote this act of military aggression.
At the center of all spending for the administration's "war on terrorism" is the Carlyle Group. Contracts for the construction of military aircraft, artillery, vaccines for small pox, transportation infrastructure - everything a war on terrorism needs - are awarded to companies connected to the Carlyle Group. Who is the Carlyle group? Essentially they are defense industry investment brokers. The management team includes none other than former US President George Bush Sr., James Baker and Frank Carlucci to name a few. If you want to invest your millions in the defense industry, the smart money goes to the Carlyle Group.
In fact, that is precisely what the family of Osama bin Laden did. They were Carlyle clients in good standing at the time of the attacks, having invested two million dollars through Carlyle in the US defense industry. After the attacks, Carlyle severed relations with the bin Ladens, but not before the family of the worlds most notorious killer pocketed a tidy profit from their dealings. It should be noted that the bin Laden family investment was well timed to capitalize on the wave of US defense spending that would be generated by Oasma's attacks. Carlyle stood ready to assist them. I wonder how FOX News missed that.
The Risk of Smallpox and Vaccinia Vaccination Versus Nature’s Way of Boosting Powerful Preventative Immunity - People who put their faith and trust in the Bush administration’s smallpox vaccination program are foolish, if not suicidal, according to many smallpox experts, even those working for the federal government. According to Dr. Thomas Mack, University of Southern California School of Medicine professor, among the nation’s leading smallpox experts, preparations for smallpox attack and mass vaccination campaigns are proceeding politically, but not logically. Nor can they be expected to be more effective than deadly.
The report offers a glimpse into the history of fluoride, a bio-accumulative toxic that Americans ingest every day. The authors, Griffiths and Bryson, spent more than a year on research. With the belief that the information should be withheld no longer, the authors gave their report to Waste Not, and others, with a short note: "use as you wish."
Republican senators gathering last Wednesday for their session-opening ''retreat'' should have been happy, blessed with a regained majority and a popular president. They were not. Instead, they complained bitterly of arrogance by the Bush administration, especially the Pentagon, in treatment of Congress along the road to war. Two years of growing discontent boiled over during the closed-door meeting at the Library of Congress. White House chief of staff Andrew Card was there to hear grievances from President Bush's Senate base that it is ignored and insulted by the administration, particularly by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in preparing for war against Iraq. Recital of complaints began with Sen. John Warner, a pillar of the Senate GOP establishment.
No senator more solidly supports Bush's national security policy than Warner, the 75-year-old chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee who was re-elected last year to a fifth Senate term from Virginia. A veteran of the Navy (World War II) and Marine Corps (Korean War) and a former secretary of the Navy, he has devoted long public service to American's national defense. Consequently, Warner had his colleagues' attention when he addressed Card. ''I will not tolerate,'' he boomed, ''a continuation of what's been going on the last two years.'' He cited cavalier treatment that denies information even to the venerable top Senate Republican on Armed Services. To specify whom he was talking about, Warner said he had breakfast scheduled the next morning with Rumsfeld and would tell the secretary of defense the same thing.
Israeli geologists said Monday they have examined a stone tablet detailing repair plans for the Jewish Temple of King Solomon that, if authenticated, would be a rare piece of physical evidence confirming biblical narrative. The find - whose origin is murky - is about the size of a legal pad, with a 15-line inscription in ancient Hebrew that strongly resembles descriptions in the Bible's Book of Kings. It could also strengthen Jewish claims to a disputed holy site in Jerusalem's Old City that is now home to two major mosques. Muslim clerics insist, despite overwhelming archaeological evidence, that no Jewish shrine ever stood at the site. That claim was made by Palestinian officials in failed negotiations with Israel in 2000 over who would be sovereign there. The origin of the stone tablet is unclear, making it difficult to establish authenticity.
Comment: I can guess the origin - same as the origin of the so-called "Palestinian Suicide Bombers," which is Zionist Fanatics with a desire to take over the world. There is NO evil they will not commit in pursuit of their agenda. They will do anything to lay a false claim to their spurious "Promised Land."
Israel destroyed dozens of weapons-production facilities in the southern Gaza Strip over the weekend. On Monday, Palestinian gunners fired three Kassam-3 rockets toward Israel in the biggest such attack in the more than two-year-old war with Israel. An Israeli combined task force of infantry and armor, supported by helicopters, raided the Gaza city of Khan Yunis overnight Sunday and destroyed the facilities that manufacture rockets and other weapons. The force blew up six buildings in downtown Khan Yunis under heavy Palestinian fire.
Israeli troops shot dead two armed Palestinians as they approached a Jewish settler bus in Gaza, hours after Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz warned of a rising tide of Palestinian attacks ahead of Israeli elections in two weeks. The two unidentified Palestinians were running toward a bus headed for the settlement of Netzarim, Israeli military sources told AFP on Monday. The Palestinians armed with home-made grenades and an assault rifle were shot dead by an army escort. After a sharp escalation in fighting Sunday in which nine Palestinians and two Israelis were killed, Mofaz warned the country to brace for increased bloodletting. - "We should not give any credence to (Palestinian leader) Yasser Arafat's calls to stop the attacks before the election. In fact he has blocked all progress aimed at ending the violence," Mofaz said. "We are faced with a growing wave of terrorism," he warned. Mofaz blamed organisations linked to Arafat's Palestinian Authority and said the upcoming election was another motivation for anti-Israeli attacks. Raging violence on Sunday included an Israeli helicopter strike on a car carrying members of the military wing of the hardline Islamic group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The missile attack missed its targets, blowing up instead two teenage bystanders, one of them in a wheelchair.
Saudis Fund Anti-Israel ads - When radio ads critical of Israel ran in 15 U.S. cities last spring, they identified the Alliance for Peace and Justice as sponsor. The alliance was described by its Washington p.r. firm, Qorvis Communications, as a consortium of Middle East — policy groups based in the U.S. But when Qorvis reported its ad work to the Justice Department last month, it revealed that funding for the $679,000 media buy actually came from another source: the Saudi government.
The Pope today issued his strongest message yet in opposition to possible war in Iraq, telling Vatican diplomats that military force must be “the very last option.” John Paul said a renewed conflict with Baghdad would only harm ordinary Iraqis, “already sorely tried” by UN sanctions imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. Amid a massive buildup of US forces in the Gulf, the Pope called for stepped-up diplomacy and dialogue, saying war is not inevitable. “War is never just another means that one can choose to employ for settling differences between nations,” he told the Vatican’s diplomatic corps in his annual speech at the start of the new year.
Blair ready to act without new UN resolution - The prime minister, Tony Blair, said today he believed "passionately" that Saddam Hussein must be stripped of his weapons of mass destruction, with or without a new UN resolution.
Tony Blair will try today to head off a growing Labour rebellion over US-led military action by pledging that he will not abandon the UN route to resolving the Iraq crisis. Clare Short, the International Development Secretary, broke cabinet ranks yesterday when she said the Government would not join a strike by America without UN backing. Ms Short said she was worried about the Iraq crisis and said that Britain would use its influence with the US to try to keep the UN process on track. Ms Short's intervention came amid growing signs of dissent from Labour MPs fearful of rushing into war. Mr Blair is expected to travel to Washington later this month for a "war cabinet" with President George Bush.
Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul called for Muslim and Arab countries to work together to avert a US-led war in Iraq that he feared would have disastrous repercussions for the Middle East. "We must undertake steps and seize this final chance to avoid a war in which the Iraqi people and all the people of the region will pay the price," Gul said at a press conference in Tehran. Grilled about his approving US military inspectors to survey air bases and ports in Turkey that could be used in case of such war, Gull acknowledged his country's difficult position as a top US military ally in the region. "Each country must prepare for all scenarios and be ready for any eventuality," he said, while alluding to Turkey's reluctance to let US troops pass through its territory to enter Iraq.
Thousands more troops have been ordered to head for the Gulf region for a possible attack against Iraq, US defense officials said, pushing US force levels above 150,000 by mid-February. Two sets of deployment orders signed Friday will add 62,000 troops to the massive US troop buildup in the area. "By mid-February the (latest) deployment would be concluded," an official said on condition of anonymity Sunday. He added that US forces were ready to attack whenever President George W. Bush might give the order.
Ecuador's former coup leader Lucio Gutierrez will be sworn in on Wednesday as president of this chronically unstable nation amid hopes from the majority poor he will deliver on promises to fight corruption and poverty. Gutierrez, 45, a retired army colonel, will take the oath of office in a ceremony in Congress and then head to a soccer stadium where he has prepared a party for the poor masses who voted for him. The new leader, who ran on a ticket backed by Indian groups, will be Ecuador's first president in decades to share the more humble background and dark-skinned complexion of most of his constituents. Gutierrez, who has no experience in office, has vowed to fight corruption and poverty plaguing 60 percent of Ecuadoreans since he beat two former presidents for the post last year in a blow to traditional political parties.
Slobodan Milosevic's war crimes trial was halted again Monday for at least two days after the former Yugoslav president complained of feeling unwell. Judge Richard May told the U.N. tribunal that doctors would examine Milosevic and then report back to the court. Milosevic has been on trial for genocide and crimes against humanity since last February. Tribunal spokesman Jim Landale said later the trial would not resume Tuesday. "(Milosevic) has a high temperature and flu-like symptoms," he said. It was unclear when proceedings would get under way again. Milosevic's landmark trial has been repeatedly interrupted by his bouts of ill-health. He has suffered spells of high blood pressure, flu and exhaustion.
Arctic cold claims more victims in ice-clad east Europe - A merciless blast of Arctic weather claimed still more victims across central and eastern Europe, with thousands of residents having to endure record low temperatures without any heating. Several ships meanwhile found themselves trapped in thick ice that has surrounded ports throughout the region's eastern Baltic coast, while more than 20 people have died recently from the intense cold in Latvia, Hungary and as far west as Portugal. In Moscow, emergency services announced that a further five people have died from the cold snap in the city, bringing the total death toll from this winter to 286 people.
Ironically, the eastern region of Siberia, renowned for its deadly winters, has thus far experienced one of the mildest winters in a century.
Russia is not the only country in the region where the brutal winter has caused havoc. In Ukraine, heavy snowfall closed down five airports Sunday where runways were covered in ice, the emergencies ministry said Monday. In Germany, snow and frozen rain virtually shut down the airport at Cologne and Bonn, cancelled flights at Frankfurt's international airport and caused traffic snarls in Bavaria, officials said. Arctic weather in the Baltic region has killed at least 15 people in the Latvian capital of Riga in recent days, officials said Monday. Meanwhile ice has virtually frozen ports in the region. In Russia's second-largest city of Saint Petersburg on Monday, around 50 ships remained at sea, shut out of the city's frozen ports by a layer of ice some 80 centimeters (31 inches) thick covering the Gulf of Finland, off Saint Petersburg's coast. Ice there had not been that thick since 1941, when residents welcomed the frozen cover, for it enabled vehicles to sneak supplies into the city, under siege by the German army.
Meanwhile, countries in traditionally warmer areas continued to feel the effects of the vicious cold snap that caught western Europe unprepared last week. Fireman in Portugal said Sunday the cold has cost some five lives in their country, with one person dying from carbon monoxide poisoning while trying to warm up at home. In Greece, a young illegal immigrant was found frozen to death on the Greece-Albania border, while four other illegal immigrants have disappeared in the region, local Greek news agencies reported Monday.
Cyclone Ami moves south towards Fiji - Fiji battened down its hatches as Cyclone Ami swirled its way south-southwest, with residents fearing a repeat of the destruction caused by the Christmas Day Cyclone Zoe. After hovering over the west coast of French territories Wallis and Futuna, Ami gathered gusts of 175 kilometers per hour (109 miles per hour) as it hurtled southwards along the 180 degree line of longitude. It was expected to loom over Fiji late Monday night, meteorologists said Monday.
US offers Bribe to Pyongyang for backdown on nuke crisis - In what may represent a softening in Washington's hardline on Pyongyang, the man who launched the nuclear standoff three months ago said North Korea could gain a reward if it backed down now. "Once we can get beyond nuclear weapons, there may be opportunities with the US, with private investors and other countries, to help North Korea in the energy area," said James Kelly, the senior Bush administration official for Asia.
Pope John Paul Monday demanded that Russian authorities stop expelling Catholic priests and bishops from the country. Speaking to diplomats at the Vatican, the pope said he had been greatly pained by "the plight of Catholic communities in the Russian Federation, which for months now have seen some of their pastors prevented from returning to them..." One bishop and several priests have been prevented from returning to their parishes or dioceses in Russia and been declared persona non grata while traveling outside the country. "The Holy See expects from government authorities concrete decisions which will put an end to this crisis," he said. Last April Bishop Jerzy Mazur, a Pole who had been based in eastern Siberia since 1998, was prevented from returning to Moscow from Poland. The move followed the expulsion of several priests. Russia's Orthodox Church wants to block Vatican plans to strengthen the Catholic presence in Russia. The Vatican has denounced the expulsions as part of an organized campaign against Russia's Catholic Church. The two churches have been at loggerheads since last year when the Vatican moved to strengthen its structures in Russia by creating four fully-fledged Catholic dioceses. The leadership of the powerful Orthodox Church says the Catholic Church is out to poach converts from its flock. The Church's leader said last week it was up to the Vatican to improve relations.
Britain's 76-year-old Queen Elizabeth underwent a successful operation at a London hospital Monday to remove a torn cartilage after a minor accident last month. "The 45-minute operation, which was performed by The Queen's orthopedic surgeon Mr. Roger Vickers, went very well and Her Majesty is expected to leave hospital tomorrow morning," a statement from Buckingham palace said. The Queen, who has enjoyed robust health for most of her life, hurt her right knee and had to use a walking stick after stumbling when she walked over uneven ground in December. After Monday's operation, she was expected to rest for two weeks at her Sandringham country estate and "will then resume a limited program of engagements until she has made a full recovery," the Buckingham Palace statement added. The Queen had a grueling 2002 with the loss of two close relatives and near-constant tours round the nation for the Jubilee celebrations of her half century on the throne.
January 12, 2003
The Biggest Threat To Peace Which country really poses the greatest danger to world peace in 2003? TIME asks for readers' views. According to the data collected at the moment I voted in this poll, the figures were:
Which country poses the greatest danger to world peace in
2003?
North Korea 10.2 %
Iraq 17.3 %
The United States 72.5 %
Total Votes Cast: 64562
Comment: click the link and tell'em! We also hear that Bush and Co are getting worried and have an opinion line to the White House open. So, let's all call... White House Opinion Line: (202) 456-1111 - The line only accepts calls from 9 - 5 EST., Monday through Friday. A machine will detain you for only a moment and then a pleasant live operator will thank you for saying "I oppose" or "I approve". It will only take minutes. They ask you what state you are from and then ask for your comment. I intend to tell them that Bush is a psychopath and a Fascist and they can take that to the bank.
Fuzzy Strands Fill Skies Over Texas City - Galveston residents are still trying to figure out what caused the skies over their coastal city to literally be filled on Friday with floating strands of wads that looked like spider webs. The webs were visible in the air for five hours, and poles were left wrapped with the sticky strands and fuzzy wads. - The phenomenon has occurred in at least two other places. The Associated Press reported Oct. 8 that "long, floating spider webs" were "bobbing through the skies of Santa Cruz, Calif., ... confusing some community members concerned about biological weapons, UFOs and other phenomena." - And the Wallowa Chieftain in Oregon reported on Dec. 22, 2000, the sightings of "web-like material ... falling from the sky" that some locals thought came "from three military jets that had been flying back and forth in an east-west flight pattern at high altitude." -
A University of Wyoming microbiology professor attributed the webs in Santa Cruz to young spiders that launch themselves on their homemade parachutes after hatching to be blown to a new home. In Wyoming, dozens of the webs can been seen floating across the prairie in the spring, the professor was quoted as saying in the AP story. However, on the Internet, some conspiracy connoisseurs remain convinced the webs are man-made and could be part of an elaborate government plot.
Comment: This was on ABC news - debunkery. I guess the jets flying and distributing the materials that maintain the neutral cavity for the HAARP mind control system are just getting too obvious and too many people are making a stink. Something had to be done...
North Korea Threatens to make the U.S a 'sea of fire' - North Korea insisted Sunday that it never admitted having a secret nuclear program — the latest conflicting signal it has given in the escalating crisis over its alleged plans to build nuclear weapons. "The claim that we admitted developing nuclear weapons is an invention fabricated by the U.S. with sinister intentions," South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper as saying. - The newspaper blamed the United States for the current crisis and warned: "If the United States evades its responsibility and challenges us, we'll turn the citadel of imperialists into a sea of fire."
A secretive man has sent shivers around the world as he plays a nuclear card to try to win prestige for North Korea and force U.S. leaders to recognize that his isolated state matters. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, his position and the survival of his hermit communist government under threat since President Bush dubbed Pyongyang part of an "axis of evil," may have succeeded in painting the world's only superpower into a corner. Washington certainly seems at a loss as to what to do next. - To Kim, supreme leader of the world's only communist dynasty and presiding over million-man army poised along the last Cold War flashpoint, his moves almost certainly follow a careful logic. It's just not a logic that the rest of the world is able to follow. "This is the only behavior they know," said Cossa. "It has worked in the past and they are convinced it will work in future. If one guy says this is a good idea, then no-one is allowed to question that. Comment: Gee, it sounds like what Bush really wants to do, but can't quite get all the U.S. ducks to get in the row and follow his asinine foreign bullying. In other words, Kim is Bush's alter ego!
Chief weapons inspector El Baradei searches for substance from the Iraqis - Q.The Bush Administration has repeatedly said Iraq is very close to owning a nuclear bomb. A. I hope the U.S. does not know anything we do not know. If they do, they should tell us. If they are talking about indigenous capability, Iraq is far away from that. If Iraq has imported material hidden, then you're talking about six months or a year. But that's a big if. - Q.Powell has said the U.S. is now giving "significant" information to the inspection teams. A. Not yet. We hope soon to get actionable information.
"The Bush Administration is using the United Nations weapons inspection as a stepping stone to launching war against Iraq," said Richard Becker, national steering committee member for International A.N.S.W.E.R. "Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said that if the inspectors do not find any weapons of mass destruction it will prove that the Iraqis have defeated the inspection process. The Administration has created a no-win scenario for Iraq. No matter what information the Iraqis provide, no matter how widespread the inspections, the United States intends to take over the country and gain control of Iraq's oil."
Hundreds of Thousands to Protest Saturday January 18 Against a War with Iraq In San Francisco and Washington, D.C. and other cities worldwide. - In the spirit of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, hundreds of thousands are expected to march in the streets to put a stop to a war that the United Nation's estimates will kill 500,000 people in the first week alone.
More than 40 organizing centers on the West Coast from Los Angeles to Alberta, Canada are preparing to send protesters to San Francisco on Jan. 18. More than 130 organizing centers have been set up on the East Coast for the Washington, D.C. event. For more information go to www.Internationalanswer.org
Solidarity protests will be held around the world from Europe to Asia on Jan. 18. Major actions are planned in Spain, Egypt, Indonesia, Germany , Argentina and other countries. The ANSWER Coalition was formed in response to the Bush Administrations plans to bomb Afghanistan. A coalition of hundreds of groups, ANSWER organized demonstrations of 100,000 people in San Francisco and 200,000 people in Washington, D.C. on Oct 26. ANSWER also is sponsoring the People's Anti-War Referendum at www.votenowar.org. People can log onto the web site and vote against a new war on Iraq.
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email: iacenter@action-mail.org En Espanol: el_iac@yahoo.com web:
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Bush team blames Clinton for crisis - Says 1994 N. Korea agreement left `the difficult things' for next leader. - The comments marked a sharp change of direction from the administration's insistence in recent weeks that only North Korea was to blame for the crisis. As recently as last week, Secretary of State Colin Powell said he gave "great credit" to the Clinton administration for freezing North Korea's plutonium enrichment program with the 1994 Agreed Framework. On Saturday, North Korea threatened to abandon a moratorium on ballistic missile tests, further escalating a confrontation with its neighbors and the United States one day after withdrawing from a global treaty designed to halt the spread of nuclear weapons.
Face Recognition Cameras Stir 'Big Brother' Fears - Police in this popular resort city recently began operating video surveillance cameras with controversial face recognition technology that critics say brings the United States one step closer to becoming a society where "Big Brother is watching you." Virginia Beach, along with Tampa, Florida, is one of only two cities in the United States to acquire the technology, which cost it $197,000. The system went live last September, at the tail end of the summer vacation period when the city was crowded with visitors.
Violence swept across Israel and the occupied territories as the army pounded a Gaza Strip city, while a Palestinian attack in northern Israel and a rare infiltration from Egypt also ended in bloodshed. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Palestinian Authority exchanged accusations over the fresh cycle of tit-for-tat violence that left 11 people dead and sets a tense stage for the January 28 legislative elections in Israel. - Two teenage Palestinian bystanders, one of them in a wheelchair, where killed when a missile fired by an Israeli helicopter missed a taxi carrying three Palestinians, including two members of the military wing of the hardline Hamas group, witnesses in Khan Yunis said. The three managed to escape before two more missiles destroyed their vehicle. - According to witnesses, a group of Palestinians spontaneously gathered and called for revenge outside a hospital south of Khan Yunis where some of the wounded from the day's Israeli attacks were being treated. The army was not available for comment on whether the botched missile attack was one of its patented "targeted killings" that have drawn wide international condemnation as they often cause heavy civilian casualties. - Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz warned the Palestinians Sunday on public radio that the army was planning to carry out "vast operations against terrorist infrastructure" in the occupied territories. For his part, the premier ripped Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for issuing a call for restraint ahead of the Israeli legislative vote on January 28, accusing Arafat of being motivated purely by political concerns. On Friday, the Palestinian leadership issued a statement urging "Palestinian people to show their restraint and not allow themselves to be dragged along by the Israeli escalation and provocation on the approach of Israeli elections." Comment: Any readers who have read our Adventures With the Cassiopaeans will surely recognize the psychopathic profile of the Israeli approach to Palestine. It's game theory pushed to the limit.
In Askar refugee camp in the northern West Bank town of Nablus, Bassem Shanir, 20, was shot dead and nine others wounded, two critically, in clashes with Israeli soldiers, Palestinian witnesses and medical sources said. He was hit when Palestinian youths attacked Israeli armoured vehicles with rocks and other debris and the soldiers answered with live fire, they said. An Israeli military spokesman said the soldiers fired on a "terrorist who was preparing to throw a Molotov cocktail."
Two Iraqi scientists refuse to be interrogated abroad - quizzed by UN arms inspectors in Baghdad last month, they have refused to go abroad for questioning, President Saddam Hussein's scientific advisor, General Amer al-Saadi, revealed. "They were asked if they would be willing to go abroad to answer questions. They made their position clear that they did not want to leave Iraq and that was that," Saadi told reporters. The two scientists, Sabah Abdul Nur and Kadhem Mojbil, were previously questioned in December by inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). According to Saadi, no request has been made to take any other scientists overseas for questioning.
London torn between Washington and UN over Iraq - Joining the United States in a war against Iraq, with no evidence to prove allegations that Baghdad possesses weapons of mass destruction, would put the British government in a tricky position. The majority of the British public is against war without UN support, as are an increasing number of lawmakers in Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party. - London has stressed that January 27 -- the day inspectors are set to give a full report on Iraq's alleged arsenal -- is not a deadline. John Kent, International Relations expert at the London School of Economics, believes Britain wants war postponed. "Whether the Americans are going to accept that is another matter," he told AFP.
US Governor George Ryan has commuted all capital punishment cases on Illinois state's death row, in a historic blanket move likely to have far-reaching implications across America. Ryan on Saturday lifted 167 death sentences, slamming the practice of capital punishment in his state as "arbitrary," "capricious" and "immoral," the largest such emptying of death row in US history.
He said he felt he had no option but to commute all the sentences to life without the possibilty of parole, after he learned of various cases in which innocent people were sentenced to die. "Our capital system is haunted by the demon of error -- error in determining guilt, and error in determining who among the guilty deserves to die. Because of all of these reasons today I am commuting the sentences of all death row inmates," the governor, who leaves office Monday, said. Illinois had exonerated 17 people since the state re-instated the death penalty in 1977 -- more than any other US state except Florida. Half of the 300 capital cases in the state have been reversed for a new trial or resentencing. Four inmates who were exonerated earlier this week claimed independently of each other that they had been framed by police, who tortured them into making false confessions. Comment: What a contrast to George Bush who made fun of Karla Faye Tucker's execution.
Activists around the world on Sunday applauded the move by the governor of Illinois to spare death row prisoners from execution and urged President Bush to follow his lead by abolishing the death penalty. - The London-based human rights group Amnesty International, which opposes all use of the death penalty, said Ryan's announcement offered his fellow Republican Bush a golden opportunity. "This is a chance for President Bush to bring the United States in line with the world trend against the death penalty," Amnesty spokesman Kamal Samari told Reuters. "He could take a moral stand and signal that the death penalty is not the deterrent to criminals it is presented as." Mexican President Vicente Fox called Ryan on Sunday to praise him for his step, which affected three Mexicans. Mexico does not have the death penalty and has clashed with the United States on the issue repeatedly in connection with Mexicans sentenced to death in the United States. "Fox called Ryan by telephone to express his profound recognition for the historic measure," the Mexican president's office said in a statement. - Bush's home state of Texas has come under particular scrutiny for its frequent use of the death penalty. About 150 people were put to death during the six years Bush was Texas governor before he became president. He has defended the system.
Russian warships preparing to head for Gulf: naval sources - Two ships of Russia's Pacific Fleet are preparing to leave for a long-term mission that will take them to the Gulf, naval officers in the Far Eastern port of Vladivostok said on condition of anonymity. The anti-submarine ships Admiral Panteleyev and Marshal Shaposhnikov are to leave for the Gulf, escorted by a tanker, in the first few days of February, the officers said Sunday. Official naval spokesmen refused to confirm the reports, although active preparations for a departure by both ships were visible from the quayside. - Russia, which has extensive economic interests in Iraq, is opposed to the use of military force in the stand-off between the United States, supported by Britain, and Iraq over disarmament.
The de facto ruler of key U.S. ally Saudi Arabia said on Sunday he did not believe there would be war on neighboring Iraq and that the kingdom had proposed an initiative to fellow Arab states to resolve the crisis. "There is no doubt that all the reasons point to a war but I personally believe there will not be a war...I see the fleets but, God willing, there will be no war," Crown Prince Abdullah said on state television. "This is my personal opinion, I did not hear anything and no one told me anything," he added. Asked if there was any Arab initiative to avert a looming U.S.-led military strike on Iraq, he said: "Saudi Arabia has presented proposals to its brothers in Arab states and asked them to accept them and for them to be the basis of any (Arab) summit."
Baby Toy has Subliminal Message - Parents in Clark County Washington discovered that their baby's crib toy was playing a low level voice repeatedly saying "I Hate You" - when they went to the store they discovered that the whole product line contained the message. This is something straight out of Brave New World or akin to a B.F. Skinner brainwashing experiment. Since the whole product line contained the message, we can rule out the possibility that this was a practical joke.
Important Note! - I am transcribing some backlogged sessions so that I can get them up for readers, so cut me some slack on the signs page in the next couple of days! Also, have put up some links to articles on the Aurora Index, and have moved all archived pages to the bottom of same.
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