Bilderberg 2012: Veteran Forcefully Vaccinated After Arrest - FederalJacktube6
Saturday, June 2, 2012
When you hear about massacres, reach for your truth detector
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© Unknown
Joint UN-Arab envoy to Syria Kofi Annan (L) during a meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at the presidential palace in Damascus, May 29, 2012 |
Throughout history, massacres have been invented, exploited and used to inflame public opinion and discredit one side or the other. This is not to say that war crimes do not occur, and nor should they be excused, but getting the facts right is essential.
Beware the way atrocities are used in the propaganda media war that always operates alongside military conflicts."
When is a massacre a massacre, and how can we find truth in the fog of intense war propaganda?
That's a question that is being raised anew in the aftermath of the dreadful Hula massacre. The sight of dead children and torn bodies on the ground in Syria offers up sickening images that have already led to new calls for international military intervention, expulsions of Syrian diplomats, UN condemnations and self righteous finger pointing at the government in Damascus that denies responsibility with claims that most of the western media has rejected.
It's hard to argue that an atrocity has occurred, what with 90 civilians slaughtered including 25 children.
The so-called "hardline" Syrian government is lacking in international credibility in the western media perhaps because its communications strategy is crude and ineffective, and, therefore, no match for the sophisticated media and perception management operations of western media outlets and intelligence agencies who are pouncing on the incident to make a case for pressuring Syria.
Yet, there are good reasons and many historic examples to cite that should give pause to responsible journalists, no matter their views on who they believe is right in the conflict in Syria.
First there is the sequence of events with the Kofi Annan UN Plan failing to arrange a ceasefire. As the plan began to collapse, Business Week noted a "blame game" was beginning.
"Both sides will seek to draw on evidence from the ground to make their arguments before Annan formally declares his plan dead. Judgment day may come on July 21/12, when the 90-day observer mission ends, or sooner if any of the unarmed monitors is killed or injured in a conflict in which the opposition is increasingly relying on tactics such as suicide bombings."
Kofi Anan was soon blaming the Syrians for the massacre even before a full investigation could be held. In effect, he was changing the subject and focusing attention away from the collapse of his plan.Western governments seemed to make coordinated comments heaping all the blame on Syria.
The story was initially framed by western governments. UK Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt said, "We are appalled at what appears to be credible reports that the Syrian regime has been responsible for the deaths of 92 civilians in Houla, including 32 children. The UN Head of Mission has been able to confirm the numbers and also that artillery tank shells have been used. If this is the case then it's an act of pure, naked savagery and we condemn it in the most strongest possible terms."
The American journalist Russ Baker began sounding a note of caution on his
WhoWhatWhy.com website:
"We keep getting reports of atrocities committed by the Syrian government. Those reports may well be accurate. But the truth is usually a bit more complicated in war zones. If news organizations don't start adopting a higher standard for their reports, another Libyan-style intervention, complete with massive bombing and untold civilian casualties, may be inevitable.
The news out of Syria gets more and more appalling. But so does the quality of the journalism."
He then cited conflicting reports by different media organizations, noting:
"All these reports were based almost entirely on the word from activists on one side in the conflict, not from journalists or neutral observers. That is not journalism. Why are there not more journalists actually in these places reporting? In the past, reporters always managed to get into conflict zones. And, notwithstanding Syrian government controls on access to these areas and the obvious physical dangers attendant to work in such places, news organizations should be able to hire Syrians who will be diligent, careful and precise."He reported that the BBC was already backing down from the categorical blame it had heaped on Damascus, writing:
"But at whose hands they died remains a matter of contention."
Many news stories implied that Syria was interfering with the UN's peacekeepers even as Kofi Anan said, "In my meeting with the president, I expressed appreciation for the cooperation that the Syrian government had extended to the UN, enabling us to deploy the military observers quickly."While the Assad government is being denounced for using artillery against civilian areas, Norwegian UN monitors reported that "corpses had been found with their hands tied behind their backs and signs that some had been shot in the head from close range."
Anti-war groups cite this evidence to suggest that armed militants - perhaps including foreign Jihadis known to be operating in Syria - are committing massacres to encourage foreign involvement, like the role played by NATO in Libya that brought down the Gadaffy regime which has now been replaced by a more Islamic political presence.
This precedent is being cited by those arguing that there is a covert "false flag" operation underway.
This argument specifically rests in part on parallels with Libya where the western military intervention was reinforced by suggestions that a "massacre" was planned in Benghazi against rebels and civilians.
Other alleged massacres were used in earlier conflicts like the so-called "Racak massacre" in Kosovo that foreshadowed the NATO interventions there. Subsequent newspaper reports questioned the facts but they were too late.
In Syria meanwhile, critics pointed to the presence of "fake photos" as well as unverified accusations. A prominent press photographer said that an image of a massacre he shot in Iraq in 2003 was being circulated as if it documents events that occurred recently in Syria.
Writes Tony Cartalucci on Information Clearing House, "In the wake of the Houla massacre in Syria, and evidence exposing the West's initial narrative of Syrian troops 'shelling to death' around 100 people to be categorically false, people are struggling to understand just what happened. The Guardian has chosen to post unverified witness accounts produced by the Free Syrian Army, seemingly custom tailored to refute evidence brought by Russia to the UN Security Council. The BBC has admitted that only 'most' of the accounts they've received implicated what they 'believe' were Syrian troops, or pro-government militias - and by doing so, imply that some did not and have told a different account."
Throughout history, massacres have been invented, exploited and used to inflame public opinion and discredit one side or the other. This is not to say that war crimes do not occur, and nor should they be excused, but getting the facts right is essential.
When I covered the war in Vietnam, there was one such incident in which "the enemy" was blamed for shelling a school house that was actually done by pro-American Vietnamese forces. For years massacres by American troops like the one at MyLai were denied and covered up.
It took years for the truth to emerge...and when it did, the mainstream media was as embarrassed as the government.
Beware the way atrocities are used in the propaganda media war that always operates alongside military conflicts.
SAVE SYRIA: Demand An End to US-NATO Supported Sectarian Terrorists
US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia have plotted bloodbath for years.
Timeline:
1991: Paul Wolfowitz, then Undersecretary of Defense, tells US Army General Wesley Clark that the US has 5-10 years to "clean up those old Soviet client regimes, Syria, Iran, Iraq, before the next great superpower comes on to challenge us." Fora.TV: Wesley Clark at the Commonwealth Club of California, October 3, 2007.
2001: A classified plot is revealed to US Army General Wesley Clark that the US plans to attack and destroy the governments of 7 nations: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya Somalia, Sudan, and Iran. Fora.TV: Wesley Clark at the Commonwealth Club of California, October 3, 2007.
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2002: US Under Secretary of State John Bolton declares Syria a member of the "Axis of Evil" and warned that "the US would take action." BBC: "US Expands 'Axis of Evil'" May 6, 2002.
2005: US State Department's National Endowment for Democracy organizes and implements the "Cedar Revolution" in Lebanon directly aimed at undermining Syrian-Iranian influence in Lebanon in favor of Western-backed proxies, most notably Saad Hariri's political faction. Counterpunch: "Faking the Case Against Syria," by Trish Schuh November 19-20, 2005.
Image: Via Color Revolutions and Geopolitics: "As illustrated by the images above, Lebanon's so-called [2005] Cedar Revolution was an expensive, highly-professional production." (click image to enlarge)
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2005: Ziad Abdel Nour, an associate of Bush Administration advisers, policy makers, and media including Neo-Conservatives Paula Dobriansky, James Woolsey, Frank Gaffney, Daniel Pipes, Joseph Farah (World Net Daily), Clifford May, and Daniel Nassif of US State Department-funded Al Hurra and Radio Sawa, admits: "Both the Syrian and Lebanese regimes will be changed- whether they like it or not- whether it’s going to be a military coup or something else… and we are working on it. We know already exactly who’s going to be the replacements. We’re working on it with the Bush administration." Counterpunch: "Faking the Case Against Syria," by Trish Schuh November 19-20, 2005.
2006: Israel attempts, and fails, to destroy Hezbollah in Lebanon after a prolonged aerial bombard that resulted in thousands of civilian deaths. CNN: "UN: Hezbollah and Israel agree on Monday cease-fire," August 13, 2006.
2007: Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker reveals that US, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Hariri in Lebanon as well as the Syrian arm of the Muslim Brotherhood were assembling, arming, training, and heavily funding a sectarian extremists front, many of whom had direct ties to Al Qaeda, to unleash in both Lebanon and Syria. The goal was to create and exploit a sectarian divide between Sunni and Shi'ia Muslims. Hersh interviewed intelligence officers who expressed concerns over the "cataclysmic conflict" that would result, and the need to protect ethnic minorities from sectarian atrocities. The report indicated that extremists would be logistically staged in northern Lebanon where they would be able to cross back and forth into Syria. New Yorker: "The Redirection," by Seymour Hersh, March 5, 2007.
2008: The US State Department begins training, funding, networking, and equipping "activists" through its "Alliance for Youth Movements" where the future protest leaders of the "Arab Spring," including Egypt's "April 6 Movement" were brought to New York, London, and Mexico, before being trained by US-funded CANVAS in Serbia, and then returning home to begin preparations for 2011. Land Destroyer: "2011 - Year of the Dupe," December 24, 2011.
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| Which Path to Persia? .pdf |
2009-2010: In an April 2011 AFP report, Michael Posner, the assistant US Secretary of State for Human Rights and Labor, admitted that the "US government has budgeted $50 million in the last two years to develop new technologies to help activists protect themselves from arrest and prosecution by authoritarian governments." The report went on to admit that the US (emphasis added) "organized training sessions for 5,000 activists in different parts of the world. A session held in the Middle East about six weeks ago gathered activists from Tunisia, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon who returned to their countries with the aim of training their colleagues there." Posner would add, "They went back and there's a ripple effect." AFP: "US Trains Activists to Evade Security Forces," April 8, 2011.
2011: Posner's US trained, funded, and equipped activists return to their respective countries across the Arab World to begin their "ripple effect." Protests, vandalism , and arson sweep across Syria and "rooftop snipers" begin attacking both protesters and Syrian security forces, just as Western-backed movements were documented doing in Bangkok, Thailand one year earlier. With a similar gambit already unfolding in Libya, US senators begin threatening Syria with long planned and sought after military intervention. Land Destroyer: "Syria: Intervention Inevitable," April 29, 2011.
Image: Real genocidal atrocities during the "Arab Spring" occurred at the hands of NATO and its proxy sectarian terrorists. Pictured is Sirte, Libya, after NATO-armed rebels surrounded it, cut off power, water, food, and emergency aid, and allowed NATO to bombard it with daily airstrikes before a final orgy of death and destruction left its streets and facades crumbling. This is the "civilian protection" the UN and its enforcement arm NATO plan on bringing to Syria.
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2012: With NATO's Libyan intervention resulting in a weak US-backed Tripoli client-regime, perpetual infighting, nationwide genocide, and the succession of Benghazi in the east, the NATO-backed Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), listed by the US State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (listed #27) begins mobilizing weapons, cash, and fighters to begin destabilizing Syria. Headed by LIFG's Abdul Hakim Belhaj, this would be the first confirmed presence of Al Qaeda in Syria, flush with NATO weapons and cash. The Washington Post would confirm, just as stated by Hersh in 2007, that the US and Saudi Arabia were arming the sectarian extremists, now labeled the "Free Syrian Army." The Post also admits that the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, as stated in Hersh's 2007 report, was also involved in arming and backing extremist fighters. Land Destroyer: "US Officially Arming Extremists in Syria," May 16, 2012.
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2012: The US policy think-tank Brookings Institution in its Middle East Memo #21 "Assessing Options for Regime Change (.pdf)," admits that it does not seek any negotiated ceasefire under the UN's "Kofi Annan peace plan" that leaves Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in power and would rather arm militants, even with the knowledge they will never succeed to "bleed" the government, "keeping a regional adversary weak, while avoiding the costs of direct intervention." This reveals that US policy does not view US interference in Syria as a moral imperative predicated on defending human rights, but rather using this false predication to couch aspirations of regional hegemony. Land Destroyer: "US Brookings Wants to "Bleed" Syria to Death," May 28, 2012.
Save Syria Now
The premeditated nature of not only regime change in Syria, but the use of sectarian terrorists to wring such change out of a sea of blood, is clearly and extensively documented. There is nothing that the Syrian government can do, beyond crushing this foreign legion of terrorists and restoring order, that will prevent in any imaginable way the humanitarian crisis that is planned for Syria. As seen in Libya, the torture, atrocities, genocide, and disorder only just begin with the fall of a targeted government. The US means to create a sectarian extremist state with which to array against neighboring Iran.
Image: The people of Tawargha are Libyans and have been Libyan for generations, settling there from sub-Saharan Africa. They have been brutally persecuted by the NATO-armed terrorists now running Libya. In Syria, expect these to be Alawite, Christian, and secular faces staring back as they face a doomed future. Contrary to the West's claims, the genocide and atrocities will only just begin if the so-called "Free Syrian Army" prevails over the Syrian government. The US knows this of course - as the purpose of this exercise is to create a sectarian extremist state to play off against neighboring Iran.
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The sectarian nature of the Syrian opposition, the so-called "Free Syrian Army" is already playing out against Syria's 10% Christian population, according to the LA Times' "Church fears 'ethnic cleansing' of Christians in Homs, Syria," and more recently in USA Today's distorted, but still telling, "Christians in Syria live in uneasy alliance with Assad, Alawites." Likewise, sectarian division, not "aspirations for democracy and freedom," were identified as the driving force behind the Houla Massacre, with both sides claiming the other carried out the attacks because of the ethnic background and convictions of the victims. Not only did US, Israeli, and Saudi conspirators purposefully unleash sectarian extremists inside of Syria, but they did so with full knowledge and the intent that atrocities like the one in Houla, Syria would result.
It is clear, as memorialized in the Washington Post's article, "Syrian rebels get influx of arms with gulf neighbors’ money, U.S. coordination," that these sectarian extremists and their campaign of terror is propped up solely on US, NATO, and Gulf State support. Even as these sectarian terrorists admit they are conducting bombing campaigns, carried out by Al Qaeda affiliates who cultivated their skills killing foreign occupiers and locals in nearby Iraq, and despite an increasing list of atrocities attributed to them by both Human Rights Watch and the UN itself, the West, the US in particular still advocates sending more weapons, and even direct military intervention on their behalf.
The BBC recently lamented in "Can Syria avoid sliding into 'catastrophic civil war'?" that "there is no alternative to UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's peace mission." The BBC, after over a year of claiming the Syrian uprising was driven by aspirations for "democracy and freedom," now concedes that the conflict is primarily sectarian - as genuine political analysts had maintained from the beginning. BBC's Jim Muir attempts to leave readers begging for the world to "intervene" after describing the "incalculable consequences" of a sectarian-driven "catastrophic civil war from which the country would never recover." Of course, for those who have taken the time to examine the admitted, documented machinations of the West - sectarian strife, Sunni verses Shi'ia, were the tools of choice from the beginning for shattering not only Syria, but neighboring Lebanon and Iran.
The Clear Choice
It is clear what must be done to avert a repeat of a Libyan-style genocidal catastrophe and save Syria. The support for sectarian terrorists by the West must end. The weapons and foreign fighters flowing from Libya, Lebanon's north, Turkey, and the Gulf States must be stopped. The Syrian government must be allowed to quickly restore order and reassert the protection it has provided Syria's many ethnic minorities for decades against extremists of the Muslim Brotherhood and now Al Qaeda. The political transition the West speaks about as the only "acceptable outcome" for Syria will leave the nation, as it did Libya, under the rule of an ineffectual government hiding in Damascus while the rest of the country is torn apart by genocidal sectarian terrorists flush with NATO and Gulf State weapons and cash.
It is clear what must be done to save Syria, and it is clear that those who ignore this obvious choice are promoting a war of aggression against a nation that posed no threat to their security. This constitutes a crime against world peace and is punishable under the Nuremberg precedent.
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Please read through the "Solutions" archive to see ways of exposing, undermining, and replacing the corporate-financier interests driving this global campaign of destabilization and military aggression.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Seeking the Third Story
Feb 19, 2012: Seeking the Third Story - ThunderboltsProject
Author David Talbott suggests that all of human history can be seen as just two stories. First, came the story of ancient mythology, when towering gods were said to have ruled the world. Then came the story of science, emerging from a growing distrust of the myths and a new emphasis on direct observation and reason. But a third story is possible, according to Talbott, one that sees the underlying provocation of the myths in extraordinary electrical events occurring close to the Earth. That discernment will lead to a new perspective on modern science as well. Today, a third story IS possible. But it requires a reconsideration of both human stories—that of myth and that of "settled science"—seeing both through the fresh lens of the Electric Universe."
Author David Talbott suggests that all of human history can be seen as just two stories. First, came the story of ancient mythology, when towering gods were said to have ruled the world. Then came the story of science, emerging from a growing distrust of the myths and a new emphasis on direct observation and reason. But a third story is possible, according to Talbott, one that sees the underlying provocation of the myths in extraordinary electrical events occurring close to the Earth. That discernment will lead to a new perspective on modern science as well. Today, a third story IS possible. But it requires a reconsideration of both human stories—that of myth and that of "settled science"—seeing both through the fresh lens of the Electric Universe."
Imagining the Post-Occupy Social Movement
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| © unknown |
If one were to honestly assess Occupy's current strengths and weaknesses as a movement, confusion must be the inevitable result. This is because Occupy is not one movement, but an umbrella term that encompasses several different groups that have varied aims, organizational structures, and gaping theoretical differences.
Occupy may not be dead, but its power as a powerful social movement has surely been splintered into a dozen or so mini-movements. For example, a good, broad definition of a social movement is a large group of people who collectively try to achieve certain agreed on goals.
A social movement without common goals does not move in one direction, but many; an organization without a common set of principles or agreed upon demands is not a “group,” but "groups.”
Consequently, Occupy's various mini-movements move in different directions, towards different ends, using different means, while rarely coordinating with the other groups that are focused on their respective organization, growth, habits, and campaigns.
The result is that collective mass action large enough to change social policy - another key definition of a social movement - is rendered impossible.
Sadly, this was the state of the left prior to Occupy: different groups organized on an "issue based activism" basis, focusing on their own projects, disconnected from any common vision or collective action. Occupy was different precisely because it was massive, and that these various groups found connection under a single banner. But the banner has since been pulled in hundreds of directions until it tore.
Occupy came close to becoming a real social movement but didn't cross the threshold. Although Occupy failed to evolve into a social movement, it has laid a foundation for one, through its successful mass education around highlighting the 1% vs. the 99% and experiments with organizing and its creation of a new layer of revolutionary activists. Occupy's inability to grow into a mass social movement may have been inevitable, since the left's disunity runs especially deep in the United States.
Occupy did, however, create additional barriers for itself to become a social power. Occupy was organizationally wedded to a lack of organization, preventing the enormous energy from being funneled into a social force, and thus spilling in every possible direction.
Enough Occupiers were against goal setting that no goals could be collectively pursued. The well meaning attempts to create direct democracy and inclusion - through general assemblies, consensus, spokescouncil structures, etc. - resulted in gridlock, inefficiency, and exclusion instead, since most working people found it impossible to attend the initial lengthy, daily meetings that seemed unable to push the movement forward.
Some will argue that Occupy is doing fine, and that working towards a multitude of goals will inevitably bring victory, since all paths lead toward the same end, though few Occupiers agree on what this end should be. Working class people, however, are only powerful when they are united in mass numbers and acting collectively on an ongoing basis - no social movement has achieved social change without this preliminary factor. Whereas Egypt and Tunisia steadily gained momentum, Occupy eventually lost it.
It is still possible that a faction within Occupy - and there are several - could regenerate Occupy as a whole by working towards goals with a mass appeal that unite Occupy in a campaign capable of re-inspiring and mobilizing the broader population. But lessons must be learned from Occupy's experience. The key lesson - in this writer's opinion - is that social movements are created when they base themselves on concrete issues/goals that the majority of the population is concerned with.
For example, in the Arab Spring the movement's goal was specifically anti-dictator/pro-democracy; in Europe it is anti-austerity/pro social services; South America's ongoing social movements were born fighting foreign economic domination, in the form of the austerity policies implemented by the IMF and World Bank.
In all these cases the majority of working people in these countries could relate or sympathize with the goals of the movement, which helped multiply the initial protests into what later became powerful social movements.
In the United States, the number one concern of most people today - says numerous polls - is jobs. Occupy could demand that the federal government create millions of jobs, as was done in the 1930s, and pay for the program by taxing Wall Street as many in the Labor Movement have advocated.
Accessible, affordable quality public education and government social services are other major concerns. Occupy could focus its energies on demanding that the rich and corporations are taxed so that teachers could be rehired and tuition at colleges and universities could be reduced.
In other words, Occupy could aim at increasing taxes on the 1 percent in order to meet the needs of the 99 percent. This would also reduce the growing inequality in wealth. But these issues were lost in a whole laundry list of other goals that, although important, only concerned a periphery of the population.
The movement that Occupy gives birth to will be born at a higher level, with unity of purpose and collective action. It will not simply protest corporate power but directly challenge this power and the political system tied to it by the combined power of working people.
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Shamus Cooke is a social service worker, trade unionist, and writer for Workers Action. He can be reached at shamuscook@gmail.com.
Milky Way Galaxy Doomed to Head-On Crash with Andromeda
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| After its first close pass, Andromeda is tidally stretched out. The Milky Way, too, becomes warped. Image released May 31, 2012. CREDIT: NASA |
Four billion years from now, the Milky Way galaxy as we know it will cease to exist.
Our Milky Way is bound for a head-on collision with the similar-sized Andromeda galaxy, researchers announced today (May 31). Over time, the huge galactic smashup will create an entirely new hybrid galaxy, one likely bearing an elliptical shape rather than the Milky Way's trademark spiral-armed disk.
"We do know of other galaxies in the local universe around us that are
in the process of colliding and merging," Roeland van der Marel, of the
Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, told reporters today.
"However, what makes the future merger of the Andromeda galaxy and the Milky Way so special is that it will happen to us."
Astronomers have long known that the Milky Way and Andromeda, which is
also known as M31, are barrelling toward one another at a speed of about
250,000 mph (400,000 kph). They have also long suspected that the two
galaxies may slam into each other billions of years down the road. [Milky Way Slams Into Andromeda (Artist Images)]
However, such discussions of the future galactic crash have always
remained somewhat speculative, because no one had managed to measure
Andromeda's sideways motion — a key component of that galaxy's path
through space.
But that's no longer the case.
Van der Marel and his colleagues used NASA's Hubble space telescope
to repeatedly observe select regions of Andromeda over a seven-year
period. They were able to measure the galaxy's sideways (or tangential)
motion, and they found that Andromeda and the Milky Way are indeed bound
for a direct hit.
"The Andromeda galaxy is heading straight in our direction," van der Marel said. "The galaxies will collide, and they will merge together to form one new galaxy." He and his colleagues also created a video simulation of the Milky Way crash into Andromeda.
Read more..
18 Examples Of The Nanny State Gone Wild
America has been overrun by control freaks. Once upon a time the United States was considered to be "the land of the free and the home of the brave", but today there are millions of laws, rules and regulations that tightly regulate our daily lives. Most of these laws, rules and regulations were established by people who believed that they had "good intentions", but at this point the nanny state has become so oppressive that it is strangling the life out of us.
If you look back throughout history, the societies that have really thrived have had a very high degree of liberty and freedom. When the bureaucrats get the upper hand, it can suck the life out of any economy. These control freaks truly believe that they know better than the rest of us and they are systematically moving toward taking total control of our lives. Our rights are being stripped away a little bit more with each passing day, and we are being told that we need a "permit" or a "license" for almost everything.
Many younger Americans have been living this kind of "straight jacket existence" for so long that they don't even remember what real liberty and freedom are. We are steamrolling down the road toward totalitarianism, and most Americans don't even realize what is happening.
Sadly, there are many Americans that actually agree that the state should regulate nearly every detail of our lives. There are many Americans that actually believe that life is better when there are millions of rules that we all have to follow. There are many Americans that actually believe that too much liberty and freedom is a bad thing.
If we are not careful the control freaks are going to destroy this nation. They always tell us that the rules that they are imposing upon us are "for our own good", but every time they lay another burden on our backs they just suck a little bit more life out of us all.
The following are 18 examples of the nanny state gone wild....
#1 New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced that he wants to ban the sale of all large sodas and sugary drinks in order to fight obesity. Personally I don't have any sodas in my refrigerator, but I certainly do not want the government telling me that I am banned from drinking large sodas. Every American should have the freedom to decide if they want to drink soda or not.
#2 In North Carolina, authorities are threatening to send a blogger to prison for blogging about his battle against diabetes....
Steve Cooksey has learned that the definition, at least in the eyes of the state board, is expansive.
When he was hospitalized with diabetes in February 2009, he decided to avoid the fate of his grandmother, who eventually died of the disease. He embraced the low-carb, high-protein Paleo diet, also known as the 'caveman' or 'hunter-gatherer' diet. The diet, he said, made him drug- and insulin-free within 30 days. By May of that year, he had lost 45 pounds and decided to start a blog about his success.
But this past January the state dietetics and nutrition board decided Cooksey’s blog — Diabetes-Warrior.net — violated state law. The nutritional advice Cooksey provides on the site amounts to 'practicing nutrition,' the board’s director says, and in North Carolina that’s something you need a license to do.#3 In San Francisco, if you do not recycle your trash correctly you can be fined up to $500.
#4 The following are just some of the cities that have started using RFID tracking chips to monitor the recycling habits of their citizens....
*Cleveland, Ohio
*Charlotte, North Carolina
*Alexandria, Virginia
*Boise, Idaho
*Dayton, Ohio
*Flint, Michigan
#5 In Minnetonka, Minnesota you can be fined up to $2,000 for having a muddy vehicle.
#6 In Hazelwood, Missouri it is against the law for little girls to sell girl scout cookies in front of their own homes.
#7 San Francisco has implemented a ban on Happy Meal toys.
#8 Over the past couple of years there have been quite a few instances all over the country where lemonade stands run by children have been shut down by police because the children had not acquired the proper permits.
#9 State legislatures all over the country have been passing legislation making it more difficult for parents to opt out of having their children vaccinated.
#10 In many U.S. states is it now illegal to collect any rain that falls on to your own property.
#11 In San Juan Capistrano, California it is against the law to hold a home Bible study without a "conditional use permit".
#12 In New York City, it is against the law to smoke at public parks and beaches.
#13 In California,"food confiscation teams" visit the homes of people that have been discovered to have purchased raw milk. The following is from a recent NaturalNews article....
In a bombshell revelation of the depth of the food police state that now exists in LA County, California, NaturalNews has learned that the LA County health department has unleashed door-to-door raw milk confiscation teams to threaten and intimidate raw dairy customers into surrendering raw milk products they legally purchased and own.
According to Mark McAfee (see quotes below), both LA County and San Diego county have attempted to acquire customer names and addresses from Organic Pastures (www.OrganicPastures.com) for the sole purpose of sending "food confiscation teams" to customers' homes to remove the raw milk from customers' refrigerators. Using both phone calls and home visits, these teams intimidate customers and try to force them to give up their milk.#14 In Hilton Head, South Carolina it is illegal to have trash in your car.
#15 In major cities all over the United States feeding the homeless has been banned due to "health reasons".
#16 In Louisiana, one church was ordered to stop passing out water because it did not have the proper permit.
#17 At public schools all over the United States, the lunches that little children bring from home are now inspected to make sure that they meet USDA guidelines. The following is one recent report of this phenomenon from North Carolina....
A preschooler at West Hoke Elementary School ate three chicken nuggets for lunch Jan. 30 because the school told her the lunch her mother packed was not nutritious.
The girl’s turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips, and apple juice did not meet U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines, according to the interpretation of the person who was inspecting all lunch boxes in the More at Four classroom that day.
The Division of Child Development and Early Education at the Department of Health and Human Services requires all lunches served in pre-kindergarten programs — including in-home day care centers — to meet USDA guidelines. That means lunches must consist of one serving of meat, one serving of milk, one serving of grain, and two servings of fruit or vegetables, even if the lunches are brought from home.#18 Today, a vast array of government agencies is constantly monitoring what all of us say and do on the Internet. They claim that this helps makes us all more "safe" and "secure".
In order to maintain proper "control" over our lives, the nanny state is obsessed with watching us and monitoring us. This point was beautifully made in a recent article by Chuck Baldwin....
America is no longer 'one nation under God.' Today, America is 'one nation under surveillance.' Cameras monitoring our every movement, satellites taking pictures of our homes, listening devices being used to record our conversations, hi-tech computers capturing virtually every piece of correspondence, banking institutions forwarding our private financial records to Big Brother, and now armed drones flying over the neighborhoods of the American citizenry all reveal that America is anything but the 'land of the free.'Is this really how we want to live?
Do we want our children and our grandchildren to live their lives in a nation that is increasingly coming to resemble totalitarian regimes like North Korea?
Yes, every society needs laws.
But we don't need millions of them.
Our founders intended to create a society where liberty and freedom would be maximized, and all of that liberty and freedom helped create an environment that gave birth to the greatest economic machine that the world has ever seen.
But now the control freaks are choking the life out of our society. Please take a stand against them while you still can.
This article first appeared here at the Economic Collapse Blog. Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogs The American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog. Follow him on Twitter here.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
US Corporate Media ratings plummet as Americans turn away from lies
 |
| © n/a |
The U.S. mainstream media "sell lies on a daily basis", according to Niall Bradley, an editor and columnist in Paris.
Speaking to Press TV's U.S. Desk on Thursday, Bradley said that the CIA, since its creation in 1947, has had a grip on the American media, including its content and the people running it.
"Americans have by and large believed in the myth that they have the freest press in the world."
The recent significant drop in the number of audiences watching the corporate media in the U.S. may be a sign of the "demise of the propaganda military complex's grip on the American public's mind," Bradley said.
The latest figures in the United States show a major drop in America's mainstream news networks viewers.
CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC were all down from May 2011, but CNN was down much more than its rivals, falling 51 percent in total primetime viewers compared to 9 percent for top-rated Fox News and 19 percent for MSNBC.
Best Of UFO Sightings Of May 2012, AFO
Best Of UFO Sightings Of May 2012, AFO
http://www.AnonymousFO.com
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this video is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
Iv put a lot of effort into researching each case in this video, however nobody's perfect, and there are bound to be a few videos in here that have been debunked or proven fake. But I ask you, to always keep your mind open. Just because someone has told you the video is fake, or there's a video out there explaining in minute detail why it is, don't let that change your mind about it. Until there is good solid evidence out there that explains why and how the video is a fake stand by your own opinion. Don't let somebody else's opinion overshadow your own.
Videos used listed below
Music Used - Präludien by Richard Sharp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d8PlHKotmY
UFO Dropping Lights Over Escondido, California, USA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFPlbnkyZS8
UFOs Filmed From Window On Apollo 11 Mission
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdjaDo3Uc3Q
Gigantic Disc Shaped UFOs Next To The Sun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZMSsAxyx6A
UFO Captured By The ISS Camera
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8nM0rZg_OU
Flashing UFOs Over Norway
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUewOKllduo
Flashing Blue UFO Over Russia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3kjPVBLyvI
UFO Above Mission, British Columbia, Canada
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz1UqifmFSY
Ghostly White UFO Above Chicago, USA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9j45QFRDz0
Diamond UFO Above Morin Heights, Canada
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm2qje7Q-so
Triangle UFO Spotted Over Moscow, Russia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDsaIXnZa7U
Flashing UFO Above Fresno, California, USA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnxqR8K5k8U
UFOs Over Basel, Switzerland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFZ8hYpCgVA
Triangular UFO Over Sonora, California, USA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30qCPZJk6lM
UFO making trumpets of the apocalypse sounds? Hong Kong, China
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvB2xfW2vHg
Hard Turning Craft Over Rotorua, New Zealand
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFbmDgfqV3A
UFO's Caught Live During ISS Flight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PERyd4M-3qo
Coronal Cavity Sphere Deflects Solar Eruption
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgs4QUNzZfI
Fleet Of UFOs Over Dulce, New Mexico, USA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G8BjJPP1Sg
Do yo have a UFO video that you would like to share with the world?
Just Email us at: AnonymousFOz@gmail.com
Facebook message us at: http://www.facebook.com/AnonymousFO
Or Just simply YouTube message: AnonymousFO
FAIR USE NOTICE: This video may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes only. This constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law.
Special thanks to EgzonNikqiFB for helping me out with the video again! I really appreciate it!
http://www.AnonymousFO.com
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this video is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
Iv put a lot of effort into researching each case in this video, however nobody's perfect, and there are bound to be a few videos in here that have been debunked or proven fake. But I ask you, to always keep your mind open. Just because someone has told you the video is fake, or there's a video out there explaining in minute detail why it is, don't let that change your mind about it. Until there is good solid evidence out there that explains why and how the video is a fake stand by your own opinion. Don't let somebody else's opinion overshadow your own.
Videos used listed below
Music Used - Präludien by Richard Sharp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d8PlHKotmY
UFO Dropping Lights Over Escondido, California, USA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFPlbnkyZS8
UFOs Filmed From Window On Apollo 11 Mission
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdjaDo3Uc3Q
Gigantic Disc Shaped UFOs Next To The Sun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZMSsAxyx6A
UFO Captured By The ISS Camera
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8nM0rZg_OU
Flashing UFOs Over Norway
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUewOKllduo
Flashing Blue UFO Over Russia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3kjPVBLyvI
UFO Above Mission, British Columbia, Canada
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz1UqifmFSY
Ghostly White UFO Above Chicago, USA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9j45QFRDz0
Diamond UFO Above Morin Heights, Canada
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm2qje7Q-so
Triangle UFO Spotted Over Moscow, Russia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDsaIXnZa7U
Flashing UFO Above Fresno, California, USA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnxqR8K5k8U
UFOs Over Basel, Switzerland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFZ8hYpCgVA
Triangular UFO Over Sonora, California, USA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30qCPZJk6lM
UFO making trumpets of the apocalypse sounds? Hong Kong, China
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvB2xfW2vHg
Hard Turning Craft Over Rotorua, New Zealand
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFbmDgfqV3A
UFO's Caught Live During ISS Flight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PERyd4M-3qo
Coronal Cavity Sphere Deflects Solar Eruption
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgs4QUNzZfI
Fleet Of UFOs Over Dulce, New Mexico, USA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G8BjJPP1Sg
Do yo have a UFO video that you would like to share with the world?
Just Email us at: AnonymousFOz@gmail.com
Facebook message us at: http://www.facebook.com/AnonymousFO
Or Just simply YouTube message: AnonymousFO
FAIR USE NOTICE: This video may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes only. This constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law.
Special thanks to EgzonNikqiFB for helping me out with the video again! I really appreciate it!
War Criminal Henry Kissinger confronted on Bilderberg and Mass Murder
War Criminal Henry Kissinger confronted on Bilderberg and Mass Murder - Activist Post
YouTube - WeAreChange
This is one of the 12 videos you will see released on May 31st during our 12 hour Donation Drive broadcast at Bilderberg. Help WeAreChange reach our goal @ http://wearechange.org/donate watch live here http://ustream.tv/wearechange
YouTube - WeAreChange
This is one of the 12 videos you will see released on May 31st during our 12 hour Donation Drive broadcast at Bilderberg. Help WeAreChange reach our goal @ http://wearechange.org/donate watch live here http://ustream.tv/wearechange
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
As the 99% Movement Evolves, It’s Time to Go All In on Money Out
“You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” – Bob Dylan
For those of us in the 99% Movement who started organizing Occupy in the spring of 2011, Flag Day June 14th marks the one-year anniversary since we first gathered in Zuccotti Park and 22 other locations across the country. It also marks the anniversary of the Bloombergville occupation, which serendipitously began on the very same day just a few blocks away at City Hall. On one hand, it is astonishing to see how far we have come and how much we have accomplished since then. On the other, this is exactly what we set out to do and planned on happening. Having learned from our brothers and sisters in Egypt and Spain, it was obvious that the tactic of occupation was the most effective form of protest. The sense of community and solidarity in occupations that had sprung up throughout the world made it clear to anyone who was paying attention. It was a proven way to win public support and build a solid base. All it took was a critical mass of about 300 people on American soil to realize this and begin organizing what would quickly help spark a game-changing movement.
Focusing our protests against Wall Street was also the obvious target. After engaging in trillions of dollars of fraudulent activity that plunged the global economy and drove tens of millions of people into poverty, anyone with half a clue could see that they were responsible for creating our crisis. Now, a year later, to those with an ear to the ground, as Dylan put it, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” It has become obvious that a new critical mass has emerged and it is time for us to sharpen our focus and enter the next phase of our evolution toward freedom and justice.
As I type, thousands of working groups are spread throughout the country organizing toward the same goal: ending the corrupt culture that has consumed our government by getting money out of politics.
It’s time to Occupy Democracy.
Ending the auction of our democracy has clearly emerged as the most unifying issue, and it is at the root of the many problems that we are currently working to solve. Whatever issue is of most concern to you — healthcare, education, taxes, debt, war, environment, jobs, etc — it has become self-evident that the underlying cause of that particular problem is the corrupting influence of money in politics. Through a system of legalized bribery — campaign finance, lobbying and the revolving door between Washington and the most powerful global corporations — our government has devolved into a rigged system of exploitation.
It doesn’t matter what your political views are — left, right, center, democrat, republican, independent, conservative, liberal, progressive, libertarian, anarchist, communist, capitalist, socialist — if you believe in self-governance, self-determination, freedom and justice, ridding our governmental process of the corrupting influence of money must be an urgent strategic priority.
Our strategy moving forward inevitably needs to run on two tracks. Track one is achieving legitimate democracy by getting money out of our political process. Track two is creating the alternatives, so once we claim our rights new ways of living can flourish and evolve our obsolete system of rule to a participatory, sustainable and prosperous future, for the 100%.
For those of us paying attention, as Tom Paine explained, this is all “common sense.”
So let’s get to work and make this happen already! As the election season heats up and the mainstream media narrative further devolves into how much money paid off candidates are raising, we will focus our energy on striking at the root of evil by ending the system of political bribery that holds our future hostage.
Here are two vital new efforts that have inspired me to action.
The first is a Public Service Announcement campaign to pump the message out to the masses. Here’s the first 30-second spot to come out of the new 99% Get Money Out campaign:
The second effort is a campaign that I am currently focusing my time on, and is without a doubt the most ambitious project I have ever been part of. The #MoneyOutPack is a collaborative community and social network dedicated to, you guessed it, getting money out of politics and combating government corruption. The campaign and website are still in development, but it is a highly participatory citizen empowered movement driven by a decentralized and distributed network of power, effectively maximizing and riding the wave of communication technology that the internet has created for new movements of change to thrive.
As you will see on the Money Out Pack development site, a long and diverse list of organizers, celebrities, organizations and influential people on the issue are already joining forces to make the corrupt culture in Washington the number one issue in the minds of the general public. The most exciting part to me is that you can join the Start Up Team and take an active role in planning and building the movement from the ground UP.
It’s a movement led by you. It’s the next idea whose time has come. The next phase, the next wave that is beginning to take shape, and it is going to be a HUGE one.
Get your surfboards ready! It’s ON >>
By David DeGraw, AmpedStatus.com and MoneyOutPack.org [See this for DeGraw's role in organizing the Wall Street protests.]
Obama's God complex: America's Psychopathic President is clearly out of control
The fatal shooting of black teenager Trayvon Martin shocked a nation, inspired tens of thousands to march for justice and even prompted the US President to declare, "If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon".
It took nearly six weeks for George Zimmerman, the Florida man accused of killing the teenager, to be arrested and charged with second-degree murder after enormous pressure from the public.
Zimmerman - the captain of a Neighbourhood Watch group - pursued Trayvon because he said that he thought he was acting "suspicious" and "up to no good". And that is exactly the same excuse used by President Barack Obama as he justifies ticking off names on a "kill list" for drone attacks.
While Obama called on federal, state and local authorities to work together as part of the investigation into the killing of Trayvon, just who is going to investigate the President for his extra-judicial killings? He is a man out of control, and while his predecessor justified his actions with a catch-all "God told me to do it", this president thinks he is God, making decisions about who should live and who should die.
If he was the head of a banana republic the UN Security Council would be meeting as I write to bring about regime change, with the International Criminal Court on standby with a writ to charge Obama with war crimes.
But the USA is not a banana republic - not yet, anyway - and Obama is the head of a superpower and supposed to be the most powerful man in the world; the man who in 2009 went to Cairo and convinced us all that he was going to engage positively with the Muslim world from the Middle East to Asia.
Looking back at that historic day all I can visualise is a fox being heralded and saluted by his victims as he walks up the ramp into the chicken coop.
We don't know how many people Barack Obama has ordered to be killed, but according to the New York Times he has "placed himself at the helm of a top secret 'nominations' process to designate terrorists for kill or capture, of which the capture part has become largely theoretical".
There is huge hypocrisy in the media and from the so-called liberal left when it comes to this particular White House incumbent. The tame journalists who make up the Washington press pack ignore the fact that several times a month around 100 members of the government's sprawling national security apparatus gather, by secure video teleconference, to discuss who should live and who should die.
This murderous secret nomination process was the invention of the Democrat Obama Administration, just as the Democrat Bill Clinton Administration brought kidnap and extraordinary rendition flights to the world. Republicans must look on enviously at how the Democrats get away with breaking international laws and conventions without being challenged.
It is almost beyond belief that this kill list has been sanctioned by a man who won the Nobel Peace Prize and ran his US Presidential campaign on a human rights platform. Remember Obama's declaration that he wanted to close down Guantanamo, end torture, stop secret renditions and raise the bar in fairness and justice? He clearly doesn't.
In Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan, Obama's killing machines are not even clinical or always on target; thousands of innocent men, women and children have been taken out by his drone attacks. Their blood is on the US President's hands, and even his own people are sickened by the hypocrisy and double standards coming out of the White House.
America's outgoing Ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron Munter, a man with more backbone and guts than his predecessor, has revealed that he regards the drone strike-driven policy of his government unacceptable. Rather tellingly, he has complained to colleagues that "he didn't realise his main job was to kill people".
This was revealed in another article published this week in the New York Times, one of the few US media titles finally to adopt a critical stance over Obama's foreign policies. I can only assume that Obama's killing spree has gone largely unchecked by ordinary Americans because they haven't a clue what this president is doing in their name. This is sad, because Americans do care about justice and fair play; they showed this when they rallied and demonstrated after the killing of black teenager Trayvon Martin by a man who thought he was "up to no good".
Trayvon's killer will now stand trial for his actions and his fate will be decided by a judge and jury looking at openly presented evidence. That is real justice, not the shoot and kill version which is coming to define Obama's presidency.
Many of us who cheered when the first non-white president moved into the White House were hoping for a new era of peace and justice, but we have been conned. The true Barack Obama is an out of control psychopathic killer with a loaded God complex, and he's running America. This makes him the most dangerous man in the world as well as the most powerful. And that should make every right-minded person in America and beyond shudder with disbelief.
In response to UN statement on al-Houla massacre, Syrian Ambassador condemns tsunami of lies
In response to UN statement on al-Houla massacre, Syrian Ambassador condemns tsunami of lies by Silvia Cattori
The full text of the Press Conference in which the Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar Al-Ja'afari denounced "the tsunami of lies that were said a few minutes ago by some members of the Council". - Silvia Cattori
Full text of the Press Conference
transcribed by JPH for silviacattori.net
In Syria is an appalling, horrific, unjustified, and unjustifiable crime. This massacre was condemned by my government in the strongest terms possible. And here my government's version of the condemnation has joined exactly the wording adopted a few minutes ago by the Security Council.
I would like here to condemn also, on behalf of my government, the tsunami of lies that were said few minutes ago by some members of the Council who tried to mislead you by saying that their way of levelling accusations against my government is based on what they said "evidences". They are wrong and they are misleading you. Neither General Mood, nor anybody else told the Security Council and the informal session that he would blame the Syrian government's forces for what happened. It is really pitiful and regrettable that some members of the Council came out just a few minutes after General Mood had finished his briefing to mislead you to tell you lie about what happened.
I invite you all to look to what happened in al-Houla in its entirety. In the comprehensiveness of the picture, what happened in al-Houla yesterday has a background and we should understand this background in order to catch and understand who perpetrated this crime.
Yesterday, after the Friday prayer, two hundred to three hundred armed men gathered around two o'clock pm. They gathered in several points actually, and then they moved and they met in one point, in al-Houla. They had pick-up cars loaded with heavy weapons such as anti-tanks missiles, mortars and machine guns, the Libyan way you saw a couple months ago, and they started attacking the law enforcement forces in the area who were positioned in five different points and at the same time the military attacks lasted from two o'clock pm. up to eleven o'clock in the evening.
So here we are not talking about a military attack that took place and ended in a matter of half an hour. It is a full fledge military operation planned in advance with multi task purposes. After attacking the law enforcement orders positions, the military forces turned towards the civilians, and then they moved to another village which is very next to al-Houla, one kilometre away, were they burned the national hospital, they burned the crops of the farmers and they burned houses. And they killed also dozens of innocent civilians in another village also next to al-Houla, called Shomaria. So here we are not talking about only one incident that took place in one precise area, we are talking about a theatre of operations that engulfed many small villages in the area.
My government has established a national Commission of enquiry tasked with the mission of finding out who are the perpetrators of this horrific massacre so that they will be brought to justice. Whoever committed this crime will be held accountable by the Syrian authorities, by the Syrian government's law in the country.
The press statement adopted by the Security Council today, adopted somehow the version of events submitted by General Mood. If you go to the language in which the press statement was written, you will find that nothing indicates that the Council is blaming the Syrian government's forces for the killings and the perpetration of the massacres. On the contrary it identifies that other elements in the picture may be responsible for what happened. I am saying this because the press statement says that the Security Council condemns in the strongest possible terms the killings confirmed by the United Nations observers. I am here also confirming on behalf of my government that there were killings of dozen of civilians, one hundred fourteen - and then an attack that involves a series of government artillery and tank shelling on residential neighbourhood.
Then the members of the Security Council also condemned the killing of civilians by shooting at close range and by severe physical abuse. Most of the killings that took place in al-Houla are due to this kind of assassinations, killing at close range, not killed due to the artillery shelling because artillery shelling would not leave the body of the victims the way you saw them. Here we are talking about the Algerian killing style in the early nineties.
My government will spare no efforts, whatsoever, to find out the perpetrators of these massacres, and to bring them to justice.
I would like to add to that, that the Security Council should meet also to identify and call on those who are arming the terrorist groups in Syria, who are hosting them, instigating them and inciting them to violence, and protecting them, also to be brought to justice. Some members in the Council, their officials said it publicly. Some of them are permanent members. Their high level officials said it publicly that they would spare no efforts to present and to provide the Syrian opposition with weapons, and some of them said "non lethal weapons", I do not know what does it mean. But the immediate outcome of this weaponisation of the opposition was the result in the form of kidnapping the Lebanese pilgrims coming back from Iraq through Turkish territory, and in the form of suicide bombings and the infiltration by al-Quaida of the Syrian territory.
So we do not need double language in the Security Council. We need to bring everybody accountable to the justice, even though if we touch upon some permanent members. Those who have great interest in stopping violence and bringing to success the national inclusive dialogue in Syria should stop interfering in our domestic affairs, stop arming, hosting, financing and protecting the armed terrorist groups in my country. You cannot be an arsonist and a fireman at the same time. And this is exactly, unfortunately, the case of some members in this Security Council. The Arabic, the regional and the international dimensions of the Syrian crisis are not murky situation any more, and everybody knows what we are talking about.
I am in your hands.
Question: In the statement it said "Attacks involved the Syrian government artillery and tank shelling in residential neighbourhoods". You disagree with that?
Bashar Al-Ja'afari: I disagree with the interpretation provided to you of this sentence by the German ambassador, the British ambassador, and others. The interpretation was wrong. It is up to General Mood to present the facts. It is not up to the German ambassador or the British ambassador, or other ambassadors.
Question: But the fact that there was government shelling on a residential neighbourhood, was that a fact?
Bashar Al-Ja'afari: General Mood did not say that.
Question: Given the circumstances were unclear, is General Mood more factual than the Secretary general?
Bashar Al-Ja'afari: This is exactly what I was trying to say to your colleague. General Mood said that, that the circumstances were unclear with regard who to blame for these attacks. Yes, he did say that, but in this context, not in the context provided to you by some ambassadors.
Question: Do you feel that this letter of the Secretary General is it more akin to the statement of the German and the UK ambassadors or to the statement made by General Mood in consultations?
Bashar Al-Ja'afari: More inclined to sympathise with the German and the British ambassadors, of course.
Question: What about the investigation?
Bashar Al-Ja'afari: There is a close cooperation between the Syrian Government and UNSMIS [United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria] in Syria. Of course after establishing the Syrian national inquiry commission of investigation, the Syrian authorities will share with General Mood the outcome of these investigations, and then, of course, General Mood will share this information with the Security Council and Mr. Kofi Annan. One important point, gentlemen : you may remember that every time the Security Council has scheduled a session to discuss the Syrian crisis, something should happen in Syria. Either suicide bombing, or a terrorist attack, or a kind of massacre, the one unfortunately we are discussing today. So, it is not an innocent coincidence that the massacre took place only one day before the arrival of Mr. Kofi Annan to Syria. This dimension is very important because it casts shed of doubts about the real motivations of those who perpetrated this horrific crime. They are seeking escalation, they are seeking mobilisation of the Security Council against the Syrian government. No government whatsoever would massacre its own citizens for achieving political victory over its opponents. Using artillery and shelling and tanks and missiles would not kill these innocent civilians the way they were killed by. And this has been notified by the Security Council press statement when they said that they were killed at close range. That means that is a pure assassination, it is not about using artillery and tanks shelling.
Question: You say it is not the Syrian government, but who did it?
Bashar Al-Ja'afari: The armed terrorist groups have initiated this kind of terrorist attacks from the beginning of the crisis in Syria. Here we are not talking about the first incident that takes place in Syria. Of course what happened yesterday is horrific, appalling, unjustified and unjustifiable crime. But this type of killings is not done by any government on earth. It is about armed groups, it is a terrorist crime. We cannot describe it with different terms. Whoever committed this crime will be held accountable to the Syrian justice, and the national investigation Committee established by the government yesterday should submit its report in three days from now. So we will know for sure who is behind this horrific crime in a matter of three days.
Question: Would it not give a pretext for members of Council Security members to blame the government that they are giving this by proxy?
Bashar Al-Ja'afari: As I said in the beginning, we should look at the picture in its entirety. The issue is not to go into details. Sometimes details are important but sometimes they are not. The issue is to have the right judgement on what happened. And in order to have the right judgment you have to look at the picture in its entirety with its historical background, with its geopolitical dimensions. As I said, there is an Arab dimension, there is a regional dimension and an international dimension of the Syrian crisis. And some countries are publicly saying that they would support - and they have already supported - the Syrian military wing of the opposition with weapons. People should very cautious and very careful while reading the map of what is going on in Syria.
Question: Would it be for pushing to the increase in size of UNSMIS mission, maybe to arming their personnel, for some kind of internationalisation?
Bashar Al-Ja'afari: That might be one of the targets seek by those who perpetrated the crime. That might be one reason. One very important reason for perpetrating this kind of horrific crime: to increase the internationalisation of the Syrian crisis, and to increase the number of the staff of UNSMIS.
Thank you.
The full text of the Press Conference in which the Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar Al-Ja'afari denounced "the tsunami of lies that were said a few minutes ago by some members of the Council". - Silvia Cattori
Full text of the Press Conference
transcribed by JPH for silviacattori.net
In Syria is an appalling, horrific, unjustified, and unjustifiable crime. This massacre was condemned by my government in the strongest terms possible. And here my government's version of the condemnation has joined exactly the wording adopted a few minutes ago by the Security Council.
I would like here to condemn also, on behalf of my government, the tsunami of lies that were said few minutes ago by some members of the Council who tried to mislead you by saying that their way of levelling accusations against my government is based on what they said "evidences". They are wrong and they are misleading you. Neither General Mood, nor anybody else told the Security Council and the informal session that he would blame the Syrian government's forces for what happened. It is really pitiful and regrettable that some members of the Council came out just a few minutes after General Mood had finished his briefing to mislead you to tell you lie about what happened.
I invite you all to look to what happened in al-Houla in its entirety. In the comprehensiveness of the picture, what happened in al-Houla yesterday has a background and we should understand this background in order to catch and understand who perpetrated this crime.
Yesterday, after the Friday prayer, two hundred to three hundred armed men gathered around two o'clock pm. They gathered in several points actually, and then they moved and they met in one point, in al-Houla. They had pick-up cars loaded with heavy weapons such as anti-tanks missiles, mortars and machine guns, the Libyan way you saw a couple months ago, and they started attacking the law enforcement forces in the area who were positioned in five different points and at the same time the military attacks lasted from two o'clock pm. up to eleven o'clock in the evening.
So here we are not talking about a military attack that took place and ended in a matter of half an hour. It is a full fledge military operation planned in advance with multi task purposes. After attacking the law enforcement orders positions, the military forces turned towards the civilians, and then they moved to another village which is very next to al-Houla, one kilometre away, were they burned the national hospital, they burned the crops of the farmers and they burned houses. And they killed also dozens of innocent civilians in another village also next to al-Houla, called Shomaria. So here we are not talking about only one incident that took place in one precise area, we are talking about a theatre of operations that engulfed many small villages in the area.
My government has established a national Commission of enquiry tasked with the mission of finding out who are the perpetrators of this horrific massacre so that they will be brought to justice. Whoever committed this crime will be held accountable by the Syrian authorities, by the Syrian government's law in the country.
The press statement adopted by the Security Council today, adopted somehow the version of events submitted by General Mood. If you go to the language in which the press statement was written, you will find that nothing indicates that the Council is blaming the Syrian government's forces for the killings and the perpetration of the massacres. On the contrary it identifies that other elements in the picture may be responsible for what happened. I am saying this because the press statement says that the Security Council condemns in the strongest possible terms the killings confirmed by the United Nations observers. I am here also confirming on behalf of my government that there were killings of dozen of civilians, one hundred fourteen - and then an attack that involves a series of government artillery and tank shelling on residential neighbourhood.
Then the members of the Security Council also condemned the killing of civilians by shooting at close range and by severe physical abuse. Most of the killings that took place in al-Houla are due to this kind of assassinations, killing at close range, not killed due to the artillery shelling because artillery shelling would not leave the body of the victims the way you saw them. Here we are talking about the Algerian killing style in the early nineties.
My government will spare no efforts, whatsoever, to find out the perpetrators of these massacres, and to bring them to justice.
I would like to add to that, that the Security Council should meet also to identify and call on those who are arming the terrorist groups in Syria, who are hosting them, instigating them and inciting them to violence, and protecting them, also to be brought to justice. Some members in the Council, their officials said it publicly. Some of them are permanent members. Their high level officials said it publicly that they would spare no efforts to present and to provide the Syrian opposition with weapons, and some of them said "non lethal weapons", I do not know what does it mean. But the immediate outcome of this weaponisation of the opposition was the result in the form of kidnapping the Lebanese pilgrims coming back from Iraq through Turkish territory, and in the form of suicide bombings and the infiltration by al-Quaida of the Syrian territory.
So we do not need double language in the Security Council. We need to bring everybody accountable to the justice, even though if we touch upon some permanent members. Those who have great interest in stopping violence and bringing to success the national inclusive dialogue in Syria should stop interfering in our domestic affairs, stop arming, hosting, financing and protecting the armed terrorist groups in my country. You cannot be an arsonist and a fireman at the same time. And this is exactly, unfortunately, the case of some members in this Security Council. The Arabic, the regional and the international dimensions of the Syrian crisis are not murky situation any more, and everybody knows what we are talking about.
I am in your hands.
Question: In the statement it said "Attacks involved the Syrian government artillery and tank shelling in residential neighbourhoods". You disagree with that?
Bashar Al-Ja'afari: I disagree with the interpretation provided to you of this sentence by the German ambassador, the British ambassador, and others. The interpretation was wrong. It is up to General Mood to present the facts. It is not up to the German ambassador or the British ambassador, or other ambassadors.
Question: But the fact that there was government shelling on a residential neighbourhood, was that a fact?
Bashar Al-Ja'afari: General Mood did not say that.
Question: Given the circumstances were unclear, is General Mood more factual than the Secretary general?
Bashar Al-Ja'afari: This is exactly what I was trying to say to your colleague. General Mood said that, that the circumstances were unclear with regard who to blame for these attacks. Yes, he did say that, but in this context, not in the context provided to you by some ambassadors.
Question: Do you feel that this letter of the Secretary General is it more akin to the statement of the German and the UK ambassadors or to the statement made by General Mood in consultations?
Bashar Al-Ja'afari: More inclined to sympathise with the German and the British ambassadors, of course.
Question: What about the investigation?
Bashar Al-Ja'afari: There is a close cooperation between the Syrian Government and UNSMIS [United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria] in Syria. Of course after establishing the Syrian national inquiry commission of investigation, the Syrian authorities will share with General Mood the outcome of these investigations, and then, of course, General Mood will share this information with the Security Council and Mr. Kofi Annan. One important point, gentlemen : you may remember that every time the Security Council has scheduled a session to discuss the Syrian crisis, something should happen in Syria. Either suicide bombing, or a terrorist attack, or a kind of massacre, the one unfortunately we are discussing today. So, it is not an innocent coincidence that the massacre took place only one day before the arrival of Mr. Kofi Annan to Syria. This dimension is very important because it casts shed of doubts about the real motivations of those who perpetrated this horrific crime. They are seeking escalation, they are seeking mobilisation of the Security Council against the Syrian government. No government whatsoever would massacre its own citizens for achieving political victory over its opponents. Using artillery and shelling and tanks and missiles would not kill these innocent civilians the way they were killed by. And this has been notified by the Security Council press statement when they said that they were killed at close range. That means that is a pure assassination, it is not about using artillery and tanks shelling.
Question: You say it is not the Syrian government, but who did it?
Bashar Al-Ja'afari: The armed terrorist groups have initiated this kind of terrorist attacks from the beginning of the crisis in Syria. Here we are not talking about the first incident that takes place in Syria. Of course what happened yesterday is horrific, appalling, unjustified and unjustifiable crime. But this type of killings is not done by any government on earth. It is about armed groups, it is a terrorist crime. We cannot describe it with different terms. Whoever committed this crime will be held accountable to the Syrian justice, and the national investigation Committee established by the government yesterday should submit its report in three days from now. So we will know for sure who is behind this horrific crime in a matter of three days.
Question: Would it not give a pretext for members of Council Security members to blame the government that they are giving this by proxy?
Bashar Al-Ja'afari: As I said in the beginning, we should look at the picture in its entirety. The issue is not to go into details. Sometimes details are important but sometimes they are not. The issue is to have the right judgement on what happened. And in order to have the right judgment you have to look at the picture in its entirety with its historical background, with its geopolitical dimensions. As I said, there is an Arab dimension, there is a regional dimension and an international dimension of the Syrian crisis. And some countries are publicly saying that they would support - and they have already supported - the Syrian military wing of the opposition with weapons. People should very cautious and very careful while reading the map of what is going on in Syria.
Question: Would it be for pushing to the increase in size of UNSMIS mission, maybe to arming their personnel, for some kind of internationalisation?
Bashar Al-Ja'afari: That might be one of the targets seek by those who perpetrated the crime. That might be one reason. One very important reason for perpetrating this kind of horrific crime: to increase the internationalisation of the Syrian crisis, and to increase the number of the staff of UNSMIS.
Thank you.
The Crusade for Syria: A Big Lie
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| Gustave Dore, Crusades - Richard and Saladin at the Battle of Arsuf |
"War with Iran is already here," wrote a leading Israeli commentator recently, describing "the combination of covert warfare and international pressure" being applied to Iran.
Although not mentioned, the "strategic prize" of the first stage of this war on Iran is Syria; the first campaign in a much wider sectarian power-bid. "Other than the collapse of the Islamic Republic itself," Saudi King Abdullah was reported to have said last summer, "nothing would weaken Iran more than losing Syria."1
By December, senior United States officials were explicit about their regime change agenda for Syria: Tom Donilon, the US National Security Adviser, explained that the "end of the [President Bashar al-] Assad regime would constitute Iran's greatest setback in the region yet - a strategic blow that will further shift the balance of power in the region against Iran."
Shortly before, a key official in terms of operationalizing this policy, Under Secretary of State for the Near East Jeffrey Feltman, had stated at a congressional hearing that the US would "relentlessly pursue our two-track strategy of supporting the opposition and diplomatically and financially strangling the [Syrian] regime until that outcome is achieved".2
What we are seeing in Syria is a deliberate and calculated campaign to bring down the Assad government so as to replace it with a regime "more compatible" with US interests in the region.
Read complete report..
Is the Root of Evil the Psychopathic Mind?
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| Anthony Freda Art |
As such a useful tool of exchange, money is not inherently evil. Money can be a springboard to such evil as bailout-begging banks too monstrous to fail gambling with taxpayer wealth—you know, private profits, public risk. Casino financialization with taxpayers as a backstop. The $700 billion TARP bailout actually being a $23.7 trillion bailout. But the root of all evil is the human brain.
New research has exposed, shall we say, the root of the problem. Pathocracy is its flower.
Definition: pathocracy (n). A system of government created by a small pathological minority that takes control over a society of normal people (from Political Ponerology: A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes, by Andrew Lobaczewski).
A small minority of people are born psychopaths; they inherit a genetic deviance linked to certain structural abnormalities of their social brain.
The physical dynamic that exposes psychopaths is a reduction of gray matter in the anterior rostral prefrontal cortex and temporal poles. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is able to image this deviation fundamental to psychopathy. Potential benefits to humanity are immense; imagine something like a TSA screening (without the bureaucracy, groping and humiliation) to keep psychopaths from boarding the flight to power.
Psychopaths enjoy a perverse advantage over normal people in ascending pyramids of power. Unfettered by conscience, empathy, morality...some might say, without the weight of a soul, psychopaths readily rise to the top in a society turned upside down by pathocracy. Lying, cheating, stealing, backstabbing—without remorse, psychopaths can claw for power in ways that make a person with a conscience recoil.
It’s not so much that power corrupts as that the corrupt seek power.
Politics and investment banking are prime waters for psychopaths to school. If people enjoying great power over others were screened for social-brain deviations with an MRI scan, and the psychopaths were weeded out, renaissance might occupy Capital Hill and Wall Street. Judging from our current state of politics and financialization, there certainly would be many vacancies to fill in such a furthering of the humane.
It truly is right in our hands, an opportunity we may never see again.
But...possessing the means of physically detecting psychopathy and correcting the blight of psychopathic “leadership” may be irrelevant in the face of pathocracy fully entrenched. Psychopaths in power would never volunteer to have their social-brain deviations revealed, would never allow legislation regarding a brain MRI as a prerequisite to holding any elective office.
Perhaps it's true, "where there’s a will, there’s a way". Technology offers us the way—the key to identifying the human brain’s physical roots of psychopathy. The question becomes whether or not the American public has the will to force holders of great power over others, and seekers of such power, to bare their soul...or lack thereof.
Legislation requiring some “newfangled, junk-science” brain scan for leaders could only be forced from below. But our influence down here in the 99.99% is withering toward nothing but voting for a red psychopath, or a blue one, in elections controlled by unlimited corporate cash, and fraud.
And there’s: “Either with us, or against us”. Criminalization of dissent is plodding toward any questioning of entrenched pathocracy becoming “domestic terrorism”.
A most insidious aspect of psychopathy: It’s in the genes. Not only can moneypower be passed on through progeny, so can genes for psychopathy. The elite are shameless in pronouncing their gigadeath plans (95% reduction of human population) with such as Agenda 21, Georgia Guidestones, Denver airport...though they are elusive about how billions of humans will be eliminated....
When human population is reduced to 500,000,000, will the elite in absolute control be psychopaths across the board?
Perhaps an easy way to consider our potential is a simple MRI scan: Imagine...Dick Cheney was screened from ultimately becoming, for eight years, the de facto president of the greatest military power Earth has ever suffered.
Imagine that 9/11 never happened.
Rand Clifford's latest novel, Priest Lake Cathedral has been released by StarChief Press
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