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Go to 13342
http://texemarrs.com/john_mccain_puppet_warmonger.htm
John McCain is a vile, wicked, deceitful man, a warmonger and a sexual deviant. Make no mistake about it. If this man wins the presidency, America is finished as a nation. Forever.

In a 60-minute investigative report (available on Audiotape or CD) I detail the awful truth about this inept, savage-hearted, lying travesty of a politician, and I document what I say with irrefutable evidence.

Dumb Beast Led Around by Homosexual Lieberman
In March of this year, John McCain traveled to Israel where he shamelessly pandered to Prime Minister Olmert, the Likudnik extremist Benjamin Netanyahu, and other Zionist Masonic overlords and groveled at their feet. McCain also had a stopover in neighboring, war-torn Iraq, where he was led around like a dumb beast by his Mossad and ADL stooge handler, Jewish bigot, and closet homosexual, Senator Joe Lieberman.


Homosexual Jewish Senator Joseph Lieberman, McCain's Mossad handler, escorts him to the wailing wall in Jerusalem. Observe McCain's skull cap—a cruel Jewish mockery of Jesus' crucifixion on Golgotha (place of the skull).


McCain then flew from the Middle East to London where, on March 20th, two Rothschild Illuminati, the super-wealthy Lord Jacob Rothschild and Nathaniel Rothschild, held an "invitation-only" private luncheon for him at the luxurious Spencer House, St. James Place. No doubt, McCain kissed "Lord" Rothschild's ring, if not his big right toe and pledged that, if the powerful Zionist poobah would only make him President of the United States. Israel's enemies, Iran and Syria, would end up nuclear toast.

"John McCain is Bought by Jews"
As Nathanael Kapner, a knowledgeable Jew who—thank God!—is also a Jesus believing Christian, writes in his website (www.realjewnews.com), "John McCain knows which side his bread is buttered on. And that's the Jewish side of campaign contributions."

Brother Kapner noted that McCain was at the private Rothschild fund-raiser in the posh London Spencer house. Kapner's sage conclusion: "John McCain is bought by Jews via the Rothschilds!"

Kapner also reported that McCain recently was forced to apologize to the Jews for having the audacity to say in a speech he had given that, "America is a nation founded on Christian values." Immediately, the Jewish organizations sprang into action, prompting the frightened McCain to trot out before the news cameras and retract what he had said.

McCain Betrayed Our POWs
McCain's innumerable deceptions and treachery extend back many years—virtually his whole life is one, big fabrication. Sure, he was a POW, but after he returned from Vietnam, McCain is the dirty rat who sold out the remaining POWs in captivity. He and his liberal pinko buddy, Senator "Swift Boat" John Kerry, even engineered "Favored Trading Status" for their erstwhile Communist friends back in Hanoi. Jane Fonda, Move over!—You've got company.

McCain's father, Naval Admiral John McCain, was an even greater fraud. He's the guy whose cowardice, lies and incompetence as Commanding Officer of Pacific Forces doomed thousand of American troops to misery and death during the tragic Vietnam War. The senior McCain also just happens to be the sorry traitor who stood by and let Israeli bomber aircraft decimate the U.S. Liberty Ship in 1967, killing and wounding so many of our sailors.


Lovefest between liberal Senators McCain and Clinton: "Not a dime’s worth of difference."


Nuking Iran is McCain's Promise
John McCain and his insane, bloodlust, Zionist whack-job colleague, Pastor John Hagee, promise to use nuclear bombs to destroy Iran. That would mean thousands more U.S. fighting men and women going to their graves and tens of thousands more coming home minus legs, arms, and limbs. It would entail the entire world viewing America as a heartless, savage beast nation. John McCain is a monster, period. In a word, this man is a dangerous, soul-less psychopath.

Here is a man who only got into the Military Academy because his grandfather and father before him were military brass and pulled strings. Predictably, McCain finished almost dead last in his graduating class. He never accomplished one positive thing as a Naval aviator. He did, however, manage to execute a miserably incompetent, faulty landing that killed a number of carrier personnel and, later, he was shot down over North Vietnam. Not exactly a picture of success.

John McCain has never done an honest days work in the private sector his entire life. He cheated on his first wife with the much younger Cindy Hensley, then abruptly divorced his wife and married the pretty Cindy within a few weeks. Now come reliable news reports about McCain messing around having an affair with a young Washington D.C. blonde lobbyist, Vicki Eisman. A real "Family Values" character wouldn't you say? McCain is so vile that other Senators have labeled him "President McNasty!"

McCain has threatened to reduce Social Security benefits, and he consistently voted as a Senator for higher taxes. His World War III insanity will bankrupt America and force this nation into a North American Union slave state. But then, why should John McCain care about you, me, and other middle class Americans? This heel married into the Hensley fortune—Cindy's rich dad owned a beer distributorship and reportedly got his fortune via his unsavory ties to the Jewish Mafia.

McCain: "I think gay marriages should be allowed"
John McCain is an unprincipled man who kisses up to the homosexuals, liberals, and
The Bohemian Boys embrace. John McCain has promised the Jews to keep U.S. troops in Iraq another hundred years if necessary. Here he is with his Zionist neocon buddy, President Bush. True Love.

Jews, lies and pretends he's a "conservative" to win high office. In a 2007 Massachusetts forum, the scoundrel stated, "I think gay marriages should be allowed." Yet, on the campaign trail, he often states just the opposite.

I have no doubt that ignorant Christian evangelicals will act like the stupid lemmings they are and go straight over the cliff to support this filthy reprobate, McCain, for President. Like dumb dogs, they'll pull the lever for him simply because he's the Republican nominee. Today's evangelical Christian has no principles and is neither evangelical nor Christian. As Pastor Chuck Baldwin so sagely stated in a recent internet column, "I will say it straight out: any Christian or conservative who supports John McCain has no principles left worth defending."

Pastor Baldwin then went on to observe: "Christians have swallowed the Bush/McCain Kool-Aid as surely as did the followers of Jim Jones. They are drunk with denial and deception."

Of course, the truth is, these Kool-Aid drinkers are not "Christians" at all. They are fakers, hoaxers masquerading as Christians while, in actuality, doing Satan's bidding.

McCain is Every Patriotic American's Nightmare
Liar, compromiser, warmonger, bloody arrogant hothead, and more—I explain in my investigative report exactly why all these derogatory adjectives apply to John McCain. Beware, people of America—Satan's Illuminati-endorsed, straw-brained, would-be U.S. President, is at our door. He's the Rothschilds' stupid, inept, but pliant puppet-and he's every patriotic American citizen's nightmare.



Go to 13341
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/transport/article3892434.ece
From Times OnlineMay 8, 2008

Toyota profits warning sends market tumbling
Leo Lewis, Asia Business Correspondent

Toyota, the industrial bellwether of the Japanese economy, today stunned markets by issuing a profits warning, forecasting its first full-year slump in operating profits in nearly a decade.

The Japanese giant gave warning that profits will fall by 29.5 per cent for the year, after admitting that income between January and March declined 28 per cent to ¥316 billion (£1.5 billion) — the first slide in quarterly profits for three years and below analysts expectations. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index closed 159.2 points, or 1.1 per cent, at 13,943.26.

The company blamed the profits slide on a number of factors including the soaring cost of crude oil, which neared a record of $124 a barrel overnight, aggressive price rises by raw material suppliers and a drawn-out slide in the US dollar.

Katsuaki Watanabe, the president of Toyota, attempted to assure investors that the group’s 10 per cent profit margin target was still in place.

Related Links
Toyota reveals its plans for electric cars
European car sales fall in credit crunch
General Motors set for another restructure
However, the environment has deteriorated further than expected.

Analysts said that globally high petrol prices are inherently bad for new car sales, particularly in the US. In terms of sales, Toyota does stand to benefit from a general switch from large, high fuel consumption vehicles to smaller more efficient models. But smaller cars deliver lower margins. Strong emerging market sales were, for the same reason, unable to offset the overall drop in profitability.

Despite the challenges facing the company, 2008 remains on target to be the year in which Toyota surpasses General Motors as the world’s biggest automaker — after missing out on the title by only 3,100 vehicle sales last calendar year.

Toyota’s vehicle sales have already outstripped those of GM in the first quarter of this year.

“This is a very, very conservative company from a very, very conservative part of Japan,” said Ed Merner, the president of Atlantis Investment. “Its forecasts assume that everything that could go wrong will go wrong. It is ultimately why this company is in such good financial condition.”



Go to 13340
http://www.theinternationalforecaster.com/item.php?topicId=2&articleid=247
The Worst Is Definitely Not Behind Us
Posted: May 7 2008
false stats to fuel next gold rush, market quality makes for sketchy deals, stimulus package with little effect, tapped out borrowers, reflationary policy and its significance for Wall Street
The elitists have already set the stage for the next gold rush. As soon as their latest bevy of lies and false statistics are shown to be the despicable falsehoods they are, people around the globe will rush back into gold and silver with a vengeance. By that time, all trust in official statements and statistics will evaporate, and the propaganda machine of the Illuminati, via our corrupt, fascist government, Wall Street brigands, Fed Ponzi-schemers and fane-stream media, will completely break down, all conspiratorial control over markets will terminate as PPT manipulations are ignored, and all hell will break loose. If you do not have a position in precious metals and their related shares, which are now currently at bargain-basement prices, by the time this occurs, you will miss out on one of the largest run-ups in these assets of all time.

The objective now is to keep the Goldilocks matrix flowing through the collective brains of American sucker-dupes through the November election in order to reelect as many incumbents as possible from the corrupt cabal of traitors, perverts, reprobates and sociopaths who now stain the halls of our Congress with their vile perversions and nonstop toxic legislation. Despite the best efforts of the elitists, however, the suspended animation of the US economy that now hangs by a thread based on little more than the cartel's mirage-like affectations may very well be compromised prior to November, so do not waste any time taking a position in precious metals on the assumption that gold and silver might go lower. While we do not promote the use of charts and graphs in our highly manipulated markets, markets which eat financial models for breakfast and which more often than not turn these models against their users, you might note that both gold and silver are now vastly oversold by anyone's standards, and both have bounced off long-term support at their 200-day moving averages. The last time that happened, gold went on a wild rampage, rising from 650 to 1030, and silver ripped upward, advancing swiftly from 13 to 21.

Also, because gold has now asserted itself as both a measure and store of monetary value as well as a hedge against inflation to an extent that is far above and beyond its role as a component of jewelry, the cyclical nature of its rallies that in the past have been caused by seasonal market action will be far less pronounced, and we may have just seen the bottom for all of 2008. In addition, the incentive to manipulate will be greatly diminished after elections are over in early November (assuming we do not end up under martial law and a suspension of elections first) because what might be gained by further connivance will be overpowered by the cost of the cartel's manipulations which will spike to infinity based on ever-worsening economic news that even the Illuminist propaganda machine will be unable to cover up and dissemble.

Based on the foregoing, we do not see the pathetic, oafish support for the view that "the worst is behind us" going beyond that point in time.

Anyone who is not an elitist insider and who ventures back into the general stock markets because they think the worst is over is like a lamb being led to the slaughterhouse. In fact, such people deserve to be ruined if for no other reason than they obviously suffer from a severe case of terminal stupidity. The elitists will simply put them out of their misery like a wounded animal. In case you have not yet figured it out, you are playing in a rigged game. Worse yet, by participating in this charade as a patsy for the Illuminati, you are helping these evil, would-be lords of the universe to carry out their deception, which is to bail out of the general stock markets through use of dark pools of liquidity at the blow-off top just before everyone else gets beggared and pauperized by what will be the greatest crash in stock market history. Forget about 1929, that was small potatoes. This is much bigger and will create a worldwide meltdown as tens of trillions are lost in US government treasury bonds, in corporate bonds, in various illiquid, asset-backed derivatives for which there are no markets, in declining real estate values and in imploding credit default swaps and interest rate swaps backed by insolvent counterparties who have put up little or no collateral. In the subprime category alone, losses disclosed by the banking community worldwide are less than a quarter of those expected by the IMF. Based on that thought alone, how can anyone be that vapidly stupid to think that the worst is behind us? Such losses not only are not priced in, they are not even discussed in the media. Does that mean these losses will not occur, simply because the fane-stream media ignores them? Has everyone become an ostrich? Next come the trillions that will be lost in Alt-A mortgages, in prime ARM mortgages and in negative amortization pick-a-pay or payment-option mortgages that are due to start imploding at the end of this year and that will make the subprime losses look diminutive by comparison.


All that the gargantuan Fed rate cuts have accomplished is to increase the asset spreads for lenders who are no longer lending due to raving fear of default by potentially insolvent borrowers and a complete lack of confidence in the entire interbank lending system and in the entire "financial engineering" products sector which is now viewed as if it were an unmapped minefield. These terrified lenders, such as the commercial banks, as well as investment banks and brokerage houses that are outside the Federal Reserve system but that are benefiting from the rate cuts thanks to the Fed's ill-advised adventure into territory uncharted since the 1930's, are instead hoarding government securities and highly rated corporate bonds most of which have been producing negative returns based on official inflation much less actual inflation that is now over 12% and that is only two thirds of the way to catching up with an M3 of 18%. How do you improve your balance sheets without the benefit of the fractional reserve banking multiplier that can only be achieved through bank lending which has been curtailed by the credit-crunch? Do returns below the rate of inflation really improve balance sheets? Who is fooling who here? Despite these humongous and virtually unprecedented rate cuts, mortgage rates in the real world outside of the Illuminist interbank system have barely budged even for those with sterling credit. For everyone else with not-so-sterling credit, which is most people, the rates have moved higher, along with underwriting standards, to take into account the increasing risk of default based on fraud-laced toxic waste. The new FHA jumbo loan program is not working because the rates have climbed well above non-jumbo rates even for those with excellent credit. And now the Fed's so-called "pause," which we can assure you will end before this year is closed out, has sent treasury rates back up.

While this has accounted for some of the recent support given to the dollar as foreigners and large institutional investors go for the higher rates on what they foolishly perceive to be higher quality paper, most of the support has been direct intervention by the PPT and its European and Asian counterparts that have been spiking the dollar out of the blue for several weeks now as part of their gold suppression activity. Further, these higher rates on treasuries means that those who already owned treasuries got a big haircut, and guess who that might be. That's right, the same banks who are insolvent and who just absorbed another big sock-it-to-me in the Treasury bond department, making them even more insolvent. Wait until interest rates really get cranking as everything implodes, which will happen even if the Fed lowers the funds rate to 0%. When the greatest bear market in bonds of all time gets under way on account of double digit interest rates brought on by long overdue risk reassessment and counter-hyperinflation strategy, the losses will dwarf the subprime problem.

Traders will be pining for the good old days of the subprime debacle. Then it will be sheiks to the rescue again, but we suspect that rich oil exporters will want gold instead and will have to be dragged kicking and screaming to rescue the banks which will be all but vaporized by then as the Fed pumps M3 to infinity to keep them all alive. Has anyone got a sub handy so we can cut those communication cables again? Now they're threatening to remove those darn dollar pegs because we cut their cables - forget Iran, can we nuke Mecca without starting WWIII?

And then of course there is the supposedly recovering US economy. This is so preposterous that all we can say is that you just can't make this stuff up! Bear in mind that oil has already been way, way north of $100 per barrel for the first five weeks of the second quarter. How does that bode for corporate earnings and consumer spending? In the meanwhile, food prices continue to soar, having doubled over the past three years according to a key UN food index, thereby causing food riots and rationing. While all this transpires, wages are stagnant while inflation rampages at 12%, hundreds of thousands lose their jobs monthly, fixed and adjustable mortgage rates continue to rise and mortgage defaults double year over year while equity withdrawals from home ATM machines go the way of the dodo bird. Of course, that wonderful stimulus package will save everything, right? Has everyone started smoking mushrooms laced with crack? Look at all the cutesy GDP hedonics, the ludicrous retail sales statistics pumped up by inflation and the rosy jobs report made that way by adding in hundreds of thousands of jobs that do not exist while many billions of taxpayer dollars are used to hire tens of thousands of totally unnecessary government employees to make the abysmal statistics look better and to gain votes for incumbents.

Consumer credit cards are now virtually all tapped out and defaults on their balances have accelerated. To put the icing on the cake, US citizens will now get to import all the inflation that we have exported for decades to other countries through free trade, globalization, off-shoring, outsourcing and illegal immigration. That is because lots of unhappy foreigners, who we have recently screwed out of billions with fraudulent sales of toxic waste and a "strong" dollar policy, are shunning our treasury bonds, and who can blame them as we continue with our "beggar-thy-neighbor" policies. While sucking in all this new, wonderful inflation, workers lose pension and medical benefits as their municipalities and employers collapse and our national debt and trade deficits continue to grow to un-payable levels. As all this is coming down, the dollar is taken to the cleaners as Wall Street's profligate fraud is nationalized by the private Fed with the blessing of our Treasury Department so we get to have some nice entertainment by doing a reenactment of 1920's Germany. Yeah, we just turned the corner all right, head-on into the business end of an oncoming tractor-trailer loaded with steel girders and concrete from the controlled demolition of the Twin Towers. Our economy will have to be removed from the ensuing wreckage with a spatula. If you don't own gold, silver and/or their related assets, we suggest that your last investment be the purchase of a pancake flipper so that by your surviving relatives can remove and separate your body from the flattened vestiges of our economy.

Large specs who go into the current stock market leveraged to the hilt deserve to be blasted into oblivion. The only fundamentals in favor of non-resource stocks are lies about economic news, false statistics and PPT manipulations, and if you are not an insider, the PPT manipulations are not of much use because you are forced to guess at what their next move might be. Take Goldman Sachs for instance, which is touting 200 oil with help from neocon, war-jawboning government officials so they can unload their long positions in oil without losing too much profit as they make plans to knock oil way down should gold and silver decide to get porky, which both did on Monday as gold crossed 880 and silver touched 17 again. Once again, the yen strengthened while the COMEX was open and weakened after it closed. Same old, same old. Pessimism for carry traders while gold markets are open, optimism when the gold markets are closed but while stock markets are still open. Message: Use the liquidity we give you to buy stocks to suck in the dupes, not gold. If you buy gold, you will be punished by super-yen and wimpy-oil. Protective derivatives in the form of stock index puts, yen longs against both the dollar and the euro as well as oil shorts are a must to counter these potential cartel-orchestrated boondoggles that are intended to drain large spec liquidity and cause liquidations of metals positions. If the cartel tries to put a squeeze on your protective derivatives, the solution is massive physical buying of gold and silver and stock de-leveraging into PPT provided strength which will force them to back off lest they send gold and silver into outer space and the stock market into the deepest depths of Mordor. That is how you make your own game without playing their game. Physical is the key, along with de-leveraging out of general stocks.

We suspect that the hedgies are waiting for the dollar to stop spiking as exporting nations try to push their currencies down versus the dollar and as foreigners begin to think that it is safe to get back into the water full of Wall Street sharks as they tempt fate and purchase dollar-denominated assets, especially US treasuries, which despite their currently rising rates of return pay far less than actual inflation with the added bonus of potential default as all US financial fallout is about to be nationalized by the Fed and the Treasury to create levels of debt that will never be repaid. What these "proud" owners of treasuries will gain when the Fed is forced to lower rates again to save ever more insolvent banks and financial institutions they will more than lose as the dollar which their assets are denominated in explodes and goes down in flames. This is a no win situation, and once others realize this gold and silver will explode as they are your only protection under these inflationary circumstances.

Silver lease rates for three months or less are still negative, meaning that the bullion banks will pay you to lease their silver. So much for making profits on non-performing assets. As a side note, when oil is sold off to hit gold and silver, a lot of those proceeds will be transferred into precious metals, thereby softening the blow. As a further side note, only three months ago, the USDX was at about 77 and gold closed at 906.40. Tuesday the USDX was about 73, with gold closing at 876.40, even with the Fed funds rate being a full percentage point lower and the chances of a rate increase being slim to none. We are left stunned and incredulous by the lack of public outrage at these despicable, suppressive manipulations.

Today Wall Street cannot exist without a strong Fed reflationary policy. Our economic and financial problems are tied to the excesses in Wall Street and banking over the past several years. As we have often said deflation has to be smothered at any cost. We currently see the deflationary fallout in housing and in the ongoing credit crisis. On the other hand we see M3 increasing at close to 18%, a wideopen Fed discount window, massive auction lending by the Fed and massive loans by the Fed to other select central banks. You could call this push-push economics and finance. The media, particularly the financial media, portrays this as normal. Our economy and the world economy are being distorted by the practice of financial arbitrage capitalism. As we have often said the system is dysfunctional and unsustainable. All the masters of the universe are doing is adding to the existing groundwork for the coming depression. Incidentally, they are well aware of that and could care less.



Go to 13339
http://www.rense.com/general34/over25.htm
The Overthrow Of The
American Republic
Part 25
Kingdom of Jordan Link

1-31-3

Far too many American do not have a good handle on what is really happening. Is it because they are addicted, as to dope, on the oil-soaked, spy-riddled monopoly press?

A hopeful sign, however, lately is that a growing number of ordinary Americans are seeking additional data from certain internet websites they have come to more and more respect.

Still in all, far too many click on nytimes.com, washingtonpost.com, and chicagotribune.com, for supposed "news". That is, what we prefer to call "The Liars and Whores of the Press" (both men and women press prostitutes). Left out by what we call the "news fakers" are historical as well as other related items to help explain current events.

BACKGROUND.

[1] In the 16th Century, Jordan was ruled by the Ottoman Turkish empire. The British grabbed land and power following World War One with the crumbling of the Ottoman Empire, a loser in that War. Formerly known as Trans-Jordan, the territory was separated from the Palestine mandate in 1920 and in 1921, placed under the rule of Abdullah ibn Hussein. Britain carved out the territory, ignoring natural boundaries, as if it were a regular checkerboard design.

In World War Two, Trans-Jordan was loyal to Great Britain. So, in 1946, Britain recognized Trans-Jordan as a separate state. And in 1946, Amir Abdullah assumed the title of King. In 1951, King Abdullah was assassinated. His son Talal, heir to the throne, was removed, called deposed, because he was mentally ill. Talal's son, Hussein, born in 1935, became the new King.The territory in 1946 was renamed The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

King Hussein had to walk a tightrope between Israel on the West and surrounding Arab dictators pushing nationalism.

Starting with King Abdullah and continuing for the 46 years of the reign of King Hussein, the American CIA heavily subsidized the monarchy. In effect, the various Directors of Central Intelligence were in charge of Jordan and King Hussein was an obedient puppet. On February 7, 1999, after 46 years on the throne, King Hussein died of cancer. Weeks prior, he unexpectedly removed his brother Prince Hassan, who had been heir apparent to the throne for some 34 years. King Hussein named his eldest son, Abdullah, age 37, as the new crown prince. Without any political experience to speak of, but a military leader, King Abdullah II, was crowned on February 7, 1999.

[2] Two important events, related to this commentary, occurred in the summer of 1992. Fiirst, delivered to our public access Cable TV Show was a file cabinet. It contained the travel documents, secret terrorist meeting codes, secret names and addresses, and methods of contacts between smugglers of weapons as provided to known worldwide terrorist groups such as the deadly Abu Nidal Terrorist Gang. Included in the treasure trove of records were hand-written notations of some of the weapons providers, related notations, secret notebooks, copies of related telexes, and other communications.

These were the records of four Lesbian women partners that included Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose husband Bill was then running for president; and her business partner, Diane Lewis, who ran in Chicago, a supposed firm refurbishing and selling to wealthy sheiks and such, large airplanes for their use. The Lesbian link was important to the overall events.

Prior to taping our one hour program, we became privy to the direct eyewitness testimony and interviews, further corroborating the self-explanatory secret documents. Our long reliable sources within and outside the government confirmed that the American CIA, and the FBI, that is, America's secret political police, permitted and condoned this situation.

More about this first event, later.

[3] The second event of the summer of 1992 revolved around a purported "Christian" television station, at 38 So. Peoria Street, Chicago, a few blocks from out Cable TV studio. Called Channel 38 TV, it had previously been owned and operated in cramped quarters elsewhere by the Catholic Archbishop of Chicago.

A head of Channel 38 at the time was linked to the Assembly of God. A close confidant of his was Diane Lewis. We found out that when Channel 38 bought the block square choice property, an American affiliate of Israeli intelligence, put up two million dollars to have Channel 38's lavish headquarters building built. The contractors, unknown to the Channel 38 bosses, had put into the walls, for monitoring, various listening devices. The Channel 38 boss, according to other sources, reportedly received large private profits from dealing with the rogue international spy operation acting for the American CIA and foreign intelligence agencies, namely, Bank of Credit and Commerce International, BCCI, which continued to operate under alter egoes and other names after BCCI supposedly went defunct in 1991.

A group calling themselves "Real Christians" in the summer of 1992, descended on Channel 38's headquarters. They marched with signs and placards, most stating, "CHANNEL 38, BOMBS INSTEAD OF BIBLES". They were referring to the details shown in the file cabinet of secret records, that the confidant of Channel 38's boss was supplying missile parts to known worldwide terrorists. The testimony and interviews showed that Diane Lewis used certain Channel 38 talk shows, taped and supplied to Mid-East outlets, as secret signals of upcoming meetings with terrorists. Certain props on the talk show set were placed or moved as signals.

I was there as a tv journalist. I was sitting right outside the glass door entrance to Channel 38, with a video camera operated right behind my shoulders by someone else. The glass doors opened slightly from inside. Two officials of the tv station, second and third in command as they identified themselves, said to me, "Mr. Skolnick, you are not a Christian. We object to you being here. Why are you here?"

First, I explained about how the boss of Channel 38 reportedly received large profits from dealings with BCCI. They said, "Well, that is a private matter that does not effect us.Why are you here, you are not a Christian."

I answered, "Where is there a law or regulation requiring a tv journalist like me, gathering news, to be a member of some specific religion?" And I added, "I am here for humanitarian reasons. I found out from Israeli sources that they are grumbling about Channel 38. The Israelis keep invoking the biblical matter, of an eye for an eye. They contend that Diane Lewis, a close confidant of the head man of Channel 38, supplied weaponry used to murder 42 Israelis at a facility in Buenos Aires, Argentina. They talk in sinister tones, that there are approximately 42 people working inside this building, and the bible says an eye for an eye. I am here to possible stop further bloodshed."

The two tv bosses simply dismissed me and my explanations, further stating, "You are not a Christian. We should not be talking to you. Get away from our building."

[4] By way of the secret records and direct eyewitness testimony and interviews, we became aware that Hillary Rodham Clinton and her business partners, including Diane Lewis, had huge financial links to the Royal Bank of Jordan as well as Royal Jordanian Airlines (ALIA), and certain related entities and enterprises linked to each. For example, at her Chicago-area residence, Diane Lewis had living with her an immediate direct relative of the top official running Royal Jordanian Airlines.

During the 1992 presidential primary in New York, a large newspaper there ran a story, ignored by others in the press. Namely, that Bill Clinton's wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and her law partner in the Rose Law Firm, of Little Rock, Arkansas, Vincent W. Foster,, Jr., were accused by federal bank regulators including the private central bank, The Federal Reserve Board, of being implicated in massive overseas money laundering. Implicit in the story was that there were serious violations of U.S. national security.We became privy to the reporters' original story, censored in part by their editor, which left out details, such as the following:

Such as the details of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Foster's massive secret dealings with and through the Royal Bank of Jordan and related entities and enterprises, and purported shipments of contraband, including weaponry purportedly to worldwide terrorists through Royal Jordanian Airlines.

We were heckled, by the way, for our exclusive stories, ahead of other commentators, that Bill and Hillary were a "CIA couple". From an early age when each was separately in university, each had separate covert activities they did for the American CIA. Theirs was a "marriage of convenience", often imposed on CIA couples even if they are not entirely socially or sexually compatible. During the surfacing of the Juanita Broadrick rape matter, she was quoting as stating that after Bill Clinton forced sex on her, he said, "Honey, there is nothing to worry about. I have been sterile since I had mumps as a teenager." If so, then WHO fathered daughter Chelsea? Some point to her lips being much like that of Webster Hubbell, the federal jail-bird who had been at one time Chief of the Arkansas Supreme Court, and Mayor of Little Rock, and law partner of Hillary and Foster. He had been sent to federal jail on charges he embezzled large sums from the Rose Law Firm.

[5] In the summer of 1992, we taped and caused to be cablecast a one-hour program of our public access Cable TV program, "Broadsides", about Diane Lewis and Channel 38 TV. Up on the screen we put samples of the numerous secret records, telexes, secret notebooks and such. In September, 1992, the New York Times reported that Diane Lewis was arrested on federal criminal charges that she caused shipments of missile parts in violation of U.S. Export provisions. Her address, however, was not shown as Chicago but rather, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She apparently had links to CIA firms in Lancaster, making secret technology items.

"A self-made millionaire and defense contractor, (James) Guerin founded International Signal Controls in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which manufactured exotic fusing devices and other highly secret technology. He had business associates such as onetime (Reagan administration) Secretary of State Alexander Haig, and when ISC merged with Ferranti, the British arms and electronics firm, Admiral bobby Inman, the former deputy director of the CIA (and top National Security Agency, NSA official), joined the Ferranti-ISC board of directors. Presumably to keep an eye on American secrets." (Guerin was tried for massive fraud in the U.S.)

"THE OUTLAW BANK---A WILD RIDE INTO THE SECRET HEART OF BCCI", by Jonathan Beaty and S.C. Gwynne, 1993, Random House, New York, page 360.

Diane Lewis's criminal case came up about the time her business partner Hillary Rodham Clinton became the new First Lady, upon the January inauguration as President of Bill Clinton. Ms Lewis's case was heard by a federal judge in closed session. Ms Lewis's attorney, invoking White House and Justice Department clout, told the Judge that Ms Lewis is a business partner of the new First Lady. And further, the judge was told Ms Lewis and her three business partners, including Hillary, listed as un-indicted co-conspirators, agreed to becoming snitches for the American CIA.. Ms Lewis was turned loose. [Thereafter, Hillary put me and my tv associates on an "enemies list" to be unlawfully harassed. Our lawsuit against Hillary was dismissed in Chicago's federal district court without us ever being allowed to actually be in a courtroom for a hearing.]

Hillary Rodham Clinton's apparent links to the Royal Bank of Jordan and related enterprises and entities as well as Royal Jordanian Airlines, continue to this date. Hillary privately profitted from supplying nuclear components to North Korea where that airline reportedly shipped in, for her, to North Korea, items forbidden by U.S. citizens to be sending to North Korea. Further, Hillary has apparently used that bank and related enterprises and entities, to launder massive amounts of paper currencies she and others had reason to believe were superior quality counterfeit versions of U.S. and other currencies. [Visit prior parts of this series.

Knowledgeable sources contend the January, 2003, Associated Press story was fraudulent and misleading, in dealing with the burglary of the residence of Alan Greenspan, Commissar of the Federal Reserve. The wire service asserted that the purpose of the burglary, with the burglars having purportedly long cased the place, was to get at the jewelry of Greenspan's wife, Andrea Mitchell, Washington whitewasher for NBC, owned by General Electric.

Our sources contend the break-in was carefully planned and executed, to get at the secret notebooks of Greenspan as to some of the following:

===How much gold the Federal Reserve will have to somehow procure from Canadian and South African mines, to carry out an expected or intended dealing with a financial meltdown. Namely, this by way of a gold standard/gold exchange policy which Greenspan of late has been promoting. Prior to becoming Fed boss, he promoted gold. Upon becoming head of the sinister PRIVATE central bank, upon orders, he downplayed gold and promoted paper money. The monopoly press ignores what was shown in the 1970s, namely there is no actual world bullion grade gold at Fort Knox. The bulk of the gold depository was quietly shipped in 1968 to stem a run on the gold of the Bank of England.[Hard-hitting independent journalist Tom Valentine and his then publication, National Tattler, now defunct, documented the absence of real gold at Fort Knox. At the time, his publication had a campaign demanding the Fort Knox vaults be opened for auditing.]

===Details in secret notebooks of Greenspan as to the North Korea dealings in forbidden nuclear components by Hillary Rodham Clinton, now a U.S. Senator from New York. Reportedly implicated are enterprises and entities linked or part of the Royal Bank of Jordan, and reputed shipments arranged through Royal Jordanian Airlines. Release of the secret Greenspan notebooks would give an additional motive why in July, 1993, shortly after becoming Clinton White House deputy counsel, Foster was murdered and covered up by Bill and Hillary Clinton as a supposed "suicide".

During 2002, our tv program put on the screen documents relating to Hillary and supplying nuclear components for her apparent profit to North Korea.

[NOTE: This commentary e-mailed in parts because Yahoo e-mail has a terrible habit of swallowing up and making disappear lengthy e-mails that cannot be found or retrieved.]



Go to 13338
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/06/waste.pollution
Electronic wastelandBreeding toxins from dead PCsChildren are dying to clear up the developed world's discarded computers
Richard Wray, communications editor The Guardian, Tuesday May 6 2008 About this articleClose This article appeared in the Guardian on Tuesday May 06 2008 on p24 of the Financial section. It was last updated at 09:05 on May 06 2008.
Photograph: DanWatch and Consumers International

Thousands of discarded computers from western Europe and the US arrive in the ports of west Africa every day, ending up in massive toxic dumps where children burn and pull them apart to extract metals for cash.

The dumping of the developed world's electronic trash, or e-waste, is in direct contravention of international legislation and is causing serious health problems for inhabitants of the shanty towns that have sprung up amid the smouldering dumps in Lagos and Accra.

Campaigners believe unscrupulous scrap merchants are illegally dumping millions of tonnes of dangerous waste on the developing world under the guise of exporting it for use in schools and hospitals. They are calling for better policing of the ban on exports of e-waste, which can release lead, mercury and other dangerous chemicals.

"Ghana is increasingly becoming a dumping ground for waste from Europe and the US," according to Mike Anane, director of the League of Environmental Journalists in Ghana. "The people that break open these monitors tell me that they suffer from nausea, headaches and respiratory problems."

More than half a million computers arrive in Lagos every month but only about one in four works. The rest are sold as scrap, smashed up and burned.

"Millions of tons of e-waste disappears from the developed world every year and continues to reappear in developing countries, despite international bans," according to Luke Upchurch from Consumers International, which represents more than 220 consumer groups in 115 countries.

Lucrative
The illegal trade in e-waste is highly lucrative. It is possible to extract more gold out of a tonne of electronic circuitry than from a tonne of gold-bearing rock. But illegal dumping is putting at risk charities and other organisations that donate second-hand equipment to the developing world.

Since the introduction of the Basle Ban outlawing the export of hazardous waste from developed to less developed countries in 1992, computers have become an everyday item. Consumers and businesses are replacing their kit at an ever increasing rate, creating a new waste mountain.

Six years ago the EU produced the waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) directive, which introduced new curbs and restrictions on the movement of e-waste. The directive, which came into effect in Britain in January last year, heavily regulates the movement of e-waste for recycling and bans its export for disposal. It also introduced a scheme under which the cost of properly disposing of electronic equipment put on the market after August 2005 must be picked up by the producers of the waste - manufacturers, retailers, branders and importers.

But DanWatch, a partner organisation of Consumers International, has evidence that computer equipment from British companies and even local authorities is being dumped in west Africa.

"We filmed children as young as six searching for metal scraps in the earth, which was littered with the toxic waste from thousands of shattered cathode ray tubes," said Benjamin Holst, co-founder of DanWatch. "A whole community is virtually living and working in this highly toxic environment, which is growing every day."

Properly functioning computer equipment is exempt from the WEEE rules about export. In fact the regulations encourage refurbishment and re-use of computer equipment. But there is no regime that checks computer equipment destined for re-use before it is shipped overseas.

Regulating waste in England and Wales falls under the remit of the Environment Agency. "Our position would be that genuine re-use of working equipment is generally a good thing," explained Adrian Harding, the agency's policy advisor.

The trouble lies in the phrase "genuine re-use". Harding admits that the agency simply does not have the resources to check every consignment destined for re-use in the developing world. Part of the problem is that the agency does not even have to be notified about the movement of goods for re-use so it would not know which containers to target.

One organisation that has already made a name for itself as a legitimate supplier of second-hand computers to the developing world is Computer Aid International, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary and has sent more than 119,000 computers to countries including Kenya and Chile.

The charity is registered with the Environment Agency as an official e-waste treatment company. Any machines it cannot use are sent to specialist recycling facilities within the EU. Founder Tony Roberts believes the problem with existing e-waste regulations is that outside the EU they do not make the producer of computer equipment pay for its proper disposal.

Unscrupulous
Without this cash there is little incentive for developing nations to start investing in proper recycling facilities. As a result the e-waste problem is likely to grow, not because of unscrupulous European exporters but because of the increasing number of computers being sold in the developing world.

"When you look at the whole product lifetime of a computer 75% of the environmental damage is done before the computer is switched on for the first time," he pointed out. "It is the production, the mining, the factories producing the kit and the use of toxic materials - that is where the environmental damage is done. So if we do not make the producer responsible for dealing with these environmental issues we are never going to get a redesign of computers; we are never going to get computers that are produced in a more environmentally friendly way."

Once Computer Aid's donated equipment reaches the end of its useful life, the company tries to limit the environmental damage caused by its disposal. In Kenya, for instance, it is helping to build a recycling facility that will take not just its own kit but broken machines from across the country. The process is basic but better than using landfill - and circuit boards are re-exported to Britain.

Roberts said: "The problem is the producers are not providing any funds in the developing markets, where they are selling millions of PCs, so we just need to set up similar funds in all markets."

It is a call taken up by Martin Hojsík, toxics campaigner at Greenpeace International. "We want the producers to be responsible for the take-back of their kit," he said.

The hope is that the sheer expense of making producers pay for the disposal of their computer equipment wherever it is sold or used across the world, will spur the industry towards making "greener" machines.

To bring a quick end to the spectacle of children scrabbling around in toxic waste dumps in Africa, Europe's regulators and more importantly its consumers and businesses need to take responsibility for disposing of their computer equipment.



Go to 13337
http://uruknet.info/?p=m43739&hd=&size=1&l=e
Casualties mount in Sadr City as U.S. troops press ahead with attack
Haqi Ismael, Azzaman
May 5, 2008

Deaths and injuries are soaring in the Sadr City as U.S. troops increase their military and economic pressure on the city home to more than 2.5 million people.

More than 532 people among them women and children have been killed in the past two weeks, hospital sources in the city said.

The sources, refusing to be named, said they have so far treated 2,563 serious injuries.

Most of the deaths and injuries, the sources added, have occurred due to random shelling by U.S. warplanes and helicopter gun ships.

U.S. snipers are also responsible as many of the hits are in the head, chest and legs, the sources said.

At least 14 percent of those killed and injured so far are children, 12 percent women and the rest are men of different ages.

The troops have blocked all entries to the citys for the third week and the sources said their supplies of medicine and other essential items were dangerously low.

The Zahra Maternity Hospital in the city has been closed and the other two hospitals in are working under extremely difficult circumstances.

U.S. shelling has destroyed at least 310 buildings, damaged 625 shops and wrecked 180 vehicles, police sources say.

Schools have been closed for more than a month and government offices as well as municipal services have stopped functioning.



Go to 13336
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/05/02/paul-not-ready-to-endorse-mccain-likes-obamas-foreign-policy/
May 2, 2008
Paul: Not ready to endorse McCain, likes Obama's foreign policy
(CNN) — Even though Rep. Ron Paul has never officially ended his long shot presidential bid, he’s ready to weigh in on the three remaining major candidates for the White House.

In an interview on The Situation Room, Paul told Wolf Blitzer that endorsing Sen. John McCain, the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee, “would really confuse” his supporters “because they know we have a precise program and we have to defend that program.”

Having a Republican win the upcoming presidential election is “secondary” for Paul who is more interested in defending the Constitution, having the country go in what he considers the right direction, having a sound currency, and achieving balanced budgets. Paul parts ways with McCain over McCain’s support for the Iraq war, his approach to U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and his willingness to spend federal dollars to support military operations in Iraq.

Instead, Paul favors Sen. Barack Obama because of positions on foreign policy. “But that’s doesn’t mean that’s an endorsement,” Paul quickly added.

Paul recently released a new book titled “The Revolution: a Manifesto.” “Unfortunately, it is revolutionary to talk about obeying the Constitution,” Paul said of the book’s title.



Go to 13335
http://uruknet.info/?p=m43746&hd=&size=1&l=e
There is hope in Gaza
Miko Peled, The Electronic Intifada
May 5, 2008

Israel's assault on the people of Gaza is so horrendous that it will not soon be forgotten. This vicious attempt by Israel to destroy an entire nation has tipped the scales for good and Zionism will forever be remembered as a blemish in the history of the Jewish people. The people of Gaza, however, give us hope and they will forever be remembered for their courage and resilience during these trying times.

The people of Gaza, while being deprived of rights and resources, still find the inner strength and the belief in their destiny to send their children to school. There are close to 800,000 children living in Gaza; they make up more than half of the population. The mothers and fathers and teachers of Gaza are creating hope where others see none, and they are building a future where some would claim there is none. But the price of education in Gaza is dear as the number of children targeted by Israeli violence rises continuously.

In a previous article ("It's time to visit Gaza") I quoted from journalist Charles Glass' The Tribes Triumphant and I wish to do so again here. Glass, unlike CNN or any other news agency is not obsessed with violence but is impressed as we all should be by the children: "Thousands and thousands of children's feet padding the dusty paths between their mother's front doors and their schools ... Beautiful youngsters so innocent that they could laugh even in Gaza." One can only imagine the mothers preparing lunches for these children, and making sure their clothes are ready and clean as they send them off to school. But the road to school in Gaza is an uncertain one, and risk of death by Israeli death squads is imminent.

I was deeply moved by Ramzy Baroud's recent piece about his late father ("There are no checkpoints in heaven"). Clearly the man was head and shoulders above most people and clearly he recognized the need to defy the occupation and maintain his dignity as a man and as a Palestinian. He paid dearly for this, because there is nothing more threatening to Israel's occupation than a man who would defy its brutal force.

Ramzy's story is similar to that of another friend of mine who is also from Gaza and who was also prevented from visiting his dying father. This gentleman is a physician and is devoted to saving the lives of children. He is an inspiring man of deep religious conviction and optimism. When I visit Gaza, as I am determined to do before this year is out, I hope that they will be able to join me. In fact, I hope to be able to go with a delegation.

For over 60 years Gaza has proven itself to be an endless source of optimism and courage. Even with a population density that is among the highest in the world, and a lack of resources that seems hopeless, and even with a brutal occupation and severe restrictions that have been part of life for Gazans since the destruction of Palestine some 60 years ago, still Gazans fight on. Resistance to the occupation, education and steadfastness are only a few of the hallmarks of the people of this ancient land.

I recall the first time I heard first-hand about the type of torture that is the daily bread of people in Gaza. It was more than 20 years ago, while I was living in Japan as a student, a young Israeli who I mistook for a friend shared the following story from his days of service as an officer in Israel's "glorious" naval special-forces, or as Israelis call it, "The Commando." He told us how, as a matter of routine he and his unit would patrol the Gaza coast aboard their naval warships. As they came upon a Gazan fishing boat they would stop the boat and force the fishermen to jump into the water. Then, they would blow up the boat. Once the boat was blown to bits, the Israeli sailors would shift their attention to the helpless fishermen in the water. Under gunpoint, one by one, they would force the fishermen count from one to a hundred. One by one these men, who eventually could no longer hold themselves above water, drowned to death. This, the young Israeli officer said, was done "to instill fear in the Arabs, and to teach them who was boss."

This young Israeli officer was one of Israel's "finest," the product of the finest Zionist education system. He saw no wrong in letting men drown in front of his eyes, and felt no urge to save a helpless human being from certain death. But he is not alone in his disregard for human life.

The Israel newspaper Haaretz's online edition recently published that "[Israeli] Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Wednesday defended the Israel Defense Forces' operations against Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza Strip as necessary for the advancement of peace negotiations." According to Haaretz, Livni said: "I would expect that when civilians are harmed by deliberate terrorism, people won't make a comparison between them and Palestinian civilians that are harmed during Israel's defense operations." Furthermore, according to Haaretz: "Livni expressed concern at what she termed a growing trend of de-legitimization of Israel in world public opinion. Livni does not see the connection between Israeli actions and the reaction of the world community."

Livni is no different than the young officer who murdered Gazan fishermen. She and other members of the Israeli cabinet along with the military top brass see no problem with Israeli forces killing Palestinian children, and they seek and often receive the support of the world community. In their minds, Palestinians do not deserve the same rights as Israeli Jews, and therefore it is permissible to torture them and murder their children. What is not permissible is to criticize Israel for the killing innocent Palestinians. Livni and her comrades are disturbed that the rest of us do not see this as clearly as they do.

But rather than give attention to the lies and accusations of Zionist militants, we would do well to focus our attention to the people of Gaza and in particular to the children who are forced to live in this concentration camp. These children and their brave and caring parents represent hope in its truest form. They need courageous people who, like Ramzy Baroud's late father, are willing to defy the brutal Zionist regime but who unlike him are free of the restraints of that regime. People who live in Israel and the US need to stand by the people of Gaza and help them to tear down the walls of this ghetto.

Miko Peled is an Israeli peace activist and writer living in the US. He is co founder of the Elbanna Peled Foundation in memory of Smadar Elhanan and Abir Aramin. Peled is the son of the late Israeli General Matti Peled. Please direct all correspondence to mikopeled A T aol D O T com.



Go to 13334
http://uruknet.info/?p=m43752&hd=&size=1&l=e
Death of 3 patients raise the number of siege victims to 145
Palestinian Information Center

May 5, 2008

GAZA, (PIC)-- Three more Gaza patients have died due to the IOF blockade that closed all crossings between the Gaza Strip and the outside world, the popular anti siege committee announced on Monday.

Rami Abdo, the committee's spokesman, said in a statement that lack of proper medical treatment coupled with the closure of all crossings had led to the death of those three patients a child and two old women.

He quoted medical sources as saying that the 13-year-old child Ismahan Al-Jaal was suffering from brain tumor and was denied travel through Beit Hanun (Erez) crossing by the Israeli occupation authority.

They said that Zakia Saada, 59, died of a heart ailment while Nazmia Abed, 55, died of cancer.

Abed's relatives said that they secured three medical transfers for her treatment abroad in Jerusalem, Egypt and Jordan but the IOA continued to deny her access.



Go to 13333
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=29101
Water crisis looming in Gaza due to Israeli blockade
Date: 06 / 05 / 2008 Time: 10:04

Gaza – Ma'an – About 70% of families living in the Gaza Strip receive water once every five days, and 30% have access to water only once every week, says Rami Abdu the spokesperson of the Popular Committee for Countering the Siege on the Gaza Strip.

In addition, the drinking water in Gaza has become unsafe. Abdu said that 65% of the water network in Gaza is unable to operate normally to Israel's blockade of the Strip. He explained that due to the continuous closure of border crossings, the municipal councils of the Gaza Strip have been unable to import spare parts for water and sewage pumps and water treatment plants.

In addition, the water network and sewage treatment system requires 150,000 liters of diesel fuel a month to operate, and has received far less than that amount due to the Israeli blockade. Officials with the Gaza Coastal Municipalities Water Utility say that due to the scarcity of fuel and spare parts, the utility has been forced to pump 60,000 cubic meters of raw sewage a day into the Mediterranean.

Even before the blockade, little of Gaza's water supply was usable. In the 1995 Interim Agreement signed by Israeli and Palestinian leaders, the tiny Gaza Strip was left on its own, unable to import water resources from the West Bank or Israel. This meant that Gazans were forced to overdraw from the coastal aquifer, depleting supplies and decreasing the quality of the water.



Go to 13332
http://www.rense.com/general81/demise.htm
US Culture & The
Demise Of Empire
The Grand Chessboard - Part 2
By Brent Jessop
Knowledge Driven Revolution.com
5-4-8

Zbigniew Brzezinski's described in his book The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives (1997), how the focus of American global primacy should be to unify the world under the dictates of the United Nations. This was described in my first article entitled America's Role as the First, Only, and Last Truly Global Superpower.
Go to 13331
http://www.knowledgedrivenrevolution.com/Articles
/200710/20071001_Chessboard_1_US_UN.htm

There are many problems associated with the emergence of the United Nations out of the ashes of the American empire. Brzezinski makes clear his distain for the limitations that "populist democracy" puts on his desired movements around the Eurasian chessboard and his revulsion at the potential for an "impotent global power".

"It is also a fact that America is too democratic at home to be autocratic abroad. This limits the use of America's power, especially its capacity for military intimidation. Never before has a populist democracy attained international supremacy. But the pursuit of power is not a goal that commands popular passion" [emphasis mine] - 35

"A genuinely populist democracy has never before attained international supremacy. The pursuit of power and especially the economic costs and human sacrifice that the exercise of such power often requires are not generally congenial to democratic instincts. Democratization is inimical to imperial mobilization." [emphasis mine] - 210

"Indeed, the critical uncertainty regarding the future may well be whether America might become the first superpower unable or unwilling to wield its power. Might it become an impotent global power?" - 210

Four Key Dimensions of Power

"In that context, for some time to come-- for more than a generation-- America's status as the world's premier power is unlikely to be contested by any single challenger. No nation-state is likely to match America in the four key dimensions of power (military, economic, technological, and cultural) that cumulatively produce decisive global political clout." [emphasis mine] - 195

Little needs to be said about the first three dimensions of power; military, economic and technological. The fourth dimension, culture, is very important and rarely given appropriate attention. Brzezinski and the elite above and around him are well aware of the power of the creation and manipulation of culture. It is an essential component to convincing the American public to execute the elite designed imperial goals as well as the eventual and necessary removal of American primacy to make way for the emergence of the United Nations' rise to dominance.

American Culture and the Demise of Empire

The current culture in America is aimed at the ruination of the American society and the empire few Americans realize they are a part of. This process requires many different things, but Brzezinski highlights the major themes; lack of association with empirical accomplishments and goals, lack of social cohesion, individual decadence, etc.

"Moreover, most Americans by and large do not derive any special gratification from their country's new status as the sole global superpower. Political "triumphalism" connected with America's victory in the Cold War has generally tended to receive a cold reception" - 36

"More generally, cultural change in America may also be uncongenial to the sustained exercise abroad of genuinely imperial power. That exercise requires a high degree of doctrinal motivation, intellectual commitment, and patriotic gratification. Yet the dominant culture of the country has become increasingly fixated on mass entertainment that has been heavily dominated by personally hedonistic and socially escapist themes. The cumulative effect has made it increasingly difficult to mobilize the needed political consensus on behalf of sustained, and also occasionally costly, American leadership abroad. Mass communications have been playing a particularly important role in that regard, generating a strong revulsion against any selective use of force that entails even low levels of casualties." [emphasis mine] - 211

"In addition, both America and Western Europe have been finding it difficult to cope with the cultural consequences of social hedonism and the dramatic decline in the centrality of religious-based values in society. (The parallels with the decline of the imperial systems summarized in chapter 1 [Rome for example] are striking in that respect.) The resulting cultural crisis has been compounded by the spread of drugs and, especially in America, by its linkage to the racial issue. Lastly, the rate of economic growth is no longer able to keep up with growing material expectations, with the latter stimulated by a culture that places a premium on consumption." - 212

Proper Motivation

Brzezinski's geostrategic imperatives will require a final surge for the dying American empire. To accomplish this, he recognizes the need for the sudden emergence of a "direct external threat".

"Moreover, as America becomes an increasingly multicultural society, it may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues, except in the circumstances of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat. Such a consensus generally existed throughout World War II and even during the Cold War." [emphasis mine] - 211

"It is also a fact that America is too democratic at home to be autocratic abroad. This limits the use of America's power, especially its capacity for military intimidation. Never before has a populist democracy attained international supremacy. But the pursuit of power is not a goal that commands popular passion, except in conditions of a sudden threat or challenge to the public's sense of domestic well-being. The economic self-denial (that is, defense spending) and the human sacrifice (casualties even among professional soldiers) required in the effort are uncongenial to democratic instincts. Democracy is inimical to imperial mobilization." [emphasis mine] - pg 35

This was provided four years later by the attacks of 9/11.

Terrorist threat

Brzezinski does however highlight nicely the inherent feebleness of today's direct external threat - Islamic fundamentalism.

"A possible challenge to American primacy from Islamic fundamentalism could be part of the problem in this unstable region. By exploiting religious hostility to the American way of life and taking advantage of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Islamic fundamentalism could undermine several pro-Western Middle Eastern governments and eventually jeopardize American regional interests, especially in the Persian Gulf. However, without political cohesion and in the absence of a single genuinely powerful Islamic state, a challenge from Islamic fundamentalism would lack a geopolitical core and would thus be more likely to express itself through diffuse violence." - 53

But, he does also underscore the usefulness of terrorism, or the threat of terrorism to push his ideas.

"It is also noteworthy that international conflicts and acts of terrorism have so far been remarkably devoid of any use of the weapons of mass destruction. How long that self-restraint may hold is inherently unpredictable, but the increasing availability, not only to states but also to organized groups, of the means to inflict massive casualties-- by the use of nuclear or bacteriological weapons-- also inevitably increases the probability of their employment." - 213

Creating the New Global System With Culture

The planned decay, or collapse, of the American empire must coincide with the emergence of the United Nations. Brzezinski mentions the tool to be used to generate a more international culture required for the acceptance of and obedience to global government.

"These efforts will have the added historical advantage of benefiting from the new web of global linkages that is growing exponentially outside the more traditional nation-state system. That web-- woven by multinational corporations, NGOs (nongovernmental organizations, with many of them transnational in character) and scientific communities and reinforced by the Internet-- already creates an informal global system that is inherently congenial to more institutionalized and inclusive global cooperation." [empahsis mine] - 215

The use of multinational corporations should need no explanation with the almost daily international corporate mergers, interdependence derived from the separation of production and consumption, and the uniformity of products across the entire globe. NGOs and the scientific communities are hard at work pushing for international institutions in their rabid campaign against global warming. The internet too, is a powerful tool in promoting a global digital culture.

My next article will draw attention to Brzezinski's call for the expansion of the European Union and NATO, the establishment of an Asian Union, and his work with the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission in forming an American Union.



Go to 13330
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JE03Ak03.html
May 3, 2008
Iran moving into the big league
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi

Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's three-nation tour of Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India and the welter of agreements and understandings reached between Tehran and these governments serve notice beyond the mere issue of energy security and Iran's expanding role in the sub-continent's energy market; rather, these developments signify a new stage in Iran's foreign policy that is best described as "pan-regionalism".

From the Persian Gulf to the Caspian region, the Caucasus, Central Asia, South Asia and beyond, thanks to its unique geographical location, Iran is in many ways an ideal connecting bridge that has not until now fully exploited its advantageous


"equidistance" from India and Europe.

Straddled between the two energy hubs of the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea, Iran is a suitable conduit for trade, energy and non-energy, between the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, which are members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and the landlocked Central Asian states. The GCC comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Also, with ambitious transportation links projected under the veneer of a "north-south corridor", Iran, Russia and India have conceived new areas of cooperation that connect northern Europe to the Indian Ocean via Iran and the Russian Federation [1] . Already, Iran is an energy exporter to Europe through Turkey, funneling through Turkmenistan's gas and swapping oil with Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.

Also, Iran has plans not to lag behind the so-called new "Silk Road" project that involves China, India and the GCC states first and foremost and yet for every conceivable reason must be considered Iran-inclusive because of the country's proximity, its expanding trade and economic cooperation with the GCC, and its own trade liberalization policies, reflected in the expansion of free-trade zones.

This is one reason why Iran is modernizing its Persian Gulf islands of Kish and Qeshm, hoping to turn them into tourist hotspots as well as hubs for trade and even finance in the near future [2].

The $7.6 billion Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline (IPI), meanwhile, has the potential more than any other existing Iranian project to extend the purview of Iran's "pan-regional" approach, by organically connecting Iran to the sub-continent on a long-term basis and by providing a new Iran-Pakistan-India nexus that could in turn be used for addressing what is lacking so far, that is, more than paltry inter-regional trade.

The 2,600-kilometer IPI pipeline, which was conceived in 1994, envisages transporting Iranian gas to Pakistan and then on to India. Following Ahmadinejad's visit to India this week, Iran reported the three countries were close to signing a "final agreement".

The poor state of Iran's trade with South Asia is reflected in the sub-optimal trade between Iran and Pakistan, as is the case between Iran and other members of the region's 10-nation Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) [3].

Attempts to make the ECO a fulcrum of regional cooperation have by and large failed and the ECO's struggle to achieve a major breakthrough in terms of regional cooperation has not brought significant tangible fruits.

Yet that may change, particularly if Iran (a) is inducted in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, at which it is presently an observer [4], and (b) the IPI project finally gets underway, in which case Iran's greater integration into larger entities will bolster its attempt within the ECO to make this regional organization, which is headquartered in Tehran, more effective.

With respect to the Persian Gulf, the GCC, which continues to shun Iran's olive branch of cooperation, is under new pressures to rethink that attitude as a result of the Shi'ite-led government in Iraq, a potential Iran allay in the politics of the Persian Gulf. It is not far-fetched to think that Iran and Iraq will one day join the GCC states in a new regional cooperative framework.

Certainly, that is how Iran wants it today, as seen in the recent unveiling of Iranian plans for cooperative security and the like put forward at their hitherto recalcitrant GCC neighbors [5], perhaps better pitched as part of an Islamic common market.

Certainly, significant hurdles confront Iran's "pan-regional" approach that seeks to make the country an integrative, nodal point of cooperation between and among various regions, ranging from United Nations and US sanctions out of fear of Iran and its purported "nuclear ambition", as well as a host of purely economic and technical difficulties, such as poor transportation links and cumbersome custom regulations.

Regarding the latter, one of the ECO's key contributions has been in the area of prioritizing a customs agreement, as well as tariff reduction schemes, between the member states that would facilitate trade in the ECO region. Still, the low level of trade between the ECO states is a harsh reminder of the long road ahead before Iran's lofty objective of "pan-regionalism" can be fully realized.

Irrespective, the tangible gains mentioned above illustrate the viability of Iran's "pan-regional" approach that could conceivably elevate its status beyond a mere regional power and add to the cluster of values in its arsenal as a global power.

In fact, as reflected in a recent statement by Iranian National Security Advisor Saeed Jalili regarding Iran as a "global power", Iran's self-image and self-understanding is global-looking and fuels an activist foreign policy that is fully within the camp of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and which constantly prioritizes "global justice".

Economically, however, for Iran and other NAM states seeking a redistribution of global wealth, concentrated in Western hands today, there is no alternative but to push for greater cooperation between themselves and achieve better coordination at international institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), in light of the WTO's ongoing trade wranglings known as the Doha rounds.

Although Iran is not yet a WTO member, it will be directly impacted by the final agreements of the Doha rounds, due later this year, which is why it is incumbent on Iranian policymakers to focus on the Doha rounds and to scrutinize the agricultural and non-agricultural new policies of the WTO that distinguish between developed and developing nations. Yet these fall short of addressing the adverse impacts of globalization and WTO-induced trade liberalization for a whole host of Third World nations.

One thing is clear, the greater the impetus for Iran's "pan-regional" goals and objectives, the more Tehran will find itself entangled in complex regional, extra-regional and global issues and controversies that impact the country's foreign policies, trade, and security both directly and indirectly.

One of the understudied aspects of Iran's "pan-regionalism" is, indeed, how it connects to the issue of globalization that, so far, has been a mixed blessing for the developing world. After all, regionalism and globalization have unhappy kindred relations, with the former simultaneously strengthening and weakening it.

Notes
1. For more information on the International North-South Transport Corridor, click here.
2. For more on the free-trade zones, click here.
3. For more on the Economic Cooperation Organization, click here
4. For more on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, click here 5. See Iran unveils a Persian Gulf security plan by Kaveh L Afrasiabi, Asia Times Online, April 14, 2007.

Kaveh L Afrasiabi, PhD, is the author of After Khomeini: New Directions in Iran's Foreign Policy (Westview Press) and co-author of "Negotiating Iran's Nuclear Populism", Brown Journal of World Affairs, Volume XII, Issue 2, Summer 2005, with Mustafa Kibaroglu. He also wrote "Keeping Iran's nuclear potential latent", Harvard International Review, and is author of Iran's Nuclear Program: Debating Facts Versus Fiction.



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