31 Mar 2009

Newborns Sold at Yemen Jails

Newborns of female prisoners at Yemen’s central jails are subjected to be sold, an organization interested in prisoner affairs said on Saturday.
The Sajeen Organization said at a symposium on female prisoners in Yemen that most prisoners are tortured at jails and sometimes raped.


And when they try to protest maltreatment and illegal acts they are threatened by officials at the jails.
Chairman of the organization said a daughter, named Muntaha, was sold in August 2008 for YR 15,000 that went for her mother and $5000 for her father who works in Sana’a.
Many others abuse issues of female prisoners in the country go unreported, lawyer Abdul Rahman Berman said.
Female prisoners face difficult moments during investigations as they are prevented from hiring lawyers.
For her part, Amal Al-Basha, Chairwoman of the Sisters Forum said violations against female prisoner rights take place with permission from the leadership.

Yemen Post

Big Brother is watching: surveillance box to track drivers is backed

The UK government is backing a project to install a "communication box" in new cars to track the whereabouts of drivers anywhere in Europe, the Guardian can reveal.

Under the proposals, vehicles will emit a constant "heartbeat" revealing their location, speed and direction of travel. The EU officials behind the plan believe it will significantly reduce road accidents, congestion and carbon emissions. A consortium of manufacturers has indicated that the router device could be installed in all new cars as early as 2013.

However, privacy campaigners warned last night that a European-wide car tracking system would create a system of almost total road surveillance.

But the Guardian has been given unpublished documents detailing the proposed uses for the system. They confirm that it could have profound implications for privacy, enabling cars to be tracked to within a metre - more accurate than current satellite navigation technologies.

The Guardian

'Ontario residents only' at Tent City

Tent City residents gather as the city of Ontario starts the process of sorting out who may stay and who must leave. The city issued wristbands – blue for Ontario residents, who may stay, orange for people who need to provide more documentation, and white for those who must leave. The aim is to reduce the number of people living there from over 400 to 170.

Tent City

Officials begin thinning out the encampment, saying the city can provide space only for those who once lived there and can prove it.

Dozens of Ontario police and code enforcement officers descended upon the homeless encampment known as Tent City early Monday, separating those who could stay from those to be evicted.

Los Angeles Times

30 Mar 2009

Ancient Egypt Link with Australia

Hieroglyphs tell the tale of early Egyptian explorers, injured and stranded, in ancient Australia. The discovery centres around a most unusual set of rock carvings found in the National Park forest of the Hunter Valley, 100 km north of Sydney.

The enigmatic carvings have been part of the local folklore of the area for nearly a century with reports of people who sighted them as far back as the early 1900's.

The site was secretly visited by families "in the know" in the 1950's and fell back into local mythology for a couple of decades until it was accidentally rediscovered by a man looking for his lost dog.

There are at least 250 hieroglyphs.

Crystalinks  (also see: Egyptian Relics in Australia)

Lahore police academy recaptured

Pakistani security forces have recaptured a police academy after eight hours of clashes with gunmen who seized the complex during a morning drill.

Military helicopters opened fire on the compound near Lahore as troops entered to confront grenade-throwing militants.

Pakistan's Interior Ministry said 18 people had been killed, including eight policemen and eight militants. Other reports put the death toll higher.

Nearly 100 people have been injured, the ministry adds.

The assault comes less than a month after gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, killing six policemen. Those gunmen escaped.

BBC NEWS

Afghanistan: soldiers' reports tell of undue optimism, chaos, and policy made on the hoof

Britain's top diplomat in Afghanistan has admitted to "misplaced optimism", and a senior commander has said that military policy is being made up as they go along, according to an account by UK soldiers fighting the Taliban, which will be published this week.

Operation Snakebite, by Stephen Grey, a journalist, describes behind-the-scenes tension between British troops and officials in Afghanistan and London, the poor state of the army's equipment, and the political and military chaos that occurred in 2007 as British and US troops retook from the Taliban the district of Musa Qala, a place regarded as a key objective in the province of Helmand.

Brigadier John Lorimer, commander of UK forces in southern Afghanistan, is quoted as comparing the operations to having been "mowing the lawn", when Taliban fighters returned quickly to villages seized but then let go by the stretched British troops.

The Guardian

Vast Spy System Loots Computers in 103 Countries

A vast electronic spying operation has infiltrated computers and has stolen documents from hundreds of government and private offices around the world, including those of the Dalai Lama, Canadian researchers have concluded.

In a report to be issued this weekend, the researchers said that the system was being controlled from computers based almost exclusively in China, but that they could not say conclusively that the Chinese government was involved.

The researchers, who are based at the Munk Center for International Studies at the University of Toronto, had been asked by the office of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader whom China regularly denounces, to examine its computers for signs of malicious software, or malware.

NYTimes.com

29 Mar 2009

UK Police identify 200 children as potential terrorists

Drastic new tactics to prevent school pupils as young as 13 falling into extremism. Two hundred schoolchildren in Britain, some as young as 13, have been identified as potential terrorists by a police scheme that aims to spot youngsters who are "vulnerable" to Islamic radicalisation.

The number was revealed to The Independent by Sir Norman Bettison, the chief constable of West Yorkshire Police and Britain's most senior officer in charge of terror prevention.

He said the "Channel project" had intervened in the cases of at least 200 children who were thought to be at risk of extremism, since it began 18 months ago. The number has leapt from 10 children identified by June 2008.

The programme, run by the Association of Chief Police Officers, asks teachers, parents and other community figures to be vigilant for signs that may indicate an attraction to extreme views or susceptibility to being "groomed" by radicalisers. Sir Norman, whose force covers the area in which all four 7 July 2005 bombers grew up, said: "What will often manifest itself is what might be regarded as racism and the adoption of bad attitudes towards 'the West'.

"One of the four bombers of 7 July was, on the face of it, a model student. He had never been in trouble with the police, was the son of a well-established family and was employed and integrated into society

The Independent

WeAreCHANGE Luke Rudkowski and 2 Others Arrested by NYPD

Update as of Midnight EST: Another number given by the 18th Precinct for information - (646) 610-6700. That number is in addition to (212) 760-8300, and the one listed below. Please do not stop calling until we find out what is happening to Luke, Manny, and Anthony.

Members of WeAreChangeNY News were assembled in the lobby area at the Hilton Hotel in order to ask Mayor Bloomberg some additional questions regarding the first responder issue which continues to be ignored. Requests to meet with our reporters have been repeatly denied by the Mayor's office. Reporters were stationed at various locations around the lobby and according to witnesses on the scene hotel security and members or Mayor Bloomberg's security detail began tracking and hovering around Luke and others with cameras who were waiting patiently for the Mayor's arrival.

Members of both security staffs began to ask questions about who were guests at the hotel and who was press. Orders to "detain" people soon began so that those individuals could be banned from the building. All of the members of WeAreChange immediately complied with all instructions given by the security detail so that they could exit the building but within seconds arrest orders were given. According to WeAreChange camera operators there is video of these unlawful arrests as it appears that in some cases there were no warnings given and some people were simply arrested just for being in the lobby of the hotel.

WE ARE CHANGE – INFOWARS: Luke Rudkowski Arrested for Attempting to Question Mayor Bloomberg

28 Mar 2009

How restorers ruined the last portrait of Shakespeare

When art conservators joined hands to restore two rare portraits of Shakespeare they thought they were removing paint daubed on the canvases more than 100 years after the Bard's death to reveal "authentic" portraits beneath.

Now it has emerged they were, in fact, wiping away priceless insights into the changing appearance of Britain's greatest playwright.

The images which had been superimposed on both paintings had actually been painted in Shakespeare's own lifetime, the Art Newspaper will reveal next week, and showed how he looked as he aged. The so-called "restoration" could now go down in art history as one of the biggest blunders on record

Story continues on The Independent

US warns Pakistan on Taleban link

The US military says it has evidence elements within Pakistan's military intelligence, the ISI, continue to provide support for the Taleban.

Officials said that this support for militants had to end.

The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff said the ISI had links with militants on both Pakistan's borders with Afghanistan and India.

US President Barack Obama has announced a new strategy for the "increasingly perilous" situation in Afghanistan.

BBC NEWS

Nato supplies terminal attacked: Rocket strike on facility in Peshawar follows mosque bombing that killed nearly 50 people. Al Jazeera

Revolution at the palace as Brown plans to give female Royals equal succession rights

Gordon Brown wants to end the centuries-old law that gives men priority over their older sisters in the Royal line of succession. The ban on members of the Royal Family marrying Roman Catholics  -  unless they give up their claim to the throne  -  would also be swept away.

The Prime Minister believes the 1701 Act of Settlement is an 'anomaly that has no place in the 21st century', Downing Street sources said last night.

'The Prime Minister wants to see this change, because he feels this is a historical anomaly which needs to be addressed, but he recognises the complexity.'

Buckingham Palace said: 'This is a matter for government and we would not comment any further about it.' In the past, senior Palace sources have suggested that there would be a cautiously optimistic reception for change.

But a senior aide warned that any change in the Act of Succession would involve obtaining the assent of each of the 15 realms of which the Queen is Head of State.

Mail Online

Bilderberg Group To (possibly) Meet in Athens

Reports circling in the Greek media have suggested that the location of this year’s secretive Bilderberg meeting will be Athens, Greece.

GR Reporter, a Greek based website that gathers information from different print and electronic media in Greece, reports that the Elefterios Tipos newspaper recently announced the location and date of the meeting as Athens between 14th and 16th of May.

A second report in another Greek newspaper, Tovima, has also suggested that the confab will be held in Athens in the same area that hosted the 1993 conference.

According to the reports, invited guests include the Queen of Netherlands Beatrix, the Spanish Queen Sophia, Lawrence Summers, head of the National Economic Council and James Jones, head of the US National Security Council.

The Citizen Online

London Police Encourage Citizens To Report Contents Of Each Others’ Bins To Prevent Terrorism

A new London Metropolitan Police anti-terrorism campaign is encouraging law abiding citizens to look through each others’ bins to check for “suspicious” items such as chemical bottles, and to report any troubling findings to the police.

London Police Encourage Citizens To Report Contents Of Each Others Bins To Prevent Terrorism 250309Terror

“Don’t rely on others. If you suspect it report it,” the Metropolitan Police press release states. “Londoners are being asked to trust their instincts and report suspicious behaviour to help combat terrorist activity.”

The posters will be displayed in newspapers, at tube and rail stations as well as on the back of buses. A suitably Stasi-like radio ad has also been produced. A second poster has been produced outlining how returning the ever-watching gaze of one of the 4.2 million CCTV cameras in the UK should also be considered suspicious behaviour.

London Police Encourage Citizens To Report Contents Of Each Others Bins To Prevent Terrorism 250309Terror2

The British authorities are bent on driving fear into the hearts of Britons: fear of terrorists, immigrants, pedophiles, children, knives… And once people are afraid enough, they’ll write government a blank check to expand its authority without sense or limit.

More by Steve Watson on Prisonplanet.com

Feds' plan to poison banks of Rio Grande stalled

Federal officials postponed poisoning a mile-long stretch of the Rio Grande's banks this week after residents complained that doing so posed health and environmental risks on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it wants to eradicate the invasive Carrizo cane infesting many portions of the Rio Grande's banks between Texas and Mexico. The lanky cane provides cover for immigrants crossing the border illegally and poses a danger to Border Patrol agents trying to stop them, said Chuck Prichard, spokesman for CBP's Laredo sector.

"Someone can be in the cane and be 3 feet away from them, and you cannot see them," Prichard said during a Wednesday phone interview. "[A Border Patrol agent] could literally be surrounded and have no idea."

The controversy over the test project comes as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits Mexico to discuss border security and other issues concerning U.S.-Mexico relations.

CNN.com

Police raid home of Wikileaks.de domain owner over censorship lists

Shortly after 9pm on Tuesday the 24th of March 2009, seven police officers in Dresden and four in Jena searched the homes of Theodor Reppe, who holds the domain registration for "wikileaks.de", the German name for wikileaks.org. According to police documentation, the reason for the search was "distribution of pornographic material" and "discovery of evidence". Police claim the raid was initiated due to Mr. Reppe's position as the Wikileaks.de domain owner.

Police did not want to give any further information to Mr. Reppe and no contact was made with Wikileaks before or after the search. It is therefore not totally clear why the search was made, however Wikileaks, in its role as a defender of press freedoms, has published censorship lists for Australia, Thailand, Denmark and other countries. Included on the lists are references to sites containing pornography and no other material has been released by Wikileaks relating to the subject.   Wikileaks

Commander confirms Netanyahu war plans

Israel is preparing for all-out war on multiple fronts that include Iran, Syria and Lebanon, a senior military commander claims.
Israeli army Home Front Command Major General Yair Golan said Sunday that Tel Aviv is preparing for "all possible scenarios", indicating that one such scenario would be to fight a simultaneous war against Iran, Syria and Lebanon.
The confirmation comes as US President Barack Obama seeks "new beginnings" with its arch-rival Iran. The US offer has been met with world praise but with fury in Tel Aviv.

Israeli media outlets late on Sunday began propagating wild scenarios that Iran is using the Lebanese Hezbollah to recruit Palestinian fighters to carry out terror attacks on Israel.

Press TV

Iran mulls Death Penalty for Offensive Blogs

The number of state-sanctioned executions almost doubled last year. A report by Amnesty International shows Iran, Saudi Arabia and China as being responsible for 90 per cent of all executions in 2008.
Now, Iran is proposing a new law that could see the death sentence imposed on internet bloggers who post offensive material on the web.
Al Jazeera's Nazanin Sadri reports.

UK: Nuclear, chemical terror threat growing

The threat from terrorists using chemical, biological and even nuclear weapons is growing, Britain said Tuesday, warning advances in technology will enable extremists to conduct more lethal attacks in the future.

The predictions came as Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government's laid out its anti-terrorism policies and strategy in a document containing previously-classified information.

In it the government also warned that although the al Qaeda organization of Osama bin Laden, was likely to fragment in coming years, the group's ideology will live on.

Under the strategy Britain, where 52 people were killed by home-grown Muslim extremists in July 2005 bomb attacks on London's transit network, says it needs to focus on longer-term causes of terrorism.

CNN.com

24 Mar 2009

Komodo dragons maul man to death

Two Komodo dragons have mauled a fruit picker to death after he fell out of a tree in an orchard in eastern Indonesia, in a rare attack on humans by the world's largest lizard.

The man, Muhamad Anwar, 31, was found bleeding from bites to his hands, body, legs and neck within minutes of falling out of a sugar-apple tree on the island of Komodo and died later at a clinic on neighbouring Flores. The giant lizards had been waiting for him under the tree, according to a neighbour, Theresia Tawa.

The carnivorous Komodos, which live for up to 50 years, can grow to 10ft in length and weigh up to 200lbs. Though they rarely attack humans – and had not previously killed an adult for more than 30 years – an eight-year-old boy died after being mauled in 2007 and attacks are said to be increasing as their habitat becomes restricted. Their diet usually consists of smaller animals, including other members of their own species.

Guardian.co.uk

Battle of Bahrain

Raw Video-Civil Unrest in Bahrain following the death of a protester. LiveLeak.com - Mob Torches Police Car

Bankers plan will rob American taxpayers

The U.S. government plan to rid banks of toxic assets will rob American taxpayers by exposing them to too much risk and is unlikely to work as long as the economy remains weak, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said on Tuesday.

"The Geithner plan is very badly flawed," Stiglitz told Reuters in an interview during a Credit Suisse Asian Investment Conference in Hong Kong.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's plan to wipe up to US$1 trillion in bad debt off banks' balance sheets, unveiled on Monday, offered "perverse incentives," Stiglitz said.

The U.S. government is basically using the taxpayer to guarantee against downside risk on the value of these assets, while giving the upside, or potential profits, to private investors, he said.

"Quite frankly, this amounts to robbery of the American people. I don't think it's going to work because I think there'll be a lot of anger about putting the losses so much on the shoulder of the American taxpayer."

Reuters

Video Footage Shows Horrendous Chinese Brutality On Tibetans

The exile Tibetan government released on Mar 20 a seven-minute film showing Chinese police brutalising Tibetans during the suppression of the Mar 2008 Tibet uprising protests. The first part of the video footage shows Chinese police kicking and beating entirely defenceless Tibetans, including monks, after they were handcuffed and lying on ground somewhere in or near Lhasa.  Tibetan Review

Gaza war crimes investigation: Guardian uncovers evidence of alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza

The Guardian has compiled detailed evidence of alleged war crimes committed by Israel during the 23-day offensive against Gaza earlier this year, involving the use of Palestinian children as human shields, the targeting of medics and hospitals, and drone aircraft firing on civilians.

Three Guardian films based on a month-long investigation, add weight to calls this week for a full inquiry into the events surrounding Operation Cast Lead, which was aimed at Hamas but left about 1,400 Palestinians dead, including up to 300 children.

The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) refused to respond directly to the allegations made against its troops, but issued statements denying the charges, and insisted international law had been observed.

Video 1: Three brothers that the Israeli military used as human shields during the invasion of Gaza

Video 2: Cut to pieces: the family drinking tea in a courtyard

Video 3: Under attack: medics die trying to help casualties

guardian.co.uk

23 Mar 2009

Jay Rockefeller: “Internet should have never existed”

According to the great-grandson John D. Rockefeller, nephew of banker David Rockefeller, and former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller the internet represents a serious threat to national security. Rockefeller is not alone in this assessment. His belief that the internet is the “number one national hazard” to national security is shared by the former Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and Obama’s current director Admiral Dennis C. Blair. More Here

First official tourist trip to Iraq since invasion

The Western tourists had their own reasons for joining the sightseeing tour: One wanted a glimpse of ancient ruins, another liked to visit countries in the news.

Tina Townsend Greaves, from the UK, takes a photo during a visit to the crossed swords monument in the Green Zone in Baghdad. Photo / AP

But travelling Iraq for two weeks in the first organized tour since 2003 wasn't quite all they had hoped, what with the hours wasted at checkpoints, and visits cut short or scrapped altogether because of security concerns.

The eight adventurers included four men and four women from Britain, the United States and Canada. They said they made it from the northern city of Irbil to the south-eastern tip of Basra - about 560 miles with side trips in between - without directly encountering the violence that has been a hallmark of Iraq's daily life for so many years.

NZ Herald News

Stay in: Hotel Ishtar, Baghdad

22 Mar 2009

Youths clash in Paris condom protest

Far-right youths clashed with left-wing activists who had gathered outside Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris on Sunday to protest against Pope Benedict's opposition to condoms, a police source said.
About 30 ecologists and Communists threw condoms on the ground outside the cathedral, where worshippers were leaving Sunday mass.
One person was injured and three were arrested after clashes between the protesters and about 20 youths who the police source said were associated with the far-right and who were carrying placards saying "Leave my Pope alone".
Benedict said in Africa on Tuesday that the use of condoms was complicating the fight against AIDS, reaffirming the Roman Catholic Church's opposition to condoms.
The comments were criticised by French politicians from all parties.
Two surveys at the weekend showed the German-born pontiff's popularity in France has fallen sharply.

France 24

Cambodia (Year Zero)

(1975–1979) John Pilger vividly reveals the brutality and murderous political ambitions of the Pol Pot / Khmer Rouge totalitarian regime which bought genocide and despair to the people of Cambodia while neighbouring countries, including Australia, shamefully ignored the immense human suffering and unspeakable crimes that bloodied this once beautiful country.

Cambodia's missing accused: 20 Feb 2009 - In an article for the Guardian, John Pilger calls on his long experience with Cambodia's struggles in lamenting missing faces in the dock at the UN-backed trial of crimes committed during the Khmer Rouge period. Where are Pol Pot's accomplices and collaborators in the West? johnpilger.com

21 Mar 2009

The Calais ‘Guantanamo’

The British and French governments are discussing the creation of a new immigrant holding centre within the Calais docks which would be "inside Britain" under immigration law and allow cross-Channel asylum-seekers to be shipped back to their home countries easily.

Although no details have yet been agreed, the idea is to exploit the ambiguous legal status of a British "control zone" of the Calais port, created in 2003, to cut through the mesh of legal difficulties which prevent asylum-seekers from being expelled to their countries of origin.

The holding centre would potentially allow London and Paris to use the ambiguous status of the British "control zone" at Calais to send the migrants home. If agreed, the centre is likely to attract the scrutiny of civil liberties and human rights groups.

The Independent

Police officers in abuse case accused of 60 other assaults

Police officers involved in a "serious, gratuitous and prolonged" attack on a British Muslim man that led the Metropolitan police to pay £60,000 in damages this week have been accused of dozens of previous assaults against black or Asian men.

Babar Ahmad, 34, a terrorist suspect, was punched, kicked, stamped on and strangled during his arrest by officers from one of the Met's territorial support groups at his London home in December 2003.

After six years of denials from Scotland Yard, lawyers acting for the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, were forced to admit in the high court that Ahmad had been the victim of sustained and gratuitous violence during his arrest and agreed to pay £60,000 in damages.

But the Guardian can reveal that the Met was aware for years that the six officers involved were the subject of repeated complaints. According to documents submitted to the court, four of the officers who carried out the raid on Ahmad's home had 60 allegations of assault against them - of which at least 37 were made by black or Asian men. One of the officers had 26 separate allegations of assault against him - 17 against black or Asian men.

The Guardian

20 Mar 2009

Prominent Jewish Zionist group attempted COLLABORATION with Nazis

Not all groups were as outspoken against the Nazis as they are now, some Zionist groups wished to make a deal with Hitler so they could rule Israel as a satellite of Nazi Germany. The Stern Gang who were (To the English) a Terrorist group including in its membership the future Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir (Who was with Stern the leader of the Gang) approached both Mussolini AND Hitler. Strange then that the MSI (Modern State of Israel) now considers Stern a National Hero and Shamir was permitted to gain office as Prime Minister!. As a further point of interest Shamir was the 6th Prime Minister taking over from.... Menachim Begin leader of a rival Terror Group the Irgun
Shamir has been quoted as saying that "neither Jewish ethics nor Jewish tradition can disqualify terrorism as a means of combat"

LiveLeak.com

Bathtub IV

This is all 100% 'real', but there are some new techniques for me here, such as using time lapse to create the illusion of forward movement for the helicopter ocean scenes. Bathtub IV on Vimeo

Gaza offensive possible 'war crime'

The United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories has said Israel's military offensive on Gaza "would seem to constitute a war crime of the greatest magnitude under international law".

Richard Falk calls the Israeli attacks a "massive assault on a densely populated urbanised setting", with the civilian population subjected to "an inhumane form of warfare that kills, maims and inflicts mental harm".

His findings were written in a report submitted to the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday.

Al Jazeera

An Israeli military college has printed damning soldiers' accounts of the killing of civilians and vandalism during recent operations in Gaza.
One account tells of a sniper killing a mother and children at close range whom troops had told to leave their home.
Another speaker at the seminar described what he saw as the "cold blooded murder" of a Palestinian woman.

BBC

Israel's dirty secrets in Gaza - Army veterans reveal how they gunned down innocent Palestinian families and destroyed homes and farms - The Independent

Slaughter of the seals in Russia is stopped by Vladimir Putin

The dewy-eyed innocence of baby seals has prompted a rare burst of environmental activism in Russia that has moved Vladimir Putin to end their slaughter. The annual spring cull in the northern White Sea region has been scrapped after Mr Putin condemned the clubbing of baby seals for their fur as a “bloody trade”.

seal.jpg Baby Seal image by AngelofthePhoenix

The Natural Resources and Ecology Ministry said that it was responding to public concern, but the Prime Minister’s words appeared to have been decisive.

Yuri Trutnev, the Natural Resources Minister, reacted swiftly, outlawing the cull of harp seals younger than one year old after Mr Putin told a Cabinet meeting that “it’s clear that it should have been banned long ago”.

Times Online

19 Mar 2009

Turning of the Tide

IF YOU THINK THAT CURRENT EVENTS ARE 'RANDOM' AND NOT COLDLY-CALCULATED AND LONG-PLANNED, WATCH DAVID ICKE 1996: THE TURNING OF THE TIDE.

The world we have today described and predicted in 1996. It's extraordinary. David Icke Website

War

1970 Motown Time Capsule video featuring the song War by Edwin Starr, not much changed in the world.

18 Mar 2009

SLA Worked for the “Man”

This post will have the greatest meaning for older people. Nevertheless, I hope that younger folk will pay attention, because this strange and complex tale from days of yore has a lesson for our own time.

Back in the 1970s, paranoia buffs (especially conspiracy queen Mae Brussell) argued that the Symbionese Liberation Army -- the "Marxist" terrorist group that kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst -- was a sham. It was, to use the terminology of General Kitson, a "pseudo-gang."

(If you are unfamiliar with that phrase, go here and scroll down for the scoop on Kitson, who was a very important figure in the history of counterinsurgency.)

SLA_GroupShot(400)

While I can't go all the way with Mae, who said many loopy and wrong-headed things, I do think that her SLA conspiracy theory is more than just a theory. If you read the SLA literature carefully -- and quite some time ago, I read all the books, including the transcript of Patty's trial -- you'll see many indicators that the tale has always had a hidden side.

Cannonfire - More on Symbionese Liberation Army on Super70s.com

Banned hyperlinks could cost you $11,000 a day

The Australian communications regulator says it will fine people who hyperlink to sites on its blacklist, which has been further expanded to include several pages on the anonymous whistleblower site Wikileaks.

Wikileaks was added to the blacklist for publishing a leaked document containing Denmark's list of banned websites.

The move by the Australian Communications and Media Authority comes after it threatened the host of online broadband discussion forum Whirlpool last week with a $11,000-a-day fine over a link published in its forum to another page blacklisted by ACMA - an anti-abortion website.

ACMA's blacklist does not have a significant impact on web browsing by Australians today but sites contained on it will be blocked for everyone if the Federal Government implements its mandatory internet filtering censorship scheme.

Sydney Morning Herald

17 Mar 2009

Wrap The Green Flag around me boy's!!!!

Saint Patrick's Day (Irish: Lá ’le Pádraig or Lá Fhéile Pádraig), colloquially St. Paddy's Day or Paddy's Day, is an annual feast day which celebrates Saint Patrick (circa AD 385–461), one of the patron saints of Ireland, and is generally celebrated on March 17. Wikipedia

Bilderbergers excite conspiracists

The highest levels of the Obama administration are infested with members of a shadowy, elitist cabal intent on installing a one-world government that subverts the will of the American people.
It sounds crazy, but that’s what a group of very persistent conspiracy theorists insists, and they point to President Obama’s nominee for Health and Human Services Secretary, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, as the latest piece of evidence supporting their claims.
It turns out that Sebelius – like top administration economists Timothy Geithner, Larry Summers and Paul Volcker, as well as leading Obama diplomats Richard Holbrooke and Dennis Ross – is a Bilderberger. That is, she is someone who has participated in the annual invitation-only conference held by an elite international organization known as the Bilderberg group.

The group, which takes its name from the Dutch hotel where it held its first meeting in 1954, exists solely to bring together between 100 and 150 titans of politics, finance, military, industry, academia and media from North America and Western Europe once a year to discuss world affairs. It doesn’t issue policy statements or resolutions, nor does it hold any events other than an annual meeting.
Past participants have included Margaret Thatcher, who attended the 1975 meeting at Turkey’s Golden Dolphin Hotel, former media mogul Conrad Black, who has been to more than a dozen conferences, and Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, King Juan Carlos of Spain and top officials of BP, IBM, Barclays and the Bank of England.

Kenneth P. Vogel - POLITICO.com

Gold For Bread - Zimbabwe

MDC activist Sam Chakaipa returns to his village in Zimbabwe to find his friends and neighbours starving. As the Zimbabwean dollar becomes ever weaker, gold has become the currency of choice.

Florida legislator wants random drug tests for the unemployed

Employers have justified drug tests in the workplace by pointing to such negative effects of drug use as absenteeism and work-related injuries. Now a Florida legislator has proposed that random drug-testing also be applied to those receiving unemployment insurance, justifying it as a way to make state funds go further.
Florida State Senator Michael S. Bennett told Fox News host Steve Doocy on Monday that with the unemployment rate in his recession-battered state running between 10% and 11%, he worries that the Unemployment Trust Fund might be exhausted.
"I wanted to ensure that people who are qualified for unemployment -- that the money would be there when they actually go down and get unemployment and that we weren't supporting the people who were not able to go to work," Bennett explained. "It was nothing against the people who were using the drugs as much as it was to ensure that the people who needed unemployment, it would be there when they got there."


Bill Piper of the Drug Policy Alliance, which is dedicated to ending the "war on drugs," responded that "to require someone to pass a drug test to get their unemployment insurance after they've been laid off is pretty cruel -- and to require them to pay for the test themselves is even more cruel."

The Raw Story

Britain to seize control of Turks and Caicos Islands

Britain is expected to seize full administrative control of the Turks and Caicos Islands next week after a corruption probe into the governance of the small Caribbean territory.

The Foreign Office announced plans today to suspend the constitution on the idyllic islands situated to the east of Cuba for two years.

Gordon Wetherell, the British Governor, broadcast a message across the islands announcing that a proposal had been drafted in London to transfer the authority of the local government ministers into his hands.

Mr Misick, 43, a British-trained lawyer, has overseen the transformation of the islands since taking control in 2003. He is alleged to have built up a multi-million dollar fortune since he was elected in 2003.

The Premier and his fellow government ministers are alleged to have sold off Crown land to property developers for their own personal gain.

With two private jets on call and a series of luxury homes, Mr Misick claims that his lavish lifestyle has been necessary to court the high-end developers who have helped to transform this former colonial backwater. Celebrities with homes in the islands are understood to include Bruce Willis, Donna Karan, Michael Douglas, Keith Richards and Oprah Winfrey.  Times Online

16 Mar 2009

Emergency Broadcast! New World Order Ahead!

Please do everything you can to circulate this video far and wide. Post it in blogs, bulletins, forums, chain emails... Upload it to your YouTube channel... Use your imagination...
Torrent - Website coming soon

US Student shot in chest by police for smoking marijuana: Executing children for the War on Drugs

Apartment neighbours of Grand Valley State University student Derek Copp say they cannot fathom what prompted police to shoot him late Wednesday in a drug-related raid. But they said they were aware of marijuana odors in the complex. "If you came down the hallway at the right time, you could smell the smoke," said Joe Putra, whose apartment door is in the same Campus View Apartments hallway as the shooting victim.

Chycho.com - Analysis and discussion about the world we live in

Obama Team Adopts McCain's Optimism on Economy

Obama and his advisers seem to be adopting rhetoric similar to the McCain campaign in 2008 as they try to convince Americans that the economy's turned around.

More on FOXNews.com

The Obama Deception - highest quality version

The Obama Deception is already receiving critical acclaim and topping popularity rankings of global Internet video websites, but we are now urging our supporters to push even harder by letting people know how they can watch the full documentary absolutely free.

Infowars.com - youtube.com

CCTV

No more privacy…

“Internet monitored and controlled, even in democracies”

(PNG)After joint appeal with Amnesty International for an end to online censorship, Reporters Without Borders issues report on “Enemies of the Internet”

Reporters Without Borders today issued a report entitled “Enemies of the Internet” in which it examines Internet censorship and other threats to online free expression in 22 countries.

“The 12 ‘Enemies of the Internet’ - Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam - have all transformed their Internet into an Intranet in order to prevent their population from accessing ‘undesirable’ online information,” Reporters Without Borders said.

“All these countries distinguish themselves not only by their ability to censor online news and information but also by their virtually systematic persecution of troublesome Internet users,” the press freedom organisation said. Reporters Without Borders has placed 10 other governments “under surveillance” for adopting worrying measures that could open the way to abuses. The organisation draws particular attention to Australia and South Korea, where recent measures may endanger online free expression.

“Not only is the Internet more and more controlled, but new forms of censorship are emerging based on the manipulation of information,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Orchestrating the posting of comments on popular websites or organising hacker attacks is also used by repressive regimes to scramble or jam online content.”

Reporters sans frontières

Rape complaints were not classified as crimes by UK Police

The Metropolitan police failed to investigate scores of rape allegations because officers did not record them as criminal offences, the Guardian has learned.

An internal review by Scotland Yard found that women who complained to police that they feared they may have been raped or suffered a serious sexual assault had their concerns dismissed in up to six London boroughs. In a breach of police policy, officers instead classed the incidents as crime related incidents [CRI], meaning the cases were not investigated properly, informed sources say.

Several women who believe they were victims of the black cab rapist John Worboys, suffered this fate, with their complaints not being classed as crimes. Worboys was convicted by a jury on Friday of 19 charges of drugging and sexually assaulting 12 of the women, in one case raping his victim.

The practice of dismissing women's fears of rape and failing to class them as crimes is believed to have continued for several years and was ended last year. The review that identified the practice was triggered by the Worboys case.

The Guardian

Taxi rapist had hundreds of victims, detectives fear - Scotsman.com

15 Mar 2009

Skeleton of Cleopatra's Murdered Sister Identified

Archaeologists and forensic experts believe they have identified the skeleton of Cleopatra’s younger sister, murdered more than 2,000 years ago on the orders of the Egyptian queen.

The remains of Princess Arsinöe, put to death in 41BC on the orders of Cleopatra and her Roman lover Mark Antony to eliminate her as a rival, are the first relics of the Ptolemaic dynasty to be identified.

The breakthrough, by an Austrian team, has provided pointers to Cleopatra’s true ethnicity. Scholars have long debated whether she was Greek or Macedonian like her ancestor the original Ptolemy, a Macedonian general who was made ruler of Egypt by Alexander the Great, or whether she was north African.

Evidence obtained by studying the dimensions of Arsinöe’s skull shows she had some of the characteristics of white Europeans, ancient Egyptians and black Africans, indicating that Cleopatra was probably of mixed race, too. They were daughters of Ptolemy XII by different wives.

The results vindicate the theories of Hilke Thür of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, who has long claimed that the skeleton was Arsinöe. She described the discovery of Arsinöe’s ethnicity as “a real sensation which leads to a new insight on Cleopatra’s family”.  FOXNews.com

14 Mar 2009

U.S. Jet Shoots Down Iranian Drone Over Iraq

An American fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone as it was flying over Iraq, U.S. military sources in Baghdad tell Danger Room.

Details of the previously-unreported shoot-down, which occurred last month, are still sketchy. But we do know that American commanders have long accused Tehran of supplying weapons and training to all sorts of Iraqi militant groups. Shi'ite militias fired Iranian rockets at U.S. troops in Iraq, according to the American military; Sunni militias allegedly used Iranian armor-piercing bombs to reduce U.S. vehicles to ribbons.

In early 2008, however, the torrent of Iranian weapons into Iraq slowed to a trickle, the U.S. said. And now, the new Obama administration is looking for ways to reach out to the Tehran regime -- dangling invitations to international conferences, and offering promises of renewed relations.

Which means the drone incident comes at a particularly sensitive time.

Danger Room from Wired.com

UN suspects Sri Lanka war crimes

The United Nations high commissioner for human rights has voiced deep concern over the plight of civilians in war-ravaged Sri Lanka, saying both the government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) may be committing war crimes.

Navi Pillay on Friday also urged both the sides to halt hostilities to allow the evacuation of civilians trapped by fighting in the country's northeast.

Pillay said the government had repeatedly shelled the designated "no-fire" zones for civilians and also cited reports that the Tigers were holding civilians as human shields and had shot some as they tried to flee.

"Certain actions being undertaken by the Sri Lankan military and by the LTTE may constitute violations of international human rights and humanitarian law," Pillay said in a statement.

"The world today is ever sensitive about such acts that could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity," said the former UN war crimes judge, who is a member of the Tamil ethnic group and grew up in South Africa.

The Sri Lankan government has been quick to reject the high commissioner's statement.

Al Jazeera

Also see eelam.com

Satan's footprints spotted in Devon

A baffled gran told last night how she discovered the Devil’s footprints — in sleepy Devon. The hoof-like marks were a chilling echo of a phenomenon first recorded in 1855 — and Jill Wade now hopes to solve the ancient mystery.

devilfootprints

Pensioner Jill woke to find the marks in fresh snow in her back garden in Woolsery. She said: “I couldn’t believe it — the footprints were in the shape of a cloven hoof. There were no other marks at all in the snow. I’d love to know what it was.”

Scientists from the Centre for Fortean Zoology inspected the prints, which were 5ins long with a stride of between 11 and 17ins. The prints matched a mysterious 100-mile trail that was found in Devon 154 years ago and blamed on Satan.  The Sun

More on Did the devil walk the rooftops? - lookandlearn.com

A Blood-Spattered History: How the Dutch royal house consolidated power

The fact that William-Alexander — prince of Orange-Nassau and heir to the throne of the Netherlands — accompanied his mother Beatrix to the latest Bilderberg conference in Chantilly, Virginia, is a sure sign that it will not be many years before he follows in his mother’s footsteps.

Already a favourite topic of gossip magazines as well as self-proclaimed ‘serious’ newspapers, speculation reached its climax in the last couple of months with suspicions mounting that the ascendance of William IV (as the prince’s regal name will be) is at hand. It is interesting to note that the last William (III) to head the Dutch monarchy was the most meritorious slave trader of his day. Despite all the fuss, the conclusion thus far is that nothing is certain. The only one having a say about the whole ordeal is the queen and she is notoriously tight-lipped about the coming transition- as she is about her many other dealings.

While the Dutch media keeps itself busy with chattering about the possible date of succession, nothing stirs around the royal palace. To join in the never-ending succession-to-the-throne-chorus, I should say it will be sooner rather than later- for a maiden visit to Bilderberg more often than not tends to prelude a future coronation. Different media outlets have meanwhile proven to be busy little bees when it comes to mindless gossip, but strangely silent in regards to the frequent trips by the Oranges to key globalist meetings.

This story by Jurriaan Maessen continues on PrisonPlanet

12 Mar 2009

The Obama Deception

The Obama Deception is a hard-hitting film that completely destroys the myth that Barack Obama is working for the best interests of the American people. The Obama phenomenon is a hoax carefully crafted by the captains of the New World Order. He is being pushed as saviour in an attempt to con the American people into accepting global slavery. We have reached a critical juncture in the New World Order's plans. and only by exposing the con can we help to save freedom in America. The Obama Deception is not about Left or Right: it's about a One World Government. The international banks plan to loot the people of the United States and turn them into slaves on a Global Plantation. Covered in this film: who Obama works for, what lies he has told, and his real agenda, and how his initial appointments and actions prove he serves the corporate oligarchs, not the American people. If you want to know the facts and cut through all the hype, this is the film for you.

The Obama Deception

US 'Executive Assassination Ring' Reported Directly to Cheney Office

Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh at the University of Minnesota: "After 9/11, I haven't written about this yet, but the Central Intelligence Agency was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state. Without any legal authority for it. They haven’t been called on it yet. That does happen.

"Right now, today, there was a story in the New York Times that if you read it carefully mentioned something known as the Joint Special Operations Command -- JSOC it’s called. It is a special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently. They do not report to anybody, except in the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office. They did not report to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff or to Mr. [Robert] Gates, the secretary of defense. They reported directly to him. ...

"Congress has no oversight of it. It’s an executive assassination ring essentially, and it’s been going on and on and on. Just today in the Times there was a story that its leaders, a three star admiral named [William H.] McRaven, ordered a stop to it because there were so many collateral deaths.

"Under President Bush’s authority, they’ve been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That’s been going on, in the name of all of us.”

AlterNet

US special operations on global-defence.com

11 Mar 2009

Blue Ducks likely to die out in UK after male birds get together

PD*27421507 Keepers at a bird sanctuary in West Sussex hoped that the last remaining female Blue Duck in the country - called Cherry - might mate with either of the drakes, Ben or Jerry.

But neither male duck appeared interested and are now inseparable at the Arundel Wetland Centre, leaving Cherry to her own devices.

Centre warden Paul Stevens said he was disappointed that efforts to produce new Blue Duck offspring had failed but said the two male birds made "a lovely couple".

"They stay together all the time, parading up and down their enclosure and whistling to each other as a male might do with a female he wants to mate with," he said.

Telegraph