22:42 12/10/2007
Where did Syphilis started?
According to wikipedia which is not 100% authority in any subject - nor are the others:
"“ . . . syphilis probably cannot be "blamed"—as it often is—on any geographical area or specific race. The evidence suggests that the disease existed in both hemispheres from prehistoric times. It is only coincidental with the Columbus expeditions that the syphilis previously thought of as "lepra" flared into virulence at the end of the fifteenth century.[7] ”
Owsley noted that a Chinese medical case recorded in 2637 B.C.E. seems to be describing a case of syphilis, and that a European writer who recorded an outbreak of "lepra" in 1303 C.E. is clearly describing syphilis.[7]"
From:
11:33 11/10/2007
"Overall the volume of traffic on the area’s roads has grown by 21% over the last 10 years compared to 16% nationally. As a result of a successful economy and new development the average speed in Bristol’s urban area is 15 miles per hour during peak periods, the lowest in England outside London."
This is from the Bristol City Council's website. It is called"Our Future Transport
West of England Sub Region".
18:47 09/10/2007
"The authorities in Germany have decided not to seek the extradition of 13 US citizens suspected of being involved in the abduction and rendition of German citizen Khaled el-Masri. The 13 includes at least 10 operatives of the CIA."
Looks bad for the UN!
From:Rendition - CIA impunity again goes unchallenged
And then:
"Seven months after a major investigation spelt out Europe's involvement in a murky U.S. torture and kidnapping programme, the EU's governments have claimed they are powerless to prevent such human rights abuses in the future."
From:RIGHTS-EUROPE: Torture Flights Could Land Again
18:40 09/10/2007
"He said Russia and China have drafted an international declaration on the non-deployment of weapons in space and sent it to the UN.
"It is necessary to establish the rules of the game in space," he said, adding that the deployment of weapons in space could have unpredictable consequences, since such weapons are "very complex systems."
"A sizable war could break out," the commander said.
He said space must not be the sphere of interests of any one country.
"We do not want to fight in space, and we do not want to call the shots there either, but we will not permit any other country to do so," he said.
Popovkin also said that Russia has an integrated missile attack warning system, covering the country's entire territory."
Hello US who is the bad boy then? And at the same time Russia puts its bloody flag in the Arctic? Who is the .....
From:Russia promises retaliation if weapons deployed in space
18:20 09/10/2007
"Speaking in February 2003, a month before the invasion, Mr Bush told his Spanish counterpart that US forces would be in Baghdad by the end of March regardless of whether the United Nations authorised the use of force.
He also talked about punishing countries that failed to support a UN resolution backing the war and outlined an offer by Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi leader, to go into exile in return for $1bn, which he said the US would reject."
It is coming out little by little. I will give them five more years and then we can see what the world is going to do. You and me hopefully will be here to see it.
From:New light cast on Bush's plans for Iraq war
17:46 09/10/2007
"According to press reports, about 34 per cent of the budget the US government initially allocated for the reconstruction of Iraq has been diverted to private security firms."
That is a lot of reconstruction, like killing off the local population by degrees as we saw in Baghdad with the Blackwater lot.
From:'We'll revoke Al-Maliki's licence first'
17:12 09/10/2007
"Anti-Semitism
This all-purpose epithet of opprobrium is designed to conflate Israel with World Jewry, thereby implying that to attack one means to attack the other. In truth, the term is meaningless, as I wrote in an earlier essay: “Strictly speaking, ‘semitic’ is a linguistic term denoting a family of Afro-Asiatic languages, of which we have today Arabic, Hebrew, Maltese, and the South Arabic languages of northern Ethiopia. Ancient semitic languages included Akkadian, Canaanite, Amorite, Ugaritic, Phoenician, Punic, Aramaic, as well as ancient Hebrew and Syriac.”"
Bloody good definition init?
War As Freedom, And Fraud As Fact
17:04 09/10/2007
"Afrah Sattar, 27, was on a bus approaching the square when she saw the guards fire on the white car. She and her mother, Ghania Hussein, were headed to the Certificate of Identification Office in Baghdad to pick up proof of Sattar’s Iraqi citizenship for an upcoming trip to a religious shrine in Iran.
When she saw the gunmen turn toward the bus, Sattar looked at her mother in fear. “They’re going to shoot at us, Mama,” she said. Her mother hugged her close. Moments later, a bullet pierced her mother’s skull and another struck her shoulder, Sattar recalled.
As her mother’s body went limp, blood dripped onto Sattar’s head, still cradled in her mother’s arms.
“Mother, mother,” she called out. No answer. She hugged her mother’s body and kissed her lips and began to pray, “We belong to God and we return to God.” The bus emptied, and Sattar sat alone at the back, with her mother’s bleeding body.
“I’m lost now, I’m lost,” she said days later in her simple two-bedroom home. Ten people lived there; now there are nine.
“They are killers,” she said of the Blackwater guards. “I swear to God, not one bullet was shot at them. Why did they shoot us? My mother didn’t carry a weapon.”
Downstairs, her father, Sattar Ghafil Slom al Kaabi, 67, sat beneath a smiling picture of his wife and recalled their 40-year love story and how they raised eight children together. On the way to the holy city of Najaf to bury her, he’d stopped his car, with her coffin strapped to the top. He got out and stood beside the coffin. He wanted to be with her a little longer.
“I loved her more than anything,” he said, his voice wavering. “Now that she is dead, I love her more.”"
Make up your own mind, mine is already wired.
From:Blackwater Guards Killed 16 as US Touted Progress
10:57 09/10/2007
"According to Petras, a sociologist at Binghamton University, New York, the pro-Zionist "power configuration" is not just the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee(AIPAC). The Zionist lobby is so powerful, Petras argues, it "calls the shots" and "supports the escalation of the Iraq war and the savaging of Palestine, Somalia and Afghanistan.""
I can understand why Israel is fucked up about Palestine, but what the hell they have to do with Afghanistan and Somalia? Bind Moggles man!
19:39 08/10/2007
When I watched the news clip, about the judge who died in a fireball, my thoughts about nature got simplified .
17:00 07/10/2007
Sorry for regurgitatimg old news but this article is interesting, if you be interested in the middle East.
"In an article entitled “The Next Act” published last November, Hersh wrote: “In the past six months, Israel and the United States have also been working together in support of a Kurdish resistance group known as the Party for Free Life [PJAK] in Kurdistan. The group has been conducting clandestine cross-border forays into Iran, I was told by a government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon civilian leadership, as ‘part of an effort to explore alternative means of applying pressure on Iran.’ (The Pentagon has established covert relationships with Kurdish, Azeri and Baluchi tribesmen, and has encouraged their efforts to undermine the regime’s authority in northern and southeastern Iran.) The government consultant said that Israel is giving the Kurdish group ‘equipment and training.’ The group has also been given ‘a list of targets inside Iran of interest to the US’.”"
From:Washington’s proxy war inside Kurdish Iran
15:24 07/10/2007
"US military snipers operating in Iraq are "baiting" Iraqis by scattering items like detonation cord, plastic explosives and ammunition, and then ambushing and killing those who pick them up, The Washington Post reported today.
The newspaper said the classified program was described in investigative documents related to recently filed murder charges against three snipers accused of planting evidence on Iraqis they killed."
Well this happens downtown in Bristol too. They put an unlocked car with the keys in the ignition, and keep an eye on it. And you guess the rest orrct. US system coppied by UK. Now admired by Iraqis!
From:US snipers baiting Iraqis - report
14:08 07/10/2007
Blackwater fans listen:
"The great irony is that while our nation is engrossed in a campaign to disband militias funded by Syria and Iran, it is doing so with our own private militias – some 180 or more of them operating in the Iraq theatre. Their strength in Iraq is estimated at from 20,000 to 50,000 contract soldiers, although the numbers and their mission are kept from the scrutiny of Congress. How many and what they are doing is a matter of guesswork for those whom we have elected to represent us."
I think that comes as the fourth step towords Fascism init?
From:Is Blackwater A Black Hole?
17:08 05/10/2007
"Amnesty notes that Texas, which operates America’s busiest execution chamber, has banned one of the chemicals involved for use in euthanising pets, because it does not effectively mask pain."
Americans are crazy!
From:Amnesty Lists Horrors of US Executions
13:05 05/10/2007
Bit of US history during Nixon, Reagan, Bush Sr, and Clinton. Good article if you are brave!
As Hillary Runs for the White House, Consider Bill's Refusal to Explore Bush I Scandals
11:47 05/10/2007
Here we go again with the Sunni population of Iraq. What they say is Al Quaeda never existed in Iraq before the US invation. Majority of the Sunnis do not like the Al Quaeda Iraq (AQI). They say moment US leaves Iraq they will get rid of AQI. No place for Bush & co is it?
"Several sources we reached in the Sunni community agreed that AQI, a predominantly Sunni insurgent group that did not exist prior to the U.S. invasion -- it started in 2005 -- will not exist for long after coalition forces depart. AQI is universally detested by large majorities of Iraqis of all ethnic and sectarian backgrounds because of its fundamentalist interpretation of religious law and efforts to set up a separate Sunni state, and its only support -- and it obviously does enjoy some support -- is based solely on its opposition to the deeply unpopular U.S.-led occupation of Iraq."
Remember Nicaragua? AQI according to the local Sunnis are put there by the occupying US. US wants to drag this war for some other reason than democracy in the region. I wonder?
"In July, three of the most prominent Sunni insurgent groups agreed to join forces in a concerted effort to end the occupation. Abd al Rahman al Zubeidy, a spokesman for one of the groups, told the Guardian: "Resistance isn't just about killing Americans without aims or goals. Our people have come to hate Al Qaeda, which gives the impression to the outside world that the resistance in Iraq are terrorists. We are against indiscriminate killing, fighting should be concentrated only on the enemy." He added that "a great gap has opened up between Sunni and Shia under the occupation and Al Qaeda has contributed to that … Most of Al Qaeda's members are Iraqis but its leaders are mostly foreigners. The Americans magnify their role, even though they are responsible for a minority of resistance operations.""
From:
Only a U.S. Withdrawal Will Stop Al Qaeda in Iraq
Iraq Poll September 2007
The Iraqi Public on the US Presence and the Future of Iraq
Most Iraqis Want U.S. Troops Out Within a Year
11:26 05/10/2007
In the world there are 7,000 languages spoken today. More than half of them does not have a written form. 96% of the world's languages are spoken by just 4% of the population. Half of the world's languages are spoken in Asia and the Pacific Islands. Only 4% of the world's languages come from Europe. A language dies every 14 days.
Listen to this man!
"The hot spots listed at Tuesday’s briefing:
· Northern Australia, 153 languages. The researchers said aboriginal Australia holds some of the world’s most endangered languages, in part because aboriginal groups splintered during conflicts with white settlers. Researchers have documented such small language communities as the three known speakers of Magati Ke, the three Yawuru speakers and the lone speaker of Amurdag.
· Central South America including Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Brazil and Bolivia — 113 languages. The area has extremely high diversity, very little documentation and several immediate threats. Small and socially less-valued indigenous languages are being knocked out by Spanish or more dominant indigenous languages in most of the region, and by Portuguese in Brazil.
· Northwest Pacific Plateau, including British Columbia in Canada and the states of Washington and Oregon in the U.S., 54 languages. Every language in the American part of this hotspot is endangered or moribund, meaning the youngest speaker is over age 60. An extremely endangered language, with just one speaker, is Siletz Dee-ni, the last of 27 languages once spoken on the Siletz reservation in Oregon.
· Eastern Siberian Russia, China, Japan — 23 languages. Government policies in the region have forced speakers of minority languages to use the national and regional languages and, as a result, some have only a few elderly speakers.
· Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico — 40 languages. Oklahoma has one of the highest densities of indigenous languages in the United States. A moribund language of the area is Yuchi, which may be unrelated to any other language in the world. As of 2005, only five elderly members of the Yuchi tribe were fluent."
FRom: A language dies every two weeks, researchers say:
and
Global Language Hotspots
10:20 05/10/2007
I am not afraid of death as I am sitting here and writing this. But I am concerned about the things they going to dicover after I am gone. But at the same time when I read articles like the link below, I am not that sorry to die before!
From:
Arctic ice disappearing:
08:38 02/10/2007
MEK What are they?
08:28 02/10/2007
Ha ha ha tee hee:
At an art exhibition there was a painting 3 very naked, and very black men, sitting on a bench. What was unusual was that the men on both ends of the bench had black penises, but the man in the middle had a very pink penis. The picture was titled "Home for Lunch."
Two women were standing there, staring at the picture, scratching their heads and trying to figure this out.
The artist walked by and noticed the women's confusion. "Can I help you with this painting?" he asked.
"Well, yes!!" said the one woman. "We were curious about the picture of black men on the bench! Why does the guy in the middle of the three have a pink penis?"
"Oh," said the artist. "I'm afraid you've mis-understood the painting. The three men are not africans, they're coal miners, and the fellow in the middle went home for lunch."
10:50 01/10/2007
Today I am moving out of Saly Army Hostel. It was a good time, different. I cannot say I enjoyed the stay here; but it was god send compared to the state I was in. Thank you Saly Army.
That been two years since I did not have my own place. It is going to be trying times to come. What with utilities bills and cooking and looking after a flat?
I cannot say I am happy as the bloody social has taken my Incapacity off again. That is the fourth time in ten years they questioned my madical state. I have a feeling there is some bugger in the DHSS office who does not like me. I have half a mind to sue them; wonder whether there is any grounds. Do you know a good Lawyer?
18:07 29/09/2007
"An outbreak of cholera in Iraq has spread with new cases confirmed in Baghdad, Basra and for the first time the northern districts of Tikrit, Mosul and Dahuk, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.
This takes to 2,116 the number of confirmed cases of cholera in Iraq, and 11 deaths from the disease, WHO said."
Hope US soldiers get a dose of this shit and take it back ome init? Not very nice thought but what the hell worse thoughts are thought.
18:05 29/09/2007
"The plan, drawn up with former Carter administration foreign policy expert Leslie Gelb, would provide for a federal system as permitted by Iraq's constitution, stop Iraq from becoming a failed state and:
- Separate Iraq into Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni entities, with a federal government in Baghdad in charge of border security and oil revenues.
- Aim to defuse sectarian violence by offering Sunnis a share of oil revenues.
- Boost reconstruction aid and debt relief.
- Launch an international diplomatic effort to rally the world's great powers and Iraq's neighbors to the new federation's cause."
New plans to divide Iraq and control by the US senate:
17:57 29/09/2007
"President Bush’s transportation secretary, Mary Peters, with White House approval, personally directed a lobbying campaign to urge governors and two dozen House members to block California’s first-in-the-nation limits on greenhouse gases from cars and trucks, according to e-mails obtained by Congress."
From:How the White House Worked to Scuttle California’s Climate Law
12:38 29/09/2007
This is specialy for my own reference:
There is no evidence to suggest at this moment there are any Iranian or Lebonese instructers in Iraq; according to this:
Bush's 'proxy war' claim over Iran exposed
12:29 29/09/2007
For any one interested in what Gen. Petraeus wrote when he came back from the first stint in Iraq, Goto:
U.S. Military Counterinsurgency Manual, December 2006
11:55 29/09/2007
"But IBM's Hollerith punch card technology did exist. Aided by the company's custom-designed and constantly updated Hollerith systems, Hitler was able to automate his persecution of the Jews. Historians have always been amazed at the speed and accuracy with which the Nazis were able to identify and locate European Jewry. Until now, the pieces of this puzzle have never been fully assembled. The fact is, IBM technology was used to organize nearly everything in Germany and then Nazi Europe, from the identification of the Jews in censuses, registrations, and ancestral tracing programs to the running of railroads and organizing of concentration camp slave labor.
IBM and its German subsidiary custom-designed complex solutions, one by one, anticipating the Reich's needs. They did not merely sell the machines and walk away. Instead, IBM leased these machines for high fees and became the sole source of the billions of punch cards Hitler needed."
Another part of the puzzle falls into place. See this in a book: "IBM and the Holocaust"
Review: IBM and the Holocaust
Talking about fascism have a look at this:
Fascist America, in 10 easy steps
"1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
2. Create a gulag
3. Develop a thug caste
4. Set up an internal surveillance system
5. Harass citizens' groups
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
7. Target key individuals
8. Control the press
9. Dissent equals treason
10. Suspend the rule of law"
And check this:
Spy Satellites Turned on the U.S.
Me I am not surprised. In 1933 the elite in US tried to overthrow Roosvelt in a coup which failed. And in the article I found this:
" 'You know the American people will swallow that. We have got the newspapers. We will start a campaign that the President's health is failing. Everyone can tell that by looking at him, and the dumb American people will fall for it in a second…' The businessmen also promised that money was no object: Clark told Butler that he would spend half his $60 million fortune to save the other half.
And what type of government would replace Roosevelt's New Deal? MacGuire was perfectly candid to Paul French, a reporter friend of General Butler's: 'We need a fascist government in this country… to save the nation from the communists who want to tear it down and wreck all that we have built in America. The only men who have the patriotism to do it are the soldiers, and Smedley Butler is the ideal leader. He could organize a million men overnight.'"
Not much different nowadays init? US people I mean.
And then:
"Americans today would be appalled to learn of the many famous millionaires back then who initially admired Hitler and Mussolini: Henry Ford (who is shown being idolized by Hitler), John D. Rockefeller, John and Allen Dulles (who, besides being millionaires, would later become Eisenhower's Secretary of State and CIA Director, respectively), and, of course, everyone on the above list. They disavowed Hitler and Mussolini only after their atrocities grew to indefensible levels.
The plot fell apart when Butler went public. The general revealed the details of the coup before the McCormack-Dickstein Committee, which would later become the notorious House Un-American Activities Committee. The Committee heard the testimony of Butler and French, but failed to call in any of the coup plotters for questioning, other than MacGuire. In fact, the Committee whitewashed the public version of its final report, deleting the names of powerful businessmen whose reputations they sought to protect. The most likely reason for this response is that Wall Street had undue influence in Congress also. Even more alarming, the elite-controlled media failed to pick up on the story, and even today the incident remains little known. The elite managed to spin the story as nothing more than the rumors and hearsay of Butler and French, even though Butler was a Quaker of unimpeachable honesty and integrity. Butler, appalled by the cover-up, went on national radio to denounce it, but with little success.
Butler was not vindicated until 1967, when journalist John Spivak uncovered the Committee's internal, secret report. It clearly confirmed Butler's story:. "
From:The Failed Conspiracy to Overthrow President Franklin D. Roosevelt
11:45 29/09/2007
"Jena became a nationwide symbol for racism in the criminal justice system when six black students faced life sentences on attempted murder charges after a schoolyard fight that injured a white student. Outcry around the case grew when it was revealed that the fight occurred in the context of rising racial tensions at the school, where nooses were found hanging from a tree in the schoolyard after black students attempted to sit in the traditionally all-white area. When the first defendant was found guilty of second-degree battery and conspiracy by an all-white jury, Thursday’s protest was planned to coincide with his sentencing hearing. The case has become a symbol of racial bias in criminal justice system around the country."
Black students attempted to sit in the traditionally all-white area. What? In the 21st century? I don't be;ieve it! But check this website for it and you and I will have to believe it.
FRom:In Historic March, Tens of Thousands Gather from Across Nation to Demand Justice for Jena Six
11:34 29/09/2007
"On the border between Iraq and Iran, privately owned Apache helicopters deliver US special forces to a covert operation."
What the hell the US Army using mercenaries to transports themselves. The Mericans are crazy!
"None of the estimated 48,000 private military operatives in Iraq has been convicted of a crime and no one knows how many Iraqis have been killed by private military forces, because the US does not keep records.
According to some estimates, more than 800 private military employees have been killed in the war so far, and as many as 3,300 wounded.
These numbers are greater than the losses suffered by any single US army division and larger than the casualties suffered by the rest of the coalition put together.
A high-ranking US military commander in Iraq said: "These guys run loose in this country and do stupid stuff. There's no authority over them, so you can't come down on them hard when they escalate force. They shoot people.""
From:Making a killing: how private armies became a $120bn global industry
11:30 29/09/2007
"LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has amassed a stockpile of more than 100 metric tons of plutonium -- enough for 17,000 bombs of the size that flattened Japan's Nagasaki in 1945, a report from the country's top science institution said on Friday.
The toxic stockpile, which has doubled in the last decade, comes mainly from reprocessing of spent uranium fuel from the country's nuclear power plants, so to stop it growing the practice must end, the Royal Society said."
From:Britain has plutonium for 17,000 Nagasaki bombs
10:18 29/09/2007
In Iraq the Shia population seems to have three different camps; Al-Sistani, Mahdi Army militia loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and the Badr Brigade militia linked to the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council. They are all fighting for supremacy in Iraq. Let the best pcamp win!
From:Killings of 2 al-Sistani aides suggest worsening Shiite-Shiite feuding
18:27 27/09/2007
Chinese person emits 6,5 Cubic tonnes of Carbon Dioxide per year. US citizen does 20 CT per year. Wonder how muh we do?
11:13 27/09/2007
Love this one!
"What Would I Do If I Was A Terrorist?
By Dominic Jermano
22 September, 2007
Countercurrents.org
Hi my name is Mohammad Abullaabullabulla. I live in Afghanistan and my brother Mohassammanmama lives in Iraq. We are terrorists. We are going to win the war on terror. And we want to get the bomb to protect ourselves.
This is what my brother is doing. It is said that America has pounded our countries with tons of DU known as Depleted Uranium. We have it everywhere, and people are saying we are dying from it. But I think I can use it for our own bombs.
I ordered a nice metal detector from the internet. It is being shipped soon to us£¬although I don¡¯t need it, because shrapnel and metal is everywhere to include blown up tanks and shells and casings. And what we really like are the DU tips found from your expended munitions.
The cruise missiles are especially cool. Although a little beat up, my brother said I can use them to grind up into powder and make our own DU bombs. I found some bags lying in the streets, you know the ones they put over the heads of our brothers; and I use them to collect my metal parts.
I put a scarf over my mouth and I found an old pair of glasses blown off some guys face in a car bombing. I had to wipe away the dried blood, but they are pretty useful to protect my eyes when I do the grinding. It¡¯s a little blurry but they work ok. I know that I am becoming contaminated with DU; but I don¡¯t mind. I can stay alive long enough to make more good missiles.
In fact we are planning to sell DU dust to Osama. They can put the dust in the rocket held shoulder missiles called stingers. Or maybe we can do some smelting and make a real good DU tip and fasten it to our stingers. You know these stingers are pretty good. They stopped the Russians. Now we are going to see about stopping you.
We¡¯re especially happy that you will continue to use DU Depleted Uranium munitions against us, to keep us well supplied. We use all the metal parts to grind into dust and using other scientific methods can keep our production costs much lower I suspect than yours. We are very happy about these developments. Again thank you, and see you on the battle field! Yippee hi ho!
Can you imagine that; look what Bush has done! He has given the stuff to terrorists? They don't care if they become contaminated because they would die anyway from their conventional TNT bombs.
They can scavenge tanks, and dig up shrapnel that is loaded with radioactive material to put in stingers. They will use it against the USA.
And the funny thing about it is the USA will fire more at them, so they can go out to dig up more expended rounds. Here Shrub spends all this money on the war for munitions, and it costs the terrorists nothing to make them. Just go out their front door, and get it.
Pretty pathetic what Bush has done. In fact he is fired. He needs to pack his gear and get out of the White House. He is done OUT OF TOWN. He needs to face criminal charges. The War is over. American people are not going to allow this war to go on any longer. It is done. We need to help clean up Iraq and Afghanistan before they get more of the DU material. We need to ban DU munitions, and foremost end the idea of War. War is Terror.
This will expose MIC once and for all. I am trying to stop this war. It is clear the terrorist are winning with Bush. This can be used in a court of Law against the Military Industrial Complex, to make them ban the use of DU Depleted Uranium for munitions."
What Would I Do If I Was A Terrorist
11:01 27/09/2007
This is funny. This is supposed to have happened in 2005 and now after the bloody murder done by Blackwater thugs in Iraq, they are investigating it. Hmmmm can you smell the .....
"Federal prosecutors are investigating whether staff from controversial US security company Blackwater smuggled weapons to Iraq, according to reports."
From:Blackwater ‘Arms Smuggling Probe’
10:53 27/09/2007
Best news I heard for a long time mate:
"The generals acted independently, coming in their own ways to the agonizing decision to defy military tradition and publicly criticize the Bush administration over its conduct of the war in Iraq.
What might be called The Revolt of the Generals has rarely happened in the nation’s history.
In op-ed pieces, interviews and TV ads, more than 20 retired U.S. generals have broken ranks with the culture of salute and keep it in the family. Instead, they are criticizing the commander in chief and other top civilian leaders who led the nation into what the generals believe is a misbegotten and tragic war."
From:Generals Opposing Iraq War Break with Military Tradition
10:50 27/09/2007
Continueing the saga of IAF bombing Syrian desert sites>
"Israel's decision to attack Syria on Sept. 6, bombing a suspected nuclear site set up in apparent collaboration with North Korea, came after Israel shared intelligence with President Bush this summer indicating that North Korean nuclear personnel were in Syria, U.S. government sources said."
FRom:Israel, U.S. Shared Data On Suspected Nuclear Site
10:41 27/09/2007
First Italy now Germany; lets see who comes next. Any bets?
"FRANKFURT, Germany --U.S. authorities have told Germany that they will not extradite 13 purported CIA agents sought in the alleged kidnapping of a German citizen, an official said Saturday"
From:Germany: U.S. won't send kidnap suspects
10:22 27/09/2007
Tony Bens Diaries Funny bits:
"At about 20 to three Tony Blair walked on to the platform with Cherie. I could see exactly where the teleprompters, the glass panels he reads from, are.
I've just got such a yearning one year to put a cushion on each of them, so that it would destroy the speech.
He launched into a totally unreconstructed case for the war against Iraq. "Support me, and even if you don't, I'll go to war." Very over-confident. It was a managing director's speech. There was no participative sense in it at all."
"Monday, November 11
Tonight Blair made his Mansion House speech. Seeing him in a white tie, guarded by policemen with sub-machine guns and snipers, was ridiculous.
He gave a grave warning about terrorist attacks when he himself is just about to bomb Iraq and kill a lot of innocent people. I thought it was utterly disgusting."
"Friday, January 31
IRAQ. I was met in Amman by one of the officials from the Iraqi Embassy, and we were in time for the connection to Baghdad.
In the morning, as the dawn broke, it was beautiful, the light slowly coming up, red; we crossed the River Tigris and arrived in Baghdad at 7am.
At six o'clock I was met and taken to the home of Tariq Aziz [Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister]. We sat in his sitting room, and his wife later came and brought some tea. He has eight grandchildren. He's a nice guy.
He told me that he had been a poet and a writer and a painter, and he'd come into politics in 1958. It was a three-hour meeting, very friendly, lots of laughter and jokes, and philosophical and serious.
Phoned Lissie and told her I was okay. Funnily enough, after I'd spoken to her, I picked up the phone again and I heard a recording of my entire conversation so there's no doubt it was all being recorded.
That happened when I was a minister, so it doesn't surprise me."
"The whole interview, including interpretation, took about an hour and ten minutes, and then we had a final talk. He was uncomfortably friendly! He said: "Oh, I wish you'd come more often." Thank God the cameras were off by then.
He said "Come back" and so on.
A lot of people will be absolutely disgusted to hear that he was so friendly, and disgusted that I was friendly to him, but for God's sake, it was to stop a war!
Channel 4 News had a bit about my return home. Nothing in the BBC bulletin. Josh thought Alastair Campbell has probably warned the media to keep off it."
"Tuesday, March 18
Clare Short withdrew her resignation. I never thought she'd stick to it. The argument is that she's the best person to supervise the reconstruction of Iraq, but of course that requires Iraq to be destroyed first, so she's going along with the destruction so that she can help with the reconstruction."
"Monday, April 7
The Tory candidate for Eastleigh at the last election came up to me tonight.
He said he'd been to a party, last November I think, at which Lady Thatcher was present with Norman Tebbit, and he'd gone up to her and asked her what she regarded as her greatest achievement, and she replied: 'New Labour.' That says it all really."
"Tuesday, May 6
George Galloway was suspended from the Labour Party by the General Secretary today - quite incredible really. That's the nature of the Labour Party - no free speech in Blair's Labour Party.
The fact that Galloway, who spoke against the war, would be bringing the Party into disrepute when Blair, who took us into the war, wasn't bringing it into disrepute is quite extraordinary."
"Then he talked about David Blunkett [Home Secretary] and Blunkett's famous speech as our education spokesman that under Labour there will be no selection - "Watch my lips, no selection." And of course there was selection!
Hattersley heard later that Blunkett had said: "Oh, what a fool Roy is! Doesn't he realise I am a politician?" That was devastating"
"Monday, June 23
A comedian dressed as Osama Bin Laden broke into Windsor Castle for Prince William's 21st birthday party; it has been treated so seriously, you'd hardly believe it.
Also, the Government is about to sign an extradition agreement with America, whereby America expects the UK to hand over anybody without a court hearing in Britain. Blunkett is an impossible man.
Wednesday, July 16
Had a lovely anonymous letter from someone in Tring. "Dear A***hole, Saw you on the Politics Show. It's time you buggered off and lived with Saddam Hussein, or die like your ghastly wife."
So at least I haven't sold out."
Not a bad Man init?
20:49 26/09/2007
"In Haiti, for instance, workers are paid 11 cents an hour by corporate giants such as Disney, Wal-Mart, and J.C. Penny. The United States is one of the few countries that has refused to sign an international convention for the abolition of child labor and forced labor. This position stems from the child labor practices of U.S. corporations throughout the Third World and within the United States itself, where children as young as 12 suffer high rates of injuries and fatalities, and are often paid less than the minimum wage."
And
"In 1990, shoes made by Indonesian children working twelve-hour days for 13 cents an hour, cost only $2.60 but still sold for $100 or more in the United States."
Sick init?
"Q: What are the greatest threats to local water supplies?
Maude Barlow: First of all, we are creating an ecological crisis by not taking care of our water supplies. Surface waters are being polluted, and we are mining our groundwater at unsustainable rates. At the very time when corporations are privatizing everything, our governments are allowing corporations to move in and take over the ownership of essential resources like water.
So we have a double whammy: Our governments are allowing corporations to pollute our water, and then they are signing contracts with corporations to bring in clean-up technology and make billions of dollars cleaning it up. The very sector of society that is polluting our water is turning around and selling our water back to us. And this is going to be more and more of an issue in the future. We'll be increasingly drinking water that has been polluted by corporations, then cleaned up by corporations, then bottled and sold to us by corporations."
From:World's Water Supply at Risk
So how does it work:
First the World Bank (WB) lends money to say Haiti. Then Haiti has to pay back the money plus a hefty interest on it. For some reason if Haiti cannot pay the interest then H has to borrow the money from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The thing is IMF will not just lend money, they ask the government of H to do something called Structural Adjustment Program (SAP).
This SAP is to do with changing laws of the country. It has to grant tax breaks to transnational corporations, reduce wages, reduce the protection of local enterprises from foreign imports and foreign takeovers and privertize the countries economies eg. selling at a scandalously low prices their state owned mines, railroads and utilities like water, gas, and electrics to private corporations. On top of that H will have to open out the forests to clear for strip mining, transportation networks for the mines without due regard to the ecological damage. The health, education, transportation and food in the country suffers from cutbacks to save money for the IMF and WB loans and interests.
When the foreign imports glut the market the local produce has no competition. As the iMF rules that the government of H cannot give subsudies to the local farmers and countries like US gives it's farmers 70% subcidies the products which are imported cost far less money than the local products, eg. Ghana and its rice vs American rice. So the local farmers have to look for work elsewhere and migrate to the towns and cities. On top of the legal reduction of wages there is a work force hungry for work and the multinational corporations make use of this without mercy.
For the US companies like Disney, Wal-Mart, and J.C. Penny get a tax concessions and relocation expenses at the cost to the tax payers in US. And US has refused to sign the international convention for the abolition of child labor and forced labor helping these money grabbers, to use children as young as 12 years who work long hours and without insuarence against injuries, with impunity. Well that is how I understand it. It is so simple I cannot understand people like Blair and Brown does not do anything about it. Ofcourse the rich countries get richer from this process and I should not complain as my benefits come from that shit!
From:Mystery: How Wealth Creates Poverty in the World
20:36 26/09/2007
News just in ... ha ha....relly I found this about the Blackwater shooting in Iraq - which the main media did not mention about. So far 28 people have died.
First point the explosion of a road side bomb went off not in the vicinity as Blackwater determined but far away.
"The reports we got from members of the public, Iraqi security personnel and government officials, as well as our own research, leads to a markedly different scenario than the American version. There was a bomb blast. But it was too far away to pose any danger to the Blackwater guards, and their State Department charges. We have found no Iraqi present at the scene who saw or heard sniper fire.
Witnesses say the first victims of the shootings were a couple with their child, the mother and infant meeting horrific deaths, their bodies fused together by heat after their car caught fire. The contractors, according to this account, also shot Iraqi soldiers and police and Blackwater then called in an attack helicopter from its private air force which inflicted further casualties."
Then Blackwater says there were insurgents shooting at them. This is not correct according to the people who got shot at.
"Those on the receiving end tell another story. Mr Salman said he had turned into Nisoor Square behind the Blackwater convoy when the shooting began. He recalled: "There were eight foreigners in four utility vehicles, I heard an explosion in the distance and then the foreigners started shouting and signalling for us to go back. I turned the car around and must have driven about a hundred feet when they started shooting. My car was hit with 12 bullets it turned over. Four bullets hit me in the back and another in the arm. Why they opened fire? I do not know. No one, I repeat no one, had fired at them. The foreigners had asked us to go back and I was going back in my car, so there was no reason for them to shoot."
Muhammed Hussein, whose brother was killed in the shooting, said: "My brother was driving and we saw a black convoy ahead of us. Then I saw my brother suddenly slump in the car. I dragged him out of the car and saw he had been shot in the chest. I tried to hide us both from the firing, but then I realised he was already dead."
Jawad Karim Ali was on his way to pick up his aunt from Yarmukh Hospital when shooting started and the windscreen exploded cutting his face. " Then I was hit on my left shoulder by bullets, two of them another one went past my face. Now my aunt is out of hospital and I am sitting here. There was a big bang further away but no shots before the security people fired, and they just kept firing.""
AND
"Sunday's shooting happened at Mansour, once one of the most fashionable districts of Baghdad, with roads flanked by shops selling expensive goods, restaurants and art galleries. In the height of the sectarian bloodletting between Shias and Sunnis earlier this year dead bodies would be regularly strewn in the streets. A semblance of safety has returned since, and Mansour was held up as an example of how the US military "surge" was cutting the violence.
We were in Mansour on Sunday when we heard the sound of a deafening explosion just after midday. Black plumes of smoke rose from a half-blasted National Guard (army) post near a mosque. Five or six minutes afterwards there was the sound of prolonged shooting towards the south.
Police Captain Ali Ibrahim, who was on duty near Nisoor Square, said: " We heard the bomb go off, it was very loud, but it wasn't at the square. The police were, in fact, trying to clear the way for the contractors when they became agitated, they opened fire. No one was shooting at them."
Asked about the witness accounts, Ali al-Dabbagh, an Iraqi government spokesman, confirmed: "The traffic policemen were trying to open the road for them. It was a crowded square and one small car did not stop, it was moving very slowly. They started shooting randomly, there was a couple and their child inside the car and they were hit.""
Here is the original link make up your own mind, mine is already fucked!
The real story of Baghdad's Bloody Sunday
20:20 26/09/2007
"By one estimate, Baghdad was once 65 per cent Sunni; today it is 75 per cent Shia."
I like that. Bush does not like Iran who is Shia and makes Iraq full of Shia.
A common fact now but you don't get this the main media like BBC, ITV, C4, C5. Sorry I don't read newspapers. One time I heard that all the paper annually used by Bangladesh as a country, is equal to, all the paper used in the production of Wall Street Journal in a week - mind not printing.
20:05 26/09/2007
Terrible Police state news from the US:
"The Bush Administration has been collecting detailed records on the travel habits of Americans headed overseas, whether you fly, drive or take cruises abroad -- not simply your method of transit but the personal items you carry with you and the people you stay with, according to documents and statements obtained by the Washington Post."
FROM:Massive Surveillance Net Keeps Track of Americans' Travel -- Even the Size of Hotel Beds
13:51 26/09/2007
"While the U.S. State Department has placed the PKK -- a Kurdish rebel movement in Turkey -- on its list of terrorist organizations, Pejak, the PKK's Iranian branch, is not on the list and its leaders even visit the U.S"
ET
"In 2003, as Trita Parsi's Treacherous Alliance shows, there was enough common ground for a deal. In May 2003, the Iranian authorities sent a proposal through the Swiss ambassador in Tehran, Tim Guldimann, for negotiations on a package deal in which Iran would freeze its nuclear program in exchange for an end to U.S. hostility. The Iranian paper offered "full transparency for security that there are no Iranian endeavors to develop or possess WMD [and] full cooperation with the IAEA based on Iranian adoption of all relevant instruments." The Iranians also offered support for "the establishment of democratic institutions and a non-religious government" in Iraq; full cooperation against terrorists (including "above all, al-Qaeda"); and an end to material support to Palestinian groups like Hamas. In return, the Iranians asked that their country not be on the terrorism list or designated part of the "axis of evil"; that all sanctions end; that the US support Iran's claims for reparations for the Iran-Iraq War as part of the overall settlement of the Iraqi debt; that they have access to peaceful nuclear technology; and that the US pursue anti-Iranian terrorists, including "above all" the MEK. MEK members should, the Iranians said, be repatriated to Iran.
Basking in the glory of "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq, the Bush administration dismissed the Iranian offer and criticized Guldimann for even presenting it. Several years later, the Bush administration's abrupt rejection of the Iranian offer began to look blatantly foolish and the administration moved to suppress the story."
Further on it says:
"U.S. pre-war intelligence on Iraq was horrifically wrong on the key question of Iraq's possession of WMDs, and President Bush ignored the intelligence to assert falsely a connection between Saddam Hussein and September 11. This alone is sufficient reason to be skeptical of the Bush administration's statements on Iran.
Some of the administration's charges against Iran defy common sense. In his Reno speech, President Bush accused Iran of arming the Taliban in Afghanistan while his administration has, at various times, accused Iran of giving weapons to both Sunni and Shiite insurgents in Iraq. The Taliban are Salafi jihadis, Sunni fundamentalists who consider Shiites apostates deserving of death. In power, the Taliban brutally repressed Afghanistan's Shiites and nearly provoked a war with Iran when they murdered Iranian diplomats inside the Iranian consulate in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. Iraq's Sunni insurgents are either Salafi jihadis or Baathists, the political party that started the Iran-Iraq War."
FROM:Iraq Sets the Stage for Possible U.S. War with Iran
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