Gun control lobby 'infiltrated by pro-rifle movement spy'

Campaigners for tougher controls on guns in the US are reeling from the allegation that a prominent member of the movement for more than a decade was a spy working for the powerful pro-gun lobby the National Rifle Association.

Mary Lou McFate sat on the board of two groups campaigning for greater controls, and tried to become a director of the national umbrella group of the movement, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. She was also linked with the circle of an international campaign on small arms trade based in London.

To the outrage of campaigners who worked with her, she has been outed by Mother Jones, the political magazine, as a paid plant for the NRA. An investigation by the magazine based on court documents suggests that she made contact with the NRA as early as 1999 and that the connection was sustained to this day.  The Guardian

CIA, White House accused of manufacturing Iraq evidence

The White House and the CIA have adamantly denied a report that the Bush administration concocted a letter purporting to show a link between Saddam Hussein's regime and al-Qaida as a justification for the Iraq war.

The allegation was raised by Washington-based journalist Ron Suskind in a new book, The Way of the World, which was published yesterday. The letter supposedly was written by Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, director of Iraqi intelligence under Saddam Hussein.

"The White House had concocted a fake letter from Habbush to Saddam, backdated to July 1, 2001," Suskind wrote. "It said that 9/11 ringleader Mohammad Atta had actually trained for his mission in Iraq thus showing, finally, that there was an operational link between Saddam and al-Qaida, something the vice president's office had been pressing CIA to prove since 9/11 as a justification to invade Iraq. There is no link."

Suskind said the letter's existence had been reported before, and that it had been treated as if it were genuine.

NZ Herald

TELL THE TRUTH

Bin Laden didnt Blow Up the projects, BUSH Knocked the towers.. Mos Def, Immortal Technique and Eminem.

Ubiquitous Computing: Big Brother's All-Seeing Eye

An "Everyware" world, as Adam Greenfield calls it, is a world in which computers are embedded and merged seamlessly everywhere in the environment. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags communicate their position and other information constantly in a vast network. Everyday objects become "searchable" as if they were part of the interconnected world wide web. In this interconnected internet of things, scientific management and surveillance of people and the environment we inhabit becomes possible, and marketers' ultimate dreams come true.
For more information and citation see:
http://oldthinkernews.com and: http://www.oldthinkernews.com

Part 1 - Part 2

The OMEGA File

[ATTENTION ALL ABDUCTEES!!! Please download and study this document and distribute as widely as possible, ESPECIALLY to any 'ABDUCTEES' whom you may know. If, as the late J. Allen Hynek claimed, over 1 in 40 people have been abducted and 'processed' by the 'alien/secret government' agenda -- or 1 in 10 according to more recent sources -- then you are bound to know SOMEONE who is an abductee and KNOWS it. This information is for THEM. For those who are not "UFO Abductees", the information in this file is nevertheless vital and applicable, and may one day save your life!!!

If you believe that information about "Aliens" is only for those who have lost all touch with reality, then PLEASE accept that information in this document that you CAN accept, and pass over the rest, at least for now. Your future may depend on it. As I have said, this information may save your life. This file contains the most intricate and intimate details of a global conspiracy which seems to be rooted in an alien-military-industrial collaboration which is intent on bringing all freedom-loving peoples of this world under its control, through the implementation of a global government which has commonly been referred to as the 'New World Order'. We have pulled no punches and are laying everything out on the table in regards to the New World Order agenda as I and those who have contributed to this document perceive it. If you are one who is easily offended, then be warned. Most of you who read this will realize that you may have personally supported in one form or another -- albeit unknowingly -- certain religious, economic, or political organizations which are on various levels being controlled by those forces that are working towards the implementation of the New World Order.

The OMEGA File : THE BEGINNING

France accused of complicity in Rwanda genocide

A two-year investigation said France helped the extremists who carried out the genocide and even took part in some of the killings.

It named François Mitterand, France's late former president, and former prime minister Dominique de Villepin among 33 military and political leaders.

In 100 days 14 years ago, more than 800,000 of Rwanda's minority Tutsi tribe and moderates from the majority Hutus were killed.

A French force sent to establish a "humanitarian safe zone" once the genocide had started directly took part in killing and raping Tutsis, the report alleged.

"French soldiers themselves directly were involved in assassinations of Tutsis and Hutus accused of hiding Tutsis," it said.

"French soldiers committed many rapes, forced sexual intercourse specifically with surviving Tutsi women. They clearly requested Interahamwe [Hutu militia] ... to kill Tutsis," the special commission report said.

"They also clearly requested to have Tutsi who had infiltrated in displaced population camps brought to them and have Interahamwe kill at least some of them. They let Interahamwe kill Tutsis under their eyes."  Telegraph

Eisenhower on the Military Industrial Complex

More on the Military Industrial Complex

Silvio Berlusconi covers up 'distracting' breasts in painting

Mr Berlusconi, whose cabinet includes a former topless model, decided that journalists and television cameras would be distracted by the naked form in the 254-year-old picture, Time Unveiling Truth, when he appears with visitors such as the Iraqi premier Nouri al-Maliki.

He instructed aides to replace the original, which was commissioned for a palazzo in Vicenza, with a copy that has had a white “veil” added to cover up the offending breast.

But the move has dismayed art lovers. Giancarlo Galan, the governor of the Veneto region, said: “The prime minister’s office have managed to offend one of the great artists of liberty.”

The governor of the Veneto region, which includes Venice, Giancarlo Galan also criticised the cover up of the painting.

He said:”It is not good to offend Tiepolo.

”The author of this grotesque and absurd gesture should be punished as they have offended a particular artist.

”The Prime Minister’s office have managed to offend one of the great artists of liberty.”

Telegraph

Big Brother, the Big Picture

David Icke speaks to the constituents of Haltemprice and Howden (UK) about the 'Big Brother' election, forced by the resignation of David Davis, and the move towards the global Big Brother enslavement we are all facing. (Official Full Version) David Icke - Big Brother, the Big Picture (July 6th 2008)

White House Briefed On Potential For Mars Life

The White House has been alerted by NASA about plans to make an announcement soon on major new Phoenix lander discoveries concerning the "potential for life" on Mars, scientists tell Aviation Week & Space Technology.

Sources say the new data do not indicate the discovery of existing or past life on Mars. Rather the data relate to habitability--the "potential" for Mars to support life--at the Phoenix arctic landing site, sources say.

The data are much more complex than results related NASA's July 31 announcement that Phoenix has confirmed the presence of water ice at the site.

International news media trumpeted the water ice confirmation, which was not a surprise to any of the Phoenix researchers. "They have discovered water on Mars for the third or fourth time," one senior Mars scientists joked about the hubbub around the water ice announcement.

The other data not discussed openly yet are far more "provocative," Phoenix officials say. AVIATION WEEK

Shabak pressuring sick Gazans to spy for them

Israel's secret police (Shabak/Shin Bet) are pressuring Palestinians in Gaza to spy on their community in exchange for urgent medical treatment, according to a report released today by an Israeli human rights organisation.

Physicians for Human Rights says the Shin Bet began interrogating Palestinian patients seeking permission to travel from Gaza to Israel for crucial medical help after Israel blockaded and then declared the tiny territory an enemy entity more than a year ago.

Typically, patients are taken to a small, windowless room, underground, beneath the security terminal at Erez, the only passenger crossing that remains open between Gaza and Israel, where they are questioned by Shin Bet agents for hours, the report says.

Refusal to cooperate often results in the denial of medical treatment. Based on the testimonies of more than 30 Palestinians - 11 of which are published - the report says the Shin Bet is using coercion and extortion to force patients to collaborate.  The Guardian

More on the Shin Bet here and on gush-shalom.org:

RECENTLY, THE CHIEF of the Shin Bet declared that the "Israeli Arabs", a fifth of Israel's population, constitute a danger to the state.

He requested permission for the General Security Service to act against anyone who aims at changing the official designation of Israel as a "Jewish and democratic state" - even if they use nothing but completely legal means.

It follows that In the view of the chief of the Security Service, a central figure in the Israeli leadership, the task of the Shin Bet (now commonly known in Israel as Shabak) is not only to protect the state from spies and terrorists, but also from any challenge to its ideological designation, like the KGB in the former Soviet Union and the Stasi in communist East Germany. (The excellent Oscar-winning movie "The Life of the Others", now screening in Israel, shows how this worked in practice.)

Russian novelist and former dissident Solzhenitsyn is dead

Russian novelist and historian Alexander Solzhenitsyn, whose works detailed the horrors of Stalin's Soviet labor camps, has died at 89, Russian news agencies reported Monday.

His son, Stepan Solzhenitsyn, told The Associated Press his father died of heart failure late Sunday at his home near Moscow, Russia.

Awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1970 for "The First Circle," Alexander Solzhenitsyn was considered a moral voice for Russia. His works centered on issues of good and evil, materialism and salvation.

His three-volume "Gulag Archipelago" unveiled the horrors of the Soviet labor camps, where he himself was imprisoned for eight years.

"Even as a child, without any prompting from others, I wanted to be a writer and, indeed, I turned out a good deal of the usual juvenilia," Solzhenitsyn said in a short autobiography written for the Nobel Foundation.

CNN.com, more on Kirjasto and Wikipedia

Travelers' Laptops May Be Detained At US Border

US Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.

Also, officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"The policies . . . are truly alarming," said Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), who is probing the government's border search practices. He said he intends to introduce legislation soon that would require reasonable suspicion for border searches, as well as prohibit profiling on race, religion or national origin.

DHS officials said that the newly disclosed policies -- which apply to anyone entering the country, including U.S. citizens -- are reasonable and necessary to prevent terrorism. Officials said such procedures have long been in place but were disclosed last month because of public interest in the matter.

Civil liberties and business travel groups have pressed the government to disclose its procedures as an increasing number of international travelers have reported that their laptops, cellphones and other digital devices have been taken -- for months, in at least one case -- and their contents examined.

Washingtonpost.com

Beijing Olympics: the spying games

Two weeks ago, the UK Whitehall mandarins, ministerial aides and officials who will be in Beijing when the Olympic Games open on Friday were summoned for what they thought would be a series of pro-forma chats with MI5. What they heard was hair-raising.

“It was all very James Bond,” according to one of the 100 or more who were called in by the security service. “We were told to trust nobody. We were warned that there is going to be a huge spy presence in Beijing, and that we should expect to be followed wherever we go.”

The alert came after The Sunday Times reported that a top aide accompanying Gordon Brown to China early this year had been caught in a suspected “honeytrap” by a woman who vanished from his hotel room with his BlackBerry.

The aides and officials accompanying Brown and four ministers to the Olympics were told they must take no laptops and that all BlackBerries or mobile phones must be “clean” – containing no contact numbers or other information.  Times Online

Obama As Black Radical

Fox News: "Fair and balanced"

Boycott The 2008 Beijing Olympics

Next week the 2008 Olympics will open in Beijing, China. When that happens, a country with both serious environment problems and a pattern of widespread social injustice will be given international attention. If the Chinese government has its way, that country will not be portrayed as a contaminated badland where political repression and established censorship smothers its citizens. It’ll be best faux foot forward as the world looks on, or perhaps better phrased, looks away as a deeply flawed nation tries to avoid criticism for its abominable record on the environment and human rights.

The International Olympic Committee opposes a boycott as does the Bush Administration. And you can be sure that corporate sponsors of the Games will not advocate such a move unless more consumers, or ah citizens support a boycott. Until then they “are trying to appear sensitive while arguing that the Games should not be politicized.” So much for corporate leadership. Again it looks like no real change will happen unless public sentiment develops in support of directly addressing the record of China and its policies of devastation during past decades.  GroovyGreen.com

Atheism: Jonathan Miller's Brief History of Disbelief

Part I - Shadows of Doubt Jonathan Miller visits the absent Twin Towers to consider the religious implications of 9/11 and meets Arthur Miller and the philosopher Colin McGinn. He searches for evidence of the first 'unbelievers' in Ancient Greece and examines some of the modern theories around why people have always tended to believe in mythology and magic.

Uploaded because this needs to be available as a shining light of the historicity of reason midst the depths and oceans of media absurdity and religious propaganda. So few representatives of atheism provide a compelling and earnest account for unbelief, let alone with the lucidity and intellectual vigor of Jonathan Miller. He is sincere and moving in this attempt to explain and understand the origins of the truth of disbelief of religious superstition and faith.

Sexual assault in US military 'jaw-dropping'

A US congresswoman said Thursday that her "jaw dropped" when military doctors told her that four in 10 women at a veterans hospital reported being sexually assaulted while in the military.

A government report indicates that the numbers could be even higher.

Rep. Jane Harman, D-California, spoke before a House panel investigating the way the military handles reports of sexual assault.

She said she recently visited a Veterans Affairs hospital in the Los Angeles area, where women told her horror stories of being raped in the military.

"My jaw dropped when the doctors told me that 41 percent of the female veterans seen there say they were victims of sexual assault while serving in the military," said Harman, who has long sought better protection of women in the military.

"Twenty-nine percent say they were raped during their military service. They spoke of their continued terror, feelings of helplessness and downward spirals many of their lives have taken since.

"We have an epidemic here," she said. "Women serving in the U.S. military today are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq."  CNN.com

Reuters calls for Iraqi cameraman Ali al-Mashhadani to be freed

Reuters has called for the release of Iraqi cameraman Ali al-Mashhadani, who was arrested on Saturday by the US military.

The Reuters cameraman, who also works freelance for the BBC and Washington-based National Public Radio, was detained in Baghdad on Saturday while undertaking checks for a US military press card.

The news agency called for his release - or for his detention to be justified.

"Any accusations against a journalist should be aired publicly and dealt with fairly and swiftly, with the journalist having the right to counsel and present a defence," said the Reuters editor-in-chief, David Schlesinger.

"Iraqi journalists like Mashhadani play a vital role in telling this story to the world," Schlesinger added.

A US military spokesman said Mashhadani was being held at Camp Cropper, an American prison near Baghdad's airport.

"He is being detained because he has been assessed to be a threat to the security of Iraq and coalition forces," the spokesman added, declining to elaborate.

US forces have detained Mashhadani before, but never charged him.  guardian.co.uk 

Also see Reporters Without Borders

Dutch crown-prince's bribes Mozambique officials to build holiday home

The Dutch socialists have today raised parliamentary questions about the holiday home which crown-prince William-Alexander wants to build for himself and wife Maximá in Mozambique.
The Socialist Party's MP Ewout Irrgang cites reports stating that local Machangula regional councillors, police and tribal chiefs were 'bribed with free houses' by the South African project developers. They wanted to know whether the prince was really involved in this project on the Machangula peninsula- and if he was, he should have his head read for supporting such bribery practices. They cited reports from today's influential publication Haagsche Post/De Tijd.

See World Bank Report for a 'tourism-development project loan', for 2005-2008 -- and which described this Peninsula as one of the most beautiful, pristine natural areas still left in the world: Read the report here
Plans for the place now are running at full clip however -- with thirty houses already built and massive plans for foreigners' luxury holiday-homes and a five-star hotel, schools and a harbour. More here and here.

The HP/deTijd writes that the local tribal chief, his assistant, the local government official and the police chief each were given a free house from the project-developer.
The anti-corruption organisation Transparency International says that while this is 'not unusual in Africa, it remains bribery.'

• Irrgang wanted to know from the minister of development aid Bert Koenders of the co-ruling labour party whether the royal couple were really involved in the Machangulo project -- and noted that this would be 'very unwise. '
• "This reeks of corruption and bribery from all sides. If Western companies can use the excuse of 'African culture' as an excuse to pay bribes, Africa's corruption will just get worse.'

The Dutch government's information website also noted that 'more than thirty houses have been built for local government functionaries, teachers, nurses and chiefs on the peninsula.'

Censorbugbear reports

U.N.: Desperate Haitians Eating Mud

People in Haiti have become so desperate for food that many are eating mud, U.N. officials said.

U.N. officials say that food is available in the impoverished Caribbean nation, The Guardian reported. But prices are rising so fast that the Food and Agriculture Organization predicts that food will cost 80 percent more at the end of the year than it did in January.

The high prices come in a country where much of the population is already living on the edge. The United Nations says that two-thirds of Haitians live on less than $1 a day.

In normal times, pregnant women use mud cakes as a source of calcium. Now, they are famine food.

"It stops the hunger," said Marie-Carmelle Baptiste, who makes mud cakes. "You eat them when you have to."

The cakes' raw material comes from a clay deposit outside Port-au-Prince. Baptiste said they have become more expensive to make, but she does not want to raise her prices until she has to because she knows that, for her customers, the cakes are the last resort.  102.5 KNIX

Mud cakes become staple diet as cost of food soars beyond a family's reach - Read more on The Guardian

Prince Phillip upsets China

A bit old, but still fun...

Quotes from Prince Philip like "In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, in order to contribute something to solve overpopulation."

Also see a LIST OF FAMOUS ILLUMINATI MEMBERS

U.N.: Millions Hungry in North Korea

With shriveled harvests and a cutback in imports, North Korea has slipped back into a serious food shortage that is causing millions of people to go hungry, the United Nations announced Wednesday.

The main U.N. aid agency in North Korea, the World Food Program, will resume emergency operations there in the next two weeks to help feed more than 5 million people over the next 15 months at a cost of $500 million, according to Jean-Pierre de Margerie, the agency's country director in Pyongyang.

"The situation is indeed very serious," de Margerie said at a news conference in Beijing.  washingtonpost.com

China to censor Internet during Games

China will censor the Internet used by foreign media during the Olympics, an organising committee official confirmed Wednesday, reversing a pledge to offer complete media freedom at the games.

"During the Olympic Games we will provide sufficient access to the Internet for reporters," said Sun Weide, spokesman for the organising committee.

 

He confirmed, however, that journalists would not be able to access information or websites connected to the Falungong spiritual movement which is banned in China.

Other sites were also unavailable to journalists, he said, without specifying which ones.  Breitbart.com

Italy deploys troops to fight crime

The Italian government launched on Tuesday a scheme that will deploy 3,000 troops in major Italian cities to help patrol the streets, local media reported.

Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni and Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa unveiled the six-month pilot scheme, which will start on Monday. They said the army, air force, navy and Carabinieri would work alongside police.

A total of 2,000 troops will be placed at the disposal of 16 mayors to guard black spots and immigration holding centers in cities including Rome, Milan and Naples. Some units will watch "sensitive" sites in Rome, Milan and Naples -- 51 in the capital, 20 in Milan and one in Naples. The remaining 1,000 will patrol the streets of Bari, Catania, Milan, Naples, Padua, Palermo, Padua, Rome, Turin and Verona. Xinhua