News and Developments
M5 Readers: Keep in Mind That Political News, By Nature, May Reflect Sequential Agenda
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July  2010 

Russia gives powers to FSB to prosecute ‘thought crime’ [07/31/10] "The bill, criticised by rights groups, would allow the Federal Security Service (FSB) to issue official warnings to individuals whose actions are deemed to be "creating the conditions for crime". Rights groups say the bill would essentially put the special service above the law and harks back to Soviet times when the much-feared FSB predecessor KGB used warnings to persecute dissidents. The bill had already sailed through the lower and upper houses of parliament and was today signed into law by the Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev. [...]"   

Judge Orders Life Sentence for Florida Keys Drug Smuggler — Who Worked for the U.S. State Department [07/30/10] "An admitted drug smuggler who carried millions of dollars in hash oil and marijuana in the keels of sailboats through the Florida Keys will spend the rest of his life in prison, a federal judge ruled Monday.  The life sentence of Juergen Heinz Williams, also known as Juergen Werthmann, was the last chapter in a bizarre trial that harkened back to the days when Keys waters teemed with “square grouper.” Prosecutors convinced a jury in January that Williams spearheaded a conspiracy to smuggle hash oil from Jamaica into Monroe County, and then north into Canada, where it was distributed. The same jury acquitted two co-defendants — Morgan Lynch, owner of MD Custom Cycles in Key Largo, and Howard Bornstein, a Key Largo online seafood purveyor.  ... Williams also raised eyebrows when he admitted under oath to smuggling drugs, but did so, he testified, while acting as an operative of the U.S. State Department. He later fired his attorney, Joel DeFabio of Coral Gables, for not arguing that point before jurors. [...]"   

Fraud and Insider Trading worth $500 million Done By Wyly Brothers [07/30/10] "Sam and Charles Wyly, Dallas billionaire investors known for their support of conservative candidates and causes, made $550 million in undisclosed profits through 13 years of insider trading, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit filed Thursday. [...]"   Related:  Wyly Brothers Gave Millions To Over 200 Republican Candidates  

Afghanistan: U.S. Spends $20 Billion Per Year for Air Conditioning in Tents [07/30/10] "The term we were looking for is “Forward Operating Base” or FOB. The US has many FOBs in Iraq and Afghanistan. The large ones have many tents and other structures where personnel live and work. And all of them need to be heated in the winter, and cooled in the summer. That can take a lot of fuel. Steve Anderson is a retired Brigadier General who was General David Petraeus’s chief logistician in Iraq. He says the Pentagon should find ways to make structures at FOBs and other military compounds more energy efficient, not only to save money and be greener, but also, to save lives. [...]"  

Google and CIA Plough Millions Into Huge ‘Recorded Future’ Monitoring Project [07/30/10] "Google’s cosy relationship with the U.S. spy network has once again been thrust into the spotlight as the company is reported to have jointly invested with the CIA in an Internet monitoring project that scours Twitter accounts, blogs and websites for all sorts of information, and can also “predict the future”. Wired’s defence analyst, Noah Schachtman, has a detailed report on the joint venture: …it scours tens of thousands of websites, blogs and Twitter accounts to find the relationships between people, organizations, actions and incidents — both present and still-to-come. In a white paper, the company says its temporal analytics engine “goes beyond search” by “looking at the ‘invisible links’ between documents that talk about the same, or related, entities and events.”  The idea is to figure out for each incident who was involved, where it happened and when it might go down. Recorded Future then plots that chatter, showing online “momentum” for any given event.” Recorded Future “continually scans thousands of news publications, blogs, niche sources, trade publications, government web sites, financial databases and more,” according to it’s portfolio.  It sifts through millions of posts and conversations taking place on blogs, YouTube, Twitter and Amazon to “assemble actual real-time dossiers on people.”  It is also being integrated with Google Earth, which, as Schachtman points out in his piece, was seeded with In-Q-Tel/CI. A promotional video shows the company’s real time browser-operated data mining engine at work: [... 

Analysis:  War it appears is imminent? Current drug shortages are telling the picture [07/30/10] "It seems this may be true from the drug shortages which are listed on the FDA’s website. I see this as “the smoking gun”, that only stockpiling for war could explain the combination of shortages seen on their website. The government is citing increased demand as an explanation for shortages, but as usual, it is not being truthful. Only believing we are having tens of thousands more traumas than possible, along with executing every prisoner in the country, could even beset the feeblest of minds. Let me paint a picture for you. Keeping in mind any one drug shortage might be explainable, even two, but this overall combination is a tell tale sign of stockpiling for nuclear war, or even worse!  Just think, if you were the government facing nuclear war, what would you do? Would you stockpile things in a certain order? Yes! First, you would think in terms of battlefield casualties, then civilians. The order might be something like this, anesthesia, pain, (troop’s are always first priority) then radiation, disease, and malnutrition. You would want to stockpile drugs for these conditions and a pattern might be discerned. The FDA has made this all too easy, listing drugs in short supply. The drugs in short supply, and the theme I believe is developed behind these so called shortages can easily be seen. The shortages are admitted by the FDA on their website. The theme I will develop as such; over the last year anesthesia drugs have been routinely in short supply. Why is this? [...]"    

Corbett Report:  "Al Qaeda Doesn't Exist" [07/30/10] [0:00]  "Al Qaeda Doesn't Exist" is the forthcoming documentary by The Corbett Report. It interrogates the theory that Al Qaeda is a centrally-operated terrorist organization run by Osama Bin Laden that perpetrated the attacks of 9/11. The documentary looks at Al Qaeda's roots, its ties to western intelligence agencies and the fictions that have been created to enhance its myth in the corporate-controlled media. [...]"   

Rule by Elites Has Been Tried - and Failed [07/29/10] "Many of the wonderful-sounding ideas that have been tried as government policies have failed disastrously. Because so few people bother to study history, often the same ideas and policies have been tried again, either in another country or in the same country at a later time — and with the same disastrous results. One of the ideas that has proved to be almost impervious to evidence is the idea that wise and far-sighted people need to take control and plan economic and social policies so there will be a rational and just order, rather than chaos resulting from things being allowed to take their own course. It sounds so logical and plausible that demanding hard evidence would seem almost like nit-picking. In one form or another, this idea goes back at least as far as the French Revolution in the 18th century. As J.A. Schumpeter later wrote of that era, "general well-being ought to have been the consequence," but "instead we find misery, shame and, at the end of it all, a stream of blood." [...]"  

House Approves $59 Billion War Spending Measure [07/29/10] "The House of Representatives voted 308-114 Tuesday to approve a $58.8 billion war spending bill for U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan amid debate over the necessity of U.S. troops in Pakistan, a discussion fueled by the recent leak of 92,000 war documents. [...]"  Note: Dereliction of duty. Those who voted for this bill ought to be arrested and imprisoned for treason, bankrupting the country, etc. Related: "Get Out Of Our House"  "A non-partisan plan to evict all 435 career politicians from the U.S. House of Representatives and replace them with citizen legislators  [...]" George Carlin - "We Like War"   [9:48]  

Weapons Buried at Sea: Big, Poorly Understood Problem [07/29/10] "The under-sea arsenal includes ammunition, explosives and chemical weapons such as sulfur mustard (mustard gas), arsenic and sarin (now classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations). [...]"  

US: Confused, Alone, and in Legal Limbo [07/29/10] "People with mental disabilities, including US citizens, face a greater risk of erroneous deportation by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) because courts do not ensure fair hearings for those not able to represent themselves, Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a joint report released today. The groups urged Congress to pass legislation requiring the appointment of lawyers for all people with mental disabilities in immigration courts.  [...]" 

High-Paid Officials Hit With Retaliation Suit [07/29/10] "A Los Angeles suburb that irked taxpayers by paying its top officials six-figure salaries faces a retaliation lawsuit from former police sergeant James Corcoran. He claims officials in Bell, Calif., forced him to retire early for reporting voter fraud and the city's efforts to cover up an official's attempted sexual assault of a secretary. [...]"   

Israel rejects Palestinian terms for talks [07/29/10] "Israel has once again hampered efforts to resume the long-stalled direct peace negotiations by refusing to meet the conditions set by Palestinians. [...]"   

100m Facebook users info leaked [07/28/10] "Details of more than 100 million Facebook users have been harvested and published on the net by a security researcher. [...]"  Note: Facebook and other social networking sites are a way to have people write their own dossiers for the government, and have them keep tabs on what people are doing. With 500 million users, Facebook is the major player. Related: Philippine police use Facebook in murder arrest  

Israel’s secret police exposed [07/28/10] "The arrest by Israel’s internal security service, the Shin Bet, of an Israeli Jew accused of killing at least four Palestinians has thrown a rare light on the secret police, including attempts by one of its agents to enlist the accused to assassinate a Palestinian spiritual leader, Jonathan Cook reports. [...]"  

8-Year-Long Ban on Sex Trafficking in War Zones Never Enforced [07/28/10] "About 10 years ago, employees of Dyncorp International, a major defense contractor, were accused of buying and selling women throughout Eastern Europe. [...]"   

Commentary: Anglo-American Political Philosophy 101: "The Poor Must Die" [07/27/10] ".... Thus for more than 30 years, the world-dominating Anglo-American alliance has been under the sway of factions which, for all their internal squabbling and hair-splitting, are strongly united in their steadfast, unshakeable adherence to the perpetuation -- and expansion -- of elite power and privilege. They have shown themselves willing -- eager -- to degrade their own societies (and destroy many others) in the service of this brutal, barbaric, inhuman faith. The poor have no place in this system, which is a retrograde, hi-tech, rhetorically sugarcoated revival of the laissez-faire fantasies of the past, as Jeremy Seabrook notes: "Pauperism" long ago took on the colour of culpability. The distinction between the idle and improvident poor and the "deserving" goes back at least to the Elizabethan poor law. It took on a new force in the early industrial era, which saw an unprecedented growth in pauperism. The enthusiasts of laissez-faire concluded that the evil was compounded by efforts to relieve it, and helping the poor only increased their number. Everything indicated that "natural" processes should be allowed to take their course. .... In this version of the world, the market mechanism is as flawless a creation as the earth, and should remain untouched by the hand of meddlers, whose only effect is to upset its power to enrich us all. It is remarkable that the establishment of laissez-faire itself in the early 19th century required an enormous amount of government intervention and regulation [...]"  

Report: Some mentally ill detainees deported were US citizens [07/27/10] "Thousands of mentally disabled immigrants are entangled in deportation proceedings each year with little or no legal help, leaving them distraught, defenseless and detained as their fates are decided. Their plight is detailed in a report issued Sunday by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union, who exhort federal authorities to do better. Shortcomings outlined by the two groups include no right to appointed counsel, inflexible detention policies, insufficient guidance for judges on handling people with mental disabilities, and inadequately coordinated services to aid detainees while in custody. "No one knows what to do with detainees with mental disabilities, so every part of the immigration system has abdicated responsibility," said Sarah Mehta, the report's lead author. "The result is people languishing in detention for years while their legal files — and their lives — are transferred around or put on indefinite hold." [...]"   

US rules out military action against Venezuela [07/27/10] "The United States on Monday ruled out military action against Venezuela after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened to cut off oil supplies to the US if it backed a Colombian attack. "As we have stated in the past, the United States has no intention of engaging in military action against Venezuela," Virginia Staab, a State Department spokeswoman, told AFP. [...]"  Note:  Gee, do you think so?  

Israel Claims “No PTSD In IDF, Jews Immune To Mental Illness” [07/27/10] "...Today’s Israeli National News Service quoted a study on PTSD from BaMachaneh, the Israeli version of Stars and Stripes stating that IDF soldiers don’t get PTSD due to combat, making them vastly superior to their American counterparts. The IDF study cites that up to 30% of American veterans and active duty alike, suffer flashbacks, outbursts of anger and a host of other symptoms which do not plague Jews who are subjected to similar combat circumstances. [...]" Related: Low Levels of PTSD Among Israeli Soldiers Suggest High Levels of Psychopathy  "Today's Israeli National News Service quoted a study on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from BaMachaneh, the Israeli version of Stars and Stripes, stating that IDF soldiers don't get PTSD due to combat, making them vastly superior to their American counterparts." The study states: "Compared to their counterparts around the globe, IDF soldiers are less likely to develop Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) due to combat, according to a study published in the most recent edition of official military magazine BaMachaneh. The study compared research into PTSD in IDF soldiers to similar research done in other countries. Less than five percent of the soldiers who fought in the Second Lebanon War and in Operation Cast Lead in Gaza showed signs of post-traumatic stress, researchers found." The IDF study cites that up to 30% of American veterans and active duty alike, suffer flashbacks, outbursts of anger and a host of other symptoms which do not plague Jews who are subjected to similar combat circumstances. Gordon is skeptical of the claim that IDF troops, unlike American soldiers, don't suffer from PTSD. If this is true, Gordon says, maybe it's because American soldiers are fighting and dying for a Zionist-orchestrated series of lies, and are treated like "broken toys" when they come home; while Israeli soldiers are committing genocide for their own national benefit, and are relatively well-treated by their US-taxpayer-funded regime. But there is a simpler explanation: In claiming that its soldiers are immune to PTSD, Israel is implicitly confessing that its troops are psychopaths. [...]"  Note:  Ha! Indeed.  Related: Flashback: The superiority complex of psychopaths - and Israel and the US  "Paul J. Balles considers the psychopathic phenomenon of the "superiority complex" as an explanation of dysfunctional behaviour among individuals and states, such as Israel and the US.  [...]"  Note:  An excellent commentary about the inferiority complexes which plague the immature, weak minds of the dark sequentials on this planet. Goes into how their megalomania and false superiority complexes are mechanisms by which they allay their deep, inner insecurities. The most unbalanced people of all simply MUST exorcise themselves of their inner demons, and what better way than to seek to destroy those you suspect might be "better" in some way, ethically or otherwise.  

MSM: Photos: New, Improved Cocaine Submarines [07/27/10] "'Narco subs' are the drug cartels' latest tool for smuggling drugs from Colombia and other Latin American countries to the U.S. Although cartels used to employ speed boats to outrun authorities, they have shifted their focus to submersible vessels that are hard for surface vessels to spot and for the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy to stop. [...]"  

58% Favor Repeal of Health Care Bill, But 48% Say It’s Unlikely [07/27/10] "Most voters continue to favor repeal of the national health care bill, but nearly half see repeal as unlikely. A plurality believes repeal would be good for the economy. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 58% of voters favor repeal, including 48% who Strongly Favor it. Thirty-seven percent (37%) are opposed to repeal, with 28% who are Strongly Opposed.  [...]"   

Nixon papers suggest Israel stole nuclear material from US in 1965 [07/27/10] "In July 1969, while the world was spellbound by the Apollo 11 mission to the moon, President Richard M. Nixon and his close advisers were quietly fretting about a possible nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Their main worry was not a potential enemy of the United States, but one of America’s closest friends. “The Israelis, who are one of the few peoples whose survival is genuinely threatened, are probably more likely than almost any other country to actually use their nuclear weapons,” Henry A. Kissinger, the national security adviser, warned President Nixon in a memorandum dated July 19, 1969. [...]"  

Oliver Stone: Jewish Lobby has distorted United States foreign policy for years [07/27/10] "Outspoken Hollywood director says new film aims to put Adolf Hitler, who he has called an ‘easy scapegoat’ in the past, in his due historical context. [...]"  

Commentary: Lockerbie: Megrahi Was Framed John Pilger [07/26/10] "No one in authority has had the guts to state the truth about the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 above the Scottish village of Lockerbie on 21 December 1988 in which 270 people were killed. The governments in England and Scotland in effect blackmailed Megrahi into dropping his appeal as a condition of his immediate release. Of course there were oil and arms deals under way with Libya; but had Megrahi proceeded with his appeal, some 600 pages of new and deliberately suppressed evidence would have set the seal on his innocence and given us more than a glimpse of how and why he was stitched up for the benefit of “strategic interests.” [...]"  Related: Lockerbie: The missing pieces  "Of all the missing pieces in the jigsaw of information on the Lockerbie bombing and its aftermath one of the most confusing is Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi’s decision to drop his appeal against his conviction for the greatest terrorist atrocity ever perpetrated over Scottish soil. The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission had looked at Megrahi’s conviction in 2001 on 270 counts of murder and after an effective four-year review had granted Megrahi leave to appeal against his conviction for the second time. The appeal was expected to be heard fairly soon after Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill visited Megrahi at Greenock prison in August 2009. [...]"     

Nobel Peace Prizes 'are being awarded illegally' [07/26/10] "Norwegian author claims the committee behind the coveted award routinely violates the terms of Alfred Nobel's will [...]"   

Germany Balks At Giving Israel More Subs  [07/26/10] "The U.S. journal Defense News reported this week that Chancellor Angela Merkel's government had turned down Israel's request for a discount of up to one-third on the price of a $1.6 billion package including two other warships and torpedoes. Germany funded more than 80 percent of the cost of Israel's first three Dolphin submarines in the 1990s, and is currently accounting for a third of the cost of two more submarines being manufactured in Germany. [...]" 

Mexican prison guards let killers out, provided weapons [07/26/10] "Guards and officials at a prison in northern Mexico allegedly let inmates out, lent them guns and allowed them to use official vehicles to carry out drug-related killings, including the massacre of 17 people last week, prosecutors said Sunday. After carrying out the killings the inmates would return to their cells, the Attorney General's Office said in a revelation that was shocking even for a country wearied by years of drug violence and corruption. "According to witnesses, the inmates were allowed to leave with authorization of the prison director ... to carry out instructions for revenge attacks using official vehicles and using guards' weapons for executions," office spokesman Ricardo Najera said at a news conference. The director of the prison in Gomez Palacio in Durango state and three other officials were placed under a form of house arrest pending further investigation. No charges have yet been filed. Prosecutors said the prison-based hit squad is suspected in three mass shootings, including the July 18 attack on a party in the city of Torreon, which is near Gomez Palacio. In that incident, gunmen fired indiscriminately into a crowd of mainly young people in a rented hall, killing 17 people, including women. [...]"   

Chavez threatens to cut oil to U.S. [07/26/10] "Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened on Sunday to cut oil supplies to the United States in case of a military attack from Colombia as a dispute escalated over charges his country harbors Colombian rebels. A vocal and frequent critic of the United States, Chavez broke off diplomatic relations with Colombia last week over the claims by the outgoing government of President Alvaro Uribe, a close U.S. ally. Chavez, a leftist who says Washington is behind the charges, has never carried out previous threats to cut oil supplies to the United States, Venezuela's main customer. "If there was any armed aggression against Venezuela from Colombian territory or from anywhere else, promoted by the Yankee empire, we would suspend oil shipments to the United States even if we have to eat stones here," he said. [...]"    

Cops Charge Irish Government With Treason [07/26/10] "Michael O'Boyce, President of the Garda Representative Association (GRA), said at its annual conference in Limerick, at the end of April, 2010, that the Irish Government had been 'corrupted' and had been 'bought' by developers and bankers. (A garda is an Irish policeman, gardaí in the plural.) Mr. O'Boyce, speaking on behalf of the country's 11,000 gardaí, charged government ministers with sacrificing the country to protect 'wealthy cronies' who had bankrolled the leading government party, Fianna Fáil. Such criticism of a serving government by its police force is unprecedented in Irish history and extremely rare in any western democracy. Smarting from recent government disparagement of the gardaí a rankled Mr. O'Boyce pointed to an aggravating Fianna Fáil gaffe. While the government referred to the gardaí as 'self-serving, overpaid, underworked and dishonest people', it at the same time praised the 'entrepreneurial skill' and 'business acumen' of failed banksters like Sean Fitzpatrick (Anglo Irish Bank) and Michael Fingleton (Irish Nationwide Building Society), two people who played a huge part in bringing the Irish economy to its knees. Clearly infuriated by collapsing living standards and the abject state of the economy, Mr. O'Boyce intended to deliver his speech directly to the Minister of Justice, Dermot Ahern, who was scheduled to attend the annual conference of the GRA. However, Mr. Ahern was sent a copy of the speech in advance and hastily declined to attend. [...]"  

US-led armada holds drills off Korea as Pyongyang threatens retaliation [07/26/10] "Fighter jets buzzed the skies and submarines cruised underwater Sunday as a flotilla of U.S. and South Korean warships led by a nuclear-powered U.S. supercarrier began exercises that have enraged North Korea. U.S. officials denied North Korea’s claims the maneuvers off Korea’s east coast were a provocation, but said they were meant to send a strong message over the sinking of a South Korean warship in March that left 46 sailors dead. The drills, set to run through Wednesday, involve about 8,000 U.S. and South Korean troops, 20 ships and submarines and 200 aircraft. The USS George Washington, with several thousand sailors and dozens of fighter jets aboard, was deployed from Japan. “We are showing our resolve,” said Capt. David Lausman, the carrier’s commanding officer. The exercises will be the first in a series of U.S.-South Korean maneuvers conducted in the East Sea off Korea and in the Yellow Sea closer to China’s shores in international waters. [...]"   

Russia’s Putin sings with expelled agents [07/26/10] "Vladimir Putin says he met with the Russian spies who were expelled from the United States, joining them in singing an unofficial KGB anthem and promising them good jobs and a bright future back in their homeland. [...]"  Note: Yeah, right. They got caught. If that failure is the basis for promising them a 'bright future', Putin doesn't have much sense. Now that everyone knows who they are, and what they look like, it's over for them, in terms of trying to hide who they work for. Of course, perhaps it's not true .. and that he will send them to Siberia instead ... Putin does have a twisted sense of humor, and a dry one at that.

Israel violates Lebanon's airspace [07/26/10] "Israeli warplanes have once again violated Lebanon's airspace flying at a low altitude in the country's southern sector, Lebanon army says. The army said its anti-aircraft batteries opened fire on the Israeli 'MK' type reconnaissance planes on Sunday, forcing it to retreat. Israeli warplanes violate Lebanon's airspace almost on a daily basis, which is in clear violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 that ended Israel's 33-day war in 2006 against Lebanon. The Israeli military faced fierce Hezbollah resistance and was eventually forced to vacate Lebanon without achieving any of its objectives. Lebanon marked the fourth anniversary of Israel's assault on the country on July 12 that killed over 1,200 Lebanese, many of them women and children. [...]"   Related: Possible Israeli attack against Lebanon this autumn "In Lebanon, over the past three weeks, danger signs have escalated amid considerably heightened tension.  [...]" 

Israel Braces Itself for a UN Fact Finding Mission [07/26/10] "Israel faces another disastrous report as an 'Independent and impartial' fact-finding team appointed by the UN Human Rights Council will look into Israel's 'violations of international law' during her commando raid on the Gaza-bound Turkish ship. Seemingly the UN Human Rights Council wasn’t overwhelmingly impressed by Israel's own ‘truth finding’ missions. I guess that this is understandable. The Israelis should accept the UN concerns. It is very uncommon to let the murderer or the rapist investigate himself. [...]"   Related: UN rights council names team to probe Israel flotilla raid  "The UN Human Rights Council named a panel of experts Friday to investigate whether Israel's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla breached international law and urged the Jewish state to cooperate. Briton Desmond de Silva, Malaysian Mary Shanthi Dairiam and Karl Hudson-Phillips from Trinidad and Tobago would probe the events surrounding the May 31 raid in which nine Turkish activists were killed, the council announced. "This is not about finger pointing, it's about establishing the facts of what took place because the incident was humanitarian tragedy and it's in the interests of everyone," said council president Sihasak Phuangketkeow. "So I'm hoping and I'm urging all the parties concerned to render their full cooperation, because it is in their interests and it's in the interests of the international community as a whole." Israel has consistently rejected calls for an international independent investigation into the raid by its commandos and instead launched its own military probe and set up a separate panel to examine the legality of the raid. [...]"  

Lieberman’s Model For America: Purging The Internet of Dissent [07/26/10] "When Senator Joe Lieberman attempted to justify draconian legislation that would provide President Obama with a figurative kill switch to shut down parts of the Internet, he cited the Chinese system of Internet policing as model which America should move towards. [...] The Chinese system that Lieberman wants to bring to the United States is not only about censoring material critical of the state, it’s about identifying those who post it and thereby creating a chilling atmosphere that discourages others from exercising free speech in fear that they might be the next victims of the thought police. News websites in China now require users to register their true identities in order to leave comments. This move towards abolishing Internet anonymity and creating a virtual ID card is a key centerpiece of Lieberman’s cybersecurity agenda. This strategy revolves around, “The creation of a system for identity management that would allow citizens to use additional authentication techniques, such as physical tokens or modules on mobile phones, to verify who they are before buying things online or accessing such sensitive information as health or banking records.” Only with this government-issued “token” will Internet users be allowed to “able to move from website to website,” a system not too far removed from what China proposed and rejected for being too authoritarian."    Related: Obama Joins UN Effort to Dictate Acceptable Behavior on the Internet "The United States — along with the UK, China and Russia — have agreed to work together under the globalist umbrella of the United Nations to determine “norms of accepted behavior in cyberspace,” according to Computer Weekly. France, Germany, Estonia, Belarus, Brazil, India, Israel, Italy, Qatar, South Korea, and South Africa are also involved in the effort. Robert Knake, a cyberwarfare expert with the Council on Foreign Relations, says the signed agreement represents a significant change in U.S. posture. Participation of the U.S. demonstrates the Obama administration’s strategy of diplomatic engagement, according to Knake. [...] The red herring of cybersecurity is now being exploited by the global elite in a cynical effort to tame and fully corporatize the internet and shut down the alternative media that has eclipsed the old dinosaur dead tree and televised corporate media. The recent agreement at the United Nations signifies that the globalists are determined to take efforts to control and censor the internet to the next level." CNN Anchors Call For Crackdown on Bloggers  [5:51]  "Anchors Kyra Phillips and John Roberts discussed the “mixed blessing of the internet,” and agreed that there should be a crackdown on anonymous bloggers who disparage others on the internet [...]"  

"US show of strength against N Korea" [07/26/10] "The US and South Korea have begun a major military exercise in the Sea of Japan, despite threats of retaliation from North Korea. [...]"  Note: All this immature, childish posturing ... only adult losers play the 'territory' game ... add a few dictators and psychopaths ... just to make it interesting.

UK:  Britain Plans to Decentralize Health Care [07/26/10] "Practical details of the plan are still sketchy. But its aim is clear: to shift control of England’s $160 billion annual health budget from a centralized bureaucracy to doctors at the local level. Under the plan, $100 billion to $125 billion a year would be meted out to general practitioners, who would use the money to buy services from hospitals and other health care providers. The plan would also shrink the bureaucratic apparatus, in keeping with the government’s goal to effect $30 billion in “efficiency savings” in the health budget by 2014 and to reduce administrative costs by 45 percent. Tens of thousands of jobs would be lost because layers of bureaucracy would be abolished. In a document, or white paper, outlining the plan, the government admitted that the changes would “cause significant disruption and loss of jobs.” But it said: “The current architecture of the health system has developed piecemeal, involves duplication and is unwieldy. Liberating the N.H.S., and putting power in the hands of patients and clinicians, means we will be able to effect a radical simplification, and remove layers of management.” [...]"   

"2012 Olympics Will Would Be A New World Order Mega-Ritual" [07/26/10] "The road to 2012 London Olympics is wrought with symbolism, it has a UFO/alien theme where the advanced ‘visitors’ will welcome the world into an Age of Aquarius, a New World Order of the Ages. [...]"  Note: Somehow, it never happens like they plan it to. 

 Commentary: Israeli Racism & Political Police [07/26/10] "Mahmud Gnayem's cousin, Waji Ghanaim, who arrived at the scene shortly after the shooting, said that the car was parked on the side of the road at the time of the shooting, meaning the victim couldn’t have been running away from the police. The victim wasn’t armed, yet Mizrahi shot him to death. In 2009, Mizrahi was sentenced to a mere 15 months in prison. He appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court, and said there that the shooting was intentional and that his life was not in danger during the event. Yet, he insisted he acted out of self-defense. For being illogical, his sentence was doubled to 30 months in July 2010. Yet, this is dirty cheap for a cold blood assassination. During all this time, Mizrahi hadn’t been relieved from his duties as policeman. Isn’t this entire event a bit strange? [...]"     

Israelis dump toxic waste over vital water supply for the region [07/25/10] "An Israeli company – The Ma’ale Adumim Planning and Development Company Ltd has been managing the Abu Dis landfill, near the neighborhood of Abu Dis, since 1998. The site receives waste from Jerusalem and the surrounding localities. The 430-dunam site receives huge amounts of waste every day, from Jerusalem, Ma’ale Adumim and the surrounding localities. This same company is also vigorously selling off industrial land development which also sits over the top of the water aquifers that are so vital to the region. The combination of the landfill site and industrial development over such a precious resource will have devastating effects on the population. When both landfill waste and industrial run off are added together the toxic plumes that radiate out from such locations will not only contaminate the public water supply but will also eventually be picked up by submersible pumps that water vast tracts of agricultural land. [...]" 

House OK's possible Israeli raid on Iran [07/24/10] "Republicans in the US House of Representatives have introduced a measure that would green-light a possible Israeli bombing campaign against Iran. Resolution 1553 provides explicit support for military strikes against Iran, stating that Congress backs Israel's use of 'all means necessary' against Iran, "including the use of military force," BBC Persian reported. The introduction of the measure coincides with a pattern of renewed calls for military strikes that have escalated since President Obama signed Congressional Iran sanctions into law. Neoconservatives who were instrumental in orchestrating the Iraq War, such as Bill Kristol and Reuel Marc Gerecht, have led the stepped up calls for military action. Hawkish former Bush administration official John Bolton recently laid out the game plan to prod Israel into attacking Iran, arguing that outsiders can "create broad support" for a strike by framing it as an issue of Israel's right to self-defense. [...]"  Note: (rolling of eyes)  Related:  AIPAC influenced/neoconned House OK’s possible Israeli raid on Iran [07/25/10] 

Multiple Ranches in Laredo, Texas Rumored To Have Been Taken Over by Former Gulf Cartel group, 'Los Zetas' [07/24/10] "... The bloodbath continues along our southern border and now word is coming in that Los Zetas, the highly trained killers formerly with the Gulf Cartel, have crossed into the United States and taken over at least two ranches in the Laredo, Texas area. I am receiving word that the owners of the ranches have evacuated without being harmed.  Anonymous sources in law enforcement in the Laredo area tonight have passed on word that US law enforcement agencies are in the area and are weighing their options regarding the ranches. The media has been silent on this incident and some law enforcement in the area says that they are furious that the media is not reporting the whole story of the continued violence along the border. Their frustrations are understandable because keeping the truth suppressed continues to hamper law enforcement from receiving the true support they need along the border. The ranch assaults come on the heels of attacks in Nuevo Laredo that shut the city down as a gun-battle raged in the streets. Los Zetas blocked off intersections with vehicles and used fragmentation grenades to attack Mexican law enforcement. In the end 12 were killed and 21 injured in the assaults. Citizens in the area were told to stay in their homes and bullets whizzed all around. [...]"   

Venezuela Warns Colombia Against Inciting a Conflict [07/24/10] "Venezuela’s defense minister on Friday warned Colombia against provoking a conflict after President Hugo Chávez severed ties with the nation and placed his military on alert. [...]"    

Departing U.N. official calls Ban's leadership 'deplorable' in 50-page memo [07/24/10] "The outgoing chief of a U.N. office charged with combating corruption at the United Nations has issued a stinging rebuke of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, accusing him of undermining her efforts and leading the global institution into an era of decline, according to a confidential end-of-assignment report. The memo by Inga-Britt Ahlenius, a Swedish auditor who stepped down Friday as undersecretary general of the Office of Internal Oversight Services, represents an extraordinary personal attack on Ban from a senior U.N. official. The memo also marks a challenge to Ban's studiously cultivated image as a champion of accountability.  [...]"   

North Korea tensions spike at Asian security forum [07/24/10] "North Korea on Friday threatened the United States and South Korea with a "physical response" to planned weekend naval exercises as tensions with the communist nation rose in the aftermath of the sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on the North. In Vietnam for a Southeast Asian regional security forum, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and a North Korean official traded barbs over the ship incident, the upcoming military drills and the imposition of new U.S. sanctions against the North. The spokesman for the North Korean delegation to the talks, Ri Tong Il, repeated Pyongyang's denial of responsibility for the March sinking of the ship that killed 46 South Korean sailors and said the upcoming military drills were a violation of its sovereignty that harkened back to the days of 19th-century "gunboat diplomacy."   The exercises will be "another expression of hostile policy against" North Korea. "There will be physical response against the threat imposed by the United States militarily," Ri told reporters in Hanoi. Clinton responded by saying the U.S. is willing to meet and negotiate with the North, but that this type of threat only heightens tensions. She added that progress in the short term seems unlikely, given the circumstances. "It is distressing when North Korea continues its threats and causes so much anxiety among its neighbors and the larger region," she told reporters. "But we will demonstrate once again with our military exercises ... that the United States stands in firm support of the defense of South Korea and we will continue to do so." Shortly before Ri spoke, Clinton had lashed out against belligerent acts by the North, warning that it must reverse a "campaign of provocative, dangerous behavior" if it wants improved relations with its neighbors and the United States. [...]"  Related: North Korea Threatens to Get Physical  "Following the announcement of joint military exercises between South Korea and the U.S., North Korea has threatened a “physical response,” describing the military drills as another sign of U.S. hostility and “a threat to the Korean peninsula and the region of Asia as a whole.” Tensions on the peninsula have dominated the Asean regional security forum currently in progress in Hanoi, Vietnam.  [...]"  N Korea warns of nuclear response [07/24/10] "North Korea says it will use its "nuclear deterrent" in response to joint US-South Korean military exercises this weekend. [...]"   

Israel deploys navy to stop aid ships [07/24/10] "Israel has urged Lebanon to stop a Gaza-bound aid convoy, saying it will use “all necessary means” to stop the humanitarian convoy from reaching the blockaded coastal sliver. The Israeli navy has deployed ships at sea to stop the Lebanese vessels and commandos from the navy’s Flotilla 13 — known as the Shayetet — are put on standby so that in case it becomes necessary they would board the ships to prevent them from sailing into the Gaza Strip, The Jerusalem Post reported on Friday. Two Lebanese vessels are expected to depart in an attempt to break the Gaza blockade and deliver humanitarian supplies to Gazans by the end of the week. Meanwhile, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gabriela Shalev once again threatened the new convoy in a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday. [...]"    

Massey shut off methane detectors at deadly mine [07/24/10] "Coal miners who worked at the Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, West Virginia, where a deadly blast killed 29 miners on April 5, told federal investigators that Massey foremen ordered an electrician to disable a methane detector months before the explosion occurred. [...]"   

Vanunu's Ongoing Persecution in Israel [07/24/10] "The story of why Israel persists in persecuting Vanunu via a restriction barring him from speaking with foreign media has become another mystery. As Uri Avnery, an Israeli writer and peace activist, wrote at the time of Vanunu’s release: "Everybody understands that he has no more secrets. What can a technician know after 18 years in jail, during which technology has advanced with giant steps? "But gradually it becomes clear what the security establishment is really afraid of. Vanunu is in a position to expose the close partnership with the United States in the development of Israel's nuclear armaments. "This worries Washington so much, that the man responsible in the State Department for 'arms control', Under-Secretary John Bolton, has come to Israel in person for the occasion. Vanunu, it appears, can cause severe damage to the mighty super-power." [...]"  

Education Dept. Pushes To End Federal Funding To For-Profit Colleges Whose Students Can't Get Jobs [07/24/10] "The Education Department proposed much-anticipated regulations Friday that would cut off federal aid to for-profit college programs if too many of their students default on loans or don't earn enough after graduation to repay them. "Some proprietary schools have profited and prospered but their students haven't, and this is a disservice to students and to taxpayers," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a briefing with reporters. "And it undermines the valuable work, the extraordinarily important work, being done by the for-profit industry as a whole." To qualify for federal student aid programs, career college programs must prepare students for "gainful employment." The Obama administration, amid intense lobbying from both for-profit college officials and consumer and student advocates, is proposing a complicated formula that would weigh both the debt-to-income ratio of recent graduates and whether all enrolled students repay their loans on time, regardless of whether they finish their studies. [...]"  Note:  As long as educational systems are separate from the job at the other end, this problem will exist. 

British government goes into super spin mode [07/24/10] Video clip included. " Novice deputy prime minister tells parliament and entire nation on live TV "The invasion of Iraq was illegal" [...]" 

Rep. Rangel Wrangling to Bring Back Slavery (Draft) in the United States [07/24/10] "As the two-year investigation into the alleged wrongdoings of Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) which I’ve already written about here and here comes to an end, the soon-to-be dis-Honorable (I hope, but I’m not holding my breath) Rangel wants young Americans to become slaves of the State. He has sponsored H.R. 5741 which proposes: “To require all persons in the United States between the ages of 18 and 42 to perform national service, either as a member of the uniformed services or in civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, to authorize the induction of persons in the uniformed services during wartime to meet end-strength requirements of the uniformed services, and for other purposes.” [...]"  Note:  Rangel brings this issue up every year.

 Interview:  Haneen Zoabi: The largest Threat to Democracy is Zionism [07/24/10] "The Knesset is the worst we’ve ever had. The guards and the workers who’ve been around the Knesset for 30 years said it’s never been this racist before. I think when you have a government led by the likes of [Foreign Minister] Avigdor Lieberman it means that the extremists are not the margins of the Knesset, they are the mainstream. [...]"  Note:  Interesting interview on internal political situation in Israel.

Commentary: 'Israel needs war to exist' [07/24/10] "A former Israeli lecturer has said the entity depends on wars for its existence, warning that the hostility only invites disaster for Tel Aviv. It is only constant confrontations and standoffs which keep the Israeli society from falling apart, said Ilan Pappe, who used to work as a senior lecturer at the University of Haifa in northern Israel.  He also said that the current Israeli government is the result of a colonialist movement. Colonialists, who did not have a country anywhere across the world, were obliged to remain here. The Israeli regime, therefore, is constantly seeking to ignite new wars; against Lebanon and maybe soon against Iran, but future wars would not succeed and would instead lead the entity into disaster, he added, speaking to the German daily Junge Welt last month. [...]"  

Gun battles paralyze Mexican city across from Laredo, Texas [07/23/10] "Late-night gun battles with gangs who forced citizens from their cars and used the vehicles to block streets paralyzed a border city, sound of gunfire alarmed Texans on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande. The Nuevo Laredo city government posted messages on Facebook warning citizens to stay indoors as the battles erupted at several intersections in the city across from Laredo, Texas. Frightened people on the U.S. side of the border called emergency dispatchers after hearing the gunfire, Laredo police spokesman Joe Baeza said Thursday. But he said there was no spillover violence. “We were getting reports from people who live on the river’s edge that they could hear gunfire and explosions from the Mexico side,” Baeza said. “We didn’t have any incidents on the American side. It’s hard for people to understand who don’t live here,” he added. “They’re not Vikings, they’re not going to invade us, it doesn’t work that way.” [...]"  

IMF cancels Haiti debt, approves new $60 million loan [07/23/10] "International Monetary Fund member countries on Wednesday canceled the $268 million debt Haiti owed to the IMF and approved a new loan worth $60 million to boost international reserves in the earthquake-hit nation. [...]"  

Venezuela breaks diplomatic ties with Colombia [07/23/10] "Venezuela broke off diplomatic ties with Colombia Thursday in a worsening row over public accusations from Bogota that it was providing a safe haven to leftist guerrillas. [...]"   

GM, increasingly, depends on China [07/23/10] "The U.S. government's 61 percent stake in General Motors is increasingly a stake in a company that is dependent on China, sales figures show. [...]"  

NATO Chief Disavows 2014 Drawdown Date, Insists War to Continue Indefinitely [07/23/10] "The replacement of the July 2011 drawdown date with a more speculative 2014 date is scarcely completed, and already that date too is being disavowed by NATO Secretary General and Afghan War enthusiast Anders Fogh Rasmussen. [...]"  Note: Idiot sequentials, marching around like robots with keys turning in their backs, blindly exercising their predispositions to co-opt the experience of others.  

Blue Cross has billions in surplus : Large insurer raised rates, calls reserves a 'safety net' [07/23/10] "Non-profit Blue Cross and Blue Shield health plans stockpiled billions of dollars during the past decade, yet continued to hit consumers with double-digit premium increases, Consumers Union found in an analysis of 10 of the plans' finances. Insurers must keep surplus money to ensure they can pay policyholders' medical bills if unexpected market conditions develop. Yet seven of the plans examined held more than three times the amount regulators consider the minimum needed to do that, according to a report being released today by the non-profit consumer group. "Consumers are struggling to afford health coverage," said report author Sondra Roberto. "Those funds could be used in some cases to mitigate these rate increases." The report calls on state insurance regulators to set maximum limits for surpluses. In most states, it said, regulators focus only on ensuring companies have minimum surpluses to be financially sound. Alissa Fox, a senior vice president at the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, said this is a "dangerous" time for regulators to limit health plans' surpluses because of great uncertainty about how insurance costs will change under the nation's new health law. "It's a safety net," she said. Consumers Union studied non-profit Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans because they cover one in three Americans with private insurance. Oregon Insurance Division Administrator Teresa Miller, whose office considered Regence's surplus and limited its request for a higher 2010 rate hike, said: "The tough question is how much surplus is too much surplus. There is no agreement on that." [...]"    

 Commentary: Hillary Clinton Admits that the US and Pakistan created the Mujahaddin [07/22/10] "Needless to say, my jaw dropped when Hillary admitted with a straight face, that the US and Pakistan created the supposed enemies we now face. This is obviously something that most of us knew, but to watch them admit it, and use it as a reason to stay there and or expand, is beyond insanity. [...]"  Note: Video clip  [9:42] She admits it @ 3 minutes, but the whole interview is quite telling, if you can stomach it. The start of the video has been adjusted to 2 min 57 sec, to get you to the spot right away, rather than having to listen to this tedious sequential for too long.

The CLEAR Act of Another Federal Land Grab  [07/22/10] "U.S. Representative Louie Gohmert (R-TX) addressed Congress on July 15th to report the Natural Resources Committee’s passage of HR 3534, the Consolidated Land, Energy and Aquatic Resources Act (CLEAR Act) of 2009. Congressman Gohmert said that the bill was to “deal with the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico” but it contains plans for the federal government to acquire land and was introduced in 2009. The CLEAR Act is ambiguous so if the bill is passed, federal agencies will determine how it is implemented and how the land will be used.  Congressman Gohmert pointed out that a portion of the CLEAR Act contains a provision for the federal government to spend $900 million a year to purchase private land over the next 30 years, for a grand total of $27 billion dollars over 3 decades. Gohmert noted that the federal government already owns or manages about 30% of the land in America, most of it in the western states. He said that the federal government has failed to maintain the federal and national parks that it already controls and is $3.7 billion behind in basic maintenance costs, according to one report. When land is federalized, it is taken off of the tax payroll. [...]  It makes perfect sense when the objectives of the UN’s Agenda 21 are understood, as Agenda 21 is the overarching blueprint for depopulation and total control from the international level all the way down to the individual level, using the environment as the excuse. Most people are unaware that one of Agenda 21 Sustainable Development’s goals is to make 50% of America into ‘Wildlands’ that are off-limits to humans and to herd people into ‘Smart Growth’ cities. Almost all wealth is derived from land and its resources. The more land the federal government owns, the more control they have. Less than 6% of America is considered developed (with roads and buildings) but the federal government is devoted to reducing these developed areas. [...]"   

Congress Ranks Last in Confidence in Institutions [07/22/10]  Note: One step above a federal prison, as an institution, more than likely.

Julian Assange On Why The World Needs WikiLeaks [07/22/10] "He may by now be one of the most well known whistleblowers of all time. He generates fear and anger in many powerful people, and publicly makes enemies of those who probably would have no compunctions about ordering his assassination. He leaks and threatens to leak classified and secret information unreported to and withheld from the American public about US Government and military conduct and actions but known quite well to the victims of those actions in other countries that now has the Pentagon and the US Government "gunning" for him.  [...]"  Related:  Wikileaks’ estranged co-founder John Young becomes a critic 

Commentary: The Blood-Drenched Darkness of American Exceptionalism [07/21/10] "You may not regard the two propositions in my title as deserving of any special attention. You may think, entirely correctly, that if we as Americans are special, it is only in the way that any human being is special: that each of us is unique and irreplaceable, that each of our lives, and the lives of all of us, demand reverence for the unrepeatable value of a person's brief passage in this world. And you may recognize, also correctly, that certain actions lead to destruction and loss in a manner and on a scale that forbid correction and amends, that on some occasions we can only accept the certainty of negative consequences that cannot be avoided. Human beings may be capable of remarkable, even wondrous achievement, but limits are inherent in existence itself. Sometimes those limits mean that wounds will never heal, that the pain will never end.   If you view these observations as unremarkable, even mundane, that is because in certain crucial respects, you are an adult. Such a healthy perspective -- "healthy" designating that which proceeds from demonstrable facts -- enables us to see the extreme nature of the delusions necessitated by an unquestioned belief in the myth of American exceptionalism. Despite the events of the last decade, the myth remains the heart of American culture, of American politics, and of the American State. Our politicians still regularly assure us that "America is the last, best hope of Earth," and that "the American moment" will extend for the entirety of "this new century." Americans remain "the Good Guys: "The emphasis is not only on 'Good,' but on 'the': we are the Good Guys in a way that no one else is, or can ever be."  [...]"  

North Korea Executes Official In Charge Of South Korea Diplomacy [07/21/10] "North Korea executed a former Cabinet official who was in charge of talks with South Korea, a news report said Tuesday, the latest reported death sentence for a North Korean official over policy failures. [...]"  Note:  Wow. They really know how to make a statement!

China is 'number one energy user' [07/21/10] "China has overtaken the United States to become the world's top energy consumer for the first time, a new report says. Provisional figures from the International Energy Agency indicate that China's energy demand has doubled in a decade. The IEA said China had taken first place because it was hit less hard than the US by the global financial crisis. China challenged the report's findings, saying its figures were unreliable. The US has been the biggest consumer of energy for more than 100 years. But China's rapid economic growth in the past two decades has pushed it into top spot, according to Tuesday's report. [...]"  

"U.S. Government's Message to America’s Vets: "Drop Dead" [07/21/10] "The current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are manifesting with an entirely new series of physical and mental illnesses and diseases. Some are being recognized, such as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but many others are not. Hundreds of thousands of our veterans are living in destitution, are incarcerated, have attempted or committed suicide, and can no longer fit into a normal family life. And yet the government once again, as it did to previous Gulf War vets, turns its backs on them. This is an American tragedy, and that is where our story begins. And upon their return to Kansas, away from America’s killing fields in the Middle East, there awaits an economy in collapse under the weight of astronomical federal debt and corporate greed, recessionary unemployment and rising homelessness, hungry children and rampant poverty, and now a new American culture every bit as disoriented and fearful about its future. [...]"  

State Workers Who Outed Illegal Immigrants Face Criminal Charges [07/21/10] "The Utah state employees suspected of outing more than 1,000 illegal immigrants living in the state have been placed on administrative leave and will likely be criminally charged. [...]"  

Gordon Brown: "Saddam Hussein Stood in the Way of the New World Order" [07/21/10]  [1:13]   "Our position was not that. Our position was to support action so that the will of the international community -- that Saddam Hussein disclose and dispose of weapons -- be reinforced. And at the back of my mind was this sense that, if the international community did not act here, then the international community would find it difficult to gain credibility for acting in other areas, and this new world order that we were trying to create was being put at risk. [...]"  

Group Calls for Hearings Into Google’s Ties to CIA and NSA [07/21/10] "More information has emerged about Google’s relationship with the government and spook agencies (see PR Newswire below). The revelations should come as no surprise. In 2006, Robert David Steele, a 20-year Marine Corps infantry and intelligence officer and a former clandestine services case officer with the CIA, told the Alex Jones Show that [...]"   

Julian Assange: "Enemy of the State" [07/21/10] Video clip [19:34]  

Oliver Stone: US should nationalize oil resources [07/21/10] "The Gulf of Mexico oil spill shows that the United States should follow the example of South American socialists in nationalizing its energy industry, filmmaker Oliver Stone said Tuesday. The Academy Award-winning director of "Born on the Fourth of July" and "JFK" said that America's country's natural wealth was too important to be left in private hands, telling journalists in central London that oil and other natural resources "belong to the people." "This BP oil spill is typical" of what happens when private industry is allowed to draw revenue on what should be a public good, Stone said. "We shouldn't make this kind of profit on oil or on health or on war or on prisons. All these industries should be public industries." [...]"   

Weighty guests arrive for annual Bohemian Grove [07/21/10] "Some of the world’s wealthiest and most prominent begin arriving today for the annual encampment at the Bohemian Grove, a gathering some describe as a benign men’s club and others as an insidious gathering of power. The encampment is expected to have 2,000 attendees at any one time,  [...]"   

U.S. Politics:  Republicans dominate watchdog’s 2010 list of ‘crooked candidates’ [07/20/10] "Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) launched an effort to compile the most corrupt and unethical candidates vying for federal office in 2010. CREW’s Crooked Candidates highlights 11 candidates with scandal-littered pasts and histories of questionable ethics. CREW’s Crooked Candidates focuses on office-seekers who have engaged in unethical and, in one case, even criminal conduct. Their misdeeds range from quid pro quo schemes to abusing state office for the benefit of friends and donors, to an obscenity charge. A few candidates even made the list because of their involvement in national political scandals: two were involved in the Abramoff investigation and one played a role in the Bush administration’s politicization of the U.S. Attorneys’ offices. With more than 2,300 people running for office this year, CREW’s list is likely only the tip of the iceberg. CREW invites anyone who thinks we’ve missed a particularly disgraceful federal candidate to forward information about that candidate’s misdeeds so we can add them to the list.  [...]"  

 Commentary: Another Senate Charade by Matt Taibbi [07/20/10] "This is a classic example of how the Senate works. If the public understood better how rigged this game is, and how few issues are actually left to an honest vote in the legislature, I'm pretty sure the pitchfork factor would be twice even what it is now. [...]"   

Ahmadinejad: US behind terror attacks [07/19/10] "Iran’s president says US and NATO forces offer financial and material support to terrorists, yet US President Barack Obama, ironically enough, sends a condolence message on the recent deadly terrorist attacks in southeast Iran. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday that US troops in Afghanistan and Pakistan sponsor such acts of terror, reported IRNA. “No grouping other than US-backed terrorist groups which are devoid of human feelings can commit such acts,” added President Ahmadinejad. The president further called on the Iranian Foreign Ministry to follow up the terror attack through the Pakistani government. “We are friends with the Pakistani nation, … but the Pakistani government should be held accountable”, he said. Mahmoud Ahmadi also instructed his office to lodge a complaint with international circles base on the ‘existing documents’, and follow up on NATO and Israel’s cooperation with the terrorists. “The puppeteers pulling the strings in this show will get nothing”, President Ahmadinejad said. “Such aggressive policies will only fuel public hatred”, he underscored. Two bombs were detonated in quick succession in front of the Zahedan Grand Mosque in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan last Thursday. [...]" 

Fate of 11th Russian spy suspect remains a mystery [07/19/10] "As the world’s media attention is focused firmly on last week’s 14-member spy swap between Russia and the United States, the fate of the 11th member of the Russian deep-cover intelligence network remains unknown. The operative, known as Christopher R. Metsos, was listed as “defendant No. 1” in the FBI criminal complaint against the now infamous Russian illegals network.  [...]"   

Israeli security firm markets in Japan [07/19/10] "Israel's Suspect Detection Systems Ltd. says it will exclusively market its "counter-terror and crime prevention technology" in Japan through Minami Holdings. [...]"  Note: Unless the 'suspect' detected is Israeli, and then the equipment probably calls for maintenance. 

Who is bombing in Iraq? [07/19/10] "Car explosions and other types of attacks are a daily occurrence in Iraq, despite official rhetoric that violence has subsided. 18 July 2010 reports claim that 43 people were killed and 40 more injured by a suicide bomber in southwest of Baghdad. Writing this article in May 2010, Christopher King argues that it is likely that the CIA – or Israel acting on its behalf – is responsible for the recent atrocities in Iraq, in order to extend and consolidate the occupation, just as it is probable that the Times Square bomber was, wittingly or otherwise, acting for the CIA or Israel, to justify the U.S. military intervention in South Asia. As these attacks are providing the US with an excuse for delaying even its token withdrawal however, we need to think about who is behind them. I wrote [2] on 20 April that the probability is that the United States Central Intelligence Agency is behind these attacks, using local groups. It’s dirty tricks of this sort that the CIA does and is well financed by the US government to do. The US will never leave Iraq while there is oil in the ground, as I said [3] in April 2008. I’m amazed that the media and even the US anti-war brigade still have faith that leaving will happen. The US didn’t go there in the first place, nor build its fortresses, in order to leave. As it happens, however, the elections to keep their puppet in place did not go to plan. [...]"  

Congressman Introduces Resolution to Protect Citizens Who Videotape Cops [07/19/10] "A U.S. Congressman has introduced a resolution that would protect citizens who videotape cops in public from getting arrested on state wiretapping charges. Edolphus Towns, a Democrat from New York, introduced the resolution on Thursday, the same day USA Today wrote a scathing editorial denouncing these types of arrests. These types of arrests have become an epidemic throughout the country as more people are carrying some type of video-recording device on them at all times. But the case that has gained the most national attention has been the arrest of Anthony Graber, a National Guardsman who is facing 16 years in prison because he uploaded a video of a Maryland State Trooper pulling a gun on him during a traffic stop. [...]"   

Supreme Court ruling raises bar for corruption, fraud prosecutions [07/19/10] "A Supreme Court ruling last month that gutted an anti-corruption tool favored by federal prosecutors is jeopardizing high-profile investigations into politicians and business executives, including several related to convicted ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to legal experts and new court filings. [...]"   

Mystery Trader Buys All Europe’s Cocoa [07/18/10] "Even Willy Wonka might struggle to use this much chocolate. Yesterday, somebody bought 241,000 tonnes of cocoa beans. The purchase was enough to move the entire global cocoa market, sending the price to the highest level since 1977, and triggering rumours and intrigue in the City. It is unclear which person, or group [...]"    

U.S. To 'Grant' Israel 2.775 Billion In ' Security Aid' [07/18/10] "U.S.. Assistant Secretary of State, Andrew Shapiro, stated Friday that the Washington intend to grant Israel the amount of 2.775 Billion U.S.. Dollars in what was described as the largest military-security aid to Israel. He said that the money is considered a special military-security aid to Israel in order to ensure "its security needs are met under the current circumstances". [...]"  Note: With over 200 nuclear devices ... that isn't that enough?  Everyone knows they're real. Israel is offensive enough without offensive weapons. But ... that's the nature of this specific game. They all suck.

Israel dumps waste on Palestinians [07/18/10] "Israeli settlements have been dumping untreated waste directly into a sewage canal that runs through the occupied West Bank, affecting Palestinian villages along its banks. The hazard posed is compounded by the dumping of toxic chemical waste on agricultural land, with villagers reporting a rash of skin diseases and respiratory problems.  [...]"    

Commentary: Petraeus promotes civil war in Afghanistan [07/18/10] "Obama and his military team recognize that it is less damaging at home, where there is almost no support for this endless occupation, to foment civil war in Afghanistan and pay desperate Afghans to slaughter each other as a means of reducing U.S. casualties. U.S. taxpayers who are experiencing devastating cuts in state and local budgets, layoffs of municipal workers, soaring tuition hikes in public colleges—all because of budget shortfalls—will see billions of their tax dollars go to fund the occupation of Afghanistan and pay the salaries of poor Afghans so that they can shoot other poor Afghans. [...]"  Related: U.K. Ups Aid to Afghanistan  Note: These people are like wind-up robots with the little key in the back that goes around -- reincarnated assholes with rigid predispositions -- who are on 'autopilot' ... 

‘The world won’t say a thing’– Netanyahu on ongoing Israeli expansion [07/18/10] "The Washington Post, and Glenn Kessler, have picked up the story that Netanyahu said that "America is a thing that can be easily moved," back in 2001. Good to have this knowledge inside the Beltway at last. [...]"  

Texas: Court Clears Way for Uranium Mining [07/18/10] "The 10th Circuit cleared the way for a Texas company to seek the last permit it needs to begin extracting nearly 14 million pounds of uranium from the ground near the Navajo community of Churchrock by ruling that the mine operation is not on Indian land. [...]"  Note: Where else, but Texas, source of so much misery on planet Earth. 

94 Doctors, Health Care Workers Charged In Medicare Scams Totaling $251 million [07/18/10] "Elderly Russian immigrants lined up to take kickbacks from the backroom of a Brooklyn clinic. Claims flooded in from Miami for HIV treatments that never occurred. One professional patient was named in nearly 4,000 false Medicare claims. Authorities said busts carried out this week in Miami, New York City, Detroit, Houston and Baton Rouge, La., were the largest Medicare fraud takedown in history – part of a massive overhaul in the way federal officials are preventing and prosecuting the crimes. [...]"     

KBR Wins $35M Pentagon Contract Despite Criminal Probe Into Electrocution Deaths [07/18/10] "Defense contractor KBR Inc. has been awarded a $35 million Pentagon contract involving major electrical work, even as it is under criminal investigation in the electrocution deaths of at least two U.S. soldiers in Iraq. The announcement of the new KBR contract came just months after the Pentagon, in strongly worded correspondence obtained by The Associated Press, rejected the company's explanation of serious mistakes in Iraq and its proposed improvements. A senior Pentagon official, David J. Graff, cited the company's "continuing quality deficiencies" and said KBR executives were "not sufficiently in touch with the urgency or realities of what was actually occurring on the ground." [...]"   

Britain to introduce 'graduate tax' [07/18/10] "Britain's Business Secretary, Vince Cable says the country's graduates should pay more for their university education in the future as part of reforms being studied by the government. [...]"  Note: Penalize excellence and progress ... these people are so stupid ... 

Backlash grows vs. full-body scanners [07/17/10] "Opposition to new full-body imaging machines to screen passengers and the government's deployment of them at most major airports is growing. Many frequent fliers complain they're time-consuming or invade their privacy. The world's airlines say they shouldn't be used for primary security screening. And questions are being raised about possible effects on passengers' health. "The system takes three to five times as long as walking through a metal detector," says Phil Bush of Atlanta, one of many fliers on USA TODAY's Road Warriors panel who oppose the machines. "This looks to be yet another disaster waiting to happen." The machines — dubbed by some fliers as virtual strip searches — were installed at many airports in March after a Christmas Day airline bombing attempt. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has spent more than $80 million for about 500 machines, including 133 now at airports. It plans to install about 1,000 by the end of next year. The machines are running into complaints and questions here and overseas: [...]"    

ATF Agent Charged With 2nd Degree Murder [07/17/10] "An ATF agent is being tried for murder in the U.S. Virgin Islands in a case that has pitted local cops against federal agents, and caused furious U.S. law enforcement authorities to withhold help from local police while crime and gun violence in the popular tourist destination continue to climb. [...]"  

Rust Discovered On Bank Of Russia Issued '999' Gold Coins [07/17/10] "Here's a head scratcher: as everyone knows from elementary chemistry courses, gold is the most inert metal in the world - it does not rust, nor corrode. Yet this is precisely what Russian commercial precious metal trading company, International Reserve Payment System, discovered on thousands of (allegedly) 999 gold coins "St George" (pictured insert) issued by the Central Russian Bank. The serendipitous discovery occurred after various clients of the company had requested that their gold be stored not in a safe, but in a far more secure place: "buried under an oak tree." As the website of IRPS president German Sterligoff notes: once buried, "the coins began to oxidize under the influence of moisture." And hence the headscratcher: nowhere in history (that we know of) does 999, and even 925 gold, oxidize, rust, stain, spot or form patinas, under any conditions. ....  As Zero Hedge has pointed out previously, the Central Bank of Russia has been one of the biggest purchasers of gold in 2010, having bought gold every single month. It would be embarrassing if it were discovered that not only is the bank diluting the gold content once received with oxidizable materials, but subsequently passing it off for 999 proof precious metal. And if this is happening in Russia, one wonder what trickery other Central Banks, with a far lower amount of gold in their vaults, resort to... [...]" Note: Well, it's already the case that gold bars are being replaced by gold-plated tungsten bars ... Note: Gold is the new 'external immortality strategy' for many people and groups out there ... Ha.

Rockefeller NWO blueprint:  predicts 'four future narratives' if life were to go on [07/17/10] "The Rockefeller blueprint for a new world order entitled “Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development,” predicts four future narratives. One narrative in particular, “Hack Attack” outlines a scenario in which Technology is demonized as a criminal weapon prevalent in a world where civilization has all but collapsed. The years 2010 to 2020 were dubbed the “doom decade” for good reason: the 2012 Olympic bombing, which killed 13,000, was followed closely by an earthquake in Indonesia killing 40,000, a tsunami that almost wiped out Nicaragua, and the onset of the West China Famine, caused by a once-in-a-millennium drought linked to climate change.” it continues. The study envisages nation states all over the world literally losing control of their public finances and the ability to retain order and stability with “violence and crime more rampant”. It also envisions global coordination and interconnectedness between nations breaking down altogether to be replaced by proxy wars and low level conflict. [...]"  Note: Notice that the pace of events takes place over 'decades'. None of this will ever happen, at least how it's set out here, for very long, much less decades. Notice also WHICH option the US government has apparently picked. The one with control and manipulation of a population ... the other three would move Earth toward a 'theoretically better position' for sequentialization ... but the current choice is punitive, sadistic and insane ... very dark.

Massive federal sweep rounds up alleged Medicare frauds [07/17/10] "Federal authorities said Friday they are conducting the largest Medicare fraud bust ever in five different states and arrested dozens of suspects accused in scams totaling $251 million. Several doctors and nurses were among those arrested in Miami, New York City, Detroit, Houston and Baton Rouge, La., accused of billing Medicare for unnecessary equipment, physical therapy and HIV treatments that patients typically never received. Ninety-four suspects were indicted, and authorities said 36 people had been arrested as of Friday morning. More than 360 agents participated in Friday’s raids, announced by Attorney General Eric Holder and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at a health care fraud prevention summit in Miami. Officials said they chose Miami because it is ground zero for Medicare fraud. Authorities indicted 33 suspects in the Miami area, accused of charging Medicare for about $140 million in various scams. [...]"   

Judge: Law penalizing ' fake heroes' unconstitutional  [07/17/10] "A law that makes it illegal to lie about being a war hero is unconstitutional because it violates free speech, a federal judge ruled Friday as he dismissed a case against a Colorado man who claimed he received two military medals. Rick Glen Strandlof claimed he was an ex-Marine who was wounded in Iraq and received the Purple Heart and Silver Star, but the military had no record he ever served. He was charged with violating the Stolen Valor Act, which makes it a crime punishable by up to a year in jail to falsely claim to have won a military medal. U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn dismissed the case and said the law is unconstitutional, ruling the government did not show it has a compelling reason to restrict that type of statement. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney in Denver said prosecutors are reviewing the decision and haven't decided whether to appeal. The spokesman said that decision would be made by the U.S. Justice Department in Washington and prosecutors in Denver. [...]"    

What was Washington’s role in the coup against Australian prime minister Rudd? - Australia [07/17/10] "As more information drips out, the role of Washington in the June 24 political coup against former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd looms ever larger. It is increasingly apparent that the Obama administration had become concerned that Rudd was wavering in his support for the crisis-wracked US-led occupation of Afghanistan, and that one of the driving forces for his political assassination may well have been US insistence that the Australian government—a key US ally—align itself unconditionally with Obama’s intensification of the criminal war. Rudd’s replacement, Julia Gillard, has certainly delivered. From the day the coup took place she has stressed her total commitment to the US alliance and the Afghan war. On Monday, in an opinion piece published in major daily newspapers, she repudiated an announcement made by Defence Minister John Faulkner on June 23—just hours before the coup plot against Rudd went into action—that the Labor government would consider withdrawing Australian troops from Afghanistan within two to four years. [...]"  

 U.S. Politics: Clinton Heads To Afghanistan As " US War Fears" Grow [07/17/10] "As concerns grow about the war in Afghanistan, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is heading to South Asia on a mission aimed at refining the goals of the nearly 9-year-old conflict. [...]"  Note:  Clinton, a rabid sequential, is like an old slime mold in the Smithsonian collection of fungi and related motile organisms ... virtually the whole planet wishes she's slither back under the leaves and become compost.

Backer of Hillary, Obama, Kerry heads to prison for bank fraud [07/17/10] "Hassan Nemazee, a multimillionaire Iranian-American investment banker and top Democratic Party fundraiser, was sentenced today to 12 years in federal prison for bank fraud. Nemazee, 60, served as the national finance chairman of Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign before raising more than $500,000 for Barack Obama's campaign. In 2004, Nemazee was New York finance chairman for Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign, a position in which he raised about $500,000 in bundled campaign contributions. Kerry's 2004 presidential-campaign website listed Nemazee as being in the top tier of Kerry's contributors nationwide. Nemazee was one of some 60 people credited with raising $100,000 or more for the campaign, an amount that earned him the designation of vice chairman to Kerry's campaign.  [...]"   

Exposé: NSA Falsified Intercepted Communications in the Gulf of Tonkin Incident [07/16/10] "In an echo of the debates over the discredited intelligence that helped make the case for the war in Iraq, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday released more than 1,100 pages of previously classified Vietnam-era transcripts that show senators of the time sharply questioning whether they had been deceived by [...]" Related: Senators Knew Gulf Of Tonkin Was A Staged False Flag Event

RIAA paid $64m in piracy lawsuits to recover $1.4m [07/16/10] "Ray Beckerman, the New York lawyer famous for fighting the recording industry's many lawsuits against what it alleges are illegal downloaders, has exposed what he says is a major financial flaw in the RIAA's business plan. On his blog, Beckerman found that the actual damages paid back were well below the actual legal expenses. Between 2006 and 2008, over $64 million was spent tracking customers but only extracted $1.36 million in successful lawsuits or settlements. [...]"  RIAA paid its lawyers more than $16,000,000 in 2008 to recover only $391,000  "The RIAA's "business plan" is even worse than I'd guessed it was. The RIAA paid Holmes Roberts & Owen $9,364,901 in 2008, Jenner & Block more than $7,000,000, and Cravath Swain & Moore $1.25 million, to pursue its "copyright infringement" claims, in order to recover a mere $391,000. [...]"   

New Massachusetts law extends censorship to IM, e-mail, Web [07/15/10] "In April, this “harmful to minors” law received a brief update—not more than a couple of paragraphs—but they had profound implications for free expression. The new law extended “harmful to minors” to the Internet. In addition to smutty books, films, pamphlets, pictures, plays, dances, and statues (!), Massachusetts decided that the “matter” which might harm minors should now include: electronic mail, instant messages, text messages, and any other communication created by means of use of the Internet or wireless network, whether by computer, telephone, or any other device or by any transfer of signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, data, or intelligence of any nature transmitted in whole or in part by a wire, radio, electromagnetic, photo-electronic or photo-optical system. The law went into effect yesterday, and today it was challenged in court by the ACLU, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and several booksellers. By going digital, the expanded law suddenly moves away from the shop counter and onto the ‘Net, where it “threatens Internet communications nationwide and even worldwide.” The ACLU argues in its complaint that “due to the very nature of the Internet, virtually every communication on the Internet may potentially be received by a minor and therefore may potentially be the basis for prosecution.” With no easy way to verify anyone’s age, everyone on the Internet must be treated as though they are minors. But what does that mean for material that adults can legally access? “Because Internet speakers have no means to restrict minors in Massachusetts from accessing their communications, the Act effectively requires almost all discourse on the Internet—whether among citizens of Massachusetts or among users anywhere in the world—to be at a level suitable for young children,” says the complaint. “The Act therefore bans an entire category of constitutionally protected speech between and among adults on the Internet” and is unconstitutional. [...]"    

While Haitians Starve, Warehouses Full Of Food Go To Waste [07/14/10] "At an orphanage in Haiti, children sleep on the floor, and their pantry contains only a few cans of beans left. Though the children smile as they sit through their daily classes, trouble is on the way. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who filed a report from this orphanage, was stunned to learn that there were nearby warehouses full of food and supplies that had not yet been distributed, some of it dating back to January. Nearly all of this food had been purchased in previous months by donor contributions. He interviewed Eric Klein from Can-Do, an organization that provides relief to emergency populations. Klein was able to load a truck full of beans and other food from the warehouse and drive it just a few miles down the road to the orphanage. [...]"  Note: This was the LAST TIME people will be suckered into donating funds for some 'disaster relief'. Imagine the 'call for funds' that will come relative to this latest BP incident. 

Cops May Face Death Penalty In Post-Katrina Shootings [07/14/10] "Four New Orleans police officers could face the death penalty after being accused of gunning down two unarmed people in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the latest twist for a corruption-plagued department that already faces several federal investigations. The four officers were charged along with two others in a 27-count indictment unsealed Tuesday. The indictment charges Sgts. Robert Gisevius and Kenneth Bowen, officer Anthony Villavaso and former officer Robert Faulcon with deprivation of rights under color of law and use of a weapon during the commission of a crime. They could face the death penalty if convicted, though U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said prosecutors haven't decided whether to seek that punishment. Five former New Orleans police officers already have pleaded guilty to helping cover up the shootings on the Danziger Bridge that left two men dead and four wounded just days after the August 2005 hurricane that devastated the city. In one instance, a mentally disabled man was allegedly shot in the back and stomped before he died. Prosecutors say officers fabricated witness statements, falsified reports and planted a gun in an attempt to make it appear the shootings were justified. It was a shocking example of the violence and confusion that followed the deadly hurricane. [...]"   Video clip included. 

 Commentary: British Empire Wants Genocide Worse Than Hitler Imagined [07/14/10] "The Royal Consort, Prince "deadly virus" Philip and the hare-brained heir apparent, Prince Charles, have long advocated the reduction of the world's population from its present 6.8 billion to less than 2 billion uncouth peasants to maintain the British Empire's control of the world. Now, the British Royal Society has started a policy group entitled "Population And The Planet" that will advocate radical genocide similar to that of Prince Philip's WWF and Prince Charles. The policy group, announced on "World Population Day," July 11, is, according to the Royal society release, intended to study "the role of global population in sustainable development," and look at "the implications of population decreases, as well as increases that are predicted in different parts of the world." The study is scheduled to be completed by early 2012, "to coincide with the point at which the world's population is expected to exceed 7 billion." Not surprisingly, three of the 23 panelists come from the 20-year-old Optimum Population Trust, which first surfaced in a big way at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference arguing that the solution to the genocidal climate-change hoax was the reduction by 5 billion people, who would consume less of the world's resources. Prince Charles is a "patron" of this genocidal group. Thus, Prince Charles's long-time adviser and friend, Sir Jonathon Porritt, who is also on the board of OPT, has been selected as a panelist. Like Price Charles, Sir Jonathon has a loathing for non-organic food, because it is cheaper and more plentiful and can halt mass starvation. Apart from Sir Johnathon, there are on the panel two other OPT members, including Sir David Attenborugh, who argues that mankind's growth is killing wildlife and insects, and the sooner man is extinct, the better. And, there is OPT patron Partha Dasgupta, who is a professor of Economics at Cambridge University. Chairing the panel is Sir John Sulston, Chair of the Institute for Science, Ethics & Innovation, and head of the fascist-eugenicist Human Genome Project. Demographers have noted that population replacement in high-level consumption areas of the world is declining, [...]"  

Ex-MI6 man admits secrecy breach [07/14/10] "A former MI6 worker says he was "directed by voices" after admitting charges of unlawfully disclosing top secret material. [...]"  

US & British Intel Agencies Are 'Working On A Fake Video To Lead To War With Iran'  [07/14/10] [0:45]  

NY Rep: Investigate Torture or Face Road to "Tyranny" [07/14/10] "A New York Democrat argued that failing to prosecute former Bush administration officials complicit in the use of torture would create a dangerous precedent and place America on a path to "tyranny." In an interview with Raw Story, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) invoked a "supremacy of laws" when critiquing President Barack Obama’s decision to "look forward and not backwards" on his predecessor’s abuses of power. "Those who misuse government power to break the law and subject people to improper pressure or torture ought to be prosecuted," said Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties. "That’s why we have laws." The Brooklyn-born Nadler, who has represented New York City since 1993, has taken a special interest in championing civil liberties during the last decade. He rebukes the Patriot Act. He opposes FISA wiretapping. He rejects the partial suspension of Habeas Corpus to fight terrorism. [...]"   

China web filter hit by problems [07/14/10] "The controversial government-backed Green Dam software project to filter internet content could be on the brink of collapse, reports say. [...]"   

CNN Host Calls Deadly Terror Bombings “Helpful” To NWO Agenda [07/14/10] [1:34] "CNN host Rick Sanchez let slip a telling admission in response to the deadly bombings in Uganda during his show yesterday, the fact that such attacks are “helpful” for the military-industrial complex agenda to take over and occupy third world countries under AFRICOM, the United States African Command... [...]"   

Ratigan to Congressman: Financial Industry "Stealing America's Money...Raping My Country" [07/14/10]   Video clip [8:15]  

Congressman accused of colluding with White House [07/14/10] "The controversy over allegations White House officials at least as high as Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel offered two congressional candidates jobs in return for campaign favors, which apparently would violate the law, is reheating – with a claim that one of the candidates colluded with the White House on what story to tell. [...]"   

Iowa Tea Party group's sign links Obama, Hitler [07/14/10] "A billboard created by an Iowa tea party group comparing President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin is being condemned by other tea party activists. The North Iowa Tea Party began displaying the sign in Mason City last week. The sign includes photos of Obama, Nazi leader Hitler and communist leader Lenin with the statement: "Radical leaders prey on the fearful & naive." [...]"  Note: Great billboard! 

 Commentary: Narcotics Nexus May Be Managing 'Terror War': Rats in Wolves Clothing [07/14/10] By Gordon Duff "... Narcotics provide cover for the war by making it impossible for Afghanistan to ever have a stable government. Drug lords are never going to become responsible tribal leaders. However, they also can’t fly tons of heroin around the world nor can they bank billions of dollars. They need help.  This is what the war supplies, thousands of experts have flooded into the region to train Afghanis to live as free people in a democratic society. Many of these outsiders, some from India, some from Israel traveling under false passports and hired as US contractors, many Americans with security contracting companies and, perhaps government agencies themselves, are involved. What we are keeping quiet is the fact that so much money is flowing out of the region into so many pockets, journalists included, that nothing is reported, nothing is done and training and arming terrorists has become an integral part of maintaining the war. If the war ends, the Taliban might take over and end drug trafficking like they did before. [...]"    

Video: Presidential committee probing BP spill meets [07/13/10] The bipartisan National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling held its second meeting in Louisiana. (NBC News[...]"  They only gave three hours notice to the whole Gulf coast that this meeting, held on a weekday, was happening.  

Fox legal analyst: Bush should have been indicted [07/13/10] "Fox News' senior judicial analyst made some surprising remarks Saturday that may go against the grain at his conservative network.  In a interview with Ralph Nader on C-SPAN's Book TV to promote his book Lies the Government Told You, Judge Andrew Napolitano said that President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should have been indicted for "torturing, for spying, for arresting without warrant." The judge believes that it is a fallacy to say that the US treats suspects as innocent until proven guilty. "The government acts as if a defendant is guilty merely on the basis of an accusation," said Napolitano. Nader was curious about how this applied to the Bush administration. "What about the more serious violations of habeas corpus," wondered Nader. "You know after 9/11 Bush rounded up thousands of them, Americans, many of them Muslim Americans or Arabic Americans and they were thrown in jail without charges. They didn't have lawyers. Some of them were pretty mistreated in New York City. You know they were all released eventually." "Well that is so obviously a violation of the natural law, the natural right to be brought before a neutral arbiter within moments of the government taking your freedom away from you," answered Napolitano. "So what President Bush did with the suspension of habeas corpus, with the whole concept of Guantanamo Bay, with the whole idea that he could avoid and evade federal laws, treaties, federal judges and the Constitution was blatantly unconstitutional and is some cases criminal," he continued. [...]"  Video clip [11:43] included on article page.

Democratic Congressman Loses Temper on Camera when explaining his vote on Obamacare to Constituents [07/13/10] [0:43]  

 Study: Russia drags heels on fighting corruption -needed to 'maintain order' [07/13/10] "Russia has followed less than half of the European Council's Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO) recommendations, an official from the Kremlin told the Vedomosti daily on Monday. Shortly after coming to office in 2008, current Russian President Dmitry Medvedev declared corruption threat number one to modern Russian society and vowed significant tightening of anti-corruption laws in order to eradicate this vicious practice. Two years have passed since then, but Russia has not achieved any significant success in this area yet. The Russian Prosecutor General's Office sent a report on the recently taken anti-corruption measures to GRECO, from which follows that only 12 of its 26 recommendations have been entirely implemented. Among the most substantive changes is that Russia has adopted a strategy on fighting corrupt practices and passed a law on fighting corruption as well as broadened access to information on court proceedings and state organizations for citizens. On the other hand, six recommendations were not carried out at all and eight were followed only partially. Russia has not established a system of administrative courts to consider the appeals of authorities and state organizations. A draft law on establishing this court was passed in a first reading in 2008, but then was shelved for a follow-up revision. ... Russia runs the risk of being negatively evaluated by GRECO because the organization is not interested in listening to promises, an official close to the Presidential Council on Fighting Corruption said. Russia has to implement at least 18 recommendations in order to receive a good evaluation. [...]"  

Depopulation Fanatics, Eugenicists Launch “Objective” Global Population Study [07/13/10]  "The UK's Royal Society is launching a major study into human population growth and how it may affect social and economic development in coming decades. The world's population has risen from two billion in 1930 to 6.8 billion now, with nine billion projected by 2050. The society acknowledges it is delving into a hugely controversial area, but says a comprehensive and scientific review of the evidence is needed.   [...]"  Note: Well, they won't have to worry about populations problems - there won't be any.  

US Politics: The Democrats worst nightmare if the GOP takes over the House? Investigations [07/12/10] "If the Democrats lose the House, they may very well lose not just that sword but also the shield that has prevented inquiring Congressmen from investigating the shenanigans of the Obama administration and its minions in Congress. [...] If there's one congressional aide White House officials might wind up fearing most, it's Larry Brady. He's all but unknown, but Brady is the secret weapon for Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.). As minority staff director of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Brady stands ready to wield almighty subpoena power if Republicans seize control of the chamber in November and make Issa chairman of the panel. Handing subpoena power to Issa and his staff would be the White House's "worst nightmare," says Don Goldberg, a crisis-management expert at Qorvis Communications."   

Iran Guards making ‘astronomical profits’ from sanctions: Opposition leader [07/12/10] "Opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi has said Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards back sanctions against Tehran as they make "astronomical profits" from the punitive measures, a website said on Sunday. "I believe that part of the Iranian rule as well as the Revolutionary Guards are in favour of sanctions as they make gigantic and astronomical profits from them," Karroubi was quoted as saying on opposition website Rahesabz.net. The Guards regularly shrug off international sanctions imposed on Iran for its defiant nuclear programme, with some top commanders expressing willingness to take on projects abandoned by Western companies, including in the energy sector. Karroubi, who steadfastly opposes the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, again blamed the hardliner for the latest sets of sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council, the European Union and the United States. "Imprudence in (Iran's) foreign policy and the lack of political sanity in the actions and political and diplomatic words of the man in charge of the government have imposed high costs on the country," the reformist cleric said in a direct attack on Ahmadinejad. [...]"  

European Court Halts ‘Terror’ Extraditions to US, Citing Human Rights Concerns [07/12/10] "Ruling today at a court in Strasbourg, a European judge has halted the extradition of British-born Babar Ahmad, a computer expert sought by the US since mid 2004, over concerns about the possible human rights violations he could face once turned over to American custody. Ahmad holds the unhappy distinction of being the British citizen held for the longest period of time in detention without a trial, having been arrested in August 2004. He is accused of running websites supportive of terrorism. [...]"  

Research: How the Mossad Tricked US into Bombing Libya [07/12/10] "By the end of March, the Americans were already intercepting messages broadcast by the Trojan, which was only activated during heavy communication traffic hours. Using the Trojan, the Mossad tried to make it appear that a long series of terrorist orders were being transmitted to various Libyan embassies around the world (or, as they were called by the Libyans, Peoples' Bureaus). As the Mossad had hoped, the transmissions were deciphered by the Americans and construed as ample proof that the Libyans were active sponsors of terrorism. What's more, the Americans pointed out, Mossad reports confirmed it [...]"  

APA Wants James Mitchell, Psychologist Who Helped CIA Torture, Stripped Of His License [07/12/10] "The APA has told a Texas licensing board in a letter mailed July 1 that the allegations against Dr. James Mitchell represent "patently unethical" actions inconsistent with the organization's ethics guidelines. [...]"  Related: APA campaigns against CIA ‘torture doctor’ "Psychologists in the United States have been warned by their professional group not to take part in torturing detainees in U.S. custody.  Now the American Psychological Association has taken the unprecedented step of supporting an attempt to  strip the license of a psychologist accused of overseeing the torture of a CIA detainee. The APA has told a Texas licensing board in a letter mailed July 1 that the allegations against Dr. James Mitchell represent "patently unethical" actions inconsistent with the organization's ethics guidelines. [...]"  

Commentary: A Brutal Case of Backwards Justice in America [07/12/10] "Michael Ellner said this about our crazy society: “Just look at us. Everything is backwards. Everything is upside down. Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the major media destroy information, and religion destroys spirituality.” This past week, BART police officer Johannes Mehserle was convicted in State court of involuntary manslaughter in the case of the New Year’s Day 2009 fatal police shooting of an unarmed man, 22-year-old Oscar Grant. The local black community is rightfully outraged, but this is much bigger than race — it’s about how our society defines justice. Strip away all the labels; the fact remains that an armed man shot an unarmed restrained man in the back, period. This case should not be about an alleged black troublemaker and an overzealous white cop. Their race shouldn’t matter; the circumstances of why Grant was detained shouldn’t matter; and Mehserle being a cop shouldn’t matter either. Grant was a sovereign, unarmed, outnumbered, restrained, and harmless American citizen and was shot in the back in cold blood. To make matters worse, Grant was being toyed with by the cops like a domesticated cat does with a mouse before he ultimately rips him to shreds. The scene was unequivocally premeditated first-degree murder. Furthermore, the backup police officers who witnessed, participated in, and lied about the event should also be prosecuted as accomplices, just as you and I would be if we had done the same thing. [...]"  

Fighting talk: The new propaganda [07/12/10] "Journalism has become a linguistic battleground - and when reporters use terms such 'spike in violence' or 'surge' or 'settler', they are playing along with a pernicious game, argues Robert Fisk  [...]"    

Plutonium levels triple previous estimate lie [07/12/10] "The amount of plutonium buried at a U.S. nuclear reservation in Washington state is almost triple what the government had previously reported, officials say. [...]"  

Chicago’s Watchful Eye [07/12/10] "Public art can be pretty weird, but rarely is it as weird as “EYE,” an unblinking, three story tall eyeball that’s now scaring the dickens out of Chicago. Tony Tasset, the artist and eyeball model behind the work, understands as much: “It’s meant to be funny and weird.” It is at least one of those things! The eye, which was painted by hand, constructed with  9000 pounds of fiberglass and 9000 more pounds of steel, and cost, according to a director involved in funding the project, “a little over the six-figures mark,” will be on display on Chicago’s Loop until October 31. On that date, it will become sentient, roll out to the suburbs and scare the shit out of all the trick or treaters [...]  See Video clip [3:05] The Chicago Tribune follows the creation of the highly anticipated public sculpture "Eye", from Sparta, Wis., where sections of the fiberglass sphere were put together, to downtown Chicago, where the assembly was completed. The 30-foot eyeball, designed by Oak Park artist/sculptor Tony Tasset, is on display from July 7 to October 31. "   

The Drums of War? Pentagon Provokes New Crisis With China [07/11/10] "With the arrival of the USS Ohio in the Philippines, the USS Michigan in South Korea and the USS Florida "in the strategic Indian Ocean outpost of Diego Garcia"  on the same day, "the Chinese military awoke to find as many as 462 new Tomahawks deployed by the U.S. in its neighborhood." Just as the Pentagon is moving nuclear submarines under the northern polar ice cap to the Indian Ocean, so it has recently reached an "agreement [that] will allow troops to fly directly from the United States over the North Pole" to Afghanistan and "the region" by way of Kazakhstan, which borders China as well as Russia.  That the U.S. currently has over 60 per cent of the Tomahawk cruise missiles assigned to its Japan-based Seventh Fleet near China emphasizes the qualitative escalation of Washington's show of strength vis-à-vis Beijing. [...]"  

Thousands of Orthodox Jews Protest Netanyahu and the State of Israel [07/11/10] "Masses of Anti Zionist Orthodox Jews demonstrate outside the White House in protest against the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu. [...]"    

Britain dropping census after 2 centuries [07/11/10] "Britain has decided to end the census, the official government population count for more than two centuries, officials say. It's too late to drop the next census, on March 27, 2011, from going ahead at cost to the government of $728 million, British officials said.  [...]"  Note: No, it isn't too late. They could just decide not to do it, and save almost a billion dollars. 

Clintons dealing for $11M Westchester mansion [07/11/10] "Looks like Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton are moving on up -- to a deluxe mansion away from prying eyes. Sources told The Post the Clintons are planning to trade their almost-modest suburban Chappaqua home for a sprawling $10.9 million estate in the bucolic Westchester town of Bedford Hills, complete with 20 acres of gorgeous land surrounded by New York's elite.  The massive compound -- sweetly named Clover Hill Farm -- comes with high fences, two guesthouses and a mansion fit for Bubba's millionaire lifestyle. The home -- found only after a long cruise down a private road -- is 7,000 square feet with a large foyer, wood paneled library with fireplace, chef's kitchen with fireplace, five bedrooms, six full bathrooms and two half bathrooms. [...]"   

U.S. Hijacks ICC conference [07/11/10] "The ICC Review Conference in Kampala last month reached the historic agreement to include the crime of agression under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. However, the United States successfully maneuvred to subvert the process. By obtaining ICC subordination to the decisions of the Security Council where the U.S. wields veto power, Washington has not only further eviscerated the Court, it has in effect guaranteed immunity for U.S. nationals who are guilty of crimes also under this new category. The cases filing before the Court will therefore continue to be mostly criminals from Third World countries designated by Western powers. [...]"  

U.S. secrets smuggled on fake Lady Gaga CD [07/10/10] "A U.S. soldier smuggled classified data from military computers where he was stationed in Iraq on a disc disguised as a Lady Gaga CD, Pentagon officials said.  Officials told The New York Times they discovered the fake disc while investigating Pfc. Bradley E. Manning, 22, who is charged with downloading more than 150,000 diplomatic cables as well as secret videos and a PowerPoint presentation.  Manning allegedly hummed and lip-synched Lady Gaga tunes as he downloaded classified information onto the disc, capable of accepting text, video and other data files at an intelligence center in the desert of eastern Iraq, the Times reported.  The Defense Department banned the use of USB drives and other removable storage devices in 2008 for security but the ban did not extend to CDs. Adrian Lamo, a former hacker who had traded electronic messages with Manning, told the Times the private had expressed unhappiness with the Army and described how he downloaded classified data. Lamo said Manning told of using data-storing CDs tucked inside recognizable music CD cases so he could "bring the data out of the secure room." Manning is accused of downloading and removing the classified data from last November to May. [...]" 

Murdoch, Saudi prince team up to launch ‘Arabic Fox News’ [07/10/10] "Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch has partnered with Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal to launch a new 24-hour news network for the Arab world, a move that has drawn mockery from Murdoch's critics and questions from media experts. [...]"  Note: Sounds like a clusterfuck. 

Coast Guard dispatching ships and personnel to Costa Rica to threaten Nicaragua [07/10/10] "The official reason for Operation Joint Patrol is to combat drug trafficking but few in the Costa Rican opposition and in Nicaragua believe that to be the sole reason. The Joint Patrol operation is being likened to Plan Colombia, which has targeted the governments of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa from Colombian territory."  "It is also believed by WMR’s sources in Costa Rica that Costa Rican Vice President Lieberman, a noted Zionist, has arranged for Israeli special forces to enter Costa Rica in order to participate in operations directed against the government of Nicaragua." [...]"  Related:  Costa Rica’s Opposition Rejects Entry Of US Naval Forces [07/08/10] "As is customary, the US asks for authorization of Costa Rica’s legislature before entry of any US warship and soldiers in Costa Rican waters. And as customary, the Costa Rica legislature grants its permission, as was the case on Friday. The permission allows the entry of 46 US war ships and 7.000 Marines for the balance of the year (July 1 to December 31, 2010). [...]" U.S. Marines to Costa Rica – Has Costa Rica Rolled Over To The US? [07/06/10] "With the massive amount of US military on the way to Costa Rica, has our country rolled over and now admitted that it has lost control of the trafficking of drugs, money laundering and crime in general?  Ever since I can remember Costa Rica has said, “If ever invaded, it´s neighbors would come to its rescue.” In times past that referred to Venezuela, but now we have Chavez and….well that´s another 100 pesos. The new friendly neighbor must be the United States who is sending 46 war ships, 200 helicopters and 7,000 Marines to rescue us from invading drug cartels, smugglers, gangs and God only knows what all because the “mission” has not really been clearly defined. If there is a mission, it has not been made public, or the deployment strategy. For all those promises of transparency by our government, once again we are living in an opaque world and can only make wild assumptions that for sure are going to get bigger and more bizarre. (I wonder what Nobel Peace Laureate, Oscar Arias thinks of all this? We will soon know.) For the last several days the Minister of Security, Jose Maria Tijerino, the anti-drug commissioner , Mauricio Boraschi and of course Presidenta, Laura Chinchilla have been doing a lot of tap dancing to explain this extraordinary, desperate last resort type measure. And before the Marines buy out all the condoms of the world after being told prostitution is legal in Costa Rica, I assure you a bunch of legal challenges before this will ever comes to fruition. Although, in 1999 then President, now on trial for corruption, Miguel Angel Rodriguez signed into law a “Joint Patrol” agreement with the United States to crack down on drug trafficking as well as money laundering. [...]"  

"Hillary Clinton's Latest Lies : Why Has China Stepped Aside?"  Paul Craig Roberts [07/09/10] "The BBC reported on July 4 that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the US ballistic missile base in Poland was not directed at Russia. The purpose of the base, she said, is to protect Poland from the Iranian threat.  Why would Iran be a threat to Poland? What happens to US credibility when the Secretary of State makes such a stupid statement? Does Hillary think she is fooling the Russians? Does anyone on earth believe her? What is the point of such a transparent lie? To cover up an act of American aggression against Russia? In the same breath Hillary warned of a "steel vise" of repression crushing democracy and civil liberties around the world. US journalists might wonder if she was speaking of the United States. Glenn Greenwald reported in Salon on July 4 that the US Coast Guard, which has no legislative authority, has issued a rule that journalists who come closer than 65 feet to BP clean-up operations in the Gulf of Mexico without permission will be punished by a $40,000 fine and one to five years in prison. The New York Times and numerous journalists report that BP, the US Coast Guard, Homeland Security, and local police are prohibiting journalists from photographing the massive damage from the continuing flow of oil and toxic chemicals into the Gulf. On July 5 Hillary Clinton was in Tbilisi, Georgia, where, according to the Washington Post, she accused Russia of "the invasion and occupation of Georgia." What is the point of this lie?  [...]"  Note: Observation: Hillary is a sequential cuntish freak ... Bill Clinton is a simultaneous incarnation ... look what being married to her did to him ... of course, it would depend on what the meaning of 'did' is ... and what the meaning of 'is' is ...

Supreme Court Justice's Nephew Assaulted By Hospital Security [07/09/10] "Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is reportedly "outraged" after security guards at a New Orleans-area hospital were accused of punching and tasing his epileptic nephew, a news report states.  Derek Thomas was admitted to West Jefferson Hospital in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, Thursday, after a possible suicide attempt, reports ABC affiliate WGNO. When the Supreme Court justice's nephew refused to put on a hospital gown and said he wanted to leave the hospital, doctors ordered security to restrain him. Security guards "punched him in his lip, pulled out more than a fistful of his dreadlocks and tasered him to restrain him," a statement from Thomas' family said. Shortly afterwards, family members say, Thomas suffered a "massive epileptic seizure." The station reported that an "outraged" Justice Thomas is headed to Louisiana to look into his nephew's condition. Members of Derek Thomas' family are trying to have him transferred to another hospital, but as of Friday afternoon, he was reportedly still a patient at West Jefferson. [...]"     More

Netanyahu: "Israel a Stabilizing Force in Middle East" [07/09/10] "Contrary to what some believe, Israel is actually the greatest source of stability in today's Middle East, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said this week while speaking at the Council of Foreign Relations. [...]"  Note: Only someone totally delusional would believe that Israel is a source of 'stability' for anything, anywhere on the planet.  Netanyahu should return to Poland, from whence he came, and leave Israel. He's an idiot.

US-Russia spy swap at Vienna airport [07/09/10] "Russia and United States Friday staged their biggest spy swap since the Cold War at Vienna airport with 10 agents deported by US authorities and four imprisoned in Russia thought to have been exchanged.  Special Russian and US flights which took the spies to the Austrian capital took off within 15 minutes of each other after staging the dramatic swap.  In a statement, a source in the Russian intelligence services said: "The Russian citizens previously arrested in the United States have taken off on a Russian plane from Vienna for the motherland."  A US jet carrying the 10 members of a Russian spy ring caught in the United States arrived from New York and parked next to a Russian Emergency Situations Ministry jet believed to have brought four Russians jailed for working for Western nations.  The main doors to the two jets were hidden from media gathered at Vienna airport hoping for a sight of the glamorous Anna Chapman and a top Russian armaments expert who were among the group. [...]"  

New CENTCOM commander once called shooting Arab men ‘a hell of a lot of fun’ [07/09/10] "US Defense Secretary Robert Gates named General James Mattis on Thursday as the new head of US Central Command, or CENTCOM, which has overall control of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mattis, whose appointment must be confirmed by the Senate, replaces General David Petraeus, who took over direct command of the faltering Afghan conflict after his predecessor was fired for giving a damaging magazine interview. The naming of Mattis was unlikely to skirt the issue, however, with Gates having to immediately defend an on-camera 2005 interview in which the general said: "Actually, it's a lot of fun to fight. You know, it's a hell of a hoot. "You go into Afghanistan; you've got guys who slap around women for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway, so it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." [...]"  Note: Idiot.

FBI Expands Probe In Fraud At Holocaust Claims Conference [07/09/10] "The Federal Bureau of Investigation has widened its probe into allegedly fraudulent Holocaust-era claims that could have bilked the German government out of millions of dollars, The Jewish Week has learned. The fraud was discovered in December by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany in New York, which processes Holocaust-era claims for survivors in behalf of the German government. It immediately contacted federal authorities, including the FBI. The fraud initially involved claims submitted to the Hardship Fund but has now been broadened to include the Article 2 Fund, a pension program that may have been defrauded out of about $7 million over the last decade. [...]"   

Former Congressman Calls Obama A Greater Threat To The U.S. Than Al-Qaeda Or The Soviets [07/09/10] "Tancredo, long a favorite of conservative Republicans, sought to reinforce to Buck supporters the importance of their efforts by arguing that President Obama constitutes a greater threat to the American way of life than any foreign enemy the U.S. has faced. "The greatest threat to the United States today, the greatest threat to our liberty, the greatest threat to the Constitution of the United States, the greatest threat to our way of life; everything we believe in. The greatest threat to the country that our founding fathers put together is the man that's sitting in the White House today." [...]"  Note:  Video clip  [2:13]

Merck to Cut 16,000 Workers as Drugmaker Closes 16 Plants, Labs [07/09/10] "The world's second largest drugmaker, said Thursday it plans to close eight manufacturing plants and eight research facilities around the world in its bid to save $3.5 billion a year. [...]"  Note: Merck has been around since the 1600's I think ... 

Rangel Legislation: Mandatory Military Service For ALL Americans 18-42 yrs old [07/08/10] "Rep. Charles Rangel yesterday again called for bringing back the national draft -- right at the Times Square recruiting station. [...]"  Note: When will these twisted, death-oriented, sequential psychopathic people just DIE? If they're looking for opposition ...

 Israel: U.S. president tells Channel 2 Israel is unlikely to attack Iran without coordinating with the U.S. [07/08/10] "U.S. President Barack Obama told Channel 2 News on Wednesday that he believed Israel would not try to surprise the U.S. with a unilateral attack on Iran. In an interview aired Thursday evening, Obama was asked whether he was concerned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would try to attack Iran without clearing the move with the U.S., to which the president replied "I think the relationship between Israel and the U.S. is sufficiently strong that neither of us try to surprise each other, but we try to coordinate on issues of mutual concern." [...]"  

Boeing eyeing export of new F-15 to South Korea [07/08/10] "Boeing is hoping to win an export license to sell its new F-15 Silent Eagle to South Korea within a month, the company has said. [...]"  Note: Maniac death-for-profit sequentials

Heat wave exposes decrepit infrastructure in US, Canada [07/08/10] "A major heat wave in the eastern US and parts of Canada has further exposed the decrepit state of infrastructure in North America and the perilous conditions created by private ownership of utilities. [...] The situation in New York City is particularly telling. Con Edison’s operations have now suffered major blackouts numerous times in recent years, including 1999, 2003, 2006, and 2010.  This would appear surprising in the nation’s largest and richest city, except that the purpose of energy giants such as Con Edison is in fact not to deliver energy, but profit. Con Edison reported net income of $226 million in the first quarter of 2010 alone. This enormous sum is primarily distributed to shareholders and executives—CEO Kevin Burke was paid nearly $9 million in 2009, according to Businessweek."  

Lieberman’s Internet ‘Kill Switch’ Bill Hits Roadblock [07/08/10] "It appears that the effort to pass a cyber-security bill is going to get a bit more tough then expected. Late last month, officials from Cisco, IBM and Oracle sent a letter to the main sponsors of the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, S. 3480 — Senators Joe Lieberman (DI-Conn.)  [...]"     

US Politics: Steele Galvanizes Neocon Hawks [07/08/10] "Michael Kinsley famously defined a gaffe as “when a politician inadvertently tells the truth.” That being the case, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele’s comment that the war in Afghanistan is unwinnable definitely qualifies as a gaffe. Steele’s July 1 remarks, caught on camera and posted on the web, did include a stretching of the truth to say that the war in Afghanistan “was a war of Obama’s choosing. This is not something the United States has actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in.” The war, of course, began shortly after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, under President George W. Bush. Nevertheless, Steele is correct insofar as Obama both campaigned on ramping up the Afghan war and followed through on it after assuming office — long after it had become obvious to everyone but the neoconservative hawks who are now out for Steele’s shiny scalp that the war is unwinnable.  Referring to President Obama, Steele said, “If he's such a student of history, has he not understood that, you know, that's the one thing you don't do is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? All right? Because everyone who's tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed. And there are reasons for that. There are other ways to engage in Afghanistan.”  Steele is, of course, correct on that count (ask the British and the former Soviets), which is the real reason the neocons are out to get him. Mistakenly attributing a disastrous Bush war to Obama is a pardonable offense; accurately characterizing it as a disaster is not. Thus, leading neocon Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard called for Steele’s resignation, saying that Steele’s “comment is more than an embarrassment. It’s an affront, both to the honor of the Republican party and to the commitment of the soldiers fighting to accomplish the mission they’ve been asked to take on by our elected leaders.” [...]"    

Collusion Alleged for Natural Gas Rights [07/08/10] "Vantage Energy, The Carlyle Group and others defrauded dozens of Texas landowners by offering lucrative deals for mineral rights in the Barnett Shale natural gas formation - $27,500 per "net mineral acre" - then failing to pay up, the landowners say in eight new complaints in Fort Worth. [...]"    

Uncle Sam Bends Over for Big Coal [07/08/10] "Truckling to Big Coal, the federal government refuses to designate the Powder River Basin a "coal production region," though 42 percent of U.S. coal is mined there, environmentalists say. Uncle Sam is giving the coal away at rock-bottom prices and letting private industry write its own ticket, avoid competitive leasing and duck environmental laws, WildEarth Guardians claims in Federal Court. [...]"   

'US training Iran-bound MKO spies' [07/08/10] "The US military forces in Iraq are training 150 members of a terrorist organization at a military base in the war-ravaged country, informed sources say. [...]"  

 U.S. Politics: LaRouche Announces The Role He'll Play "In A Post-Obama Administration" [07/08/10] "Economist and leading statesman Lyndon LaRouche kicked off the July 6th edition of the LaRouche Political Action Committee (LPAC) Weekly Report with a special announcement, that is bound to send shockwaves through the political landscape in the United States.  Referring to the dialogue he held with U.S. leading economists, and representatives of China, Russia, and India on April 29 — a dialogue which appears in the July 2 edition of EIR Online and on the LaRouche PAC website — LaRouche declared that the program he outlined in that event formed the basis of an operating agreement, a program, which would kick in immediately upon the constitutional removal of President Obama from office. LaRouche began his discussion this way:  "This particular event, has proven to be one of the most important strategic developments in recent times, because it is established, not just for those persons, but with institutions in general, a pattern, which sets the pace for what would follow, if the impeachment or ousting of President Obama were to occur on time.  "Under those conditions, as I now know what they are, I would play a key role in a post-Obama government, not as a member of the government, but as an advisor with many connections, pulling many strings together, to advise on how we bring the world out of the present mess. "The dangerous part of this: If that does not occur somewhere between late July and late September, the United States will disintegrate. Europe will probably disintegrate before the United States, Western Europe. The Atlantic region as a whole will disintegrate. And then, as a result of the degree of collapse of the world economy, in the trans-Atlantic region, the trans-Pacific and Indian Ocean region will collapse, too. This would bring on a prolonged new dark age, after which, probably we will have, instead of 6.8 billion people on this planet, we will have less than 2. That's the process." [...]"  Note: There will be no more 'administrations'. There is no time. This administration's period of influence will probably not even be completed. LaRouche is correct in many things. He's a normal guy WITHOUT the real context of reality on a higher level.

US gives 'secret guarantee' to Israel [07/08/10] "The United States has secretly given a "written guarantee" to Israel that obliges Washington to sell Israel nuclear fission materials, Israeli sources say. The materials will be used to "produce electricity," Israeli Army radio, which is an official Israeli news source, reported. Washington has also vowed to "publicly announce" that Israel is a responsible entity and can "contain its capabilities."  [...]"  Note:  All obvious, transparent lies to anyone who knows history, and Israel. Fissionable materials are at least 90% enriched. Power materials are considerably less enriched -- so it's a open lie. Related:  Analysis:  'Secret' document confirms US-Israel nuclear partnership " According to Army Radio, the US has reportedly pledged to sell Israel materials used to produce electricity, as well as nuclear technology and other supplies.” This information appeared as the lead article in yesterday’s Haaretz. The article went on to say, “Israel’s Army Radio reported on Wednesday that the United States has sent Israel a secret document committing to nuclear cooperation between the two countries . [...]"   

Corbett Report: No First Amendment, UK Surveillance, Hello Dubai [07/08/10] [10:54]  Link & title updated to new July 8th program.  

US airline 'loses Netanyahu guards' guns' [07/08/10]  "Four guns belonging to security guards accompanying Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington disappear in transit. [...]"  Bibi Back at the White House — The Consistency of Israeli Duplicity Comes Ever More Clearly in Focus "With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visiting the White House July 6th, it’s time to recall how Tel Aviv deceived Washington throughout the entirety of the U.S.-Israeli relationship. [...]"    

"Lieberman: US Prepared to Strike Iran to Stop Nuclear Weapons" [07/08/10] "The United States may be forced to launch an attack on Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities if diplomatic efforts and economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic fail, Sen. Joseph Lieberman said Wednesday after a meeting with Israeli officials in Jerusalem. [...]"  Note: What a bunch of horse shit. Lieberman is NUTS.  So is the other Lieberman, the former nightclub bouncer, the Foreign Minister of Israel.  

Israeli says no one will question them if they attack Iran "The Guns of August in the Middle East?" [07/08/10] "Uzi Arad, Israeli prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security advisor, speaking before the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem June 22 on his belief that the “international community” would support an Israeli strike at Iran: “I don’t see anyone who questions the legality of this or the legitimacy.” [...]"   

Iran's president: US a global 'dictatorship' [07/08/10] "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says that the U.S. is a "dictatorship" as it tries to control world affairs. [...]"  Note:  I'd say, as with everything else in the universe, "the proof is in the pudding".

 LaRouche: Social Disintegration of America Is Getting To Be Obvious [07/08/10] "A pair of columns yesterday, by Eugene Robinson in the Washington Post, and John Crudele in the New York Post, are reflecting a broad acknowledgement that Lyndon LaRouche is absolutely right in focusing on the human tragedy unfolding, as President Obama presides, Nero fashion, over the total disintegration of life in America, as we have known it. Crudele, in a regular Post column titled "Gaga over recession worry," slammed the Obama economic team for lying through their teeth about the so-called private sector job-creation, which is a total fabrication.  [...]"   

$325 Million in Bribery Settlements [07/07/10] "An Italian construction firm and its former Dutch subsidiary will pay $325 million to settle civil and criminal complaints that it bribed Nigerian officials with briefcases full of cash to win construction contracts. ENI, of Italy, and Snamprogetti Netherlands paid more than $180 in bribes to get contracts to build liquefied natural gas plants in Nigeria, the SEC said. [...]"   

Monsanto Loses Bid to Halt Soy Meal Imports [07/07/10] "Monsanto, the world's largest seed company, cannot use a European patent on its Roundup Ready soybeans to block Dutch companies from importing soy meal from Argentina, Europe's top court ruled. [...]"   

Number of Afghans Gone AWOL in U.S. Reaches 46 [07/07/10] "A be-on-the-lookout alert issued last month for 17 Afghan military men who walked away from an Air Force base in Texas has turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg. No fewer than 46 members of the Afghan military have gone absent without leave from the Defense Language Institute’s English Language Center at Lackland Air Force Base in recent years, FoxNews.com has learned. [...]"   

Prison Planet: New York National Guard Units Scan Vehicles For Gun Confiscations Paul Joseph Watson [07/07/10] "The New York National Guard is working with local law enforcement authorities to perform sophisticated scans of vehicles entering the New York area looking for guns and drugs in the latest alarming example of how America is under a state of de facto martial law. [...]"  

Prison Planet: Polish Troops Train To Take On American “Terrorists” Paul Joseph Watson  [07/07/10] "Law enforcement and military officials were keen to play down the presence of Polish troops during the recent Operation Vigilant Guard exercises in Chicago, but claims that the foreign personnel were there merely as “observers” were proven incorrect after they were filmed participating in drills which revolved around terrorism and mass casualty disasters. Infowars reporters Rob Dew and Jason Douglass traveled to Chicago to document the increasing integration of foreign troops with American military and civilian authorities. [...]"  Note:  Easier for foreigners to shoot Americans than our own? Of course.

Police to probe fake death announcements [07/07/10] "U.S. Capitol Police opened an investigation into false reports of the deaths of at least three Democratic senators in the past few days. Several news outlets received a fake e-mail news release announcing the death of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who was alive and well and attended Independence Day activities, Politico reported Tuesday. "It was spoofed to look as if it had come from the office," Leahy spokesman David Carle said. Similar hoax e-mails reported the deaths of Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., a member of the Appropriations Committee who recently announced he beat back a form of stomach cancer, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who serves on the Judiciary and Appropriations committees, the senators' offices said. [...]"  

Russia and US 'planning spy swap' [07/07/10] "Reports from Russia suggest a prisoner swap is being organised to bring 10 suspected Russian spies back from the US. [...]"  

Syria's Assad warns that war is near [07/07/10] "  Peace in the Middle East is a long way off because of the simmering dispute between Israel and Turkey, the Syrian president said in Madrid. Syrian President Bashar Assad met with Spanish leaders in Madrid following his tour last week of Latin America. The president said during his meeting that "the prospect of war grows" in the Middle East because of lingering disputes between Israel and Turkey, The Jerusalem Post reports.[...]"   

Turkey slams Israeli FM [07/07/10] "Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu says his Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman does not have the qualifications to accomplish relations with Turkey. [...]"  Note:  After all, he is only a former nightclub bouncer. Very volatile and not much intelligence.

McChrystal probe of US Spec Ops killings excluded key eyewitnesses [07/06/10] "The follow-up investigation of a botched Special Operations Forces (SOF) raid in Gardez Feb. 12 that killed two government officials and three women, ordered by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal Apr. 5, was ostensibly aimed at reconciling divergent Afghan and U.S. accounts of what happened during and after the raid. That implied that the U.S. investigators would finally do what they had failed to do in the original investigation - interview the eyewitnesses. But three eyewitnesses who had claimed to see U.S. troops digging bullets out of the bodies of three women told IPS they were never contacted by U.S. investigators. The failure to interview key eyewitnesses, along with the refusal to make public any of the investigation's findings, continued a pattern of behaviour by McChrystal's command of denying that the SOF unit had begun a cover-up of the killings immediately after the raid. Both the original report of the U.S. investigation and initial NATO report on the Feb. 12 night raid in Gardez remain classified, according to Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale, the officer who was spokesman for McChrystal on the issue before the general was relieved of his command Jun. 23. [...]"   

U.S. citizen sentenced in China [07/06/10] "A Chinese court in Beijing Monday sentenced a Chinese-born American geologist to eight years in prison for allegedly "breaking state secrecy laws". Despite U.S. pleas for leniency, Xue Feng, who had spent about 30 months in jail before his trial started, was found guilty on a charge stemming from the purchase of a database on the Chinese oil industry, The New York Times reported.  Xue, 44, who reportedly has a heart condition, said during his detention he had been tortured with lighted cigarettes.  U.S. Ambassador John Huntsman, who was in the court during sentencing, said in a statement the U.S. government is dismayed by the ruling and remains concerned about Xue's rights and well-being, the Times reported. "Now that the Chinese legal system has ruled, I believe the time has come for Dr. Xue, who has already been detained for 2 1/2 years, to be released," the statement said. The Times said Xue was sentenced under a vague secrecy law, which has been used to prosecute cases involving military espionage and information leaks. Xue was detained in 2007 after concluding a purchase contract for a Colorado-based energy consulting firm for a database on the Chinese oil industry. [...]"  

Finnish Nuclear Engineer, Who Pushed Dubious Iran Nuclear Weapons Intel, Resigns [07/06/10] "Olli Heinonen, the Finnish nuclear engineer who resigned Thursday after five years as deputy director for safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was the driving force in turning that agency into a mechanism to support U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran. Heinonen was instrumental in making a collection of intelligence documents showing a purported Iranian nuclear weapons research programme the central focus of the IAEA’s work on Iran. The result was to shift opinion among Western publics to the view that Iran had been pursuing a covert nuclear weapons programme. But his embrace of the intelligence documents provoked a fierce political struggle within the Secretariat of the IAEA, because other officials believed the documents were fraudulent. Heinonen took over the Safeguards Department in July 2005 – the same month that the George W. Bush administration first briefed top IAEA officials on the intelligence collection. The documents portrayed a purported nuclear weapons research programme, originally called the “Green Salt” project, that included efforts to redesign the nosecone of the Shahab-3 missile, high explosives apparently for the purpose of triggering a nuclear weapon and designs for a uranium conversion facility. Later the IAEA referred to the purported Iranian activities simply as the “alleged studies [...]"   

BP Asks Europe Ops Not To Refuel Iranian Airlines [07/06/10] "BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) has instructed its European operations not to refuel Iranian airlines after U.S. President Barack Obama signed sanctions targeting Iran's gasoline supplies, people familiar with the matter said Monday. The document ordered a ban on refueling for several Iranian airlines, including Iran Air, the people said. "It's due to a decision from the U.S. Congress," one person said. But not all non-U.S. companies have decided to enforce the sanctions when it comes to refueling. A spokesman for Dubai's airport told AFP on Monday that Iranian passenger planes are still able to refuel at the airport. [...]"  

Environmentalist Faces 3 Years for Hanging Banners [07/06/10] Note:  For the outrageous crime of hanging two banners in the Senate’s Hart office building, environmentalist Ted Glick could get up to 3 years in jail. The U.S. attorney’s office has asked for triple the normal maximum penalty, because Glick has made a habit of speaking his mind and, apparently, that’s just criminal. The activist has been arrested on 16 previous occasions, reports Raw Story, for nonviolent protests. He anticipated consequences for his actions, but was surprised to learn that Barack Obama’s Justice Department would take it this far. Glick says he is being punished for not accepting a plea bargain which would have carried a mandatory 30-day jail sentence. He refused the deal because he was “unwilling to accept that anyone should go to jail for 30 days for hanging a banner.

Rand Paul and the "Right to Work for Less" [07/06/10] "The Rand Paul campaign was really proud of the $2500 their campaign received from the National Right to Work for Less Committee. Of course there is a very good reason for that. The National Right to Work Committee is an extremist group and as we all have seen Rand Paul is an especially extremist candidate. He opposes the right of Americans to have and maintain a middle-class and falls into the most helpless realm of corporate apology and welfare condoned by his new mentor, Mitch McConnell. The difference is, Rand Paul was undisciplined enough to tell you how Republicans really feel about you. [...]"  

British Playing Empire Games, Pushing Israel Attack on Iran with Saudi Complicity [07/05/10] "Senior U.S. intelligence sources have confirmed reports in the Israeli press, that several Israeli Defense Force planes, without Israeli markings, have landed in Saudi Arabia in recent weeks, indicating that there is a common view among some Persian Gulf Sunni states and Israel, that a near-term attack on Iran's purported nuclear weapons program may be necessary. According to the source, the United States and Saudi Arabia reached a secret agreement, at the outset of the Obama Presidency, allowing [...]"  

Ecuador discovers 100-foot-long drug smuggling submarine [07/05/10] "The Drug Enforcement Administration said Saturday it has helped seize a submarine capable of transporting tons of cocaine. DEA officials said that the diesel electric-powered submarine was constructed in a remote jungle and captured near a tributary close to the Ecuador-Colombia border. Ecuadorean authorities seized the sub before it could make its maiden voyage. The sophisticated camouflaged vessel has a conning tower, periscope and air-conditioning system. It measured about nine-feet-high from the deck plates to the ceiling and stretched nearly a 100 feet long. The DEA says it was built for trans-oceanic drug trafficking. One person has been taken into custody. DEA Andean Regional Director Jay Bergman said the sub's nautical and payload capacity is a serious development. Colombia's drug cartels have been known to use home-built submarines to smuggle large amounts of cocaine past U.S. and Colombian patrol boats to Central America en route to the United States. [...]"  

Flashback:  Rule by fear or rule by law? [07/05/10] "Since 9/11, and seemingly without the notice of most Americans, the federal government has assumed the authority to institute martial law, arrest a wide swath of dissidents (citizen and noncitizen alike), and detain people without legal or constitutional recourse in the event of "an emergency influx of immigrants in the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs."  Beginning in 1999, the government has entered into a series of single-bid contracts with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to build detention camps at undisclosed locations within the United States. The government has also contracted with several companies to build thousands of railcars, some reportedly equipped with shackles, ostensibly to transport detainees. According to diplomat and author Peter Dale Scott, the KBR contract is part of a Homeland Security plan titled ENDGAME, which sets as its goal the removal of "all removable aliens" and "potential terrorists." Fraud-busters such as Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, have complained about these contracts, saying that more taxpayer dollars should not go to taxpayer-gouging Halliburton. But the real question is: What kind of "new programs" require the construction and refurbishment of detention facilities in nearly every state of the union with the capacity to house perhaps millions of people? [...]"  Note:  "The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government ." - Winston Churchill, Nov. 21, 1943

Concepts and Practices: Aldous Huxley versus George Orwell  [07/05/10] "A comparison between Brave New World and 1984. This chart puts into perspective that both dark visions might be true at the same time, 1984 and Brave New World were written as warnings to the people of what might become. Looks like they were right. [...]"  Note:  Cute comic book graphic motif.

U.S. Gives Israeli Spy Asylum  [07/04/10] [3:56]  "Homeland Security drops push to deport Mosab Hassan Yousef, convicted of spying for Israel, because he would be killed, as being a former member of Hamas.  Note:  See Israel link on Special Articles panel for related stories. 

Trends: Clinton: Activists Being Crushed By 'Steel Vise' Around The World [07/04/10] "Intolerant governments across the globe are "slowly crushing" activist and advocacy groups that play an essential role in the development of democracy, Clinton said. She cited a broad range of countries where "the walls are closing in" on civic organizations such as unions, religious groups, rights advocates and other nongovernmental organizations that press for social change and shine a light on governments' shortcomings. Among those she named were Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Venezuela, China and Russia. [...]"  Note: She forgot the USA, UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, Israel, etc. ... the G20 ... and the whole '3rd world'. Related:  Report highlights political persecution in Indonesia "Despite efforts to portray Indonesia as “democratic” following the fall of the Suharto dictatorship in 1998, a recent Human Rights Watch report demonstrates the government’s continuing abuse [...]"   

Government Insiders: Get Ready for the Gulf "Dead Zone" [07/04/10] "federal officials dealing with the short- and long-term impact of the oil disaster report that the "dead zone" created by a combination of methane gas and Corexit toxic rain will force the evacuation and long-term abandonment of cities and towns within the 200-mile radius of the oil volcano. Plans are being put in place for the mandatory evacuation of New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Mandeville, Hammond, Houma, Belle Chase, Chalmette, Slidell, Biloxi, Gulfport, Pensacola, Hattiesburg, Mobile, Bay Minette, Fort Walton Beach, Panama City, Crestview, and Pascagoula.  [...]"  Note:  See Oil & Environment link on Special Articles panel for related stories. 

TSA to Block “Controversial Opinion” on the Web from its employees [07/04/10] "The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is blocking certain websites from the federal agency’s computers, including halting access by staffers to any Internet pages that contain a “controversial opinion,” according to an internal email obtained by CBS News. The email was sent to all TSA employees from the Office of Information Technology on Friday afternoon. It states that as of July 1, TSA employees will no longer be allowed to access five categories of websites that have been deemed “inappropriate for government access.”  The categories include: • Chat/Messaging • Controversial opinion • Criminal activity • Extreme violence (including cartoon violence) and gruesome content • Gaming. The email does not specify how the TSA will determine if a website expresses a “controversial opinion.” There is also no explanation as to why controversial opinions are being blocked, although the email stated that some of the restricted websites violate the Employee Responsibilities and Conduct policy. The TSA did not return calls seeking comment by publication time. [...]"  

U.S., Poland sign revised missile deal (For Fabricated Reasons) [07/04/10] "U.S. and Polish officials said an amended deal to put American missile interceptors in Poland is "designed to protect against the growing Iranian nuclear threat". [...]"  Note: Which, of course, is absolute bullshit, and the world knows it. These people think everyone takes their 'movie' seriously.

Fatah accuses Hamas of torture [07/04/10] "Fatah officials accused Hamas of torturing Fatah activists in Gaza during the weekend in the largest offensive against Fatah in months. [...]"  Note: Israeli plan: Keep them fighting amongst themselves in Gaza. Related:  Commentary: Hamas as a Creation of Mossad [06/10/10] "Thanks to the Mossad, Israel's "Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks", the Hamas was allowed to reinforce its presence in the occupied territories. Meanwhile, Arafat's Fatah Movement for National Liberation as well as the Palestinian Left were subjected to the most brutal form of repression and intimidation Let us not forget that it was Israel, which in fact created Hamas. According to Zeev Sternell, historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, "Israel thought that it was a smart ploy to push the Islamists against the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO)". [...]"   

U.S. pledges $15 million in 2012 to preserve site of concentration camp [07/03/10] " Hillary Clinton says the US will donate $15m tto the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, pending congressional authorization and appropriations, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said as she warned of "global threats to democracy." If approved, the donations would begin in 2012.

Ex-MI5 agent: Russian spy ring story pure propaganda [07/03/10] [4:43]  "Moscow and Washington say they hope FBI arrests of alleged Russian agents will not affect relations between the two. The controversy comes just after a meeting between the U.S. and Russian Presidents. Former MI5 officer Annie Machon says an inside game among U.S. intelligence agencies could be behind the timing of these arrests. [...]" 

House Democrats ‘Deem’ Faux $1.1 Trillion Budget ‘as Passed [07/03/10] "Last night, as part of a procedural vote on the emergency war supplemental bill, House Democrats attached a document that "deemed as passed" a non-existent $1.12 trillion budget. The execution of the "deeming" document allows Democrats to start spending money for Fiscal Year 2011 without the pesky constraints of a budget. Never before -- since the creation of the Congressional budget process -- has the House failed to pass a budget, failed to propose a budget then deemed the non-existent budget as passed as a means to avoid a direct, recorded vote on a budget, but still allow Congress to spend taxpayer money. [...]"  Note: Illegal and unethical. 

Nudge on Arms Further Divides U.S. and Israel [07/03/10] "At an annual meeting to review the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in May, the United States yielded to demands by Arab nations that the final document urge Israel to sign the treaty — a way of spotlighting its historically undeclared nuclear weapons. [...]"   

Dangerous Crossroads in World History: Obama’s New Iran Sanctions: An Act of War [07/03/10] "When the UN refused to agree to the severe sanctions that the U.S. wanted, Obama responded with typical Bush flair and went solo. The new U.S. sanctions against Iran — signed into law by Obama on July 1st — are an unmistakable act of war.  If fully enforced, Iran’s economy will be potentially destroyed. The New York Times outlines the central parts of the sanctions: “The law signed by Mr. Obama imposes penalties on foreign entities that sell refined petroleum to Iran or assist Iran with its domestic refining capacity. It also requires that American and foreign businesses that seek contracts with the United States government certify that they do not engage in prohibited business with Iran.” (July 1, 2010). Iran must import the majority of its oil from foreign corporations and nations, since it does not have the technology needed to refine the fuel that it pumps from its soil. By cutting this refined oil off, the U.S. will be causing massive, irreparable damage to the Iranian economy — equaling an act of war. In fact, war against Japan in WWII was sparked by very similar circumstances. [...]"  Note: In order to purposely start WWII, and purposely sacrifice those at Pearl Harbor, the same way that 3000 people were sacrificed when the Mossad carried out the 9/11 attacks on the U.S.

The Political Whores of Washington [07/03/10] "Congress represents the core of political corruption in America, where a few Jewish tycoons have thoroughly corrupted the American political discourse, by transforming most of America’s politicians into willing political whores without any modicum of moral conscience, readily bowing before Jewish money and Jewish pressure. [...]"   

S. Korea rejects N. Korea's call for joint inquiry into sinking [07/03/10] "North Korea has called for a joint investigation with South Korea into the sinking of a South Korean navy vessel last March, but the proposal was quickly rejected by Seoul. [...]"  Note: Because the evidence indicates South Korea sunk the ship. 

 Report: How Goldman Gambled on Starvation [07/02/10] "By now, you probably think your opinion of Goldman Sachs and its swarm of Wall Street allies has rock- bottomed at raw loathing. You’re wrong. There’s more. It turns out that the most destructive of all their recent acts has barely been discussed at all. Here’s the rest. This is the story of how some of the richest people in the world – Goldman, Deutsche Bank, the traders at Merrill Lynch, and more – have caused the starvation of some of the poorest people in the world. To understand the biggest cause, you have to plough through some concepts that will make your head ache – but not half as much as they made the poor world’s stomachs ache. For over a century, farmers in wealthy countries have been able to engage in a process where they protect themselves against risk. Farmer Giles can agree in January to sell his crop to a trader in August at a fixed price. If he has a great summer, he’ll lose some cash, but if there’s a lousy summer or the global price collapses, he’ll do well from the deal. When this process was tightly regulated and only companies with a direct interest in the field could get involved, it worked. Then, through the 1990s, Goldman Sachs and others lobbied hard and the regulations were abolished. Suddenly, these contracts were turned into “derivatives” that could be bought and sold among traders who had nothing to do with agriculture. A market in “food speculation” was born. [...]"  Note:  See Food Resources link on Society and Living panel for related stories.    

US Politics: Calls for GOP chief’s head after he says Afghanistan is ‘war of Obama’s choosing’ [07/02/10] "Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has developed a reputation for political gaffes, but his words at a Republican fundraiser Thursday are being described as "the biggest gaffe of all."   Speaking to a crowd of Connecticut Republicans about the Afghanistan war, Steele said, "Keep in mind again, federal candidates, this was a war of Obama's choosing. This is not something the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in."  Steele went on to say that President Obama was "trying to be cute" when he argued during the 2008 presidential campaign that the Iraq war was a distraction from the anti-terrorist effort in Afghanistan.  "Well, if [Obama is] such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that's the one thing you don't do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan?" Steele asked. "Because everyone who has tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed. And there are reasons for that. There are other ways to engage in Afghanistan." Steele also said he found the controversy over Gen. Stanley McChrystal's disparaging comments about the Obama administration "comical."  "It's a reflection of the frustration that a lot of our military leaders have with this administration and their prosecution of the war in Afghanistan," he said. The notion that the Afghanistan war, which was launched in October, 2001, by the Bush administration in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, was "a war of Obama's choosing" stunned political observers and angered Steele's GOP allies. [...]"  Note: Because it's the truth, and that's against policy. 

'Big losses' if Russia halts Iran's S-300s [07/02/10] "Russia stands to lose billions of dollars in arms and aerospace deals with Tehran if the Kremlin sticks to its guns and refuses to deliver powerful S-300 air-defense missiles under an $800 million deal, the Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily has warned. [...]"  Note:  Russia has picked up defense deals with Israel.

Americans are Hanging on by their Fingertips  by Dennis Kucinich  [07/02/10] [2:13]  "In Cleveland, where I come from, unemployment is devastating our community. People are demanding that their government, our government, recognize the suffering of families who have lost jobs and can’t find work.”  “Will Washington tell my constituents and people like them, all over America, ‘We have money for war but no money for the unemployed? We have money for military contractors but no money for the unemployed? We have money, billions, for corrupt foreign governments but no money for our unemployed in the United States? We have money for tax cuts for the wealthiest of Americans but no money for the unemployed? Hundreds of billions for Wall Street but no money for the unemployed?’  “Instead, the out-of-work, poor, and middle class get lectures on balancing the budget, lectures on pay-fors. What are people supposed to do when they don’t have budgets because they don’t have money? When they can’t pay for food, shelter, and clothing? Yes, we need jobs, but people out of work can’t find a job and they have to survive. People need unemployment benefits because they have to pay for their mortgage, their rent, their utility bills. So many Americans are hanging on by their fingertips. Some exhort our constituents, ‘pull yourselves up by your boot straps.’ What if you don’t have money to buy boots?” said Kucinich." [...]"   

Arrest over US consulate killing [07/02/10] "Mexican police say they have arrested a gang leader responsible for killing three people connected to the US consulate. [...]"   

Dubai admits nuclear material being shipped through its ports [07/02/10] "Officials have accepted for the first time that the country is being used as a transit point for smuggling both money and illegal goods.  The admission comes as part of a drive to crack down on underground trade ties with Iran. In the last week, the authorities have staged raids on dozens of firms regarded as fronts for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Dubai, and frozen 41 Iran-linked bank accounts. And at a meeting of the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism in Abu Dhabi, a senior figure revealed the extent of the trade in weapons and “dual-use” goods. Hamad al-Kaabi, ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said new laws relating to the trade in nuclear and dual-use goods had “led to the shutting down of dozens of international and local companies involved in money laundering and proliferation of dual use and dangerous materials”. The goods included some whose trade was banned by United Nations regulations aimed at nuclear non-proliferation. “Security forces have interdicted scores of ships suspected of carrying illicit cargo and seized numerous sensitive shipments that could be used for the manufacture of weapons systems, including specialised aluminium sheets, titanium, high-speed computers and sophisticated machine tools.” Titanium is a key component in long-range missiles. Export to Iran of both titanium and specialised aluminium is banned under United Nations sanctions. [...]"   

Rights group probes US agencies on foreknowledge of Israeli flotilla raid [07/02/10] "What did we know, and when?  That's the gist of a series of Freedom of Information Act requests filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights, which hopes to learn more about any American involvement in or foreknowledge of the deadly flotilla raid that left nine peace activists dead, including a young, unarmed American citizen who was reportedly shot four times in the head.  "One U.S. citizen was killed, others were injured, detained and had their property taken, and a U.S.-registered vessel seized by Israel during its attack in international waters last month," CCR attorney Katherine Gallagher said in a media advisory. "Serious questions remain unanswered about the U.S. response to the attack, its actions and policies, particularly in the context of the blockade of Gaza, internationally condemned as illegal and unjust. Citizens need to know their government will protect their rights under U.S. and international law vis-à-vis a foreign government, including Israel—the biggest recipient of U.S. aid over the last fifty years." The group's FOIA requests target information possibly held by the U.S. Central Command, Navy, State Department, Defense Department, Justice Department, Homeland Security, European Command and the Coast Guard. The full documents were made available online. [...]"   

 LaRouche:  GOP Hypes Repeal of Nazi Health Care Bill, but Avoids Ouster of Obama [07/02/10] "... The real reason for this manuever by the GOP leadership is the population's hatred of Obama for the Nazi health care policy. Boehner has repeatedly cited the fact that "the majority of Americans" oppose Obamacare, as the reason that he will support these repeal measures. But, the mass strike won't be bought off by empty gestures that don't stop the Nazi policy. [...]"     

Exposé:  UK Firm Octel Bribed Iraqis to Keep Buying Toxic Fuel Additive [07/02/10] " The former chief executive of a British chemical company faces the prospect of extradition to the US after the firm admitted million-dollar bribes to officials to sell toxic fuel additives to Iraq.[...]"  

Argentina plans S. Atlantic oil prospecting to counter Falklands [07/02/10] "Argentina will start drilling for hydrocarbons in an offshore region close to the South Atlantic waters of the British-controlled Falkland Islands, officials said.  Plans for the start of a $150 million exploration for oil and gas by a group of companies were announced as Buenos Aires said its sovereignty claim over the Falklands had won support of China. There was no independent confirmation of reported Chinese comments that Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman interpreted as Beijing's support for Argentina's claim on the South Atlantic islands, a British overseas territory. [...]"  Note: A territory that really isn't theirs. It's half a world away from England. There's no longer a "British Empire".  

238 presidential scholars: Bush worst president of modern era, fifth worst in US history [07/02/10] "It's one thing for a coterie of liberals at a late-night Washington soirée to say that George W. Bush was the worst president in their lifetimes.  It's another thing when the same is said by the nation's 238 leading presidential scholars, who have been polled annually for the last 28 years. President Bush ranked worst among modern presidents -- and the fifth worth in history, according to the poll by the Siena Research Institute. Ranking first? President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who led the country from 1933 until his death in 1945. President Barack Obama, who hasn't yet served a full term, rated 15th. [...]"  Note:  Obama is just a vacuous talking head, as opposed to a stupid talking head with Bush. As far as administrations are concerned, the Obama is an extension of the Bush.

Lindsay Graham Apologizes "For Not Being Gay" [07/02/10] "I know it's really gonna upset a lot of gay men -- I'm sure hundreds of 'em are gonna be jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge -- but I ain't available. I ain't gay. Sorry." [...]"  Note:  Yeah, right. Hundreds. People are lining up.

UK:  Foul play revealed in death of weapons inspector Dr David Kelly [07/02/10] "In Britain, dramatic new testimony has emerged in the death of UN weapons inspector Dr David Kelly. A female colleague says Kelly couldn’t possibly have committed suicide, because Kelly had a hand and arm injury and was too weak to have cut his own wrist. [...]"  Note:  Well, we had the figured out after it happened. It's so obvious.

Turkey: Secret meeting with Israel unsuccessful [07/02/10] "The meeting between Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Israeli Trade and Industry Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer took place in Brussels on Wednesday. Turkey wants Israel to apologize for the Flotilla raid, agree to UN inquiry into the incident, pay compensation, and end the blockade of the Gaza Strip in order to mend relations between the two countries [...]" 

Commentary: The Cancer of Democracy [07/02/10] "As a signatory of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights the United States is obligated by international law to provide a mechanism for remedy for victims of miscarriages of justice. Yet the Obama administration continues to hide behind the state secrets privilege to block attempts at litigation. The essence of the government’s position is that US national security would be jeopardized by holding the government’s actions up to public scrutiny. [...]"   

Commentary: Guns of August in the Middle East? [07/02/10] "Crazy talk about the Middle East seems to be escalating, backed up by some pretty ominous military deployments. The rhetoric is getting steamy, the weapons are moving into position, and it is beginning to feel like “The Guns of August” in the Middle East. [...]"  

‘Out of Afghanistan Caucus’ pledges to keep voting ‘no, no, no’ on war funds [07/01/10] "A group of US lawmakers allied with the White House called Thursday for an end to the Afghan war, labeling it an unwinnable drain on US "blood and treasure" and comparing it to Vietnam.  "Every dollar spent and every life wasted in Vietnam was just that: A waste," said Democratic Representative Jerrold Nadler. "Afghanistan is the same. Every dollar we spend, every life we waste is a waste." Some 21 lawmakers have joined the "Out of Afghanistan Caucus" opposing continued combat operations there, according to one of the group's leaders, Democratic Representative John Conyers. The revolt against President Barack Obama's strategy to turn around the faltering campaign came as the House of Representatives was expected to pass a bill to pump another 37 billion dollars into the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Recent polls have found the US public deeply pessimistic about the Afghan war, with some surveys finding a majority say it was not worth fighting, and growing numbers backing a US pull-out almost nine years after the October 2001 invasion. [...]"   

IAEA deputy director general resigns [07/01/10] "The International Atomic Energy Agency confirms the resignation of a top nuclear inspector in charge of the UN agency's efforts to ensure global non-proliferation. [...]" 

MSM: "U.S. has not developed a plan to keep bomb materials from crossing border" [07/01/10] "Five years after Department of Homeland Security officials vowed to block the importation of radioactive materials that could be used to make a bomb, they still have not closed security gaps at U.S. borders, according to government auditors and researchers.  The failure to develop a strategic plan has delayed the creation of a "global nuclear detection architecture" that would guide a variety of federal agencies that share responsibility for preventing terrorists from detonating a nuclear bomb in the United States, the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, has found. [...]"  Note: This story could be a bit of 'propaganda conditioning" as a part of the beginning of a 'backstory' line for an upcoming false flag, I suppose. Keep the 'mini-nuke' meme going in society.

Investigations: White House Interferes with New York Times Investigation of Supreme Court Nominee Elena Kagan [07/01/10] "Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained documents from Hunter College High School regarding a White House effort to deny New York Times education reporter Sharon Otterman access to Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s brother Irving, who currently teaches at the New York school. Otterman requested and received permission from both the school and Irving Kagan to attend one of Mr. Kagan’s constitutional law classes before White House Deputy Press Secretary Joshua Earnest intervened. “I’m definitely not comfortable with that at this point,” Earnest wrote to Ms. Otterman on May 11, 2010. [...]"   

Iran 'sent Syria advanced radar' [07/01/10] "Iran has given Syria an advanced radar system that could "threaten Israel's air supremacy in the region", a US report says. [...]"  

Class Action Suit Calls Apple iPhone4 Defective [07/01/10] "Apple knows its new iPhone 4 is defective, and that normal use causes it to lose connectivity, but rather than recall it, "Apple has chosen to blame its customers for holding the phone incorrectly," a class action claims in Federal Court. [...]"   

'I don't believe in god,' says Australia's first female PM [07/01/10] "Julia Gillard told ABC radio in Melbourne that she was not prepared to go through ‘religious rituals’ for the sake of appearances. Ms Gillard added: ‘I am, of course, a great respecter of religious beliefs, but they are not my beliefs. ‘For people of faith, I think the greatest compliment I could pay them is to respect their genuinely-held beliefs and not to engage in some pretence about mine.  [...]"  

Commentary: Israel: A Suicidal, Apartheid State  By John Mearsheimer [07/01/10] "The bungled assault on the Mavi Marmara, the lead ship in the flotilla, shows once again that Israel is addicted to using military force yet unable to do so effectively. One would think that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would improve over time from all the practice. Instead, it has become the gang that cannot shoot straight. [...]"   

FEMA Employees Misuse Agency Credit Cards by Nearly Quarter-Million Dollars [07/01/10] "One employee used a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) credit card to buy $4,318 in “Happy Birthday” gift cards. Two other FEMA officials charged the cost of 360 golf umbrellas -- $9,000 -- to the taxpayers. Other FEMA officials used funds allocated for disaster relief in Oklahoma to buy 19 portable ceramic heaters for the office at a cost of $1,098.  [...]"  

IL: After Sadistic Chicago Cop's Conviction, Demands For Answers From Daley [07/01/10] "Burge was found guilty of two counts of obstruction of justice and one count of perjury. The conviction comes two decades after complaints first emerged against Burge but does not answer why the system protected him for so long. "This case is not about Jon Burge,’" said Francine Sanders, who authored a report on Burge’s torture for the police Office of Professional Standards. "It's about a system, a culture, a sickness in human nature that allows things like this to happen." The city's mayor, Richard M. Daley, was the Cook County State’s Attorney in the 80s when the abuse occurred. Mary Mitchell, a prominent columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, maintains he owes the city “further explanation” of how Burge was able to get away with torture. [...]"    

Investigations: New ACLU Video on Targeted Killings [07/01/10] Video clip [3:47]  "The United States' targeted killing program grants the CIA and the military unchecked authority to hunt and kill individuals, including U.S. citizens, far away from the battlefields in Iraq, and Afghanistan — potentially anywhere in the world. It remains entirely secret who can be targeted, what other limits (if any) are placed on the CIA and the military, and how the program is overseen. The ACLU believes that the program is unlawful, and has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit asking the government to disclose the legal basis for its use of predator drones to conduct targeted killings overseas, in addition to other basic information about the program. [...]"  Related:  Ron Paul Speaks On Senate Floor On Targeted Killings [9:42]  

 Commentary: Popcorn and beans, depleted uranium and Raytheon [07/01/10] "In Tucson, peace vigils expose the most censored issues in the world, including the United States use of drones for random assassinations, drones which are killing civilians in mass. The United States use of depleted uranium and radioactive weapons ranks among the top most censored issues in the world.  These vigils have exposed the role of Fort Huachuca Army Intelligence Center in southern Arizona in Abu Ghraib torture and the production of the School of Americas torture manuals used in Central and South America. Besides being the hub of the US Border Patrol, whose agents target with abuse Indigenous Peoples and all people of color, Tucson is home to Raytheon Missiles. Raytheon is a war profiteer with a manufacturing plant on the Navajo Nation's commercial farm, where popcorn and beans are grown. While maintaining peace vigils in Tucson, Felice and Jack Cohen publish the Nuke Resister. The current peace vigils expose Davis Monthan Airforce Base and Raytheon Missiles. [...]"   

Cybersecurity Measures Will Mandate Government “ID Tokens” To Use The Internet [07/01/10] "The move to shut down and regulate the Internet under a new government- controlled system has accelerated into high gear with the announcement that the government’s cybersecurity strategy revolves around issuing Internet users with ID “tokens” without which they will not be able to visit websites, the latest salvo against web freedom which, in combination with Senator Joe Lieberman’s ‘kill switch’ bill, will serve to eviscerate the free Internet as we know it. Under the guise of “cybersecurity,” the government is moving to discredit and shut down the existing Internet infrastructure in the pursuit of a new, centralized, regulated world wide web. [...]"  

"Experts": "Terrorists probing, planning for new aviation attacks" [07/01/10] " [...]"  Note: At this point, ONLY the STATE terrorizes it's population. These people are making all this shit up, and instituting false flags, to justify their Homeland Security-related jobs and the bureaucracies being generated. 

Political Theatrics: "We Can’t Afford War" [07/01/10] "General Petraeus is a military man constantly at war with the facts,” began the MoveOn.org attack ad against Gen. David Petraeus back in 2007, after he had delivered a report to Congress on the status of the war in Iraq. George W. Bush was president, and MoveOn was accusing Petraeus of “cooking the books for the White House.” The campaign asked “General Petraeus or General Betray Us?” on a full-page ad in The Washington Post. MoveOn took tremendous heat for the campaign, but stood its ground. [...]"