January 19, 2006

The Writing on the Wall Series #47: The Orwellian Imperial Empire

Hello everyone!

There is soooo much material to read in this compilation (78 pages) and so much difficult information to mentally/psychologically/emotionally process, that I though it would be in order this time to begin with a very funny joke I just received...


An elderly woman walked into the Bank of Canada one morning with a purse full of money. She wanted to open a savings account and insisted on talking to the president of the Bank because, she said, she had a lot of money.

After many lengthy discussions (after all, the client is always right) an employee took the elderly woman to the president's office.

The president of the Bank asked her how much she wanted to deposit. She placed her purse on his desk and replied, "$165,000". The president was curious and asked her how she had been able to save so much money. The elderly woman replied that she made bets.

The president was surprised and asked, "What kind of bets?"

The elderly woman replied, "Well, I bet you $25,000 that your testicles are square."

The president started to laugh and told the woman that it was impossible to win a bet like that.

The woman never batted an eye. She just looked at the president and said, "Would you like to take my bet?"

"Certainly", replied the president. "I bet you $25,000 that my testicles are not square."

"Done", the elderly woman answered. "But given the amount of money involved, if you don't mind I would like to come back at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning with my lawyer as a witness."

"No problem", said the president of the Bank confidently.

That night, the president became very nervous about the bet and spent a long time in front of the mirror examining his testicles, turning them this way and that, checking them over again and again until he was positive that no one could consider his testicles as square and reassuring himself that there was no way he could lose the bet.

The next morning at exactly 10 o'clock the elderly woman arrived at the president's office with her lawyer and acknowledged the $25,000 bet made the day before that the president's testicles were square.

The president confirmed that the bet was the same as the one made the day before. Then the elderly woman asked him to drop his pants etc. so that she and her lawyer could see clearly.

The president was happy to oblige.

The elderly woman came closer so she could see better and asked the president if she could touch them. "Of course", said the president. "Given the amount of money involved, you should be 100% sure."

The elderly woman did so with a little smile. Suddenly the president noticed that the lawyer was banging his head against the wall. He asked the elderly woman why he was doing that and she replied, "Oh, it's probably because I bet him $100,000 that around 10 o'clock in the morning I would be holding the balls of the President of the Bank of Canada!"


Gigglingly yours ;-)

Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator

P.S. Question: Is the sudden reappearance of an alleged Bin Laden tape in world news a sign that some kind of ploy to fake a new attack is in the offing? Read this Bin Laden transcript: 'Attacks under preparation' to make your own view on this...

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The new NOT IN OUR NAME
Statement of Conscience Against War And Repression

As George W. Bush bullies his way through his second term, let it not be said that people in the United States silently acquiesced in the face of this shameful coronation of war, greed, and intolerance. He does not speak for us. He does not represent us. He does not act in our name.

No election, whether fair or fraudulent, can legitimize criminal wars on foreign countries, torture, the wholesale violation of human rights, and the end of science and reason.

In our name, the Bush government justifies the invasion and occupation of Iraq on false pretenses, raining down destruction, horror, and misery, bringing death to more than 100,000 Iraqis. It sends our youth to destroy entire cities for the sake of so-called democratic elections, while intimidating and disenfranchising thousands of African American and other voters at home.

In our name, the Bush government holds in contempt international law and world opinion. It carries out torture and detentions without trial around the world and proposes new assaults on our rights of privacy, speech and assembly at home. It strips the rights of Arabs, Muslims and South Asians in the U.S., denies them legal counsel, stigmatizes and holds them without cause. Thousands have been deported.

As new trial balloons are floated about invasions of Syria, or Iran, or North Korea, about leaving the United Nations, about new “lifetime detention” policies, we say not in our name will we allow further crimes to be committed against nations or individuals deemed to stand in the way of the goal of unquestioned world supremacy.

Could we have imagined a few years ago that core principles such as the separation of church and state, due process, presumption of innocence, freedom of speech, and habeas corpus would be discarded so easily? Now, anyone can be declared an "enemy combatant" without meaningful redress or independent review by a President who is concentrating power in the executive branch. His choice for Attorney General is the legal architect of the torture that has been carried out in Guantánamo, Afghanistan, and Abu Ghraib.

The Bush government seeks to impose a narrow, intolerant, and political form of Christian fundamentalism as government policy. No longer on the margins of power, this extremist movement aims to strip women of their reproductive rights, to stoke hatred of gays and lesbians, and to drive a wedge between spiritual experience and scientific truth. We will not surrender to extremists our right to think. AIDS is not a punishment from God. Global warming is a real danger. Evolution happened. All people must be free to find meaning and sustenance in whatever form of religious or spiritual belief they choose. But religion can never be compulsory. These extremists may claim to make their own reality, but we will not allow them to make ours.

Millions of us worked, talked, marched, poll watched, contributed, voted, and did everything we could to defeat the Bush regime in the last election. This unprecedented effort brought forth new energy, organization, and commitment to struggle for justice. It would be a terrible mistake to let our failure to stop Bush in these ways lead to despair and inaction. On the contrary, this broad mobilization of people committed to a fairer, freer, more peaceful world must move forward. We cannot, we will not, wait until 2008. The fight against the second Bush regime has to start now.

The movement against the war in Vietnam never won a presidential election. But it blocked troop trains, closed induction centers, marched, spoke to people door to door -- and it helped to stop a war. The Civil Rights Movement never tied its star to a presidential candidate; it sat in, freedom rode, fought legal battles, filled jailhouses -- and changed the face of a nation.

We must change the political reality of this country by mobilizing the tens of millions who know in their heads and hearts that the Bush regime’s “reality” is nothing but a nightmare for humanity. This will require creativity, mass actions and individual moments of courage. We must come together whenever we can, and we must act alone whenever we have to.

We draw inspiration from the soldiers who have refused to fight in this immoral war. We applaud the librarians who have refused to turn over lists of our reading, the high school students who have demanded to be taught evolution, those who brought to light torture by the U.S. military, and the massive protests that voiced international opposition to the war on Iraq. We affirm ordinary people undertaking extraordinary acts. We pledge to create community to back courageous acts of resistance. We stand with the people throughout the world who fight every day for the right to create their own future.

It is our responsibility to stop the Bush regime from carrying out this disastrous course. We believe history will judge us sharply should we fail to act decisively.

Sign this Statement at http://www.nion.us/NSOC/sign.htm

Taken from http://www.nion.us/NSOC/NION2wsigninfo.htm

You can also read this Statement in Spanish or French

Read the original Not In Our Name Statement of Conscience [2002]
http://www.nion.us/nion.htm



Do not worry if our harp breaks, thousands more will appear.
We have fallen in the arms of love where all is music.
If all the harps in the world were burned down,
still inside the heart there will be hidden music playing.

Do not worry if all the candles in the world flicker and die
we have the spark that starts the fire.
The songs we sing are like foam on the surface of the sea of being
while the precious gems lie deep beneath.
But the tenderness in our songs
is a reflection of what is hidden in the depths.

Stop the flow of your words,
open the window of your heart and
let the spirit speak.

— Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi
Sent by Marianna Hartsong well@hartsong.net> — http://www.hartsong.net


President George W. Bush was scheduled to visit the Methodist church outside Washington, DC as part of his campaign. Bush's campaign manager made a visit to the Bishop, and said to him, "We've been getting a lot of bad publicity among Methodists because of Bush's position on stem cell research and the like. We'd gladly make a contribution to the church of $100,000 if during your sermon you'd say the President is a saint." The Bishop thinks it over for a few moments and finally says, "The Church is in desperate need of funds and I will agree to do it." Bush pompously shows up looking especially smug today and as the sermon progresses the Bishop begins his homily: "George Bush is petty, a self-absorbed hypocrite and a nitwit. He is a liar, a cheat, a bully, and a low-intelligence weasel. He was a drunken cokehead for most of his adult life, and he had Rove scrub his cocaine arrest story by setting up and destroying the journalist who reported it, the late Jim Hatfield. He has lied about his military record and had the gall to dress up in a flight suit landing on a carrier posing before a banner stating 'Mission Accomplished.' Worst of all, he let his cabinet neocons and covert operators murder almost 3,000 Americans on 9/11 so he could invade two countries for oil and money, and he’s been lying about it ever since. He is the worst example of a Methodist I've ever personally known. But compared to Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Pearle, Doug Feith, Scooter Libby, and the other neocons, George Bush is a saint."

Sent by "Kathleen Roberts" weerkhr@pacbell.net>


"Man can harness the winds, the waves and the tides, but when he can harness the power of love, then for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire."

— Teihard de Chardin - Taken from http://www.heartcom.org/MiracleMoment.htm where you'll find an amazing story "The Osprey and the Eagle" written by Christopher Rudy geonotes@mcn.net> who recommended it.


"Q: Some people say that if you are aware of the situation on the planet - the state of the world - you must be depressed. What do you say to that?
R: So much despair -- so many want to see the change but cannot quite see they are the change. The change is irrelevant .. the change for everyone else is irrelevant - one has first to change oneself. One first has to send compassion to those that you see as the enemy. And those are the ones that you see creating destruction - not the sufferers of it - of course such compassion reaches those already but everyone reaps what they sew - reaps the order of what one sets in motion and sometimes in the old days, that used to be what was called a caning at the school ... one stepped so far out of line, one was punished. Not so much in a way that was destructive, but to draw the line - to bring that one back into the fold. In the end, each one has to learn self-discipline - one has to discipline one's own emotions just as one has to discipline one's own thoughts. There is no time for such despair - there is so much to do - so much to think and I want to say 'thinking' because that is stirring the ripples in consciousness. When one sits to meditate and to open one to the higher thoughts, is it to ask - "What is to be done?" or is it to ask :" How can I be uplifted - how can I gain the benefits of my spirituality? "Not - "What do I have to do?" .... or - "How can I roll up my sleeves and do something? - What is my next move in the world?" Because such questions stir up the ripples throughout consciousness not limited to your own place - then others, sometimes with more resources suddenly pick up a floating idea that inspires them with its beauty. Then when one joins together for such meditations - When one offers questions for everyone to contemplate, then the ripple that sets out is magnified - has many overtones and harmonics - such things are beautiful to hear - beautiful in their structure - and offer so much for anyone waiting to hear. That occurs much more than you think. Then your thoughts of destruction - inspire and stimulate those who would want to dominate - the fear supports those who can suppress - it feeds that. Then one learns to discipline one's mind and emotions and to come together as groups - as community - offering oneself in service and some of you already know that and do that and it already has had it's effect. Already inspires across the globe and many, many things are changing. Does that answer the question? Does that give you much to think about.? Of course! And this is important -- you are not alone. When one asks for help in disciplining, then you will of course feel the love of the many that walk alongside on the inner worlds - such support is offered continually - you are not alone - you are never separate. The only separateness and isolation that you think is in your own mind. So much love because you are made of it -- you are built in it! Then open that -- open to it!"

— Mercredan Channelling - Final Draft Jan 14: 06 - Waiheke Island: New Zealand
Recommended by "Grant Bridger" grantib@ihug.co.nz> who can email you the whole channeling upon request.


Worthy of Your Attention

Vote for the Green Party in the coming Canadian elections
http://www.greenparty.ca/ - http://www.partivert.ca/
Their Platform 2006 is exceptionally good and worth your reading time. Over 600,000 Canadians voted for them in 2004. The more people vote for them, the more financing the Greens will receive from the federal government to further promote their most excellent ideas.

ACLU Calls For Special Counsel: Add Your Voice - When President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to spy on Americans, he violated the law, the Constitution and his oath of office. No American is beneath the law's protection. And no one -- not even a U.S. president -- is above the law's limits. Our system of checks and balances must be maintained if American democracy is to be preserved. Send a letter to your senators!
Fascism: A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls,suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism. - dictionary.com
Recommended by Dan Stafford aqmstaffo@mailbag.com>

Restore the Rule of Law
http://www.moveonpac.org/ruleoflaw/?id=6670-558182-SP.POynwwwo1eThZh.4gog&t=1
President Bush admitted to personally authorizing thousands of allegedly illegal wiretaps, and he doesn't plan to stop. In response to this historic abuse of power, which threatens the very core of our Constitution, we've mounted a petition to "Restore the Rule of Law." (SIGN THIS PETITION AT THE URL ABOVE) - Recommended by Lise Jacques lisejacq@yahoo.fr>

Ironic Times
http://www.ironictimes.com/
U. S. NEWS:
Bush Invites Responsible Criticism Of His Policies in Iraq - Like calls for more troops, harsher interrogation of detainees.
Army Continues to Relax Recruiting Standards to Meet Need - Now accepting former enemy combatants.
WORLD NEWS: British PM Blair Admits He Spanked His Children - But only after U.S. asked him to.
Bush Touts Progress of Iraqi Economy - Unemployment rate of 40% likely over-stated since so many are employed in the insurgency.

Loose Change - Clearance Sale! $2 and $3 a DVD!
http://www.loosechange911.com/
"Loose Change 2nd Edition" is the follow-up to the most provocative 9-11 documentary on the market today. This film shows direct connection between the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the United States government. Evidence is derived from news footage, scientific fact, and most important, Americans who suffered through that tragic day. IT IS THE DUTY OF EVERY AMERICAN TO VIEW THIS FILM!

Phantom Flight 93: The Shanksville-Flight 93 (Video)
http://www.wingtv.net/flight93.html
Hoax puts forth an extremely convincing argument that Flight 93 did not meet its demise in Shanksville, Pa. on the morning of September 11, 2001, but was instead shot down by U.S. military forces and subsequently crash landed in the rural hamlet of New Baltimore, Pa., 6-8 miles away from where the government alleges this event took place. Furthermore, to create a massive diversionary site to draw attention away from the actual wreckage in New Baltimore, a missile was fired into an abandoned strip mine in Shanksville, Pa. – the result of this ordnance blast being a 200-foot mushroom cloud and an 8-10 foot deep crater, but absolutely no airplane wreckage whatsoever. In other words, while the media’s attention was focused on Shanksville, the actual debris from Flight 93 was clandestinely being scuttled away from New Baltimore, Pa., which had been immediately cordoned-off by the FBI and local State Police. Recommended by "Kathleen Roberts" weerkhr@pacbell.net>

Move Your mouse around & watch dubya follow the $
http://www.andyfoulds.co.uk/amusement/bushv2.htm

Gifted Chinese Children Teleport Objects without Damage http://transconscious.com/xoops/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=10
Reported in several articles are experiments involving the videotaping and high-speed photography of the transfer of test specimens (nuts, bundles of matches, pills, nails, thread, photosensitive paper, chemically treated paper, sponges dipped in FeCl3 [iron chloride], etc.) through the walls of sealed paper envelopes, double layered KCNS type paper bags, sealed glass bottles and tubes with sealed caps, and sealed plastic film canisters without the walls of any of these containers being breached. All of the Chinese experiments reported using gifted children and young adults, who possessed well-known extraordinary PK [psycho-kinetic] ability, to cause the teleportation of the various test specimens. In all the experimental cases that were reported, the test specimens that were teleported were completely unaltered or unchanged from their initial state, even the insects were unaffected by being teleported. The experiments were well controlled, scientifically recorded, and the experimental results were always repeatable. (...) The experimental radio micro-transmitter and high-speed photography/videotaping data offer an important clue on what the teleportation mechanism is, and this will be discussed further in Section 5.1.1. The Chinese were unable to offer any significant physics hypothesis that could explain their results. Some researchers stated that it is necessary to invoke a new physics, which somehow unifies the human consciousness (i.e., physics of consciousness) with quantum and spacetime physics, in order to understand p-Teleportation and related PK phenomena. The researchers were amazed by their repeated results, and were barely able to fathom the altered “state of being” that test specimens underwent during teleportation. Recommended by "Kathleen Roberts" weerkhr@pacbell.net>


CONTENTS

1. Two Meditation Focus Feedbacks
2. A Message for Canadians
3. Warning to SE Asian countries about Iran war and monsoon rains depositing radiation in environment
4. Surviving The New World Order - Memo To Myself
5. The Latest Bush Mega-Catastrophe Is Now Pharmaceuticals
6. The New Fascism
7. Bush could seize absolute control of U.S. government
8. Dusting off the Brown-shirts and Jackboots
9. Re: Hey Mainstream Media!
10. Iraq's Oil Shock
11. Remember Afghanistan? Insurgents Bring Suicide Terror to Country
12. The State of the Empire, 2006
13. Green Campaigners Support Lovelock for Sparking Fresh Debate on Global Warming
14. Overpopulation 'is main threat to planet'
15. The Poisonous Splenda
16. Ways to wage peace in 2006
17. One day theoretical science will no longer have doubts about water's memory while high tech specialists will be making ''water'' computers controlled by telepathy
18. What is the True Nature of Reality?
19. The Healing Power of LOVE


See also:

52% of Americans: Impeach Bush on wiretaps Zogby poll: Most want action if U.S. citizens monitored without judge's (January 16 2006)
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48358
A new Zogby poll indicates a majority of Americans want Congress to consider impeaching President Bush if he wiretapped American citizens without a judge's approval.Respondents were asked if they agreed or disagreed with the following statement: "If President Bush wiretapped American citizens without the approval of a judge, do you agree or disagree that Congress should consider holding him accountable through impeachment."The poll found that 52 percent agreed, 43 percent disagreed and 6 percent said they didn't know or declined to answer."The American people are not buying Bush's outrageous claim that he has the power to wiretap American citizens without a warrant," said Bob Fertik, co-founder of the left-leaning group AfterDowningStreet.org which commissioned the survey. "Americans believe terrorism can be fought without turning our own government into Big Brother." The poll interviewed 1,216 adults in the U.S. from Jan 9-12, and has a 2.9 percent margin of error. As one might expect, the respondents' political affiliation played a role in their answer, as 66 percent of Democrats favored impeachment, as did 59 percent of Independents, but only 23 percent of Republicans.One month ago, one-third of Americans polled by Rasmuseen Reports said they believe Bush should be impeached.

The Impeachment of George W. Bush (Jan 12) http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0112-20.htm
Finally, it has started. People have begun to speak of impeaching President George W. Bush - not in hushed whispers but openly, in newspapers, on the Internet, in ordinary conversations and even in Congress. As a former member of Congress who sat on the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment proceedings against President Richard Nixon, I believe they are right to do so. (...) On December 17 President Bush acknowledged that he repeatedly authorized wiretaps, without obtaining a warrant, of American citizens engaged in international calls. On the face of it, these warrantless wiretaps violate FISA, which requires court approval for national security wiretaps and sets up a special procedure for obtaining it. Violation of the law is a felony. While many facts about these wiretaps are unknown, it now appears that thousands of calls were monitored and that the information obtained may have been widely circulated among federal agencies. It also appears that a number of government officials considered the warrantless wiretaps of dubious legality. Reportedly, several people in the National Security Agency refused to participate in them, and a deputy attorney general even declined to sign off on some aspects of these wiretaps. The special FISA court has raised concerns as well, and a judge on that court has resigned, apparently in protest. CLIP

Al Gore: 'America's Constitution is in Grave Danger'
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011606Y.shtml
Former Vice President Albert Gore Jr. delivered a major policy speech today that assailed the President for abusing executive power. Gore argued that "whenever power is unchecked and unaccountable it almost inevitably leads to mistakes and abuses. In the absence of rigorous accountability, incompetence flourishes. Dishonesty is encouraged and rewarded." The former Vice President went on to say, "Republican as well as Democratic members of Congress should support the bipartisan call of the Liberty Coalition for the appointment of a special counsel to pursue the criminal issues raised by warrantless wiretapping of Americans by the President.

Video Highlights Of Powerful Gore Speech About Bush Administration
http://www.zippyvideos.com/4379057913256056/gore/

A Power Outage on Capitol Hill
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011606E.shtml
Jonathan Alter asks, What if we faced a constitutional crisis and hardly anyone noticed? We are in danger of scrapping our checks and balances-not just for a few years (as was done during the Civil War), but for good, says Alter.

The New Fascism
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011706I.shtml
William Rivers Pitt writes: Say "fascism" to anyone you meet, and you will be greeted with the boilerplate response of the blithely overconfident: such a thing cannot happen here. This is the United States of America, land of the free and home of the brave. Ours is a nation of laws, of checks and balances, of righteousness and decency. Our laws and traditions stand as a bulwark against the rise of totalitarian madness. It cannot happen here. Thus we are indoctrinated into the school of our own assumed greatness.

White House Refuses to Reveal Details of Abramoff Meetings
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011806I.shtml
Abramoff had "a few staff-level meetings" at the Bush White House, presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said Tuesday. But he would not say with whom Abramoff met, which interests he was representing, or how he got access to the White House.

International War Crimes Trial Statement: Is the U. S. guilty of Crimes against Peace? http://johnmccarthy90066.tripod.com/id644.html
To many Americans, the idea that U. S. leaders could be prosecuted for war crimes comes right out of left field."What do you mean war crimes? Our leaders are only protecting our nation! No foreign court should be allowed to bring politically motivated charges against our leaders! It's a new world order! In the age of terrorism the old rules of war no longer apply!" When you see a peace protestor shouting that Bush is a war criminal, you're hearing more than partisan hyperbole. When you hear someone refer to the war in Iraq as an illegal war, such an accusation is not made lightly. As Americans we are all party to having allowed this war to take place.In the following articles we will look at American objections to being held accountable to the rest of the world. We'll look at the issues of World Court jurisdiction and International Law,the so-called Pre-emptive Doctrine, the so-called "Enemy Combatant" exemption, and the U. S. attempt to redefine "torture". CLIP Recommended by Sheila Davis slcdolfin@yahoo.com> who wrote: "Be sure to read pages 11-17. Oh, my goodness!"
MAKE SURE TO REVIEW ALSO THEIR LATEST UPDATES WEBPAGE AT http://johnmccarthy90066.tripod.com/id359.html

Bush Torture Policy Undermines Human Rights
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011806A.shtml
New evidence demonstrated in 2005 that torture and mistreatment have been a deliberate part of the Bush administration's counterterrorism strategy, undermining the global defense of human rights, Human Rights Watch said today in releasing its World Report 2006.

Iraq War's Stunning Price Tag
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011706L.shtml
Like the iceberg that hit the Titanic, the full costs of the war are still largely hidden below the surface. Our calculations include not just the money for combat operations, but also the costs the government will have to pay for years to come.

No Remorse
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011806F.shtml
The air strike in Pakistan reaffirms how our behavior is plummeting in the direction of the evil we proclaim to fight, writes Derrick Z. Jackson. At home, we are appalled by drive-by shootings that take out innocent children. Abroad, the fly-by air strike is the source of no remorse, with dead children and mothers taken very lightly.

The Crime of Giving the Orders
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011806D.shtml
President Bush doesn't pull triggers. He commands. Like the official lying that preceded the Iraq war and sustains it, the killing is nonstop, writes Norman Solomon. And a constant media barrage conveys the deceptive assumption that legitimate authority is giving the orders.

Women's Anti-War Petition Circles the Globe
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/011806WA.shtml
Eminent female writers, artists, lawmakers and social activists in the United States are reaching out to women leaders across the world in an attempt to forge a global alliance against the US-led war in Iraq. They have launched a global campaign to gather 100,000 signatures by March 8, International Women's Day.

Army Does Not Criminally Charge Abusers for Torture
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011406X.shtml
The Army closed a criminal investigation of abuse allegations by an Iraqi detainee last year, finding no reason to believe his claims, even though no Americans involved in the case were questioned.

Jailed for 30 years for criticising 'free' Iraq (January 11, 2006)
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19521&colonna=&bh=0
Kamal Sayid Qadir wrote an article criticising the US backed government in Iraqi Kurdistan and now he has been jailed for 30 years - If a writer was jailed for 30 years for exposing government corruption in Iran or Syria, there would be outrage in the US and Britain and demands for military strikes. But when that happens in Iraq there is silence. George Bush and Tony Blair constantly boast that they have brought freedom and democracy to Iraq.Yet Kamal Sayid Qadir, a leading Kurdish academic, has been jailed for 30 years after he publicly criticised Massoud Barzani, head of the US backed Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP). The KDP is one of two parties that rule Iraqi Kurdistan.The self rule areas have been held up as a model of post-Saddam Iraq.Qadir was kidnapped in October 2005 by members of Parastin, the security forces belonging to the KDP. Qadir, 48, an Iraqi Kurd who lives in Vienna, was on a visit to Kurdistan when he was seized. Qadir is a leading critic of the corruption and nepotism that has become a feature of daily life in Iraqi Kurdistan. Late last year he wrote, "Kurdish parties have transformed Iraqi Kurdistan into a fortress for oppression, theft of public funds and serious abuses of human rights like murder, torture, amputation of ears and noses, and rape."Kurdish authorities reacted to the article by luring Qadir to a meeting with officials then arresting him. CLIP

Feds begin "behavior monitoring" of air travelers this year
http://www.politechbot.com/2006/01/03/feds-begin-behavior/
AIRPORT SCREENING TO BECOME MORE INTRUSIVE, BUT NOT MORE EFFECTIVE - This year the U.S. Transportation Security Agency will begin behavior monitoring of airplane passengers at 40 major American airport, reports Ivan Eland, director of the Independent Institute's Center on Peace & Liberty. "The screeners," writes Eland in his latest op-ed, "will look for 'suspicious' signs that might indicate a passenger could be a terrorist: having dry lips or a throbbing carotid artery (I'm not kidding), failure to make eye contact with or say hello to the screener, or evasive or slow answers to casual questions asked by the screener." Eland notes several flaws with this approach: It hasn't been field-tested for real-world effectiveness. It could easily transform into racial profiling. It fails to reduce the underlying causes of anti-U.S. terrorism. Terrorists who have practiced looking innocent could circumvent it easily. What, then, is the program good for? "Since the behavior detection program is unlikely to catch many professional terrorists, perhaps its real goal is to improve the morale of the unloved screeners by giving the public some incentive to be nice to them," writes Eland. "So next time you travel by air, don't forget your fake smile and ChapStick." Will it last? Independent Institute Senior Fellow Robert Higgs suggests that the public probably will tolerate greater intrusions by TSA airport screeners. "Strange as it might seem, most people get used to being treated as criminals or inmates in a concentration camp," Higgs wrote last month. "Americans are no exception. Keep beating them down, and eventually you will produce a thoroughly cowed and compliant herd, a mass of pliant raw material in the hands of their political masters, perfectly willing to sacrifice their dignity rather than irritate an airport-security thug and be made to miss a flight. And heaven forbid that they write their congressional representative to complain. Such impudence might get them placed on some black list at the TSA or even at the FBI. Best to keep quiet, stay in line, act as they are ordered to act."

Facts from IBM (January 11th, 2006)
http://www.rinf.com/columnists/news/insider-info-6-million-wiretapped-conversations-per-month
In a quirk of fate, I met someone from IBM who was directly involved in implementing the wiretapping system that is all over the news. It is much worse than the news would suggest. As some have reported, this is definitely not just NSA. The bidding for the technology to do this project was conducted by members of the FBI and the CIA. During the proposal process, IBM was told explicitly that they were to answer questions, not ask them. One of the most noteworthy comments was that the Government had specified 60 Terabytes of monthly storage for digital versions of conversations. MONTHLY!At about 11k per call, that is about 6 million conversations per month. (correct my math if you are better at computers!). This is enormous.People in the press are concerned that they are tapping the phones of people without just cause. What they are really doing is much, much worse.In reality, they are tapping hundreds of thousands of lines all the time. This is KGB stuff.Every call is stored digitally and indexed accurately, creating an archive that can be used for political purposes in the future. This is not reels of tape that would require massive effort to file through and might become useless quickly. It is highly indexed information that is being kept in storage. Two years from now, they could look into particular phone numbers to check in on cell and land lines. They are running filters on every conversation for Farsi and other languages in real time. This is domestic spying on a massive scale, not just a few wiretaps without a judge. This should be cause for impeachment. CLIP

Electric Hurricane (01.09.2006)
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/09jan_electrichurricanes.htm?list115530
Three of the most powerful hurricanes of 2005 were filled with mysterious lightning. - The boom of thunder and crackle of lightning generally mean one thing: a storm is coming. Curiously, though, the biggest storms of all, hurricanes, are notoriously lacking in lightning. Hurricanes blow, they rain, they flood, but seldom do they crackle. Surprise: During the record-setting hurricane season of 2005 three of the most powerful storms--Rita, Katrina, and Emily--did have lightning, lots of it. And researchers would like to know why.Richard Blakeslee of the Global Hydrology and Climate Center (GHCC) in Huntsville, Alabama, was one of a team of scientists who explored Hurricane Emily using NASA's ER-2 aircraft, a research version of the famous U-2 spy plane. Flying high above the storm, they noted frequent lightning in the cylindrical wall of clouds surrounding the hurricane's eye. Both cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning were present, "a few flashes per minute," says Blakeslee. "Generally there's not a lot of lightning in the eye-wall region," he says. "So when people see lightning there, they perk up -- they say, okay, something's happening." Indeed, the electric fields above Emily were among the strongest ever measured by the aircraft’s sensors over any storm. "We observed steady fields in excess of 8 kilovolts per meter," says Blakeslee. "That is huge--comparable to the strongest fields we would expect to find over a large land-based 'mesoscale' thunderstorm."(...) "Hurricanes are most likely to produce lightning when they're making landfall," says Blakeslee. But there were no mountains beneath the "electric hurricanes" of 2005—only flat water. It's tempting to think that, because Emily, Rita and Katrina were all exceptionally powerful, their sheer violence somehow explains their lightning. But Blakeslee says that this explanation is too simple. "Other storms have been equally intense and did not produce much lightning," he says. "There must be something else at work." CLIP Recommended by "Kathleen Roberts" weerkhr@pacbell.net> who wrote: "Could HAARP be that answer?"

Avian Flu Not Spread by Bird Migration
http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/051228_ap_migrate_flu.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Bird flu appears more likely to wing its away around the globe by plane than by migrating birds. Scientists have been unable to link the spread of the virus to migratory patterns, suggesting that the thousands of wild birds that have died, primarily waterfowl and shore birds, are not primary transmitters of bird flu.If that holds true, it would suggest that shipments of domestic chickens, ducks and other poultry represents a far greater threat than does the movement of wild birds on the wing.It also would underscore the need to pursue the virus in poultry farms and markets rather than in wild populations of birds if a possible pandemic is to be checked, U.S. and European experts said. The H5N1 strain has infected millions of poultry throughout Asia and parts of Europe since 2003. The virus also has killed at least 71 people, many of whom had close contact with poultry.To date, the virus hasn't been shown to spread from person to person, but many fear that it could mutate into a strain that could, potentially killing millions in a global pandemic.While the prospect that migrating birds could carry the virus worldwide still worries health authorities, that sort of scenario doesn't appear to be playing out. CLIP

Whaling Protest: Greenpeacer Knocked Overboard, Sea Shepherd out of Fuel
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/011706EC.shtml
A Greenpeace activist was dragged into the sea by a Japanese whaler's harpoon line late Saturday, the group says. The Greenpeace ship, Arctic Sunrise, has been chasing the Japanese whaling fleet in tandem with the Sea Shepherd vessel Farley Mowat, to prevent the Japanese whalers from killing whales in the Antarctic Sanctuary.

Diplomatic protest issued against Japanese whaling (17 January, 2006)
http://www.heraldnewsdaily.com/stories/news-00125814.html
LONDON - Australia, Britain, Brazil, France and Germany were among 17 countries which this week called on Japan to halt to its Antarctic whaling program. "The fact that 17 countries supported this representation, shows how important this issue is, and the depth of feeling around the world," British fisheries minister Ben Bradshaw said in a statement. A written statement calling on Japan to "cease all its lethal scientific research on whales" was delivered to Japan's foreign ministry on Mon! day and farm ministry on Tuesday. Japan abandoned commercial whaling in 1986, in line with an international moratorium, but began catching whales again the following year for what it calls scientific research. Critics say the whale meat goes to up-market Japanese restaurants. CLIP

Been There, Bumped That (Grist summary)
Whaling and protest ships collide in Antarctic waters
Japanese officials are claiming that a Greenpeace ship intentionally hit a whaling ship in the Southern Ocean last week. But crewmembers of the protest vessel say the whaler rammed their smaller ship, and they've posted video of the incident on the Greenpeace blog. The collision left a big dent in the activist ship's hull, damaged a mast, and scared the bejeezus out of the Greenpeacers, who say they practice only nonviolent protest. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, meanwhile, has taken full and unapologetic credit for intentionally sideswiping a whaling supply ship last week. Vessels from the two activist groups have been harassing Japanese whaling ships as they hunt for 850 minke and 10 fin whales in the Southern Ocean this season. Japan claims it's legally hunting the cetaceans for scientific research, but the eco-groups -- as well as some countries that are members of the International Whaling Commission -- counter it's really an illegal commercial hunt for whale meat. Details at http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=39&ObjectID=10363031

Africa Grapples with Multiple Food Crises
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/011706HA.shtml
East Africa is gripped in drought while the south is blessed with rain. But as aid agencies scramble to feed millions across the world's poorest continent it is by no means clear what the 2006 harvests will bring, even in areas that have been wet.

Failure of Kenya's Rains Puts 2.5 Million at Risk of Famine
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/011306HA.shtml
Nomadic farmers in the arid wastelands of northern Kenya are dying with their cattle, as charities warn a drought-caused famine on the scale of Niger is threatening the region. Kenyan Nobel Prize winner, Wangari Maathai, said that deforestation is a major factor in the drought.

'Doomsday' seed bank to be built (12 January 2006) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4605398.stm
Rice is one of the world's most important crops - Norway is planning to build a "doomsday vault" inside a mountain on an Arctic island to hold a seed bank of all known varieties of the world's crops. The Norwegian government will hollow out a cave on the ice-bound island of Spitsbergen to hold the seed bank. It will be designed to withstand global catastrophes like nuclear war or natural disasters that would destroy the planet's sources of food. Seed collection is being organised by the Global Crop Diversity Trust. "What will go into the cave is a copy of all the material that is currently in collections [spread] all around the world," Geoff Hawtin of the Trust told the BBC's Today programme. Mr Hawtin said there were currently about 1,400 seed banks around the world, but a large number of these were located in countries that were either politically unstable or that faced threats from the natural environment. "What we're trying to do is build a back-up to these, so that a sample of all the material in these gene banks can be kept in the gene bank in Spitsbergen," Mr Hawtin added. The Norwegian government is due to start work on the seed vault next year, when it will drill into a sandstone mountain on Spitsbergen, part of the Svalbard archipelago, about 966km (600 miles) from the North Pole. Permafrost will keep the vault below freezing point and the seeds will further be protected by metre-thick walls of reinforced concrete, two airlocks and high security blast-proof doors. The number of seeds and types of plants in the bank would be determined by the countries wishing to use it.

Global Warming to Speed Up as Carbon Levels Show Sharp Rise
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011606R.shtml
Global warming is set to accelerate alarmingly because of a sharp jump in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Preliminary figures, exclusively obtained by The Independent on Sunday, show that levels of the gas - the main cause of climate change - have risen abruptly in the past four years. Scientists fear that warming is entering a new phase, and may accelerate further. But a summit of the most polluting countries, convened by the Bush administration, last week refused to set targets for reducing their carbon dioxide emissions. Set up in competition to the Kyoto Protocol, the summit, held in Sydney and attended by Australia, China, India, Japan and South Korea as well as the United States, instead pledged to develop cleaner technologies - which some experts believe will not arrive in time. The climb in carbon dioxide content showed up in readings from the US government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, taken at the summit of Mauna Loa, Hawaii. The measurements have been taken regularly since 1958 in the 11,400ft peak's pristine conditions, 2,000 miles from the nearest landmass and protected by unusual climatic conditions from the pollution of Hawaii, two miles below Through most of the past half-century, levels of the gas rose by an average of 1.3 parts per million a year; in the late 1990s, this figure rose to 1.6 ppm, and again to 2ppm in 2002 and 2003. But unpublished figures for the first 10 months of this year show a rise of 2.2ppm. Scientists believe this may be the first evidence that climate change is starting to produce itself, as rising temperatures so alter natural systems that the Earth itself releases more gas, driving the thermometer ever higher.

Doin' What Comes Dastardly (Grist summary)
Not-Kyoto climate pact meeting ends with much hot air
The U.S. and Australia last week marked the end of the Asia-Pacific climate summit in Sydney by pledging $127 million to support technology projects that would lower greenhouse-gas emissions. Climate activists derided the commitment from the two big polluters as laughably small; the Kyoto Protocol, which both the U.S. and Australia have spurned, is expected to result in up to $12 billion being spent on clean-technology projects in developing countries by 2012. Enviros also say much of the newly announced funding will go to propping up dirty energy industries rather than promoting clean power sources like solar. The U.S. and Australia, for their part, contend the world should trust big business to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions without any strong government regulations. Said U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, "The people who run the private sector ... also have children and grandchildren, and they too live and breathe in the world and would like [climate change] dealt with effectively." Despite all evidence to the contrary. Details at http://smh.com.au/news/national/trust-firms-on-climate-say-leaders/2006/01/11/1136956242983.html

Ex-EPA Chiefs Blame Bush in Global Warming
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011906C.shtml
Six former heads of the Environmental Protection Agency - five Republicans and one Democrat - accused the Bush administration Wednesday of neglecting global warming and other environmental problems.

The Chemtrail Smoking Gun: Proof of global atmospheric geoengineering - MUST READ!
http://www.lightwatcher.com/chemtrails/smoking_gun.html
[This colossal study recalls the scope, expense and secrecy of the Manhattan Project, yet the goals and eventual impacts of it are far greater.] Five years ago I founded the Chemtrails Hall of Shame web site to document and investigate the elusive Chemtrail spraying operations in the skies above my home in the Pacific NW. The site can be found at: http://www.lightwatcher.com - During this time I have had the opportunity to work with and befriend several of the luminaries within this field of investigation: Diane Harvey, Brian Holmes and a very special investigator who chooses to remain anonymous in this article. Each of these individuals has contributed greatly to the subject, keeping this topic alive within the alternative media . These chemtrail spraying programs, which are apparently being conducted on a worldwide basis, are evident to anyone who has the desire to look up and perceive the evidence. Yet, definitive proof has remained elusive.Total denial by governmental authorities, the shunning of this topic by mainstream media, the systematic discreditation of researchers, ongoing coverups by the scientific establishment, and a coordinated systematic policy of disinformation has relegated this topic to the realm of fantasy and paranoid delusion. Regardless, it continues to go on above our heads, and has now grown to become the largest coordinated global engineering project in the history of our species. How can I make such a preposterous claim? CLIP

OK, We'll Just Drill Over Here Instead (Grist summary)
Bush administration opens up Alaska wildlife habitat to drilling
The Bush administration's lust for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge having gone unrequited, it's going to stick its derricks in some sloppy seconds: The Department of Interior is opening up hundreds of thousands of acres of other Alaskan wildlife habitat to drilling. The land around Teshekpuk Lake, about 200 miles west of the refuge, is part of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska; it may contain up to 2 billion barrels of "economically recoverable" oil and 3.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The area is so rich in migratory waterfowl and caribou that even the Reagan administration protected it, as did the Bush the Elder and Clinton administrations. Staff at the Bureau of Land Management say the decision to clear the way for drilling was made at the behest of Vice President Dick Cheney's super-secretive energy task force, which never met an ecosystem it wouldn't treat like a two-bit hooker. Details at http://www.adn.com/front/story/7352398p-7264585c.html

GM: New Study Shows Unborn Babies Could Be Harmed (Jan 8)
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0108-01.htm
Mortality rate for new-born rats six times higher when mother was fed on a diet of modified soya. Women who eat GM foods while pregnant risk endangering their unborn babies, startling new research suggests. The World Trade Organization is expected next month to support a bid by the Bush administration to force European countries to accept GM foods. The study - carried out by a leading scientist at the Russian Academy of Sciences - found that more than half of the offspring of rats fed on modified soya died in the first three weeks of life, six times as many as those born to mothers with normal diets. Six times as many were also severely underweight.The research - which is being prepared for publication - is just one of a clutch of recent studies that are reviving fears that GM food damages human health. Italian research has found that modified soya affected the liver and pancreas of mice. Australia had to abandon a decade-long attempt to develop modified peas when an official study found they caused lung damage. And last May this newspaper revealed a secret report by the biotech giant Monsanto, which showed that rats fed a diet rich in GM corn had smaller kidneys and higher blood cell counts, suggesting possible damage to their immune systems, than those that ate a similar conventional one.The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization held a workshop on the safety of genetically modified foods at its Rome headquarters late last year. The workshop was addressed by scientists whose research had raised concerns about health dangers. But the World Trade Organization is expected next month to support a bid by the Bush administration to force European countries to accept GM foods. The Russian research threatens to have an explosive effect on already hostile public opinion. Carried out by Dr Irina Ermakova at the Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, it is believed to be the first to look at the effects of GM food on the unborn. CLIP

The Global Spread of GMO Crops - Inherit the Wind (January 8, 2006) http://www.counterpunch.org/montague01072006.html
Felix Ballarin spent 15 years of his life developing a special organically-grown variety of red corn. It would bring a high price on the market because local chicken farmers said the red color lent a rosy hue to the meat and eggs from their corn-fed chickens. But when the corn emerged from the ground last year, yellow kernels were mixed with the red. Government officials later confirmed with DNA tests that Mr. Ballarin's crop had become contaminated with a genetically modified (GMO) strain of corn. Because Mr. Ballarin's crop was genetically contaminated, it no longer qualified as "organically grown," so it no longer brought a premium price. Mr. Ballarin's 15-year investment was destroyed overnight by what is now commonly known as "genetic contamination." This is a new phenomenon, less then 10 years old -- but destined to be a permanent part of the brave new world that is being cobbled together as we speak by a handful of corporations whose goal is global domination of food.Mr. Ballarin lives in Spain, but the story is the same all over the world: genetically modified crops are invading fields close by (and some that are not so close by), contaminating both the organic food industry and the "conventional" (non-GMO and non-organic) food industry.As a result of genetically contamination of non-GMO crops in Europe, the U.S., Mexico, Australia and South America, the biotech food industry had an upbeat year in 2005 and things are definitely looking good for the future. As genetically modified pollen from their crops blows around, contaminating nearby fields, objections to genetically modified crops diminish because non-GMO alternatives become harder and harder to find. A few more years of this and there may not be many (if any) truly non-GMO crops left anywhere. At that point there won't be any debate about whether to allow GMO-crops to be grown here or there -- no one will have any choice. All the crops in the world will be genetically modified (except perhaps for a few grown in greenhouses on a tiny scale). At that point, GMO will have contaminated essentially the entire planet, and the companies that own the patents on the GMO seeds will be sitting in the catbird seat. (...) Yes, it has been a good year for the GMO industry. None of the stated benefits of their products have materialized -- and the U.S. government regulatory system has been revealed as a sham -- but enormous benefits to the few GMO corporations are right on track to begin blossoming. For Monsanto, Dow and Novartis, a decent shot at gaining control over much of the world's food supply is now blowing on the wind and there's no turning back. As the Vice-President of plant genetics for Dow Agrosciences said recently, "There will be come continuing bumps in the road, but we are starting to see a balance of very good news and growth. The genie is way out of the bottle."

GENETICALLY MODIFIED PEAS CAUSED DANGEROUS IMMUNE RESPONSE (Jan 14)
http://www.newswithviews.com/Smith/jeffrey9.htm
Genetically modified (GM) peas under development created immune responses in mice, suggesting that they may also create serious allergic reactions in people. The peas had been inserted with a gene from kidney beans, which creates a protein that acts as a pesticide. When this protein is produced naturally in beans, it does not elicit a response from mice. When produced in the GM peas, however, it did cause a reaction. Using sensitive testing methods, scientists discovered subtle differences between the bean and the GM proteins—the added sugar chains were slightly different. They speculate that this difference caused the immune reactions. Based on the results of the study, the Australian developers abandoned their 10-year, $2 million project. This study reveals serious and potentially deadly flaws in the regulations and assessments used to approve GM foods. GM crops on the market, like corn and soybeans, were never tested for immune responses using animals and never subjected to a similar analysis of their proteins. Thus, the transgenic proteins in GM foods may have subtle undetected differences that are causing health problems. It is sobering to note that if the GM peas were tested with only the methods used on soy and corn, it likely would have been approved as well. CLIP

Suisse: Cannabis lobby rises from the ashes http://www.hanf-info.ch/info/en/Suisse-Cannabis-lobby-rises-from.html
Suisse: Cannabis lobby rises from the ashes A group of politicians and drugs experts is making a new attempt at decriminalising cannabis in Switzerland Eighteen months after parliament threw out a similar plan the committee has collected enough signatures to force a nationwide vote on the issue. "Our aim is to decriminalise cannabis consumption under strict rules, and encourage parliament to draft its own compromise solution," parliamentarian Ursula Wyss told swissinfo. She says it makes no sense to treat the estimated 500,000 regular or occasional pot smokers - from all walks of life - like criminals. The proposal foresees setting age limits for cannabis consumers or a licensing system for shops selling psychoactive hemp. The people’s initiative with more than 105,000 signatures was handed in to the federal authorities in Bern on Friday. Wyss said it was not calling for the outright legalisation of the cannabis trade, which is prohibited under an international agreement. Effective checks and controls of the trade were an essential element to be able to crack down on illegal dealers, Wyss added. (...) It is likely to take more than two years before the initiative will come to a nationwide ballot. If it were to win voters’ acceptance Switzerland would become the first country in the world to decriminalise the purchase, possession and consumption of cannabis. Proponents hope that Switzerland, which is not a member of the European Union, would act as a model for other countries. CLIP
Recommended by "Laurent Pirard" lpirard@vtxnet.ch>

Omega-News Collection 14. January 2005
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1412326/