Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Ahtisaari Co-chairs European Council on Foreign Relations

Reuters
Image: YLE
A new pan-European think-tank modelled on the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations launched on Tuesday aiming to stimulate European Union foreign policy integration with a mixture of ideas and advocacy.

In a joint declaration, the 50 founders of the European Council on Foreign Relations called on the EU to "punch its weight in the world", advocating a series of policies to increase European influence.

Among their proposals are closer EU cooperation at the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation, as well as a firm commitment to future membership for Turkey and the Western Balkans.

The ECFR's board will be co-chaired by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, who has mediated in the Balkans, former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, and Mabel van Oranje, a human rights activist at the Open Society Institute.

Among the first policy areas the council will tackle is the EU's relationship with Russia, seeking to force the 27 EU states to pool efforts to influence Moscow instead of conducting bilateral ties in a way that undermines common EU interests.


'They placed their pistols against Jean Chales de Menezes's head and fired seven times'

Sean O'Neill
London Times
Tuesday October 02, 2007

Jean Charles de Menezes seemed to be in no hurry as he sauntered through the ticket hall at Stockwell Underground station. He was wearing a light blue denim jacket, a black T-shirt, jeans and a pair of trainers. He was not carrying a bag.

Seeing a stack of free newspapers, he picked one up before going through the ticket barriers and on towards the escalator to the Northern Line platforms.

These pictures of an easy-going young man on his way to work were the first images shown to the jury yesterday at the opening of the Old Bailey trial of the Metropolitan Police force.

A few minutes after they were recorded on closed-circuit television cameras on the morning of July 22, 2005, Mr de Menezes was lying dead on a train.

He met his death when one police officer, thinking that he was a suicide bomber, held him down as two others ran on to the train, pressed their Glock 9mm pistols to his head and fired seven bullets into his brain.

“Two firearms officers, who I will refer to as C2 and C12, leant over Ivor [a member of the surveillance team] and placed their Glock 9mm pistols against Jean Charles’s head and fired. He was shot seven times in the head and died immediately,” said Clare Montgomery, QC, as she publicly outlined for the first time a detailed account of how Mr de Menezes came to be shot dead.

A picture of his body, recorded by a police cameraman, was shown to the court. Mr de Menezes was shown lying on his side, his back to the camera. One arm was visible, the other was draped over the front of his body.

His jacket was now gathered up from his waist, revealing the bare flesh of his lower back. There were no wires, no rucksack, no bomb.

In the minutes between the recording of these two starkly contrasting images, dramatic events unfolded at Stockwell station.

The CCTV footage showed Mr de Menezes enter the station closely followed by police surveillance officers identified by the code names Ivor, Ken, Laurence and Malcolm.

Mr de Menezes was unaware that he was being tailed as he descended to the Tube platform. The man directly behind him on the staircase was Ivor. A train pulled in and the surveillance team boarded the same carriage as Mr de Menezes.

The warning beeps sounded, but the carriage doors did not close and the train sat by the platform for a minute or more. In that time, police firearms team arrived at Stockwell and was picked up on the station cameras running through the ticket hall.

The officers descended the escalator at a run and were clearly picked out by the cameras. A woman in a pink top turns quickly, looking alarmed, as the men rushed past her. Miss Montgomery said: “Some had pulled police caps on, they were shouting loudly and carrying obvious weapons as they clattered down the escalator.”

The firearms officers ran on to the platform and towards the waiting train. Ivor was the first of the surveillance team to react, moving to the door and shouting, “He’s here”, to the officers.

Miss Montgomery said: “As the armed officers entered the train Jean Charles stood up. He was grabbed by a surveillance officer, Ivor, and pushed back on to his seat.” Then the two firearms officers shot him.

Screaming erupted in the carriage as other passengers panicked. There was confusion among the police officers too. One of the armed police officers grabbed Ivor and hauled him to the ground.

“He was dragged along the floor of the carriage by a firearms officer with a long-barrelled weapon — possibly a machinegun,” Miss Montgomery said. “Ivor shouted that he was a police officer and held out his hands. The officer dragged him on to the platform and levelled his weapon at Ivor’s chest.”

The police also turned their attention on the train driver who, frightened for his life, jumped from his cab and ran into the tunnel, pursued by armed officers.

Miss Montgomery told the jury: “You may think that the fact that police ended up pointing a gun at another policeman and mistaking a terrorised train driver for a bomber gives you a clue as to just how far wrong the operation had gone.”

Are the good times gone for good?

By Steve Schifferes
Economics reporter, BBC News

Alan Greenspan
Mr Greenspan left the Federal Reserve in January 2006

One of the most influential figures in the world economy, former US central bank chairman Alan Greenspan, has warned that the good times are over for the world economy.

Mr Greenspan, who played a key role in managing the US economy as head of the Federal Reserve from 1986 to 2006, says that higher interest rates and higher inflation are more likely in the future, leading to slower economic growth and lower housing and share prices.

In a wide-ranging interview with BBC economics editor Evan Davis, he warns that the UK cannot escape from global economic pressures.

And he says that central bank governors, including the Bank of England's Mervyn King, face a far more difficult task in managing the economy in turbulent times.

Why is Mr Greenspan so gloomy for the world economy?

And why have his perceptions shifted so sharply, compared with his views when he was in charge of the Fed?

World slowdown

Mr Greenspan says that the outlook for the world economy over the next few years is highly uncertain.

The most credible worst-case scenario, he says, is a recession in the US, driven by further falls in US house prices as people feel less wealthy and spend less money.

Even in the best case, he predicts a substantial slowdown in the US, with repercussions across the globe.

In the long-term, he predicts that higher interest rates, greater pressures on public spending, and a revival of inflation through commodity prices could lead to a less affluent future for us all.

End of the "golden age' ?

In the 1990s, Mr Greenspan was one of the leading advocates of the concept of the "new economy", which was the belief that by using new technology such as computers, businesses could raise their productivity, and thus boost economic growth, without causing inflation.

As a result, the Fed kept interest rates low, and the US economy and stock market boomed.

Mr Greenspan now says that two other factors kept inflation and interest rates low: the rise of China as a source of cheap goods, which reduced inflation for US and European consumers, and the global glut of savings, again from Asia, which kept interest rates low.

But he argues that these have only given a temporary respite to the world economy, and he says that the price of Chinese goods is now beginning to rise.

Mr Greenspan now says that globalisation was more of a double-edged sword than he once believed, leading to growing inequality of income and wealth and growing protectionist pressures, as well as more efficient allocation of resources.

Bursting asset bubbles

In 1996, Mr Greenspan famously warned that the stock market was suffering from 'irrational exuberance', but the stock market boom continued.

And when the stock market crashed in 2000, the house price boom began, both in the US and the UK.

Mr Greenspan now says that he was perhaps a little too cryptic in his warnings about the 'frothy' nature of these asset bubbles.

But, he argues, there is little central bankers could have done to prevent asset bubbles from forming in the economy.

He says the bubbles were a side-effect of their successful efforts to keep interest rates low.

Even when the Fed raised short-term interest rates in 2004, the long-term money markets did not respond with higher rates, because the global downward pressures on interest rates were too strong.

Now that the bubbles seem likely to burst, there is little bankers can do to prevent them because it all depends on human psychology.

He says it is inevitable that house prices will fall or stabilise as global interest rates continue to rise, and he fears a sharp correction is possible.

Limits of intervention

Overall, Mr Greenspan - who was often characterised as the 'Maestro' - is now more humble about his role in shaping the world and US economy.

He says that financial panics and reverses, like the one we are experiencing at the moment, may be inevitable, and the best that policy-makers can do may be to wait for them to finish.

He argues, in fact, that attempts at further regulation by governments often have perverse effects, like the Bank of England intervention to help Northern Rock, which triggered the run on the bank.

He clearly believes that governments often do more harm than good.

He is surprisingly critical of the Bush administration, and deeply disappointed that it increased spending while also cutting taxes, thus boosting the budget deficit and adding to inflationary pressures.

Of course, it was Mr Greenspan's endorsement of the tax cuts in 2001 that proved crucial in getting them through a divided Congress, which is something he now regrets.

He now argues that the Clinton Administration, which put tackling the budget deficit at the top of its priorities, had a sounder approach.

With Hillary Clinton now the leading candidate for the Democratic nomination for the US Presidency, Mr Greenspan's words are likely to be influential for some time to come.

Greenspan Warns Good Times Are Over

Short News
Tuesday October 02, 2007

Alan Greenspan has announced the end of the good times for the world economy and that the economic future is a gloomy one, due to many factors including a slow down in the US economy which will have repercussions across the globe.

Greenspan predicted the boom of the 90’s following a "new economy",a high-tec boost to productivity whose effects have been prolonged by the economic rise of China although he now claims that these have only given a temporary respite to the economy

He warns that government intervention to counteract the economic slowdown often do more harm than good citing the Bank of England intervention to help Northern Rock, a move that triggered the run on the bank.

Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Israeli airstrike hit military site, Syria confirms

Julian Borger
London Guardian
Tuesday October 02, 2007

Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, yesterday claimed the target hit by an Israeli airstrike last month was a military building under construction, but denied it had anything to do with a nuclear programme.
President Assad said he could not understand the motives for the mysterious September 6 airstrike on Syria, which the Israeli government has refused to discuss. There has been speculation, in Israel and Washington, that the target was nuclear technology from North Korea.

"We found the building construction was related to the military but it's not used," he said, according to a BBC transcript. "It's under construction so there's no people in it, there's no army, there's nothing in it and we do not know the reason, it wasn't clear."

Asked about the rumours of a nuclear project set up with North Korea, he replied: "We have a relation with North Korea and this is not something in secret ... We are not interested in any nuclear activity."

He said the targeted building site did not have "any protection, any air defence" and that after the attack "there's no radiations, no emergency plans". However, Mr Assad did not say what the building was intended for, nor was he directly asked.

He played down, but did not exclude, the possibility of a military response. "Retaliation doesn't mean missile for missile and bomb for bomb. We have our means to retaliate, maybe politically, maybe in other ways," he said.

President Assad also said Syria would not attend a Middle East peace conference planned by the US next month, unless it explicitly dealt with the fate of territory captured by Israel from Syria in 1967.

Neocons Told to Look for Reasons to Attack Iran

Short News
Tuesday October 02, 2007

British newspaper the Sunday Telegraph claims that Members of the US secretariat in the UN have been asked to "search for things that Iran has done wrong", in order to justify military strikes against the country

Many observers claim the exercise is reminiscent of attempts by Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld to build the case for war with Iraq and expect it to boost support for an attack on Iran inside and outside the administration.

Concern is also being expressed in the CIA and the Pentagon that the US Administration exaggerated intelligence which was used as a basis for an Israeli air attack on Syria last month.

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Arrested For Reading The Constitution

Only pro-war groups are allowed freedom of speech in police state Amerika as cops kidnap people who recite the very document they swore an oath to protect and uphold
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Peaceful onlookers were arrested by police for reading the Constitution while a pro-war group was allowed full freedom of speech in Washington DC recently in another flagrant example of how American cops are now the enforcers of a tyrannical police state.

Police are required to swear an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution but this didn't stop them from kidnapping members of the Code Pink group, who gathered on a nearby sidewalk to calmly express their disagreement with a Neo-Con pro-war event taking place nearby by reading the bill of rights.

The pro-occupation group "Vets for Freedom" held a rally at Upper Senate Park, Washington DC, on Saturday September 22nd. Their guest speakers included Neo-Con criminals John McCain, Johny Isakson and Joe Lieberman.

Watch the video.

A common theme of the event was that U.S. troops in Iraq were there to "protect the freedom" of the Iraqi people, but this freedom didn't seem to apply to the group of American citizens that decided to use their first amendment right of free speech to voice their dissent.

Five members of Code Pink were arrested, one for reading the Constitution, as police refused to say what the charges were and refused to answer any questions while demonstrators were hauled into paddy wagons.

The events echo similar incidents across the pond in Britain, where a woman was questioned by police and entered into the anti-terror database for reading a mainstream newspaper that had an anti-war headline.

In October 2005, another woman was arrested and convicted for reading out names of British soldiers killed in Iraq at central London's Cenotaph.

Much to the chagrin of Neo-Con trolls who attempted to skew the events seen in the video by claiming the Code Pink group were heckling parents of slain U.S. soldiers, one of the five arrested was an Iraq veteran herself.

"Screw you, anonymous coward. I served my country honorably and proudly - and with my head, not my knees. Dissent is patriotic. If you want to work for a king, go flip burgers," retorted one individual in response to Neo-Cons who tried to justify the arrests on Internet messageboards.

Prime Minister Harper officially endorses North American Union with Council of Foreign Relations visit

by Paul Chen The Canadian


Prime Minister Stephen Harper

Prime Minister Harper addressed the Council on Foreign Relations which supports the SPP North American Union (NAU) agenda.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's appearance at the New York City based Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) on 25 September 2007, was an official endorsement and expression of solidarity on the North American Union agenda. Harvard University educated CNN Veteran anchor Lou Dobbs, has further confirmed the official endorsement of the Stephen Harper Minority Conservative government on North American Union, or "New America".

Mr. Harper has been apparently directed by the principal funders of the Conservative Party of Canada, which are ideologically linked to the CFR, to assimilate Canada into a new "Fortress North America" which is controlled by the U.S. political-military-industrial complex by no later than 2010.

Indeed, the Stephen Harper government has been reported to be in the process of getting various Canadian government departments and agencies to "harmonize", with U.S. governmental agencies, to expedite the assimilation of Canada into the neo-conservative vision of a "Fortress North America".


Click to Enlarge

Council of Foreign Relations Book advocates the take-over of Canada into a "Fortress North America" controlled by a U.S. political-military-industrial complex.

The Council of Foreign Relations has indeed published a book on its North American Union manifesto entitled "Building a North American Community". John Manley, former Deputy Prime Minister in the Paul Martin Liberal Government is a co-author of this book.

Yes, my fellow Canadians, that is why Stephen Harper with ONLY a minority government, has been able to easily pursue North American Union, with what Mr. Lou Dobbs has referred to as a cabal at the CFR. Political party elites including those among the Liberals and Bloc Québécois, have apparently been all co-opted by the very wealthy Council of Foreign Relations. North American Union architects have used the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to legitimate the take over of Canada by U.S. interests as a "logical outcome" of the terms of NAFTA.

"When the leaders of Canada, Mexico, and the United States met in Texas recently they underscored the deep ties and shared principles of the three countries. The Council-sponsored Task Force applauds the announced “Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America,” but proposes a more ambitious vision of a new community by 2010 and specific recommendations on how to achieve it," states the Official Press Release for the book Building a North American Community, which is published by the CFR. Mr. Harper's speech at the CFR on 25 September 2007 affirms Mr. Harper's Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPPNA) commitment to hand over Canada to full control by no later than 2010, to a political fraternity which is associated with the current U.S. Bush administration. Mr. Harper's government apparently reports to the CFR.


Lou Dobbs

Lou Dobbs, a Harvard university educated and CNN Veteran anchor confirms Stephen Harper government's support for the CFR Security and Prosperity Partnership North American Union agenda (SPPNA).
Reference: YouTube video.

In effect, the Government of Canada appears to be governed not from a sovereign Parliament in Ottawa, but run through a New York City-based political fraternity, which seeks to replace a democratic form of government, with the rule of society by a "Council of Wise Men". The architects of such a fascistic government look upon their vision of society, to be much more "efficient" in dealing with the need to vanquish enemies, i.e. "terrorists". A terrorist is broadly defined by the architects of the North American Union, as any individual or group which opposes the New World Order agenda.

The CFR website also openly endorses the Conservative Party of Canada under Stephen Harper, alluding to his government having an alleged mandate to transform Canada substantively into a U.S. colony by implementing the recommendations of the CFR, book "Building a North American Community". LINK. There is therefore clearly a working association between the Harper government and the CFR to implement and execute the NAU agenda of the book entitled "Building a North American Community", whether Canadians like it or not.

John Manley, former Liberal Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, who is part of an apparent Liberal-Conservative-Bloc parliamentary alliance on the SPPNA, also endorses the replacement of the Canada-U.S. border, with a new international border around Canada, the U.S., and also Mexico.

"To make North America more competitive and secure, the three leaders should announce a plan to establish a North American security and economic community by 2010. The aim of this community would be to guarantee a free, safe, just and prosperous North America. The boundaries of the community would be defined by a common external tariff and an outer security perimeter, within which the movement of people and products would be legal, orderly and secure." John Manley stipulated on 23 March 2005, in the Wall Street Journal, in the aftermath of his Liberal government's support of SPPNA.

Canadians who seek to save their country, must therefore seek to cancel NAFTA, as the legal basis for the greed-driven and fear associated pursuit of the destruction of Canada, under the pretext of the "War of Terrorism".

Incoming IMF Chief Intends To Focus on Emerging Nations

By GABRIELE PARUSSINI and NATHALIE BOSCHAT
October 2, 2007 - wallstreetjournal

PARIS -- The International Monetary Fund needs to increase its relevance and legitimacy to better respond to international crises, newly appointed Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said.

In his first news conference since being nominated for the post over the summer, he said overhauls he intends for the IMF will allow it to adapt to "a new balance of power in the world" and "to the new kind of financial crisis" that has hit financial markets recently.

"I define myself as a candidate for reform," said Mr. Strauss-Kahn, a former Socialist French finance minister, adding he will aim to give more representation to emerging countries when he takes office Nov. 1.

To ensure a fairer representation within emerging economies, such as China, India and Brazil, he suggested that Europe, Russia and others give up some of their voting power, adding that this wouldn't come at the expense of the fund's largest shareholder. "Nobody has in mind that the U.S. see their share diminishing," he said.

Mr. Strauss-Kahn didn't share the pessimism of those worried about exchange-rate imbalances, notably the weakness of the U.S. dollar. "I don't see the dollar collapsing," he said.

He said debate about the Chinese currency's value needs to be taken up by multilateral institutions. "It's in nobody's interest to let this debate grow sour" between China and the U.S., he said.

Bill Clinton: "Torture Like on 24 Is OK"

America needs more Jack Bauer like agents says former President

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Mon
day, Oct 1, 2007







Former president Bill Clinton has told NBC's Meet The Press that America needs more intelligence agents who make their own rules and engage in whatever actions are necessary like Jack Bauer from the fictional TV show 24.

"I think what our policy ought to be is to be uncompromisingly opposed to terror--I mean to torture, and that if you're the Jack Bauer person, you'll do whatever you do and you should be prepared to take the consequences... And I think the consequences will be imposed based on what turns out to be the truth." Clinton said.

"If you have any kind of a formal exception, people just drive a truck through it, and they'll say, 'Well, I thought it was covered by the exception,'" Clinton added.

The question was again raised by host Tim Russert after Clinton told him last year that he would authorize torture in a "ticking bomb 24"-style situation.

Clinton went on to state “If you look at the show, every time they get the president to approve something, the president gets in trouble, the country gets in trouble. And when Bauer goes out there on his own and is prepared to live with the consequences, it always seems to work better.".

Clinton's comments represent another case of an influential political figure discussing the benefits of torture in the context of a fictional TV show character.

Earlier this year Supreme Court judge Antonin Scalia also used the analogy at a panel discussion on torture, stating "Jack Bauer saved Los Angeles. ... He saved hundreds of thousands of lives... Are you going to convict Jack Bauer? Say that criminal law is against him? ‘You have the right to a jury trial?’ Is any jury going to convict Jack Bauer? I don’t think so.”

We are more used to this kind of dross from Fox News. For example, Laura Ingraham has previously stated that the average American's love of the show is a referendum for the use of torture against anyone considered to be with "Al Qaeda" whether they be American citizens or not. Watch it:

24 has routinely depicted scenes of detainee torture, as well as plot-lines broaching the issue of the detention of American citizens in a time of crisis.

At a time when legislation such as The Patriot Act and The Military Commissions Act are setting the precedent for the detention of American citizens, and in the absence of any real terror 24 serves as the perfect dose of fear-mongering propaganda to encourage acceptance of such attacks upon the fabric of freedom.

24, Threat Matrix, Spooks, and other such shows are contributions to a conditioning mechanism that present torture as a reasonable and ethical method. However, in every case of torture that has come to light in the real world there isn't even a basis of "situational ethics" to justify this with.

Click here to watch a video clip in which Alex Jones explains the hypocrisy of torture and why the doublethink of the "it's bad when the enemy does it but good when we do it" mentality is so dangerous.

Finally, should we really have to endure BIll Clinton, an impeached former president who has been accused of rape and molestation, speaking on "facing consequences" for one's actions based on "what turns out to be the truth"?