power centers moving and shifting

1. the Lisbon aftermath - opinion - lots of rocks in the path but they're gonna try and push this thing through

THE EUROPEAN Council in Brussels today and tomorrow can deal only indirectly with the important business arising from the Lisbon Treaty, since the Czech supreme court will not rule on a legal challenge to the treaty until next week. But its members will informally discuss the appointment of an EU president, foreign policy representative and the composition of the next European Commission, now near the final stages of being decided. This fresh leadership is badly needed on climate change and the international economic crisis which will also be under consideration.

read more @ irish times


2. Obama, 12 months on, the star falls back to earth - opinion - he's toast

excerpt:

This was not a re-election rally for Mr Obama – not yet, please – but for Jon Corzine, the former boss of Goldman Sachs and now governor of New Jersey. He had invited the president to speak because, when Jersey voters go to the polls next Tuesday – New Jersey and Virginia are the only states where governorships are in play this year – it is not at all clear that they won't ditch him in favour of his Republican opponent, Chris Christie. The latest polls say it's too close to call.

...The President has already suffered a slow, but steady, decline in his approval ratings, so it cheers no one in the White House that the outcome in Jersey is so uncertain. In Virginia, where the President campaigned this week, the outlook is worse with most polls suggesting that the Democrat candidate, Creigh Deeds, will be walloped by his Republican rival, Bob McDonnell.

If Republicans seize the governors' mansions in both states, the embarrassment will be acute. That is just what happened in both New Jersey and Virginia back in 1993 before the Republicans seized control of the US Congress the following year, dealing a crippling blow to the newly minted Democratic president of the time, Bill Clinton.

read more @ independent

3. Body count rises in Brazil's drug war - ie: now that Brazil has been "chosen," a safe space has to be carved out of the human beings who currently live there. drugs come in handy for that.

excerpts:

In Brazil, 35,000 people were fatally shot in 2007, and most of the deaths were drug-related. According to the government's public safety secretariat, there are nearly 23,000 drug-related homicides a year.

The drug war in Brazil is centered in its best-known city, Rio de Janeiro, and its slums, known as favelas, where police sometimes fear to tread, as well as in poor neighborhoods of Sao Paulo, Porto Alegre, Recife, Salvador, Curitiba and Belo Horizonte. Gun battles rage between rival gangs that seek to control the lucrative trade, particularly in cocaine, whose use has doubled in recent years in Brazil, according to the United Nations.

...The crime wave is particularly unsettling as Rio prepares to host the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics two years later.

...The weapons used by the traffickers are often unregistered; some are stolen from the police and the Brazilian army, according to the British magazine the Economist.

...[psyops alert:]

Luis Villamarin, a retired colonel in the Colombian army and author of many books about drug trafficking and counterterrorism, said the cocaine sold in Brazil comes largely from the Colombian Marxist guerrilla group FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

"The capture of Fernando Beira-Mar in 2002 was the first proof," he said, referring to the then-drug-kingpin in Brazil whose dealings with FARC were confirmed by Brazilian and Colombian authorities.

Mr. Villamarin also accused some Brazilian government employees of complicity with the Colombian guerrillas. In July 2008, the magazine Cambio asserted that the laptop of the former FARC leader Raul Reyes included messages from top advisers to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The press office of Brazil's presidency as well as the Justice Ministry have refused to comment on the allegations.

ooh, FARC, Lula, Columbia.....Mossad....Washington Times.....good luck Brazil. it's no fun being Israel's bitch. - ed.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/29/body-count-rises-in-brazils-drug-war/

crime and punishment

justice system - sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. i guess it just 'depends.'

1. nursery worker who abused children 'names victims'

A nursery worker who sexually abused children in her care and took indecent images of her victims has named some of them, it was reported today.

Vanessa George, who worked at Little Ted's Nursery in Plymouth, Devon, had previously refused to name any of the victims and they were impossible to identify because their faces were not shown in the images.

The Mirror reported a source saying the 39-year-old had told "everything she knows", and said the number of abused children she had identified was in "double digits".

The source said all the victims were under the age of three, according to the paper.

...

George took more than 100 images and use a mobile phone to send them to two paedophiles she met on Facebook. She had never met them in person before they appeared in court together.

Co-defendants Colin Blanchard, 39, from Rochdale, and Angela Allen, also 39, from Nottingham, have admitted several sex offences.

read more @ guardian

2. man jailed for raping tourist

A man who raped a tourist in his home after offering her a place to stay through a travellers' website has been jailed for 10 years, police said today.

Abdelali Nachet, 34, subjected his victim to the "appalling" attack after meeting her on the CouchSurfing website and inviting her to stay at his flat in Leeds in March this year, West Yorkshire Police said.

The 29-year-old woman, from Hong Kong, had already successfully used the site, in which locals offer free accommodation to travellers, to stay at members' homes during a trip around Europe.

She wanted to visit Leeds and contacted Nachet, who is originally from Morocco, after seeing his advertisement.

But after arriving at his home in the Moortown area of the city, Nachet raped and threatened to murder his guest in an attack which police said "preyed on the kindness and hospitality of those using the internet to meet new people and explore new places".

read more @ independent


Conclusion?: the internet is dangerous and teh police are doing their jobs. Bravo, oh phew.


3. sometimes things take longer: arrest warrants issued in German's vigilante kidnapping

Berlin -- A German court has ordered the arrest of an elderly Frenchman over the vigilante kidnapping of a German doctor convicted of killing his daughter 27 years ago, prosecutors said Tuesday.

The court in the southern city of Kempten has also issued a European arrest warrant for the 72-year-old Frenchman's alleged accomplice from Kosovo, aged 38, who is believed to have delivered cardiologist Dieter Krombach this month bound and gagged to a French court, the local prosecutor's office said.

...A French court in 1995 convicted the doctor in absentia of manslaughter over the death of 14-year-old Kalinka Bamberski, his stepdaughter, who died at his home near Lake Constance in 1982 after he gave her a mysterious injection.

Berlin had refused to hand him over on the grounds that he was tried and acquitted in Germany, but Bamberski spent two decades trying to have him sent to jail, convinced that he drugged Kalinka in order to rape her.

...The cardiologist was stripped of his licence and handed a suspended jail sentence in 1997 for sexually abusing a 16-year-old patient after injecting her with anaesthetic in his surgery.

French authorities must now decide whether to hand over Bamberski or keep him on French soil in an ongoing investigation, the prosecutor's office said in the statement. He is currently free on bail.

The suspect from Kosovo was arrested by Austrian authorities for extradition to Germany, which is still pending.

German authorities are still seeking the other alleged accomplices.

read more @ expatica


4. sometimes we get surprises: Angolagate: top French officials jailed over Angola arms-deal scandal


Tuesday’s verdict in the Angolagate case rocked the foundations of Paris. Angolagate, deemed as one of the most publicised political scandals, saw the inolvement of a number of high level personalities, including top French officials, in secret arms sale to the Angolan government during the 90’s. The 6-year prison terms slapped on Pierre-Joseph Falcone and Arcadi Gaydamak, have been deemed as severe. Pasqua and Marchiani also received prison sentences. Jean-Christophe Mitterrand and Paul-Loup Sulitzer, on the other hand, received suspended sentences, while Jacques Attali and Georges Fenech were cleared.

The Paris court on Tuesday issued its verdict in the Angolagate arms trafficking case. Out of a number of 42 defendants, only 6 were cleared. Commentators were clearly surprised by the severity of the verdict after the judge has issued a heavier sentence than that requested by the prosecution.

...Businessman Pierre-Joseph Falcone was sentenced to 6 years in prison, along with a committal warrant and was therefore escorted out of the court by two gendarmes. His convictions included "illicit arms trade, tax evasion" and "influence peddling". Falcone’s diplomatic immunity as Angola’s representative to UNESCO was disregarded due to the retrospective nature of the case as well as his French nationality.

Falcone’s business partner, the Russo-Israeli billionaire, Arcadi Gaydamak, also the principal defendant in the trial, was sentenced to 6 years in prison for "illicit arms trade," "abuse of public assets,” “tax fraud," “active influence peddling" and "money laundering". Arcadi Gaydamak is not serving his sentence. He has reportedly taken refuge in Israel and Russia, in order to escape several international arrest warrants. Gaydamak owns the Beitar football club in Jerusalem.

well not *that* suprised...read more @ afrik.com


5. more surprises, like journalists actually doing their jobs!!: controversy in the UK over Ivory Coast toxic disaster

In 2006, more than 30,000 Ivorians fell victim to high levels of poisonous gasses from a lethal toxic waste which was dumped by an European Oil company, Trafigura, British and Ivorian press sources revealed. Thousands of Ivoirians were reportedly rushed to local clinics, following the discovery of the dumped wastes, where nearly twenty people died. Up to seventy affected persons were hospitalised and a record 108,000 sought medical advice. Trafigura have claimed that there is no link between the gasses and the health disaster.

In the past few weeks, the controversial and toxic issue has resurfaced in the UK. British Journalists and Members of Parliament have found themselves in a rather stifling position to openly discuss a confidential report incriminating Trafigura after a ‘super-injunction’ was obtained from the high court by Trafigura’s lawyers.

Journalists from the Guardian newspaper, last month claimed to have obtained detailed confidential draft documents that stated that the waste dumped by Trafigura in West Africa was potentially highly toxic and capable of severe effects on human health.

read more @ afrik.com

all the little arrows pointing

1. Zionist judge lets the mask slip: West Bank land belongs to the jews

excerpt:

“When we [Israelis] say that this is a political conflict, then we lose the battle,” he told the Guardian, adding that it should be remembered that the ancient land of Israel is “given to us by the Bible, not by some United Nations”.

Agassi, one of the most important officials in the military courts wielding authority over large parts of the West Bank, says settling Jews on lands that made up ancient Israel stands above all other biblical commandments and only when it is done can they have “a promised land and a promised life”.

“You say that these lands ‘passed into Jewish hands’. Others would say that they came back into Jewish hands. Others would say that they are obviously ours, inherently,” he said. It was, he claims, a mistake to call it the State of Israel. “If we would have named it the State of Jews, the Arabs would have understood that this land belongs to the Jews.”

Agassi served in the legal department that oversaw the confiscation of land in the West Bank to build Jewish settlements and was then appointed to the military court that decided Palestinian appeals against the seizure of their property. The Palestinians almost never won. His court also ruled on legal disputes between Jewish settlers and Palestinians.

read more @ there are no sunglasses


2. Soros: a new economic system is required

BUDAPEST, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Hungarian-born investor and philanthropist George Soros said in Budapest, Hungary, on Tuesday that the entire edifice of global financial markets that has been erected on the false premise that markets can be left to their own devices has to be rebuilt from the ground up and that a new economic paradigm is required.

Soros who came out of retirement in 2007 to help manage his hedge fund firm Soros Fund Management through the recent crisis, also announced that he will set up and sponsor an Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) intended to foster research, workshops and curricula that will aim to develop an alternative to the prevailing economic system.

Soros said he will commit 50 million dollars over ten years and hopes that other donors will join. INET will be launched in Cambridge University, England, in April 2010. The Central European University in Budapest, which is hosting a series of lectures this week by Soros, will also be a hub of the INET network.

read more @ chinaview


3. Michael Bloomberg needs to speak Russian now? Why's that? To flatter all the Russian Jews in NY.

The lust for power does not have any limits. Michael Bloomberg, one of world’s richest men, the mayor of New York, started speaking Russian all of a sudden. Mr. Bloomberg needs to keep his office, and he is happy to learn some Russian ahead of the election day. He understands that New York residents of Russian origin can play a very important role in the election.

NY Governor David Paterson signed a special document in August 2009, according to which all documents related to the election process must be translated into Russian.
...

Boris Pushkarev, a Russian New Yorker, said in an interview with Pravda.Ru that there are many Russian-speaking people in New York indeed.

“They do represent a considerable part of the city electorate. The Russian influence can be seen nearly everywhere, especially in the center, on Brighton Beach. Many of those living here now represent the generation of people who came to New York from the USSR in the beginning of the 1970s. They are mostly Jews, who reside in the Brighton Beach area. The number of Russians is much smaller. They are mostly the women who married American men or those who came to study here, but then decided to stay here for good.

read more @ pravda

4. famous Rodin sculptures bring 'piece of France' to Brazil

BRASILIA, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- An exhibition featuring a number of original works by French sculptor Auguste Rodin, among them "The Thinker," began on Monday at the Palace of Arts in the northeastern Brazilian city of Salvador.

As part of the Year of France in Brazil, a celebration of French culture, the exhibition "Auguste Rodin, Man and Genius" displayed 62 of Rodin's works, with a total value of roughly 15 billion U.S. dollars.

...These sculptures would be exhibited in the museum for the next three years.

This was the first time that original pieces by Rodin, regarded as the father of modern sculpture, had left the Rodin Museum in Paris to be part of a prolonged exhibition outside France.

Marcio Meirelles, culture secretary of the state of Bahia, said the exhibition would encourage more tourists to visit the city and also facilitate cultural exchanges between the two nations.

read more @ chinaview

5. hackers deface US embassy site in Brazil with 'putrid trash of a country' - message seems to be down with the US up with Brazil

"Putrid trash of a country" was one of the messages left apparently by hackers at the homepage of the

American embassy in Brazil. It took the diplomatic representation of the US a few hours before they noticed the defaced site and then took it off the air.

The site, found at www.embaixada-americana.org.br and http://brasilia.usembassy.gov/, was attacked this Tuesday night. The embassy turned off the site about 11 pm. A call to the embassy by the G1 site was answered by a security officer who didn't know anything about the defacing, but told the reporter he would warn his superiors about the problem.

On a black background the hackers posted a close-up of an eye sporting the Brazilian flag's colors and a young lady who seems to be saying something. The image was signed by a group calling itself FIREH4CK3R. They also left the message: Fighting for Brazil.

The homepage cache from Google snapped on October 24, had among other headlines: "US Embassy Announces Winners of the 2010 Youth Ambassadors Program," "President Barack Obama wins the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize," "F/A 18 Super Horne on the Move," "Secretary Hillary Clinton: A New Approach To Global Food Security and Hunger."

The main article on the page says, "Brasília, 2009 - On October 16, the 35 candidates selected to take part in the U.S. Embassy's Cultural Exchange Program, "Youth Ambassadors," were announced. This is the eighth edition of the program that will take the students to the United States for three weeks, from January 8 to 30, 2010.

"The experience of being a Youth Ambassador gives them the opportunity to expand their horizons at the same time as they help us strengthen the ties of friendship, respect and collaboration between Brazil and the United States," said the United States Embassy's Chargé d' Affaires, Lisa Kubiske during the ceremony at the Banco Bradesco's headquarters in São Paulo.

source

afghanistan, epic fail for human beings, great success for destabilization agenda

1. US official resigns over Afghan war

When Matthew Hoh joined the Foreign Service early this year, he was exactly the kind of smart civil-military hybrid the administration was looking for to help expand its development efforts in Afghanistan.

A former Marine Corps captain with combat experience in Iraq, Hoh had also served in uniform at the Pentagon, and as a civilian in Iraq and at the State Department. By July, he was the senior U.S. civilian in Zabul province, a Taliban hotbed.

But last month, in a move that has sent ripples all the way to the White House, Hoh, 36, became the first U.S. official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war, which he had come to believe simply fueled the insurgency.

...While he did not share Hoh's view that the war "wasn't worth the fight," Holbrooke said, "I agreed with much of his analysis." He asked Hoh to join his team in Washington, saying that "if he really wanted to affect policy and help reduce the cost of the war on lives and treasure," why not be "inside the building, rather than outside, where you can get a lot of attention but you won't have the same political impact?"

read more @ washington times


2. Hoh's letter (pdf)



3. helicopter rumors refuse to die

MAZAR-E-SHARIF - Persistent accounts of Western forces in Afghanistan using their helicopters to ferry Taliban fighters, strongly denied by the military, is feeding mistrust of the forces that are supposed to be bringing order to the country.

One such tale came from a soldier from the 209th Shahin Corps of the Afghan National Army, fighting against the growing insurgency in Kunduz province in northern Afghanistan. Over several months, he had taken part in several pitched battles against the armed opposition.

"Just when the police and army managed to surround the Taliban in a village of Qala-e-Zaal district, we saw helicopters land with support teams," he said. "They managed to rescue their friends from our encirclement, and even to inflict defeat on the Afghan National Army."

This story, in one form or another, is being repeated throughout northern Afghanistan. Dozens of people claim to have seen Taliban fighters disembark from foreign helicopters in several provinces. The local talk is of the insurgency being consciously moved north, with international troops ferrying fighters in from the volatile south, to create mayhem in a new location.

Helicopters are almost exclusively the domains of foreign forces in Afghanistan; the international military controls the air space and has a virtual monopoly on aircraft. So when Afghans see choppers, they think foreign military. "Our fight against the Taliban is nonsense," said the soldier from Shahin Corps. "Our foreigner 'friends' are friendlier to the opposition."

read more @ asia times



4. Taliban take over Afghan province

ISLAMABAD - The United States has withdrawn its troops from its four key bases in Nuristan, on the border with Pakistan, leaving the northeastern province as a safe haven for the Taliban-led insurgency to orchestrate its regional battles.

The US has retained some forces in Nuristan's capital, Parun, to provide security for the governor and government facilities. The American position concerning the withdrawal is that due to winter conditions, supply arteries are choked, making it difficult to keep forces in remote areas. The US has pulled out from some areas in the past, but never from all four main bases.

...
The province is now under the effective control of the network belonging to Qari Ziaur Rahman, a Taliban commander with strong ties to Bin Laden. This makes Nuristan the first Afghan province to be controlled by a network inspired by al-Qaeda. [a long way of saying under the control of the CIA - ed.]

read more @ asia times

the NWO destabilization agenda

1. destabilization in Turkey: the deep-state agenda

The name "Ergenekon" may not be familiar to non-Turks, but this murky affair has riveted Turkey's 70 million people. Thirty-three members of a neo-fascist group called Ergenekon have been on trial, accused of murder, terrorism, and trying to overthrow the elected government. The trial was temporarily suspended after the courthouse was flooded out.

The trial has been laying bare the workings of the "deep state," a powerful cabal of retired military officers, security forces, gangsters, government officials, judges, and business oligarchs that has long been the real power in this complex nation.

Turkey's military vigorously denies any links to the Ergenekon.

The "deep state" advocates extreme Turkish nationalism and revived Pan-Turkism, or Turanism, the unification of all Turkic peoples from Turkey to the Great Wall of China. Its extreme right-wing members are bitterly anti-Islamic, and violently oppose any admission of guilt for the mass killing during World War I of many of the Ottoman Empire's Armenians. Most Turks insist the killings occurred in the chaos of war and insurrection. Armenians insist it was the 20th century's first genocide.

read more @ ergenekon


2. destablilization in action: Kurdish opening lands Erdegon in tight spot, "no surprise" to pro-Israel WINEP


ANKARA - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan plans to expand Kurdish rights and end a bloody insurgency, analysts said Tuesday. But the government has been criticised since last week when a group of rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) crossed from Iraq into Turkey in symbolic surrender to show support for Ankara's Kurdish opening and were set free shortly.

Although Erdogan initially hailed the group's arrival as a boost to his reconciliation plan, the subsequent hero's welcome organized for the rebels by thousands of Kurds chanting pro-PKK slogans soured the mood.

Amid accusations of showing leniency to "terrorists" behind a 25-year rebellion, Erdogan announced that the arrival of a second rebel group had been postponed and that his government would take a break to assess the situation.

The development was no surprise, said Soner Cagaptay from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. [uh huh why's that? - ed.]

read more @ middle east online


3. false flag activity on Israeli Lebanon border?

A Katyusha rocket fired from Lebanon hit northern Israel on Tuesday night without causing casualties, prompting Israel to retaliate with artillery, sources on both sides said.

The attack, which was not immediately claimed, was the latest incident in growing cross-border tensions, and an Israeli military spokeswoman laid ultimate blame on the Beirut government.

The rocket landed in open ground east of the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona and started a fire but caused no serious damage, sources there said.

A security source in Lebanon said eight rockets fired from Israel then hit near the border village of Hula. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

read more @ france 24


4. "NOT UNEXPECTEDLY," Iraq is being divided, a little piece of "mission accomplished" hell on earth sponsored by the Clean Break crowd

Robert Dreyfuss is a contributing editor to The Nation magazine

The perpetrators of the huge bomb attacks are unknown. Not unexpectedly, every Iraqi faction is blaming its enemies. ...

Indirectly speaking for the Shiite bloc, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran has blamed "foreign agents" for the attacks: "The bloody actions being committed in some Islamic countries, including Iraq, Pakistan and in some parts of the country (Iran), are aimed at creating division between the Shiites and Sunnis.... Those who carry out these terrorist actions are directly or indirectly foreign agents."

Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the bombings, but such claims have to be taken with a grain of salt.

The basic fact remains that, as US forces draw down, Iraq is perched on the brink of renewed civil war. One flashpoint is Kirkuk and other areas of Iraq claimed by the Kurds. Many Sunnis are increasingly resentful of Maliki's arrogance, his refusal to accommodate Sunni demands, and his fealty to Iran. And various Shiite militias, including the Sadr's Mahdi Army and the ISCI Badr Brigades, are likely to support their electoral efforts with armed might. It is going to be a bumpy ride.


read more @ middle east online

crazy people and their crazy talking points which have no attachment to reality

1. Jim Jones: our support of Israel is not just a slogan


US National Security Advisor Jim Jones said Tuesday that Iran will not be allowed to evade making a decision on the nuclear deal offered by the West, noting that it will soon be made clear whether Iran intends on abiding the agreements struck in Geneva. Jones emphasized that, until then, it must be made clear that no option is being taken off the table.

According to Jones, if Iran were to transfer its uranium to another country, the amount of uranium in its stockpiles will fall below the required amount for manufacturing a nuclear weapon. He said that, to this end, the meeting in Geneva was a good start, but was still just the beginning. He emphasized that the goal of the US is to prevent Iran from obtaining “nuclear weapons”.

In his keynote speech at the J Street conference in Washington, Jones reiterated American commitment to Israel's security, saying this was not just a slogan tossed around and said that this commitment was stronger than ever under the Obama administration. He said that the US has shown its support for Israel's right to “self defense”

read more @ al manar tv


2. Tsipi Livni, fresh off her meeting with Bibi, says Iran is "toying with the world"

Israeli Kadima leader Tzipi Livni on Wednesday morning warned that "Iran is toying with the world," and claimed the current proposed deal between the West and Tehran may not be sufficient to ensure the Islamic republic will not achieve military nuclear capability.


According to the UN-drafted deal, Iran would ship much of its uranium to Russia and France for further enrichment, setting back the nuclear program and the time frame in which Iran could reach "breakout" capacity.

"Iran is toying with the world. The deal doesn't solve a major issue - the complete halt of uranium enrichment. There's a clear international consensus that a nuclear Iran is unacceptable," Livni said in a statement during a one-day visit in Moscow. Livni told Israel Radio that in her meetings with Russian officials, she intends to stress the risks posed by the proposed deal.

"The international and Iranian state of mind must be that all the options are on the table if an arrangement that fully prevents Iran from acquiring nuclear arms is not reached," she stressed. Livni went on to warn that the demands set by the international community must not be eroded. "We are now in the critical point in time - the offer is on the table and the powers have announced they accept the idea, but it is important to prevent erosion," she said.

read more @ al manar tv


3. but people, the EXTRAORDINARY danger comes not from these whack-job war-mongering Israelis and their American puppets, it comes from.....Sudan

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama renewed sanctions on Sudan Tuesday, a week after unveiling a new policy of pressure and incentives toward the Khartoum government aimed at settling the simmering conflict.

"The crisis constituted by the actions and policies of the government of Sudan... has not been resolved," Obama said in a message to Congress about the one-year extension of sanctions.

"These actions and policies are hostile to US interests and pose a continuing unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States."

The sanctions restrict US trade with and investment in Sudan, freezes the Sudanese government assets in the United States, and bans transactions with individuals and entities linked to the conflict in Darfur.

Critics say the ICC warrant singles out weak states like Sudan, while taking a hypocritical stance towards countries like the US and Israel by ignoring worse atrocities committed by them, and by not charging American and Israeli officials with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

read more @ middle east online

national insecurity news

1. senior Chinese military official meets US officials on bilateral, military ties

WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Sino-U.S. relations have been maintaining a good momentum of development since U.S. President Barack Obama came to office in January, a senior Chinese military official told U.S. officials on Tuesday.

Visiting Vice Chairman of China's Central Military Commission Xu Caihou held separate meetings with U.S. National Security Advisor James Jones and Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg on Tuesday.

Xu said Chinese President Hu Jintao and his U.S. counterpart Obama reached an important consensus at their meeting in London in April to jointly build a positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship between the two nations for the 21st century, ushering in a new phase in bilateral ties.

...The general said his U.S. trip is aimed at implementing the consensus reached by Hu and Obama to improve and develop relations between the two countries' armed forces, and promoting military exchanges and cooperation.

read more @ chinaview


2. China hawks target US sign-off shuffle

by Peter J. Brown

The White House in late September released a "presidential determination" that entailed a memorandum to United States Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke. It went virtually undetected. It simply stated:

Subject: Presidential Determination on the Delegation of Certifications Under Section 1512 of Public Law 105-261. By virtue of the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 301 of Title 3, United States Code, I hereby delegate to you the functions of the President under section 1512 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1999.

Under Section 1512, President Barack Obama is required to certify to the US Congress that above all else, US space-launch industry interests are protected and that by exporting the missile hardware or technology in question, China's missile or space launch capabilities will not be somehow improved in the process, nor will China benefit even indirectly by the proposed transaction.

Shortly thereafter, The Washington Times ran a story that said, in effect, that China could now celebrate because by shifting authority to Locke's office Obama had suddenly rewritten the rulebook when it came to exports of missile and space-related technology to China.

...[big snip]

What emerges here is a very dark cloud that now hangs over all the upbeat talk that there are long-awaited signs of progress appearing in Washington, DC.

The notion that Chinese military personnel were provided with a US-based mail order house that shipped items on a weekly basis back to China while operating completely under the radar of the US defense and law enforcement communities for a decade is baffling. Nor does it does bode well especially for those supporters of reform who argue that existing export controls and customs oversight are adequate to meet the additional workload that any meaningful export regulatory reform will certainly trigger.

In a nutshell, customs and law enforcement agents in the US face a significant challenge as they attempt to monitor outbound technology transfers and terminate the actions of those who traffic in illegal exports.

read more @ asia times


3. US expanding military bases on Black Sea coast

US army bases will appear on the Black Sea Coast – in Bulgaria and Romania. About $50 million will be assigned to build the base in Romania, and the Pentagon plans to spend $60 million more for the same purpose in Bulgaria.

The Romanian base is expected to be put in operation in 2010, whereas the second one will most likely be launched in 2011 or 2012. Over 4,000 US military men are expected to serve at the two bases: 1,600 in Romania and 2,500 in Bulgaria. The authorities of the two nations expect that the US military men will settle there for a long time.

...

Alexander Khramchikhin, deputy director of the Institute for Political and Military Analysis, said in an interview with Pravda.Ru that the plans of the United States to build army bases in Romania and Bulgaria were exposed nearly a decade ago.

“Indeed, the Americans need more bases for their actions in the Middle East. They have bases in Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, but they are not enough to satisfy all of Washington’s needs. The Pentagon needs new bases in Eastern Europe to maintain its troops in the Middle East,” the expert said.

Another expert, Konstantin Sivkov, told Pravda.Ru that the appearance of new army bases in Bulgaria and Romania would pose a threat to Russian interests.

read more @ pravda

cronyism and projection

1. criminal record checks are turning us into a nation of suspects

Have you been ISA-cleared? If you want a new job then you had soon better be. According to Sir Roger Singleton, head of the Independent Safeguarding Authority (the aforementioned ISA), a clean bill of health from his fledgling organisation will become as important as a professional qualification for any aspiring employee. It will announce to the world that you are not a paedophile, that you have not assaulted a child and do not pose a danger to vulnerable old people. The state will have decreed that you are not a monster.

If you are coming around slowly to the view that this country is going mad then confirmation came yesterday with Sir Roger’s comments in this newspaper. It is now, apparently, considered perfectly reasonable to regard the entire adult population as a potential pool of criminal suspects. Indeed, new figures from the Justice Department show that an increasing number of people is being criminalised, principally the over-40s who have never been in trouble with the police and have never really done anything wrong apart from breaking the speed limit occasionally. The number of over-40s receiving a first conviction or caution has increased by half since 2001 and is now running at 65 a day. The figures reflect the fact that many of Labour’s new spot fines for ''crimes’’ such as overfilling a wheelie bin are aimed at householders.

read more @ telegraph


MEANWHILE....THE REAL CRIMINALS CONTINUE HORSE-TRADING APACE...


2. Gordon Brown to 'buy off' Germany and France to get President Blair

The Prime Minister is now actively campaigning for Mr Blair to get the post.

Number 10 believes that Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, will add her support to the move if she is allowed to choose a German for the other new role created by the Lisbon Treaty, the high representative for foreign affairs.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, would be offered the chance to select a politician to take on one of the top economic portfolios, possibly the EU trade commissioner's role currently held by Britain.

A senior Number 10 official said: “We believe the French and Germans are holding out for the best possible deal they can get out of this situation. But we think Merkel will agree if she gets the foreign job [to give to her choice] and Sarkozy will also be after a significant position.”

read more @ telegraph

3. POGO opposes nomination of William Magwood to NRC

excerpt:

Dear Chairwoman Boxer and Ranking Member Inhofe:

At 5:03 p.m. on Friday, October 9, 2009, at the start of the three-day Columbus Day weekend, the White House announced a nomination to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). President Obama's nomination of William D. Magwood to the post of Commissioner on the NRC should not be relegated to the shadows, but should be examined in the full light of public and congressional scrutiny.

Mr. Magwood's nomination violates the spirit of President Obama's "Ethics Commitment by Executive Branch Personnel Executive Order" (Ethics Executive Order). Since his retirement from government service in 2005, Mr. Magwood has been actively involved in efforts to advance nuclear industry business opportunities domestically and abroad. He founded Advanced Energy Strategies which provides "expert advice and analysis of U.S. and international energy policy activities; nuclear industry developments and prospects; and supporting business development efforts." Mr. Magwood has also been an investor in and President of Secure Energy North America Corporation, a company that is "working with industry and investors to develop novel approaches to finance new nuclear power stations in the United States." Prior to his government service, Mr. Magwood also managed nuclear policy programs at the Edison Electric Institute, an industry trade association.

read more @ POGO

they worked hard on that psyops and they need to make it run as long as possible

1. US may end up discarding unused H1N1 vaccine

WE HAVE TOO MUCH. WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH. THE OBAMA GIRLS DID NOT GET THE VACCINE. THE OBAMA GIRLS DID GET THE VACCINE. ETC. - ED.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government may end up throwing away unused doses of swine flu vaccine if people cannot get it soon enough, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday.

Members of Congress questioned whether federal officials were too rosy in their estimates of how much vaccine would be available and when, and companies said they were still struggling to produce immunizations against H1N1.

CDC director Dr. Thomas Frieden said 22.4 million doses were now available to states, which can get them a day after they order them.

"It's quite likely that too little vaccine is one of the things that's making people more interested in getting vaccinated, frankly," Frieden told reporters.

"We think it will get easier to find vaccine in the weeks that come."

President Barack Obama's daughters found it. "Malia and Sasha were both vaccinated for H1N1 last week, after the vaccine became available to Washington, D.C. schoolchildren," a White House blog reads.

"President and Mrs. Obama have not yet been vaccinated for H1N1, and they will wait until the needs of the priority groups identified by the CDC -- including young people under the age of 24, pregnant women, and people with underlying conditions -- have been met."

Many states and cities say they have received about one-tenth as much vaccine as they originally had expected by this time. Frieden said the delays may discourage people who are lining up for vaccine.

"It is likely also as we produce more vaccine and as both people are given the opportunity to get vaccinated, and as disease maybe wanes in the future, we will have significant amounts of vaccine that can't be used," Frieden said.

"One of the messages for states, localities and health providers is not to reserve vaccine that they have available, to give it out as soon as it comes in, because more is on the way."

In September, U.S. officials said 40 million vaccine doses would be available by the end of October and they estimated 20 million doses a week would be delivered, with a goal of 250 million doses by the end of flu season in March or April.

read more @ reuters


2. Israel refuses to free 125 detainees in exchange for Gilad Shalit

Israel's reluctance to release a group of 125 Palestinians is holding up a prisoner exchange deal, Osama al-Muzaini, a senior Hamas figure in charge of the negotiations over captive Israeli occupation soldier Gilad Shalit, said Wednesday.

Nearly a month has passed since the resistance group released a video proving that Shalit is alive and well, but both sides claim a prisoner swap is still far off. Al-Muzaini said Hamas cannot agree to a deal that would not include the release of the 125 Palestinians, all of whom are considered "heavy" prisoners. However, he said "serious and intense" negotiations were continuing, as are "efforts to remove the remaining obstacles."

"In any case, there are no developments at this time," said the Hamas figure, "But the German mediator wants to secure an agreement, and we are pleased with his work. I hope this affair will come to an end in the very near future." Any future prisoner exchange deal will apparently include the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Shalit.

source: al manar tv


3. 'Washington Sniper' to be executed on Nov 10 by injection

WASHINGTON, October 28 (RIA Novosti) - John Allen Muhammad, a 'sniper,' who went on a killing spree in the United States in 2002 murdering 10 and wounding six people, was sent to death in Virginia on November 10.

Virginia Department of Corrections spokesman Larry Traylor said 'the sniper' will be executed by a lethal injection in the state of Virginia.

"Muhammad declined to choose between lethal injection and electrocution, so under state law [of Virginia] the method defaults to lethal injection," Traylor was quoted by the U.S. media as saying.

Muhammad, 48, carried out attacks with a teenage accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo, who is already serving a life sentence in the United States, and began shooting people with a sniper rifle in the states of Alabama and Louisiana, before moving to the Washington D.C. area.

source: ria novosti

elvi$ has left the building and he built a new building in Asia

I. welcome to 2025

by Michael T. Klare

Memo to the United States Central Intelligence Agency: You may not be prepared for time-travel, but welcome to 2025 anyway. Your rooms may be a little small, your ability to demand better accommodation may have gone out the window, and the amenities may not be to your taste, but get used to it. It's going to be your reality from now on.

Okay, now for the serious version of the above: In November 2008, the National Intelligence Council (NIC), an affiliate of the Central Intelligence Agency, issued the latest in a series of futuristic publications intended to guide the incoming administration of Barack Obama.

...

Six pointers on the road to ordinary nationhood
Here is my list of six recent developments that indicate we are entering "2025" today. All six were in the news in the last few weeks, even if never collected in a single place. They (and other events like them) represent a pattern: the shape, in fact, of a new age in formation.

1. At the global economic summit in Pittsburgh on September 24 and 25, the leaders of the major industrial powers, the G-7 (G-8 if you include Russia) agreed to turn over responsibility for oversight of the world economy to a larger, more inclusive Group of 20 (G-20), adding in China, India, Brazil, Turkey, and other developing nations. Although doubts have been raised about the ability of this larger group to exercise effective global leadership, there is no doubt that the move itself signaled a shift in the locus of world economic power from the West to the global East and South - and with this shift, a seismic decline in America's economic preeminence has been registered.

...

2. According to news reports, America's economic rivals are conducting secret (and not-so-secret) meetings to explore a diminished role for the US dollar - fast losing its value - in international trade.
...

3. On the diplomatic front, Washington has been rebuffed by both Russia and China in its drive to line up support for increased international pressure on Iran to cease its nuclear enrichment program.

...
4. Exactly the same inference can be drawn from a meeting in Beijing on October 15 between Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and Iran's first vice president, Mohammed Reza Rahimi. "The Sino-Iran relationship has witnessed rapid development as the two countries' leaders have had frequent exchanges, and cooperation in trade and energy has widened and deepened," Wen said at the Great Hall of the People. Coming at a time when the United States is engaged in a vigorous diplomatic drive to persuade China and Russia, among others, to reduce their trade ties with Iran as a prelude to toughened sanctions, the Chinese statement can only be considered a pointed rebuff of Washington.

5. From Washington's point of view, efforts to secure international support for the allied war effort in Afghanistan have also met with a strikingly disappointing response. In what can only be considered a trivial and begrudging vote of support for the US-led war effort, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced on October 14 that Britain would add more troops to the British contingent in that country - but only 500 more, and only if other European nations increase their own military involvement, something he undoubtedly knows is highly unlikely.

...
6. Finally, in a move of striking symbolic significance, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) passed over Chicago (as well as Madrid and Tokyo) to pick Rio de Janeiro to be the host of the 2016 summer Olympics, the first time a South American nation was selected for the honor.


read the whole thing @ asia times


II. the man who has designs on Asia

As Asia transforms itself financially, daring new buildings are springing from the urban landscape as symbols of a more confident, assertive region. At the forefront of those shaping the new symbols of prosperity is Bangkok-based designer and landscape architect Bill Bensley.

His company Bill Bensley Design was recently chosen to design a new monument off the coast of the Indian city of Mumbai that has drawn comparisons with America's Statue of Liberty.
...

Mr Bensley's team has also been recruited to work on what's reputed to be the world's most expensive home for India's richest person, Mukesh Ambani, who heads the mighty Reliance's energy-telecom-trading empire.

"We are designing a 29-storey home for him," he says. "The home will house four families."

The home is located in the greenery and quiet of the expensive Mumbai suburb of Malabar Hill. It was labelled by some critics of Mr Ambani as an edifice to the tycoon's ego, but others simply see it as a reflection of the new confidence and swagger permeating a growingly confident India.

Tucked away from the noisy, choked traffic on Sukhumvit Road near Ekamai, Mr Bensley's office is flooded with work commissioned by kings, governments and tycoons.

He says there has been no slowdown since he set up shop here 20 years ago. From the 1997 Asian crisis through to the collapse of Wall Street last year, there has not been a minute of stoppage at his shop.

"In fact, the opposite is true," says the towering figure.

...

With work stretching from Capetown to Puerto Rico, he nevertheless concedes most of his clients are from emerging Asia, most notably India and China.

His biggest fans are in China.

...

Asked if he agrees with US investment guru Jim Rogers, who sold everything in America to invest in China where much of the world's new wealth is being created, he says: "Absolutely."

Immense wealth is being created today in Asia and Mr Bensley is witnessing it up front and personal.


read the rest @ bangkok post

top 10 reasons we know that power is shifting

1. Venezuela, Syria boost ties with bilateral accords

Venezuela and Syria cemented their ties on Monday as they signed five trade, agriculture and energy cooperation agreements, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said. Among the agreements signed by Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro and his Syrian counterpart, Walid Muallem, in Damascus was a deal to build a refinery that can treat 140,000 barrels of oil per day.


2. Iran dismisses Israeli threats: FM

TEHRAN, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) - Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki dismissed on Monday the aggressive remarks uttered by Israeli officials against Tehran, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

Mottaki underlined that the "Zionist regime" does not dare to attack Iran as it lacks the required strength, capabilities and resources, the report said.

"We believe that the Zionist regime is in its weakest state now. Today this regime is experiencing the weakest condition in political, regional and international arenas," Mottaki told reporters in a media and press exhibition in Tehran.

3. UN inspectors finish inspecting Iran's second nuclear plant: official

TEHRAN, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- A top Iranian lawmaker said Monday that the team of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have finished their inspection of Iran's newly-disclosed uranium enrichment plant, local ISNA news agency reported.

"The inspectors of the agency have finished their job at Fordo (uranium enrichment plant)," Alaeddin Boroujerdi who heads Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy commission was quoted as saying.


4. Bibi, Livni meet after months of severed ties to prepare for Livni's visit to Russia

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with opposition chairwoman Tzipi Livni on Monday, the first such meeting in months. Livni, who served as foreign minister during the Olmert administration, will visit Moscow on Tuesday at the invite of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

The former foreign minister is expected to raise the matter of Iran's nuclear program during her talks with Lavrov. Livni met with Netanyahu to coordinate positions on the issue before departing for Moscow. Livni will also meet with deputies in the Russian parliament as well as leaders of the Jewish community.

...
The opposition chief will request that the Russians oppose referral of the [Goldstone] report, which accuses Israel of war crimes during its military offensive last winter in Gaza, to the UN Security Council. Livni aides said on Monday that her trip to Russia was also coordinated with the current foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman.


5. French FM complains that Iran 'wasting time' on nuclear demands

Iran is "wasting time" as the west waits for it to deliver its response on a UN-brokered deal for overseas treatment of low-enriched uranium (LEU), French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Tuesday. "Iran is wasting time because now is the time for talking," Kouchner said on arrival in Luxembourg for a meeting of European Union foreign ministers. "One day, it will be too late," he added.


6. When in fact Iran to respond to nuclear deal in 2 days (IS THAT WASTING TIME OR WHAT?? - ed.)

TEHRAN - Iran will deliver its response to a UN-brokered deal for the supply of nuclear fuel to Tehran within two days, Fars news agency reported on Tuesday.

"An informed source told Fars that the Islamic Republic of Iran within the next two days will respond to the draft of providing fuel for the Tehran reactor," the report said.

Iran was to respond to the deal by Friday but delayed it until some time this week.


7. Iranian president hails Turkish support


TEHRAN - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday welcomed visiting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's defence of the Iranian nuclear programme.

Ahmadinejad, in a statement on the presidential website, said he "appreciates" Erdogan's stand on Iran's atomic programme and on Israel, the Middle East's sole nuclear-armed state.

"When an illicit regime possesses nuclear arms, one can not talk about depriving other nations from the peaceful nuclear programme," he said. "Your clear stance towards the Zionist regime had a positive effect in the world, especially the Islamic world, and I am sure that everyone was satisfied," Ahmadinejad added.


8. Joe Biden is set to stun

excerpts :

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Fedyashin) - On October 23, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden completed his tour of Eastern Europe, paying visits to Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic.

...

In all three capitals, Mr. Biden had to explain that the U.S. would abandon neither its defense commitments, including both through NATO obligations and bilateral agreements, nor the strong friendship with the three governments. Now there will just be a new political order in which Russia's interests hold more weight than under the Bush administration.

Judging by the recent visits of the 64-year-old Biden (he recently visited Tbilisi to calm down Saakashvili and then the Balkans), it seems that his mission is to provide comfort to the distressed. Before the presidential election, the former chairman of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee was unanimously called the Democrats' leading foreign policy expert and a foreign policy guru. It must be noted that in the U.S., the notion of foreign policy expertise has a slightly different meaning than in Europe. To earn that title, an American foreign policy expert need only be able to distinguish European countries and world regions, pronounce their names, and have a basic understanding of the general nature of the global trends and regional issues.

Mr. Biden's foreign policy beliefs are defined as "liberal interventionism," but one can hardly call the senator's foreign policy positions consistent. Sometimes it is even hard to make out the difference between his foreign policy position and that of the Bush administration's, except for minor distinctions in details and timelines.

However, Mr. Biden is a master of persuasion, maybe too masterful. Each of Mr. Biden's speeches is a headache and puzzle for his staff. It would be okay if the senator were just a little too talkative, but the problem is that he enjoys talking for so long and in such detail that even in Congress he was called an "unguided missile" or someone who "lacks the filter." Mr. Biden's colleagues and aides become especially nervous when the senator starts his speeches with the phrase "I'll be brief," which usually means that he will diverge so significantly from the original point of the speech that he may even forget what exactly the original speech was about. This has happened with Mr. Biden more than once. He has sometimes talked such drivel that, having argued for a certain position at the beginning of the speech, he appeared an advocate of its exact opposite in the end.

"Joe often didn't know what he thought until he had to say it," noted American researcher Richard Cramer, who analyzed presidential candidates' psychological states during the 1988 election, when Mr. Biden unsuccessfully sought a Democratic nomination.

However, there are situations when Mr. Biden is brought into play, for instance to heal the wounds of upset allies.

9. Georgia - true home of Ashkenazi Jews - nominates Habsburg duchess as envoy to Germany

Tbilisi -- Ex-Soviet Georgia has nominated Gabriela Von Habsburg, a Tbilisi art professor and granddaughter of the last emperor of Austria, as its ambassador to Germany, the foreign ministry said Monday.

Von Habsburg, a 53-year-old member of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty also known as Archduchess Gabriela of Austria, was born in Luxembourg and is the daughter of Otto von Habsburg, the former crown prince of Austria.

...Von Habsburg has been teaching at the Academy of Arts in Tbilisi since 2001 and has Georgian citizenship. She is well-known as a sculptor of abstract stainless steel structures.

She has constructed a stone memorial in Tbilisi to the 2003 Rose Revolution that brought President Mikheil Saakashvili to power and participated in pro-Georgia protests during last year's conflict with Russia.

The Habsburgs ruled the Holy Roman Empire from 1438 to 1806, and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1867 until its demise in 1918 at the end of World War I when it was allied with Germany.


10. Bildt's inaction breeds suspicion in Israel


Israel’s government remains surprised that Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt has yet to reschedule a previously cancelled trip to Israel.

Custom dictates that the foreign minister of the country currently holding the rotating presidency of the European Union pay a visit to officials in Jerusalem.

Bildt had a visit scheduled to take place in September, but the trip was cancelled shortly before it was to take place.

While Bildt cited scheduling conflicts in announcing his decision to forego the September visit, there was speculation in the Israeli press that the Swedish foreign minister decided to skip his trip to avoid dealing with latent hostility following an article published in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet alleging that the Israeli army had harvested organs from dead Palestinians.

According to a high ranking official in Israel’s foreign ministry, the silence from Bildt regarding a new date for the visit has come as a surprise to officials in Jerusalem, who now suspect that the Swedish foreign minister may be sending a message to Israel.

“If he were a newcomer to diplomacy, it could be somewhat defensible. But Carl Bildt is a very intelligent and experienced man. That makes us think it’s more likely some sort of signal,” the Israeli foreign ministry source told the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper.

Bildt spokesperson Irena Busic insisted, however, that Bildt intends to visit Israel before Sweden’s EU presidency ends at the end of the year, but she had no specifics regarding a possible date.

Relations between Sweden and Israel remain strained following the publishing of the Aftonbladet article about organ theft, with both Bildt and prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt refusing to publicly condemn the story, despite repeated demands from Israel.

Both argue that speaking out against the article would violate free speech protections in Sweden’s constitution.


ayuh. i definitely think it's a signal. - ed.

the division of Iraq

1. factional rivalry escalates in Iraq after deadly weekend attacks

NO DOUBT THE GOAL OF THE DEADLY ATTACKS. - ed.


SUNDAY’S MASSIVE bomb blasts that killed at least 155 people in Baghdad have exacerbated factional bickering and failed to inject urgency into deliberations of senior Iraqi politicians on an election law for the projected January parliamentary poll.

Speaking for many Iraqis, Hadi al-Ameri, a deputy from the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, castigated prime minister Nuri al-Maliki of the rival Dawa party.

He claimed Iraqi forces were capable of providing security on a daily basis and for the election.

“We’ve heard a lot of brouhaha about successes on the security front. Where are those successes?” Mr Ameri said.

read more @ irish times


2. Riyadh condemns Baghdad attacks, slams Israel over mosque

HOLLYWOOD HERE WE COME - ed.

Saudi Arabia on Monday condemned the twin suicide bombings that killed around 100 people in the heart of Baghdad in the deadliest day in Iraq for two years. Riyadh also called on the international community to respond to Israel's "violations of holy places in Jerusalem," after Israeli police clashed with Palestinians worshippers around the Al-Aqsa mosque compound.

The cabinet chaired by King Abdullah condemned "the terrorist attacks on government buildings in Baghdad which killed and wounded hundreds of innocent people," a statement said. Baghdad's governor has blamed negligence or even collusion by the security forces for Sunday's devastating bombings at the justice ministry and the capital's provincial government headquarters.

The Saudi cabinet also urged world powers "to accept their responsibilities in the face of (Israel's) violation of holy places in Jerusalem." Israeli police twice entered Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Sunday and clashed with stone-throwing Palestinian youths, after Muslim leaders called on their followers to defend the site.

source: al manar tv

"Every Sunni terrorist outfit, especially all those described as being "al Qaida related" are CIA sponsored, using Saudi money, under ISI direction, facilitated by the Mossad." source

creative ways to kill people

1. possible explanation for why the census bureau took GPS readings at your front door


by Walter Burien
10/25/09

The government census has over the last year made a very big push to get GPS readings at your front door as many reading this are aware of.

When they came to your house they did not ask "any" questions that a census taker would normally ask such as how many live here; where are you from; what is your name; how old are you; how many children, the only thing they were assigned to do was take a GPS reading at the entrance to your property and at your front door.
...

I strongly recommend that each and every one of you watch this short 4 minute US Air Force video - http://video.designworldonline.com/bugbots.html It is your government and tax dollars at work and the final intent for use may just be for each and every one of us. No paranoia, just 1 + 1 = 2 on real application. But then nothing to be concerned about, our government would not do this to US, now would they?


???? read more here


2. Cargill hamburger conspiracy - mixing shit and meat


(October 26, 2009) The United States Department of Agriculture has been exposed by the New York Times together with the US meat industry in a criminal conspiracy and fraud against American citizens.

In an article called "E. Coli Path Shows Flaws in Beef Inspection," the Times reports that a woman called Stephanie Smith was paralyzed after being struck down by E.coli traced to a hamburger she had eaten.

Why? Because the meat industry is allowed to sell cow feces mixed with meat as "hamburger."

The New York Times then explains why eating hamburger is always a gamble.

"Neither the system meant to make the meat safe, nor the meat itself, is what consumers have been led to believe, " the Times reports
(http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/health/04meat.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all)

"Ground beef is usually not simply a chunk of meat run through a grinder. Instead, records and interviews show, a single portion of hamburger meat is often an amalgam of various grades of meat from different parts of cows and even from different slaughterhouses.

read more @ conspiracy planet


BTW, Cargill shows up on this list.

sneaky murderous & racist israel

1. Israel caught trying to murder Turkish PM Erdogan

An e-mail found on a personal computer belonging to one of the members of the underground Ergenekon organization exposed Mossad's role in the failed assassination efforts against Erdogan, Turkish media outlets reported on Friday.

The organization has been accused of orchestrating a coup plot against the current Turkish administration.

The indictment list tabled by the Turkish prosecution against the organization says that an Israeli journalist had sent the e-mail to a number of Ergenekon figures to inform them of Israeli readiness to assassinate the Turkish premier.

According to sources in the Turkish press, the e-mail promised support for Mr. Dugo -- whose identity has not been revealed -- against Erdogan after coordination with Mossad chief Meir Dagan.

The e-mail explained that the Mossad would wait for a green light from Mr. Dugo to carry on with the assassination plans.

read more @ suraci



2. Israel to UN: we'll continue spying in Southern Lebanon

Israeli daily Haaretz revealed on Monday that Israel informed the United Nations that it will continue its spying activities in Southern Lebanon after the United Nations has asked the Zionist entity for clarifications on "listening devices" that were uncovered near the village of Hula in southern Lebanon last week. The request was made following an official Lebanese petition to the UN.
...
The western diplomat said that Hayman did not deny that the equipment was Israeli listening devices, and did not respond directly to the questions asked by his interlocutors. However, he did stress that Israel will make use of its intelligence gathering capabilities so long as Hezbollah pose what he called a threat. "Israel will continue to use all means necessary to defend its citizens," Hayman was quoted as claiming.

read more @ al manar tv


3. Israel cutting Palestinian water

Israel is denying Palestinians adequate access to clean, safe water while allowing almost unlimited supplies to Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, human rights group Amnesty International has said. "Swimming pools, well-watered lawns and large irrigated farms in Israeli settlements... stand in stark contrast next to Palestinian villages whose inhabitants struggle even to meet their domestic water needs," the group said in a report released on Tuesday.

Amnesty said between 180,000 and 200,000 Palestinians in West Bank rural communities have no access to running water, while taps in other areas often run dry. "Israel allows the Palestinians access to only a fraction of the shared water resources, which lie mostly in the occupied West Bank", Donatella Rovera, an Amnesty researcher, said.

read more @ al manar tv

mysterious deaths and disappearances

1. five die in private jet crash near Minsk

MOSCOW, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Five people were killed in the crash of a Russian business plane near Minsk, the Belarusian capital, on Monday night, Itar-Tass news agency reported. Three crew members and two passengers were on board the plane when it crashed near the Minsk international airport, a Belarusian emergency services official was quoted by Itar-Tass as saying.

The business jet took off from Moscow's Vnukovo airport, and crashed following a failed attempt to make emergency landing, the official said. The wreckage of the plane was found 4 km from the runway.

According to the jet's operator, the S-Air Company, there should have been six people aboard the plane, but the sixth person did not board. The Moscow-based S-Air is a small private company which provides charter services to top-level executives and government officials.

2. Air France crash investigators to issue new report

PARIS — French accident investigators will publish a second interim report in December on the crash of Air France Flight 447 from Brazil to France, a spokeswoman for the investigators said Monday.

The report will contain investigators’ findings on weather conditions, the flight’s automatic maintenance messages and an analysis of "incoherent speed readings" from other flights, said Martine Del Bono, a spokeswoman for France’s accident investigation agency BEA.
...

The BEA released its first set of preliminary findings in July, saying the accident represents one of history’s most challenging plane crash investigations. The probe, which has operated without access to the plane’s flight data and voice recorders, appears so far to have unveiled little about what really caused the accident.

read more @ boston herald


3. CIA link revealed in Castro family revelations

The sister of Fidel and Raul Castro, has admitted to collaborating with the US Central Intelligence Agency. Juanita Castro, speaking on the Spanish-language television channel Univision-Noticias in Florida, said her brother Fidel, the then president of Cuba, had been aware of her involvement.

...
Ms Castro,76, said she had been approached by the CIA in the early 1960s after settling in Mexico. She was later accepted for residence by the US government.

read more @ brazilnews


4. Alexander Wien's trial begins in Germany - his identity continues to be protected - who is this murderous prick?

The state prosecutor said yesterday that Wiens “intended to kill” in an attack “motivated by pure hatred of Muslims”. Wiens (28) was brought to court in an armoured vehicle, wearing a hooded top, with a black scarf and sunglasses obscuring his face.

He was fined €50 for failing to remove the glasses and sat motionless behind reinforced glass.

read more @ irish times

LOOK AT THIS COWARD! MAKE HIM TAKE THAT SHIT OFF SO WE CAN SEE HIS FACE. - ED.

and from Bild, a German source - somehow the innocent Muslim woman being murdered becomes twisted into Islamophobia! GO FIGURE. - ed.

excerpt:

Rolf Tophoven (71), director of the Terror Research Institute in Essen, explained the explosiveness of the situation: “At this trial there is a danger that, whatever may happen according to the law, militant Islamists will use it as an instrument to agitate against Germany.”

In addition, there is the danger of an assassination attempt on the killer. Never has security been so high at a trial in Saxony. A bullet-proof glass wall 2.5 meters tall has been placed between the 44 people in the gallery and those involved in the trial.

Frosted windows have been put in place and 220 police officers are guarding to building, where no other trials are being held. Two security checks, metal detectors, and control zones have all been put in place.

A verdict is expected on November 11.

5. pool death sets back fight for Madoff compensation

The fight to compensate victims of Bernard Madoff's $65bn (£40bn) Ponzi scheme has been thrown into uncertainty following the death of the biggest beneficiary of the fraud.

Jeffry Picower was found at the bottom of his swimming pool on Sunday. A Florida coroner ruled last night that the billionaire philanthropist died of natural causes following a heart attack, ending any suspicions of foul play. [ha ha hah ahhahahhah - ed.]

The 67-year old Picower was worth around $1bn, making him one of the 400 richest people in America, and had invested with Madoff for more than 30 years.

read more @ guardian


6. Somali pirates claimed to have seized British couple's yacht

Rescuers were today searching for a British couple feared to have been kidnapped by pirates off the east coast of Africa. Paul and Rachel Chandler, who were sailing from the Seychelles to Tanzania, have not been heard from since Friday when the emergency beacon on their yacht, the Lynn Rival, was activated.

The British maritime and coastguard agency confirmed the beacon had been activated at 11pm on 23 October. Officials said the Seychelles authorities were carrying out a search-and-rescue operation in the area where the boat was last known to have been. It is understood that pirate activity was reported in the region earlier that day.

read more @ guardian

US & Japan not sharing military toys like they used to

Gates gets grumpy in Tokyo

By Peter J Brown

United States Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has to be more mindful of his body language. It says a lot about his state of mind. This is something that can be developed by playing poker, among other things, and given the very high stakes game that is unfolding in Asia, perhaps a round of cards might be just what Gates needs.

[blah blah blah....scroll scroll scroll...oh ha look here military technology discussion! - ed.]

Much to the extreme disappointment of many Japanese military officials and defense planners, what is dead is any hope that the US will export the F-22 to Japan. This stealthy and sophisticated fighter jet has been high on Japan's list for months, even while F-22 weather-related problems, and those related to heavy rain in particular, made this aircraft seem not as invincible as it appeared.

In turn, Gates got not so good news when it came to Japanese exports. Perhaps this was another reason for that unhappy look on his face. After all, besides the base controversy, Gates was in Tokyo to win Japanese approval for SM-3 Block 2A missile exports.

SM-3 Block 2A missiles are state-of-the-art anti-missile weapons that can be deployed on ships. The US and Japan have been working together on this system as well as other high-tech anti-submarine and other cutting-edge defense hardware and software.

Gates, however, is once again confronting anti-US sentiment in the ruling coalition with the Social Democratic Party clearly in the driver's seat on this one. And any deal that would overturn the long-established Japanese ban on weapons exports to nations - other than joint US-Japanese anti-missile systems and components exported to the US - let alone any US-driven deal to this effect, faces stiff resistance.

In other words, when Gates brought this issue up during his meeting with Kitazawa, the Japanese defense minister showed that body language is something he does know well, and he succeeded in not rolling his eyes as he politely informed Gates that the request would be given due consideration.

Because all the indicators point to a done deal down the road, Kitazawa was just being diplomatic, and perhaps pragmatic, just days before the latest round of elections in Japan - two by-elections were held last weekend.

Some in the US who have watched the debate over the viability of Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) technology might find this to be a curious offshore twist to the story of this missile defense program. In other words, whereas at one point KEI was close to termination as a program in the US, it seems as if it was alive and well - and well-funded - far away on the other side of the Pacific.

Japan's contribution in this instance involved the integrity of infrared ray sensors, while the US was responsible for the KEI projectile, which is designed to intentionally collide at very high speed with an incoming enemy ballistic missile.

One export item that remained under the radar screen last week was Mitsubishi Electric Corp's Proximity Link System (PLS), which will be used to guide US-based Orbital Science's future Cygnus resupply mission spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS)
during nine upcoming resupply missions for the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), starting in 2011.

Just days before Gates arrived in Japan, Mitsubishi Electric announced the $66 million PLS deal, which involved technology originally developed for use on the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV).

As unmanned PLS-equipped spacecraft approach the ISS, the PLS serves as an automated guidance, rendezvous and docking mechanism. It establishes a link to the Proximity Communication System, which was installed in the ISS with the Japanese Kibo Experimental Module.

The successful operation and reliability of the PLS has no doubt caught the attention of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and specifically the DARPA team working on the "Future, Fast, Flexible, Fractionated, Free-Flying spacecraft" project known simply as F6.

F6 involves replacing today's large monolithic spacecraft with clusters or groups of wirelessly linked elements, or nodes, which execute or replicate a specific spacecraft function. You simply unite these nodes together in space, and presto, you have a satellite.

PLS would greatly enhance recoupling to the extent that pairs of F6 nodes would engage in refueling or other mated operations in space. However, because under the existing Japanese export rules, a PLS system could not be exported to the US for use by DARPA - again the "D" stands for "Defense" - DARPA will have to look elsewhere or Japan will have to further revise and amend its export regulations.

So, whereas SM-3 Block 2A missiles can be exported to the US under exemption approved in 2004, perhaps PLS systems can only be exported the US on a limited basis, and only to non-defense US customers at this time absent further revisions or amendments.


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