Russia, Iran 'agree nuclear deal'

bbc
12/13/2007

Russia and Iran have agreed a schedule for finishing building the Bushehr nuclear plant, reports from Russia say.

"Difficulties with the Iranian client are resolved and we have agreement on the timetable for construction," said the state contractor, Atomstroieksport.

The company's president said details would be released later this month.

Work by engineers on the plant has been dogged by delays. Russia says Iran is behind on payments, but Iran says work has been stalled for political reasons.

We absolutely, definitely intend to build the Bushehr atomic power station and intend definitely to deliver the fuel to the plant Sergei Shmatko Atomstroieksport president

The US and its European allies on the UN Security Council have been pushing for tougher UN sanctions because of Tehran's refusal to end uranium enrichment.

However, correspondents say last week's US National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, which said the country had halted its nuclear weapons programme in 2003, has raised questions about the need for new measures.

Fuel delivery

Iran's nuclear programme began in 1974 with plans to build a nuclear power station near the south-western port of Bushehr with German assistance.

The project was abandoned because of the Islamic revolution five years later, but revived in 1992 when Tehran signed an agreement with Russia to resume work at the site.

There are two pressurised water reactors at the site, one of which is reportedly near completion and likely to be the first major Iranian reactor to go on stream.

Speaking shortly before the Russian and Iranian foreign ministers were scheduled to meet in Moscow, Atomstroieksport president Sergei Shmatko announced that the two countries had agreed to complete building the $1bn (£490m) plant at Bushehr.

"Difficulties with the Iranian client are resolved and we have agreement on the timetable for construction. I shall call it more precisely at the end of December," he said.

Mr Shmatko said the controversial delivery of nuclear fuel, after which the plant could begin operating within six months, would go ahead, although he again did not say when.

"We absolutely, definitely intend to build the Bushehr atomic power station and intend definitely to deliver the fuel to the plant," he stressed.

He also raised the prospect of a joint Russian-Iranian venture to "ensure security" at the plant, the RIA-Novosti agency reported.

Brown signs EU Treaty as experts warn Britain will surrender control of immigration

UK Daily Mail
Thursday December 13, 2007

Gordon Brown will later today put pen to paper on the EU Treaty, despite new evidence which shows the controversial document will surrender almost all control of Britain's immigration.

Buried in the Treaty's small print is a ruling that gives new rights to EU leaders to overturn decisions made by Britain's Immigration and Asylum Tribunal.

Thousands of failed asylum seekers will now be able to take their cases to the European Court of Justice in Strasbourg where the final say will be handed to unselected bureaucrats in Brussels.

European Union leaders are expected to sign the treaty at noon today in Lisbon - with Gordon Brown, who is flying in later today, expected to sign at about 3pm.

Neil O'Brien, who heads the I Want A Referendum campaign, claimed last night: "By signing us up to the rejected Constitution, Gordon Brown is giving EU courts the right to hear asylum cases.

"This could mean that decisions made by UK courts to deport failed asylum seekers will be overturned by Brussels."

Almost 170,000 deportation cases are already brought before the Immigration Tribunal every year, with each case usually lasting around two years.

Giving failed asylum seekers powers to take their cases to Europe will cost the taxpayer millions of extra pounds as each case now already costs an average of £18,000.

The move drew a furious reaction from Tory leader David Cameron who has accused the Prime Minister of 'betraying' the British public after ditching plans to hold a referendum.

"Today Gordon Brown will betray every good thing he claimed to stand for when he became Prime Minister," Cameron told the Sun.

"He said he would trust the British people and consult them more. He doesn't even have the guts to put it to the British people."

The news emerged after Brown was accused of political cowardice after it was confirmed that he will miss today's lavish signing ceremony for the new European treaty.

He will arrive in Lisbon too late and will have to add his name some time after the other EU leaders.

Full article here.

Neocons Revise WMD Entry on Wikipedia Propaganda Portal

Kurt Nimmo
TruthNews
Thursday December 13, 2007

It would be easy to shrug off the Wikipedia propaganda portal if not for the fact the online “encyclopedia” gets preferential treatment for the mega-search engine, Google.

“Hitwise put together some data which shows the increase of Google traffic to Wikipedia over the past year and reveals that Google downstream traffic to Wikipedia is up 166% year over year,” explains Loren Baker, editor of the Search Engine Journal. “Hitwise data showed that for the week ending Feb 10, 2007, 70% of Wikipedia’s upstream visits came from search engines, with 50% from Google alone.” In short, chances are high you will be directed to Wikipedia for any number of searches, for instance information on the weapons of mass destruction scam unleashed by the neocons and serving as a pretext to invade Iraq and slaughter well over a million people.

In fact, this is precisely what happened back in 2005, according to Nick Farrell of the Inquirer. Wikipedia “has been edited by a Bush friendly member of the US House of Representatives,” in other words a neocon, reports Farrell. “Apparently the person was so concerned that people no longer bought the story about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that he or she took to tampering with the Whackypedia entry.” Of course, since just about any miscreant can “edit” a “Whackypedia entry,” it may not considered “tampering,” not exactly.

The entry was edited by someone with a House of Representatives IP address to make the bizarre claim that there was a link between the terrorist organization al Qaeda and the Iraq government.

The fact that no link has ever been found, other on Whackypedia, has been a source of embarrassment for the Bush administration. Parts of the article which show proof that there were no links have been watered down by the use of the words “it is claimed”. Thus a statement like “the sky is blue”, has become the “sky is blue it is claimed”.

There are also comments justifying Mr. Bush’s actions which at the time were made on the fiction that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

The revision was made in 2005 but has only come to light now that software can tell who has been attempting to mess with your mind on Wackypedia.

One has to wonder how reliable an encyclopedia is when it peddles government propaganda in an almost Orwellian manner and forces people who disagree with it to ‘disappear’ from history.

See the neocon “revision” here.

Incidentally, this fallacious claim, easily debunked, was disseminated repeatedly by the corporate media, so it is not exactly correct to that it was exclusive to the Wikipedia propaganda portal, a favorite watering hole for the likes of the CIA, Republican Party, the Church of Scientology, ExxonMobil, Dow Chemical, Diebold, Boeing, the Israeli government and others.

Ron Paul Warns Middle Class Being "Wiped Out" In Final Debate

Congressman calls inflation "most evil tax"

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Thursday, December 13, 2007

In the final Republican debate before the 2008 primaries, Congressman Ron Paul slammed the destruction of the dollar, warning that inflation was wiping out the middle class, while also pointing out that Americans did not need to reduce their standard of living so long as a foreign policy of funding a ballooning empire was changed.

"The most sinister of all tax is the inflation tax and it is the most regressive - it hits the poor and the middle class," said the Congressman.

"When you destroy a currency by creating money out of thin air to pay the bills, the value of the dollar goes down and people get hit with a higher cost of living - it's the middle class that is being wiped out - it is the most evil of all taxes," he added.

Watch the highlights of the Congressman's responses during the debate in Iowa.

Speaking on the issue of the economy, Paul said that America was in the midst of a currency crisis because it had spent well beyond its means attempting to maintain an empire, but that didn't mean the American people should sacrifice their living standards to foot the bill.

"I think it's absolutely unnecessary to sacrifice, we want to give people more freedom, more chance to spend their own money - we can cut by looking at our foreign policy, we maintain an empire which we can't afford - we have 700 bases overseas, we are in 130 countries - we cut there - and then we have a better defense of this country and the people get that money and get to spend it here at home," said Paul.

With the debates over, the focus now shifts to this weekend's massive fundraising drive in the guise of the 2007 Tea Party.

Betting analysts predict that the Congressman is set to make $6-10 million on one day - the 16th - which would eclipse John Kerry's $5.7 million in one day record.