OLBERMANN DEBUNKS LONDON CAR BOMBING!

From Daily Kos:

London Bomb--What a Crock of Crap!! [UPDATED]


by L C Johnson

Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 08:31:01 AM PDT
by
Larry C Johnson (bio/blog)

Update [2007-6-29 17:42:38 by L C Johnson]: I will be on Countdown with Keith Olbermann tonight, probably in the fourth segment.

[ADDITIONAL UPDATE BELOW.]

So I turn on the telly this morning and find breathless CNN anchors hyperventilating over the nuclear suicide car weapon of mass destruction discovered smoldering outside of a London nightclub. One report from the scene notes that:

London police were contacted when witnesses saw a Mercedes being driven erratically near London West End night club Tiger Tiger, and the driver jumped out of the automobile and ran away. The car was reported to have two gasoline canisters and be full of nails.

CNN adds:

L C Johnson's diary :: ::
Explosives officers discovered the fuel and nails attached to a "potential means of detonation," inside the vehicle. Officers "courageously" disabled the trigger by hand, he said. Security sources told CNN that the "relatively crude device" in the first car contained at least 200 liters, or about 50 gallons, of fuel in canisters.

You know what you call a vehicle with 50 gallons of gas? A Cadillac Escalade. The media meltdown over this incident is simply shameful.

For starters, gasoline is not a high explosive. If we were talking 50 pounds of Semtex or the Al Qaeda standby, TATP, I would be impressed. Those are real high explosives with a detonation rate in excess of 20,000 feet per second. Gasoline can explode (just ask former owners of a Ford Pinto) but it is first and foremost an incediary. If the initial reports are true, the clown driving the Mercedes was a rank amateur when it comes to constructing an Improvised Explosive Device aka IED. Unlike a Hollywood flick the 50 gallons of gas would not have shredded the Mercedes into lethal chunks of flying shrapenal.

The fact that "officers courageously disabled the trigger by hand" coupled with the report of the smoke in the car leads me to believe that the mad London "bomber" tried to construct a Molotov cocktail of sorts and lit a cloth fuze. Fortunately he left the windows in the car up and there was not enough oxygen to really get the fire going. Looks like the brave British police reached in and snuffed the flame.

Judging from the overreaction to this non-incident I think we can safely conclude that Osama Bin Laden will remain holed up in Pakistan and let the fear mongers at CNN, MSNBC, and FOX do the dirty business of scaring the shit out of people.

Update [2007-6-29 17:42:38 by L C Johnson]: I will be on Countdown with Keith Olbermann tonight, probably in the fourth segment.

Update [2007-6-29 18:35:0 by L C Johnson]: UPDATE: Ahh, the panic continues. Yuppie terrorists are on the loose. Now we're being told there are two cars (both Mercedes I might add) with a Rube Goldberg contraption consisting of propane tanks, some petrol, a light bulb (or maybe light bulb filaments), etc. A propane tank explosion makes a hell of a noise but does not create widespread shrapnel dispersion. Busted eardrums and broken glass are more likely. Getting these tanks to explode is difficult. The ones I have witnessed occurred when a house under construction caught on fire. But there is nothing in two 25lb propane tanks inside a Mercedes that will detonate with sufficient force to shred the automobile and send hundreds to meet their Allah, God, Buddha, or whatever. Still a crock of hype and over-reaction. Let the police do their job. Investigate the culprits and get these nitwits out of circulation before they harm themselves.

Invasion of the party snatchers

How the Holy Rollers and the Neo-cons Destroyed the GOP

Victor GoldDeputy Press Secretary to Barry Goldwater during the 1964 campaign, Victor Gold
discusses where he believes the Republican Party has gone astray in the last
twenty years

June 29, 2007

An interview by Bill Moyers

BREAKING NEWS: U.K. raises security level to highest ‘critical’ level

Burning SUV rams Glasgow airport; 2 arrested


BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 20 minutes ago

GLASGOW, Scotland - Two men rammed a flaming sport utility vehicle into the main terminal of Glasgow airport Saturday, crashing into the glass doors at the entrance and sparking a fire, witnesses said. Police said two suspects were arrested.

Hours later, Britain raised its security alert level to critical — the highest possible level indicating that terror attacks are imminent. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said she had raised the level and ordered security to be tightened in response to events in London and Scotland over last 48 hours.

The airport—Scotland’s largest—was evacuated and all flights suspended, a day after British police thwarted a plot to bomb central London, discovering two cars abandoned with loads of gasoline, gas canisters and nails.

I am adding this in case the link is altered...It has happened before...G:

‘Trying to smash straight through’
In Glasgow, the green SUV barreled toward the building shortly after 3 p.m., hitting security barriers before crashing into the glass doors, witnesses said. Two men were in the burning vehicle, one of them engulfed in flames, they said.

“The car came speeding past at about 30 mph. It was approaching the building quickly,” said Scott Leeson, who was nearby. “Then the driver swerved the car around so he could ram straight in to the door. He must have been trying to smash straight through.”

Passengers fled running and screaming from the busy terminal, Margaret Hughes told the British Broadcasting Corp. “There was black smoke gushing out where the car had obviously been driven into the airport,” she said.

Lynsey McBean, who was at the terminal, said one of the men took out a plastic gasoline canister and poured its contents under the car. “He then set light to it,” said McBean, 26, from Erskine, Scotland. She said the Jeep struck the front door but got jammed.

“They were obviously trying to get it further inside the airport as the wheels were spinning and smoke was coming from them,” she said.

Another witness, Fiona Tracey, described a “bang” coming from the SUV. The vehicle was on fire and “every now and again there was a bang coming off it. ... There was definitely a bang,” she told Sky News television.

Two men were arrested, and one of whom was taken to the hospital, Strathclyde Police spokeswoman Lisa O’Neil said in Glasgow. Police said the Royal Alexandra Hospital, in neighboring Paisley, was evacuated after the suspect arrived.

The car hit the building at an angle and poked into the terminal, directly in front of check-in desks, where dozens of passengers were lined up to check in for flights, police said.

Flames and black smoke rose from the vehicle outside the main entrance. Police said it was unclear if anyone was injured. Other passengers were stranded, with at least one airplane grounded on the runway, the BBC said.

Bush was being keep abreast of the events in London and Scotland.

“We’re in contact with British authorities on the matter,” said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council.

‘He’d have killed hundreds, obviously’

Oregonians fighting LNG proposals

Liquid Natural Gas (LNG): ENERGY FIRMS TARGET OREGON

Since late 2004, multiple energy companies have proposed large, controversial liquefied natural gas (LNG) developments along the Lower Columbia River and in Coos Bay. Currently, five proposals exist in Oregon, each of them generating concern among people who live, work, and recreate in their vicinity.

Liquified natural gas is similar to propane which is also liquified under pressure. Looking at the size of these tankers or the size of the proposed storage tanks for the LNG should set off alarms for anyone who is anywhere near one of these installations. Here's a video of a "Propane explosion in Korea".

CAR BOMB! found in London ~Be very very afraid~

MSNBC Breaking News

U.K. police say terrorist attack thwarted

Police find suspicious vehicle hours after defusing explosives-laden car

"Early photographs of the silver Mercedes showed a canister, bearing the words “patio gas,” indicating it was propane gas, next to the car. The back door was open with blankets spilling out."

The Most Honest Man in News

Keith Olbermann is mad as hell -- and unlike Rush Limbaugh, he's not faking it

ROLLING STONE
MARK BINELLIPosted Feb 22, 2007 9:39 AM

Not sure he's the most honest man in news? Take a look for yourself: We've collected the top five rants of Keith Olbermann.

An unfamiliar viewer tuning in to Keith Olbermann's prime-time news program on MSNBC, Countdown, might, at first glance, assume he was watching a highly traditional broadcaster. Olbermann has a long, sober face and trim hair that's going gray. With his glasses, he looks like a Fifties newsman -- Clark Kent behind an anchor's desk -- while his stentorian delivery can sound almost self-consciously retro, the sort of voice (of God or your high school principal) mocked nightly by Stephen Colbert.


~VIDEOS~

Duhbya appoints Poodle as Envoy to Middle East

Jerusalem Post

Jun. 21, 2007 0:19 Updated Jun. 21, 2007 2:43

Bush expected to make Blair ME envoy

By GIL HOFFMAN AND AP


US President George W. Bush has talked with British Prime Minister Tony Blair about becoming the Quartet's Middle East peace envoy after he leaves office next week.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's associates, the White House and State Department spoke glowingly of Blair's credentials on Wednesday but said there was nothing to announce yet. Blair steps down next Wednesday.

"Obviously Prime Minister Blair has been very active and deeply involved in Middle East peace issues throughout his prime ministership," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. She said Blair and Bush speak often.

"It would not surprise me if they have talked about what Prime Minister Blair would like to do following the end of his term... but we don't have anything to announce.

Update: ( ' The Poodle has landed ' )

Protesters torch Iran gas stations

Would you believe that Iran has to import gasoline. They don't have enough refineries to process their oil. Hmm this makes me wonder if they are close to completing a nuclear bomb at all. According to the Bu$h administration they are a dire threat and of course "all options are on the table".

From CNN's Shirzad Bozorgmehr
POSTED: 11:05 a.m. EDT, June 27, 2007

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- The Iranian government's last-minute decision to ration monthly fuel allotments, as well as increase the price of gas, triggered a rare outbreak of protests and riots, Iranian media reported.

The oil ministry issued a statement at 9 p.m. Tuesday that the restrictions would go into effect at midnight.

That prompted hundreds of thousands of car owners to line up for miles at gas stations late Tuesday and early Wednesday. Others took to the street in protest, burning at least 12 gas stations in Tehran and looting other businesses, according to Fars News Agency.

Under the order, most Iranians will be limited to 100 liters (26 gallons) per month. The ministry also announced the price would be raised by more than 20 percent to $.11 per liter ($.42 a gallon).

The riots took place across Iran's major cities, including the holy city of Mashhad and Arak, where Iran's heavy water plant is located, according to Iran's official news agency, IRNA.

~WMD and Dr. David Kelly?~All options are on the table~

Now that Great Briton has a new prime minister it is high time that there is some accountability there as well as in the US. The death of David Kelly was swept under the carpet and BBC News was called on the carpet for printing articals by him on WMD's. The head of BBC and two of the journalists were fired over this, and the BBC has not been the fair and balanced news that it previously was.

Who Ordered the Assassination of Dr. David Kelly?

Global Research, February 26, 2007

by Michel Chossudovsky

The British media has become embroiled in yet another set of distortions regarding the death of British government weapons inspector Dr. David Kelly in July 2003. Kelly died in mysterious circumstances in the woods near his home in Oxfordshire.

Kelly was Britain's foremost expert on biological weapons, with direct access to WMD intelligence on Iraq. In the months leading up to his death, he had become increasingly skeptical regarding Iraq's alleged WMDs. "It was Dr Kelly who exposed claims by President George Bush, Tony Blair and Colin Powell that mobile biological warfare units had been found in Iraq as false." (Independent, 25 July 2003)

According to the Hutton inquiry report:

"Dr Kelly took his own life... [T]he principal cause of death was bleeding from incised wounds to his left wrist which Dr Kelly had inflicted on himself with the knife found beside his body''.

Suicide was seemingly assumed from the outset by Lord Hutton, and the Hutton Inquiry descended into establishing who, between the BBC and the Government, was to blame for the suicide (rather than the murder) of Dr Kelly.

The inquiry led by Lord Hutton pointed to "suicide" as the cause of death, in contradiction with the results of the autopsy. "Suicide was never proved, either by the Coroner or Lord Hutton, as required by law". (See Dr. Stephen Frost, et al, Global Research, 28 November 2006)

The inquiry purported to obviate the need for an inquest as well as exonerate the Government of Tony Blair and the Secret Service "of all significant charges". It was an obvious camouflage. (See the analysis of Rowena Thursby, Global Research, Oct 2006, see also dr-david-kelly.blogspot.com)

On November 3, 2006, The London Times published a letter by Lord Hutton, in which he attempted to defend his report on Dr. David Kelly's death. In the letter, Lord Hutton dwells on the issue of the allegedly "sexed up" intelligence, ignoring the arguably much larger issue of his failure to establish exactly how Dr. David Kelly died.

A response to Lord Hutton's letter to The Times was submitted by three distinguished doctors ( Drs. C. Stephen Frost, David Halpin and Searle Sennett) The Times, refused to publish the response, which was subsequently published as an article by Global Research. Drs. Frost et al contributed to breaking the mainstream media silence on the possibility that Dr David Kelly did not commit suicide.

What was dismissed by the mainstream British media was that Lord Hutton, who seemingly assumed suicide from the outset, had undermined due process, and therefore laid himself open to charges of cover-up, by himself "sexing up" his own findings on the cause of Dr David Kelly's death. But, a cover-up of what? (See Drs. C. Stephen Frost, et al, op cit).

More

The revolution behind "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"

THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED DIRECTED AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY KIM BARTLEY AND DONNACHA O'BRIAIN IRELAND, 2003 74 MINUTES

An excellent video about Democracy and revolution where the people won out against the elite, the media, and corporate government.

Portland Indymedia

A New Assertiveness for Latin American Governments

June 13, 2007

by Mark Weisbrot

International Business Times/ CEPR

The relationships between governments and investors - especially transnational corporations -are changing rapidly, and this is especially true in Latin America today. Last month, Bolivia, Venezuela, and Nicaragua surprised many international observers by announcing that they would withdraw from the World Bank's international arbitration body, the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)....

Bolivia's position is that ICSID is not an impartial arbitrator, and cannot be expected to act as one, so long as it is part of the World Bank.... The World Bank has long used its power - not only from its own lending of $23 billion annually, but also as part of a "creditor's cartel" led by the International Monetary Fund - to pressure governments to adopt policies favored by transnational corporations. These include privatizations and removing restrictions on foreign ownership, trade, and investment flows.

(Snip)

Bolivia maintains that their government, which was elected with a majority that was tired of seeing the country's natural resources drained to make foreign companies rich while their country remained the poorest in South America, needs to change the rules so that they are at less of a disadvantage relative to giant corporations. They have a good case. Since the government raised its royalty rates on hydrocarbons - with the government's share of the biggest gas fields going from 18 to 82 percent - it has increased its revenue by nearly 7 percent of GDP. This is a huge increase in revenue.

The IMF wrote in their country papers on Bolivia that the country would be hurting itself by raising the royalty rates. They were wrong, as were most of the experts in Washington and the US business press. In these circles it is taken as given that anything which pleases foreign investors is good for the host country, as it will attract foreign investment. Likewise, anything that foreign investors don't like is generally portrayed as a potential disaster.

In recent years it has not worked out that way, especially in Latin America....

(MORE)

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=2...


My thoughts:


The biggest news, the most important news, the news you never hear about Latin America is that the Bolivarian revolution, started by Venezuela--a movement toward Latin American self-determinaion--is WORKING. Transparent elections, real representation in government of the vast poor majority--impoverished by the exploitation and brutality of the '80s and '90s--government social justice policies, local control of natural resources, rejection of U.S.-dominated "free trade" (global corporate piracy), rejection of World Bank/IMF financial policy (foreign loan sharks), and rejection of the murderous U.S. "war on drugs" (war on poor peasants and leftists), regional cooperation, and leftist (majority) rule in general on all fronts, are transforming Latin America for the better.

You wonder why Bush's State Department and its echo chamber--our war profiteering corporate news monopolies--revile and demonize Hugo Chavez and Venezeula? This is why. Because they are the leaders of the democracy and social justice movement that is sweeping Latin America, and pushing the U.S. bully out. And this movement is defying all predictions by SUCCEEDING in its democratic and economic justice goals.

The article also cites the case of Argentina, but it leaves something out--that it was Venezeula that helped bail Argentina out of World Bank debt, and went on to establish the Bank of the South (Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador and Paraguay) to provide an alternative to the World Bank/IMF, to help its neighbors out ruinous World Bank/IMF debt, and thus to create healthy trading partners for itself, Brazil and other countries. Argentina is well on its way to recovery, all indicators up--as they are in every country that has managed to democratize itself and join the Bolivarian revolution.

The turning point was in 2002, when rightwing forces, backed by the U.S/Bush, staged a violent military coup against the democratically elected government of Venezuela, kidnapped President Chavez, suspended the Constitution, and shut down the elected National Assembly (Congress) and the courts. Typical South American "news" story (we've seen it all before; democracy cannot work there), right? Wrong!

Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans poured into the streets and surrounded Miraflores Palace (the seat of government) in opposition to this fascist takeover, defeated the coup, and restored Constitutional government, despite the active partipation in the coup by corporate news monopoly TV stations like RCTV, which spread disinformation and lies all over the airwaves, and then hosted meetings of the coup leaders on TV, congratulating themselves on the end of democracy in Venezuela.

They were wrong.

Democracy won! The people won! This amazing event is chronicled in the documentary "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," by Irish filmmakers who happened to be in Miraflores Palace when the coup occurred. How lucky they were! This was the event that turned the history of Latin America around, from a century of U.S.-backed coups, assassinations, mass murders, torture and oppression, to a 21st century of democracy, justice and prosperity shared by all.

It was a pivotal event. For once, the bad guys, with their guns and tanks and suspension of the Constitution, lost, and the people succeeded in restoring democracy in a Latin America country!

And that event led directly to this one: Bolivia rejecting World Bank arbitration in disputes with exploitative foreign corporate predators.

After restoration of democracy in Venezuela, Bolivia then elected a leftist (majoritist) government, led by Evo Morales, the first indigenous president of Bolivia, and a close ally of Hugo Chavez and Venezuela. The Andes region (rich in oil, gas, minerals, forests and other resources) is now dominated by peaceful, democratic, leftist (majorityist) governments, as is the whole of South America, as a matter of fact (Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay--also Nicaragua to the north--and with strong leftist movements in Peru and Paraguay, likely to win future elections).

The courage and determination of tens of thousands of Venezuelans--in turning back the 2002 coup, and in their bold economic initiatives and democratic ideas--has changed everything.

And we, at DU, need to know this, as do our fellow citizens in the U.S. The war for independence that we are so proud of is being fought again--with peaceful tools--among them, the ballot box--to the south of us, and our royalists--our King Georges--are lying to us about it. They don't want us to know. And you don't have to think about it very long to understand why.

The good guys are winning.

Can Bloggers Make Money?

Wall Street Journal

April 19, 2006

Blogs have a lot of buzz, but there's still considerable debate about whether that can translate into profits.

While many blogs remain little more than amateur diaries, several bloggers have tried to parlay their online ramblings into branded businesses. One, Jason Calacanis, co-founded Weblogs Inc., a network of blogging sites that was acquired last year by AOL. Mr. Calacanis has been an outspoken proponent of blogs as business vehicles, arguing that quality content can drive enough traffic to attract advertisers.

Goldman Sachs White House Appoints Another Of Its Own To World Bank

Zoelick approved by World Bank

Houston Indymedia

by ARC Friday, Jun. 01, 2007 at 10:16 AM


Henry Paulson, Josh Bolten, Robert Zoellick, Jon Corzine, and Robert Rubin consider the US government the operating branch of Goldman Sachs 5 of the Goldman Sachs White House

Goldman Sachs operative to head World Bank

TUTORS OF TRAITORS AND
INSIDER TRADER TATTLERS

The Wall St. firm which triggered
the crash of 1929* continues
leaving a trail of blood.

5 Goldman Sachs men in government

Henry Paulson, Josh Bolten, Robert Zoellick, Jon Corzine, and Robert Rubin consider the US government the operating branch of Goldman Sachs 5 of the Goldman Sachs White House

A Goldman Sachs operative, Robert Zoellick, who has worked for G H W
Bush and James Baker, partners in
the war profiteering Carlyle Group, will
head the World Bank. Recently he
had left the position of number 2 man
at the Condoleezza Rice headed
State Dept. to join Goldman Sachs.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06...619zoellick.php


Other Goldman Sachs operatives
are Henry Paulson, Secretary of
the Treasury, Joshua Bolten, White
House Chief of Staff, Gov Corzine
of NJ. Paulson and Corzine
are former CEO's.

Paulson further destroyed Nature
Conservancy tracts by introducing
cattle to them, multiplying animal agony and
furthering the deforestation which is the prime cause of global warming.
Texas Pacific and Goldman Sachs
have interlocking connections to
Burger King. Are the Nature Conservancy cows ending up
on BK plates?

Goldman Sachs is invested in
many war profiteer, anti environment
and animal slaughter concerns.

A former US Secretary of the Treasury,
Robert Rubin, was part of a campaign
with Jeffrey Sachs and others to
destabilize the Russian economy
and plunge millions into poverty.
He had worked 26 years at Goldman
Sachs and was appointed by Clinton.

The Day The Earth Stood Still

"Klaatu barada nikto"

If you enjoy science fiction and old movies too pull up a chair and enjoy a classic. The Day The Earth Stood Still is a 1951 Science Fiction Classic! An alien (Klaatu) with his mighty robot (Gort) 1 hr 28 min

Colin Powell: I would shut Guantanamo down this afternoon

CNN 11:02 p.m. EDT, June 21, 2007


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A White House meeting planned for Friday about the future of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility has been canceled after The Associated Press reported the Bush administration was "nearing a decision" to close the center.

National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said there would be no meeting Friday, but he would not comment on the reasons for the cancellation

Earlier Thursday, AP reported that officials were close to a decision to shut down the facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and that the administration had scheduled a meeting to discuss a proposal to transfer the detainees to other military prisons.

Maybe Dems will get their wish: 'Barbequed Porkrind'

White House of scandal

June 18:

More White House officials than previously known have been using GOP e-mail addresses to conduct business, and those e-mails have been "extensively destroyed." Keith Olbermann talks with MSNBC's David Shuster. Watch video

In a joint European project, the Nureon, an unmanned combat stealth aircraft will be ready for assembly in 2011. The UCAV will be able to launch precision-guided munitions from an internal weapons bay and will have a stealth airframe with reduced radar and infrared cross-sections. The payload will be two lazer guided 550 lb. bombs, and undoubtably include depleted uranium warheads. Needless to mention it could also carry two nuclear bombs.


Neuron - Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle Demonstrator, Europe

Neuron is the European Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) demonstrator for the development, integration and validation of UCAV technologies and is not for military operational deployment. Dassault unveiled a life-size model of Neuron at the 2005 Paris Air Show. The operational UCAV is expected to be a larger design than the Neuron demonstrator.

A main aim of the Neuron programme is to sustain and develop European manufacturers' aeronautic and other technologies for next-generation combat aircraft and UAVs.

By summer 2005, a series of memorandums of understanding had been signed and industrial teaming arrangements been set up. By the end of 2005, the governments of France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland had agreed to invest in the Neuron programme.

In February 2006, the Neuron programme was formally launched with the award, by the French DGA on behalf of the participating nations, of a contract to Dassault as prime contractor for the design and development of the Neuron demonstrator. This begins a three-year system definition and design phase, to be followed by development and assembly phase and a first flight in 2011. Flight tests will be carried out in France, Italy and Sweden. A major design review is scheduled for June 2007.

The UCAV will be able to launch precision-guided munitions from an internal weapons bay and will have a stealth airframe with reduced radar and infrared cross-sections.

PROGRAMME

Dassault Aviation is the design authority with responsibility for the general design, system architecture, the flight control system and final assembly together with ground tests and flight tests. Dassault's UAV and UCAV design capability was developed under a sequence of experimental development and validation programmes, Aeronef Validation Experimental (AVE). Dassault started the AVE LogiDuc programme (AVE Logistics to Demonstrate UCAV) in 1999.

Saab Aerosystems, based in Linkoping, Sweden, is responsible for overall design, fuselage, avionics, fuel system, flight control, airworthiness, autonomy, multi-payload capabilities, structural design and manufacture and ground and flight testing.

"The Neuron UCAV will incorporate highly advanced avionics, stealth and network centric technologies."Saab has built strong capability in UAV and UCAV technology with the SHARC Swedish Highly Advanced Research Configuration demonstrator, FILUR Flying Innovative Low-observable Unmanned Research UAV, the EuroMALE European Medium Altitude Long Endurance UAV with EADS and the establishment of the Link Lab drone development centres, a joint venture with Linkoping University. Technology development on the Neuron program would be applicable to planned upgrades of the Saab Gripen fighter aircraft which is expected to remain in service until about 2035.

In March 2004, Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI) and Dassault signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the Dassault UCAV programme which became the Neuron programme. Under the terms of the MOU, HAI is responsible for the engine exhaust and the rear fuselage section, and the test rig.

EADS CASA of Spain is responsible for the wings and also the ground station and integration of the data link. EADS CASA and Dassault signed the MOU agreement in May 2005.

Ruag in Switzerland is responsible for the weapons interface and wind tunnel testing.

Alenia Aeronautica in Italy is responsible for the development of the electrical power system, the air data system, development of the Smart Weapon Bay, and for flight testing.

During 2005, Turkey formally applied to take part in the EADS MALE Medium Altitude Long Endurance UAV program and the Dassault led Neuron programme and is currently waiting a response to establish the scope and timing of any possible participation.

Keith Olbermann - Special Comment February 26th

Charlie Rose - An hour with Zbigniew Brzezinski, Brent Scowcroft & Henry Kissinger

What do you do when you're homeless?

As more and more folks fall through the cracks we see the amount of homeless people on the increase. Everybody feels the crunch as we have family and friends who are not able to pay their bills, or have allready lost their home and need help. Seems like we're all working to help out, but our resources are being drained too. There are people living in tent cities throughout the country, but in more and more places they are being driven out.

On top of the 3 million who were homeless or marginally homeless there are an additional 5 million poor people that spend over half of their incomes on housing, leaving them on the verge of homelessness. A missed paycheck, a health crisis, or an unpaid bill can easily push poor families over the edge into homelessness, and once that happens it's all about survival. There are not enough shelters and not many places that you can even pitch a tent or build a wikiup.


The Portland Oregon Solution



Dignity Village International Tent City Celebration

Dear Fellow Portland Housing/Homeless Activists:

Homelessness is increasing worldwide. Housing costs are skyrocketing. Governments are more inclined to support tax cuts for the wealthy than help for low income people. Drastic cuts of essential entitlement or safety net programs are looming on the horizon--courtesy of the Bush Administration and U.S. Congress.

To truly end homelessness and poverty worldwide, we need to do more than just develop 10 year plans to end homelessness or bureaucracies to study the problem.

This is why the National Coalition for the Homeless, the nation's oldest and largest national homelessness advocacy organization, supports such proactive legislative initiatives as the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund and the Bringing America Home Act. If enacted by Congress, both pieces of legislation would end homelessness in this country.

In addition to tackling the roots causes of poverty (lack of affordable housing, no universal health insurance, and poor-paying jobs) in this country and elsewehere, we support the development/operation of tent cities and other alternative housing models.

We join you in this international day of solidarity pushing for an end to homelessness and poverty today, not ten years from now.

We Can't Make It Here Anymore - by James Mcmurtry

Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign
Sitting there by the left turn line
Flag on the wheelchair flapping in the breeze
One leg missing, both hands free
No one's paying much mind to him
The V.A. budget's stretched so thin
And there's more comin' home from the Mideast war
We can't make it here anymore

That big ol' building was the textile mill
It fed our kids and it paid our bills
But they turned us out and they closed the doors
We can't make it here anymore

See all those pallets piled up on the loading dock
They're just gonna set there till they rot
'Cause there's nothing to ship, nothing to pack
Just busted concrete and rusted tracks
Empty storefronts around the square
There's a needle in the gutter and glass everywhere
You don't come down here 'less you're looking to score
We can't make it here anymore

The bar's still open but man it's slow
The tip jar's light and the register's low
The bartender don't have much to say
The regular crowd gets thinner each day

Some have maxed out all their credit cards
Some are working two jobs and living in cars
Minimum wage won't pay for a roof, won't pay for a drink
If you gotta have proof just try it yourself Mr. CEO
See how far 5.15 an hour will go
Take a part time job at one of your stores
Bet you can't make it here anymore

High school girl with a bourgeois dream
Just like the pictures in the magazine
She found on the floor of the laundromat
A woman with kids can forget all that
If she comes up pregnant what'll she do
Forget the career, forget about school
Can she live on faith? live on hope?
High on Jesus or hooked on dope
When it's way too late to just say no
You can't make it here anymore

Now I'm stocking shirts in the Wal-Mart store
Just like the ones we made before
'Cept this one came from Singapore
I guess we can't make it here anymore

Should I hate a people for the shade of their skin
Or the shape of their eyes or the shape I'm in
Should I hate 'em for having our jobs today
No I hate the men sent the jobs away
I can see them all now, they haunt my dreams
All lily white and squeaky clean
They've never known want, they'll never know need
Their sh@# don't stink and their kids won't bleed
Their kids won't bleed in the da$% little war
And we can't make it here anymore

Will work for food
Will die for oil
Will kill for power and to us the spoils
The billionaires get to pay less tax
The working poor get to fall through the cracks
Let 'em eat jellybeans let 'em eat cake
Let 'em eat sh$%, whatever it takes
They can join the Air Force, or join the Corps
If they can't make it here anymore

And that's how it is
That's what we got
If the president wants to admit it or not
You can read it in the paper
Read it on the wall
Hear it on the wind
If you're listening at all
Get out of that limo
Look us in the eye
Call us on the cell phone
Tell us all why

In Dayton, Ohio
Or Portland, Maine
Or a cotton gin out on the great high plains
That's done closed down along with the school
And the hospital and the swimming pool
Dust devils dance in the noonday heat
There's rats in the alley
And trash in the street
Gang graffiti on a boxcar door
We can't make it here anymore

Music and lyrics © 2004 by James McMurtry

Interview With Edward Brown On June 7, 2007

Randy Rhodes interviews Greg Palast Air on America

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CIA ties between Balkan Wars and 911?

Controversial German author Jürgen Elsässer has a different take on the events leading up to 911 and the involvement of the US with Moslem militants. He sees Dubya as a hostage to the Neocons and a follower of their ideas, or should I say ideologies?

Before you read this artical please know that it's from what the MSM calls the far left and the subject matter is about the far right. There is a lot of controversy about the author as well as the interviewer. They both have written articals for many publications and seem to be very knowlegable about affairs in the Middle East, so here is some information that I have found to be interesting.

In his latest book, "How the Jihad Came to Europe", German journalist Jürgen Elsässer unravels the Jihadist thread. Muslim fighters recruited by the CIA to fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan were used successively in Yugoslavia and Chechnya, still supported by the CIA, but perhaps sometimes out of its control. Basing himself on diverse sources, mainly Yugoslavian, Dutch, and German, he reconstructed the development of Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants at the side of NATO in Bosnia-Herzegovinia.


"The CIA recruited and trained the jihadists"


Jürgen Elsässer interviewed by Silvia Cattori

Global Research, August 21, 2006
Reseau Voltaire


Silvia Cattori: Your investigation into the actions of the secret services makes a frightening report. We discover that since the 80’s the United States has invested billions of dollars to finance criminal activities and that by means of the CIA they are directly implicated in the attacks attributed to the Moslems. What is the contribution of your book?

Jurgen Elsässer: It is the only work that establishes the tie between wars in the Balkan of the 90’s and the attack of September 11, 2001. All the large attacks, in New York, in London, in Madrid, would never have taken place without the recruitment by the American and British secret services of these jihadists who have been blamed for the attacks. I bring a new light on the manipulations of the intelligence agencies. Other books than mine have noted the presence of Ossama Ben Laden in the Balkans. But their authors presented the Moslem fighters in the Balkan as enemies of the west. The information that I collected from multiple sources, demonstrate that these jihadists are puppets in the hands of the west and are not, as one pretends, enemies.

Silvia Cattori: In the case of the war in the Balkan, the manipulations of various States are clearly designated in your book. The United States supported Ben Laden whose work was to form the Mujahidines. How can anyone continue to ignore that these attempts that horrify public opinion would never have existed if these «terrorists» had not been driven and financed by the western intelligence services?

Jürgen Elsässer: Yes, indeed, it is the result of facts that one can observe. But one cannot say that the western intervention in ex - Yugoslavia had for objective to prepare attack of September 11. To be precise: these attacks are a consequence of western politics of the 90’s because NATO put these jihadists in place in the Balkans and collaborated with them. The Moslem militants who have been designated the persons responsible for the attacks of September 11 were part of this network.

Silvia Cattori: According to you, what was the interest of the United States and Germany to set the people of the Balkans one against the other?

Jürgen Elsässer: The west had a common interest to destroy Yugoslavia, to dismember it, because, after the end of the soviet bloc, it would have been a model of the intelligent combination of capitalist and socialist elements. But the west wanted to impose the neoliberal model on all countries.

Silvia Cattori: Is not Europe itself imprudently committed to a war manipulated by the neoconservatives?

Jürgen Elsässer: It is difficult to say. I believe that in the 90’s, the politics of the United States was inspired by their victory against Soviets in Afghanistan. It was the model that they wanted to apply in Balkans. If, during those years, the economy of the United States had not fallen into depression, maybe the more realistic politicians, such as Kissinger, could have kept control of American politics. I think that the coincidence between the economic depression and the aggressiveness of the neoconservative school determined what happened.

Silvia Cattori: Do you think that a leader like Blair, for example, once embarked in the neoconservative project, has become a hostage to a certain point?

Jürgen Elsässer: I don’t know the position of Blair enough well. It is easier to see what goes on in the United States. One can see that Bush is the hostage of those around him. And, as he is not very intelligent, he is not able to take decisions and must follow ideas of his entourage. It is clear that his father was against the attack on Iraq in 2003.

Silvia Cattori: Wasn’t the first Gulf war part of a plan aiming to trigger other wars thereafter?

Jürgen Elsässer: No, there was no tie with the war in Iraq in 1991. There were two phases. Until the end of the Clinton period, the politics of the United States were imperialistic, but at the same time, pragmatic. They chased the Soviets out of Afghanistan. They defeated Iraq in 1991. Their war stopped once Kuwait was free. Then they attacked Bosnia and Yugoslavia; but it occurred stage by stage. Everything went out of control after September 11.

Protesting Iraq vet facing discharge from marines

Reuters

Tuesday, 5 June 2007

KANSAS CITY: A US military disciplinary panel recommended that a decorated combat marine be involuntarily discharged after he joined an anti-war demonstration and spoke out against the Iraq war.

The three-member panel at a marine command centre in Kansas City recommended that 25-year-old Adam Kokesh be given a general discharge - one step below an "honorable discharge" and a reflection of "significant negative" conduct.

Kokesh was accused of misconduct for wearing desert fatigues at a protest in Washington in March to mark the fourth anniversary of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Kokesh said he would appeal the recommendation, which stops short of the honorable discharge he wants but is better than the dishonorable discharge that could have been recommended.

"I'm standing on principle and we're going to contest this on principle. It's not going to go away," he said.

Kokesh is one of three US Iraq combat veterans and members of a group called Iraq Veterans Against the War whom the government has threatened to punish over their roles in the anti-war demonstration.

Kokesh was also charged with misconduct for responding to a marine investigator with a profanity.

He maintained that he has been acting as a civilian since his discharge from active duty in November 2006 and decried the action by the marines as a restraint on freedom of speech and a "corrupt" and political act by the US military.

Iraq Veterans Against the War in Santa Monica, CA

Operation First Casualty hits the west coast
Iraq Veterans Against the War keeps up the momentum by staging Operation First Casualty in Santa Monica, CA this past Sunday. As veterans of the Iraq war shouted at, searched and hooded civilian volunteers, passers-by got a taste of what an occupation is like. Former Marine Sargent Jason Lemieux, who served three deployments in Iraq stated, "The name 'Operation First Casualty' comes from the premise that the first casualty of war is the truth. And the American people are getting fed this notion that we're in Iraq spreading freedom and making Iraq safe for democracy when really we're imposing a state of martial law on the people over there."

SECRETARY RICE: Look, let me tell you what I think about Scooter Libby. I think he's served the country really well.

Consider the source here. Has this educated pawn of the Corporate Government been truthful to "We The People" or has she parroted the agenda of Bush & Co. since her first day in office. What we have here is a crony of "The Commander Guy", kinda like a cartoon character that we are supposed to believe is a benovelent leader...Glargh...puke...And a bunch of ideologues who support him and are telling us he is above the law, as well as whomever is serving him. It took years and untold amounts of money and energy to finally prosecute one of these evil crooks, and Condosleazy has the gall to ask for sympathy for Scooter. Why in the hell is he still out of jail? Because our installed Faux Republican White house is above the law, and answers to nobody, especially the American People. They have no honor, pride, or redeeming qualities, and will be there untill they are drug from their dark corners kicking and screaming in a frenzy of disharmonious self rightiousness like the world has never seen.

Editor and Publisher

Condoleezza Rice, Meeting With 'WSJ' Editorial Board, Gives Props to Scooter Libby

By E&P Staff

Published: June 11, 2007 4:00 PM ET

NEW YORK Meeting with the Wall Street Journal's editorial board, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who promoted the invasion of Iraq, disclosed the name of a cover CIA agent then was convicted of four counts of perjury and obstruction of justice, had "served the country really well." She hinted that a presidential pardon was in order.

Asked for her views on a pardon, Rice demurred but then came to the strong defense of Libby, stating that he should be treated "in accordance" with his public service. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison last week, convicted on four felony counts, despite letters of support from many highly-placed figures ranging from Henry Kissinger to Gen. Peter Pace.

The transcript of that part of the Friday interview follows. It has been posted at the Online Journal.

QUESTION: In today's Wall Street Journal there's an article by Fouad Ajami making the analogy that -- basically saying that the President's reluctance to pardon Scooter Libby is akin to leaving a wounded soldier on the battlefield. What do you think of that analogy?

SECRETARY RICE: Look, I'm not going to get involved in trying to give the President advice on how he ought to think about this. You know, he has to think about what he wants to do.

QUESTION: What's your own opinion?

SECRETARY RICE: You know that...

QUESTION: You think he should go to jail?

SECRETARY RICE: Look, let me tell you what I think about Scooter Libby. I think he's served the country really well. I think he did it to the best of his ability. I think that he is going through an extremely difficult time with his family and for him. And you know, I'm just desperately sorry that it's happening to him and I -- you know, the legal system has spoken, but I tell you, this is a really good guy who is a good public servant and ought to be treated in accordance with that.

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Another general speaks out about the surge in Iraq

Colin Powell, who has recently spoke out on Guantanimo on a previous post, has also spoke out on surging more troops into Iraq. He joins a long list of ex generals who oppose the way the war is being run. He may be a day late and a dollar short, but his opinions still hold a little weight. This sure doesn't make up for the "weapons of mass destruction" speech before the UN. America would be better off if he had spoke truth to power at that time.

Think Progress

Powell Opposes Surging More U.S. Forces Into Iraq, Says There Are ‘No Additional Troops’ To Send

Today on CBS’s Face the Nation, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said he did not support surging tens of thousands more troops in Iraq, a plan that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) supports and that President Bush is expected to carry out. “I have not seen a case that persuades me that [Iraqi security] would be better” with more forces, he said.

Powell also pointed out that the military has no more troops to send. “There are really no additional troops. All we would be doing is keeping some of the troops who were there there longer and escalating or accelerating the arrival of other troops.”

Shift Happens

Duhbya was awed by the Pope "I was talking to a very smart, loving man"

When in Rome...


Pope addresses "worrying situation in Iraq" with Bush
by Mark Silva

VATICAN CITY: In weeklong travels through Europe, President Bush has promoted his vision of "a freedom agenda" and thanked allies for support with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but here at The Holy See, in his first audience with Pope Benedict XVI, the president was reminded that all is not well in the world.

The Vatican, describing the private meeting of the pope and president today as "cordial, said later that they had addressed "the international political situation" – including "the worrying situation in Iraq."

On the streets of Rome, battalions of police, some in riot gear, contained several thousand protesters, with the main boulevard leading to St. Peter's Basillica and the Vatican cordoned off.


A few quotes by Duhbya to the Pope:

"I've got a very strong AIDS initiative"

"These programs cannot be effective without loving people on the ground, helping a neighbor in need"

"I want to thank you for being a part of (this) international army of compassion"

The good news is that Bush didn't tell us "I looked the man in the eye and I seen his soul."

Bush meets Pope for talks

Gates replaces Gen. Peter Pace~MSNBC video is cut short

From The Huffington Post:

Peter Pace

MSNBC Cuts Away From Pentagon To ParisLess than one hour ago on The Huffington Post

With obvious yelling in the background, MSNBC cut away from an interview with Colonel Rick Francona on the Defense Secretary replacing the Joint Chiefs Chairman Peter Pace, to show Paris Hilton leaving her house in West Hollywood to attend court....

Top Joint Chiefs of Staff leaders being replaced

Citing war and Congress, Gates to change chairman and vice chairman

NBC, MSNBC and news services
Updated: 1 hour, 6 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday he has decided to replace the chairman and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff rather than see contentious renomination hearings before Congress.

Speaking to reporters, and referring to the debate over the war in Iraq, Gates said he had wanted to renominate Marine Gen. Peter Pace as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff but then concluded doing so would create "a confirmation process that would not be in the best interest of the country."

"I concluded that because Gen. Pace has served as chairman and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the last six years, the focus of his confirmation process would have been on the past rather than the future," Gates said.

G8 Summit: $2,000000 fence was built for expected 100,000 demonstrators

Berlin bashed for G8 security


May 29 07:22 PM US/Eastern

BERLIN, May 29 (UPI) -- Germany has come under fire for what the opposition and anti-globalization groups believe are inappropriate security measures ahead of next week's Group of Eight summit in the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm.

Last week German police had taken scent samples from five far-left activists arrested in a series of massive raids Berlin staged earlier this month in six German states. The scent samples are passed to police equipped with sniffing dogs who can pick the individuals out amid a large crowd or compare the samples with traces left at the scene of a crime.

The method is controversial in Germany because it was also used against dissidents by communist East Germany's secret police, the Stasi. Several opposition politicians but also some lawmakers of the government Social Democrats hailing from Eastern Germany have criticized the measure.

German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has defended the scent tracking, as has Chief Federal Prosecutor Monika Harms, in an interview with German news magazine Der Spiegel.

"We are dealing with very conspirative groups," Harms told the magazine, which hit the newsstands Monday. "We have to use all legal investigation measures available ... Because a method was used by the Stasi in a totally different context doesn't mean that it is therefore taboo for us."

Berlin has also come under fire for agreeing to have letters in Hamburg opened in connection with investigations against groups and individuals believed to be behind a series of anti-G8 arson attacks in the northern German city. The attacks targeted trade groups, large companies, the house of a Hamburg finance politician and the car of the editor of Bild, Germany's mass-selling daily and the journalistic arch-enemy of the far left.

"We are not dealing with people from the political opposition like (the Stasi did) in former East Germany, but with criminals who send off confession letters," Harms said in defense of the measure.

Preparations for the G8 summit are increasingly turning hysteric, after last month's police raids managed to round up more support for the anti-G8 movement.

In Berlin, bus companies have had to order more vehicles to be able to meet the increasing demand for tickets to Rostock, where some 100,000 anti-globalization activists are expected to stage a series of demonstrations and events in an "alternative" summit.

Numerous attacks in Berlin and violent protests at this past weekend's meeting of European and Asian foreign ministers in Hamburg, where more than 100 people were arrested, have fueled fears that the far left is planning for a major clash with authorities at the June 6-8 summit.

The German government in turn has built a $20 million security fence around the summit venue to keep protesters out and said it will deploy more than 16,000 police to the area.

While the police are gearing up for their biggest post-war deployment, the other side is getting ready as well.

In a park in Berlin's mostly left-wing Kreuzberg district, far-left groups have offered "blockade training" for people willing to march against the G8 summit. The training includes lessons on how to behave when the police approach (stay in groups, use sign language to get help from other activists) and how to calm down police who are turning gruff.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is keen on keeping violence down before, during and after the summit, defending the comprehensive security measures. Yet she has also made clear that demonstrations will be permitted as long as they remain peaceful.

Germany: Police use massive force against G8 demonstrators in Rostock

Germany: Police use massive force against G8 demonstrators in Rostock

By Stefan Steinberg
4 June 2007

A peaceful mass demonstration of an estimated 80,000 participants turned into a grim battle between thousands of heavily armed police and demonstrators—including provocative members of the “black bloc” of anarchists—on late Saturday afternoon in the northern German port city of Rostock.

More G8 Protests in Rostock Turn Violent, Lead to Arrests

Opposition: 04.06.2007


Protestors visited the Sunflower House for asylum-seekers, which was burned in 1992
Just two days after a mass anti-G8 demonstration in Rostock on Saturday turned violent, protestors skirmished with police again, this time in a part of town known for neo-Nazi attacks in the early 1990s.

Nearly 1,000 people staged a sit-down protest Monday morning in front of the immigration office in Baltic Sea port city of Rostock to protest the asylum policies of the world's major industrialized countries.

The rally started peacefully, but turned violent when some protestors began throwing bottles at police officers, said a police spokesperson. A photo journalist was injured.

Timeline for Scooter

CIA leak case timeline

Staff and agencies
05 June, 2007


By The Associated Press

A timeline of events leading up to the conviction of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on charges stemming from the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame ‘s name.

_Jan. 28: President Bush asserts in his State of the Union address: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

_March 19-20: The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq begins.

_May 29: Libby asks Marc Grossman, an undersecretary of state, for information about the ambassador‘s travel to Niger. Grossman later tells Libby that Joseph Wilson was the former ambassador.

_June 11 or 12: Cheney advises Libby that Wilson‘s wife works at the CIA.

_June 14: Libby meets with a CIA briefer , , )" and his wife, "Valerie Wilson."

_July 6: The New York Times publishes an opinion piece by Wilson under the headline "What I Didn‘t Find in Africa" and he appears on NBC‘s "Meet the Press." Wilson said he doubted Iraq had recently obtained uranium from Niger and thought Cheney‘s office was told of the results of his trip.

_July 7: Libby meets with then-White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer . Fleischer says Libby tells him that Wilson‘s wife works at the CIA and that the information is "hush hush." Libby denies that.

• July 8: Columnist Robert Novak interviews Armitage, who tells him that Wilson‘s wife works for the CIA. Novak says this was confirmed the next day by White House political adviser Karl Rove.

_July 11: Fleischer, on a presidential trip to Africa, tells two reporters that Wilson‘s wife works for the CIA. Rove tells Time Magazine‘s Matthew Cooper that Wilson‘s wife works for the CIA.

_July 12: Walter Pincus of the Washington Post says Fleischer tells him that Wilson‘s wife works at the CIA. Fleischer doesn‘t recall that.

_July 14: Columnist Novak reports that Wilson‘s wife is a CIA operative on weapons of mass destruction and that two senior administration officials, whom Novak did not name, said she suggested sending her husband to Niger to investigate the uranium story.

_Sept. 26: A criminal investigation is authorized to determine who leaked Plame‘s identity to reporters. Disclosing the identity of CIA operatives is illegal. A short time later, Armitage tells investigators that he may have inadvertently leaked Plame‘s identity to Woodward.

_Oct. 14 and Nov. 26: Libby is interviewed by FBI agents.

_Dec. 30: U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald in Chicago, an aggressive career prosecutor, is named to head the leak investigation after then-Attorney General John Ashcroft takes himself out of the case to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.

2004:

_January: A grand jury begins investigating possible violations of federal criminal laws.

_March 5 and March 24: Libby testifies before the grand jury. In a tape of his testimony, Libby tells jurors that he forgot the information about Plame working for the CIA until he heard it from Russert. Anything he told reporters, he says, was just chatter passed on from that conversation.

2005:

_Oct. 28: Libby is indicted on five counts: obstruction of justice and two counts each of false statement and two counts of perjury.

2006:

_Sept. 7: Armitage admits he leaked Plame‘s identity to Novak and to Bob Woodward of The Washington Post. Armitage says he did not realize Plame‘s job was covert.

2007:

_Jan. 16: Jury selection begins in Libby‘s trial.

_Jan. 23: Prosecution and defense lawyers make opening statements to the jury and U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton.

_Feb. 20: Prosecution and defense attorneys make closing statements.

_Feb. 21: Jurors begin deliberations.

_March 6: Jurors return guilty verdicts on charges of obstruction, perjury and lying to the FBI. A not guilty verdict was returned on one count of lying to an FBI agent.

Duhbya The Diplomat "Wow's Em" in Czechoslovokia

Guardian UK

Bush: Russia Shouldn't Fear U.S. Defense

Tuesday June 5, 2007 2:01 PM

By WILLIAM J. KOLE

Associated Press Writer

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) - Russia is not an enemy of the United States and shouldn't fear a proposed missile defense system designed to thwart a possible nuclear attack from Iran, President Bush said Tuesday.

"Russia is not the enemy,'' Bush said after meeting with Czech leaders in a visit en route to the G-8 summit in Germany. He said he would take a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that ``we can work together on common threats."

The Kremlin is bitterly opposed to the missile shield, and Putin has warned that Russia could take "retaliatory steps" if Washington insists on building it.

Polls show more than 60 percent of Czechs are against plans to station a radar system southwest of Prague, and surveys in Poland - where 10 interceptor missiles would be based - show strong opposition there as well. Both countries are still negotiating with the U.S. over whether to host the shield.

Bush sought to play down Russia's response, which has overshadowed his European trip.

"The Cold War is over. It ended," Bush said at the medieval Prague Castle, where he met with Czech President Vaclav Klaus and Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek.

":My message will be: 'Vladimir - I call him Vladimir - you shouldn't fear a missile defense system. As a matter of fact, why don't you cooperate with us on a missile defense system?" Bush said.

"The people of the Czech Republic don't have to choose between being a friend of Russia or a friend of the United States. You can be both," he added.

The Nexus of Politics and Terror

Are Americans oblivious to the world situation?

Global Research

More Smoke on the Horizon in the Middle East War Theater


by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya

Global Research, June 3, 2007

America is not the only one present in the region (meaning the Middle East and Central Asia). We are present, from Khost to Kandahar in Afghanistan. We are present in the Persian Gulf and we can be present in Iraq.

-Rear-Admiral Ali Shamkhani ( August 18, 2004 )

The march to war in the Middle East is well underway. Outgoing Prime Minister Tony Blair has said that diplomacy is the best way forward with Iran, but appends his statements by saying that he can not "absolutely predict every set of circumstances," which means that war can not be ruled out. In this regard, Gordon Brown is no different. The man scheduled to be the next British Prime Minister once Tony Blair steps down (June 27, 2007), has refused to rule out war against Iran and its allies.

The war dossiers against Iran and Syria, the last two bastions of independence in the Middle East, are being built. General Wesley Clark, the former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO in Europe , has confimed that the White House has been plotting a course based on a major military roadmap in the Middle East, Central Asia, and East Africa that would start in Afghanistan and Iraq and end with Iran. Clark has stated that, after Afghanistan, seven additional nations were on the the Pentagon’s list to be attacked and invaded over a five-year period: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and finally Iran.

The geographic boundaries for these wars all fall within the military jurisdiction of United States Central Command (CENTCOM). This five-year period began with the invasion of Iraq in mid-2003 and, if the American former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO in Europe is correct, it should end approximately in mid-2008 or the last war could be initiated by this point in time. It should be noted that the second presidential term of George W. Bush Jr. ends in January of 2009. Is it possible that in 2001, when the Pentagon outlined this military roadmap, that the re-election of President Bush Jr. to a second term in office in 2005, had already been envisaged, in relation to these war plans?



General Franks, the former Commander of CENTCOM, in a late-2003 interview said that he believed that another crisis for the United States could in effect result in the suspension of the American Constitution and the establishment in the U.S. of a military form of government:



"…the free world, loses what it cherishes most, and that is freedom and liberty we’ve seen for a couple of hundred years in this grand experiment that we call democracy. Now, in a practical sense, what does that mean? It means the potential of a weapon of mass destruction and a terrorist, massive casualty-producing event somewhere in the western world— it may be in the United States of America — that causes our population to question our own Constitution and to begin to militarize our country in order to avoid a repeat of another mass-casualty-producing event [such as 9/11 or even a global crisis]. Which, in fact, then begins to potentially unravel the fabric of our Constitution."


The use of discretionary executive and presidential powers in the hands of the White House is slated to take place during a period of national crisis. The National Security Agency (NSA) eavesdropping controversy that arose after 2001 demonstrates some of the capabilities of the Bush Jr. Administration in regards to the use of executive powers under the pretext of war-time or emergency measures. At present, the American President has decided to exercise only a few of his emergency powers. Under the National Emergencies Act the White House has only utilized provisions relating to the military and U.S. national security. The White House can exploit extraordinary powers that suspend civil liberties and can even challenge the American Constitution. Because of the uncertain and the shifting shape of the "Global War on Terror" that is continually being redefined, a moment may arise when a "Constitutional Dictatorship" is declared to ensure the continuity of government.


Moreover, the mechanisms have been put in place in the United States to allow for the hypothetical extension of the presidential term of George W. Bush Jr. or allow Vice-President Richard (Dick) B. Cheney to become U.S. president in the context of a war-time or emergency situation. This eventuality could occur should a major international war be launched in the Middle East— which is what a war against Iran and Syria would effectively create.

National Security Presidential Directive (NSPD) 51 and Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD) 20 would precisely justify such an action. A worldwide crisis of unpredictable cosnequences would occur if such a war were to be launched and Iran were to close the Straits of Hormuz. With the advent of a war against Syria and Iran , a volatile Pandora’s Box would be opened and there would be a complete breakdown of international relations and the existing global world order.

Bob Dylan - Masters of War

Rabbi Eliyahu: "All civilians living in Gaza are collectively guilty"

Jerusalem Post


Eliyahu advocates carpet bombing Gaza

All civilians living in Gaza are collectively guilty for Kassam attacks on Sderot, former Sephardi chief rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu has written in a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Eliyahu ruled that there was absolutely no moral prohibition against the indiscriminate killing of civilians during a potential massive military offensive on Gaza aimed at stopping the rocket launchings.

The letter, published in Olam Katan [Small World], a weekly pamphlet to be distributed in synagogues nationwide this Friday, cited the biblical story of the Shechem massacre (Genesis 34) and Maimonides' commentary (Laws of Kings 9, 14) on the story as proof texts for his legal decision.

According to Jewish war ethics, wrote Eliyahu, an entire city holds collective responsibility for the immoral behavior of individuals. In Gaza, the entire populace is responsible because they do nothing to stop the firing of Kassam rockets.

The former chief rabbi also said it was forbidden to risk the lives of Jews in Sderot or the lives of IDF soldiers for fear of injuring or killing Palestinian noncombatants living in Gaza.

Eliyahu could not be reached for an interview. However, Eliyahu's son, Shmuel Eliyahu, who is chief rabbi of Safed, said his father opposed a ground troop incursion into Gaza that would endanger IDF soldiers. Rather, he advocated carpet bombing the general area from which the Kassams were launched, regardless of the price in Palestinian life.

"If they don't stop after we kill 100, then we must kill a thousand," said Shmuel Eliyahu. "And if they do not stop after 1,000 then we must kill 10,000. If they still don't stop we must kill 100,000, even a million. Whatever it takes to make them stop."

In the letter, Eliyahu quoted from Psalms. "I will pursue my enemies and apprehend them and I will not desist until I have eradicated them."

Eliyahu wrote that "This is a message to all leaders of the Jewish people not to be compassionate with those who shoot [rockets] at civilians in their houses.