MAY LOVE PREVAIL ON EARTH
October 20, 2006
The Writing on the Wall Series #51: Situation Critical on All Fronts
Hello everyone!
Another heavily loaded compilation for your consideration. But there are also some quite positive stuff near the end.
Why the title? ... Situation Critical on All Fronts... See for yourself below
Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator
http://www.earthrainbownetwork.com
P.S. Your feedbacks are as always welcomed and may be included in a coming compilation - unless you prefer they are not. Circulating this compilation (or any part of it) and personally inviting your correspondents to subscribe to this list would also help enlarge the circle of people who have access to this material. Please include the following note and the URL address for the archived copy below along with your forwards, so others may have the opportunity to explore the original copy, if they so choose.
Free subscription to a large weekly Earth Rainbow Network compilation by simply sending a blank email to earthrainbownetwork-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
This compilation is archived at http://www.earthrainbownetwork.com/Archives2006/WritingWall51.htm
STATS for this compilation: Over 31,300 words and 150 links provided.
To unsubscribe from the Earth Rainbow Network automated listserver, or change your listing on it when you have a new email address, the simplest way is to do it yourself by sending a blank email at earthrainbownetwork-unsubscribe@lists.riseup.net -- IMPORTANT: You MUST do it from the email account you wish to unsubscribe otherwise the system won't recognize your request.
"Once the people have succeeded in ridding the world of the bad apples now running the "material" show, it will mostly be up to Light Servers (Lightworkers as they are also called) to step up to the plate and be of assistance to their brothers and sisters through showing the way ahead - through their own example - towards harmonious human relationships, peace with all realms of Life, and spiritual enlightenment as the main thrust onward of human civilization. We need spiritual "booths on the ground" - to use military imagery - to do the work of leading the way and helping out the lost and/or confused brothers and sisters who will require new guideposts and need to take new bearings to feel out what life is truly all about and how we each need to go about fulfilling our "raison d'être" here on Earth."
- Amanumenoum
"How has working with this material hands-on changed your worldview? Do you have a different point of view of the future due to the things you have seen? This is the big one for me. Yes, my worldview is changed. But my worldview isn't that different than it was before the assignment. I always knew something was not right. Why spend your life struggling to keep a shell alive? That is all we do. Think about it. We work for money. Money for shelter and food and fuel to keep our biological shell alive. We use the fuel to do more work to get more money, and to go and get food, which we spend at least 1/20 of our life eating. We sleep 1/3 of our lives to revitalize this shell. Those of us who are lucky enough to make more than we need can enjoy some pleasure, but for the most part, we all work to live. ETs do not have a monetary system. We shouldn't either. I would be glad to do my job 8 hours a day for a simple life and transportation to get me to where I need to get to do my job to provide for others. I do not like being controlled by oil or anything else, nor do I like having to destroy the atmosphere to get from point A to point B. We have the technology to provide free energy to the entire world in our hands.......just think about it. What a disservice to the citizens of the globe. Same with religion.....it's all to control us and make us believe we are weaker than we are and have less choices than we do. And that's all religion. I side with NONE. I believe that the ETs will try to lead us out of the mess we are currently in. I think it's happening already. 2012 is not that far off. We are fighting over what are billed as "religious" and "holy" wars. The earth belongs to nobody, and if we don't take care of it and ourselves as a whole species, we will not survive. That I guarantee. We will not be able to explore all the other worlds that are out there just waiting for us to visit. The most important thing we can do as a species is to become more spiritually connected with our surroundings. We are powerful beings. We use less than 10 percent of our brains. The other 90% is there for a reason. We need to use it. I think we are going to have a hard time adjusting to knowing our true history, but in the end, we will be better for it. The universe will be ours, as it is for other beings. We will then learn to spread life through the universe like our ET fathers and mothers did for us to exist. We will meet the tall orange beings that created our ET fathers and mothers, and we will learn from them. We will see beautiful planets with unusual life on them. We will understand the secrets for generating civilizations where there are none. We will be looked at as gods by other civilizations. In reality, we already are, we just don't know it or act like it. We have a lot to learn before we go on that adventure."
- Taken from An interview with Mr. X (14 July 2006) available at http://projectcamelot.org/mr_x_interview.html
"The era of true peace on earth will not come as long as a tremendous percentage of your taxes goes to educate men in the trades of slaughter."
- Reginald Wright Kauffman
"A visitor from Mars could easily pick out the civilized nations. They have the best implements of war."
- Herbert V. Prochnow (Both quotes above were recommended by "Stan Penner"
"There is one thing stronger than all the armies of the world and that is ‘an idea’ whose time has come."
- Victor Hugo
"I hereby declare myself an Unlawful Enemy Combatant. No, I am not, nor have I ever been part of the Taliban, al Qaeda, or associated forces, but I will save a Combat Status Review Tribunal or any other [in]competent tribunal established by Dubya or Rummy the trouble. Yes, I know this means I can be tortured under whatever distorted definition of “information gathering” these war criminals utilize to make me admit that I am a terrorist. Maybe by admitting it now, I can save them the trouble of doing that too, but they may do it anyway just for practice. (...) Keep our mouths shut and hope for the best, or speak out in defiance against this nightmarish Orwellian veil descending on our lives -- though that exposes us to renegade kangaroo proceedings with the real chance of being held indefinitely with no charges filed, and no ability to even see the evidence against us. I’m afraid for many of us who see the writing on the wall, this quandary looms quite closely overhead. Come and get me, you sons of bitches! I will not suffer this farcical disgrace. I will not silence myself in the hope that maybe this evil machine of injustice, oppression, and horror overlooks me, though I, of all that is good and decent, expose my family to God knows what. By writing this article, I may very well have doomed myself to a first class ticket to the KBR Camp o’ Horrors. Has it come to this? Am I hallucinating? Is this really what is going on in this country? I sit typing this, pausing, looking around, thinking “I’m sure I’m not just reflecting on a really bad nightmare I might have had last night . . . .”"
- Bill Losapio -- taken from I Hereby Declare Myself an Enemy Combatant - a MUST read!
"And lastly, as promised, a Special Comment tonight on the signing of the Military Commissions Act and the loss of Habeas Corpus. We have lived as if in a trance. We have lived… as people in fear. And now — our rights and our freedoms in peril — we slowly awake to learn that we have been afraid… of the wrong thing. Therefore, tonight, have we truly become, the inheritors of our American legacy. For, on this first full day that the Military Commissions Act is in force, we now face what our ancestors faced, at other times of exaggerated crisis and melodramatic fear-mongering: A government more dangerous to our liberty, than is the enemy it claims to protect us from."
- Keith Olbermann - taken from 'Beginning of the end of America': Olbermann addresses the Military Commissions Act in a special comment, at http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15321167/ and check also Countdown Special Comment: Death of Habeas Corpus: “Your words are lies, Sir.”
Worthy of Your Attention
Oct. 17: "Countdown" host Keith Olbermann talks to Jonathan Turley, law professor at George Washington University, about the implications of the Military Commissions Acts
http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?g=ada83aa5-cf26-4f89-a8e5-dece6da8a7e1&f=00&fg=email
Recommended by Alfred Lambremont Webre
Electronic harassment & Gang stalking - WORLD DAY TO END THE SILENT HOLOCAUST http://peaceinspace.blogs.com/peaceinspaceorg/2006/10/world_day_to_en.html
Citizens of the World Standing Together to End Organized Stalking, Lethal Bullying & Remote Electronic Torture - More details: http://tinyurl.com/yy6yxn
UFO in China (18 seconds - astounding ending!)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9098126146219042872&q=The+Underlying+Politics+of+9%2F11+&hl=en
"Wake up America!" A Must Listen - INN Interview
http://www.innworldreport.net/video_launcher.php?2006-09-29i
Congressman Dennis Kucinich on the Military Commissions Act
Meet Your Meat
http://www.meat.org/video1.asp?video=meet_your_meat&Player=wm&speed=_med
In a moving narration, actor and activist Alec Baldwin exposes the truth behind humanity¹s cruelest invention the factory farm.
Sri Yantra Geoglyph Appears in Dry Lake Bed
http://www.labyrinthina.com/sriyantra.htm
Sri Yantra Geoglyph Arrives August 1990 In the middle of no where for no one to see a National Guard overflight spots a massive earth etching in an Oregon dry lake bed. Air National Guard pilot Bill Miller was the first to report the earth etching during a fly-over on August 10, 1990. The massive formation was a quarter mile in width etched into a dry lake bed east of Steens Mountain about 70 miles southeast of Burns, Oregon in an area known as Mickey Basin. Reported in the wire services on Sept. 14th, it was identified as an ancient Hindu meditation icon. The Sri Yantra consisted of 13.3 miles of lines each ten inches wideand scored to a depth of three inches in the hardpan. Ufologist's Don Newman and Alan Decker went to the site on the morning of September 15, 1990 and reported the symbol as being furrowed into the dry lake bed about 3" deep. The area was noticeably missing any signs of tire tracks or foot prints even though their own tire tracks left 1/4" deep marks on the crusty surface of the dry lake bed. CLIP
Creating a Good Ground for Meditation
http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1463
Meditation isn't a one-way street—you can’t just meditate and your life will get better. You have to change the way you live to improve your meditation. Thanissaro Bhikkhu outlines five principles of the ethical, restrained life conducive to meditation practice.Often we like to think that simply by adding meditation to our daily schedule, the effects of the meditation will permeate our whole lives without our having to do much of anything else. Simply add the meditation to the mix of your life and it will change all the other ingredients: that's what we'd like to think, but it doesn't really work that way. You have to make your life a good place for the meditation to seep through, because some activities, some states of mind, are really resistant to receiving any influence from the meditation. This is why, when you're a meditator, you also have to look at the way you live your life, your day-to-day activities. See if you're creating a conducive environment for the meditation to thrive and spread. Otherwise the meditation just gets squeezed into the cracks here and there, and never permeates much of anything at all. There's a teaching in the Theravada canon on five principles that a new monk should keep in mind. These principles apply not only to new monks, but also to anyone who wants to live a life where the meditation can seep through and permeate everything. CLIP - Both items above were recommended by Curtis Lang curtis.lang@verizon.net> in his latest newsletter which you may request directly to him.
Upcoming "Broken Government" 6-part series on CNN with "tells it like it is" Jack Cafferty
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/broken.government/
In a year in which American voters will make critical decisions on issues from the war on terror to scandal in Washington to an exploding national debt, CNN’s "Broken Government" examines all branches of government and explores how much of the system may be broken beyond repair. The series premieres Thursday, Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. ET. A six-part series then airs Oct. 23, 24, 26, 27, 28 and 29 at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET. -- Recommended by Dan Stafford aqmstaffo@mailbag.com>
Apple Corps Ltd/Capitol Records proudly announces the release of LOVE, the new CD from The Beatles, due November 2006. (19 October 2006)
http://www.auralmoon.com/
After being asked by the remaining Beatles, Ringo and Paul along with Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison, to make experimental mixes from the original master tapes for a collaboration with Cirque du Soleil, Sir George Martin, The Beatles legendary producer, and his son Giles Martin have been working with the entire archive of Beatles recordings to create LOVE. The result is an unprecedented approach to the music. Using the master tapes at EMI's Abbey Road Studios, Sir George and Giles have created a unique soundscape. The release of this album, which is also featured in the Cirque Du Soleil/Beatles collaborative production of the same name at the Mirage in Las Vegas, has been much anticipated. "This music was designed for the LOVE show in Las Vegas but in doing so we've created a new Beatles album" said Sir George. "The Beatles always looked for other ways of expressing themselves and this is another step forward for them."
CONTENTS
1. Green Party candidate Aaron Stuttman joining the Longhouse Coalition
2. More deadly than Saddam
3. A New Nuclear Nightmare?
4. China Checkmates US With North Korean Threat
5. Energy Depletion & the US Descent into Fascism
6. American Bloggers Are Now Enemy Propagandists
7. A time of shame - National yawn as our rights evaporate’
8. Bush's Petro-Cartel Almost Has Iraq's Oil
9. Gush Shalom warns for letting "a racist much worse than Haider" join the government
10. The Great Experiment
11. Latest message from Matthew
12. Letter from the Recorder to Carol Wolman
13. The Latter Days
14. Attaining Healing through Love
15. The dots
See also:
Scientific Poll: 84% Reject Official 9/11 Story !
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/October2006/141006poll.htm
Only 16% now believe official fable according to New York Times/CBS News poll. Truth Movement has the huge majority of opinion. How will the Bush Cabal react?
Most thorough and outstanding article on 9/11 on the net
http://www.erickarlstrom.com
Click on "commentary and articles" and then "9/11 Was an Inside Job and a 'Psy-Op'." Recommended by Steve Campbell callstevec1@yahoo.com>
General Concedes Failure in Baghdad
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/102006E.shtml
A day after George Bush conceded for the first time that America may have reached the equivalent of a Tet offensive in Iraq, the Pentagon yesterday admitted defeat in its strategy of securing Baghdad.
It's Time to Say Sorry for Iraq's Agony
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101506A.shtml
Mary Riddell writes "History will forgive the war on Iraq. Or so Tony Blair told the US Congress in July 2003, as the first cold shadows fell on the invasion. The Prime Minister also warned of 'many further struggles ahead'. He cannot have imagined that these would include being gunned down by the head of the British army. By calling for a pull-out from Iraq, General Sir Richard Dannatt has reversed the view of the French wartime leader, Georges Clemenceau, that 'war is too serious a matter to entrust to military men'."
Bush's Failed Policy of Kill, Kill, Kill
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100606L.shtml
Robert Parry writes that: "America will bleed itself dry of available troops; it will spend itself into bankruptcy; it will transform itself into a grotesque caricature of what the United States once was. It will strip its citizens of their constitutional rights; it will imprison suspected 'terrorists' and 'sympathizers' without trial; it will spread death and destruction around the globe."
One Crime Too Many - By Mike Whitney
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15359.htm
In Baghdad, "liberation" has become a permanent state of martial law where one can never be certain if his door will suddenly be kicked in and he will either be shot or dragged off to some remote prison for torture.
America has finally taken on the grim reality of Iraq
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1924736,00.html
America must leave Iraq without preconditions and hope that its neighbours, hated Syria and Iran, can clear up the mess. This advice comes not from some anti-war coalition but from the Iraq study group under the former Republican secretary of state, James Baker
Playing the Numbers Game
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101706R.shtml
Cindy Sheehan asks: "How much of these criminals and their crimes can we stomach? I can't stomach any more, and I call anyone in America who is sick to death of the people we employ to represent us - but who represent their own interests and the war machine's interests - to join Gold Star Families for Peace in front of the White House for a sit-in to surround it and tell the people who mislead us that we want our country back and our troops out of Iraq."
Upon Red Rivers of Genocide - Living Inside Hell on Earth
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15356.htm
The Iraq Genocide is a curse upon us all, a shame for all humanity, a crime of the highest order that should bring those responsible to deserved justice. In a more perfect world, there would be confidence that criminals and murderers and malfeasant authoritarians would be brought to justice. In the real world, however, they are promoted, elected and made much more powerful.
October On Pace to Be the Deadliest Month in Iraq War
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101506B.shtml
U.S. building huge military airfield in Iraq
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15344.htm
Following hints U.S. troops may remain in Iraq for years, the United States is reportedly building a massive military base at Arbil, in Kurdish northern Iraq.
Iraqi Families Flee as Sectarian Warfare Rages
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101706Z.shtml
Families fled in search of safety Monday as open warfare raged for a fourth day between Shiite militias and armed Sunni men in Tigris River towns north of Baghdad. The escalating violence in the Tigris River towns in many ways serves as a microcosm of the daily violence roiling Iraq. Sectarian attacks have increased more than 10-fold since the start of the year and now claim more than 100 victims a day, according to the Iraqi government.
Riverbend is back: Iraqi girl blog
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/
It's very difficult at this point to connect to the internet and try to read the articles written by so-called specialists and analysts and politicians. They write about and discuss Iraq as I might write about the Ivory Coast or Cambodia- with a detachment and lack of sentiment that- I suppose- is meant to be impartial. Hearing American politicians is even worse. They fall between idiots like Bush- constantly and totally in denial, and opportunists who want to use the war and ensuing chaos to promote themselves.The latest horror is the study published in the Lancet Journal concluding that over 600,000 Iraqis have been killed since the war. Reading about it left me with mixed feelings. On the one hand, it sounded like a reasonable figure. It wasn't at all surprising. On the other hand, I so wanted it to be wrong. But... who to believe? Who to believe....? American politicians... or highly reputable scientists using a reliable scientific survey technique? (...) Everyone knows the 'official numbers' about Iraqi deaths as a direct result of the war and occupation are far less than reality (yes- even you war hawks know this, in your minuscule heart of hearts). This latest report is probably closer to the truth than anything that's been published yet. And what about American military deaths? When will someone do a study on the actual number of those? If the Bush administration is lying so vehemently about the number of dead Iraqis, one can only imagine the extent of lying about dead Americans…
Stranger than fiction: Saddam Verdict Is Expected on Nov. 5 :
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20061016/D8KPMFNO1.html
Two days before U.S. election: A verdict against Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants charged with crimes against humanity in connection with an anti-Shiite crackdown in the 1980s will be announced Nov. 5, a senior court official said on Monday.
The March to War: Naval build-up in the Persian Gulf and the Eastern Mediterranean
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article15212.htm
10/04/06 "CRG" -- -- The probability of another war in the Middle East is high. Only time will tell if the horrors of further warfare is to fully materialize. Even then, the shape of a war is still undecided in terms of its outcome. If war is to be waged or not against Iran and Syria, there is still the undeniable build-up and development of measures that confirm a process of military deployment and preparation for war. The diplomatic forum also seems to be pointing to the possibility of war. The decisions being made, the preparations being taken, and the military maneuvers that are unfolding on the geo-strategic chessboard are projecting a prognosis and forecast towards the direction of mobilization for some form of conflict in the Middle East.In this context, people do not always realize that a war is never planned, executed or even anticipated in a matter of weeks. Military operations take months and even years to prepare. CLIP (Very long and most comprehensive article)
Scott Ritter on "Target Iran (Audio interview)
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15312.htm
The Truth About the White House's Plans for Regime Change - Former UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter: "The path that the United States is currently embarked on regarding Iran is a path that will inevitably lead to war. Such a course of action will make even the historical mistake we made in Iraq pale by comparison."
Voting against nuclear war with Iran
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15318.htm
The outcome of the November election is likely to determine whether or not the US goes to war with Iran before President Bush leaves office. For multiple reasons recounted below such war will with very high probability include the US use of tactical nuclear weapons. In casting or not casting a vote in November, each of us will contribute to determine events of potential consequences immensely larger than local taxes, illegal immigration or even the Iraq war.
America Moves Toward War with Iran
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15313.htm
After careful study of recent moves and statements by the Bush Administration, I have concluded that there is at least a 10% chance of an American attack on Iran before the November 7 Congressional elections and about a 90% chance before the administration's end in 2008.
Israel calls for tough UN action on 'demented' Iran
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061015/wl_afp/iranisraelunnuclear
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations urged the Security Council to take tough measures against "demented" Iran for its nuclear program in the wake of North Korea's declared atomic test.
Confronting the War Pushers
http://tinyurl.com/y23gaw
U.S. support of the Israeli destruction of the Lebanese infrastructure, its homes (tens of thousands), its factories, its roads and bridges was led by the AIPAC lobby.
Canada blocks bid by Arab countries for vote on Israel's nuclear capabilities
http://tinyurl.com/y8vklf
More than a dozen Arab countries were blocked by a Canadian motion in their bid to have a vote on a resolution labelling Israel's nuclear capabilities a threat on the final day of the International Atomic Energy Agency's annual meeting.
Persian Gulf states joint US exercises
http://tinyurl.com/yyek5n
The Persian Gulf states will for the first time participate in a US-led exercise designed to stop Iran from obtaining ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons, World Tribune reported.
More than 20 civilians killed in Afghan attacks
http://tinyurl.com/y4fo2z
NATO occupation forces air strikes killed nine civilians and wounded 11 others Wednesday, a provincial governor said, while 13 other civilians reportedly were killed in a firefight with suspected Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan.
Troops may occupy Afghanistan for 20 years says commander
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10406588
The commander of British forces returning from Helmand, Afghanistan, said that his forces were having to make up for the time lost by the decision of the United States and Britain to invade Iraq instead of concentrating on post-Taleban Afghanistan.
30 more countries could have nukes soon
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4262584.html
The head of the U.N. nuclear agency warned Monday that as many as 30 countries could soon have technology that would let them produce atomic weapons "in a very short time," joining the nine states known or suspected to have such arms.
N.Korea plans series of nuclear tests
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061017/ts_nm/korea_north_test_dc
U.S. officials say North Korea's military has informed China it intends to carry out a series of underground nuclear tests, NBC News reported on Tuesday.
US Reviews War Plan on N. Korea
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15322.htm
According to the report, the United States is considering a plan against North Korea to neutralize Pyongyang's nuclear capability with overwhelming use of the U.S. Air Force.
US adopts tough new space policy
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6063926.stm
"The United States will preserve its rights, capabilities, and freedom of action in space... and deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to US national interests," it says.
Neocons in Space: Pre-emptive War Goes Interplanetary - The Privatization of Government Space Projects (Oct 15, 2006)
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=ESK20061015&articleId=3486
Welcome to a radical new vision of space and the future, from the same crowd that brought you Iraq. In a little-noted policy document, the Bush Administration has unilaterally declared its right to conduct pre-emptive attacks on foreign spacecraft and on any objects or installations that might support them from the ground. It has also declared its opposition to international treaties that might restrict space exploration to primarily peaceful purposes.These policies could have disastrous consequences right here on Earth someday.They've also committed themselves to privatizing government space projects, an initiative that could hand billions more tax dollars to the usual set of government beneficiaries. And they emphasize nuclear power in space - ironically, on the same day that Americans learned of hundreds of cancer deaths from a nuclear accident in Southern California - deaths that were covered up by the U.S. government and its contractor Boeing. But the new directive's biggest change from previous space policies is in its emphasis on war. While it supports some positive goals, its militaristic statements have the effect of declaring a "New Space Order."One thing the world should have learned by now is to take the syndicate now in power at its word. Their blue-sky academic exercises in re-imagining the Middle East led to a catastrophic war in Iraq. Theoretical discussions about abrogation of American rights resulted in the creation of barbed-wire 'Free Speech Zones,' the dismantling of habeus corpus, and the assertion of a unilateral right to spy on our country's own citizens. CLIP
US turns space into U.S. colony
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HJ20Aa02.html
President George W Bush signed an executive order creating a new National Space Policy on Wednesday. The most crucial feature of this policy is that it "rejects future arms-control agreements that might limit US flexibility in space and asserts a right to deny access to space to anyone 'hostile to US interests'."
A Soul Defying, Tacit Approval Of Torture: How Did We Come To This?
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article15214.htm
For most of us, the price we would have to pay for confronting authority would be far too prohibitive; hence, we learn it is acceptable (as well as politically useful to our power mad leaders) to displace our anger and fear upon outsiders. Ergo, the so-called Clash of Civilizations is unloosed and slouches, by way of the Washington Beltway, to Iraq, Iran and beyond to be born.
Academia Signs Up to Track Down Dissent
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101706A.shtml
Chris Floyd asks: "Why is the United States government spending millions of dollars to track down critics of George W. Bush in the press? And why have major American universities agreed to put this technology of tyranny into the state's hands?"
Who Is 'Any Person' in Tribunal Law? (October 19, 2006)
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/101906.html
Though the new law specifically strips non-U.S. citizens of habeas corpus -- the right to a fair trial -- American citizens caught up in Bush's legal system also would be denied the right to challenge their incarceration.Besides allowing for 'any person" to go into Bush's system, the law prohibits detainees once inside the system from appealing to the traditional American courts until a defendant is fully prosecuted and sentenced, which could translate into an indefinite imprisonment since there are no timetables for Bush's tribunal process to play out. The law states that once a person is detained, "no court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider any claim or cause of action whatsoever relating to the prosecution, trial, or judgment of a military commission under this chapter, including challenges to the lawfulness of procedures of military commissions."
And the Winner Is ... Me
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101706L.shtml
The New York Times's editors write: "Voters in Ohio can be forgiven if they feel they have been beamed out of the Midwest and dropped into a third-world autocracy. The latest news from the state's governor's race is that the Republican nominee, Kenneth Blackwell, who is also the Ohio secretary of state, could rule that his opponent is ineligible to run because of a technicality."
Twelve ways Bush is now stealing the Ohio vote
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/810
The Republican "November Surprise" to steal the 2004 election is in full force here in Ohio. With polls showing a dead heat, the GOP is staging an all-out attack on a fair vote count in the Buckeye State.
Reflections on the Eve of Another Rigged Election
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15349.htm
The Bush administration can not allow the Democrats to take control of either house of Congress. And they are in a position to prevent it, regardless of the will of the American voters.
GOP's Hold on Evangelicals Weakening
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100606P.shtml
Come November, many conservative Evangelicals may vote for a Democrat for Congress. This means those Evangelicals who consistently vote Republican are starting to worry about the course of the Iraq War. Many also find the Internet messages from former congressman Mark Foley (R-Fla.) to teenage boys "pretty sickening."
New Laws and Machines May Spell Voting Woes
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101906Z.shtml
As dozens of states are enforcing new voter registration laws and switching to paperless electronic voting systems, officials across the country are bracing for an Election Day with long lines and heightened confusion, followed by an increase in the number of contested results.
GOP Banks on Terror Down the Stretch
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/102006Z.shtml
The Republican Party will begin airing a hard-hitting ad this weekend that warns of more cataclysmic terror attacks against the US homeland. The ad portrays Osama bin Laden and quotes his threats against America dating to February 1998. "These are the stakes," the ad concludes. "Vote November 7."
It's Voter-Fooling Time in America
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/102006J.shtml
The New York Times editors write, "The homestretch of the campaign season historically puts treacherous distortions of the truth before the voters, none more so this year than a mysterious California letter informing thousands of Latino-Americans that immigrants have no right to vote."
The Final Dispatch of a Reporter Murdered for Telling the Truth
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101306G.shtml
This is Anna Politkovskaya's final unfinished article for her newspaper, Novaya Gazeta. It was written shortly before she was murdered last Saturday. After two wars of independence, Russian-backed forces are torturing a whole generation of young Chechens, she writes, to try to restore order in the troubled north Caucasus region.
Profiling International Cooperation and Peace
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101306H.shtml
Le Monde hopes the incoming UN Secretary General will work for the good of the world's citizens, while the Nobel Peace Prize committee has recognized how Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank he founded have contributed to world peace by providing hundreds of thousands of people with the means to emerge from poverty.
VIDEO | Iraq for Sale: As Not Seen on TV
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101306O.shtml
"Iraq for Sale," the latest documentary from Robert Greenwald, tells a depressingly familiar tale of corporate corruption and war-profiteering in Iraq. Focusing on companies like Halliburton, CACI International and Blackwater Security Consulting, it recites a litany of rapacity and exploitation that ought to have American citizens swarming Congress, demanding heads on pikes.
VIDEO | Keith Olbermann | Why Does Habeas Corpus Hate America
http://www.truthout.org/multimedia.htm
Keith Olbermann discusses habeas corpus and examines the founding fathers' words: "'Depriving us of Trial by Jury' was actually considered sufficient cause to start a War of Independence, based on the then-fashionable idea that 'liberty' was an unalienable right."
America's Greatest Threat
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15360.htm
We have lived as if in a trance. We have lived. as people in fear. And now - our rights and our freedoms in peril - we slowly awake to learn that we have been afraid of the wrong thing.
VIDEO | The Ground Truth: "A Cinematic Call to Arms"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101106F.shtml
"The Ground Truth: After the Killing Ends" takes an unflinching look at the training and dehumanization of US soldiers, and how they struggle to come to terms with it when they come back home. This film overrides familiar images of heroic soldiers in battle and their overjoyed returning faces as they reunite with their families with one effortless stroke. Instead, we see a scenario that includes illness, amputation and injury, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), of which Iraq has become a fertile breeding ground. While America's poor treatment of veterans is not news to most, "The Ground Truth" makes it so personal and real, it is impossible to dismiss its characters simply as war statistics.
Marc Ash Interviews Bill Moyers - Part III: "The Net at Risk"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101606Q.shtml
The future of the Internet is up for grabs. Last year, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) effectively eliminated net neutrality rules, which ensured that every content creator on the Internet - from big-time media concerns to backroom bloggers - had equal opportunity to make their voice heard. Now, large and powerful corporations are lobbying Washington to turn the World Wide Web into what critics call a "toll road," threatening the equitability that has come to define global democracy's newest forum. In Part III of our interview, Marc Ash Spoke to Bill Moyers about this important issue. Moyers on America: "The Net@Risk" airs Wednesday, October 18, on your local PBS station. NOTE from Jean: I watched most of this last night and it is clear the Internet's equal access to all views and websites we've taken for granted so far is at great risk of being curtailed in favor of the highest bidder (a big elite-controlled corporation) who will make sure within 2 years after the Senate approve this in the next session (after the elections) that THEY control the message available on the Web (right now over 60% of the content on the Net is generated by ordinary people as opposed to less than 1% of the content being people-generated in other "traditional" corporate-controlled media). They plan to strangle the Internet and bring current total Web access to a crawl while delivering at top speed those website owners who can afford to pay the required fee at their toll booth. Sadly only mostly complacent, apathetic US citizens can have a say in opposing this scheme... this wonderful tool is at risk of being gobbled up by big greedy corporations. However, as I understand it, emails will remain available as a means to reach out to many as it is today.
China to Pass US in Total Broadband Lines
http://www.optimizationweek.com/issues/70/
China is poised to overtake the USA in broadband lines by the third quarter of 2006 to become the most wired country in the world.
Bankers for poor win peace Nobel (October 13, 2006) http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/10/13/nobel.peace.ap
Bangladeshi microcredit pioneer Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their work in advancing economic and social opportunities for the poor, particularly women. The economist and the bank he founded will share the prize. They were cited for their efforts to help "create economic and social development from below" in their home country by using innovative economic programs such as microcredit lending. Grameen Bank has been instrumental in helping millions of poor Bangladeshis, many of them women, improve their standard of living by letting them borrow small sums to start businesses. Loans go toward buying items such as cows to start a dairy, chickens for an egg business, or mobile phones to start businesses where villagers who have no access to phones pay a small fee to make calls. "Every single individual on earth has both the potential and the right to live a decent life. Across cultures and civilizations, Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that even the poorest of the poor can work to bring about their own development," the Nobel Committee said in its citation. Microcredit is the extension of small loans, typically US$50 to US$100, to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. The bank claims to have 6.6 million borrowers, 97 percent of whom are women, and provides services in more than 70,000 villages in Bangladesh. More on this vital topic at http://www.WantToKnow.info/051023microcredit
Curb Cheap Flights, Urge Climate Researchers
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/101706EA.shtml
Carbon dioxide emissions from air travel could account for two-thirds of the UK's emissions targets by 2050 unless the government takes action. Joss Garman, a spokesman for the anti-air travel group Plane Stupid, said, "What we're talking about here is 'our ability to live on earth,' as Al Gore put it, versus our ability to live in Tuscany on the weekends."
California Joins Northeast Global Warming Fight (Back-door Kyoto by some US states!)
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/101706EC.shtml
California will link up with a carbon trading program begun by a group of Northeast states. Under the program, power plants in participating states will be granted a limited number of carbon credits, equal to the amount of carbon dioxide they are allowed to emit. Those that exceed their limits must purchase credits to cover the difference, while those that produce less carbon dioxide can sell the surplus credits.
How Close Is Runaway Climate Change?
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/101806EC.shtml
The phrase "tipping point" is heard a lot more from scientists these days. This is where a small amount of warming sets off unstoppable changes, for example, the melting of the ice caps. As with a lot of climate science, what used to be theory is now being seen in practice on the ground. New information makes clear that reaching the tipping point is a much more immediate threat than previously thought.
Refugees, Disease Big Risk From Global Warming
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/101906EC.shtml
The world is not doing enough to combat global warming which, left unchecked, could trigger a mass movement of people and have serious consequences for security and health. Experts have said that millions of people in densely populated, low-lying, developing countries such as Bangladesh and parts of China, Indonesia and Vietnam might be forced to move by rising sea levels.
NASA And NOAA Announce Ozone Hole Is A Double Record Breaker (Oct 20, 2006)
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/NASA_And_NOAA_Announce_Ozone_Hole_Is_A_Double_Record_Breaker_999.html
Washington DC (SPX) NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists report this year's ozone hole in the polar region of the Southern Hemisphere has broken records for area and depth. The ozone layer acts to protect life on Earth by blocking harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun. The "ozone hole" is a severe depletion of the ozone layer high above Antarctica.It is primarily caused by human-produced compounds that release chlorine and bromine gases in the stratosphere. "From September 21 to 30, the average area of the ozone hole was the largest ever observed, at 10.6 million square miles," said Paul Newman, atmospheric scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. If the stratospheric weather conditions had been normal, the ozone hole would be expected to reach a size of about 8.9 to 9.3 million square miles, about the surface area of North America. CLIP
Iceland to Resume Commercial Whaling
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/101806ED.shtml
Iceland said Tuesday it would resume commercial whaling after a nearly two-decade moratorium, defying a worldwide ban on hunting the mammals for their meat.
Imagine Earth Without People - The New Scientist (12 October 2006)
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/101806EA.shtml
Humans are undoubtedly the most dominant species the Earth has ever known. In just a few thousand years we have swallowed up more than a third of the planet's land for our cities, farmland and pastures. By some estimates, we now commandeer 40 per cent of all its productivity. And we're leaving quite a mess behind: ploughed-up prairies, razed forests, drained aquifers, nuclear waste, chemical pollution, invasive species, mass extinctions and now the looming spectre of climate change. If they could, the other species we share Earth with would surely vote us off the planet. Now just suppose they got their wish. Imagine that all the people on Earth - all 6.5 billion of us and counting - could be spirited away tomorrow, transported to a re-education camp in a far-off galaxy. (Let's not invoke the mother of all plagues to wipe us out, if only to avoid complications from all the corpses). Left once more to its own devices, Nature would begin to reclaim the planet, as fields and pastures reverted to prairies and forest, the air and water cleansed themselves of pollutants, and roads and cities crumbled back to dust. "The sad truth is, once the humans get out of the picture, the outlook starts to get a lot better," says John Orrock, a conservation biologist at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara, California. But would the footprint of humanity ever fade away completely, or have we so altered the Earth that even a million years from now a visitor would know that an industrial society once ruled the planet? CLIP
Omega-News Collection 14. October 2006
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/2802447/
1.
NOTE from Jean: As a follow to the Longhouse Coalition Call emailed to you recently, here is a letter Robert Mendelson longhousecoalition@yahoo.com> forwarded on October 15 to the growing number of people involved with the Coalition.
Dear Longhouse Coalition,
I feel honored and relieved to join and know that such a noble/rational coalition [LONGHOUSE] exists. Not only do I support the 22 platform points of the Longhouse Coalition but I do so with enthusiasm and zeal. In the tradition of other networks and coalitions who want to create a more just and sustainable world like Jim Hightower's Rolling Thunder which are full-day outdoor rallies around the country to connect people with one another so as to take our country back from the greedheads and the boneheads of Wall Street and Washington. There is also Democracy Rising (http://www.democracyrising.org/) has been conducting "People Have The Power" rallies in large arenas around the nation. Their theme is the only way to beat organized money is with organized people.
Citizen Works (http://www.citizenworks.org/) which is networking and training individuals and groups and advancing fundamental corporate reform. With bipartisan denunciations on Congress of corporate crimes, frauds, and abuses being followed by a raft of modest or window-dressing reforms. Law and order for the big boys will not be forthcoming without Financial Consumers Association (FCA) see: (http://www.essential.org/). It is time for FCA. Millions of Americans have lost trillions of dollars. The global corporations have thrown down the gauntlet (see http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/)
Multinational Corporations have no allegiance to any country or community other than to control them; indeed, leading corporate executives have said they would prefer to have their companies be "national" ˆ belonging to no nation. This growing pattern of expedient transititus sees workers as temporary pawns, government officials as tools, consumers as pliant subjects, small taxpayers as suckers, and voters as necessary for pacification rituals.
Is Wall Street Corrupt? Fortune Magazine March 18, 2001. Cover theme was: It's time to Stop Coddling White-Collar Crooks: They lie, They Cheat, They Steal and They've Been Getting Away with it for Too Long. The Washington Post called Business 2.0's April 2002 cover story listing dozens of documented cases "an acid portrait of colossal avarice and stupidity in America's corporate suites. Big corporations are out to control, in large part because they control government and its responsibility to defend the people.
The corporations are counting on our patriotism to distract you from their plunder. They're counting on you to stand at attention with your hand over your heart, pledging allegiance to the flag, while they pick your pocket.
Terrorists can't destroy our democracy, but we can, simply be surrendering it, by keeping our mouths shut while Bush-Cheney-Gonzales take away our rights "for our own good".
We need a completely new world view of people before profits and systems theory base on unification "we are all one" or none.
Democracy is not a spectator sport.
The whole universe is influenced by every word, thought and action of every individual.
The war on terror is mostly fiction used to promote fear.
Small acts, when multiplied my millions can transform the world.
When you transform your individual mind, all of society is transformed.
The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think humans should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is a marvelous victory
- Howard Zinn
ELECT!! Green Party
Aaron Stuttman
Green Party Candidate
US Congress 8th District
Working For:
- Department of Peace that researches, articulates and facilitates non-violent solutions to domestic and international conflict
- USA to become a member of the Kyoto Protocol against Global Warming
- Environmental Renewal/Clean Energy. Tougher Environmental Laws
- Universal Single Payer Health Care
- Repeal of the "USA Patriot Act"
- Campaign Finance Reform
- Women's Reproductive Choice
- USA to be a member of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and member of the International Crimes Court
- Withdrawal from NAFTA and WTO
- Military recruiters out of our schools/cut the bloated military budget
- Establish public oversight of state policies surveillance
To Volunteer, contribute or endorse
Email: stuttmanforcongress@gmail.com
Web: http://stuttmanforcongress.blogspot.com
Mobile : 517-282-1986
Fax: 517-882-8770
2331 Forest Road
Lansing, Mi. 48910
Paid for by committee to elect stuttmanforcongress 2006
Aaron Stuttman
2.
From: "Nadia McLaren" nadia.mclaren@gmail.com>
Date: 17 Oct 2006
Subject: More deadly than Saddam
From: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15316.htm
More deadly than Saddam
By GWYNNE DYER
10/16/06 "Japan Times" -- -- LONDON -- The final indignity, if you are an Iraqi who was shot for accidentally turning into the path of a U.S. military convoy (they thought you might be a terrorist), or blown apart by a car bomb or an airstrike, or tortured and murdered by kidnappers, or just for being a Sunni or a Shiite, is that U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair will deny that your death happened. The script they are working from says (in Bush's words last December) that only "30,000, more or less" have been killed in Iraq during and since the invasion in March, 2003.
So they have a huge incentive to discredit the report in the British medical journal The Lancet last week that an extra 655,000 Iraqis have died since the invasion in excess of the natural death rate: 2.5 percent of the population.
"I don't consider it a credible report," said Bush, without giving any reason why he didn't.
"It is a fairly small sample they have taken and they have extrapolated it across the country," said a spokesman of the British Foreign Office, as if that were an invalid methodology. But it's not.
The study, led by Dr. Les Roberts and a team of epidemiologists from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, was based on a survey of 1,849 households, containing 12,801 people, at 47 different locations chosen at random in Iraq. Teams of four Iraqi doctors -- two men and two women -- went from house to house and asked the residents if anybody had died in their family since January, 2002 (15 months before the invasion).
If anybody had, they then inquired when and how the person had died. They asked for death certificates, and in 92 percent of cases the families produced them. Then the Johns Hopkins team of epidemiologists tabulated the statistics and drew their conclusions.
The most striking thing in the study, in terms of credibility, is that the prewar death rate in Iraq for the period January 2002-March 2003, as calculated from their evidence, was 5.5 per thousand per year. That is virtually identical to the U.S. government estimate of the death rate in Iraq for the same period. Then, from the same evidence, they calculate that the death rate since the invasion has been 13.3 per thousand per year. The difference between the prewar and postwar death rates over a period of 40 months is 655,000 deaths.
More precisely, the deaths reported by the 12,801 people surveyed, when extrapolated to the entire country, indicates a range of between 426,369 and 793,663 excess deaths -- but the sample is big enough that there is a 95 percent certainty that the true figure is within that range. What the Johns Hopkins team have done in Iraq is more rigorous version of the technique that is used to calculate deaths in southern Sudan and the eastern Congo. To reject it, you must either reject the whole discipline of statistics, or you must question the professional integrity of those doing the survey.
The study, which was largely financed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for International Studies, has been reviewed by four independent experts. One of them, Paul Bolton of Boston University, called the methodology "excellent" and said it was standard procedure in a wide range of studies he has worked on: "You can't be sure of the exact number, but you can be quite sure that you are in the right ballpark."
This is not a political smear job. Johns Hopkins University, Boston University and MIT are not fly-by-night institutions, and people who work there have academic reputations to protect. The Lancet, founded 182 years ago, is one of the oldest and most respected medical journals in the world. These numbers are real. So what do they mean?
Two-thirds of a million Iraqis have died since the invasion who would almost all be alive if it had not happened. Human Rights Watch has estimated that between 250,000 and 290,000 Iraqis were killed during Saddam Hussein's 20-year rule, so perhaps 40,000 people might have died between the invasion and now if he had stayed in power. (Though probably not anything like that many, really, because the great majority of Saddam's killings happened during crises like the Kurdish rebellion of the late 1980s and the Shiite revolt after the 1990-91 Gulf War.)
Of the 655,000 excess deaths since March 2003, only about 50,000 can be attributed to stress, malnutrition, the collapse of medical services as doctors flee abroad, and other side effects of the occupation. All the rest are violent deaths, and 31 percent are directly due to the actions of foreign "coalition" forces.
The most disturbing thing is the breakdown of the causes of death. Over half the deaths -- 56 percent -- are due to gunshot wounds, but 13 percent are due to airstrikes. Terrorists don't do airstrikes. No Iraqi government forces do airstrikes, either, because they don't have combat aircraft. Airstrikes are done by "coalition forces" (i.e. Americans and British), and airstrikes in Iraq have killed over 75,000 people since the invasion.
Oscar Wilde once observed that "to lose one parent . . . may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness." To lose 75,000 Iraqis to airstrikes looks like carelessness, too.
Gwynne Dyer is a London-based independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries.
3.
Date: 18 Oct 2006
From: "Ricken Patel, Ceasefire Campaign" team@ceasefirecampaign.org>
Subject: A New Nuclear Nightmare?
Dear Friends,
North Korea’s announcement of a nuclear weapons test last week was one more step down a nightmarish road: a new global nuclear arms race. Iran could be the next domino to fall in this dangerous game, and the situation is reaching a critical turning point this week as the UN Security Council debates sanctions.
Much depends on US President Bush. His threatening policies of regime change, preemptive strike, and the invasion of Iraq -- while also undermining global disarmament talks and developing a new generation of nukes -- have many countries rushing to build nuclear weapons. In Iran, as elsewhere, Bush has refused to engage his enemies in direct and unconditional talks. This policy is failing, and even prominent conservative Americans have called for Bush to finally talk to Iran. Please click below to join the chorus of voices and send a personal message to President Bush, calling on the US to negotiate with Iran:
www.CeasefireCampaign.org
Talks between the US and Iran won’t guarantee a solution to the nuclear problem, but no talks will guarantee failure, and could lead to a disastrous new war.
Despite credible reports that the US may be planning a military strike on Iran, there has been no global outcry of opposition. At least, not yet. Please forward this email to your friends and family, and let’s get a flood of messages sent to President Bush. We’ll track the number and publicize it in the media, and show the Bush Administration that the world will not be silent in the face of these dangerous and failing policies.
With hope,
Ricken, Rachel, Amparo, Tom and the Ceasefire Campaign Team
PS – Congratulations to the tens of thousands of Ceasefire Campaigners who signed the petition for a new peace process in Israel/Palestine. Much is happening on this front, and the call to restart peace talks was endorsed last week by a prominent list of over 130 former heads of state and other notable international figures. We'll keep a close watch on this situation for opportunities for us all to make a difference.
4.
Date: 19 Oct 2006
From: Antares Antares@magickriver.com>
Subject: China Checkmates US With North Korean Threat
... And now, folks... a relaxing geopolitical interlude...
From: http://www.rense.com/general73/kim.htm
China Checkmates US With North Korean Threat
BY: Henry Makow PhD
Date Published: 2006-10-18
It appears that China has outflanked George Jr. and the Neo Cons and stymied NWO plans for world hegemony based on controlling Middle Eastern and Central Asian oil.
By getting its proxy North Korea to menace South Korea and Japan, China has saved Iran and written the epitaph for the US in Iraq. America cannot pursue its Middle East strategy while contending with another war in North East Asia.
While a US carrier group steamed toward Iran (because of its nuclear research), North Korea was exploding nuclear weapons and threatening to attack Japan and the US! Nothing could better demonstrate the bankruptcy of Bush's foreign policy.
In the terms of Brezinzki's "Grand Chessboard" this is "checkmate" to the US and Israel, pawns of London-based central bankers. The US has already withdrawn from Al Anbar province. Withdrawal from the rest of Iraq is now just a matter of time.
I watch the network news for the spin, not for the "information," and Friday the spin was new. CBS had a panel of elite talking heads addressing the subject: "How can we get out of Iraq?"
One said and I quote, "theocracy may be the most we can hope for; liberal democracy is impossible." Hello!? The US can take credit for putting Iranian Ayatollahs in power!
On Tuesday morning, the Iraqi Resistance blew up the main US arsenal in Baghdad killing hundreds of Americans and destroying a billion dollars in arms. That was real news, so it wasn't reported.
As you know, the British army Chief of Staff said Britain needs to get out of Iraq. US generals are also in revolt. US politicians said we need to negotiate with Iran. You get the picture. The Neo-Con controlled US foreign policy is in disarray. All that remains is face saving. The easy money has been made. It's time to fold.
It's very possible China is also controlled by the Illuminati, and that the US-Chinese rivalry will eventually end in world war.
But in the meantime I hope those responsible for the Iraq fiasco will be repudiated.The Democrats will be net beneficiaries although they are equally responsible. We may get a breather for a couple of years while the NWO bankers discover other ways to bury Western civilization and take away our freedom.
----
Note: I acknowledge the influence of Joseph Ehrlich's valuable commentary. He refers to Kim Jong-Il as China's 'suicide bomber' willing to make any sacrifice. In his latest newsletter, he remarks that there have been three earthquakes affecting Japan since the NK test, and that scientists confirm the test could have caused the quakes. / Flashback to 2002: US-NK Nuclear Cooperation
Afghanistan: Why NATO Can't Win
http://atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HI30Df01.html
See also my "Why the Media Embraced 9-11 Truth"
http://www.savethemales.ca/001728.html
5.
A VERY BLEAK PICTURE OF THE SITUATION IN THE US, AND BY EXTENSION IN ALL OTHER COUNTRIES FALLING IN LINE BEHIND THE US. ANYONE WHO HAS BEEN READING WHAT I NETWORKED OVER THE PAST 5 YEARS WILL RECOGNIZE MUCH OF THE FOLLOWING AS AN ACCURATE DEPICTION. NOW ARE A REBELLION AND A NEARLY-IMPOSSIBLE-TO-ACHIEVE GENERAL STRIKE THE SOLUTIONS? IT SEEMS TO ME IT WOULD ONLY PLAY INTO THEIR HANDS... ONLY THROUGH ACTUAL SPIRITUAL AWAKENING AND CONTINUOUS HEIGHTENING OF VIBRATIONAL SOUL-SOUNDING TONE ON A MASSIVE SCALE CAN THIS DEBASED ENERGY OF DOMINATION BY NULLIFIED AND LOVE-FILLED SANITY RESTORED FOR MILLENIA TO COME... IMHO Allowing oneself to be overcome by the fear-generating miasma the kind of thinking displayed below illustrates would only be self-defeating. So... Shine, rise and be faithful the future is ours!
From: "Mark Graffis" mgraffis@gmail.com>
Subject: Energy Depletion & the US Descent into Fascism
Date: 18 Oct 2006
From: http://www.fromthewilderness.com/members/T17/101706_world_stories.shtml
Energy Depletion & the US Descent into Fascism
By Dale Allen Pfeiffer - Mountain Sentinel
October 16, 2006
Please distribute this article as widely as possible. A pdf version of this article, suitable for printing, is available on the website http://www.mountainsentinel.com
Contents
1. First Warnings
2. The Intervening Years
3. Documentaries of Note
4. The Withdrawal of Consent
5. Grassroots Rebellion
6. Further Reading & Viewing
First Warnings 16/10/06
In October of 2001, a little over a month after 9/11, I wrote an article titled The Background is Oil. The hypothesis laid out in this article was that the 2000 US presidential election resulted in a coup of neocons and oil interests who had taken control of the US in order to prepare for the coming peak and decline of world oil production. Furthermore, this coup engineered the 9/11 terrorist attacks to further their own interests.
Before 9/11, the coup was hampered by lack of support from both the public and Congress. The tragedies of September 11th washed all resistance away in a flood of rabid patriotism. As a result, the coup was able to hijack the US political process. Over the coming years, starting with the patriot act, the coup has been able to strip us of our constitutional rights, in preparation for the civil unrest which will come from the peak and decline of oil production and the resulting economic collapse.
The day after 9/11, the junta announced that the US would undertake a "War against Terror", that is, a war without end, directed against whomever the junta should label as an enemy state. The war was actually a cover for the consolidation of military empire and a worldwide grab for control of energy production. Never mind that terrorism can never be ended through warfare, but only exacerbated (see Restating the Obvious).
After writing the article The Background is Oil, I shopped it around very eagerly. This message needed be heard by as many as possible. There were many people, both within the US and around the world, who did not believe the official story of 9/11 and the "War on Terror," but without this knowledge of the peak oil motive, it was very difficult to understand why the junta was proceeding with such a Machiavellian scheme, nor why the power brokers behind the junta would condone this madness.
For the next month, I sent this essay out to every alternative news service and periodical I could think of. None of them would touch it. I had just about given up on having the article published. As a final option, I would put the article out on the web myself, through email groups and my own website. As a last chance, I tried sending the article to From the Wilderness, a newsletter that I knew little about but which seemed to be putting out information about 9/11 that no one else would touch.
Whatever my subsequent thoughts and feelings about From the Wilderness, I owe Mike Ruppert a debt of thanks for publishing this article, and all of the material that followed it. Within the next few months, The Background is Oil traveled all over the web and was translated into many different languages.
In January of 2002, I followed up on this article with another entitled What's Next for the Oil Coup? In this article, I proposed that if the US had suffered an oil coup that was using 9/11 to make a global energy grab, then we should be able to make some predictions based on this hypothesis. Looking at the top oil producing countries, I stated that the most likely targets of an oil coup would be Iraq, Iran, and Venezuela. Saudi Arabia would also be important, but its ties to the US could be shored up by the occupation of Iraq and the military bases established in the surrounding area. I also threw in a few other countries devoid of energy resources, but which the US considered to be enemy states - countries such as North Korea and Cuba. Within a week of the publication of this article in From the Wilderness, Bush gave his infamous "axis of evil" address. And in the years since, the countries listed in this article have been the almost exclusive focus of the "War on Terror."
The Intervening Years
Over the years since I first wrote about the oil coup, the Bush junta has fulfilled all of my worst expectations. The junta has invaded Iraq, though it is now clear that Iraq represented absolutely no terrorist threat to the US. US military bases now surround the Middle East and the Caspian region. And now the junta is very eager to invade Iran. Only in their attempt to overthrow the democratically elected government of Venezuelan Presidente Hugo Chavez has the US junta been thwarted. And it is hoped that Presidente Chavez can continue to outmaneuver the junta.
The junta has also managed to mothball the Geneva Convention and the US Constitution. The US now has an official policy of sanctioning torture, concentration camps, and limitless detention without filing formal charges. The junta has instituted a policy of pre-emptive strike known as the "Bush Doctrine." The US can now attack any country that it perceives to be a threat, without provocation.
At home, the junta can conduct domestic spying without court approval. It can label US citizens as terrorists and then imprison them without charge. If you think this only applies to naturalized citizens, think again. In the last few years, the junta has made it very clear that it views environmental activists as terrorists. Environmental activists are now languishing in prison (and in some cases, even dying there) for destruction of property, while right wing militants are allowed to continue plotting murder. (See Sourcecode: Eco Dissent/Not Terrorism.) And the junta has announced that anti-war activists and others who vocally dissent will be monitored for possible terrorist activities.
The Bush junta has wracked up more high crimes than any previous administration. Yet Congress has granted them full immunity. Any attempt to impeach Bush and Cheney for lying about the reasons for invading Iraq is dead in the water. And the junta is now pursuing the very same tactics with regard to Iran.
In preparation for the economic havoc that will follow the decline of energy production, the junta has made sure that bankruptcy proceedings will not excuse the general public from their consumer debt. The stage is set for the working class within the US to become indentured servants (see Peak Oil & the Working Class). Yet, very few are aware of what is in store for them, and most would not believe if it were mentioned to them.
Internment camps have been prepared within the US, capable of housing many thousands of dissenters. And plans are now being formed to beef up border security, including building and maintaining fences along the southern border. The entire US is being transformed into a prison. Repressive immigration legislation is being pursued by Congress, supposedly on behalf of the US working class. Yet a "War on Immigrants" will be no more successful at halting illegal immigration than the "War on Terror" will stop terrorism. The premises of both wars are false, and the junta knows this. The "War on Immigrants" is ultimately about repressing the working class, both internationally and within the US (see Energy Depletion and Immigration).
Documentaries of Note
The perspective presented several years ago in The Background is Oil has become the thesis for a new documentary, Oil, Smoke and Mirrors, which can be viewed freely online courtesy of Google videos, or which can be purchased on DVD directly from the producers http://www.oilsmokeandmirrors.com
I heartily recommend this documentary; it should be watched by every citizen of the US. There is little time left to prevent our descent into fascism, and far too many people are not even aware of it.
For those who require more convincing that 9/11 was an inside job, I recommend 9/11; Press for Truth. In this documentary, the 9/11 Family Steering Committee tell their own story, using Paul Thompson's 9/11 timeline to make it very clear that we have been lied to about the tragedy of September 11th. This documentary is only available for purchase as a DVD, but it is well worth $15.
Finally, the story of the attempted Venezuelan coup is told in The Revolution will not be Televised. This documentary can also be found on Google videos.
Most US citizens do not even know that the US supported the attempted overthrow of duly elected Venezuelan Presidente Chavez. In the US, Chavez is portrayed as a madman, a terrorist, and a dictator. This documentary makes very clear that he is none of these things. Presidente Chavez, in fact, has a much better record than George W. Bush for supporting democracy and free speech.
Upon viewing this documentary, it becomes very clear that the reason the coup failed was because of the people. The people rose up against the coup, and it was their uprising which encouraged loyalists within the military to stage a counter-coup. Without a doubt, Chavez is an excellent tactician. But he is also sincerely a man of the people. And without popular support, his government would have succumbed long ago to US intervention.
The Withdrawal of Consent
The Venezuela documentary also explains that what is lacking in the US is an informed and active public. The oil junta has succeeded because the US public remains uninformed and indifferent, locked into a state of denial that is almost psychotic in its disconnection from reality. If the US public would rise up, the game would be over.
Certainly, the majority of US citizens are dissatisfied with Bush, but they are not truly aware of how close we have come to fascism. Those who are now waking up still place their faith in the electoral system. By the time they realize that democracy is dead in the US, it may very well be too late for them to rise up. The system does not serve us. It is high time that we took our founding fathers' advice and rebelled against this corrupt system and the plutocracy that controls this country.
It is quite likely that the Republicans will retain control of Congress in an election rife with irregularities. However, even if the Democrats manage to take control of Congress, we can expect no changes from them. Both parties are owned by the power brokers behind the oil junta. Whoever is in power, the US will continue its slide toward fascism and totalitarianism.
We do have a chance yet. It will take a few more years before the junta has completely transformed our society. We have to act now.
The age of consumer capitalism is at an end. It will most likely dissolve into some form of debt servitude or corporate feudalism. Yet, even this will be a dying system in the face of energy depletion, global warming and many other problems resulting from over a century of conspicuous consumption. If we continue to support this system, then the blood is on our hands.
We can, instead, turn to a system based on relocalization, democratic decentralization, community and quality of life. But we will have to break free of the plutocracy to do so. They would never tolerate any change that might strip them of even a portion of their power. They would rather live in a dying police state where they remain at the top.
We cannot continue to go along with the plutocracy. Whether we are indifferent, uninformed or in denial, the blood will be on our hands. Our only option is to withdraw our support from this system and actively seek to replace it.
In a past article (Peak Oil and the Working Class), I suggested that what was needed was a new working class movement. The working class, within the US and elsewhere, had to stop serving their masters. A true general strike would take back all power from the plutocracy and stop the junta dead in their tracks.
When I wrote that article, I was attacked on several fronts. Mike Ruppert and Jamey Hecht contended that because of outsourcing, the working class in the US could no longer carry off an effective general strike. They said that nobody would be bothered by a strike of hairdressers and salespeople. I still insist that a real general strike, encompassing the entire working class - blue and white collar, truckers and salespeople, farm workers and engineers - would shut down the system. It was because of this disagreement that I left From the Wilderness to put out the article on my own.
In that article, I suggested that the IWW might be the ideal union to organize such a movement. I was then very surprised to be attacked from within the IWW. Perhaps some members of the IWW are too misinformed to see what is happening, or perhaps they are blinded by denial. If the IWW does not want to foster a true worker's movement then it can no longer call itself a revolutionary union. In that case, it is little more than a worker controlled business union. Due to my great admiration of the IWW, such a failure saddens me.
Grassroots Rebellion
It is up to you and me to defeat the junta and the plutocracy. We must act, and we must act quickly. Failing, we will be lucky if we only fall into debt servitude. If the coup succeeds, then it is quite possible that many of us, myself included, will simply disappear.
The government and the media are both against us. And they are intent on reining in the internet just as soon as possible. We have a very brief window of opportunity remaining - a few years at most. It is time to do what we can.
I urge you to read all the materials listed at the end of this article, and view the documentaries I have mentioned. Then I urge you to pass this article along to everyone you know.
This system is suicidal, nor can it be reformed from within the system. It is time to withdraw our consent. The bookstore at our website - http://www.mountainsentinel.com/store.php - offers a number of books that will help you to do this. I apologize that the bookstore is an Amazon affiliate, but many of these books are hard to come by otherwise.
Personal withdrawal from the system is a start, but it is not enough. We must organize and work toward a complete general strike. Only if the entire working class refuses to serve can we take back our own power and return this world to sanity.
So far as sabotage is concerned, right now it is probably too early for major acts of sabotage. At present, the government and the media would likely spin such acts against us. Only when we have gained the understanding and support of the public can we successfully engage in sabotage. Yet, it is the duty of the sane and conscientious person to do whatever he or she can - short of harming other people - to stop a system bent on the destruction of the planet and the increase of injustice and human suffering.
And, after all, sabotage will never be as effective as a successful general strike. We must take back our power and stop the madness. Anything less is suicide.
Further Reading & Viewing
The Background is Oil
http://www.mountainsentinel.com/content/backgroundisoil.pdf
This was the first published article stating the thesis that the US 2000 electoral coup and 9/11 were both about energy depletion. The arguments contained in this article are as valid today as they were in 2001.
What's Next
http://www.mountainsentinel.com/content/whatnext.pdf
This article helps explain what the "War on Terror" holds in store for us.
Eating Fossil Fuels
http://www.mountainsentinel.com/content/eatingfossilfuels.pdf
This article helps to explain just how important energy depletion will be to all of us. It has been expanded into a book from New Society Publishers. The book also contains many resources for those seeking solutions to this problem (CSA's, farmers markets, food banks, community agriculture organizations, etc.) The book is available in bookstores or directly from the publisher: New Society Publishers http://www.newsociety.com/bookid/3933New
Imminent Peril, Part 1
http://www.mountainsentinel.com/content/imminentperil1.pdf
Imminent Peril, Part 2
http://www.mountainsentinel.com/content/imminentperil2.pdf
This 2-part article explains just how drastic our situation is on this planet.
The Collapse of Complex Systems
http://www.mountainsentinel.com/content/collapsecomplexsystems.pdf
Presentation to the New York Local Solutions Conference, April 2006
http://www.mountainsentinel.com/content/FunnyThingHappenedonWaytoGasStation.ppt
These articles explain why there are no technofixes for energy depletion. And they explain that, at best, technofixes would only buy us a little time and likely make the situation worse in the long run.
Peak Oil and the Working Class
http://www.mountainsentinel.com/content/peakoilworkingclass.pdf
What is ahead for the working class, and what can we do about it?
Energy Depletion and Immigration
http://www.mountainsentinel.com/content/energydepletionimmigration.pdf
Why closing the borders would not work and would ultimately hurt US workers.
Restating the Obvious
http://www.mountainsentinel.com/content/restatingobvious.pdf
Why the War on Terror will only lead to more terrorism.
Oil, Smoke and Mirrors
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8677389869548020370
An excellent documentary expanding the thesis of The Background is Oil. This documentary should be viewed by everyone.
9/11: Press for Truth
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/911_press_for_truth.jsp
You owe it to the victims of 9/11 to watch this video. And, as we are all victims of 9/11, you owe it to yourself
The Revolution will not be Televised. Riveting.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5832390545689805144
Watch this if for no other reason than to see an example of the sort of informed and active public which is the best insurance of continuing democracy.
Please support the website by purchasing The Mountain Sentinel
http://www.mountainsentinel.com/store/index.php?cPath=21
a periodical dedicated to the advance of a sustainable and equitable society based on the commonality of all living things and the ecosystems of which they are a part. The Mountain Sentinel reports on issues of sustainability, social justice, environmental problems, resource depletion and the labor movement. It also publishes short stories and serialized fiction dealing with these topics.
6.
From: "Kathleen Roberts" weerkhr@pacbell.net>
Subject: American Bloggers Are Now Enemy Propagandists
Date: 18 Oct 2006
From: http://www.infowars.com/print_resolution.html
Government Targets American Bloggers As Enemy Propagandists
Military, Homeland Security, Bush White House strategy sharpen knives against anyone critical of the "war on terror"
Paul Joseph Watson/Prison Planet.com | October 17 2006
Recent scientific polls that show around 84% don't believe the government's explanation behind 9/11 and others confirming the fact that support for the war in Iraq is at an all time low have led the Bush administration to sharpen their knives against the new breed of perceived "enemy propagandists," bloggers, journalists and online activists who dissent against the "war on terror."
As Raw Story reports , CENTCOM announced earlier this year that a team of employees would be "[engaging] bloggers who are posting inaccurate or untrue information, as well as bloggers who are posting incomplete information."
So when you're wasting your time arguing the finer points of the collapse of Building 7 or the quagmire in Iraq with someone who seems unable to grasp basic principles, your foe could well be sat behind a plush U.S. government desk in a uniform.
CENTCOM is infiltrating blogs and message boards to ensure people, "have the opportunity to read positive stories,"presumably about how Iraq is a wonderful liberated democracy and the war on terror really is about protecting Americans.
The CENTCOM website features a useful section, "What Extremists Are Saying," which provides a full catalogue and showcases the diatribes of US government agents Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, Ayman al-Zawahiri and their sympathizers - rhetoric that CENTCOM hopes surfers will seek out in order for them to grasp a true understanding for the necessity of bombing the shit out of another broken backed defenseless country in the name of "freedom."
The jaw-dropping hypocrisy of a regime and its military attack arm that has engaged in the most gargantuan of deceit and propaganda purges against the American people then pointing the finger at inquisitive bloggers for "aiding the enemy," is alarming to behold.
President George W. Bush looks up as he signs the Military Commissions Act of 2006 in the East Room of the White House in Washington. The bill effectively nullifies nine of the first ten amendments to the U.S. constitution and ends the "great experiment" known as The United States of America.
The White House has made it perfectly clear that it will target American citizens for propagating information harmful to the interests of the U.S. government and classify them as enemy combatants. This is codified in sub-section 27 of section 950v. of the Military Commissions Act of 2006.
Bush's own strategy document for "winning the war on terror" identifies "conspiracy theorists," meaning anyone who exposes government corruption and lies about major domestic and world events, as "terrorists recruiters," and vows to eliminate their influence in society.
"The DVD of the resistance!" Get TerrorStorm on DVD today! and see it in high quality or watch it for free at Google Video .
In a speech given Monday, Homeland Security director Michael Chertoff identified the web as a "terror training camp," through which "disaffected people living in the United States" are developing "radical ideologies and potentially violent skills."
Chertoff has pledged to dispatch Homeland Security agents to local police departments in order to aid in the apprehension of domestic terrorists who use the Internet as a political tool.
How long before influential online writers, bloggers and journalists like Greg Palast, who was charged with aiding the terrorists when filming "critical U.S. infrastructure," are arbitrarily gunned down on the street like in Russia or the newly "free" Iraq?
The Bush administration's media mouthpieces have also been mobilized to stereotype any kind of critical thinking as "giving aid and comfort to the enemy," a recent case in point being Fox News' Bill O'Reilly calling for the FBI to investigate the 9/11 Scholars organization for possible ties to terrorist organizations.
Will we witness a "night of the long knives" to silence any and all dissent as the official dictatorship is announced or does the chilling effect of simply threatening to treat bloggers and journalists as terrorists go far enough to intimidate enough people to keep their mouths shut?
A combination of this chilling effect and moves to license websites, impose "hate speech" restrictions and kill off the old internet in favor of a government regulated, China-style "Internet 2" are the tools in the arsenal of the neo-fascists who wish to continue their domestic and imperial bloodletting under the mandated consensus of total obedience.
7.
From: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15342.htm
A time of shame - National yawn as our rights evaporate’
By Keith Olbermann - Anchor, 'Countdown'
First thing this morning, the president signed into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which does away with habeas corpus, the right of suspected terrorists or anybody else to know why they have been imprisoned, provided the president does not think it should apply to you and declares you an enemy combatant.
Go at http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15342.htm to view this video
TRANSCRIPT
History does not play well at this White House. Expressionless faces would probably greet references to how John Adams ended his political career by insisting he needed the Alien and Sedition Acts to silence his critics in the newspapers, or how Franklin D. Roosevelt’s executive order to seize Japanese-Americans during World War II necessitated a formal presidential apology eight presidents later.
But even so, somebody probably should have told President Bush that today was the exact 135th anniversary, to the day, that President Grant suspended habeas corpus in much of South Carolina for the noble and urgent purpose of dispersing the Ku Klux Klan and making sure the freed slaves had all their voting rights, neither of which has yet truly occurred. It is your principal defense against imprisonment without charge and trial without defense thrown away for no good reason, then and now.
Our fifth story on "Countdown": President Bush, happy Habeas Corpus Day.
First thing this morning, the president signed into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which does away with habeas corpus, the right of suspected terrorists or anybody else to know why they have been imprisoned, provided the president does not think it should apply to you and declares you an enemy combatant.
Further, the bill allows the CIA to continue using interrogation techniques so long as they do not cause what is deemed, quote, “serious physical or mental pain.” And it lets the president to ostensibly pick and choose which parts of the Geneva Convention to obey, though to hear him describe this, this repudiation of the freedoms for which all our soldiers have died is a good thing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT BUSH: This bill spells out specific, recognizable offenses that would be considered crimes in the handling of detainees, so that our men and women who question captured terrorists can perform their duties to the fullest extent of the law. And this bill complies with both the spirit and the letter of our international obligations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: Leading Democrats view it differently, Senator Ted Kennedy calling this “seriously flawed,” Senator Patrick Leahey saying it’s, quote, “a sad day when the rubber-stamp Congress undercuts our freedoms,” and Senator Russ Feingold adding that “We will look back on this day as a stain on our nation’s history.”
Outside the White House, a handful of individuals protested the law by dressing up as Abu Ghraib abuse victims and terror detainees. Several of them got themselves arrested, but they were apparently quickly released, despite being already dressed for Gitmo.
To assess what this law will truly mean for us all, I’m joined by Jonathan Turley, professor of constitutional law at George Washington University.
I want to start by asking you about a specific part of this act that lists one of the definitions of an unlawful enemy combatant as, quote, “a person who, before, on, or after the date of the enactment of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, has been determined to be an unlawful enemy combatant by a combatant status review tribunal or another competent tribunal established under the authority of the president or the secretary of defense.”
Does that not basically mean that if Mr. Bush or Mr. Rumsfeld say so, anybody in this country, citizen or not, innocent or not, can end up being an unlawful enemy combatant?
JONATHAN TURLEY, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY CONSTITUTIONAL LAW PROFESSOR: It certainly does. In fact, later on, it says that if you even give material support to an organization that the president deems connected to one of these groups, you too can be an enemy combatant.
And the fact that he appoints this tribunal is meaningless. You know, standing behind him at the signing ceremony was his attorney general, who signed a memo that said that you could torture people, that you could do harm to them to the point of organ failure or death.
So if he appoints someone like that to be attorney general, you can imagine who he’s going be putting on this board.
OLBERMANN: Does this mean that under this law, ultimately the only thing keeping you, I, or the viewer out of Gitmo is the sanity and honesty of the president of the United States?
TURLEY: It does. And it’s a huge sea change for our democracy. The framers created a system where we did not have to rely on the good graces or good mood of the president. In fact, Madison said that he created a system essentially to be run by devils, where they could not do harm, because we didn’t rely on their good motivations.
Now we must. And people have no idea how significant this is. What, really, a time of shame this is for the American system. What the Congress did and what the president signed today essentially revokes over 200 years of American principles and values.
It couldn’t be more significant. And the strange thing is, we’ve become sort of constitutional couch potatoes. I mean, the Congress just gave the president despotic powers, and you could hear the yawn across the country as people turned to, you know, “Dancing with the Stars.” I mean, it’s otherworldly.
OLBERMANN: Is there one defense against this, the legal challenges against particularly the suspension or elimination of habeas corpus from the equation? And where do they stand, and how likely are they to overturn this action today?
TURLEY: Well, you know what? I think people are fooling themselves if they believe that the courts will once again stop this president from taking over—taking almost absolute power. It basically comes down to a single vote on the Supreme Court, Justice Kennedy. And he indicated that if Congress gave the president these types of powers, that he might go along.
And so we may have, in this country, some type of uber-president, some absolute ruler, and it’ll be up to him who gets put away as an enemy combatant, held without trial.
It’s something that no one thought—certainly I didn’t think—was possible in the United States. And I am not too sure how we got to this point. But people clearly don’t realize what a fundamental change it is about who we are as a country. What happened today changed us. And I’m not too sure we’re going to change back anytime soon.
OLBERMANN: And if Justice Kennedy tries to change us back, we can always call him an enemy combatant.
The president reiterated today the United States does not torture. Does this law actually guarantee anything like that?
TURLEY: That’s actually when I turned off my TV set, because I couldn’t believe it. You know, the United States has engaged in torture. And the whole world community has denounced the views of this administration, its early views that the president could order torture, could cause injury up to organ failure or death.
The administration has already established that it has engaged in things like waterboarding, which is not just torture. We prosecuted people after World War II for waterboarding prisoners. We treated it as a war crime. And my God, what a change of fate, where we are now embracing the very thing that we once prosecuted people for.
Who are we now? I know who we were then. But when the president said that we don’t torture, that was, frankly, when I had to turn off my TV set.
OLBERMANN: That same individual fell back on the same argument that he’d used about the war in Iraq to sanction this law. Let me play what he said and then ask you a question about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT BUSH: Yet with the distance of history, the questions will be narrowed and few. Did this generation of Americans take the threat seriously? And did we do what it takes to defeat that threat?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: Does he understand the irony of those words when taken out of the context of this particular passage or of what he perceives as the war against terror, and that, in fact, the threat we may be facing is the threat of President George W. Bush?
TURLEY: Well, this is going to go down in history as one of our greatest self-inflicted wounds. And I think you can feel the judgment of history. It won’t be kind to President Bush.
But frankly, I don’t think that it will be kind to the rest of us. I think that history will ask, Where were you? What did you do when this thing was signed into law? There were people that protested the Japanese concentration camps, there were people that protested these other acts. But we are strangely silent in this national yawn as our rights evaporate.
OLBERMANN: Well, not to pat ourselves on the back too much, but I think we’ve done a little bit of what we could have done. I’ll see you at Gitmo. As always, greatest thanks for your time, Jon.
TURLEY: Thanks, Keith.
---
Over 34 comments available on this interview at http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15342.htm ...including this one:
"The problem for the current executive branch of the evil ol' USA is that they have committed obvious treason (9/11 murderous black-op false-flag mega-theater), as well as the mega crime under international law, wars of aggression. So they are, well, mega-criminals. Now aggressive war - brazen as well as via proxy - has for decades been a kind of - habit - for the United States, and while the surviving victims cared, the bulk of the American people either swallowed the lies or didn't care or cheered the criminality on. But the 9/11 Truth movement continues to reach more millions of peoples, and there the story is that the Commander in Chief and his Companions directly killed over two thousand of their own, which is inordinately and probably unacceptably vile. From the point of view of the - arch criminals - their survival is at stake. So they will go to exceptionally exceptional lengths. And this cabal of criminals have at their disposal a compromised military. Since elements of the military leadership and the spooky agencies are complicit in the high treason, these trained killers will bend their oars to row the arch criminal leadership, and thus themselves they hope, to safe-seeming shores. Since the MSmedia and much of the so-called alternative media are obviously complicit in the cover-up of 9/11 (see Barry Zwicker's important new book "Towers of Deception"), they too will play their besotted parts in the continuing fascist process. Can the collective power of honest voices and decent people overcome the power of a fascist state, its propaganda system, its overt and enormous capacity for violence and terrorization and deception, and its secret police? I'm hoping for the underdog."
- Robert Snefjella | 10.18.06
8.
SINCE A BIG OIL GRAB IS WHAT INVADING IRAQ WAS ALL ABOUT, THIS IS OF KEY INTEREST...
From: http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/43045/
Bush's Petro-Cartel Almost Has Iraq's Oil
By Joshua Holland, AlterNet. Posted October 16, 2006.
Even as Iraq verges on splintering into a sectarian civil war, four big oil companies are on the verge of locking up its massive, profitable reserves, known to everyone in the petroleum industry as "the prize."
(276 COMMENTS on this article!)
Editor's note: This is the first of a two-part series. Go here to read the second installment.
Iraq is sitting on a mother lode of some of the lightest, sweetest, most profitable crude oil on earth, and the rules that will determine who will control it and on what terms are about to be set.
The Iraqi government faces a December deadline, imposed by the world's wealthiest countries, to complete its final oil law. Industry analysts expect that the result will be a radical departure from the laws governing the country's oil-rich neighbors, giving foreign multinationals a much higher rate of return than with other major oil producers and locking in their control over what George Bush called Iraq's "patrimony" for decades, regardless of what kind of policies future elected governments might want to pursue.
Iraq's energy reserves are an incredibly rich prize. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, "Iraq contains 112 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, the second largest in the world (behind Saudi Arabia), along with roughly 220 billion barrels of probable and possible resources. Iraq's true potential may be far greater than this, however, as the country is relatively unexplored due to years of war and sanctions." For perspective, the Saudis have 260 billion barrels of proven reserves.
Iraqi oil is close to the surface and easy to extract, making it all the more profitable. James Paul, executive director of the Global Policy Forum, points out that oil companies "can produce a barrel of Iraqi oil for less than $1.50 and possibly as little as $1, including all exploration, oilfield development and production costs." Contrast that with other areas where oil is considered cheap to produce at $5 per barrel or the North Sea, where production costs are $12-16 per barrel.
And Iraq's oil sector is largely undeveloped. Former Iraqi Oil Minister Issam Chalabi (no relation to the neocons' favorite exile, Ahmed Chalabi) told the Associated Press that "Iraq has more oil fields that have been discovered, but not developed, than any other country in the world." British-based analyst Mohammad Al-Gallani told the Canadian Press that of 526 prospective drilling sites, just 125 have been opened.
But the real gem -- what one oil consultant called the "Holy Grail" of the industry -- lies in Iraq's vast western desert. It's one of the last "virgin" fields on the planet, and it has the potential to catapult Iraq to No. 1 in the world in oil reserves. Sparsely populated, the western fields are less prone to sabotage than the country's current centers of production in the north, near Kirkuk, and in the south near Basra. The Nation's Aram Roston predicts Iraq's western desert will yield "untold riches."
Iraq also may have large natural gas deposits that so far remain virtually unexplored.
But even "untold riches" don't tell the whole story. Depending on how Iraq's petroleum law shakes out, the country's enormous reserves could break the back of OPEC, a wet dream in Western capitals for three decades. James Paul predicted that "even before Iraq had reached its full production potential of 8 million barrels or more per day, the companies would gain huge leverage over the international oil system. OPEC would be weakened by the withdrawal of one of its key producers from the OPEC quota system." Depending on how things shape up in the next few months, Western oil companies could end up controlling the country's output levels, or the government, heavily influenced by the United States, could even pull out of the cartel entirely.
Both independent analysts and officials within Iraq's Oil Ministry anticipate that when all is said and done, the big winners in Iraq will be the Big Four -- the American firms Exxon-Mobile and Chevron, the British BP-Amoco and Royal Dutch-Shell -- that dominate the world oil market. Ibrahim Mohammed, an industry consultant with close contacts in the Iraqi Oil Ministry, told the Associated Press that there's a universal belief among ministry staff that the major U.S. companies will win the lion's share of contracts. "The feeling is that the new government is going to be influenced by the United States," he said.
During the 12-year sanction period, the Big Four were forced to sit on the sidelines while the government of Saddam Hussein cut deals with the Chinese, French, Russians and others (despite the sanctions, the United States ultimately received 37 percent of Iraq's oil during that period, according to the independent committee that investigated the oil-for-food program, but almost all of it arrived through foreign firms). In a 1999 speech, Dick Cheney, then CEO of the oil services company Halliburton, told a London audience that the Middle East was where the West would find the additional 50 million barrels of oil per day that he predicted it would need by 2010, but, he lamented, "while even though companies are anxious for greater access there, progress continues to be slow."
Chafing at the idea that the Chinese and Russians might end up with what is arguably the world's greatest energy prize, industry leaders lobbied hard for regime change throughout the 1990s. With the election of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney in 2000 -- the first time in U.S. history that two veterans of the oil industry had ever occupied the nation's top two jobs -- they would finally get the "greater access" to the region's oil wealth, which they had long lusted after.
If the U.S. invasion of Iraq had occurred during the colonial era a hundred years earlier, the oil giants, backed by U.S. forces, would have simply seized Iraq's oil fields. Much has changed since then in terms of international custom and law (when then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz did in fact suggest seizing Iraq's Southern oil fields in 2002, Colin Powell dismissed the idea as "lunacy").
Understanding how Big Oil came to this point, poised to take effective control of the bulk of the country's reserves while they remain, technically, in the hands of the Iraqi government -- a government with all the trappings of sovereignty -- is to grasp the sometimes intricate dance that is modern neocolonialism. The Iraq oil grab is a classic case study.
It's clear that the U.S.-led invasion had little to do with national security or the events of Sept. 11. Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill revealed that just 11 days after Bush's inauguration in early 2001, regime change in Iraq was "Topic A" among the administration's national security staff, and former Terrorism Tsar Richard Clarke told 60 Minutes that the day after the attacks in New York and Washington occurred, "[Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld was saying that we needed to bomb Iraq." He added: "We all said … no, no. Al-Qaeda is in Afghanistan."
On March 7, 2003, two weeks before the United States attacked Iraq, the U.N.'s chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, told the U.N. Security Council that Saddam Hussein's cooperation with the inspections protocol had improved to the point where it was "active or even proactive," and that the inspectors would be able to certify that Iraq was free of prohibited weapons within a few months' time. That same day, IAEA head Mohammed ElBaradei reported that there was no evidence of a current nuclear program in Iraq and flatly refuted the administration's claim that the infamous aluminum tubes cited by Colin Powell in making his case for war before the Security Council were part of a reconstituted nuclear program.
But serious planning for the war had begun in February of 2002, as Bob Woodward revealed in his book, Plan of Attack. Planning for the future of Iraq's oil wealth had been under way for longer still.
In February of 2001, just weeks after Bush was sworn in, the same energy executives that had been lobbying for Saddam's ouster gathered at the White House to participate in Dick Cheney's now infamous Energy Task Force. Although Cheney would go all the way to the Supreme Court to keep what happened at those meetings a secret, we do know a few things, thanks to documents obtained by the conservative legal group Judicial Watch. As Mark Levine wrote in The Nation($$):
… a map of Iraq and an accompanying list of "Iraq oil foreign suitors" were the center of discussion. The map erased all features of the country save the location of its main oil deposits, divided into nine exploration blocks. The accompanying list of suitors revealed that dozens of companies from 30 countries -- but not the United States -- were either in discussions over or in direct negotiations for rights to some of the best remaining oilfields on earth.
Levine wrote, "It's not hard to surmise how the participants in these meetings felt about this situation."
According to the New Yorker, at the same time, a top-secret National Security Council memo directed NSC staff to "cooperate fully with the Energy Task Force as it considered melding two seemingly unrelated areas of policy." The administration's national security team was to join "the review of operational policies towards rogue states such as Iraq and actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and gas fields."
At the State Department, planning was also underway. Under the auspices of the "Future of Iraq Project," an "Oil and Energy Working Group" was established. The full membership of the group -- described by the Financial Times as "Iraqi oil experts, international consultants" and State Department staffers -- remains classified, but among them, according to Antonia Juhasz's "The Bush Agenda," was Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum, who would serve in Iyad Allawi's cabinet during the period of the Iraqi Governing Council, and later as Iraq's oil minister in 2005. The group concluded that Iraq's oil "should be opened to international oil companies as quickly as possible after the war."
But the execs from Big Oil didn't just want access to Iraq's oil; they wanted access on terms that would be inconceivable unless negotiated at the barrel of a gun. Specifically, they wanted an Iraqi government that would enter into production service agreements (PSAs) for the extraction of Iraq's oil.
PSAs, developed in the 1960s, are a tool of today's kinder, gentler neocolonialism; they allow countries to retain technical ownership over energy reserves but, in actuality, lock in multinationals' control and extremely high profit margins -- up to 13 times oil companies' minimum target, according to an analysis by the British-based oil watchdog Platform (PDF).
As Greg Muttit, an analyst with the group, notes:
Such contracts are often used in countries with small or difficult oilfields, or where high-risk exploration is required. They are not generally used in countries like Iraq, where there are large fields which are already known and which are cheap to extract. For example, they are not used in Iran, Kuwait or Saudi Arabia, all of which maintain state control of oil.
In fact, Muttit adds, of the seven leading oil producing countries, only Russia has entered into PSAs, and those were signed during its own economic "shock therapy" in the early 1990s. A number of Iraq's oil-rich neighbors have constitutions that specifically prohibit foreign control over their energy reserves.
PSAs often have long terms -- up to 40 years -- and contain "stabilization clauses" that protect them from future legislative changes. As Muttit points out, future governments "could be constrained in their ability to pass new laws or policies." That means, for example, that if a future elected Iraqi government "wanted to pass a human rights law, or wanted to introduce a minimum wage [and it] affected the company's profits, either the law would not apply to the company's operations or the government would have to compensate the company for any reduction in profits." It's Sovereignty Lite.
The deals are so onerous that they govern only 12 percent of the world's oil reserves, according to the International Energy Agency. Nonetheless, PSAs would become the Future of Iraq Project's recommendation for the fledgling Iraqi government. According to the Financial Times, "many in the group" fought for the contract structure; a Kurdish delegate told the FT, "everybody keeps coming back to PSAs."
Of course, the plans for Iraq's legal framework for oil have to be viewed in the context of the overall transformation of the Iraqi economy. Clearly, the idea was to pursue a radical corporatist agenda during the period of the Coalition Provisional Authority when the U.S. occupation forces were a de facto dictatorship. And that's just what happened; under L. Paul Bremer, the CPA head, corporate taxes were slashed, a flat-tax on income was established, rules allowing multinationals to pull all of their profits from the country and a series of other provisions were enacted. These were then integrated into the Iraqi Constitution and remain in effect today.
Among the provisions in the Constitution, unlike those of most oil producers, is a requirement that the government "develop oil and gas wealth … relying on the most modern techniques of market principles and encouraging investment." The provision mandates that foreign companies would receive a major stake in Iraq's oil for the first time in the 30 years since the sector was nationalized in 1975.
Herbert Docena, a researcher with the NGO Focus on the Global South, wrote that an early draft of the constitution negotiated by Iraqis envisioned a "Scandinavian-style welfare system in the Arabian desert, with Iraq's vast oil wealth to be spent upholding every Iraqi's right to education, health care, housing, and other social services." "Social justice," the draft declared, "is the basis of building society."
What happened between that earlier draft and the constitution that Iraqis would eventually ratify? According to Docena:
While [U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay] Khalilzad and his team of U.S. and British diplomats were all over the scene, some members of Iraq's constitutional committee were reduced to bystanders. One Shiite member grumbled, "We haven't played much of a role in drafting the constitution. We feel that we have been neglected." A Sunni negotiator concluded: "This constitution was cooked up in an American kitchen not an Iraqi one."
With a constitution cooked up in D.C., the stage was set for foreign multinationals to assume effective control of as much as 87 percent of Iraq's oil, according to projections by the Oil Ministry. If PSAs become the law of the land -- and there are other contractual arrangements that would allow private companies to invest in the sector without giving them the same degree of control or such usurious profits -- the war-torn country stands to lose up to 194 billion vitally important dollars in revenue on just the first 12 fields developed, according to a conservative estimate by Platform (the estimate assumes oil at $40 per barrel; at this writing it stands at more than $59). That's more than six times the country's annual budget.
To complete the rip-off, the occupying coalition would have to crush Iraqi resistance, make sure it had friendly people in the right places in Iraq's emerging elite and lock the new Iraqi government onto a path that would lead to the Big Four's desired outcome.
See part two tomorrow.
Joshua Holland is an AlterNet staff writer.
---
See also:
Bush's Petro-Cartel Almost Has Iraq's Oil (Part Two - Oct 17)
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/43077/
The Bush administration has co-opted the compassionate language of debt relief to ensure that Big Oil gets its way in Iraq. With 140,000 U.S. troops on the ground, the largest U.S. embassy in the world sequestered in Baghdad's fortified "Green Zone" and an economy designed by a consulting firm in McLean, Va., post-invasion Iraq was well on its way to becoming a bonanza for foreign investors.But Big Oil had its sights set on a specific arrangement -- the lucrative production sharing agreements that lock in multinationals' control for long terms and are virtually unheard of in countries as rich in easily accessible oil as Iraq. The occupation authorities would have to steer an ostensibly sovereign government to the outcome they desired, and they'd have to overcome any resistance that they encountered from the fiercely independent and understandably wary Iraqis along the way. Finally, they'd have to make sure that the Anglo-American firms were well-positioned to win the lion's share of the choicest contracts. (...) It's possible that the administration and its partners badly overplayed their hand. Iraq's new government stands on the verge of a complete meltdown, faced with a crisis of legitimacy based largely on the fact that it is seen as collaborating with American forces. Overwhelming majorities of Iraqis of every sect believe the United States is an occupier, not a liberator, and is convinced that it intends to stay in Iraq permanently. "If you go in front of Parliament, Raed Jarrar told me, "and ask: 'who is opposed to demanding a timetable for the Americans to withdrawal?' nobody would dare raise their hand." The passage of a sweetheart oil law could prove to be a tipping point. It's also possible Iraq's government won't make it to December; at this writing, rumors of a "palace coup" are swirling around Baghdad, according to Iraqi lawmakers. What is clear is that the future of Iraq ultimately hinges to a great degree on the outcome of a complex game of chess -- only part of which is out in the open -- that is playing out right now, and oil is at the center of it. It's equally clear that there's a yawning disconnect between Iraqis' and Americans' views of the situation. Erik Leaver, a senior analyst at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, told me that the disposition of Iraq's oil wealth is "definitely causing problems on the ground," but the entire topic is taboo in polite D.C. circles. "Nobody in Washington wants to talk about it," he said. "They don't want to sound like freaks talking about blood for oil." At the same time, a recent poll asked Iraqis what they believed was the main reason for the invasion and 76 percent gave "to control Iraqi oil" as their first choice.
Energy Bill Is a Boon to Oil Companies
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/101906EA.shtml
Tucked into a massive energy bill sponsored by Rep. Richard W. Pombo (R-Calif.) and passed by the House earlier this year are provisions that would open the outer continental shelf to oil drilling and slash future royalties owed to the federal government by companies