Happy Birthday to a Red Man in a White Man's Jail

Today is Leonard Peltier's 63rd birthday.

He's been in prison in the US for over 30 years.

This is his story, 'Incident at Oglala', produced and narrated by Robert Redford.

Incident at Oglala Part 1



Incident at Oglala Part 2



A Message from Leonard Peltier:

Greetings My Relatives,

You know I was just thinking there should be a degree one could receive for having expertise on doing prison time. I think I would be called Professor Peltier, PhD. with 30 years tenure. A friend of mine said once, PhD where he is from stands for post hole digger. I think I would at this time, embrace being a post hole digger, although I don't relish the thought of fencing anything in after being fenced in myself for 30+ years.

On being imprisoned, I want to touch on that subject a bit. There are some who have voiced their opinion in one way or another, that I should give up after all these years of trying to win my freedom. Aside from the oppressors who put me here, some of them are people who were at times, part of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee; others, on the fringes. My answer, to put it in a simple, colloquial phrase, that anyone can understand, .it ain't gonna happen! There are many reasons, both physical and mental, spiritual and social. The number one reason is that there aren't any women in here. That should cover the social. Eh!

Another reason, is that the struggle is not just about me. It's about life on earth, the struggle to survive, the onslaught of destructive technology, wealth mongering, by those who see the common man as nothing more than expendable beings to further their personal quest for power and affluence. I am here because, as a common man, along with other common men, I chose to try to stop the exploitation of my people. I know the Creator sent other common men at other times and other places and to other races to do the same. I am honored to be among common men. I know they tried to cause us to separate from alliances by color, religion, and geographic locale but our struggle is the same. It's against people taking more than they need. In my culture it is taught that you should not take more than you need. In Christianity, Buddhism, and Zen, as well as most other spiritual teachings, it is taught that gluttony is a sin. Violation of this teaching is the reason for global warming, and the reason for world wars, including the war in Iraq at this time.

Because of people who always seek to take more than they need, my people have suffered greatly. They are the poorest of the poor yet most still cling to the original teachings. They have fought for several generations for the exploitation of our land, illegal occupation of our land, unjust treatment in the U.S. judicial system, and most of all, government lies and liars that have led the American people to believe all this exploitation and violation of treaties is in their best interest. I watch TV from time to time, and I notice there are those who try to make the wars like a war between religions. I tell you my relatives, it is only a ruse to get young men to die for those who crave wealth and power over the common man.

If the many denominations of religions would stand together as one against the violation that jeopardizes life itself, it would make a major difference throughout the world. Today, more than any other time in history, you are either part of the problem or part of the solution. I may, by now, have written more than you care to read. But, from where I sit myself, it's the best I can do. The Defense Committee that bears my name struggles to help enlighten people of events and needs of people in jeopardy. I don't use the word struggle lightly. Aside from trying to raise money for attorneys and office expenses, etc., we raise money for food and clothing for needy people on reservations in urban areas. In my world, the poor are common. I am honored to be one of them, to represent them from time to time, though it be from afar. We as Native People look to the Creator's greatest manifestation for teachings, Mother Earth and her system of nature, along with personal visions, from time to time. In that, we see grass though encased in concrete, pushing its way through the cracks. We see the trees and water break down the structures of man that imprison them. We see everywhere, all life trying to follow the original instruction given by the Creator. If I were a blade of grass, I would grow out of here. If I were water, I would flow away from here. If I were a ray of light, I would bounce off these walls and be gone. However, I am not and unless I, at some future time, receive my freedom that was unjustly taken in the same manner as was the freedom of so many Native People before me. I can only leave here through my paintings, written words, and some other forms of communication that are sometimes available. I am in my 60's now. If I end up spending all my days here, and my last breath rides on the wind, and the moisture of my body flows to the sea, and the elements of my being make the grass grow and the trees flourish, make no mistake they can kill my body but they can't kill me. I am a common man.

The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee will continue working on my behalf and towards my freedom unless you the supporters tell me to close down the Defense Committee. Having said all this, I wish to ask you, if you can in any way help us, meaning the Defense Committee, send any donation to:

Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
3800 N. Mesa
A2
El Paso, Texas 79902
USA

Please do so, it is a common cause. If my case stands as it is, no common person has real freedom. Only the illusion until you have something the oppressors want. Back to being a post hole digger.. I'd rather be a free post hole digger than Professor Leonard Peltier, PhD.

May the Creator bless you with all you need.

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, who never gave up,

All my relations,

Leonard Peltier

Leonard Peltier's address:
Leonard Peltier #89637-132
USP Lewisburg PA
PO Box 1000
Lewisburg PA 17837
USA

Leonard Peltier Defense Committee:
Email: info@leonardpeltier.net
Website: http://www.leonardpeltier.net/
Phone: 570-524-0749

International Peltier Forum website:
http://users.skynet.be/kola/index.htm

Leonard Peltier Defense Committee in Ireland:
http://lpdctexas.blogspot.com/2007/09/update-on-september-12-2007-activities.html

Online Petition for Executive Clemency:
http://users.skynet.be/kola/lppet.htm
(Click here to see the list of VIP signatories.)

The Shock Doctrine

Laureates Against Blackmail

Nobel Peace Laureates Oppose Iraqi Oil Law Imposition

The Laureates' statement is as follows:

"In support of the people of Iraq, we the undersigned Nobel Peace Prize Laureates state our opposition to the Iraq Oil Law. We also oppose the decision of the United States government to require that the Iraq government pass the Oil Law as a condition of continued reconstruction aid in legislation passed on May 24, 2007. A law with the potential to so radically transform the basic economic security of the people of Iraq should not be forced on Iraq while it is under occupation and in such a weak negotiating position vis-à-vis both the U.S. government and foreign oil corporations. The Iraq Oil Law could benefit foreign oil companies at the expense of the Iraqi people, deny the Iraqi people economic security, create greater instability, and move the country further away from peace. The U.S. government should leave the matter of how Iraq will address the future of its oil system to the Iraqi people to be dealt with at a time when they are free from occupation and more able to engage in truly democratic decision-making. It is immoral and illegal to use war and invasion as mechanisms for robbing a people of their vital natural resources."

Source: Institute for Public Accuracy.

Tony's Parting Gift

Arguing for Britain, but obviously not for Britons, T Blair gains his point in discussions on the new European Constitution.

The Guardian reports:

"On Britain's central demand not to be subject to a European charter of fundamental rights which can be enforced by the European court of justice, the government won an extra "protocol" denying the court the right to get involved in British litigation, according to sources."

And a sly extra treat from Tone (also from The Guardian):

"He said the agreement sealed at the end of his last European Council summit in Brussels secured all of Britain's key demands and means the treaty will not require a referendum in the UK."

You know, like, "Trust me."

Image: detail from WWII poster.

Blair Bliar Blah Blah Blairrrghh...

Two speeches for the history books.

Probably one of the dirtiest speeches in UK history, Blair's speech on terrorism and civil liberty: timesonline

A commenter points out what we would have hoped our Leader would have known:
"You can't use a bad means for a good end. Basic rule of moral philosophy."

The biggest lie in the speech:

"This extremism can be defeated. But it will be defeated only by recognising that we have not created it; it cannot be negotiated with; pandering to its sense of grievance will only encourage it; and only by confronting it, the methods and the ideas, will we win."

And Blair's speech to the House of Commons on September 14th, 2001: The Guardian

He starts:

"Mr Speaker, I am grateful that you agreed to the recall of parliament to debate the hideous and foul events in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania that took place on Tuesday 11 September.
I thought it particularly important in view of the fact that these attacks were not just attacks upon people and buildings; nor even merely upon the USA; these were attacks on the basic democratic values in which we all believe so passionately and on the civilised world. It is therefore right that parliament, the fount of our own democracy, makes its democratic voice heard."

"But let us unite in agreeing this: what happened in the United States on Tuesday was an act of wickedness for which there can never be justification."

Boo the Warmonger

"27 June Warmonger Out!

Tony Blair will quit Downing St on the morning of 27 June. We all recall those stage-managed images of him entering through rapt crowds waving union jacks. Well, it is time for the reverse image as we boo the old warmonger out. I do hope you will join me there. Blair's leaving will be covered worldwide and it is a great opportunity to get our point across. It was Blair's support for Israel's invasion of Lebanon, against the whole background of the war in Iraq, that led the Labour MPs to boot Blair out. We should remind the World why he has to go."

From Craig Murray's blog

The Iron Triangle

The confluence of the military, big business and politics.

See how it works. An interesting video about the Carlyle Group; about G Bush senior's business interests and his son's political influence; and about the financial benefit of war.

Exposed: The Carlyle Group

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And the nominee for new head of the World Bank:

A 'policy wonk with sharp elbows'

Robert Zoellick is nominated by Bush Jr as successor to Paul Wolfowitz as head of the World Bank.

"Described by former colleagues as a policy wonk with sharp elbows, Mr Zoellick's background means he is familiar with the rigours of international diplomacy. Before his official jobs under Mr Bush, he served as a protege of James Baker, a long-time confident of the Bush family. Mr Zoellick helped run two presidential election campaigns and served in the administration of Mr Bush's father."

Source: The Guardian

US loves Israel, not UN

From The Guardian:

'American support for Israel has hindered international efforts to broker a peace deal in the Middle East, according to a hard-hitting confidential report from the outgoing UN Middle East envoy.

Alvaro de Soto, who stepped down last month after 25 years at the UN, has exposed the American pressure that he argues has damaged the impartiality of the UN's peace making efforts.

In Mr de Soto's "End of Mission Report", which the Guardian has obtained, he delivers a devastating criticism of both Israelis and Palestinians, as well as the international community.

The Quartet of Middle East negotiators - the UN, the US, the EU and Russia - has often failed to hold Israel to its obligations under the Road Map, the current framework for peace talks, he argues.

Over the past two years, the Quartet has gradually lost its impartiality. "The fact is that even-handedness has been pummelled into submission in an unprecedented way since the beginning of 2007," he writes.

He blames overwhelming influence exerted by the US and an "ensuing tendency toward self-censorship" within the UN when it comes to criticism of Israel.

"At almost every juncture a premium is put on good relations with the US and improving the UN's relationship with Israel. I have no problem with either goal but I do have a problem with self-delusion," he writes. "Forgetting our ability to influence the Palestinian scene in the hope that it keeps open doors to Israel is to trade our Ace for a Joker."'

'Mr de Soto speaks of his frustration in the job, not least that he was refused permission to meet the Hamas and Syrian governments in Damascus. "At best I have been the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process in name only, and since the election of Hamas, I have been the secretary-general's personal representative to the Palestinian Authority for about 10 minutes in two phone calls and one handshake," he writes.

He stepped down in May at the end of his two-year contract and left the UN. The "tipping-point" for his departure came after the new UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said future meetings with a Palestinian prime minister would depend on the actions of his government.'

The Sons of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

"Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and four other groups, are demanding that the US government accounts for the whereabouts of 39 people whom they believe have been held at secret CIA prisons since the attacks of September 11 2001."

"The list also includes a number of children, including the two young sons of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. The two boys have not been seen by family members since they were detained in Pakistan almost five years ago during a raid in search of their father."

"The report... expresses concern over the fate of Yusuf al-Khalid and Abed al-Khalid, the sons of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. They were taken into custody, aged nine and seven, in September 2002, during an attempt to capture their father. A former detainee says that he saw them in March the following year, around the time their father was captured, in a secret prison where the guards tormented them with insects.

CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano dismissed the report, telling Reuters news agency that the agency acts in 'strict accord with American law', and that its counter-terrorist initiatives are 'subject to careful review and oversight'. He added: 'The United States does not conduct or condone torture.'"

From The Guardian

Each Step So Small

"What happened was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to be governed by surprise, to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believe that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security...

To live in the process is absolutely not to notice it - please try to believe me - unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us ever had occasion to develop.

Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, 'regretted.'... Believe me this is true. Each act, each occasion is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join you in resisting somehow... Suddenly it all comes down, all at once... You remember everything now, and your heart breaks. Too late. You are compromised beyond repair."

German professor describing the arrival of Nazism in Europe to American journalist Milton Mayer.

From a comment by pilot to an article entitled Fascism and America in todays's UK Guardian.

"Marijuana as wonder drug"

Dr Lester Grinspoon of Harvard Medical School, writing in the Boston Globe, asks why we need proof of something that medicine has known for 5,000 years.

He argues that there is insufficient financial incentive for the drug companies to go through the expense of testing and approval of herbal cannabis - because they can't patent it.

"First, there is no question about its safety. It has been used for thousands of years by millions of people with no reported deaths and very little evidence of significant toxicity. Similarly, no doubleblind studies are needed to prove marijuana's efficacy.

Countless clinicians and patients the world around who have had experience with the medicinal use of cannabis have observed that it often provides better relief with fewer serious side effects than conventionally prescribed medicines. To impose this regulatory protocol on herbal marijuana is tantamount to making the same demand of aspirin, which was accepted as a medicine more than 60 years before the advent of the doubleblind controlled study. Many years of experience have shown us that aspirin has many uses and limited toxicity, yet today it could not be marshaled through the FDA approval process. The patent has long since expired, and with it the incentive to underwrite the substantial cost of this modern seal of approval."

Dr Grinspoon's thesis is also available as a pdf:
On the future of cannabis as medicine.

Sadism in the New World Order

From an article in The Nation:

"[Lt. Col Stuart] Couch, a prosecutor at Guantínamo, inadvertently witnessed other prisoners being tortured, but he was denied access to the man he was prosecuting, who suddenly began telling his captors what they wanted to hear after being subjected to the "varsity program." That's the nickname for the Special Interrogation Plan which then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld authorized."

"Aside from the beatings, water-boarding, stress positions and sexual degradation that have been the norm at Guantínamo, Slahi [a detainee] was taunted with details of his mother's incarceration and rape in an elaborate hoax by an officer who claimed to be representing the White House."

[The 9/11 Commission reported, "We were told our requests might disrupt the sensitive interrogation process."] "That "sensitive interrogation" in the case of Slahi, according to Senate testimony of Air Force Lt. Gen. Randall Schmidt, assigned by the Pentagon to investigate conditions at Guantínamo, was conducted by an interrogation chief who the general concluded "was a rogue guy," a "zealot" who "essentially was having a ball."

Aside from the sadistic example being set by the United States for the world, the other cost is that torture does not produce credible intelligence results or legally recognized convictions of the guilty, even employing the sorry military tribunal standard accepted by the US Supreme Court."

"The point, once again, is not to get at the truth about 9/11 but rather to make George Bush look vigilant, despite the facts, in fighting his phony war on terrorism."

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A quote from UK Chancellor Gordon Brown makes an interesting footnote to the above:

The chancellor sidestepped the criticisms on defence policy, but admitted that more action on poverty was needed by the UK and world leaders. The UK, he promised, would continue to take a lead. "As human beings, we can't be fully happy when we know so many are sad. We can't feast while others starve. We can't be fully at ease while others are suffering," he said.

Article: Scottish churches say Brown is squandering money on war

Naomi Wolf's 10 steps to fascism

In today's UK Guardian, Naomi Wolf shows how we are treading the same footsteps as the fascist states of the last century.

Fascist America in 10 easy steps:

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy

2. Create a gulag

3. Develop a thug caste

4. Set up an internal surveillance system

5. Harass citizens' groups

6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release

7. Target key individuals

8. Control the press

9. Dissent equals treason

10. Suspend the rule of law

Note:
Naomi Wolf writes of America. If you're in the UK or Australia, you should take a good look in your own backyard, for you too are treading the same steps.

Beware. Allowing such matters to pass unchecked is how we've arrived at totalitarianism previously. Read the history. Check the comparisons for yourself.
Read William L Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. (Written by an American journalist working in Germany at the time.)

"it's not the lies that count but the muddying"

Vacationing on the Axis of Evil

Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler takes a holiday in Iran.

Story: UK Observer

Play dirty tricks; people get hurt

Today's The Independent, UK newspaper, reports that the 15 UK captives held in Iran were seized in retaliation to an attempt by the US to kidnap two senior Iranian security officers.

Story: The botched US raid that led to the hostage crisis

Good Friday Iran Attack Plan

Webster Tarpley reports on a pronouncement from Russian military experts that an attack by US forces on Iran is planned for April 6.

"The long awaited US military attack on Iran is now on track for the first week of April, specifically for 4 AM on April 6, the Good Friday opening of Easter weekend, writes the well-known Russian journalist Andrei Uglanov in the Moscow weekly 'Argumenty Nedeli.' Uglanov cites Russian military experts close to the Russian General Staff for his account.

The attack is slated to last for twelve hours, according to Uglanov, lasting from 4 AM until 4 PM local time. Friday is a holiday in Iran. In the course of the attack, code named Operation Bite, about 20 targets are marked for bombing; the list includes uranium enrichment facilities, research centers, and laboratories."

"Asked by RIA-Novosti to comment on the Uglanov report, retired Colonel General Leonid Ivashov confirmed its essential features in a March 21 interview: 'I have no doubt that there will be an operation, or more precisely a violent action against Iran.' Ivashov, who has reportedly served at various times as an informal advisor to Putin, is currently the Vice President of the Moscow Academy for Geopolitical Sciences.

Ivashov attributed decisive importance to the decision of the Democratic leadership of the US House of Representatives to remove language from the just-passed Iraq supplemental military appropriations bill which would have demanded that Bush come to Congress before launching an attack on Iran. Ivashov pointed out that the language was eliminated under pressure from AIPAC, the lobbing group representing the Israeli extreme right, and of Israeli Foreign Minister Tsipi Livni."

Souce: rense.com

Lex Luthor Talks

You've probably seen the list of 31 confessions by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

He also made a statement:

"In what I have written here I am not making myself out to be a hero when I say I am responsible for this or that. But you are a military man. You know very well the language of war. So, when I'm talking about these things I'm not saying I didn't do it. I did it, but this is the language of war.

If America wants to invade Iraq they will not send roses or kisses for Saddam, they will send a bombardment. This is the way I want it. If I'm fighting for anybody I admit to them I'm an enemy of America. For sure, I'm an enemy of America. Usama bin Laden, he did his best press conference in the American media. Mr John Miller, he did it when he made a declaration against Jihad, against America. He talked about the American military presence in the Arabian peninsula and aiding Israel, and many things. So when we made war against America, we were jackals fighting in the night.

I consider, myself, that what you are doing is a religious thing, as you consider us fundamentalist. So, both following our religion, we consider that we and George Washington are doing the same thing. As you consider George Washington a hero, Muslims, many of them, consider Usama bin Laden a hero. He is doing the same thing. He is just fighting. For he needs his independence. Even we think, not me only, many Muslims, that al Qaida or the Taliban are doing what they're doing because they've been oppressed by America. This is the feeling of the prophet.

So when we say we're an enemy combatant, that's right. We are. But I'm asking you again to be fair with many detainees who are not enemy combatants. Because many of them have been unjustly arrested. Many, not one or two or three: because the definition you wrote, even in my case, was not fair. I was in the first Jihad, against Russia, so I must be an enemy of Russia. But America supported me in this because I was their ally when I was fighting Russia. I'm doing the same job. I'm fighting. I was fighting Russia then, now I'm fighting America.

So many people who have been in Afghanistan don't live there. They stay there, but they don't have anything to do with the Taliban or al Qaida. They have been there since the Russian time and they cannot go back to their home and their corrupted government. They stayed there, and when America invaded the Afghan parliament, they were arrested. They had never been with the Taliban or the others. So many people consider them as enemies, but they are not. Because the definition is very wide, people came after October 2001, when America invaded Afghanistan. They just arrived in Afghanistan because they heard their enemy was there. They didn't know what al Qaida or Usama bin Laden or the Taliban meant. They didn't care about these things. They heard there was an enemy in Afghanistan and they just arrived. As they heard the first time, when Russia invaded Afghanistan. When they came back, they fought. They didn't know what was going on and that the Taliban was in government. You even consider me Taliban, even the president of a whole government. Many people joined the Taliban because they were in government. When Karzai came they joined him. They joined whatever people were joining; they didn't know what was going on. So many Taliban become fighters, and fight, just because that's what people are doing.

The government is the Taliban, though from then until now the CIA don't have an exact definition of who is the Taliban, or who is al Qaida. Your Tribunal now is discussing whether he is an enemy or not, and that is one of your tasks.

So this is why you find many Afghani people, Pakistanis even, who don't know what's going on; they just hear there's fighting and they help the Muslims in Afghanistan. Then what? There are some infidels who came here and they have to help them. But then there weren't any intending to do anything against America. The Taliban, between themselves, said Afghanistan would never again be against the 9/11 operation. The seniors in the Taliban rejected what al Qaida were doing. Many in the Taliban rejected what they were doing. Even many Taliban did not agree about why we were in Afghanistan. Some of them had been with us. Never in their life, before America invaded them, did the Taliban intend to do anything against America. They had never been with al Qaida. It does not mean that we are here as Americans now. They gave political asylum for many: for Chinese oppositionists, or North Korean, but that does not mean they are the same towards many of the Taliban. Because they hold us as they do al Qaida, it does not mean we are together.

So this is why I'm asking you to be fair with many Afghanis and Pakistanis, and many Arabs, who have been in Afghanistan. Many of them have been held unjustly. The strange thing is, the Sunni government sent some spies to assassinate UBL, then we arrested them and sent them to Afghanistan, to the Taliban. The Taliban put them in prison. The Americans came and arrested them as enemy combatants. They brought them here. So, even if they are my enemy, it's not fair for them to be there with me. This is what I'm saying, the way of war, you know, very well, in any country waging war against their enemy, the language of war is killing. A man and a woman stay together in a marriage because of the kids, children. But if you and I, two nations, are in a war together, the others are victims. This is the way of the language.

You know 40 million people were killed in World War One; ten million killed in World War Two. You know that two million four hundred thousand were killed in the Korean War. So this is the language of war.

Any people who, when Usama bin Laden says I'm waging war because of such and such a reason, know he's declared it. But when you said I'm a terrorist, I think it is deceiving people. Terrorist, enemy combatant; all these definitions, as CIA you can make up whatever you want. Now, you told me when I asked about the witnesses, I'm not convinced that this related to the matter; it is up to you. Maybe I'm convinced, but you are the head and he [gesturing to Personal Representative] is not responsible, because you are head of the committee. So, finally, it's your war, but the problem is there are no definitions of many words. Certainly many people will be oppressed, because, in war, for sure, there will be victims. When I said I'm not happy that three thousand have been killed in America, I feel sorry even. I don't like to kill children; the kids.

Islam would never give me the green light to kill people. Killing, for Christianity, Judaism and Islam is prohibited. But there are exceptions to the rule when you are killing people in Iraq. You said we have to do it. We don't like Saddam. But this is the way to deal with Saddam. The same thing as you are saying, the same language as you use, I use.

When you are invading two-thirds of Mexico, you call your war manifest destiny. It is up to you to call it what you want. But the other side are calling you oppressors. If it were George Washington now; if we were living in the Revolutionary War and the British were arresting George Washington, for sure, they would consider him an enemy combatant. But Americans, they consider him a hero. In any revolutionary war it will be as it was for George Washington and the British.

So we are considered to be American army bases, which we have been from the seventies in Iraq. Also in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain. This is a kind of invasion: but I'm not here to convince you. It is so, or not; but mostly my speech is to ask you to be fair with people. I don't have anything to say like that I'm not an enemy. This is why the language of any war in the world is killing. I mean the language of war is victims. I don't like to kill people. I feel very sorry kids have been killed in 9/11. What can I do? This is the language. Sometimes, I hope for a great awakening between Americans to stop their foreign policy in our land. I know that American people have been torturing us from the 70s. [REDACTED] I know they are talking about human rights. And I know it is against the American Constitution, against American laws. But they said with every law they have exceptions, "it's your bad luck, you have been part of an exception to our laws." They've got to have something to convince me we're talking the same language. But we are saying we have Sharia law, and we have the Koran. What is enemy combatant in my language?

(KSM through translator) Allah forbids you not, with regards to those who fight you not for your faith nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them. For Allah loves those who are just. There is one more sentence. Allah only forbids you, with regards to those who fight you for your faith and drive you out of your homes and support others in driving you out, from turning to them for friendship and protection. It is such as turn to them in these circumstances that do wrong.

(KSM again) So for whatever deed we do we ask about it in the Koran or Hadith. We are not making up laws for ourselves. When we need a religious Fatwa, we have to go back to see what the scholars said. To see whether they say yes or no. Killing is prohibited in all that you call the people of the book: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. You know the Ten Commandments very well. The Ten Commandments are shared between all of us. We are all serving one God. Then you know 'do not kill' very well. But there's also war language; we have language for war. You have to kill. But you have to care whether you're intentionally or unintentionally targeting: I have, and I'm not at the Pentagon. I consider it is the right way. If I target now, when we target in the USA, we choose military targets, economical and political. So the war's central victims are mostly economic targets.

If now, the Americans know UBL is in a certain house, they don't care about his kids and his kin, they will just bombard it. They will kill all of them; and they did it. They killed the wife of Dr Ayman Zawahiri and his two daughters and his son in one bombardment. They received a report that that was his house. He wasn't there. They killed them. They arrested my kids intentionally. They are kids. They were under arrest for four months; they had been abused. So, for me, I have patience. I know I'm not to talk about what's happened to me. The Americans have human rights. So, enemy combatant, itself, it's a flexible word. So I think God knows that many who have been arrested, they have been unjustly arrested.

Otherwise, as the military throughout history knows very well, war will never stop. War started from Adam, when Cain killed Abel, up to today. It's never going to stop killing people. This is the way of the language. Americans started the Revolutionary War, then they started the Mexican, then the Spanish War; then World War One, World War Two. You read the history. You know you're never going to stop war. This is life. But who is an enemy combatant and who is not? Finally, I finish my statement. I'm asking you to be fair with other people."

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Statement at Trial.

Goodbye, serfs, your time is up

Meet the Elite - Nicholas Rockefeller, KMA

You are looking, serfs, at your superior.

If you are a "serf", you are not important. You are to be chipped, a slave.

Aaron Russo gives details of a conversation with Nicholas Rockefeller, in which Rockefeller tells about the 9/11 event, the war on terror and the invasion of Iraq, eleven months before 9/11.

Read article, see video summary at infowars.com.

See full video interview of Aaron Russo by Alex Jones at GoogleVideo.

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Aaron Russo says,
"Silence is golden, but when it comes to your freedom it's yellow."

Alex Jones says to Aaron Russo,
"I want to thank you for what you're doing for my family."

What do you say?

'Excellent' for Some, Tragic for Others

"BAE Systems, Britain's biggest arms manufacturer, increased annual profits by more than a third to over £1bn last year, driven in part by booming US business from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan."

"BAE hailed the performance of its expanded US operations as 'excellent'."

Source: The Guardian.

The Bait and Switch

"On the night of 9-11 (Australian time), wife and I sat up until dawn, channel surfing - watching, listening. All the local TV stations had their satellite links hooked up.

So much of what we saw and heard that night simply disappeared over the next couple of days. Disappeared - expunged from the official narrative. Gone! I can't believe we have such teeny attention spans and such short memories. Was no-one paying attention? We noticed the bait and switch over the next couple of days as the official conspiracy theory solidified, based on some papers said to be found in a car."

From a comment to a Guardian Online article knocking critics of the official 9/11 conspiracy theory.

A Major Problem, Ethical and Moral

The UK's Daily Mail reviews the video Loose Change:
An explosion of disbelief - fresh doubts over 9/11

One of the comments to that article was this:

"I watched this film and I must say it leaves a strange taste in one's mouth. If what they claim is true then we all have a lot to answer for by jumping in with him. I hope and pray that it is not true and that even President G.W Bush was not that stupid. If it is true, however, and he has been taking us all for a ride all this time then we have a major problem on ethical and moral grounds here in the West which we will never get out of. How then will we justify the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, the deaths of hundreds of thousands and the passing of the Patriot Act in the US and the erosion of our Civil Liberties in this country that we all meekly accepted as a price for our 'security'? I pray that all this is not true."

That's why we need to be sure it's not true.

Here's the video: Loose Change.

If you watched the BBC programme about 9/11 last night, then you should also check out the comments about it on the programme's web page.

The Magic Crater

"Five feet deep and twenty-two feet in diameter, the crater served as proof that the weapon was detonated underground rather than on the surface. The only way any explosive can cause a crater is if it is first dropped from an aircraft and penetrates sub-surface before exploding, or if it is physically positioned sub-surface in advance."

"Politicians and 'experts' alike had less of a problem than they originally thought with the crater. The helpful media folk simply refrained from showing it on television or in the newspapers, and the brainwashed public soon forgot about the crater altogether."

Bali 2002.

American Enterprise Institute will Bomb Iran

Yes, using American and allied forces the AEI will bomb Iran.

From Today's UK Guardian:

'One of the main driving forces behind war, apart from the vice-president's office, is the AEI, headquarters of the neo-conservatives. A member of the AEI coined the slogan "axis of evil" that originally lumped Iran in with Iraq and North Korea. Its influence on the White House appeared to be in decline last year amid endless bad news from Iraq, for which it had been a cheerleader. But in the face of opposition from Congress, the Pentagon and state department, Mr Bush opted last month for an AEI plan to send more troops to Iraq. Will he support calls from within the AEI for a strike on Iran?'

Among the most vocal supporters of a strike on Iran at the AEI, the second most important Israeli lobby in Washington, is Joshua Muravchik. He wrote an LA Times article subtitled, "WE MUST bomb Iran".

Profile of Joshua Muravchik

'Muravchik has been associated with a string of hawkish pressure groups supporting President George W. Bush's war on terrorism and interventionist policies in the Middle East. He signed multiple letters published by the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) advocating a broadened antiterror fight; he supported the creation in 2002 of the Coalition for Democracy in Iran, a group spearheaded by Michael Ledeen and Morris Amitay that advocates regime change in Iran; he was an advisory board member of the now-defunct Committee for the Liberation of Iraq; he is associated with the hawkish, pro-Israel think tanks, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs; he joined a plank of other neocons in forming a revived version of the Cold War Committee on the Present Danger; and he and a group of neoconservatives serve as “international sponsors” of the Cambridge, England-based Henry Jackson Society, an organization that promotes a “forward strategy” aimed at assisting democratization across the globe.'

The Henry Jackson Society

'The list of signatories to the HJS statement of principles also contains surprises. The list consists largely of elite UK policy-makers from both the left and right, including close associates of both Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. While most of the names might be unfamiliar to people in the United States, one name stands out: Irwin Stelzer. Identified on the statement of principles as the director of economic policy studies at the U.S.-based Hudson Institute, Stelzer is a long-standing associate of the neoconservative political faction in the United States whose close connection to right-wing media magnate Rupert Murdoch has helped foster rumors about his ability to influence high-level British politicians, including Tony Blair (see “It's Crazy to Think that I'd Threaten Blair,” The Guardian, October 17, 2004).'

Profile of Irwin Stelzer

'Perhaps better known in Britain—where one broadsheet calls him “Rupert Murdoch's representative on Earth”—than in the United States, Irwin Stelzer is an economist at the Washington-based Hudson Institute (New Statesman, August 6, 2001). He is also a long-standing cadre of the neoconservative political faction. A close friend of Murdoch's and a frequent writer for many of the right-wing media mogul's newspapers, Stelzer has long been regarded in the United Kingdom as Murdoch's messenger to elite British policy-makers, including Prime Minister Tony Blair and Chancellor Gordon Brown, with whom Stelzer maintains close contact.

Stelzer's relationship with Murdoch (and assiduous habit of promoting Murdoch's News Corporation-line on domestic and foreign policy) has made Stelzer few friends among liberal elites in the United Kingdom. In a 2004 expose about Stelzer, the Guardian quoted former EU commissioner Chris Patten: “I wouldn't sup with Irwin Stelzer if I had a spoon a yard long” (Guardian, October 17, 2004). The Guardian added: “But there are two men who do regularly sup with the patrician New Yorker: Blair and Gordon Brown … It is therefore unsurprising that, in the eyes of liberal conspiracy theorists, when Murdoch says jump and the prime minister jumps, it is Stelzer wielding the cattle prod.”

According to the Guardian, “a brutal example” of the purported influence wielded by Stelzer was the dramatic turnaround in Blair's stance vis-à-vis a referendum on the EU constitution. Blair, who initially supported pushing through UK support for the constitution without subjecting it to a public referendum, made an about-face on the issue shortly after Stelzer made a personal visit to the prime minister in early 2004. Reported the Guardian: “Political commentators were in no doubt: Stelzer had threatened Blair with an ultimatum that, unless he let the people decide, the Eurosceptic Murdoch would order the Sun and the Times to withdraw their support and back the Tories at next year's general election.”'

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The American Enterprise Institute and their funding:

Major funders:

The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Inc.
Originally the Allen-Bradley Company, it was sold in 1985 to Rockwell International, a leading defense and aerospace conglomerate.

John M. Olin Foundation
The New York-based John M. Olin Foundation grew out of a family manufacturing business in chemicals and munitions. It funds nationally influential right-wing think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, the Manhattan Institute for Public Policy Research, and the Hoover Institute of War, Revolution and Peace. It also gives large sums of money to promote conservative programs in the country's most prestigious colleges and universities.

Sarah Mellon Scaife Foundation
This foundation is financed by the Mellon industrial, oil and banking fortune. At one time, its largest single holding was stock in Gulf Oil Corporation.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Murdochian involvement:

9/11: What Did Rupert Murdoch Know?

The article mentions the pilot episode of The Lone Gunmen.
This is it - The Lone Gunmen.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

An interesting point on the war:

'One Iranian news agency with a correspondent in Irbil says five US helicopters were used to land troops on the roof of the Iranian consulate.

It reports that a number of vehicles cordoned off the streets around the building, while US soldiers warned the occupants in three different languages that they should surrender or be killed.

This is the most serious action yet. Isn't it a definitive act of war for one country to storm the consulate of another, threaten to kill them if they do not surrender, and then detain six consulate officers?'

(My emboldening)

Conscription for WWIII

I found this conscription notice on the website of Arthur Lane, a writer and Far East veteran of WWII.

NOTIFICATION OF COMPULSORY ENLISTMENT

Under the Emergency Powers Act (1939) as amended by the Defence Act 1978), you are hereby notified that you are required to place yourself on standby for possible compulsory military service in the American Conflict. You may shortly be ordered to depart for the Middle East where you will join either the 3rd Battalion The Queen's Own Suicidal Conscripts or the 2nd Foot and Mouth. The regulars are too busy driving Green Goddesses to be there themselves.

Due to the recent rundown of the Navy and the refusal of P&O to lend us any of their liners, because of the deplorable state in which they were returned after the Falklands adventure, it will be necessary for you to make your own way to the combat zone. H.M. Government have been able to negotiate a 20% discount on one way trips with Virgin Airlines and you are strongly urged to take advantage of this offer (Ryan Air also do a nice little £9.99 trip). Because of cutbacks in Government expenditure in recent years it will be necessary for you to provide yourself with the following equipment as soon as possible:

Combat Jacket
Trousers (preferably khaki - but please no denim)
Tin helmet
Boots (or a pair of sturdy trainers)
Gas mask
Map of the combat zone (the Ordinance Survey 1:2800 Outdoor Leisure Map of Iraq will do)
Rifle
Ammunition (preferably to suit previous item)
Suntan oil

If you are in a position to afford it, we would like you to buy a tank (Vickers Defence of Banbury are currently offering all new conscripts a 0% finance deal on all X registration Chieftains, but hurry, as offer is only available whilst stocks last).

We would like to reassure you that in the unlikely event of anything going wrong, you will receive a free burial in the graveyard of your choice, and your next of kin will be entitled to the new War Widows pension of £1.75 per calendar month, index-linked but subject to means testing, and fully repayable should our side eventually lose.

There may be little time for formal military training before your departure and so we advise that you hire videos of the following films and try and pick up a few tips as you watch:

The Guns of Navarrone
Kelly's Heroes
A Bridge too far
The Longest Day
Apocalypse Now
The Matrix
Blazing Saddles
The Desert Song
Mary Poppins
We do not recommend that you watch Khartoum.

To mentally prepare yourself for your mission try reading the works of Wilfred Owen or Rupert Brookes. This should give you some idea of what may be involved.

Yours faithfully,

G Hoon, Ministry of Defence

A Bush-Blair Production
Sponsored by Mars, The Official snack of World War III

Hurrah, the Butter is All Gone!

A piece of Dadaist satire exposing the absurdity of Nazi rhetoric. The picture refers to Hermann Goering's remarks on the merits of food shortage; in a speech he had explained: "Iron has always made a country strong, butter and lard only make people fat."

Photomontage by John Heartfield, 1935.
Image and text from Art and Propaganda by Toby Clark (Everyman Art Library).

Satirists
The world needs you now.

Cigarette Lighter of Mass Destruction

This video shows life in Iraq before the US invasion. It was filmed two weeks before "Shock and Awe" - Iraq street scenes.

What has been done to Iraq was done in the name of all of us in the English-speaking world. We voted for the perpetrators; we have allowed them to continue their destructive bullying actions. We sit self-satisfied on our greedy arses and watch it happening, careful not to strain our brains in questioning the truth of it all. Lazy, ignorant, careless shams of civilized people we are.

"look up at the sky"

A comment seen on the Google Video page, Loose Change 2nd Edition Recut.

Anonymous
12-Jan-2007

notice nobody looks around anymore, everyone has there heads down,,,,,,,,,,in the wild when animals dont look around and check there environemnt they are devoured

we need to get positive individual and smart and start looking around again look up at the sky for example.

'Pick up another ukulele!'

There's a useful expression with a nice bit of philosophy in it in this interview of Peter O'Toole by Gaby Wood in last Sunday's Observer:

"Reminiscing about his mentor, the renegade actor-film-maker Kenneth Griffith who died just six months ago, O'Toole tells me about an episode that cemented their friendship. In the mid-1950s, Griffith and O'Toole shared a dressing room in Manchester with George Formby. Formby, they found, kept two ukuleles, tuned to different keys, and they asked him if one was a spare. 'No,' said Formby, 'I find it very difficult to change key, so I don't bother. I just pick up another ukulele.' The phrase became a favourite - whenever anything would go wrong, they'd say: 'pick up another ukulele!' and roar with laughter, as if that were the solution to every problem in life. Even now, wheezing with pleasure in the telling, O'Toole gives the impression that his survival instinct is so strong he won't ever really disappear; he'll just shift into another key."

George Formby plays When I'm Cleaning Windows. (It sold over a million copies, in the days of wind-up gramophones.)

More George Formby songs and film clips at MySpace.

Bio of George Formby.

Cannabis now Top Cash Crop in US

A new report, Marijuana Production in the US, by DrugScience.org shows that Marijuana is now the biggest cash crop grown in the US, exceeding traditional harvests such as wheat, corn and soy beans.

Output in the US has grown tenfold in the last 25 years, partly prompted by tougher border controls after 9/11.

Source: Guardian Online.

Beware of Bad Losers

What is George worried about?

Is he protecting his backside? A few paragraphs, entitled “Use of the Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies”, in the 591-page John W Warner Defense Authorization Act 2006 (a $526 billion defense bill) make it easier for the President to declare Martial Law.

From CQ.com -

"The thrust of it seems to be about giving the federal government a far stronger hand in coordinating responses to Katrina-like disasters.

But on closer inspection, its language also alters the two-centuries-old Insurrection Act, which Congress passed in 1807 to limit the president’s power to deploy troops within the United States.

That law has long allowed the president to mobilize troops only “to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy.”

But the amended law takes the cuffs off.

Specifically, the new language adds “natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident” to the list of conditions permitting the President to take over local authority — particularly “if domestic violence has occurred to such an extent that the constituted authorities of the State or possession are incapable of maintaining public order.”

Since the administration broadened what constitutes “conspiracy” in its definition of enemy combatants — anyone who “has purposely and materially supported hostilities against the United States,” in the language of the Military Commissions Act (PL 109-366) — critics say it’s a formula for executive branch mischief."

The new law "represents an unprecedented shift in authority from governors . . .to the federal government.”

Who Controls America?

Is it James Baker or is it Israel?

The Iraq Study Group have presented their proposals. Bush isn't buying them. Baker represents Big Oil and Big Industry, so if George isn't listening to him who is he listening to?

See Baker vs. "The Lobby"

What about the Democrats?

As the article points out, we'll be fairly sure who's pulling their strings when we see their reaction to the report.


Some comments on the 'Baker vs. The Lobby' article -

Watch closely for signs that Israel wants the troops moved from Iraq to Iran. Once that happens we can end the question of who wags the tail of the US dog. Prepare for another false flag attack since US citizens can't muster any enthusiasm for the war in Iraq, nor a new one in Iran. They can only justify another war with another false flag. Since WW II, false flags have been the mechanism for feeding the military industrial complex.
Just follow the money.
stetchedmind 12.09.06 - 10:52 pm

Don't trust Baker and the "old guard". ISG is a smoke screen to buy time while "they" set up the "emergency" which will necessitate martial law.
Remember - the current obession with Betrayal.
Yes, Its This Serious 12.09.06 - 9:29 pm

What Ahmadinejad really said

We all know, all around the world, the terrible intolerant things President Ahmadinejad has said because we read it in the paper or heard it on the news.

But before they get to us, his words have to be translated.

And there's the rub.

See: Does Iran's President Want Israel Wiped Off The Map - Does He Deny The Holocaust?

Moral:
Don't trust the mainstream media's translations from Middle Eastern languages - particularly when the message appears provocative.

Drugs, Murder and Cover-up in America

"The US media have virtually ignored this story."

A chilling tale is reported in today's UK Observer of drug trafficking, murder and betrayal - known about and allowed by US government agencies.

"But Ice [Immigration and Customs Executive] and its allies in the DoJ were covering up their actions, helped by the US media - aside from the Dallas Morning News, not one major newspaper or TV network has covered the story."

"'If Congress and the media start to look at this properly, they will be horrified,' Sandy Gonzalez says. 'It needs a special prosecutor, as with the case of Valerie Plame [the CIA agent whose name was leaked to the media when her diplomat husband criticised Bush over Iraq's missing weapons of mass destruction]. But Valerie is a nice-looking white person and the victims here are brown. Nobody gives a shit.'"

A story of the 'House of Death', mass graves, quicklime to dissolve the flesh of victims, 'carne asada' (barbecue) code for 'execution', drug dealing, spies, betrayal and "cover-up stretching from the wild Texas borderland to top Washington officials close to President Bush". (see Observer story)

Nationwide Police Blitz on Cannabis Farms

Operation Keymer was set up to target cannabis factories across the UK, focusing particularly on 'skunk' varieties. See Sunday's Observer.

Some of the raids which come up on a Google search on "cannabis farm" (where reported the discovery is mainly because of smell):
Yorshire in June
Bradford in July
Northumberland in August
Pic of WPC at Northumbria farm
Newcastle in September
Rochdale in September
Staffordshire in October
Middleton in October
Wythenshawe in October
St Helens in October
Aberystwyth in October
Aldershot in October (pay to read)
Preston in November

The Bust
Here's a Google video showing a cannabis farm bust in Salford -
Cannabis farm bust (5 minute video)

What's it all about?
Stoned Free Guide to Growing Cannabis (36 minute video)

'Stoned in Suburbia'
For some delightful relief from all that hassle above, here's a lovely film with mature stoners, including Howard Marks and George Melly, a lady who bakes cannabis, leek and potato pie for her and her friends, and another who spent a week's holiday in the Rif mountains - Stoned in Suburbia (43 minute video)

'And some wad eat that want it'

Whilst those who should be guiding the world play their greedy, dirty, deceitful games dealing death and destruction with 'shock and awe', and equally greedy people grab as much as they can get of the spoils, one child dies every five seconds of hunger.

There are 850 million chronically hungry people on the planet, and the number is growing by four million each year. Hunger kills more people than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined.

Wot u havin 4 dinna tonite?

Source and photos: World Food Day

"Some ha'e meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it;
But we ha'e meat, and we can eat,
And sae the Lord be thankit."
The Selkirk Grace, Robert Burns

Matchstalk Men

This slideshow with audio shows what happened when a group of teenagers in hoodies tried to get in to The Lowry Gallery in Salford, UK - Sunday afternoon at the Lowry

For my own amusement, I looked up the words of the UK No 1 chart hit from 1978, Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs, by Brian and Michael - these are them:

He painted Salford's smoky tops
On cardboard boxes from the shops
And parts of Ancoats where I used to play.
I'm sure he once walked down our street,
'Cos he painted kids who had nowt on their feet,
The clothes they wore had all seen better days.

Now they said his works of art were dull,
No room, old lad, the walls are full,
But Lowry didn't care much anyway.
They said he just paints cats and dogs
And matchstalk men in boots and clogs,
And Lowry said "That's just the way they'll stay."

And he painted matchstalk men and matchstalk cats and dogs,
He painted kids on the corner of the street that were sparking clogs,
Now he takes his brush and he waits
Outside them factory gates
To paint his matchstalk men and matchstalk cats and dogs.

Now canvas and brushes were wearing thin
When London started calling him
To come on down and wear the old flat cap.
They said "Tell us all about your ways
And all about them Salford days,
Is it true you`re just an ordinary chap?"

And he painted matchstalk men and matchstalk cats and dogs,
He painted kids on the corner of the street that were sparking clogs,
Now he takes his brush and he waits
Outside them factory gates
To paint his matchstalk men and matchstalk cats and dogs.

Now Lowry's hung upon the wall
Beside the greatest of them all,
And even the Mona Lisa takes a bow.
This tired old man with hair like snow
Told Northern folk "It's time to go,"
The fever came and the good Lord mopped his brow.

And he left us matchstalk men and matchstalk cats and dogs,
He left us kids on the corner of the street that were sparking clogs,
Now he takes his brush and he waits
Outside them pearly gates
To paint his matchstalk men and matchstalk cats and dogs.

Source: andyjpartridge.co.uk

'We'

'We' is a free documentary produced by an anonymous student in New Zealand. It was released for free on the Internet and first appeared at an Australian web site called resist.com.au.

The webmaster of resist.com.au received the film anonymously in the mail one day with a simple note that read:

"Feel free to pass this on to others who you know will be interested in its relatively unique content and perspectives (either by copying this DVD, dubbing to VHS, by dissemination through internet download, holding private screenings etc). Using the technology of this information age you have the freedom to be as imaginative as you like in the different ways which you can choose to make this accessible to others."

'We' features Arundhati Roy making her 'Come September' speech, and a soundtrack with music by:
Curve, Massive Attack, Dead Can Dance, Amon Tobin, Faithless, Boards of Canada, Love and Rockets, Nine Inch Nails, Lush, Telepop, Placebo, and others.

See the video on Google Video: We, featuring Arundhati Roy.

Or choose another way of viewing and read all about the video at: weroy.org.

"This is an unusual kind of underground production. An anonymous sympathiser has edited a video recording of Roy’s speech over 64 minutes, interspersing an impressive array of archival footage to illustrate themes and specific historical events. Contemporary music overlaid throughout the piece shifts the mood and quickens the pace. The result is a visual essay rather than a traditional documentary, perfectly suited to its creator’s intentions, which is to spread the anti-imperialist, social justice politics of Arundhati Roy everywhere." (from weroy.org)

Cognitive Dissonance

To keep your mind open, first be aware of how closed it may be.

Cognitive dissonance: writer James Atherton calls it "a psychological phenomenon which refers to the discomfort felt at a discrepancy between what you already know or believe, and new information or interpretation. It therefore occurs when there is a need to accommodate new ideas, and it may be necessary for it develop so that we become 'open' to them." It's that queasy feeling that rises often in your gut online and screams, "I DON'T BELIEVE THAT!"

It's what happens "if someone is called upon to learn something that contradicts what they already think and know - particularly if they are committed to that prior knowledge - they are likely to resist the new learning. Even Carl Rogers recognized this. Accommodation is more difficult than Assimilation, in Piaget's terms," writes Atherton.

"And - counter-intuitively, perhaps - if learning something has been difficult, uncomfortable, or even humiliating enough, people are less likely to concede that the content of what has been learned is useless, pointless or valueless. To do so would be to admit that one has been 'had,' or 'conned'."

From prisonplanet.com.

Selective Exposure Prevents Dissonance

Festinger [investigator of cognitive dissonance] claimed that people avoid information that is likely to increase dissonance. Not only do we tend to select reading material and television programs that are consistent with our existing beliefs, we usually choose to be with people who are like us. By taking care to "stick with our own kind," we can maintain the relative comfort of the status quo. Like-minded people buffer us from ideas that could cause discomfort. In that sense, the process of making friends is an example of selecting our own propaganda.

Postdecision Dissonance

According to Festinger, close-call decisions can generate huge amounts of internal tension after the decision has been made. Three conditions heighten postdecision dissonance: (1) the more important the issue, (2) the longer an individual delays in choosing between two equally attractive options, and (3) the greater the difficulty involved in reversing the decision once it's been made, then the more the person will agonize over whether he or she has made the right choice. Sometimes referred to as "morning-after" doubts, the misgivings or second thoughts that plague us after a tough choice motivate us to seek reassuring information and social support for our decision.

From afirstlook.com.

Zap Iran - then what?

Suppose someone does something very daft - in a global sense - anytime soon. What would be the repercussions?

This two-part article by a retired brigadier general of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, former chief of their Intelligence Service, lays out the likely scenario -

Part 1: Striking The US where It Hurts
Part 2: The Assassin's Mace

Propaganda of the Desperate

Fear... and terror. If you're afraid enough you will comply (though if you do, there'll be some more fear along soon to make you comply some more).

This terrible enemy could strike at any moment, and it's YOU he's aiming at. He's coming into your homeland and he's purchased some suitcase bombs. All that has happened so far is nothing to what you will see next. Unless you vote for the Party.

No, it's not a Marvel Comics episode featuring supervillain Mikhail Rasputin working for the Dark Beast, it's a Republican election campaign video - complete with clicking tock... heartbeats... and explosion -

Vote Republican or Die!

This is the text from the video, which is displayed with photos of OBL, Zarkawi, etc:

"What is yet to come will be even greater."

"With God's permission we call on everyone who believes in God... to comply with His will to kill the Americans."

kill the Americans

They will not come to their senses unless the attacks fall on their heads and until the battle has moved inside America."

inside America

"We sent people to Moscow, to Tashkent, to other central Asian states, and they negotiated. And we purchased some suitcase bombs."

suitcase bombs

"Our message is clear - what you saw in New York and Washington and what you are seeing in Afghanistan and Iraq, all these are nothing compared to what you will see next."

nothing compared to what you will see next

"What is yet to come will be even greater"

These are the stakes. Vote November 7th.

How to drive the message home: Invoke 9/11.
This is a call to Americans to monitor the vote: Video the Vote 2006.


We've been here before -

1930s Nazi anti-Jewish propaganda, from der Sturmer -

"They will attempt to fight Germany until it bends to their will or is forced to its knees. They will stop at nothing. They will lie and slander, and continually attempt to incite the whole world against Germany."

From “A Cockroach Cannot Give Birth to a Butterfly” and Other Messages of Hate Propaganda".

FREE HUGS

If you're old enough to remember that 'love and peace' feeling from the 'flower power', 'make love not war' days before big business grabbed us by the long hair and flung us shorn and greedy into the 21st century, then you'll love this video (a true story) and its superb soundtrack, 'All the Same' by Sick Puppies.

Juan Mann: One Love

(... tears to my eyes)

Open-Minded but Also Skeptical

From Oregon Mail Tribune
October 24th article:

'Ken Becker is a bright, educated and progressive fellow who normally scoffs at conspiracy theories.

But the Talent resident isn't scoffing at those who believe the truth has yet to be told about the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

Becker, 52, is the founder of "9/11 Truth Now," an independent grassroots group demanding an independent criminal investigation into 9/11.

"I'm open-minded but I'm also skeptical — I'm not a conspiracy theorist," said the married father of two. "I have a family. I have my own business. I'm an Eagle Scout.

"But 9/11 raised so many questions that have never been answered by our government," he added. "I don't know what happened. But I do know we need to find out."

The group is sponsoring the Oregon premiere of "9/11: The Myth and The Reality," a documentary film that will be shown Saturday evening in the performing arts center at Crater High School in Central Point.'


'"It felt early on that we were putting our lives on the line for even taking about it," he added. "These questions are now accepted by an increasing number of people. We're a long ways from total acceptance. But people are having their doubts now (about the official explanation)."

Becker said the local group has about a dozen people in its core with roughly 150 on its e-mail list. He said those who question the official 9/11 explanation can no longer be written off as so many conspiracy kooks.

"Only 16 percent of Americans think the Bush administration is telling the truth about 9/11," Becker said, citing a recent New York Times-CBS poll. "That's huge."

There is also a growing disenchantment with mainstream media's exploration of the issues, he said,

"I've always thought we live in a democracy and that news is news," he said, noting he no longer feels that way.

"There is a whole lot of information our press doesn't cover," he added. "So we are becoming our own media. For-profit journalism has come at the expense of truth."'

You can watch Dr David Ray Griffin's "9/11: The Myth and the Reality" on Google Video.

To read a transcript or download an mp3: click here.

"Reading makes a country great!"

About The New York Times/CBS News poll

L'expérience de Milgram

The Milgram experiment shows how far most people will go in causing pain to another when instructed to do so by someone in authority. (Over 60% will do as instructed; over 90% if there is a colleague with them who complies fully.)

Reading of the violence done to captives over the years, both by criminals and the military, I conclude that the only safe thing is to do everything possible to avoid giving them power over you in the first place. Once they have that power, they are free to vent their anger, their frustrations, their plain meanness and murderousness, on you.

It is critical that we understand the implications of Milgram's findings to current times. In the name of 'anti-terror', security forces are being increased and restrictive laws enacted, with martial law contingencies and talk of internment camps. That means more people with more power over us.

This video shows a participant undergoing the experiment:
L'expérience de Milgram.

The experiment explained in Wikipedia:

"In response to a newspaper ad offering $4.50 for one hour's work, an individual turns up to take part in a psychology experiment investigating memory and learning. He is introduced to a stern looking experimenter in a white coat and a rather pleasant and friendly co-subject. The experimenter explains that the experiment will look into the role of punishment in learning, and that one will be the 'teacher' and one will be the 'learner'. Lots are drawn to determine roles, and it is decided that the individual who answered the ad will become the 'teacher'.

The learner is taken to a room and strapped in a chair and an electrode is placed on his arm. The teacher is taken to an adjoining room and instructed to read a series of questions. If the learner gets the answer correct, then they move on to the next word. If the answer is incorrect, the teacher must administer a shock to the learner.

The generator has 30 switches, each labeled with a voltage from 15 up to 450 volts, rated from 'slight shock' to 'danger: severe shock'. The final two switches are labeled 'XXX'. The teacher must increase the shock each time the learner misses a word in the list. In fact, the learner is an actor and does not actually receive a shock."

More on the Milgram experiment:
A lesson in depravity, peer pressure, and the power of authority.

Milgram wrote, in the article "The Perils of Obedience":

"The legal and philosophic aspects of obedience are of enormous importance, but they say very little about how most people behave in concrete situations. I set up a simple experiment at Yale University to test how much pain an ordinary citizen would inflict on another person simply because he was ordered to by an experimental scientist. Stark authority was pitted against the subjects' [participants'] strongest moral imperatives against hurting others, and, with the subjects' [participants'] ears ringing with the screams of the victims, authority won more often than not. The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority constitutes the chief finding of the study and the fact most urgently demanding explanation."

"One theoretical interpretation of this behavior holds that all people harbor deeply aggressive instincts continually pressing for expression, and that the experiment provides institutional justification for the release of these impulses. According to this view, if a person is placed in a situation in which he has complete power over another individual, whom he may punish as much as he likes, all that is sadistic and bestial in man comes to the fore."

"This is, perhaps, the most fundamental lesson of our study: ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority."

One of the goals of the experiments was to see if ordinary Americans would obey immoral orders, as many Germans had done during the Nazi period.

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Postscript (from Wikipedia):

"Six years later (during the height of the Vietnam War), one of the participants in the experiment sent correspondence to Milgram, explaining why he was 'glad' to have been involved despite the apparent levels of stress:

'While I was a subject [participant] in 1964, though I believed that I was hurting someone, I was totally unaware of why I was doing so. Few people ever realize when they are acting according to their own beliefs and when they are meekly submitting to authority. ... To permit myself to be drafted with the understanding that I am submitting to authority's demand to do something very wrong would make me frightened of myself. ... I am fully prepared to go to jail if I am not granted Conscientious Objector status. Indeed, it is the only course I could take to be faithful to what I believe. My only hope is that members of my board act equally according to their conscience...'"

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Update, Nov 18, 2006: Google Video appear to have removed the video showing the actual Milgram experiment. There is, though, this one of a Twilight Zone episode. This, apart from the beginning and ends of the episode, is a fairly accurate portrayal of Milgram's experiment:
The Twilight Zone - Milgram's Experiment

'The Long Screwdriver'

The management of Operation Iraqi Freedom

'The long screwdiver' was how Paul Bremer described the control of operations in Iraq from the Pentagon, in a critical year over 2003/04.

You can see the startling errors of the occupation in this excellent Frontline video: The Lost Year In Iraq.
(You can judge the level of Bremer's success by his difficulty in finding a way to leave Iraq without getting killed.)

'Sovereignty Lite' in Iraq

"Iraq is sitting on a mother lode of some of the lightest, sweetest, most profitable crude oil on earth, and the rules that will determine who will control it and on what terms are about to be set."
See: Bush's Petro-Cartel Almost Has Iraq's Oil.

You can lead a horse to the water, but you can't make it drink

With training, uniforms and humiliation you can make a new Iraqi army, but you can't make the soldiers think like American soldiers.
See this short video from the Guardian: Iraq: The Real Story.

"Like with the Proverbial Frog"

Extract from The Anti-Empire Report.
Some things you need to know before the world ends,
by William Blum.

"Three billion years from amoebas to Homeland Security

'The Department of Homeland Security would like to remind passengers that you may not take any liquids onto the plane.
This includes ice cream, as the ice cream will melt and turn into a liquid.'

This was actually heard by one of my readers at the Atlanta Airport recently; he laughed out loud. He informs me that he didn't know what was more bizarre, that such an announcement was made or that he was the only person that he could see who reacted to its absurdity.

This is the way it is with societies of people. Like with the proverbial frog who submits to being boiled to death in a pot of water if the water is heated very gradually, people submit to one heightened absurdity and indignation after another if they're subjected to them at a gradual enough rate. That's one of the most common threads one finds in the personal stories of Germans living in the Third Reich.

This airport story is actually an example of an absurdity within an absurdity. Since the 'bomb made from liquids and gels' story was foisted upon the public, several chemists and other experts have pointed out the technical near-impossibility of manufacturing such a bomb in a moving airplane, if for no other reason than the necessity of spending at least an hour or two in the airplane bathroom." (see earlier post: Getting 'through the Cookery without Starting a Fire in the Lavvie')

"Britain now No 1 al-Qaida target - anti-terror chiefs"

That's the headline to this article in today's Guardian. Can you believe it? This is the same 5-year old propaganda and the media are still reporting it like good little lambs.

The instigators of this propaganda are now treating us like a bunch of absolute fools, Britons. Wake up. This is just the old scare stuff peddled over again. But beware, those who produced this press report could well be up to something themselves. (Are Visor Consultants running a mock attack in your area? When's Rudy Giuliani next visiting the UK? These are some of the questions we could be asking in order to avoid a 'coincidence'. Info: Guiliani and Visor Consultants)

The sub-head is "Officials say group sees July 7 attacks as 'just the beginning' of UK campaign". But on April 9th 2006, we were informed "Al-Qaeda not linked, says government".

A challenge: Name one person in the world who's been charged for carrying out 'al-Qaeda' work. And don't say Moussaoui - look at this short video. And don't say bin Laden, either. FBI says, “No hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11”. (Source: teamliberty.net)

For all the cries of 'sleeper cells', where has there been one? Bush was gonna hunt them down - 60 or more 'sleeper cells' over America. How many were there? - NONE. See video: Power of Nightmares, part three.

Sharpen up, research and shout it, there's something going on. And whatever it is, it'll mean new, more restrictive laws and 'security measures'.

Our liberty is at stake.

Whilst you're thinking about it, you might like to add this into the mix. It's a report of a remark by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair about internment camps. Now worry.

Image: Poster from WWI