Tuesday 24 December 2002

Does the British Ambassador know something we don't?

Of course we have to be messing around with Venezuela, it's about the oil stupid! Phony Tony and the Cronies just love oil and oil companies and oil companies' private jets...

People of the world know that these WANKERS do NOT represent the Great British public!


Editorial by VHeadline.com

Funny / strange about British Ambassador John Hughes’ decision to tell ex-pats to leave Venezuela.

- Does the Embassy know something we don’t?
- Has it a whiff of a coup or something just as bad?

According to radio reports reaching the UK, some ex-pats are questioning the wisdom of the Ambassador’s decision, saying they feel safe in Venezuela, even though they are understandably apprehensive about the outcome of the unending stand-off between the government and the opposition.

"Although gasoline supplies have started trickling in, Confederation of Trade Unions (CTV) president Carlos Ortega’s jibe that if it took the government 17 days to move one merchant navy tanker, how long will it take to get the economy moving again, has a ring of truth."

The government’s decision, yesterday, to set up a unified command to manage the restoration of oil and food supplies indicates that it wasn’t really prepared for the consequences of the oil industry stoppage, despite having an abundance of military officers with university degrees.

Yes, it is indeed strange that the British want out ... despite the granting of natural gas fields to British Gas and other JVs in the offing.

The Venezuelan government could be forgiven if it started referring to the UK by its more descriptive adage “Perfidious Albion.”

What the Ambassador has done is to play the opposition card using the argument that Embassy staff and ex-pats will not be able to avail themselves of gasoline at the pumps and will soon be unable to purchase food supplies.

Full story...

My Digital Strategy to Fill in the Memory Hole

I've been saying it for years, the Internet has changed the playing field and those stupid megalomaniacs don't even really realise it yet! The know something has changed as do we all, but this kind of change is so fundamental to how society operates that no-one can know what shape it will take until it manifests.

THIS IS MUST READ MATERIAL!


by Gary North

Every modern political regime's eschatological vision requires legitimacy in order to be sustained in the hearts and minds of the voters, who are officially identified as the sole agents of legitimacy. Without legitimacy, the regime will fall.

Here is the supreme problem for most modern political regimes and all empires, always: the degree of lying necessary to sustain the public's faith in the ability of a regime to deliver on its eschatological promises is far greater than the public is prepared to accept. If the lies are uncovered and then believed, not only is the regime's ability to deliver the future called into question, the legitimacy of the regime's eschatological vision may be called into question. Political survival therefore depends on the ability of the regime to keep the de-legitimizing truth from the public.

Into our world of flawed political eschatologies, systematic lies, and misplaced legitimacy has come the Internet – ironically, a physical infrastructure put in place by the United States Defense Department. The Internet got away from its inventors because of Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the address system that made possible the World Wide Web. Then came the Web browser, developed by a group of students at the University of Minnesota. Then came Netscape and Internet Explorer. "And the rest is history!" This, from the politicians' point of view, is the essence of the problem: history.

An international digital revolution – no other word suffices – is today verifying Hayek's theory of the spontaneous order. It is also undermining the efforts of various not-so-spontaneous orders. One by one, the Internet is castrating the bodyguard of lies.

Full story...

Mossad's Subliminal Mind Control

"kee betachbulot ta'ase lecha milchama"

by Joe Vialls

As an unprecedented and illegal massed attack on Iraq approaches, thousands of web sites and pages are being hacked and removed from the Internet, especially those carrying scientific data which might in later years assist members of the public to parade various western politicians, bureaucrats and “media personalities’ in front of war crimes tribunals. This Internet “pruning” is deemed essential in the run-up to the new American carnage in Iraq, itself aimed solely at capturing oil-rich Muslim sovereign nations in the Middle East, for their new Zionist “owners” .in downtown New York and Tel Aviv.

This report was first posted on the Internet in late 2001 to explain the most foul Mossad subliminal exercise in modern history, which induced millions of viewers world wide to believe that nearly half a million American, British and Australian servicemen fought the Gulf War for Israel. Then two weeks ago it fell victim to the Internet “Purge”, being suddenly “removed” from the web along with 120 other detailed reports on atrocities by Israel in general, and by the Mossad in particular. Here it is again in all its essentials, edited only slightly to take into account the forth- coming needless sacrifice of American, British and Australian lives.

Back in 1990-1991, tens of millions of television viewers were confronted by thousands of images of American battle tanks thundering across the open desert in hot pursuit of the “Evil Tyrant” Saddam Hussein. They were enormously influential images, showing the most powerful army on earth striking repeated massive blows at the heart of Islam.

Full story...

codshit mirror of the above story

Germany Casts Doubt on Warning of Al Qaeda Attack

Given the propensity of our government to lie through their teeth about absolutely everything any warings about impending "terrorist" activity should be taken with a large pinch of salt.

German prosecutors said on Monday they were investigating an anonymous tip that an al Qaeda cell may be planning attacks across Europe, but the government said it did not appear to be genuine.

The interior ministry said the warning -- which included names of the alleged attackers -- came in anonymous letters weeks ago, but a preliminary analysis by German security experts determined it was most probably not a real threat.

"We do not believe this has any sort of a terrorist background of any relevance," a ministry spokesman told a news conference on Monday.

Stern magazine had reported that the American, British and French consulates received unsigned letters warning about attacks, including the use of biological weapons, that could be coming soon from a 50-member al Qaeda group operating in Europe.

Full story...

War is Peace - Freedom is Slavery - Ignorance is Strength

Understand this; you are being lied to.

The terms of political discourse typically have two meanings. One is the dictionary meaning, and the other is a meaning that is useful for serving power -- the doctrinal meaning.

Take democracy. According to the common-sense meaning, a society is democratic to the extent that people can participate in a meaningful way in managing their affairs. But the doctrinal meaning of democracy is different -- it refers to a system in which decisions are made by sectors of the business community and related elites. The public are to be only "spectators of action," not "participants," as leading democratic theorists (in this case, Walter Lippmann) have explained. They are permitted to ratify the decisions of their betters and to lend their support to one or another of them, but not to interfere with matters -- like public policy -- that are none of their business.

If segments of the public depart from their apathy and begin to organize and enter the public arena, that's not democracy. Rather, it's a crisis of democracy in proper technical usage, a threat that has to be overcome in one or another way: in El Salvador, by death squads -- at home, by more subtle and indirect means.

Or take free enterprise, a term that refers, in practice, to a system of public subsidy and private profit, with massive government intervention in the economy to maintain a welfare state for the rich. In fact, in acceptable usage, just about any phrase containing the word "free" is likely to mean something like the opposite of its actual meaning.

Or take defense against aggression, a phrase that's used -- predictably -- to refer to aggression. When the US attacked South Vietnam in the early 1960s, the liberal hero Adlai Stevenson (among others) explained that we were defending South Vietnam against "internal aggression" -- that is, the aggression of South Vietnamese peasants against the US air force and a US-run mercenary army, which were driving them out of their homes and into concentration camps where they could be "protected" from the southern guerrillas. In fact, these peasants willingly supported the guerillas, while the US client regime was an empty shell, as was agreed on all sides.

So magnificently has the doctrinal system risen to its task that to this day, 30 years later, the idea that the US attacked South Vietnam is unmentionable, even unthinkable, in the mainstream. The essential issues of the war are, correspondingly, beyond any possibility of discussion now. The guardians of political correctness (the real PC) can be quite proud of an achievement that would be hard to duplicate in a well-run totalitarian state.

Full story...

Monday 23 December 2002

Panama invasion: the story of a people's tragedy

The secret plot behind the US attack 13 years ago.

"Traitors", might cried the chief of the Panamanian Armed Forces, Manuel Antonio Noriega, when the US Army invaded his country on December 20th 1989. But why he might cried that? Noriega used to stay in the CIA payroll since 1972, when his links with drug trafficking where very well known by Nixon's administration. However, another Republican President, George Bush, decided to take him to the US courts, with a balance of 2.000 Panamanians dead.

Panama obtained its independence from Colombia on November 3rd 1903, with the help of the United States of America. Before that date Panamanians did not take very seriously their will for independence. However, Colombian opposition to the US construction of a Canal on the thin piece of land where today Panama is, surprisingly revived their "National Spirit". When Panama declared independence, Washington was the first country in recognizing it and the new Panamanian authorities thanked this attitude by handing over the territory where the Canal was finally constructed, only fifteen days after. By that time, Panama did not even had a Constitution to state how this new country was supposed to be named.

Since then, Panama's internal affairs started being handled from its Capital, Washington and controlled by its tiny European elite, less than 10% of the population. As Noam Chomsky states on his book "What Uncle Sam Really Wants", that changed in 1968, when Omar Torrijos, a populist general, led a coup that allowed the black and mestizo [mixed-race] poor to obtain at least a share of the power under his military dictatorship. In 1981, Torrijos was killed in a plane crash. By 1983, the effective ruler was Manuel Noriega, a criminal who had been a cohort of Torrijos and US intelligence.

Full story...

IMF Policies Have Reduced African Countries to Their Weakest Levels

Dr Kaunda is the only world leader that I've ever met personally and I must say I was impressed by the man, I still am even though Zambia is a shambles it kind of proves that it wasn't his fault... Anyway, this article isn't about him it's about the IMF and how completely crap they really are. My humble advice to any developing country, tell the IMF where to go. There are enough resources in the so-called "third" world that if they really clubbed together they would need the IMF, the World Bank or any other "International" organisation. Joe Stiglitz agrees with him which should also tell you something, the IMF and World Bank exist to further the fortunes of the International Bankers, it's as simple as that.

International Monetary Fund's (IMF) bad economic programmes have reduced African countries' economies to their weakest levels, first Zambian Republican president Dr. Kenneth Kaunda has said.

Addressing students at University of Florida's Centre for African Studies, Dr. Kaunda said while there were similar problems in other parts of the world, such as Asia and Latin America, Southern African countries faced the harshest economic, social, and political pressures in the world.

"Unless we act very quickly, Southern African countries risk losing the post-independence gains made in education, social development, nutrition, water and sanitation, infrastructure, and the general economy," Dr. Kaunda said. "We risk regressing to at least 50 years ago."

Dr. Kaunda told the students that IMF's bad economic programmes had deprived the Africans of basic services. He cited the provision of health and education services as some of the basic services that had greatly been affected by the IMF's bad policies.

Full story...

Instead of a debate over war, there's been a national shrug

I think deep down people realise that everything is contrived and controlled by a small group pf people - those that spend any time thinking about anything anyway. The media ignores our perspective to a very large extent, concentrating instead on "reality" TV and mindless brainless "pop idols". That's the whole game plan; keep the masses numb and bloated from endless hours of mindless shyt "entertainment" and then do whatever you like. People seem to have become either so cynical about the system or so numbed by it that they simply give up control to those in power.

The press hounds barked over 'Cheriegate', so why are they silent on Iraq?

by Jackie Ashley

Earth, Love it or Loose it - Copyright © 2001 Jim Warren, All Rights Reserved. Hands up all those who really think that George Bush is not determined to attack Iraq some time soon. Hands up all those who think that if he does so without UN authority Tony Blair will turn round and say: "Sorry Buddy, you're on your own." Not many takers, I bet. And yet the political conversation in this country has become surreal. Tony Blair and the rest of the government speak and act as if we are going through a patient, careful, international review of Iraq's weaponry. War, they say, may still not happen, so it's pointless to discuss "what ifs".

Everyone knows this is nonsense. We are preparing for conflict very soon: tens of thousands of American troops are already in the region, British and US warships are sailing, special forces and marines are being inoculated against anthrax, Bush has cancelled his trip to Africa. We are going to war, but Tony hasn't quite got round to telling us. By the time we wake up from our Christmas hangovers, the momentum will be unstoppable, just as in 1914, once the armies were moving, it was too late to alter the railway timetables.

You might have imagined that the country would be riven by argument and debate. After all, most people seem at best confused about the need to attack Iraq. The connection between the terrorist threat at home and the Bagdhad regime seems more rhetorical than proven. Ministers in private express their bemusement and count through unanswered questions on the fingers of both hands. But they, like the anti-war party, inside the Labour party and outside it, sound fatalistic. So far, there's been a great national shrug. If this is what Tony wants, this is what Tony will get. It is almost as if the country has lost the power of speech, let alone any relish for disagreement.

Full story...

Camp X-Ray Farce

They're not even Al Qa'ida, does Al Qa'ida even exist? I'm not so sure any more.

Dozens of inmates held at Camp X-Ray were never al-Qaeda or Taliban terror suspects, it was revealed yesterday.

They were sent to the US prison in Cuba despite strong objections from intelligence officers in Afghanistan - who said they should be released.

The chaos has caused major rows in the military, with former camp boss Major General Michael Dunlavey complaining that too many "Mickey Mouse" detainees were being sent there.

Full story...

Russia Backs Iraq, Says War Counter To Moscow Interests

Doesn't that headline just fill you with an abundance of yuletide cheer? Thinking about it, this serves as an interesting sequel to the Moscow theatre hijack there are those who believe that the attack was instigated by foreign forces to ensure Russian approval at the UN... Interesting...

Russia stood up firmly for Iraq by declaring that a military campaign there ran counter to Moscow's national interests and urging Washington to strictly abide by UN resolutions on the conflict.

"The most important thing is making sure that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction," Foreign Minister Ivanov said in an interview with Channel One, broadcast first in Russia's far eastern regions, and picked up by news agencies.

"All other goals run counter to our interests," Ivanov said in reference to the military campaign.

Ivanov called on Washington to abide by the rules of UN Security Council resolution 1441 -- which sets strict conditions for Iraqi compliance with weapons inspection -- that he stressed was the best method for assuring that Saddam Hussein's regime disarmed.

Full story...

Embittered Bethlehem Prepares For Bleak Christmas

What makes me most sad is that if you put Bethlehem in Google Images and do a search, the first two fookin' piccies that come up are of poxy Israeli troops on the streets! I think that just about says it all so I've replicated the picture below :-( I'm not a Christian but it still sucks.

Saint Catherine's church is filled with worshippers on a wet Sunday morning, but exiting the edifice they confessed this Christmas will the "bleakest" of their lives.

"This will be the bleakest Christmas ever because we've been robbed of our freedom," says Johnny Babun, in his 40s, whose garage and car wash business was razed by the Israeli army two years ago.

"We will find solace at the midnight mass, beyond that there won't be any Christmas celebrations," he says, adding that "ironically we'll commemorate the birth of Christ, the man who embodies peace."

Father Gianni, from the church adjoining the Basilica of Nativity, which is revered as Jesus Christ's birthplace, is confident Christmas celebrations will proceed uninterrupted.

Full story...

UN chief issues secret orders for war in Iraq

Tht United Nations is making secret contingency plans for a war that would halt all Iraqi oil production, “seriously degrade” the country’s electricity system, provoke civil unrest and create 900,000 refugees, The Times has learnt.

Internal UN documents predict that the worst fighting will be in the three central governorates around Baghdad, with the Kurdish-controlled north remaining largely free of conflict. But it will take a month after war breaks out before the predominantly Shia south is calm enough for UN humanitarian workers to work there.

Although formally expressing the hope that war can be averted, UN relief agencies are already positioning emergency supplies and updating evacuation procedures for the hundreds of international staff now inside Iraq.

“The UN expects that there will be full compliance by Iraq . . . and that, consequently, there will be no new humanitarian crisis,” one document says. “Nevertheless, UN agencies must ensure that they are adequately prepared for the full range of possible scenarios.”

Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, is trying to keep the preparations secret for fear of signalling to Iraq that weapons inspections are futile and a US-led attack is inevitable.

Full story...

Sharon War Plan Exposed

In spite of Israel’s intervention in Cisjordan and the Gaza Strip, violent clashes have continued between Israel and militant Palestinian organizations. In the majority of the incidents, the familiar organisations have declared themselves responsible for the attacks: Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, the Al-Kassam Brigades, the Al-Aksa Brigades and others. Among the 13 Palestinians that were locked up in Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity there were also supporters of the above-mentioned terror organizations including two who belong to the Hamas movement. Experienced observers of the political development in the Middle East have noted that often after a period of peace a deliberate attack, either on a Palestinian leader or on Israeli citizens, takes place. A new military conflict results. These conflicts mostly culminate in the destruction of Palestinian institutions. There is something clearly irregular about such recurrences, and one cannot help suspecting that certain forces, hidden to the public eye, are at work.

This article, written in July 2001 by the historian Jeffrey Steinberg, explains one possible cause for what is going on. His theory has since been alarmingly confirmed and has lost nothing or its topicality ever given the continuing bloodshed in the region.

Highly placed U.S.-based sources have provided EIR with details of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plans for a new Mideast war, plans that were set in motion within days of his taking office earlier this year, and which are now set to be activated. According to the sources, shortly after he was elected, Sharon met with a group of trusted political and military allies, and spelled out, in several confidential memos, a war plan targetting the Palestinian Authority, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and other Arab neighbors.

Full story...

Sunday 22 December 2002

Cheney Blocks Worldwide Cheap Drugs Deal

As if we needed more reasons to loath Dick Cheney, here's a classic case of capitalism gone mad!

Merry Christmas Dick, I hope you choke on your turkey!


Dick Cheney, the US vice-president, last night blocked a global deal to provide cheap drugs to poor countries, following intense lobbying of the White House by America's pharmaceutical giants.

Faced with furious opposition from all the other 140 members of the World Trade Organisation, the US refused to relax global patent laws which keep the price of drugs beyond reach of most developing countries.

Talks at the WTO's Geneva headquarters collapsed last night after the White House ruled out a deal which would have permitted a full range of life-saving drugs to be imported into Africa, Asia and Latin America at cut-price costs.

"The United States has announced it cannot join the consensus," the Brazilian negotiator, Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, said.

Sources in Geneva said last night that the negotiating strategy had come straight from the White House, with Mr Cheney seizing the reins from America's trade negotiator, Robert Zoellick.

Full story...

MI5 could have stopped the bomb going off

According to reports, Punch was forced to pulp all copies of this issue of their magazine by MI5. Another example of how the British government has been involved in committing acts of terrorism in order to implement fascist terrorism laws and erode civil liberties.

The Bishopsgate blast in 1993 was one of the worst acts of terrorism London has ever seen. David Shayler reveals the damning truth about the catastrophe.

The story begins on Friday August 7, 1992, during an MI5 investigation into the Provisional IRA (PIRA the MI5 term) operation on the British mainland. An MI5 officer is on the third floor of the organisation's building in Curzon Street, drafting the situation report for the investigation into an active service unit (ASU) which has been followed, moving suspicious trucks around West London.

Reporting indicates that the ASU is planning a large-scale attack in London, like the ones that took place six months earlier at the Baltic Exchange in the City and at Staples Corner near the M1/M25 intersection. The situation report will go out to all services involved in the operation, updating them on the state of play.

That Friday evening, all is calm. The joint Met S Squad/MI5 surveillance team has tracked the lorry to a trailer park in Northwest London. The ASU is under control and it looks like any potential attack will be thwarted and the culprits caught red-handed.

This is the last operation with the MPSB (the Metropolitan Police Special Branch), leading the intelligence investigation. Home Secretary Kenneth Clarke has already decided to switch the roles of MI5 and the MPSB for IRA investigations in Britain. After October 1, 1992, MI5 will be in charge and MPSB will offer support.

Full story...

America tore out 8000 pages of Iraq dossier

Shows you how much embarrassing stuff must have been in that report, these people are not interested in nucleur non-proliferation they want to hide their own rampant greed. If you look at the list of companies who armed Saddam, the ruling elites of the USA and UK own almost all of them. It's open deception and they don't seem to care who knows about it; afterall all the only thing they have to do is brand any dissenter a "conspiracy kook" and the public will ignore anything said - no matter how true it may be.

The United States edited out more than 8000 crucial pages of Iraq's 11,800-page dossier on weapons, before passing on a sanitised version to the 10 non-permanent members of the United Nations security council.

The full extent of Washington's complete control over who sees what in the crucial Iraqi dossier calls into question the allegations made by US Secretary of State Colin Powell that 'omissions' in the document constituted a 'material breach' of the latest UN resolution on Iraq.

Last week, Secretary General of the UN Kofi Annan accepted that it was 'unfortunate' that his organisation had allowed the US to take the only complete dossier and edit it. He admitted 'the approach and style were wrong' and Norway, a member of the security council, says it is being treated like a 'second-class country'.

Although Powell called the Iraqi dossier a 'catalogue of recycled information and flagrant omissions', the non-permanent members of the security council will have no way of testing the US claims for themselves. This will be crucial if the US and the UK go back to the security council seeking explicit authorisation for war on Iraq if breaches of resolution 1441 are confirmed when the weapons inspectors -- this weekend investigating 10 sites in Iraq, including an oil refinery south of Baghdad -- deliver their report to the UN next month.

Full story...

Pilger - The Secret War on Iraq

Bush's Venezuelan Breakdown

With so many in the Bush administration able to speak Spanish, the phrase no aprende ni a palos should have a familiar ring. If not, one need only examine the White House's recent actions regarding Venezuela to understand that the words refer to someone who never learns -- just doesn't seem to get it -- even when hit upside the head with a stick.

How else to explain why, for the second time in eight months, the administration recklessly threw its weight behind the political opposition in that very volatile country at a moment when choosing sides threatened to trigger an explosive reaction.

By forcefully calling on Dec. 13 for early -- and therefore unconstitutional -- presidential elections, the administration jeopardized the delicate balance developing in Caracas after weeks of negotiations between President Hugo Chavez's government and its democratic opponents. Facilitated by Cesar Gaviria, the secretary general of the Organization of American States, the talks have been the best hope for a peaceful solution to a long-simmering crisis.

Full story...

Venezuela - The mystery assassin

Were The 911 Hijackers Really Arabs? Maybe Not

Were those hijackers really Arabs? Would Israeli agents carry out a suicide mission that could cost American Jewish lives?

Consider these little-known facts . . .

In 1986, the New York-based leader of the terrorist Jewish Defense League, Victor Vancier, gave a prophetic hint of what may have been finally played out on Sept. 11, 2001:

"If you think the Shias in Lebanon are capable of fantastic acts of suicidal terrorism, the Jewish underground will strike targets that will make Americans gasp: 'How could Jews do such things?'"

According to Vancier, quoted by Robert I. Friedman in The Village Voice on May 6, 1986, his allies were "desperate people" who "don't care if they live or die."

Considering this warning it is entirely conceivable the "Middle Eastern" men described by passengers on the airliners were not Arabs at all.

Evidence to be explored suggests that instead, these hijackers could well have been Israeli-sponsored fundamentalist Jewish fanatics (posing as "bin Laden Arabs") hoping to instigate an all-out U.S. war against the Arab world.

"Jewish suicide bombers? Impossible!" cry critics. However, the fact is that there is a "suicide tradition" that is a much-revered part of Jewish history--going back to the famous mass suicide at Masada by Jewish zealots.

Full story...

UK sells chemical weapons to the world

The people who sell these weapons do not do so in the interests of the British people, we as a nation are opposed to such barbaric weapons. Our government on the other-hand is full of lying hypocritical war-mongers and do NOT represent us. This is just further evidence of the fact that our political system has lost its direction, our leaders are the whores of Capitalism. Phony Tony and His Cronies are in it for themselves and their mates, nothing more and nothing less.

Britain is supplying chemical warfare technology to 26 countries including Libya, Syria, Israel and Iran -- which was labelled part of the 'axis of evil' by the United States.

A Sunday Herald investigation has revealed that the UK is allowing the export of the lethal chemicals, which are illegal under international law and controlled under the chemical weapons convention because they can be used in weapons of mass destruction.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), which authorised the sales, has admitted that it does not know whether the exports will be used to create chemical weapons once they are exported, or not.

Among the countries to which Britain is exporting 'toxic chemical precursors' (TCPs) is Sudan. The US bombed a factory in the Sudanese capital Khartoum in 1998 with the full support of the Blair government for allegedly producing the deadly VX nerve agent.

Full story...

Saturday 21 December 2002

Weapons inspectors turn fire on Britain and US

George Bush was under intense pressure yesterday to give UN weapons inspectors intelligence data that the US says proves Iraq is lying when it claims to have given up its weapons of mass destruction.

Hours before Mr Bush was to meet the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, and senior Russian and European representatives, Hans Blix, the chief weapons inspector, delivered a stinging attack on the US and Britain, accusing them of failing to co-operate with his team.

"If the UK and the US are convinced and they say they have evidence, then one would expect they would be able to tell us where is this stuff," Mr Blix said. Asked if he was getting enough co-operation from Western intelligence agencies, he said: "Not yet. We get some, but we don't get all we need."

Mr Blix spoke as inspections moved into a new, more intense phase. The Security Council has asked his team of weapons inspectors to provide a detailed assessment of Iraq's arms declaration on 9 January. Two days ago, Washington declared that omissions in the 12,000-page inventory submitted by Baghdad constituted a "material breach" of its obligations to the UN.

Full story...

British Firm Told How To Irradiate Kurds

A British security company which is under investigation by Scotland Yard over an alleged plot to kill a guerrilla leader proposed the use of radiation to poison Kurdish prisoners. Aims Ltd, of Salisbury, Wiltshire, which has close links to British intelligence and the SAS, offered to arrange to irradiate Kurdish rebels held by the Turks in northern Iraq.

The company told Turkish military authorities that after the Kurds were released the radiation would make it possible to track their movements and follow them to their bases. It added that the prisoners could fall ill from radiation poisoning within 21 days.

Aims is already being investigated by Scotland Yard after The Sunday Timesrevealed that it had plotted to assassinate Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Turkish PKK guerrilla group, for a fee of £5.75m. Now it faces fresh allegations that it has engaged in a string of mercenary activities. Confidential documents seen by The Sunday Times show that Brian Smith, the company's boss who goes by the name of "Tom", suggested the radiation poisoning in a five-page briefing document prepared for the Turkish security authorities.

Full story...

Friday 20 December 2002

A World's Shame: Child Soldiers

I bet you can't guess which two countries are the only non-signatories to the The Convention on the Rights of the Child??? Yes that's right those Third World hell-holes of Somalia and the USA. Yes America, that's right, your governement refuses to sign an agreement protecting the rights of the child. Instead your CIA funded stooges in places like the D.R. Congo are the immoral bastards recruiting the child soldiers in the first place! Merry fookin' Christmas Mr Bush!

From Burundi to Colombia; from the Philippines to Sri Lanka and in many other countries, Governments and rebel groups are recruiting children as soldiers, says a new United Nations report. According to UNICEF, there are around 300.000 child soldiers in more than 40 countries worldwide.

Most of the children in arms are in Africa and East Asia, but reports from Latin America and South East Europe show that the this indignant problem crosses almost the entire globe. For the first time the UN named those Governments and groups that recruit youths under 18 for military combat.

The report listed 23 groups including governments and rebel factions in five countries where child soldiering is common - Afghanistan, Burundi, Liberia, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In Colombia, for instance, irregular forces started a recruiting campaign in public schools located in the outskirts of the largest cities.

The standards being violated include a number of human rights pacts as well as an amendment to the 1990 Convention on the Rights of the Child that prohibits the use of children younger than 18 in combat. These standards apply to insurgent groups as well as governments, making them accountable for such actions, the report said.

Full story...

Is the Chief Suspect in the Anthrax Case Untouchable?

"Documents from the inquiry show that one unauthorized person who was observed entering the lab building at night was Langford's predecessor, Lt. Col. Philip Zack, who at the time no longer worked at Fort Detrick. A surveillance camera recorded Zack being let in at 8:40 p.m. on Jan. 23, 1992" --"Anthrax Missing From Army Lab", The Hartford Courant, January 20, 2002 By JACK DOLAN And DAVE ALTIMARI, Courant Staff Writers

TIME TO WAKE THE FUCK UP PEOPLE!!!!


Anthrax As Metaphor Is The Chief Suspect In The Anthrax Case Immune From Prosecution – And What Does That Say About Justice In America?

What do we need an "Office of Strategic Influence" for when we have the Wall Street Journal? Not to mention the rest of the American media, which just can't be as gullible as they seem to be. The latest anthrax stories – Al Qaeda was mixing huge vats of the stuff in the Afghan hinterlands, the hijackers sent it just before they clocked out, it's all an Iraqi plot – are such a compilation of cow-dung and other varieties of excrement that one imagines them writing this junk while holding their noses. Naturally, the War Street Journal is the absolute worst, building an editorial out of all these dubious elements and then standing, unsteadily, on the pinnacle of the rickety mess to proclaim:
"The evidence of Saddam's repeated efforts to acquire biological and chemical weapons is overwhelming, so it's hardly a leap to imagine that he might have shared that expertise with his like-minded friends in al Qaeda. The famous meeting in Prague between Mohammed Atta and an Iraqi agent is unlikely to be the sole connection between al Qaeda and Saddam.”

That's a leap of Olympic athleticism, one likely to set a world record. There is not a scintilla of evidence that the "famous" meeting in Prague ever happened, as Bob Novak points out. Yet this urban myth – which seems restricted to certain pundits, who repeat it endlessly and then quote each other – persists, in spite of the flimsiness of the evidence. And of course an "effort to acquire biological and chemical weapons" is not the same as a successful effort to do so.

As for the alleged like-mindedness of Saddam and Osama: the savagery of the former is secular, while the latter's is almost purely theo-pathological. Their actions are equally monstrous, but like-minded is precisely what these two monsters are not. Failure to understand this is to confess complete ignorance of the war bin Laden is waging. 9/11 was a declaration of religious war, or jihad, against the West. To the bin Ladenite – still smarting over the loss of Andalusia – the enemy is modernity.

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There is no invisible hand

A message to all those believers in Free Market Economics; YOU'RE WRONG - GET OVER IT! We should all listen long and hard to what Joe is saying, this guy knows his shit.

by Joseph Stiglitz

BUY THIS BOOK TODAY Three cheers for the latest Nobel laureates in economics: Daniel Kahneman of Princeton University, and Vernon Smith of George Mason University in Virginia. Like many Nobel prizes, these awards recognise not only the seminal work undertaken by Kahneman and Smith, but also the schools of thought they help to lead.
Kahneman, a psychologist, has demonstrated how individuals systematically behave in ways less rational than orthodox economists believe they do. His research shows not only that individuals sometimes act differently than standard economic theories predict, but that they do so regularly, systematically, and in ways that can be understood and interpreted through alternative hypotheses, competing with those utilised by orthodox economists.

To most market participants - and, indeed, ordinary observers - this does not seem like big news. Wall Street brokers who peddled stocks they knew to be garbage exploited the irrationality that Kahneman and Smith exposed. Much of the mania that led to the bubble economy was based on exploiting investor psychology.

In fact, this irrationality is no news to the economics profession either. John Maynard Keynes long ago described the stock market as based not on rational individuals struggling to uncover market fundamentals, but as a beauty contest in which the winner is the one who guesses best what the judges will say.

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Retreat by Nestle on Ethiopia's $6m debt

The greed of these people is unceasing, they have no shame, no morals and no humanity. This is what capitalism is all about, this is where those bastards want us to go. I strongly recommend anyone reading this to stop buying Nestle products, period. They're not scared of us as long as they think they can lie to us and get away with it, as soon as they are exposed they go running for cover. They are just cowardly capitalist scumbags!

Nestle, the world's largest coffee company, was forced into a humiliating climbdown yesterday after a wave of public outrage greeted its demand for a $6m (£3.7m) payment from the government of famine stricken Ethiopia.

The company promised to invest any money it receives from Ethiopia back in the country after receiving thousands of emails of protest in response to the story in yesterday's Guardian.

At an emergency meeting in its Swiss HQ last night, senior executives were mulling over the public relations damage. The claim represents about an hour's turnover for a company which posted sales of $59.36bn and pre-tax profits of $6.15bn last year.

Nestle - fearing a consumer boycott of its products across Europe - is considering donating some of the money it is demanding to help feed the 11 million Ethiopians who face starvation in coming months.

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Bush's Race to War Puts World at Risk

Any world leaders who sanction the invasion of Iraq should be put on trial for war-crimes. Any businessmen who make money out of the invasion of Iraq should be put on trial for war-crimes. This rush to war makes me sick to my stomach, IT MUST NOT HAPPEN!

Earth, Love it or Loose it - Copyright © 2001 Jim Warren, All Rights Reserved. The day has been marked in President Bush's diary. January 27, 2003. The date when he will decide on war against Iraq.

But no one really believes that a big decision will be taken in the White House on that day. The die was cast long ago.

Mr Bush and the warmongers in his cabinet want a war against Saddam Hussein. They say they must stop him because he has weapons of mass destruction.

But only one leader has weapons of mass destruction and plans to use them. His name is George W Bush and it is he who must be stopped.

What he plans to do against Iraq will not save lives or make peace. It will destabilise the world and threaten thousands, possibly millions.

President Bush is determined to go to war to demonstrate to the United States' rednecks that he is committed to the war on terrorism launched after 9/11.

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Voxfux - Simply have no fear and they will fall

Steven Biko once said; "You can beat me or jail me or even kill me, but I'm not going to be what you want me to be."

by voxfux

I would rather die standing and fighting, then cower under this fascist threat to all of humanity.

First of all I need to express a HUGE amount of gratitude to the folks who were the first responders. Amy Goodman from Democracy Now was the absolute first responder to my and all of mankind's predicament. Her's is a beacon of liberty - thank you. Also valis from memes.org and liberty think - I owe you a big one - much thanks. And to lightscion who mirrored the front page - thank you for your effort. Also many other sites and concerned people from the Democratic underground and all the many Indymedias who covered this turn of events. Also I must thank my extensive network of friends and family who have been a beautiful support network during this whole affair. And last but not least I would like to thank those on the "INSIDE" for tipping me off and helping me out - Not all of these guys are bad - there is DEEP division among their ranks, and that is very encouraging and gratifying to know. HALF OF THOSE INVOLVED IN THE RAID WERE ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED ABOUT BEING FORCED INTO TO DOING BUSHES DIRTY POLITICAL OPPRESSION - HALF.

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US Govt, 24 US Corps Illegally Helped Iraq Build Its WMD

On the fourth day of Christmas those fascists gave to us;
4 lying arseholes,
3 dead Iraqis,
2 cruise missiles,
and a partridge in a pear tree...

I wonder if Georgie Porgie and Phony Tony are having hypocrisy and death for Christmas dinner just like their victims?


Uncle Sam is coming to get you! Hewlett Packard, Dupont, Honeywell and other major U.S. corporations, as well as governmental agencies including the Department of Defense and the nation's nuclear labs, all illegally helped Iraq to build its biological, chemical and nuclear weapons programs.

On Wednesday, December 18, Geneva-based reporter Andreas Zumach broke the story on the US national listener-sponsored radio and television show "Democracy Now!" Zumach's Berlin-based paper Die Tageszeitung plans to soon publish a full list of companies and nations who have aided Iraq. The paper first reported on Tuesday that German and U.S. companies had extensive ties to Iraq but didn't list names.

Zumach obtained top-secret portions of Iraq's 12,000-page weapons declaration that the US had redacted from the version made available to the non-permanent members of the UN Security Council.

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Thursday 19 December 2002

What Did Britain Know About 911?

They are all in it upto their eyeballs! Phony Tony knew what was going on, that's how he was able to give such an eloquent (if shyt laden) speech straight after it all happened! Open your eyes!

One of the many perplexing things about the events that unfolded on the day of September 11 last year was the rapid speed at which British Prime Minister Tony Blair drew his own conclusions about the nature of the attacks. His all but his instant offering of completely unqualified support for the Bush administration was remarkable.

For some it seemed that a more reassuring approach would have been to allow a delay of a day or two to receive Foreign Office and intelligence briefings - in order to fully consider what was believed to have happened, who was behind it, and what should be the appropriate response.

One eminent foreign policy expert warned the next day that Britain's immediate pledge to stand 'shoulder to shoulder' with America in the aftermath of the attacks could have far-reaching implications for foreign relations. Professor Bulmer-Thomas, Director of London's Royal Institute of International Affairs, told the BBC 12 September that the consequences of offering such strong support for potential US retaliation could not be accurately gauged at such an early stage: "The danger is they do it far too early, before the facts are in."

By contrast, however, Blair gave the impression of being a man who did not need any briefings. Was this because, unbeknown to the rest of us, Blair already knew in advance exactly what the score was?

As time passes it becomes increasingly clear that the British government knew a great deal about was in the offing by the end of the summer of 2001, and that it was communicating its knowledge to the Bush administration.

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U.S. Surrounds Bagdad

White House is scrambling this afternoon to answer questions about the way it planned and executed an attack on an obscure Arizona town called Bagdad, with a population of about 2000.

Top military officials at the Pentagon refused to comment, directing all questions to the White House. One general, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said, "I have no idea what's going on, but once we heard we're attacking Baghdad, I really couldn't give a damn about where it is. Just the sound of that word makes my blood run cold."

His sentiment was shared by many people in the military. Many of the privates who were allowed to talk to reporters confessed that none of them really knew that they were attacking Arizona, but since the order was thought to have been given "from high above", they promptly took aim at Bagdad.

At around 3 o'clock, the White House briefed reporters on the plan to attack Iraq, and announced, to everyone's surprise, that at that very moment, the marine was executing a plan to take the capital of Iraq. Half an hour later, fishermen along the Pacific Coast in Southern California reported seeing a U.S. navy vessel trying to reach shore. An eyewitness said that when the navy vessel was within a mile of the California coast, it abrupted turned around and left.

Soon after, the White House called an emergency news conference. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer confirmed that the Arizona town was mistaken for the Iraqi capital. He squarely blamed the CIA for the mistake. "The CIA told us on Monday that spy satellites show Baghdad has suddenly shrinked in size to next to nothing. They suspect that Hussein has just tested his chemical weapons on his people, and is now ready to destroy the world. If we did not act now, it could be all over." When asked how the intelligence could be so wrong that U.S. was attacking its own territory, Fleischer said, "If intelligence were good, would we still be searching for bin Laden?"

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The Creature That Ate the Constitution

by Robert Anton Wilson

How, how, how did we ever get ourselves in a predicament where an Oriental-style despot controls American medicine and most doctors fear to prescribe what they think best for their patients? Why, over 200 years after a war to liberate ourselves from a half-mad king, have we allowed our lives and health to come under the rule of a totally mad Tsar? And has this monstrous tumor destroyed most of the Constitution only "by accident," or did its creators have that intent all along?
Well, here's my theory:

Most people think the TSOG [Tsarist Occupation Government] began its infestation of America with George Bush Sr., when he appointed a Tsar to discombobulate our previously democratic form of government; but Bush had a long C.I.A. career behind him and the C.I.A. had a long, long Tsarist history before they came out in the open with a public and blatant Tsar, a functionary not endowed or permitted by any clause in our Constitution.

Actually, the TSOG began replacing representative democracy in the U.S. way back in 1945, when Gen. Rheinhard Gehlen, Hitler's Chief of Soviet Intelligence, surrendered to the U.S. Army, after first prudently burying several truckloads of "inside information" about the Soviet Union at a secret location.

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Bush's War on the Sick and Dying

by Robert Anton Wilson

13 Hephaistis 82 p.s.U.

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
-= United States Constitution, 10th Amendment


As most of you know by now, my photo went all over the country as the first patient to receive medical cannabis from the city officials of Santa Cruz on September 17; I assume the organizers pushed me up front because of my age, my white beard, my wheelchair and my general resemblence to a colorful Gothic ruin.

I've had a lot of experence with civil disobedience, dating back to Vietnam War days, but this occasion seems unique, in that the mayor, the former mayor, the city council and various other local officials participated [not as patients, but as supporters.] In fact, we all acted perfectly in accord with local and state law: Californians voted to legalize medical cannabis by a 55% majority, and Santa Cruz County by a 75% majority. The TSOG [Tsarist Occupation Government], however, has thrown the tenth amendment into the same garbage heap with the first nine. The Bill of Rights exists now only as a historical curiosity, although you can still find it in the back of a good fat dictionary.

I suggest that you check this out by looking into your own dictionary before His Royal Fraudulency George II has this subversive document removed and thrown down the memory hole.

What will Tsarism in America engulf and devour next? Having invaded medicine -- not only in the present case, but in banning stem cell research-- will the TSOG move on physics next and allow the pointy-headed bureaucrats to decide which of the eight theories of quantum mechanics professors may discuss in class? Will they issue dogmas about mathematical set theory? Will they raid Chinese neighborhoods, indefinetly "detaining" those who prefer herbal meds to allopathic ones? Nothing seems impossible: Tsarist governments use a special logic with deuces, eights and one-eyed jacks wild.

I wonder how many of the serfs even remember that the founders intended to create a free country here.

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Theory: VOXFUX - Rumor and Speculation Arise

by Valis

I have been following the voxnyc.com news site now for a while (Very Closely) A strange thing happened just prior to the raid. Voxfux had been having a "back and fourth" with a real belligerent jerk who had been posting under the name "Unknown Soldier" Vox had essentially tracked his usage to a number of postings by this same jerk. Then vox's final exchange was that this guy was spoofing his IP (which only hackers and intelligence agents do) Since this jerk "Unknown Soldier" is no hacker then maybe...

You get the drift.

Then Vox announced that this guy was operating on rasserver.net which is a VERY SUSPICIOUS internet company. With a strange kind of administration which never responds to any complaints about it's many violations regarding some illegal activity is undertakes on a daily basis. Also rasserver.net seems immune to any Internet authorities' regarding their constant and flagrant violations of common Internet rules and regulations.

Vox indicating that rasserver could be an organ of the CIA.

Click here for more information...Then he looked into rasserver's parent company ICG and discovered that ICG Communications Inc had decended into bankrupcy just days after Bush siezed the presidency. Hmmm.

He accused ICG Communications Inc of being possible the next Enron scandal, only this time Vox has claimed that ICG was actually taken over by an intelligence group (CIA or EX CIA) and that it had undertaken a scheme to drive the stock proice into the ground, only to rip off investors, and then when the stock reached rock bottom they bought up the stock and are now poised to become fabulously wealthy.

Apparently they drove the stock price from 36 dollars to 36 cents.

Then vox mentioned something about the CEO's involved with ICG were intelligence assets. The new CEO is in fact a Jesuit (Graduated from LOYOLA university which specializes in Intellegence, political, industrial economic intelligence.

The strange thing is that there is no trace of that exchange that was on vox's web site. What is even stranger is that this "Unknown Soldier" Who vox pointed out also posts under the name "Soaring Eagle" This Soaring Eagle posted a very spooky veiled threat which is still up on the site it is a passage from George Orwell's 1984 about Big Brothers ability to obliterate every trace of a persons life so that no one would ever know that he existed.

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Political Essayist Voxfux - A Massive Manhunt
Vox Updates

Global Gulag: New World Order vs. America

Hands up who wants to live in a Global Dictatorship where everyone has a chip implanted their skin that lets the system control them?

By the way, contrary to popular belief; resistance is NOT futile!


No longer can the critics of the NWO be called kooks, believing in a weird conspiracy. That kind of dismissal will not fly. The press abounds with admissions from well known politicians, captains of finance, movers and shakers of all kinds. The need for silence about reality does not exist. The plan succeeded. The New World Order rules.

Those are the facts, even if you want to deny them. Debate is over, proof of design is evident in official policy. The notion of decree from the top, filtering down to the bottom is indisputable. Illusions are not needed any longer because the means of control for society have been achieved. The Mattoids have known and developed this scheme for scores of decades. Only the captive, bound in velvet chains would deny their place in prison.

What matters is the grandee "Global View". The forces against humanity claim to be their benefactor. Nevertheless, the record of recent history demonstrates that the war for earthly dominion is the struggle between "collectivism" in all its forms and the preeminence of the natural rights within all individuals. If you fail to appreciate that Communism, Socialism, Fascism are mere forms of the same dictatorship, you will never understand the nature of the continuous struggle. There is no right or left difference in these offshoots of the same despotism. Their claim that the STATE is supreme, can only lead to tyranny. Their goal absolutism! And their method of rule is always based upon coercion, command and control.

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Saddam on Elections

Why Hiroshima Was Bombed: The 'Utopians' Duped a Nation

"The United States decision to drop the atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved over one million American lives which would have been sacrificed by an invasion of Japan."

How often has this claim been restated whenever that horrendous event is mentioned on TV or in newspapers. And yet, it remains to this day a total fiction. Not only the figure of "one million"—which was gratuituously added in the cover story published later to enhance the much lower figures actually predicted by the War Department had the United States been forced to invade Japan—but even the lower, more accurate estimates, represented a complete fallacy. There would have been no casualties in a land invasion of Japan because there would not have been any land invasion of Japan. By mid-May 1945 it was clear to all who wished to see: Japan was on the brink of surrendering.

It is the merit of Gar Alperovitz's work that he documented the facts available as of 1995 by using the then-latest declassified records from the war period. The real purpose of the atomic bomb was not to win the war, but rather to shape the contours of the post-war world. Alperowitz had an entire team working the files on this subject, with excellent results. The "team" aspect of the work leads, however, to a good deal of repetition. The recent biography by Robert Norris of one of the key players in that policy decision, Gen. Leslie Groves, helps to fill out the picture of the real scope and purposes of the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japanese cities.

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Don't Mention The War

The whole country is obsessed by Cherie's silly property scandal, which is rather unfortunate given that her husband is blindly walking into a nuclear conflict that Ian Bell almost certainly doesn't understand

Trivial as it may seem after a week of comedy-drama chez Blair, I thought I should probably mention that the United States might be dropping a nuclear bomb or two sometime soon. Nothing serious, you understand -- neither the Prime Minister's wife nor the Daily Mail have been informed -- but America's aperitif to war on Iraq runs something like this: if Saddam happens to think of deploying one of the chemical weapons he might (or might not) happen to possess, the Pentagon promises faithfully to respond with one of the dinky new nukes it is dying, by pure coincidence, to test.

I have struggled to find the United Nations resolution that would sanction this behaviour, much as I have struggled to find the resolution that even justifies the threat, but the chances are I should know better. While the country is transfixed by faxes, fixers and fitness trainers, a genuine massacre is being prepared. Will it be just, legal, or rational? Who cares? The important thing is that Cherie is not a superwoman.

America is barking, so to speak, while Britain wags an obedient tail. The logic that sent UN inspectors into Iraq has been turned on its head. As of last week, chief inspector Hans Blix and his boys in blue no longer have to demonstrate that Saddam possesses weapons of mass destruction. Instead, Saddam has somehow to prove that he owns nothing of the sort. His 12,000-page personal report card has been appropriated by the Americans -- who have turned the UN into a wholly-owned subsidiary for the purpose -- and the very fact that it contains nothing incriminating is being treated as conclusively incriminating. Why trust a liar just because, at the point of a gun, he tells the truth?

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Australia's $500 Million Top Secret Weapons In The "War On Terror"

The corruption of our so-called "leaders" is just astounding be it in Australia or over here, or in the USA. These immoral greedy people are ruining the planet for the rest of us and really don't give a toss.

by Joe Vialls

On Monday 16 December, the Australian Government claimed to have “underestimated” defense spending in 2002 by nearly five hundred million dollars. This is a huge sum for a country like Australia, which has a miniscule defense budget suited to its tiny population of less than twenty million people.

Government ministers faced media cameras with poker faces, hinting strongly that as a result of the excessive spending, defense cuts would have to be made at the “sharp end”. What this means, for example, is that the fabled Special Air Service (SAS) might have to make do with inferior equipment while on operational duty in Afghanistan, or even in Iraq while hunting President Saddam Hussein, if ordered to do so by American President George W. Bush.

Of course the $500 million wasn’t really “missing” at all. Australian Ministers lie on television every day and 16 December was no different from any other. The politicians had known for more than a year that five hundred million dollars was to be spent on special equipment regarded as “Top Secret”, but all were desperate to ensure that ordinary Australians would be unable to identify the equipment itself, or indeed its purpose.

No matter how vital to national security the new special equipment might be, politicians knew there would be a public outcry when the SAS and other regiments later had their budgets deliberately slashed. Downgrading SAS and other army equipment to the point where individual survival on active service might become difficult or impossible, would produce an unwelcome Australian public backlash of unpredictable magnitude.

The $500 million was actually spent over a period of several months in 2002, during which six new highly specialized aircraft were delivered to a Royal Australian Air Force [RAAF] base located near Canberra, home of Australia's Federal Parliament. Later in this report we will tear away the veil of government secrecy completely, and examine this new “Top Secret” equipment in minute detail, because surface appearances can be very deceptive.

Delivery of the six aircraft was spaced out, with each arriving in Australia individually, normally under cover of darkness. Viewed from the outside, the mixed aircraft appeared to resemble two Boeing 737-800 long-range airliners, and four Bombardier Challenger 604 twinjets, but there the resemblance ended. Their actual purpose remained a mystery to members of the Australian public.

Security was so tight, that on one occasion Australian Prime Minister John Winston Howard [“President Winston” to his close friends], personally blocked eager media personnel who were trying to board the aircraft to take pictures. Puffing out his manly little chest, President Winston cited national security and had the photographers swiftly escorted out of the hangar. Obviously these aircraft were of huge importance to Australian national security, and so utterly secret that no ordinary Australian citizen would ever be allowed to look inside.

As you might expect, rumors started slowly circulating throughout the various Australian military units, with members of each unit predictably certain that the new aircraft were intended solely for “their” own use. Right at the top of this list were members of the SAS, who collectively comprise the “pointed tip” of the “sharp end” referred to by the politicians. Required to fly to “Muslim hot spots” instantly at the snap of George W. Bush’s evangelical finger in the ongoing Judeo-Christian Crusade against Islam, the Australian SAS traditionally boards a handful of truly ancient RAAF Boeing 707s for rapid transit to the Middle East.

To actually fly in one of these geriatric Boeings at all, is probably bravery above and beyond the call of duty, because one of their cousins suddenly dived into the Pacific Ocean a few years ago, killing its entire Australian crew. No one really found out why the 707 crashed because there wasn’t enough time for a Mayday call, but terminal metal fatigue seemed the most likely culprit. Ever since then, brave Australian troops obliged to fly in one of the creaking and groaning survivor 707s, invariably do so with white knuckles gripping the seats.

Bearing in mind the obvious dangers, it was no surprise when earlier this year members of the SAS became convinced that the new aircraft in Canberra were for their own exclusive use on special operations. This rumor had substance, because each of the latest Boeing 737-800s has a range of nearly 4,000 miles and can carry 173 soldiers, roughly the same number as the ancient Boeing 707s

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Wednesday 18 December 2002

Journalists are under fire for telling the truth

by Robert Fisk

click here to visit his website First it was Roger Ailes, the chairman of the Fox News Channel, who advised the US President to take the "harshest measures possible" against those who attacked America on 11 September, 2001.

Let us forget, for a moment, that Fox News's Jerusalem bureau chief is Uri Dan, a friend of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the author of the preface of the new edition of Sharon's autobiography, which includes a revolting account of the Sabra and Chatila massacre of 1,700 Palestinian civilians and Sharon's innocence in this slaughter. Then Ted Koppel, one of America's leading news anchormen, announced that it may be a journalist's duty not to reveal events until the military want them revealed in a new war against Iraq.

Can we go any further in journalistic cowardice? Oh yes, we can. ABC television announced, a little while ago, that it knew all about the killing of four al-Qa'ida members by an unmanned "Predator" plane in Yemen but delayed broadcasting the news for four days "at the request of the Pentagon." So now at least we know for whom ABC works.

The Pentagon said that the murdered men – and let's not lose sight of the "murdered" bit, though that's not the word ABC used – were between "two to 20" of the top ranks of al-Qa'ida. Really? So were they numbers two, three, four and five in al-Qa'ida? Or numbers 17,18,19 and 20? Who cares? The press are onside. Don't ask who is resisting forthcoming US censorship of the Iraq war. Ask who is first to climb aboard the bandwagon.

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Trekkies are not weird obsessives

It's official! We're not weird, we're perfectly normal - we just enjoy Star Trek! Besides, besides, Patrick Stewart is one of the greatest actors alive today. Forget Star Trek, if you've seen him play Shakespeare you'll know what I mean, the guy played the whole of Othello on HIS OWN and pulled it off spectacularly.

The crew of the Starship Enterprise have sprung to the defence of Trekkies -- No, they are not obsessive weirdos who need to get a life.

The message from Troi, Dana and Captain Jean-Luc Picard was the same: stop being mean to Star Trek fans.

Captain Kirk, alias Hollywood Star William Shatner, poked gentle fun at the Trekkies in his book "Get A Life," mocking their meticulous attention to detail in the five television series and 10 Star Trek movies.

But Patrick Stewart, the bald-headed classical actor who plays Captain Picard and bestrides the most famous bridge in space, was much more charitable about the Star Trek devotees.

Stewart, in London for the premiere of "Star Trek Nemesis" and the launch of a new Star Trek Exhibition, did concede: "There are a tiny percentage of Star Trek fans who might be categorised as obsessive."

But he defended the vast majority who revel in one of cinema's longest-running and most successful franchises that has earned more than $1 billion (630 million pounds) at the box office.

"I know fans who would not dream of missing an episode who are Vice Chancellors of Universities, internationally famous classical musicians, opera singers, celebrities, members of President Bush's cabinet, high-ranking members of the military," he told reporters.

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The mystery assassin

"Mystery" my arse!

One of the mysterious aspects of the current crisis in Venezuela is who was behind the fatal shootings of three demonstrators taking part in a rally against the president, Hugo Chavez, earlier this month. Both sides are blaming the other for organising the attack and competing conspiracy theories have turned it into a Venezuelan equivalent of the Kennedy assassination.

A Portuguese-born taxi-driver, Joao De Gouveia, has already confessed to all three killings. On December 6, De Gouveia opened fire in Plaza Francia in Altamira, a centre for opposition protests. Josefina de Inciarte, 76, Keyla Guerra, a 17-year-old student and Professor Jaime Giraud, 53, were killed and are now seen as martyrs of the movement to remove Chavez. Thousands took part in marches in their memory last week.

De Gouveia was grabbed by demonstrators at the square after his gun appeared to jam and only rescued from a lynching by the police who took him into custody.

Full story...

MORE NEWS:
17 Members of Congress speak out on Venezuela added today
Chavez: Worst is over
OAS backs democratic institutions
US revealed in plot to oust Venezuela's President MUST READ!

The Secret War on Iraq

"Iraq's report says the equipment was either sold or made by more than 30 German companies, 10 U.S. companies, 11 United Kingdom companies and a handful of Swiss, Japanese, Italian, French, Swedish and Brazilian firms. It says more than 30 countries supplied its nuclear program." - Quicken

by John Pilger

The American and British attack on Iraq has already begun. While the Blair government continues to claim in Parliament that "no final decision has been taken", Royal Air Force and US fighter bombers have secretly changed tactics and escalated their "patrols" over Iraq to an all-out assault on both military and civilian targets.

American and British bombing of Iraq has increased by 300 per cent. Between March and November, according to Ministry of Defence replies to MPs, the RAF dropped more than 124 tonnes of bombs.

From August to December, there were 62 attacks by American F-16 aircraft and RAF Tornadoes - an average of one bombing raid every two days. These are said to have been aimed at Iraqi "air defences", but many have fallen on mostly populated areas, where civilian deaths are unavoidable.

Under the United Nations Charter and the conventions of war and international law, the attacks amount to acts of piracy: no different, in principle, from the German Luftwaffe's bombing in Spain in the 1930s as precursor to its invasion of Europe.

Full story...

MORE NEWS:
Germany was 'key supplier' of Saddam supplier
Report Names Firms That Supplied Nuclear Equip to Iraq
Some administration officials expressing misgivings on Iraq
We Must Not Back Bush in this Mad War

Mandela condemns US over Iraq posturing

Nelson Mandela The former South African President and Nobel Peace Prize winner has demanded the US respect the authority of the United Nations.

Mandela says the United States only went to the Security Council as an afterthought, but called the eventual decision to work through the United Nations "a welcome relief."

"We would want to urgently appeal to the US and its leadership to demonstrate their strength in the world by respect for those democratic principles they hold dear in their domestic affairs," Mandela told delegates at the African National Congress' party convention.

After strong lobbying from the US government, the UN Security Council sent weapons inspectors to Iraq to determine whether that nation has abandoned its efforts to produce biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.

As the inspectors continue their work, the United States has begun mobilising troops in the region for possible military action against the Middle Eastern nation.

Mandela, who also criticised Britain's support for US policy on Iraq and said he hoped the United States would refrain from unilateral action and respect the authority of the Security Council.

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Mossad Exposed in Phony 'Palestinian Al-Qaeda' Caper

The United States government has been provided with concrete evidence that the Israeli Mossad and other Israeli intelligence services have been involved in a 13-month effort to "recruit" an Israeli-run, phony "al-Qaeda cell" among Palestinians, so that Israel could achieve a frontline position in the U.S. war against terrorism and get a green light for a worldwide "revenge without borders" policy. The question: Does the United States have the moral fiber to investigate?

Evidence of the Israeli dirty tricks burst onto the public scene on Dec. 6, when Col. Rashid Abu Shbak, head of the Palestinian Preventive Security Services in the Gaza Strip, held a press conference revealing the details of the alleged plot, as his agency had put the pieces together. The revelations undermine the "big lie" that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has used to justify new brutal attacks on Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and other occupied areas. Sharon claimed on Dec. 4 that Israeli intelligence had "hard evidence" of al-Qaeda operations in the Gaza Strip. Now, the top Palestinian leadership has shown the United States and other nations how Israeli intelligence entities were creating that al-Qaeda link!

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