I took me a while longer than usual to prepare this one for you. There is just so much to review and so much going on. I think you'll find the material in this compilation is a good recap of the latest. You will also find a copy of some rather interesting correspondence I had this past week with some ERN subscribers... (in item #1 and item #6 below). Lots of good stuff in the "WORTHY OF YOUR ATTENTION" section!

There are several alarming news excerpts about the risks of an imminent US/Israel attack against Iran, but thank God, according to Matthew it won't happen: "(...) it may be that some troops are ordered to make incursions into Iran, but their full-scale war will not happen. On the contrary, this year will see the winding down of international warfare in the Mideast and the withdrawal of combat and occupational troops."

Feel free to share as usual ;-)

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/Archives2007/MomentTruth7.htm

STATS for this compilation: Over 38,100 words and 189 links included.

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.

"Dear Jean, I just have to let you know how deeply touched I was reading the excerpt from the Christ Letter and you own following excerpt from "Pathways to Unity." You so clearly explain our separation and the struggle to regain Unity. Reading the "Declaration of Unity" from Chief Seattle moved me profoundly. What a great soul he was and our ignorance called our Indian brothers heathens and savages. It is so strange I was hoping you would enclose a portion of another Christ's Letter again after I read your last compilation and here it is. You have such a large and aware audience, it will greatly facilitate the knowledge of the Letters existence and the message. I have told you once before, I will be forever grateful to you for introducing them to me."

- Rosemarie (Rmhjean@wmconnect.com)

"Dear Jean, as always I'm filled with great appreciation, in fact, overwhelming appreciation, for what you are doing and how much you are helping all of us. Today my Internet session began with a recently channelled "take action" message from John Lennon, then a guided and wonderfully inspiring one form Karen Bishop of www.whatsuponplanetearth.com in which she talks about this being the time to create our new destiny. I felt the power and imagined everything I could to create for peace, harmony and abundance, and then I read your inspiring message in your Meditation Focus and felt myself totally in this powerful and loving place I was just creating. By this time the Light and power were very strong, and I know those of us doing this today are having a great effect on our future. Thank you again for what you are doing for the planet!"

- Lillian Akersborg (lillakers@yahoo.com)

"What a remarkable year 2006 turned out to be and 2007 has the potential to be even more amazing as we return to love on this beautiful planet we call home. From our vantage point, we can easily see how much change is currently underway in every corner of the globe that signifies this wondrous transformation unfolding in the hearts of everyone. Remember: what begins in our heart manifests in our outer experience of reality.One by one and after many eons of allowing the illusion of separation to influence us, we are quickly recalling and embracing the oneness of humanity.  Whether through our recognition of our interdependent relationship with the environment, the necessity of honest, visionary leadership in business and government, acknowledging the needs of our neighbors in distant lands, or just simply accepting our individual selves without limitation or condition, we are finally standing in our truth and light. This is all happening by your personal efforts to change and evolve your thoughts and feelings.  This change is not one of outer effort, instead it is the constant recognition and release of outdated and limiting beliefs that no longer serve.  By acknowledging and letting go of the old worn out journeys of yesterday, each of us is creating a new reality based on love.  This release is commonly known as forgiveness and together we are manifesting it as a new paradigm and opportunity to live in harmony."

- Harold W. Becker (hwbecker@thelovefoundation.com) -- Taken from 2007: A Powerful Year Of Change

"Life is a shining. And if you're not shining, then you're not in your life. When you are a shining, then you can communicate that and even transport it to others around you. Then you don't have to worry about persuading them with words to a new point of view, you need not be concerned with changing their hearts and the way that they experience life. You contribute to the awakening in them of their source, and once that has happened then nobody needs to have any influence on that person ever again. Then they are so deeply rooted in themselves, and in life and in truth, that nothing will disturb them."

-  Michael Barnett (michaelbarnett.net) from "By the Way" -- Recommended by Dana Stockar (dana.stockar@bluewin.ch)

Imagine for a moment that you are several years ahead in the future and the Earth and all her inhabitants have profoundly changed. What seemed impossible and totally utopian in the eyes of many has come to pass. Imagine that a new existence, devoid of any of the perils and torments of the past, is now possible for all souls dwelling on this New Earth. Imagine, if you will, that every human being is now recognized as a full-fledged member of the wonderful human family, and that no one goes lacking in the essential material elements that make a fulfilling, happy life possible. Every child is cared for and not a single one goes hungry or in dire poverty. The level of Love and Harmony between all humans and with all of Nature is simply astounding... No one has to do any activity that is detrimental to the vital commons on which all Life depends. The kindness and compassion that is shown and experienced by every single soul is simply awe-inspiring. No one tries to dominate or take advantage of anyone. Everyone is passionate about helping others, experiencing all the wonders of Life and being the best possible _expression_ of the profound wisdom and Light emanating from their soul.

Now, holding this vision in your soul's eye, try to imagine how you feel, living in such a pristine, vibrant environment, knowing that Love, Peace and Harmony prevail, sensing your Oneness with all your brothers and sisters, viewing in their eyes the sparkling _expression_ of the living, radiant soul each human is... Allow this feeling of sheer happiness to grow in your heart and embrace your entire being... Let ecstasy tingles in everyone of your cells... Let Love shine through you... And KNOW that what you are feeling now is ABSOLUTELY real...

As you are joining in this globally synchronized communion with thousands and thousands of other souls feeling the very same experience, enable the sense of Oneness pervading your soul to expand and encompass every other form of Life, every other soul, every other atom of this Great, Magnificent Being of Love that You Are... as One... with All That is... And from that place of sublime, blissful Omniversal Awareness, further expand your sense of Self to integrate the very perception of your Universal Beingness, as One Within the Creator... Do not press ahead for more thoughts. Just Be! You have arrived... Let it BE... And as you ARE blissfully aware of this magnificent future that, by virtue of your contemplation of its existence, is now immanently manifested, you co-create, and will continue to co-create, by the very essence of your radiant Presence, what is soon to fully manifest, for the Highest Good of All.

This whole Meditation Focus has been archived for your convenience at

The last opportunity to join in this one is this Sunday February 4... Check you local time at the URL above.

1. Spiritual assistance requested

2. New Message from Matthew

3. LFA - A choir sings on behalf of cetaceans & Alert: Navy Exempted from Marine Mammal Protection Act

4. 'Bluejay' Spreads His Wing

5. "A little child (and some wide awake teenage activists) shall lead them"

6. Feedback from Suzy Ward and more from Lea

7. Ag-agria -- 29-January-2007

8. Cheap, safe drug kills most cancer

9. Some experts blast latest climate report

10. Apocalypse never? Science could yet save the day

11. Nuclear Terrorism

12. DU Radioactive Poison Explosions Inside US Affects Canada & Mexico too

13. Stop This Man Before He Kills Again!

14. A concentration camp in Texas??

15. FAMILY

16. Speak Out For a Peaceful Resolution

IS IMPEACHMENT STILL OFF THE TABLE? TIM ROBBINS DC PEACE RALLY - Rousing Speech!

Why We Must Have Impeachment By Dave Lindorff

When impeachment hearings began for President Richard Nixon, a scant one in four Americans thought he should be impeached. During the Clinton impeachment farce, support for the president's removal from office never topped 36 percent. Yet a Newsweek poll taken last fall found that a remarkable 51 percent of the American public felt this president should face impeachment .

Anti-War Marches Draw Hundreds of Thousands

In this video, Truthout's Scott Galindez reports that "hundreds of thousands" marched on Saturday. That estimate is gleaned from estimates by the event organizers - United for Peace and Justice - Truthout reporters on the scene, and crowd photographs by other news agencies. Our best estimate now is that there were between 310,000 and 500,000 marchers.

OneVoice Movement: Eye-Opener! WATCH THIS JUST RELEASED 5 MIN VIDEO. YOU'LL BE MOVED TO TEARS!

OneVoice Movement mobilizes citizens from across Israel, West Bank and Gaza to say 'Enough!' OneVoice aims to amplify the voice of the overwhelming but heretofore silent majority of moderates who wish for peace and prosperity, empowering them to demand accountability from elected representatives and ensure that the agenda is not hijacked by forces of militant absolutism.

Website: http://onevoicemovement.org/

Brazil Approves Deforestation of Important Amazon Reserve (January 25, 2007)
The strength and permanence of protected status for ancient rainforests under Brazilian law is at stake

The State Government of Mato Grosso, Brazil, has voted to drastically reduce one of the Amazon's most biodiverse reserves. What is at stake is the strength and permanence of protected status for ancient rainforests under Brazilian law. The Cristalino State Park is a world-renowned ecotourism destination, whose 184,000 hectares are home to over 550 species of birds, and protects endangered species like the white-whiskered spider monkey. Some 27,000 hectares of its forest will now lose protected status; becoming vulnerable to logging, cattle ranching and agribusiness. State Governor Blairo Maggi initially vetoed the reduction of the park on the grounds that it would "be seen as endorsing illegal occupancy and deforestation of public lands", and that it would suggest Brazilian environmental law can be flouted. The veto was short-lived, however, as members of the Mato Grosso House of Representatives immediately overturned it. Mato Grosso has suffered the highest rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon and yet it looks like the State Government is manipulating this particular situation for political gain. Please contact key players in Brazil's Federal and State governments, and let them know that removal of protected status so easily from preserved Amazonian ancient rainforests is simply unacceptable. TAKE ACTION NOW at: http://www.rainforestportal.org/alerts/send.asp?id=brazil_reserve

Sand Fantasy AMAZING ART CREATING WITH SAND!

Plants With Eyes  - Just completely mesmerizing! you'll feel like you are on another planet...

Recommended by Joyce Z. Meyers (jzmeyers@mac.com)

Microscopic Art - Amazing Wonderment!!

Willard Wigan was born in Birmingham, England in 1957 and is the creator of the smallest works of art on earth. From being a traumatised and unrecognised dyslexic child, he is now emerging as the most globally celebrated micro-miniaturist of all time and is literally capable of turning a spec of dust into a vision of true beauty. His work has been described as "The eight wonder of the world" and "Truly a gift from God"  Even he is sometimes at a loss for an explanation as to exactly how he is able to create such treasures. He just gratefully acknowledges that he's been blessed with a God-given talent. Willard can create a masterpiece within the eye of a tiny sewing needle, on the head of a pin, the tip of an eyelash or a grain of sand. Some are many times smaller than the fullstop at the end of this sentence. Many are even smaller still, with some being completely invisible to the naked eye yet, when viewed through high power magnification, the effect on the viewer is truly mesmerising. Willard, who is completely self-taught has baffled medical science and been the subject of discussions among micro-surgeons, nano-technologists and at universities worldwide. His work is ground-breaking - partly because of the astounding beauty of vision which challenges the belief system of the mind and partly because it demonstrates that if one person can create the impossible, we all have the potential to transcend our own limiting beliefs about what we are capable of. He works in total solitude at a quiet retreat in Jersey mainly at night when there is a greater sense of peace in the world and less static electricity to interfere with the immeasurable precision and tolerances required to create the pieces.The smallest sculptures can only be measured in thousandths of an inch which is why they can sit, very delicately, on a human hair three thousandths of an inch thick. When working on this scale he slows his heartbeat and his breathing dramatically through meditation and attempts to harmonise his mind, body and soul with the Creator. He then sculpts or paints at the centrepoint between heartbeats for total stillness of hand. He likens this process to "trying to pass a pin through a bubble without bursting it." His concentration is intense when working like this and he feels mentally and physically drained at the end of it.

When helmets make no sense - MUST see pics!

Amazing team: the guy is 25 and the lady 84 years old doing acrobatics on "The hardest part" by Coldplay

Laughing Baby :-)  :-)  :-)

Music for One Apartment and Six Drummers - Video: 9 min. 29 sec. Deliriously imaginative!

Recommended by Kathleen Roberts (weerkhr@pacbell.net)

Peace Pilgrim II: A Life So Well Lived - The story of his Life - Peace Pilgrim II is a co-founder of ERN

HILARIOUS! The NEW Gilligan's Island: Dubya's Island for the WEALTHY only!

ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS: "BLINK OFF' BETWEEN NANCY PELOSI vs DICK CHENEY!

12 of the Most Revealing Major Media Articles Ever Published - One-paragraph Excerpts

George Galloway's speech to Parliament, January 2007 - 10 minutes - He becomes increasingly fiery hot as he speaks againt the current criminal British government. Must Watch!

Recommended by Mark R. Elsis (mark@lovearth.net)

Photo of UFO Over O'Hare on Coast To Coast

Being Peace - meditation

We invite you to spend a few minutes experiencing our peace meditation, inspired by monk, author, and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh. The Vietnamese Buddhist Zen master worked tirelessly for peace, especially during the Vietnam War. In 1967, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize. Thich Nhat Hanh argues that unless and until individuals are peaceful within themselves, they cannot work for peace among nations. Recommended by Monica Wilson (alian@foxinternet.net)

The 5th Annual WORLD SOUND HEALING DAY FEB. 14, 2007 http://www.healingsounds.com/sounds/worlddayinfo.asp

Sounding an "AH" for planetary peace! For five minutes, sound healers, meditators, peace activists and lovers of all humanity and sentient consciousness will send a Sonic Valentine to the Earth with the heart sound "AH". We will simply sound an "AH" filled with the intention of Peace and Love for 5 minutes at our local noon time. - Recommended by "Susan R. Jason" (susieq@mcn.org)

Stand Up and Be Counted!

On 15-16th October 2006, a protest entered the Guinness Book of World Records, when over 23.5 million people stood up against poverty. Organised as part of the United Nations Millennium Campaign, the big                     Stand Up was intended as a way of reminding the governments of the world, that they made a commitment to eradicate world poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. This worldwide protest was part of a month of mobilisation, surrounding the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, held on October 17th. CLIP

Planet 3000 - A large New Age movement based in Russia in activity since 1996

We live on the verge of the worlds. Our planet and humanity is going through an unprecedented transitional process. The epoch of barbarity based on unlimited consumption, conflicts, competition and wars is transforming into the era of conscious evolution for creation, cooperation and peace. All our problems are rooted in ignorance, and we have our task - to create conditions for all to look within and become aware of who we are, where we are from, why we are here, where we are going. We need tools for effective actions so as to integrate humanity as one and create collective consciousness for this transition process. We would like to present such a model - an experiment of collective actions of the Planet 3000 project. It is based on effectively awakening inner potential and creating collective consciousness as a way to take the "giant leap" from the old civilization into a new, never seen before world. Planet 3000 - is the symbol of this future planet. What kind of future do we want to create? It depends on everybody and all of us together. We invite you to enter a New World - a world of our dreams, happiness and responsibility, living in everybody's heart. We are to awaken ourselves and unite as one for taking part in an unbelievable legend - transformation of our planet into one with new qualities. It is time for us to meet. We welcome you to Planet 3000 project where there is a place for everybody. Children, youth, grown ups together focus on creating a collective image of the future of our planet and realize projects created by them. The profound question is: "HOW can we create this transition process from wars to peace, from conflicts to consent, from competition to cooperation, from ignorance to conscious evolution?" This is the question to be answered by Planet 3000 project, as it has been growing for 10 years as a living example of creating a united planetary community, able to influence life by taking total responsibility for itself and for the Earth. NOTE from Jean: This website and Planet 3000 are in large part the result of the sustained commitment of Claude Veziau (cveziau@yahoo.ca), from Quebec, a long-time ERN subscriber, who is now deeply involved in this project with Nina Goncharova from Russia. To find out more I recommend you explore http://planet3000.site.voila.fr/ and check also the Planetary Consciousness Awakening Tour they are planning through http://happypeopleplanet.site.voila.fr/

"May You Be Blessed" Movie

Wonderful songs by the Gettin' Higher Choir In Concert - Try "Gaia/Another World Is Possible" and "Be Thou"

http://www.crucible.ca/ghc/3/links.htm

Recommended by Sharon Alder (shekinahoneness@yahoo.ca) who sings in this magnificent choir. "'One Voice" is very good too!

Divine Humanity

SUMMARY: Human beings are the least understood species on the planet. We may believe that we are children of God, endowed with an eternal soul, but we often dislike aspects of our physical appearance and our individual personality. We also also feel deeply ambivalent about the characteristics we share with all humankind. Is it acceptable to have weaknesses? Is it safe to feel desires? Is it okay to want to serve? Is it right to be dependent on others? If we judge such qualities as bad and dangerous, we hold back on living our full humanity, and never experience the joy, the empowerment, and the tremendous benefits our humanity would bring to our lives and to the planet as a whole. Now more than ever we and the planet need the fruits of our beautiful Divine humanity. Please allow this article to initiate you into the wonderful and truly spiritual experience of being human. Recommended by Sara (mail@livinglovefellowship.org)

The Alcatraz Conversion Project

The Global Peace Foundation in association with One Earth One People Peace Vision invites you to participate in a sacred and majestic project...The transformation of Alcatraz Island into The Global Peace Center... Majestic in its Simplicity, Revolutionary as a Political Metaphor, The Global Peace Center Proclaims Global Renaissance! A New Epoch! A Time of Enduring Peace for All Humanity... CLIP Note from Jean: Recommended by Da Vid (Lightparty@aol.com) who has been campaigning for many years (since 1978) to implement this outstanding vision. The time is right for its manifestation! Please help support this project whichever way you can. I've asked Da Vid, on behalf of us all, to add the Earth Rainbow Network on his website as part of the growing coalition supporting the Alcatraz Conversion Project.

Kepler's Supernova Remnant in X-Rays  - AMAZING PICTURE!

More such pictures through http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html

When God Paints

Less than 90 Days until Global Love Day next May 1, 2007

Inspiring People to Love Unconditionally!

FIRING THE EARTH GRID -- GLOBAL HEALING MEDITATION July 17, 2007 (Less than 163 days remaining!)

Harmonic Convergence - interesting trivia on Wikipedia about this famous event in 1987

Check also Jose Arguelles' main website today at http://www.tortuga.com/

I tried to find out if anyone is organizing/promoting something for the 20th anniversary of Harmonic Convergence next August 17 2007, but could not find anything. Has anyone heard something about this?

Revealing News: Potential Cancer Cures, Manipulation of Fuel Economy Standards, & More

NOTE from Jean: Someone brought to my attention the transcript of a 2005 speech by Richard Lamm on Multiculturalism, archived at http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/lamm.asp

After reading this I wrote the following comment:

"Canada and Quebec are both multicultural societies and both use 2 languages and this is not the end of the world. And if Canada and Quebec part ways it won't be the end of the world either.

I think this speech profoundly reeks of jingoism.

On the other hand, if the United States "monster" is dismantled from within, it could very well be a blessing in disguise.

This country (because its government is under the control of elite Illuminatis bent of dominating the whole planet) is directly responsible for the premature death of well over 20 million people in the past 3 decades (see the 2 comments to Bill Moyers' video below). Its imperialistic drive with military bases in over 130 countries is definitely NOT a force for good and only Americans - I mean the average self-centered Americans - seem to fail to understand this.

My vision of the future is not that of large oppressive, militarized countries. My vision of the future is that of a world without border, thus without countries but with some sort of democratically elected global governance system, regional administrations working under the authority of the global entity and a galaxy of local decentralized administrations, each of these levels of governance wielding the power relevant to their respective sizes and mandates but all geared to serve the real needs of the people, not of any secret elite or of any transnational corporation. Their prime directive will be to make sure to never do harm to any life form, all Life being sacred, to maintain the long term balance of all ecosystems and to ensure the continuance of a worldwide and galaxy-wide culture of Peace, Love and Harmony for and with All That Is.

I'm waiting for the equivalent of the Fall of the Berlin Wall for all supersized dinosaur-like countries..."

Bill Moyers: The Secret Government - The Constitution in Crisis - This is a must watch Video

This documentary gives a fascinating overview of what has actually happened in the last 50 years regarding the CIA and the Cold War (including Iran, Guatamala, Cuba, Vietnam and Chile).  Bill Moyers, the respected TV journalist, analyzes the threats to constitutional government posed by an illegitimate network operating from within the government but using secrecy to set itself up outside of the government / peoples oversight. All this back in 1987. This documentary gives a fascinating overview of what has actually happened in the last 50 years regarding the CIA and the Cold War (including Iran, Guatamala, Cuba, Vietnam and Chile). The foundation for the massive push towards greater secrecy in government going on today. HERE ARE 2 OF THE NUMEROUS COMMENTS POSTED AT http://www.ichblog.eu/content/view/299/59/

American empire and the rape of nations. There are several other who have spoken out and are available in the ICH archives or elsewhere. Some of them are John Stockwell (NSA, NSC, CFR, CIA), Phil Agee (NSA, CIA, black ops), Ralph McGeehee (CIA, black ops), Church Commission after Nixon resignation, There is a list of interventions at http://johnmccarthy90066.tripod.com/id392.html , http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/CIA Hits/CIA_GreatestHits.html , http://www.ahealedplanet.net/mcgehee.htm , http://www.namebase.org/foia.html , http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB4/ , http://www.apfn.org/thewinds/arc_features/government/cia6-97.html, or there are several books by former agents of the NSA, CIA, DEA, FBI and others on US economic subversion, regime change and war for money and power such as Stephen Kinser's "Overthrow". The US has been living well from the blood money it has taken from countries that can't protect themselves and big money interests primarily since the inception of the National Security Act which has nothing to do with national security and everything to do with raping nations of their resources and wealth.

I've seen the video before, and it is a great start in researching our real history. Moyers is excellent in this PBS publication. The same year, John Stockwell came out and talked about the 6 million killed by covert operations by the NSA/CIA. Information is available at http://www.totse.com/en/politics/central_intelligence_agency/ciawars.html or here at ICH at http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4068.htm . Documentation of the elite and the attempt (and possible success) of creating a dictatorship has been documented by Smedly Butler which was never followed up by FDR as he knew who was in charge. Woodrow Wilson admitted that he had destroyed the US by giving the country to the ownership of the Central Banking System run out of the Bank of International Settlements which has funded wars since WW I and gain power and wealth no matter what the outcome is.

Cheney's Handwritten Notes Implicate Bush in Plame Affair

Copies of handwritten notes by Vice President Dick Cheney, introduced at trial by defense attorneys for former White House staffer I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, would appear to implicate George W. Bush in the Plame CIA Leak case.

Impeachment by the People

"Courage is in short supply in Washington, DC. The realities of the Iraq War cry out for the overthrow of a government that is criminally responsible for death, mutilation, torture, humiliation, chaos. But all we hear in the nation's capital, which is the source of those catastrophes, is a whimper from the Democratic Party, muttering and nattering about 'unity' and 'bipartisanship,' in a situation that calls for bold action to immediately reverse the present course," writes Howard Zinn.

Iran Clock Is Ticking (31 January 2007) MUST READ!!!!

While congressional Democrats test how far they should go in challenging George W. Bush's war powers, the time may be running out to stop Bush from ordering a major escalation of the Middle East conflict by attacking Iran. Military and intelligence sources continue to tell me that preparations are advancing for a war with Iran starting possibly as early as mid-to-late February. The sources offer some differences of opinion over whether Bush might cite a provocation from Iran or whether Israel will take the lead in launching air strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities. But there is growing alarm among military and intelligence experts that Bush already has decided to attack and simply is waiting for a second aircraft carrier strike force to arrive in the region - and for a propaganda blitz to stir up some pro-war sentiment at home. One well-informed U.S. military source called me in a fury after consulting with Pentagon associates and discovering how far along the war preparations are. He said the plans call for extensive aerial attacks on Iran, including use of powerful bunker-busting ordnance. Another source with a pipeline into Israeli thinking said the Iran war plan has expanded over the past several weeks. Earlier thinking had been that Israeli warplanes would hit Iranian nuclear targets with U.S. forces in reserve in case of Iranian retaliation, but now the strategy anticipates a major U.S. military follow-up to an Israeli attack, the source said. Both sources used the same word "crazy" in describing the plan to expand the war to Iran. The two sources, like others I have interviewed, said that attacking Iran could touch off a regional - and possibly global - conflagration. "It will be like the TV show '24'," the American military source said, citing the likelihood of Islamic retaliation reaching directly into the United States. Though Bush insists that no decision has been made on attacking Iran, he offered similar assurances of his commitment to peace in the months before invading Iraq in 2003. Yet leaked documents from London made clear that he had set a course for war nine months to a year before the Iraq invasion. In other words, Bush's statements that he has no plans to "invade" Iran and that he's still committed to settle differences with Iran over its nuclear program diplomatically should be taken with a grain of salt. There is, of course, the possibility that the war preparations are a game of chicken to pressure Iran to accept outside controls on its nuclear program and to trim back its regional ambitions. But sometimes such high-stakes gambles lead to miscalculations or set in motion dynamics that can't be controlled. "You Will Die" The rapidly deteriorating situation in Iraq is seen as another factor pressing on Bush to act quickly against Iran. Other sources with first-hand knowledge of conditions in Iraq have told me that the U.S. position is even more precarious than generally understood. Westerners can't even move around Baghdad and many other Iraqi cities except in armed convoys. "In some countries, if you want to get out of the car and go to the market, they'll tell you that it might be dangerous," one experienced American cameraman told me. "In Iraq, you will be killed. Not that you might be killed, but you will be killed. The first Iraqi with a gun will shoot you, and if no one has a gun, they'll stone you."  CLIP - Read the rest at http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/013107.html

America "Poised to Strike at Iran's Nuclear Sites" From Bases in Bulgaria and Romania (28 January 2007)

Reports suggest that "US defensive ring" may be new front in war on terror. President Bush is preparing to attack Iran's nuclear facilities before the end of April and the US Air Force's new bases in Bulgaria and Romania would be used as back-up in the onslaught, according to an official report from Sofia.    "American forces could be using their two USAF bases in Bulgaria and one at Romania's Black Sea coast to launch an attack on Iran in April," the Bulgarian news agency Novinite said. The American build-up along the Black Sea, coupled with the recent positioning of two US aircraft carrier battle groups off the Straits of Hormuz, appears to indicate president Bush has run out of patience with Tehran's nuclear misrepresentation and non-compliance with the UN Security Council's resolution. President Ahmeninejad of Iran has further ratcheted up tension in the region by putting on show his newly purchased state of the art Russian TOR-Ml anti-missile defence system. Whether the Bulgarian news report is a tactical feint or a strategic event is hard to gauge at this stage. But, in conjunction with the beefing up of America's Italian bases and the acquisition of anti-missile defence bases in the Czech Republic and Poland, the Balkan developments seem to indicate a new phase in Bush's global war on terror. Sofia's news of advanced war preparations along the Black Sea is backed up by some chilling details. One is the setting up of new refuelling places for US Stealth bombers, which would spearhead an attack on Iran. "The USAF's positioning of vital refuelling facilities for its B-2 bombers in unusual places, including Bulgaria, falls within the perspective of such an attack." Novinite named colonel Sam Gardiner, "a US secret service officer stationed in Bulgaria", as the source of this revelation. CLIP

Prominent U.S. Physicists Ask Congress Forbid Use of Nuclear Weapons Against Non-Nuclear States (Feb 1)

Twenty two of the nation's most prominent physicists asked Congress today to restrict the authority of President Bush to order nuclear strikes against non-nuclear-weapon states.The physicists include twelve Nobel laureates, the current and three past presidents of the American Physical Society, the nation's preeminent professional society for physicists, and the chair of the Union of Concerned Scientists.The physicists said their letter was prompted by "the rising tensions with Iran and the potential for military confrontation, as well as the public statement by President Bush on April 18, 2006, that a nuclear strike against Iran is an option 'on the table'."It was initiated by Jorge Hirsch, a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego, who last year put together a petition signed by more than 2,000 physicists that repudiated new U.S. nuclear weapons policies that include preemptive use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear adversaries (http://physics.ucsd.edu/petition/)."The very fact that nuclear weapon use is not being ruled out as an option-against a state that does not have nuclear weapons and does not represent a direct or imminent threat to the United States-illustrates the extent to which the Bush administration has changed U.S. nuclear weapons policy," said Kurt Gottfried, chair of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "The use of such a weapon against deeply buried targets would create massive clouds of radioactive fallout that could spread far from the site of the attack, including to other nations."The physicists said in their letter that they "are firmly convinced that Congress should have a say on which course of action would best serve the American people on the use of the terrible weapons our profession helped create.""Under present law, the President has sole authority to order the use of nuclear weapons," said Hirsch. "We could wake up tomorrow to learn that he has ordered preemptive tactical nuclear strikes against Iran's underground facilities. By not legislating on this issue, Congress is implicitly condoning and even abetting such a potential action by the Executive." CLIP

Against pre-emptive holocaust in Iran (February 3, 2007) EXCELLENT VIEWPOINT!

Almost imperceptibly, the debate in Israel over what to do about Iran's nuclear development has gone over the edge. The unthinkable is now not only thinkable, it's speakable, writeable, doable. In the last few weeks or so, it has become acceptable, legitimate, to argue for an Israeli nuclear first strike to knock out Iran's nuclear facilities.This ultimate escalation in the debate happened mainly, I think, because it came to be widely understood that Iran's nuclear operations are probably too well buried, hidden, defended and widespread to take out with conventional weapons. Destroying them the "normal" way might also require a ground invasion which, after what's happened in Iraq, doesn't appeal to many people. Moreover, in another outgrowth of the debacle in Iraq, it now seems unlikely that President Bush, or his successor, will be politically able to go to war against Iran. So, as most Israelis seem convinced that Iran will inevitably nuke Israel once it gets the capability, which is expected to happen sometime within the next decade, the Israeli nuclear option has made its public debut. (...) My own view is that while a nuclear Iran is obviously a danger, and something that should be strongly resisted by diplomatic means, I don't think Iran is going to nuke Israel. I think Iran's leaders understand what the price would be - the certain annihilation of Iran and the deaths of many, most, or all of its 69 million people - and neither Ahmadinejad nor the mullahs are willing to pay it. Stalin and Mao had hydrogen bombs that could have blown up the world, and they were far, far more bloodthirsty than the Iranians. They weren't only ideologically insane but maybe clinically insane as well, yet they never pushed the button. As crazy as they were, they weren't that crazy. The Iranians, for all their genocidal talk, have never by their deeds shown anything remotely approaching the fanatic will to actual genocide that Stalin and Mao demonstrated. The Iranians have weapons of mass destruction - chemical and possibly biological, too. They also have missiles that can reach anywhere in Israel. If they are so bent on wiping us out, why haven't they showered tiny little Israel with WMD-armed missiles? The answer, again, is that while the Iranians are crazy, they're not that crazy. I believe that even if they think they could take out Israel with a first strike before Israel could retaliate, they realize that the U.S. would immediately nuke Iran to rubble, and would have the backing of the world's other nuclear powers.Conversely, by nuking Israel, Iran would become, in the world's eyes, the rabid killer dog that has to be shot before it kills again. The risk of living with a nuclear Iran is much, much, much smaller than the risk involved in nuking Iran first. If Israel uses its nuclear weapons against Iran, which is nearly 80 times Israel's size, the very least that would likely happen is that Israel would immediately be showered by Iranian missiles carrying chemical and possibly biological weapons. What's not just a possibility but a very strong probability, though, is that since some of Iran's nuclear facilities "are in or near major cities," Morris is absolutely right: millions of Iranians would be killed.What would such an act by Israel be? It would be genocide. It would be a holocaust.Those who think they can see into the future might try to call it a "pre-emptive holocaust." But a holocaust it would be.

Build-up of U.S. naval power in the Middle East

The amphibious assault ship Bataan and its expeditionary strike group passed through the Suez Canal and into the 5th Fleet area of operations Tuesday. The John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group which left its homeport in Bremerton, Wash., on Jan. 16, will join Bataan in the region as quickly as it can get there.

Bush 'spoiling for a fight' with Iran

US officials in Baghdad and Washington are expected to unveil a secret intelligence "dossier" this week detailing evidence of Iran's alleged complicity in attacks on American troops in Iraq. The move, uncomfortably echoing Downing Street's dossier debacle in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq invasion, is one more sign that the Bush administration is building a case for war.

Sen. Robert Byrd: Bush Wants War with Iran (Jan 30)

Top Democrat Sen. Robert Byrd is warning that the Bush administration is preparing to go to war with Iran. In a e-mail message sent to activist Democrats, the West Virginia lawmaker - who is now President pro tempore of the Senate and third in line for the presidency after Dick Cheney and Nancy Pelosi - rails against President Bush's plans for a troop surge in Iraq and declares: "Not only does Mr. Bush intend to plunge us deeper into what is now clearly a civil war in Iraq, but he is now increasing his belligerence towards Iran and Syria. In his State of the Union address, Mr. Bush called out Iran no less than seven times. "I fear that what we are seeing now is an administration intent on laying the groundwork for a wider war in the Middle East.

Bush Is About To Attack Iran - Why Can't Americans See it?

"Within weeks from now, we will see the informational warfare machine start working. The public opinion is already under pressure. There will be a growing anti-Iranian militaristic hysteria, new information leaks, disinformation, etc. . . . The probability of a US aggression against Iran is extremely high"

Manufacturing consent for war with Iran

Arrest Madman Dershowitz - Before It's Too Late: In this video, Alan Dershowitz threatens to unleash World War Four under false pretense.

Justifications for Attacking Iran on Shaky Ground

The Bush administration is stepping up its confrontation with Iran, accusing the Islamic regime in Tehran of supplying arms to Shiite Muslim militias in Iraq for attacks on US forces. But the White House's failure to document its case, its acute credibility deficit, and a new US intelligence finding that outside meddling is "not likely" a major cause of the bloodshed are raising questions about President Bush's intentions.

BEAUTIFUL IRAN: THE IMAGES THEY WON'T SHOW YOU ON AMERICAN TV!

Iran, Israel, The Big Lie and The Real Threat

"Attempting to portray Iran as a nuclear menace to Israel and the world, in that order, even though it has no nuclear weapons and Israel has hundreds, is not merely a sign of dementia. It is indication of near idiocy in a society that can be repeatedly manipulated into believing such totally crackpot notions that have no foundation in the material world but exist only in a world of superstitious psycho-fantasy."

The War on Iran

The war has already begun and it has nothing to do with nuclear weapons and threats against Israel and everything to do with who rules America.

U.S. Delays Report on Iranian Role in Iraq

The Bush administration has postponed plans to offer public details of its charges of Iranian meddling inside Iraq amid internal divisions over the strength of the evidence, U.S. officials said.

Bush's Trash Talk About Iran

The Bush administration's charges against Iran are, for the most part, scare talk and nothing more. Iran has virtually nothing to do with the Iraqi resistance movement, which is commanded and staffed by Sunni Arab military officers and Baathists.

Bush To Request 700 Billion Dollars Plus For Wars, Defence (February 3rd 2007)

US President George Bush plans to ask Congress for more than 700 billion dollars for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and for the regular defence budget, the Washington Post reported Saturday. The amount includes 245 billion dollars for fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and 481 billion dollars to cover a 10 per cent increase in regular Pentagon spending for 2008. Bush has been criticized for funding the wars through special requests to Congress in an effort to keep the appearance of the budget smaller. But the war funding is being included in the new budget request, senior administration officials were quoted as saying. If approved by the new Democratic Congress, the war spending would bring to 745 billion dollars the amount of money the US has spent on the two wars since the terrorist attacks of September 2001, the Post said.  CLIP

Bush Seeks $250 Billion to Continue Fighting Iraq War

Keeping troops in Iraq for another year and a half will cost nearly a quarter-trillion dollars - about $800 for every man, woman and child in the US - under the budget President Bush will submit to Congress Monday.

US must abandon Iraqi cities or face nightmare scenario, say experts (30 January 2007)

The US must draw up plans to deal with an all-out Iraqi civil war that would kill hundreds of thousands, create millions of refugees, and could spill over into a regional catastrophe, disrupting oil supplies and setting up a direct confrontation between Washington and Iran. This is the central recommendation of a study by the Brookings Institution here, based on the assumption that President Bush's last-ditch troop increase fails to stabilise the country - but also on the reality that Washington cannot simply walk away from the growing disaster unleashed by the 2003 invasion.Even the US staying to try to contain the fighting, said Kenneth Pollack, one of the report's authors, "would consign Iraqis to a terrible fate. Even if it works, we will have failed to provide the Iraqis with the better future we promised." But it was the "least bad option" open to the US to protect its national interests in the event of full-scale civil war. US troops, says the study, should withdraw from Iraqi cities. This was "the only rational course of action, horrific though it will be", as America refocused its efforts from preventing civil war to containing its effects. The unremittingly bleak document, drawing on the experience of civil wars in Lebanon, the former Yugoslavia, Congo and Afghanistan, also offers a remarkably stark assessment of Iraq's "spill-over" potential across the Persian Gulf region. It warns of radicalisation and possible secession movements in adjacent countries, an upsurge in terrorism, and of intervention by Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Ending an all-out civil war, the report says, would require a force of 450,000 - three times the present US deployment even after the 21,500 "surge" ordered by President Bush this month.Everywhere looms the shadow of Iran. In a "war game" testing US options, the Saban Centre for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution found that, as the descent into civil war gathered pace, confrontation between the US and Iran intensified, and Washington's leverage on Tehran diminished. Civil war in Iraq would turn Iran into "the unambiguous adversary" of the US.Indeed, everything indicates that that is already happening. The study appeared on the same day as the Iranian ambassador in Iraq told The New York Times that Tehran intended to expand its influence in Iraq. US commanders now claim that thousands of Iranian advisers are arming and training Shia militias. Nonetheless, the Brookings report urges the creation of a regional group to help contain a civil war. That would see exactly the contacts with Iran and Syria that the Bush administration steadfastly refuses. An alternative in the report would be "red lines" which, if crossed by Tehran, could lead to a military attack by the US on Iran.

Congress can halt Iraq war, experts tell lawmakers

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N30355085.htm
WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress has the power to end the war in Iraq, a former Bush administration attorney and other high-powered legal experts told a Senate hearing on Tuesday.Facing mounting opposition over his Iraq troop increase plan, President George W. Bush insisted it would be "too extreme" if lawmakers pass a resolution condemning his Iraq policy.Four out of five experts called before the Senate Judiciary Committee said Congress could go even further and restrict or stop U.S. involvement in Iraq if it chose."I think the constitutional scheme does give Congress broad authority to terminate a war," said Bradford Berenson, a Washington lawyer who was a White House associate counsel under Bush from 2001 to 2003."It is ultimately Congress that decides the size, scope and duration of the use of military force," said Walter Dellinger, former acting solicitor general, the government's chief advocate before the Supreme Court, in 1996-97.The hearing was frequently punctuated by outbursts from more than a dozen anti-war protesters, who were asked several times to be quiet but not thrown out.A subcommittee chairman who ran the hearing, Sen. Russ Feingold, said he would introduce a bill prohibiting the use of funds for the war six months after enactment."Today we've heard convincing testimony and analysis that Congress has the power to stop the war if it wants to," said Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat.The Senate is poised to take up a resolution opposing Bush's recent decision to add 21,500 troops in Iraq. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said this debate would take place next week.

Iraq Surge Could Total 50,000

A new Congressional report says the increase of 21,500 combat troops for Iraq proposed by the Bush administration could result in up to 50,000 troops actually being deployed to the region.

Iraq War Protesters Step Up Pressure to Bring US Troops Home

US anti-Iraq War activists, after a massive demonstration Saturday in Washington, are mobilizing this week to pressure lawmakers to stop the deployment of additional troops to Iraq.

US 'victory' against cult leader was 'massacre' (31 January 2007)

There are growing suspicions in Iraq that the official story of the battle outside Najaf between a messianic Iraqi cult and the Iraqi security forces supported by the US, in which 263 people were killed and 210 wounded, is a fabrication. The heavy casualties may be evidence of an unpremeditated massacre. (...) This account cannot be substantiated and is drawn from the Healing Iraq website and the authoritative Baghdad daily Azzaman. But it would explain the disparity between the government casualties - less than 25 by one account - and the great number of their opponents killed and wounded. The Iraqi authorities have sealed the site and are not letting reporters talk to the wounded. Sectarian killings across Iraq also marred the celebration of the Shia ritual of Ashura. A suicide bomber killed 23 worshippers and wounded 57 others in a Shia mosque in Balad Ruz. Not far away in Khanaqin, in Diyala, a bomb killed 13 people, including three women, and wounded 29 others. In east Baghdad mortar bombs killed 17 people.

Official Lies Over Najaf Battle Exposed

Iraqi government lies over the killing of hundreds of Shias in an attack on Sunday stand exposed by independent investigations carried out by IPS in Iraq.

French report: Former U.N. envoy Bolton says U.S. has 'no strategic interest' in united Iraq (January 29, 2007)

PARIS: Former U.S. envoy to the United Nations John Bolton said in an interview published in France that the United States has "no strategic interest" in a united Iraq.Bolton, who resigned last month from his temporary appointment as U.N. ambassador, also told the French daily Le Monde that U.S. President George W. Bush's administration acted too slowly to hand power over to Iraqis after toppling Saddam Hussein in 2003. (...)  "The United States has no strategic interest in the fact that there's one Iraq, or three Iraqs," he was quoted as saying. "We have a strategic interest in the fact of ensuring that what emerges is not a state in complete collapse, which could become a refuge for terrorists or a terrorist state."Today in Europe Paris fights the 'banalization' of the Champs-Élysées A 'wooden version' of Stonehenge has been discovered Expended surveillance program stirs controversy in SwedenThe comments marked the second time in less than a week that Bolton had criticized the Bush administration's policy. On Fox News last week, he said the United States may not be able to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons because it was following a flawed diplomatic strategy.

While you were sleeping Bush took over the Government (2007-01-26)

United States President stealthily took over the Federal Government last week through a new executive order last week that takes away all autonomy from Agencies, according to public interest organizations.The order amends a series of previous executive orders that culminated in Executive Order No. 12,866, which the White House has used to give itself the power to review regulations before they can be officially published in the Federal Register. The new order applies the review power not just to regulations but also to what it calls "significant guidance documents." "This order is just the latest in a series of unacceptable power grabs by the Bush administration," said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen. "President Bush is asserting the right to change the law by executive fiat."The group identified three major problems with the new executive order: CLIP

An Iron Curtain is Descending: And Most Americans Don't Know

"Why are you travelling so often to Canada?" the tough U.S. border guard barked. I was on Amtrak, going from New York to Montreal, as I'd done dozen of times before over several decades. This was my first experience (summer 2006) of the increasingly standard and intrusive "U.S. Exit Interviews" on trains crossing the border.

Gaza gun-battles rage (Feb 4, 2007)

Gunbattles raged in Gaza on Sunday as senior officials from the rival Palestinian movements Fatah and Hamas met to try to curb an intensifying power struggle which has killed 23 people in three days.The internecine conflict has brought the coastal strip to a near-standstill and increased pressure on the "quartet" of peace brokers -- the United States, UN, EU and Russia -- to make a fresh effort to revive Middle East peace talks. (...) More than 80 Palestinians have been killed in infighting since talks to form a Palestinian unity government broke down in December and Abbas called for early elections, a step the governing Islamist Hamas movement condemned as a coup.Neither side has implemented Saturday's agreement to pull gunmen off the streets and dismantle checkpoints across the narrow coastal strip, home to 1.5 million Palestinians. An earlier ceasefire broke down on Friday.Senior Hamas and Fatah officials met at a heavily guarded compound in Gaza to try to revive the truce. Outside, more than 60 Palestinian protesters called for an end to the fighting. (...) The United States has pledged US$86 million to bolster thousands of Abbas's security forces. Documents obtained by Reuters show the assistance programme could cover at least 13,500 troops loyal to Abbas.Hamas accuses Washington of fuelling the fighting to bring down the government.At least 23 Palestinians have been killed and more than 200 wounded since Hamas fighters ambushed a convoy they said was carrying military equipment to Abbas's forces on Friday. CLIP

The American proxy war in Gaza (3 February 2007)

In recent days the unremitting, murderous brutality of the Israeli occupation has been eclipsed by the carnage in Gaza as dozens of Palestinians have been killed in what is commonly referred to as "interfactional fighting" between forces loyal to Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah faction on the one hand, and the Hamas-led government on the other. The airwaves have been filled with anguished calls from every sector of Palestinian society -- political parties, nongovermental organizations, and Christian and Muslim religious leaders -- for the fighting to cease and for a return to dialogue. Perhaps for fear of exacerbating the already bitter situation, few of these voices have directly confronted the engine of this violence. In the fevered minds of Bush administration ideologues, Palestine has become another front in what they conceive of as a new Cold War against "Islamofascism." They see Iran as the central target and proxy battles are being waged against a phantom enemy from Afghanistan and Pakistan, through Iraq into Palestine, Lebanon, Somalia and ever onwards wherever Arabs and Muslims are to be found. In every case, local conflicts with specific histories are being escalated and marshalled into this grand narrative. Mahmoud Abbas and Gaza warlord Muhammad Dahlan have become the willing proxies for the Palestine franchise of this wider project, as their tactics and loyalists' statements reveal.

Scientists allege White House pressure (Jan 30)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. scientists felt pressured to tailor their writings on global warming to fit the Bush administration's skepticism, in some cases at the behest of an ex-oil industry lobbyist, a congressional committee heard on Tuesday. "Our investigations found high-quality science struggling to get out," Francesca Grifo of the watchdog group Union of Concerned Scientists told members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.A survey by the group found that 150 climate scientists personally experienced political interference in the past five years, for a total of at least 435 incidents. "Nearly half of all respondents perceived or personally experienced pressure to eliminate the words 'climate change,' 'global warming' or other similar terms from a variety of communications," Grifo said.Rick Piltz, a former U.S. government scientist who said he resigned in 2005 after pressure to soft-pedal findings on global warming, told the committee in prepared testimony that former White House official Phil Cooney took an active role in casting doubt on the consequences of global climate change.Cooney, who was a lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute before becoming chief of staff at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, resigned in 2005 to work for oil giant ExxonMobil. Documents on global climate change required Cooney's review and approval, Piltz said."His edits of program reports, which had been drafted and approved by career science program managers, had the cumulative effect of adding an enhanced sense of scientific uncertainty about global warming and minimizing its likely consequences," Piltz said. CLIP

Bush's approval sags to record low in new poll (January 29, 20)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush's approval rating stands at 30 percent in the latest Newsweek poll, the lowest approval rating recorded for the president in that poll's history. In the first poll conducted for Newsweek since the State of the Union last Tuesday, 58 percent of respondents said "they wish the Bush presidency was simply over." Nearly 86 percent of Democrats shared that sentiment, compared to 59 percent of Independents, and 21 percent of Republicans. The poll also indicates Bush's sagging approval rating may seriously impact the race for his replacement. Nearly half -- 49 percent -- of all registered voters would rather see a Democrat elected president in 2008 while just 28 percent want a Republican. The poll, conducted between January 24 and 25, has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.

$10.5M apology (Jan 27)

Feds say they're sorry to torture victim with eight-figure payoff OTTAWA -- In what was called a "triumph of innocence," torture victim Maher Arar received a long-awaited apology and $10.5-million legal settlement from the government of Canada yesterday.Arar's young family and soaring career as a computer software engineer were ripped apart in 2002 when he was wrongly tagged a terrorist and shipped to prison in Syria. He hasn't yet considered what he will do with the millions in compensation, but said it will help him rebuild his life, reputation and family. "I really wish I could buy with this money my life back. If there was a way I could buy my life back, that's my biggest wish," he said.Arar said the apology and financial award delivered by Prime Minister Stephen Harper formally establishes his innocence, but he criticized the U.S. and Canadian officials who left a cloud of lingering suspicion over his head. He paid tribute to supportive Canadians who stood by him through his long struggle for justice."I am very proud to be a Canadian and very proud of what we have been able to achieve together - all of us," he said.Calling it a "historic settlement for an exceptional case," Arar's lawyer Julian Falconer warned the multi-million-dollar award should not be seen as a windfall.No rational person would choose to be tortured and held captive in a tiny cell not knowing whether he would live or die, he said. CLIP

Guantanamo conditions 'like a Nazi camp'

David Hicks' US lawyer has described conditions at Guantanamo Bay, where he has been held for five years, as "like a Nazi concentration camp".

New Rulers of the World - A documentary film by John Pilger

'Global economy' is a modern Orwellian term. On the surface, it is instant financial trading, mobile phones, McDonald's, Starbucks, holidays booked on the net. Beneath this gloss, it is the globalisation of poverty, a world where most human beings never make a phone call and live on less than two dollars a day, where 6,000 children die every day from diarrhea because most have no access to clean water.

THE 14 POINTS OF FASCISM ... IS THIS WHAT THE NEW AMERIKA HAS BECOME UNDER BUSH's NUTTY NEOCONS?!

THE IRAQ WAR: LOOK AT WHO's ENJOYING ALL OF THE $$$ PROFITS and BENEFITS FROM THIS QUAGMIRE!

http://www.oldamericancentury.org/images3/warprofiteers.jpg

ONLINE BOOK REVIEW OF "GIDEON's SPIES: THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE MOSSAD"
By Gordon Thomas, St Martin's Griffin - Reviewed by: Canada Free Press founding editor Judi McLeod

EU lawmakers urge global death penalty ban (1 Feb 2007) http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L01923174.htm

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Parliament backed moves on Thursday for a U.N. moratorium on the death penalty across the world and condemned December's execution of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.Lawmakers voted 591 to 45 to urge the European Union to press for a worldwide moratorium on executions "immediately and unconditionally through a relevant resolution of the current United Nations General Assembly".

DAVOS-Bono wants cheques cashed for Africa (27 Jan 2007) http://today.reuters.com/News/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=L26877873

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Governments in rich countries that promised to help Africa fight poverty and disease should come good on their offers of cash, rock star and activist Bono said.Bono is a regular on the world business and aid circuit, campaigning for richer countries to forgive African nations' debt and help fund their future.Meeting political and business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he said late on Friday it was time for rich countries to come good on promises they made to cancel the debt."There were some serious promises made. The cheques were signed but as you know, politicians like signing cheques but they don't like cashing them," Bono told reporters in Davos.At a meeting in 2005, the G8 group of industrialised nations agreed to cancel the debts of 18 low-income countries and pledged to double African aid to about $47 billion by 2010."Two years on, it's time to take the temperature," Bono said. "If those promises are not kept ... it will make a generation of cynics. I don't believe that's going to happen, I am optimistic we're going to get through this."Bono said debt cancellation programmes had already opened the way for 20 million African children to go to school but there was still "lots, lots, lots to do".He pointed to the situation in Liberia, where President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is working to attract aid and get relief for the country's $3.7 billion debt, racked up during years of conflict fuelled by money from the sale of diamonds."She is trying quell civil unrest and she's got this ridiculous debt hanging over her head because of two corrupt leaders before and that is just not right," Bono said.Liberia's ratio debt to gross domestic product is among the highest in the world, equivalent to 30 times the country's annual exports and eight times GDP -- a crippling level for what was once one of West Africa's more prosperous countries.

Gore Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Former vice president Al Gore has been nominated for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his wide-reaching efforts to draw the world's attention to the dangers of global warming, a Norwegian lawmaker said Thursday. "A prerequisite for winning the Nobel Peace Prize is making a difference, and Al Gore has made a difference," Conservative member of Parliament Boerge Brende, a former minister of environment and then of trade, told the Associated Press.

Canada Worried by Plunging Caribou Population

The caribou population in Canada's vast Northwest Territories is falling rapidly, and the increasingly warm climate could slow the animals' chances of recovery, a wildlife specialist said Friday. Herds of barren-ground caribou have dropped by between 40 and 86 percent over the last 10 years. The largest single herd fell from 472,000 animals in 1986 to 128,000 in 2006 and is still declining.

Bush declares disaster in storm-ravaged Florida counties (February 3, 2007)

LAKE, Florida (CNN) -- President Bush declared four Florida counties a disaster area on Saturday as Gov. Charlie Crist toured the gash of devastation left by thunderstorms that killed 20 people. (...) A preliminary weather service report states that "five long-tracked supercell thunderstorms" struck east-central Florida before sunrise Friday, but one 70-mile-long storm packing at least one tornado caused the majority of the damage."The time of day was the most lethal aspect of the tornadoes," the weather service said in a written statement.Although tornado warnings were issued that would have given residents nine to 16 minutes to seek shelter, most people were asleep. The region lacks tornado sirens."We have complete devastation of homes, businesses, religious institutions. It was unlike perhaps even the hurricanes of 2004," said Christopher Patton of the Lake County Emergency Operations Center. CLIP

White House Refuses to Take Action Against Global Warming

Despite a strongly worded global warming report from the world's top climate scientists, the Bush administration expressed continued opposition Friday to mandatory reductions in heat-trapping "greenhouse" gases.

Bush Backers Offer Payoffs to Undercut Global Warming By Chris Floyd (3 February 2007)

The new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)has just been released, and it looks like bad news for the home team,i.e., the entire human race. Things are going to get hotter,coastlines are going to go under, deserts are going to get wider, and millions if not billions of people are going to be on the move. In need, in conflict, in increasingly desperate straits - and it's all our own fault. What's more, the effects set in motion by our epic debauch with fossil fuels are going to keep on keeping on - although the worst outcomes can still be avoided, if the leaders of the world can bestir themselves to take action to slow the poisoning of theplanet.This is the consensus of more than 2,500 leading scientists from more than 30 countries - including the United States. But not to worry: That nattering nest of neo-cons, the American Enterprise Institute -which also functions as an employment agency for the Bush White House,sending innumerable nabobs into the higher reaches and greasy guts of the administration - has come up with a perfect solution to this threat to the life of the world: bribing scientists to say it ain't so. As the Guardian reports, the good folks at AEI - whose members were instrumental in bringing us the "splendid little war" in Iraq and are now agitating for an even more glorious bloodletting in Iran - are offering scientists and economists $10,000 each (plus extras) to teardown the IPCC report and snowjob the hoi polloi into believing that the crack pipe of the Carbon Era will never be empty. (...) Then again, maybe it's just the cold, hard cash from the black gold boys that trips their triggers. For behind almost every "scholarly"and "scientific" objection to global warming, you will find an ooze of oil bigger than the Exxon Valdez slick, which, as the Guardian also reported this week, is still fouling the waters of Alaska. (A new US government study "found more than 26,600 gallons of oil remaining at Prince William Sound. Researchers say it is declining at a rate of only 4% a year and even slower in the Gulf of Alaska" - 18 years after the tanker ran aground, the paper notes.) No industry will be more affected by efforts to contain and reduce the use of fossil fuels than the corporate oil empires, whose might and worth surpasses that of many, if not most, nations. Just last week, Exxon Mobil - the munificent benefactors of AEI - recorded the largest annual corporate profit in history: $39.5 billion. Surely the protection of such a nest egg is worth a little bending of reality by a few bribed nabobs in labcoats.But the sucker punch doesn't stop there. Last week, Bush took another great leap forward in his relentless construction of a presidential dictatorship by signing an executive order that will place a political commissar in every government agency to ensure that the party line is obeyed. Thus, no matter what noble-sounding rhetorical positions the administration adopts publicly on global warming, the devil will be in the details as the Bush commissars twist, thwart, block and gut any fact-based findings and regulations that might be displeasing to the White House and its radical base. The IPCC report on global warming is, ironically, most chilling. Thanks to the many years of obstruction by the well-funded apologists for corporate power, it is now too late to arrest the process. The effects,not only on weather patterns and sea levels but also on the food chain that sustains life on the planet, will be - are already - dire and profound. The only thing we can do now is to take urgent action to begin to mitigate the worst effects, to prepare for and soften the unavoidable economic, political and social upheaval that is coming.CLIP

Climate Changes; Hypocrisy Continues

While climate change dominates the news, Jean-Marcel Bouguereau suggests that it's not just business leaders at Davos, but also French citizens who are not yet prepared to do anything concrete about it. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, although "Conservative" Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper has begun to make green noises, a recently publicized letter he wrote in 2002 describing Kyoto as a "Socialist plot" undermines his environmental credibility.

The science of climate change: Heating up (Feb 2nd 2007)

A gloomy UN-backed report is published - THE fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published in Paris on Friday February 2nd, is important, unsurprising and will probably be uncontroversial. It is important because the IPCC is the body set up under the auspices of the United Nations so that governments should have an agreed view of the science on which to base policy. It is unsurprising because, while some of the figures differ from those in the third assessment report published in 2001, the changes are minimal and its broad conclusion, that something serious is happening and man is in part responsible, remains the same (though the authors now say that man is "very likely" responsible, rather than just "likely"). It will probably be uncontroversial because the few remaining climate-change sceptics prepared to speak out against the consensus argue not so much about the climate science as about its consequences. Those arguments will take place mostly around the IPCC's two follow-up reports, to be published later this year, on the impact of climate change and on what to do about it.Part of the report's job is to consider studies of the speed of change so far. Warming seems to be accelerating somewhat. Eleven out of the dozen years from 1995-2006 were among the 12 hottest years since 1850, when temperatures were first widely recorded. So the estimate for the average increase in global temperature for the past century, which the third assessment report put at 0.6C, has now risen to 0.74C.The sea level, which rose on average by 1.8mm a year in 1961-2003, went up by an average of 3.1mm a year between 1993-2003. The numbers are still small, but the shape of the curve is worrying. And because the deadline for scientific papers to be included in the IPCC's report was some time ago, its deliberations have excluded some alarming recent studies on the acceleration of glacier melt in Greenland.Some trends now seem clear. North and South America and northern Europe are getting wetter; the Mediterranean and southern Africa drier. Westerly winds have strengthened since the 1960s. Droughts have got more intense and longer since the 1970s. Heavy rainfall, and thus flooding, has increased. Arctic summertime sea ice is decreasing by just over 7% a decade. CLIP Get the report through http://www.ipcc.ch/ -- MUCH MORE ON THIS THROUGH http://tinyurl.com/ytvfoc and check a simplified summary on this at http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2007/02/02/ipccI/

10 years to save the planet (January 30, 2007)

A NEW worldwide movement backed by celebrities, musicians, politicians and business leaders is aiming to reverse the effects of global warming over the next decade.Global Cool launched in London and LA today and is calling on one billion people to reduce their carbon emissions by just one tonne a year, for the next 10 years. Boffins have found the climatic tipping point - when the climate becomes irreversibly damaged - can be turned back if global CO2 emissions are reduced by one billion tonnes a year.Campaigners then hope cleaner, renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, water and hydrogen would have been developed.Big names including Leonardo Di Caprio, Orlando Bloom, KT Tunstall, Pink, The Killers, Razorlight and Josh Hartnett have thrown their weight behind the worldwide effort to beat climate change. A website has been set up, http://www.global-cool.com, with advice on how to go green by reducing energy consumption through doing simple things such as sharing a shower with a mate. Big business have donated £120m to support the campaign while MySpace will push the message out to its millions of subscribers. (...) Dan Morrell, Founder of Global Cool said: "Over the next 10 years Global Cool will give everyone the tools and knowledge to actively decrease their own CO2 emissions and show them how to encourage others to do the same."Together we can actively create a global movement committed to pushing back the climatic tipping point, delivering a sustained long term, benign future without the worst effects of climate change."Tomorrow Global Cool founders will meet the Prime Minister at Downing Street and 50 of the world's top business leaders to push their cause.

Mobile phone use 'linked to tumour (26/01/2007)

Long-term users of mobile phones are significantly more likely to develop a certain type of brain tumour on the side of the head where they hold their handsets, according to new research. The results seem to suggest health risks in people who have regularly used mobiles for over 10 yearsA large-scale study found that those who had regularly used mobiles for longer than 10 years were almost 40 per cent more likely to develop nervous system tumours called gliomas near to where they hold their phones.The new research, to be published later this year in the International Journal of Cancer, is the second study to suggest increased risks of specific types of brain tumours in regions close to where mobile phone emissions enter the head. CLIP

Could these be the cigarettes of the 21st century? . . . 'Absolutely' (January 20, 2007)

It's right to have worries, says expert - 'Don't buy phones for primary pupils' (..) The number of mobiles in Britain has doubled to 50 million since 2000, and the number of children aged between 5 and 9 using mobiles has increased fivefold. If, as Professor Challis fears, mobile phone risks could be slow to show up, then what about today's children? CLIP

Time to Remember: Cell Phone Companies Patent Cancer Shields h

The world's largest mobile telephone manufacturers have been patenting devices to reduce the risk of brain tumors among users while rejecting claims of any health hazards. Engineers for the "Big Three" - Nokia, Ericsson and Motorola - have all invented new components to shield users from radiation emissions from the handsets. One application that Nokia has lodged with the United States Patent Office in Washington, and which has been seen by The Times, notes that "it has been suggested that" continuous exposure to radio frequency irradiation could lead "to a development of malignant tumor". The patents show that the manufacturers have been working on radiation-reducing components for at least eight years. The companies maintain that there is no contradiction between their public stance and the existence of the patents.  (...) However, the discovery that manufacturers have apparently "hedged their bets" by applying for patents on irradiation-reducing components has alarmed consumers' groups and some scientists. The patents are now to be used in evidence in a series of US lawsuits launched this year against businesses including the British market leader Vodafone. Some 25 US patents were unearthed by Carl Hilliard, of the Wireless Consumer Alliance, last month. Alasdair Philips, of the British consumer watchdog Powerwatch, said: "This is confirmation that the phone companies take the possibility of health problems far more seriously than they say in public."  The patents also alarmed Dr Alan Preece, a medical physicist at Bristol University, who demonstrated in a government-funded study two years ago that mobile-phone radiation affected brain activity in ways unconnected with its heating properties.  He said: "I think they are hedging their bets by doing this so that if the evidence does emerge, they have products up their sleeves." Christopher Newman, a 42-year-old neurologist, is bringing a £500 million lawsuit against companies including Motorola and Verizon Communications at the US federal court in Baltimore, claiming they are responsible for his malignant brain tumour. CLIP

Omega-News Collection 27. January 2007

Omega-News Collection 3. February 2007

http://omega.twoday.net/stories/3274573/

1.

NOTE from Jean. I received the following email from an ERN subscriber who prefers to remains anonymous:

Spiritual assistance requested...

"A good and spiritual friend agrees that I have been under unrelenting spiritual attack for some time now. I ask for your prayers, as you are the most pure soul I know, and as I am working hard to change the ways I have allowed these things to happen. The despair has been instrumental, as despair shuts out the Light. And also, every true medicine man and woman I have crossed paths with in my life has told me I am gifted and with shamanic abilities. The dark side wants to keep such souls incapacitated in particular. I am calling this time in my life "Better Late than Never," as I am finding my path again, and knowing that all I have seen and endured of the darkness in the world these past 20 years can and will be used for the good and the Light now. I most sincerely ask for your prayers, even if only one time."

AND MY REPLY WAS:

Dear xxxxx

Thanks for sharing a bit more with me about your current experiences. I'm happy to hold you in my thoughts as a pure, vibrant and self-assured soul who is able to master the many challenges you-as a divine soul-have selected for this lifetime. I envision your success in mastering with great honor and fortitude what is undoubtedly the necessary ferment for your progress on your uniquely precious spiritual path towards ever greater awakening to the majestic Being of Love you are.

In addition to holding this vision which I encourage you to likewise hold for yourself, I'd like to suggest that you relentlessly cultivate in you a complete self-identification with your true nature as an immortal soul. The challenge for each soul, especially at this critical juncture in our global planetary ascension process, is often amplified by the need to catalyze and foster a clearing of many more required learning experiences-as part of the divinely guided life choices we each make before incarnation to clear residual karmic blockages-than what was usually the case in previous more slow-paced lifetimes.

It is impossible for me to outline in great details the inner working of the various self-empowerment steps you need to take, as you are precisely doing by opening yourself for assistance and through continuously rededicating yourself to ever greater spiritual awakening, and I trust your still small voice within will provide you with these necessary incremental steps towards ever greater spiritual freedom and ever more serene imperturbability.

But the gist of what I sense you need to tackle is to assiduously nurture your connection to your soul guidance and resilient innate sense of Oneness with the Universal One while teaching your mind an attitude of detachment and surrender, in the sense of trusting that your true nature, as an unassailable sovereign soul, cannot be ever touched or threatened by anything whatsoever, with regard to what you describe as the "unrelenting spiritual attack" you experience. The incorrect attitude of holding even the slightest doubt, even at a subconscious level, that any external "force" can be exerted to threaten you in any way is in itself the Trojan Horse that enables such a "force" to access your mind and take advantage of this weakness to exploit you towards fulfilling its own needs. You have to understand that the more you think you need to resist to such a "force", the more you become vulnerable to its influence. We do not need protection against anything because nothing can attain our inviolable divine soul-which, again, is our true nature. If you think that you need to protect yourself, to defend yourself or to surround yourself with any kind of shield, it implicitly means you believe you are vulnerable to being attacked.

When faced in the past with vigorous attempts at disturbing me, my reaction has always been, once I understood correctly what I just explained above, to open my heart wide and invite those seeking my attention into the the radiant brilliance of Love emanating from my soul. Enfolding and embracing these "forces" with the unconditional Love that arises when we are fully into our radiant soul Self - as opposed to trying to repulse them - is how you become unassailable because you are then out of reach, vibrationally wise, in an other frequency range that less evolved energy-forms or thought-forms cannot reach. But the point is NOT to "run away" out of vibrational range from them; the point is to sincerely invite them to follow you in the Light. This is NOT a defensive action but a proactive action based on true, unconditional Love and compassion for All That Is, including these lower forms of sentient existence.

I do not pretend to mean that achieving this inner attitude comes easily when you have a lifetime of well established fear-based patterns to transcend and eliminate or when you have so often let despair overcome you that falling back into despair is as easy as sliding down a slippery slope of our own making. Trying to fight against such acquired inner tendencies often amounts to giving them even more impetus by the very fact of paying so much attention to them. What you resist persists.

The golden path to me is summarized by the word "nurture". Like any true natural healing process, you nurture yourself back to balance, harmony and serenity through emphasizing-relentlessly-what needs to grow in you. Meditate to connect with your soul presence and let its radiance enfold and heal-deeply heal-you. Give your attention only to what fosters the best in you, which is absolutely, infinitely wonderful and powerfully present the very moment you let it all BE. Surround yourself with images of beauty, seek beauty and harmony in all your relations and shy away from all that is not of the higher nature you seek to nurture. And if challenging information comes your way, as what is so often featured in my compilations, know that this is being presented to you for the purpose of being healing in Ho'oponopono fashion, by taking responsibility to heal in you that part of humanity that creates such disturbance in the infinite Harmony That is.

I hope, I know these thoughts will help you create within yourself a breakthrough towards the Light and I also know that in so doing you will participate-as you rightfully acknowledge in your email-in the global healing process humanity is going through right now as we prepare for an unprecedented new global era of Love, Peace and Harmony, as we are called upon to IMAGINE in the current Meditation Focus, another VERY powerful tool in its own right for anchoring in the NOW what is gradually transpiring throughout the entire world and in every heart.

With Love and light flowing from my heart to your heart... and back in a "virtuous" circle of Mutually Assured Enlightenment

Jean

AND THE REPLY I RECEIVED WAS:

Dear Jean,

Merci, for your long and caring reply. Very spiritually encouraging and supportive to me because the suggestions/wisdom you shared is just what I have been receiving in meditation. And please include my anonymous letter and your reply as you suggested in your next compilation. There may be other subscribers that this will help.

I'd like to respond to individual bits of what you wrote. I hope you don't mind. I am now living in a home with two mentally ill people, and can connect with spiritually healthy people only through the Internet at this time.

"(...) part of the divinely guided life choices we each make before incarnation to clear residual karmic blockages-than what was usually the case in previous more slow-paced lifetimes"

--This confirms a powerful dream I had in my late 20s, when I was completely devoted to my spiritual path, of a life in Atlantis when I misused my spiritual power, and had affected many other souls in a negative way by so doing. At the end of the dream I saw a Man on a cross far across a great expanse of water, and knew it would take many lifetimes to reclaim my own soul. And I also knew that this present lifetime was the final one in so doing. But sometimes it has seemed that, before incarnating this lifetime, I was a bit too optimistic about what I could handle!

"(...) resilient innate sense of Oneness with the Universal One while teaching your mind an attitude of detachment and surrender"

-- The breakthrough experience I had in early December was one of surrender. And recently in meditation I was given clear guidance to cultivate detachment from the swirling negative energies around me here. I have encountered disembodied negative spiritual energies throughout my life, and have always been able to find my way to the Light and wish no harm to those energies. However, it is much more difficult for me, for some reason, to remain unaffected by these energies (or entities, as Edgar Cayce called them) when they are being directed at me close range from other humans. Which is the situation I have found myself in over and over again in the last year in particular. It is the empathy I have, which seems to be a resonating with whatever emotions are around me. Emotions, not Spirit.

"The incorrect attitude of holding even the slightest doubt, even at a subconscious level, that any external "force" can be exerted to threaten you in any way is in itself the Trojan Horse that enables such a "force" to access your mind and take advantage of this weakness to exploit you towards fulfilling its own needs. You have to understand that the more you think you need to resist to such a "force", the more you become vulnerable to its influence. We do not need protection against anything because nothing can attain our inviolable divine soul-which again is our true nature. If you think that you need to protect yourself, to defend yourself or to surround yourself with any kind of shield, it implicitly means you believe you are vulnerable to being attacked."

--THIS, dear Jean, is the most powerful and helpful statement in all you've written to me. In the past I knew, and lived in, this state of consciousness/being. And underlying all in me is complete assurance, knowing, that I am on my way back to that state of consciousness again. Or attuning to that state of consciousness, as that is the only True Reality. It is not easy in this present situation, however. One night when the energies here were particularly intense, I went within, praying for help, and--it's been such a LONG time--went into a place of the Light again, in which I briefly saw/was in the Light--so BEAUTIFUL! and ALIVE!, and knew myself to be completely free of influence from any Energy but that of the Light.

It is very helpful to have you remind me that that Light is Reality, and that my true nature--everyone's true nature!--is of that Light.

Thank you again, dear Jean.

2.

Date:  3 Feb 2007

[Note from Suzy: To expand the reach of information that really needs to be "out there," I am participating in two forums. Celestial Blue Star, David and I are panelists on a monthly teleconference-our next is February 15. Access information, time, guests, and previous teleconferences are listed on http://www.awakenedhearts.com -- CDs of the teleconferences are available. And, last month was my first hosting of an on-line hour radio show. If you would like to catch the second, February 21, please go to http://www.bbsradio.com/ and click on BBS RADIO Daily. To get to my page on that site, scroll to "Matthew and Friends" in the menu on the right, and to listen to the last show, go to Archives in the left menu. I can tell you (modestly) that both of these forums are lively and enlightening, and each has listener call-in times.]

_____________

From: http://www.matthewbooks.com/mm/anmviewer.asp?a=68&z=2

To return to major media for a moment, do not believe everything they are reporting! For instance, the report that 250 or so "insurgents" had been killed, which Bush claimed was the Iraqi government "showing [him] something," was a pure fabrication to bolster support for sending more troops, but opposition to that has only increased since that report, so it is apparent that the ploy did not work.

To address a question related to the war, no time-frame for the ending of Iraq's internal strife can be given at this juncture-there is far too much commotion in the energy field to assess this. However, energy emanations indicate that when foreign troops leave, the "black ops" activity that stirs up much of the sectarian violence will simmer down and a more unified Iraqi spirit will focus on rebuilding the country and caring for the many thousands of sick and injured.

Mother, with that, I believe I have answered a goodly number of questions on your list.