tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43645456411125682042024-03-05T21:36:33.852-05:00The Good Guys Will Win Haall your symbolism belongs to us nowA. Peasanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01929646095992796530noreply@blogger.comBlogger4524125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4364545641112568204.post-90651153430973996332021-11-21T18:53:00.000-05:002021-11-21T18:53:16.751-05:00Germany<p>https://gemmaodoherty.com/head-of-east-germanys-largest-hospital-throws-himself-off-building-after-admitting-covid-is-a-scam-11/</p><p>God bless the German people for the mind-fucking they've been through over the past century.</p><p>Lest anyone be on a high horse: If you ever wondered if you would have been a "Good German" in WWII, Now You Know.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>A. Peasanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01929646095992796530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4364545641112568204.post-46026798590074269782021-09-02T08:49:00.001-04:002021-09-03T08:43:19.302-04:00ways to die<div style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">People drown in their NYC basements, clowns demand Green New Deal</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqBQdTbgFOA6jFaNrkaZiYo5WQXdfLh-jFwALgZMWFUyvtAXIFJUJ8zEoryV9fQEAZXsLh_N5BmdrnDYTychGwhvQmMVToruhT2Ui1UPfEiXXGz1v8wsBC4JsCJ-vOmiIGOT_yAxSgiPA/s932/NEW-tornado-alert.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="524" data-original-width="932" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqBQdTbgFOA6jFaNrkaZiYo5WQXdfLh-jFwALgZMWFUyvtAXIFJUJ8zEoryV9fQEAZXsLh_N5BmdrnDYTychGwhvQmMVToruhT2Ui1UPfEiXXGz1v8wsBC4JsCJ-vOmiIGOT_yAxSgiPA/s320/NEW-tornado-alert.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>"until 1am"<br /><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_dYV6KXiIAxppgJ3k4j7G6JYB-SHHistkqEVyyisy7gbW9LXNINYMM6MeKpMYKUD5Lg6tdReAqQq9FrvP603TEauGqyGlOmwaOCSR7Kfn-Glvnl2s4IK5nclunBos3pLNAPCiDW5ceQY/s1086/Screen+Shot+2021-09-02+at+7.58.54+AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="812" data-original-width="1086" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_dYV6KXiIAxppgJ3k4j7G6JYB-SHHistkqEVyyisy7gbW9LXNINYMM6MeKpMYKUD5Lg6tdReAqQq9FrvP603TEauGqyGlOmwaOCSR7Kfn-Glvnl2s4IK5nclunBos3pLNAPCiDW5ceQY/s320/Screen+Shot+2021-09-02+at+7.58.54+AM.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />Ida triggers heavy flooding and a tornado in NJ. National Weather Service issues a series of warnings for flash floods and tornadoes. Several people in NYC go to their basements (to avoid dying in the tornado per the NWS alert instructions?) and are trapped by flash floods. They are found drowned after midnight. News outlets fail to highlight the peculiar tragedy of why exactly these people went to their basements in the first place, <b><span style="font-size: medium;">instead promote clowns calling for the green new deal. Ghouls.</span></b></div><div style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://nypost.com/2021/09/02/nyc-storm-floods-kill-4-trapped-in-basements/" target="_blank">read about i</a>t</div><div style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">A half a million overdose deaths later, Purdue Pharma dissolved. Sacklers pay $4.5B for permanent immunity.</div><div style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span face="Roboto, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-weight: 700;">Purdue Pharma, manufacturer of the OxyContin drug that has been blamed for the US opioid crisis, will be dissolved under a plan approved by a federal judge on Wednesday.<br /></span>However, the Sackler families that founded and profited from the company will largely be shielded from further penalties, though they will pay $4.5 billion to settle the many lawsuits over the sale of <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/tag/opioid-crisis/" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a7e3; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_self">opioids</a>.<br />"Purdue will cease to exist, and substantially all of its operating assets will be transferred to a newly formed company with a public-minded mission of addressing the opioid crisis," the drug maker said in a statement.<br />Facing an avalanche of litigation, Purdue in October pled guilty to three criminal charges over its aggressive drive to push sales of the highly addictive prescription painkiller, which stoked a nationwide addiction crisis and caused more than 500,000 overdose deaths in the <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/tag/usa/" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a7e3; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_self">United States</a> over the past 20 years.<br />...<span face="Roboto, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">However, Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced he will appeal the plan, calling it "flawed" and "inadequate."</span></div><p style="background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;">"This order lets the Sacklers off the hook by granting them permanent immunity from lawsuits in exchange for a fraction of the profits they made from the opioid epidemic -- and sends a message that billionaires operate by a different set of rules than everybody else," Ferguson said. </p><div style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20210901-sackler-family-wins-immunity-from-future-opioid-lawsuits" target="_blank">read more</a></div><div style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="t-content__body u-clearfix" style="background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px auto 20px; max-width: 850px; padding: 0px;"><div class="m-interstitial" style="-webkit-box-pack: center; border: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; float: right; justify-content: center; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="m-interstitial__ad" data-readmore-target="" style="-webkit-box-pack: center; border: none; box-sizing: content-box; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; justify-content: center; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; width: 300px;"></div></div></div>A. Peasanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01929646095992796530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4364545641112568204.post-43640566382113060632021-08-30T09:26:00.002-04:002021-08-30T15:52:27.075-04:00leaking into a stream?<h2 style="text-align: left;">Update: t<a href="https://wvmetronews.com/2021/08/28/truck-that-crashed-on-i-79-was-carrying-moderna-vaccine/" target="_blank">ime check</a></h2><div style="text-align: left;">This source reports the accident happened at 4am instead of 1:44am. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #29292c; font-family: Cabin, -apple-system, system-ui, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 18px;">According to authorities, doses of Moderna vaccine bound for a foreign country were on the truck that crashed in the bridge construction zone on I-79 northbound just south of the Goshen Road exit at around 4 a.m. Friday...</span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #29292c; font-family: Cabin, -apple-system, system-ui, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 18px;">The West Virginia Center for Preparedness helped recover the vaccine, but it is unknown how much was saved.</span></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Also notable, the air space restriction was to prevent the locals from flying drones around.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">h/t <a href="https://t.me/toresaysPlus" target="_blank">Tore Says +</a> on 8/29/21</h2><h2 style="text-align: left;">Tractor-trailer carrying Moderna covid "vaccines" crashes in a flurry of coincidences...</h2><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Yahoo Sans", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.8; margin: 0px 0px 0.8em;"><span style="color: #1d2228;">Aug. 27—MORGANTOWN — A portion of the Interstate 79 northbound lanes will be closed for most of Friday after a wreck caused a tractor-trailer to go over an embankment, according to MECCA 911 officials. </span><span style="color: #e06666;"><b>The incident occurred at 1:44 a.m. at mile marker 144</b></span><span style="color: #1d2228;"> near the Monongalia and Marion county line.</span><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Yahoo Sans", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.8; margin: 0px 0px 0.8em;"><span style="color: #e06666;">The tractor-trailer was carrying Moderna COVID-19 vaccines to be <i>sent as aid to a foreign country,</i></span><span style="color: #1d2228;"><i> </i>according to a release from the Monongalia County Sheriff's Office. Deputies were dispatched to the scene.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Yahoo Sans", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.8; margin: 0px 0px 0.8em;">The driver of the truck lost control, struck a concrete barrier and the tractor-trailer went down an embankment about 30 feet before landing on its side. The release says the driver was trapped inside the vehicle, had to be extricated and was treated for minor injuries at Ruby Memorial Hospital.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Yahoo Sans", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.8; margin: 0px 0px 0.8em;"><span style="color: #1d2228;">The release goes on to say that the </span><span style="color: #e06666;">Monongalia County Hazmat Team responded and reported that roughly 50 gallons of oil and anti-freeze spilled, l<b>eaking into a nearby stream.</b></span><span style="color: #1d2228;"><b> </b>The West Virginia Division of Highways safety officer was also contacted and dispatched to the scene.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Yahoo Sans", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.8; margin: 0px 0px 0.8em;">No other vehicles were involved in the wreck. Along with the sheriff's office, Triune-Halleck, Clinton District, Winfield District (Marion County), West Virginia DOH and Mon EMS were on scene.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Yahoo Sans", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.8; margin: 0px 0px 0.8em;">All traffic is being detoured to W.Va. 73. Southbound traffic is not affected.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Yahoo Sans", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.8; margin: 0px 0px 0.8em;">There is no update as to when the interstate will reopen, as of Friday afternoon. Monongalia County Emergency Management will update its Facebook page when it does.</p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.yahoo.com/now/portion-79-remain-closed-most-023300254.html" target="_blank">source </a></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">There's no stream in that area, according to the google maps. Also, fifty gallons of oil and anti-freeze are way too many gallons even for a tractor-trailer.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">HINT HINT HINT?</span></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.wboy.com/emergencies/i-79-north-to-remain-closed-most-of-friday-in-mon-county-after-tractor-trailer-accident/" target="_blank">more</a></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: lora, georgia, times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Northbound lanes of I-79 are still closed at this time, however the Monongalia County Hazardous Incident Response Team is on scene.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: lora, georgia, times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The incident happened in the bridge construction area of I-79 at 1:44 a.m., but the roadway is still closed at this time.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: lora, georgia, times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #ea9999;">According to a member of the hazardous response team, airspace in the area near the accident is being restricted at this time.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: lora, georgia, times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Still on scene are the Triune-Halleck Volunteer Fire Department, Monongalia County Hazardous Incident Response Team, West Virginia Division of Highways crews and Marion County fire departmenta, according to the Mon County Communications Center.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: lora, georgia, times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #e06666;">The driver of the vehicle was transported to a local hospital and has been cleared, officials said.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: lora, georgia, times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #ea9999;">12 News has a reporter on scene, however, the hazardous response team will not allow anyone near the area of the accident.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: lora, georgia, times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #ea9999;">Communications center officials stated that there is a truck en route to offload the materials from the site of the accident.</span></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3t1RP6FPDTLe6WUrfygpBQmKzmP6Y01vx916Q213VWAuyv7Vi1JlulfAcFI592-wo1futohWDBapwNOecLCiZ42pGs1wjd7yqWOV9WTXDIQeYlZIMkxc_-sZl25eeVx6uwzM-GFA6Z-8/s528/moderna1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="432" data-original-width="528" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3t1RP6FPDTLe6WUrfygpBQmKzmP6Y01vx916Q213VWAuyv7Vi1JlulfAcFI592-wo1futohWDBapwNOecLCiZ42pGs1wjd7yqWOV9WTXDIQeYlZIMkxc_-sZl25eeVx6uwzM-GFA6Z-8/s320/moderna1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxMHmWwZKGY5kyrDQKDZ5DyIZZPxx0vXEK2NMZgEOtZAI6iCH_f9hGPvqQx43QptOzcdYGTTW_ejwzJMSodvIGAHMLhs6gcJskRyjSyFA14wsgMGDp8yBTACoQMlXA2AUIuOiNwEexQyc/s740/moderna2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="740" data-original-width="541" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxMHmWwZKGY5kyrDQKDZ5DyIZZPxx0vXEK2NMZgEOtZAI6iCH_f9hGPvqQx43QptOzcdYGTTW_ejwzJMSodvIGAHMLhs6gcJskRyjSyFA14wsgMGDp8yBTACoQMlXA2AUIuOiNwEexQyc/s320/moderna2.jpg" width="234" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.thedaonline.com/news/coronavirus/tractor-trailer-carrying-covid-19-vaccines-crashes-in-mon-county/article_2ecd59c6-0771-11ec-aea0-7f0745992c9c.html" target="_blank">source</a> - kind of miraculous how you really can't confirm a damn thing from these pics.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Airspace is restricted so no pics from above either. Sorry kids.</div><p><br /></p>Probably nothing, but we're parking it here because there are many interpretations with these strange numbers, coincidences and curiosities. If we are to go <a href="https://decodingsymbols.wordpress.com/">this route</a>, we might conclude that some whistleblowers have come forth, or something along those lines?<p></p><p>STREAM = WATER = INFORMATION FLOW</p><p>So, maybe: ABOUT 50 GALLONS <span style="color: #ffa400; font-size: large;">[A VERY LARGE AMOUNT]</span> OF HAZARDOUS <span style="color: #ffa400; font-size: large;">[INCRIMINATING]</span> MATERIAL <u><span style="color: #ffa400; font-size: large;">LEAKED</span></u> INTO A NEARBY STREAM FROM THE TRUCK CARRYING THE PRECIOU$ "VACCINES" THAT WERE HEADED TO HELP AN UNNAMED FOREIGN COUNTRY. <span style="color: #ffa400;">THE DRIVER OF THE VEHICLE HAS BEEN CLEARED.</span></p><p>just a thought. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /> <p></p>A. Peasanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01929646095992796530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4364545641112568204.post-16537785392819220212010-11-04T09:38:00.000-04:002010-11-04T09:38:02.360-04:00the fuzzy logic of useful idiots<span style="font-size: large;"><em>This guy is just outstanding. - ed.</em></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><em>http://neithercorp.us/npress/?p=898 </em></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><em>By Giordano Bruno</em></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><em>Neithercorp Press</em> – 11/03/2010</span><br />
It hurts to be wrong. Not just emotionally, but physically, especially when it’s public, like swimming headfirst into a school of very ill-tempered jellyfish…..or maybe piranha. The horror of it is almost cinematic. The more artificially pumped your ego, or the more brainwashed with academic pretension, the more terrifying that moment of realization is, that moment when all your assumptions are dashed aside like a three-year-old’s alphabet blocks. To a certain point, it is understandable why so many people live in such violent denial, however, this does not detract from the perils of that denial…<br />
Americans are masters of avoiding responsibility for bad assumptions. I have seen middle-aged women cry, actual tears, because they have been proven incorrect on something as simple as the price of dishwashing detergent at the grocery store. I have seen full-grown men throw wild-eyed tantrums and even threaten people with death because they couldn’t handle being wrong about the correct score of a football game. I once saw a man froth at the mouth and shout vicious obscenities for 20 minutes straight because he refused to believe there where more than three ‘Jaws’ movies (I wish ‘Jaws: The Revenge’ didn’t exist either, but I’m not going to have a spasm over it). I have seen little old ladies physically attack people because they were embarrassed to be wrong, not realizing that their response was far more humiliating and self deprecating than just being “mistaken”. I have, indeed, seen the glory of overgrown babies in action. <br />
America is not the only culture prone to this, Americans just happen to be the worst losers. We lash out when we are wrong, while most Europeans tend to intellectualize ideas that challenge their false perceptions, as if they are “above” even considering them. They are masters of rationalizing the facts away, while we are masters of brutalizing those people who are messengers of the facts.<br />
Some of these unfortunate members of our society are merely lemmings; sheep following each other mindlessly without questioning the purpose or the destination. They are spectators in world events, and nothing more. While others are far more dangerous because they take an active role in the shaping of events, not knowing that their idiocy is contributing to the suppression of the truth and even the downfall of our nation. They help elitists to dismantle dissent and in the process damage their own future. It sounds insane, and in a way, they ARE psychologically ill, but in a manner that has been deemed tolerable (or even practical) by society. We call these people “Useful Idiots”.<br />
How does one know when he has encountered such a person? How does he cope? Let’s examine some of the telltale signs of the useful idiot…<br />
<strong>Just Smart Enough To Be Stupid…</strong><br />
Learning is a full time job, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, until the very moment your ticker tocks and you find yourself sporting a cloud and a harp. Some people, though, seem to think that retirement on learning starts at around age twenty. Useful idiots are commonly men and women who are intelligent enough to retain information but not driven enough to research its validity, or to follow a thought through to its logical conclusion. They very often work in professional fields such as law, business, medicine, politics, engineering, media, entertainment, etc. (though there are many others in these fields who are not caught up in their own delusional worlds). These are people in a position to influence others just by the virtue of their work, regardless of how clueless they actually are. <br />
Lacking knowledge is not such a terrible crime as long as you are willing to admit that you do. There is always someone out there who is going to know more than you about some things, if not many things. That’s life. Useful idiots, on the other hand, are rarely willing to admit that they are lacking in any department. They usually have just enough knowledge to make themselves “convincing” to those who don’t recognize them for what they are. In this way they are a sort of mini-Chernobyl, waiting to spew radioactive waste (disinformation) at any given moment, mutating public opinion. <br />
Their ability to think is limited to memorization. The problem with this way of viewing the world is that it excludes critical thought, intuition, empathy, and wisdom. It traps us in a box composed of all the things we have been TAUGHT, but keeps us from the things we could discover on our own. Useful idiots are walking talking toasters; all they take is bread, and all they make is toast (and the occasional pop tart). Frankly, I’m bored with toast.<br />
One need only take into account the vast number of so called financial analysts in the mainstream media who denied there was any threat of economic collapse back in 2006/2007. How many of them stopped to consider the consequences of ignoring the facts because of their egomania and inability to think beyond their conditioning? How many lives and nest-eggs have been destroyed, or are waiting to be destroyed, because of them? How many of these useful idiots ever apologized for their blundering? I can’t think of any…<br />
<strong>Reacting To The Truth, Instead Of Absorbing It…</strong><br />
Useful idiots talk, they don’t listen. They ask lots of questions, but never wait to hear your answers. For them, questions are not a search for information, but rather a method of antagonism. It is a way to keep everyone else on guard while making themselves feel superior. In this game, the useful idiot never has to expose his ignorance because he never has to enter into a meaningful dialogue with anyone who has an opposing view. All he has to do is attack, attack, attack. <br />
I have seen all kinds of reactionary tactics from useful idiots, but I find that the most common one for the American brand is the application of overt bravado. They turn everything into a joke whether it is funny or not. Laughing at that which we don’t understand sometimes makes things less frightening, but it also makes us more passive. Dedicated clowns, for all their theatrics and daring, are generally impotent historical figures. How many clowns or comedians have ever really dared to break the establishment mold and aim a magnifying glass at the true absurdity of our system or our culture? How many have inspired legitimate and original thought? I can think of only a handful, and almost all of them remained tied back by the entertainment industry for their beliefs. <br />
The clowns that are the most “successful” are those that follow the establishment guidelines and play on them as if they might dare break the barrier of lies, but they never do. In Medieval times, even the most blood thirsty king would allow the court jester to make jokes at his expense. Why? Because the jester was an inconsequential figure, a powerless and non-threatening being. A jester can verbally thrash a tyrant, but nothing ever really changes, because deep down, though they make us laugh, nobody really cares what clowns have to say. Now imagine a whole subsection of our country emulating this dynamic. Imagine all these people deluding themselves into thinking that being a slave isn’t all that bad, as long as you’re the funny slave. <br />
When confronted with a truth that threatens their established world view, useful idiots will do anything to distract or derail the exchange. Making bad jokes, resorting to childish ridicule, ignoring cold hard logic, making threats, denying you are qualified to present the facts, even though the facts speak for themselves no matter who is relaying them, etc. Rarely will they confront the truth you present on its own terms. Instead, they will try to make YOU the issue of discussion, and not your information. <br />
<strong>Skewed World View…</strong><br />
Is it really that hard to double check a piece of data to confirm whether or not it is true? Apparently, it must be, because so many Americans have decided to believe whatever they are told without a second thought as long as the guy telling them is in a suit or a white lab coat. If a guy in a lab coat told you that cyanide makes you more desirable to the opposite sex, would you slam down a glass before hitting the singles bar, or would you verify the info and actually research the damned subject before hand? <br />
You might say “well cyanide is poison, everybody knows that!” Yes, people know that because they research it. But how many other poisons do Americans ingest daily because some official gave the thumbs up? Mercury (thimerosal), aspartame, high fructose corn syrup, fluoride, rBGH, Bisphenol-A, and numerous others. One stop at the computer would produce thousands of pages of research which shows the volatile nature of these chemicals and the consequences of exposure. Why do we contaminate our guts with this garbage on pure faith? Welcome to the realm of the useful idiot… <br />
The useful idiot is not just the guy chugging down GMO milk filled with udder puss, anyone can do that and not be useful. No, the useful idiot is the FDA official or the corporately paid scientist who SELLS us on the purity of the milk. He’s the local dentist who laughs at you when you question the safety of all that fluoride accumulation in your bloodstream. She’s the nurse who threatens to call CPS because you don’t want your newborn baby injected with half a dozen mercury laced vaccines two months after they exit the womb. The useful idiot is the guy who received his standardized academic neuron rinse but never learned that the first rule of academia used to be ‘question everything’.<br />
World view is really a battle between inherent conscience, common sense, and the conditioning of our era. Even a single root misconception, like the belief in the legitimacy of the false left/right political paradigm, could easily skew the whole of a person’s vision to a sea of truths. The useful idiot is not only conditioned himself, but he also becomes an agent of that conditioning in others. When confronted with a truth outside of his established world view, he almost short circuits. He has lived most of his life with the ideas and propaganda of others slogging around in his skull. To be faced with the possibility that all of that time, energy, and devotion, was worthless, is almost too much to bear.<br />
<strong><br />
Making A Difference, One Lost Freedom At A Time…</strong><br />
Sometimes the best qualities of good people are ironically the worst qualities in the useful idiot. Useful idiots love to participate…in anything…as long as it’s sanctioned by a recognizable organization. Bless their hearts, they just want to get out there and make a difference! Go team! <br />
This is a serious issue with those on both sides of our fake political spectrum, left and right. How many people clamored to be a neo-con after 9/11, only to find that in their quest for public safety, they wrongly supported the weakening of Constitutional freedoms, the destabilization of our economy, not to mention the invasion of Iraq, a country that had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11 (even if you believe the official story) or any other terrorist attack in this country? How many liberals ran screaming like schoolgirls at a Justin Bieber concert towards the global warming and carbon tax scam, only to find out that the climate labs responsible for all the research they had been eating up without question was actually using contrived and in some cases completely fabricated data? I won’t even get into the Obama-fever thing, mainly because my stomach isn’t strong enough at the moment. <br />
The problem with useful idiots is that they want to participate TOO much. So much that they’ll jump on any bandwagon that is well funded and flamboyant enough to pique their interest. They are joiners with highly superficial standards, like brownshirts, or lice. This is where they do their worst damage…<br />
Participation, for the useful idiot, is not about making a difference; it is about feeling like they are making a difference. In some cases, it’s about “hope”, but not real or effective action. In other cases, it’s about vengeance and malice, but not justice or integrity. In either scenario, the key missing factor is the truth, which is neglected or traded for a quick boost in self esteem. This makes the useful idiot the prime target of elitist disinformation. Nearly all criminal actions by governments receive their primary support from this portion of the citizenry exactly because they are so ridiculously eager. They are the zombie ditch diggers of the globalist infrastructure, chopping away at our liberties in search of brains.<br />
<strong>Confronting The Useful Idiot…</strong><br />
Why bother trying to communicate with these dimwits at all? Are they not the very definition of a lost cause? Perhaps. I can say with a certain authority, though, that some of them can be introduced to awareness, especially since I used to be one of them…<br />
I was the Democrat putting up Kerry stickers and handing out buttons back in 2004. I was the guy who shut down any conservative viewpoint no matter how accurate or valid because Bush was the devil incarnate (and also because I was uninformed enough to believe that neo-cons were actually conservative). I was the guy at those protest rallies where no one including myself really understood the topics we were speaking out on. I knew corporations were the enemy, but I didn’t understand why. I knew the wars were dishonest, but I thought they were all about oil. I knew the economy was in trouble, but I barely knew what the Federal Reserve was, let alone fractional reserve banking or fiat currency. It took many years to fully remove my head from my ass, but I did. I see no reason why others could not do the same, given the right prompting. <br />
The useful idiot has to be faced with queries he can’t weasel out of or deflect. That means continually asking him questions and demanding he support his responses with concrete proof. He has to be shown beyond a doubt that at least one of his precious ideals is unfounded and unsupported by the facts. Just one. After that, he can no longer assume that any of his other views are rock solid either. He will be forced to finally check his sources, which usually leads to a terrifying epiphany; he knows nothing! It’s like falling down a bottomless South American sinkhole with nothing to grab onto. I know, because I felt it once.<br />
Eventually, he accepts the loss of his old identity, the foolish man that was so confident and certain, and moves on towards a frightening world where he must teach himself, instead of waiting around for others to teach him. The empowerment and the awe of this process is nearly indescribable, it has to be experienced to be understood. It’s like being able to see and to speak clearly for the first time. You never knew what you were missing because you had nothing to compare it to; only that unsettling knot at the pit of your stomach, telling you that something was very wrong. Now, to go back would be unthinkable, even hellish.<br />
Nobody sees themselves as a useful idiot serving the interests of tyrants in the oppression of their fellow man. But, the fact remains that many Americans are in just such a position. You can hate them, you can even wish them ill, but don’t give up on them all. Contesting ignorance is not just the civic duty of the informed, it is also an act of compassion towards those who are not. <br />
<em>You can contact Giordano Bruno at</em>: <a href="http://neithercorp.us/npress/giordano@neithercorp.us">giordano@neithercorp.us</a>A. Peasanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01929646095992796530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4364545641112568204.post-64498512893689690012010-10-14T17:21:00.000-04:002010-10-14T17:21:49.282-04:00time to wake up and smell the coffee then?<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qhRiVLUdx-M?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qhRiVLUdx-M?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101013/ap_on_bi_ge/us_foreclosure_robosigners">Robo-signers: Mortgage experience not necessary - Yahoo News</a><br />
<br />
NEW YORK – In an effort to rush through thousands of home foreclosures since 2007, financial institutions and their mortgage servicing departments hired hair stylists, Walmart floor workers and people who had worked on assembly lines and installed them in "foreclosure expert" jobs with no formal training, a Florida lawyer says.<br />
<br />
In depositions released Tuesday, many of those workers testified that they barely knew what a mortgage was. Some couldn't define the word "affidavit." Others didn't know what a complaint was, or even what was meant by personal property. Most troubling, several said they knew they were lying when they signed the foreclosure affidavits and that they agreed with the defense lawyers' accusations about document fraud.<br />
<br />
"The mortgage servicers hired people who would never question authority," said Peter Ticktin, a Deerfield Beach, Fla., lawyer who is defending 3,000 homeowners in foreclosure cases. As part of his work, Ticktin gathered 150 depositions from bank employees who say they signed foreclosure affidavits without reviewing the documents or ever laying eyes on them — earning them the name "robo-signers."<br />
<br />
The deposed employees worked for the mortgage service divisions of banks such as Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase, as well as for mortgage servicers like Litton Loan Servicing, a division of Goldman Sachs.<br />
<br />
Ticktin said he would make the testimony available to state and federal agencies that are investigating financial institutions for allegations of possible mortgage fraud. This comes on the eve of an expected announcement Wednesday from 40 state attorneys general that they will launch a collective probe into the mortgage industry.<br />
<br />
"This was an industrywide scheme designed to defraud homeowners," Ticktin said.<br />
<br />
The depositions paint a surreal picture of foreclosure experts who didn't understand even the most elementary aspects of the mortgage or foreclosure process — even though they were entrusted as the records custodians of homeowners' loans. In one deposition taken in Houston, a foreclosure supervisor with Litton Loan couldn't define basic terms like promissory note, mortgagee, lien, receiver, jurisdiction, circuit court, plaintiff's assignor or defendant. She testified that she didn't know why a spouse might claim interest in a property, what the required conditions were for a bank to foreclose or who the holder of the mortgage note was. "I don't know the ins and outs of the loan, I just sign documents," she said at one point.<br />
<br />
Until now, only a handful of depositions from robo-signers have come to light. But the sheer volume of the new depositions will make it more difficult for financial institutions to argue that robo-signing was an aberrant practice in a handful of rogue back offices.<br />
<br />
Judges are unlikely to look favorably on a bank that claims paperwork flaws don't matter because the borrower was in default on the loan, said Kendall Coffey, a former Miami U.S. attorney and author of the book "Foreclosures."<br />
<br />
"There has to be a cornerstone of integrity to the process," Coffey said.<br />
<br />
Bank of America responded to Tiktin's depositions by re-affirming that an internal review has shown that its foreclosures have been accurate. "This review will ensure we have a full understanding of any potential issues and quickly address them," Bank of America spokesman Dan Frahm said. Frahm added that, on average, the bank's foreclosure customers have not made a payment in more than 18 months.<br />
<br />
JP Morgan Chase spokesman Thomas Kelly said the bank has requested that courts not enter into any judgments until the bank had reviewed its procedures. But Kelly added that the bank believes that all the underlying facts of the cases involved in the document fraud allegations are true.<br />
<br />
Litton Loan Servicing did not respond to a request for comment.<br />
<br />
Even before the foreclosure scandal broke, the housing market was in the midst of an ugly detoxification. Now the escalating crisis is likely to prolong the housing depression for at least another few years. The allegations are opening the entire chain of foreclosure proceedings to legal challenge. Some foreclosures could be overturned. Others could be deemed illegal.<br />
<br />
For a housing recovery to occur, all the foreclosed properties — which could account for 40 percent of all residential sales by 2012 — need to be re-scrutinized by the banks and resold on the market. Now, with so much inventory under a legal threat, the process will become severely delayed.<br />
<br />
"This just adds more uncertainty to the whole mortgage process, so buyers are asking themselves: do I want to buy a home in this environment?" says Cris deRitis, director of credit analytics at Moody's Analytics. "We need to fix these issues before the economy can recover."<br />
<br />
Though some have chalked up the foreclosure debacle to an overblown case of paperwork bungling, the underlying legal issues are far more serious. Yes, swearing that you've reviewed documents you've never seen is a legal offense. But at the center of the foreclosure scandal looms something much larger: the question of who actually owns the loans and who has the right to foreclose upon them. The paperwork issues being raised by lawyers and attorneys generals have the potential to blight not just the titles of foreclosed properties but also those belonging to homeowners who have never missed a mortgage payment.<br />
<br />
So far, JP Morgan Chase, PNC Financial and Litton Loan Servicing have stopped some foreclosure proceedings in 23 states. Bank of America and GMAC, recently renamed Ally, have extended their moratoriums to all 50 states. Wells Fargo and Citigroup have said they are continuing with foreclosures, adding that they are confident in their documents and processes.<br />
<br />
But Citigroup has now backpedaled some on that assertion. The bank sent out a press release Tuesday that it was no longer using the law firm of "foreclosure king" David Stern, now under investigation by the Florida attorney general's office. "Pending the outcome of the AG's investigation, Citi is not referring new matters to this firm," the bank said in an e-mailed statement.<br />
<br />
Late last week, in an interview with the Florida attorney general, a former senior paralegal in Stern's firm described a boiler-room atmosphere in which employees were pressured to forge signatures, backdate documents, swap Social Security numbers, inflate billings and pass around notary stamps as if they were salt.<br />
<br />
Stern's lawyer, Jeffrey Tew, did not respond to a request for comment.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, the public outrage continues to mount. In what is perhaps a sign of things to come, a Simi Valley, Calif., couple and their nine children broke into their foreclosed home over the weekend and moved back in, according to television station KABC of Simi Valley. The couple, Jim and Danielle Earl, say they were working with the bank to catch up on payments until they discovered a $25,000 difference between what they owed and what the bank said they owed. The family was evicted from their Spanish-style two-story in July. The home has been sold, and the new owner was due to move in soon.<br />
<br />
The Earls and their attorney now allege that they were victims of fraudulent paperwork.<br />
<br />
___<br />
<br />
Curt Anderson contributed from Miami.A. Peasanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01929646095992796530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4364545641112568204.post-68319472171285627822010-08-11T12:43:00.000-04:002010-08-11T12:43:34.912-04:00the insanity of war with Iran<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/nhp3kJv1H9I&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nhp3kJv1H9I&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br />
<br />
via <a href="http://www.gilad.co.uk/">Gilad Atzmon</a>A. Peasanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01929646095992796530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4364545641112568204.post-90764166063322527772010-05-07T11:06:00.002-04:002010-05-07T11:06:41.641-04:00watch it while you can<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/HlNQTG8B6hw&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/HlNQTG8B6hw&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>A. Peasanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01929646095992796530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4364545641112568204.post-51280437678662525402010-01-04T10:44:00.000-05:002010-01-04T11:05:52.206-05:00war on terror kabuki<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);font-size:180%;" >1. the 14 countries considered "terror linked" by the US<br /></span><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >U.S. government officials have reportedly said that Lebanon is among 14 "terror linked" nations whose citizens will undergo mandatory enhanced screening at U.S. airports.</span><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >U.S. officials Sunday toughened security measures for all U.S.-bound airline passengers, and warned those traveling from or via the 14 "state sponsors of terrorism" and "countries of interest" will undergo the screening.</span><br /><br />...<span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-size:180%;">Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria</span> are currently the only four countries designated state sponsors of terrorism by the State Department.</span><br /><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >But a senior administration official told Agence France Presse the mandatory stringent measures, which would include pat-downs and enhanced screening, would apply to all passengers traveling from or via a total of 14 countries, including <span style="font-size:180%;">Afghanistan, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen.</span></span><br /><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >He refused to reveal the remaining four nations on the list but The New York Times and Washington Post quoted government officials naming them as<span style="font-size:180%;"> Algeria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&AD6F3A7325718598C22576A100275D85">read more @ naharnet</a><br /><br /></span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);font-size:180%;" ><br />2. Obama to meet with intelligence people tomorrow, hold somebody accountable</span><br /><br />"On Tuesday, in Washington, I will meet personally with relevant agency heads to discuss our ongoing reviews as well as security enhancements and intelligence-sharing improvements in our homeland security and counterterrorism operations," Obama said in a statement issued by the White House.<br /><br />...The report is also likely to make recommendations on improving the sharing of information between the United States' 16 intelligence agencies.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Admiral Dennis Blair, the director of national intelligence, said in a memo to staff that those who made mistakes in the incident would be held accountable.</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.almanar.com.lb/newssite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=117811&language=en">read more @ al manar tv</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);font-size:180%;" ><br />3. Jordanian killed in strike that hit CIA</span><br /><br /><span class="ArticleDetails">The eighth man killed in a bomb attack on a secret CIA base in Afghanistan last week was a <span style="font-size:180%;">captain in the Jordanian spy service known as the General Intelligence Department (GID), </span>The Washington Post reported late Sunday.<br />The official Jordanian news agency Petra identified the man as Ali bin Zeid, saying that he was killed "on Wednesday evening as a martyr while performing the sacred duty of the Jordanian forces in Afghanistan."<br /><br />...Former CIA officer, Jamie Smith,told The Post that Jordanians are "particularly prized for their skill in both interrogating captives and cultivating informants, owing to an unrivaled expertise with radicalized militant groups and Shia/Sunni culture." Smith worked in the border region in the years immediately after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.<br /><br />Current and former US intelligence officials said the <span style="font-size:180%;">special relationship with Jordan dates back at least three decades</span> and has recently progressed to the point that<span style="font-size:180%;"> the CIA liaison officer in Amman enjoys full, unescorted access to GID headquarters,</span> according to the report.<br /><br /><br />comment at al manar:<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:180%;">The CIA captures Muslims and the Jordanian Mukhabarat tortures them</span> so their king can get more money to buy fancy stuff and to stay on his seat. Shameful. The real alqaida is their friend whereas various Muslims who are religious get picked up randomly and get branded alqaida loyalists and sent to the torture chamber. <span style="font-size:180%;">Why arent the CIA and their arab mukhabarat capturing those that are doing the actual bombings in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan etc?</span> With all the money, intel and time they have spent they should have stopped the bloodshed by now and known where alqaida leaders are if they really were working with stopping it THAT IS. The history will remember the arab puppets as traitors of the worst kind and their soldiers and mukhabarat as the protectors of taghout and munafekin.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.almanar.com.lb/newssite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=118186&language=en">more @ al manar tv</a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);font-size:180%;" ><br />4. full body scanners to fry travelers with radiation</span><br /><br /><p><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >TSA Security Laboratory Director Susan Hallowell recently announced the agency’s intent to use <span style="font-size:180%;">back-scatter X-ray machines for passenger surveillance.</span> These hugely expensive, closet-sized zappers can find the plastic bombs hidden in grandma’s underpants, while delivering a smacking dose of ionizing radiation to her breasts and thyroid gland.</span></p> <p><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-size:180%;">Snooper X-rays penetrate a few centimeters into the flesh and reflect off the skin to form a naked body image for TSA security personnel to inspect. </span>These machines are already being field tested at several U.S. airports, including JFK, LAX and Orlando.</span></p> <p><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >The most lucrative growth industry of our times is the “terror” business. Legions of companies lusting for government contracts are churning out police state technology at a frantic pace. In the last 17 months, TSA has received over 30,000 proposals for Big Brother technology and equipment needed to keep 280 million citizen-suspects under careful surveillance from the inside out.</span></p><p><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >...</span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-size:180%;">Officials must naturally defend compulsory passenger X-rays as harmless. But <span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102);">they are signing no guarantees</span> because ionizing radiation in the X-ray spectrum damages and mutates both chromosomal DNA and structural proteins in human cells.</span> If this damage is not repaired, it can lead to cancer. </span></p><a href="http://noworldsystem.com/2009/12/31/full-body-scanners-to-fry-travelers-with-radiation/">read more @ no world system<br /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);font-size:180%;" ><br />5. India's ridiculous Mumbai evidence vs Pakistan's concrete Waziristan proof</span><br /><br /><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; line-height: normal;"><span style=";font-family:Wingdings;font-size:14pt;color:red;" ><span>Ø<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:7pt;" > </span></span></span><span dir="ltr"></span><span style=";font-family:'Georgia','serif';font-size:14pt;color:red;" >See A Comparison Between India’s evidences and Pakistan’s proof of Indian terrorism inside Pakistan</span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;"><span style=";font-family:'Georgia','serif';font-size:14pt;color:red;" > </span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; line-height: normal;"><span style=";font-family:Wingdings;font-size:14pt;color:red;" ><span>Ø<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:7pt;" > </span></span></span><span dir="ltr"></span><span style=";font-family:'Georgia','serif';font-size:14pt;color:red;" >China Has Strong Evidence Of Indian Terror Involvement In Tibet & Western China</span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-family:'Georgia','serif';font-size:14pt;color:red;" > </span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; line-height: normal;"><span style=";font-family:Wingdings;font-size:14pt;color:red;" ><span>Ø<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:7pt;" > </span></span></span><span dir="ltr"></span><span style=";font-family:'Georgia','serif';font-size:14pt;color:red;" >Musharraf showed a photograph to US ambassador Baitullah Mehsood was seen coming out of one of the Indian ‘diplomatic’ missions in Afghanistan</span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-family:'Georgia','serif';font-size:14pt;color:red;" > </span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; line-height: normal;"><span style=";font-family:Wingdings;font-size:14pt;color:red;" ><span>Ø<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:7pt;" > </span></span></span><span dir="ltr"></span><span style=";font-family:'Georgia','serif';font-size:14pt;color:red;" >Pakistan’s Interior Ministry & Foreign Office are mysteriously quiet on ridiculous Indian evidence</span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-family:'Georgia','serif';font-size:14pt;color:red;" > </span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; line-height: normal;"><span style=";font-family:Wingdings;font-size:14pt;color:red;" ><span>Ø<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:7pt;" > </span></span></span><span dir="ltr"></span><span style=";font-family:'Georgia','serif';font-size:14pt;color:red;" >Use of Indian currency in all parts of Afghanistan is encouraged, another sign of how US is trampling on Pakistan’s security interests in the region</span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;"><b><span style=";font-family:'Georgia','serif';font-size:12pt;color:black;" > </span></b></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;"><b><span style=";font-family:'Georgia','serif';font-size:12pt;color:black;" >South India's Vaigai Chemical Industries and Indian Ordnance Factories provide arms and explosives to terrorists in Pakistan. Evidence of Indian-origin combustible chemicals has been found in western Pakistan. The mysterious fire that gutted Karachi’s business district is not possible without the use of such material. India has already launched a two-front secret war against both China and Pakistan.</span></b></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;"><br /><b><span style=";font-family:'Georgia','serif';font-size:12pt;color:black;" ></span></b></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;"><a href="http://groups.google.com/group/paknationalists/web/indias-ridiculous-mumbai-evidence-vs-pakistans-concrete-waziristan-proof?pli=1"><b><span style=";font-family:'Georgia','serif';font-size:12pt;color:black;" >read more @ paknationalists</span></b></a></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;"><br /><b><span style=";font-family:'Georgia','serif';font-size:12pt;color:black;" ></span></b></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;"><br /><b><span style=";font-family:'Georgia','serif';font-size:12pt;color:black;" ></span></b></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal; color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><br /><b><span style=";font-family:'Georgia','serif';font-size:12pt;" ></span></b></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;"><b><span style=";font-family:'Georgia','serif';font-size:12pt;color:black;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);font-size:180%;" >6. Petraeus hails progress as US transforms command -- talk about spin</span><br /></span></b></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;"><br /><b><span style=";font-family:'Georgia','serif';font-size:12pt;color:black;" ></span></b></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;">BAGHDAD: A top US general hailed progress in Iraq yesterday while American forces underwent a transformation, with their <span style="font-size:180%;">command renamed to reflect the fact that no other countries have troops here. </span>Multi-National Forces-Iraq (MNF-I), the name of the command of the coalition that invaded Iraq in 2003, was changed to United States Forces-Iraq (USF-I) in a ceremony attended by senior generals and Iraqi ministers at Al-Faw Palace at US Camp Victory on Baghdad's outskirts.</p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;"><a href="http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=NTgxMjY5MTMy">read more @ kuwait times</a></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;"><br /></p>A. Peasanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01929646095992796530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4364545641112568204.post-46640796103294244012010-01-04T10:31:00.000-05:002010-01-04T10:44:10.218-05:00delusional<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);font-size:180%;" >1. Rabbis to ambassador: time to 'go biblical' with Arabs</span><br /><br /><p>(IsraelNN.com) A delegation of the Rabbinical Congress for Peace (RCP) met with U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mr. James Cunningham, today and called for a reassessment of the entire U.S. policy vis-à-vis the Israelis and Palestinians. <span style="font-size:180%;">The rabbis told Ambassador Cunningham that it was time to try the Biblical approach to the dispute over the Land of Israel. </span></p>...Rabbi Dov Lior, the Rabbi of Kiryat Arba-Hevron, said: <span style="font-size:180%;">"G-d gave the US the power and influence to affect the rest of the world and supporting Israel is the key to America's success." </span><p>Ambassador Cunningham told the rabbis that he does not see how the problem can be solved “without taking into consideration the Palestinians,” to which Rabbi Gold remarked: "Ever since we started taking the Palestinians into consideration the situation only worsened." </p><p>The ambassador asked the rabbis, "So what is your solution to the problem?" </p>Rabbi Gerlitzky replied: "You must switch the entire approach to the situation. We all believe in the Holy Bible and up until now we tried every formula except for that which is delineated in the Bible. Let's try it and who knows, Mr. Ambassador, maybe this is your defining moment, that G-d Almighty has placed you in this capacity in order to precipitate a new course which will bring a true peace to the entire region." <br /><br />more here: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/135283<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);font-size:180%;" ><br />2. Ayalon says world united against Iran</span><br /><br /><span class="ArticleDetails">Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon on Saturday said he believes that after the sanctions the international community will impose against Iran over its nuclear program, it could very well lead to a regime change in Tehran.<br /><br />"It is not certain that the regime in power now in Iran will be there in one year," Ayalon claimed at a question-and-answer session in Tel Aviv.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">"The world is uniting against Iran's nuclear program and within a month there will be United Nations Security Council sanctions," Ayalon went on to say.<br /> </span><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">"There is agreement in Washington, Moscow and Beijing that a <span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">nuclear Iran would destroy the current world order,"</span> he claimed.<br /> </span><br />Ayalon also addressed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent efforts to re0launch peace talks with the Palestinians, warning that <span style="font-size:180%;">"the Palestinians need to understand that time is working against them. </span><br /><br />He added that he believes the US administration understands that the essential problem is that the <span style="font-size:180%;">"Palestinians aren't willing to be flexible in their approach."</span></span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.almanar.com.lb/newssite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=118015&language=en">source: al manar tv</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);font-size:180%;" ><br /><br />3. Germany and Israel set for joint cabinet meeting on 1/18</span><strong><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);font-size:180%;" ><br /></span><br />A joint meeting in <span class="cas_live_link">Berlin of</span> the German and Israeli cabinets that was postponed in November will now take place on January 18, an Israeli government official said on Sunday.</strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.thelocal.de/national/20100103-24317.html">more @ the local</a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);font-size:180%;" ><br />4. the Kazakhstan plan</span><br /><br /><span id="Zoom"><a href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2010-01/01/content_12737366.htm">MOSCOW, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- Russia has no knowledge of an alleged Iranian plan to import purified uranium ore from Kazakhstan, the foreign ministry said Thursday. </a><br /><br /></span><a href="http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/newsdesk.nsf/MiddleEast/9A943CD6D1EC1671C225769C0033B18A?OpenDocument"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;">Kazakhstan sidestepped questions Wednesday on reports it planned to ship purified uranium ore to Iran, saying only that it complied with international law and would issue a formal statement later.</span></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);font-size:180%;" ><br /><br />5. Iranian lawmakers reject Kerry's request to visit</span><br /><br /><b>TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian legislators on Sunday rejected a request filed by Head of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee John Kerry for paying a visit to Iran.<br /><br /><a href="http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8810131533">more @ fars<br /></a><br /></b>A. Peasanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01929646095992796530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4364545641112568204.post-22778508545628546482010-01-04T10:13:00.000-05:002010-01-04T10:31:49.232-05:00major fearmongering: save the earth through mining (and get ready to blame China), and mass death by germs, aka the earth strikes back at humans<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);font-size:180%;" >1. concern as China clamps down on rare earth exports</span><br /><br /><p class="font-null">Britain and other Western countries risk running out of supplies of certain highly sought-after <span style="font-size:180%;">rare metals that are vital to a host of green technologies,</span> <span style="font-size:180%;">amid growing evidence that China, which has a monopoly on global production, is set to choke off exports of valuable compounds.</span></p> <p class="font-null">Failure to secure alternative long-term sources of rare earth elements (REEs) would affect the manufacturing and development of low-carbon technology, which relies on the unique properties of the 17 metals to mass-produce eco-friendly innovations such as wind turbines and low-energy lightbulbs.</p><p class="font-null">China, whose mines account for 97 per cent of global supplies, is trying to ensure that all raw REE materials are processed within its borders. During the past seven years it has reduced by 40 per cent the amount of rare earths available for export.<br /></p><p class="font-null">...Jack Lifton, an independent consultant and a world expert on REEs, said: <span style="font-size:180%;">"A real crunch is coming. In America, Britain and elsewhere we have not yet woken up to the fact that there is an urgent need to secure the supply of rare earths from sources outside China.</span> China has gone from exporting 75 per cent of the raw ore it produces to shipping just 25 per cent, and it does not consider itself to be under any obligation to ensure supplies of rare earths to anyone but itself. There has been an effort in the West to set up new mines but these are five to 10 years away from significant production."</p><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/concern-as-china-clamps-down-on-rare-earth-exports-1855387.html">read more @ independent</a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);font-size:180%;" ><br /><br />2. precious metals that could save the planet</span><br /><br /><p class="font-null">Baotou was of little interest to the outside world for millennia. When one of the first visitors reached its walls in 1925, it was described as "a little husk of a town in a great hollow shell of mud ramparts". Some 84 years later, this once barren outpost of Inner Mongolia has been transformed into the powerhouse of China's dominance of the market in some of the globe's most sought-after minerals.</p> <p class="font-null"> The Baotou Rare Earth Research Institute is home to some 400 scientists whose work has put China at the pinnacle of research into a group of 17 metals which sound as if they were dreamt up as poisons for superheroes – yttrium, promethium, europium – <span style="font-size:180%;">but whose unique properties make them indispensable to technologies worth trillions of pounds. </span></p><br /><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/precious-metals-that-could-save-the-planet-1855394.html">read more @ independent</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);font-size:180%;" >3. deadly animal diseases poised to infect humans</span><br /><br /><p class="font-null">The world is facing a <span style="font-size:180%;">growing threat from new diseases that are jumping the human-animal species barrier</span> <span style="font-size:180%;">as a result of environmental disruption, global warming and the progressive urbanisation of the planet,</span> scientists have warned.</p> <p class="font-null"> At least 45 diseases that have passed from animals to humans have been reported to UN agencies in the last two decades, with the number expected to escalate in the coming years. </p> <p class="font-null"> Dramatic changes to the environment are triggering major alterations to human disease patterns on a scale last seen during the industrial revolution. Montira Pongsiri, an environmental health scientist at the US Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, says that previous transitions in human history have had a devastating impact in terms of the spread of disease. </p><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/deadly-animal-diseases-poised-to-infect-humans-1856777.html">read more @ independent</a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);font-size:180%;" ><br /><br />4. 90 day pandemic simulation</span><br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZPwq_6pLxfw&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZPwq_6pLxfw&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br />Simulation of a pandemic flu outbreak in the continental United States, initially introduced by the arrival of 10 infected individuals in Los Angeles.<br /><br />The spatiotemporal dynamics of the prevalence (number of symptomatic cases at any point in time), is shown on a logarithmic color scale, from 1 or fewer (blue) to 100 or more (red) cases per 1,000 persons. Without mitigation strategies, the entire nation becomes infected within a few months.<br /><br />Depending on the reproductive number R0, effective intervention strategies can be successful without resorting to economically damaging measures like school closure, quarantine, and work or travel restrictions.<br /><br />This large-scale agent-based simulation involves 280 million people, and uses demographic and worker flow data at the Census tract level, as well as long-range travel statistics, to describe the geographic movement of people. In this simulation, long-range travel is assumed to occur at a lower-than-normal rate (10 percent) due to travel advisories, but with no other mitigation strategies the pandemic quickly spreads nationwide, peaking about 90 days after the initial introduction.<br /><br />Blue: Few or none of the population is showing symptoms, more precisely 1 or fewer per 1000 persons.<br /><br />Green: 50 per 1,000<br /><br />Red: 100 or more cases per 1,000 persons<br /><br /><a href="http://preventdisease.com/news/10/010410_90-day_pandemic_flu_simulation.shtml">source: prevent disease</a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);font-size:180%;" >5. on the bright side: top 10 health research initiatives for 2010<br /></span><br /><p> Rather than pursuing a new year's resolution that may be destined for failure, why not establish educational initiatives for your health to expand your knowledge. By researching the most effective health strategies, you will not only optimize your health for 2010, but you will develop a framework for health exploration that will take you in directions you never imagined in the years to come.<br /> <br /> In no specific order, here's a list of 10 of the most critical topics of research to optimize your health this year and beyond.<br /> <span style=";font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:85%;" ><br /> <b><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);">1)</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"> </span>WATER</b> - <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The quality of our water is becoming of great concern as toxins continue to increase worldwide infecting all municpial water systems. Without proper filtration, soon it will be nearly impossible to access clean water in any major city throughout the world. Most governments continue to inject chlorine, fluoride and many other harmful chemicals that equally and negatively affect drinking and bathing water. Only independent research on techniques to clean your own water will keep your body free of toxins. Moreover, water wars will likely replace oil wars in the future, so relocating near a natural water source may be a growing consideration.</span></span> </p><span style=";font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:85%;" ><b><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Research Terms: </span></b><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br /> water filtration, ceramic filters, tap water, pure drinking water, fluoride, reverse osmosis, carbon filters, distillation, structured water, bottled water<br /><br /></span></span><span style=";font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:85%;" ><b><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);">2)</span> </span>ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS AND WIRELESS RADIATION</b> - The negative health effects of electromagnetic fields on biological tissue is very real although it remains highly controversial mostly due to the influence of the technology sector. However, virtually all scientists agree that more research is necessary to determine safe or dangerous levels. It's like one big human experiment which we won't know the results of for several decades. Now, with the increasing proliferation of wireless handheld and portable devices, it is literally impossible to escape EMFs in any major city.<br /> <br /> The danger of magnetic, electric, wireless, radio (microwave), ground current, and high frequency radiation is that it is mostly invisible until great damage is done - like the increased risk of some brain tumors in long term cell phone users.<br /> <br /> <b><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Research Terms: </span></b><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br /> electromagnetic fields, EMF, electromagnetic radiation, wireless radiation, cell phones, electrohypersensitivity, radiofrequency, RF, Radiofrequency radiation, electromagnetic radiation exposure, EMR.<br /> </span><b><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><br /><br /><a href="http://preventdisease.com/news/09/123109_ten_health_strategies_2010.shtml">read more @ prevent disease</a><br /><br /><br /></span></b></span>A. Peasanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01929646095992796530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4364545641112568204.post-14797359249803851722010-01-04T10:00:00.000-05:002010-01-04T10:13:52.727-05:00africa news<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 51, 204);font-size:180%;" >1. September 2008: Nigeria lawmakers divided over Mossad training</span> -- what could possibly go wrong???<br /><br /><p>Members of the National Assembly have expressed different opinions on the alleged invitation of Israeli intelligence agency to train the country's security operations under a secret security pact.</p> <p>Former Chairman House of Representatives Committee on National Security and Intelligence, Rep Abdullahi Farouk (PDP, Kebbi State), said Nigeria does not need Mossad or any foreign intelligence organisation to train the country's security agents because Nigeria has the best security training institution in the country.</p>However, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on National Security and Intelligence, Senator Nuhu Aliyu, said he supports the alleged security pact with Israeli. He said <span style="font-size:180%;">"They (Mossad) are professionals and they are here to help train our own intelligence agents. I don't see anyway by which their presence in the country pose any threat to our National Security."</span><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><br /><br /><a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/200809050478.html">read more @ allafrica</a><br /><br /></span></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 51, 204);font-size:180%;" ><br /><br />2. Al-Sheikh recounts horror in Niger</span><br /><br />Al-Sheikh described the events that led to the attack: “We were driving on a road near Niamey on our way to neighboring Mali when we passed an inhabited village at which we did not stop. Three kilometers from there we heard the Azan calling for the Fajr prayer so we stopped to do the prayer and to continue our journey afterwards. At the very moment while we were spreading the rugs to say the prayer, <span style="font-size:180%;">a black Jeep with three armed men stopped near us and besieged us. The armed men got down and started searching our car. They took our money and mobile phones. Then they took us to a place with trees far away from the road. They took us out of the car and started shooting at us.</span> I received the first bullet but luckily I survived. They shot at my colleagues one after the other. Four of them died on the spot and two of us were injured. Only the driver was unhurt.”<br /><br /><a href="http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=130495&d=1&m=1&y=2010">read more @ arab news</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 51, 204);font-size:180%;" ><br /><br />3. Sudan's Beshir in Saudi Arabia for talks</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;">Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir arrived on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia for talks, the official SPA news agency said. </span><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;">Beshir, who will stay in the kingdom for several days, was met at the airport by King Abdullah and other top officials, before heading to the king's Janadiriyah desert farm outside the capital for a banquet, SPA said.</span><p> </p><p><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;">Beshir will be discussing regional political issues and bilateral economic relations during the visit, Sudan's ambassador Hafez Ibrahim Mohammed said in a statement ahead of his arrival.<br />He will also visit Medina and undertake an umrah minor pilgrimage, SPA said.</span> </p><p><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:180%;">Although Beshir has faced an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for alleged war crimes in Darfur since March 4, Riyadh has made clear it will not act on the warrant.</span><span style="font-size:180%;"><i><span style="font-family:Arial;">(AFP)</span></i></span> </p> <a href="http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&464457B442848DC2C225769C006B81F7">source: naharnet</a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 51, 204);font-size:180%;" ><br /><br /><br />4. Ethiopian famine exaggerated?</span><br /><br />The government of Ethiopia has moved to debunk claims by a US-funded Famine Early Warning System that has claimed that the majority of Ethiopians are starving and in dire need of food. Ethiopia has been extremely sensitive to images showing its people as starving since the famine of 1984-5 and have condemned any further portrayal of such negativity. The FEWS claims come in the backdrop of another report from IFPRI which shows Ethiopia in a distant sixth position on the Sub-Saharan Africa hunger index.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.afrik.com/article16704.html">read more @ afrik.com<br /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 51, 204);font-size:180%;" ><br /><br />5. Moroccan, US military to strengthen cooperation</span><br /><br /><span id="Zoom">RABAT, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- Commander of the United States African Command (AFRICOM) General William E. Ward visited Morocco, vowing to strengthen cooperation with the Moroccan army, local satellite channel Medi 1 Sat reported Thursday. </span><p><span id="Zoom"> Ward met with Lieutenant General Abdelaziz Bennani, general inspector of the Moroccan Royal Armed Forces (FAR) and governor of the Southern Zone, and the two discussed bilateral military cooperation and opportunities to strengthen partnership between the Royal Armed Forces and the U.S. Army, the report said. </span></p><p><span id="Zoom"> This is Ward's third visit to Morocco, heading a AFRICOM delegation, after two previous visits in 2008. </span></p><p><span id="Zoom"> Morocco is an important partner in the region for the United States, and its efforts of counter-terrorism and smuggling and involvement in peace-keeping operations are highly appreciated by the U.S. Army, the report noted. </span></p><p><span id="Zoom"> AFRICOM command, currently temporarily headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, will coordinate U.S. military and security interests throughout the African continent.<br /></span></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/31/content_12737362.htm"><span id="Zoom">chinaview</span></a></p><p><span id="Zoom"><br /></span></p>A. Peasanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01929646095992796530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4364545641112568204.post-52196634386572019202010-01-04T09:47:00.000-05:002010-01-04T10:00:55.767-05:00milestones of the rich and powerful<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 102);font-size:180%;" >1. Foreign Policy names 100 top thinkers, can't think of a single Russian</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/" target="_blank">Foreign Policy</a>, an influential political magazine, published the rating of The Top 100 Global Thinkers who affected mankind the most in 2009. The list includes experts in various spheres who affect public opinion and the world in general. The authors of the project intended to identify people whose intellectual quests shape the world where we live and will live in the future. This year, no Russians whose ideas determined the agenda of 2009 made it to the rating.<br /><br /><a href="http://english.pravda.ru/world/europe/30-12-2009/111490-global_thinkers-0">read more @ pravda</a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 102);font-size:180%;" >2. Spain takes reins of revamped EU</span><br /><p>MADRID – Spain on Friday assumed the rotating presidency of the European Union, the first under a new leadership structure for the bloc which includes its first full-time president and a new foreign policy supremo.</p>...Spain has set as the priorities for its presidency of the EU a smooth implementation of the treaty and tackling the continent's economic woes.<br /><br /><a href="http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/breakingnews/view/20100101-244997/Spain-takes-reins-of-revamped-EU">read more @ global nation</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 102);font-size:180%;" >3. world's tallest building opens in Dubai, exact height remains a secret until later today. must be a "special" number.</span><br /><br /><span id="articleText">Developer Emaar Properties spent $1.5 billion on the tower since construction began in 2004. The building's official height will be disclosed later Monday, though it is certain to exceed the 800-meter mark. The world's second-highest tower, Taipei 101 in Taiwan, stands at slightly above 500 meters.</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE60312120100104">more @ reuters</a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 102);font-size:180%;" >4. Rothschild in talks to acquire Veolia Israel stake</span><br /><br />Sources inform ''Globes'' that France's La Compagnie Financiere Edmond de <span style="font-size:180%;">Rothschild</span> (LCF Rothschild) is in considering acquiring 30-40% of infrastructures company Veolia Environment Israel Ltd. in cash. ...Veolia Environment Israel operates through <span style="font-size:180%;">four divisions: Veolia <span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">Environmental Services;</span> Veolia <span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">Transport</span> Israel Ltd.; Veolia <span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">Water,</span> which owns half of the Ashkelon desalination plant; and Dalkia <span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">Energy</span> and Services Ltd.,</span> which owns 20% of private power producer Ofer Power Stations Ltd. (OPC). Veolia Israel's annual revenue is estimated at $350 million and has 1,600 employees and subcontractors.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000527668&fid=1725">more @ globes<br /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 102);font-size:180%;" ><br />5. butcher Sharon still in coma</span><br /><br /><p class="ap-story-p"> JERUSALEM (AP) -- Ariel Sharon, the tough army general turned premier who shocked his hawkish supporters by pulling Israel out of Gaza in 2005, <span style="font-size:180%;">is still lying unconscious in a hospital bed, friends said Sunday on the fourth anniversary of the massive stroke that put him in a coma.</span></p> <p class="ap-story-p">Sharon, 81, led Israel from 2001 until the January 2006 stroke that left him comatose.</p> <p class="ap-story-p">Dov Weisglass, a close friend of Sharon and his former spokesman, told The Associated Press on Sunday that Sharon's vital signs are good but it was not clear if he would ever regain consciousness. Medical experts have said that is most unlikely.</p><a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_ISRAEL_SHARON?SITE=ILROR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT">read more @ rrstar</a>A. Peasanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01929646095992796530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4364545641112568204.post-74913909971993994172010-01-04T09:35:00.000-05:002010-01-04T09:47:16.395-05:00crime and trafficking news<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);font-size:180%;" >1. woman in envoy's car</span><br /><br /><p>THE Romanian diplomat linked to a hit-and-run case was spotted in a car with an Asian woman less than an hour before the accident on Dec 15. The Straits Times understands he is believed to have dropped off a woman, said to be a <span style="font-size:180%;">Korean national,</span> at her home in Bukit Timah at about 2.30am....The long-haired passenger in a white dress, who looked to be <span style="font-size:180%;">in her 20s,</span> <span style="font-size:180%;">was quarrelling with Dr Ionescu,</span> he claimed. The altercation was so serious that the Audi did not budge even when the lights turned green. Only after the cars behind had sounded their horns for almost a minute did the vehicle speed off in the direction of Bukit Timah, he added.</p><a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_473391.html">read more @ straits times</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_473505.html">THE police are carrying out "very thorough" investigations into the hit-and-run accident linked to a Romanian diplomat, said Foreign Minister George Yeo on Monday.</a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);font-size:180%;" ><br /><br />2. Iranian police seize over 6 tons of opium</span><br /><br /><b>TEHRAN (FNA)- More than 6,256 kg of opium was seized from drug traffickers in Iran's northern city of Karaj, near the capital, the city's prosecutor office announced on Monday.<br /><br />...</b>"More than 340 tons of drugs have been seized all over Iran in the past nine months," General Hamid Reza Hossein-Abadi said.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">The <span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">United Nations credits Iran with the seizure of 80 percent of the opium netted around the world.</span> During the past Iranian year (ended on March 20,) <span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Iran seized more than 1,000 tons of opium smuggled from Afghanistan,</span> the largest producer of opium poppy in the world. </span><br /><br /><a href="http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8810141423">read more @ fars<br /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);font-size:180%;" ><br />3. nearly 300kg of drugs seized in East Turkey</span><br /><br />ANKARA, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Turkish security forces have seized 120 kg of heroin and 170 kg of hashish in the country's east, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported Monday. <span style="font-size:180%;">Gendarmerie teams impounded the drugs hidden in rice sacks believed to be heading for Istanbul from Iran,</span> the agency quoted officials as saying.<br /><br /> Six people were also detained in the operation in the Baskale town of the Van Province, it said. Turkey is a key transit route for smuggling drugs from Asia and the Middle East to markets in Western Europe.<br /><br /><a href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2010-01/04/content_12753940.htm">source: chinaview</a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);font-size:180%;" ><br /><br />4. theft of 30 paintings in southern France</span><br /><br />Around 30 paintings, including works by Picasso and Rousseau, valued at around a million euros (1.4 million dollars), have been <span style="font-size:180%;">stolen from a private villa in the south of France, </span>police said yesterday. But a Modigliani initially believed to be part of the haul has since been found, police in Toulon said. <span style="font-size:180%;">The villa's French owner was holidaying in Sweden</span> at the time of the break-in, which was discovered by the caretaker on Thursday afternoon.<br /><br />Police said the owner had returned home to carry out an inventory of his collection to establish the exact loss. The reported burglary in La Cadiere d'Azur comes after a pastel by Degas disappeared from the Cantini museum in Marseille on New Year's Eve. The 1877 pastel worth 800,000 euros had been lent for an exhibition by Paris' Orsay museum. The painting had been unscrewed from the wall and <span style="font-size:180%;">there was no evidence of a break-in, </span>police said, indicating the thief or thieves knew how to get round the museum's security system.-AFP<br /><br /><a href="http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=MTE2NTQzNzM1MQ==">source: kuwait times<br /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);font-size:180%;" ><br />5. conviction for Sweden's 'youngest female pimp'</span><br /><br /><span>A 17-year-old girl from </span><a href="http://www.thelocal.se/tag/malm%F6" class="nodec">Malmö</a><span> in southern <span class="cas_live_link">Sweden</span> has been <span style="font-size:180%;">convicted for selling the sexual services of a 14-year-old mentally disabled girl.</span> The 20-year-old man suspected of masterminding the </span><a href="http://www.thelocal.se/tag/pimping" class="nodec">pimping</a><span> operation was acquitted....</span><span>In addition, three other women, two aged 19 and one 18 years old, were also convicted for their role in exploiting the disabled teen.</span>...<span>A subsequent police investigation revealed that the girl was pimped out weekly to about five customers, who paid between 500 kronor ($75) and 1,000 kronor for the girl's sexual service, with the lion's share of the revenue going straight into the pockets of the suspects.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.thelocal.se/24190/20100104/">source: the local<br /></a><br /></span>A. Peasanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01929646095992796530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4364545641112568204.post-18456097242112517732010-01-03T15:55:00.002-05:002010-01-03T16:47:35.874-05:00useful failed states in the War on Terror: Somalia<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 255, 51);font-size:180%;" >1. Somalia: minister says Yemeni rebels send weapons to Somali Islamist groups</span><br /><br />Mogadishu, (RBC Radio) Somalia’s defense minister of state had said on Saturday that the <span style="font-size:180%;">Yemeni rebel groups sent weapon to Somali islamist groups</span>, to support the fighting against the government. <p>...<span style="font-size:180%;">The Shabab rebel groups had vowed on Friday to send their fighters to contribute the fighting between Yemen government and Shias rebel group of Huthis in the northern province of Yemen.</span></p> <p>...He added that two boats carrying arms from Yemen and arrived at the port of Kismayo, which is controlled by a group of young people in southern Somalia last week.</p> <p><span style="font-size:180%;">There is no effective central government in Somalia since 19 years and has undermined the insurgency led by the youth movement which <span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Washington regards as an agent of al Qaeda</span> in the region,</span> the West’s efforts to install a government.</p> And Western security services say that the role of Somalia as a haven for militants, including foreign jihadists are using Somali territory of conspiracy to carry out attacks in the region and beyond has grown over the years.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.raxanreeb.com/?p=32106">read more @ rbc radio</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" ><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);">2. Alhu-Sunnah recapture strategic central town from rebels</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Fighters loyal to Somalia’s Ahlu-Sunnah Wal-Jama have reportedly recaptured central Somali town of Dhusamareb, the capital of Galgadud region after battling with Al-Shabaab insurgents who earlier took the control of the town.<br /> <br />Heavy fighting in the town on Saturday claimed the lives of at least 30 people, including combatants and civilians while 70 others who were wounded are now getting treatment in a hospital in central town of Guriel.</span><br /> <br /><br />...The two groups have long history of animosity and the latest clashes are feared to ignite more violence in the central regions where they both have large military presence.<br /> <br /><a href="http://www.garoweonline.com/artman2/publish/Somalia_27/Somalia_Ahlu-Sunnah_recapture_strategic_central_town.shtml">read more @ garowe online</a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 255, 51);font-size:180%;" >3. US & UK close embassies in Yemen due to aq threats</span><br /><br /><p>The US and Britain shut their embassies in Sana’a on Sunday after security threats from a Yemen-based al-Qaeda group that has claimed responsibility for the foiled Christmas day attack on a transatlantic passenger jet. </p><p><a class="bodystrong" target="_blank" href="http://yemen.usembassy.gov/embclosed.html">On its website</a>, the US embassy said the closure was “in response to ongoing threats by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to attack American interests in Yemen”. The UK embassy made no comment. However, <span style="font-size:180%;">the closure of the embassies in the Yemen capital <span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">underlined the seriousness with which western governments are taking the threat posed by AQAP.</span></span></p><a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cf8058a0-f856-11de-beb8-00144feab49a.html">read more @ financial times</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 255, 51);font-size:180%;" ><br />4. UK to help US in Yemen AND Somalia</span><br /><br /><span id="Zoom">LONDON, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- Britain has agreed to continue working hand-in-glove with the United States to tackle <span style="font-size:180%;">the evolving threats of terrorism from Yemen and Somalia,</span> the prime minister's office said on Sunday. </span> <p><span id="Zoom"> ...British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the BBC on Sunday that Britain has been working closely with the Americans to strengthen counter-terrorism cooperation in Yemen. </span></p><a href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2010-01/04/content_12749272.htm">read more @ chinaview</a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 255, 51);font-size:180%;" >5. piracy picks up off Somali coast</span><br /><br /><h4 class="detailContentTeasertext">After an apparent lull in activity, pirates off the coast of Somalia have hijacked four merchant ships within one week, including two British-flagged vessels. Over 250 seamen are now held hostage.</h4><strong></strong> <p class="StandardArial" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">...Although the location of the seized vessels is well known, they can all be seen anchored off the Somali coast, experts say it would be impossible to liberate the hostages without severe loss of life. </p> <p class="StandardArial" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </p> <p class="StandardArial" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">"If the pirates are already on board, then there is not much that we can do - if you value the lives of the hostages," Commander Pieter Bindt, head of the EU's anti-piracy taskforce, NavFor, said. </p> <p class="StandardArial" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </p> <p class="StandardArial" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size:180%;">In the past, heavy ransoms amounting to millions have been paid for hijacked ships. </span></p> <p class="StandardArial" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size:180%;"> </span></p> <p class="StandardArial" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size:180%;">But it's believed the ransoms have merely encouraged the pirates, enabling them to equip themselves with faster boats, better guns and state-of-the-art tracking technology.</span></p> <p class="StandardArial" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </p><p class="StandardArial" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></p><p class="StandardArial" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></p><p class="StandardArial" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><a href="http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5077362,00.html">read more @ dw-world</a><br /></p><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 255, 51);font-size:180%;" >6. piracy money being laundered through Kenyan real estate</span><br /><br />Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua said that <span style="font-size:180%;">there is suspicion that some of the money that is being collected in piracy is being laundered by the purchase of property in the country</span> especially at this time when Kenya is facing global challenges of security such as terrorism and others, it is very important for them to know who is where and who owns what. Mutua also hopes that this will also help the government catch tax evaders. The reason why Kenya may be an attractive spot for pirates to launder their money is because it shares borders with Somalia and has investment opportunities and a large Somali community in the country.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.newstimeafrica.com/archives/9899">read more @ newstime africa<br /></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 255, 51);font-size:180%;" >7.</span> <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 255, 51);font-size:180%;" >LONDON - A cargo ship and a chemical tanker</span> have both been hijacked by pirates in the perilous waters off the coast of Somalia, officials said yesterday....the <span style="font-size:180%;">Singaporean-flagged Pramoni, a chemical tanker with a crew of 24, was seized by pirates in the heavily defended Gulf of Aden, </span>one of the world’s busiest waterways.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2010/01/03/historic_airplanes_remains_discovered/">source: boston globe</a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 255, 51);font-size:180%;" ><br />8. limited hangout -- yeah so maybe we missed a few things what of it?</span><br /><br /><p><b>LONDON: </b>British intelligence agencies knew three years ago the accused Detroit bomber had made contact with Islamic extremists while studying at university in London but failed to flag him as a possible terrorist risk.</p> <p>And, according to counterterrorism officials, <span style="font-size:180%;">Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had had ''multiple communications'' with MI5 targets who had been the subject of email and phone surveillance.</span></p><a href="http://www.smh.com.au/world/britain-admits-jihadist-intelligence-failures-20100103-lnf3.html">read more @ sunday morning herald</a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 255, 51);font-size:180%;" ><br /><br /><br />9. UN sanctions Eritrea for helping Somali rebels because *somebody* needs to be punished</span><br /><br /><span class="verdana11">Somalia — The Islamist officials of Hizbul Islam have sharply denounced the arm embargo which the United Nations imposed on Eritrean government which allegedly supporting the Islamist fighters in Somalia, officials said on Wednesday.<br /><br /></span>The information secretary said that they were very sorry for the sanction against the Eritrean government pointing out that <span style="font-size:180%;">there are more governments intervening Somalia and were not imposed any sanction.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.portalangop.co.ao/motix/en_us/noticias/africa/2009/11/52/Hizbul-Islam-Denounces-Sanction-Imposed-Eritrea,7c608547-780d-42d9-bcc9-83237914be71.html">read more @ angop</a><br /></span><span class="verdana11"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 255, 51);font-size:180%;" ><br />10. China to establish naval base around Somalia</span><br /><br />Rear Admiral Yin Zhou’s, a senior Chinese naval officer has suggested that <span style="font-size:180%;">China will establish a permanent base in the Gulf of Aden to aid its anti-piracy operations.</span> The proposal was posted on China’s Defence ministry website. The Admiral went on to say that supplying and maintaining the fleet off Somalia was challenging without such a base, and said other nations were unlikely to object. The Chinese navy currently has no overseas bases, but media outlets and forums in China are calling for this to change. On Monday, a Chinese cargo ship and its crew of 25 were rescued from Somali pirates on Monday, and a $4m ransom was paid to their kidnappers.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.newstimeafrica.com/archives/9895">read more @ newstime africa<br /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 255, 51);font-size:180%;" >11. Aha, solution solution: bring in the international community.</span><br /><br />In various circles—especially within the Somali Diaspora—there are lively discussions on the <span style="font-size:180%;">seemingly forgotten values of compromise, coexistence, collective security and common-good. </span>And the consensus seems to gravitate toward two particular priorities.<br /><br />...On their part, as was reiterated in the 16th meeting of the ICG (International Contact Group) recently held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the international community is committed to take a more active role in the Somali issue.<br /><br />...Though the international community’s interest in Somalia is broad, here is some of the oft-cited strategic rationale:<br /><br />- To prevent potential spread of transnational terrorism<br />- To prevent radicalization of Somali Diaspora youth<br />- <span style="font-size:180%;">To find a home for the floating command center known as AFRICOM</span> ( Africa Command Center )<br />- To control the Indian Ocean and thus control the life-line of China ’s energy security as its oil imports from various African nations travel through that route<br />- To protect one of the world’s most critical commercial arteries from piracy<br />- To monitor and stabilize the threat coming from a volatile geographical area that the Pentagon refers as The Arc of Instability [ Somalia , Sudan , Eritrea , Ethiopia , Yemen , and Kenya. 2/3 of the world’s refugee population come from three of these countries]<br />- <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 204, 0);font-size:180%;" >To provide access to the identified but unexplored natural resources </span>DING DING DING DING DING!<br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 204, 0);font-size:180%;" ><br /><a href="http://globalpolitician.com/26146-somalia">read more @ global politician<br /></a></span>A. Peasanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01929646095992796530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4364545641112568204.post-9623863174146715952010-01-02T10:09:00.003-05:002010-01-02T10:17:50.057-05:00watch the corporate media *not* make the connection<p><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 153, 0);font-size:180%;" ><a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6960182.ece">1. Mumbai terror suspect David Headley was 'rogue US secret agent' - times online, December 17, 2009</a></span><br /></p><p>According to documents put before a court in Chicago, Mr Headley had links with the Pakistan Army and, through it, with al-Qaeda.</p> <p>As well as helping to co-ordinate the Mumbai atrocity, Mr Headley is accused of planning attacks on Mumbai’s Bollywood film industry, the Shiv Sena, a Hindu extremist group also based in Mumbai, a major Hindu temple, <span style="font-size:180%;">and a <span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102);">Danish newspaper that had published cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:180%;">The US authorities allege that he was close to Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a former Pakistani schoolmate and businessman who is also being charged with planning to attack the Danish newspaper, <i>Jyllands-Posten</i>. Mr Rana is accused of having known about the attack on Mumbai in advance.</span></p> <p>The CIA denied that Headley had worked for the organisation.</p><p style="font-style: italic;">more at link<br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><span style="font-size:180%;"><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/denmark/6923401/Danish-police-shoot-terrorist-trying-to-enter-Mohammed-cartoonists-home.html">2. Danish police shoot 'terrorist' trying to enter Mohammed cartoonist's home - telegraph uk, January 2, 2010</a></span></p><p><br /></p><span style="font-size:180%;">Danish police have shot a Somali man linked to al-Qaida who tried to enter the home of an artist who drew controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. </span><br /><p> The man, 28, who was armed with an axe and a knife, went to the home of Kurt Westergaard at 10pm local time on Friday, police said. </p> <p> Police shot him in the leg and arm and he was arrested. The man, who is expected to recover, was later charged with two counts of attempted murder.<br /></p><p> <span style="font-size:180%;">Mr Westergaard, 74, was commissioned by the Jyllands-Posten newspaper to produce caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed five years ago, including one which depicted the Prophet with a bomb in his turban. </span></p> <p> He has received several death threats since the cartoon was published, but had spoken recently about trying to live as normal a life as possible at his home in Viby near the western city of Aarhus. </p> <p> Mr Westergaard was there with a five-year-old granddaughter when the attacker tried to get in. </p> <p> "I locked myself in our safe room. He tried to smash the entrance door with an axe," he said. </p> <p> He said that the assailant shouted "revenge" and "blood" as he tried to enter the bathroom where Mr Westergaard and the child had sought shelter. </p> <p> <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 255, 51);font-size:180%;" >"My grandchild did fine," he said. "It was scary. It was close. Really close. But we did it." <span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102); font-style: italic;">[they "did" it? was it an assignment? that's a bit of a strange thing to say. - ed.]</span><br /></span></p> <p> Officers arrived two minutes later and tried to arrest the assailant, who wielded an axe at a police officer. One officer then shot the man in a knee and a hand, authorities said. Nielsen said the suspect was admitted to hospital but his life was not in danger. </p> <p> Mr Westergaard was said to be "quite shocked" but was not injured. </p> <p> <span style="font-size:180%;">Jakob Scharf, who heads the Danish intelligence service, PET, said the attack was "terror related". </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:180%;"> "The arrested man has according to PET's information close relations to the Somali terrorist group, al-Shabaab, and al-Qaida leaders in eastern Africa," he added. </span></p> <p> An umbrella organisation for moderate Muslims in Denmark condemned the attack. </p> <p> "The Danish Muslim Union strongly distances itself from the attack and any kind of extremism that leads to such acts," the group said in a statement. </p> <p> Denmark's cartoon crisis began in September 2005 when the Jyllands-Posten cultural editor Flemming Rose commissioned the satirical drawings as part of a discussion on free speech. </p> <p> The cartoons inflamed anti-Danish and anti-Western sentiment among Muslims across the world. </p> <p> In January 2006, after both the newspaper and the Danish government refused Muslim demands for an apology, a <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/02/03/wcart03.xml">wave of violence </a>ensued during which several Danish embassies were set alight, a boycott of Danish goods was encouraged across the Muslim world and violent anti-Danish demonstrations were held, particularly in Pakistan and Afghanistan. </p> <p> Several demonstrators were killed in separate incidents as security forces sought to control the protests. </p> <p> In the past several people have been <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1578430/Five-arrested-in-Danish-cartoon-murder-plot.html">arrested on suspicion of plotting Westergaard's murder,</a> Danish police have since <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1580687/Danish-cartoonists-81-namesakes-in-terror-risk.html">offered protection</a> to everyone in the country called Kurt Westergaard. </p><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>A. Peasanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01929646095992796530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4364545641112568204.post-1037085554865780302010-01-01T10:50:00.005-05:002010-01-01T11:01:50.322-05:00we are slowly awakening after centuries-long enslavement<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXqZOoWd_4ssVZwPQtvWyJsKxYc-me4i9m4HDXaDEVyrNfh1FiJVLoUfqqdZj2rvJ_-njscYqggoqcl3UXdPPOetkTYJwcGX2rEnDv_V4i2lPDPDfuBY6MqzDhMpvGpnfY9jgzANgpT_Y/s1600-h/cow.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 161px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXqZOoWd_4ssVZwPQtvWyJsKxYc-me4i9m4HDXaDEVyrNfh1FiJVLoUfqqdZj2rvJ_-njscYqggoqcl3UXdPPOetkTYJwcGX2rEnDv_V4i2lPDPDfuBY6MqzDhMpvGpnfY9jgzANgpT_Y/s320/cow.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421799588963224418" border="0" /></a><br /><p class="text-content-page1">Viktor Zoloty, our reader from Mykolaiv oblast, first wrote to <i>The Day</i> last February and immediately had his letter published. Editor in chief Larysa Ivshyna then wrote in the foreword to his letter that Zoloty reminded her of “an almost lost but all the more interesting culture of epistolary genre.” </p><p class="text-content-page1">Our regular readers remember that when Zoloty read in <i>The Day</i> about the publication of Oxana Pachlovska’s book Ave, Europa, he was eager to get hold of one, but, naturally, it is impossible to do this “in a faraway Mykolaiv region village.” Then he “dared” to turn to <i>The Day</i>’s editorial board. We sent him the book he dreamed of and, simultaneously, a gift from <i>The Day</i> – a collection of articles James Mace: Your Dead Chose Me. Since such a well-mannered person as Zoloty was too embarrassed to accept valuable gifts, the editor in chief offered “barter.” “As a sign of gratitude, please send us a photo of your special cows,” Ivshyna wrote. (Zoloty also wrote in his letter about his pets that they are sometimes “wiser than some people.”)</p><p class="text-content-page1">We have received photographs only now. Zoloty, naturally, had no time to resume correspondence because of the heavy workload in the summer and fall. As the farming work went on, his letter, which we consider extraordinary, not in the least because of the level of the problems addressed, was included into Extract 150, a collection of Den’s key articles, so now the letter can be read nationwide. Zoloty is certain to receive this two-volume book as a gift from us, as well as our Christmas and New Year greetings. </p><p class="text-content-page1"><i>“Good afternoon, dear Ms. Ivshyna,</i></p><p class="text-content-page1">I sincerely apologize for being silent for so long. You may not remember that you mailed me earlier this year as a gift three books, which I think are invaluable, especially for the Ukrainian reader. It is<i> Ave, Europa!</i> by Oxana Pachlovska, <i>Your Dead Chose Me</i> by James Mace, and <i>The Apocrypha</i> of Klara Gudzyk. But even if you remember, you must have thought that I am no longer living. For it is at least uncivil to get a gift like this and then keep silent for months on end. But you magnanimously offered me a ‘barter’ of sorts to alleviate my torments, i.e., to send to the newspaper a photo of me and my, as you put it, ‘special’ cows, which I have failed to do so far. </p><p class="text-content-page1">My son photographed me with the cows, but the photos were dark and of low quality. But the main factor that delayed the photos was a perennial shortage of time. </p><p class="text-content-page1">For, to survive in very difficult conditions (and we have always had such conditions in our village), one has to work very hard. This takes up all your strength and, what is more, time.</p><p class="text-content-page1">I have just received some classical music discs from a Kharkiv family leisure club: Bach, Liszt, Beethoven, Wagner, Vivaldi, Schumann, Paganini, Mozart, Chopin, Tchaikovsky … but I don’t have time to listen to them. </p><p class="text-content-page1">When I retired in March 2000, I hoped I would have lots of free time. <span style="font-size:180%;">For a human exists not only to work – he also works to create conditions for a full-fledged intellectual life, as well as to travel, know the surrounding world, read, listen to music, and mingle with interesting people. </span></p><p class="text-content-page1">Unfortunately, this did not happen.</p><p class="text-content-page1">I have no opportunities to use the Internet. The only little window for cultural self-improvement is the three or four months of winter. And the newspaper Den’ occupies ranks topmost for me in this connection. </p><p class="text-content-page1">I only wish I had not lost as many as eleven years, when I could not read this newspaper before 2008, when I accidentally heard and saw on TV the editor in chief, i.e., you, charming Ms. Ivshyna, and began to subscribe to it.</p><p class="text-content-page1">It is hard to imagine how many extremely interesting things were published in Den’ at the time thanks to an editor in chief like you – and all this went past me. </p><p class="text-content-page1">Now I would like to raise some sore issues of nationwide importance. Maybe, my reflections are not worth being spotlighted in a newspaper. But I do not insist on this. I just have a desire to share them with you, respected Ms. Ivshyna. </p><p class="text-content-page1">The newspaper Den’ addresses all kinds of very acute problems in our life. It is perhaps impossible to add something new to this. And I am not actually going to do so. </p><p class="text-content-page1">Please forgive me for my possibly too categorical judgments. I do not think my opinion is the ultimate truth. You should not think that everything in our life is clear to me. </p><p class="text-content-page1"><span style="font-size:180%;">Our greatest woe, the woe of Ukraine, is that most of our people are bereft of historical awareness and national self-identity, i.e., patriotism. We are very slowly awakening after the centuries-long slavery. </span></p><p class="text-content-page1">For the first time in the years of independence, we only recently formed, by a narrow margin, a seemingly national-oriented majority in the Verkhovna Rada. Where has it gone? What criteria are the majority MPs guided by? And the rest of MPs and different-level officials are taking an openly hostile attitude to the state. </p><p class="text-content-page1"><span style="font-size:180%;">Take, for example, our energy dependence on Russia. It is a noose on Ukraine’s neck. Why aren’t we exploiting our own fuel deposits? </span></p><p class="text-content-page1">Our press reports that we have a unique phenomenon – Black Sea gas outbursts discovered by an expedition of the Institute of the Biology of Southern Seas in 1989–1991. The total output of these seafloor rock discharges is about one billion cubic meters in 24 hours. The phenomenon is so obvious that outbursts in the vicinity of Serpent Island reach the water surface, and the sea is ‘bubbling’ there. The explorations carried out by our and foreign specialists show that the Black Sea shelf contains more oil and gas than there is in the Caspian Sea or the North Sea. </p><p class="text-content-page1">It is also known that huge deposits of natural gas (about 120 trillion cubic meters) were discovered in the late 1970s in the so-called estuary triangle: Sloviansk—Starobilsk—Luhansk. This would suffice to meet the needs of entire Ukraine for several centuries. </p><p class="text-content-page1">It is not accidental, of course, that anti-Ukrainian separatists and their supporters among Moscow’s top officials chose, of all places, Severodonets to proclaim the so-called PISUAR autonomous republic on the territory of sovereign Ukraine. For this city is next to the object of interest for those who hate independent Ukraine.</p><p class="text-content-page1">It is also known that the US oil industrialist Richard Hart visited Ukraine in 1993. He studied all the NASA exploration data as well as the results of Soviet geological surveys, which had leaked, for unfathomable reasons, from the USSR Ministry for Geology to the West. After making a fact-finding tour, Hart said: ‘You have a sea of oil here, as well as a two-kilometer layer of methane hydrate and a meter-thick layer of anthracite. I offered you favorable conditions: I take 10 percent of the extracted oil and you take 90. But the offer was turned down. I all probability, you have quite a lot of those who are interested in keeping Ukraine dependent on imported energy resources.’ </p><p class="text-content-page1">Academician Heorhii Lapin, chief of the Odesa regional branch of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, once said: ‘Today, when the invaluable results of geological surveys are resting in special repositories of Russia’s Ministry of Geology, Kyiv pretends to know nothing about our underground treasures, and those who know too much and are very stubborn are told that there are no funds available. Does it mean that there are funds to buy somebody else’s and there are no funds to produce your own?!’ </p><p class="text-content-page1"><span style="font-size:180%;">Let us make a conclusion from all this. There are no problems with energy resources in Ukraine. We have big problems with anti-Ukrainian sabotage and the antinational ‘fifth column.’ </span></p><p class="text-content-page1">If we are afraid of Americans but still unable to develop our deposits, why not invite someone else, for example, Norwegians who have great experience in extracting oil and gas in the North Sea. You can be sure the Norwegians will not colonize us.</p><p class="text-content-page1">Our energy dependence on Russia is the most powerful and by no means the only economic instrument of pressure on Ukraine. Electronic and print media of mass information (disinformation?) hold sway here. Books, cinema, and television are almost all Russian or pro-Russian. Very powerful forces are acting against us, and their arsenal is rich. But we are so defenseless with our disunity. To hold out in such conditions and keep up Ukraine’s and Ukrainians’ movement for genuine independence and a better life, we (or the vast majority of us) must rally together, instead of lying low, and at least elect patriots, not ‘janissaries’ and aliens, as our pastors. </p><p class="text-content-page1"><span style="font-size:180%;">Actually, unity is the hardest and almost impossible task for us. For, over centuries, especially in the past few decades before we gained independence, our enslavers have squeezed love for freedom and the feeling of national pride out of us, Ukrainians. It is now in our genes. We are even born with an inferiority complex: ‘please come and sit down on our neck.’ This is why we are being treated so brutally. </span></p><p class="text-content-page1">But I still hope that not evething is lost. I was not on Kyiv’s Independence Square in 2004. My son and I were on a smaller Maidan in Mykolaiv at the time. We were chanting ‘Yushchenko!’ so avidly and sincerely that our voices became coarse and we could not speak for two weeks after that. </p><p class="text-content-page1">But this is just by the way.</p><p class="text-content-page1">We were glued to the television, watching the Main Maidan – as long as it was shown. I could not fight back tears because I felt happy and saw Ukraine rising from its knees. </p><p class="text-content-page1">The hopes were optimistic…</p><p class="text-content-page1">Now, five years later, how can we assess Viktor Yushchenko’s presidency? </p><p class="text-content-page1">It is impossible to give an unambiguous answer. </p><p class="text-content-page1">On the one hand, instead of bringing election riggers and lawbreakers to justice, he has been conferring state awards on them. I cannot fathom this from the viewpoint of common sense. </p><p class="text-content-page1">And his ‘memorandums’ and ‘universals’ helped Yanukovych stage a comeback from political oblivion. </p><p class="text-content-page1">All this greatly encouraged anti-Ukrainian forces and triggered a mayhem of lawlessness and corruption, which, naturally, pushed Ukraine away from Europe.</p><p class="text-content-page1">On the other hand, Yushchenko has revealed, on the official level, the truth about the Ukrainian Holodomor. He has also rightly assessed and extolled the UPA and Ukraine’s liberation movement. He has instituted the freedom of speech and promoted the Ukrainian language as an indicator of our identity and independence. </p><p class="text-content-page1">He has been making strenuous efforts to have Ukraine admitted to the Euro-Atlantic system, for membership in them, especially in NATO, would guarantee Ukraine’s sovereignty. But his practical actions inside the country did not harmonize with these intentions. Anti-Ukrainian forces in the Verkhovna Rada and in society, which he encouraged with difficult-to-understand actions, have thwarted this by far the most important step. </p><p class="text-content-page1">Yes, Yushchenko have made mistakes. But he is an honest, frank, and faithful person who boundlessly loves Ukraine. He is not afraid, if it is to the state’s benefit, to take unpopular steps that can adversely affect his rating. Now, too, on the eve of the presidential elections, he is not among the race’s leaders. This is very sad. </p><p class="text-content-page1">We, those who are concerned about the destiny of Ukraine, are sure to ‘bite our nails’ (and very much so!) and repent that we did not vote for Yushchenko and elect him for the second presidential term. </p><p class="text-content-page1">Should Yanukovych win the elections, Ukraine will be neither democratic nor independent. </p><p class="text-content-page1">There will be no Ukraine at all. </p><p class="text-content-page1">If Tymoshenko wins, it is not clear whether Ukraine will go East or West. </p><p class="text-content-page1">Kostenko and Hrytsenko have, unfortunately, no chances – just like Tiahnybok. </p><p class="text-content-page1">So in the runoff we will have not to elect but to choose between the well-known non-existence (Yanukovych) and the unknown (Tymoshenko). I’d rather have the unknown than well-known and guaranteed non-existence. </p><p class="text-content-page1">We have a lot of problems.</p><p class="text-content-page1">Take, for example, the attitude of our people to the environment. There is a garbage dump all around. Trees in the forests are being cut down and even uprooted because somebody cashes in on selling the sand on which these trees, once planted to solidify the sand, grow. </p><p class="text-content-page1">What is a still bigger eyesore are our rivers into which garbage is dumped. There is almost no fish left in them. Fishnets were set up 50–100 meters from each other. Meanwhile, the fishing authorities are busy collecting ‘tribute’ from the owners of these fishing cobwebs, thus legalizing poaching. </p><p class="text-content-page1"><span style="font-size:180%;">But what worries me the most is whether Ukraine will manage to hold out and preserve its statehood, taking into account the indifference, or even hostility, that we can see everywhere, and a formidable foreign danger that keeps hanging over us. <span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">And the most terrible thing is that our society does not see and is not aware of this.</span></span></p><p class="text-content-page1">The newspaper Den’ is pursuing a great cause by rousing the Ukrainians. But, unfortunately, it is only read by people who share its position. </p><p class="text-content-page1">And how can one reach those who do not read Den’ or read nothing at all? They just watch the ‘boob tube’ which mainly pours out dirt, obscenities, and anti-Ukrainism. </p><p class="text-content-page1">I am sending a photo with one cow, Kvitochka, only. Incredibly hard as it is, we had to do away with her mother, Chaiechka, who lost her reproductive power. It was impossible to keep a cow (a big animal, not a cat or a dog) until it died a natural death, like in a zoo, spending expensive fodder, efforts, and precious time. </p><p class="text-content-page1">Some strangers led her away from my homestead. I ran away from home not to see this. But this could not ease my mind. </p><p class="text-content-page1">I am sorry for being sentimental and robbing you of your time. </p><p class="text-content-page1">Yours very truly, <b>Viktor ZOLOTY, Vasylivka, Snihurivsky raion, Mykolaiv oblast</b></p><p class="text-content-page1"><br /></p><p class="text-content-page1"><b><a href="http://day.kiev.ua/290066/">source</a><br /></b></p>A. Peasanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01929646095992796530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4364545641112568204.post-85706155884397290882009-12-31T10:51:00.003-05:002009-12-31T11:10:32.336-05:00lookie who we found here<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 102, 204);font-size:180%;" >1. Americans killed in Afghanistan were CIA agents</span><br /><br /><span id="Zoom">WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- <span style="font-size:180%;">Eight Americans killed in a military base blast in Afghanistan were agents of the Central Intelligence Agency, CNN reported Wednesday.</span> </span> <p><span id="Zoom"> The report cited an anonymous U.S. official, but didn't provide any details. The State Department confirmed the death of the eight in a suicide blast at the Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost province, southern Afghanistan. </span></p><p><span id="Zoom"> Department spokesman Ian Kelly didn't provide any details, nor did he say whether those killed were military personnel or civilians. </span></p><p><span id="Zoom"> The blast occurred Wednesday afternoon when an attacker wearing a suicide vest detonated the explosive device. </span></p><a href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/31/content_12734229.htm">source: chinaview</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 102, 204);font-size:180%;" >2. Petraeus, total Israeli tool who wants to be president someday, 90% sure about this. revealed: Iran's involvement in Briton's Baghdad kidnapping</span><br /><br /><p>The five British men kidnapped in <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/iraq" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Iraq">Iraq</a> were taken in an operation led and masterminded by <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/iran" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Iran">Iran</a>'s Revolutionary Guard, according to evidence uncovered during an extensive investigation by the Guardian.</p><p>The men – including Peter Moore, who was released yesterday after more than two years in captivity – were taken to Iran within a day of their kidnapping from a government ministry building in Baghdad in 2007, several senior sources in Iraq and Iran have told the Guardian.</p><p>They were held in prisons run by al-Quds Force, a Revolutionary Guard unit that specialises in foreign operations on behalf of the Iranian government.</p><p><span style="font-size:180%;">The former US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, told the BBC he was "90% certain" Moore was held in Iran for some of his two and a half years in captivity.</span></p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/31/peter-moore-kidnapping-iran-militia">read more @ guardian<br /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 102, 204);font-size:180%;" ><br />3. and why?</span><br /><br />And the Iranian regime's motives for the abduction can be confirmed: retaliation for the arrest of key Iranians in <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/iraq" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Iraq">Iraq</a> by the United States; anger at the direct threats against Iran by President George W Bush and the desire to prevent Moore, the computer expert among the five kidnap victims, from installing a sophisticated tracking system that would show how billions of pounds in international aid money from Iraqi institutions was diverted to Iran's militia groups in Iraq.<br /><br />...<span style="font-size:180%;">Unknown to the kidnappers, they were followed by undercover agents working for Iraq's intelligence service who, <span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">by chance,</span> had been outside the Ministry of Finance when the men were taken.</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/31/british-hostages-baghdad-iraq-iran">read more @ guardian<br /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 102, 204);font-size:180%;" >4. Indo-Israeli plan to counter terrorism</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Islamabad—Indian and Israeli military officials have discussed a new secret plan to jointly counter “threats” from Pakistan and ‘Islamic’ militants in Afghanistan.<br /></span> <br /> Reliable reports reaching here say that during a two-day meeting early this week held in New Delhi Indian Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar and the Director-General of Israeli Defence Ministry Retired Brigadier-General Pinchas Buchris <span style="font-size:180%;">formulated a joint offensive strategy in this region.</span><br /> <br /> According to reports Indian and Israeli defence officials and senior military strategic planners met in New Delhi on December 22 and discussed a detailed approach to <span style="font-size:180%;">a joint plan to counter-terrorism and share intelligence on Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Gulf region. Other secret meetings and engagements were not revealed to the media.</span><br /> <br /> The reports reaching here also say that Israeli officials agreed to train and equip Indian Special Operation Forces (SOF) to counter terrorism threats in India and Afghanistan.<br /><br /><a href="http://pakobserver.net/200912/25/news/topstories07.asp">read more @ pakistan observer<br /></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 102, 204);font-size:180%;" >5.<strong> COULD TERROR WAR BE RESPONSE BY GOP AND ISRAEL AGAINST THREATS TO THEIR GLOBAL PLANS?</strong></span><p><em>By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor </em></p><p>(STORY CONTINUALLY UPDATING WITH BREAKING NEWS!)</p><p>When nothing adds up, its time we starting looking at what we know. Our recent terrorist, now dubbed "the crotch bomber" is another dupe. He could have been working for anyone, drugged, brainwashed or simply influenced, maybe by crazy Arabs, maybe by the Mossad, maybe by the CIA. We only know the game is falling apart.</p><p>We do know a couple of things. <span style="font-size:180%;">Dad, back in Nigeria, <a href="http://www.sunday.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2390:mutallab-an-accomplished-banker&catid=41:latest-news&Itemid=26">ran the national arms industry</a> (DICON) in partnership <a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/200809050478.html">with Israel, in particular, the Mossad</a>. He was in daily contact with them. They run everything in Nigeria, from arms production to counter-terrorism. Though Islamic, Muttalab was a close associate of Israel. He has been misrepresented. His "banking" is a cover. </span>Next, what do we know about the two Al Qaeda leaders Bush had released, the ones who planned this?</p><p>According to<a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/men-believed-northwest-airlines-plot-set-free/story?id=9434065"> ABC news</a>, the Al Qaeda leaders running the insurgency in Yemen were released from Guantanamo, although two of the highest ranking known terrorist there, without trial.</p><blockquote><p><em>Guantanamo prisoner #333, Muhamad Attik al-Harbi, and prisoner #372, Said Ali Shari, were sent to Saudi Arabia on Nov. 9, 2007, according to the Defense Department log of detainees who were released from American custody</em>.</p><p><em>Both of the former Guantanamo detainees are described as military commanders and appear on a January, 2009 video along with the man described as the top leader of al Qaeda in Yemen, Abu Basir Naser al-Wahishi, formerly Osama bin Laden's personal secretary.</em></p></blockquote><br /><br />With all the hoopla about trials in New York, not a word is said when top level terrorists are released to Saudi friends of the Bush family who let them go. We are now fighting these two Bush friends in Yemen. They are running a major insurgency there. We have been using Cruise missiles and our jets to attack their bases in the last weeks.<br /><br />...<br /><span class="content"><p><strong>MUTALLAH MEETS WITH CIA CHIEF OF STATION IN NIGERIA, NOVEMBER 19</strong></p><p>We have confirmed that Mutallah met with the CIA chief of station in Nigeria.</p><p>Imagine this person of great power and influence, with friends at the highest levels of the CIA and Mossad. When he came to announce his son may be a terrorist, he was a loving father asking for help? He would have made this points:</p><ul><li>My son is a danger to himself and others, please keep him safe</li><li>Do not allow my son to travel to the United States under any imaginable circumstances as he is likely to be involved in acts of terrorism</li><li>Please assure me that you will act immediately and contact me as to what measures you have taken</li></ul><p>Were any of this true, this is what would have been said. Were any of what we have been told true, none of what we saw in Detroit could have happened. What we know is that something very different than this really happened. <span style="font-size:180%;">Go ahead and Google "muttalab, nigeria, bank, mossad, defense"</span></p></span><a href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=9951">read more @ veterans today<br /></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 102, 204);font-size:180%;" >6. meanwhile, back in Israel, Shin Bet overlooked that whack job Tytell for a looooong time</span><br /><br /><span class="lead"><p><span style="font-size:180%;">Earlier in the day, documents released to the media revealed that police and the Shin Bet (<span class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD5">Israel</span></span> Security Agency) knew about Tytell, for a number of years prior to his arrest. </p><p>Police have alleged that <span style="font-size:180%;">Tytell was behind an unprecedented series of deadly terror shootings and bombings spanning over a decade, </span>in which two Palestinians were killed and Israel Prize Laureate Prof. Ze'ev Sternhell, as well as 15-year-old Ami Oritz, from a messianic family in Ariel, were wounded. </p><p>Tytell was at one point investigated regarding the 1997 murder of a Palestinian taxi driver but the investigation was closed without his arrest, police said. The probe into Tytell also revealed that he allegedly intended to attack leftist activists after his supposed attempt to bomb Sternhell was unsuccessful. </p><p>The investigation of Tytell's alleged crimes has revealed that he is suspected of intent to continue with nationalist-motivated murders as well as attacks on politicians. </p><p><span style="font-size:180%;">According to the new details released Thursday, Tytell said he "wanted to attack an Arab and murder him in front of the cameras." He reportedly went on to say that he "wanted to cause an Arab riot and pressure the police to cancel the gay pride parade." </span><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>read more @ jpost</p><p>http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1261364556378<br /></p></span>A. Peasanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01929646095992796530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4364545641112568204.post-82898235795040941922009-12-31T10:31:00.003-05:002009-12-31T10:51:28.104-05:00underpants narrative -- justifying what we're going to do next<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);font-size:180%;" >1. HUMAN ERROR, INCOMPETENCE: the clues piled up, but why did US security fail to act over terrorist?</span><br /><br /><p class="font-null">America's much-criticised intelligence agencies were back under the microscope yesterday, as an urgent inquiry ordered by President Barack Obama got under way into how they failed to prevent the Nigerian student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from almost blowing up a US airliner on Christmas Day.</p> <p class="font-null"> <span style="font-size:180%;">New details make clear that the authorities had unusually abundant clues that such a terrorist attack was imminent: </span>not only the father's warning to the CIA in November that his son had developed alarming extremist Islamic views, but also intercepted "chatter" from al-Qa'ida leaders in Yemen about "a Nigerian" who was being trained for a terrorist operation. </p> <p class="font-null"> Yet Abdulmutallab, 23, was only placed on a register of 550,000 people who might have links to terrorism, not on a smaller list of 14,000 subject to special screening before being permitted to board a plane, or on a 4,000 person no-fly list. Nor was his multiple-entry visa to the US revoked. </p>...<br /><p class="font-null"> Dennis Blair, who as Director of National Intelligence is in overall charge of the 16 US intelligence-gathering agencies, told The Wall Street Journal that although improvements had been made since 9/11, "gaps remain and they must be fixed". </p> <p class="font-null"> <span style="font-size:180%;">His words are acknowledgement of the similarities between today and eight years ago, </span>when bureaucratic rivalries between the CIA and the FBI prevented the pooling of information that might have thwarted the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. Something similar appears to have happened this time, prompting the thinly veiled anger of Mr Obama on Tuesday as he ordered a preliminary investigation into what happened to be completed within 48 hours, in other words today.<br /></p><p class="font-null"><br /></p><p class="font-null"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/the-clues-piled-up-but-why-did-us-security-fail-to-act-over-terrorist-1853920.html">read more @ independent</a></p><p class="font-null"><br /></p><p style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);" class="font-null"><span style="font-size:180%;">2. Obama hits out at failures</span></p><p>HONOLULU - PRESIDENT Barack Obama has lashed out at <span style="font-size:180%;">systemic intelligence failures</span> over the attempted attack on a US jet.</p> <p>He has demanded answers on <span style="font-size:180%;">why information was never pieced together by the US intelligence community</span> to trigger 'red flags' and possibly prevent the botched Christmas Day attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner.</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_472140.html">read more @ straits times</a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:180%;">3. of course despite all the failures this will JUSTIFY bombing targets in Yemen. and who will die? you can be sure some innocent civilians who never did anything to deserve being blown into the next life by the US military.</span></p><p><br /></p><p><span class="ArticleDetails">The US and Yemen are looking at new targets in Yemen for a potential retaliation strike, two senior American officials told CNN Tuesday following the failed Christmas Day attack on a Detroit-bound airliner, which al-Qaeda in Yemen claims it organized.<br /></span></p><p><span class="ArticleDetails">...</span><span class="ArticleDetails"><span style="font-size:180%;">The CNN report said that <span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">"by all accounts, the agreement would allow the US to fly cruise missiles, fighter jets or unmanned armed drones against targets in Yemen with the consent of that government." <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">[that was the WHOLE POINT of the underpants bomber exercise -- to get to this step, to justify bombing Yemen. also useful of course for stripping away additional rights. - ed.]</span></span></span><br /></span></p><p><a href="http://www.almanar.com.lb/newssite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=117610&language=en"><span class="ArticleDetails">read more @ al manar tv</span></a></p><p><br /><span class="ArticleDetails"></span></p><p style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span class="ArticleDetails" style="font-size:180%;">4. other incidents now coming out of the woodwork, to justify after the fact</span></p><p><br /><span class="ArticleDetails"></span></p><div style="margin: 0pt 0pt 15px;"> <p class="introcopy">A TERROR suspect armed with hidden explosives and a syringe was caught trying to board a commercial flight, it emerged yesterday. </p></div><p class="storycopy">The <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/148652/US-security-warned-about-Nigerian-">Somali</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>man was caught with equipment almost identical to that of Detroit bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on a flight from Mogadishu to Dubai.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);" class="storycopy"><span style="font-size:180%;">The arrest in November <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">lends weight to Abdulmutallab’s claims </span>to the FBI that he is just one of many Al Qaeda-trained terrorists willing to kill themselves to destroy Western targets.</span></p><p style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);" class="storycopy"><br /></p><p style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);" class="storycopy"><a href="http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/148924/Somali-held-boarding-jet-had-chemicals-and-syringe-"><span style="font-size:180%;">read more @ express.co.uk</span></a></p><p style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);" class="storycopy"><span style="font-size:180%;"><br /></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);font-size:180%;" >5. Chinaview version of this story sounds much less exciting because it happened a month ago and was a ROUTINE PROCEDURE.</span><br /><br /><span id="Zoom">MOGADISHU, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- A Somali man with chemical powder and liquid was arrested last month by African Union peacekeeping forces based in Mogadishu as he tried to board a plane at the international airport in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, spokesman for the AU forces said on Wednesday. </span><p><span id="Zoom"> ... "We have intercepted the man before he boarded the plane because he was carrying nearly one kilogram of powder and almost one litter of liquid in a bag," Barigye Bahoku, spokesman for the AU peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM), told Xinhua. </span></p><p><span id="Zoom"> Bahoku said that AU forces apprehended the man in November and handed him over to the Somali government for further investigation. </span></p><p><span id="Zoom"> <span style="font-size:180%;">He said that he was not aware of the nature of the powder or the liquid found with the man, adding that <span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">"the interception was a routine procedure" to prevent any liquid or chemical on board a plane. </span></span></span></p><span style="font-size:180%;"><br /></span><a href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/31/content_12731897.htm">read more @ chinaview<br /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);font-size:180%;" >6. and now the Saudis killed in Niger were whacked by al Qaeda, although at first it was just a robbery -- more justification </span><br /><br />RIYADH: The search for those behind the murder of four Saudi tourists in Niger has been intensified, said Umru Tahiru, chargé d’affaires at the Embassy of Niger.<br />...“Our government has deployed a special team to investigate the incident,” said the diplomat, adding that his government is waiting for the findings of ongoing investigations to take the next course of action.<br /><p>The governor of the Tillabery region of Niger told a local radio station that <span style="font-size:180%;">the attack, near the village of Djambala in the remote Tillabery region, happened in a restive zone where Tuareg rebels and Al-Qaeda cells are active. </span></p><p><span style="font-size:180%;">The attackers wore turbans, carried AK-47s and attempted to tie up the travelers after forcing their three-vehicle convoy to a halt. </span>The attack has increased tensions in the Sahel region, which has already been wracked by a wave of hostage-takings. Four Westerners — three Spaniards and one Frenchman — are believed to be in Mali and held hostage by Al-Qaeda operatives.</p><a href="http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=130467&d=31&m=12&y=2009">read more @ arab news</a><br /><br /><a href="http://afterarmageddon7.blogspot.com/2009/12/hidden-hand.html">see earlier stories here<br /></a>A. Peasanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01929646095992796530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4364545641112568204.post-38782570507422004942009-12-31T10:15:00.005-05:002009-12-31T10:31:12.733-05:00news related to Iran trap<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);font-size:180%;" >1. turmoil in Iran heading for the worst: EXPERTS.</span><br /><br />KUWAIT: The current turmoil in Iran is rapidly snowballing into a grave issue between the regime and opposition parties. International reactions have been direct and prying especially since Iran has adopted a defiant stance on the issue of its nuclear capability. This, incidentally, has been the center of United States' international policy.<br /><br />...He explained that <span style="font-size:180%;">internal division keeps widening</span> and that the regime lacks the ability to take firm stands on foreign policy. So the Iranian regime faces a period of crises.<br /><br />He said that during times when no decisions have been taken by the Iranian government, other <span style="font-size:180%;">countries such as Israel will consider this hesitation to be an intentional obstruction.<br /></span><br />...He continued by saying that Western countries will not bear with delays anymore. Iranians have been asked to give explanations even though they are unable to do so because of internal turmoil. <span style="font-size:180%;">The Iranian opposition is exerting increasing pressure on the regime hindering it from adopting a more rational and lenient policy towards unrest.<br /><br /></span><br /><a href="http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=MTM0OTMxNjEyNQ==">read more @ kuwait times</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);font-size:180%;" ><br />2. Iran studying Kerry's request for visit</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">He described massive media reports by the West on Kerry's request for paying a visit to Tehran as a new psychological warfare, saying that <span style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);">the measure is aimed at increasing pressures on Iran in case it denies Kerry's request. </span><br /></span><br /><br /><a href="http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8810091627">read more @ fars<br /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);font-size:180%;" ><br />3. no developments regarding Israel's withdrawal from Ghajar</span><br /><br /><span id="Zoom">BEIRUT, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- UN Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) deputy spokesperson said on Wednesday that currently there are no changes regarding Israeli withdrawal from al-Ghajar village.</span><span id="Zoom"> Andrei Tenenti told Xinhua that the peacekeeping forces has delivered proposals regarding the Israeli withdrawal to both Lebanon and Israel, but they have received no response till now. </span><p><span id="Zoom"> ...The UNIFIL statement came a day after local daily An Nahar reported that Israel will pull out of the northern part of the border village by the end of January 2010 following a deal between UNIFIL and Israel. Well-informed U.S. sources told the local newspaper that the Israeli troops will evacuate from the Lebanese side of the village in accordance with UN Resolution 1701 based on a UNIFIL plan.<br /></span></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/31/content_12731877.htm"><span id="Zoom">read more @ chinaview</span></a></p><p style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);"><span id="Zoom" style="font-size:180%;"><br /></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);font-size:180%;" >4. Kazakhmys secures $2.7B loan from China development bank<br /></span><br /><p><span style="font-size:180%;">Kazakh copper producer</span> Kazakhmys (KAZ.L:<a href="http://af.reuters.com/stocks/quote?symbol=KAZ.L">Quote</a>) secured a loan of up to $2.7 billion from the China Development Bank and Kazakh state welfare fund Samruk-Kazyna to develop growth projects, the firm said on Wednesday.</p> <p><span style="font-size:180%;">The loan will further boost ties between Kazakhstan and resource-hungry China, which has invested $13 billion into the oil-rich former Soviet republic this year,</span> the head of Samruk-Kazyna told Reuters on Tuesday.</p> <p>Most of the loan, about $2 billion, will fund the development of the Boschekul copper project in northern Kazakhstan, which could produce 12.5 million tonnes of copper ore annually.</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page31?oid=95096&sn=Detail">read more @ mineweb</a></p><p style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);"><span style="font-size:180%;"><br /></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);font-size:180%;" >5. China needs overseas base</span><br /><br /><p>BEIJING - CHINA needs a permanent naval base overseas to resupply its ships contributing to the multinational anti-piracy flotilla in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia, a prominent Chinese naval researcher was quoted as saying on Wednesday.</p> <p><span style="font-size:180%;">The suggestion marks a further step away from China's avowed policy of not maintaining foreign military bases or alliances.</span> Beijing says a more active naval presence abroad is necessary to protect sea lanes through which its vital foreign trade and natural resources travel.</p><a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Asia/Story/STIStory_472172.html">read more @ straits times<br /></a>A. Peasanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01929646095992796530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4364545641112568204.post-20842206432950559552009-12-31T10:01:00.003-05:002009-12-31T10:15:03.487-05:00flu psyop news<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);font-size:180%;" >1. IN A FIT OF STUNNING HYPOCRISY AND DISINGENUOUSNESS: WHO chief admits she has not been vaccinated. HEY MARGARET, TAKE YOUR DAMN SHOTS.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">In contradiction to the World Health Organization's mandate, WHO chief Margaret Chan revealed Tuesday that she has yet to be vaccinated against the swine flu virus.</span><br /> <p><span style="font-size:180%;">"I have asked my medical service to enquire where I can go to get my vaccination," she told reporters in Geneva, pointing out that she has just returned from leave.</span></p> <p>The WHO director-general stressed that she would "of course" get vaccinated and that "many of my staff" at the WHO have already taken their jabs against the A(H1N1) virus.</p> <p>Many countries rolled out their vaccination programmes over the past two months, but the take-up rate has been lower than expected.</p> <p>Germany said in early December it wants to sell spare vaccines to other countries, while Switzerland said in mid-December that it would give away part of its stock to developing countries and sell another part to countries that are still trying to procure vaccines.</p><a href="http://preventdisease.com/news/09/123009_WHO_chief_has_not_been_vaccinated.shtml">source: prevent disease</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);font-size:180%;" ><br />2. Indonesia reports 20 H5N1 cases in 2009, 19 fatal</span><br /><br /><p class="byline"> Robert Roos <img src="https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/images/purple-speck.gif" alt="*" /> News Editor<br /> </p> <p class="body"> Dec 30, 2009 (CIDRAP News) – <span style="font-size:180%;">Indonesia's Ministry of Health, updating information on H5N1 avian influenza for the first time since January, quietly reported this week that the country has had 20 human cases so far this year, with 19 of them fatal—a 95% case-fatality rate (CFR). </span></p> <p class="body"> A terse notice from the Ministry of Health on Dec 28 listed the figures and said the latest reported case was identified in South Jakarta on Sep 23. Indonesia's cumulative H5N1 toll since 2005 is now 161 cases with 134 deaths, for a CFR of 83%. </p> <p class="body"> <span style="font-size:180%;">The World Health Organization <span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">(WHO) updated its chart</span> of H5N1 cases and deaths today to include the new numbers from Indonesia, <span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">but it posted no report on the cases.</span></span> The global H5N1 total is 467 cases with 282 deaths, a CFR of 60%. Indonesia is the hardest-hit country overall, though Egypt has had more cases this year—39, with just 4 deaths. </p>...The often deadly H5N1 virus has not yet gained the ability to spread easily from person to person, though it has circulated widely in birds for the past 6 years. Disease experts still fear that it could gain transmissibility through mutation or by reassorting with another flu virus.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/avianflu/news/dec3009indo.html">read more @ CIDRAP</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);font-size:180%;" >3. New Hampshire probes anthrax case -- appears to be naturally occurring</span><br /><br /><p class="byline"> Robert Roos <img src="https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/images/purple-speck.gif" alt="*" /> News Editor<br /> </p> <p class="body"> Dec 29, 2009 (CIDRAP News) –<span style="font-size:180%;"> Health officials in New Hampshire are investigating whether a woman who is ill with gastrointestinal (GI) anthrax contracted the potentially deadly infection at a drum circle gathering in Durham, N.H. </span></p> <p class="body"> The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) reported the anthrax case in a woman from Strafford County, N.H., on Dec 26 and said she was in critical condition. Officials think the woman may have been infected at a drumming circle at the United Campus Ministry building in Durham on Dec 4. </p>...DHHS officials believe the New Hampshire case is the first confirmed GI anthrax case reported in the United States, according to an Associated Press report today. The other two types of anthrax infection are inhalational and cutaneous. <p class="body"> Contaminated animal hides from Africa were blamed for two cases of cutaneous anthrax in Connecticut in 2007. Also, African hides used in drum-making were linked to an inhalational anthrax case in a drummer from New York City in 2006. He was hospitalized for a month before recovering. </p><a href="https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/bt/anthrax/news/dec2909anthrax.html">read more @ CIDRAP</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);font-size:180%;" >4. undeterred, Swedish researchers look for vaccine for stomach cancer -- big potential market</span><br /><br /><span>New research at </span><a href="http://www.thelocal.se/tag/Sahlgrenska" class="nodec">Sahlgrenska</a><span> Academy in </span><a href="http://www.thelocal.se/tag/Gothenburg" class="nodec">Gothenburg</a><span> in western <span class="cas_live_link">Sweden</span> might be an important step towards creating a vaccine against ulcers and stomach cancer. </span><i><span><span class="cas_live_link">Helicobacter</span> pylori</span></i><span>, the bacteria that causes ulcers, tricks the immune <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed brown; cursor: progress;" id="cas_green_popup" class="">system</span> so that the body can't defend itself against the infection. </span><span>“By tricking the immune cells, the bacteria can keep the infection – and itself – alive,” Malin Hansson, a PhD <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed brown; cursor: progress;" id="cas_green_popup" class=""><span class="cas_live_link">student</span></span> at Sahlgrenska, told TT news agency. </span><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Around half of the earth's population are carriers of the </span><i style="color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><span>Helicobacter pylori</span></i><span><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">.</span> Most people aren't affected by the bacteria at all, but it some individuals it can lead to ulcers or stomach cancer.<br />...</span></span><span>Her research has received international attention. [eyeroll]<br /><br /><a href="http://www.thelocal.se/24124/20091230/">read more @ the local</a><br /><br /></span>A. Peasanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01929646095992796530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4364545641112568204.post-80423854655396821922009-12-31T09:44:00.002-05:002009-12-31T10:01:25.835-05:00murder, assassination and suicide news<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);font-size:180%;" >1. Filipino confesses to murder in Vienna</span><br /><br /><div class="KonaBody"> <p>MANILA, Philippines—<span style="font-size:180%;">A Filipino has confessed to the murder of the stay-in housekeeper of the Lebanese Ambassador to Austria Ishaya El-Khoury,</span> Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs Esteban Conejos told INQUIRER.net in a phone interview.</p> <p>He said he could not give out the name of the suspect and other details about him yet.</p> <p>...On the other hand, Administrator Carmelita Dimzon of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration said she was told that <span style="font-size:180%;">the motive in the murder was “jealousy.”</span></p><a href="http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/breakingnews/view/20091231-244933/Filipino-confesses-to-murder-in-ViennaDFA">read more @ inquirer.net<br /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);font-size:180%;" >2. Iran: Ashoura Day's assassination carried out by 'rare gun'</span><br /><br /><b>TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said <span style="color: rgb(102, 204, 204);">one of those killed in Tehran on Ashoura day was shot with a "rare gun." </span><br /><br /></b>He said that there was a "Western scenario" aimed at inciting violence in Iran through killing people on Ashoura day. "After close reviews it was revealed that he has been assassinated by a rare and special gun," Iran's interior minister said in remarks that seem to be an indirect reference to Ali Mousavi, the nephew of the defeated presidential election candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi. "He was assassinated in an area that was not the scene of protests," Mohammad Najjar added. "Foreign agents assumed that they could incite tension by making such moves," press tv quoted the Iranian official as saying on Wednesday.<br /><br />...Meantime, the intelligence minister dismissed the reports that Seyed Ali Mousavi, the son of Mir-Hossein's sister, was killed during the Sunday frenzy in Tehran. <span style="font-size:180%;">"The incident has happened in the form of a terror attack and in a place other than the area of the unrests," he added. </span></div><br /><a href="http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8810100628">read more @ fars</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);font-size:180%;" ><br /><br />3. Finland: six now dead in shopping mall murders</span><br /><br /><p>Finnish police have said that a sixth body found after a shooting at a shopping centre in the country's second city this morning is that of the gunman.</p><p><span style="font-size:180%;">The suspected gunman's former-wife has been found dead in an apartment in Espoo, according to state broadcaster Yle.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:180%;">The gunman has beenidentified by police as 43-year-old Ibrahim Shkupolli.</span></p>...Finland, a nation of 5.3 million, has 1.6 million firearms in private hands and ranks among the top five nations in the world in civilian gun ownership.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Politicians, social workers and religious leaders have all urged tighter gun laws, more vigilance of Internet sites, and more social bonding in the small Nordic nation.</span> [reaction, solution...]<br /><br /><a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/1231/breaking32.htm">read more @ irish times</a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);font-size:180%;" ><br />4. UK: Christmas suicide mystery of millionaire tycoon who ran shooting parties for royalty</span><br /><br /><p>A millionaire businessman is believed to have killed himself at his shooting estate just days after Christmas. Father-of-two <span style="font-size:180%;">Jonathan Wraith apparently shot himself at the estate, which has been visited by royalty, hours before he was due to host a shooting event.</span> Mr Wraith, 35, had concentrated on running the shooting business since selling a portable accommodation firm which he ran with his father for £30million in 2007.<br /></p>...<br /><p><span style="color: rgb(102, 204, 204);font-size:180%;" >Police are not treating the death as suspicious and </span><span style="color: rgb(102, 204, 204);font-size:180%;" >it is understood no suicide note was left. </span>A source close to the family said Mr Wraith's death 'did not make any sense'.<a href="http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-1239501/Christmas-suicide-mystery-millionaire-tycoon-Jonathan-Wraith-ran-shooting-parties-royalty.html#ixzz0bHJuh9Mq"></a></p><p><br /></p><p>...Jonathan Wraith was involved in a bitter family feud after his parents divorced in 1988. David and Shirley Wraith were teenage sweethearts who enjoyed a millionaires' lifestyle, living in a £1.6million estate in Kent, with a yacht, a penthouse in Majorca and three other apartments there. They hit the headlines six years after their divorce when Mr Wraith successfully sued his former wife for slander in the High Court after she alleged he gave her a sexually transmitted disease contracted from a Dutch sex club, an allegation he said was part of a 'ferocious campaign of spiteful vengeance'. Jonathan, their only child, sided with his father after the split. He gave evidence at the hearing alleging that his mother used to beat him with a cane and 'went crackers at the tiniest thing'. </p><a href="http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-1239501/Christmas-suicide-mystery-millionaire-tycoon-Jonathan-Wraith-ran-shooting-parties-royalty.html">read more @ daily mail</a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);font-size:180%;" >5. three critics of mine proposed by B.C. firm in El Salvador recently killed</span><br /><br /><p>Three activists opposed to a mine proposed by a Vancouver-based company in El Salvador have been murdered, two in the past 10 days. </p><p>Pacific Rim Mining Corp. had hoped to develop its El Dorado gold mine, approximately 65 km east of the country’s capital San Salvador, but has been unable to obtain the necessary permits, according to the company’s website. (The company did not respond to voicemail messages asking for comment.) As a result, in July 2008 the company decided to stop all drilling in the area. </p><p>Yet despite the lack of activity, tension between the anti- and pro-mining groups appears not to have abated. In the last 10 days, two members of Cabanas Environment Committee, an environmental group opposed to the opening of a mine, have been killed. Dora Recinos Sorto, who was eight months pregnant, was killed on Saturday. The youngest of her six children, a son whose age has not been confirmed, was shot in the foot. A second activist, Ramiro Rivera, was killed Dec. 21. Another anti-mining activist, Marcelo Rivera (no relation) was kidnapped and killed in June, according to news reports.</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Three+critics+mine+proposed+firm+Salvador+recently+killed/2393502/story.html">read more @ vancouver sun</a></p><p><br /></p>A. Peasanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01929646095992796530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4364545641112568204.post-90318611113826241252009-12-31T09:30:00.002-05:002009-12-31T09:44:26.907-05:00trafficking news<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);font-size:180%;" >1. Thailand: 2 arrested in large drug haul</span><br /><br />Two members of a network linked to drugs kingpin Wei Sia Kang have been arrested with a large quantity of drugs, including heroin, worth more than 500 million baht. The suspects were identified as Arthit (also known as Tee) Sae Tao, 26, a native of Chiang Mai's Chiang Dao district, and Kuangyung sae Jao, 28, of Bangkok's Khannayao district. Police seized 1.98 million speed pills, 2kg of crystal methamphetamine and 3.5kg of heroin from the two men. <span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">Authorities said it was the biggest drug best ever in Bangkok involving multiple drugs and narcotics.<br /><br /></span>...Pol Maj-Gen Atithep said the gang had been<span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);"> smuggling illicit drugs from a neighbouring country </span>since October. The drugs were awaiting delivery to sellers during the New Year festival....Ethnic <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 204, 0);font-size:130%;" >minority groups based near the northern border are engaged in armed conflicts with neighbouring countries. The groups are expected to produce more drugs to raise money to finance the war.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">countries on Thailand's northern border: Myanmar, Laos - ed.</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/30269/two-arrested-in-b500m-drugs-haul">read more @ bangkok post</a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);font-size:180%;" ><br />2. China discloses arrest of 4 foreigners in September for drug trafficking, countries not identified</span><br /><p>BEIJING - <span style="font-size:180%;">FOUR foreigners may face execution in China over a big seizure of heroin,</span> a Hong Kong newspaper reported on Thursday, after China and Britain clashed over the execution of a Briton found guilty of drug smuggling.</p> <p>The four were among nine people arrested over 144.5kg of heroin found by police in Shenzhen, the far southern Chinese commercial city <span style="font-size:180%;">next to Hong Kong, in August,</span> the Beijing-backed Ta Kung Pao newspaper reported.</p> <p>'Under Chinese law they may face the most extreme penalty,'said the report, which cited Shenzhen officials. It did not specify the nationality of the four foreign suspects, <span style="font-size:180%;">who were arrested in September</span> after detectives uncovered and then <span style="font-size:180%;">tracked the shipment of drugs from Pakistan.</span></p>...The latest case involved high-grade heroin in 289 bags hidden in bales of cotton.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Asia/Story/STIStory_472204.html">read more @ straits times</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);font-size:180%;" ><br /><br />3. Italy: Indian man wanted in Belgium held in human trafficking</span><br /><br /><p>ROME - ITALIAN police have arrested an Indian man sought by Belgian authorities <span style="font-size:180%;">for alleged human trafficking and helping illegal migrants,</span> an Italian newspaper reported on Wednesday.</p> <p>Pal Devinder, 32, who was being hunted on a European arrest warrant issued by Belgium, was picked up in northern Italy as he tried to leave a building with his bags packed, according to the Piacenza Sera paper's website. Police raised the alarm after they carried out checks on Devinder near Piacenza and realised the European arrest order had been issued against him. Officers launched a hunt and found him staying with another Indian in the nearby city of Fiorenzuola. Devinder was taken to prison in Piacenza and Italian authorities will now decide whether to extradite him to Belgium. -- AFP</p><a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_472145.html">source: straits times<br /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);font-size:180%;" >4. Sweden: court rules taking picture of sleeping girl's genitals not a crime, not punishable. also, it's ok to show the pictures too.</span><br /><br /><span>A court in </span><a href="http://www.thelocal.se/tag/Halmstad" class="nodec">Halmstad</a><span> on the southwest coast of <span class="cas_live_link">Sweden</span> has dismissed charges against a man who reportedly took a photo of a 17-year-old girl's genitals while she was sleeping. The court said that the incident was was not a punishable offense.<br /></span><span>The girl had laid down to sleep on a sofa during a </span><a href="http://www.thelocal.se/tag/New_Year%27s" class="nodec">New Year's</a><span> party. <span style="font-size:180%;">The 49-year-old reportedly lifted up the girl's skirt and photographed her genitals.</span> The man, whose teenage son was hosting the party, was indicted on charges of sexual harassment, local newspaper <span class="cas_live_link">Hallandsposten</span> reports.</span><br /><br /><span> Citing several other cases, the <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed brown; cursor: progress;" id="cas_green_popup" class="">Halmstad</span> district court said that the man had not committed a crime. There is no general prohibition against photographing people without their consent. The same applies to people who are asleep. </span><br /><br /><span> <span style="font-size:180%;">The fact that other people have seen the photograph, as claimed by the prosecutor in this case, doesn't make the incident a punishable offense either, according to the court. </span></span><br /><br /><span> <span style="font-size:180%;">The court cited a </span></span><span style="font-size:180%;"><a href="http://www.thelocal.se/tag/Swedish_Supreme_Court" class="nodec">Swedish Supreme Court</a></span><span><span style="font-size:180%;"> (Högsta domstolen) case that cleared a man who had been brought to trial for filming sexual intercourse without the consent of the woman involved.</span> </span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.thelocal.se/24144/20091231/">source: the local<br /></a>A. Peasanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01929646095992796530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4364545641112568204.post-74174513543461012932009-12-30T10:24:00.002-05:002009-12-30T10:37:40.078-05:00the link to Kazakhstan, it had to be Kazakhstan<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 255, 255);font-size:180%;" >1. Iran plans to import uranium from Kazakhstan; "could be" closer to acquiring nuclear weapons<br />hmm, hmm?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">An intelligence <span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">report</span> released Tuesday <span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">claims</span> that Iran has made plans to import over 1,350 tons of purified uranium ore from Kazakhstan in return for $450 million. This deal would <span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">break rules</span> the UN Security Council had previously established for Iran as means to prevent the country fro obtaining nuclear weapons.</span> Tehran has already been placed under sanctions by the UN for their refusal to disclose information on their uranium enrichment program and although Iranian diplomats had recently signaled that they were prepared to accept an agreement to outsource the program, <span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);font-size:180%;" >this development appears to rescind the offer. <br /></span><br />Iranian officials have also recently signaled their intention of trading low level enriched uranium abroad for nuclear fuel. Iran claims that these fuel swaps should indicate that their interest is in peaceful production of nuclear technology but <span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);font-size:180%;" >Western powers, including the US, fear that these actions could help Tehran weaponize their fuel on a faster timeframe than previously anticipated.</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977967614&grpId=3659174697244816&nav=Groupspace">source: gather news<br /></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 255, 255);font-size:180%;" >2. Iran dismisses reports on uranium imports from Kazakhstan<br /></span><br /><b>TEHRAN (FNA)- <span style="font-size:180%;">The Iranian mission in New York strongly rejected reports on Tehran's intentions of importing 1,350 tons of purified uranium ore from Kazakhstan.<br /><br /></span></b>The Iranian mission said <span style="font-size:180%;">a report by the AP</span> that "Iran is close to clinching a deal to clandestinely import 1,350 tons of purified uranium ore from Kazakhstan" <span style="font-size:180%;">serves as a part of the propaganda campaign by the "aggressive powers" against Iran's peaceful nuclear program. </span><br /><br /><b>...</b>The US and its western allies allege that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program while <span style="font-size:180%;">they have never presented corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations against the Islamic Republic. </span><br /><br /><b><a href="http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8810091532">read more @ fars</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 255, 255);font-size:180%;" >3. WHY KAZAHKSTAN? DID YOU KNOW THAT KAZAKHSTAN IS "ISRAEL'S PARTNER IN EURASIA?"</span><br /><br /><br /></b><p style="color: rgb(102, 204, 204);" align="center"> <span style="font-size: 180%;"><strong><span style="font-size: 100%;">Kazakhstan: Israel's Partner in Eurasia</span></strong></span> </p> <p align="center"> Ariel Cohen </p> <ul><li>Israel and post-communist, <span style="font-size: 180%;">resource-rich states</span> have similar geopolitical priorities in opposing terrorism and radical Islam.</li><li>By developing closer ties with Kazakhstan - and with Eurasian countries in general - Israel can expand its ties to the secular Muslim Turkic states and its role in <span style="font-size: 180%;">the new "great game" of Eurasia: economic development fueled by exports of the region's massive natural resources.</span></li><li>Israel and the countries of Eurasia are economically complimentary:<span style="font-size: 180%;"> Central Asian countries are rich in natural resources,</span> and can benefit from Israeli solar, irrigation/agricultural, medical and other know-how. Israel can offer high-tech, military, and advanced agricultural technology, cutting-edge medical sciences, and educational opportunities. As always in international relations, common interests define strong ties.</li><li>On occasion, President Nursultan Nazarbayev used his good services to appeal to Iran on behalf of missing Israeli servicemen or call on Tehran to abandon its nuclear weapons, as Kazakhstan did in 1994. Unfortunately, these appeals usually fall on deaf ears.</li><li>With oil prices rising, Kazakhstan may have left the nadir of economic decline behind, although banking and construction sectors were hurt particularly hard. </li></ul> <p> </p> <p> The June 2009 visit by Israeli President Shimon Peres to Kazakhstan once again focused Israel's attention on energy-rich, secular Muslim states of the Caspian and Central Asia: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. This was not Peres' first visit to the steppe country in the heart of Eurasia: he visited Kazakhstan several times before as foreign minister and deputy prime minister. This was a good long-term investment: <span style="font-size: 180%;">Kazakhstan is as large as the entirety of Western Europe, but with a population only 1.5 times larger than the population of the city of Moscow. It is one of the most sparsely populated countries on Earth.<br /></span></p><p><b>http://tinyurl.com/yfw6d8h</b></p><br /><b><a href="http://afterarmageddon7.blogspot.com/2009/12/kazakhstan-101-israels-partner-in.html">read this and other recent news items about Kazakhstan at my post on 12/13/09</a><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://twelfthbough.blogspot.com/2009/12/way-way-back-machine.html">further reading on Kazakhstan's next door neighbor Kyrgyzstan, such as a Russian journalist recently being tossed out of a building with his hands duct taped behind his back, here<br /></a><br /></b>A. Peasanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01929646095992796530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4364545641112568204.post-7629386207216745982009-12-30T10:10:00.003-05:002009-12-30T10:24:01.464-05:00the cracking down commences immediately<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(102, 102, 204);font-size:180%;" >1. in preemptive action, anticipating something, Iran puts ten Swedes on interpol wanted list</span><br /><br /><span>Ten <span class="cas_live_link">Swedes of Iranian</span> descent are named on Interpol’s list of criminals wanted for terrorism and international organized crime.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><span>The men, all of whom hail from </span><a href="http://www.thelocal.se/tag/iran" class="nodec">Iran</a><span>’s <span class="cas_live_link">Kurdistan</span> province, came to Sweden as political refugees twenty years ago, the <span class="cas_live_link">Dagens Nyheter</span> (DN) newspaper reports.</span></span><br /><br /><span> Despite being active critics of the Iranian regime for more than thirty years, the men’s names and pictures only recently appeared on Interpol’s list of wanted fugitives, following a request from Iran.</span><br /><br /><span> “I was obviously surprised that Interpol would simply describe us using the same words as the Iranian police. It seems very strange to me,” Khaled <span class="cas_live_link">Haji Mohammadi</span>, one of the men now labeled as a fugitive by Interpol, told <span class="cas_live_link">The Local</span>.</span><br /><br /><span> Mohammadi is one of twelve members of the Worker-Communist Party of Iran - Hekmatist whose names were posted on the Interpol list. </span><br /><br /><span> “I don't know what sort of political or economic agreement Iran may have with Interpol, but it's very surprising that Interpol would abide by the demands of a request from a regime that has executed so many of its critics.”</span><br /><br /><span> Mohammadi doesn't deny he has long been critical of the Islamic regime in Iran, which he claims has imprisoned and killed many fellow activists in the years since he left the country to seek political asylum in Sweden.</span><br /><br /><span> “I'm used to being harassed and criticized by the Islamic regime in Iran,” he said.</span><br /><br /><span> But Interpol's decision to agree to Iran's request to list him and his colleagues as organized criminals and terrorists left him puzzled.</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.thelocal.se/24108/20091229/">read more @ the local</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(102, 51, 255);font-size:180%;" >2. two Iranians detained in far east while sneaking on ship to Japan<br /></span><br /><p>Two Iranian nationals have been detained at Russia's Far Eastern port of Vladivostok while trying to sneak on to a Japanese-bound cargo vessel, a border guards spokesman said on Wednesday.</p> <p><span style="font-size:180%;">The two men, both with expired Russian tourist visas, arrived in Vladivostok two months ago and have since been seeking illegal entry into Japanese territory. One of them had a criminal record in Japan and could not enter the country legally.</span></p> <p>"The Iranians stayed illegally in [Far Eastern region of] Primorye, without registering at an office of the Russian migration service. During this period they were seeking an opportunity to illegally enter Japan by sea," the spokesman said.</p> <p>They were detained in the port early on Monday. Two days later, a court ruled to deport the two Iranians from Russia.</p> <p>A total of 25 Iranian nationals trying to illegally enter Japanese territory have been detained in the Far East this year.</p> <p><a href="http://en.rian.ru/crime/20091230/157421069.html">VLADIVOSTOK, December 30 (RIA Novosti)</a></p><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(102, 102, 204);font-size:180%;" >3. German man wanted for supplying chemicals to....IRAN....arrested in Austria<br /></span><br /><strong>A German man wanted by the <span class="cas_live_link">US Federal Bureau</span> of Investigation (<span class="cas_live_link">FBI</span>) for supplying chemical weapons to <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed brown; cursor: progress;" id="cas_green_popup" class="">Iran</span> has been arrested in Austria, criminal police said on Wednesday.<br /></strong><span style="font-size:180%;">The man, named only as Peter W., 67, had been on the run for 21 years after being charged in the <span class="cas_live_link">United States</span> with supplying Iran with 115 tons of chemicals used to produce lethal mustard gas in the late 1980s, the Austrian daily <i><span class="cas_live_link">Kronen Zeitung</span></i> reported.<br /></span><br />"The arrest took place in <span class="cas_live_link">Hall</span>, in Tirol on December 28th," criminal police spokesman <span class="cas_live_link">Alexander Marakovits</span> told news agency AFP, confirming the newspaper report.<br /><br />"Peter W. travelled to Austria with a false Irish passport and was here under a false name, but investigators were still able to find him," he added.<br /><br />"He appears to have felt safe in Austria and it took him by surprise when he was arrested." The arrest resulted from a joint operation by Austrian criminal police, local Tirol police and US authorities, Marakovits said.<br /><br />W., who had travelled to Austria with his family, is currently being held in Innsbruck until the court rules whether to extradite him. It is unclear when the decision will be made.<br /><br />According to Marakovits, US investigators had been tracking W. for years. He was arrested in Croatia in 1994 but the court decided there was not enough evidence to keep him and he fled to Germany.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.thelocal.de/national/20091230-24257.html">source: the local<br /></a>A. Peasanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01929646095992796530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4364545641112568204.post-44392923803378890592009-12-30T09:30:00.004-05:002009-12-30T10:10:12.844-05:00assume the position<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 51, 204);font-size:180%;" >PROBLEM: terrorism on the rise worldwide, particularly against Americans. !!!!!</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 102, 204);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">1. package destroyed in Milan</span><br /></span><br /><p>ROME - <span style="font-size:180%;">BOMB experts destroyed a suspicious package that was found at Milan's Malpensa airport on Tuesday, but officials said it contained no explosives. </span></p> <p>...The package - about 20 by 10cm - <span style="font-size:180%;">was scotch-taped all around and had an antenna </span><span style="font-size:180%;">sticking from it.</span> Pepe said it contained no explosives, but police were trying to determine its contents. </p> <p><span style="font-size:180%;">The parcel was abandoned in a men's bathroom in the check-in area for charter flights, said Carla Fossati of the SEA company that operates Milan's airports. <span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">Mr Pepe said that the area is near the par</span></span><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">t of the terminal where US-bound passengers check in. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Following a botched Christmas Day attack aboard a Detroit-bound plane from Amsterdam</span>, </span></span><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 255, 51);font-size:130%;" >Italy's civil aviation authority ordered airports to tighten security for passengers leaving for the United States. Measures include increased body and baggage searches. </span></p> <p>Tuesday's scare caused no air traffic disruption at the airport, Mr Pepe said. The area where the parcel was destroyed was cordoned off and passengers were taken to a different check-in area. -- AP</p><a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_471873.html">source: straits times<br /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 102, 204);font-size:130%;" >2. white powder in envelope triggers Commons terror scare - UK<br /></span><br /><p>An envelope containing suspicious white powder was sent to the communities minister <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/shahid-malik" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Shahid Malik">Shahid Malik</a> at the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/houseofcommons" title="More from guardian.co.uk on House of Commons">House of Commons</a>, triggering an anti-terrorist investigation, the Guardian has learned.</p><p><span style="font-size:180%;">The letter, sent from within the UK, led to a major alert on Monday as it was intercepted by security screening staff who feared it held <span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102);">potentially deadly anthrax</span>. Comments on the envelope suggest it was sent by a supporter of the far right or someone purporting to be one.</span></p><p>Emergency procedures were activated and the powder was tested and found to be harmless. It is understood that the Speaker, John Bercow, and his most senior officials were kept fully informed.</p><p>Detectives are examining the envelope, the written comments and the postmark to try to trace the sender. They want to establish whether this is an isolated incident or the beginning of a campaign by criminal elements on the far right.</p><p>Malik, Britain's first Muslim minister, was unavailable for comment but a spokesman said: "Mr Malik is grateful to the police and very grateful to the parliamentary authorities for their alertness and dedication in ensuring the safety of all correspondence to parliamentarians. He has been in his Dewsbury constituency all week and will continue serving constituents and carrying out his ministerial duties."</p><p>Many high-profile minority politicians endure racist hate mail but Malik has long been a particular target for violent and abusive supporters of the far right.</p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/dec/30/shahid-malik-white-powder-anthrax">read more @ the guardian<br /></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 102, 204);font-size:130%;" >3. HAARETZ: would-be airline bomber: there are many like me in Yemen<br /></span><br /><span class="t13"><span style="font-size:180%;">The messages <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">**likely posted** by failed airliner bomber</span> Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on an Islamic web forum reveal a young man who suffers from loneliness and struggles between a commitment to Islam and the temptations of the West. </span><br /><br />...<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 204, 0);font-size:180%;" >Officials have not ye</span></span><span class="t13"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 204, 0);font-size:180%;" >t confirmed that the internet postings by Farousk1986were written by Abdulmutallab, but the many biographical details written by the poster match reports about Abdulmutallab's life. <span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">[and WHO ELSE COULD POSSIBLY H</span></span></span><span class="t13"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 204, 0);font-size:180%;" ><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">AVE SUCH INFORMATION???? - ed.]</span></span><br /><br />Abdulmutallab told U.S. investigators that he is only one of many trained in Yemen who plan to attack Western targets. "There are more just like me who will strike soon," he warned.<br /><br />According to ABC news, <span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">FBI sources claim</span> that Abdulmutallab underwent a month-long training in Yemen, and during this training he learned how to detonate explosives and how to pass the security check by sewing the explosives to his underwear. <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">ABC also reported that two former inmates of Gunatanamo prison were among the architects of the attempted terror attack. [nice touch - ed.]</span><br /><br />Yemen's foreign ministe</span><span class="t13">r said on Tuesday that there are over 300 Al-Qaeda activists in his country and <span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">requested intelligence aid from the West.</span><br /><br />CNN also reported on Tuesday that U.S. and Yemeni officials were looking at fresh targets for a possible retaliation strike in Yemen, <span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">citing two unidentified American officials.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">The officials stressed that <span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102);">efforts were aimed at being ready with options in the event that U.S. President Barack Obama orders a retaliatory strike, CNN reported.</span> It said the officials were trying to identify</span></span><span class="t13"><span style="font-size:180%;"> targets linked directly to the airline incident.<br /></span></span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">A RETALIATORY STRIKE?????? - ed.</span><br /><br />more at haaretz<br />http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1138739.html<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);font-size:180%;" >REACTION: nobod</span><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);font-size:180%;" >y has ever learned anything in all this time since 911. people are making the same stupid human errors that they did when 911 happened. oh my gosh, this is terrible. Woe. WOE. HUMAN ERROR HUMAN ERROR HUMAN ERROR!!!!! YOU HUMANS MAKE SO MANY DAMNED ERRORS!</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 255, 51);font-size:130%;" >4. CIA sat on suspect warning<br /></span><br /><p>WASHINGTON - THE father of the Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a US airliner bound for Detroit on Christmas Day <span style="font-size:180%;">spoke with <span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102);">a CIA official in Nigeria </span>about his son's radicalisation, CNN reported on Tuesday. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102);">The official prepared a report on the meeting, but it was not disseminated by CIA headquarters,</span> according to CNN, which cited an uni</span><span style="font-size:180%;">dentified source. </span></p> <p>Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, is accused of trying to ignite the explosives on Northwest Flight 253 from Amsterdam as it approached Detroit on Dec 25. Abdulmutallab's father, a prominent Nigerian banker, had relayed concerns about his son's behaviour to the US Embassy in Abuja, but the son's name was never placed on a no-fly list. <span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);font-size:180%;" >President Barack Obama on Tuesday blamed a combination of 'human and systemic failures' in security for allowing the botched attack. </span></p> <p>Mr Obama said in Hawaii: 'When our government has information on a known extremist and that information is not shared and acted upon as it should have been so that this extremist boards a plane with dangerous explosives that could have cost nearly 300 lives, a systemic failure has occurred, and I consider that totally unacceptable.' -- AFP</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_471851.html">source: straits times</a></p><p><br /></p><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 255, 51);font-size:130%;" >5. OBAMA, with very angry face on, and breaking his vacation for the second straight day: this </span><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 255, 51);font-size:130%;" >is totally unacceptable, a potentially CATASTROPHIC failure<br /></span><br /><span class="ArticleDetails">President Barack Obama lashed out at systemic intelligence failures, after learning a US security agency had prior information that might have averted the attempted attack on a US jet. "There was a mix of human and systemic failures that contributed to this potential catastrophic breach of security," Obama said.<br /><br />"A systemic failure has occurred and I consider that totally unacceptable," Obama added, breaking his Hawaii vacation for a second straight day as <span style="font-size:180%;">recriminations mounted</span> over the botched December 25 attack on a Northwest airliner.<br /></span><br />...<span class="ArticleDetails"><span style="font-size:180%;">It was not the first time that intelligence failures had opened the door to "a terror attack": <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">the September 11 attacks in 2001, which killed nearly 3,000 people, were blamed on similar errors.</span></span><br /></span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.almanar.com.lb/newssite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=117479&language=en">read more @ al manar tv<br /></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);font-size:180%;" >SOLUTION: we must "crack down" we must submit to more inconveniences we must give up our privacy </span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqWTvOlRhAXU6rPb007cb0CfQ5zrYolIXssOJtNmFOyyIBFnUAm4amXCRBcmP0i134u4_3GOvo8gUi69gHe0Ym_Xo2vXYzg2y9WlxElQDw0oayEVDgwAJRzW1nzVH-NYYB_O_9-04uikw/s1600-h/full+body+scan.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 167px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqWTvOlRhAXU6rPb007cb0CfQ5zrYolIXssOJtNmFOyyIBFnUAm4amXCRBcmP0i134u4_3GOvo8gUi69gHe0Ym_Xo2vXYzg2y9WlxElQDw0oayEVDgwAJRzW1nzVH-NYYB_O_9-04uikw/s320/full+body+scan.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421045328328344082" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);font-size:180%;" >and our money and our very lives to the never-ending fight against the evil terrorists. ASSUME THE POSITION. SIGH. it never ends why does it never end?????</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 153, 0);font-size:130%;" >6. Yemen: Please help us crack down on these al qaeda militants!!!!!</span><br /><br /><span class="ArticleDetails">Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al-Qirbi called for more help from the Western community to train local security forces to "crack down on several hundred Al-Qaeda militants who may be operating in Yemen."<br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">He added that they also could be planning attacks like the alleged attempt to blow up a US-bound passenger jet. "Of course there are a number of Al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen and some of their leaders. We realise this danger, they may actually plan for attacks like the one we have just had in Detroit," he told the BBC.</span><br /><br />Asked to specify the number of Al-Qaeda operatives, he answered: "I can't give you really an exact figure, maybe hundreds of them, 200 or 300. <span style="font-size:180%;">I don't have a real figure."</span></span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.almanar.com.lb/newssite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=117475&language=en">read more @ al manar tv</a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 153, 0);font-size:130%;" >7. Dutch to use full body scanners<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">The Netherlands will immediately begin using full body scanners for flights heading to the United States to prevent future terrorist attacks like the foiled Christmas Day attempt. </span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/dutch-to-use-full-body-scanners-for-us-flights-1853069.html">read more @ independent</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 153, 0);font-size:130%;" ><br />8. German police against body scanners as airport security debate reignites</span><br /><br /><strong>The failed terrorist attack on a transatlantic flight to <span class="cas_live_link">Detroit</span> has re-started a debate in Germany on full-body scanners. The national police union (GdP) has declared itself against their use.<br /><br /></strong>National <span class="cas_live_link">GdP</span> chairman <span class="cas_live_link">Konrad Freiberg</span> told reporters on Monday that while there was always a need for better security technology, the so-called 'naked' scanners, which allow personnel to see through clothing, were an unacceptable compromise.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">"The private or intimate sphere of passengers should not be invaded," he said.<br /><br />But Freiberg also warned the German government against watering down security measures.</span><br /><br />"If the security laws are diluted, it will give terrorists the opportunity to strike," he said, commenting on the <span class="cas_live_link">Free Democratic Party</span>'s (FDP) intention to limit police powers for keeping an information database. <span style="font-size:180%;">"No-one should believe that Islamist terror has become less dangerous."</span><br /><br />Freiberg also argued that while the technology for detecting potential bomb threats at airports needed to be constantly updated, it was just as important that there was constant pressure on suspected terrorist cells. "A potential terrorist should not be allowed to get as close to execution as in the recent case," he said.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.thelocal.de/national/20091228-24223.html">read more @ the local<br /></a>A. Peasanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01929646095992796530noreply@blogger.com0