Corruption Information 1111
The politics of greed is what keeps this world wrapped in corruption. If you want to stick around for a while longer, I suggest you educate yourself and try to do something constructive to help save what little good, honesty, and trust we have left.
A motto for us old vets: Take one with you!
Use your Go Back and Go Forward commands to get to where you were in a previous file.
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Highest Go To numbers are the latest Links of all coruption pages.
Go to 12705
http://www.newswithviews.com/Devvy/kidd343.htm
GUN OWNERS: FIGHTING SKIRMISHES WON'T WIN THE WAR
By: Devvy
February 18, 2008
© 2008 - NewsWithViews.com
"The militia is the natural defense of a free country against sudden foreign invasions, domestic insurrections, and domestic usurpation of power by rulers. The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of the republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally ... enable the people to resist and triumph over them." Joseph Story, Supreme Court Justice, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, p. 3:746-7, 1833
How many billions of words have been written about our individual right to own and bear arms? Ten thousand plus are in the links section below; my CD also has a huge section on this unalienable right given to us from the blood of patriots. The Internet has thousands of pages devoted to the Second Amendment and its twenty-seven words: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
How many court cases have been fought over the past fifty years to stop "reasonable" gun laws passed which restrict our individual right to own and bear arms? Law libraries are filled to the ceiling just on Second Amendment cases alone. DC v Heller is the latest with the Bush Administration submitting a brief that should stun any gun owner who voted for Bush:
Public 'threatened' by private-firearms ownership
Government argues gun restrictions 'permitted by the 2nd Amendment'
"Since "unrestricted" private ownership of guns clearly threatens the public safety, the 2nd Amendment can be interpreted to allow a variety of gun restrictions, according to the Bush administration. The argument was delivered by U.S. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement in a brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in the ongoing arguments over the legality of a District of Columbia ban on handguns in homes, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times. Clement suggested that gun rights are limited and subject to "reasonable regulation" and said all federal limits on guns should be upheld."
Clement is a fool and a tool of tyrants.
In the past ten days, we've had a string of shootings on school campuses, the latest being one more legally drugged American. Another "gun free" zone, the meaning of which Dr. Edwin Vieira has crystallized in his scholarly columns and why they contribute to these massacres.
Old timers like yours truly have been aware of the Department of State Publication 7277 for decades. The communist UN (United Nations), a privately run operation that has never kept peace anywhere in the world, has been unabashed in their efforts to get your guns. Banks and retailers over the years have attempted to curtail the legal commerce of guns. Here's the most recent: Citibank Refusing to Process Firearms Related Transactions: "Charlie Crawford, president of CDNN Sports Inc., explained: “We were contacted recently by First Data/Citi Merchant Services by a June Rivera-Mantilla stating that we were terminated and funds were being seized for selling firearms in a non-face-to-face transaction. Although perfectly legal, we were also informed that no transactions would be processed in the future, even for non-firearms.”
If you really believe in your God-given right to own and bear arms, stop doing any business with Citibank and tell them why. If you continue to do business with your enemy, you enrich them financially and validate their corporate positions, i.e., denying a legal business the right to conduct its operations. How many more "alerts" are you going to read and then just go back to whatever you were doing? Reading educates, but its action that will save this republic. And, by the way, how many gun owners are going to vote for Marxist Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama? No one can question Clinton's hatred of the U.S. Constitution, but how about the newly minted 'Messiah' now causing his cult-like followers to swoon? These are accurate examples of Obama's ignorance regarding the Second Amendment:
Hunting for a position: Obama misses 2nd Amendment
Obama's gun record is just simply atrocious
The "us" vs "them" mentality of law enforcement continues to spread its malignant stench, i.e., “Homegrown Terrorists” David Codrea: "“If you encounter any of the following, call the Joint Terrorism Task Force,” read the flyer from the FBI’s Phoenix Division. “[T]he purpose of this information sheet is to assist uniformed patrol officers in identifying potential domestic terrorism.” So what would a cop on the street look out for? “Defenders of the US Constitution against federal government and the UN (Super Patriots),” read the very first point in the very first category, “Right Wing Extremists.”
These detestable vermin in the U.S, Congress who wouldn't know what the U.S. Constitution said if James Madison stood right in front of them and cited it word for word, engaged in more chicanery a few months ago. GOA explains it this way:
"It was December 19. Most Congressmen had left town and were either at the airport or in the air returning home. They weren't in Washington, DC, because their party leadership had told them that all the major votes were over... that the only legislative business left related to non-controversial issues, such as when Congress would return from Christmas break, etc. But it was then, with most of the Congress gone, that the House and Senate passed the Veterans Disarmament Act without a recorded vote."
"What does the bill do in general? It would be a mistake to under-react -- or over-react -- to the passage of the Veterans Disarmament Act. On the bad side, this bill statutorily validates BATF regulations which could potentially disarm millions of Americans. This is a VERY DANGEROUS turn of events which will have huge ramifications over the next several decades. The extent to which its unconstitutional potential will be realized will be clear only over time -- and perhaps a long time -- and will depend on whether pro-gunners or anti-gunners are in power. For example, it took a full thirty years for language in the 1968 Gun Control Act to be used to disarm veterans."
Disarm our veterans? You know, our precious freedom fighters who take an oath to protect this republic and our constitution with the potential of making the ultimate sacrifice: their lives. The same military personnel sent to fight these endless and shameful wars for the bankers and world elitists, not with bows and arrows, but with guns. If Patrick Henry were alive today, he would have taken Rep. Carolyn McCarthy aside and told her to shut her stupid mouth and kicked the crap out of the gutless Chuck Schumer for this junk law. Brassiere Brigade leader, Nancy Pelosi and sissy "leader" Harry Reid, bear a major responsibility for allowing this dung to even come up for a vote. RINOs House Minority "Leader" John Boehner and Senate Minority "Leader" Mitch McConnell should not be left out for violating their oath of office and slapping the faces of our veterans.
Once again, I wonder why the 80 MILLION plus gun owners in this country seem to want to continue fighting skirmishes instead of winning the war? I've asked this question before, only to see my mail box fill up with more dire warnings about a new gun bill and confiscation. Congress and activist judges on the bench have shown their true colors, so don't look to them. You have to fight to stop this constant war over the Second Amendment and that doesn't mean more of the same. If you keep doing the same thing and expect different results, it's called a form of insanity.
Dr. Edwin Vieira has repeatedly crystallized the true meaning of the 'whole' Second Amendment in his scholarly columns on this issue for NWVs. His columns aren't feel good rhetoric, they are very specific about the organized militia and the mandated requirement that we the people must be armed and organized. In his eight part series, "The militia of the several states" guarantee the right to keep and bear arms," Edwin writes:
"Where "gun controllers" cannot prohibit the private possession of firearms altogether by smearing them with bad names, they work to proscribe possession in certain places by playing on the feel good modifier "gun free"--as in "gun-free school", "gun-free airport", "gun-free streets", or simply "gun-free zone". If generalized (which is the "gun controllers'" objective), this tactic would gradually prohibit the private possession of firearms except within one's own home--and probably not allow it even there, given that slogans such as "gun-free home" or "gun-free family" doubtlessly will appeal strongly to those people who pay attention to sounds rather than substance.
"One can hope that even the dullest American will recognize why, in the real world, where actions have consequences and effects follow from causes, any "gun-free zone" is actually a "self-defense prohibited zone" and a "free-fire zone for criminals and psychopaths", advertised and guaranteed as such to the predators under color of law. It amounts to locking the visitors at the zoo inside the cages with hungry lions and tigers, jackals and hyenas, at feeding time. In short, it is politically mandated and imposed victimization of innocent citizens, through public officials' intentional aiding and abetting of criminal activities. (Another egregious case of contemporary politicians' penchant for using the law to break the law.)
"As commonsensical as this insight is, though, it would be unnecessary if many advocates of "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms" did not concede that the Second Amendment can or even should be construed without reference to "[a] well regulated Militia", and therefore without reference to the actual history and principles of the pre-constitutional American Militia. For, under all of the pre-constitutional Militia Acts, individuals kept the latest military firearms, ammunition, and accouterments of their day in their own homes, in their private possession, at all times. No public official or "gun-control" group would ever have dared to propose anything as ridiculous as a ban on "assault weapons" or "sniper rifles", when the muskets and rifles the laws required individuals to possess were the premier "assault weapons" and "sniper rifles" of that era. And no Militia Act ever created any "zone" where people who were required to possess arms could not go about armed. To the contrary, in the days of greatest danger Militia Acts specifically designated even such places as town meetings and houses of worship to which individuals were required to bring their firearms in order to provide security for the community[2]--a practice which, if followed in today's governmental schools (the most extensive and indefensible of America's "gun-free zones"), probably could have stopped in their tracks the deplorable shooting rampages of recent years.
"Thus, no free American needs any special reason, excuse, license, or permission to possess firearms or to go armed at home or in most public or private places, because these are not only constitutional rights, but also constitutional duties.[3]"
For years I have been asking gun owners in this country: When will enough be enough? When Edwin's latest, thoroughly researched book on constitutional homeland security came out, I urged every gun owner to get a copy and get in the face of your state lawmakers. True to form (let someone else do it), many men have sent me email over the past year telling me they really can't be part of the organized Militia of the Several States because they don't have time. Good thing Americans like Patrick Henry didn't have the same limp excuse.
In Edwin's latest scholarly work, 'Constitutional Homeland Security: A Call for Americans to Revitalize the Militia of the Several States. Volume I, The Nation in Arms,' he explains this critical issue and gun owners need to read it. They need to act on it because I'm telling you as sure as the sun shines, at some point there will be violence in this country from the militant illegals that are here, locked and loaded. If you think help will come from local law enforcement, remember Katrina. For the ninnies out there who think law enforcement is there to save your bacon, you are dead wrong. The police are under no obligation to respond to your calls for help; the courts have consistently ruled in favor of the police. How about the Sacramento Bee newspaper spread (1997) detailing the use of our military against civilians? Click here and read it. It's coming and the green light was given under a couple pieces of legislation that are so totalitarian in nature, you should be very worried. But, this November, you watch, Republicans will vote the same incumbents back into office who voted for this draconian legislation! Read this column and get off the dime because our survival depends on what we do this year.
Are gun owners going to continue fighting these endless bills coming out of their state legislatures and Congress or will they ban together once and for all and do what has to be done as Edwin outlines in Vol. I of Constitutional Homeland Security? A win in DC v Keller won't stop the gun grabbers. Time is critical. Many state legislatures go out of session in a few months. We are being attacked every day in this country by the powerful forces who own our politicians and do their bidding. The ultimate goal is totalitarian government and that means a completely disarmed populace. The Second Amendment is the most important of all the amendments. Will you step up to the plate and organize your fellow gun owners and start the process of demanding your state lawmakers get the legislation through your state house to revitalize the militia or keep fighting skirmishes?
Important Links:
1 - America's Mayors: You've been warned
2 - New Gun Bill in Congress: More Unconstitutional Claptrap
3 - No more Angel Shamaya's
3 - Pro Second Amendment Incumbents & Gun Raids
4 - Do Gun Owners Want to Stop Constant Assaults on 2nd Amendment?
5 - Parker v DC a magnificent victory; next move
6 - Gun owners and state legislators: get on the phone
Go to 12704
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article3752.html
IMF Selling 400 Tonnes of Mexican and Brazilian Gold as its Own!
Commodities / Market Manipulation
Feb 19, 2008 - 12:53 PM
By: Julian_DW_Phillips
There has been a lot of talk of late of potential sales of I.M.F. gold. The more we look at the subject, contrary to our previous view, the more likey it seems possible [not yet probable], but if it does happen, it will not happen again thereafter for solid reasons. If the sales do take place they will happen from September 2008 onwards.
It will still have to get past the U.S. Congress a most formidable and possibly insurmountable obstacle.
The first question that will be asked is just whose gold do they want to sell, after all the gold held by the I.M.F. belongs to each individual nation that contributed it, so how dare the administrative side of the I.M.F. propose selling its members gold and how dare some members of the I.M F. approve of the sale without getting the OK from other members?
The answer is quite simple. The I.M.F. does not believe that the gold they propose selling belongs to any member at all, but in fact, belongs to the I.M.F itself . Consequently, the only discussion surrounds the disposal of the I.M.F.'s own assets! How could the I.M.F. get its own gold?
The purchase of two members gold by the I.M.F.
Between December 1999 and April 2000, separate but closely linked transactions involving a total of 400 tonnes [12.9 million ounces] of gold were carried out between the I.M.F. and two members (Brazil and Mexico) that had financial obligations falling due to the I.M.F.
Go to 12703
http://www.rense.com/general80/found.htm
H5N1 Found In MOSQUITOES
From Patricia Doyle, PhD
2-20-8
This confirms the obvious. Mosquitoes are man's deadliest enemy and they can, and do,
vector ANY virus, including HIV. Once a mosquito has fed upon an infected animal...bird or chicken, for example,
- or an infected human - they become instant carriers of the disease. Viruses can remain in the digestive tract of a mosquito for
days, or they can reside on and in the mouth parts of the insect and are easily injected into the next animal or person bitten. -ed
Source: Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis. 2008 Feb;8(1):105-110
Avian Influenza H5N1 Virus In Mosquitoes
Collected From Thai Poultry Farm
The abstract reproduced below is from a paper published in the current issue of Vector-borne and Zoonotic Diseases. The paper is titled: "Detection of H5N1 Avian Influenza Virus from Mosquitoes Collected in an Infected Poultry Farm in Thailand. The authors are Barbazan P, Thitithanyanont A, Misse D, Dubot A, Bosc P, Luangsri N, Gonzalez JP, Kittayapong P.; at the Center of Excellence for Vectors and Vector-Borne Diseases, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University at Salaya, Nakhonpathom, Thailand, and Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement, IRD-UR 178, Paris, France.
"Blood-engorged mosquitoes were collected at poultry farms during an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Central Thailand during October 2005. These mosquitoes tested positive for H5N1 virus by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Results were confirmed by limited sequencing of the H5 and N1 segments.
Infection and replication of this virus in the C6/36 mosquito cell line was confirmed by quantitative real-time PCR. However, transmission by mosquitoes was not evaluated, and further research is needed. Collecting and testing mosquitoes engorged with the blood of domestic or wild animals could be a valuable tool for veterinary and public health authorities who conduct surveillance for H5N1 virus spread."
Go to 12702
http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/vbz.2007.0142
ProMed Mail
Communicated by
Shamsudeen Fagbo
oloungbo@yahoo.com
Patricia A. Doyle DVM, PhD
Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural Economics
Univ of West Indies
Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message board at:
Go to 12701
http://www.emergingdisease.org/phpbb/index.php
Also my new website:
Go to 12700
http://drpdoyle.tripod.com/
Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
Go with God and in Good Health
Go to 12699
http://www.rense.com/general80/oneb.htm
Beef Recall May Be Closer To
One BILLION Pounds
From Patricia Doyle, PhD
2-20-8
Hello Jeff - It seems as though our officials are trying to see who can make the MOST asinine statement with regard to the travesty of the beef supply. Let's see who is the dimmest wit on the block...
An Unnamed Federal Official USDA:
"Cattle weakened by disease are not supposed to enter the food supply, although their risk of harming humans is still fairly low."
This next statement by James O. Reagan, Chairman, Beef Industry Food Safety Council, gets my vote for MOST asinine statement:
"James O. Reagan, chairman of the Beef Industry Food Safety Council, issued a statement saying he supported the recall. 'At the same time,' he was quoted as saying, 'we can say with confidence that the beef supply is safe.' He said there were 'multiple interlocking safeguards' in every beef processing plant so that a single lapse would not endanger consumers."
Next up, Ken Petersen, USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service:
"We don't know exactly where all the product went" but will "cast a wide net to make sure that we can find all the product that we can find."
Unnamed Agriculture Officials:
" Agriculture officials said in a statement that they thought the case was "an isolated incident of egregious violations to humane handling requirements and the prohibition of non-ambulatory disabled cattle from entering the food supply."
No matter how you "slice" it, our meat supply is NOT safe. USDA/Food Safety and Inspection Service is not doing its job. How many more meat packing/slaughter operations are doing the same thing? I do not think this is an isolated case.
Over the past two years, there were many many E-Coli/ground beef recalls.
"Beef - it does NOT do a body good!" A very sad note on this case is the fact that the beef went to the nation's school lunch program. I personally believe that meat should not be part of the lunch program. There are many nutritious and tasty vegan and non-meat dishes that would be much better for the children than beef and other meats. Eliminating meat from school lunches might also help fight childhood obesity.
Patty
Huge US Beef Recall Issued
18.feb.08
Los Angeles Times/New York Times/USA Today
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the largest beef recall in its history Sunday, calling for, according to these stories, the destruction of 143 million pounds of raw and frozen beef produced by a Chino slaughterhouse that has been accused of inhumane practices.
However, the USDA said the vast majority of the meat involved in the recall -- including 37 million pounds that went mostly to schools -- probably has been eaten already. Officials emphasized that danger to consumers was minimal.
The recall applies to beef slaughtered at the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. since Feb. 1, 2006. The company has produced no meat since Feb. 4 of this year, when operations were suspended.
The action came nearly three weeks after the Humane Society of the United States released a video showing workers at the plant using forklifts and water hoses, among other methods, to rouse cattle too weak to walk. In addition to issues of animal cruelty, the video raised questions about whether so-called downer cattle were entering the food chain in violation of federal regulations.
Although the Humane Society said at least four non-ambulatory cattle had been slaughtered for food, the USDA had repeatedly said it had no such evidence. On Sunday, federal officials said for the first time that they had evidence such cattle from Hallmark had been processed for food.
Downer cattle are not supposed to be used as meat unless a veterinarian determines that the animal stumbled or fell because of injury -- a broken leg, for instance -- that would not affect the safety of their meat. Cattle weakened by disease are not supposed to enter the food supply, although their risk of harming humans is still fairly low. There is, however, a slightly higher possibility that such cattle are suffering from bovine spongiform encephalopathy, better known as mad cow disease.
Steve Mendell, president of Hallmark Meat Packing and its distributor, Westland, declined to comment. The company has refused to answer questions about its practices since the Humane Society video surfaced.
The stories go on to say that Hallmark/Westland meat was also sold to restaurant chains, including In-N-Out Burger and Jack in the Box, but both of those companies said they stopped using it early this month after the first reports of problems at the plant.
The amount of beef affected by the recall may be far larger than 143 million pounds because meat from different companies is often mixed as it goes through numerous processors. Such mixing makes it extremely difficult for consumers to know whether meat products came from a particular plant.
At a USDA telephone briefing Sunday for retailers, school districts and food safety experts, a Costco representative raised concerns about beef that gets "commingled," according to Humane Society President Wayne Pacelle, who participated in the conference call. He said the Costco representative estimated that the amount of beef recalled may top a billion pounds.
Four senior Democrats in Congress, including Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin, told the General Accounting Office on Thursday to investigate the safety of meat in the school lunch program in light of the Hallmark/Westland case.
The video was embarrassing for the Department of Agriculture, as inspectors are supposed to be monitoring slaughterhouses for abuse. It surfaced after a year of increasing concerns about the safety of the meat supply amid a sharp increase in the number of recalls tied to a particularly deadly form of the E. coli pathogen.
Cows that cannot walk are banned for use in the food supply because they pose an added risk of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, a fatal disease that eats away at the brain. There have been three confirmed cases of infected cattle in this country since 2003.
One consumer advocate questioned whether the likelihood of danger from the recalled meat was as low as the USDA contended.
Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based consumer advocacy and research organization, was cited as saying federal regulators "really don't know what conditions were making the cattle sick."
James O. Reagan, chairman of the Beef Industry Food Safety Council, issued a statement saying he supported the recall. "At the same time," he was quoted as saying, "we can say with confidence that the beef supply is safe." He said there were "multiple interlocking safeguards" in every beef processing plant so that a single lapse would not endanger consumers.
"We don't know exactly where all the product went" but will "cast a wide net to make sure that we can find all the product that we can find," Ken Petersen at the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service was cited as saying in a conference call with reporters Sunday.
"The recall is obviously the big news," Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive of the Humane Society was quoted as saying, adding, "The longer-term problem is the inadequacies of the inspection system. How can so many downers have been mistreated day after day within a U.S.D.A. oversight system that was present at the plant?
"We need more boots on the ground at the plants," he was quoted as saying.
Agriculture officials said in a statement that they thought the case was "an isolated incident of egregious violations to humane handling requirements and the prohibition of non-ambulatory disabled cattle from entering the food supply."
Patricia A. Doyle DVM, PhD
Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural Economics
Univ of West Indies
Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message board at:
Go to 12698
http://www.emergingdisease.org/phpbb/index.php
Also my new website:
Go to 12697
http://drpdoyle.tripod.com/
Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
Go with God and in Good Health
Go to 12696
http://edro.wordpress.com/collapsing-cities/
Collapsing Cities
The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
Below table lists the world’s cities that are likely to collapse completely or partially by or before 2012¹ in the first wave of collapse. The collapse would be caused by a combination of failing ecosystems, human-enhanced environmental catastrophes; failing infrastructure; food, water and fuel shortages; infectious disease; war, civil conflict and other dynamics. Following the first phase of collapse, massive waves of human migration from the affected areas create a domino effect that causes the collapse of the remaining population centers shortly after.
Is your city safe?
To prevent misuse of data, commercial exploitation, or property speculation, the project coordinators are withholding names and specific details of the first phase of world’s collapsing cities until further notice. See table below for general information.
Table C.1. No. of world cities that could collapse completely or partially by 2012, the corresponding regions/countries and number of people that would be affected initially, according to the worst case future scenario. (Sources: MSRB, CASF)
Important Notice:
1. The date “2012” is based on the dynamic model simulations analyzing the environmental impact of excessive energy consumption. The CASF Committee and Members do NOT endorse Mayan Calendar or any New Age, ancient, or bible prophecies whatever.
The Dynamics of Collapse
The following exhibit lists the most probable [leading] causes that would drive the first wave of the world cities to collapse. [Note: The data is listed in random order]
Mass suicide as a result of neurological disorder caused by mercury [or other heavy metal] poisoning.
Tourism [euphemistically, eco-tourism]
Accumulation of toxic pollution in the environment
Overwhelmed by mounting waste: agricultural, municipal (garbage and sewage) and industrial
Poor global harvest/Food scarcity [Humans are one harvest away from starvation!]
Running Dry (Running out of freshwater)
Human-induced climate change
Increased UV radiation
Foodborne, waterborne, airborne and insectborne infectious diseases (viral, bacterial, parasitic, fungal, prion)
Droughts
Sinking into the ground (large-scale subsidence caused by overuse of groundwater supplies)
Global collapse of pollinators
Extreme climatic events (including extreme rain events, floods)
Famine
Collapse of natural pest regulation systems
Failing ecosystems
Societal collapse
Moral decline (unethical behavior, unsustainable lifestyles, overconsumption)
Fuel shortage
Spread of pandemic diseases
Industrial accidents (including radionuclide, chemical and oil spills)
Deforestation
Epidemics of plant and animal diseases
Desertification; Soil degradation (salination, erosion, loss of topsoil and fertility)
Economic collapse
Land use change
Habitat destruction
War (conventional and nuclear)
Collapse of fisheries/fish species
Civil conflict
Poverty
Overshoot of Carrying Capacity; Increased ecological footprint; Overpopulation (esp. DCs*)
Inordinate prevalence of psychopathology caused by exponential growth economy: money fetishism, industrialism, militarism, atomic lifestyles, consumerism, throwaway culture, dysfunctional societies …
Human-enhanced natural catastrophes including earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, tropical storms, cyclones, extreme rainfall events, landslides, volcanic eruptions, droughts and wildfires
*DCs: Developed Countries
Related Links:
Failing Ecosystems
500 Weather-Related Disasters A Year
Greenland Ice Melt Faster Than IPCC Estimates
Drying Aquifers, Sinking Cities
Topsoil
State of the World
Future Scenarios
Ghost towns
Early Warning Signs:
Italy’s “trash tsar” takes charge see Video report
Whose thirst comes first? Orlando, Jacksonville areas face water war
The Great Flood: Britain under water (Video)
Britain under flood
Australia suffers worst drought in 1,000 years .
China floods ‘worst ever’ .
Jakarta Floods Linked to Illegal Constructions .
54,700 Dead Or Missing In Worst North Korean Floods Ever .
Millions flee ‘worst ever’ floods .
Outbreak of rare Ebola virus in Uganda worsens .
Investigation of Outbreak of Human Infections Caused by E. coli O157:H7 .
A Major Outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in Hong Kong .
Hurricane Katrina .
United Kingdom foot-and-mouth crisis .
U.K. moves to contain another spread of foot-and-mouth disease .
Floods in southeast Europe leave villages, farms under water .
Africa: Over a billion people in 100 countries face a bleak future due to climate change
China reels from worst drought in a decade (December 2007)
Cities sinking due to excessive pumping of groundwater
Goiania Radiological Incident (PDF 6.4MB)
Chernobyl disaster
The Bhopal Disaster
Torrey Canyon Supertanker disaster
Exxon Valdez oil spill
15 Responses to “Collapsing Cities”
Go to 12695
http://www.rense.com/general80/seed.htm
The Cabalist Plan To
Enslave Humanity
The Big Picture
By Henry Makow PhD
2-20-8
God's Creative Force enters humanity through a man's love for his wife and desire to raise his family in a secure and wholesome environment. It is reciprocated by a woman receiving her husband's seed (which symbolizes his spirit) and nurturing it.
Thus, the Cabalist central bankers are keen to neutralize the male- female (active-passive) dynamo, by making women usurp the male role. They wish to assume the initiating male or "God" role themselves.
According to the book, "Light bearers of Darkness" the Jewish Cabala is a powerful system for gaining control over people by harnessing and perverting sexual energies. (20)
In "Studies in Occultism", (Quoted in "Light bearers of Darkness") Henri de Guilbert says the Cabalist Jew *"looks upon himself as the sun of humanity, the male, opposed to which other peoples are but the female, *manifesting and assuring the coming of the Messianic era. In order to realize this sociological manifestation, the Jew organically extends his influence by means of secret societies, created by him in order to spread everywhere his initiating force...(hoping to realize ) the universal republic controlled by the god of humanity, the Jew of the Cabala." (21)
ERASING GENDER
Thus everywhere, the cabalist bankers have used education and media to neuter the population and undermine the institution of marriage and family.
"We have castrated society through fear and intimidation," Harold Rosenthal boasted in 1976. "Its manhood exists only in combination with a feminine outward appearance. Being so neutered, the populace has become docile and easily ruled. As all geldings...their thoughts are not involved with the concerns of the future and their posterity, but only with the present and with the next meal."
See - "The Protocols of Zion Updated" http://www.savethemales.ca/000334.html
In a recent article, "Man-Child in the Promised Land",researcher Kay Hymowitz says American males have extended their adolescence into middle age.
See - http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_1_single_young_men.html
"In 1970, 69 percent of 25-year-old and 85 percent of 30-year-old white men were married; in 2000, only 33 percent and 58 percent were, respectively. "
"What Kind of Man Reads Playboy?" The description best fits a homosexual.
See - http://www.savethemales.ca/000165.html
Meanwhile women have postponed marriage and usurped the male role as protector and provider.
"In 1960, 70% of American 25-year-old women were married with children; in 2000, only 25% of them were. In 1970, just 7.4% of all American 30-to 34-year-olds were unmarried; today, the number is 22%. That change took about a generation to unfold, but in Asia and Eastern Europe the transformation has been more abrupt. In today's Hungary, 30% of women in their early thirties are single, compared with 6% of their mothers' generation at the same age."
See - Hymowitz, "The New Girl Power" http://nationalpost.com/opinion/story.html?id=140049
Meanwhile an estimated one million US children were conceived using sperm donors, with 30,000 added every year. Many are born to lesbians who are determined to change the "hetero-normative" basis of society.
See - http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_2_artificial_insemination.html
California is at the vanguard of the plan to replace heterosexual norms with homosexual ones.
See - http://www.newswithviews.com/Jackson/nicholas18.htm
A new law requires schools "to positively portray sex changes, cross-dressing, homosexual marriages, and all aspects of bisexuality and homosexuality. This mandate affects children from kindergarten through 12th grade in California public schools.
Bruce Shortt, author of "The Harsh Truth About Public Schools" notes, "No longer will children raised in these schools understand that God made us male and female. Children will be told that because there are many sexual orientations and gender identities, they simply have to reach their own conclusions about which sexual orientation and gender 'possibilities' are 'right for them.' Along with this will come the message that you really can't tell whether you like something unless you have tried it. The likely consequences of this for children, the institution of the family, our churches, and our culture are horrendous."
The Christian European majority is subjected to a relentless program of social engineering by the Cabalist bankers. Brainwashed ("guilted") to think that only minorities have human rights, the majority is being undermined and transformed into "slaves who love their slavery."
THE LONG TERM PLAN
Who are these cabalists? For our purposes, they are the dynastic families who own the central banking cartel and dominate industry, culture and government, world wide. The names Rothschild, Warburg, Rockefeller and Schiff will suffice.
War, and modern history in general, is an occult inspired charade designed to destroy Christian civilization by undermining our relationship to God, family, nation and race. The real meaning of the word "revolution" is to turn the world upside down, and place the banker in the role of God.
See - "Rothschilds Conduct Red Symphony" http://www.savethemales.ca/000275.html
Every "revolution" since 1640 was dedicated to this goal. The bankers are behind all wars, and most "modern" social, political and philosophical movements, including Communism, Feminism, Diversity, Zionism, Nazism multiculturalism, post modernism, gay rights and sexual liberation.
The video "The History of Political Correctness" shows that some of these movements were devised by intellectuals of "The Frankfurt School" to subvert Western civilization. Some of these "cultural Marxists" literally were Soviet NKVD Agents.
See - http://www.savethemales.ca/000403.html
Almost all were Marxist Jews. The video shows how Americans were gulled to think revolution was trendy and to welcome the destruction of their society. These dupes now occupy all the positions of power in US culture.
See - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8630135369495797236
Basically mankind is the victim of a "cruel hoax" of cosmic proportions. When you create money out of thin air, you can buy a lot of "change agents." Our elites actually think they are creating a better world. In fact, they are building a world police state, the "New World Order" secretly dedicated to Satan. They are complicit in the cover-up of 9-11; and the "war on terror" is a ruse to deprive us of our rights.
The "Jew of the Cabala" is the central banker, his allies and minions. The average Jew doesn't know anything about this plan. However, he is wrong to assume that because he is unaware, it doesn't exist. He is wrong to assume he won't some day be blamed for it. All groups and religions have been subverted. Whether Communism or Zionism, many Jews have been duped and manipulated by organized Jewry.
The average Jew is as much responsible for the NWO as the average American is responsible for the war in Iraq. However we all must take exception when our religion or nation are appropriated for evil.
------
See also my "How They Control the World" http://www.henrymakow.com/how_to_control_the_world.html
"Independent Historian Unveils Kabala Conspiracy" http://www.savethemales.ca/002159.html
and "What Every Jew and Non-Jew Should Know" http://www.savethemales.ca/002089.html
Henry Makow Ph.D. is the author of "Cruel Hoax: Feminism and the New World Order." (www.cruelhoax.ca) His articles can be found at his web site www.henrymakow.com He enjoys receiving your comments, some of which he posts on his site using first names only. hmakow@gmail.com
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http://www.rense.com/general64/over72.htm
The Overthrow Of The American
Republic - Part 72
911 Murder Triangle
By Sherman H. Skolnick
4-13-5
A principle of reality is that great secrets are right in front of you. You go right past them, not knowing or realizing what you have been looking at.
In its simplest form, the great horror of September 11, 2001, is just an equal-sided triangle. On one side is Berkshire Hathaway, long operated by Warren Buffett. Another side is Americasn Insurance Group, AIG, for many decades operated by Maurice "Hank" Greenberg.
The bottomside is Coke and Mickey Mouse, that is, Coca-Cola and Disney.
They, in part, are the mask and financial hammer for the Anglo-American Aristocracy. They are the surrogates for those who do not wish to be seen in public with their bloody hands.
Warren Buffett likes to entertain Business School students with his fairy tales how he became a massive money bags starting with a furniture store in Omaha, Nebraska. Never discussed---certainly not by him---is how his heavy ownership of Wells Fargo Bank made him a front for the American CIA in the Pacific Basin.[The Rewald spy case in Hawaii almost unraveled Buffett and Wells Fargo.]
With a long-time grand-fatherly-look, he seems supposedly harmless. What would HE know about the funding of political assassinations and the use of the dope trafficking to penetrate into places and nations otherwise difficult to enter?
Government Employees Insurance Company, its original name, now called Geico, long owned by Buffett, is still the best way to spy inside the U.S. Government bureaucracy, domestic and overseas. For espionage, it is almost as useful as American Express and their credit card crawl-under-your-skin apparatus. Neither one of them, however, is as useful as the Mormon geneology records and tracking, for creating false identities for spy operatives.
The Buffett octopus, Berkshire Hathaway, has their tentacles inside the Washington Post, promoting the Big Lie on behalf of the American CIA, the Secret Political Police, and as a permanent fixture, on American soil., along with sister mouthpiece Newsweek, of the British Monarchy.
Maurice "Hank" Greenberg for a number of years was the financial chieftain , manipulator, and fixer, as Chairman of the Federal Reserve New York District Bank. Owned by about a dozen foreign families, it is the most important of the twelve units of America's private central bank masquerading as a supposed U.S. government entity. They reportedly have a huge gold horde, at times belonging to other countries, housed some fourteen floors below ground level in New York City.
The New York District unit actually is the most important. It owns the entire Federal Reserve Bank system. Of course, in brain-washing fancy business schools they teach the phantasy that the member banks own the Fed.
Greenberg can be described with the German word, hofjuden, a Royal Court person with a Jewish name, who can be thrown in the street and dirtied up, to save the House of Aristocracy. In simple terms, he is a useful traitor to his tribe.
Greenberg and his gang have, by hook and crook, branched out their American Insurance Group, worldwide. They have been built skyward as a huge hollow statue, reportedly by massive book-cooking.
The third side of the triangle consists of Coca-Cola and Disney. Coke has long been an adjunct and proprietary of the American CIA. Their sales in U.S. soared up to about 1989. From its inception in the late 19th Century, Coke had a trace of cocaine. That gave it that zip, causing people to say, "Hey, what is in it? It really has a kick to it."
Sales of Coke in the U.S. sort of leveled off after 1989. but continued to soar overseas. Why? For U.S. consumption, they cut down the cocaine in Coke's secret base. Stepan Chemical Company, Northfield, Illinois, through its New Jersey unit, has been the largest importer of coca leaves for Coke's secrert base. A by-product was cocaine, which was sold to the pharmaceutical trade, such as Eli Lilly & Co., of Indianapolis, of which for some years Daddy Bush was a Director. Some of the cocaine leaked out into the dope underground.
Overseas, however, Coke still has that zip. It still has that trace of cocaine in it. Traveling folks notice that. Recently, Mexico President Vicente Fox, previously head of Coca-Cola for Mexico, Central America, and parts of South America, arranged to ship to the Mexican communities in Chicago and other large U.S. cities, Coke bottled in Mexico. The excuse? Mexicans preferred Coke in containers in Spanish. Bunk. Coke from Mexico like that overseas, reportedly has cocaine in its secret base.
In December, 2000, funds, some disguised as insurance loot, were used by Coca-Cola and Disney to corrupt the five-judge majority on the U.S. Supreme Court which corruptly and arbitrarily installed George W. Bush as the occupant and resident of the White House in the case of Bush versus Gore.
High Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Fuehrer of the gang of five, had his son Eugene's private law partner, Theodore B. Olson. present the case of Bush versus Gore. Later, in the Bush administration, Olson was msde Solicitor General and corrupted a copyright case so that Mickey Mouse's rights were extended some 75 years, worth billions and billions of dollars.
Earlier, Coke and Mickey Mouse were instrumental in corrupting the Florida
state officials, in falsifying the vote totals, necessary for the Presidential winner to obtain the Electoral Collee vote and hence be President.
Warren Buffett has been a major Coke stockholder and has been a Director.[Visit
This was all part of a plan figured out in the 1990s as follows:
[1] By corruption, and murder, as necessary, install George W. Bush in the Oval Office in the year 2000 Election, pushing all challengers out of the way, or to the graveyard.
[Visit
In January, 2001, Gore was the President of the U.S. Senate to whom was to have been submitted the Electoral College vote certification. Some House members complained, to no avail. The law required at least one U.S. Senator to step forward and object to the Electoral vote certification acceptance. Huge funds from Berkshire Hathaway, AIG, Coke, and Mickey Mouse, corrupted the U.S. Senate. Not a single Senator stepped forward, Democrat or Republican.
[2] A further part of the plan, formulated in the 1990s, was to have a "Pearl Harbor" style event, by shock and terror, to jolt half-awake Americans, to get them to accept the virtual cancellation of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, and to install Hitler's America. In December, 1941, there was White House prior knowledge that the Japanese fleet with aircraft carriers was steaming toward Pearl Harbor to bomb our fleet and facilities.
Some three thousand American lives were thrown away on December 7, 1941. Supposed benefit? Previously, Germany was reluctant to attack America, a huge industrial power. But Germany, part of the Axis powers, was forced to declare war on the U.S. America joining Europe's war was to save Britain from being further blitzed by the Nazis and invaded. England was no fair match for well-prepared Germany. In the 1930s, England permitted their war-making weaponry to be far out of date and rusted out.
As to September 11, 2001, Daddy Bush was part of the prior-made plan. There was to be three or more mock attacks. The real attack was to use these scheduled maneuvers, for the same early morning September 11, 2001, to confuse those in the FAA, Norad, and the U.S. Military. The result was a military stand-down. Like Pearl Harbor, 3,000 American lives were thrown away.
From offshore aircraft carriers, were launched missiles and/or drones or other craft painted with windows to look like airplanes. To finish the confusion, used were holograms and other technology, twenty years ahead of where Americans think such technology is currently; this, to overlay a fake large airplane image on top of the missiles or drones.
[Prior preparation may have been the supposed artists living inside one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center. They had special equipment to remove a heavy window on the 91st floor. This was detailed in a Saturday, August 18, 2001, strange story in the New York Times which did not refer to it after 9-11. We are the only ones that referred to it, atttaching from their archives the New York Times story, to one of our stories, two years later. Visit
On 9-11, Warren Buffett flew a plane-load of Manhattan businessmen to a supposed charity fund-raising party at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, site of a reputed CIA underground mind-control experiment station. On that same morning, George W. Bush was informed that two craft had crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. Despite that, Bush continued to sit with grammar school children in a Florida school, listening to their stories about a pet goat.
Not really alarmed, Bush finally got on his plane and ended up---guess where? At Offutt Air Force Base.
Shortly after being hit by something, both towers in Manhattan collapsed, from internal explosives, particularly super-duper sub-atomic weaponry in the 7th sub-basements, destroying the pillars and foundations from the bottom. Weeks later, there was still molten steel in the sub-basements.
Get this non-coincidence: an expert in imploding old hotels and such upon themselves, knocking down buildings on the cheap with expertly timed internal explosives, Controlled Demolition, Inc., got the contracts to remove the debris after the 9-11 disaster.
For several hours prior to drones or something hitting the twin towers, many millions of dollars were remotely put through the super computers located in the twin towers. These were huge funds ostensibly arranged to be concealed for the financing of some aspects of the 9-11 project, by Buffett, Berkshire
Hathaway and American Insurance Group and various subsidiary units, insurance firms and other entities part of their operations. Also done in part with the reputed connivance of Greenberg and his arm-lock on the Federal Reserve New York District Bank.
New York State Attorney General Elliott Spitzer and his staff have apparently uncovered massive book-cooking by Berkshire Hathaway and American Insurance Group and units, subsidiaries, nominees, and corporate joint deals both to funnel assets and conceal the same. They accidentally or otherwise dug a little too deep and have ostensibly come across the funding in part for the 9-11 Project.
Cynics laugh. Spitzer is in a jam. His staff has apparently been confiding to others that Spitzer and his staff are worried and may have to flee the country. Furthermore, If Spitzer starts to go public with what he has uncovered about the 9-11 Project, his life insurance carrier may cancel his policy on the basis he is getting to be too great a risk.
If Spitzer even hints at all this, as some of his confidants have, well, how can he run for New York Governor as he has planned for the near future? Spitzer's Wall Street fund-raising for him to run for Governor may just suddenly disappear.
Simply put, Spitzer is in a box. Meanwhile, Spitzer has given the public impression that it is just a book-cooking spat between Greenberg and Buffett.
The Federal Prosecutor in Atlanta has compiled data for a Federal grand Jury, a massive case of book-cooking against the former top officials of Coca-Cola. Most of Coke's top management has fled. The Federals are shocked that they have accidentally or otherwise uncovered a link of Coke and Mickey Mouse and how they corrupted the gang of five on the U.S. Supreme court, particularly with their fascist-like evil orchestra leader Antonin Scalia, in Bush versus Gore, December, 2000. In whispers among the Bench and the Bar, Scalia is an arrogant "Go To Hell" Judge.
Another group of Federal Grand Juries are inquiring into apparent book-cooking done by Mickey Mouse. And like Spitzer, they have found financial links to the 9-11 Project and the corrupting of the five judge majority on the U.S. Supreme Court in Bush versus Gore, December, 2000.
Who in the oil-soaked, spy-riddled, massive tax-cheating Monopoly Press will ever tell you that in seeing these front people, you are looking right at the blood-drenched secrets of the 9-11 Murder Triangle?
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http://www.realjewnews.com/?p=140
PUTIN’S RUSSIA PUNISHES JEWS
FOR MOCKING CHRIST!
By Brother Nathanael Kapner - Copyright © 2008
All Articles May Be Reproduced Only With Authorship of Br Nathanael Kapner
& Link To Real Jew News
A MOSCOW TRIAL WAS HELD AGAINST two Russian Jews, Yuri Samodurov and Anna Mikhalchuk on March 4 2007. Both were found guilty of “insulting the religion of Russia.”
Samodurov, Manager of the Sakharov Art Center in Moscow, and Mikhalchuk, the artist of the Center’s exhibition, “Beware Religion,” attempted to defend the exhibit’s depiction of Jesus Christ promoting Coca Cola and an Orthodox Christian priest presented in a ridiculing manner.
Orthodox Christian zealots protested the Christ-mocking exhibit and justifiably defaced the mocking depictions of Jesus Christ and the Orthodox priest. Samodurov and Mikhalchuk called the police and charged the zealots with “vandalism.”
But it all turned against these vile Jewish mockers of Jesus Christ. For the Moscow Court found them *guilty* of “insulting the faith of Russia.” They were both then fined $3,500 each. The judge told the profaners that they were fortunate not to have been given a two year sentence as well.
See: “The Sakharov Center Trial” Here
And: “Russian Artists On Trial” Here
VLADIMIR PUTIN WAS RECENTLY ASKED to comment Here on a chapel being built in the Moscow City Court and the Office Of The Prosecutor General. Putin replied in a clever manner, “Of course we have separation of State and Church in Russia. But in the people’s soul they’re together.”
In August of 2007, a group of Russian Jewish scientists Here and Here (Scroll Down To 2nd Article) protested to Russian President Vladimir Putin that the “Foundations of Orthodox Christian Culture” should not be taught in Russia’s public schools.
Vladimir Putin responded to the scientists shortly afterwards in a public address in the Kremlin to Russian Orthodox priests Here saying, “Orthodoxy has always had a special role in shaping our statehood, our culture, our morals.”
Bravo to Vladimir Putin! Russian Public schools indeed continue to offer Orthodox Christian classes Here to the youth which include “church chores” in the curriculum. And when the Jewish scientists confronted Putin on the Christian classes he would not give an inch!
But what do we have in America? Videos promoting homosexuality and lesbianism to public school children! And a President lighting Hanukah Menorahs! Never will you ever see Vladimir Putin even near a Hanukah Menorah!
For More See: “Putin Takes On USA Jews! Click Here
And: “Putin’s Plan To Foil The Jews” Click Here
Go to 12692
http://www.realjewnews.com/?p=151
US STATE DEPARTMENT IS RUN BY JEWS!
By Brother Nathanael Kapner - Copyright © 2008
All Articles May Be Reproduced Only With Authorship of Br Nathanael Kapner
& Link To Real Jew News
Sources: Jews In American Politics, Ira Forman; Making The Crime Fit The Punishment In Kosovo Here
JEWS HAVE INSINUATED themselves into every sphere of American life. Ever since the Jew Henry Kissinger became Secretary of State in 1973, Jews have dominated the US State Department:
1. Madeleine “Korbel” Albright: Born of Czech Jewish parents, Arnost & Olga Korbel. Secretary of State from 1997-2001.
2. “Lincoln” Bloomfield: Current Under Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs, 2001-Present. (Notice the Wasp first name of this Jew!)
3. David Gordon: Current Under Secretary of State for Policy Planning, 2007-Present.
4. Stephen Krasner: Under Secretary of State for Policy Planning, 2005-2007.
5. Richard Haas: Under Secretary of State for Policy Planning, 2001-2003. Current President of the Council on Foreign Relations.
6. Bonnie Cohen: Current Under Secretary of State for Management, 1997-Present.
7. Elliott Abrams: Neocon Jew. Former Under Secretary of State for Latin America. Current National Security Advisor for Global Democracy Strategy.
JEWS AT US STATE DEPARTMENT
BEHIND MUSLIM TAKEOVER OF CHRISTIAN KOSOVO!
3 MONTHS AFTER TAKING OFFICE as US Secretary of State in 1997, the Jew Madeleine “Korbel” Albright created a new post: Ambassador At Large For War Crimes Issues. She appointed the Jew David Scheffer who wrote the book, Self-Determination In the New World Order.
The Anti-Christian Jew David Scheffer immediately set out to punish Serbian President Milosevic by advocating military action against the Orthodox Christian nation of Serbia for so-called “crimes against humanity” in Kosovo.
Here is an excerpt from Scheffer’s book outlining US foreign policy against opponents to his “New World Order:”
— “Military intervention may be used for responding to international hot spots. It needs to be considered to what end the US should become involved in a conflict between an established state and a secessionist movement.
The US should seek to build a consensus within international organizations for its position. At the same time it should not sacrifice its own judgment if such a consensus fails to materialize.” — Self-Determination In The New World Order, David Scheffer,
Published by the Council on Foreign Relations.
Can we not see this policy implemented this very day with regard to Kosovo Muslims declaring “independence” with full US support in spite of Serbia’s & Russia’s opposition?
HOW CAN WE STOP
THE JEWISH POLITICAL INFLUENCE IN AMERICA?
Here are 3 options:
1) Hide in a cave and never read the news again.
2) Climb Mt Everest & say you did it because no Jews were ever there.
3) Tell all your friends, Letters to Editors, Internet Forums, and neighbors, that Anti-Christ Jews running the US State Department have handed a Christian region over to the Muslims!
For More See: “Neocon Jews & Kosovo” Click Here
And: “How The Jews Took Washington” Click Here
Go to 12691
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/19/AR2008021900212.html
Pakistan Remakes Its Political Landscape
Musharraf's Party Concedes Defeat
By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, February 20, 2008; Page A01
LAHORE, Pakistan, Feb. 19 -- A new political era dawned in Pakistan on Tuesday as partial results from Monday's parliamentary elections showed the opposition scoring a landslide win, the party allied with President Pervez Musharraf conceded defeat, and secular candidates ousted religious parties in the volatile northwest.
This Story
Pakistan Faces Crucial Election
Transcript: Pakistan Elections
Videos: Pakistan on the Brink
HUNTING AL-QAEDA: Unilateral Strike Called a Model For U.S. Operations in Pakistan
Pakistan Remakes Its Political Landscape
Pakistanis Deal a Blow to Musharraf
Special Report: Discord in Pakistan
View All Items in This Story
View Only Top Items in This Story
Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who heads the pro-government Pakistan Muslim League-Q, said his party would "accept the results with an open heart" and "sit on the opposition benches" in the new Parliament. By Tuesday evening, with most of the vote counted, the two major opposition parties had won 154 of the 272 elected seats in the National Assembly, compared with 38 for the PML-Q. In all, the assembly has 342 seats.
The vote for the lower house was seen as a stinging rebuke of Musharraf. Aitzaz Ahsan, a lawyer and opposition party leader who has been under house arrest for three months, cast the result as a symbol of democracy.
"General Musharraf represents the rule of man over law, and the resounding verdict of the people is that they yearn to be ruled by laws, not men," Ahsan said.
The fallout from Monday's elections could have a major impact on relations between Pakistan and the United States, which has strongly backed Musharraf as a partner in counterterrorism efforts, despite growing frustration over his failure to stop Islamic extremists creating havens in Pakistan and fueling the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.
Pakistan was quiet Tuesday except for bursts of drumming, dancing and celebratory gunfire outside rural opposition party offices and fireworks after dark in some urban neighborhoods.
People appeared mostly relieved that the elections had concluded with only limited violence and irregularities, while winning and losing candidates both spoke of the need for cooperation and peace. Despite widespread predictions that the government would try to rig the vote, monitors said the polling process went surprisingly smoothly, and the PML-Q's concession came quickly.
Nevertheless, the emerging political landscape was far from clear. Neither of the two main opposition groups -- the Pakistan People's Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-N -- gained a majority, and neither has a dominant candidate for prime minister, thus opening the door to complicated coalitions and deals.
The Pakistan People's Party swept its bastion of Sindh province and won the highest number of seats in the National Assembly, benefiting from sympathy over the December assassination of its leader, Benazir Bhutto, as well as disenchantment with Musharraf's rule. Official but not final results showed the Pakistan People's Party with 88 seats, the Pakistan Muslim League-N with 66, the Pakistan Muslim League-Q with 38 and three smaller parties or groupings with 34.
Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's widower and interim successor as party head, told reporters in Islamabad that the Pakistan People's Party would form a government "in the center and all the four provinces with the help of our allies." He said the party had yet to decide who would become the "leader of Parliament," presumably a reference to the prime minister's post.
Nawaz Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N and a two-time prime minister, reached out Tuesday to the Pakistan People's Party, his organization's longtime arch rival, and to politicians from the PML-Q who had excoriated him during the parliamentary campaign.
Sharif also called for Musharraf to step down in light of the public judgment against his rule. A former army general, Musharraf agreed under pressure to remove his uniform in November, becoming a civilian president, but many Pakistanis want him to bow out of politics completely.
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http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=709426
Holocaust lawyer jailed for fraud
AFP Published:Feb 19, 2008
JERUSALEM - A Tel Aviv court sentenced an Israeli lawyer today to 12 years in prison after finding him guilty of defrauding dozens of Holocaust survivors of German compensation money.
The court also fined Yisrael Perry 5.5 million dollars (3.5 million euros) over a string of charges, including stealing the equivalent of about 200 million dollars from survivors of Nazi concentration camps.
Perry had created an association purported to help Holocaust survivors obtain pension rights from West Germany’s social insurance institute in the early 1990s, the judge wrote in his ruling.
Perry embezzled millions in premiums his clients thought were being passed on to insurance companies.
Dozens of Holocaust survivors and their descendents fell victim to the scam.
"Perry committed a sin and acted unlawfully, to say the least, and hurt other people. He tricked, cheated and committed severe crimes for years," judge Zeharya Kaspi wrote.
Israel and West Germany signed an agreement in 1952 under which Israel and survivors of Nazi camps and persecution receive billions in reparations.
In the 1990s, tens of thousands of Jewish survivors sued Germany and other European countries for Holocaust-era insurance claims.
Go to 12689
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jRFr8G5WxM6XUrE1tSQEffCsewrw
US Supreme Court throws out wire-tapping case
15 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out a bid by journalists and professors to challenge the legality of the US administration's wire-tapping program.
The program, brought in after the September 11, 2001 attacks, allows US national security agencies to monitor suspect telephone calls and emails between the United States and overseas without first obtaining a judge's order.
In 2006 journalists and teachers filed a suit against the program maintaining it violated their right to privacy, saying because they had regular contacts with the Middle East, their freedom of expression would be restrained.
They specifically targetted the National Security Agency in the case which has now come before the country's highest court.
A lower court judge initially ordered an end to the program immediately, but the appeals court in July overturned that ruling saying the plaintiffs had not proved that their foreign communications were being monitored.
On Tuesday the Supreme Court refused to hear the case, as usual without giving a reason, thus upholding the appeals court ruling.
Dozens of similar cases have been brought across the country against the NSA, and most have been rejected as the plaintiffs could not prove their communications were tapped.
The wire-tapping program is now at the heart of a political tug-of-war between Congress and President George W. Bush.
Bush last week accused Democrats in the House of Representatives of putting Americans at risk by blocking Senate-passed legislation and allowing authorization for the post-September 11, 2001 program to expire as they went on vacation.
Temporary authorization expired on Saturday, but the surveillance continues under three decades old Foreign Surveillance Act.
As part of the increasing brinkmanship between Bush's Republicans and the Democratic-controlled Congress, the Senate passed a bill that makes the law permanent and grants immunity from prosecution to telecommunications companies which cooperate.
But House Democrats refused to rubber-stamp the measure.
Legal moves to overturn the legislation appear now to be grinding to a halt.
In November, an appeals court rejected a case brought by a Muslim charity in Oregon whose organizers by error had been sent documents in 2004 showing that they had been targeted by the wiretapping program.
The court ruled the documents were inadmissible as evidence.
Another series of suits are still to be heard by the courts brought by the clients of telecommunications companies against the operators suspected of cooperating with the government for years when the program was still legally contested.
Go to 12688
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=14238
Posted: 6.45pm Tuesday 19 February 2008
News
No crisis for the rich as banks rake in billions
Barclays bank tried to claim that it was being hit by the global economic credit crunch when it announced this week that its annual profits had fallen.
But they had merely dropped from £7.13 billion in 2006 to £7.08 billion last year—hardly pitching the bank into dire financial straits.
Despite fears for the economy, City bankers are also to get £7 billion in bonuses, it was announced last week. A third of City bonuses are up on 2007 figures, even though records were set for bankers’ gluttony last year.
The greed is such that even chancellor Alistair Darling was moved to criticise it, though he will not do anything to stop it.
While the bosses continue to live it up in Gordon Brown’s Britain, millions of workers face an uncertain future due to the credit crunch.
Thousands of workers at the crisis-hit Northern Rock faced losing their jobs this week, despite the government “temporarily” nationalising the company.
Banks and building societies repossessed 27,000 homes last year, 21 percent more than in 2006.
The number of repossessions is expected to hit 45,000 this year as many people struggle to pay their mortgages. Millions are living on debt and any economic crisis will devastate their lives.
The National Institute of Economic and Social Research has found that the ratio of household debt to national income is 1.62 in Britain, the highest for a major economy. British people are saving the smallest amount of their wages since 1960.
New Labour is helping to create a society that means unparalleled riches for a minority and continuing crisis for the majority.
It backs the system that is leading to economic turmoil for millions around the world and in Britain. The bosses will try to make us pay for their crisis – and we have to make sure they don’t succeed.
Go to 12687
http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=6762
U.S. Economy Faces Mother Of All Meltdowns
02-19-2008
Financial Times
"I would tell audiences that we were facing not a bubble but a froth - lots of small, local bubbles that never grew to a scale that could threaten the health of the overall economy." Alan Greenspan, The Age of Turbulence.
That used to be Mr Greenspan's view of the US housing bubble. He was wrong, alas. So how bad might this downturn get? To answer this question we should ask a true bear. My favourite one is Nouriel Roubini of New York University's Stern School of Business, founder of RGE monitor.
Recently, Professor Roubini's scenarios have been dire enough to make the flesh creep. But his thinking deserves to be taken seriously. He first predicted a US recession in July 2006*. At that time, his view was extremely controversial. It is so no longer. Now he states that there is "a rising probability of a 'catastrophic' financial and economic outcome"**. The characteristics of this scenario are, he argues: "A vicious circle where a deep recession makes the financial losses more severe and where, in turn, large and growing financial losses and a financial meltdown make the recession even more severe."
Prof Roubini is even fonder of lists than I am. Here are his 12 - yes, 12 - steps to financial disaster.
Step one is the worst housing recession in US history. House prices will, he says, fall by 20 to 30 per cent from their peak, which would wipe out between $4,000bn and $6,000bn in household wealth. Ten million households will end up with negative equity and so with a huge incentive to put the house keys in the post and depart for greener fields. Many more home-builders will be bankrupted.
Step two would be further losses, beyond the $250bn-$300bn now estimated, for subprime mortgages. About 60 per cent of all mortgage origination between 2005 and 2007 had "reckless or toxic features", argues Prof Roubini. Goldman Sachs estimates mortgage losses at $400bn. But if home prices fell by more than 20 per cent, losses would be bigger. That would further impair the banks' ability to offer credit.
Step three would be big losses on unsecured consumer debt: credit cards, auto loans, student loans and so forth. The "credit crunch" would then spread from mortgages to a wide range of consumer credit.
Step four would be the downgrading of the monoline insurers, which do not deserve the AAA rating on which their business depends. A further $150bn writedown of asset-backed securities would then ensue.
Step five would be the meltdown of the commercial property market, while step six would be bankruptcy of a large regional or national bank.
Step seven would be big losses on reckless leveraged buy-outs. Hundreds of billions of dollars of such loans are now stuck on the balance sheets of financial institutions.
Step eight would be a wave of corporate defaults. On average, US companies are in decent shape, but a "fat tail" of companies has low profitability and heavy debt. Such defaults would spread losses in "credit default swaps", which insure such debt. The losses could be $250bn. Some insurers might go bankrupt.
Step nine would be a meltdown in the "shadow financial system". Dealing with the distress of hedge funds, special investment vehicles and so forth will be made more difficult by the fact that they have no direct access to lending from central banks.
Step 10 would be a further collapse in stock prices. Failures of hedge funds, margin calls and shorting could lead to cascading falls in prices.
Step 11 would be a drying-up of liquidity in a range of financial markets, including interbank and money markets. Behind this would be a jump in concerns about solvency.
Step 12 would be "a vicious circle of losses, capital reduction, credit contraction, forced liquidation and fire sales of assets at below fundamental prices".
These, then, are 12 steps to meltdown. In all, argues Prof Roubini: "Total losses in the financial system will add up to more than $1,000bn and the economic recession will become deeper more protracted and severe." This, he suggests, is the "nightmare scenario" keeping Ben Bernanke and colleagues at the US Federal Reserve awake. It explains why, having failed to appreciate the dangers for so long, the Fed has lowered rates by 200 basis points this year. This is insurance against a financial meltdown.
Is this kind of scenario at least plausible? It is. Furthermore, we can be confident that it would, if it came to pass, end all stories about "decoupling". If it lasts six quarters, as Prof Roubini warns, offsetting policy action in the rest of the world would be too little, too late.
Can the Fed head this danger off? In a subsequent piece, Prof Roubini gives eight reasons why it cannot***. (He really loves lists!) These are, in brief: US monetary easing is constrained by risks to the dollar and inflation; aggressive easing deals only with illiquidity, not insolvency; the monoline insurers will lose their credit ratings, with dire consequences; overall losses will be too large for sovereign wealth funds to deal with; public intervention is too small to stabilise housing losses; the Fed cannot address the problems of the shadow financial system; regulators cannot find a good middle way between transparency over losses and regulatory forbearance, both of which are needed; and, finally, the transactions-oriented financial system is itself in deep crisis.
The risks are indeed high and the ability of the authorities to deal with them more limited than most people hope. This is not to suggest that there are no ways out. Unfortunately, they are poisonous ones. In the last resort, governments resolve financial crises. This is an iron law. Rescues can occur via overt government assumption of bad debt, inflation, or both. Japan chose the first, much to the distaste of its ministry of finance. But Japan is a creditor country whose savers have complete confidence in the solvency of their government. The US, however, is a debtor. It must keep the trust of foreigners. Should it fail to do so, the inflationary solution becomes probable. This is quite enough to explain why gold costs $920 an ounce.
The connection between the bursting of the housing bubble and the fragility of the financial system has created huge dangers, for the US and the rest of the world. The US public sector is now coming to the rescue, led by the Fed. In the end, they will succeed. But the journey is likely to be wretchedly uncomfortable.
*A Coming Recession in the US Economy? July 17 2006, www.rgemonitor.com; **The Rising Risk of a Systemic Financial Meltdown, February 5 2008; ***Can the Fed and Policy Makers Avoid a Systemic Financial Meltdown? Most Likely Not, February 8 2008
martin.wolf@ft.com
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CIA Created Bogus Companies After 9/11
02-18-2008
AFP
Following the September 11, 2001, attacks, the US Central Intelligence Agency set up 12 bogus companies in Europe and other parts of the world in the hope of penetrating Islamic organizations, The Los Angeles Times reported on its website late Saturday.
But citing current and former CIA officials, the newspaper said the agency had now shut down all but two of them after concluding they were ill-conceived.
The firms were part of an ambitious plan to increase the number of CIA case officers sent overseas under what is known as "nonofficial cover" in order to increase the agency's potential for penetrating Islamic networks, the report said.
According to the paper, the agents posed as employees of investment banks, consulting firms or other fictitious enterprises with no apparent ties to the US government.
But the plan became the source of significant dispute within the agency, The Times noted.
The CIA-run "companies" were located far from Muslim enclaves in Europe and other targets, and their size raised concerns that one mistake would blow the cover of many agents, the report noted.
In addition, because businessmen don't usually come into contact with Al-Qaeda operatives, the cover didn't work, The Times said.
Officials say the CIA's efforts to use corporate disguises have yet to produce a significant penetration of terrorist or weapons proliferation networks, the paper pointed out.
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CNN Helps Mike McConnell Make the Case to Destroy the Fourth Amendment
Glenn Greenwald
Salon
February 14, 2008
CNN’s John Roberts helps out Mike McConnell
When our news media interview high government officials, especially ones like McConnell with shiny military medals, they are now so Pravda-like they not only invite government claims to be voiced with no critical scrutiny whatsoever (”why the urgent need for retroactive immunity for these telecommunications companies?,” with no challenge whatsoever to the “cooperation” claim), but the reporters now actually try to top the government officials in adding on new reasons why their demanded policies are so crucial (”But is it also important from your perspective to keep the prying eyes of attorneys who are launching these lawsuits away from uncovering information about the program”).
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Iran to Create OPEC-like Oranization for Natural Gas
Press TV
February 15, 2008
Iran, which sits atop the world’s second-largest gas reserves, supports the swift formation of an OPEC-style organization for natural gas.
“We believe that the world’s main gas producers should create such an organization as soon as possible,” Iranian Ambassador to Russia Gholam-Reza Ansari said as major gas producers will discuss the idea in June at the GECF annual meeting in Moscow.
“Such organization could be useful for both gas producers and gas consumers,” the ambassador whose country first floated the concept, told Ekho Moskvy radio.
Senior experts, appointed by the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) members at a meeting in Doha in 2007 to evaluate the idea, will report the conclusion of their studies on the plan in Moscow.
Iran and Russia, owners of the world’s largest gas reservoirs, have put their weight behind the establishment of such organization.
The United States and the European Union are wary of possible creation of the organization which would lead to the growing political and economic influence of gas producers.
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