tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76152359786595287092024-02-19T05:38:38.210-05:00NAU InfoInformation to aid in our education about the coming North American UnionUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger139125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615235978659528709.post-3806473199844049852011-03-25T07:52:00.000-04:002011-03-25T07:52:56.266-04:00Terrorist Saudi OIL Money Comes to Beverly Hills<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2Zk2NAdNLIHR1JE9Guo0L7Tfg-V5erUo_pxos-txJZ2bhRPogQ_GMxgxr0wlMvxJNiCLVqHQCiCCCJonxXaYiaL7_vCD2U6YEwq_J4MAzXsWoS3E89kt-1dk6NcuA4E2zFWRNS8nXDHkF/s1600/blood+for+oil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="206" width="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2Zk2NAdNLIHR1JE9Guo0L7Tfg-V5erUo_pxos-txJZ2bhRPogQ_GMxgxr0wlMvxJNiCLVqHQCiCCCJonxXaYiaL7_vCD2U6YEwq_J4MAzXsWoS3E89kt-1dk6NcuA4E2zFWRNS8nXDHkF/s400/blood+for+oil.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Blood soaked oil money from the terrorist state of Saudi Arabia comes back to America in the form of a mega-million dollar mansion in Beverly Hills, Ca.<br />
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A mystery landowner's plan to build an 85,000-square-foot family compound has set off a major kerfuffle in a tony Hollywood hills neighborhood whose residents include Bruce Springsteen, Jay Leno, and David Beckham, the Los Angeles Times reports.<br />
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The proposed "mega-mansion"—which would be located in the iconic 90210 zip code—will include a 42,681-square-foot main house, a double-winged "son's villa" of more than 27,000 square feet, a 4,400-square-foot guest house, a 5,300-square-foot staff quarters and a 2,700-square-foot gatehouse.<br />
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The owner's identity is being kept secret. But there are indications he could be a member of the Saudi royal family. A special business created to buy the land lists as its president Mansour Fustok of London. Fustok--who described the mansion to the Times as "just a normal Mediterranean-style house"--is the uncle of Prince Abdulaziz ibn Abdullah ibn Abdulaziz al Saud, one of Saudi King Abdullah's sons.<br />
The owner of the 5.2-acre property in Tower Lane has kept his identity well-hidden behind an especially set-up property firm, fuelling rumours he could be a senior Saudi prince.<br />
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Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1368975/Beverly-Hills-Benedict-Canyon-residents-fight-Saudi-princes-mega-mansion-plans.html#ixzz1Hbwyul7a<br />
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And the complex may be intended for the prince himself. According to a representative of Fustok's business, the owner is a single father of three. Prince Abdulaziz is divorced and has three children.<br />
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But residents of the Benedict Canyon neighborhood—including Hollywood honcho Michael Ovitz (pictured)—are worried about the project's potential for noise, pollution, and environmental damage. They've organized a campaign to block it, arguing that the owners are trying to get around a legally mandated environmental review.<br />
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Ovitz may not be the best front-man for the campaign. He himself once proposed a 28,000-square-foot megamansion on property straddling the Los Angeles-Beverly Hills border, which also generated heated opposition. The home, which ultimately was built, sits a stone's throw away from the site of the proposed compound.<br />
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One neighbour, Martha Karsh, told the Los Angeles Times: 'It's commercial-scale construction, like building a Wal-Mart in the heart of a quiet residential neighbourhood.'<br />
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The project was too big for the area's narrow streets, the house would create mudslide and fire hazards - and claimed the mystery developer wasn't being 'neighbourly'.<br />
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The entire development would dwarf even the Griffith Observatory, as well as Spelling's $150million 'The Manor' in Holmby Hills, which covers 56,500 square feet.<br />
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According to the Los Angeles Times, the owner of the existing property has created a firm called Tower Lane Properties Inc to buy the three neighbouring plots of land for $12million.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615235978659528709.post-3057381211139481742011-03-19T21:18:00.000-04:002011-03-19T21:18:18.195-04:00Great Satan Attacks!! Raining Down 100 Cruise Missles from Warships, Bombing Libya into Democracy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk46WXIy5Oy0fwZl6njckd0na57FINDbs8gC4xo6wQCXYrXcTgey3YOJSgGqk2LZPajGrz-nJe_N6ytr1HfBlB95SSSf8dTiFFtgJHBatqAIaBvKvZEYSCZitpECsqmFMBKSNOJ_G2X-mB/s1600/ap_us_navy_missile_libya_300_eng_19mar11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk46WXIy5Oy0fwZl6njckd0na57FINDbs8gC4xo6wQCXYrXcTgey3YOJSgGqk2LZPajGrz-nJe_N6ytr1HfBlB95SSSf8dTiFFtgJHBatqAIaBvKvZEYSCZitpECsqmFMBKSNOJ_G2X-mB/s400/ap_us_navy_missile_libya_300_eng_19mar11.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Let Death and Destruction Reign!!! <br />
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The War Whores of the Great Satan march forward, leaving mangled corpses, desolation and utter destruction in its wake, all the while turning the other cheek as Israel murders, rapes, robs and pillages the people of Palestine. The War whores look away as the oil soaked Dictator King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud rapes the economies of every nation on Earth as the Saudis continue to train and support terrorist regimes to do their bidding. <br />
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War, death and destruction, terrorism, conflict, fear and strife all lead to one thing: rising oil prices.. And this equals more money for the Terrorist nation of Saudi Arabia.<br />
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Bomb on War Whores, Bomb on...<br />
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U.S.-led coalition forces have launched more than 100 Tomahawk missiles on key air defense sites across Libya as part of operations to protect the population from the forces of long-time leader Moammar Gadhafi. <br />
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U.S. Vice Admiral William Gortney outlined what is being called "Operation Odyssey Dawn" several hours after he said the missiles started hitting more than 20 Libyan sites.<br />
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"The United States military has and will continue to use our unique capabilities to create the conditions from which we and our partners can best enforce the full measure of the U.N. mandate. Our mission right now is to shape the battle space in such a way that our partners may take the lead in execution," he said.<br />
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He said Admiral Sam Locklear was leading the operations from the USS Mount Whitney in the Mediterranean Sea.<br />
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A U.N. Security Council resolution was approved Thursday in New York allowing outside forces to use all measures necessary to protect civilians in Libya, where eastern rebel-controlled areas have been under attack.<br />
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Admiral Gortney said one British submarine was used as part of Saturday’s strikes as well as U.S. ships and submarines. He described Libya’s air defense sites as being built with old Soviet technology.<br />
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He said some countries who were taking part in the military operation had asked to be identified, while others wanted to announce their involvement themselves.<br />
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"Of the coalition, the countries that have asked us to mention their names, of course, the United States, UK, French, Italy and Canada. The other countries have asked for them, that they want to be able to make the announcement and it is the same for the Arab countries as well," he said.<br />
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A mediation delegation from the African Union was due in the capital Tripoli Sunday, but as sites in and around Tripoli were also reported hit, it was unclear if that mission would go ahead.<br />
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Earlier Saturday, French fighter planes which had departed from France flew over Libya bombing at least one tank that a senior French military official identified as belonging to forces loyal to Mr. Gadhafi.<br />
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Leaders from France, Britain and the United States have said the operations are necessary and that Mr. Gadhafi’s forces were still staging attacks despite warnings to stop.<br />
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Libya’s head of parliament, Abdul Qasim al-Zuai denied this, saying a ceasefire was in place and that the missile strikes were what he called a "barbaric aggression" from Western powers. He said civilian areas and civilian infrastructure were being targeted.<br />
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Earlier in the day, Mr. Gadhafi wrote a letter to President Obama and other world leaders saying they would regret what he called "intervention in the internal affairs of Libya."<br />
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Libyan state media said the strikes caused casualties in Tripoli.<br />
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At a summit earlier Saturday in Paris, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Libyans like other Arabs were fighting for democracy and freedom from oppressive regimes and that it was the duty of outside powers to help them.<br />
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The British Prime Minister David Cameron said British forces were helping end what he called "the appalling brutality" of Mr. Gadhafi’s government.<br />
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Several countries have spoken out against the operations including Russia and Venezuela. Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez said it was irresponsible to create more deaths and more war. <br />
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The International Committee of the Red Cross called on all warring parties to spare civilians and respect international humanitarian law.<br />
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The armed rebellion against Mr. Gadhafi began last month, following people power movements which successfully toppled long-time leaders in Egypt and Tunisia and spurred uprisings across north Africa and the Middle East.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615235978659528709.post-8210032025146411112011-03-19T11:49:00.001-04:002011-03-19T11:53:33.441-04:00Great Satan Prepares to Attack Again, Libya to be Bombed into Democracy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpv3npCYSp4-4JWE2VBy6yQ2nChIlEN0aqLst0cFSbx__gwjY0k-Q91VcdNAVwXbqtrMZOzbnJR5pQ8pSGFXEBXM4Xu8LA89txILdBVKA45rnYSOyt1ZQ8noyYj5io2KfJjbcYCzUvvsZd/s1600/TruthInAdvertising-E.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="282" width="376" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpv3npCYSp4-4JWE2VBy6yQ2nChIlEN0aqLst0cFSbx__gwjY0k-Q91VcdNAVwXbqtrMZOzbnJR5pQ8pSGFXEBXM4Xu8LA89txILdBVKA45rnYSOyt1ZQ8noyYj5io2KfJjbcYCzUvvsZd/s400/TruthInAdvertising-E.gif" /></a></div><br />
Military action against Gaddafi 'within hours' of UN vote<br />
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The Great Satan Speaks (Israel, USA, UK and France), next they will bomb Libya into submission.. While the greasy Saudis look on, with blood lust coursing their oily veins as they jack up oil prices around the globe.. 15 of the 19 'hijackers' CAME FROM SAUDI ARABIA! (RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia acknowledged for the first time that 15 of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers were Saudi citizens, but said Wednesday that the oil-rich kingdom bears no responsibility for their actions.) <br />
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And the Great Satan responds by destroying Iraq, decimating life there and are now in their 9th year of death and destruction in Afghanistan...<br />
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All the while, the snakes, the oily serpents, the TRUE terrorist of the WORLD, Saudi Arabia reap the benefits of the war machine that chugs along on its path of global destruction and global domination..<br />
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..<br />
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Security council resolution calls for states to protect Libyan civilians, with Britain, France and US confident bill will pass<br />
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By Ewen MacAskill in Washington and Nicholas Watt<br />
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March 17, 2011 "The Guardian" -- Britain, France and the US, along with several Arab countries, are to join forces to throw a protective ring around the Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi as soon as a UN security council vote on military action is authorized, according to security council sources.<br />
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A source at UN headquarters in New York said military forces could be deployed "within hours" of a new security council resolution calling for states to protect civilians by halting attacks by Muammar Gaddafi's forces by air, land and sea.<br />
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The resolution would impose a no-fly zone over Libya – but a no-fly zone was no longer enough, the source said. "The resolution authorizes air strikes against tank columns advancing on Benghazi or engaging naval ships bombarding Benghazi," he said.<br />
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Britain, France and Lebanon sponsored the new resolution, which provides the moral and legal basis for military action.<br />
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British and French forces are understood to have been placed on standby after the US said it was prepared to support the measure if Arab countries agreed to take an active role.<br />
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The security council was scheduled to vote on the new resolution this evening, and its backers expressed confidence it would pass after hours of negotiation.<br />
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In London, William Hague, the foreign secretary, indicated to MPs that military preparations to protect Benghazi were at an advanced stage. The no-fly zone would be imposed from land, and not from aircraft carriers.<br />
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"No, it is not the case that carrier-borne aircraft are necessary to do such a thing," Hague said. "In the contingency plans of all the nations, none of them involve an aircraft carrier."<br />
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The increase in military preparations came as Gaddafi announced that his forces would invade Benghazi tonight and would show no mercy on fighters who resisted them.<br />
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"No more fear, no more hesitation, the moment of truth has come," he declared. "There will be no mercy. Our troops will be coming to Benghazi tonight."<br />
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Residents and a rebel spokesman reported three air strikes on the outskirts of the city, including at the airport, and another air raid further south.<br />
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There was also heavy fighting in residential areas of nearby Ajdabiyah, where around 30 people were killed, Al Arabiya reported.<br />
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Libyan authorities also warned that all maritime traffic in the Mediterranean would be in danger if it was targeted by foreign forces.<br />
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In a statement broadcast on Libyan television, the defense ministry said: "Any foreign military act against Libya will expose all air and maritime traffic in the Mediterranean Sea to danger, and civilian and military [facilities] will become targets of Libya's counterattack," the statement said. "The Mediterranean basin will face danger not just in the short-term, but also in the long-term."<br />
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The UN resolution, which calls for "all necessary measures short of an occupation force" to protect civilians, needs the support of a further six further members of the security council to pass – and to avoid vetoes from Russia and China.<br />
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A Downing Street spokesman said: "The prime minister has been making a series of calls on Libya. He has spoken to a number of Arab and African leaders. We can now confirm that he has also spoken to several European leaders.<br />
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"In all his calls, the prime minister has made the case for strong action by the UN security council, to increase the pressure on Gaddafi and put a stop to the campaign he is waging against the Libyan people. The prime minister will be making further calls this evening."<br />
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The move marks a last-gasp attempt to keep the Libyan uprising alive.<br />
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It has been relatively rare in recent years for the UN to give the go-ahead for military action – the security council, for example, refused to support the Iraq invasion. The resolution reflects the extent of despair felt in Britain, France, the US and parts of the Arab world at the prospect of total victory by Gaddafi and fears of a massacre in Benghazi.<br />
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After weeks of prevarication by the US, Washington backed the resolution. The Obama administration was stalled by a split between the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, who favored a no-fly zone, and the defense secretary, Robert Gates, who was opposed. The White House, caught in the middle, dithered.<br />
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Gates redeployed US naval vessels close to the Libyan coast and told Barack Obama that, though heavily engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military was capable of fighting on a third front.<br />
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The US, crucially, insisted it would only act if there was Arab support, in order to avoid it being seen as a western intervention. Several Arab countries have promised to provide planes, but insisted upon their identity being withheld until the resolution was passed.<br />
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Speculation as to which countries would participate include Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.<br />
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There is no plan to send in ground troops, other than for isolated incidents such as rescuing downed pilots.<br />
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Supporters of the resolution, speaking before the vote, said they were confident of achieving the necessary nine votes in the 15-member chamber. A source who was present at the talks said that China and Russia have vetoes that could scupper the resolution, but indicated they would abstain.<br />
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Brazil, Germany and India expressed skepticism over military action, but their votes were not needed to secure a majority.<br />
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John Kerry, the chairman of the US Senate foreign affairs committee, said: "The international community cannot simply watch from the sidelines as the Libyan people's quest for democratic reform is met with violence … Time is running out for the Libyan people. The world needs to respond immediately."<br />
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See also - US Pushing for Broader Military Authorization Against Libya: The U.S.is pushing for the resolution to authorize international forces to stop attacks by Gadhafi's forces on its people conducted on land and by sea as well.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615235978659528709.post-64967167754272619682011-03-10T22:40:00.000-05:002011-03-10T22:40:33.024-05:00America's Secret Plan to Arm Libya's Rebels<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0pAk83j9yfyGWBs6aQblEHwigXbQXbiQBE4M5atkohremqPrJBzj-HmNP4o724vGvqC36bCMD5ppiMZ61PZFyHVZp4Il3mi_RRWGJFFpkMI6qr-JlK3YeprHr9f560WPyK6yBqLDgLHh1/s1600/obama-king-abdullah1-300x257.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="257" width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0pAk83j9yfyGWBs6aQblEHwigXbQXbiQBE4M5atkohremqPrJBzj-HmNP4o724vGvqC36bCMD5ppiMZ61PZFyHVZp4Il3mi_RRWGJFFpkMI6qr-JlK3YeprHr9f560WPyK6yBqLDgLHh1/s400/obama-king-abdullah1-300x257.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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Here we go again... Do these idiots ever learn? Iran-Contra, Taliban, etc.. Now the slimey Americans beg for permission from the greasy Saudis to arm the rebels against Gaddafi. Isn't that like the thief asking the mugger for a dime?<br />
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March 07, 2011 "The Independent" -- Desperate to avoid US military involvement in Libya in the event of a prolonged struggle between the Gaddafi regime and its opponents, the Americans have asked Saudi Arabia if it can supply weapons to the rebels in Benghazi. The Saudi Kingdom, already facing a "day of rage" from its 10 per cent Shia Muslim community on Friday, with a ban on all demonstrations, has so far failed to respond to Washington's highly classified request, although King Abdullah personally loathes the Libyan leader, who tried to assassinate him just over a year ago.<br />
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Washington's request is in line with other US military co-operation with the Saudis. The royal family in Jeddah, which was deeply involved in the Contra scandal during the Reagan administration, gave immediate support to American efforts to arm guerrillas fighting the Soviet army in Afghanistan in 1980 and later – to America's chagrin – also funded and armed the Taliban.<br />
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But the Saudis remain the only US Arab ally strategically placed and capable of furnishing weapons to the guerrillas of Libya. Their assistance would allow Washington to disclaim any military involvement in the supply chain – even though the arms would be American and paid for by the Saudis.<br />
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The Saudis have been told that opponents of Gaddafi need anti-tank rockets and mortars as a first priority to hold off attacks by Gaddafi's armour, and ground-to-air missiles to shoot down his fighter-bombers.<br />
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Supplies could reach Benghazi within 48 hours but they would need to be delivered to air bases in Libya or to Benghazi airport. If the guerrillas can then go on to the offensive and assault Gaddafi's strongholds in western Libya, the political pressure on America and Nato – not least from Republican members of Congress – to establish a no-fly zone would be reduced.<br />
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US military planners have already made it clear that a zone of this kind would necessitate US air attacks on Libya's functioning, if seriously depleted, anti-aircraft missile bases, thus bringing Washington directly into the war on the side of Gaddafi's opponents.<br />
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For several days now, US Awacs surveillance aircraft have been flying around Libya, making constant contact with Malta air traffic control and requesting details of Libyan flight patterns, including journeys made in the past 48 hours by Gaddafi's private jet which flew to Jordan and back to Libya just before the weekend.<br />
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Officially, Nato will only describe the presence of American Awacs planes as part of its post-9/11 Operation Active Endeavour, which has broad reach to undertake aerial counter-terrorism measures in the Middle East region.<br />
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The data from the Awacs is streamed to all Nato countries under the mission's existing mandate. Now that Gaddafi has been reinstated as a super-terrorist in the West's lexicon, however, the Nato mission can easily be used to search for targets of opportunity in Libya if active military operations are undertaken.<br />
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Al Jazeera English television channel last night broadcast recordings made by American aircraft to Maltese air traffic control, requesting information about Libyan flights, especially that of Gaddafi's jet.<br />
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An American Awacs aircraft, tail number LX-N90442 could be heard contacting the Malta control tower on Saturday for information about a Libyan Dassault-Falcon 900 jet 5A-DCN on its way from Amman to Mitiga, Gaddafi's own VIP airport.<br />
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Nato Awacs 07 is heard to say: "Do you have information on an aircraft with the Squawk 2017 position about 85 miles east of our [sic]?"<br />
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Malta air traffic control replies: "Seven, that sounds to be Falcon 900- at flight level 340, with a destination Mitiga, according to flight plan."<br />
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But Saudi Arabia is already facing dangers from a co-ordinated day of protest by its own Shia Muslim citizens who, emboldened by the Shia uprising in the neighbouring island of Bahrain, have called for street protests against the ruling family of al-Saud on Friday.<br />
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After pouring troops and security police into the province of Qatif last week, the Saudis announced a nationwide ban on all public demonstrations.<br />
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Shia organisers claim that up to 20,000 protesters plan to demonstrate with women in the front rows to prevent the Saudi army from opening fire.<br />
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If the Saudi government accedes to America's request to send guns and missiles to Libyan rebels, however, it would be almost impossible for President Barack Obama to condemn the kingdom for any violence against the Shias of the north-east provinces.<br />
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Thus has the Arab awakening, the demand for democracy in North Africa, the Shia revolt and the rising against Gaddafi become entangled in the space of just a few hours with US military priorities in the region.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615235978659528709.post-11731790449298653782011-03-10T22:19:00.000-05:002011-03-10T22:19:46.807-05:00No Fly Zone an Act of WAR<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsA43uJeK5YAOgZxt8w-cpw90PZziECCU6rZdfZhMQxdqatQZY04TAsNpOsFXooU77CWzScx0m87eTcf2IUlh5ILpKPcFa2wmc8p1lLWwy7UcI-wYgENzK-5RRMv9w9mcYPJKw8Sb-ySBp/s1600/Libya+-+banner+no+intervention.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="170" width="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsA43uJeK5YAOgZxt8w-cpw90PZziECCU6rZdfZhMQxdqatQZY04TAsNpOsFXooU77CWzScx0m87eTcf2IUlh5ILpKPcFa2wmc8p1lLWwy7UcI-wYgENzK-5RRMv9w9mcYPJKw8Sb-ySBp/s400/Libya+-+banner+no+intervention.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Today in Libya, civilians are being killed by a besieged and isolated dictator. Libyan warplanes have been used to attack civilians, although the vast majority of the violence has come from ground attacks. The Libyan opposition’s provisional national council, meeting in Benghazi, is debating whether they should request military support from the international community, maybe the UN or NATO, starting with a no-fly zone. The Arab League announced that it was also considering establishing a no-fly zone, perhaps with the African Union.<br />
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It is unclear what casualties the airstrikes may have caused. The anti-regime forces have some access to anti-aircraft weapons, and Qaddafi has already lost planes and pilots alike to the opposition — but it is far from clear where the military balance lies.<br />
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Powerful U.S. voices — including neo-conservative warmongers and liberal interventionists in and out of the administration, as well as important anti-war forces in and out of Congress — are calling on the Obama administration to establish a no-fly zone in Libya to protect civilians.<br />
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A Libyan activist writes in The Guardian, “we welcome a no-fly zone, but the blood of Libya's dead will be wasted if the west curses our uprising with failed intervention.” He says that his hopes for a happy ending are “marred by a fear shared by all Libyans; that of a possible western military intervention to end the crisis.” He seems to believe that a U.S. or NATO no-fly zone would mean something other than a Western military intervention.<br />
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Ironically it was Secretary of Defense Robert Gates who warned that establishing a no-fly zone “begins with an attack on Libya.” It would be an act of war. And the Middle East doesn’t need another U.S. war.<br />
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What would a no-fly zone in Libya mean? A bit of history may provide some perspective.<br />
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<a href="http://www.ips-dc.org/articles/dont_no-fly_libya">http://www.ips-dc.org/articles/dont_no-fly_libya</a><br />
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March 10, 2011 "The Hill" -- Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) on Thursday argued that establishing a no-fly zone over Libya is an act of war that should require congressional approval, and will introduce a sense-of-Congress resolution saying the administration should seek input from the branch before imposing a no-fly policy.<br />
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"Congress should act," Paul said. "I'm preparing to introduce a resolution next week, and it's a sense of Congress, that the executive branch can't do this without approval from the Congress.<br />
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"We have to remember, a no-fly zone is an act of war," he added.<br />
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Paul equated a no-fly zone with an act of war based on the U.S. experience in Iraq, which started with a no-fly zone in the 1990s and ultimately ended in war. He also said it is difficult to establish a no-fly zone without some military activity.<br />
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"You can't just all of a sudden turn a switch and say don't fly over Libya," Paul said. "You have to bomb a lot of anti-aircraft sites and a lot of military establishment. So the war is on."<br />
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Paul also argued that there is no legitimate reason for a no-fly zone over Libya, which is entering a civil war but does not pose any national security threat to the United States.<br />
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"Now, what moral right do we have to participate in war activity against Libya?" he asked. "Libya hasn't done anything to the United States. It would be foolish, it would have a downside, and we should think very, very carefully before we go expanding the wars that we're already involved in."<br />
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Paul is one of 10 House members who sponsored a resolution on Wednesday to direct the president to remove U.S. troops from Afghanistan.<br />
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Give them HELL Ron!! Someone needs to wake these idiot fuckers ruining the country!! The WAR WHORES are screaming for ANOTHER WAR, when they can't handle the ones that are on their plate now. Perhaps it's because NONE of the gutless bastards have ever suited up in a military uniform and had defend our country! The rich pricks are quick to send the average Joe off to war, and for what reason, at what cost to them?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615235978659528709.post-66907494880776558362011-02-12T10:20:00.000-05:002011-02-12T10:20:38.210-05:00Criminal Mubarak Stole Billion$$ with USA Giving the Dictator $28 Billion in Aid Over 30 Years<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ml6YhiuJP1DxWMB2hy-YyKlZ3xTQsEMiurcJeeMb6SdZh9VzzWejdODWG80CbweCM_nbvA_-haPJTShC2HsL-zgI9XhXP3NFoDuuK2hGYt8QYBxVqrYYgV4RPDOqwIVaj5oaeRJdZ_UR/s1600/mubarak+blood+money.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ml6YhiuJP1DxWMB2hy-YyKlZ3xTQsEMiurcJeeMb6SdZh9VzzWejdODWG80CbweCM_nbvA_-haPJTShC2HsL-zgI9XhXP3NFoDuuK2hGYt8QYBxVqrYYgV4RPDOqwIVaj5oaeRJdZ_UR/s400/mubarak+blood+money.jpg" /></a></div><br />
The details of the deposed Criminal Dictator Mubarak’s fortune are a bit muddy, but according to various press reports, the family’s total wealth runs well into the tens of billions of dollars.<br />
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In Asia Times Online, Pepe Escobar reports:<br />
<br />
According to a mix of United States, Syrian and Algerian sources his personal fortune amounts to no less than US $40 billion – stolen from the public treasury in the form of “commissions”, on weapons sales, for instance. The Pharaoh controls loads of real estate, especially in the US; accounts in US, German, British and Swiss banks; and has "links" with corporations such as MacDonald’s, Vodafone, Hyundai and Hermes. Suzanne, the British-Irish Pharaoh’s wife, is worth at least $5 billion. And son Gamal – the one that may have fled to London, now stripped of his role as dynastic heir – also boasts a personal fortune of $17 billion. Or some $60 billion. Some speculate the fortune is around $70 billion.’<br />
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Should Mubarak skip the country, as Corey Pein points out in War Is Business, he might well do it in a business jet provided free of charge by the US taxpayers. “Pentagon contracts show that the US government has spent at least $111,160,328 to purchase and maintain Mubarak’s fleet of nine Gulfstream business jets. (For those keeping score, Gulfstream is a subsidiary of General Dynamics.)” War Is Busines provides copies of the actual contracts. Here is one of them:<br />
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Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., Savannah, Ga., is being awarded a $19,825,221 firm fixed price contract modification to provide for the Foreign Military Sales Program in support of FMS Case Egyptian. The Air Force provides follow-on maintenance support for the Egyptian Government’s Presidential fleet of Gulfstream aircraft. The program will provide depot maintenance support, parts and material repair, and supply, field team, and Aircraft on Ground or urgent situation support. At this time, $14,825,221 of the funds has been obligated. Further funds will be obligated as individual delivery orders are issued. This work will be complete by November 2005. Solicitation began October 2003 and Negotiations were completed October 2003. The Headquarters Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., is the contracting activity (FA8106-04-C-0001).<br />
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It’s tit for tat with Egypt. Pein again:<br />
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When the two military leaders met in May 2009 to discuss “a wide range of security issues,” Egyptian Defence Minister Hussein Tantawi presented US Defense Secretary Robert Gates with a set of gifts. They included a shotgun (with five bullets), a decorative rug and a gilded photo album.With a confidence that, in retrospect, seems dubious, Gates said “he looks forward to expanding the two countries’ military-to-military relationships in ways that promote regional stability.’Five months after that meeting, the Pentagon announced it would sell a new batch of two dozen F-16 fighter aircraft to Egypt—a $3.2 billion deal that is among the most recent of a long string of arms deliveries from America to its North African ally. These F-16s, according to the Pentagon announcement (pdf) would support “Egypt’s legitimate need for its own self-defense.”<br />
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In her blog, Sibel Edmonds, the former FBI translator who exposed corruption and incompetence at the Bureau, writes:<br />
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This is where our government takes our dollars, gives it to dictator allies, and then asks them to turn around, give that money (minus the personal share for personal wealth) to our military industrial complex corporations. Then, we have those CEO’s with $$$$$$$ salaries, and $$$$$$$ to the lobbyists and $$$$$$ to our elected representatives, who then in turn, sanction giving more money, aid, tax payers’ dollars, to these dictators; and the cycle repeats, repeats, repeats…well, it’s been repeating nonstop for more than half a century.<br />
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James Ridgeway is a senior correspondent at Mother Jones. For more of his stories, click here. Get James Ridgeway's RSS feed.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615235978659528709.post-21808183367431401152011-02-10T22:20:00.001-05:002011-02-10T22:21:16.330-05:00Egyptian Dictator Refuses to Step Down, Will Stay Until September<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibZ8aiWQXMIGFkI1stKNDw58H8IW4pH1VGOCxMwtkeBOsveQKjBvioQyrdqehtxl44N0zcmM_M7Szw3YtonRsv7M6Wy29HRwARCrMGL4lXqXQJ02LFLPLU0d7ojvXxLURU_JvVajxz1vCQ/s1600/jewmubarak.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="180" width="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibZ8aiWQXMIGFkI1stKNDw58H8IW4pH1VGOCxMwtkeBOsveQKjBvioQyrdqehtxl44N0zcmM_M7Szw3YtonRsv7M6Wy29HRwARCrMGL4lXqXQJ02LFLPLU0d7ojvXxLURU_JvVajxz1vCQ/s400/jewmubarak.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian Dictator, has refused to step down from his post, saying that he will not bow to "foreign pressure" in a televised address to the nation.<br />
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Mubarak announced that he had put into place a framework that would lead to the amendment of six constitutional articles in the address late on Thursday night.<br />
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"I can not and will not accept to be dictated orders from outside, no matter what the source is," the Dictator Mubarak said.<br />
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He said he was addressing his people with a "speech from the heart"<br />
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Earlier, the Supreme Council of Egyptian Armed Forces had met to discuss the ongoing protests against Dictator Mubarak's government.<br />
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In a statement entitled 'Communique Number One', televised on state television, the army said it had convened the meeting response to the current political turmoil, and that it would continue to convene such meetings.<br />
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Thurday's meeting was chaired by Mohamed Tantawi, the defence minister, rather than Mubarak, who, as Dictator, would normally have headed the meeting.<br />
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"Based on the responsibility of the armed forces and its commitment to protect the people and its keenness to protect the nation... and in support of the legitimate demands of the people [the army] will continue meeting on a continuous basis to examine measures to be taken to protect the nation and its gains and the ambitions of the great Egyptian people," the statement.<br />
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Tens of thousands poured into Tahrir Square after the army statement was televised. Thousands also gathered in Alexandria, Egypt's second city, our correspondent said.<br />
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Earlier, Hassan al-Roweni, an Egyptian army commander, told protesters in the square that "everything you want will be realized".<br />
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Hassam Badrawi, the secretary general of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), told the BBC and Channel 4 News earlier on that he expected Dictator Mubarak to hand over his powers to Omar Suleiman, the vice-Dictator.<br />
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"I think the right thing to do now is to take the action that would satisfy ... protesters," Badrawi told BBC television in a live interview.<br />
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Ahmed Shafiq, the country's prime minister, also told the BBC that the president may step down on Thursday evening, and that the situation would be "clarified soon". He told the Reuters news agency, however, that Mubarak remained in control, and that "everything is still in the hands of the president".<br />
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However, Anas el-Fekky, Egypt's information minister, denied all reports of Mubarak resigning.<br />
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"The president is still in power and he is not stepping down," el-Fekky told Reuters. "The president is not stepping down and everything you heard in the media is a rumour."<br />
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Mubarak met with Omar Suleiman, the vice-Dictator, at the presidential palace ahead of his address.<br />
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'Witnessing history unfold'<br />
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Mahmoud Zaher, a retired general in the Egyptian army, said that Mubarak's absence from the army meeting was a "clear and strong indication that [Mubarak] is no longer present", implying that the Egyptian Dictator was not playing a role in governance any longer.<br />
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In short comments ahead of a scheduled speech at Northern Michigan University, Barack Obama, the US president, said the US was watching the situation in Egypt "very closely". Mubarak had not spoken at that time.<br />
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"What is absolutely clear is that we are witnessing history unfold," he said, adding that this was a "moment of transformation" for Egypt.<br />
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"Going forward, we want ... all Egyptians to know that America will continue to do everything that we can to support an orderly and genuine transition to democracy."<br />
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Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, responded to reports that Mubarak may resign by saying that he hoped whoever replaced him would uphold Egypt's peace treaty with Israel, according to an Israeli radio report.<br />
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Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foriegn affairs chief, said that the 27-nation bloc is ready to help Egypt build a "deep democracy".<br />
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"I reiterated that no matter what happens in the next hours and days, the European Union stands ready to hep build the deep democracy that will underpin stability for the people of Egypt," she said in a statement, referring to a conversation she had with Aboul Gheit, the Egyptian foreign minister, earlier in the day.<br />
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Wael Ghonim, the Google executive who has played a key role in helping protesters get organised, said on Thursday evening: "Mission accomplished. Thanks to all the brave young Egyptians."<br />
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Jacky Rowland, our correspondent in Tahrir Square, described the atmosphere as "electric", with "standing room only" in the central Cairo area. She said that thousands gathered there were "celebrating a victory which has been anticipated, rather than actually achieved".<br />
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In Alexandria, Jamal ElShayyal, our correspondent, described the atmosphere as "festive and joyous".<br />
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Labour union strikes<br />
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The developments came as the 17th day of pro-democracy protests continued across the country on Thursday, with labour unions joining pro-democracy protesters.<br />
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Egyptian labour unions held nationwide strikes for a second day, adding momentum to the pro-democracy demonstrations in Cairo and other cities.<br />
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Al Jazeera correspondents in Cairo reported that thousands of doctors, medical students and lawyers, the doctors dressed in white coats and the lawyers in black robes, marched in central Cairo earlier on Thursday and were hailed by pro-democracy protesters as they entered Tahrir [Liberation] Square.<br />
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The artists syndicate and public transport workers, including bus drivers, also joined the strikes, our correspondents reported.<br />
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"It's certainly increasing the pressure on the government here," Al Jazeera's Steffanie Dekker, reporting from Cairo, said.<br />
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"I think it's worth making the distinction that the strikes going on are more of an economic nature, they are not necessarily jumping on the bandwagon of the protesters in Tahrir Square.<br />
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"Many of them are not actually calling for the president to step down, but fighting for better wages, for better working conditions."<br />
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Pro-democracy supporters across the country have meanwhile called for a ten-million strong demonstration to take place after this week's Friday prayers.<br />
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Hoda Hamid, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Cairo, said that the mood in Liberation Square was "one of defiance, and if we judge by what is happening today, then I think ... many more people will heed that call and turn up".<br />
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She reported that some protesters had drawn up a list of demands beyond simply the exit of Mubarak. They included the formation of a transition government, which would include a council of presidents, representation from the army and well-respected judges, for the period of one year.<br />
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They demanded that parliament be dissolved and that a temporary constitution be put in place while a new one was drawn up by legal experts.<br />
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Cairo reported that at least five government buildings, including the governor's office and the office for public housing, were set alight in two straight days of riots in the northeastern town of Port Said. The situation in the city had calmed by Thursday evening.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615235978659528709.post-31351835688441734602011-01-31T23:47:00.002-05:002011-01-31T23:51:18.454-05:00Jew Lieberman Admires Dictator Mubarek's Power to Shut the Internet, Desires Same Might for US President<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGvu3JX29aCUV8iKuP7ljwrfQmlPhiBXSbP2WmT0D0tdfvU1AazfGUB5fRtp4vVOiKfcC3Kng7MMvhnfPEu9ldvzyZifb-fbY5ufOFK5yuPJdFwthQCOruju2xjDVm9-dHsfKxC56C5630/s1600/jewjoe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="207" width="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGvu3JX29aCUV8iKuP7ljwrfQmlPhiBXSbP2WmT0D0tdfvU1AazfGUB5fRtp4vVOiKfcC3Kng7MMvhnfPEu9ldvzyZifb-fbY5ufOFK5yuPJdFwthQCOruju2xjDVm9-dHsfKxC56C5630/s400/jewjoe.jpg" /></a></div><br />
On Thursday Jan 27th at 22:34 UTC the Egyptian Government effectively removed Egypt from the Internet. Nearly all inbound and outbound connections to the web were shut down. The Internet intelligence authority Renesys explains it here and confirms that "virtually all of Egypt's Internet addresses are now unreachable, worldwide." This has never happened before in the entire history of the Internet, with a nation of this size. A block of this scale is completely unheard of, and Senator Joe (Jew) Lieberman wants to be able to do the same thing in the US.<br />
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This isn't a new move, last year Senators Lieberman and Collins introduced a fairly far-reaching bill that would allow the US Government to shut down civilian access to the Internet should a "Cybersecurity Emergency" arise, and keep it offline indefinitely. That version of the bill received some criticism though Lieberman continued to insist it was important. The bill, now referred to as the 'Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act' (PCNAA) has been revised a bit and most notably <b>now removes all judicial oversight</b>. This bill is still currently circulating and will be voted on later this year. Lieberman has said it should be a top priority.<br />
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It's worth noting that the US sends $1.3 billion in annual military aid to Egypt. That makes the US the primary benefactor of the current Egyptian government. Vice President Joe 'Heartbeat away Jew' Biden stated in an interview with Jim Lehrer on Thursday that Egyptian DICTATOR Hosni Mubarak, who has held that office since 1981, should not be considered a DICTATOR and therefore should not step down. Fortunately, his asinine opinion is not shared universally.<br />
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Mother Jones has a fantastic play-by-play explaining the situation right now in Egypt, and there are reports that some people using Tor are able to skirt around the governmental blocks. <a href="http://www.torproject.org/">http://www.torproject.org/</a><br />
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This is something Americans should be paying very close attention to. Think about your daily life and how big a role the Internet plays in it. Now think about what it would be like if one person had the authority to turn that off completely. If you can't imagine what that would be like you aren't alone. A week ago this was a hypothetical scenario. Now, you can just ask any Egyptian citizen what that feels like. Pay close attention to what happens with this bill.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615235978659528709.post-58437133506292569242011-01-30T11:45:00.000-05:002011-01-30T11:45:33.871-05:00Dictator of Egypt refuses to leave, meets with 'his' Military, USA butts in with demands.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHC3hsv-93_jvReDJ48hy4TvtFLOudooO3b8UnI2QGQay3b4QhIfMUHsAafX5MjM6ym_Z5aGE0-B2ES6j6VKPc5Lb1lOpvJ0EFuB-F1WDxFkYbLBBrJvpR_DoqS5M10QOF6k1H46251NTr/s1600/us+egypt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHC3hsv-93_jvReDJ48hy4TvtFLOudooO3b8UnI2QGQay3b4QhIfMUHsAafX5MjM6ym_Z5aGE0-B2ES6j6VKPc5Lb1lOpvJ0EFuB-F1WDxFkYbLBBrJvpR_DoqS5M10QOF6k1H46251NTr/s400/us+egypt.jpg" /></a></div><br />
CAIRO (Reuters) – Dictator Hosni Mubarak, refusing to step down despite unprecedented demands for an end to his 30-year rule, met on Sunday with the military which is seen as holding the key to Egypt's future while in Cairo, protesters defied a curfew.<br />
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Queen of Evil, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States wanted an "orderly transition" through free and fair elections in its key ally and the Arab world's most populous nation. 'Orderly transition', what a joke, or what Billary, are you going to BOMB Egypt into submission?<br />
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An earthquake of unrest is shaking Mubarak's authoritarian grip on Egypt and the high command's support is vital as other pillars of his ruling apparatus crumble, political analysts said as protests ran on through a sixth day.<br />
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As thousands gathered in the streets, unmolested by patient troops in their American-built tanks, the fragmented opposition gave a sign of coming together. Nobel peace laureate and retired international diplomat Mohamed ElBaradei said he had been given a mandate to reach out to the army and build a new government:<br />
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"Mubarak has to leave today," he told CNN.<br />
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Evil Clinton told Fox News, the US Govt's mouthpiece: "We want to see an orderly transition so that no one fills a void ... We also don't want to see some takeover that would lead not to democracy but to oppression and the end of the aspirations of the Egyptian people." Yes, please, show them how to be 'free', like you did to the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan. As many as 10,000 people, protested in Cairo's Tahrir Square, a rallying point to express anger at poverty, repression, unemployment and corruption.<br />
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As the curfew started and was ignored, warplanes and helicopters flew over the square. By late afternoon more army trucks appeared in a show of military force but no one moved.<br />
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"Hosni Mubarak, Omar Suleiman, both of you are agents of the Americans," shouted protesters, referring to the appointment on Saturday of intelligence chief Suleiman as vice president, the first time Mubarak has appointed a deputy in 30 years of office. Truest statement ever told in Egypt. Listen to the protesters voices and BACK DOWN Jew-SA!<br />
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It was the position Mubarak, 82, held before he become Dictator and many saw the appointment as ending his son Gamal's long-predicted ambitions to take over and as an attempt to reshape the administration to placate reformists.<br />
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Mubarak held talks with Suleiman, Defense Minister Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, Chief of Staff Sami al-Anan and others.<br />
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Clearly those in Tahrir Square did not wish to see Mubarak's ruling structure replaced by a military line-up featuring his closest associates. "Mubarak, Mubarak, the plane awaits," they said. There was also a big protest in Alexandria.<br />
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A senior figure in the Muslim Brotherhood, the banned Islamist group that has long seemed the strongest single force against Mubarak, said it backed ElBaradei as negotiator.<br />
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The Muslim Brotherhood has stayed in the background although several of its senior officials have been rounded up. The government has accused it of planning to exploit the protests.<br />
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SHOCKWAVES AROUND MIDDLE EAST<br />
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The turmoil, in which more than 100 people have died, has sent shock waves through the Middle East where other autocratic rulers may face similar challenges, and unsettled financial markets around the globe as well as Egypt's allies in the West.<br />
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In Tunisia, the detonator of the regional movement, an exiled Islamist leader was welcomed home by thousands on Sunday. In Sudan, Egypt's southern neighbor, police beat and arrested students taking part in anti-government protests in Khartoum.<br />
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For Egyptians, the final straw seems to have been parliamentary elections in November last year, which observers said authorities rigged to exclude the opposition and secure Mubarak's ruling party a rubber-stamp parliament.<br />
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The military response to the crisis has been ambivalent. Troops now guard key buildings after police lost control of the streets, but have neglected to enforce a curfew, often fraternizing with protesters rather than confronting them.<br />
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It remains to be seen if the armed forces will keep Mubarak in power, or decide he is a liability to Egypt's national interests, and their own. It was also unclear if Mubarak had decided to talk with the generals or if he was summoned by them.<br />
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It was Tunisian generals who persuaded former President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to flee last month after weeks of protests.<br />
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In Suez, on the canal, one senior local officer, Brigadier Atef Said said his troops would give protesters a free voice:<br />
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"We will allow protests in the coming days," he told Reuters. "Everyone has the right to voice their opinion. We're listening and trying to help and satisfy all parties. We're not here to stop anyone. These are our people."<br />
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The crisis deepened on Sunday with Egyptians facing lawlessness on the streets with security forces and citizens trying to stop rampaging looters.<br />
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Through the night, Cairo residents armed with clubs, chains and knives formed vigilante groups to guard neighborhoods from marauders after the unpopular police force withdrew following the deadly clashes with protesters.<br />
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As a result the army has deployed in bigger numbers across Egypt, easing some of the panic over law and order. In central Cairo, army check points were set up at some intersections.<br />
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"The armed forces urged all citizens to abide by the curfew precisely and said it would deal with violators strictly and firmly," state television issued a statement.<br />
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Residents expressed hope the army, revered in Egypt and less associated with daily repression than the police and security agencies, would restore order.<br />
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Army tanks and tracked vehicles stood at the capital's street corners, guarding banks as well as government offices including Interior Ministry headquarters. State security fought with protesters trying to attack the building on Saturday night.<br />
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TANKS SPRAYED WITH SLOGANS<br />
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In surreal scenes, soldiers from Mubarak's army stood by tanks covered in anti-Mubarak graffiti: "Down with Mubarak. Down with the despot. Down with the traitor. Pharaoh out of Egypt."<br />
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Asked how they could let protesters scrawl anti-Mubarak slogans on their vehicles, one soldier said: "These are written by the people, it's the views of the people."<br />
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Egypt's sprawling armed forces -- the world's 10th biggest and more than 468,000-strong -- have been at the heart of power since army officers staged the 1952 overthrow of the king. It benefits from about $1.3 billion a year in U.S. military aid.<br />
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Egypt's military appears to be showing restraint and there is no talk at this time about halting U.S. aid to Egypt, Clinton told ABC on Sunday.<br />
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Egyptian state television largely ignored protests until Friday, the biggest day when a curfew was announced. Since then it has given more coverage but has focused on disorder and shown pictures of small protests, not the mass gatherings.<br />
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The government has interfered with Internet access and mobile phone signals to try and disrupt demonstrators' plans.<br />
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TUMULT HITS TOURISTS<br />
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The tumult was affecting Egypt's tourist industry and the United States and Turkey said they were offering evacuation flights for citizens anxious to leave. Other governments advised their citizens to leave Egypt or to avoid traveling there.<br />
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The United States and European powers were busy reworking their Middle East policies, which have supported Mubarak, turning a blind eye to police brutality and corruption in return for a bulwark against first communism and now militant Islam.<br />
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was closely watching events in Egypt, the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with the Jewish state in 1979. It has served a key role in Israel-Palestinian peace talks.<br />
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"This is the Arab world's Berlin moment," said Fawaz Gerges of the London School of Economics, comparing the events to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. "The authoritarian wall has fallen, and that's regardless of whether Mubarak survives."<br />
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(Additional reporting by Dina Zayed, Marwa Awad, Shaimaa Fayed, Sherine El Madany, Yasmine Saleh, Alison Williams and Samia Nakhoul in Cairo, Alexander Dziadosz in Suez, Arshad Mohammed in Washington and Peter Apps, Angus MacSwan and William Maclean in London; Writing by Peter Millership, editing by Alastair Macdonald)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615235978659528709.post-43797637097969909052011-01-29T19:16:00.000-05:002011-01-29T19:16:52.089-05:00Dictator Mubarak Appoints His Intelligence Chief as Egypt's Next Dictator, Riots Ensue, Dead up to 74 now.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwivQRLD5agFxQ1MmOr4KGON1GfPptHJuSsJYELmzUnOc6rTwB5LwdHOBm1k6PeF6VAh8cH7_2qNbJsBUHdIlggmajpteWjCNIDi6XkikE_ZzU9iaRathLXC_hmJEAYcpzJ7V4ml93Rzlq/s1600/capt.9b242b91dd2b4bf3b31873dd1826ec5a-9b242b91dd2b4bf3b31873dd1826ec5a-0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="266" width="399" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwivQRLD5agFxQ1MmOr4KGON1GfPptHJuSsJYELmzUnOc6rTwB5LwdHOBm1k6PeF6VAh8cH7_2qNbJsBUHdIlggmajpteWjCNIDi6XkikE_ZzU9iaRathLXC_hmJEAYcpzJ7V4ml93Rzlq/s400/capt.9b242b91dd2b4bf3b31873dd1826ec5a-9b242b91dd2b4bf3b31873dd1826ec5a-0.jpg" /></a></div><br />
CAIRO – With protests raging, Egypt's president named his intelligence chief as his first-ever vice president on Saturday, setting the stage for a successor as chaos engulfed the capital. Soldiers stood by — a few even joining the demonstrators — and the death toll from five days of anti-government fury rose sharply to 74.<br />
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Saturday's fast-moving developments across the north African nation marked a sharp turning point in President Hosni Mubarak's three-decade rule of Egypt.<br />
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Residents and shopkeepers in affluent neighborhoods boarded up their houses and stores against looters, who roamed the streets with knives and sticks, stealing what they could and destroying cars, windows and street signs. Gunfire rang out in some neighborhoods.<br />
<br />
Tanks and armored personnel carriers fanned out across the city of 18 million, guarding key government buildings, and major tourist and archaeological sites. Among those singled out for special protection was the Egyptian Museum, home to some of the country's most treasured antiquities, and the Cabinet building. The military closed the pyramids on the outskirts of Cairo — Egypt's premier tourist site.<br />
<br />
But soldiers made no moves against protesters, even after a curfew came and went and the crowds swelled in the streets, demanding an end to Mubarak's rule and no handoff to the son he had been grooming to succeed him.<br />
<br />
"This is the revolution of people of all walks of life," read black graffiti scrolled on one army tank in Tahrir Square. "Mubarak, take your son and leave," it said.<br />
<br />
Thousands of protesters defied the curfew for the second night, standing their ground in the main Tahrir Square in a resounding rejection of Mubarak's attempt to hang onto power with promises of reform and a new government.<br />
<br />
Police protecting the Interior Ministry near the site opened fire at a funeral procession for a dead protester, possibly because it came too close to the force. Clashes broke out and at least two people were killed.<br />
<br />
A 43-year-old teacher, Rafaat Mubarak, said the appointment of the president's intelligence chief and longtime confidant, Omar Suleiman, as vice president did not satisfy the protesters.<br />
<br />
"This is all nonsense. They will not fool us anymore. We want the head of the snake," he said in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria. "If he is appointed by Mubarak, then he is just one more member of the gang. We are not speaking about a branch in a tree, we are talking about the roots."<br />
<br />
The crackdown on protesters has drawn harsh criticism from the Obama administration and even a threat Friday to reduce a $1.5 billion foreign aid program if Washington's most important Arab ally escalates the use of force.<br />
<br />
Thousands of passengers were stranded at Cairo's airport as flights were canceled or delayed, leaving them unable to leave because of a government-imposed curfew. Several Arab nations, meanwhile, moved to evacuate their citizens.<br />
<br />
The cancelations of flights and the arrival of several largely empty aircraft appeared to herald an ominous erosion of key tourism revenue.<br />
<br />
The protesters united in one overarching demand — Mubarak and his family must go. The movement is a culmination of years of simmering frustration over a government they see as corrupt, heavy-handed and neglectful of poverty.<br />
<br />
Egyptians were emboldened by the uprising in Tunisia — another North African Arab nation, and further buoyed by their success in defying the ban on gatherings.<br />
<br />
At the end of a long day of rioting and mass demonstrations Friday, Mubarak fired his Cabinet and promised reforms. But the demonstrators returned in force again Saturday to demand a complete change of regime.<br />
<br />
The president appeared to have been preparing his son Gamal to succeed him, possibly as soon as presidential elections planned for later this year. However, there was significant public opposition to the hereditary succession.<br />
<br />
The appointment of Suleiman, 74, answers one of the most intriguing and enduring political questions in Egypt: Who will succeed 82-year-old Mubarak?<br />
<br />
Another question is whether his appointment will calm Egypt's seething cities.<br />
<br />
Mubarak appointed Suleiman shortly after the U.S. said he needed to take concrete action to achieve "real reform." Suleiman is well known and respected by American officials and has traveled to Washington many times.<br />
<br />
Before word that Mubarak had picked his first vice president, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the U.S. wanted to see Mubarak fulfill his pledges of reform.<br />
<br />
"The Egyptian government can't reshuffle the deck and then stand pat," Crowley said on his Twitter account. "President Mubarak's words pledging reform must be followed by action."<br />
<br />
As the army presence expanded in Cairo Saturday, police largely disappeared from the streets — possibly because their presence seemed only to fuel protesters' anger. Egyptian police are hated for their brutality.<br />
<br />
On Friday, 17 police stations throughout Cairo were torched, with protesters stealing firearms and ammunition and freeing some jailed suspects. They also burned dozens of police trucks in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez. On Saturday, protesters besieged a police station in the Giza neighborhood of Cairo, looted and pulled down Egyptian flags, then burned the building to the ground.<br />
<br />
There were no clashes reported between protesters and the military at all, and many in the crowds showered soldiers with affection.<br />
<br />
One army captain joined the demonstrators in Tahrir Square, who hoisted him on their shoulders while chanting slogans against Mubarak. The officer ripped apart a picture of the president.<br />
<br />
"We don't want him! We will go after him!" demonstrators shouted. They decried looting and sabotage, saying: "Those who love Egypt should not sabotage Egypt!"<br />
<br />
Some 200 inmates escaped a jail on the outskirts of the city, starting a fire first to cover their breakout. Eight inmates were killed during the escape.<br />
<br />
On Saturday, feelings of joy over the sustained protest mingled with frustration over the looting and Mubarak's refusal to step down.<br />
<br />
"To hell with Mubarak; We don't serve individuals. We serve this country that we love, just like you," yelled another soldier to protesters from atop a tank scrawled with graffiti that said: "Down with Mubarak!"<br />
<br />
Like Mubarak, Suleiman has a military background. The powerful military has provided Egypt with its four presidents since the monarchy was toppled nearly 60 years ago. He has been in charge of some of Egypt's most sensitive foreign policy issues, including the Palestinian-Israeli peace process.<br />
<br />
Suleiman, additionally, is widely seen as a central regime figure, a position that protesters were likely to view with suspicion.<br />
<br />
Mubarak also named his new prime minister Ahmed Shafiq, the outgoing civil aviation minister and fellow former air force officer.<br />
<br />
Both appointments perpetuate the military's overriding role in Egyptian politics.<br />
<br />
Suleiman's frequent trips to Israel could be held against him by a population that continues to view the Jewish state as a sworn enemy more than 30 years after the two neighbors signed a peace treaty.<br />
<br />
With the two occupying the country's most important jobs after the president from the military, Gamal, a banker-turned-politician, appears out of the running for his father's job.<br />
<br />
A leaked U.S. diplomatic memo said Gamal and his clique of ruling party stalwarts and businessmen were gaining confidence in 2007 about controlling power in Egypt and that they believed that Mubarak would eventually dump Suleiman, who was seen as a threat by Gamal and his coterie of aides.<br />
<br />
Gamal launched his political career within the ranks of the ruling National Democratic Party, climbed over the past 10 years to become its de facto leader, dictating economic policies and bolstering his own political standing.<br />
<br />
Gamal's close aide and confidant, steel tycoon Ahmed Ezz, resigned from the party on Saturday, according to state television. Gamal and Ezz are suspected of orchestrating the rigging of the last parliamentary election in November, making sure the ruling party won all but a small fraction of the chamber's 518 seats.<br />
<br />
"There is nothing short of Mubarak leaving power that will satisfy the people," Mohamed ElBaradei, the country's leading pro-reform activist told The Associated Press on Saturday. "I think what Mubarak said yesterday was an insult to the intelligence of the Egyptian people."<br />
<br />
Buildings, statues and even armored security vehicles were covered in anti-Mubarak graffiti, including the words "Mubarak must fall," which by morning had been written over to say "Mubarak fell."<br />
<br />
The military extended the hours of the night curfew imposed Friday in the three major cities where the worst violence has been seen — Cairo, Alexandria and Suez. State television said it would begin at 4 p.m. and last until 8 a.m., longer than the 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. ban Friday night that appeared to not have been enforced.<br />
<br />
The Internet appeared blocked for a second day to hamper protesters who use social networking sites to organize. And after cell phone service was cut for a day Friday, two of the country's major providers were up and running Saturday.<br />
<br />
In the capital on Friday night, hundreds of young men carted away televisions, fans and stereo equipment looted from the ruling National Democratic Party, near the Egyptian Museum.<br />
<br />
Others around the city looted banks, smashed cars, tore down street signs and pelted armored riot police vehicles with paving stones torn from roadways.<br />
<br />
Banks and the stock market will be closed on Sunday, the first day of the week, because of the turmoil.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615235978659528709.post-17685802741014481332011-01-29T00:06:00.000-05:002011-01-29T00:06:32.894-05:00Egypt Shuts Down Internet<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPhlmj4ZF8vxFOI2c8jt73GdP-vwNZb69A5fmKxAdcj4e3OxlkLWxxcXSMGkyrHTys6lTdEory94pyxZpAQhNt4E-1odkKRNVJpqUdfvLQdmgu9RUZu70Syj5W5zBQi3Bs4uD4PwD1PRO-/s1600/blackout.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="254" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPhlmj4ZF8vxFOI2c8jt73GdP-vwNZb69A5fmKxAdcj4e3OxlkLWxxcXSMGkyrHTys6lTdEory94pyxZpAQhNt4E-1odkKRNVJpqUdfvLQdmgu9RUZu70Syj5W5zBQi3Bs4uD4PwD1PRO-/s400/blackout.png" /></a></div><br />
Virtually all internet access in Egypt is cut off today as the government battles to contain the street protests that threaten to topple Dictator Hosni Mubarak. <br />
<br />
Organizations that track global internet access detected a collapse in traffic in to and out of Egypt at around 10.30GMT on Thursday night.<br />
<br />
The shut down involved the withdrawal of more than 3,500 Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routes by Egyptian ISPs, according to Renesys, a networking firm. Only one ISP out of 10, Noor Data Networks, appeared largely unaffected. It connects to the outside world via an undersea cable operated by Telecom Italia.<br />
<br />
According to BGPMon, another networking firm, 88 per cent of Egyptian internet access was successfully shut down, however.<br />
<br />
Renesys speculated that the apparent anomaly of Noor Data Networks may be a result of the fact it provides services to the Egyptian stock exchange.<br />
<br />
BGP routes are one of the most vital parts of the internet. They are mostly used by ISPs so their networks can exchange information about how to best route the packets of data that make up all internet communications. <br />
<br />
If an ISP withdraws its BGP routes, its customers effectively disappear from the internet, unable to access websites and services, send and receive email, or use voice services such as Skype.<br />
<br />
The Egyptian government’s action is unprecedented in the history of the internet. Countries such as China, Iran, Thailand and Tunisia have cut off access to news websites and social networking services during periods of unrest, as Egypt did when it cut off Facebook and Twitter earlier this week.<br />
<br />
The ongoing attempt by the Egyptian government to shut down all online communication is, however, a new phenomenon. It not only prevents ordinary Egyptian internet users from accessing any websites, it cripples Tor, an anti-censorship tool that technical experts and activists were using to circumvent the Facebook and Twitter blocks.<br />
<br />
The action puts Egypt, temporarily at least, in the company of North Korea, which has never allowed its citizens access to the internet.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615235978659528709.post-8697041801698118112011-01-22T21:22:00.000-05:002011-01-22T21:22:25.016-05:00High-ranking members of US military part of ‘Knights of Malta,’ ‘Opus Dei,’ Proof Wars Faught for Christianity.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFgI-awsImJoQrhW5TJptoM46fvWheKiDVZlb19MlmxZFpnmV6fPlcW6OO1qRrRfzp2PoTfj-GXq3UNC5nu57lqQDwR_pAW7-MyKgxTN2T6IUiJ37X7vlvXrUm5fVc-05fdRV9ncG2tmuX/s1600/ImagineNoReligionMedium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="375" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFgI-awsImJoQrhW5TJptoM46fvWheKiDVZlb19MlmxZFpnmV6fPlcW6OO1qRrRfzp2PoTfj-GXq3UNC5nu57lqQDwR_pAW7-MyKgxTN2T6IUiJ37X7vlvXrUm5fVc-05fdRV9ncG2tmuX/s400/ImagineNoReligionMedium.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Veteran investigative reporter Seymour Hersh has broken some massive stories in his day, but uncovering secret societies within the highest echelons of America's military would probably be the biggest of his career.<br />
<br />
Well, get ready for the media storm, because that's essentially what Hersh told an audience in Doha, Qatar recently, according to a report published earlier this week by Foreign Policy.<br />
<br />
Speaking at a campus operated by Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, Hersh said he was working on a new book that details "how eight or nine neoconservative, radicals if you will, overthrew the American government."<br />
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"It's not only that the neocons took it over but how easily they did it -- how Congress disappeared, how the press became part of it, how the public acquiesced," he continued, according to the published quotes.<br />
<br />
Hersh also lamented President Obama's continuance of the Bush administration's worst abuses.<br />
<br />
"Just when we needed an angry black man, we didn't get one," he reportedly said.<br />
<br />
The Foreign Policy report added that in 2003, those "in the Cheney shop" were not concerned about the havoc the invasion of Iraq was destined to cause.<br />
<br />
"[The] attitude was, 'What's this? What are they all worried about, the politicians and the press, they're all worried about some looting?" Hersh was quoted as saying. "Don't they get it? We're gonna change moseques into cathedrals. And when we get all the oil, nobody's gonna give a damn.' That's the attitude. We're gonna change mosques into cathedrals. That's an attitude that pervades, I'm here to say, a large percentage of the Joint Special Operations Command [JSOC]."<br />
<br />
He further claimed that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Vice Admiral William McRaven and others in the JSOC were members of the "Knights of Malta" and "Opus Dei," two little known Catholic orders.<br />
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"They do see what they're doing -- and this is not an atypical attitude among some military -- it's a crusade, literally," Hersh reportedly continued. "They see themselves as the protectors of the Christians. They're protecting them from the Muslims [as in] the 13th century. And this is their function."<br />
<br />
He added that members of these societies have developed a secret set of insignias that represent "the whole notion that this is a culture war" between religions.<br />
<br />
It was President George W. Bush who first invoked images of a holy war in the Middle East, when he suggested soon after Sept. 11, 2001 that the US was on a "crusade" in the region.<br />
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The "Knights of Malta" were a Catholic order founded in 1085 as a group of monks who cared for the wounded. It evolved into a military order that safeguarded Christian pilgrims from Muslims during the nine "Crusades," where Europe's Christian states laid siege to Muslims for control of Jerusalem.<br />
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"Opus Dei," popularly depicted in the Hollywood film "The DaVinci Code," was founded in 1928 and officially accepted as part of the Catholic church in 1947. The group's website claimed their principle calling was to bring about a "Christian renewal" around the world.<br />
<br />
Doubts, denials and a distinctive trend<br />
<br />
Raw Story reached out to Hersh and The New Yorker to confirm the accuracy of his quotes, placing this report on hold until they responded. Both declined to make any further statement, neither confirming nor denying the quotes.<br />
<br />
However, one source close to Hersh who spoke to Raw Story off the record, suggested that Foreign Policy's report was indeed correct.<br />
<br />
Raw Story followed-up on the quotes due to a widely-reported false claim attributed to Hersh in May 2009, where he'd allegedly said former Vice President Dick Cheney ordered the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.<br />
<br />
The report, which appeared to have originated in Pakistan, was picked up by The Wall Street Journal and the conservative-leaning American Spectator, but both removed the links after Raw Story published a denial from Hersh. A link to Raw Story's original report was unavailable due to a database malfunction.<br />
<br />
Hersh, a Pulitzer-winning author and reporter, has previously reported that the JSOC was set up by former Vice President Cheney as something of an "executive assassination squad" that operated outside of congressional authority.<br />
<br />
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who resigned after Rolling Stone reporter Michael Hastings quoted him mocking the US civilian command, led JSOC before taking command of America's war effort in Afghanistan.<br />
<br />
In an email to the military's Stars and Stripes publication, McChrystal's spokesman, David Bolger, panned Hersh's claim.<br />
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“The allegations recently made by Seymour Hersh relating to General McChrystal’s involvement with an organization called The Knights of Malta are completely false and without basis in fact,” he reportedly wrote. “General McChrystal is not and has never been a member of that organization.”<br />
<br />
The religious indoctrination of US soldiers has been in headlines in recent weeks as soldiers who "failed" the "spiritual fitness" portion of the "comprehensive soldier fitness" test claimed they were forced to attend Christian ceremonies and become "born again" by professing love for the Christian deity.<br />
<br />
Similarly, GQ magazine uncovered last year a series of top-secret military briefings prepared by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld that included passages from the Bible.<br />
<br />
Trijicon Inc., a defense contractor, was also discovered last January to have been for years placing scriptural references on gun sights used by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan.<br />
<br />
Their actions revealed Trijicon was forced to provide the Pentagon with kits to remove the codes.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615235978659528709.post-77338362301335570322011-01-19T22:44:00.000-05:002011-01-19T22:44:18.318-05:00Ousted Tunisian president 'living in remote USA Friendly Saudi area known for al-Qaeda links'<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmsWf1amD0oBm2QXUViMbm0c3mMhtxa6oxzBOUJf2Tezs3aMR5n0UbNG6lhMsPom3sgYb2ZzR71tjlO6YMW-2cdDli476283swme4NS8WrC7i2kj0uAHEGcs2Chpl16FRJCKVZhXKKWyoD/s1600/BushSaudiPrinceAbdullahHoldingHands.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="264" width="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmsWf1amD0oBm2QXUViMbm0c3mMhtxa6oxzBOUJf2Tezs3aMR5n0UbNG6lhMsPom3sgYb2ZzR71tjlO6YMW-2cdDli476283swme4NS8WrC7i2kj0uAHEGcs2Chpl16FRJCKVZhXKKWyoD/s400/BushSaudiPrinceAbdullahHoldingHands.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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The land that brought the USA 15 of the 19 hijackers that 'supposedly' brought down the World Trade Centers and forced America's hand into the Bush led 'War on Terror' now offers a lending hand to a dictator in need.. How charming.. The wonderful country that is filled with rabid Islamists that profess pure hatred for Israel and refuse to allow any Jew into their country, have allowed another dictator protection and asylum in their land. I'm sure the Bush's and their Nazi kin are dancing beneath their white hoods and sheets as I am writing this.<br />
<br />
It brings tears to ones eyes as we remember the sweet surrender of George Bush and Prince Abdullah holding hands as they walked along and chatted like schoolgirls.<br />
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The two terrorists were obviously enamored in their mutual lust for violence and war..<br />
<br />
Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali, the ex-president of Tunisia, has been sent to live in a conservative southern province of Saudi Arabia known for its links to al-Qaeda, according to reports. <br />
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Mr Ben Ali flew to the Red Sea city of Jeddah on Friday night after being refused permission to land in France, Tunisia's former colonial master.<br />
<br />
He stayed briefly there and is even rumoured to have paid a brief pilgrimage to nearby Mecca. But according to local reports, he has now been found somewhere to stay 300 miles to the south in Abha, the capital of Asir province, which neighbours Yemen.<br />
<br />
Although Saudi al-Qaeda members come from all over the country, a high proportion come from relatively conservative, economically underdeveloped provinces such as Asir, including several of the 9/11 attackers. In a recording, Osama bin Laden later said of them: "Asir's tribes formed the lion's share."<br />
<br />
Said al-Shehri, deputy commander of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, is from Khamis Mushayt, not far from Abha.<br />
<br />
That Mr Ben Ali, who banned Islamist parties and was well known for high-living, has been granted asylum by puritanical Saudi Arabia is already subject of a number of jokes in the Arab world. <br />
<br />
According to Mustafa Alani, an analyst based in Dubai with good Saudi connections, he has been allowed to stay in Saudi Arabia on condition he takes no part in politics and does not speak to the media - conditions that also applied to other political leaders who sought refuge there, from Idi Amin of Uganda to ex-prime ministerNawaz Sharif of Pakistan.<br />
<br />
In keeping with their tradition of offering a home to former leaders, the kingdom's rulers are likely to resist all calls to have the family returned to face trial, despite assurances by the Tunisian prime minister, Mohamed Ghanouchi, that anyone involved in orders to crack down on last week's protests would face justice.<br />
<br />
He is also said to have been joined in Saudi Arabia by his unpopular wife, Leila, after she flew at first to Dubai with a number of her relatives. It is the second marriage for both of the couple, and they have two daughters and a son. <br />
<br />
Their two daughters, Nesrine and Cyrine, are staying in Disneyland Paris, along with Nesrine's husband, Sakher El Materi.<br />
<br />
Mrs Trabelsi also has a large clan of brothers and nephews, one of whom, Imed Trabelsi, is said to have been killed by an angry mob as he tried to fly out of the country on Friday.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615235978659528709.post-14732279648584452692011-01-11T23:06:00.000-05:002011-01-11T23:06:30.662-05:00US forced to import bullets from Israel as troops use 1.8 billion rounds per year<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiSKqI5Zm0Kw9mzvOCL3s2yG9PTEThIkIDkUmiJu0SJJHTDNt_Uqu_gehOGzO3cNOc_n9QUzmolD181uj-aZ0lspW45gQMpdHcjCtk_I1lsjIvgTZU3UG5abXJg061PzpjagOq_FqJa-Co/s1600/farrow-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="337" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiSKqI5Zm0Kw9mzvOCL3s2yG9PTEThIkIDkUmiJu0SJJHTDNt_Uqu_gehOGzO3cNOc_n9QUzmolD181uj-aZ0lspW45gQMpdHcjCtk_I1lsjIvgTZU3UG5abXJg061PzpjagOq_FqJa-Co/s400/farrow-1.jpg" /></a></div><br />
US forces have fired so many bullets in Iraq and Afghanistan - an estimated 250,000 for every insurgent killed - that American ammunition-makers cannot keep up with demand. As a result the US is having to import supplies from Israel.<br />
<br />
US forces have fired so many bullets in Iraq and Afghanistan - an estimated 250,000 for every insurgent killed - that American ammunition-makers cannot keep up with demand.<br />
<br />
A government report says that US forces are now using 1.8 billion rounds of small-arms ammunition a year. The total has more than doubled in five years, largely as a result of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as changes in military doctrine.<br />
<br />
"The Department of Defense's increased requirements for small- and medium-calibre ammunitions have largely been driven by increased weapons training requirements, dictated by the army's transformation to a more self-sustaining and lethal force - which was accelerated after the attacks of 11 September, 2001 - and by the deployment of forces to conduct recent US military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq," said the report by the General Accounting Office (GAO).<br />
<br />
Estimating how many bullets US forces have expended for every insurgent killed is not a simple or precisely scientific matter. The former head of US forces in Iraq, General Tommy Franks, famously claimed that his forces "don't do body counts".<br />
<br />
But senior officers have recently claimed "great successes" in Iraq, based on counting the bodies of insurgents killed. Maj-Gen Rick Lynch, the top US military spokesman in Iraq, said 1,534 insurgents had been seized or killed in a recent operation in the west of Baghdad. Other estimates from military officials suggest that at least 20,000 insurgents have been killed in President George Bush's "war on terror".<br />
<br />
John Pike, director of the Washington military research group GlobalSecurity.org, said that, based on the GAO's figures, US forces had expended around six billion bullets between 2002 and 2005. "How many evil-doers have we sent to their maker using bullets rather than bombs? I don't know," he said.<br />
<br />
"If they don't do body counts, how can I? But using these figures it works out at around 300,000 bullets per insurgent. Let's round that down to 250,000 so that we are underestimating."<br />
<br />
Pointing out that officials say many of these bullets have been used for training purposes, he said: "What are you training for? To kill insurgents."<br />
<br />
Kathy Kelly, a spokeswoman for the peace group Voices in the Wilderness, said Mr Bush believed security for the American people could come only from the use of force. Truer security would be achieved if the US developed fairer relations with other countries and was not involved in the occupation of Iraq. The President, said Ms Kelly, should learn from Israel's experience of "occupying the Palestinians" rather than buying its ammunition.<br />
<br />
The GAO report notes that the three government-owned, contractor-operated plants that produce small- and medium-calibre ammunition were built in 1941.<br />
<br />
Though millions of dollars have been spent on upgrading the facilities, they remain unable to meet current munitions needs in their current state. "The government-owned plant producing small-calibre ammunition cannot meet the increased requirements, even with modernisation efforts," said the report.<br />
<br />
"Also, commercial producers within the national technology and industrial base have not had the capacity to meet these requirements. As a result, the Department of Defense had to rely at least in part on foreign commercial producers to meet its small-calibre ammunition needs."<br />
<br />
A report in Manufacturing & Technology News said that the Pentagon eventually found two producers capable of meeting its requirements. One of these was the US firm Olin-Winchester.<br />
<br />
The other was Israel Military Industries, an Israeli ammunition manufacturer linked to the Israeli government, which produces the bulk of weapons and ordnance for the Israeli Defence Force.<br />
<br />
The Pentagon reportedly bought 313 million rounds of 5.56mm, 7.62mm and 50-calibre ammunition last year and paid $10m (about £5.5m) more than it would have cost for it to produce the ammunition at its own facilities.<br />
<br />
Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/us-forced-to-import-bullets-from-israel-as-troops-use-250000-for-every-rebel-killed-15050027.html#ixzz1An32NvGNUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615235978659528709.post-62215808402264437072011-01-04T22:42:00.001-05:002011-01-06T19:23:59.651-05:00FORMER VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY ACCUSED OF ENGINEERING PENTAGON ATTACK DONALD RUMSFELD CITED AS POSSIBLE ACCOMPLICE<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/TrZ14NRbT-s?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/TrZ14NRbT-s?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br />
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Confirmed sources in the Nigerian government tell us, in order to keep former Vice President Cheney out of prison for crimes involving Nigeria, $500,000,000 in bribes have been promised, negotiated by former President George H.W. Bush. Now, only a day later, Cheney faces possible charges, so many charges they can only be imagined, for planning the Pentagon attack on 9/11.<br />
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TV host, Jesse Ventura, former Navy Seal, former Governor of Minnesota, on a one hour documentary on prime-time American television, makes an open and shut criminal case tying Cheney, Rumsfeld and officials throughout the US government with complicity in the planning, execution and subsequent cover-up of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon.<br />
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According to experts on 9/11, engineers, pilots, intelligence officers and members of our military, Jesse Ventura “hit the nail on the head.” Ventura, using evidence developed over 9 years by hundreds of individuals, outlines the utter impossibility of the government’s cover story on 9/11 and systematically debunks it using testimony and scientific evidence.<br />
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Ventura cites, in an interview with a 9/11 commissioner, a possible motive for the Pentagon attack being included with the attacks on the World Trade Center. $2,300,000,000,000, yes 2.3 trillion US dollars had disappeared, cited only the day before in a televised statement by Secretary Rumsfeld, money “gone missing” from the Pentagon’s accounting. The area of the Pentagon hit by a missile or destroyed by explosives or both contained all records of this missing money.<br />
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NO PLANE, NO WAY, NOT EVEN CLOSE<br />
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Ventura proves, beyond any doubt that no airplane every hit the Pentagon. As the video shows, not even a highly trained airline pilot was capable of the maneuvers claimed. Long before, it had been proven that the 757 was incapable of the task, either the maneuvers or the speed and trajectory. The plane would have come apart, there is no disagreement with this and hasn’t been for some time, yet nothing had been done. Why?<br />
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It is also clearly shown that there is absolutely no evidence of any kind showing a plane hit the Pentagon, no wreckage, no bodies, no luggage. Items claimed to have been taken to Dover Air Force Base, bodies, plane parts, were never at the Pentagon as both video and testimony prove.<br />
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There is also proof that the government threatened witnesses, telling them to support the “aircraft scenario.”<br />
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NO MUSLIMS, NO HIJACKERS, NO BOX CUTTERS, ALL PROVEN LIES FINALLY<br />
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The basis for the conspiracy theory regarding Muslim hijackers with box cutters was based on supposed phone calls made by Barbara Olson, wife of Bush Solicitor General. Solicitor General Olson claimed he talked to his wife on a cell phone, spoke with her at length, while she described the hijackings as now dramatized by Hollywood. When it was proven that a cell phone is incapable of making such calls, Olson claimed it was a “seat back phone.” When it was proven that there were no seat back phones on American Airlines 757 aircraft, nothing further was asked.<br />
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Then investigations shows he received one call, lasting “0″ seconds. Ventura questions as to whether Olson was duped or complicit? Should he be arrested too? Was his wife, Barbara, ever really on the plane?<br />
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Then Ventura looks into the flight itself. Not only was the flight recorder “dead” but during the flight itself, the transponder was turned off. Even more suspicious, the plane disappeared from radar for 28 minutes.<br />
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There is no discussion of this 28 minutes, but speculation, perhaps no longer speculation, has long been that the flight landed. As to what happened then, we cannot guess, or can we. One of my friends, a former Pentagon official, had a friend on that aircraft. Not long ago, he asked me.<br />
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“Gordon, what do you think happened to him, do you think he was executed? Bullet in the brain as they stepped off the plane or something even worse?”<br />
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Ventura didn’t go there. None of us want to. It requires visualizing a scene out of Auschwitz.<br />
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Can Americans be so brutal, so devious, so traitorous? It isn’t just Jesse Ventura that is willing to risk his life to bring it out, Fox News journalist Geraldo Rivera, several weeks ago, debunked the Building 7 collapse at the World Trade Center as “controlled demolition.”<br />
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9/11 COMMISSION DUPED, ADMITS THERE WAS NO REAL INVESTIGATION AT ALL<br />
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Commission video’s redacted to remove testimony by the Secretary of Transportation, transcripts altered, witnesses blocked, evidence, tons of evidence of government conspiracy withheld, this is the case against the government. Threats, intimidation, going on for years, this is proven. Were there more than threats, murders, “heart attacks” or threats against families? Ventura proves the Pentagon was a government conspiracy, he “names names.” Geraldo makes any other explanation for Building 7 other than “controlled demolition” pure insanity.<br />
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IGNORING EVIDENCE, PROOF OF DICTATORSHIP OR ARE ARRESTS PLANNED?<br />
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It isn’t as though the evidence presented by Governor Ventura and Geraldo Rivera or even the other stories, Judge Napolitano’s revelations of knowledge of the attacks as early as 1999, was new. All has been know, all highly credible and all systematically ignored, attacked by the press, suppressed by courts, officials at every level.<br />
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9/11 and the recent revelations aren’t proof of a conspiracy by 2 men, or Israel. It is proof that there never was an Al Qaeda and that the deaths, two wars, the 9/11 deaths and the carnage across the world wrought by the United States was part of a criminal conspiracy, one that could only be perpetrated by a dictatorship under the guise of representative democracy.<br />
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Everything we have seen, and millions around the world have watched, nobody can ignore it anymore, it all says that what has happened is something no American would allow, not if this still were America. Jesse Ventura proved something startling to most, suspected by some. He proved that, at some point in our past, 10 years, more, we don’t know, our government was overthrown.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615235978659528709.post-51084049954954186602010-12-30T01:27:00.001-05:002010-12-30T01:29:06.980-05:00Seattle Transit Agency Rejects Bus Ads Exposing Israeli War Crimes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5pYoa6L3V5OqHhBZPh-VXIVjvXiUQNqBbi8w4y1fIHBQqj6duJ-hi2XUd_JdXrbepnrqHpPHhXe6T1w1UR6a-ggeZVwUvvnf5RmuhgF9UmVKNwnvZSvv-sZjD-40_E-KNdwo5llEmU_8Y/s1600/israel+war+crimes.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="159" width="94" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5pYoa6L3V5OqHhBZPh-VXIVjvXiUQNqBbi8w4y1fIHBQqj6duJ-hi2XUd_JdXrbepnrqHpPHhXe6T1w1UR6a-ggeZVwUvvnf5RmuhgF9UmVKNwnvZSvv-sZjD-40_E-KNdwo5llEmU_8Y/s400/israel+war+crimes.png" /></a></div><br />
SEATTLE — Israeli war crimes almost exposed, let the cover-up continue..<br />
King County Metro Transit will not allow bus ads alleging "Israeli war crimes" after all (and caving to the Jews, NOW won't allow ANY outside advertising).<br />
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Transit officials Thursday rejected a proposed ad from the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign that ties alleged war crimes to U.S. military aid.<br />
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That proposed ad, expected to appear next week, sparked a furor, with thousands of comments flooding into the transit agency as two groups said they planned to run their own ads to counter the "Israeli war crimes" message.<br />
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Metro Transit said Thursday it also would not be allowing the counter ads.<br />
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In addition, King County Executive Dow Constantine, citing the potential for disruption to transit service, on Thursday approved an interim policy from Metro Transit that calls for a halt to the acceptance of any new noncommercial advertising on King County buses, according to a news release.<br />
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Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Seattle+transit+agency+rejects+alleging+Israeli+crimes/4021093/story.html#ixzz19ZcTHcA8Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615235978659528709.post-41233137336614866412010-12-30T01:17:00.000-05:002010-12-30T01:17:04.182-05:00Nigeria to drop Dick Cheney Charges after Bush plea bargains to Save his War Criminal Buddy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeamF5A_lyjmXa-2WAv76TJwdlk0ibEyX4bn0qVSWF2rA4VrVou0K82c-BE_ulZjcIob3mJf1SaGlQ2dZzh4UjqMM8LvBM_Jx0HD8q9nA4mi5FVt_DqFw21GjWp_f76MUwHFWCMB2lHr0J/s1600/war+criminals.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="171" width="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeamF5A_lyjmXa-2WAv76TJwdlk0ibEyX4bn0qVSWF2rA4VrVou0K82c-BE_ulZjcIob3mJf1SaGlQ2dZzh4UjqMM8LvBM_Jx0HD8q9nA4mi5FVt_DqFw21GjWp_f76MUwHFWCMB2lHr0J/s400/war+criminals.jpg" /></a></div>Nigeria's anti-corruption police have dropped charges against Dick Cheney, the former US vice-president, over a multi-million dollar bribery case after the energy firm Halliburton agreed to pay up to $250m (£161m) in fines.<br />
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The move followed the intervention of ex-president George Bush Sr and former secretary of state James Baker, according to Nigerian press reports.<br />
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The country's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said it met officials representing Cheney and Halliburton in London last week after filing 16-count charges relating to the construction of a liquefied natural gas plant in the conflict-ridden Niger delta.<br />
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Femi Babafemi, a spokesman for the EFCC, said: "There was a plea bargain on the part of the company to pay $250m as fines in lieu of prosecution."<br />
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The sum consists of $120m (£77m) in penalties and the repatriation of $130m (£83m) trapped in Switzerland, he added.<br />
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Babafemi said he expected Nigeria's attorney general Mohammed Adoke to ratify the decision . "I can tell you authoritatively that an agreement has been reached."<br />
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Several Nigerian newspapers added that Bush and Baker took part in negotiations through conference calls with Adoke and other officials, but Babafemi could not confirm this.<br />
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Houston-based engineering firm KBR, a former Halliburton unit, pleaded guilty last year to US charges that it paid $180m in bribes between 1994 and 2004 to Nigerian officials to secure $6bn in contracts for the Bonny Island liquefied natural gas project in the delta. KBR and Halliburton reached a $579m settlement in America but Nigeria, France and Switzerland have conducted their own investigations into the case.<br />
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Last week, the EFCC charged Halliburton chief executive David Lesar, Cheney, and two other executives. It also filed charges against Halliburton as a company, which was headed by Cheney during the 1990s, and four associated businesses.<br />
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Campaigners in the Niger delta expressed disappointment at the plea bargain. Celestine AkpoBari, programme officer at Social Action Nigeria, said: "I would have loved to see Dick Cheney in chains in our court and facing justice in our prisons. That would have been a very big point that would have lifted Nigeria out of its woes."<br />
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Kentebe Ebiaridor, a project assistant at Environment Rights Action, suggested that Bush and Baker took part to protect America's huge oil interests in the region. "They are trying not to jeopardise the relationship," he said. "But if Dick Cheney is guilty, he should be brought to book."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615235978659528709.post-35239577883681229292010-12-28T21:36:00.000-05:002010-12-28T21:36:26.088-05:00Canada's Spy Agency CSEC Comes up from the Basement into new $880m Compound<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd1XQdKSfFblXUcEe1jzWRQBJPoHxPgBUm2JUDN-qUPL0H3sxfMAc5gzYJRbvGuXsU6igxf1n9ZE2ymasFJsMLhiWFU38Lh_MwVXL1b7k1RJaThUM9QCodCpgvW4DnCauvIga6IgqZpsGg/s1600/CSIS-BRONSKILL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="258" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd1XQdKSfFblXUcEe1jzWRQBJPoHxPgBUm2JUDN-qUPL0H3sxfMAc5gzYJRbvGuXsU6igxf1n9ZE2ymasFJsMLhiWFU38Lh_MwVXL1b7k1RJaThUM9QCodCpgvW4DnCauvIga6IgqZpsGg/s400/CSIS-BRONSKILL.jpg" /></a></div><br />
At a time when most government agencies are cutting and slashing, a little-known spy agency led by a Rhodes Scholar is the envy of Ottawa for its planned billion-dollar headquarters.<br />
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A rising force in the national-security apparatus, the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) is an electronic-eavesdropping agency that gathers intelligence from abroad. Led by 68-year-old military veteran John Adams, the agency keeps its operations quiet, reporting only to Canada’s military and civilian leadership.<br />
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For the first time since he took over the agency in 2005, Mr. Adams has discussed CSEC’s mission and future, which includes plans for an $880-million headquarters housing hundreds of mathematicians, engineers and computer scientists by 2015.<br />
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News of the planned 72,000 square-metre compound is raising eyebrows around the national capital, given few people outside of government know what CSEC is or what it does.<br />
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But “if you were to ask the Canadian Forces if there is anyone that has saved Canadian lives in Afghanistan, they would point to us,” Mr. Adams told The Globe and Mail. He said that well over half of the “actionable intelligence” that soldiers use in Afghanistan comes from his agency.<br />
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This work is distinct from that done by a far better known spy agency –the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.<br />
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The difference between the two boils down to tradecraft and jurisdiction.<br />
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CSIS – Canada’s human-intelligence, or “HumInt” agency – has its people and agents train their actual eyes and ears on security threats inside the country.<br />
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CSEC – the “signals-intelligence” or “SigInt” counterpart – relies almost wholly on technology to hear what people are saying abroad (spying on Canadians is illegal). Since being formed in the 1940s, this agency has rarely told anyone the fruits of its findings, save for its two masters – the Department of National Defence and the Privy Council Office.<br />
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On paper, the two agencies’ mandates don’t overlap, but in practise their operations are running together more than ever. That’s why the new CSEC complex is being built next to CSIS’ current headquarters – and why architects are planning to install a glass bridge connecting the two.<br />
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As envisioned, the seven-building CSEC complex will be the equivalent of a 90-storey skyscraper turned on its side – a highly secure compound outfitted with the latest high-tech gear. Two nearby electrical generating stations will power the agency’s computers, which suck in millions of conversations from around the world each day and scour them for intelligence information.<br />
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CSEC’s 1,700 staff and $300-million budget are double what they were a decade ago. Yet the agency’s bricks-and-mortar surroundings have been neglected. Some staff complain that a wall-sized mainframe computer has even fallen through an old floor. The current complex, a scattering of Cold War-era buildings near Carleton University, can no longer suck enough energy off the grid to sustain operations.<br />
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“We’ve run out of power,” said Mr. Adams, whose facilities use about as much energy as a small town. “We’ve got 700 people buried in a basement.”<br />
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Now the plan is to bring staff out of their subterranean cloisters and into collaborative work spaces, ones where cryptologists and engineers work together in bright rooms surrounded by daylight and foliage.<br />
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The plan doesn’t just envision $880-million in construction costs. According to a union representing CSEC employees, there is also a somewhat unique arrangement that will commit Ottawa to spend up to $5-billion more over the next 34 years. These costs are part of a “public-private partnership” – incorporating a complex mix of debt-servicing costs, standard-operating payments and an unusual facilities-management deal with a private consortium.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615235978659528709.post-92103409758842510992010-12-26T00:12:00.003-05:002010-12-26T00:17:50.795-05:00Patriot App lets you Spy on Your Fellow Citizens, and Reports Directly to the Communist U.S. Govt<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioMMTIFUlA7-TBlI-2wGZY-SyD1Czn1TX39kZ-9XTAjsrguvFE_eopFaO-BUJciYsPUUn08-TYKI7ln2XhRC7JPOYl3UUr8RtPQjOBfduxf2UejGg8-tPXgszVQGFtqzNlt7Buhf6-EW-w/s1600/patriotapp+for+commies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="301" width="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioMMTIFUlA7-TBlI-2wGZY-SyD1Czn1TX39kZ-9XTAjsrguvFE_eopFaO-BUJciYsPUUn08-TYKI7ln2XhRC7JPOYl3UUr8RtPQjOBfduxf2UejGg8-tPXgszVQGFtqzNlt7Buhf6-EW-w/s400/patriotapp+for+commies.jpg" /></a></div><br />
In yet another move towards an East Germany type snitch society, a company called Citizens Concept has launched an App with the catchy name, “PatriotApp.” Apparently this App is named after the Patriot Act and we all know how wonderful and patriotic that Orwellian, Constitution destroying law has been.<br />
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Just ask Susan Lindauer who was arrested as an Iraqi agent under the Patriot Act when she was clearly working for the U.S. government but had information that the Republican leadership did not want to hear!<br />
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This App allows citizens to snitch on their neighbors just as Hitler convinced thousands of Germans to tell on their own neighbors and family.<br />
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The App essentially connects your phone to the FBI, EPA, GAO, and CDCs tip line. Why would American citizens need to report suspicious activity to the EPA, the same agency who literally let our gulf been chemically raped by millions of gallons of toxic Corexit?<br />
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Are Americans expected to report tips to the FBI so that the FBI can go out and give the “suspicious” person fake bombs and claim they were scary Muslim terrorists?<br />
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PatriotApps -<br />
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Citizen Concepts announces the launch of PatriotAppTM, the world’s first iPhone application that empowers citizens to assist government agencies in creating safer, cleaner, and more efficient communities via social networking and mobile technology. This app was founded on the belief that citizens can provide the most sophisticated and broad network of eyes and ears necessary to prevent terrorism, crime, environmental negligence, or other maliciousbehavior. <br />
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More efficient communities? Is this App eventually going to be used and connected to the green police? Are American citizens being lined up to snitch on their neighbors if their “carbon input” is too high?<br />
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MSNBC, the same company who received millions in bailout money and has labeled 9/11 Truthers as terrorists had this to say:<br />
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MSNBC<br />
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Launched in September, the PatriotApp allows people to report criminal or suspicious activity to several federal agencies, including the FBI, EPA, CDC and GAO (Government Accountability Office), the office responsible for investigating public funds. It also includes RSS feeds for the FBI’s Most Wanted list and the Department of Homeland Security’s threat level, and allows people to report workplace harassment and discrimination.<br />
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The app doesn’t grant a user privileged access to these agencies; rather, it bundles each group’s Internet tip line (ITL) — the website feature used to report incidents — and makes them mobile-phone friendly, and even enables users to send pictures. While it offers users a direct portal to each site’s ITL, the user must still go through the same process — and obey the same policies and warnings — as they would if accessing the site on a computer.<br />
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Playing off the Patriot Act name, “the app was founded on the belief that citizens can provide the most sophisticated and broad network of eyes and ears necessary to prevent terrorism, crime, environmental negligence, or other malicious behavior,” according to Patriotapps.com.<br />
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Our country is headed towards a Nazi style police state. DHS in stores nationwide, citizens being urged to snitch on their neighbors, and Americans being arrested for “thought” crime.<br />
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Maybe you little commie wannabes can get this app for your iPhone after filling out your InfraGard application. Run along now and be sure to report this site you communist bastards..Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615235978659528709.post-80787910782741935572010-12-23T00:34:00.000-05:002010-12-23T00:34:20.580-05:00“Monitoring America” the US Govt's new “See something, say something” Spy Network<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtpcgPIjBL-tGZC47iy_dpqfgtaDTiifuJYZfhyphenhyphenseefdrq4i2FvhzEKb3cDR-nceS8t6wbQ4XESOVRPdKZiQFUBaE7F0S-AQJHjqCDuCmRq3l4XjohKd_rjRhbHQomanFbe1squtGX-VXV/s1600/A-Spy-Cams.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="299" width="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtpcgPIjBL-tGZC47iy_dpqfgtaDTiifuJYZfhyphenhyphenseefdrq4i2FvhzEKb3cDR-nceS8t6wbQ4XESOVRPdKZiQFUBaE7F0S-AQJHjqCDuCmRq3l4XjohKd_rjRhbHQomanFbe1squtGX-VXV/s400/A-Spy-Cams.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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The Washington Post today reports on the vast growing domestic spying apparatus that the federal government is using, in conjunction with the Pentagon, to target millions of law-abiding American citizens who have not been accused of any wrongdoing.<br />
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In a lengthy report entitled “Monitoring America”, the Post details how a vast centralized snooping machine is being constructed and employed by local, state and federal agencies as well as military investigators, to collect, store and analyze swathes of personal information.<br />
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Everything contained within the Post’s article has already been reported and covered in depth by this website and others in the alternative media that have consistently warned of the threat of the exponential rise of the big brother spy system over the past decade.<br />
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The report details Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano’s recent “See something, say something” campaign, which encompasses the federal government hooking up with Wal-Mart, Amtrak, major sports leagues, hotel chains and metro riders to encourage citizens to file “suspicious activity reports” if they see any activity they think could be criminal or terroristic.<br />
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The government defines a suspicious activity as “observed behavior reasonably indicative of pre-operational planning related to terrorism or other criminal activity” related to terrorism.<br />
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As we reported recently, critics of the program have been literally dubbed insane by it’s coordinators, despite legitimate concerns over asking citizens to effectively spy on each other for the government.<br />
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The Washington Post report notes that such suspicious activity reports are just one piece of information being collected at the local and state levels and fed into a vast “Guardian” database via fusion centers, which ultimately connect to the FBI, the DHS and even the Department of Defense.<br />
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According to the report, the spook network includes 4,058 federal, state and local organizations.<br />
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Intelligence centers run by states across the country have access to personal information about millions of Americans, including unlisted cell phone numbers, insurance claims, driver’s license photographs and credit reports.<br />
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Dozens of the fusion centers were created after 9/11 to identify potential threats and “improve the way information is shared”. The centers use law enforcement analysts and sophisticated computer systems to compile, or fuse, disparate tips and clues and pass along the refined information to other agencies.<br />
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The centers have received billions in funding from the Department of Homeland Security and also work in conjunction with the military arm of the DHS, NORTHCOM.<br />
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They also have subscriptions to private information-broker services that keep records about Americans’ locations, employment history, financial holdings, associates, relatives, firearms licenses and the like.<br />
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Some of these data-brokers, such as one in Maryland called Entersect, claim to hold records about 98 percent of Americans.<br />
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The Washington Post report also details how equipment developed for use against insurgents and fighters in combat situations such as in Afghanistan is now being employed by police and law enforcement agencies to collect information on the American people.<br />
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From military-grade infrared cameras, to hand-held, wireless fingerprint scanners, to facial recognition surveillance cameras, to license plate readers, to Predator drones along the borders – all are being used to snap pictures and video and record swathes of information. This will all then be fed into a giant database, cross referenced with every other piece of information collected, analyzed and stored.<br />
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This year for the first time, the FBI, the DHS and the Defense Department are able to search each other’s fingerprint databases, said Myra Gray, head of the Defense Department’s Biometrics Identity Management Agency, speaking to an industry group recently. “Hopefully in the not-too-distant future,” she said, “our relationship with these federal agencies – along with state and local agencies – will be completely symbiotic.”<br />
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The justification is, as always, the war on terror, but the targets of the information gathering are everyday Americans.<br />
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As the Washington Post report also notes, Homeland Security and its state and local partners have routinely targeted peaceful and lawful groups and individuals as part of its surveillance reporting.<br />
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As we have seen from the MIAC report, DHS spying on tea Party and second amendment activists in Pennsylvania and a host of other examples in recent years, the federal government has little interest in Muslim extremists and has instead targeted Americans knowledgeable of their rights and critical of big government as the primary domestic terror threat. The feds have defined “terrorist propaganda” as any material critical of the state. The Department of Defense characterizes peaceful protest as “low level terrorism” in its own report.<br />
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Over the years we have seen countless instances of unaccountable government and military programs that have been in operation for decades, all centered around covertly spying and gathering information on American citizens.<br />
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We have extensively documented such programs from COINTELPRO through to Operation CHAOS, the Defense Department’s Counterintelligence Field Activity and the recent NSA warrantless wiretapping.<br />
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Large corporations such as Google, AT&T, Facebook and Yahoo to name but a few are also intimately involved in the overarching program. Those corporations have specific government arms that are supplying the software, hardware and tech support to US intelligence agencies in the process of creating a vast closed source database for global spy networks to share information.<br />
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We are now witnessing the coordination and mass consolidation of scores of these operations into one all encompassing panopticon program.<br />
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After 9/11 the work of 16 different intelligence agencies, including the CIA and the giant National Security Agency, which eavesdrops on international communications, as well as the Energy Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration was centralized under the office of the Director of National Intelligence.<br />
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Why such rampant centralization? Why is the military now so intent on fusing itself with the federal government via Homeland security and through the FBI and why are the targets of their operations always American citizens?<br />
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We are constantly bombarded with the notion that the biggest threat we face is from those who reject and abhor western values, yet the government and military continue to relentlessly focus their anti-terror activity directly upon freedom loving American people, while telling them they would be completely insane to voice any concernUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615235978659528709.post-73243881908792926712010-12-23T00:18:00.000-05:002010-12-23T00:18:15.659-05:00Tories to Announce Deal Forming North America 'Perimeter'<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTf3UgGTQJ2mLtK_ynBkRIMYino-soKSiV79kJbmv5Q7yJF87uoxEUBAGM4-Ci2wl5PPvCg6ISaejxUsqaw4pZCrbkZwQGhWgx1tfEm51q5PIh-kZAx9Kdwq3tcauKNJh6LnMm1DOaiEK-/s1600/nau+flag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="225" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTf3UgGTQJ2mLtK_ynBkRIMYino-soKSiV79kJbmv5Q7yJF87uoxEUBAGM4-Ci2wl5PPvCg6ISaejxUsqaw4pZCrbkZwQGhWgx1tfEm51q5PIh-kZAx9Kdwq3tcauKNJh6LnMm1DOaiEK-/s400/nau+flag.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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John Ivison, National Post · Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2010<br />
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Already signed by The US and Mexico in March 2010, this bill will be signed by the US and Canada in January 2011. New name, same game... Welcome to the NAU boys.<br />
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The Conservative government is set to announce a landmark security and trade deal with the United States, designed to create a perimeter around North America and allow people and goods to flow more freely across the border.<br />
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Sources suggested that Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Barack Obama will sign the broad-ranging agreement in Washington as early as next month.<br />
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“It’s big on ideals but maybe not so great on details,” said one person familiar with the negotiations. “But it does use the word ‘perimeter’ many times...The question is, will it reduce the compliance burden at the Canada-U.S. border?”<br />
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The New Border Vision is being billed as a 21st century border management system that will include new common consumer product regulations, a pre-clearance agreement for goods crossing the border to expedite waiting times and the use of advanced technology to utilize biometric data for travelers at airports and land crossings, according to people familiar with the plan.<br />
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The new framework will likely be discussed when the U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, visits Ottawa this Monday but government sources said the announcement will not be made by Ms. Clinton. A spokesman for the Public Safety Minister, Vic Toews, said: “No such announcement is planned. We don’t comment on hearsay or speculation.” A spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa refused to comment.<br />
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Colin Robertson, a senior research fellow with the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute, said the agreement is an attempt by the Canadian government to link security to improved access to the U.S. for Canadians.<br />
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“‘Perimeter’ is a vital word because back in the Chrétien government days we couldn’t use it because we would get caught up in the sovereignty allergy we too often have,” he said. “It makes a lot of sense.”<br />
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The U.S. announced a similar deal with Mexico in March. It included moves to expedite travel and commerce such as secure transit lanes for pre-cleared rail and truck shipments, as well as passenger pre-clearance for individuals.<br />
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Business is likely to welcome a more coordinated perimeter approach to regulation and security but one exporter remained skeptical. “A vision without money is a hallucination,” he said.<br />
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The U.S. and Canada have taken piecemeal steps to coordinate their efforts against common threats like terrorism. Last year, Canada signed on to the NEXUS membership card and Free and Secure Trade (FAST) trusted traveller programs as a valid means of identification at the border. However, more sweeping agreements have foundered in the past, notably the Security and Prosperity Partnership agreement signed in 2005 by former Prime Minister Paul Martin, ex-U.S. President George W. Bush and former Mexican President Vicente Fox.<br />
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The SPP was aimed at reducing the cost of trade and improving the flow of people and information but became a lightning rod for criticism on both sides of the border. In the U.S., CNN anchor Lou Dobbs argued the SPP was part of a plan to merge the U.S., Canada and Mexico into a North American Union, while a number of organizations criticized the agreement for its secrecy.<br />
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In Canada, NDP leader Jack Layton said the process was not just unconstitutional but “non-constitutional” because there were no oversight mechanisms. By 2009, all three governments had abandoned the SPP, which is “no longer an active initiative,” according to its website.<br />
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Mr. Robertson said that increased integration could impact areas like immigration and refugee policy but was unlikely to lead to a European Union-style agreement. “Economic union would mean a common currency and, over the last couple of years, it has been definitively proven that we are far better off with our own currency,” he said.<br />
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Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Tories+announce+deal+forming+North+America+perimeter/3947584/story.html#ixzz18uNcrbc3Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615235978659528709.post-57134381579040549312010-12-22T23:59:00.001-05:002010-12-23T00:00:50.784-05:00Perimeter with U.S. could hurt Canada’s Sovereignty: Opposition<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCVn0xkZCLLLFHJv0JuUSlJkXKzOBmEWpcuzM9G2_0FaiAONVDSHoMqcDItmktKvnXqMpyWzCk5UgJNGGoSsg0hz_RUzdanQXLhhwXBDGhTH4LuFvIkRVo2WdW5ds8GUF2YbVzgMF_SrKA/s1600/integration.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="225" width="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCVn0xkZCLLLFHJv0JuUSlJkXKzOBmEWpcuzM9G2_0FaiAONVDSHoMqcDItmktKvnXqMpyWzCk5UgJNGGoSsg0hz_RUzdanQXLhhwXBDGhTH4LuFvIkRVo2WdW5ds8GUF2YbVzgMF_SrKA/s400/integration.jpg" /></a></div>OTTAWA — The opposition is accusing the Harper government of ceding Canadian sovereignty through a proposed deal with the United States that would establish a security perimeter around the two countries as a way to stimulate trade.<br />
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While refusing to confirm the talks, the Conservatives defended their efforts to smooth the flow of goods and people across the U.S. border, which businesses complain has been “thickening” with security red tape in recent years.<br />
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“We do in fact work in harmony and co-operation with the Americans. The Conservative government believes it’s essential that our borders with the United States be bridges between us, and not barriers,” Public Safety Minister Vic Toews told the House of Commons, adding that the government has taken action to “ensure our borders are closed to crime and open for business.”<br />
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But Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said the Conservatives can’t be trusted to stand up for Canada’s sovereignty.<br />
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“The Conservatives bowed to the Americans on softwood lumber. They asked for Washington’s approval before acting on the environment. They bought American fighter jets without inviting offers here, in Canada,” Mr. Ignatieff said. “With a record like this, how can Canadians be confident that the government will protect Canada’s sovereignty and the freedom of its citizens in their secret negotiations with the Americans on the border?”<br />
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The opposition was reacting to reports this week that the government is negotiating an agreement with the U.S. that would allow “pre-cleared” rail and truck shipments to pass more quickly across the border. The deal, which could be signed as early as January, would see the two countries harmonize regulations in certain areas, such as consumer-product safety, the National Post reported. It’s also believed the deal would involve closer co-operation on law enforcement and the screening of individuals through tools such as biometrics.<br />
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The U.S. signed a similar deal this spring with Mexico, the other signatory to the North American Free-Trade Agreement.<br />
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A representative for Canadian industry welcomed the talks, saying border bureaucracy has become a “huge issue” for companies that rely on integrated North American supply chains.<br />
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“It’s really an issue about manufacturing competitiveness in North America,” said Jayson Myers, chief executive of Manufacturers and Exporters. “What we’re seeing is more and more information requirements, more and more regulatory and compliance requirements, more and more security requirements, more and more fees being charged.”<br />
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Industry Minister Tony Clement said there’s “no question” that border thickening has affected trade between the two countries.<br />
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“We’re always concerned that homeland security in the United States always trumps everything. It trumps our trade patterns, and I know that the Americans have concerns about security, as they should, but we also have to trade with one another,” Mr. Clement told reporters.<br />
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Canada should look to other increasing integration of markets in certain regions, such as the European Union and Southeast Asia, he added. “They do a lot better job of making sure that their supply chains are more integrated, for instance. And so this is a comparative advantage they have over North America. So we’ve got to do a better job because we’re losing business to the world.”<br />
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NDP Leader Jack Layton said the security-perimeter proposal should be debated in the House of Commons before being adopted.<br />
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“Some people think that maybe Canada should be deeply integrated with the U.S., and because we watch the same TV shows, we should become the same country, virtually. I don’t agree with that, and I don’t think the majority of Canadians do,” he said.<br />
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Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Perimeter+with+could+hurt+Canada+sovereignty+opposition/3954157/story.html#ixzz18uJZeFWTUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615235978659528709.post-7850171775753382232010-12-22T20:29:00.000-05:002010-12-22T20:29:40.871-05:00WTF? OMG, LOL! CIA gives WikiLeaks taskforce STUPID name<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuCHV-lYAi5JxB2pr6IJp2ac6mnwrLmD6a8oK4Lc3ZWoJ6zAeESk8Q2JNtrZ70CgoLXbhMEG5dFg2fw3W2yPctPMfKFMb4ioe-7dOgONLnn0I3-U3OneqCYIWJuPdr9BL2AN5E8x8PuDte/s1600/The-CIA-building-in-Langl-007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="240" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuCHV-lYAi5JxB2pr6IJp2ac6mnwrLmD6a8oK4Lc3ZWoJ6zAeESk8Q2JNtrZ70CgoLXbhMEG5dFg2fw3W2yPctPMfKFMb4ioe-7dOgONLnn0I3-U3OneqCYIWJuPdr9BL2AN5E8x8PuDte/s400/The-CIA-building-in-Langl-007.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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On a lighter note, the STUPID FUCKS at the CIA have launched a taskforce to assess the impact of 250,000 leaked US diplomatic cables. Its name? WikiLeaks Task Force, or WTF for short.<br />
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The group will scour the released documents to survey damage caused by the disclosures. One of the most embarrassing revelations was that the US state department had drawn up a list of information it would like on key UN figures – it later emerged the CIA had asked for the information.<br />
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"Officially, the panel is called the WikiLeaks Task Force. But at CIA headquarters, it's mainly known by its all-too-apt acronym: WTF," the Washington Post reported.<br />
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WTF is more commonly associated with the Facebook and Twitter profiles of teenagers than secret agency committees. Given that its expanded version is usually an expression of extreme disbelief, perhaps the term is apt for the CIA's investigation.<br />
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Earlier this month the Guardian revealed that the CIA was responsible for drafting the data "wishlist" that the US state department wanted on UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, and other senior members of the organisation. The Washington Post said the panel was being led by the CIA's counterintelligence centre, although it has drawn in two dozen members from departments across the agency.<br />
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Although the CIA has featured in some WikiLeaks disclosures, relatively little of its own information has entered the ether, the paper reported. A recently retired former high-ranking CIA official told the Post this was because the agency "has not capitulated to this business of making everything available to outsiders.<br />
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"They don't even make everything available to insiders. And by and large the system has worked," he said.<br />
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While most of the agency's correspondence is understood to be classified at the same "secret" level as the leaked cables that ended up online, it is understood the CIA uses systems different from those of other government agencies.<br />
Acronyms sometimes suck<br />
Acronyms. Pithy and useful when you get them right, embarrassing and memorable when you fail to spot the pun.<br />
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Long before the internet revived the TLA (three-letter acronym), there was MAD, one of the more appropriate constructions, which stood for mutually assured destruction, the doctrine under which everyone dies if nuclear devices were deployed.<br />
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Change one letter, and you get BAD, or British Association of Dermatologists – as in: "I'd love a BAD practitioner to look at my skin."<br />
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Unfortunately the spoilsports at BAD usually put "the" before the acronym on the association's website, although there are a couple of slips: "To find out how to write BAD clinical guidelines, please click here," being one of them.<br />
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Many other good examples are given on the Unfortunate Acronyms website, also known as ASS – Acronyms Sometimes Suck.<br />
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Another in the field of medicine is DOH, the website of the Washington state department of health (www.doh.wa.gov). Hardly encouraging for those planning a visit, given its connotations with the general incompetence personified by Homer in the Simpsons.<br />
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The Boston Redevelopment Authority doesn't shy away from using its abbreviated form.<br />
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Almost unbelievably, there is a Breakthrough Urban Ministries operating two homeless shelters in Chicago. Unsurprisingly, the organisation does not use its acronym when promoting its services, preferring to shorten the name to Breakthrough.<br />
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The Phoenix Islands Settlement Scheme is often described as one of the last attempts at colonisation by the British empire.<br />
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The plan was to reduce overpopulation on the Gilbert islands in the South Pacific by moving numbers of people to the neighbouring Phoenix islands.<br />
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The outbreak of the second world war hampered the move, and only one of the eight islands is now believed to be inhabited – and the islands are threatened by rising sea levels.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615235978659528709.post-4090095203912202082010-12-20T22:56:00.000-05:002010-12-20T22:56:04.033-05:00Socialist Houston Police Test Drone to Spy on Citizens<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/2tHk9Q3Fv6g&rel=0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/2tHk9Q3Fv6g&rel=0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object><br />
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These communist bastards even THREATENED the newscasters by LYING that the airspace was restricted and warned of FAA actions against the newscrew if they didnt leave immediately. A blatant LIE to protect this story from being told. There will be more test flights coming and then the drones will hit the skies to spy on American citizens. Each can stay aloft from 17-24 hours of surveillance without refueling.<br />
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Just WHO are the TERRORISTS again?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615235978659528709.post-70005538219768489512010-12-20T21:36:00.000-05:002010-12-20T21:36:38.710-05:00Homeland Security Nazis have over 161,000 Files on American Citizens<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrHBzEuZSqjp-cP3OKhqZA2vokjMs4gHqRZBvGVqOBYhUOKjdMU1s80jGJ8Fjctsn_ZrOficT60BK1lwnCqqyeKfWgtcKtThkTobwyeZDGTB3fVcbyvTPz9tr0iORyLCRMbepMkYyBMnWw/s1600/homeland+nazis.htm" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="239" width="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrHBzEuZSqjp-cP3OKhqZA2vokjMs4gHqRZBvGVqOBYhUOKjdMU1s80jGJ8Fjctsn_ZrOficT60BK1lwnCqqyeKfWgtcKtThkTobwyeZDGTB3fVcbyvTPz9tr0iORyLCRMbepMkYyBMnWw/s400/homeland+nazis.htm" /></a></div><br />
The FBI is assembling a massive database on thousands of Americans, many of whom have not been accused of any crime, the Washington Post's Dana Priest and William Arkin report. The reporters' latest look at the country's ballooning national security system focuses on the role that local agencies -- often staffed by people with little to no counter-terrorism training -- have played in combating terrorism since 2001.<br />
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Here are five striking revelations in their piece:<br />
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1. The FBI's Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative, or SAR, currently contains 161,948 suspicious activity files, into which authorities can put information they've gathered about the people at the center of the files: employment history, financial documents, phone numbers, photos. In many cases, the people in the files have not been accused of any crime but have attracted the suspicions of a local cop, FBI agent or even fellow citizen. The files have led to five arrests but no convictions, the FBI says. Some of the files are unclassified so that local police agencies <b>and even businesses can submit reports on anyone they deem suspicious.</b><br />
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2. The Department of Homeland Security does not know how much it spends in funding state fusion centers, which synthesize security information from all state agencies and feed information to SAR. But since 2001, the department has doled out $31 billion to states and localities for domestic security initiatives.<br />
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3. Local officials at these fusion centers are tasked with understanding terrorism, but have little or no training. To fill the void, self-styled experts with fairly extreme views on the scope of the Muslim terrorist threat are asked to come in and train local authorities, the Post reports. Professed ex-terrorist Walid Shoebat told a group at the first annual South Dakota Fusion Center Conference in Sioux Falls this year that they should monitor local Muslim student groups and mosques and try to tap their phones. "You can find out a lot of information that way," he said.<br />
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National intelligence officials told the Post they preferred that people with "evidence-based" approaches to Islam were lecturing instead, but that no guidelines are in place to determine the qualifications of a given speaker.<br />
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4. The localities are often left without guidance from the Department of Homeland Security, which can lead to confusion about the counter-terrorism actions they're supposed to be carrying out. Virginia's fusion center named historically black colleges as "potential" terrorism hubs; Maryland State Police infiltrated local groups that lobbied for bike lanes and human rights; and a contractor in Pennsylvania writing an intelligence bulletin flagged meetings of the Tea Party Patriots Coalition and environmental activists.<br />
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5. Many states and towns are taking the unprecedented amounts of money handed out to fight terrorists and are using it instead to fight crime. "We have our own terrorists, and they are taking lives every day," Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin said.<br />
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(Screenshot of the Post's interactive map of state and local counter-terrorism agencies) http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/map/Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0