Chinese state media reveal secret, illegal jails

Secret, illegal "black jails" exist in China, a state-run weekly has confirmed, despite official denials otherwise.

Chinese citizens in search of justice often end up in such detention centers when they file complaints against the government, the state-run weekly magazine Outlook reported last week.

A network of such jails awaits the petitioners when they travel to Beijing and provincial capitals to seek redress or compensation for injustices. Many are victims of land grabs, physical assault, discrimination and corruption, often at the hands of local officials.

"They come to Beijing out of desperation after they hit a dead end in their localities," said a government official who spoke on condition of anonymity, because he is not authorized to speak publicly.

Government officials have adamantly denied that such facilities exist.

The report by Outlook -- detailing a "gray industry" of illegal detention centers -- also was published online by its parent company, the official Xinhua news agency. It was a rare reference to illegal detention centers in official Chinese media.

CNN.com

Taliban claims French bribery ploy

French troops deployed in Afghanistan are attempting to bribe Taliban fighters not to attack them, a senior Taliban leader has told Al Jazeera.

In an exclusive interview, Saif-Allah Jalili, the Taliban commander of the Kabul district, said on Monday that his men have been offered gifts and money by the French soldiers in order to persuade the fighters not to engage their forces.

"The French in Sorubi [in Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan] tried to send gifts to Taliban fighters and offered them a lot of money in return for not launching attacks targeting the French troops," Jalili said. (Al Jazeera)

View Larger Map

Al Jazeera filmed with French troops patrolling the Sorubi district.

CIA to get peak at your bank records

European Union governments have given in to the pressure and appear set to make a last-minute agreement with the United States to allow its intelligence agencies to monitor bank accounts and transactions across the bloc.

Actually, the EU has been clandestinely allowing US intelligence agencies to have access to these financial records since 2001, allegedly to fight terrorism. However, EU citizens were outraged when this invasion of privacy was revealed in 2006.
Now, however, interior ministers and security officials of the 27-member bloc are going to meet on November 30 to make a decision on legally allowing the United States to have access to bank data across the EU.
Press TV

An Open Letter to President Obama from Michael Moore

Monday, November 30th, 2009

Dear President Obama,

Do you really want to be the new "war president"? If you go to West Point tomorrow night (Tuesday, 8pm) and announce that you are increasing, rather than withdrawing, the troops in Afghanistan, you are the new war president. Pure and simple. And with that you will do the worst possible thing you could do -- destroy the hopes and dreams so many millions have placed in you. With just one speech tomorrow night you will turn a multitude of young people who were the backbone of your campaign into disillusioned cynics. You will teach them what they've always heard is true -- that all politicians are alike. I simply can't believe you're about to do what they say you are going to do. Please say it isn't so.

It is not your job to do what the generals tell you to do. We are a civilian-run government. WE tell the Joint Chiefs what to do, not the other way around. That's the way General Washington insisted it must be. That's what President Truman told General MacArthur when MacArthur wanted to invade China. "You're fired!," said Truman, and that was that. And you should have fired Gen. McChrystal when he went to the press to preempt you, telling the press what YOU had to do. Let me be blunt: We love our kids in the armed services, but we f*#&in' hate these generals, from Westmoreland in Vietnam to, yes, even Colin Powell for lying to the UN with his made-up drawings of WMD (he has since sought redemption).

MichaelMoore.com

Is Your Seafood Harvested by Slaves?

Soon after Winko joined his fellow captives on a Thai fishing vessel, he witnessed his first killing.

The murdered man was, like Winko, a newly acquired fishing slave unsure how to work the boat’s machinery. But while Winko kept quiet, the new man protested. He was kicked across the deck until he tumbled overboard and disappeared in the turquoise wake.

Life is hell for Thailand’s fishermen slaves, a largely Burmese workforce lured into the Thai fishing industry by brokers. As promised, jobs await these migrants, who pay $350 to be smuggled into Thailand and introduced to a fishing crew. But often, the work doesn’t pay and quitting is not an option.

Thailand is the world’s largest seafood exporter and the United States is its largest buyer. One third of America’s shrimp is imported from Thailand, home to a $2-billion shrimp industry and a major supplier of tuna, squid and other frozen seafood imports.  Global Post

KI Media: Abject working conditions for Cambodian men tricked to slave on Thai fishing boat without pay

Catch Bin Laden

The PM voiced anger that Al Qaeda's leader is still at large EIGHT years after the 9/11 attacks on New York.

And he warned that British lives are at risk because Bin Laden is still free to mastermind terror attacks on the UK. Mr Brown delivered his message in a phone call this weekend to Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari. The PM said Pakistan must throw its full weight behind the war on Islamic fanatics.  (The Sun)

Donald Rumsfeld had the chance when he was US defence secretary in December 2001 to make sure Osama bin Laden was killed or captured, but let him slip through his hands, a Senate report has found.

The report by the Senate foreign relations committee is damning of the way George Bush's administration conducted the aftermath of its bombing campaign in Afghanistan, saying it amounted to a "lost opportunity". It states that as a direct result of allowing the al-Qaida leader to flee from his Tora Bora stronghold into Pakistan, the American people were left more vulnerable to terrorism, and the foundations were laid for today's protracted Afghan insurgency. (The Guardian)

Xenophobic Swiss voters 'Back ban on building of Minarets'

Swiss voters appear to have defied their Government and churches today and approved a national ban on the construction of minarets.

Early results showed that 57 per cent of voters had backed the proposal, ensuring international embarrassment for Switzerland and a possible backlash in the Muslim world. A majority of the 27 cantons supported the move, according to partial results.

Turn-out was 53 percent, a relatively low figure by the standards of Swiss democracy. Opponents of the measure saw this as a reflection of low interest among many voters who would not have approved of the ban.

The referendum was launched by the nationalist Swiss People's Party (SVP), the largest group in Parliament, after residents opposed the construction of a minaret in a town north of Berne, the capital.

Times Online

Climategate – Censored by Google

Google censors searches about climategate. Watch this flash-video. You need to search climategate direct on Google

A Comprehensive Archive on infowars.net
Core reading on one of the greatest scandals in modern history. How prominent scientists skewed the data on global warming.

Russia train crash investigation examines bomb theory

The authorities in Russia are treating the crash of an express train in which at least 25 people were killed as a possible act of terrorism.

A crater has been found near the track, raising suspicions that a bomb may have been used to derail the train. The prosecutor-general has opened a criminal case on terrorism charges, Russian news agencies report. The train crashed in remote countryside as the train travelled between Moscow and St Petersburg.

Hundreds of rescuers and officials have been working throughout the night at the scene near the town of Bologoye in Tver region. Some reports say that as many as 39 people have died. The train was carrying more than 650 people. More than 90 are in hospital, some of them

BBC News

400 years later, Collegiate Church apologizes to Lenape, a Native American tribe

Exchanging wampum in a gesture of reconciliation, members of New York's oldest church apologized Friday to Native Americans for their suffering that began 400 years ago.

"We consumed your resources, dehumanized your people and disregarded your culture," the Rev. Robert Chase, a minister in the Collegiate Church, told representatives of the Lenape tribe at a "healing" ceremony at Bowling Green.

"We express sorrow for our part in these actions," he said.

The ceremony, marking Native American Heritage Day, brought tribe members together with congregants of the Collegiate Church, formerly the First Dutch Reform Church.

"I had to dig deep in my heart and ask, can I truly forgive?" said Lenape elder Carmen McKosato Ketcher, her voice shaking.

"Yes, we forgive you," she added. "But don't forget, we are alive and well."

nydailynews.com

Aliens 'already exist on earth', Bulgarian scientists claim

Scientists from the Bulgarian Space Research Institute claim aliens are currently answering 30 questions posed to them.

Lachezar Filipov, deputy director of the Space Research Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, confirmed the research. He said the centre's researchers were analysing 150 crop circles from around the world, which they believe answer the questions.

"Aliens are currently all around us, and are watching us all the time," Mr Filipov told Bulgarian media. "They are not hostile towards us, rather, they want to help us but we have not grown enough in order to establish direct contact with them."

Mr Filipov said that even the seat of the Catholic church, the Vatican, had agreed that aliens existed.

Telegraph

Obama's Big Sellout to Wall Street

LiveLeak.com

MEP Reprimanded For Exposing EU Dictatorship

An astounding exchange took place in the European Union Parliament earlier this week when MEP Nigel Farage was reprimanded for daring to expose the fact that the EU is an authoritarian dictatorship ruled by unelected bureaucrats to the detriment of national sovereignty. Farage effectively broke a tyrannical 1999 law that states it is illegal to criticize the EU.

People like European Commission President Manuel Barroso squirmed and scowled as Farage openly savaged EU elitists for their lies and cronyism.

Farage wasted no time in going after the EU over their dictatorial policies, stating, “It’s taken you eight and a half years of bullying, of lying, of ignoring democratic referendums to get this treaty through (referring to the Lisbon Treaty)”

“In some ways she’s ideal isn’t she ,” said Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party. “She has never had a proper job, and has never been elected to anything in her life, so I guess she’s perfect for this European Union.”

As soon as Farage hit his stride in revealing the dictatorial nature of the EU, he was immediately reprimanded by President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, who said he would like to “put down” Farage and later warned him for the “tone” Mr. Farage used in criticizing ”important EU people”.

Prison Planet.com

The Rothschilds Exposed

part 2 – part 3

About the Rothschild Banking Family and on how they are connected to the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve.

Footage taken from The Money Masters - How International Bankers Gained Control of America. Available at Google Video

Found on David Icke Website

A woman among warlords

TheRealNews

US expects Nato to join troop buildup, Pentagon says

"Clearly if the president decides to commit additional forces to Afghanistan, there would be an expectation that our allies would also commit additional forces," Geoff Morrell, a Pentagon press secretary, told a news conference.

Over the past three years, allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation have consistently sent additional forces to Afghanistan following the deployment of US reinforcements, he said.

Mr Morrell said: "The bottom line is there is no denying that Nato has ponied up significant numbers of additional forces as we have added forces over the last several years."

About 68,000 American troops are stationed in Afghanistan along with about 42,000 other foreign forces in the Nato-led mission.

Mr Obama on Tuesday promised to "finish the job" in Afghanistan and is expected to announce next week that he will send more than 30,000 troops to Afghanistan.

Telegraph

Atlantis Reborn Again

Part 2 – 3 – 4 - 5

BBC tries to debunk Graham Hancock's work. His comments about this series here.

The Unwinding “Climategate” Scandal

Lift up a rock and another snake comes slithering out from the ongoing University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit (CRU) scandal, now riding as   “Climategate”.

Obama Science Czar John Holdren is directly involved in CRU’s unfolding Climategate scandal.  In fact, according to files released by a CEU hacker or whistleblower, Holdren is involved in what Canada Free Press (CFP) columnist Canadian climatologist Dr. Tim Ball terms “a truculent and nasty manner that provides a brief demonstration of his lack of understanding, commitment on faith and willingness to ridicule and bully people”.

“The files contain so much material that it is going to take some time to put it all in context,” says Ball.  “However, enough is already known to underscore their explosive nature.  It is already clear the entire claims and positions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are based on falsified manipulated material and is therefore completely compromised.

“The fallout will be extensive as material continues to emerge.  Reputations of the scientists involved are already destroyed, however fringe players will continue to be identified and their reputations destroyed or sullied.”

Canada Free Press

Dutch Environmental Minister Bizarrely Claims Hackers Manipulated Data in E-Mails

In an incredible reversal of fact and fiction the Dutch Environmental minister Jacqueline Cramer claimed today that the hackers who took the data from University of East-Anglia’s server “manipulated the numbers”, supposedly to sabotage the upcoming Copenhagen conference.

Although nobody disputes the authenticity of the e-mails, Cramer apparently does. In addition to her bizarre statement that the unknowns, after hacking into the University’s computer, somehow “changed the numbers” she even goes so far as to scream out loud: “this is just criminal. It’s unacceptable.”

InfoWars

Computer hacker Gary McKinnon to be extradited to US

Computer hacker Gary McKinnon is at serious risk of suicide, relatives said today, after the home secretary rejected a last-ditch attempt to prevent his extradition to the US.

In a letter today Alan Johnson ordered McKinnon's removal to the US on charges of breaching US military and Nasa computers, despite claims by his lawyers that extradition would make the 43-year old's death "virtually certain".

"The secretary of state is of the firm view that McKinnon's extradition would not be incompatible with his [human] rights", said the letter, dated 26 November. "His extradition to the United States must proceed forthwith".

The decision, described by lawyers as "callous", has prompted new fears about McKinnon's well-being. The letter rejected new expert medical evidence that the health of McKinnon, who has Asperger's syndrome, had deteriorated dramatically since losing his case in the high court in July, and meant that extradition would violate his right to life.

guardian.co.uk

Czech officers caught wearing Nazi symbols in Afghanistan

Two commanders of the Czech rapid reaction brigade are facing disciplinary actions after reports surfaced that they had Nazi symbols on their helmets during their deployment in Afghanistan.

Russia Today

Israel offers partial halt to West Bank settlement building

Israel tonight proposed a 10-month partial halt to settlement building on the occupied West Bank as a prelude to restarting peace talks, but Palestinian officials were quick to dismiss it as unacceptable.

Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said the offer was a policy of "restraint" that was in Israel's national interest. "This is a far-reaching and painful step. We authorise it because of our deep desire to move forward towards peace," he said in a televised press conference. He wanted a "historic peace agreement to finally end the conflict".

It did not seem likely to bring the two sides together. Even before it was publicly announced, Palestinian officials said only a full halt to all settlement building – in line with Israel's obligations under the 2003 US road map – would allow peace talks to restart for the first time in a year. guardian.co.uk

Before the announcement, the Palestinians warned they would reject the measure, as it fell short of their demand for a complete freeze on illegal settlements in the West Bank.

"This sort of announcement is not a halt to settlements, because Israel will continue to build 3,000 settlement units and government buildings in the West Bank and will exclude Jerusalem," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said.

Israel must also restart negotiations from the point where they left off under centrist former prime minister Ehud Olmert, Erakat added.

On Wednesday, Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad said mostly Palestinian East Jerusalem would have to be included in any settlement moratorium. "The exclusion of Jerusalem is a very, very serious problem for us," he told reporters.

Without a total settlement freeze, Israel is not living up to the obligations it undertook as part of the 2003 international roadmap for peace plan.

All Jewish settlements are illegal under international law because they are built on Arab land (mainly Palestinian), illegally occupied by Israel since 1967.  Middle East Online

Al Gore Sued for Global Warming Lies by 30,000 scientists and Weather Channel Founder!!!

Everything is OK: The Royal Edition

Oh how fabulous! A royal family! People who are born better than us! Part 2 here 

More of the ‘Love Police’ (Also known as the ‘Everything is OK guys’) here and their YouTube Channel here

Time Flies

markfiore.com

Israel Plans To Deport More Than 20,000 Palestinians From Jerusalem

The Jerusalem center for social and economic rights (JCSER) warned of Israeli intentions to deport more than 20,000 Palestinians from the West Bank who married from Jerusalemite women at the pretext that their residence in the holy city is illegal.

The center said that many of those Palestinian citizens have temporary residence permits issued by the Israeli ministry of interior and until now they have not been given a right to stay permanently with their wives in Jerusalem according to the procedures of reunion.

Ziyad Al-Hammouri, the director of the center, explained in this regard that the Israeli interior ministry published last year in a local newspaper a notice ordering what it called “the inhabitants of Judea and Samaria living in Jerusalem illegally”, in reference to the West Bank citizens who live with Jerusalemite wives in the holy city, to apply for temporary residence permits.

Hammouri added that the center at the time had warned of the motives and aims behind this aforementioned Israeli announcement in the newspaper, which enabled the Israeli interior ministry later to collect detailed information on a large number of West Bank citizens who live in the neighborhoods and towns within the Israeli municipal boundaries in Jerusalem.

Political Theatrics

US firm 'runs covert Pakistan ops'

A new report has accused the US private security firm formerly known as Blackwater of operating a covert assassination and kidnapping programme against suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda members in northwest Pakistan.

In an article published on Monday, The Nation magazine alleged that the firm, now known as Xe, is also involved in running a US military drone bombing campaign out of Pakistan.

Jeremy Scahill, the investigative journalist who broke the story, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that the programme was so secretive that senior officials in the administration of Barack Obama, the US president, were likely unaware of it.

"What I learned is that for years there has been a covert operation of the US military inside Pakistan's borders ... and that Blackwater operatives are at the centre of not only the drone bombing campaign but also planning snatch-and-grab operations of high value targets."

Al Jazeera – The Nation

Obama administration uses Blackwater in drone killings - thepeoplesvoice.org

CIA’s Ties With Blackwater Run Deep (antiwar.com)

Intel Wants Brain Implants in Its Customers' Heads by 2020

If the idea of turning consumers into true cyborgs sounds creepy, don't tell Intel researchers. Intel's Pittsburgh lab aims to develop brain implants that can control all sorts of gadgets directly via brain waves by 2020.

The scientists anticipate that consumers will adapt quickly to the idea, and indeed crave the freedom of not requiring a keyboard, mouse, or remote control for surfing the Web or changing channels. They also predict that people will tire of multi-touch devices such as our precious iPhones, Android smart phones and even Microsoft's wacky Surface Table.

Turning brain waves into real-world tech action still requires some heavy decoding of brain activity. The Intel team has already made use of fMRI brain scans to match brain patterns with similar thoughts across many test subjects.

Popular Science

UK Police routinely arresting people to get DNA

Police officers are now routinely arresting people in order to add their DNA sample to the national police database, an inquiry will allege tomorrow.

The review of the national DNA database by the government's human genetics commission also raises the possibility that the DNA profiles of three-quarters of young black males, aged 18 to 35, are now on the database.

The human genetics commission report, Nothing to hide, nothing to fear?, says the national DNA database for England and Wales is already the largest in the world, at 5 million profiles and growing, yet has no clear statutory basis or independent oversight.

The highly critical report from the government's advisory body on the development of human genetics is published as the number of innocent people on the database is disclosed to be far higher than previously thought ‑ nearing 1 million.

The Guardian

Archaeological Find 'Could Re-Write History Books'

History books may be wrong. Archaeologists have found signs of stone-age humans who were not supposed to exist in Florida's Little Salt Springs.

Cuba: military exercise braces island for US attack

Nearly 50 years after a botched US-directed invasion of Cuba, the communist nation said Saturday it is holding a military exercise next week to boost preparedness against any future US attack.

"It is a necessity of the first order given the political-military situation that now defines relations between Cuba and the empire," Major General Leonardo Andollo warned, referring to the United States.

He told the official Granma newspaper that the "Bastion-2009" exercises will "raise the deterrent capacity to prevent a military confrontation, under the principle that there is no better way to win a war than by avoiding it

breitbart.com

Blair misled public throughout 2002

On the eve of the Chilcot inquiry into Britain’s involvement in the 2003 invasion and its aftermath, The Sunday Telegraph has obtained hundreds of pages of secret Government reports on “lessons learnt” which shed new light on “significant shortcomings” at all levels.

They include full transcripts of extraordinarily frank classified interviews in which British Army commanders vent their frustration and anger with ministers and Whitehall officials.

The reports disclose that:

Tony Blair, the former prime minister, misled MPs and the public throughout 2002 when he claimed that Britain’s objective was “disarmament, not regime change” and that there had been no planning for military action. In fact, British military planning for a full invasion and regime change began in February 2002.

The need to conceal this from Parliament and all but “very small numbers” of officials “constrained” the planning process. The result was a “rushed”operation “lacking in coherence and resources” which caused “significant risk” to troops and “critical failure” in the post-war period.

Telegraph

Forced labour and rape, the new face of slavery in America

Human trafficking has become a major issue in the Midwest heartland of America, causing some campaigners to dub it a modern form of slavery.

Figures from the State Department reveal that 17,500 people are trafficked into the US every year against their will or under false pretences, mainly to be used for sex or forced labour. Experts believe that, when cases of internal trafficking are added, the total number of victims could be up to five times larger. And increasing numbers of trafficked individuals are being transported thousands of miles from America's coasts and into heartland states such as Ohio and Michigan.

"It is not only a crime. It is an abomination," said Professor Mark Ensalaco, a political scientist at the University of Dayton, Ohio, who organised a recent conference on the issue. In Ohio a human trafficking commission has just been set up to study the problem, while in the northern Ohio city of Toledo a special FBI task force is tackling the issue. For many local law enforcement officials, it is a bewildering new world.

The Observer

David Icke in Amsterdam

Other parts on YouTube

David Icke Website

Cop Tasers girl for resisting bedtime

The local police chief in Ozark, Arkansas is standing behind one of his officers who tasered a 10-year-old girl who was refusing to go to bed.

Officer Dustin Bradshaw was called to the home by a woman complaining that her daughter was being unruly and refusing to go to sleep. Bradshaw wrote that when he arrived at the home, he found Kiara Medlock "balled up in (sic) the floor crying and screaming."

After watching her mother attempt to get Kiara into the bathtub with little success, Bradshaw took the girl into the living room and threatened her with jail. That didn't settle things down. At some point, Bradshaw claims Kiara's mother told him to "taser her if I needed to."

Bradshaw then tried to handcuff Kiara. But he couldn't manage that either.

To hear Bradshaw tell it, he was now in the midst of a full-on brawl on the living-room floor with Kiara, a Grade 5 student. The 65-pounder was "verbally combative ... struck me with her legs and feet in the groin," Bradshaw wrote.

That's when he reached for his holster and delivered a "very very (sic) brief drive stun to her back with my taser."

thestar.com

Amazing Insects

Names at the info at YouTube

New EU President Rompuy announces 2009 as "first year of global governance"

The new EU President, Herman Van Rompuy, has proclaimed 2009 as the "first year of global governance." During Rompuy's intervention as President on November 19th, he stated,

"2009 is also the first year of global governance, with the establishment of the G20 in the middle of the financial crisis. The climate conference in Copenhagen is another step towards the global management of our planet."

Rompuy attended a Bilderberg dinner at Hertoginnendal, Brussels on November 15th, during which he announced a plan to implement EU wide taxes that will be paid directly to Brussels. Recently Mario Borghezio (Italy), member of the European Parliament,  spoke openly against the influence of globalist organizations such as the Bilderberg Group and the Trilateral Commission. "Is it possible that no one has noticed that all 3 (EU Presidential candidates) frequently attend Bilderberg or Trilateral meetings?," asked Borghezio. Rompuy will undoubtedly serve globalist interests during his reign of the European Union.

Watch Rompuy's statements on You Tube:

oldthinkernews.com

David Icke On The Global Awakening

Part 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 

David Icke explains how the panic-stricken elite are desperate to put the lid back on a global awakening that is stalling their agenda for world domination. Icke explains how drugs, toxic food and electromagnetic pollution are all being ramped up in a last ditch effort to dumb humanity down to a sheep-like mentality so they can be more easily controlled.

TheAlexJonesChannel

Inward Infinity and the Hunt for David Icke

Charlie (of the Love Police) has a girlfriend and goes on adventure on the Isle of Wight.. (YouTube Channel)

Court respite for Blackwater guard

The US justice department intends to drop manslaughter and weapons charges against one of the Blackwater Worldwide (now Xe Corp) security guards involved in a deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting, according to court documents.

A one-paragraph notice filed on Friday says only that prosecutors have asked that the case against Nicholas Slatten be dropped. The government's detailed request to the court was filed with the judge and with the defendant, but was not made public.

The shooting in Nisoor Square left 17 Iraqis dead and inflamed anti-American sentiment abroad. It touched off a string of investigations that ultimately led the state department to cancel the company's lucrative contract to guard diplomats in Iraq.

More on Al Jazeera - Blackwater shootings on Wikipedia

Blackwater involved in Bhutto and Hariri hits says former Pakistani army chief

Pakistan’s former chief of army staff, General Mirza Aslam Beg (ret.), has said the U.S. private security company Blackwater was directly involved in the assassinations of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto and former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.

Blackwater later changed its name and is now known as Xe.

General Beg, who was chief of army staff during Benazir Bhutto’s first administration, said U.S. officials always kept the presence of Blackwater in Pakistan secret because they were afraid of possible attacks on the U.S. Embassy and its consulates in Pakistan.

During an interview with a Pakistani TV network, Beg claimed that the United States killed Benazir Bhutto.

Pakistan Daily

Architects of Control

Architects of Control website

The Moon Bear Story

ebaumsworld.com

Europe job was too small for Tony Blair

Faced with a choice for its new president between the traffic-stopping Tony Blair and a capable but little-known Belgian, the EU's 27 leaders settled on Herman Van Rompuy, a man who would scarcely stop two mothers with strollers outside his own country.

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who was in charge of the election process, gave the game away when he said that Van Rompuy was a man whose choice would "leave room for everyone."

By insisting that "unity is our strength, diversity our wealth," Van Rompuy has signaled that he intends to be a consensus-building chairman, an agenda assembler, not a leader who will blazon Europe's name across the world and mingle monthly with the likes of Barack Obama and Hu Jintao.

So why has the EU turned its back on the man who might have supplied the stardust, Tony Blair?

The simple answer is that for most of the 27 EU leaders, Blair was too big for the job. They feared he would have his own agenda and overshadow them. Many saw him as an over-close ally of America who had divided Europe when he helped George W. Bush to prosecute the Iraq war.

More on CNN.com – More on Blair here

Dead Fish Art

Climate sceptics seize upon leaked emails

Hundreds of private emails and documents allegedly exchanged between some of the world's leading climate scientists over the past 13 years have been stolen by hackers and leaked online. The computer files were apparently accessed earlier this week from servers at the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit, a world-renowned centre focused on the study of natural and anthropogenic climate change.

Climate change sceptics who have studied the emails allege that they provide "smoking gun" evidence that some of the climatologists colluded in manipulating data to support the widely held view among the world's climatologists that climate change is real and is being largely caused by the actions of mankind. So far the veracity of the emails has not been confirmed and the scientists involved have declined to comment on the story which broke on a blog called The Air Vent.

guardian.co.uk

US Army Suicides Set Another Yearly Record

LiveLeak.com

Postal Service Limits Letter To Santa Program

Starry-eyed children writing letters to the jolly man at the North Pole this holiday season very likely won't get a response from Santa Claus or his helpers.

The U.S. Postal Service is dropping a popular national program begun in 1954 in the small Alaska town of North Pole, where volunteers open and respond to thousands of letters addressed to Santa each year. Replies come with North Pole postmarks.

Last year, a postal worker in Maryland recognized an Operation Santa volunteer there as a registered sex offender. The postal worker interceded before the individual could answer a child's letter, but the Postal Service viewed the episode as a big enough scare to tighten rules in such programs nationwide.

NPR

Belgian PM Van Rompuy is new EU president

EU leaders have chosen the Belgian Prime Minister, Herman van Rompuy, to be the first permanent European Council President.

The other top job created by the Lisbon Treaty - foreign affairs supremo - has gone to the EU Trade Commissioner, Baroness Catherine Ashton from the UK.

Both are seen as consensual politicians with limited foreign policy experience.

BBC News

Herman Van Rompuy has called for new eco-taxes and levies on the financial sector to fund a more powerful European Union.

Belgium's prime minister made the controversial proposal, leaked to a Flemish newspaper, during a secret dinner to promote his candidacy hosted by the elite Bilderberg Group.

Italian MEP on Bilderberg and Trilateral nominations for EU President and foreign minister (Video)

The comments have added to a backlash against Mr Van Rompuy who, while still the favourite, has been identified as a federalist who is being championed as part of a Franco-German "stitch up" ahead a summit dinner that will appoint an EU President in Brussels on Thursday.

Red Ice Creations

Zwarte Piet is a racist caracature

“To the good people of the Netherlands, who believe that they are not racist, wrongly, and believe that Zwarte Piet is a harmless, innocent tradition, wrongly, I want to say:
Thank you! I'm American, and I recognize that we owe Santa Claus, the main figure in our primary children's fantasy holiday, directly to the Dutch Sinterklaas. Santa turned Nordic in America, he got fat in America (like so many Americans), and we gave him elves as "helpers" ourselves. But credit for the basic idea goes to the Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam.

In return, we have given you one of our smash-hit cultural exports to use during Sinterklaas: "blackface" and "darky iconography," a racist genre of theater and art that portrays black people as idiots, with exaggerated big lips, woolly hair, and of course, pitch black faces.
You use it on Sint's friend, "Black Pete."

Read more on Toby Sterling Personal Homepage

I am Israel

I am Israel website

More information at the AndyzRant blog

CIA Secret Prison Found

The CIA built one of its secret European prisons inside an exclusive riding academy outside Vilnius, Lithuania, a current Lithuanian government official and a former U.S. intelligence official told ABC News this week.

A former Lithuanian horse stable was converted into a secret CIA detention center, according to a former U.S. intelligence official and a current Lithuanian government official. Some al Qaeda detainees were held at this facility, the officials said.

Where affluent Lithuanians once rode show horses and sipped coffee at a café, the CIA installed a concrete structure where it could use harsh tactics to interrogate up to eight suspected al-Qaeda terrorists at a time.

"The activities in that prison were illegal," said human rights researcher John Sifton. "They included various forms of torture, including sleep deprivation, forced standing, painful stress positions."

ABC News - The Lithuania Tribune

Nubian fury at 'monkey' lyric of Arab pop star Haifa Wehbe

One of the Arab world's biggest pop stars has provoked a torrent of outrage after releasing a song which refers to black Egyptians as monkeys.

Haifa Wehbe, an award-winning Lebanese diva who has been voted one of the world's most beautiful people, is now facing a lawsuit from Egyptian Nubians claiming the song has fuelled discrimination against them and made some Nubian children too afraid to attend school.

The row has cast fresh light on the position within Egyptian society of Nubians, who are descended from one of Africa's most ancient black civilisations and yet often face marginalisation in modern Egypt.

The Guardian

US Developing "Massive Ordnance Penetrator"

LiveLeak.com

Countries prepping for Cyberwar

Major countries and nation-states are engaged in a "Cyber Cold War," amassing cyberweapons, conducting espionage, and testing networks in preparation for using the Internet to conduct war, according to a new report to be released on Tuesday by McAfee.

In particular, countries gearing up for cyberoffensives are the U.S., Israel, Russia, China, and France, the says the report, compiled by former White House Homeland Security adviser Paul Kurtz and based on interviews with more than 20 experts in international relations, national security and Internet security.

CNN.com

Record numbers go hungry in households in the US

Government report shows 50m people unable to put food on the table at some point last year. More than a million children regularly go to bed hungry in the US, according to a government report that shows a startling increase in the number of families struggling to put food on the table.

President Barack Obama, who pledged to eradicate childhood hunger, has described as "unsettling" the agriculture department survey, which says 50 million people in the US – one in six of the population – were unable to afford to buy sufficient food to stay healthy at some point last year, in large part because of escalating unemployment or poorly paid jobs. That is a rise of more than one-third on the year before and the highest number since the survey began in 1995.

The Guardian

1989 The Sun Article Mentions Using A (Swine Flu) Vaccine To Inject Microchip Implants

The following article was originally published in the August 1st, 1989 edition of The Sun.

CODED MICROCHIPS implanted in every person in the country would tie all of us into a master computer that could track anyone down at any moment, and plans for such a system are already under way whether you like it or not!

The secret scheme is being touted as a service for the protection of the people by high government officials, but some insiders who object to the move say it’s just another way for Big Brother to control its subjects.

“But with the astounding technology of today, everything about you could be contained in one tiny microchip, which would be connected to a government computer. Any government agency will know what any person has done and is doing at any time.”

Other sources say the tiny transmitters can be injected painlessly from a tiny gun in humans without them even knowing it through a nationwide vaccination program.

“All the government would have to do is make up something like the swine flu vaccine,” Milerand says.

“The doctors themselves may not even know what they’re injecting.  They could be told the microchips are genetic implants that reprogram the body into fighting disease.”

More on Operation Mind Seed

NOT POSSIBLE? WATCH THIS!

Hitachi Unveils Smallest RFID Chip

The Japanese chipmaker recently showed off an RFID microchip that is just 0.3 square millimeter square.

March 14, 2003 - Hitachi, the Japanese semiconductor company, has unveiled a prototype for the next generation of its µ-Chip (pronounced mu-chip). The chip is just 0.3 millimeters square, roughly half the size of the smallest RFID chip on the market.

The chip operates at 2.45 GHz and stores a 128-bit number based on the "mu-chip ID number criterion" developed by Hitachi, which issues the numbers. The number is written to the chip during the silicon fabrication process and cannot be changed. The current (2003!) mu-chip can be read from about a foot away (30 cm). The new version is expected to maintain the same performance standards.

RFID Journal

Current information about this product at Hitachi

Gangs Making 'Millions of Dollars' Selling Fake H1N1 Drugs Online

Criminal gangs are making millions of dollars out of the H1N1 flu pandemic by selling fake flu drugs over the internet, a web security firm said on Monday.

Sophos, a British security software firm said it had intercepted hundreds of millions of fake pharmaceutical spam adverts and websites this year, many of them trying to sell counterfeit antiviral drugs like Tamiflu to worried customers.

Tamiflu, an antiviral marketed by Switzerland's Roche Holding and known generically as oseltamivir, is the frontline drug recommended by the World Health Organization to treat and slow the progression of flu symptoms. GlaxoSmithKline makes another antiviral for flu, known as Relenza.

FOXNews.com

oBOWma

More on The Significance Of The Bow: Obama Is A House Servant For The Global Elite - Prisonplanet.com

DNA of protesters could be held for life

Anti-war protesters and train spotters arrested under anti-terror laws could have their DNA kept for life under Home Office plans.

In the UK innocent members of the public detained but not charged or convicted under terrorism legislation may never have their profiles wiped from the national database because they are to be treated differently to all other alleged offences.

The proposal is directed at those arrested for suspected terror offences but could apply to anyone held under a Terrorism Act.

In contrast, those innocent of any other suspected crime will be kept for a maximum of six years.

The proposals have been drawn up in the wake of a European Court of Human Rights ruled last year that a blanket policy of retaining profiles of innocent people indefinitely was illegal.

Up to a million innocent people are currently held on the national database.

Telegraph

Free money. Vive la France?

A company that planned to hand out €100,000 in cash to thousands of people in Paris is facing legal action after the stunt was cancelled at the last minute and turned into a riot.
According to police, about 7,000 people gathered on the Place Joffre at the far end of the Champ de Mars, overlooking the Eiffel Tower, shortly after midday on Saturday for the handout.
The Interior Ministry has begun legal proceedings against Mailorama.fr, which was planning to throw 5,000 packages containing between €5 and €500 in banknotes to the public from red London double-decker buses.
Despite receiving a formal authorisation from police for the handout to go ahead, the company was asked to cancel at the very last minute because police noticed a large number of people were descending on the area and disrupting traffic.

More on The Connexion

Texas death row chaplain opposes capital punishment

Kerry Max Cook served over 20 years in a Texas prison — most of them on death row. But as DNA evidence would show in 1999, he was innocent. That year, Mr. Cook was released from prison with the help of Princeton-based Centurion Ministries, a secular non-profit that works for the release of innocent prisoners.

 
”He was a nice guy. I never felt he was guilty,” said Rev. Carroll Pickett, a former death-house chaplain at the Huntsville prison in Texas, who spoke at Princeton Theological Seminary last week.Addressing an audience of about 30 activists and seminarians, Rev. Pickett called Mr. Cook “a victim of Texas justice” but then added: “Throw that out—there’s no such thing as Texas justice.”
”As a Christian, I cannot support the death penalty,” Rev. Pickett said. I used to be in favor of the death penalty because my grandfather was murdered and nothing was done about it. My father taught me, you gotta hang ‘em fast, hang ‘em high. That’s Texas,” he said, in a slow drawl. “But then I went to work at the prison.”

His first day was April 1, 1980. Six inmates came to chapel, out of a prison population of 2200. Frustrated, Rev. Pickett tried to find ways to reach out to the men, who he said had, on average, a seventh grade education. The answer was music. Among other programs, he started several choirs, which drew the inmates to chapel. As he described it, being a prison chaplain was “full time ministry.”

Centraljersey.com

Army Sends Infant to Protective Services, Mom to Afghanistan

U.S. Army Specialist Alexis Hutchinson, a single mother, is being threatened with a military court-martial if she does not agree to deploy to Afghanistan, despite having been told she would be granted extra time to find someone to care for her 11-month-old son while she is overseas.

Hutchinson, of Oakland, California, is currently being confined at Hunter Army Airfield near Savannah, Georgia, after being arrested. Her son was placed into a county foster care system.

Hutchinson has been threatened with a court martial if she does not agree to deploy to Afghanistan on Sunday, Nov. 15. She has been attempting to find someone to take care of her child, Kamani, while she is deployed overseas, but to no avail.

CommonDreams.org

Bloody day for Mexico border city

At least 15 people have been killed in a single day of violence in Ciudad Juarez, a Mexican city bordering the United Sates, the Mexican authorities have said.

A child, three women and a university professor were among the dead, according to officials on Saturday. Arturo Sandoval, the state prosecutor's spokesman, said a seven-year-old boy was travelling with his father in a truck when armed men opened fire on Friday killing them both.

Three women were also shot dead in two other separate incidents, he said.

Elsewhere in the city, Professor Jose Alfonso Martinez, a member of the Social Sciences Institute of the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juarez, was shot in front of his wife in an attack by at least four men in a residential area. His wife was unhurt. Martinez is the third professor at the Autonomous University to be killed this year, with a fourth from the Ciudad Juarez branch of the University of Chihuahua.

Another nine men were killed in six separate incidents.

Al Jazeera