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Go to 12668
http://www.newswithviews.com/Stang/alan33.htm
TRANS-TEXAS TREASON: TOWN HALL MEETINGS A CON GAME

by Alan Stang
February 17, 2008
NewsWithViews.com

I wish I did not believe this, but I do. At some point now coming fast, the battle for America will metastasize beyond politics. Yes, it would be nice, so wholesome, so American, if voting and elections were sufficient, but more and more in recent years it becomes clear that those things are fraudulent charades designed to lull us and that the conspiracy for world government will do what it likes regardless.

Again and again we have seen that, sure, you peasants go ahead and vote, but, of course, if you vote for the wrong thing, then the conspiracy for world government, infinitely wiser, wealthier, more powerful and, let’s face it, better than we are, will change the result and impose what they want.

As I write, it appears that in November voters will “choose” as President either a man named Hussein, who was raised as a Muslim, belongs to a virulently racist church loyal to Africa, and works with violent Communists there to impose Islamic law, or a Stalinist Womanoid who along with her husband should long since have been in prison for several lifetimes and whose election would mean an epidemic of rampaging bull dykes, not to mention the usual intern knee prints on the Oval Office carpet.

Or, the voters will choose a deranged crank who has done everything he could to betray his fellow POWs, a man whom Soviet brainwashers in Viet Nam may well have turned into one of theirs, a McChurian Candidate, a Republicrud whose record places him on the Far Left end of the Democrud Party, who says he has no qualms about keeping us in Iraq for another century.

Whichever one of these three voters “choose” will enormously increase already powerful Communist hegemony over America. But what about Ron Paul? Ron who? Did you say “Paul?” No, the name is vaguely familiar, but I can’t place it. There could be a retired ladies’ doctor somewhere in Texas who may be named Ron Paul, but I can assure you that no one by that name is running for President, no one, no one, no one, etc. . . .

So, I am reluctantly expecting a spark that could ignite a conflagration, a repetition of the shot heard ‘round the world. The conspiracy for world government is shoving us Americans into an ever smaller corner. As the Seventh Avenue girdle manufacturer likes to put it, “Something’s got to give.” Where? What could be the point of ignition that propels the battle into the next phase?

Of course I am merely speculating. Could it be the Trans-Texas Corridor? By now you know that this treason is an integral part of the proposed North American Union, which would merge the United States, Canada and Mexico. The United States thenceforth would not exist. That is why the paper “dollar” is presently collapsing. The “collapse” will justify the introduction of the NAU currency unit, the “Amero,” to replace it.

For those of you folks who live at the bottom of mine shafts or get your "news" from such “conservative” Communist spokesmen as Limbag or Hannitwit, here is the latest proof. El presidente Jorge W. Boosh is now promoting the expenditure of $1.4 billion non-existent U.S. dollars to protect the southern border of Mexico as part of the “Mérida Initiative.” What? Yes, remember that the new border of NAU is not between the three countries, but around them, so Boosh will protect Mexico’s southern border, not our own.

The purpose of the Trans-Texas Corridor, it says here, is to “relieve congestion,” to “connect communities,” to increase “local control,” to enhance “free trade,” etc. and so on. But the map shows that it bypasses major Texas cities, so it would not “relieve congestion,” and it would not “connect communities” because there are very few exits and it would be hard to cross.

Adding exits would not diminish the connectivity of such a road, so why not add them? The answer is, you wouldn’t add them if you expect to use the corridor to restrict the movement of people. The system would carve the state into sectors. With the help of a few troops, it could become almost impossible to move between them, if the government didn’t want you to. Remember that one of the goals of the conspiracy for world government is to confine our population in the cities, which would be connected by corridors you could not get off. The conspiracy would reserve the countryside for itself.

The so-called “free trade” advantage of the corridor would bring Mexican “products” across the Rio Grande in those uninspected 18-wheelers Boosh recently allowed to enter. They wouldn’t stop until they arrived at the Mexican “port” in Kansas City. Except that there really aren’t any Mexican “products” other than narcotics and illegal aliens. “Tex-Mex” is American cuisine. According to the New York Times, Mexicans don’t know what it is.

But there are Chinese “products.” There are Chinese “products” because both Bill Clinton, the rapist, and Jorge W. Boosh are Communist world government traitors. Those are the uninspected “products” that will arrive in Kansas City in those uninspected trucks, for distribution to the rest of the central district of North America (the former United States), and the northern district (former Canada).

You already know that Red Chinese toothpaste killed dozens of people in Panama, until an alert doctor there discovered it was poisoned. You know that many Chinese foods are adulterated and dangerous. Chinese Communist toys contain lead. Now comes word that a huge percentage of the ingredients found in the pharmaceuticals you buy from Nazi-American drug companies also originates in economical Communist-occupied China and that it is typically tainted. These are the “products” that will be inside those Mexican trucks.

The Trans-Texas Treason will consume 146 acres of land for every mile of road. It will seize 584,000 acres of the finest farm and ranch land in the world. It will be almost ¼ mile wide. It will consume towns, homes, archeology, habitat, etc. And it will make a huge fortune for Cintra, the Spanish company that builds it. That’s right; believe it or not, every construction company in this country was too stupid to do it.

Need I add that the treason has been imposed with the usual, totalitarian arrogance? Transportation Commissioner Ric Williamson says this: “Once the Governor decided that this is where we needed to head, he wanted to remove it from the political flow of the state, he wanted it to become policy as opposed to politics, and that was one of the reasons he asked us to move so fast, and we've done an admirable job. . . .”

In other words, the Governor decided it. Removing it from the political flow and making it policy rather than politics, is an obfuscatory way of saying that the people didn’t get to decide it through their elected representatives in Austin. The Governor is of course lying puke Rick Perry, who campaigned for reelection walking the Rio Grande arm in arm with the Border Patrol, swearing up and down that he would stop the illegal alien invasion and then, safely reelected, proved himself a lying puke.

This is the same Rick Perry who is a Merck & Co. front man, and is trying to force Texas girls as young as nine to take an extremely dangerous but immensely lucrative Merck drug called Gardasil, which may already have killed eight women and caused seizures, blood clots, paralysis and fetal abnormalities in many others. Despite all this, Nazi-drug company front man Perry is still pushing it.

Ted Houghton is another Texas Transportation Commissioner. He says the Corridor is “not about cargo and containers.” He also denies that the Corridor is a “NAFTA highway.” It isn’t a NAFTA highway because “it doesn’t connect to Mexico.” It starts in Brownsville and McAllen, which, true enough, are not in Mexico, but when I was there last they were on the former border.

Dr. Ron “No Such Candidate” Paul says this: “Even more insulting is the distinct possibility that, while the road will collect tolls and fees, making a private foreign firm billions of dollars in revenue, the costs of building it could be heavily borne by taxpayers. So the costs will be socialized and the profits privatized. Public-private partnership indeed!”

The Austin regime is presently conducting “town hall” meetings on the Corridor around the state. The meetings are very slick and professional. There is ample printed material. There are movie screens projecting information. There is a moderator. And people testify at a microphone. Their testimony is videotaped. There is even a court reporter to take down what they say. The witnesses “vote.” One of the options they can choose is “No Action.”

I attended one of the sessions. One after the other, the people testified against the Corridor. It was not hard to sense volcanic seething beneath their fragile calm. One man broke down during his three minutes and cried. They told of the loss of a way of life, of a heritage 150 years old, of historic landmarks, of churches and cemeteries, of animals, of jobs and business, of whole communities being swept into the dustbin of history. There was considerable anguish.

Not one of the witnesses testified in favor of the Corridor. Indeed, one of them turned around, faced the audience of hundreds and asked everyone who was in favor to raise his hand. In every public issue, there are people on different sides. Here, remarkably, among people of every color, age, sex, financial standing, work and business, not a single hand was raised.

An engineer explained that he not only reads, but he also writes many projects like the Corridor every year, and he has never read one so incompetent that leaves so much unanswered. He said it would never get through his office. Another engineer specializing in freight explained that if the goal is to move cargo from Mexico to Canada, the quickest, easiest, least bothersome, cheapest way to do it would be to put it on huge barges in New Orleans, ship it all the way up to the Cities and load it on trucks there.

The fervor and unanimity of the people proved that they believe they can turn this thing around. They believe that when Perry & Company learn how much opposition there is, they will stand down and opt for “No Action.” Of course, that is completely untrue. The Trans-Texas Treason is written in stone. The deal is done. The Austin regime knows perfectly well that the people unanimously oppose it. Then why hold the meetings?



The town hall meetings are a traditional Soviet brainwashing technique, carefully designed to allow the opposition to vent safely. You could call it “managed venting.” To some extent, it will neutralize the opposition. Indeed, it now justifies the traitors in saying that the people participated in the decision. After all, didn’t they testify? Didn’t Austin go to considerable trouble to arrange those meetings? And if you participated, you have no right to complain.



So, the gringos are worse than the illegal aliens. But this is the home of the Alamo, of W. Barrett Travis and the line in the sand. This is Texas, where under every coat there is a side arm, where the women are armed and can stick the red dot in your eye. What will happen when enough of them realize that the fix is in, that the town hall meetings were a fraud, that puppet governor Perry will do this whether we want it or not, that the Corridor is part of the scheme to destroy Texas and the nation?

Will we finally get to see what the Second Amendment really means?



Go to 12667
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSL1643184420080217
Toshiba to give up on HD DVD, end format war: source
Sun Feb 17, 2008
By Mayumi Negishi and Kentaro Hamada

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp (6502.T: Quote, Profile, Research) is planning to give up on its HD DVD format for high definition DVDs, conceding defeat to the competing Blu-Ray technology backed by Sony Corp (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research), a company source said on Saturday.

The move will likely put an end to a battle that has gone on for several years between consortiums led by Toshiba and Sony vying to set the standard for the next-generation DVD and compatible video equipment.

The format war, often compared to the Betamax-VHS battle in the 1980s, has confused consumers unsure of which DVD or player to buy, slowing the development what is expected to be a multibillion dollar high definition DVD industry.

Toshiba's cause has suffered several setbacks in recent weeks including Friday's announcement by U.S. retailing giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) that it would abandon the HD DVD format and only stock its shelves with Blu-ray movies.

A source at Toshiba confirmed an earlier report by public broadcaster NHK that it was getting ready to pull the plug.

"We have entered the final stage of planning to make our exit from the next generation DVD business," said the source, who asked not to be identified. He added that an official announcement could come as early as next week.

No one answered the phone at Toshiba's public relations office in Tokyo.

NHK said Toshiba would suffer losses running to tens of billions of yen (hundreds of millions of dollars) to scrap production of HD DVD players and recorders and other steps to withdraw from the business.



Go to 12666
http://www.dailypaul.com/node/37727
Delegates!!! McCain is not a lock for the nominee.....here is the math.... Please keep this post current
Posted February 13th, 2008 by GiveMeLiberty
Some are it again on this site, saying that McCain will be the nominee.....

I wish you people understood the delegate process and stop folding like a house of cards.....if that were the case, don't you think RP would have quit by now?

Do some research!!!!

When McCain reaches 1191 as declared by the MSM, that will really not be the case. He is not guaranteed all of those delegates.

HE MUST WIN THE 1191 DELEGATES AT THE CONVENTION!!!!

DID YOU GET THAT!!!!

HE DOES NOT WIN THE DELEGATES DURING THE PRIMARIES!!!
Bound or pledged delegates are committed to the winner of the primary to vote for that candidate in the first round.

Many states have yet to pick delegates. Of those that have, RP has very high delegate counts even though he hasn't won a single primary. How? Well people just simply apply. More of RP supporters are willing to become delegates than McCaine supporters.....Ask some here that have become RP delegates.

The primaries and caucases are nothing more than window dressing. Delegates are not chosen the day of the primary/caucas.

The only thing the primaries/caucases do is commit the BOUND/PLEDGED delegates to the winner either by winner take all or proportioned out.

At the convention, there will be bound.pledged and unbound/unpledged delegates. NOT ALL DELEGATES FOR EACH STATE ARE BOUND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The unbound/unpledged can vote for anyone!!!!!

At the convention, if McInsane does not get 51% of the delegate vote on the first round, then they vote again. In the next round, delegates can vote for whomever they want.

Read and learn please!!!!! and spread the word to everyone you can.

.
.
According to the sight below, here are the bound and unbound totals as of today.....McCain has 796 bound and 18 unbound delegates.

Go to 12665
http://www.thegreenpapers...

Now lets do some math:
McCain needs 395 bound delegates to reach 1191

Of the remaining states:

texas - 137 bound and 3 unbound
ohio - 88 UNBOUND
South Dakota - 24 bound and 3 unbound
wisconsin - 37 bound and 3 unbound
vermont - 17 bound
idaho - 26 bound and 6 unbound
hawaii - 20 bound
pennsylvannia - 74 UNBOUND
oregon - 27 bound and 3 unbound
puerto rico - 20 bound and 3 unbound
north carolina - 69 bound
indianna - 27 bound and 30 UNBOUND
kentucky - 45 bound
mississippi - 36 bound and 3 unbound
RI - 17 bound and 3 unbound
nebraska - 30 bound and 3 unbound
new mexico - 29 bound and 3 unbound

.
There are 561 bound delegates left of which Mr. McCain must win 71% of to reach 1191.....now when was the last time he won with 71% of the vote?

Now Huck will probably win nebraska, kentucky, miss, and SD.......if this happens, then McCain would have to win just about every remaining delegate, and that is not likely to happen.

Basically, McCain would almost have to run the board of the other states to win......not likely.

.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe Vermont is the only winner take all state remaining, so even if McCain wins a state, he does not get all of the bound delegates.

.
THE MSM IS LUMPING BOTH BOUND AND UNBOUND IN THEIR TOTALS.......VERY MISLEADING

So get your heads out of the MSM garbage!!!

NOW MARCH ON TROOPS!!!!



Go to 12664
http://www.twincities.com/business/ci_8275334
Wheat market gone wild
Driven by fears of shortage, the price per bushel has shattered records.
BY TOM WEBB
Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated: 02/16/2008 12:08:04 AM CST

Mark Wilson, his arms raised, and Richard Diaz, in the yellow jacket, join other traders Friday morning to trade hard red spring wheat futures at the Minneapolis Grain Exchange. In a bullish week for farmers, wheat prices defied the exchange's trading limits to reach almost $20 a bushel. (JEAN PIERI, Pioneer Press)Decades from now, farmers will still talk about this week - the moment when wheat in Minneapolis soared to nearly $20 a bushel.

Like a 100-year flood, spring wheat prices have risen relentlessly all winter, obliterating every record in sight. At the Minneapolis Grain Exchange, wheat fever pushed prices to $19.80 a bushel in trading Friday - nearly triple the record from 1996.

To grain experts, it's a warning of what happens when grain supplies don't keep up with rising demand. Fear of scarcity and shortage push markets far beyond any norm.

"This wheat market has given us a glimpse of the what-if - what if we don't deliver the goods on the production side, because the demand is here," warned Ed Usset, a grain marketing specialist at the University of Minnesota.

For the past month, the hottest market in the nation has been the Minneapolis Grain Exchange, the nation's center for trading spring wheat futures. The high-protein wheat that farmers grow in Minnesota and the Dakotas is prized for making bread, but poor crops worldwide have left wheat supplies at a 60-year low.

The impact of that shortage reaches far beyond the wheat trading pit in Minneapolis. Trading in Minneapolis has supercharged wheat markets in Chicago and Kansas City, Mo., as well. That has pushed corn and soybean prices to near-record levels - fueling a wave of uncertainty about everything from food price inflation to subsidies in the new farm bill to hunger in the developing world.

that's where this is all coming from, the shortage of the actual physical supply of spring wheat and durum," said Elaine Kub, a commodity market analyst at DTN. She suspects grain prices elsewhere will retreat, but there's little question about the clamor for spring wheat.
"People are desperate," Kub said. "You definitely heard stories from out in the country of elevators offering $20 a bushel and getting no sellers. ... You hear people tossing around the words 'wheat hoarding.' "

For decades, agriculture's great problem has been surplus, not scarcity. And ruinously low prices, not ruinously high ones. Farmers have complained bitterly about this, but consumers benefitted from the great abundance of grains and proteins. This week's action in Minneapolis previews a different sort of marketplace.

"It's telling us how close we are to that tipping point in all commodities," said Usset, a former grain trader. "Every commodity I know would like more acres: corn needs more, soybeans need more ... durum wheat, malt barley, sunflowers, they all want a little more production."

The Minneapolis Grain Exchange itself is scrambling to adjust to the explosive markets. On Friday, the maximum daily trading limit rose to $1.35 a bushel - compared with 30 cents last week - and soon, the maximum daily limit will vanish. Officials suggested they had little choice. Markets were so volatile that they locked up day after day, so nobody could trade wheat futures at all.

"Whenever you have set caps, even if they're for good intentions to help protect certain people from abnormal price swings, you're going to run into others who are affected because you have those price caps," said Layne Carlson, treasurer of the Minneapolis Grain Exchange.

On Friday, for the first time in 12 trading sessions, the March wheat contract did not close up the maximum daily trading limit. Because of the higher limits, it closed at $19.35 a bushel, up 82 cents. The return of regular trading to the wheat pit may signal an end to the greatest run-up in wheat history, with wheat prices rising fourfold in a single year.

For farmers, that puts the 2008 Minneapolis wheat market atop the list of legendary bull markets. There haven't been many: the 1970s boom fueled by Russian exports, the drought-stressed corn market of 1988, the grain spike of 1996 and the soybean market of 2004.

"Absolutely, this is one for the record books, make no mistake about it," Usset said. "This will be talked about."

Tom Webb can be reached at twebb@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5428.



Go to 12663
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-02-17-voa17.cfm
Olmert Says Electricity, Fuel Cuts to Gaza Will Continue
By Robert Berger
Jerusalem
17 February 2008

Israel says it plans to continue crippling sanctions on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, despite international opposition. The announcement was made as three Palestinian gunmen and a civilian were killed in Israeli raids in Gaza. Robert Berger reports from the VOA bureau in Jerusalem.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says the reduction of electricity and fuel supplies to Gaza will continue until Palestinian rocket attacks stop.

Mr. Olmert told the Cabinet a war is going on in southern Israel. He said Israel would not ease up on terrorist leaders until life along the Gaza border returns to normal.

Palestinian officials and the European Union have demanded that Israel end the sanctions, describing them as collective punishment.

The Cabinet met as a delegation from the United Nations and United States visited the Israeli border town of Sderot that has been hard hit by Palestinian rockets.

U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes condemned the rocket attacks, but said people on both sides of the Gaza border are suffering.

"The situations are different, completely different. The physical conditions, obviously, in many ways are much worse in Gaza," said Holmes. "But people living under rockets, which they feel are deliberately aimed at civilians, they are obviously going to feel genuine sufferings."

Senator John Kyl of the U.S. state of Arizona said the problem of the rockets begins with weapons smuggling from Egypt to Gaza. He said the United States is using aid to Egypt for leverage.

"The United States Congress has put limitations on the money that the Congress sends to Egypt, limitations which require Egypt to take a stronger position in stopping the smuggling. Clearly the smuggling has not stopped," said Kyl.

Shortly after the delegation left Sderot, a rocket struck a house in the town, causing damage, but no injuries.

Fighting also continued inside Gaza, where Israeli troops backed by tanks and helicopters clashed with Palestinian gunmen.

The tense situation on the Gaza border will be on the agenda when Mr. Olmert meets Tuesday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.



Go to 12662
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41217
IRAQ: The Lights Have Gone Out, Who Cares
By Ahmed Ali and Dahr Jamail*

BAQUBA, Feb 15 (IPS) - Lack of electricity in Baquba has shattered businesses, and the lives of families. Months of power failures has darkened morale everywhere.

In Diyala province, just north of Baghdad, a generation has grown up in dark. The province, and its capital Baquba 40 km north of Baghdad has lived with intermittent electricity supply since the times of the sanctions under Saddam Hussein in the 1990s. Came the U.S. in 2003, and everyone thought it would get better.

"I felt happy when the U.S. invaded Iraq because I thought the electricity problem will be solved, and we would have it all the time like other countries," Abdul-Kareem Hasan, a trader in Baquba told IPS.

But promises of reconstruction by western contractors proved empty, and there is now less electricity than during the sanctions.

In some cities, homes get electricity just an hour or two a day. Sometimes, there is no electricity for a week. People struggle to get alternative source of electricity.

"Big generators are operated privately for distributing electricity to people," resident Nihad al-Alwan told IPS. "This process implies that a person purchases a generator of certain capacity and gives outlets to people. Each family takes what they need."

In Baghdad, that can mean a high bill for electricity in addition to paying for scarce and costly food. In many homes the entire income cannot cover the cost of electricity needs.

The failure has fed anger with the government. "If the government were serious about fixing electricity, they could do it easily," said Abdullah Jumeel, a local employee.

Businesses are down. "We need electricity to operate the machines, and sometimes we go back home without doing anything," blacksmith Jabar Ameen told IPS. "If there is no electricity, there is no work -- and no money."

Only those who can pay for big generators can operate their factories or keep shops open. But most businesses have shut shop. "As a result, the number of jobs has become more limited, adding to extreme unemployment," said 51-year-old resident Majeed Kamil.

Unemployment across Iraq has officially been said to range between 60-70 percent over the last months.

Compounding the problem is the rising cost of fuel.

"We can have simple generators that can be sufficient for the main necessities, but fuel is too expensive," says resident Radhi Kadhim. "Fifteen litres of petrol may be priced 12-15 dollars, or sometimes up to 25 dollars. This can operate the generator for just one or two days. It is futile."

Beyond numbers and hours, the stoppage of electricity seems to have made people jumpy and bitter. And it brings little reassurance to hear the sound of generators at night in other people's homes.

The winter has been hard without electricity. "We use wood fire to warm up the houses," resident Safa al-Hamdani said. "Electric heaters have become useless. So now we use a metal container, say 50cm by 20cm and burn wood in it. We have abandoned the world of modern technology."

"I dream of waking up and having a hot shower," said a local resident. "But I am now exhausted complaining about lack of electricity. I'm sure nobody can bear living in Iraq. It's a country in the stone ages."

The worst of the suffering comes in summer, when temperatures can reach 55 C.

"When a family has a new-born baby, the members of the family may spend all night waving pieces of paper over the child to get the baby to sleep," Safiya Hadi, a nurse at the general hospital in Baquba told IPS. "This may continue the whole night."

It is not easy for an adult to sleep either. "Sometimes we sleep just one or two hours in the night because of no electricity," Adil Mahdi, a carpenter, told IPS. "When we go to work in the morning, we can hardly move or think."

It is much harder for infants and children, he says. "Adults can still bear the summer heat, but babies can not. We just pity them. Both the Saddam government and the current government have been unjust, leaving people to suffer like this from lack of electricity."

After a hard winter, everyone is waiting for a harder summer.

(*Ahmed, our correspondent in Iraq's Diyala province, works in close collaboration with Dahr Jamail, our U.S.-based specialist writer on Iraq who has reported extensively from Iraq and the Middle East) (END/2008)



Go to 12661
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=43409§ionid=351020201
Sun, 17 Feb 2008
Anti al-Qaeda Iraqis quit US Army
An anti al-Qaeda group in central Iraq has resigned en-masse from its US military employers, accusing them of killing 19 of the group.

The walk-out occurred in Juruf Sakher village near the city of Hilla, 120 kilometres (75 miles) south of Baghdad.

"The group, which comprises 110 members, resigned in protest at organized assassinations by the coalition forces," Sabah al-Janabi, leader of the anti al-Qaeda Awakening group in the area told AFP.

According to Janabi and a local police official, Ali al-Lami, three members of the Awakening group were killed on Saturday when they were attacked by gunfire from a US helicopter.

"It was the third incident in a month. We have lost 19 men while 12 have been injured because of coalition attacks," added Janabi.

The US military said it was not certain that the Awakening members had indeed resigned.

"There was a peaceful demonstration in Jurf al-Sakhar, however there was no implication that the (Awakening) would cease in their work with coalition forces," it said.

On Monday, about 3,500 demonstrators, mainly Awakening members, marched through the streets of Baquba north of Baghdad to demand the sacking of the police chief whom they claim was behind kidnappings in the city.

Abu Haider al-Katib, a spokesman for the 1920s Revolution Brigades, the largest of the Awakening components, told AFP that if their demands were not met, they would "take up arms" against the police "and US troops if they support the police".

The protests underscore the US military's tenuous position.

The Awakening groups-began in western Anbar province in September 2006-are supported and paid for by the US military which sees them as an essential help.

US commanders say there are now around 130 such groups across Iraq with a total of about 80,000 volunteers.

The Iraqi government has announced its concerns about the dangers of giving too much power to Awakening Councils that have successfully driven al-Qaeda out of many districts of Baghdad and elsewhere.

MHE/HAR



Go to 12660
http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=6683
The North American Union Mexico Style
02-15-2008
Canada Free Press

American and Canadian patriots scouring the Internet for the latest on the North American Union (NAU) may be missing a huge resource.

Politicians and the mainstream media still brand as conspiracy theorists those who suspect a European Union style NAU is destined for Canada, the United States and Mexico.

A Canada Free Press (CFP) reader reminds us “Mexico has its own Security and Prosperity (SPP) websites. Mexico’s SPP websites are called (ASPAN) (Spanish).”

“Just because we’ve been defending (and attacking) on so many other fronts doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten the North American Union a.k.a. the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP),” the reader wrote CFP. “The NAU’s “unelected presidente Jorge Boosh is plowing full steam ahead. One sign of his intention—announced in January’s State of the Union message—is to renew pressure for Amnesty for the 20 million or more illegal aliens now in the United States. Another sign is his choice to head the GOP in the 2008 election: Sen. John “Songbird” McCain, co-sponsor with Teddy Kennedy of the 2007 illegal alien Amnesty Bill.

The links below show the reality of the NAU in Mexican planning, where it’s regarded as permanent policy to bind three countries into a union that dissolves US sovereignty.

The Mexican equivalent of SPP presents a version much clearer on intent. Here is what they say in one question: “Que es la APAN?

. Es un proceso trilateral, permanente, para una mayor integracion de America del Norte, que sera evaluado por los Mandatorios de manera semestral.

Translation:

“What is ASPAN?

“It is a tri-lateral process, permanent, for a major integration of North America, which will be evaluated by the representatives periodically.”

Please note there is a very clear agenda that makes use of the world “PERMANENT”.

This is not a NAFTA or CAFTA which can be reversed if the government so directs. In Mexico, this is a permanent union.



Go to 12659
http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=6691
Corporate Media Begins Gun Control Mantra
02-16-2008
InfoWars
Kurt Nimmo

Now that a mental case has accomplished yet another dastardly deed at a gun-free zone on an American campus, the corporate media is pulling out all the stops and calling for “gun control,” that is to say the squashing of the Second Amendment.

As a primary example, consider Andrea Mitchell, CFR member and wife of Alan Greenspan, the man who presided over the destruction of the U.S. economy. Guest co-anchoring MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Mitchell introduced gun control and the Bradys into the discussion about the violence at NIU:

ANDREA MITCHELL: You know, it does bring to mind all the debates we’ve had over the years about gun control. I remember covering it on the Hill in the ’80s. Of course I know the Bradys and all the efforts they made, and it eventually persuaded Ronald Reagan to switch his position on gun control and depart from what was traditional conservative Republican ideology. And gun control is not yet a big issue in this campaign, but you wonder: Barack Obama is a senator from Illinois. Maybe this will become propelled to the front of the –

WILLIE GEIST: Yes.

Mitchell is nostalgic for the good old days when Reagan was persuaded to step aside and allow the gun grabbers and control freaks to attack the Constitution. It obviously tickles Ms. Mitchell such a gaggle of statists were able to trash “traditional conservative Republican ideology,” now all but dead or at least existing outside of the corporate whorehouse known as Congress. Our Republicans, by and large, are now neocons, and the Democrats, staunch gun-grabbers for decades now. Both sides of the so-called aisle now agree the American people must be disarmed, although on occasion a Republican or two will step forward and defend hunters and collectors.

Of course, the Second Amendment is not about hunters and collectors — it is about defending ourselves against tyrannical government. Neocons and no shortage of Democrats understand this as well and that’s why they are determined to disarm us — it will be nearly impossible to impose their world government and slave and surveillance grid upon us if we are armed and even a small number resist.

Mitchell wants Obama to inject gun control into his presidential campaign. Barack Obama is careful not to alienate voters and prefers instead to tread what should be called the George Orwell line of reasoning:

“The city of Chicago has gun laws, so does Washington, D.C.,” Obama said recently. “The notion that somehow local jurisdictions can’t initiate gun safety laws to deal with gangbangers and random shootings on the street isn’t born out by our constitution.” In other words, according to Obama, “gun safety,” i.e., outlawing and grabbing guns, has nothing to do with the Second Amendment. It’s a safety issue, sort of like seatbelts. In fact, Obama agrees with the current statist and control freak mindset that dictates the government can restrict and even ban guns and still uphold the Constitution, sort of an updated version of Orwell’s doublethink:

Asked to elaborate on his understanding of what the second amendment actually means, Obama said that he does believe the second amendment “speaks to an individual’s right.” But he said that right could be “subject to common-sense regulation just like most of our rights are subject to common-sense regulation. So I think there’s a lot of room before you [sic] bumping against a constitutional barrier for us to institute some of the common-sense gun laws.”

Indeed, this idea of a “common-sense regulation” translates thus: you have a right to possess firearms, same as the government has a right to restrict and grab those firearms. Moreover, “war is peace,” “freedom is slavery,” and “ignorance is strength,” etc.

Meanwhile, we get the same old nonsense. Case in point, two writers from Scotland, where gun control — or rather, an almost complete absence of guns — has ruled for a very long time. Gun ownership, Caryn Rousseau and Chris Stephen write for the Scotsman, “is protected by a single line in the Second Amendment, staging ‘the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be not be infringed.’ The NRA’s hard line is echoed by its champion, actor Charlton Heston, and his oft-repeated cry that if the authorities want his gun, they can take it from his ‘cold dead hands’…. But it is the cold dead hands of all those college students that motivate the gun-control lobby.”

In fact, this is a canard, as the NRA has in the recent past teamed up with classic gun-grabbers such as Chuck Schumer, Carolyn McCarthy, and Pat Leahy, to make sure veterans are unable to protect themselves, thus helping to pass HR 2640, the Veterans Disarmament Act.

Mitchell and crew, spanning the width of the corporate Operation Mockingbird media, are crowing in unison now that the Supreme Court has agreed to take up the District of Columbia’s gun laws. It will prove to be the most of important ruling on the Second Amendment of our time, as the court has not ruled on the Second Amendment since 1939.

Of course, it was simply a coincidence that yet another horrific act of violence perpetuated against students occurred as this landmark case moves toward resolution. Same as it is a coincidence Andrea Mitchell and the CIA compromised corporate media are dredging up the Bradys and the surrender of Ronald Reagan, who told us he was a dyed-in-the-wool constitutionalist.



Go to 12658
http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=6696
Error Gave FBI Access To Unauthorized E-Mail
02-16-2008
NY Times

WASHINGTON — A technical glitch gave the F.B.I. access to the e-mail messages from an entire computer network — perhaps hundreds of accounts or more — instead of simply the lone e-mail address that was approved by a secret intelligence court as part of a national security investigation, according to an internal report of the 2006 episode.

F.B.I. officials blamed an “apparent miscommunication” with the unnamed Internet provider, which mistakenly turned over all the e-mail from a small e-mail domain for which it served as host. The records were ultimately destroyed, officials said.

Bureau officials noticed a “surge” in the e-mail activity they were monitoring and realized that the provider had mistakenly set its filtering equipment to trap far more data than a judge had actually authorized.

The episode is an unusual example of what has become a regular if little-noticed occurrence, as American officials have expanded their technological tools: government officials, or the private companies they rely on for surveillance operations, sometimes foul up their instructions about what they can and cannot collect.

The problem has received no discussion as part of the fierce debate in Congress about whether to expand the government’s wiretapping authorities and give legal immunity to private telecommunications companies that have helped in those operations.

But an intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because surveillance operations are classified, said: “It’s inevitable that these things will happen. It’s not weekly, but it’s common.”

A report in 2006 by the Justice Department inspector general found more than 100 violations of federal wiretap law in the two prior years by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, many of them considered technical and inadvertent.

Bureau officials said they did not have updated public figures but were preparing them as part of a wider-ranging review by the inspector general into misuses of the bureau’s authority to use so-called national security letters in gathering phone records and financial documents in intelligence investigations.

In the warrantless wiretapping program approved by President Bush after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, technical errors led officials at the National Security Agency on some occasions to monitor communications entirely within the United States — in apparent violation of the program’s protocols — because communications problems made it difficult to tell initially whether the targets were in the country or not.

Past violations by the government have also included continuing a wiretap for days or weeks beyond what was authorized by a court, or seeking records beyond what were authorized. The 2006 case appears to be a particularly egregious example of what intelligence officials refer to as “overproduction” — in which a telecommunications provider gives the government more data than it was ordered to provide.

The problem of overproduction is particularly common, F.B.I. officials said. In testimony before Congress in March 2007 regarding abuses of national security letters, Valerie E. Caproni, the bureau’s general counsel, said that in one small sample, 10 out of 20 violations were a result of “third-party error,” in which a private company “provided the F.B.I. information we did not seek.”

The 2006 episode was disclosed as part of a new batch of internal documents that the F.B.I. turned over to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit group in San Francisco that advocates for greater digital privacy protections, as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit the group has brought. The group provided the documents on the 2006 episode to The New York Times.

Marcia Hofmann, a lawyer for the privacy foundation, said the episode raised troubling questions about the technical and policy controls that the F.B.I. had in place to guard against civil liberties abuses.

“How do we know what the F.B.I. does with all these documents when a problem like this comes up?” Ms. Hofmann asked.

In the cyber era, the incident is the equivalent of law enforcement officials getting a subpoena to search a single apartment, but instead having the landlord give them the keys to every apartment in the building. In February 2006, an F.B.I. technical unit noticed “a surge in data being collected” as part of a national security investigation, according to an internal bureau report. An Internet provider was supposed to be providing access to the e-mail of a single target of that investigation, but the F.B.I. soon realized that the filtering controls used by the company “were improperly set and appeared to be collecting data on the entire e-mail domain” used by the individual, according to the report.

The bureau had first gotten authorization from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to monitor the e-mail of the individual target 10 months earlier, in April 2005, according to the internal F.B.I. document. But Michael Kortan, an F.B.I. spokesman, said in an interview that the problem with the unfiltered e-mail went on for just a few days before it was discovered and fixed. “It was unintentional on their part,” he said.

Mr. Kortan would not disclose the name of the Internet provider or the network domain because the national security investigation, which is classified, is continuing. The improperly collected e-mail was first segregated from the court-authorized data and later was destroyed through unspecified means. The individuals whose e-mail was collected apparently were never informed of the problem. Mr. Kortan said he could not say how much e-mail was mistakenly collected as a result of the error, but he said the volume “was enough to get our attention.” Peter Eckersley, a staff technologist for the Electronic Frontier Foundation who reviewed the documents, said it would most likely have taken hundreds or perhaps thousands of extra messages to produce the type of “surge” described in the F.B.I.’s internal reports.

Mr. Kortan said that once the problem was detected the foreign intelligence court was notified, along with the Intelligence Oversight Board, which receives reports of possible wiretapping violations.

“This was a technical glitch in an area of evolving tools and technology and fast-paced investigations,” Mr. Kortan said. “We moved quickly to resolve it and stop it. The system worked exactly the way it’s designed.”



Go to 12657
http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=6699
Homeland Security's LED Incapacitation Device
02-16-2008
Raw Story

One company has received an $800,000 contract from the Department of Homeland Security to develop a new "non-lethal" method of human incapacitation for use by law enforcement.

By 2010, Intelligent Optical Systems hopes to be selling a sort of high-powered flashlight, the "LED Incapacitator," which would act by not only effectively blinding its target, but overloading his or her brain, with rapidly flashing lights at varying colors and frequencies. In addition to disorientation, headache and nausea are also likely.

The device, designed with help from the Los Angeles Police Department, could end up in the hands on the Coast Guard, Border Patrol, Secret Service and air marshals.

"It really doesn't do any damage to you," says Homeland Security's David Throckmorton. "For them, it would be to stop a terrorist--or whoever--from advancing...or somebody who's out of line on an airplane--would be able to stop them from moving forward."

"Let's not pretend these are anything less than a weapon," contends the ACLU's Michael Soller. "Tasers," he uses as an example, "were sold to police departments and police officers were trained that they were non-lethal. We have 300 deaths over the past few years that show that that claim was not true."

"We've been very careful to design this so the maximum permissible exposure limit for human eye safety is never exceeded," says IOS' Robert Lieberman on the risk of blindness from being subjected to the device.

Any applicable risk of other phenomena, such as seizure, is not covered in the accompanying reports, nor has data been made available on IOS' website.

CBS 13 News has more here.

A recent report from CBS 3 News in Philadelphia is available here.

The accompanying video below was broadcast on CBS 13 News on February 4, 2008.



Go to 12656
http://www.realjewnews.com/?p=117
BIG BROTHER JEW IS WATCHING YOU
@ US HOMELAND SECURITY!


By Brother Nathanael Kapner - Copyright © 2008
All Articles May Be Reproduced Only With Authorship of Br Nathanael Kapner
& Link To Real Jew News


Prime Source: Sweet Liberty Web Site @ www.sweetliberty.org/issues/homeland/
Other Sources Listed Below.

BIG BROTHER JEW is watching you my fellow Americans. And Big Brother Jew resides at US Homeland Security. There are 4 Big Brother Jews at US Homeland Security who together belong to the Synagague of Satan as Jesus Christ warned us in the book of Revelations.

And these 4 Christ-hating Jews want to:
- micro-chip- embed you.
- face-voice-eye- scan you.
- DNA- gather you.
-Internet use- track you.
-Checking Account-Credit Card use - trace you.

The Jews at US Homeland Security have a nice sounding hi-techy word for all of these spying devices: “Biometrics.”


4 BIG BROTHER JEWS OF US HOMELAND SECURITY

Michael Chertoff: Secretary of US Homeland Security.

Paul A. Schneider: Deputy Secretary of US Homeland Security.

Fred L. Schwien: Executive Secretary of Operations of US Homeland Security.

Jay M. Cohen: Under-Secretary for Science & Technology of US Homeland Security. (This Big Brother Jew is the one who will embed his micro-chip into your wrist or forehead).


PRELUDE FOR US HOMELAND SECURITY’S BIOMETRIC SPYING
& REAL ID CARDS

RFID Chips: These have been used in stores like Wall Marts for a few years now. The RFID Chip is inserted into merchandise to track inventory.

Biometric Chips: These can be sewn into the skin. The Biometric Chip has been utilized by parents to track their children whom they fear may be lost or kidnapped.

Finger Print Scan: Some Public School Systems have begun using the Finger-Printing Scan for their School Lunch Programs to determine paid-in-funds available for each student’s cafeteria use.

Iris (Eye) Scan: Florida’s Orlando International Airport uses the Iris Scan to determine the identity of passengers and workers.

REAL ID CARD: In 2005, as promoted by the US Homeland Security, the Senate passed The Real ID Act which requires all new driver’s licenses to be transferred to US Homeland Security’s Real ID Card.

~ The Real ID Card records fingerprints, digitized facial scans, iris scans, DNA, religion, signatures, passport activity, previous arrests, car driving/license violations, travel activity, checking & savings account activity, credit card activity, calling card activity, family background, and the same identity number of one’s soon-to-come National Identiy Card. And all of this very personal detailed information will be in the hands of the Big Brother Jews of US Homeland Security! Whippie!

~ The Jew Michael Chertoff, Secretary of US Homeland Security is now warding off many protests of his Real ID Card scheduled for enactment any day now.
See: “Electronic Privacy Information Center” Here


BIG BROTHER JEWS PLANNED THE
US HOMELAND SECURITY ACT FOUR YEARS BEFORE 9-11


Excerpted & Adapted From Full Article @ http://www.sweetliberty.org/issues/homeland/phaseiii.htm

IN 1998, FOUR YEARS BEFORE the so-called attack on the World Trade Center, the Jew-run Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) drafted their CFR Commission Report on National Security.

The CFR Commission Report was done in three phases. Phase III finalized the Report in January of 2001. The Report laid out the framework of the US Homeland Security program:

* Phase I, which began in 1998, stressed that mass-casualty terrorism directed against the U.S. homeland was of serious and growing concern. Phase I concluded in September 1999 with the publication of New World Coming: American Security in the 21st Century. (Were they modern-day prophets or orchestrators of “terrorism directed against the US?”)

* Phase II developed a strategy that would deter and defend against terrorist attacks.

* Phase III, which concluded on January 31 2001, recommended the creation of a new independent National Homeland Security Agency with responsibility for planning, coordinating, and integrating various U.S. government activities involved in homeland security.

~ Phase III also recommended the reforming of government structures and processes to enable the U.S. government to implement anti-terrorism strategy that would necessitate “departing from the embedded routines of the last half-century and thus require new legislation.”

COMMENTARY: The stated need for the U.S. “departing from the embedded routines of the last half-century” refers to the final elimination of Constitutional checks and balances, and individual state sovereignty. Both federal and state legislators have abrogated their legislative duties to a dictatorial executive - the President. And the US Executive Office is run by Jews – everywhere, Jews! Big Brother Jews like Chertoff of US Homeland Security! Whippee!

The “required legislation” the Report recommended has and is being passed with lightning speed through the U.S. Congress, and most dangerously by State legislatures and local elected officials who have no clue that they are voting for their own demise.

### Within hours of the event of 9-11 (2001), Bush announced his plans for the current never-ending War on Terror.

### Within days of the event, Bush announced the creation of the Office of US Homeland Security. But it was ready and waiting, compliments of the Jew-run Council on Foreign Relations!

World Jewish Zionists had long awaited this day when their Anti-Christ orders would be carried out by elected political leaders of our once Christian America!

For The Full Outline See: “Excerpts From and Comments On The
CFR Phase Report on National Homeland Security” Here

For The Full CFR Commission Report/21st Century See: “The Report of the U.S. Commission on National Security” Here


HOW DO WE STOP BIG BROTHER JEW FROM WATCHING YOU?


Here are 3 options you can choose from:

Option #1. Find a island in Greece to move to.

Option #2. Never use the Internet, don’t shop at Supermarkets, don’t use checks, stop driving, stop using credit cards, don’t use your voice when on the phone, wrap a towel around your face and wrists, and never ever say the word “Jew” or “Zionist” again.

Option #3. Ask the Lord Jesus Christ to bring the Jews to the brink in which they will either have to repent of their Anti-Christ schemes - or have Christ’s judgement fall on their wicked heads!

For More See: “Jew Chertoff’s Subversive North American Union Plan” Click Here



Go to 12655
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/White-bread-is-crippling-our.3781403.jp
Published Date: 15 February 2008
Source: The Scotsman
Location: Scotland
White bread is crippling our swans

« Previous « PreviousNext » Next »
View GalleryBy ALASTAIR JAMIESON AND CHARLOTTE THOMSON
GENERATIONS of families have strolled to beauty spots armed with bread to feed one of the country's most popular birds.

But wildlife experts in Scotland have urged the public to help save swans by feeding them brown loaves instead of white.

A lack of nutrients in white bread is leaving the birds crippled with a condition similar to rickets in humans. Their limbs become so weak that the birds are unable to dive for food.

Leftover bread in the water can lead to poisonous blooms of blue-green-algae, posing another danger to the birds.

The problem is particularly acute at the mouth of the River Ugie near Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, where scores of mute swans have been taking advantage of free food from the public. But officers of the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals have found that white bread has made them ill. Scott Elphinstone, an inspector based in Buchan, said: "The birds have become reliant on white bread because that's what the public feed them.

"But they are becoming crippled due to a vitamin deficiency – white loaf is just not good for them. We would advise anyone who wishes to take down food to take along brown bread instead. Potatoes, bird seed and carrots are also a much better choice."

A spokesman for the RSPB said: "We would agree that white bread isn't ideal for the diet of any bird. It is much better to give them brown or wholemeal bread which contains seeds as white bread doesn't have as much nutritional value."

But Carina Norris, a nutritionist and keen birdwatcher, said the difference between white and brown was not so clear-cut. "White bread is fortified with two vitamins, calcium and iron, so it is not devoid of goodness. The reason brown bread is better for you is that it provides more fibre and the nutrients are more easily absorbed by the body."



Go to 12654
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-02-15-flu_N.htm?csp=15
CDC: Flu season getting worse
Updated | Comment | Recommend E-mail | Save | Print |

ATLANTA (AP) — The flu season is getting worse, and U.S. health officials say it's partly because the flu vaccine doesn't protect against most of the spreading flu bugs.
The flu shot is a good match for only about 40% of this year's flu viruses, officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.

That's worse than last week's report when the CDC said the vaccine was protective against roughly half the circulating strains. In good years, the vaccine can fend off 70 to 90%.

Infections from an unexpected strain have been booming, and now are the main agent behind most of the nation's lab-confirmed flu cases, said Dr. Joe Bresee, the CDC's chief of influenza epidemiology.

It's too soon to know whether this will prove to be a bad flu season overall, but it's fair to say a lot of people are suffering at the moment. "Every area of the country is experiencing lots of flu right now," Bresee said.

This week, 44 states reported widespread flu activity, up from 31 last week. The number children who have died from the flu has risen to 10 since the flu season's official Sept. 30 start.

Those numbers aren't considered alarming. Early February is the time of year when flu cases tend to peak. The 10 pediatric deaths, though tragic, are about the same number as was reported at this time in the last two flu seasons, Bresee said.

The biggest surprise has been how poorly the vaccine has performed.

Each winter, experts try to predict which strains of flu will circulate so they can develop an appropriate vaccine for the following season. They choose three strains— two from the Type A family of influenza, and one from Type B.

Usually, the guesswork is pretty good: The vaccines have been a good match in 16 of the last 19 flu seasons, Bresee has said.

But the vaccine's Type B component turned out not to be a good match for the B virus that has been most common this winter. And one of the Type A components turned out to be poorly suited for the Type A H3N2/Brisbane-like strain that now accounts for the largest portion of lab-confirmed cases.

Over the years, the H3N2 flu has tended to cause more deaths, Bresee said.

This week, the World Health Organization took the unusual step of recommending that next season's flu vaccine have a completely different makeup from this year's. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to make its decision about the U.S. vaccine next week.

H3N2 strains are treatable by Tamiflu and other antiviral drugs, but the other, H1N1 Type A strains are more resistant. Of all flu samples tested this year, 4.6% have been resistant to antiviral medications. That's up from less than 1% last year.

"This represents a real increase in resistance," Bresee said.



Go to 12653
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=8038
Voice of the White House February 11, 2008

TBR News.org – February 11, 2008

“Just a brief note today to discuss a major problem. A friend returned to DC two weeks ago after a tour in China. He brought various local Chinese food snacks with him and just because he could, he had them tested. My, what a surprise! All of the food was contaminated with chemicals and various toxins. Some of them were very dangerous if eaten. He said that the Olympic committee discovered fresh food in China was so loaded with drugs and growth steroids as to be very dangerous. Bottled water contains human waste sediment and on and on. One piece of candy had a number of small aluminum shaving in it and a “beef” snack turned out to be rat meat. His advise, and mine? When you go to your local supermarket, look at the items you buy. If it says “China” on it anywhere, don’t buy it. The lab told him that most food and drink in China was full of all kinds of very harmful and noxious material and one chemist said, as joke, that the crap was good enough to feed to his mother-in-law but not otherwise fit for human consumption. But both Chinese companies and their American importers make money with this and the Bush people have deliberately cut back the food inspectors so as not to interfere with priofits.”
www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a2816.htm

See our Inside the White House archive:
www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/category.asp?id=41

A Complete Copy of the Voice of the White House from TBR News April 18, 2004- December 29, 2005



Go to 12652
http://www.israelenews.com/view.asp?ID=1045
Why the leniency for pedophiles?
Filed under: Israeli politics, Crime, News, Children, Sex industry
On: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 - By: Israel e News

According to data disclosed at this week's Beersheba Conference on Child Welfare, some 2,500 complaints are filed annually in Israel regarding sexual assaults against minors under 14. Dr. Yitzhak Kadman, executive director of the National Council for the Child, paints a darker picture yet, estimating that over the past several years no fewer than 100,000 of this country's children have suffered some degree of sexual molestation.

Most cases never reach the courts and most offenders aren't brought to justice. Yet in those that are, sentences meted out to pedophiles tend to be exceptionally lenient. Even hardcore repeat offenders are hardly supervised after they are released back to society. Legislation adopted to keep track of them remains largely unimplemented.

Studies conducted recently for the council, Kadman reported, indicated that not only do judges sometimes impose ludicrously mild punishments for pedophilia but they often fail to impose even the minimum stipulated by law. Incomprehensibly, punishment for offenses against children tends to be significantly lighter than for offenses against adults. The lightest penalties are reserved for crimes within the family. The greatest leniency appears in plea bargains. While judges sometimes criticize such bargains, they nevertheless (in 99% of the cases, according to Kadman) acquiesce to them. This despite the fact that legislation enacted a decade ago fixed minimum sentences for certain sex crimes.

Moreover, the law demands a clear explanation in cases where the minimum is disregarded. Yet council research found only two cases in the past three years in which judges bothered to account for extra lenient sentencing. One of the cases cited was of a teacher who molested his 13-year-old female student. He was given six months community service and another 14 months' probationary sentence. By law he could have been imprisoned for up to seven years.

But the judges' lapses aren't the only problem. The entire system seems to make a mockery of the law. Some 300 convicted sex offenders, most of them pedophiles, are released from prison each year and, despite existing legislation, aren't supervised. Most are repeat offenders.

Of the 300, two-thirds are judged as "seriously dangerous." A 2006 law which mandated careful evaluation of each sex offender eligible for release, and close supervision following said release, essentially remains on paper only. The cause: budgetary constraints.

Health Ministry psychiatrists complain that a lack of manpower limits evaluations. When these are made, they are completed late, after the offender has been set loose. The ministry reported to the Knesset Law Committee recently that even when evaluations meet deadlines, the prosecution does not apply for court-ordered supervision and closes cases of some dangerous offenders. Thus the authorities have no way of gauging how many menaces they release into the vulnerable population.

Of Israel's currently imprisoned 1,200 sex offenders, some 50 are behind bars for the sixth time or more. About 25 percent are thought likely to strike again, though that is almost certainly an underestimate: the highest recidivism rates are among pedophiles.

Although the 2006 law has yet to be applied, complimentary legislation is being piled on. The Knesset recently approved a bill by Shelly Yacimovich forbidding the employment of sex offender ex-cons in schools and institutions for the disabled. Michael Eitan's pending bill would regulate rehabilitation services for ex-cons, while another legislative initiative, by Eli Aflalo, would set up a nationwide offender register, accessible to members of the public to forewarn them of past offenders in their vicinity.

The latter two bills still have a long legislative route ahead before they are ratified. But what then? A law that decorates our legal codes but isn't put into effect is a dead letter. It fails to protect those most in need, and becomes a demoralizing travesty that further corrodes the citizenry's trust in the system - especially when those who disrespect legal strictures include the judges themselves.

"The Knesset," as Kadman put it, "insisted on minimum sentences because it perceived the existing situation as too lax and as lacking any real deterrent or protection value. But the judiciary seems to be telling the legislature that 'you can stipulate what you wish but we will do as we please.' Judges abhor guidelines."

It is not just the police who are charged with protecting children from sexual predators, but the entire judicial system. If judges do not want more guidelines, they had better do a better job of enforcing the law themselves.



Go to 12651
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL1511891620080215?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=22&sp=true
Sarkozy defends Holocaust proposal amid uproar
Fri Feb 15, 2008
By Richard Balmforth

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy, facing a tide of criticism over his call for schoolchildren to "adopt" Jewish child victims of the Holocaust, hit back on Friday saying France had to raise children "with open eyes".

In a speech praising faith that also drew fire from secularists, Sarkozy told France's Jewish community on Wednesday that every 10-year-old schoolchild should be "entrusted with the memory of a French child victim of the Holocaust".

The proposal unleashed a storm of protest from teachers, psychologists and his political foes who said it would unfairly burden children with the guilt of previous generations and some could be traumatized by identifying with a Holocaust victim.

More than 11,100 French Jewish children were deported from France to Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps in eastern Europe during the German World War Two occupation.

"The emotional burden can have negative consequences for a child who is developing," Gilles Moindrot, general secretary of the Snuipp-FSU trade union which represents most primary school teachers, said in a statement.

"One can not place on a child of 11 the responsibility for what happened back then."

The EMDH children's rights group said: "No educational project should be constructed on death."

But Sarkozy, speaking in Perigueux in central France, brushed off the uproar.

"It is ignorance that produces abominable situations. It is not knowledge," he said in a speech. "Let us make our children, children with open eyes who are not complacent."

"Believe me, you will not traumatize children by giving them the gift of the memory of a country ... Any psychologist will tell you: you have to tell a child the truth," he said.

With Sarkozy's popularity ratings already at a low point, the controversy could further hurt his political standing only a month before key local elections when France will deliver its first judgment on his nine months in office.

AMMUNITION FOR FOES

The clamor gave fresh ammunition to Sarkozy's political foes, who charge him with erratic behavior and say his hyperactivity masks a lack of real policies.

"Really this president is extraordinary! One day he is preaching God to us ... Now he has suddenly become a teacher. He is deciding what's a good and what's a bad way to go about educating young children," fumed left-wing Senator Jean-Luc Melenchon.

But Sarkozy won support from opposition Socialist leader Francois Hollande and the president's conservative UMP party rallied in support.

Education Minister Xaviet Darcos assured people the project would be handled in a practical, low-profile way. "We won't be putting a policeman in each classroom," he told reporters.

The storm around the Holocaust proposal coincided with publication of a new poll that suggested Sarkozy's public romancing of supermodel-turned-singer Carla Bruni was the factor that had hurt his national image most.

Sarkozy and Bruni married secretly earlier this month but his critics saw the highly-publicized affair as a distraction too early in office.

The OpinionWay poll, conducted on the Internet for le Figaro and news channel LCI, found 82 percent of respondents believed Sarkozy's private life fell short of that of a head of state.

(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Pineau in Perigueux; Editing by Michael Winfrey)



Go to 12650
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/15/bae.armstrade?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront
BAE: secret papers reveal threats from Saudi princeSpectre of 'another 7/7' led Tony Blair to block bribes inquiry, high court told
David Leigh and Rob Evans The Guardian, Friday February 15 2008 Article history · Contact us Contact usClose Report errors or inaccuracies: reader@guardian.co.uk Letters for publication should be sent to: letters@guardian.co.uk If you need help using the site: userhelp@guardian.co.uk Call the main Guardian and Observer switchboard:
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Advertising guide License/buy our content About this articleClose This article appeared in the Guardian on Friday February 15 2008 on p1 of the Top stories section. It was last updated at 12:08 on February 15 2008.
Prince Bandar, head of Saudi Arabia’s national security council, leaving Downing Street last October. Photograph: Martin Argles

Saudi Arabia's rulers threatened to make it easier for terrorists to attack London unless corruption investigations into their arms deals were halted, according to court documents revealed yesterday.

Previously secret files describe how investigators were told they faced "another 7/7" and the loss of "British lives on British streets" if they pressed on with their inquiries and the Saudis carried out their threat to cut off intelligence.

Prince Bandar, the head of the Saudi national security council, and son of the crown prince, was alleged in court to be the man behind the threats to hold back information about suicide bombers and terrorists. He faces accusations that he himself took more than £1bn in secret payments from the arms company BAE.

He was accused in yesterday's high court hearings of flying to London in December 2006 and uttering threats which made the prime minister, Tony Blair, force an end to the Serious Fraud Office investigation into bribery allegations involving Bandar and his family.

The threats halted the fraud inquiry, but triggered an international outcry, with allegations that Britain had broken international anti-bribery treaties.

Lord Justice Moses, hearing the civil case with Mr Justice Sullivan, said the government appeared to have "rolled over" after the threats. He said one possible view was that it was "just as if a gun had been held to the head" of the government.

The SFO investigation began in 2004, when Robert Wardle, its director, studied evidence unearthed by the Guardian. This revealed that massive secret payments were going from BAE to Saudi Arabian princes, to promote arms deals.

Yesterday, anti-corruption campaigners began a legal action to overturn the decision to halt the case. They want the original investigation restarted, arguing the government had caved into blackmail.

The judge said he was surprised the government had not tried to persuade the Saudis to withdraw their threats. He said: "If that happened in our jurisdiction [the UK], they would have been guilty of a criminal offence". Counsel for the claimants said it would amount to perverting the course of justice.

Wardle told the court in a witness statement: "The idea of discontinuing the investigation went against my every instinct as a prosecutor. I wanted to see where the evidence led."

But a paper trail set out in court showed that days after Bandar flew to London to lobby the government, Blair had written to the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, and the SFO was pressed to halt its investigation.

The case officer on the inquiry, Matthew Cowie, was described by the judge as "a complete hero" for standing up to pressure from BAE's lawyers, who went behind his back and tried to secretly lobby the attorney general to step in at an early stage and halt the investigations.

The campaigners argued yesterday that when BAE failed at its first attempt to stop the case, it changed tactics. Having argued it should not be investigated in order to promote arms sales, it then recruited ministers and their Saudi associates to make the case that "national security" demanded the case be covered up.

Moses said that after BAE's commercial arguments failed, "Lo and behold, the next thing there is a threat to national security!" Dinah Rose, counsel for the Corner House and the Campaign against the Arms Trade, said: "Yes, they start to think of a different way of putting it." Moses responded: "That's very unkind!"

Documents seen yesterday also show the SFO warned the attorney general that if he dropped the case, it was likely it would be taken up by the Swiss and the US. These predictions proved accurate.

Bandar's payments were published in the Guardian and Switzerland subsequently launched a money-laundering inquiry into the Saudi arms deal. The US department of justice has launched its own investigation under the foreign corrupt practices act into the British money received in the US by Bandar while he was ambassador to Washington.

Prince Bandar yesterday did not contest a US court order preventing him from taking the proceeds of property sales out of the country. The order will stay in place until a lawsuit brought by a group of BAE shareholders is decided. The group alleges that BAE made £1bn of "illegal bribe payments" to Bandar while claiming to be a "highly ethical, law-abiding corporation".



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