Thursday, May 01, 2008
U.S. Marines Invade Manhattan, New York!
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/news/contamination.html
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/news/dpc_hearing.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11854311
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13158
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-rieckhoff/dirty-water-kbr-negligen_b_17429.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10977706/
http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=06-P13-00015&segmentID=2
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/01/23/
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iTPtb56ofIAHMsOzr31uRzsdQjDQD8VA0AF00
This is a Psyop to get people used to seeing military troops running around in our streets.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Ron Paul on CNN American Morning
Youtube
Ron Paul on CNN - 28/04/08. Ron Paul tells CNN's John Roberts he is still in the race and gaining support from delegates every day!
"Maybe you're a good Republican, if you stand up for Republican principles!"
"GOP can't shut me out."
John Roberts: "Well you've still got $4 million to do it. Hah other candidates would like that money too."
Yea, but you have to earn it Mr Roberts. ;)
Partly why McCain is bankrupt. :D
EDIT: We made front page of Digg - Great work guys!
http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/Ron...
"Truth is treason in the empire of lies"
"Let the revolution begin!"
~ Dr. Congressman Ron Paul
Friday, April 25, 2008
US man 'gave secrets to Israel'
A military engineer has appeared in court in the US on charges of passing classified information to Israel.
Ben-Ami Kadish is alleged to have given secrets involving information about nuclear weapons, fighter jets and missiles to Israel in the 1980s.
He was charged with four counts of conspiracy, including disclosing documents relating to national defence and acting as an agent of Israel.
He declined to comment on leaving the Manhattan courthouse.
"I'm not saying anything. I have no comment," said Mr Kadish, 84, who worked at the US army's Armament Research, Development and Engineering Centre in New Jersey from 1979 to 1985.
He was released on bail of $300,000 and restrictions were placed on his travel.
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.
US state department spokesman Tom Casey discusses the charges
Mr Kadish is accused of giving the material to an Israeli consular official.
His alleged handler has been named by justice officials as the former consul for science affairs at the Israeli Consulate General in Manhattan, reportedly the same person who dealt with Jonathan Jay Pollard, who is serving life in prison for spying for Israel.
Pollard passed thousands of documents to Israeli agents while working at the US defence department. He was convicted in 1987.
The Israeli government publicly admitted in 1998 that Pollard had been their agent and awarded him Israeli citizenship.
'Major weapons system'
According to the complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, Mr Kadish borrowed several classified documents related to national defence from the army's research centre between 1980 and 1985 and took them to his home in New Jersey.
Mr Kadish would then hand over the documents at his home to the Israeli consular official, who would photograph them in the basement, it added.
The complaint said Mr Kadish appeared to have received small gifts and restaurant meals for his alleged spying - not cash.
One of the documents "contained information concerning nuclear weaponry and was classified as 'Restricted Data'... because the document contained atomic-related information", the complaint said.
Another, classified as "Secret" and "Not Releasable to Foreign Nationals", contained "information concerning a major weapons system - a modified version of an F-15 fighter jet that the United States had sold to another country".
Modified F-15s have been sold to Israel, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and South Korea.
Documents relating to the US Patriot missile air defence, classified as "Secret", were also borrowed by Mr Kadish from the library.
'Don't say anything'
The court documents also allege that Mr Kadish lied to US law enforcement officials on 21 March 2008, the day after he was told to do so by his Israeli handler during a telephone conversation.
In that conversation, Mr Kadish's handler was quoted in the complaint as telling him: "Don't say anything... What happened 25 years ago? You don't remember anything."
The United States is a close ally of Israel and supplies more than $2 billion a year in military aid. The two countries also co-operate in developing some areas of military technology.
State Department spokesman Tom Casey said Israel would be informed of the case against Mr Kadish.
"Twenty-plus years ago, during the Pollard case, we noted that this was not the kind of behaviour we would expect from friends and allies, and that would remain the case today," he said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/7361446.stm
Published: 2008/04/23 09:49:37 GMT
U.N. Nuclear Agency to Study Claims of Secret Syrian Reactor
VIENNA (Reuters) — The United Nations nuclear watchdog pledged Friday to investigate whether Syria had secretly built an atomic reactor with North Korean help, but the agency also criticized the United States for delaying the release of intelligence.
The United States disclosed its intelligence material on Thursday, saying the Syrian reactor was “nearing operational capability” a month before Israeli warplanes bombed it on Sept. 6.
Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, criticized Israel on Friday for the airstrike, saying his inspectors should have been able to inspect the site before the bombing.
Dr. ElBaradei said “the unilateral use of force by Israel” undermined “the due process of verification that is at the heart of the nonproliferation regime.” He also said the American allegations against Syria would be investigated with due vigor.
Syria denied the charges and accused Washington of involvement in the Israeli attack.
Dr. ElBaradei, alluding to the United States, denounced a failure to share intelligence information “in a timely manner” about the project, which Washington said was initiated in 2001. He confirmed that Washington disclosed information this week and said that a Syrian facility destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in September was an unfinished reactor.
Analysts said the American disclosure did not amount to proof of an illicit nuclear arms program, because there was no sign of a reprocessing plant needed to convert spent fuel from the plant into bomb-grade plutonium.
“The absence of such facilities gives little confidence that the reactor was part of an active nuclear weapons program,” David Albright and Paul Brannan of the Institute for Science and International Security said in an e-mail commentary.
“The United States does not have any indication of how Syria would fuel this reactor,” they said. “This type of reactor requires a large supply of uranium fuel,” they added, saying that it “raises questions about when this reactor could have operated.”
Analysts said the Bush administration had delayed releasing the intelligence because of the risk that it might prompt Syria to retaliate against Israel.
Syria pledged to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency investigation. “Syria has nothing to hide,” its United Nations envoy, Bashar Jaafari, told reporters on Friday in New York.
“It is essential that Syria shed full light on its nuclear activities, past and present, in accordance with its international obligations,” a French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Pascale Andréani, told reporters in Paris.
Syria has belonged to the 144-nation atomic energy agency since 1963, and it has one declared small research reactor subject to United Nations inspection.
The White House said it was convinced that North Korea had helped Syria to construct a clandestine nuclear reactor.
North Korea tested a nuclear device in October 2006.
Many states appear to be in recession
The finances of many states have deteriorated so badly that they appear to be in a recession, regardless of whether that's true for the nation as a whole, a survey of all 50 state fiscal directors concludes.
The situation looks even worse for the fiscal year that begins July 1 in most states.
"Whether or not the national economy is in recession - a subject of ongoing debate - is almost beside the point for some states," said the report to be released Friday by the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The weakening economy is hitting tax revenue in a number of ways: People's discretionary income is being gobbled up by higher food and fuel costs, while the tanking housing market means people are spending less on furniture and appliances associated with buying a house.
The situation is grim in Delaware, with a $69 million gap this year, and bleak in California, with a projected $16 billion budget shortfall over the next two years, the report said. Florida does not expect a rapid turnaround in revenue because of the prolonged real estate slump there.
By mid-April, 16 states and Puerto Rico were reporting shortfalls in their current budgets as the revenue those budgets were built on - typically, taxes - fell short of estimates. That's double the number of states reporting a deficit six months ago.
The NCSL said the news is even worse for the upcoming fiscal year, with 23 states and Puerto Rico already reporting budget shortfalls totaling $26 billion. More than two-thirds of states said they are concerned about next year's budgets.
The results are consistent with a drumbeat of bad economic news for states that several budget groups have produced in the past few months.
Last week, the Washington-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said 27 states are reporting projected budget shortfalls next year totaling at least $39 billion.
President Bush said Tuesday that the economy was not in a recession but a period of slower growth. However, some economists have pointed to the string of declines in manufacturing orders to argue that the economy has fallen into a recession.
Bolstering their position, the Commerce Department reported Thursday that sales of new homes plunged in March to the lowest level in 16 1/2 years. The government also reported that orders to factories for big-ticket goods fell for a third straight month in March, the longest string of declines since the 2001 recession.
Some states "have declined so much that they appear to be in a recession," the NCSL report said.
It also noted the silver lining for states where the economy is based on energy, such as North Dakota and Wyoming. Alaska is making so much money from oil that it announced an estimated surplus next year of $8 billion, almost twice the state's annual budget.
In North Dakota, revenue is above legislative predictions by 13 percent, and in Louisiana, the oil and gas sector is robust.
"For energy-producing states, the fiscal situation is strong and the outlook is good," the report said.
Among other findings:
-More than half the 16 states reporting deficits this year have cut spending, including $1 billion by Florida lawmakers last year and across-the-board cuts in Nevada. At least eight states are debating raising taxes or fees, including a proposed $1-per-pack cigarette tax increase in Massachusetts to raise $175 million.
-Twelve states, including Georgia, Idaho and Illinois, reported that personal income tax collections were failing to meet estimates, and in eight of these, collections were even below a reduced forecast.
-Many states, including Alabama, Arizona, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada and Wisconsin, plan to tap their rainy day funds, which contain money set aside for fiscal emergencies. Nevada may use its entire rainy day balance.
U.S. Attack of Sadr City Leaves 800 Dead
Laith Jawad
Azzaman
April 23, 2008
U.S. occupation forces have killed more than 800 people, most of them innocent civilians, in their three-week long military campaign to subdue the Mahdi Army in Sadr City, the leader of Sadr movement in Baghdad said.
Sheikh Salaman al-fariji said the troops have also injured more than 1,800 people and caused large-scale destruction of private property and the city’s rickety infrastructure.
Fariji made the remarks as he accompanied a delegation of 20 members of parliament on a tour of the impoverished city home to more than 2 million people.
U.S. troops have imposed a tight embargo on the city and bombing by war planes and helicopter gun ships in the densely populated Baghdad neighborhood continued even during the MPs’ tour.
Falah Shanshal, an MP, said the group would write to the parliament to lift the siege of Sadr City and reach a peaceful solution to the standoff with Mahdi Army.
Mahdi Army is the military wing of Sadr movement which has 30 deputies in parliament.
“The MPs were shocked by the scale of damage,” said Fariji.
Shanshal said: “The people of Sadr City undergo horrific humanitarian conditions as a result of U.S. military operations and embargo.”
Wesley Snipes Gets 3 Years for Not Filing Tax Returns
OCALA, Fla. — A federal judge on Thursday sentenced the actor Wesley Snipes to three years in prison for willfully failing to file tax returns.
Mr. Snipes, who was convicted in February, received one year for each count, to be served consecutively, and an additional year of probation. The sentence was handed down by Judge William Terrell Hodges of Federal District Court.
Mr. Snipes, who apologized for his actions before the sentence was announced, showed no immediate reaction to the verdict.
Judge Hodges allowed Mr. Snipes and a co-defendant, Douglas Rosile, to remain free on bond until they were summoned by either the United States Marshals Service or the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
The sentencing came at the end of a daylong hearing in which lawyers for Mr. Snipes argued for leniency while federal prosecutors sought the maximum penalty possible.
The case was the most prominent tax prosecution since the billionaire hotelier Leona Helmsley was convicted of tax fraud in 1989. Mr. Snipes, who has built a worldwide following acting in films like the “Blade” vampire trilogy, must pay up to $17 million in back taxes plus penalties and interest.
In a prepared statement, Mr. Snipes said: “I’m very sorry for my mistakes. I acknowledge that I have failed myself and others.” But in the statement, which ran to nearly 10 minutes, Mr. Snipes never mentioned the words “tax” or “taxes.”
“He never stated he didn’t pay his taxes or show any remorse for it,” said Robert O’Neill, the acting United States attorney for the Middle District of Florida, the lead prosecutor on the case.
Mr. Snipes even tried to make a down payment on his taxes before sentencing; his legal team offered Judge Hodges three checks totaling $5 million.
Judge Hodges refused the checks, saying he did not have the authority to accept them. Prosecutors also declined to accept the checks. An Internal Revenue Service employee eventually accepted the checks on behalf of the Treasury Department.
Mr. Snipes’s legal team also questioned the validity of federal sentencing guidelines. At one point, one of his lawyers, Carmen Hernandez, described herself as “an expert on sentencing.”
Judge Hodges replied, “If I may be so bold, I’ve also had some experience with that.”
A jury found Mr. Snipes guilty on Feb. 1 of three misdemeanor counts of willfully failing to file tax returns, but acquitted him of felony conspiracy and tax fraud charges and three additional counts of failure to file.
The jury also convicted two co-defendants, Eddie Ray Kahn and Mr. Rosile, on felony charges.
Mr. Snipes was a member of American Rights Litigators, an organization founded by Mr. Kahn. Prosecutors have described that organization and its successor company, Guiding Light of God Ministries, as illegal tax-evasion schemes.
Mr. Rosile, a certified public accountant, prepared some tax returns, including Mr. Snipes’s, for the organization.
Judge Hodges sentenced Mr. Kahn to 10 years and Mr. Rosile to four and a half years.
Mr. Kahn, who represented himself throughout the trial and has consistently refused to recognize Judge Hodges’s authority, was defiant to the end.
“For the record, your honor, I don’t accept that,” Mr. Kahn said.
The judge responded, “You may not accept it, Mr. Kahn, but you will serve it.”
Mr. Rosile declined to comment after the sentencing. His lawyer, David Wilson, however, said the sentence was fair.
A member of Mr. Snipes’s legal team said they would appeal. “We were hoping for a complete acquittal,” the lawyer, Linda Moreno, said. “I have faith in the process, and I have faith in the jury system. We will appeal.”
Israeli warplanes intensify flights over Lebanon
Australian News
April 24, 2008
The Israel Air Force has dramatically escalated flights over Lebanese air space, in violation of international law.
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) says the daily number of Israeli air violations surged from 282 in February to 692 in March.
In the first two weeks of April the number has surged again to 476.
“The overflights constitute violations of Lebanese sovereignty and the Blue Line and continue to undermine the credibility of UNIFIL and the Lebanese Armed Forces,” the UN Assistant-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Angela Kane, told the Security Council on Wednesday night.
“The Government of Israel has continued to claim the flights are carried out for security reasons. My representatives in the region and I have regularly continued to reiterate our concern and call on Israel to cease the increasing number of overflights, which stand in violation of Security Council resolutions,” she said.
The Israeli flights over Lebanon have been going on for decades, despite international protests.
When the Lebanon war of 2006 came to an end a negotiated ceasefire which translated into UN Resolution 1701 was supposed to bring them to an end. This was so only for a matter of weeks before the Israel Air Force was back in business.
At that time international condemnation of the flights escalated however Israel was undeterred.
“They can protest for as long as they like. Our reconnaissance flights will continue,” then deputy defence minister Ephraim Sneh said at the time.
“These are not agreed flights but operations carried out to locate enemies, terrorists,” he said.
“The fact there was a ceasefire in Lebanon has not transformed this country into another Switzerland.”
The minister was speaking a day after France, which commands the UN peacekeeping force overseeing the truce in Lebanon, and the UN, pressed Israel to halt the overflights, which they called a violation of the ceasefire.
A UN statement issued in the name of special envoy to Lebanon, Norwegian Geir Pedersen, condemned the persistent violations of Lebanese air space.
“Geir Pedersen expresses his serious concern at the continuing overflights by Israel which constitute a breach of Lebanese sovereignty and specifically of Security Council Resolution 1701,” it said.
Limbaugh Calls for Riots at Denver DNC
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars
April 24, 2008
It simply was not enough for neocon radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh to call for Republicans to vote for Hillary, supposedly as a hedge against Barack Obama. Now he is calling for riots in Denver during the DNC. ABC News in Denver reports:
Talk show host Rush Limbaugh is sparking controversy again after he made comments calling for riots in Denver during the Democratic National Convention this summer.
He said the riots would ensure a Democrat is not elected as president, and his listeners have a responsibility to make sure it happens.
“Riots in Denver, the Democrat Convention would see to it that we don’t elect Democrats,” Limbaugh said during Wednesday’s radio broadcast. He then went on to say that’s the best thing that could happen to the country.
In normal, non-Bushzarro times, Limbaugh would be arrested for inciting terrorism. But instead we live in times horrifically misshapen by a neocon reality — a reality of mass murder, torture of children, and the wholesale trashing of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
After sane listeners — and I am not sure how regular listeners of Limbaugh’s show would be considered sane — called and complained about his comments, Limbaugh said: “I am not inspiring or inciting riots, I am dreaming of riots in Denver.”
It would seem Mr. Limbaugh has shared notes with “Re-create 68,” the COINTELPRO group that has vowed to make the convention in Denver more raucous and bloody than the Democratic Convention in Chicago, circa 1968. According to the Rocky Mountain News, the intel op masquerading as a grassroots activist group “is expecting up to 50,000 protesters from across the country [and] plans to march from Civic Center to the Pepsi Center, where the convention will be held, on Aug. 24, even though a parade route or a security zone hasn’t been announced.”
Is it possible Limbaugh will be with them?
Rush Limbaugh needs to be arrested as a threat to the peace. I’m not holding my breath, however, as neocons seem to have a get out jail free card and rabble-rousers such as Limbaugh and Savage are free to call for the most outrageous things, including violence and mass arrest of dissidents for the crime of exercising their rights under the First Amendment, now almost completely dead in the water.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Japan: Tackle crisis with U.S. public money
Cabinet minister says taxpayer bailout is needed before situation worsens
The Associated Press
updated 6:24 a.m. ET April 23, 2008
TOKYO - Likening the U.S. credit crisis to a broken bathtub draining water, Japan's financial services minister urged Washington on Wednesday to inject public money to fix the problem before it gets worse.
Sounding almost alarmist, Yoshimi Watanabe used unusually blunt language to warn that drastic action was needed to address the crisis that has battered global markets.
"If there is a big hole in the bottom of the tub, no matter how much hot water you keep adding, you will never have enough hot water," Watanabe said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Fixing the leak requires "an overall package, including monetary policy and public money," he said.
As the subprime fallout grows, the idea of a public bailout isn't sounding as far-fetched as it once did.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal last month, Senator Hillary Clinton, a candidate for the U.S. Democratic presidential nomination, said the U.S. government should be ready to buy troubled mortgages from investors and avoid a prolonged slowdown.
"We might be drifting into a Japanese-like situation," she was quoted as saying.
Biggest dilemma since 1930s?
Last month, the U.S. resorted to a public bailout of sorts for Bear Stearns, a major brokerage. The Federal Reserve allowed JPMorgan Chase & Co. to borrow from the Fed, and provide that funding to Bear Stearns. Fed officials said the procedure dates back to the Great Depression of the 1930s but has rarely been used since then.
But Watanabe said the looming global credit crisis, which started with the subprime mortgage woes that surfaced last year, was the biggest financial dilemma for the world, and Japan, since the 1930s.
Watanabe, head of the Financial Services Agency, said Japan has a lesson to share with the rest of the world in how it dealt with the bad debt problems of the 1990s — and that the U.S. can learn from Japan's mistakes.
Japan acted too late, procrastinating for six years in tackling the piles of bad debts major banks had racked up during the excessive "bubble economy" years.
After wasting stimulus packages and other halfhearted efforts, Japan was forced to resort to billions of dollars of taxpayers' money to rescue the banks, said Watanabe.
He brushed off the differences in the historical backdrop between Japan's and U.S. problems. He insisted the basic result, lenders running out of capital, was exactly the same — and would ultimately need the same fix.
'Parallels'
Experts also said the U.S. credit problems were similar to those of Japan in the 1990s.
"There are parallels," said Eva Marikova Leeds, professor of economics at Temple University in Tokyo, pointing to the real estate bubble in both.
"The underlying problem was the assumption that housing prices would rise forever," she said. "Japanese regulators moved too late."
Watanabe, a lower house lawmaker who also oversees economic and administrative reforms, appeared convinced the U.S. government would use public money. He said that decision may not come during the presidential election because of the inevitable question about political accountability.
'Deep trouble'
Watanabe also said he was worried about export-reliant Japan and its massive dollar holdings if the U.S. fails to wrest itself out of the credit crisis. Direct subprime exposure among financial organizations here is believed to be relatively small.
"Japan's recovery is dependent on U.S. economic health and so we could be in deep trouble," Watanabe said.
Iwan Azis, professor of professor of management and regional science at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, said comparing the U.S. and Japanese lending fiascos weren't particularly useful because the causes and mechanisms were so different.
What the U.S. needs is more regulation, while Japan needs to do away with restrictions to open its markets to foreign investment and new businesses, he said in a telephone interview.
"There are too many regulations in Japan," Azis said.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
US Life Expectancy Falls for Large Segment of Population
| Washington VOANEWS 22 April 2008 |
 |
| Smoking is one factor driving the trend toward a lower life expectancy for women in parts of the U.S. |
From 1960 to 2000, life expectancy in the United States rose by seven years for men and six years for women. However, beginning in the 1980s, large geographic disparities began to appear.
The study analyzed health data from every county in the United States. According to lead author Majid Ezzati, Associate Professor of International health at Harvard School of Public Health the "worst off" were among lower income Americans concentrated in the southern states.
He says in these communities race did not seem to affect life expectancy. "It is something associated with the way policies are implemented, with the way health systems are providing health services to people in different parts of the country or not providing services to people."
Ezzati points to chronic disease related to increases in smoking, high blood pressure and obesity as factors driving the trend. He says while much is known about how to manage these conditions, care is not reaching the people who need it the most. Women have experienced the most serious declines.
Over the last 20 years, life expectancy has either declined or stagnated for one of out every five women compared with four percent of men. Ezzati finds this a grim statistic for an industrialized nation. "We don't associate worsening of health, worsening of life expectancy with something that happens in a developed high-income country."
Ezzati says he saw such disparities after the fall of the Soviet Union and after the social networks fell apart in Eastern Europe. "That is the sort of thing that we see over long periods and what is happening with HIV/AIDS in some countries in Africa."
Ezzati says he hopes the study raises awareness about health care in America and pushes health officials and the public to monitor those being left behind. "That monitoring should be telling us something about what sort of interventions, what sort of policies can reverse this and then hopefully provide the resources for it."
Researchers from Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Washington contributed to the study published in PloS Medicine.
Shiller: Housing slump may exceed Depression
Bailouts will be needed so millions don’t lose homes, top economist says
The Associated Press
updated 12:05 p.m. ET April 22, 2008
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - An influential economist who long predicted the housing market bubble cautioned Tuesday that the slump in the U.S. housing market could cause prices to fall more than they did in the Great Depression, and bailouts will be needed so millions don’t lose their homes.
Yale University economist Robert Shiller, pioneer of the widely watched Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index, said there’s a good chance housing prices will fall further than the 30 percent drop in the historic depression of the 1930s. Home prices nationwide already have dropped 15 percent since their peak in 2006, he said.
“I think there is a scenario that they could be down substantially more,” Shiller said during a speech at the New Haven Lawn Club.
Shiller’s Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index is considered a strong measure of home prices because it examines price changes of the same property over time, instead of calculating a median price of homes sold during the month.
Shiller, who admitted he has a reputation for being bearish, said real estate cycles typically take years to correct.
Home prices rose about 85 percent from 1997 to 2006 adjusted for inflation, the biggest national housing boom in U.S. history, Shiller said.
“Basically we’re in uncharted territory,” Shiller said. “It seems we have developed a speculative culture about housing that never existed on a national basis before.”
Many people became convinced that housing prices would increase 10 percent annually, a notion Shiller called crazy.
Shiller, who said it’s difficult to forecast prices, endorsed legislation proposed by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., that would allow the Federal Housing Administration to back as much as $300 billion in mortgages for struggling homeowners.
© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Al-Qaida No. 2 says 9/11 theory propagated by Iran
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Osama bin Laden's chief deputy on Tuesday denied a theory that Israel carried out the Sept. 11 attacks and blamed Iran and Shiite Hezbollah for spreading the idea to discredit the Sunni al-Qaida's strike against the U.S.
The comments in a recording posted on an Islamic Web site reflected the increasing criticism by al-Qaida's No. 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahri against Iran. Al-Zawahri has accused Iran in recent messages of seeking to extend its power in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq and through its Hezbollah allies in Lebanon.
The authenticity of the two-hour audio recording could not be independently confirmed. But the voice sounded like past audiotapes from the terror leader, and the posting where it was found bore the logo of Al-Sahab, al-Qaida's official media arm.
It was the second of two messages answering questions that were posted to Islamic militant Web sites earlier this year.
One of the questioners asked about the theory that has circulated in the Middle East and elsewhere that Israel was behind the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Al-Zawahri accused Hezbollah's Al-Manar television of starting the rumor.
"The purpose of this lie is clear - (to suggest) that there are no heroes among the Sunnis who can hurt America as no else did in history. Iranian media snapped up this lie and repeated it," he said.
"Iran's aim here is also clear - to cover up its involvement with America in invading the homes of Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq," he said.
Iran cooperated with the United States in the 2001 U.S. assault on Afghanistan that toppled al-Qaida's allies, the Taliban.
Answering questions about Iraq in Tuesday's tape, al-Zawahri said the insurgent umbrella group led by al-Qaida, called the Islamic Nation of Iraq, is "the primary force opposing the Crusaders and challenging Iranian ambitions" in Iraq, he said, referring to the Americans.
As he often does in his messages, al-Zawahri denounced the "Crusader invasion" of Iraq, but in Tuesday's tape he paired it with a mention of "Iranian complicity" or "Iranian agents."
In the latest tape, al-Zawahri was also asked if the terror group had further plans to attack Western countries that participated in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and subsequent war.
"My answer is: Yes! We think that any country that has joined aggression on Muslims must be deterred," he replied.
In response to a question signed by the Japanese news agency Kyodo asking if Japan remains a target because it once had troops in Iraq, al-Zawahri said "Japan provided help under the banner of the crusader coalition ... therefore it participated in the Crusader campaign against the lands of Islam."
Japan deployed non-combat troops to southern Iraq in 2003 to carry out reconstruction work. It withdrew its troops from Iraq in 2006 and now conducts airlifts to help supply U.S.-led forces in that country.
Al-Zawahri spoke on a wide range of issues, even global warming, which he said reflected "how criminal, brutal and greedy the Western Crusader world is, with America at the top."
He predicted that global warming would "make the world more sympathetic to and understanding of the Muslims' jihad against the aggressor America."
Asked if there are any women in al-Qaida, the terror leader answered simply: "No." In a follow-up answer, he said: "There are no women in al-Qaida jihadi group, but the women of the mujahedeen are playing a heroic role in taking care of their houses and sons."
In several parts of Tuesday's audio message, Al-Zawahri claimed that the Taliban took over 95 percent of Afghanistan and is sweeping Pakistan as well.
"The Crusaders and their agents in Pakistan and Afghanistan are starting to fall," he said.
In another answer Tuesday, al-Zawahri said it was against Islamic religious law for any Muslim to live permanently in a Western country because in doing so they would "have permanent stay there under the laws of the infidels."
Al-Qaida's media arm, Al-Sahab, announced in December that al-Zawahri would take questions from the public posted on Islamic militant Web sites and would respond "as soon as possible." Queries were submitted on the main Islamist Web site until the cutoff date of Jan. 16.
© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.
Clinton threatens to 'obliterate' Iran
Tue, 22 Apr 2008 05:21:14 Press TV
 Hillary Clinton |
In an interview with the ABC News, when she was asked what she would do if Iran attacked Israel, she said "I want the Iranians to know that if I am the president we will attack Iran."
"In the next ten years, during which they might consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them," she added.
Clinton's support for the regime comes as Tehran has never declared any program to launch a military attack on Israel.
MGH/DT
Food Rationing Begins in America
Fox KPTM 42 News
April 21, 2008
OMAHA (KPTM) - Food shortages and rationing has been a third-world problem as of late, but recently, the phenomenon once thought unthinkable in the United States could start happening.
The New York Sun newspaper is reporting that major retailers on both coasts are limiting customers’ purchases of flour, rice and cooking oil.
The Sun reports that a Costco Warehouse in California ran out of rice, frustrating shoppers. “Where’s the rice?” an engineer from Palo Alto, Calif., Yajun Liu, said. “You should be able to buy something like rice. This is ridiculous.”
The rice that is left is selling at near one dollar a pound, and in some areas, customers report paying about $30 for a 25-pound bag.
Most Costco members were only allowed to buy only one bag. One clerk reportedly dropped two sacks back on the stack after taking them from a customer who tried to buy more than the one bag limit.
“Due to the limited availability of rice, we are limiting rice purchases based on your prior purchasing history,” a sign above the dwindling supply said, the Sun reports.
Shoppers said the limits had been in place for a few days, and that rice supplies had been spotty for a few weeks. A store manager referred questions to officials at Costco headquarters near Seattle, who did not return calls or e-mail messages to the Sun.
A New York Costco reportedly was not restricting rice, but is limiting oil and flour. Rumors floating on the Internet say that bakery owners bought up flour at warehouse stores after their commercial suppliers doubled their prices.
Spiking food prices have led to riots in recent weeks in Haiti, Indonesia, and several African nations. India recently banned export of all but the highest quality rice, and Vietnam blocked the signing of a new contract for foreign rice sales.
The price of rice futures reached record highs in recent days, after skyrocketing over the past two months. The price of wheat in the futures market has been down.
The paper reports that there have been rumors of some buying limits at Sam’s Club warehouses, owned by Wal-mart, but the company says it is not aware of any shortages or limits.
Bank of America Profit Falls Short
Youtube/AP
A weaker-than-expected profit report from Bank of America is stirring concerns about the health of corporate earnings.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Pope blesses U.N. flag, calls for “binding international rules”
Daniel Taylor
Old-Thinker News
April 20, 2008
Pope Benedict XVI spoke to the U.N. General Assembly on Friday, warning nations against undermining the authority of the United Nations by acting unilaterally. The Pope also found time to bless the U.N. flag.
Reuters reports,
"Countries that act unilaterally on the world stage undermine the authority of the United Nations and weaken the broad consensus needed to confront global problems, Pope Benedict said on Friday.
The international community must be "capable of responding to the demands of the human family through binding international rules," said the 81-year-old pope, who spoke after meeting privately with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
He said the notion of multilateral consensus was "in crisis because it is still subordinated to the decisions of a few, whereas the world’s problems call for interventions in the form of collective action by the international community."
The Pope’s comments are of little surprise, given the fact that he has previously called for a "new world order" to combat terrorism, environmental problems, as well as economic imbalances during his Christmas 2005 speech. Pope John Paul II also called for a new world order in a 2004 new years speech.
An interesting perspective on these comments comes from a 1970’s report called the "World Order Models Project." The report was funded by the Carnegie Foundation and Rockefeller Foundations, and was directed by Council on Foreign Relations member Saul H. Mendlovitz. Richard A. Falk, also a CFR member, contributed work to the project.
The project called for the formation of a world government complete with global taxes, a general disarmament program and the elimination of the nation state.
The WOMP project also planned on selling these globalist ideals to the world by using prominent world leaders to promote the plans and begin molding the international dialectic around globalist perceptions. The Pope was named as a possible outlet. The project states,
"Symbolic world leaders such as the Secretary General of the United Nations or the Pope might espouse [the WOMP agenda]… as a program for the future… These kinds of external developments… would initiate a world order dialectic within American politics that would begin to break down decades of adherence to [the Westphalian system] and its infrastructure of values, perceptions and institutions."
In a 1997 paper presented to the Research Department of the Air Command and Staff College, Maj. Bart R. Kessler outlined the plans of the World Order Models Project and many other globalist initiatives. His paper can be read here. Reference to the use of the Pope in promoting globalist ideology, as well as citation, can be found on page 25 of this report.
UN chief warns world must urgently increase food production
FRANCIS KOKUTSE
Associated Press
April 21, 2008
ACCRA, Ghana (AP) - The U.N. chief warned Sunday that the world must urgently increase food production to ease skyrocketing prices and pledged to set up a task force on a crisis threatening to destabilize developing nations.
The cost of food has increased by around 40 percent since mid-2007 worldwide, and the strain has caused riots and protests in countries like Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Haiti and Egypt.
“We must make no mistake, the problem is big. If we offer the right aid, the solutions will come,” Ban said at the opening of a a five-day U.N. conference on trade and development in Ghana’s capital, Accra.
“One thing is certain, the world has consumed more than it has produced” over the last three years, he said.
Ban blamed a host of causes for the soaring cost of food, including rising oil prices, the fall of the U.S. dollar and natural disasters.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Ethiopia's Ogaden rebels Apr 2008
Youtube
The fight for the Ogaden region, populated mainly by ethnic Somalis, known as the Ogadeen, has been going on for more than 19 years. Al Jazeera's Mohammed Adow reports on their battle for independence.
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