posted 10-07-2003 04:21 PM            

Meanwhile the homeland is nowhere near secure - we wonder why? - the Pentagon is having a clearance sale for surplus equipment used to produce bacteriological weapons. Price markdowns as high as 90%! Call now!

You can almost hear their glee in the warnings of "spectacular" terrorist attacks. That's right, it must be time to invade somebody, someplace so everyone needs to look over the shoulder.

Ever been brainwashed? If you watched American news programs recently then you have, according to a recent study, yet the US state department has the gall to point the finger at others...

Not all Americans are brainwashed, and they are trying to speak and up tell their fellow citizens that it is just a matter of time when you can be declared a terrorist. A worry, since Ashcroft and company are screaming bloody murder, literally, and are asking for an expansion of the death penalty for "terrorists". One of those words that is losing all meaning, in these most Orwellian of times.

A Canadian with Syrian citizenship was caught in this web of state-sponsored terrorism. After spending a year in a Syrian jail after having been deported by the US during a flight change in New York, he has returned to Canada...but there are some questions left to be answered.

Ah'nold's 'D day' has arrived, and as a feeling of expectation grips Californians, a feeling of dread sweeps the world whose suspicions about "American democracy" may soon be beyond doubt. Speaking of vermin, Germany is invaded by raccoons while China warns of mass extinctions.

55 massacred in the Congo, "don't go to Saudi Arabia" says the US embassy there, it ain't safe for "westerners" (especially with all the Mossad agents).

Volcanoes are rumbling, the usually active fault lines are shaking, more unexplained sonic booms, normal individuals filming UFO's, and the Signs Team despairs of ever getting any answers about that rain of "frog eggs" in Connecticut."

posted 10-08-2003 04:30 PM            

Oh, how I wished I had listened to the activists, the free thinkers and the enlightened.

posted 10-13-2003 04:54 PM            

Israel said it would go after all such locations anywhere in the world, implying that an attack on Iran could be next. This action would seriously escalate the already seething hatreds and tensions that are about to explode.

Russian Roulette October 7, 2003
A British magician staged a game of Russian roulette on a television show from an unnamed foreign country, as handguns are banned in Britain. The magician picked a volunteer out of 12,000 applicants to place a bullet in one of the gun's six chambers. The magician said he was reading the volunteer’s mind in order to know where the bullet was. This is a blatant form of Mengele’s "love me, love me not" routine in which a child is killed at the end of the ceremony. More imprinting for public ritual.

CIA Revenge October 7, 2003
A former diplomat who wrote an article challenging the White House assertion about Saddam Hussein's search for uranium, has his wife's cover as a CIA operative exposed. Soon after his article was published, Joseph Wilson's wife was named in a syndicated column as a spy, jeopardizing her safety. The White House has refused so far to give her security and protection. Her true identity was leaked by an unnamed person in the Bush Administration. Such "punishment" is standard for the Illuminati who easily throw people to the wolves.

The (Non)Sound of Music October 7, 2003
The National Physical Laboratory in England has conducted an experiment using infrasound, an extreme bass sound not audible to humans. It can produce effects such as fear, revulsion, anxiety, uneasy or sorrowful feelings, chills, and other weird sensations. Scientists transmitted these frequencies at a London concert hall within musical pieces that were being played. The audience reported the aforementioned sensations. Imagine how the world reacts when satellites bombard us with this stuff? Many people have been writing in to us about such sentiments all over the world.

Fish Stories October 7, 2003
Two interesting tests were done recently with amazing results. Scientists used special equipment to listen in on the water of Lake Champlain, between New York and Vermont. This is the alleged home of "Champ" an often-spotted dinosaur-like creature that lives in the lake.

Results show a sound, similar to the sonic chirping of whales and dolphins, is being heard under the lake. The resonance indicates it is from a large creature. There are several lakes in Vermont and Quebec reported to harbor Loch ness-like creatures.

In similar news, the US Navy reports a creature they call ”Bloop” after the sound it makes on recording equipment. The sound comes from a large, deep sea creature, previously unknown. The “Bloop” noise is heard on monitoring devices several hundred meters under the sea. It cannot be identified as any known creature, and the sound does come from a living sea monster. The “Bloop” is heard in many locations all over the world. It is not localized.

posted 10-22-2003 01:02 PM            

By Dana Milbank

Since the end of the Vietnam War, presidents have worried that their military actions would lose support once the public glimpsed the remains of U.S. soldiers arriving at air bases in flag-draped caskets.

To this problem, the Bush administration has found a simple solution: It has ended the public dissemination of such images by banning news coverage and photography of dead soldiers' homecomings on all military bases..................................

UN condemns West Bank 'wall

The UN General Assembly has overwhelmingly passed a resolution demanding that Israel halt construction of a huge barrier in the West Bank.

The resolution also calls for existing stretches of fence to be removed.

It says the barrier contravenes international law, but falls short of meeting Arab-led demands that the entire matter be referred to the International Court of Justice in the Hague for a legal ruling.

But Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said construction of the barrier would continue.

He told Israel Radio: "The fence will continue being built and we will go on taking care of the security of Israel's citizens."

[...] The vote was passed with 144 in favour, 4 opposed and 12 members abstaining.

Comment: The international community is united in its furour against the Israeli wall. But will this change anything? No doubt those who oppose the wall will be accused of "anti-Semitism.".................................

Israel vows to go on with fence, despite UN condemnation

By Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondent
22/10/2003

Israel vowed on Wednesday to press on with building a vast barrier in the West Bank despite a U.N. resolution condemning the project as a violation of international law and demanding it be halted.

"The fence will continue being built and we will go on taking care of the security of Israel's citizens," Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Israel Radio, reiterating the Jewish state's stance that the barrier is needed to block Palestinian suicide bombers.

Palestinians oppose the network of fences and concrete barricades, planned to eventually loop around settlements, as a land grab that prejudges borders that should be negotiated.

The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly passed the resolution late on Tuesday. The vote was carried 144-4, with 12 abstentions, with Israel's key ally the United States voting against the measure. Micronesia and the Marchall Islands also voted against.

A compromise text, negotiated during more than six hours of haggling between European Union and Arab governments, demands that Israel "stop and reverse the construction of the wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory" and calls the barrier "in contradiction to relevant provisions of international law."..............................

Several steps closer to Armageddon

By John Chuckman
Online Journal Contributing Writer

October 20, 2003—The United States apparently has fitted out the Harpoon missiles it previously supplied Israel to accommodate nuclear warheads. These missiles are carried on three German-built submarines, making a reality of Israel's grandiose plan for a nuclear-triad force, a miniature replica of America's land-air-sea nuclear force, in a country with a total population smaller than greater Chicago. Perhaps more pertinent, the missiles' nuclear capability extends a threat towards Iran, bringing home to its leaders the possible consequences of "going nuclear."

A step like this, taken by either side during the Cold War, would have been regarded as a serious escalation in arms, but now it causes barely a ripple in the United States. There are, of course, signed obligations that American-supplied weapons are to be used only for Israel's defense, yet these have been violated many times, most notoriously during the invasion of Lebanon—a bloody, aggressive war led by the very man who now leads Israel. [...]

posted 10-22-2003 01:08 PM            

by Brendan O'Neill

Why don't President Bush and Osama bin Laden just get a room? Judging from events over the weekend, they need each other as much as they despise each other. The latest crackly tape issued by bin Laden (if it's him) confirms that al-Qaeda has no independent programme or war aims, but merely feeds off Western fears. And Bush's response - 'the bin Laden tape [shows] this is still a dangerous world' - suggests that his administration will leap on any squeak from the man on the mountain to justify the war on terror. B&B are more and more like a parasitical double act. [...]....................................

Defense memo: A grim outlook

By Dave Moniz and Tom Squitieri, USA TODAY
10/22/2003 7:07 AM

WASHINGTON — The United States has no yardstick for measuring progress in the war on terrorism, has not "yet made truly bold moves" in fighting al-Qaeda and other terror groups, and is in for a "long, hard slog" in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a memo that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sent to top-ranking Defense officials last week.

Despite upbeat statements by the Bush administration, the memo to Rumsfeld's top staff reveals significant doubts about progress in the struggle against terrorists. Rumsfeld says that "it is not possible" to transform the Pentagon quickly enough to effectively fight the anti-terror war and that a "new institution" might be necessary to do that.

The memo, which diverges sharply from Rumsfeld's mostly positive public comments, offers one of the most candid and sobering assessments to date of how top administration officials view the 2-year-old war on terrorism. It suggests that significant work remains and raises a number of probing questions but few detailed proposals. [...]

Among Rumsfeld's observations in the two-page memo:

The United States is "just getting started" in fighting the Iraq-based terror group Ansar Al-Islam.
The war is hugely expensive. "The cost-benefit ratio is against us! Our cost is billions against the terrorists' cost of millions."
Postwar stabilization efforts are very difficult. "It is pretty clear the coalition can win in Afghanistan and Iraq in one way or another, but it will be a long, hard slog." [...]................................

Anti-war protests planned

By Aparna Kumar
The Herald Sun
22oct03

US anti-war groups are planning their largest demonstrations since the start of the war in Iraq, with thousands expected at rallies on Saturday in Washington and San Francisco.

Protesters were expected from 140 cities in the United States and Canada, organisers said today.

They hope to foment public pressure that will force the withdrawal of US troops. [...]

"Now more than ever it is critical that we stand united in our effort to turn this all around," Leslie Cagan, an organiser for United for Peace and Justice, said. [...]

Antiwar group targets Bush visit to UK

By Shaista Aziz
Wednesday 22 October 2003, 13:27 Makka Time, 10:27 GMT

Antiwar activists are claiming a first round victory over attempts to stop President Bush's first state visit to the UK.

They have wrecked his chances of getting all the VIP treatment which goes along with a state visit to the sovereign state.

President Bush, visiting London in November for three days, was looking forward to meeting the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

This was to have entailed a grand procession along the Mall with all the pomp and ceremony of a state visit, but it has been cancelled over fears that antiwar campaigners would stage a colourful and angry protest to overshadow the event.

The President was also due to address the British Parliament on his three day visit. However, that too has been cancelled.

Peace activists claim that has been dropped over concerns that anti war MPs would boycott the session, causing embarrassment to Tony Blair.

'New Species' of Terrorist Threatens Kabul

By AUDRA ANG, Associated Press Writer
October 22, 2003

KABUL, Afghanistan - A "new species" of well-trained terrorist has infiltrated Afghanistan's capital, posing an increasing threat to the already shaky security situation in the country, the head of an international peacekeeping force said.

According to intelligence reports, the militants come from Saudi Arabia, Yemen or the Russian republic of Chechnya, Lt. Gen. Goetz Gliemeroth, commander of the 5,000-strong NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Kabul, said on Tuesday. [...]

posted 10-22-2003 01:22 PM            

BANGKOK — President Bush failed in weekend jawboning sessions to persuade either China or Japan to quickly allow the value of their currencies to rise against the dollar, which would give U.S. manufacturers a boost as they try to sell their goods into Asian markets.

China's President Hu Jintao, left, meets with U.S. President George W. Bush in Bangkok, Thailand.
Charles Dharapak, AP

Leaders of both countries responded to the president's entreaties with a polite, implicit "no," insisting they had their own problems and that the regime of freely floating exchange rates the White House has pushed for months could undermine economic stability across Asia and the world.

Bush told Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Tokyo on Saturday that markets should be allowed to determine exchange rates, and the president had said he planned to take the same message to Chinese President Hu Jintao at a face-to-face meeting here in Bangkok on Sunday.

As the U.S. job market continues to languish on the eve of an election year, the White House is under mounting political pressure to relieve competitive pressures on embattled U.S. factories, where the majority of U.S. job losses have occurred. U.S. employment has shrunk for 26 of the last 33 months — a stretch unmatched since the Great Depression — and by more than 2 million over the past three years. Economic growth is picking up sharply, but economists aren't sure how sustainable it is or when investment and hiring will follow.

U.S. manufacturers have complained bitterly that foreign efforts to keep the value of the Chinese yuan and the Japanese yen artificially low against the dollar have badly hurt U.S. exports. Cheap foreign currencies mean Chinese and Japanese exports sell for less in U.S. markets, while the strong dollar makes U.S. exports more expensive overseas.

Gentle rebuff

Though they didn't say "no" in so many words, public comments from Koizumi and Hu amounted to a gentle but firm rebuff of the president's pleas for relief. Koizumi insisted Japan "will take measures in dealing with wild fluctuations" in currency values. He warned rapid currency shifts could "upset the market," apparently defending Japan's frequent currency market interventions to suppress the yen's rise against the dollar.

Japan has managed to keep the yen between roughly 100 and 130 to the dollar for the last few years. Lower values mean a stronger yen: Some believe that if the Japanese government stopped intervening in currency markets, the yen could strengthen to the point where it would take 90 or fewer yen to buy a dollar.

On Sunday, Hu said China would keep its promises to continue economic reforms and further open its booming market to foreigners. He said China was ready "to resolve whatever questions that might emerge in our economic exchanges and trade through dialogue," and he agreed to a joint U.S.-China study of allowing the yuan to strengthen. But he added that the current exchange rate of China's yuan to the dollar was "consistent" with the current state of China's economy and its financial system. China restricts currency trading to keep the yuan pegged at about 8.3 to the dollar.

"Keeping the exchange rate of the (yuan) stable serves China's economic performance and conforms to the requirement of the economic development of the Asia-pacific region and the whole world," Hu said in a speech Sunday to CEOs gathered for the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit that begins here Monday.

Neither Hu nor Bush directly mentioned exchange rates after their meetings, but Bush said they discussed the "need to make sure that trade is open and that both countries benefit."

Fearful of losing support at home, Beijing sees a steady currency as both a safety valve and a firebreak that keeps its rickety financial system and the shakier parts of its economy from imploding.

The nation is still in the midst of a difficult and uncertain transition to more of a free-market economy. Its government-owned companies have shed more than 17 million jobs over the past six years.

That's roughly proportional, measured against its much larger population, to the more than 2 million jobs the U.S. labor market has lost over the past three years.

Anger at China

Hu, in a picture-taking session with Bush after their talks in Bangkok, said both presidents had agreed "that the economic cooperation and trade between our two countries have benefited our two peoples tremendously."

But some U.S. lawmakers, disturbed by China's fast-growing trade surplus, which they say is costing American jobs, have threatened to repeal Beijing's trade privileges in the United States. Several bills have been proposed in Congress, with some Republican support, to impose retaliatory tariffs if China doesn't allow the yuan to float freely.

Economist David Hale of Hale Advisors, based in Chicago, told Asian officials and businessmen here, who are highly reliant on exports to the USA, that "the situation in the U.S. is extremely dangerous" now, with congressional Democrats and Republicans alike attacking China.

"The president is under great pressure now because of the jobless recovery ... (and) support for free trade (in) the Republican Party has collapsed," Hale said. "Much will depend on what happens to U.S. employment over the coming months. If we keep losing jobs, my great fear is that early next year, Karl Rove, the president's political strategist, will say, 'Mr. President, it's time for you to join the China bashers.' "

posted 10-22-2003 01:25 PM            

22 October 2003

Russia will boost its share of central bank reserves held in euros at the expense of the dollar, Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said on Wednesday, as quoted by the Interfax news agency.

The official said that the euro reserves would be increased by three to five percentage points, explaining the decision by pointing to the importance of the European market for Russia and the sharp slide in the US currency's value.

Russia has 70 percent of its foreign currency reserves in dollars, 25 percent in euros and five percent in other units, principally the yen and sterling. Total reserves, including gold, stood at 63.5 billion dollarsbillion euros) on October 10.

A top Russian central bank official, however, denied that the bank was planning any immediate changes to the structure of reserves.

First Deputy Chairman Oleg Vyugin was quoted by Interfax as saying that the central bank had adopted its last investment directive just over a year ago and was not ready yet to make any policy change.

"We would like to diversify our assets, but everything remains basically unchanged," Vyugin said.

Analysts, however, say Russia should reduce its historically high level of dollar holdings.

"By maintaining the current structure, the monetary authorities are indirectly encouraging the dollarisation of the country," said Vladislav Oreshkin, an analyst from the United Financial Group investment bank

The reserves should be adjusted to "reflect the structure of Russia's foreign debt" (40 percent denominated in euros) "or that of foreign trade," (50 percent of which is conducted in euros), he added.

Over the past 12 months, the dollar has lost 17 percent of its value against the euro.

posted 10-22-2003 03:54 PM            

They're trying to build a prison
They're trying to build a prison
They're trying to build a prison
They're trying to build a prison
For you and me to live in
Another prison system
Another prison system
Another prison system
For you and me

Minor drug offenders fill the prisons
You don't even flinch
All our taxes paying for the wars against the new-non-rich
Minor drug offenders fill the prisons
You don't even flinch
All our taxes paying for the wars against the new-non-rich

posted 10-28-2003 07:14 AM            

Are we beginning to see a shift in forces? Putin is moving against the new Russian tycoons. Voices within Israel are decrying the road map for war promulgated by Sharon. The Butler is taken on the "dark forces" at work in Britain. We don't think this is necessarily a "good thing". It is more likely the next step in a battle for power among different factions of the "bad guys." There is no room for them all at the top of the pyramid.

Due to its use and abuse, the term "anti-Semitism" as it is promoted by Jewish groups has become all but a myth, a slur, designed, as most slurs are, to unfairly defame an opponent and detract from the truth. We have all seen it, from the classroom to the office, the use of the scurrilous slur is a "natural human response" when one finds oneself caught red-handed and accused - it is a well known escape technique. Why then the reluctance to admit that it could be used on a broader scale in the world of international politics?

The US goes from one "success" to another in Baghdad. The attacks are coming fast and furious, US troops are wondering what the hell they are doing there...

In Russia, the dust is settling after the arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the head of Yukos, the oil giant and Russia's richest man.

California is still on fire, plagues of grasshoppers, generals and preachers are calling for martyrs, solar flares, disease, strange, destructive storms, flooding, global warming, and the encroaching police state. Throw in the search for Atlantis, and that may be enough to convince most that we live in strange times indeed. Or, maybe not.