The Good Guys Will Win Ha

the fuzzy logic of useful idiots

2010-11-04T09:38:00.000-04:00

This guy is just outstanding. - ed.

http://neithercorp.us/npress/?p=898

By Giordano Bruno
Neithercorp Press – 11/03/2010
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…
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.
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.
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”.
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…
Just Smart Enough To Be Stupid…
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.
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.
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.
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…
Reacting To The Truth, Instead Of Absorbing It…
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.
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.
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.
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.
Skewed World View…
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?
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…
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’.
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.

Making A Difference, One Lost Freedom At A Time…
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!
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.
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…
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.
Confronting The Useful Idiot…
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…
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.
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.
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.
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.
You can contact Giordano Bruno at: giordano@neithercorp.us

time to wake up and smell the coffee then?

2010-10-14T17:21:00.000-04:00

Robo-signers: Mortgage experience not necessary - Yahoo News

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.

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.

"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."

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.

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.

"This was an industrywide scheme designed to defraud homeowners," Ticktin said.

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.

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.

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."

"There has to be a cornerstone of integrity to the process," Coffey said.

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.

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.

Litton Loan Servicing did not respond to a request for comment.

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.

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.

"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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

Stern's lawyer, Jeffrey Tew, did not respond to a request for comment.

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.

The Earls and their attorney now allege that they were victims of fraudulent paperwork.

___

Curt Anderson contributed from Miami.

the insanity of war with Iran

2010-08-11T12:43:00.000-04:00

via Gilad Atzmon

watch it while you can

2010-05-07T11:06:00.002-04:00

war on terror kabuki

2010-01-04T10:44:00.000-05:00

1. the 14 countries considered "terror linked" by the US

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.
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.

...Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria are currently the only four countries designated state sponsors of terrorism by the State Department.

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 Afghanistan, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen.

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 Algeria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

read more @ naharnet

2. Obama to meet with intelligence people tomorrow, hold somebody accountable

"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.

...The report is also likely to make recommendations on improving the sharing of information between the United States' 16 intelligence agencies.

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.

read more @ al manar tv

3. Jordanian killed in strike that hit CIA

The eighth man killed in a bomb attack on a secret CIA base in Afghanistan last week was a captain in the Jordanian spy service known as the General Intelligence Department (GID), The Washington Post reported late Sunday.
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."

...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.

Current and former US intelligence officials said the special relationship with Jordan dates back at least three decades and has recently progressed to the point that the CIA liaison officer in Amman enjoys full, unescorted access to GID headquarters, according to the report.

comment at al manar:

The CIA captures Muslims and the Jordanian Mukhabarat tortures them 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. Why arent the CIA and their arab mukhabarat capturing those that are doing the actual bombings in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan etc? 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.

more @ al manar tv

4. full body scanners to fry travelers with radiation

TSA Security Laboratory Director Susan Hallowell recently announced the agency’s intent to use back-scatter X-ray machines for passenger surveillance. 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.

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. These machines are already being field tested at several U.S. airports, including JFK, LAX and Orlando.

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.

...Officials must naturally defend compulsory passenger X-rays as harmless. But they are signing no guarantees because ionizing radiation in the X-ray spectrum damages and mutates both chromosomal DNA and structural proteins in human cells. If this damage is not repaired, it can lead to cancer.

read more @ no world system

5. India's ridiculous Mumbai evidence vs Pakistan's concrete Waziristan proof

Ø See A Comparison Between India’s evidences and Pakistan’s proof of Indian terrorism inside Pakistan

Ø China Has Strong Evidence Of Indian Terror Involvement In Tibet & Western China

Ø Musharraf showed a photograph to US ambassador Baitullah Mehsood was seen coming out of one of the Indian ‘diplomatic’ missions in Afghanistan

Ø Pakistan’s Interior Ministry & Foreign Office are mysteriously quiet on ridiculous Indian evidence

Ø 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

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.

read more @ paknationalists

6. Petraeus hails progress as US transforms command -- talk about spin

BAGHDAD: A top US general hailed progress in Iraq yesterday while American forces underwent a transformation, with their command renamed to reflect the fact that no other countries have troops here. 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.

delusional

2010-01-04T10:31:00.000-05:00

1. Rabbis to ambassador: time to 'go biblical' with Arabs

(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. The rabbis told Ambassador Cunningham that it was time to try the Biblical approach to the dispute over the Land of Israel.

...Rabbi Dov Lior, the Rabbi of Kiryat Arba-Hevron, said: "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."

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."

The ambassador asked the rabbis, "So what is your solution to the problem?"

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."

more here: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/135283

2. Ayalon says world united against Iran

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.

"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.

"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.

"There is agreement in Washington, Moscow and Beijing that a nuclear Iran would destroy the current world order," he claimed.

Ayalon also addressed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent efforts to re0launch peace talks with the Palestinians, warning that "the Palestinians need to understand that time is working against them.

He added that he believes the US administration understands that the essential problem is that the "Palestinians aren't willing to be flexible in their approach."

source: al manar tv

3. Germany and Israel set for joint cabinet meeting on 1/18

A joint meeting in Berlin of the German and Israeli cabinets that was postponed in November will now take place on January 18, an Israeli government official said on Sunday.

more @ the local

4. the Kazakhstan plan

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.

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.

5. Iranian lawmakers reject Kerry's request to visit

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.

more @ fars

major fearmongering: save the earth through mining (and get ready to blame China), and mass death by germs, aka the earth strikes back at humans

2010-01-04T10:13:00.000-05:00

1. concern as China clamps down on rare earth exports

Britain and other Western countries risk running out of supplies of certain highly sought-after rare metals that are vital to a host of green technologies, amid growing evidence that China, which has a monopoly on global production, is set to choke off exports of valuable compounds.

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.

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.

...Jack Lifton, an independent consultant and a world expert on REEs, said: "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. 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."

read more @ independent

2. precious metals that could save the planet

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.

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 – but whose unique properties make them indispensable to technologies worth trillions of pounds.

read more @ independent

3. deadly animal diseases poised to infect humans

The world is facing a growing threat from new diseases that are jumping the human-animal species barrier as a result of environmental disruption, global warming and the progressive urbanisation of the planet, scientists have warned.

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.

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.

read more @ independent

4. 90 day pandemic simulation

Simulation of a pandemic flu outbreak in the continental United States, initially introduced by the arrival of 10 infected individuals in Los Angeles.

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.

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.

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.

Blue: Few or none of the population is showing symptoms, more precisely 1 or fewer per 1000 persons.

Green: 50 per 1,000

Red: 100 or more cases per 1,000 persons

source: prevent disease

5. on the bright side: top 10 health research initiatives for 2010

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.

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.

1) WATER - 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.

Research Terms:
water filtration, ceramic filters, tap water, pure drinking water, fluoride, reverse osmosis, carbon filters, distillation, structured water, bottled water

2) ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS AND WIRELESS RADIATION - 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.

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.

Research Terms:
electromagnetic fields, EMF, electromagnetic radiation, wireless radiation, cell phones, electrohypersensitivity, radiofrequency, RF, Radiofrequency radiation, electromagnetic radiation exposure, EMR.

read more @ prevent disease

africa news

2010-01-04T10:00:00.000-05:00

1. September 2008: Nigeria lawmakers divided over Mossad training -- what could possibly go wrong???

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.

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.

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 "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."

read more @ allafrica

2. Al-Sheikh recounts horror in Niger

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, 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. 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.”

read more @ arab news

3. Sudan's Beshir in Saudi Arabia for talks

Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir arrived on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia for talks, the official SPA news agency said. 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.

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.
He will also visit Medina and undertake an umrah minor pilgrimage, SPA said.

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.(AFP)

source: naharnet

4. Ethiopian famine exaggerated?

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.

read more @ afrik.com

5. Moroccan, US military to strengthen cooperation

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.

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.

This is Ward's third visit to Morocco, heading a AFRICOM delegation, after two previous visits in 2008.

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.

AFRICOM command, currently temporarily headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, will coordinate U.S. military and security interests throughout the African continent.

chinaview

milestones of the rich and powerful

2010-01-04T09:47:00.000-05:00

1. Foreign Policy names 100 top thinkers, can't think of a single Russian

Foreign Policy, 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.

read more @ pravda

2. Spain takes reins of revamped EU

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.

...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.

read more @ global nation

3. world's tallest building opens in Dubai, exact height remains a secret until later today. must be a "special" number.

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.

more @ reuters

4. Rothschild in talks to acquire Veolia Israel stake

Sources inform ''Globes'' that France's La Compagnie Financiere Edmond de Rothschild (LCF Rothschild) is in considering acquiring 30-40% of infrastructures company Veolia Environment Israel Ltd. in cash. ...Veolia Environment Israel operates through four divisions: Veolia Environmental Services; Veolia Transport Israel Ltd.; Veolia Water, which owns half of the Ashkelon desalination plant; and Dalkia Energy and Services Ltd., 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.

more @ globes

5. butcher Sharon still in coma

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Ariel Sharon, the tough army general turned premier who shocked his hawkish supporters by pulling Israel out of Gaza in 2005, 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.

Sharon, 81, led Israel from 2001 until the January 2006 stroke that left him comatose.

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.

crime and trafficking news

2010-01-04T09:35:00.000-05:00

1. woman in envoy's car

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 Korean national, at her home in Bukit Timah at about 2.30am....The long-haired passenger in a white dress, who looked to be in her 20s, was quarrelling with Dr Ionescu, 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.

read more @ straits times

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.

2. Iranian police seize over 6 tons of opium

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.

..."More than 340 tons of drugs have been seized all over Iran in the past nine months," General Hamid Reza Hossein-Abadi said.

The United Nations credits Iran with the seizure of 80 percent of the opium netted around the world. During the past Iranian year (ended on March 20,) Iran seized more than 1,000 tons of opium smuggled from Afghanistan, the largest producer of opium poppy in the world.

read more @ fars

3. nearly 300kg of drugs seized in East Turkey

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. Gendarmerie teams impounded the drugs hidden in rice sacks believed to be heading for Istanbul from Iran, the agency quoted officials as saying.

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.

source: chinaview

4. theft of 30 paintings in southern France

Around 30 paintings, including works by Picasso and Rousseau, valued at around a million euros (1.4 million dollars), have been stolen from a private villa in the south of France, police said yesterday. But a Modigliani initially believed to be part of the haul has since been found, police in Toulon said. The villa's French owner was holidaying in Sweden at the time of the break-in, which was discovered by the caretaker on Thursday afternoon.

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 there was no evidence of a break-in, police said, indicating the thief or thieves knew how to get round the museum's security system.-AFP

source: kuwait times

5. conviction for Sweden's 'youngest female pimp'

A 17-year-old girl from Malmö in southern Sweden has been convicted for selling the sexual services of a 14-year-old mentally disabled girl. The 20-year-old man suspected of masterminding the pimping operation was acquitted....In addition, three other women, two aged 19 and one 18 years old, were also convicted for their role in exploiting the disabled teen....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.

source: the local

useful failed states in the War on Terror: Somalia

2010-01-03T15:55:00.002-05:00

1. Somalia: minister says Yemeni rebels send weapons to Somali Islamist groups

Mogadishu, (RBC Radio) Somalia’s defense minister of state had said on Saturday that the Yemeni rebel groups sent weapon to Somali islamist groups, to support the fighting against the government.

...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.

...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.

There is no effective central government in Somalia since 19 years and has undermined the insurgency led by the youth movement which Washington regards as an agent of al Qaeda in the region, the West’s efforts to install a government.

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.

read more @ rbc radio

2. Alhu-Sunnah recapture strategic central town from rebels

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.

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.

...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.

read more @ garowe online

3. US & UK close embassies in Yemen due to aq threats

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.

On its website, 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, the closure of the embassies in the Yemen capital underlined the seriousness with which western governments are taking the threat posed by AQAP.

read more @ financial times

4. UK to help US in Yemen AND Somalia

LONDON, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- Britain has agreed to continue working hand-in-glove with the United States to tackle the evolving threats of terrorism from Yemen and Somalia, the prime minister's office said on Sunday.

...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.

read more @ chinaview

5. piracy picks up off Somali coast

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.

...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.

"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.

In the past, heavy ransoms amounting to millions have been paid for hijacked ships.

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.

watch the corporate media not make the connection

2010-01-02T10:09:00.003-05:00

1. Mumbai terror suspect David Headley was 'rogue US secret agent' - times online, December 17, 2009

According to documents put before a court in Chicago, Mr Headley had links with the Pakistan Army and, through it, with al-Qaeda.

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, and a Danish newspaper that had published cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

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, Jyllands-Posten. Mr Rana is accused of having known about the attack on Mumbai in advance.

The CIA denied that Headley had worked for the organisation.

we are slowly awakening after centuries-long enslavement

2010-01-01T10:50:00.005-05:00

Viktor Zoloty, our reader from Mykolaiv oblast, first wrote to The Day 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.”

Our regular readers remember that when Zoloty read in The Day 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 The Day’s editorial board. We sent him the book he dreamed of and, simultaneously, a gift from The Day – 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.”)

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.

“Good afternoon, dear Ms. Ivshyna,

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 Ave, Europa! by Oxana Pachlovska, Your Dead Chose Me by James Mace, and The Apocrypha 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.

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.

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.

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.

When I retired in March 2000, I hoped I would have lots of free time. 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.

Unfortunately, this did not happen.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.’

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?!’

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.’

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.

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.

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.

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.

But this is just by the way.

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.

The hopes were optimistic…

Now, five years later, how can we assess Viktor Yushchenko’s presidency?

It is impossible to give an unambiguous answer.

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.

And his ‘memorandums’ and ‘universals’ helped Yanukovych stage a comeback from political oblivion.

All this greatly encouraged anti-Ukrainian forces and triggered a mayhem of lawlessness and corruption, which, naturally, pushed Ukraine away from Europe.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Should Yanukovych win the elections, Ukraine will be neither democratic nor independent.

There will be no Ukraine at all.

If Tymoshenko wins, it is not clear whether Ukraine will go East or West.

Kostenko and Hrytsenko have, unfortunately, no chances – just like Tiahnybok.

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.

We have a lot of problems.

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.

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.

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. And the most terrible thing is that our society does not see and is not aware of this.

The newspaper Den’ is pursuing a great cause by rousing the Ukrainians. But, unfortunately, it is only read by people who share its position.

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.

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.

Some strangers led her away from my homestead. I ran away from home not to see this. But this could not ease my mind.

I am sorry for being sentimental and robbing you of your time.

Yours very truly, Viktor ZOLOTY, Vasylivka, Snihurivsky raion, Mykolaiv oblast

source

lookie who we found here

2009-12-31T10:51:00.003-05:00

1. Americans killed in Afghanistan were CIA agents

WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- Eight Americans killed in a military base blast in Afghanistan were agents of the Central Intelligence Agency, CNN reported Wednesday.

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.

Department spokesman Ian Kelly didn't provide any details, nor did he say whether those killed were military personnel or civilians.

The blast occurred Wednesday afternoon when an attacker wearing a suicide vest detonated the explosive device.

source: chinaview

2. Petraeus, total Israeli tool who wants to be president someday, 90% sure about this. revealed: Iran's involvement in Briton's Baghdad kidnapping

The five British men kidnapped in Iraq were taken in an operation led and masterminded by Iran's Revolutionary Guard, according to evidence uncovered during an extensive investigation by the Guardian.

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.

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.

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.

read more @ guardian

3. and why?

And the Iranian regime's motives for the abduction can be confirmed: retaliation for the arrest of key Iranians in Iraq 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.

...Unknown to the kidnappers, they were followed by undercover agents working for Iraq's intelligence service who, by chance, had been outside the Ministry of Finance when the men were taken.

read more @ guardian

4. Indo-Israeli plan to counter terrorism

Islamabad—Indian and Israeli military officials have discussed a new secret plan to jointly counter “threats” from Pakistan and ‘Islamic’ militants in Afghanistan.

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 formulated a joint offensive strategy in this region.

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 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.

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.

read more @ pakistan observer

5. COULD TERROR WAR BE RESPONSE BY GOP AND ISRAEL AGAINST THREATS TO THEIR GLOBAL PLANS?

By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor

(STORY CONTINUALLY UPDATING WITH BREAKING NEWS!)

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.

We do know a couple of things. Dad, back in Nigeria, ran the national arms industry (DICON) in partnership with Israel, in particular, the Mossad. 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. Next, what do we know about the two Al Qaeda leaders Bush had released, the ones who planned this?

According to ABC news, the Al Qaeda leaders running the insurgency in Yemen were released from Guantanamo, although two of the highest ranking known terrorist there, without trial.

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.
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.

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.

...

MUTALLAH MEETS WITH CIA CHIEF OF STATION IN NIGERIA, NOVEMBER 19

We have confirmed that Mutallah met with the CIA chief of station in Nigeria.

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:

My son is a danger to himself and others, please keep him safe
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
Please assure me that you will act immediately and contact me as to what measures you have taken

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. Go ahead and Google "muttalab, nigeria, bank, mossad, defense"

read more @ veterans today

6. meanwhile, back in Israel, Shin Bet overlooked that whack job Tytell for a looooong time

Earlier in the day, documents released to the media revealed that police and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) knew about Tytell, for a number of years prior to his arrest.

Police have alleged that Tytell was behind an unprecedented series of deadly terror shootings and bombings spanning over a decade, 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.

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.

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.

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."

underpants narrative -- justifying what we're going to do next

2009-12-31T10:31:00.003-05:00

1. HUMAN ERROR, INCOMPETENCE: the clues piled up, but why did US security fail to act over terrorist?

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.

New details make clear that the authorities had unusually abundant clues that such a terrorist attack was imminent: 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.

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.

...

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".

His words are acknowledgement of the similarities between today and eight years ago, 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.

news related to Iran trap

2009-12-31T10:15:00.005-05:00

1. turmoil in Iran heading for the worst: EXPERTS.

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.

...He explained that internal division keeps widening and that the regime lacks the ability to take firm stands on foreign policy. So the Iranian regime faces a period of crises.

He said that during times when no decisions have been taken by the Iranian government, other countries such as Israel will consider this hesitation to be an intentional obstruction.

...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. The Iranian opposition is exerting increasing pressure on the regime hindering it from adopting a more rational and lenient policy towards unrest.

read more @ kuwait times

2. Iran studying Kerry's request for visit

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 the measure is aimed at increasing pressures on Iran in case it denies Kerry's request.

read more @ fars

3. no developments regarding Israel's withdrawal from Ghajar

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. 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.

...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.

read more @ chinaview

4. Kazakhmys secures $2.7B loan from China development bank

Kazakh copper producer Kazakhmys (KAZ.L:Quote) 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.

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, the head of Samruk-Kazyna told Reuters on Tuesday.

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.

flu psyop news

2009-12-31T10:01:00.003-05:00

1. IN A FIT OF STUNNING HYPOCRISY AND DISINGENUOUSNESS: WHO chief admits she has not been vaccinated. HEY MARGARET, TAKE YOUR DAMN SHOTS.

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.

"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.

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.

Many countries rolled out their vaccination programmes over the past two months, but the take-up rate has been lower than expected.

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.

source: prevent disease

2. Indonesia reports 20 H5N1 cases in 2009, 19 fatal

Robert Roos News Editor

Dec 30, 2009 (CIDRAP News) – 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).

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%.

The World Health Organization (WHO) updated its chart of H5N1 cases and deaths today to include the new numbers from Indonesia, but it posted no report on the cases. 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.

...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.

read more @ CIDRAP

3. New Hampshire probes anthrax case -- appears to be naturally occurring

Robert Roos News Editor

Dec 29, 2009 (CIDRAP News) – 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.

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.

...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.

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.

read more @ CIDRAP

4. undeterred, Swedish researchers look for vaccine for stomach cancer -- big potential market

New research at Sahlgrenska Academy in Gothenburg in western Sweden might be an important step towards creating a vaccine against ulcers and stomach cancer. Helicobacter pylori, the bacteria that causes ulcers, tricks the immune system so that the body can't defend itself against the infection. “By tricking the immune cells, the bacteria can keep the infection – and itself – alive,” Malin Hansson, a PhD student at Sahlgrenska, told TT news agency. Around half of the earth's population are carriers of the Helicobacter pylori. Most people aren't affected by the bacteria at all, but it some individuals it can lead to ulcers or stomach cancer.
...Her research has received international attention. [eyeroll]

read more @ the local

murder, assassination and suicide news

2009-12-31T09:44:00.002-05:00

1. Filipino confesses to murder in Vienna

MANILA, Philippines—A Filipino has confessed to the murder of the stay-in housekeeper of the Lebanese Ambassador to Austria Ishaya El-Khoury, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs Esteban Conejos told INQUIRER.net in a phone interview.

He said he could not give out the name of the suspect and other details about him yet.

...On the other hand, Administrator Carmelita Dimzon of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration said she was told that the motive in the murder was “jealousy.”

read more @ inquirer.net

2. Iran: Ashoura Day's assassination carried out by 'rare gun'

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said one of those killed in Tehran on Ashoura day was shot with a "rare gun."

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.

...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. "The incident has happened in the form of a terror attack and in a place other than the area of the unrests," he added.

read more @ fars

3. Finland: six now dead in shopping mall murders

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.

The suspected gunman's former-wife has been found dead in an apartment in Espoo, according to state broadcaster Yle.

The gunman has beenidentified by police as 43-year-old Ibrahim Shkupolli.

...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.

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. [reaction, solution...]

read more @ irish times

4. UK: Christmas suicide mystery of millionaire tycoon who ran shooting parties for royalty

A millionaire businessman is believed to have killed himself at his shooting estate just days after Christmas. Father-of-two Jonathan Wraith apparently shot himself at the estate, which has been visited by royalty, hours before he was due to host a shooting event. 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.

...

Police are not treating the death as suspicious and it is understood no suicide note was left. A source close to the family said Mr Wraith's death 'did not make any sense'.

...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'.

read more @ daily mail

5. three critics of mine proposed by B.C. firm in El Salvador recently killed

Three activists opposed to a mine proposed by a Vancouver-based company in El Salvador have been murdered, two in the past 10 days.

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.

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.

trafficking news

2009-12-31T09:30:00.002-05:00

1. Thailand: 2 arrested in large drug haul

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. Authorities said it was the biggest drug best ever in Bangkok involving multiple drugs and narcotics.

...Pol Maj-Gen Atithep said the gang had been smuggling illicit drugs from a neighbouring country since October. The drugs were awaiting delivery to sellers during the New Year festival....Ethnic 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.

countries on Thailand's northern border: Myanmar, Laos - ed.

read more @ bangkok post

2. China discloses arrest of 4 foreigners in September for drug trafficking, countries not identified

BEIJING - FOUR foreigners may face execution in China over a big seizure of heroin, a Hong Kong newspaper reported on Thursday, after China and Britain clashed over the execution of a Briton found guilty of drug smuggling.

The four were among nine people arrested over 144.5kg of heroin found by police in Shenzhen, the far southern Chinese commercial city next to Hong Kong, in August, the Beijing-backed Ta Kung Pao newspaper reported.

'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, who were arrested in September after detectives uncovered and then tracked the shipment of drugs from Pakistan.

...The latest case involved high-grade heroin in 289 bags hidden in bales of cotton.

read more @ straits times

3. Italy: Indian man wanted in Belgium held in human trafficking

ROME - ITALIAN police have arrested an Indian man sought by Belgian authorities for alleged human trafficking and helping illegal migrants, an Italian newspaper reported on Wednesday.

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

source: straits times

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.

A court in Halmstad on the southwest coast of Sweden 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.
The girl had laid down to sleep on a sofa during a New Year's party. The 49-year-old reportedly lifted up the girl's skirt and photographed her genitals. The man, whose teenage son was hosting the party, was indicted on charges of sexual harassment, local newspaper Hallandsposten reports.

Citing several other cases, the Halmstad 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.

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.

The court cited a Swedish Supreme Court (Högsta domstolen) case that cleared a man who had been brought to trial for filming sexual intercourse without the consent of the woman involved.

source: the local

the link to Kazakhstan, it had to be Kazakhstan

2009-12-30T10:24:00.002-05:00

1. Iran plans to import uranium from Kazakhstan; "could be" closer to acquiring nuclear weapons
hmm, hmm?

An intelligence report released Tuesday claims 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 break rules the UN Security Council had previously established for Iran as means to prevent the country fro obtaining nuclear weapons. 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, this development appears to rescind the offer.

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 Western powers, including the US, fear that these actions could help Tehran weaponize their fuel on a faster timeframe than previously anticipated.

source: gather news

2. Iran dismisses reports on uranium imports from Kazakhstan

TEHRAN (FNA)- The Iranian mission in New York strongly rejected reports on Tehran's intentions of importing 1,350 tons of purified uranium ore from Kazakhstan.

The Iranian mission said a report by the AP that "Iran is close to clinching a deal to clandestinely import 1,350 tons of purified uranium ore from Kazakhstan" serves as a part of the propaganda campaign by the "aggressive powers" against Iran's peaceful nuclear program.

...The US and its western allies allege that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program while they have never presented corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations against the Islamic Republic.

read more @ fars

3. WHY KAZAHKSTAN? DID YOU KNOW THAT KAZAKHSTAN IS "ISRAEL'S PARTNER IN EURASIA?"

Kazakhstan: Israel's Partner in Eurasia

Ariel Cohen

Israel and post-communist, resource-rich states have similar geopolitical priorities in opposing terrorism and radical Islam.
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 the new "great game" of Eurasia: economic development fueled by exports of the region's massive natural resources.
Israel and the countries of Eurasia are economically complimentary: Central Asian countries are rich in natural resources, 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.
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.
With oil prices rising, Kazakhstan may have left the nadir of economic decline behind, although banking and construction sectors were hurt particularly hard.

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: 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.

http://tinyurl.com/yfw6d8h

read this and other recent news items about Kazakhstan at my post on 12/13/09

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

the cracking down commences immediately

2009-12-30T10:10:00.003-05:00

1. in preemptive action, anticipating something, Iran puts ten Swedes on interpol wanted list

Ten Swedes of Iranian descent are named on Interpol’s list of criminals wanted for terrorism and international organized crime.

The men, all of whom hail from Iran’s Kurdistan province, came to Sweden as political refugees twenty years ago, the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper reports.

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.

“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 Haji Mohammadi, one of the men now labeled as a fugitive by Interpol, told The Local.

Mohammadi is one of twelve members of the Worker-Communist Party of Iran - Hekmatist whose names were posted on the Interpol list.

“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.”

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.

“I'm used to being harassed and criticized by the Islamic regime in Iran,” he said.

But Interpol's decision to agree to Iran's request to list him and his colleagues as organized criminals and terrorists left him puzzled.

read more @ the local

2. two Iranians detained in far east while sneaking on ship to Japan

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.

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.

"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.

They were detained in the port early on Monday. Two days later, a court ruled to deport the two Iranians from Russia.

A total of 25 Iranian nationals trying to illegally enter Japanese territory have been detained in the Far East this year.

VLADIVOSTOK, December 30 (RIA Novosti)

3. German man wanted for supplying chemicals to....IRAN....arrested in Austria

A German man wanted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for supplying chemical weapons to Iran has been arrested in Austria, criminal police said on Wednesday.
The man, named only as Peter W., 67, had been on the run for 21 years after being charged in the United States with supplying Iran with 115 tons of chemicals used to produce lethal mustard gas in the late 1980s, the Austrian daily Kronen Zeitung reported.

"The arrest took place in Hall, in Tirol on December 28th," criminal police spokesman Alexander Marakovits told news agency AFP, confirming the newspaper report.

"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.

"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.

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.

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.

source: the local

assume the position

2009-12-30T09:30:00.004-05:00

PROBLEM: terrorism on the rise worldwide, particularly against Americans. !!!!!

1. package destroyed in Milan

ROME - BOMB experts destroyed a suspicious package that was found at Milan's Malpensa airport on Tuesday, but officials said it contained no explosives.

...The package - about 20 by 10cm - was scotch-taped all around and had an antenna sticking from it. Pepe said it contained no explosives, but police were trying to determine its contents.

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. Mr Pepe said that the area is near the part of the terminal where US-bound passengers check in.

Following a botched Christmas Day attack aboard a Detroit-bound plane from Amsterdam, Italy's civil aviation authority ordered airports to tighten security for passengers leaving for the United States. Measures include increased body and baggage searches.

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

source: straits times

2. white powder in envelope triggers Commons terror scare - UK

An envelope containing suspicious white powder was sent to the communities minister Shahid Malik at the House of Commons, triggering an anti-terrorist investigation, the Guardian has learned.

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 potentially deadly anthrax. Comments on the envelope suggest it was sent by a supporter of the far right or someone purporting to be one.

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.

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.

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."

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.

read more @ the guardian

3. HAARETZ: would-be airline bomber: there are many like me in Yemen

The messages **likely posted** by failed airliner bomber 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.

...Officials have not yet 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. [and WHO ELSE COULD POSSIBLY HAVE SUCH INFORMATION???? - ed.]

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.

According to ABC news, FBI sources claim 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. ABC also reported that two former inmates of Gunatanamo prison were among the architects of the attempted terror attack. [nice touch - ed.]

Yemen's foreign minister said on Tuesday that there are over 300 Al-Qaeda activists in his country and requested intelligence aid from the West.

CNN also reported on Tuesday that U.S. and Yemeni officials were looking at fresh targets for a possible retaliation strike in Yemen, citing two unidentified American officials.

The officials stressed that efforts were aimed at being ready with options in the event that U.S. President Barack Obama orders a retaliatory strike, CNN reported. It said the officials were trying to identify targets linked directly to the airline incident.

A RETALIATORY STRIKE?????? - ed.

more at haaretz
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1138739.html

REACTION: nobody 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!

4. CIA sat on suspect warning

WASHINGTON - THE father of the Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a US airliner bound for Detroit on Christmas Day spoke with a CIA official in Nigeria about his son's radicalisation, CNN reported on Tuesday.

The official prepared a report on the meeting, but it was not disseminated by CIA headquarters, according to CNN, which cited an unidentified source.

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. President Barack Obama on Tuesday blamed a combination of 'human and systemic failures' in security for allowing the botched attack.

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

source: straits times

5. OBAMA, with very angry face on, and breaking his vacation for the second straight day: this is totally unacceptable, a potentially CATASTROPHIC failure

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.

"A systemic failure has occurred and I consider that totally unacceptable," Obama added, breaking his Hawaii vacation for a second straight day as recriminations mounted over the botched December 25 attack on a Northwest airliner.

...It was not the first time that intelligence failures had opened the door to "a terror attack": the September 11 attacks in 2001, which killed nearly 3,000 people, were blamed on similar errors.

read more @ al manar tv

SOLUTION: we must "crack down" we must submit to more inconveniences we must give up our privacy 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?????

6. Yemen: Please help us crack down on these al qaeda militants!!!!!

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."

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.

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. I don't have a real figure."

read more @ al manar tv

7. Dutch to use full body scanners

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.

read more @ independent

8. German police against body scanners as airport security debate reignites

The failed terrorist attack on a transatlantic flight to Detroit has re-started a debate in Germany on full-body scanners. The national police union (GdP) has declared itself against their use.

National GdP chairman Konrad Freiberg 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.

"The private or intimate sphere of passengers should not be invaded," he said.

But Freiberg also warned the German government against watering down security measures.

"If the security laws are diluted, it will give terrorists the opportunity to strike," he said, commenting on the Free Democratic Party's (FDP) intention to limit police powers for keeping an information database. "No-one should believe that Islamist terror has become less dangerous."

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.

read more @ the local

diplomacy: you're doing it wrong

2009-12-30T09:23:00.002-05:00

1. diplomat a suspect in hit and run

THE Romanian diplomat who claimed that his embassy car was stolen at the time it was involved in a hit-and-run accident a fortnight ago is now a suspect in the case.

Dr Silviu Ionescu, the charge d'affaires of the Romanian Embassy in Singapore, has not been ruled out as the person behind the wheel of the Audi car in the early morning hit-and-run.

One of the three men who was hit in the Bukit Panjang accident has died. In response to queries on Dr Ionescu on Tuesday, the police would only say they had 'not ruled out any suspect surfaced in the course of our investigations'. Investigations were still under way with officers 'following up on all available leads'. The police had earlier written to the embassy asking for more details on the accident. Checks by The Straits Times revealed that Dr Ionescu left the country sometime last week. Attempts to reach him on his Singapore mobile have been unsuccessful.

source: straits times

2. Filipina housekeeper found dead in Vienna identified

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Foreign Affairs has identified the Filipina housekeeper who was found dead Tuesday (Vienna time) in the house of the Lebanese ambassador to Austria.

Romalyn L. Basalo, 30, bore stab wounds when she was found December 29, said lawyer Eduardo J. Malaya, DFA spokesman, quoting a report from the Philippine embassy in Vienna.

LESSON: Britian powerless over China

2009-12-30T09:20:00.001-05:00

LONDON - RELATIVES of a Briton executed in China accused Britain on Wednesday of being diplomatically powerless due to its economic dependence on the Asian giant, after Beijing ignored London's clemency appeals.

Two cousins of Akmal Shaikh, who travelled to China in a last-ditch attempt to save the 53-year-old's life, also accused the West of double standards for citing human rights abuses to justify its invasions of countries such as Afghanistan but failing to take the same approach towards Beijing.

Shaikh, a father-of-three whom supporters say was mentally ill, was executed on Tuesday for drug smuggling despite extensive British ministerial lobbying that continued almost up until his execution. But in a letter to the Guardian newspaper, his cousins Amina and Ridwan Shaikh lamented the lack of real British influence in the case.

'Did the British government pull out its diplomats in protest? Did it have a hard-hitting strategy to persuade the Chinese authorities to change their decision?' they wrote.

'This is an example of Britain's powerlessness in the world. Their strategy of being shoulder to shoulder with the US in the 'war on terror' has not given them the status they so desperately desire.' The cousins noted that 'one of the justifications we are told for invading countries like Afghanistan is 'human rights violations'.' 'If it is accepted by all that there are gross violations taking place in China, why aren't they too invaded? This is purely to do with the fact that China is a powerful country economically. -- AFP

source: straits times

nah, nothing going on, why do you ask?

2009-12-29T09:36:00.002-05:00

1. Netanyahu trying to eat Kadima, Livni's opposition party

A year after a turbulent government transition period, it looks as though Israel's political realm is in for another big upheaval.

Kadima, the largest party in the Israeli parliament, could be about to lose several of its lawmakers, with serving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu likely to be the big winner.

Netanyahu's Likud party has been trying to lure Kadima members of the parliament, or the Knesset, more or less since Netanyahu formed his government some nine months ago. That effort has culminated this week, but only after Netanyahu also made a very public attempt to persuade the entire Kadima party to quit the opposition and join his coalition.

Many analysts believe that this is an obvious attempt by Netanyahu to destroy his main political rival, Kadima leader Tzipi Livni. However, some do think that there could be more serious issues at stake here.

...There are two possible scenarios, according to Shlomo Tzadok, apolitical scientist at the University of Haifa. Either Netanyahu simply wants to kill off Kadima, or the prime minister is seeking broad parliamentary support for an upcoming and "dramatic" move with regard to captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

...He added that the Shalit case could be the motive behind Netanyahu's offer to Livni because there is nothing else currently happening that would warrant such a healthy parliamentary majority.

nope. nothing at all. has to be Shalit. mm hmm. - ed.

read more @ chinaview

2. qaida reportedly mobilizing militants in Lebanon and plotting attacks against UNIFIL

Al-Qaida militants are plotting terrorist attacks against state institutions and foreign missions in coordination with Fatah al-Islam and wanted Palestinian fighter Abdel Rahman Awad, a well-informed security source told An Nahar daily.
The source said that Lebanese security agencies have also received information about the infiltration of al-Qaida militants into the country from Pakistan via Turkey, Greece and the Lebanese-Syrian border. The militants are seeking refuge in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, the source told An Nahar.

The militants are residing in apartments in the north and Mount Lebanon pending their infiltration into the refugee camps, according to the security source.

Al-Qaida members are also training other militants in the refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh to carry out attacks against U.N. peacekeepers stationed in southern Lebanon, the source said.

He added that two weeks ago Jund al-Sham received financial assistance from a top al-Qaida official for the purpose of activating sleeper cells in the camp.

source: naharnet

3. Lebanon opens fire on Israeli jet fighters, who were probably just looking for the evil al qaeda terrorists that are about to kill UN peacekeepers, yah.

BEIRUT, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese army on Tuesday fired intensively at four Israeli Phantom jet fighters flying at a low altitude over south Lebanon, the country's state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported.

The report said that Lebanese army opened anti-aircraft fire at the jet fighters which were flying over Hasbaya in south Lebanon on Tuesday morning, forcing these planes to leave Lebanese airspace.

The Israeli warplanes entered Lebanese airspace over Arkoub, Hasbaya and western Bekaa amid extensive Israeli ground military activities in Shebaa Farms, the report said.

Lebanon accuses Israel of intruding its airspace on a daily basis, saying it is a violation of UN security council resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanese Shiite armed group Hezbollah, and mandates peacekeepers to monitor the armistice along the border.

Last month, Lebanon opened fire at an unmanned Israeli reconnaissance plane flying over its territory, forcing it to leave the Lebanese airspace.

source: chinaview

4. Israel recalls all of its ambassadors worldwide for meeting

Israel’s ambassadors and consuls generals from all over the world have been summoned to attend a conference to be held over global challenges facing Israel.

The meeting to be attended in Jerusalem Al-Quds on December 27-31 is hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, headed by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, the ministry reported on its website.

“The idea is to facilitate direct dialogue with the country’s leaders, mutual updates on major diplomatic issues, and a discussion of action plans to deal with the challenges awaiting Israel in the international arena in the coming year, including the Iranian threat,” it said.

This is while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called a report by the UN Human Rights Council’s Gaza commission a real threat to Israel.

The UN Special Rappoteur for the occupied Palestinian Territories has also urged western powers to push Israel to end its blockade of the Gaza Strip immediately. Richard Falk also called for economic sanctions against Israel.

This is the first time a conference for all of Israel’s heads of missions has been held.

Benyamin Netanyahu will also attend the conference along with Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy Dan Meridor, and other senior officials.

source: EU times

5. Vanunu arrested on suspicion of meeting with foreigners

Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu was ordered to be put under house arrest Tuesday after being charged with violating a condition of his 2004 release from prison.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Vanunu met with "a number of foreigners," something he was ordered not to do for fear he might divulge classified information.

Vanunu, who has been charged with violating this order before, flashed a "V'' sign and unleashed a rambling tirade against the "impotent" Jewish state as he entered a Jerusalem court.

His lawyer, Avigdor Feldman, said Vanunu was arrested because he has a Norwegian girlfriend whom police have already interrogated.

more @ jpost
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1261364534932

6. IOF chief: Iran can build bomb by 2011

JERUSALEM (Map, News) - Iran will possess the technology to build a nuclear bomb by early 2010 and be able to produce one the following year, Israeli media quoted Israel's defense minister as saying Monday.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak delivered his assessment before the Israeli parliament's defense and foreign affairs committee. It broadly matches assessments from other nations including the U.S., which estimates that Tehran could produce a nuclear weapon between 2010 and 2015.

The Defense Ministry said it could not confirm the reports and a Barak spokesman wasn't immediately available for comment. The radio and newspaper Web site reports did not identify the source of their information, but participants in the committee meetings routinely brief reporters on the proceedings.

Earlier this month, Israel's military intelligence chief said Iran was close to an unspecified "technological breakthrough" that would enable it to build nuclear weapons. He did not elaborate on the breakthrough or say when exactly he expected Iran to have weapons-making capability.

underpants terrorist, so inspirational

2009-12-29T09:21:00.003-05:00

1. investigators shed light on underpants bomber's evil plot

BEIJING, Dec. 29 (Xinhuanet)-- In search for clues to the foiled Christmas Day bombing of a U.S.-bound plane, part of an explosive device was found sewn into the underwear of the Nigerian suspect, according to media reports quoting a U.S. law enforcement official on Monday.

The U.S. security authorities have focused their investigation on how AbdulMutallab, 23, smuggled the explosives aboard the flight. BUT THEY WILL HAVE TO DO THIS WITHOUT NOTICING THE ISRAELI SECURITY FIRM ICTS THAT PASSED HIM THROUGH OR THE SHARP DRESSED MAN IN AMSTERDAM WHO DEALT WITH THE PASSPORT PROBLEM. - ed.

read more @ chinaview, see pictures of the underpants, syringe, explosives

2. plot suspect still in Yemen -- new picture of the suspect -- he is master of disguises

SANAA - YEMEN confirmed on Tuesday that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who has been charged with trying to blow up a US-bound airliner, was still in the country earlier this month, after the local Al-Qaeda branch claimed the attempted bombing.

'He stayed in Yemen between the beginning of August and the beginning of December, after having received a visa to study Arabic at an institute in Sanaa where he had previously studied,' a Yemeni foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement carried by the official Saba news agency.

The spokesman did not provide details on Abdulmutallab's previous stay in Yemen, saying only that Yemen gave him a visa after security officials were 'reassured that he had been granted visas by friendly countries, and still held a valid visa to the US, where he had visited before.' Abdulmutallab, 23, is a Nigerian Muslim and the son of a wealthy banker.

US security officials have told the media that he is suspected of receiving training from Al-Qaeda. But the US government has been cautious about linking the failed attack to Osama bin Laden's network. His family has said he travelled to Yemen, where he cut ties with them.

read more @ straits times

3. 20 al Qaeda SUSPECTS arrested in Yemen - probably a bunch of locals

SANAA, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- Yemen had arrested 29 suspected al-Qaeda members and will continue to hunt down other members of the terror network, government officials said Monday.

Al-Qaeda had planned to attack oil facilities, government buildings and the British embassy, said Yemen's National Security Chief Ali Mohammad Al-Ansi.

Yemen's Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Abdullah Al-Kurbi said the recent months have seen enhanced cooperation between his country and the United States, and the U.S. information had been a "key element" in Yemen's anti-terror operations.

read more @ chinaview

4. meanwhile in Africa, police clamp down on NEW extreme Islamic sect in Nigeria, though to be honest it has existed for many decades and is probably just some working people who are pissed off well anyway they're dead now so we can consider them terrorists

Many have died in Northen Nigeria following a crack down by police of a Muslim sect on Monday. The group known as Kala Kato has grown agressive in the shadows of Boko Haram- an extremist group that arose in the country in June, demanding Sharia law across Nigeria and a turn away from western and democratic ideals.

According to eyewitnesses, over 37 people may have been killed in the altercation that ensued on Sunday and Monday, between the Nigerian police forces and the members of the Kala koto Muslim sect.

Locals in the Bauchi state of Nigeria where the sect originated had complained of the open-air preaching of the Kala Koto group and how they incited violence in their sermons.

A Bauchi resident was quoted by AFP news as saying: "Members of the group had a fiery preaching session yesterday night during which they attacked government and Western education." The group was described as a non-conformist Muslim sect made up of traders, laborers and other working people.

As the mood of their preaching became aggressive, locals alerted the police because public incitation of violence and aggression was banned in the state of Bauchi after the terror created by Boko Haram in June.

The shooting between the police force and the Muslim group began on Sunday. The police forces retreated, and returned in great number. Bauchi State police chief Atikur Kafur said: "All in all, 38 people were killed including a soldier and two innocent neighbours. Among those killed is the leader of the sect," identifying him simply as Malam Badamasi. "We made 20 arrests, including nine adults and 11 juveniles, while 14 were injured," he told journalists.

Members of the Kala Koto group armed themselves with machetes to do battle with the armed police and soldiers. Some reports have said that a Special Anti-Robbery Squad has been deployed to restore civility.

According to reports, Kala-Kato, has existed in several parts of northern Nigeria for many decades. A religious uprising triggered by its members in 1980 in the northern city of Kano and in Yola in 1992, claimed thousands of lives.

source: afrik.com

the hidden hand

2009-12-29T09:08:00.002-05:00

1. Iran says foreign interference behind unrest

TEHRAN, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said on Tuesday that foreign interference were behind recent unrest and anti-government protests in Tehran and other cities in Iran.

Speaking to reporters at a weekly press conference, Mehmanparast said, "We strongly condemn such actions," adding that this kind of interference violates the values and principals of all countries. He said that the Western countries made a miscalculation again by siding with the anti-government protestors.

"They prefer backing some thousand people to supporting a whole nation of 70,000,000 people," he said, adding that Britain's ambassador in Tehran would be summoned.

read more @ chinaview

2. Africa: drug trade fund terrorist activities

In only five years, Sub-Saharan Africa has become the new hub for drug cartels from Latin America trying to gain entry into Europe. North Africa has not been spared from the drug trade as terrorist groups seek to take advantage of the growing phenomenon.

The alert confirms the fears of most African and Western countries. Terrorist organizations have resorted to the use of income from drug trafficking to finance their operations in the Sahel region of Africa; a situation that could seriously affect the Maghreb.

The announcement was made, Tuesday, by a senior UN official, Antonio Maria Costa, director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) based in Vienna, during an address to the Security Council in the context of a debate on drug trafficking in Africa. The debate was organized under the auspices of Burkina Faso, which chairs the Council this month.

Sahara a transit point

"We have acquired evidence that the two streams of illicit drugs — heroin into Eastern Africa and cocaine into West Africa — are now meeting in the Sahara, creating new trafficking routes across Chad, Niger and Mali," said Antonio Maria Costa.

Goldman Sachs and others investigated for betting against the securities they created

2009-12-29T09:03:00.002-05:00

this is huge. - ed.

Betting against their own securities has prompted numerous investigations of Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street institutions. Prior to the financial collapse, Goldman and others figured out a way to package risky securities, such as subprime mortgages, and sell them to investors who were told they were buying sound investments. Little did the investors know that the firms selling the synthetic collateralized debt obligations (or CDOs) turned around and bet that the CDOs would fail—costing pension funds and insurance companies billions of dollars.

“The simultaneous selling of securities to customers and shorting them because they believed they were going to default is the most cynical use of credit information that I have ever seen,” Sylvain Raynes, an expert in structured finance at R & R Consulting in New York, told The New York Times. “When you buy protection against an event that you have a hand in causing, you are buying fire insurance on someone else’s house and then committing arson.”

In addition to Goldman, CDOs were sold and bet against by Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and Tricadia Inc.—an investment company whose parent firm’s CDO management committee was overseen by Lee Sachs. Sachs is now a special counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

The schemes are now being investigated by Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission and Wall Street’s Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

source: allgov

in trouble

2009-12-29T08:57:00.002-05:00

1. North Korea confirms detention of American who entered illegally

PYONGYANG, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- The official Korean Central News Agency said on Tuesday the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) had detained an American who illegally entered the country.

The American slipped into the country from China on Thursday and is now under investigation by "a relevant organ," the news agency said in a brief dispatch.

The detained American was believed to be 28-year-old human rights activist Robert Park, who is a Korean descent.

Park's crossing comes just months after the DPRK freed two U.S. journalists who had been arrested in March and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor.

source: chinaview

2. mafia boss's son shot and killed

MONTREAL - NICK Rizzuto, the son and grandson of mafia bosses, was shot and killed in Montreal's Notre-Dame-de-Grace neighbourhood, police said on Monday.

Mr Rizzuto, 42, died from the gunshot wounds he sustained while being transported to hospital. A suspect was seen fleeing on foot after firing four rounds into the victim, police said.

Mr Rizzuto is the grandson of Nicolo Rizzuto, 85, the reputed godfather of the Sicilian mafia in Montreal.

The elder Rizzuto was last year was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to four years in prison, but he was released after serving two years in preventive detention.

Nicolo Rizzuto's son, Vito Rizzuto - Nick Rizzuto's father - was arrested in 2004 and is currently serving a 10-year sentence for his role in the 1981 murder of three Bonanno crime family members in New York City.

Nick Rizzuto was allegedly his family's financier and two of his brothers are lawyers, according to experts interviewed by Radio-Canada. The Montreal mafia is considered Canada's most powerful, but lately has come under attack by rival street gangs. -- AFP

source: straits times

just like swine flu: worry, don't worry, worry, don't worry, worry, don't worry

2009-12-28T10:00:00.002-05:00

1. Chris Floyd: Instant Karma: New US War Target Gets Its Own Terror Icon

Wow, that didn't take long at all. Scant days after the American war machine took the cloaking device off its direct military involvement in Yemen, we have an alleged attempted terrorist attack by an alleged attempted terrorist who, just scant hours after his capture, has allegedly confessed to getting his alleged attempted terrorist material from ... wait for it ... Yemen!

Yemen-trained terrorists on the loose in American airplanes! At Christmas! Great googily moogily! It's a good thing our boys are on the case over there right now, pounding the holy hell outta some of them Al Qaeder ragheads! And to think, a few pipsqueaky fifth columnists had been starting to wonder why we were killing dozens of innocent civilians on behalf of an authoritarian regime embroiled in a three-way civil war on the other side of the world.

Well, now they have their answer, by God! Alleged attempted terrorists allegedly trained in Yemen! What else do you need -- a freaking warrant or something? We would obviously be justified in nuking that desert hell-hole and everybody in it! Just think of it -- some guy with some kind of something on an airplane, right there in the Heartland! You gonna stand for that? Exterminate the brutes!

read more @ empire burlesque

1. alert cleared after another Nigerian passenger reported disruptive. also via Amsterdam. but DON'T WORRY.

Security officials at the Detroit Metro Airport "responded to a report from an incoming flight from Amsterdam where a passenger spent a lengthy time in the restroom. This raised concerns so an alert was raised," said the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in a statement. The FBI said that the incident was a "non-serious incident," and cleared the alert it triggered.

2. ALSO, "no indication" plane attack part of larger plot, but we have to tighten up security so thanks for understanding, but seriously, DON'T WORRY

"Right now we have no indication it's part of anything larger, but obviously the investigation continues," US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told CNN, referring to the thwarted attack on a Northwest jet by suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, as the plane approached the city of Detroit, Michigan.

3. Nigerian "SYRINGE" bomber -- more "CHILLING" details unfold -- MAYBE YOU SHOULD WORRY. hmm?

It emerged that Al-Qaeda had warned in a video posted online, four days before the foiled deadly attack was to take place. One of Al-Qaeda’s top generals in Yemen, Mohamed Al-kalwi, had warned in the video, of a devastating terror attack on the ‘enemies’. He said: “We are carrying a bomb to hit the enemies of God.”

According to reports on British and US media, the plot was hatched in the Yemeni capital of Sana over a month ago while Abdulmutallab was trained by the terror men and was allegedly in contact with the men in Yemen, who supplied the explosive device. Further reports say, the terror group had vowed yesterday to unleash more havoc on the United States who it says killed around 50 militants earlier this month during raids on them.

4. aha, he was a troubled youth. remember that Boko Haram crisis in Nigeria in July? WORRYING.

"We know Farouk’s extreme views and were always apprehensive of where it may lead him to. In fact, during the last Boko Haram crisis, we were afraid he may be involved, but he [wasn’t]. He has maintained his distance from us and we never bothered him much. He wanted to be left alone so we respected his wishes. We were always worried about him because he is young. But I was shocked to hear he wanted to blow up a passenger airliner. I hope it is not true," the alleged family member was quoted as saying.

5. well everybody calm down, it was maybe just a battery DON'T WORRY

I am an electrical engineer by profession for over 30 years, and the description of the explosion sounds just like a faulty battery on a personal electronic device (PED). If the plane was just starting it's descent, it could be he was stowing his device at the time of the explosion (turning it on/off, cabin pressure fluctuations, etc.), a more likely time for the battery to explode if it were faulty. These PED battery explosions are typically "small" and limited in area, consistent with the reported events.

6. he rejected his elite background and is highly educated. MAYBE WORRY.

LAGOS (Nigeria) - AS A member of a prominent and wealthy Nigerian family, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab received the best schooling, from the elite British International School in West Africa to the vaunted University College London. But the education he wanted was of a different sort: Nigerian officials say his interest in extremist Islam prompted his father to warn US authorities. As Abdulmutallab was being escorted in handcuffs off the Detroit-bound airliner he attempted to blow up on Christmas Day, he told US officials that he had sought an extremist education at an Islamist hotbed in Yemen.

7. who is the Indian accomplice, the smart-dressed man, and the other Indian arrested at the airport? why the hell doesn't anyone ask questions about Amsterdam and the airport there? wait they're not really talking about this are they. hmm. you might want to WORRY but for other reasons....

AMSTERDAM - DUTCH military police are investigating the possibility that an accomplice may have helped the Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day, a spokesman said on Monday.

A US couple on the flight, Kurt and Lori Haskell, told Reuters and other news agencies that they saw a tall, well-dressed man aged about 50 with the suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on Friday morning at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.

8. in true wily terrorist fashion, he "SNEAKED" in and out of Nigeria on the same day, 12/24. seriously. WORRY.

'The man in question has been living outside the country for a while. He sneaked into Nigeria on the 24th of December and left the same day,' Nigerian Information Minister Dora Akunyili told reporters in the commercial capital Lagos. 'The father, Alhaji Umar Mutallab who is a responsible and respected Nigerian, with a true Nigerian spirit had earlier reported his concern about his son's activities to relevant American authorities,' Mr Akunyili said.

9. the UK knew about him. they had banned him why are the US officials so stupid??? oh Geez you better WORRY NOW.

The man at the centre of the failed Detroit airliner bomb plot had been banned from entering Britain, it was disclosed today. Home Secretary Alan Johnson said Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had been placed on a watch list earlier this year after UK authorities refused to renew his student visa. Mr Johnson also said he did not believe that Abdulmutallab was acting alone, and that police and security services were examining whether he was radicalised while at University College London (UCL) between 2005 and 2008.

10. "serious shortcomings in the system to protect passengers are coming to light" NEED WE SAY MORE? WORRY WORRY WORRY.

Serious shortcomings in the system to protect passengers are coming to light. The suspect took his flight unimpeded from Lagos to Detroit connecting through Amsterdam even though the US, and he managed to smuggle his device through screening at two airports.

one failed state (nigeria) + another failed state (yemen) = al Qaeda. that's what failed states are for.

2009-12-28T09:47:00.003-05:00

1. violence erupts in Nigeria's Bauchi state

LAGOS, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian police said it is curtailing a violence that broke out on Monday in some part of northern Nigeria's Bauchi State.

...Sources in Bauchi said they woke up into the pandemonium, as sporadic gunshots were heard across the city. The cause of the crisis could not be ascertained as at the time of filling this report.

In July, the state witnessed a sectarian unrest that erupted in northern Nigeria's Bauchi State that spread to neighboring Adamawa, Kano, Bornoand Yobe States where about 600 people were reportedly killed.

Nigeria is a secular country with the population evenly divided between Christians and Muslims.

The northern region with 19 out of the country' s 36 states is predominantly Muslim, while Christians dominate the south.

source: chinaview

EVENLY DIVIDED POPULATIONS ARE VERY USEFUL FOR PSYOP OPERATIONS.

2. Nigeria: US plane terrorist a REMINDER of aq sleeper cells in northern Yemen

A Nigerian suspected of acting on behalf of al-Qaeda, has been detained in America for attempting to blow up a Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Friday, U.S. officials have said.

...

The Nigerian Diaspora have meanwhile expressed disappointment and concern over the susceptibility of al-Qaeda sleeper cells amongst predominantly Northern Muslim Nigerians. The Nigerian Taliban known as Boko Haram, an anti-western extremist Muslim group that sprung up in Northern Nigeria in July and threatened state civility in Nigeria were armed with machetes, knives, home-made hunting rifles and petrol bombs.

The group went on rampage in several states across Northern Nigeria, attacking churches, police stations, prisons and government buildings, and demanding sharia law for all Nigeria as opposed to democratic western-styled education and ideals.

After the sects uprising in northern Nigeria, many beheaded bodies were found in the sect’s headquarters, including at least three Christian preachers and the second in command of the military operation. Hundreds of sect members were also killed by Nigerian security forces in a major clampdown to dismantle the sect. Over 700 deaths related to the violence was reported.

The presence of an al-Qaeda branch operating across the Sahara Desert in Mauritania, Morocco, Mali and Niger and Nigeria’s porous borders was confirmed when a report submitted to top government officials in 2007 had identified and classified the Boko Haram sect as a "murderous religious group" that had been train by the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat. State Security Service of Nigeria stated that "the group was linked to Al Qaeda through some of its members including Barah Abdul and Mohamed Al-Amin who were in Afghanistan and have strong links with some Al Qaeda leaders".

source: afrik.com

3. Yemen in crisis

Author:

Dan Katz

Yemen’s population is predominantly rural (73 %), young (most are under 15) and poor (National Income per capita was $950 in 2008; only 40% have access to electricity).

Its oil sector provides 90% of export earnings, and 75% of government revenue, but oil production has passed its peak and output is declining. Oil revenue is expected to dry up completely by 2017 (BBC).

The World Bank comments, “living conditions for most of the 22 million Yemenis remain difficult… the situation is particularly dire for women.” Female literacy stands at 30%.

Women are not free to marry who they want and some are forced to marry as young as eight. Once married, a woman must obey her husband and obtain his permission just to leave the house. Women are valued as half the worth of men when they testify in court (Amnesty International).

...

Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda is closely associated with Yemen. Osama bin-Laden’s father was born in Yemen. The first al-Qaida action against the US was a bomb attack on American troops in a hotel in Aden, the major port in southern Yemen, in 1992. And in 2000, two suicide bombers in a speed boat attacked the USS Cole in Aden harbour.

Of the 250 prisoners still in detention at Guantanamo Bay, more than 100 are Yemenis, the largest group by nationality.
Thousands of Yemeni mujahedeen who fought against the Russians in Afghanistan in the 1990s are back in the country. Many are loyal to a former mujahedeen leader, Asker Zuail, who now has a senior position in the Yemeni army, often acting as a government spokesman.

...

The future

The future is bleak for Yemen which is falling apart under pressure from various reactionary, and ultra-reactionary forces.

read more @ workers' liberty

4. October 2009: Nigeria heading toward a failed state

A cargo ship loaded with weapons and ammunitions from the United States has been confiscated in Lagos, Nigeria. The arms loaded ship has raised concerns over arms proliferation either to the unrelenting rebel factions of Niger Delta or to political thugs ahead of the 2011 electoral polls. Experts say the Nigerian government, unable to deliver basic social services, is “plagued by corruption so endemic and monumental it is hard to separate it from state policy” and also lacks the capability or discipline to prevent threats to public safety and national integrity.

read more @ afrik.com

5. political chaos in Nigeria

6. the Gaza playbook

oil for security? it's just like the civil rights for security deal. they get the oil and your rights, but you never get the security.

2009-12-28T09:35:00.004-05:00

1. ISI, CIA ran over 60 joint operations against al Qaeda commanders hiding in FATA

A senior Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's main spy agency, official has revealed that the Central Investigation Agency (CIA) and the ISI together have run over 60 operations against Al-Qaeda and other key extremists commanders hiding in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Balochistan.

The official said the missions included "snatch and grabs", the abduction of important militants, as well as efforts to kill extremist leaders, The New York Times reports.

The operations were carried out on the basis of intelligence inputs provided by both the US and the Pakistani agencies, the official said, on conditions of anonymity.

The Obama administration has been pressing Pakistan to take action against the Haqqani group, which is controlled by one of Al-Qaeda's top commanders, Sirajuddin Haqqani.

The US believes that the Haqqani network is using Pakistan's lawless border areas to carry out attacks in Kabul and important locations in Afghanistan.

US troops, stationed in Afghanistan, have intensified their commando operations against the Haqqani network in Afghanistan and have gained substantial success.

Although President Obama and his top aides have never discussed these highly classified missions in public, such counterterrorism operations are expected to increase, along with the deployment of 30,000 more US forces in the next year, as part of the revamped strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

US Central Command Chairman General David Petraeus has also made it clear that following the surge there would be more focus on the counterterrorism operations.

Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, earlier this month, General Petraeus had said that more such commando offensive against hard-core Al-Qaeda and Taliban extremists could be seen in the near future.

"We actually will be increasing our counterterrorist component of the overall strategy," General Petraeus had told the Senators.

"There's no question you've got to kill or capture those bad guys that are not reconcilable.

And we are intending to do that, and we will have additional national mission force elements to do that when the spring rolls around," he added. (ANI)

source: sify.com

2. 2006: The geopolitics of weapons procurement in the gulf states

Par Nadim Hasbani

jeudi 22 juin 2006.

INTRODUCTION

The Gulf region currently remains the largest defence procurement market in the world. With tens of billions of dollars spent annually on highly lethal and technological weapons, it is a very high value-added market for Western defence industries.

The Middle East, which extends from the Maghreb, through the Mashrek to the Persian (Arabian) Gulf, is far from being homogenous, particularly in terms of its armaments market. However, a distinction must be made between the weight and the characteristics of the major defence markets in North Africa, the Near East and the rest of the Middle East.

Traditionally, Russia has had the monopoly on major Algerian Defence contracts. With the end of the arms embargo, a new Libyan defence market is emerging, but has yet to come into its own. Israel and Egypt are in a league of their own, because of massive US military aid received following the signing of the 1979 peace accords : approximately US$2.3 billion for the former and US$1.3 - US$1.8 billion for the latter . Jordan, since signing a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, is in a similar position. Syria finds itself virtually excluded from the international procurement market, with the exception of the sale of Russian ground-to-air missiles following Bashar el Assad’s visit to Moscow in January 2005. Conventional Syrian weapons are nearly exclusively Soviet, dating from the first half of the 1980s.

The oil monarchies of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) - make up the core of the Middle East defence market, with just under 40 percent of the world’s total weapons sales during the 1990s. Combined, its ratio of military spending to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the highest in the world and, on average, is above 6 per cent. This ratio is two times greater than in industrialised countries, where the average is closer to 2.4 per cent.

There are, of course, a number of reasons for these levels of expenditure. Ethnic and community fractures crisscross the Gulf’s geopolitical space. They are exacerbated by the region’s wealth in hydrocarbons, its specific geographic configuration, and large-scale foreign intervention. The region is also a stage for internally destabilising factors, such as radical Islamist movements and demands for social, economic and political reform.

Due to its wealth and geo-strategic importance, the Arab-Persian Gulf has witnessed three major international wars over the past 25 years : the Iran-Iraq war, the first Gulf War and the War against Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein. The “manna” of oil in the Gulf - almost one out of two barrels comes from this region and it has 70 percent of known world reserves - coupled with the strategic stakes and risks of military confrontation have transformed the Gulf into the principal weapons market for Western Defence industries.

Nevertheless, owning these large amounts of highly technological weapons has not allowed the Gulf states to take independent control of their own security. External threats still extend beyond their political, military and human capacities, and it is for this reason that an “oil for security” pact has remained for a long time the principal motivation for the large weapons orders in the region.

The decision-making process that precedes the signing of major defence contracts, which can some years amount to a total of US$50 billion, takes into account the political-security guarantee that these contracts offer, the technological quality of the equipment itself, the industrial marketing campaigns, and the quality and financial arrangements associated with competing offers. Other factors of varying importance also play a role, including the influence of the different members of the ruling families and the degree of power and influence of indigenous tribes. Moreover, a decision-making rationale is evolving and other factors are also being taken into account. Today, procurement policies are being devised more and more on “Western-style” geo-political grounds, where military, defence and security strategy dictates future equipment needs.

Finally, the influence of domestic threats on defence and military procurement policies, such as militant Islam and internal upheavals, is growing. These internal threats have become major decision-making factors since 11 September 2001 and following the various attacks - both successful and thwarted - in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the region.

read the rest here

"the drugs are slowly dying," after decades of misuse, and that means people will die

2009-12-28T09:09:00.003-05:00

Anthropormorphism is when people attribute human qualities to animals. What shall we call it when people attribute human qualities to pharmaceutical products? The desperately poor people smuggle and counterfeit the drugs, leading to drug resistant disease, and nobody can figure out what to do because you sure as hell don't expect those pharmaceutical companies to give the stuff away now, do you? - ed.

1. new form of malaria threatens thai-cambodia border

PAILIN, Cambodia (AP) _ O'treng village does not look like the epicenter of anything.

Just off a muddy, rutted-out road, it is nothing more than a handful of Khmer-style bamboo huts perched crookedly on stilts, tucked among a tangle of cornfields once littered with deadly land mines.

Yet this spot on the Thai-Cambodian border is home to a form of malaria that keeps rendering one powerful drug after another useless. This time, scientists have confirmed the first signs of resistance to the only affordable treatment left in the global medicine cabinet for malaria: Artemisinin.

If this drug should stop working, there would be no good replacement to combat a disease that kills 1 million people annually. As a result, international medical leaders declared this year that resistant malaria here is a health emergency.

"This is not business as usual. It's something really special, and it needs a real concerted effort," said Dr. Nick White, a malaria expert at Mahidol University in Bangkok, who has spent decades trying to eradicate the disease from Southeast Asia. "We know that children have been dying in Africa _ millions of children have died over the past three decades _ and a lot of those deaths have been attributed to drug resistance. And we know that the drug resistance came from the same place."

Malaria is just one of the leading killer infectious diseases battling back in a new and more deadly form, the AP found in a six-month look at the soaring rates of drug resistance worldwide. After decades of the overuse and misuse of antibiotics, diseases like malaria, tuberculosis and staph have started to mutate. The result: The drugs are slowly dying.

the Gaza playbook

2009-12-27T13:43:00.001-05:00

1. 12/23/09: "informed sources" say the border is calm, situation returning to normal in Saudi Arabia

This is the first time the Kingdom has given a death toll for the fighting between Saudi forces and Yemeni intruders, which began more than a month and a half ago. On Nov. 3, rebels killed a Saudi border guard and occupied two villages inside Saudi territory.

The following day, Saudi military jets began bombing enemy positions. Prince Khaled said that the main operation is now over. “The southern border is now under the complete control of Saudi forces.”

Informed sources told Arab News that the southern border area was calm on Tuesday.

Prince Khaled said Saudi forces would remain in the area until the last of the intruders are expelled.

“What we are doing now is bringing things to normal. We have also made arrangements to prevent infiltration and other crimes,” the minister told reporters.

He indicated that the infiltrators were backed by foreign parties. “It seems that their allegiance is not to their country.”

He praised Saudi forces for their bravery and their efforts in driving away the intruders.

2. 12/27/09: Riyadh continues air raids on North Yemen, Houthi rebels allege Saudis using white phosphorous on Yemeni civilians

Saudi fighter jets have launched another round of air strikes on Houthi positions in the northern part of Yemen along the border with the oil-rich Kingdom.

According to a statement released by the fighters on Thursday, Saudi forces carried out blitzes on the northern region of Jabal al-Ramih and the border area of al-Jabiri.

The statement added that Saudi forces had fired 879 rockets and carried out air strikes against rugged regions in the north. This came despite Tuesday claims by Saudi Deputy Defense Minister Prince Khaled bin Sultan that the bulk of operations against northern Yemeni fighters were now over.

The conflict in northern Yemen began in 2004 between Sana'a and Houthi fighters. The conflict intensified in August 2009 when the Yemeni army launched Operation Scorched Earth in an attempt to crush the fighters in the northern province of Sa'ada.

The Houthis accuse the Yemeni government of the violation of their civil rights, political, economic and religious marginalization as well as large-scale corruption.

Fighting between Saudi forces and Yemeni Shia resistance fighters, known as Houthis, began on November 3 when Houthis killed a Saudi border guard and occupied two villages inside Saudi territory. Saudi jets began bombing Houthi positions the following day.

Houthi fighters say that Riyadh pounds their positions and that Saudi forces strike Yemeni villages and indiscriminately target civilians. According to the fighters, Saudis use unconventional weapons such as white phosphorous bombs against civilians in northern Yemen.

The US military also continues its air raids on Yemen's northern regions of Amran, Hajjah and Sa'ada which have already been the target of joint Saudi-Yemen offensive against the Houthi fighters.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that since 2004, up to 175,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in Sa'ada and take refuge in overcrowded camps set up by the United Nations.

source: press tv

3. Yemeni lawmaker alleges Saudis engaging in vicious attacks on civilians, of course the US govt gives full support -- to Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni government

Yemeni lawmaker Yahya al-Houthi says Saudi Arabian warplanes are engaged in the relentless bombardment of civilian positions in Yemen's war-torn north.

In an interview with Press TV on Friday, the Yemeni lawmaker accused the Saudi army of using internationally banned weapons in its attacks on villages in the northern province of Sa'ada, regretting the high civilian toll from the raids.

emen's beleaguered north, bordering the Saudi kingdom, has been the scene of a massive military operation by the Saudi-Yemeni forces, since the Sana'a government stepped up its offensive against the Shia fighters in August.

The central government in Yemen says the Houthis are trying to force the return of clerical rule in the country.

Houthi fighters, however, reject the allegations, accusing the Sunni-dominated Riyadh and Sana'a governments of joining forces to uproot the Shia faith in the territory, and of hiring terrorist elements to reach this goal.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia says it will stop its bombing campaign if the Houthis leave the border area, which the Houthis maintain they will do only after Riyadh has stopped aiding the Yemeni army.

This is while the US has been launching airstrikes on the southeastern parts of the impoverished Arab nation in the past two weeks as part of a military pact it signed with Yemen.

Washington is reportedly providing Sana'a with firepower and intelligence in addition to some 70 million dollars worth of military aid Pentagon has poured into Yemen this year.

The White House on Friday once again reiterated President Barack Obama's support for the ongoing military operations across Yemen.

source: press tv

4. massive bomb attacks on villages at night

Houthi fighters in Yemen say Saudi warplanes have carried out several attacks on residential areas in the country's beleaguered north. In a statement released on Sunday, the fighters said that Saudi jets launched over 30 airstrikes on villages in the northern parts of the country.

Saudi forces have also fired some 660 rockets and artillery rounds at civilian areas along the border, websites close to the fighters reported. The warplanes reportedly fired more than 700 missiles overnight on the northern villages along the border with the kingdom on Saturday.

The raids continued with artillery bombardment, tank raids and mortar attacks on the areas, the Houthis reported.

Riyadh joined Yemen's offensive against the Houthi fighters in November and vowed to continue its raids until they move back from the frontier between Yemen and the kingdom.

The fighters accuse Riyadh of targeting civilian areas far from the Saudi-Yemeni border.

They also say the attacks have so far left scores of civilians killed and thousands of others displaced.

5. top Houthi rebel leader may be dead

DUBAI // The leader of Yemen’s Shi’ite rebels may have died after being severely wounded by government forces in the north of the country, a Yemeni government website reported on Sunday.

The rebels could not immediately be reached and their website did not comment on the reports.
...Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television said the rebel leader was dead, citing unnamed Yemeni sources he was killed in an air strike. Yemeni news websites carried the same report.

There have been rumours about Abdul-Malik’s death in the past but the latest reports appear to be stronger.

...The United States and Saudi Arabia fear al Qa’eda will exploit instability in Yemen, which also faces a separatist movement in the south, to stage attacks on neighbouring states and beyond.

source: the national

6. the rebels are fighting a guerrilla war, thus justifying indiscriminate killing of civilians by Saudi Arabia, which has "no choice," we're sure you understand. the dead civilians are "regrettable" but it's the rebels' fault. just like Hamas in Gaza forced the IOF to kill all those Palestinians last Christmas. it was self-defense.

...While Saudi Arabia is justified in taking action against the Houthis for their bold incursion and subsequent possession of some key territorial posts, the rapid escalation of the conflict is alarming. The Yemeni governmen claims that the Houthis are receiving arms and funds from Iran. With Yemen emerging as another proxy theatre for regional states on the lines of Lebanon and Iraq, the situation can be likened to a powder keg ready to explode.

...The problem facing Saudi forces is their reliance on conventional methods of warfare against the Houthis who are fighting a guerrilla war. While Saudi airstrikes against rebels have achieved some success they also pose a threat to civilians. It is something the rebels have taken advantage of having entrenched themselves among the civilians in villages.

...Yemen is already battling secessionists in its south and faces a serious challenge at the hands of a resurgent Al-Qaeda.

...Not only is the extremist group recruiting fighters for Iraq and Afghanistan, it is also planning terror attacks in neighbouring Saudi Arabia. It is only natural that it will take advantage of the ongoing instability at the Saudi-Yemen border and plan cross-border terror attacks inside the Kingdom.

Other Gulf states also recognise the importance of stabilising Yemen and have expressed full support to Sanaa. Besides, there has been a demonstrable increase in border security to prevent terrorists and others from infiltration, across the states. In the wider interest of the region, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and others on the Arabian peninsula must come together to take on the challenge.

read more @ khaleej times

7. there's even a fence!

ABU DHABI — Saudi Arabia, amid heavy fighting with Shi'ite rebels, has begun erecting another security fence along its border with Yemen. Saudi military sources said the Defense Ministry has overseen a fast-track project to construct a barbed wire fence along most of the 1,600-kilometer border with Yemen. The sources said the project reflected an urgent requirement for a physical barrier to block the flow of thousands of Shi'ite rebels and their supporters from Yemen to the Saudi kingdom.

"The infiltration has reached massive proportions," a Saudi source said. "Thousands are crossing into the kingdom."

The Royal Saudi Army has been assigned responsibility for the border fence, the sources said. They said the initial stage stipulated a barbed wire barrier in areas used by Shi'ite rebels to enter Saudi Arabia, particularly along Mount Doud and Mount Dukhan.

In 2009, the Interior Ministry oversaw a project to begin installing an advanced security network along the border with Yemen, Middle East Newsline reported. But the sources said infiltrators have largely avoided areas of the border that contain the electronic fence, developed by prime contractor EADS.

The sources said EADS and other Western contractors were helping the latest Saudi border effort. They said EADS was installing infrared sensors and cameras along numerous points of the Saudi-Yemeni border.

oh hahaha, it's rude to notice the truth, let alone speak it

2009-12-27T10:39:00.001-05:00

h/t incoming

people of The West, don't just lay down and die

2009-12-27T10:21:00.000-05:00

1. the drinking and violence that is a way of life for many young Britons

Half-past three in the morning, and a snowy -2C outside, but at Newcastle General's Accident and Emergency department the drunks still keep coming. Some are delivered unconscious on stretchers by exasperated ambulance crews; others stumble in, smeared in blood, and make angry demands before being restrained by security.

In front of reception, a row of blue wheelchairs each holds a collapsed drinker waiting to be seen - or to sober up - while, from the corridor, a chorus of snores erupts from the long line of inanimate, intoxicated bodies.

One of these men broke and dislocated his ankle so badly he needed emergency treatment; yet, despite being put in an ambulance and taken to hospital, having his fractured leg X-rayed, put back together and plastered - without any painkillers - the dark-haired 20-something has yet to wake up and realise he's hurt.

The poky waiting room is littered with bloody tissues, sandwich wrappers and cardboard sick bowls. There are so many patients - most 'suffering' from excessive inebriation or gashes and bruises from drink-induced brawls - that some sit on the floor or wander the corridors.

For despite the Arctic conditions, Britain's binge drinkers are out in force tonight, on what is known by Northerners as Black Eye Friday: the last Friday before Christmas, when factories and offices close for the festive break, meaning employees finish early and spend the afternoon drinking, celebrating and, as the name implies, fighting.

The result, as I discovered when I spent the night in Newcastle's main A&E ward observing the busiest time of the year for frontline medical staff in British hospitals, are scenes so grotesque and disturbing that they left me wondering quite what kind of country Britain has become.

read more @ daily mail

2. the underlying causes of cancer and how to treat it without chemo

Cancerous cells are always being created in the body. It’s an ongoing process that has gone on for eons. Consequently, there are parts of your immune system designed to seek out and destroy cancer cells.

Cancer has been around as long as mankind, but only in the second half of the 20^th century did the number of cancer cases explode. Contributing to this explosion are the excessive amounts of toxins and pollutants we are exposed to, high stress lifestyles that zap the immune system, poor quality junk food that’s full of pesticides, irradiated and now genetically modified, pathogens, electromagnetic stress, lights, and just about everything that wasn’t here 200 years ago.

All these weaken the immune system, and alter the internal environment in the body to an environment that promotes the growth of cancer.

Cancer is not a mysterious disease that suddenly attacks you out of the blue, something that you can’t do anything about. It has definite causes that you can correct if your body has enough time, and if you take action to change the internal environment to one that creates health, not cancer, while at the same time attacking cancerous cells and tumors by exploiting their weaknesses.

Cancer tumors begin when more cancerous cells are being created than an overworked, depleted immune system can destroy.

Constant exposure to tens of thousands of manmade chemicals from birth onward, chlorinated and fluoridated water, electromagnetic radiation, pesticides and other toxins, leads to the creation of too many free radicals and excessive numbers of cancerous cells.

Alone this would be enough to raise cancer levels, but combined with an immune system weakened by a diet of refined and over processed food, mineral depleted soils, and too much exposure to artificial light at night, the immune system at some point no longer is able to keep cancer in check, and it starts to grow in your body.

read more @ ukiah community blog

3. Mike James: our Alamo against the Jewish NWO

excerpt:

Each day, I see physically enabled (yet terribly distraught) and proud men over the age of 50 rummage, usually by stealth of darkness, through the garbage skips outside of my estate. They’re looking for stale bread, half-eaten Pizzas, and empty bottles which can be fed into a machine at the local supermarket for a 15-cent returnable deposit. All of these men are German.

One day, I decided to sit with one such man on a park-bench next to a bowling alley that adjoins the field that lies like an ever-green virgin of manicured nature tempting all within her gaze to make the long walk through the wooded and ancient Philosophenweg (Path of Philosophers) that leads to Bad Homburg.

I offered him a cigarette, which he willingly accepted.

“You look terribly thin,” I told him. “May I offer you something to eat – perhaps a Bratwurstbrötchen (hotdog) and some Bratkartoffeln (fried chips) at the Metzgerei, the local butchers.”

The man did not reply, but continued, as if it were the oxygen of his life, to draw down deep upon the cigarette I had given him.

Presently, he replied: “Ach, nein. I have no need for food. I can always find everything I require. I have very keen eyes.”

I remembered that I had 40 euros at home, sufficient enough to buy this old hero tobacco enough to last for at least three days, and I put the offer to him.

“Du bist Engländer, oder?”

“Yes, I’m an Englishman,” I replied. “A Geordie born on the banks of the River Tyne.”

“Wie alt bist du?” he enquired.

“I’m still only 49-years-old, but will turn fifty in just a few months. December 20.”

The old man turned to me and said: “Your German is excellent, young man. Do not offer me handouts, for I am too old and too proud to accept them. I was once a professor at Frankfurt University, and I choose to retain my dignity as such.”

He fell into a long, reflective and strangely sad silence, watching a hapless old lady foul her parting shot by at least three yards. Then, quite suddenly, the old boy raised himself to his feet and gently placed his right hand on my head.

“Speak for me,” he managed to whisper, almost all strength gone from his voice and with tears in his eyes.

Then he grabbed me firmly by the shoulders in a half-embrace and said with the vigour of a man whose voice counts for nothing in the Soviet, Jewish-controlled Federal Republic of Germany: “Speak for all of us!”

And then he was gone.

read more @ the truth seeker

official Mumbai story unravels by the day

2009-12-27T09:52:00.002-05:00

UPDATE: India can have Headley in about 300 years, because we can't have our intelligence assets/terrorists being held accountable and blabbing what they know. he might have to meet a sudden accidental death.

NEW DELHI: The FBI has politely turned down India’s request for extradition of terror suspect David Headley to this country on the ground he will have to first undergo a sentence which could be imposed on him in the US for the offences committed if convicted.

Indian officials were told there was no realistic possibility of the Pakistani-American being handed over since the sentence could range between 200 and 300 years of imprisonment.

The US stand was conveyed to the Indian investigators by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials during their regular interaction to discuss the case related to Headley, whose links with the banned Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT) were being probed by the two countries, official sources said here today.

The polite turning down of the Indian request for extradition of 49-year-old Headley, arrested in Chicago on October three last, came in the wake of repeated statements including that by Union Home Secretary G K Pilai that India would press for the extradition of the terror suspect.

Pillai had said earlier that India will seek his extradition after completing investigation by January next year into his links with the Mumbai terror attacks.

However, FBI seems to be in no mood to hand over him to India and very politely conveyed that he could be handed over once the sentence ranging to 300 years is completed. He can also be sentenced to death, the sources said.

Headley has been charged by the FBI for 26/11 attacks in Mumbai also on December seven. He is alleged to have conducted reconnaissance of all targets attacked by Lashker militants on November 26 last year besides drawing the routemap for their landing on the Mumbai coast.

via there are no sunglasses

original source: times of india

1. Kasab said signature taken on blank piece of paper

Friday, December 25, 2009
NEW DELHI: Ajmal Kasab, under-trial in the Mumbai terror attacks, on the fourth consecutive day on Thursday denied all the charges framed against him in the case.

He told the 26/11 trial judge, ML Tahiliyani, in Mumbai that his signature was taken on a blank sheet of paper by the Indian police with regard to his confessional statement. “The confession recorded by magistrate was not read out to me and it does not contain the truth,” he said.

He again told the special Mumbai court that he did not arrive in Mumbai by fishing trawler, Kuber, but by the Samjhauta Express. He also denied that he had talked to Abu Hamza by a satellite phone. “If I had talked to him, then my voice would have been recorded,” he said. When asked about Abu Ismail, Kasab said: “Who is he, I do not know... I was not with him.”

source: international news

2. latest twist to Karkare's missing jacket

The mystery over what happened to the missing bulletproof jacket of slain Maharashtra Police's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare, has just got deeper.

On Tuesday, Dinesh Gattar, a sweeper at the J J Hospital in Mumbai, had told a Mumbai court that he found Karkare's jacket the morning after the 26/11 attacks. Karkare's body was brought to this hospital for an autopsy.

Then police sources had told NDTV that Gattar had thrown away the jacket into a disposable bag and sent it off to the Deonar dumping ground. But on Friday, Gattar exclusively told NDTV that he hasn't done that. Instead he had found the jacket and put it aside even informing a hospital nurse about it.

"I did not dispose the jacket. I just put it aside. We segregate waste into black bag and red bags. When I was doing that I saw the jacket and placed it aside," Gattar said.

Gattar's statement comes just days after the Mumai police almost gave up on finding the jacket. Some even claimed that Gattar might have even sold the jacket for money.

"I have not sold it. The judge asked me and I told him this," Gattar clarified.

Hemant Karkare, the chief of Maharashtra's Anti Terror Squad, was killed on 26/11 outside Cama Hospital, along with assistant police commissioner Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar. Karkare's bulletproof jacket was never found. A public interest litigation has alleged that the jackets worn by Karkare and others were defective. A court is trying to determine if a sub-standard consignment was indeed, delivered to the police, either accidentally or deliberately.

The late ATS chief's wife, Kavita Karkare, who has been leading the campaign to trace the jacket says she has little hope of it ever being found. "I know they may never find the jacket but my struggle will go on so that no one else goes through what I have undergone," she said.

The Mumbai police claims it is still trying its best to find the jacket and has questioned over 80 staffers at the hospital. Claims that only the appearance of the jacket might help support.

source: samachar.com

3. Mumbai: further evidence of Anglo - American - Mossad - RSS nexus

Intelligent people--what do you have to say now? It is becoming obvious that...

1. Several terrorists might have been white

2. Were they International mercanaries? If yes, then from which country? Who collected them? It is well known that Mossad and CIA have several mercenary organizations, including so-called Jihadi ones on their list. They create Jihad and manipulate Muslims disaffected by the Islamophobia in the world. Some of them might have been used in the Mumbai attack. But why were they carrying American, British, Mauritian and Malaysian passports?

3. Who were the Marathi speaking Karkare killers? The lane next to the Cama Hospital is a deserted one--it goes straight to the backyard of the Mumbai CID Headquarters. Anonymous sources in the Police have revealed that Karkare was taken there, by a joint team of anti-Karkare, pro-Hindutva Mumbai Police officers, and Chota Rajan men. Now Karkare was opposed to Chota Rajan. Salaskar was anti-Pradeep Sharma, another Mumbai senior Police officer now in jail, for working as Rajan's shooter. So the Marathi speaking terrorists could either have been Jews with some connection to Mumbai--or hired killers of the Hindutva brigade or men of Chota Rajan.

4. It seems that several things went on simultaneously--the Mahrashtra Chief Minister Vilas Rao Deshmukh was in Kerala when the Mumbai attack began at 9.30 PM on 26th November. Then by 11PM Deshmukh had informed the Home Minister Shivraj Patil--the latter has started proceedings to send the NSG Commandos. So Deshmukh knew about what was happening by 11PM--then why was there no Mumbai Police on various locations between 9.30 and 1am, the time when Karkare arrived? The Mumbai ATS is a separate organization. it does not lead the Mumbai Police. So the 40,000 strong Mumbai Police was absent from the scene of action between 11pm to 1am and then Karkare arrived and he was killed along with his men!

Isn't there something fishy here? Obviously the Mumbai Police was kept deliberately away between 11pm and 1am, the time period when terrorists were killing people merrily. Then Karkare must have been told--and he went there expecting Mumbai police personals to be there--but there were none or only a few! And he was killed!

read more @ countercurrents

4. sleaze in India

The video grab shows three women aged between 17 and 25 and an elderly man. An Old Man and Sleaze Tape - Tiwari Saga

INDIA IS RUN BY CRIMINALS?

aangirfan: INDIA'S CONGRESS PARTY IN BED WITH THE CIA?

Sex, lies and videotape in Indian politics

read more @ aangirfan

5. so far the evidence points to police corruption and a lot of discrepancies in the Mumbai story. thus Kasab must be discredited by the establishment -- it is imperative:

After getting into denial mode, gunman Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab on Thursday sought to use counter questioning as a method of retracting his statement given before a magistrate in the 26/11 case.

The special sessions court was reading out to him an account of the activities of the terrorists on board the trawler ‘Kuber,’ their landing on Mumbai’s shore and the massacre at the Chhatrapati Shivaji rail terminus, as stated in his confession. Kasab continued to deny everything.

“You called [Abu] Hamza on the satellite phone,” the court asked Kasab.

“What’s a satellite phone?” the lone surviving gunman queried.

“You suggested to Abu Ismail that Kuber’s navigator should be finished off.” “Who I?”

When such replies continued, judge M.L. Tahaliyani said: “You are asking me questions [when I am the one supposed to be doing that].”

When Mr. Tahaliyani asked Kasab what was the distance from where the police shot at him in the hand in custody, he demonstrated how his face was turned in the opposite direction when the shots were fired.

The court has completed, up to 95 per cent, the recording of Kasab’s statement under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. It will resume hearing on January 6, 2010.

The court meanwhile issued a show-cause notice to Mumbai Mirror, a tabloid, for carrying a distorted version of the proceedings.

A news report about a lacuna in the probe said the court had “reprimanded” special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam for shoddy investigation, when that was not the case. Mr. Tahaliyani only pointed to an aspect of the investigation, where a piece of writing had not been probed. He commented before Mr. Nikam that the investigators should have explored the angle. When Mr. Nikam objected to the report, saying it purposely maligned his image, and moved an application, the court ordered the newspaper to give an explanation by January 6 next.

source: the hindu

why there is never any progress

2009-12-26T12:08:00.001-05:00

We now know that 911-related intelligence was "fixed" around a preset agenda for Greater Israel long sought by Israelis and pro-Israelis with the help of Iraqi liar Ahmad Chalabi, an asset developed over decades by Zionist war-planners Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz.

Pakistan must realize that the same mental and emotional manipulation deployed to induce a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq is now being used to provoke an invasion of Iran. By destabilizing Pakistan and portraying its western provinces as a haven for Al Qaeda, Zionists will make it appear that Islamabad's nuclear arsenal is insecure. That perception heightens the plausibility of an attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran, citing a nuclear risk.

read more @ veterans today

1. ex-CIA operative warns of terror attack, the terrorists will come from the very areas where our troops are deployed

(CBS) A former CIA operative with the most direct experience fighting al Qaeda on the ground and who predicted the 9/11 attacks has "no doubt" the terrorist organization will strike U.S. soil again.

Henry Crumpton, the ex-CIA mastermind of the war on the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan right after 9/11, also tells 60 Minutes correspondent Lara Logan the U.S. needs to be in Pakistan making deals with locals to fight the Qaeda and Taliban leaders hiding there.

Logan's story, including a rare interview with the head of the Afghan intelligence service, will be broadcast Sunday, Dec. 27, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

"There will be an attack in the homeland …sadly…I think we'll be hit again," says Crumpton. Asked by Logan whether he had any doubts, he replies, "None." The former CIA man on the ground in Afghanistan days after 9/11 says the future attack could be greater than the one that killed nearly 3,000 people on September 11, 2001.

Crumpton is in the best position to make such a statement. It was he, with a few other CIA operatives, who enlisted Afghan tribal fighters to dislodge al-Qaeda and their Taliban hosts from Afghanistan in the weeks after the 9/11 attack.

To do so, he offered tribal leaders "a carrot and stick," says Crumpton. "The carrot would be if you come cooperate with us, we will reward you and your people. The stick was if you did not cooperate, the chances of your survival were greatly diminished," says Crumpton. Some tribal leaders were killed to make the point, he says.

That's how the U.S. needs to deal with the current situation in Afghanistan, says Crumpton. "This is not going to be a war that we win, certainly in a conventional sense, anytime soon," he tells Logan. "In Pakistan and elsewhere where you see enemy's safe haven, where they are the power…we must be the insurgents. We must work and recruit with locals and we must collect intelligence…engage in subversion and sabotage," says Crumpton.

Amrullah Saleh, the head of the Afghan intelligence service who worked with Crumpton in 2001, agrees. "Al Qaeda and Taliban are now headquartered in Pakistan," he tells Logan. "The bulk of the people we kill, neutralize or capture in Afghanistan are the expendable part of the terrorist network. The leadership is there and they are not feeling the heat, apart from these occasional drone attacks," says Saleh.

But the U.S. needs to stay in Afghanistan for the foreseeable future as well, says Amrullah.

To withdraw the troops not only means glory for al Qaeda, but a nightmare scenario for Afghans. "First, a massacre campaign will start. The human cost in this country will easily be up to two million people killed," says Amrullah. Says Crumpton, "[Afghanistan] is an enduring security concern for the United States…and for me, it’s much like déjà vu because prior to 9/11, I said 'If we do not address the situation in Afghanistan, we will suffer in the homeland. It will happen.' And it did."

source: cbs news

2. Mumbai attacks impeded improvement of Indo-Pak relationship - which is convenient to those who wish to prolong instability in the region

NEW DELHI, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- Relations between India and Pakistan have been plagued by decades of mistrust and suspicion, and now it still can not be changed after 10 terrorists launched attacks on Mumbai in November last year.

Political analysts here said that for several years prior Mumbai attacks, India had tried to forge a "friendly" relation with Pakistan although the two nations fought three major wars since the Partition in 1947. But the Mumbai terror attacks destroyed it all and is now an impediment in the peace process between the two countries.

...Some analysts also said that India is in the meantime frustrated with U.S. strategy in South Asia and should not blindly follow the anti-terror ideology of the West while solving its disputes with Pakistan.

"In fact, the U.S. is playing a game in South Asia. On the one hand, it's saying that Pakistan should act on India's Mumbai attacks dossiers, on the other hand it wants the Pakistani Army's cooperation in its fight against the al Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan," political analyst S.K. Gupta said.

For solving the dispute over Mumbai attacks, India and Pakistan should count on bilateral efforts to reduce tension rather than allowing the situation being further complicated by other issues such as the U.S.-led Afghan War, said some other analysts.

"Both India and Pakistan should realize one truth: outside powers will complicate the politics of this region, not help solve it," said Mehta in an article published in a leading local newspaper recently.

read more @ chinaview

3. ramping up Afghan war to control Caspian oil and transport routes

The 800-pound gorilla standing in the auditorium at West Point is still waiting for an answer to why Obama made his surge-speech for 30,000 more troops and $30 billion to pay for them. That gorilla wonders “why” Obama pitched so hard for the US to stay and surge through Afghanistan and Pakistan. The reasons given were that the Afghanistan Taliban and Al Qaeda led by Osama bin Laden were the people that attacked us on 9/11, which was an iteration of George W. Bush’s reasons for the War on Terror. They are as phony now as the day Bush promised to smoke out Bin Laden.

But, here are Obama’s actual words, pointed out by Christopher Bollyn on page 2 of his article, Why Afghanistan?

“1. I am convinced that our security is at stake in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is the epicenter of the violent extremism practiced by al-Qaeda. It is from here that we were attacked on 9/11, and it is from here that new attacks are being plotted as I speak.

“2. It is important to recall why America and our allies were compelled to fight a war in Afghanistan in the first place. We did not ask for this fight. On September 11, 2001, 19 men hijacked four airplanes and used them murder nearly 3,000 people.

“3: If I did not think that the security of the United States and the safety of the American people were at stake in Afghanistan, I would gladly order every single one of our troops home tomorrow.”

Also, as early as Oct. 14, 2001, a month and three days after 9/11, Bollyn wrote in The Great Game – The War For Caspian Oil And Gas: “President Bush’s ‘crusade’ against the Taliban of Afghanistan has more to do with control of the immense oil and gas resources of the Caspian Basin than it does with ‘rooting out terrorism.’

...Back then, Maiman also mentioned to the Wall Street Journal his role was to further the “geopolitical goals of both the US and Israel in Central Asia. We are doing what US and Israeli policy could not achieve, controlling the transport route is controlling the product.”

...Murray adds, “There are designs of this pipeline, and if you look at the deployment of US forces in Afghanistan, as against other NATO country forces in Afghanistan, you’ll see that undoubtedly the US forces are positioned to guard the pipeline route. It’s what it’s about. It’s about money, it’s about oil, it’s not about democracy.”

read more @ online journal

4. also, the drug trade

Instead, in the aftermath of 9/11 they were there to wage a “War on Terror”; at least that’s the official line repeated by the corporate media.

In reality however, Coalition forces were there to help re-establish the drugs trade. All the talk about fighting terror is a smokescreen to conceal the real reason for the invasion and continued occupation.

When the Taliban took power in 1996 the world powers took little interest in Afghanistan. In July 2000 that changed when the ruling Taliban outlawed the cultivation of opium poppies as a sin against Islam. At the time Afghanistan was the source of nearly 80% of the world’s heroin.

...It’s not just ‘foreign policy’ however but a lucrative business where vast amounts of money can be made. What’s more none of it need be accounted for, which is why it is so appealing to the West’s ruling elite. Vast amounts of money can be made and used to finance secret ‘Black Budget’ projects, which needn’t be accounted for or even known about.

read more @ the truth seeker

Nigerian allegedly got explosives in Yemen

2009-12-26T11:38:00.001-05:00

1. Nigerian government orders probe into US plane bombing attempt

LAGOS, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian government announced a probe on Saturday into the attempted attack by its national on a U.S. passenger plane.

In a statement, the government authorized the security department to take steps to "identify" the suspect and the motives behind the bombing attempt.

U. S. intelligence officials said the explosive device was a mix of powder and liquid, which failed when the suspect, a 23-year-old Nigerian, tried to detonate it before the landing of an AirbusA330 wide-body jet at a Detroit airport. All the 278 passengers onboard the plane were evacuated, with the suspect burned and several others slightly injured.

source: chinaview

2. Nigerian man linked to al-Qaeda, flew via Amsterdam to US, got the explosives in Yemen naturally. Miraculously gets past security with his explosives.

bdul Mudallad, a 23 year-old Nigerian burnt his leg trying to ignite an explosive device on the jet with 278 passengers on board. Mr. Mutallab reportedly told investigators he had links to al-Qaeda and had received the explosives in Yemen. U.S. intelligence official said the explosive device was a mix of powder and liquid. It failed when the passenger tried to detonate it. Mr. Mudallad was an engineering student at University College London.

According to the federal “situational awareness” bulletin: “The subject is claiming to have extremist affiliation and that the device was acquired in Yemen along with instructions as to when it should be used.”

Fellow passengers who smelled smoke and heard cracking sounds reportedly rushed to subdue the Nigerian. Mr. Syed Jafri one of the passengers aboard the airline told MSNBC television network that he had been seated three rows behind the suspect and had seen a glow and noticed a smoke smell. "A young man behind me jumped on him. Next thing you know, there was a lot of panic," Mr. Jafri was quoted.

Another unnamed passenger said he heard a pop sound and saw a smoke and flames, before the suspect was reprimanded. The suspect later told the US authorities he had taped explosive powder to his leg and used a syringe of chemicals to mix with the powder that was to cause explosion, MSNBC reported.

The plane which flew from Amsterdam was to land at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport Friday afternoon. The suspect was reported to have traveled from Lagos international airport in Nigeria on board KLM Flight 588 and made a connection in Amsterdam on to Northwest 253. According to ABC News his visa stated that he was traveling to the US for a religious ceremony. Initial reports were that he had lit firecrackers on board the Airbus 330, which was carrying 278 passengers. According to U.S authorities, Mr. Muttalab was reportedly on a US intelligence “watch-list” but not on the US Government’s no-fly list.

The US House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee chair, Republican Peter King, has said that investigators were looking into whether the incident was part of a larger plot and a worldwide alert had been raised. However additional screening measures has been put into effect since the incident. The aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing shortly before noon when a smoke detector alarm went off.

source: afrik.com

3. 12/14/09: US sends special forces to Yemen amid crisis

US special forces have reportedly been sent to Yemen to train its army, as the Yemeni military backed by the Saudi Arabian army has been fighting local Houthi fighters in the north of the country.

The development comes amid fears that foreign military intervention in the country has put Yemeni civilians in dire condition.

American officials told The Daily Telegraph on Sunday that US forces have been sent to Yemen to prevent the country from turning into a "reserve base" for al-Qaeda.

The move to strengthen Yemen's army comes at a time that the country's army is not fighting with al-Qaeda militants, which are based in the southern parts of the country.

read more @ press tv

4. let's recap

Nigeria's president has been in a hospital in Saudi Arabia for a month, leaving Nigeria in political chaos. Oil companies are trying to get deals done but cannot because the president has not delegated his authority and remains behind some sort of information firewall in Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile Saudi Arabia has been fighting Yemeni rebels also for a month. Supposedly al-Qaeda is in Yemen. The rebels are conflated with al-Qaeda.

US forces go to Saudi Arabia to help fight the Yemeni "al-Qaeda" rebels. They kill civilians. al-Qaeda has a news conference, seemingly unafraid of exposure.

A Nigerian somehow gets explosives from Yemen, not sure when or how, and flies to the US, via Amsterdam, supposedly on a religious purpose, and explodes the firecrackers on his leg. He is apprehended and claims to be linked to al-Qaeda. The Nigerian government vows to investigate.

Just waiting on how this ties back to Iran.....

political chaos in Nigeria

2009-12-26T10:01:00.000-05:00

1. President of Nigeria has been away in Saudi Arabia for medical treatment since 11/23/09.

A new twist has been added to President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s absence-from-the-country saga, as an opposition member of the House of Representatives – Farouk Adamu Aliyu - and one Sani Garun Gabass have approached an Abuja Federal High Court seeking an order directing Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan to start performing the function of the president. Also yesterday, Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Michael Aondoakaa (SAN) denied that he wrote to the vice-president, asking him to take over from President Yar’Adua who has been admitted in a Saudi Arabian hospital since November 23, 2009. Aondoakaa said he was not in a position to direct the vice-president to take over.

2. Nigeria faces government collapse as a result

President Yar'''Adua was flown out of Nigeria on 23 November, 2009 to King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Saudi Arabia where he has since been receiving medical attention for acute pericarditis'' (inflammation of the heart'''s lining). He jetted out of the country without informing both the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives about his inability to discharge the functions of his office and has spent more than one month outside the country. During his absence, a number of state duties having to do with release of monies for the running of government machineries which the 1999 constitution directly empowers him to do are suffering while in less than one week from today, the nation'''s Chief Justice, Justice Kutigi would bow out of the bench with no one to swear in his successor, Justice Katsina Iyorger Alu.

3. Corrupt aides running the show while the president remains in Saudi Arabia

It does not include those who are sufficiently worried about the president’s achievement or lack of it in almost three years in office. Those who do not wish Yar’Adua well, like the insects that destroy the kola nut, live within. They are some of his aides and advisers and ministers and political associates who have little or no clue about his present condition and yet lie to the nation on how well he’s recovering.

...What the nation is told after every cabinet meeting is that the president is responding to treatment or the president will soon return home or only his doctors can determine when he would return or such other sweeping generalization that says nothing and means nothing. There have been no specifics, no facts, nothing to hold on to as to his state and condition on a daily basis. This has created room for all kinds of media speculations and widespread rumours that are neither dignifying to the person and office of the president nor healthy for the nation. Indeed the handling of Yar’Adua’s illness has made Nigeria a laughing stock around the world.

4. Important decisions languish while the president remains in Saudi Arabia

Some of the International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in the country, particularly Shell and Chevron, which mining and exploration licenses have expired are said to be in a quandary as their mining leases cannot be renewed because of the absence of the President.

Again, the National Assembly is in the process of passing the Petroleum Industry Bill, a critical legislation that would open up the oil sector and ensure the equity participation of the oil producing communities in Nigeria. It is a single bill that contains all the legal requirements that will apply to the entire petroleum industry in Nigeria.

If this bill is passed tomorrow, it cannot become law because the assent of the President is required. And the Vice President cannot give such assent in the present circumstance.

Even militants in the oil-rich Niger Delta, whom Mr. Yar'Adua brought into peace talks only weeks ago, now worry they have no "good faith partner" to negotiate an end to attacks that have cut into Nigeria's oil-dependent economy.

An oil industry source disclosed that Yar'Adua's absence had become an important issue for oil and gas investors, especially as the multinational petroleum operators have not renewed their OMLs, which are due for renewal very soon. The situation, it was gathered, was particularly delicate for the foreign oil firms, which have been locked in negotiations over their expiring licenses and the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), now before the National Assembly. An official of one of the companies, who craved anonymity, stated that they may follow the example of ExxonMobil Corporation, which successfully signed a 20-year extension on three oil licenses in November, this year.

oh dear, that's gonna leave a mark

2009-12-24T08:54:00.001-05:00

teh awkward turtle

1. US rabbi involved in sex scandal led fight against Israel conversions

It is hard to imagine a more embarrassing situation in which to find an exclusive ultra-Orthodox organization - a group that was a standard-bearer in the fight against "breaches in the wall of conversion" and "the penetration of complete gentiles into the vineyard of Israel."

These breaches pale into insignificance in comparison with the accusations against the man who heads the organization itself: according to the claims, Rabbi Leib Tropper of Rockland County abandoned the apparently stringent Halakhic standards of his Haredi organization and established a conversion process based on his most private impulses.

A report in the New York Post earlier this week revealed a sensational story about "a prominent Orthodox rabbi has been caught on tape discussing his apparent love affair with a shiksa he was converting to Judaism."

The woman involved is 32-year-old Shannon Orand of Houston, who still seeks to convert from Christianity to Judaism. The bulk of the report deals with embarrassing comments that the rabbi made during a phone call, during which he was recorded demanding the woman perform a number of sexual services for himself and his friends in exchange for granting her a conversion certificate.

read more @ haaretz
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1137435.html

2. Tal-mood for love: sex-tape rabbi tries to "share" hottie

Eww, that's not kosher!

A prominent Orthodox rabbi has been caught on tape discussing his apparent love affair with a shiksa he was converting to Judaism -- whom he allegedly also pushed to have sex with his friends.

Rabbi Leib Tropper of Rockland County is heard encouraging pretty, blond Shannon Orand of Houston to participate in phone sex and actual sex with men the rabbi knows, including one he calls "the Satmar guy."

Tropper, who calls the woman "darling" and "cutie pie," talks about his own love affair with her at one point, saying: "I want to squeeze you."

He also fantasized about rape. "I could role-play a rape with you but I couldn't actually rape you -- you know what I'm saying, darling -- does that make sense?" he asks.

The scandal has rocked the Orthodox community from Rockland to Israel, and transcripts of the sex tapes are circulating on Jewish blogs, with the audio posted on YouTube.

The rabbi talks about paying Orand money for a lawyer and a stipend of $1,300 for the month of November. He also mentions putting in writing an agreement between the two.

"Why would you want to document that kind of agreement on an e-mail?" an upset Orand asks.

Orand, who identifies herself on the tape, apparently recorded the phone conversations. "It was only supposed to go to a few leading rabbis," Orand, 32, told The Post.

She refused to comment further, and later released a statement saying, "While an individual 'rabbi' acted in an inappropriate manner, my desire to become a bona fide Jew is undeterred."

Orand reportedly told a Jewish blog, failedmessiah.com, that Tropper would tell her: "If you fulfill my needs, I'll fulfill yours -- and you need a conversion."

The blog reported that Orand's conversion was to have been finalized last week, but was canceled at the last minute by a religious court.

Tropper declined to comment, but a source close to him said the rabbi feels like he's a victim and was used by Orand.

He resigned effective Dec. 12 from Eternal Jewish Family, a Monsey-based organization that primarily works to convert gentiles in interfaith marriages to Judaism.

The 59-year-old rabbi is the founder of Eternal Jewish Family and sought to create strict universal guidelines for conversion, which are handled differently by various Jewish sects.

source: ny post

3. America's Most Wanted: doctor found living in tent on Mont Blanc

It was the beginning of a five-year flight from justice that ended this week even more strangely than it began, almost 6,000 feet up in the Italian Alps. Two officers of the paramilitary Carabinieri, led by a mountain guide, trudged up to the southern slopes of Mont Blanc to find one of America's most wanted fugitives living in a tent. He was surviving in temperatures as low as -18C on dried and tinned food and snow he melted on a portable stove.

Dr Mark Weinberger, a 46-year-old ear, nose and throat specialist, was tonight in a secure ward at the Molinette hospital in Turin recovering from a wound he sustained when he tried to take his own life at the Carabinieri station in Courmayeur, below Mont Blanc.

The US authorities have 40 days in which to apply for his extradition. He faces trial on 22 counts of healthcare fraud, having previously been indicted by a grand jury.

Brought up in a prosperous New York suburb, Weinberger was educated at the University of Pennsylvania and the UCLA medical school. He later worked with one of Chicago's most renowned plastic surgeons before opening his own practice, the Weinberger Sinus Clinic, in Merrillville, Indiana.

...Michelle Weinberger later said she reckoned her husband was earning $200,000 (£124,000) a week, performing between seven and 15 operations.

...The first hint of trouble emerged in October 2002 when a lawyer acting for the estate of a woman who had died of throat cancer filed a complaint with the Indiana department of insurance. The complaint claimed Weinberger failed to diagnose her cancer and instead carried out an unnecessary operation on her sinuses that was paid for by her insurance company.

...After it became clear that they knew who he was, the runaway doctor asked to go to the lavatory. There, he whipped out a tiny knife he had secreted in his underwear and plunged it into his throat. But despite being an expert surgeon, he missed the artery he appeared to be aiming for, and the Carabinieri hustled him away for first aid.

read more @ guardian

4. Italy ok's extradition

A court in Turin has approved a U.S. extradition request for a fugitive American doctor accused of fraud and malpractice who was found in a tent near Mont Blanc.

Deputy chief prosecutor Gianfranco Burino says Mark Weinberger, arrested Dec. 15 near Italy's northern border with France, didn't fight extradition at hearing Tuesday.

It is now up to the Justice Ministry to decide how to proceed. Justice Minister Angelino Alfano has 40 days to decide whether to return Weinberger to the United States.

Weinberger, of Merrillville, Indiana, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Hammond, Indiana, in 2006 on 22 counts of fraud for allegedly scheming to overbill insurance companies for procedures that were either not needed or never performed.

source: taiwan news

5. Nevada gambler cons CIA

The intelligence reports fitted the suspicions of the time: al-Qaida sleeper agents were scattered across the US awaiting orders that were broadcast in secret codes over the al-Jazeera television network.

Flights from Britain and France were cancelled. Officials warned of a looming "spectacular attack" to rival 9/11. In 2003 President Bush's homeland security tsar, Tom Ridge, spoke of a "credible source" whose information had US military bracing for a new terrorist onslaught.

Then suddenly no more was said.

Six years later, Playboy magazine has revealed that the CIA fell victim to an elaborate con by a compulsive gambler who claimed to have developed software that discovered al-Jazeera broadcasts were being used to transmit messages to terrorists buried deep in America.

Dennis Montgomery, 56, the co-owner of a software gaming company in Nevada, who has since been arrested for bouncing $1m worth of cheques, claims his program read messages hidden in barcodes listing international flights to the US, their positions and airports to be targeted.

The CIA took the information seriously, working with Montgomery at his offices and paying him an undisclosed amount of money. The "intelligence" Montgomery claimed to have found was passed on to the White House and homeland security where it kickstarted an alert that bordered on panic.

According to Playboy, Montgomery's claims caused the cancellation of British Airways and other flights supposedly mentioned in the codes.

Some officials were not at all surprised to hear the allegation that al-Jazeera was involved. The then defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, later vilified the station for "vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable" reporting of the US invasion of Iraq.

For months, the source of the information was kept under wraps within the CIA but once it became more widely known in the agency it immediately came under question. Playboy quotes one former counterterrorism official who attended a briefing on the source as being furious. He said: "I was saying: 'This is crazy. This is embarrassing.' They claimed they were breaking the code, getting latitude and longitude, and al-Qaida operatives were decoding it. They were coming up with airports and everything, and we were just saying: 'You know, this is horseshit!' "

Frances Townsend, a homeland security adviser to Bush, defended the decision to work with Montgomery. "It didn't seem beyond the realm of possibility. We were relying on technical people to tell us whether or not it was feasible. I don't regret having acted on it," she told Playboy.

But the doubts began to prevail as Montgomery refused to reveal how he was finding the barcodes, when no one else could, and he demanded $100m for the software. The CIA also began to wonder why al-Qaida didn't use emails and web pages to communicate with its agents.

source: guardian

6. hahahahaha, Merry Christmas!

fun with oligarchs

2009-12-24T08:44:00.000-05:00

1. Deripaska blasts Khodorkovsky, lauds Putin

Former Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky became an oligarch through "the support of a fairy godfather" and Russia became a free country under Vladimir Putin, billionaire Oleg Deripaska
said in an interview published Monday.

Speaking to Spanish newspaper El Pais, Deripaska offered harsh criticism for the reforms of the 1990s and made a string of accusations about Khodorkovsky.

"Khodorkovsky, for example, didn't serve in the army," Deripaska said. "And I'd like to know why, and he didn't have very good grades."

The Basic Element owner also brought up Khodorkovsky's past as a high-ranking official in the Komsomol, the Communist Party's youth organization.

"There are people who worked, and there are those who, as a member of the Komsomol, found the support of a fairy godfather who gave them everything," Deripaska told the newspaper.

Alexander Temerko, a former deputy chief of Yukos, responded to the interview, suggesting that Khodorkovsky would defend his political convictions even from prison, where he is serving an eight-year sentence on tax charges.

"If, God forbid, Oleg Vladimirovich [Deripaska] were to find himself in such a situation, one could only wish him courage and express the hope that his service in the army would help him bear similar ordeals with just as much dignity" as Khodorkovsky, Temerko said.

The interview is not political, and Deripaska is merely offering his personal opinion on a number of economic issues, his spokesman said. In October, El Pais and other Spanish newspapers said local judge Balthazar Garzon was planning to visit Moscow to speak with Deripaska, whom he suspects of laundering "the Russian mafia's" money in Spain.

Deripaska criticized the reformers of the 1990s, including the recently deceased Yegor Gaidar, who served as Russia's first acting prime minister and "put an end to the planned economy overnight and didn't create anything to replace it."

President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin received much warmer praise. "Our country is much freer than certain other developed democratic countries," he told the newspaper.

He also said he was not an oligarch because he only helps the state and doesn't ask it for anything.

Over the past two years, however, his companies have received significant state assistance. In October 2008, United Company RusAl received a $4.5 billion loan from VEB, and the state bank recently said it was willing to spend 20 billion rubles ($656 million) to buy 3 percent of the company during its January IPO.

The state has also offered guarantees for 20 billion rubles in loans to Deripaska's carmaker, GAZ Group.

Deripaska is now very dependent on the state, political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin said. GAZ is making a not very competitive product, so it is no surprise that Deripaska would give an interview like this, he added.

source: moscow times

2. Russian supreme court deems arrest of Khordorkovsky associate "illegal"

Russia's supreme court has ruled the 2003 arrest of Platon Lebedev, a business associate of former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was illegal.

Russia's highest court ruled on Wednesday that the 2003 arrest of Platon Lebedev, the businessman convicted in connection with Russia's former richest man Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was illegal.

The case was reviewed after a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that found Lebedev's rights had been violated during his arrest and pre-trial detention.

Lebedev was arrested in 2003 along with Khodorkovsky, who is the former CEO of the now disbanded Yukos oil company. Both men are serving eight-year prison terms after being convicted of fraud and tax evasion. They are now facing a second trial on fresh charges of embezzlement and money laundering which could keep them in jail for another 20 years. Khodorkovsky's supporters have argued for quite some time that the charges against both men were politically motivated. They say the prison sentences amount to government retaliation for the fact that they helped finance the opposition when Vladimir Putin was president. Khodorkovsky has repeatedly stressed his innocence, and says government officials wanted him in jail so they could carve up his multi-billion dollar empire.

However, the government has maintained that the two men are guilty of large financial crimes dating back to the 1990's. Putin, who is now prime minister, recently said on Russian TV that Khodorkovsky and other former bosses of Yukos ordered the murder of their opponents.

Lebedev's lawyers say they are still not sure what the implications of Wednesday's court decision will be.

source: dw-world

shorter: China is in charge

2009-12-23T10:44:00.002-05:00

1. China resets terms of engagement in Central Asia -- long but very informative

excerpt:

Growing nervousness in Washington about the Chinese pipeline was quite palpable. The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a rare hearing in July regarding China's geopolitical thrust into the Central Asian region. Testifying at the hearing, Richard Morningstar, the US special envoy for energy, underlined that the US needed to develop strategies to compete with China for energy in Central Asia.

This was perhaps the first time that a senior US official has openly flagged China as the US's rival in the energy politics of Central Asia. US experts usually have focused attention on Russian dominance of the region's energy scene and worked for diminishing the Russian presence in the post-Soviet space by canvassing support for Trans-Caspian projects that bypassed Russian territory. In fact, some American experts on the region even argued that China was a potential US ally for isolating Russia.

Certainly, 2009 was a turning point in American discourses on Chinese policies in Central Asia. As China's Turkmen gas pipeline got closer to completion, US disquiet began to surface.

read more @ asia times

2. how do i know China wrecked the Copenhagen deal? i was in teh room -- with 700+ comments

Copenhagen was a disaster. That much is agreed. But the truth about what actually happened is in danger of being lost amid the spin and inevitable mutual recriminations. The truth is this: China wrecked the talks, intentionally humiliated Barack Obama, and insisted on an awful "deal" so western leaders would walk away carrying the blame. How do I know this? Because I was in the room and saw it happen.

China's strategy was simple: block the open negotiations for two weeks, and then ensure that the closed-door deal made it look as if the west had failed the world's poor once again. And sure enough, the aid agencies, civil society movements and environmental groups all took the bait. The failure was "the inevitable result of rich countries refusing adequately and fairly to shoulder their overwhelming responsibility", said Christian Aid. "Rich countries have bullied developing nations," fumed Friends of the Earth International.

playing games

2009-12-23T10:35:00.002-05:00

1. israel conducts wargames, channels Obama, tries to divine the future

TEL AVIV: Israel will find itself diplomatically sidelined and militarily muzzled as the United States pursues a nuclear deal with Iran next year, according to a closed-door wargame at Israel's top strategic think-tank. Not even a warning shot by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - the simulation featured an undeclared Israeli commando raid on Iran's Arak heavy water plant-would shake US President Barack Obama's insistence on dialogue. Israel's arch-foe, meanwhile, will likely keep enriching uranium, perhaps even winning the grudging assent of the West.

The Iranians came out feeling better than the Americans, as they were simply more determined to stick to their objectives," said Giora Eiland, a former Israeli national security adviser who played Netanyahu in the Nov 1 wargame at Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). Reflecting Israel's relative isolation, Eiland and his team spent much of the simulation sequestered from the multilateral talks in the snug, three-storey INSS building. "Netanyahu" did have hallway encounters with President Barack Obama-played by Zvi Rafiah, an Israeli ex-diplomat with extensive US ties. But their chats were hasty and hazy.

Our leverage over the Americans, when we could prise them away from the Iranians and Europeans and others, was limited," Eiland told Reuters. "Pretty much the only card we had to play was the military action card. And that's a faded card." Assumed to have the region's sole atomic arsenal, Israel has hinted at preemptive air strikes as a last resort for denying Iran the means to make a bomb. But many experts believe Israel would be tactically stymied and loath to cross Washington, which is wary of unleashing a fresh Middle East conflict. "I care about Israel. I must defend Israel. But Israel cannot act unilaterally," said Rafiah, channeling Obama.

BALKING AND BRINKMANSHIP
The simulation-in which several serving Israeli officials took part on condition their names would not be made public- was run by Emily Landau, a senior INSS policy expert. Reuters obtained a first look at the conclusions after they were passed to the Netanyahu government. "The idea was to create a situation whereby the Americans try a new, bilateral approach to Iran-both in terms of curbing its nuclear project and finding a way of satisfying its other demands," said Landau, who sees little future for UN Security Council sanctions given Russian and Chinese balking. An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said the wargame results would be incorporated in internal strategic assessments. Such papers are not generally shared with the United States.

As it happened, the wargamers hunkered down in long-set stances: Iran entertaining negotiations while refusing to give up nuclear projects it says are peaceful; the United States talking tough but avoiding outright threats; and Israel fuming. Aharon Zeevi-Farkash, a former chief of Israel's military intelligence who played Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, envisaged Tehran staying on its nuclear track "unless facing a threat to the survival of the regime".

That just wasn't forthcoming from the Americans or their coalition," Zeevi-Farkash said, adding that "Obama" should have buttressed negotiations by boosting the US naval deployment in the Gulf or persuading India to slash its business ties to Iran. According to Zeevi-Farkash, Iran would be unlikely to launch a nuclear attack on Israel, preferring to use such weaponry to protect against invasion and wield regional clout. As such, a preemptive Israeli strike could spur Iran to get the bomb.

Iran would argue that it was the victim of international aggression, and appeal for foreign understanding," he said, adding that, as Khamenei, he had kept open communications with other world powers while negotiating with the United States. The simulation saw brief brinkmanship after the imagined Israeli sabotage at Arak. "Khamenei" responded by dispatching a Revolutionary Guards commander to Syria and Venezuela, flaunting Iranian influence near the Israeli and US orbits.

To the dismay of "Netanyahu", "Obama" did not answer this with force, though he did extend security guarantees to Israel. Eiland said the simulation pointed to an eventual US-led shift to a policy of allowing Iran to continue enriching uranium and of "containment" should Iran eventually gain nuclear arms. Israel would have to go along with its US ally, Eiland said: "Israel cannot act alone here. An American-Iranian deal would divest Israel of the ability to attack Iran." - Reuters

source: kuwait times

2. 'US has intelligence personnel, but no troops, in Pakistan' - Holbrooke

WASHINGTON: The United States has members of its intelligence services in Pakistan but it has no troops, US Special Envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke said on Tuesday.

‘We have members of our intelligence services in every country in the world,’ Mr Holbrooke told PBS Television when asked if the United States had troops in Pakistan.

‘No members of the American military or CIA are in Pakistan, is that what you’re saying?’ he was asked.

‘I only said there are no American troops in Pakistan,’ said Mr Holbrooke.

The interviewer — Charlie Rose — then asked: ‘So there may be CIA people and special operations people?’

Mr Holbrooke responded by confirming that the US had members of its intelligence services in every country in the world and then quickly added: ‘But this is not a replay of another war (Vietnam) and another part of the world 50 years ago or 40 years ago. We are not doing what you’re alluded to.’

read more @ dawn

3. report says Bundeswehr lied during Kunduz strike

The German military deliberately misled the American fighter pilots who carried out the Kunduz air strikes in which up to 142 Afghans, including many civilians, were killed, daily Frankfurter Rundschau reported Wednesday.

Citing a confidential investigation report by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the paper reported that Bundeswehr Colonel Georg Klein’s communications officer falsely claimed the German troops had “enemy contact” to justify the September 4 strike.

According to the report, the officer, codenamed "Red Baron 21," was acting on instructions from Col. Georg Klein, who ordered the deadly air strike.

Red Baron 21 knowingly misled the flight control centre that was instructing the two F-15 fighters that carried out the attack, saying troops were in “immediate danger” in order “to make it possible for the mission to go ahead,” the ISAF report said, according to the Frankfurter Rundschau.

But no such enemy contact had taken place. Under the ISAF rules, such an air strike can only go ahead if troops are under fire or immediately threatened. But at the time of the attack, the nearest German troops were nearly eight kilometres away in the Kunduz Bundeswehr field camp. If the report is correct, then the Germans breached the regulations.

read more @ the local

war on terror news

2009-12-23T10:12:00.003-05:00

1. detained Americans under investigation

TEHRAN: Three Americans arrested in July after crossing into Iran from neighboring Iraq are still under investigation, a prosecutor said yesterday, adding that Tehran was concerned about 11 Iranians it says are being held in the US The Tehran prosecutor did not link the two issues, but officials have increasingly mentioned their campaign for the Iranians when speaking about the detained Americans.

US officials have been concerned since the arrest of the Americans that Iran would try to use them as bargaining chips in its dealings with the West. "The Americans should know that there are 11 Iranian nationals in US prisons. We hope the Americans are treating them based on regulations," Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi said, according to the official IRNA news agency.

The 11 Iranians on a list Tehran released this month include a nuclear scientist who disappeared on a pilgrimage to Mecca, a former Defense Ministry official who vanished in Turkey and a man held in Canada on charges of trying to obtain nuclear technology. Iran believes all of them, including three others who it says were abducted in Europe, have been transferred to the United States. Others on the list have been tried in the US on charges of business dealings that violate trade sanctions against Iran.

read more @ kuwait times

2. all your psyops fail

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said on Monday that Lebanon will be able to confront any psychological war launched by the Israeli enemy in the future just like it did in July 2006.

Speaking through a giant screen while commemorating the fifth night of Muharram, Sayyed Nasrallah addressed the Israelis telling them that they have tried all forms of psychological wars in the past but failed. "With every psychological war, we became even more courageous and firm. In any upcoming war, we will be the same or even better," his eminence declared.

Sayyed Nasrallah started his speech by noting that the purpose of the Israeli psychological wars is basically to terrorize and intimidate the other side in order to lead to its surrender and withdrawal from the battle. His eminence also noted that the Israeli maneuvers that took place following the July war sought to tell the "Israeli people" that their army is regaining its strength, durability, capacity and vitality.

read more @ al manar tv

3. kingdom gives ultimatum to Yemeni intruders

AL-KHOBA/JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia has given Yemeni infiltrators still hiding in the southern border village of Jabiriya 24 hours to vacate the area or face death. “They have 24 hours to surrender, or we will destroy them,” Prince Khaled bin Sultan, assistant minister of defense and aviation, warned Tuesday....

Informed sources told Arab News that the southern border area was calm on Tuesday.

Prince Khaled said Saudi forces would remain in the area until the last of the intruders are expelled.

“What we are doing now is bringing things to normal. We have also made arrangements to prevent infiltration and other crimes,” the minister told reporters.

He indicated that the infiltrators were backed by foreign parties. “It seems that their allegiance is not to their country.”

corruption news

2009-12-23T09:57:00.003-05:00

1. Malaysia govt under fire

KUALA LUMPUR - THE Malaysian government faced a storm of criticism on Wednesday over allegations of official corruption after the theft of two US-made fighter jet engines worth US$29 million.

News reports this week said the stolen Northrop F-5E jet engines had been sold on the black market by military officers to a South American company. They had been taken from a military airbase, apparently last year....'The government should declare it has failed in the fight against corruption. The country is heading in the direction of a failed state like Zimbabwe,' prominent opposition lawmaker Tian Chua told AFP. 'The theft could not have happened without the sanction of top officials.'

read more @ straits times

2. fugitive Swede arrested for $11M bank heist in Denmark

MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Immigration together with agents of the Philippine Center for Transnational Crimes have arrested a Swede wanted by authorities in Denmark for an $11-million bank heist.

In a report to Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan, the bureau’s Interpol Unit chief Floro Balato Jr. identified the Swede as 37-year-old Lukas Hasselgren. The suspect was nabbed on Dec. 8 outside his condominium at the Adriatico Place Tower II, along M. Adriatico Street, Ermita, Manila.

Libanan ordered the deportation of the fugitive to Sweden, and then to Denmark to stand trial for his crime.

Citing a report from the Swedish Embassy, Libanan said Hasselgren is suspected of robbing a security cash center in Denmark of more than 60 million Danish crowns (about $11 million or about P538 million) on Aug. 8, 2008.

The Swedish and Danish police have been hunting down Hasselgren since then.

defense spending

2009-12-23T09:50:00.002-05:00

1. China wary of Russian naval repairs

Hong Kong, China — China has procured from Russia 12 Kilo class submarines and four 956E/EM DDGs, or guided missile destroyers, since 1993. The first two Vasayanka-class Kilo submarines were exported to China in 1993, and the second two Kilo 636 submarines were delivered in 1996. The first two 956E DDGs were delivered in 1996 and 1999 respectively.

These battleships are now all due for overhaul or technical upgrading. But there are differences between China and Russia as to how this is to be done. Simply, China does not wish to trust its naval equipment to Russian technical experts.

A senior authoritative source from the Russian military industry said that for submarines, maintenance is more important that building the vessels themselves. Maintenance was not a major topic of discussion when the submarines were purchased, he said, but with the PLA Navy submarines due for overhaul, Russia and China have been involved in long drawn-out discussions.

In fact, the discussions have been under way for four years, the source said, adding that providing overhaul services was not necessarily included in the permit to export submarines.

i believe it was Pontious Pilate who asked, what is truth?

2009-12-22T10:59:00.003-05:00

1. US forces mounted secret Pakistan raids in hunt for al-Qaeda

American special forces have conducted multiple clandestine raids into Pakistan's tribal areas as part of a secret war in the border region where Washington is pressing to expand its drone assassination programme.

A former Nato officer said the incursions, only one of which has been previously reported, occurred between 2003 and 2008, involved helicopter-borne elite soldiers stealing across the border at night, and were never declared to the Pakistani government.

...The secretive nature of the raids underscores the suspicious nature of the relationship between the two allies as they argue about Washington's latest demands.

read more @ guardian

2. Peshawar journalist club hit by blast

ESHAWAR, Pakistan, Dec. 22 (UPI) -- Militants struck Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday with an explosion outside a journalists' club, killing and wounding nearly two dozen people, police said.

Geo News reported at least three persons died and 18 others were wounded in the attack in which a suicide bomber blew himself up in front of the Press Club Building in the Saddar area of the city where a series of attacks in recent months have killed hundreds of people.

CNN, quoting officials at the Lady Reading Hospital, reported four people died in the blast. The attacker blew himself up when stopped and searched by a policeman outside the gated club, the report said quoting police head Saleem Amanullah. The policemen died in the blast.

It was not known if any journalist died in the attack but there were four of them among those injured, Dawn newspaper reported. It was the first such attack against journalists in the city, who have been threatened lately, the report said.

Peshawar, the capital of North-West Frontier Province near the border with Afghanistan, has taken the brunt of the deadly militant violence plaguing Pakistan's major cities. Authorities say they are retaliation for the military's counter-insurgency campaign, which has been under way since Oct. 17 against the Taliban and other terror groups in the South Waziristan tribal region.

© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

3. will Pakistani journalists be diverted from the truth?

PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- At least three died and 17 others received serious injuries when a suicide bomber blew up himself before the Peshawar Press Club here last Thursday.

Information Minister of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province(NWFP) Mian Iftihar Hussain visited the site and said that terrorists "can't weak our well power".

"It is the agenda of militants to horrify us but we would stand on our motto until we finished them, because they are not friend of human being," he said. "All the people should cooperate with the administration and security agencies."

The minister said that journalists have been targeted as they are writing truth at the time when the terrorists are targeting mosques, houses, markets and public places.

He expressed sympathy with the journalist community and hoped that journalists will continue their mission to expose militants despite such attacks.

Hussain said that the government will continue campaign against militants and such attacks will not deter the government from its resolve to eliminate terrorists.

read more @ chinaview

4. what is the truth? Obama declares war on Pakistan.

WASHINGTON, DC -- Obama's West Point speech of December 1 represents far more than the obvious brutal escalation in Afghanistan -- it is nothing less than a declaration of all-out war by the United States against Pakistan . This is a brand-new war, a much wider war now targeting Pakistan , a country of 160 million people armed with nuclear weapons. In the process, Afghanistan is scheduled to be broken up. This is no longer the Bush Cheney Afghan war we have known in the past. This is something immensely bigger: the attempt to destroy the Pakistani central government in Islamabad and to sink that country into a chaos of civil war, Balkanization, subdivision and general mayhem. The chosen strategy is to massively export the Afghan civil war into Pakistan and beyond, fracturing Pakistan along ethnic lines. It is an oblique war using fourth-generation or guerrilla warfare techniques to assail a country which the United States and its associates in aggression are far too weak to attack directly. In this war, the Taliban are employed as US proxies. This aggression against Pakistan is Obama's attempt to wage the Great Game against the hub of Central Asia and Eurasia or more generally.

US DETERRED FROM OPEN WAR BY PAKISTAN 'S NUKES

The ongoing civil war in Afghanistan is merely a pretext, a cover story designed to provide the United States with a springboard for a geopolitical destabilization campaign in the entire region which cannot be publicly avowed. In the blunt cynical world of imperialist aggression à la Bush and Cheney, a pretext might have been manufactured to attack Pakistan directly. But Pakistan is far too large and the United States is far too weak and too bankrupt for such an undertaking. In addition, Pakistan is a nuclear power, possessing atomic bombs and medium range missiles needed to deliver them. What we are seeing is a novel case of nuclear deterrence in action. The US cannot send an invasion fleet or set up airbases nearby because Pakistani nuclear weapons might destroy them. To this extent, the efforts of Ali Bhutto and A.Q. Khan to provide Pakistan a deterrent capability have been vindicated. But the US answer is to find ways to attack Pakistan below the nuclear threshold, and even below the conventional threshold. This is where the tactic of exporting the Afghan civil war to Pakistan comes in.

al qaeda news

2009-12-22T10:50:00.002-05:00

1. AQ makes rare appearance

SANAA - AL-QAEDA militants made a rare public appearance in restive south Yemen on Monday, telling an anti-government rally that the group's war was with the United States and not the Yemeni army, residents said.

The West and Saudi Arabia fear al-Qaeda will take advantage of the Yemeni government's focus on a Shi'ite rebellion in the north and rising secessionist sentiment in the south to spread its operations to the kingdom, the world's top oil exporter.

'Soldiers, you should know that there is no problem between us and you. The problem is between us and America and its lackeys,' residents quoted one militant as telling hundreds of people gathered to protest against the killing of dozens of civilians in government raids aimed at al-Qaeda last week.

Al Jazeera television showed footage of the militant addressing the crowd while an armed comrade stood by as a bodyguard. Both were unmasked.

Iran news

2009-12-22T10:41:00.002-05:00

1. Ahmadinejad says if we made a bomb we'd tell you

Iran's president has dismissed a year-end deadline set by the Obama administration for Tehran to accept a U.N.-drafted deal to swap enriched uranium for nuclear fuel. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says that "if Iran wanted to make a bomb, we would be brave enough to tell you."

He says the West can give Iran "as many deadlines as they want, we don't care." Ahmadinejad spoke on Tuesday to supporters in the southern city of Shiraz. He said that Iran won't allow the U.S. to dominate the region.

"We are a great and brave nation. We told you that we will launch the [nuclear] fuel cycle and we did it. We told you that we will industrialize the fuel production and we did it ... we told you that we will launch a new generation of centrifuges and we did."

read more @ al manar tv

2. US forged documents

WASHINGTON - Documents revealed last week that appear to show Tehran is working on a nuclear bomb trigger were "forged" by Washington, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has told a US news network.

"They are all fabricated bunch of papers continuously being forged and disseminated by the American government," Ahmadinejad told ABC News in an interview aired Monday when asked about the confidential documents first revealed in London's The Times newspaper.

...Describing charges that Iran's is continuing work on a clandestine nuclear weapons program as "a repetitive and tasteless joke," Ahmadinejad said the reports were about a nuclear trigger were "fundamentally not true."

US President Barack Obama's senior advisor David Axelrod said Sunday that any accusation of Washington fabricating documents was "nonsense."

"Nobody has any illusions about what the intent of the Iranian government is," Axelrod told ABC's "This Week," but without citing any evidence to his allegations.

read more @ middle east online

3. by the way, US and Japan kept this other lie going for decades

TOKYO - A SECRET agreement under which Japan allowed the US military to bring nuclear weapons to the Asian nation has been uncovered despite years of denial of its existence by Tokyo, media reports said Tuesday.

The 1969 contract, signed by then US President Richard Nixon and Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato, was kept by the Sato family, said the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, which showed a picture of the two-page document.

The existence of the agreement has been denied for decades by past conservative administrations, which issued a complete ban on nuclear weapons, including transporting of such items by its main ally, the United States.

The discovery was a major step forward for the Democratic Party of Japan, which formed a centre-left government in September, ousting the conservative Liberal Democratic Party.

Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada has set up a committee of experts to examine allegations about various hidden agreements between previous regimes and Washington.

In 1991, then US president George Bush announced that US vessels would no longer carry tactical atomic arms, rendering any pact with Japan allowing US nuclear-armed ships to visit obsolete. -- AFP

source: straits times

4. Iran denies arms aircraft heading for Iran -- where did this flight plan come from all of a sudden???

TEHRAN, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- Iran on Tuesday rejected reports that an aircraft loaded with weapons and seized in Thailand might have been en route to Iran.

"Unfortunately, every time when the Western countries try to deprive us of our nuclear rights ... and exert more pressure on Iran, such news would be spread quickly around the world," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told a weekly press conference.

"These pieces of news were fabricated as part of their attempt to exert political pressure and stage their psychological warfare," Mehmanparast said.

"We don't think these actions are meaningful in today's world and we strongly deny such an incident," he added.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that according to a flight plan obtained by researchers, the plane was due to make refueling stops in Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates and Ukraine before unloading in Tehran.

Thai police impounded an IL-76 plane on Dec. 12 after it landed for refueling at Bangkok's Don Muang airport. They found and seized about 35 tons of war weapons and detained five crew members of the plane.　

source: chinaview

india news

2009-12-22T10:33:00.003-05:00

1. Israel drips two-month old advisory against India travel

Israel's Counter-Terrorism Bureau on Tuesday canceled a two-month-old advisory against travel to India, citing a drop in the threat of terror in that region.

The Bureau on Thursday had warned Israelis in mid-October about a concrete threat of a possible terror attack, particularly in the Goa area.

The bureau had issued a similar warning ahead of the Jewish New Year saying that Israelis throughout India could be targeted by terrorists.

read more @ haaretz
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1136861.html

more on all this here

2. Kasab denies involvement with LeT, was a COOK with a catering company

Lone surviving Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab on Tuesday said he was not a "jihadi" and had not undergone any training at the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) camp in Pakistan.

Kasab told the court, which was recording the gunman's final statement on the prosecution evidence, he was a cook with a catering company in "Saarayee-Alamghir" near Jhelum in Pakistan.

Denying any involvement with terror outfits LeT and Jamat-ul-Dawa (JuD), Kasab declined meeting Hafiz Sayed, Zaki-ur-Lakhvi, Abu Kahfa and Abu Hamza--all wanted accused and alleged LeT operatives.

"I heard the names of Lash-e-Taiba and JuD from the police here. Crime Branch officials had shown the photograph of Lakhvi," Kasab said.

Asked by the court if he was introduced to one Major General Saab at the training camp, Kasab said, "This is absolutely wrong."

The judge, M L Tahaliyani, was putting questions to Kasab on the basis of his confession before magistrate in February; however Kasab disowned the confession, saying it was given under duress.

When special Judge M L Tahaliyani referred to his statement in the confession that Hafeez Sayed had told 30 boys at the LeT training camp that they would have to lay down their lives for liberating Kashmir, Kasab said: "This is absolutely wrong".

Alleging that the police had threatened to administer electric shocks to him if he did not give a statement to the magistrate, Kasab said the police had prepared the confession and forced him to recite it.

Asked by the court, if he was told in the training that they would go to heaven if they attacked India, Kasab replied in the negative saying he did not attend the training.

Kasab also denied having told the police anything about Kuber boat and a dead body found on the boat.

According to the prosecution, the group of ten terrorists had highjacked Kuber on their way to Mumbai from Karachi in Pakistan.

"I have never seen the boat; crime branch and FBI had showed me pictures of Kuber and my clothes and articles seized from the boat. These articles must belong to either fishermen or smugglers. The AK 47 rifle may belong to the police and it is not mine."

An I-card recovered from his trouser pocket was shown to Kasab in the court today, but he refused to identify himself. "It's not me. Trousers are not mine, I was wearing leather pants," he stated.

Similarly, about the money seized from him, he said that it was not his.

"The police had taken Rs 2,400 from me on November 25, which I had kept for my return ticket. Those currency notes did not have any marks on them. These notes have something written on them," Kasab said when he was shown the Rs 100-note.

The gunman further alleged that all the witnesses were briefed by the police.

"One witness had in the identification parade identified me as the one in Hotel Taj. That witness was not brought to court during the trial," Kasab said.

He further said all the witnesses were shown his photograph prior to the parade and thus they could identify him and witnesses were prompted by the police.

Kasab also alleged that even when he was in jail custody, three crime branch officials were guarding him and used to threaten him to give the statement before the magistrate.

"I had given this complaint in writing to the magistrate on February 18, when I was produced for recording my confession. But when nothing was done on it, I kept mum and did not complain again," Kasab said.

Kasab and two Indians- Faheem Ansari and Sabaudding Ahmed are facing trial for their involvement in the 26/11 terror attacks.

source: the hindu

3. opinion: singing the enemy's song

Ever since news broke that Lashkar-e-Taiba clandestine operative David Headley had been a Drug Enforcement Administration informant, speculation has grown that the Pakistani-American jihadist may also have worked for the United States Central Intelligence Agency. The evidence for the claim is thin. Headley’s links with the Lashkar, Federal Bureau of Intelligence detectives say, was only detected in July, 2009, when he posted inflammatory messages in an internet chat-room. Even at the time of his arrest, they claim, no evidence was available to suggest he had carried out pre-attack reconnaissance in Mumbai. For its part, the CIA has flatly denied any association with Headley.

But the Headley rumours offer an opportunity to examine the efforts of intelligence services around the world to infiltrate the global jihadist movement -- and what sometimes happens when their assets turn out to have been double agents, singing the enemy’s song.

The Good Guys Will Win Ha

the fuzzy logic of useful idiots

time to wake up and smell the coffee then?

the insanity of war with Iran

watch it while you can

war on terror kabuki

delusional

major fearmongering: save the earth through mining (and get ready to blame China), and mass death by germs, aka the earth strikes back at humans

africa news

milestones of the rich and powerful

crime and trafficking news

useful failed states in the War on Terror: Somalia

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.

watch the corporate media *not* make the connection

we are slowly awakening after centuries-long enslavement

lookie who we found here

underpants narrative -- justifying what we're going to do next

news related to Iran trap

flu psyop news

murder, assassination and suicide news

trafficking news

the link to Kazakhstan, it had to be Kazakhstan

the cracking down commences immediately

assume the position

diplomacy: you're doing it wrong

LESSON: Britian powerless over China

nah, nothing going on, why do you ask?

underpants terrorist, so inspirational

the hidden hand

Goldman Sachs and others investigated for betting against the securities they created

in trouble

just like swine flu: worry, don't worry, worry, don't worry, worry, don't worry

one failed state (nigeria) + another failed state (yemen) = al Qaeda. that's what failed states are for.

oil for security? it's just like the civil rights for security deal. they get the oil and your rights, but you never get the security.

"the drugs are slowly dying," after decades of misuse, and that means people will die

the Gaza playbook

oh hahaha, it's rude to notice the truth, let alone speak it

people of The West, don't just lay down and die

official Mumbai story unravels by the day

why there is never any progress

Nigerian allegedly got explosives in Yemen

political chaos in Nigeria

oh dear, that's gonna leave a mark

fun with oligarchs

shorter: China is in charge

playing games

war on terror news

corruption news

defense spending

i believe it was Pontious Pilate who asked, what is truth?

al qaeda news

Iran news

india news

watch the corporate media not make the connection