Israel is the Whore of Babylon

Zionist Billionaire Sheldon Adelson owns Newt Gingrich

2012-01-27T09:05:00.034-07:00

Source-Wall Street Journal/Gingrich stance on Israel ties him to Adelson

A shared interest in supporting Israel, fostered over 15 years, is at the heart of casino mogul Sheldon Adelson's support for Newt Gingrich's presidential bid.

It has been decades since America saw a wealthy patron become so identified with a presidential candidate. But Mr. Adelson and his wife, Miriam, account for a large share of the funding for an independent group supporting Mr. Gingrich's presidential bid, giving $5 million this week and $5 million earlier in January.

On Tuesday, the pro-Gingrich political-action committee bought $6 million of airtime in Florida for television ads, according to Rick Tyler, a strategist for the so-called super PAC, Winning Our Future. The Adelsons' money has helped to keep Mr. Gingrich's candidacy aloft after a faltering start in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.

Mr. Tyler said Winning Our Future spent about $1 million in Iowa and $3.5 million in South Carolina on TV ads, many of them attacking Mr. Gingrich's top rival, Mitt Romney. Winning Our Future's spending is second only to that of a super PAC supporting Mr. Romney's candidacy, according to the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation.

Messrs. Adelson and Gingrich met in 1995, when Mr. Gingrich was Speaker of the House and Mr. Adelson was making the rounds on Capitol Hill to promote legislation backed by pro-Israel activists. Mr. Gingrich wound up supporting the bill Mr. Sheldon favored, and the two men became friends.

Before the Watergate scandal spurred broad changes to campaign-finance rules, contributors such as W. Clement Stone became widely known for making large political contributions.

Mr. Stone, an insurance-company founder, gave more than $8 million to former President Richard Nixon's 1968 and 1972 presidential campaigns, according to press accounts at the time of Mr. Stone's death in 2002. Mr. Stone's money in 1968 helped Mr. Nixon top rival GOP candidate George Romney, whose son is currently in a duel with Mr. Gingrich for the party's nomination.

The return of major individual donors such as Mr. Adelson is changing the presidential election process, said Anthony Corrado, a professor of government at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. As recently as 2008, he said, a struggling candidate such as Mr. Gingrich would have been forced to drop out as funds dried up, but Mr. Adelson has allowed Mr. Gingrich to hang on.

Mr. Adelson's ability to play such a large role in helping Mr. Gingrich results from a string of recent court decisions regarding independent groups seeking to influence elections. Among other things, courts eliminated restrictions that barred independent groups from advocating that people vote for or against individual candidates within a month of a primary election.

Mr. Adelson, 78 years old, parlayed a convention business into the Las Vegas Sands Corp. casino empire that includes the Venetian and Palazzo casinos in Las Vegas and casinos in Macau and Singapore. Forbes magazine ranks him the eighth-wealthiest person in the U.S. at $21 billion.

Friends and associates say Mr. Adelson's backing is motivated by an interest in promoting pro-Israel causes. The bill that took him to Washington in 1995 would have moved the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.

"I thought Sheldon's priorities are his family, gaming and Israel," said a longtime friend, Texas businessman and veteran GOP fund-raiser Fred Zeidman. "Sheldon told me, 'You're wrong. Israel comes second.' "

The money to Mr. Gingrich is just the start, as Mr. Adelson intends to give tens of millions of dollars to other Republican candidates and conservative causes, he has told friends and associates.

A spokesman for Mr. Adelson said he declined to comment for this article.

After Mr. Gingrich left Congress, Mr. Adelson became his key financial supporter. His company spent more than $7 million between 2006 and 2010 in donations to Mr. Gingrich's nonprofit group American Solutions.

Now, said Andy Abboud, vice president of government relations for Las Vegas Sands, Mr. Adelson "wants to make sure we elect people who stand strong behind Israel."

Mr. Adelson has told several friends and associates that he sees President Barack Obama as unfriendly to Israel, and has made it a personal mission to defeat him. In December, Mr. Adelson was quoted in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz saying he agreed with Mr. Gingrich's comment that the Palestinians are an "invented" people.

"He says very clearly this is one of the most important election cycles ever" and plans to be involved in a variety of races he sees as "critical across the country."

—Danny Yadron contributed to this article.
Write to Alicia Mundy at alicia.mundy@wsj.com and Alexandra Berzon at alexandra.berzon@wsj.com

Source-The Atlantic/Sheldon and Miriam Adelson

The shadowy billionaire bankrolling Newt Gingrich's super PAC is a Las Vegas casino magnate who's given tens of millions to Republican and pro-Israel causes over the years -- and now, to boosting Gingrich. Sands Corp. CEO Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, have each given the Winning Our Future super PAC $5 million to date, and the PAC has committed to spend $6 million on television advertising in Florida. He's also a pugnacious pioneer in the world of gaming and tourism who's changed the face of Las Vegas and Macau alike, a aggressive operator who once lost more than $20 billion in a single year and boasted of getting former Republican House leader Tom DeLay to do his bidding.

Adelson, 78, is a man of many facets, with a long and colorful history in business and right-wing politics. Here are 10 things you might not know about the man whose money has helped change the course of the GOP presidential race.

1. He's a self-made man. The son of Eastern European Jewish immigrants, Adelson, by his own account, grew up in a one-room tenement in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston and never graduated college. He showed his entrepreneurial streak early on, selling newspapers starting at 12 and running an operation that stocked candy-vending machines when he was 16. After serving in the Army, he and a brother went into business together, selling toiletries to hotels and vending a car de-icing spray. Adelson (pronounced "add-ul-son") cycled through various ventures before starting, with partners, the COMDEX electronics trade show -- the enterprise that would be the seed of his now-vast fortune. At its height, the show drew 200,000 attendees, but after Adelson's group sold it in 1995, the exposition declined and eventually closed in 2003.

2. He made Las Vegas a convention destination. When Adelson brought COMDEX to Vegas, the gambling mecca was generally hostile to the convention business, but Adelson had a vision of conventioneers filling hotel rooms and spending disposable income on the casino floor. To house COMDEX, he purchased the Sands Hotel -- the decrepit former home of the Rat Pack -- and built a massive convention center next to it, then aggressively marketed it as a destination for other conventions. Today, the convention business is a cornerstone of the Las Vegas economy. Adelson expanded his empire with two high-end hotel-casino-resorts, the Venetian (1999) -- complete with gondoliers ferrying tourists down fake canals -- and the Palazzo, which opened in 2007.

3. He's a union-buster. Some of Adelson's bitterest political battles have been fought in his adopted home state against the forces of organized labor, which has a strong foothold in the casino industry. The Venetian opened in 1999 as the only non-union casino on the Strip and has been the target of protest from the hotel workers union, Culinary 226, ever since. Many Democratic politicians in the state continue to observe the union's boycott of Adelson's properties. Rep. Shelley Berkley, a Nevada Democrat now running for Senate in what's likely to be one of 2012's highest-profile races, was once Adelson's top political lieutenant, but the two parted ways over labor issues. Adelson and Berkley have regarded each other as mortal enemies ever since -- even though Berkley, like Adelson, is a hawkish, socially liberal Jew.

4. He spent $30 million on the 2008 election. It didn't work out so well. Adelson poured the money into Freedom's Watch, a "527" independent-expenditure group that was active in congressional races, airing ads across the country that emphasized national security. (It also ran ads targeting Berkley, though her safe Democratic seat was not remotely competitive.) The group's help failed to avert the Republican landslide that November, and it was further hampered by staff infighting; insiders accused Adelson, its nearly sole donor, of micromanaging the organization's activities. It closed shortly after the 2008 general election. Notably, a top official at Freedom's Watch, Carl Forti, is now a chief strategist for Restore Our Future, Mitt Romney's super PAC -- putting him in direct opposition to Adelson's pro-Gingrich super-PAC.

5. He's a Zionist/neocon/right-wing Israel hawk. Much of Adelson's political activity is devoted to boosting the right-wing Israeli line, both in Israel and the U.S. He donated a posh new headquarters to AIPAC, the Israel lobby in Washington, though he reportedly feuded with the organization over activities he saw as unduly pro-Palestinian. He has given $25 million to Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust memorial organization, and $100 million to Birthright, the organization that takes young American Jews on free trips to Israel to bolster their loyalty to the Jewish state. Adelson opposes a two-state solution or any accommodation of Palestinians. When Gingrich recently stirred controversy by referring to the Palestinians as "an invented people," Adelson praised the remark to a Birthright group, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. In Israel, Adelson started a free daily newspaper known for its relentless drumbeat of support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other right-wing politicians. The paper, Israel Hayom, has been called "the Fox News of Israel." Adelson's millions of dollars in contributions have purchased access to the highest reaches of the GOP -- during the Bush administration, for example, he hosted both President Bush and Vice President Cheney in his home -- and he has used it principally to push for a hard line on Israel.

6. He's a social liberal. In 2008, Adelson told the Las Vegas Weekly, "I'm socially very liberal. Too liberal." His political activities have never targeted cultural issues, and his hotels market to gay customers. Adelson supported Rudy Giuliani in the 2008 GOP presidential primaries, and his political philosophy is perhaps best understood as Giuliani-style conservatism -- liberal on social issues and preoccupied almost exclusively with a hawkish, pro-Israel, anti-radical-Islam national-security stance, plus opposition to unions.

7. He's big in China. Adelson is credited with revolutionizing the American gaming industry by opening the Chinese port of Macau to the business. In 2002, he secured a gaming license in the seedy former Portuguese colony, and in 2004 he opened the opulent Sands Macau -- the first non-Chinese concession in the territory. The investment would power Sands Corp.'s public offering and turn Adelson from a multimillionaire into a billionaire practically overnight. He now operates three casinos there (one is on the so-called Cotai Strip, a former bay Adelson had filled to turn it into land) and has another in the works. But not everyone has been pleased with Adelson's Chinese success. A former Chinese business partner has successfully sued in Nevada court, claiming Adelson failed to pay him as promised, and the FBI and SEC continue to investigate charges he attempted to bribe Chinese officials, which the company denies. Adelson also once bragged to Chinese officials of using his clout to help the country secure the 2008 Olympics by getting his friend Tom DeLay to kill a human-rights bill in the House. DeLay denied it, saying the bill was withdrawn for reasons that had nothing to do with Adelson.

8. He's made -- and lost -- a massive fortune. By 2008, Adelson's Macau windfall had pushed his net worth to $27 billion -- making him the third richest man in America, according to Forbes. But the financial crisis that year devastated the gaming industry. The stock lost 95 percent of its value, and Adelson lost $24 billion in the space of a few months, dropping to #178 on the Forbes list. Sands teetered on the edge of bankruptcy. To save it, Adelson pumped a billion dollars into the company. Today, the company hasn't made a full recovery, but it's come back substantially. Adelson's wealth was last clocked at $22 billion -- eighth on the Forbes roster.

9. He really, really likes Newt. How the Adelson-Gingrich relationship came about is murky. Adelson recalls meeting Gingrich on Capitol Hill while lobbying on Israel issues in 1995, though a Gingrich operative in Nevada told The New York Times recently that he'd introduced the two to talk about union issues in the late 1990s. However the men met, it's not clear why Gingrich has such a singular hold on the political imagination of Adelson, who has met plenty of politicians. What is clear is that Adelson's support has been generous. Before Gingrich embarked on his current presidential run, Adelson had given $7.7 million to Gingrich's various enterprises. A source close to Adelson said it's a well Gingrich's boosters can keep going back to: "He's willing to do more, depending on how Florida goes." The super PAC is not particularly diversified, the source noted: "There's really no one else bankrolling Winning Our Future." (Rick Tyler, the super PAC's senior adviser, declined to comment on Adelson's involvement.)

10. His wife is a doctor. Adelson married Miriam Ochshorn, his second wife, in 1991. They have two school-age sons together. An Israeli-born physician some years Adelson's junior with signature platinum-blond hair, she specializes in addiction treatment. Her influence has led the couple to start drug-treatment centers in Las Vegas and Tel Aviv. It's an issue that has affected the family directly: a son from Sheldon Adelson's first marriage died of a drug overdose. And in court testimony in 2008, Adelson testified that he was hobbled by painkillers, including methadone, that he took for a neurological condition for much of 2001, a state he characterized as "a little cuckoo."

Source-Forbes.com

At a Glance

Age: 78
Source: casinos, self-made
Residence: Las Vegas, NV
Country of Citizenship: United States
Education: Drop Out, City College of New York
Marital Status: Married
Children: 5

Casino king Sheldon Adelson continues to enjoy a hot hand. His fortune is up $7 billion since last year, as his strong position in the casino-crazy Asian markets has pushed stock of Las Vegas Sands up roughly 50% to a recent $48. (Shares once traded as low as $1.50 in 2009.) Nearly 90% of its operating profit comes from Asia; the thriving Marina Bay Sands casino opened in Singapore last year. Through his majority-owned subsidiary Sands China, Adelson has 3 resorts in Macau. His goal is to push company shares back over $100, near their 2007 peak. Not that he'll spend the money on himself: "The richer I get, the more money goes to cancer research." The cabdriver's son created the computer industry's marquee event, Comdex, in the mid-1980s. He sold it to Japan's Softbank for $862 million 1995 and later built the $1.5 billion Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and the 1.2-million-square-foot Sands Convention Center in 1997 in Las Vegas. He opened the $1.9 billion Palazzo resort in 2008.

Marina Bay Sands Hotel- Singapore

Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino mogul behind Las Vegas Sands Corp., has gotten all kinds of press since he and his wife each cut $5 million checks to the pro-Newt Gingrich superPAC Winning Our Future. The first donation brought Newt back from the dead to win the South Carolina primary via a carpet bombing of TV attack ads against Mitt Romney. The latest $5 million, officially from his wife Dr. Miriam Adelson, will help Newt try to take Florida and put the GOP race into even more of a dead heat.

The $10 million donation to the Gingrich superPAC is nothing to Adelson. That’s what the Marina Bay Sands, his biggest hotel/casino, can make in profit in one day. He could give $1 billion away, 5% of his net worth, and not even notice. (Well, maybe he would notice.) But the only thing stopping him from giving $20 million, $100 million or $500 million to the superPAC (there are no limits to what individuals can give) is Gingrich himself, who may balk at the optics of being so far in the pocket of one man.

But who is Sheldon Adelson? He doesn’t talk to the press much. Our last major profile on him was in 2005, just before the global economic collapse that pounded his net worth. Adelson told us then that he’s always seen himself as misunderstood, an outsider, under-reckoned with. “I’ve been met with ridicule in every industry I’ve entered,” he told us. “It’s been that way all my life.” Adelson never went to college. He grew up poor in Dorchester, Mass., the son of Jewish Ukrainian immigrants. His dad drove a taxi. “All the Irish boys from South Boston used to beat up all of the Jewish kids,” he said. As a result, Adelson developed into a tough, ruthless character to his enemies but highly loyal and generous to his friends. From our story:

He sold newspapers at the age of 12, borrowing $200 from his uncle to lease two city corners. In his 30s he moved to New York, where he sold ads for financial trade publications and consulted for companies looking to go public, then returned to Boston to run his own tour business. By the mid-1980s he had built the computer industry’s premiere trade show, Comdex, and had mastered the gift of gouge. He rented floor space at 15 cents a square foot, then leased it to exhibitors for up to $40 a square foot. He charged extra for on-site ads, additional electrical outlets, flowers, phones and loading. Half the fees were paid almost a year in advance, and profit margins hit 70%. “I’m not in business to make money for the other guy. I’m in business to make money for myself.”

The Comdex show turned into the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas, which in turn funded the Venetian and Palazzo. Then came Macao and the real money. Connie Bruck wrote a long profile of Adelson in The New Yorker in June 2008, which went into great depth about his politics and interest in conservative Israeli causes and a pro-China agenda. If you want to hear the latest, I did a radio spot yesterday on The Brian Lehrer show on WNYC with Jane Eisner, editor of The Jewish Daily Forward, about Adelson’s business growth and his support for Newt, Israel and other conservative causes.

Adelson’s story is a wild ride. Las Vegas Sands has gone from an IPO in 2004 to becoming arguably the world’s biggest real estate developer today. The monstrous hotels it has built and is building in Singapore and Macao dwarf anything in Las Vegas. The Marina Bay Sands will generate $3 billion in cash flow a year once it’s firing on all cylinders (it opened in mid-2010). As shares of Las Vegas Sands rose and fell hard with the economic bubble and collapse, Adelson’s wealth has moved in unison, going from being undetected before his IPO in 2004 to a peak of $28 billion in October 2007 to $3.4 billion in March 2009 to now back up to $22 billion or so. I would bet that shares of Las Vegas Sands will, as Adelson has predicted, once again reach $100, approximately double where they are today. That’s probably more likely than Gingrich making it into the Oval Office but, then again, you don’t often win betting against Shelly.

Source-Forbes.com/Sheldon could give one billion dollars to Newt

The Real Big Government Record Of Newt Gingrich

Source-The Humble Libertarian.com

Make NO MISTAKE about Newt Gingrich. Newt Gingrich is NO conservative. He is NO Tea Party candidate. He is an establishment Republican In Name Only. His record and positions on past issues are all we need to know that a Newt Gingrich presidency would not shrink the size of government, increase your liberties, or return America to its Constitution.

The Truth about Newt Gingrich.
DID YOU KNOW?

1. Newt Gingrich supported the TARP bailouts:

At the height of the national debate over the TARP bailout in 2008, Newt Gingrich even told George Stephanopoulos in an interview that he would have voted for TARP if he were still in Congress (video proof). Is that the position of a true conservative? Is that the position of the free market? Is that the position of the Tea Party? No, no, and no!

2. Newt Gingrich supports the individual health care mandate, a key part of ObamaCare:

Newt Gingrich has supported a key provision of ObamaCare for years, and continues to support it to this day: the (unconstitutional) individual mandate. Just this May on Meet the Press, Newt Gingrich said: "I am for people, individuals–exactly like automobile insurance–individuals having health insurance and being required to have health insurance."

This was the same interview in which he called Paul Ryan's modest budget cuts "radical," "too big a jump," and "right-wing social engineering." And the individual mandate isn't the only aspect of socialized medicine that Newt Gingrich supports. Newt Gingrich also supported Medicare Part D, the greatest expansion to the federal welfare state since LBJ.

3. Newt Gingrich is a Washington insider who made over a million in consulting fees for Freddie Mac:

Newt Gingrich collected at least $1.5 million in consulting fees for Freddie Mac, the big government bully that helped cause the housing crisis. Newt Gingrich claims he warned Freddie Mac officials that the housing market was a "bubble" and "insane," but then why did he defend Freddie Mac to Iowa voters, saying: "every American should be interested in expanding housing opportunities." Isn't that the exact attitude Newt Gingrich claims he warned against at Freddie Mac?

But what about Newt Gingrich's Contract with America?

The Federal government and the National Debt actually grew while Newt Gingrich was Speaker of the House. As Ed Crane, president of the Cato Institute lamented in 2000: “the combined budgets of the 95 major programs that the Contract with America promised to eliminate have increased by 13%.” Newt Gingrich has only one record: and that is a record of growing government. He has only one consistent platform, and that is a platform of defending big government "solutions" and a more active role for Washington D.C. in every aspect of your life from cradle to grave. These are the facts and they are a matter of record.

You have a responsibility to your country not to let your fellow Americans be fooled by the false impression Newt Gingrich is working hard to cultivate about himself.

Please share this article with everyone you know-- especially people who have been fooled by Newt Gingrich's excellent speaking skills and carefully calculated lip service to the Tea Party's values. Newt Gingrich's record clearly shows that he supports bank bailouts, more socialized medicine on a federal level, and a more active role for the federal government in every aspect of American life. Newt Gingrich is NO CONSERVATIVE.

At this time of crisis, America CANNOT afford to elect someone with such a spotty record of positions and actions. We absolutely must elect someone with a die-hard record of unyielding commitment to liberty, someone who we absolutely KNOW will shrink the size, role, and influence of the government in Washington. There are only two such candidates on the Republican field today: Rep. Ron Paul and Gov. Gary Johnson.

Thank you for reading.

1.
Supported Bankster Bail Outs

2.
Supported Mandated Health Care

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

3.
Made Millions of Dollars Lobbying for Corrupt Freddy Mac

Tehran, Iran(Possible U.S. Military exercise toward Tehran)

2012-01-26T16:29:00.080-07:00

Israeli Government Admits Iran has NO Nuclear Weapons Program!

Source-Haaretz.com

In case you don't believe what I wrote below, then click this link to see how "they" operate.

Source-Henry Makow.com/Here's what the" Jews" did to Ancient Mongolia

7 Thousand Year History of Iran!

The 7 Thousand year history of Persians(Not Arabs or Jews) When you see what the Powers that be did to Iraq,Afghanistan, Egypt,Russia, China,etc, you begin to realize how "they" hate Ancient Civilizations and History.It's like Jews hate Civilizations that "Interrupted" their timeline for humanity.They want all past great civilizations, and there history erased from your memory, similar to the Christian History of America, and it's founders. FACT! New World Order....

Source-Iran Chamber Society/Great Persian City of Persopilis

Source-BBC News.com

7 Thousand year history

A chronology of key events:

550-330 BC - Achaemenid dynasty rules the first Persian Empire. At its greatest extent under Darius I stretches from the Aegean Sea and Libya to the Indus Valley.

492-479 - Persian attempts to conquer Greece fail.

330 - Alexander the Great of Macedon conquers the Persian Empire, founding a short-lived empire before dying in Babylon in 323.

312-140 - Most of Persia is part of the Greek-dominated (Hellenistic) Seleucid Empire, founded by a general of Alexander the Great.

140 BC - 224 AD - Persia become part of the Parthian Empire, ruled by the Arsacid dynasty.

224-651 AD - Sassanid dynasty rules Persian Empire; Zoroastrianism is the dominant religion.

Advent of Islam

636 - Arab invasion brings end of Sassanid dynasty and start of Islamic rule.

9th century - Emergence of modern Persian language (or Farsi), written using a form of Arabic script.

9th-13th century - Decline of Islamic Caliphate; rise of Seljuk Turk dynasties.

1220 - Invasion by Mongol forces of Genghis Khan.

1501 - Shah Ismail I becomes first ruler of Islamic Safavid dynasty; Shi'i Islam declared state religion.

1639 - Treaty of Qasr-e Shirin (or Treaty of Zuhab) ends about 150 years of war against Ottoman Empire.

1828 - Iran cedes control of Caucasus to Russia after second Russo-Persian war.

Shah Mohammad Reza, a close ally of the US, pursued a policy of modernisation and secularisation
1736 - Nadir Shah becomes monarch; end of Safavid dynasty.

1890 - "Tobacco Riots": ruler Naser al-Din Shah forced to withdraw trade concessions granted to Britain after mass protests.

1907 - Introduction of constitution which limits the absolutist powers of rulers.

1914-1918 - Iran declares neutrality but is scene of heavy fighting during World War I.

1925 December - Parliament votes to make Reza Khan ruler.

1921 February - Military commander Reza Khan seizes power.

1923 - Reza Khan becomes prime minister.

1926 April - Reza Khan crowned Reza Shah Pahlavi. Mohammad Reza, the Shah's eldest son, is proclaimed Crown Prince.

Shah installed
1935 - Formerly known as Persia, Iran is adopted as the country's official name.

1941 - The Shah's pro-Axis allegiance in World War II leads to the Anglo-Russian occupation of Iran and the deposition of the Shah in favour of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

1950 - Ali Razmara becomes prime minister and is assassinated less than nine months later. He is succeeded by the nationalist, Mohammad Mossadeq.

1951 April - Parliament votes to nationalise the oil industry, which is dominated by the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Britain imposes an embargo and a blockade, halting oil exports and hitting the economy. A power struggle between the Shah and Mossadeq ensues and the Shah flees the country in August 1953.

1953 August - Mossadeq is overthrown in a coup engineered by the British and American intelligence services. General Fazlollah Zahedi is proclaimed as prime minister and the Shah returns.

Campaign to modernise
1963 January - The Shah embarks on a campaign to modernise and westernise the country. He launches the 'White Revolution', a programme of land reform and social and economic modernisation. During the late 1960's the Shah became increasingly dependent on the secret police (SAVAK) in controlling those opposition movements critical of his reforms.

1978 September - The Shah's policies alienate the clergy and his authoritarian rule leads to riots, strikes and mass demonstrations. Martial law is imposed.

Shah exiled, Khomeini returns
1979 January - As the political situation deteriorates, the Shah and his family are forced into exile.

1979 November - Islamic militants take 52 Americans hostage inside the US embassy in Tehran. They demand the extradition of the Shah, in the US at the time for medical treatment, to face trial in Iran.

1979 1 February - The Islamic fundamentalist, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, returns to Iran following 14 years of exile in Iraq and France for opposing the regime.

1979 1 April - The Islamic Republic of Iran is proclaimed following a referendum.

1980 January - Abolhasan Bani-Sadr is elected the first President of the Islamic Republic. His government begins work on a major nationalization programme.

1980 July - The exiled Shah dies of cancer in Egypt.

Iran-Iraq war
1980 22 September - Start of Iran-Iraq war which lasts for eight years.

1981 January - The American hostages are released ending 444 days in captivity.

1981 June - Bani-Sadr is dismissed, he later flees to France.

1985 - After the US and Soviet Union halted arms supplies, the US attempted to win the release of hostages in Lebanon by offering secret arms deals, this would later become known as the Iran-Contra affair.

1988 July - 290 passengers and the crew of an Iran Air Airbus are mistakenly shot down by the USS Vincennes.

Ceasefire

1988 July - Iran accepts a ceasefire agreement with Iraq following negotiations in Geneva under the aegis of the UN.

1989 February - Ayatollah Khomeini issues a religious edict (fatwa) ordering Muslims to kill British author, Salman Rushdie, for his novel, 'The Satanic Verses', considered blasphemous to Islam.

1989 3 June - Ayatollah Khomeini dies. On 4 June, President Khamene'i is appointed as new supreme leader.

1989 August - Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani is sworn in as the new president.

1989 November - The US releases 567 million dollars of frozen Iranian assets.

Major earthquake kills thousands

1990 June - A major earthquake strikes Iran, killing approximately 40,000 people.

1990 - Iran remains neutral following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

1990 September - Iran and Iraq resume diplomatic ties.

US imposes sanctions
1995 - US imposes oil and trade sanctions over Iran's alleged sponsorship of "terrorism", seeking to acquire nuclear arms and hostility to the Middle East process. Iran denies the charges.

1997 May - Mohammad Khatami wins the presidential election with 70% of the vote, beating the conservative ruling elite.

1998 September - Iran deploys thousands of troops on its border with Afghanistan after the Taleban admits killing eight Iranian diplomats and a journalist in Mazar-e Sharif.

Student protests
1999 July - Pro-democracy students at Tehran University demonstrate following the closure of the reformist newspaper 'Salam'. Clashes with security forces lead to six days of rioting and the arrest of more than 1,000 students.

2000 February - Majlis elections. Liberals and supporters of Khatami wrest control of parliament from conservatives for the first time.

2000 April - The judiciary, following the adoption of a new press law, bans the publication of 16 reformist newspapers.

2000 May - Inauguration of the Sixth parliament.

Khatami's second term
2001 June - President Khatami re-elected.

2002 January - US President George Bush describes Iraq, Iran and North Korea as an "axis of evil", warning of the proliferation of long-range missiles being developed in these countries. The speech causes outrage in Iran and is condemned by reformists and conservatives alike.

2002 September - Russian technicians begin construction of Iran's first nuclear reactor at Bushehr despite strong objections from US.

2003 June - Thousands attend student-led protests in Tehran against clerical establishment.

2003 September - UN nuclear watchdog, IAEA, gives Tehran weeks to prove it is not pursuing an atomic weapons programme.

2003 October - Shirin Ebadi becomes Iran's first Nobel Peace Prize winner; lawyer and human rights campaigner became Iran's first female judge in 1975 but was forced to resign after 1979 revolution.

2003 November - Iran says it is suspending its uranium enrichment programme and will allow tougher UN inspections of its nuclear facilities. IAEA concludes there is no evidence of a weapons programme.

2003 December - 40,000 people are killed in an earthquake in south-east Iran; the city of Bam is devastated.

Conservative resurgence
2004 February - Conservatives regain control of parliament in elections. Thousands of reformist candidates were disqualified by the hardline Council of Guardians before the polls.

Nuclear crisis
2005 August-September - Tehran says it has resumed uranium conversion at its Isfahan plant and insists the programme is for peaceful purposes. IAEA finds Iran in violation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

2004 June - Iran is rebuked by the IAEA for failing to fully cooperate with an inquiry into its nuclear activities.

2004 November - Iran agrees to suspend most of its uranium enrichment under a deal with the EU.

2005 June - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Tehran's ultra-conservative mayor, wins a run-off vote in presidential elections, defeating cleric and former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

2006 January - Iran breaks IAEA seals at its Natanz nuclear research facility.

Bomb attacks in the southern city of Ahvaz - the scene of sporadic unrest in recent months - kill eight people and injure more than 40.

2006 February - IAEA votes to report Iran to the UN Security Council over its nuclear activities. Iran resumes uranium enrichment at Natanz.

2006 April - Iran says it has succeeded in enriching uranium at its Natanz facility.

2006 31 August - UN Security Council deadline for Iran to halt its work on nuclear fuel passes. IAEA says Tehran has failed to suspend the programme.

Holocaust denial
2006 December - Iran hosts a controversial conference on the Holocaust; delegates include Holocaust deniers.

UN Security Council votes to impose sanctions on Iran's trade in sensitive nuclear materials and technology. Iran condemns the resolution and vows to speed up uranium enrichment work.

2007 February - IAEA says Iran failed to meet a deadline to suspend uranium enrichment, exposing Tehran to possible new sanctions.

2007 March - Diplomatic stand-off with Britain after Iran detains 15 British sailors and marines patrolling the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway separating Iran and Iraq.

2007 April - President Ahmadinejad says Iran can produce nuclear fuel on an industrial scale.

IAEA says Iran has begun making nuclear fuel in its underground uranium enrichment plant. It also says that Iran has started up more than 1,300 centrifuge machines.

2007 May - IAEA says Iran could develop a nuclear weapon in three to eight years if it so chooses.

2007 June - Protests erupt after government imposes petrol rationing amid fears of possible UN sanctions.

2007 July - Iran announces plans to stop making cars that only run on petrol and switch to dual-fuel vehicles, which also run on gas.

2007 July - Iran announces plans to stop making cars that only run on petrol and switch to dual-fuel vehicles, which also run on gas.

Iran agrees to allow inspectors to visit the Arak nuclear plant following talks with the IAEA.

New sanctions
2007 October - US announces sweeping new sanctions against Iran, the toughest since it first imposed sanctions almost 30 years ago.

2007 December - A new US intelligence report plays down the perceived nuclear threat posed by Iran.

2008 February - Iran launches a research rocket to inaugurate a newly built space centre. Washington describes the launch as "unfortunate".

2008 March - President Ahmadinejad makes unprecedented official visit to Iraq, where he calls on foreign troops to leave. He also stresses his government's desire to help rebuild Iraq and signs a number of cooperation agreements.

Conservatives win over two-thirds of seats in parliamentary elections in which many pro-reform candidates were disbarred from standing. The conservatives include supporters of President Ahmadinejad as well as more pragmatic conservatives who oppose his confrontational foreign policy.

UN Security Council tightens economic and trade sanctions on Tehran.

2008 May - IAEA says Iran is still withholding information on its nuclear programme.

Iran's new parliament elects former nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani as its speaker.

Incentives offered
2008 June - EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana presents an offer of trade benefits, which Tehran says it will look at, but will reject if it demands suspension of uranium enrichment.

2008 July - Iran test-fires a new version of the Shahab-3, a long-range missile it says is capable of hitting targets in Israel.

2008 August - Informal deadline set by Western officials for Iran to respond to package of incentives in return for halt in nuclear activities passes without reply.

Iran says it has successfully launched a test rocket capable of carrying a satellite into space.

2008 September - UN Security Council passes unanimously a new resolution reaffirming demands that Iran stop enriching uranium, but imposes no new sanctions. The text was agreed after Russia said it would not support further sanctions.

Relations with US
2008 November - Parliament votes to dismiss the interior minister, Ali Kordan, who admitted that a degree he said he held from Oxford University was fake. The move is a blow to President Ahmadinejad ahead of next year's presidential election.

In an unprecedented move, President Ahmadinejad congratulates US president-elect Barack Obama on his election win. Mr Obama has offered to open unconditional dialogue with Iran about its nuclear programme.

2008 December - Police raid and close the office of a human rights group led by the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Shirin Ebadi. Officials say the centre is acting as an illegal political organization.

2009 February - Speaking on the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution in Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he would welcome talks with the US as long as they are based on "mutual respect".

2009 March - Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei tells anti-Israel rally that US President Obama is following the "same misguided track" in Middle East as President Bush.

2009 April - An Iranian court finds Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi guilty of spying for the US. She is sentenced to eight years in prison.

2009 May - Iran rejects a US state department report saying it remains the "most active state sponsor of terrorism" in the world.

Jailed Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi is freed and returns to US.

Election protests
2009 June - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is declared to have won a resounding victory in the 12 June presidential election. The rival candidates challenge the result, alleging vote-rigging. Their supporters take to the streets, and at least 30 people are killed and more than 1,000 arrested in the wave of protests that follow.

The Iranian authorities claim foreign interference is stoking the unrest, and single out Britain for criticism.

2009 July - President Ahmadinejad dismisses his most senior vice-president, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, under pressure to do so by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

2009 August - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sworn in for second term as president, presents cabinet - the first since the founding of the Islamic Republic in 1979 to include women.

A number of senior opposition figures are accused of conspiring with foreign powers to organise unrest and are put on trial.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says there is no proof that opposition leaders blamed for the post-election unrest were agents of foreign powers.

Missile tests
2009 September - Iran admits that it is building a uranium enrichment plant near Qom, but insists it is for peaceful purposes.

The country test-fires a series of medium- and longer-range missiles that put Israel and US bases in the Gulf within potential striking range.

2009 October - Five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany offer Iran proposal to enrich its uranium abroad.

2009 November - Iran refuses to accept the international proposal to end the dispute over its nuclear programme. UN nuclear watchdog IAEA passes a resolution condemning Iran for developing a second uranium enrichment site in secret.

Iran denounces the move as "political" and announces plans to create 10 more uranium enrichment facilities.

2009 December - Death of influential dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hoseyn Ali Montazeri triggers further clashes between opposition supporters and security forces. At least 8 people die in what is the worst violence since the contested presidential election.

2010 January - Iran executes two men arrested during the period of unrest that followed the disputed presidential election of June 2009. It also puts 16 people on trial over the Ashura Day opposition protests in December, when eight people were killed.

Iranian physics professor Masoud Ali-Mohammadi is killed in a bomb attack in Tehran. No group claims responsibility. The government accuses the US and Israel of his death, while Iranian opposition groups say Mr Mohammadi supported one of their candidates in last year's presidential election.

2010 February - Iran says it is ready to send enriched uranium abroad for further enrichment under a deal agreed with the West. The US calls on Tehran to match its words with actions.

Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi says the opposition will continue its peaceful struggle against the government.

2010 May - Iran reaches a deal to send uranium abroad for enrichment after mediation talks with Turkey and Brazil; Western states respond with scepticism, saying the agreement will not stop Iran from continuing to enrich uranium.

More sanctions
2010 June - UN Security Council imposes fourth round of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme, including tighter financial curbs and an expanded arms embargo.

2010 July - International outcry as a woman is sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.

27 killed as suicide bombers attack a Shia mosque in Zahedan near the Pakistan border.

2010 August - In what Tehran describes as a milestone in its drive to produce nuclear energy, engineers begin loading fuel into the Bushehr nuclear power plant.

2010 September - Stuxnet - a computer worm which affects industrial systems and which may have been created by a nation-state - is reportedly detected in staff computers at the Bushehr nuclear plant.

Sarah Shourd, a US citizen caught hiking with two friends near the Iran-Iraq border, is freed after a year in prison. The three deny they were spying.

2010 October - A former British embassy employee jailed in 2009 for espionage has his sentence commuted.

2010 December - Main achievement of talks in Geneva between Iran and key world powers on Iran's nuclear programme is to agree to hold another round of talks in Istanbul in January.

President Ahmadinejad sacks Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, thought to be his main opponent within Iranian leadership.

2011 January - Nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi says Iran now possesses technology needed to make fuel plates and rods for nuclear reactors.

2011 February - First mass opposition demonstrations in a year amid a wave of unrest rippling across the Middle East and North Africa.

Iran sends two warships through Suez Canal for first time since the Islamic Revolution, in what Israel describes as an act of provocation.

Leadership rift
2011 April - Rare public row between Supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei and President Ahmadinejad over the resignation of Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi.

2011 May - Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation says the generating unit at the Bushehr nuclear power plant has begun operating at a low level.

2011 August - Two US citizens arrested on the Iran-Iraq border in 2009 are found guilty of spying and sentenced to eight years in prison.

2011 September - Iran announces that the Bushehr nuclear power station has been connected to the national grid.

2011 October - The US accuses Iran of being behind an alleged plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington. Tehran rejects the charges as part of an American propaganda campaign.

2011 November - A report by the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA says Iran is carrying out research that can only be used to develop a nuclear bomb trigger. Iran rejects the findings as politically motivated.

2011 November/December - The British embassy in Tehran comes under attack from protesters after London imposes tighter economic sanctions. Britain evacuates its diplomatic staff from Iran and expels all Iranian diplomats, but the two countries do not sever all ties.

Oil sanctions and Straits stand-off

2011 December - Faced with the prospect of fresh sanctions over its nuclear programme, Iran threatens to block the transport of oil through the Strait of Hormuz.

2012 January - US administration says that Iran's enrichment of uranium to levels close to weapons-grade at its Fordo underground plant constitutes "further escalation" of its violation of UN resolutions.The European Union adopts an oil embargo against Iran over its nuclear programme. The EU accounts for about 20% of Iran's oil exports.

The same day the US aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, a British frigate and a French warship, pass through the Straits of Hormuz without incident in the wake of Iranian threats to block the trade route.

U.S. wants Pakistan ties to Iran to end, so they [Entice] them with cheaper gas than Iran sells them, The U.S. is doing everything to Isolate Iran.

Sourec-The Express Tribune
ISLAMABAD:
They may loathe you for being ‘duplicitous’ in the war on terror, but they will gladly sell gas to you – especially if it means you will give up gas from Iran.

The United States has stepped up efforts to lobby Pakistan to abandon the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline, and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) imports from Iran. What’s on offer? Cheaper gas from US.

US embassy officials held a meeting with stakeholders from the power and energy sector last Tuesday to seek input on Pakistan’s current LNG import and IP gas pipeline projects.

Expensive from Iran

Iranian gas will not be affordable for Pakistan, a participant from the meeting quoted US embassy officials as saying.

Iranian gas will cost $12 per million British thermal units (mmbtu) while LNG would cost $18 per mmbtu, the officials said, adding that the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline was the most viable option for Pakistan financially.

Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Dr Asim Hussain is presently in India to negotiate the transit fee for TAPI.

US officials expressed concern regarding the current gas crisis in Pakistan, and even asked the stakeholders for suggestion on how the US could help, but made no direct offers to bring LNG to Pakistan, sources said.

The main focus of the discussion was the TAPI gas pipeline and cheaper LNG imports, they added.

Cheaper from US

Sources said that officials from United States Agency for International Development (USAID), at a meeting at the petroleum ministry, had indicated that LNG could be made available at$4.5 per mmbtu.

When contacted, Secretary Petroleum Ijaz Chaudhry said that US has made no offer to provide LNG, but added that USAID gave a briefing two months ago on the historical trend of LNG prices in the world market. The price of LNG was $4.5 per mmbtu four to five years ago but shot up due to rising LNG demand in Japan following the earthquake, he said, quoting US officials.

According to Wall Street Journal, American energy companies have increased gas supply to the point that prices have started to plummet. Natural-gas prices fell 5.7% on January 12, 2012 to their lowest level in over two years. Despite a 32% drop in prices, on-shore production rose 10% last year and is expected to rise another 4% this year, according to Barclays Capital.

Excess reserves

The US has six billion cubic feet of surplus gas per day that could be exported, an energy expert said, adding that further reserves of shale gas have also been discovered.

The US has potential to export LNG and is setting up two to three LNG terminals to start exporting possibly in 2015, the expert said.

He added that price of gas in US is around $4 per mmbtu and its transportation from US to Pakistan would add between $3 and $4 per mmbtu, the expert added.

The expert did caution though that in all likelihood, Pakistan would have to pay prevailing market rates in the region.

The US may move to export cheaper LNG, however, in order for Pakistan to abandon the IP gas pipeline project, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25th, 2012.

Security Experts getting close to revealing the "Creators" of the Stuxnet worm malware.

Source-MSNBC

Security experts have dug deeper into the Duqu Trojan and discovered a scary shared characteristic between the newly discovered piece of malware and last year's infamous Stuxnet worm, supporting the theory that the same authors are behind both.

The Hungarian security firm CrySyS, which discovered Duqu in October, found that it hides in a Microsoft Word document and contains something astonishing: a zero-day exploit of a vulnerability in the Windows kernel, the very heart of the operating system.

Zero-day exploits are the Holy Grail for hackers. Unknown flaws in software are few and far between, and when one is found, cybercriminals exploit it as much as possible during the brief precious window before the software maker patches it. The fact that Duqu contains one zero-day, and Stuxnet four, yet both programs steal nothing, indicates that their makers are both highly skilled, motivated by something other than money and willing to squander knowledge that could be worth millions to secure their objectives.

Chester Wisniewski, senior security adviser for the security firm Sophos, wrote that Windows zero-day flaws are uncommon in traditional malware. He noted that a recent Microsoft report found no zero-day exploits in any of the malware infections cleaned by the Malicious Software Removal Tool.

Stuxnet was designed to sabotage nuclear facilities in Iran, but also infected systems in India and Indonesia. Duqu infections have been confirmed in Iran as well as in Sudan, India, Vietnam, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Ukraine, the security firm Symantec reported.

Duqu shares much of its code with Stuxnet. Two major digital security firms are divided about Duqu's intentions; Symantec says it is designed to steal data from industrial control systems, such as those running power plants and oil refineries, while McAfee argues it's meant to steal authentication certificates that websites use to verify their identities.

Regarding the zero-day exploit that Duqu uses, Alex Gostev, chief malware analyst for the security firm Kaspersky Lab, wrote that his team "discovered a similar vulnerability a year ago when analyzing the Stuxnet worm."

Source-LA PD Online.org/Military Urban Assault training

Military Exercises to be Conducted in the Downtown Area NR12040kr

Los Angeles: Multi-agency tactical exercises are to be conducted during evening hours around the downtown area January 22-26, 2012.

The Los Angeles Police Department will be providing support for a joint military training exercise in and around the great Los Angeles area. This will be routine training conducted by military personnel, designed to ensure the military’s ability to operate in urban environments, prepare forces for upcoming overseas deployments, and meet mandatory training certification requirements.

This training has been coordinated with local authorities and owners of the training sites. The training sites have been carefully selected to ensure the event does not negatively impact the citizens of Los Angeles and their daily routines.

Lastly, safety precautions have been taken to prevent risk to the general public and the military personnel involved.

As such, this training is not open to the public.

Americas Corrupt, Private Military Contractors(link below Article)

“Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes… known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.… No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”—James Madison

America’s troops may be returning home from Iraq, but contrary to President Obama’s assertion that “the tide of war is receding,” we’re far from done paying the costs of war. In fact, at the same time that Obama is reducing the number of troops in Iraq, he’s replacing them with military contractors at far greater expense to the taxpayer and redeploying American troops to other parts of the globe, including Africa, Australia and Israel. In this way, the war on terror is privatized, the American economy is bled dry, and the military-security industrial complex makes a killing—literally and figuratively speaking.

The war effort in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan has already cost taxpayers more than $2 trillion and could go as high as $4.4 trillion before it’s all over. At least $31 billion (and as much as $60 billion or more) of that $2 trillion was lost to waste and fraud by military contractors, who do everything from janitorial and food service work to construction, security and intelligence—jobs that used to be handled by the military. That translates to a loss of $12 million a day since the U.S. first invaded Afghanistan. To put it another way, the government is spending more on war than all 50 states combined spend on health, education, welfare, and safety.

Over the past two decades, America has become increasingly dependent on military contractors in order to carry out military operations abroad (in fact, the government’s extensive use of private security contractors has surged under Obama). According to the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States can no longer conduct large or sustained military operations or respond to major disasters without heavy support from contractors. As a result, the U.S. employs at a minimum one contractor to support every soldier deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq (that number increases dramatically when U.S. troop numbers decrease). For those signing on for contractor work, many of whom are hired by private contracting firms after serving stints in the military, it is a lucrative, albeit dangerous, career path (private contractors are 2.75 times more likely to die than troops). Incredibly, while base pay for an American soldier hovers somewhere around $19,000 per year, contractors are reportedly pulling in between $150,000 – $250,000 per year.

The exact number of military contractors on the U.S. payroll is hard to pin down, thanks to sleight-of-hand accounting by the Department of Defense and its contractors. However, according to a Wartime Contracting Commission report released in August 2011, there are more than 260,000 private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, more than the number of ground troops in both countries. As noted, that number increases dramatically when troops are withdrawn from an area, as we currently see happening in Iraq. Pratap Chatterjee of the Center for American Progress estimates that “if the Obama administration draws down to 68,000 troops in Afghanistan by September 2012, they will need 88,400 contractors at the very least, but potentially as many as 95,880.”

With paid contractors often outnumbering enlisted combat troops, the American war effort dubbed by George W. Bush as the “coalition of the willing” has since evolved into the “coalition of the billing.” The Pentagon’s Central Command counts 225,000 contractors working in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Between December 2008 and December 2010, the total number of private security contractors in Afghanistan increased by 413% while troop levels increased 200%. Private contractors provide a number of services, including transport, construction, drone operation, and security. One military contractor, Blackbird, is composed of former CIA operatives who go on secret missions to recover missing and captured US soldiers. Then there is the Lincoln Group which became famous for engaging in covert psychological operations by planting stories in the Iraqi press that glorified the U.S. mission. Global Strategies Group guards the consulate in Basra for $401 million. SOC Inc. protects the US embassy for $974 million.

Unfortunately, fraud, mismanagement and corruption have become synonymous with the U.S. government’s use of military contractors. McClatchy News “found that U.S. government funding for at least 15 large-scale programs and projects [in Afghanistan] grew from just over $1 billion to nearly $3 billion despite the government’s questions about their effectiveness or cost.” One program started off as a modest wheat program and “ballooned into one of America’s biggest counterinsurgency projects in southern Afghanistan despite misgivings about its impact.” Another multi-billion-dollar program resulted in the construction of schools, clinics and other public buildings that were so poorly built that they might not withstand a serious earthquake and will have to be rebuilt. Then there was the $300 million diesel power plant that was built despite the fact that it wouldn’t be used regularly “because its fuel cost more than the Afghan government could afford to run it regularly.” RWA, a group of three Afghan contractors, was selected to build a 17.5 mile paved road in Ghazni province. They were paid $4 million between 2008 and 2010 before the contract was terminated with only 2/3 of a mile of road paved.

Mind you, with the U.S. spending more than $2 billion a week in Afghanistan, these examples of ineptitude and waste represent only a fraction of what is being funded by American taxpayer dollars. (Investigative reports reveal that large amounts of cash derived from U.S. aid and logistics spending are being flown out of the country on a regular basis by Afghan officials, including $52 million by the Afghan vice president, who was allowed to keep the money.) Yet what most Americans fail to realize is that we’re funding the very individuals we claim to be fighting. The war effort has become so corrupt that U.S. taxpayers are not only being bilked by military contractors but are also being forced to indirectly fund insurgents and warlords in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the Taliban, which receives money from military contractors in exchange for protection. This is rationalized away as a “cost of doing business” in those countries. As the Financial Times reports, the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan “found that extortion of funds from US construction and transportation projects was the second-biggest funding source for insurgent groups.”

Despite what one might think, the boom in contracting work in the war zones isn’t necessarily aiding U.S. employment, given that large numbers of contractors are actually foreign nationals. For example, over 90% of the private security contractors in Afghanistan are Afghans. One contractor, Triple Canopy, most of whose guards are from Uganda and Peru, has a $1.53 billion contract with the State Department to protect its employees. ArmorGroup North America (AGNA), which is contracted to secure the US embassy in Kabul, hires many Nepalese (known as Gurkhas) whose English is not proficient. “One guard described the situation as so dire that if he were to say to many of the Gurkhas, ‘There is a terrorist standing behind you,’ those Gurkhas would answer ‘Thank you sir, and good morning.’”

The practices employed by the military contractors also reflect poorly on America’s commitment to human rights—both in the way that they treat their employees and in their employees’ behavior. For example, Triple Canopy houses its employees in overcrowded shipping containers. In addition to soliciting underage Chinese prostitutes, AGNA contractors have also been described as “peeing on people, eating potato chips out of [buttock] cracks, vodka shots out of [buttock] cracks (there is video of that one), broken doors after drnken [sic] brawls, threats and intimidation from those leaders participating in this activity…” This behavior is not reserved to lower level employees, and has been observed and even encouraged by upper level management. Blackwater employees have also been accused of weapons smuggling as well as cocaine and steroid use. Despite all this, Blackwater—which, as the New York Times has reported, “created a web of more than 30 shell companies or subsidiaries in part to obtain millions of dollars in American government contracts after the security company came under intense criticism for reckless conduct in Iraq”—still won a cut of a $10 billion contract given out by the State Department in 2010.

Despite the high levels of corruption, waste, mismanagement and fraud by military contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. government continues to shield them, resisting any attempts at greater oversight or accountability. War, after all, has become a huge money-making venture, and America, with its vast military empire, is one of its best customers. Indeed, the American military-industrial complex has erected an empire unsurpassed in history in its breadth and scope and dedicated to conducting perpetual warfare throughout the earth.

What most Americans fail to recognize is that these ongoing wars have little to do with keeping the country safe and everything to do with enriching the military industrial complex at taxpayer expense. It’s the military industrial complex (the illicit merger of the armaments industry and the government) that President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us against more than 50 years ago and which has come to represent perhaps the greatest threat to the nation’s fragile infrastructure today.

Unfortunately, Americans have been inculcated with a false, misplaced sense of patriotism about the military that equates devotion to one’s country with supporting the war machine so that any mention of cutting back on the massive defense budget is immediately met with outrage. Yet the military-industrial complex is engaged in a deadly game, one that all presidents, including Obama, foster. And the consequences, as Eisenhower recognized, are grave:

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children…This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute and editor of GadflyOnline.com. His new book The Freedom Wars (TRI Press) is available online at www.amazon.com. He can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org

Source-NewJerseytoday.net/Corrupt Private Military Contractor

Australia 2012

2012-01-26T09:59:00.040-07:00

In a WW3 Scenario, Australia to be Invaded by China!(Natural resource Rich Australia)

Source-Washington Post/U.S. Australia Phillippines Alliance against China

Two decades after evicting U.S. forces from their biggest base in the Pacific, the Philippines is in talks with the Obama administration about expanding the American military presence in the island nation, the latest in a series of strategic moves aimed at China.

Although negotiations are in the early stages, officials from both governments said they are favorably inclined toward a deal. They are scheduled to intensify the discussions Thursday and Friday in Washington before higher-level meetings in March. If an arrangement is reached, it would follow other recent agreements to base thousands of U.S. Marines in northern Australia and to station Navy warships in Singapore.

Among the options under consideration are operating Navy ships from the Philippines, deploying troops on a rotational basis and staging more frequent joint exercises. Under each scenario, U.S. forces would effectively be guests at existing foreign bases.

The sudden rush by many in the Asia-Pacific region to embrace Washington is a direct reaction to China’s rise as a military power and its assertiveness in staking claims to disputed territories, such as the energy-rich South China Sea.

“We can point to other countries: Australia, Japan, Singapore,” said a senior Philippine official involved in the talks, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the confidentiality of the deliberations. “We’re not the only one doing this, and for good reason. We all want to see a peaceful and stable region. Nobody wants to have to face China or confront China.”

The strategic talks with the Philippines are in addition to feelers that the Obama administration has put out to other Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam and Thailand, about possibly bolstering military partnerships.

The United States already has about 600 Special Operations troops in the Philippines, where they advise local forces in their fight with rebels sympathetic to al-Qaeda. But the talks underway between Manila and Washington potentially involve a much more extensive partnership.

Officials in the Philippines — which has 7,107 islands — said their priority is to strengthen maritime defenses, especially near the South China Sea. They indicated a willingness to host American ships and surveillance aircraft.

Although the U.S. military has tens of thousands of troops stationed at long-standing bases in Japan, South Korea and Guam, as well as the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, it is seeking to solidify its presence in Southeast Asia. Some of the world’s busiest trade routes pass through the South China Sea and the nearby Strait of Malacca.

Instead of trying to establish giant bases reminiscent of the Cold War, however, Pentagon officials said they want to maintain a light footprint.

“We have no desire nor any interest in creating a U.S.-only base in Southeast Asia,” said Robert Scher, a deputy assistant secretary of defense who oversees security policy in the region. “In each one of these cases, the core decision and discussion is about how we work better with our friends and allies. And the key piece of that is working from their locations.”

Beautiful Australian Women Break Records

Source-Australian Herald Sun/Gold Coast Bikini record

THE Gold Coast is officially the bikini capital of the world after 357 women donned the two-piece to set a new world record.

Bikini-clad women strutting through Surfers Paradise have bolstered the Gold Coast's reputation for producing world-beating women.

Just days after the city welcomed athletes Sally Pearson and Sam Stosur home after incredible sporting feats, hundreds of women joined this morning's Gold Coast Bikini Parade, smashing the standing world record.

Sponsored by the Surfers Paradise Alliance and the Gold Coast Bulletin, the parade needed to attract 332 bodies to beat the record set in the Cayman Islands last year.

Australian Guinness World Record adjudicator Chris Sheedy was on hand to officially declare the record attempt a success.

''Today 361 girls walked through the counter but there had to be a few disqualifications because they were not wearing bikinis,'' he said.

''Unfortunately for the Cayman Islands they have had their record smashed because 357 walked through the count today.''

Stilletto Race

Australian Women

Source-CIA World Factbook/Australia

Background

Aboriginal settlers arrived on the continent from Southeast Asia about 40,000 years before the first Europeans began exploration in the 17th century. No formal territorial claims were made until 1770, when Capt. James COOK took possession of the east coast in the name of Great Britain (all of Australia was claimed as British territory in 1829 with the creation of the colony of Western Australia). Six colonies were created in the late 18th and 19th centuries; they federated and became the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. The new country took advantage of its natural resources to rapidly develop agricultural and manufacturing industries and to make a major contribution to the British effort in World Wars I and II. In recent decades, Australia has transformed itself into an internationally competitive, advanced market economy. It boasted one of the OECD's fastest growing economies during the 1990s, a performance due in large part to economic reforms adopted in the 1980s. Long-term concerns include ageing of the population, pressure on infrastructure, and environmental issues such as frequent droughts.

Economy

Australia's abundant and diverse natural resources attract high levels of foreign investment and include extensive reserves of coal, iron ore, copper, gold, natural gas, uranium, and renewable energy sources. A series of major investments, such as the US$40 billion Gorgon Liquid Natural Gas project, will significantly expand the resources sector. Australia also has a large services sector and is a significant exporter of natural resources, energy, and food. Key tenets of Australia's trade policy include support for open trade and the successful culmination of the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations, particularly for agriculture and services. The Australian economy grew for 17 consecutive years before the global financial crisis. Subsequently, the Rudd government introduced a fiscal stimulus package worth over US$50 billion to offset the effect of the slowing world economy, while the Reserve Bank of Australia cut interest rates to historic lows. These policies - and continued demand for commodities, especially from China - helped the Australian economy rebound after just one quarter of negative growth. The economy grew by 1.2% during 2009 - the best performance in the OECD - and by 3.3% in 2010. Unemployment, originally expected to reach 8-10%, peaked at 5.7% in late 2009 and fell to 5.1% in 2010. As a result of an improved economy, the budget deficit is expected to peak below 4.2% of GDP and the government could return to budget surpluses as early as 2015. Australia was one of the first advanced economies to raise interest rates, with seven rate hikes between October 2009 and November 2010. The GILLARD government is focused on raising Australia's economic productivity to ensure the sustainability of growth, and continues to manage the symbiotic, but sometimes tense, economic relationship with China. Australia is engaged in the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks and ongoing free trade agreement negotiations with China, Japan, and Korea.

Military

Military ::Australia

Military branches:
Australian Defense Force (ADF): Australian Army, Royal Australian Navy, Royal Australian Air Force, Special Operations Command (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
17 years of age for voluntary military service (with parental consent); no conscription; women allowed to serve in Army combat units in non-combat support roles (2010)

Manpower available for military service:
males age 16-49: 5,316,464
females age 16-49: 5,116,722 (2010 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
males age 16-49: 4,411,958
females age 16-49: 4,239,985 (2010 est.)

Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually:
male: 143,565
female: 135,800 (2010 est.)

Military expenditures:
3% of GDP (2009)
country comparison to the world: 43

Julia Gillard Prime Minister of Australia

Source-OZunited.info/Julia Gillard bio

Source-Henry Makow.com/Julia Gillard lesbian Communist

Australian Candidates Pander to Money, Jews

August 14, 2010

Julia, which way will you go
Julia, I wanna know
Julia, only the moon and stars
Julia, know just where you are
Julia

Chris Rea's "Southern Blues Guitar" Julia

by John Vermeulen
(FOR HENRYMAKOW.COM)

This is how one pundit characterized the run-up to the Australian election Aug. 21 :

"Here's the plot: an unmarried, foreign-born, atheist woman whose partner is a male hairdresser wants to lead a nation famous for manly men. Her opponent [Tony Abbott] is the Mad Monk - a Speedo-loving amateur boxer who once studied to be a priest." (William Pesek in "An election about nothing that's made for TV")

Australia's current prime minister Julia Gillard is the first woman and first unmarried (cohabiting) childless Prime Minister of Australia.

Australian journalist Andrew Bolt noted that Julia Gillard began as a Communist and was a member of the Socialist Forum from 1998-2002 which later merged with the Fabian Society.

Australian conservatives should be aware that their darling faux-conservative John Howard was also a Fabian. To give credit, at least Julia is open about her left leanings. She is not as open about her lesbian sexual preferences. Many Australians think that Tim Mathieson, Julia's so called partner is a "beard."

One of Julia's first moves as prime minister was to pretend to lift (her predecessor) Kevin Rudd's tax on miners. We have now learned that Gillard did a back room deal favoring the big miners over the smaller ones.

The Rudd tax was paraded as the reason for his failure. It is clear now that corporate media spin began against Rudd in early 2010.

There was a soft droning of "Rudd is a weak leader" and "the party is unhappy" at the same time as a Julia Gillard push. Ms Gillard is not Elle McPherson or Megan Fox. Until late 2009 she was plain Jane in the background. In early February we noticed that she was looking more feminine and somewhat softer. Machinists were, how shall we say ... less inclined to borrow her face to sharpen their drill bits.

GILLARD SIDES WITH ZIONISTS

John Howard announced his commitment to the Iraq war in 2003 in front of a Jewish group in the US. The television news showed him walking out of a meeting surrounded by traditionally dressed Orthodox men, probably Rabbis. The "John Howard Negev Forest" was established in Israel in 2007 in his honour.

Kevin Rudd crossed the line. He dared to stand up to Israel for forging Australian passports and the flotilla raid. Well, he did not really stand up, but at least he commented. Rudd expelled an Israeli diplomat in a hollow gesture. (He was due to return to Israel shortly anyways.) Rudd, unlike Howard was more inclined to resist involvement in Israel's imminent war on Iran. Rudd had also angered the miners and faltered on climate change.

On the passports and the flotilla, Julia kept silent. She towed the party line behind Rudd on carbon trading and the miners tax. Perhaps Julia was encouraged by her live-in partner/handler (a hairdresser who works for an Israeli lobbyist) that she can sit on the throne if a.) she is prepared to sacrifice other people's children in Iran and Palestine b.) she assists the big miners over the small ones - treachery in the workers paradise c.) she pushes ahead with carbon trading known here as the Environmental Trading Scheme or ETS.

Julia now does the bidding of the Israeli lobby, big business and the banks. As a Communist, Julia may not outwardly support the big miners or the Israeli agenda, but as a Fabian the connection is natural. Gradualism is not the gradual distribution of wealth to all parties, it is the gradual draining of wealth to the elite.

Julia's allegiances are complex. She has just signed a preference deal with the Australian Greens in the senate. The Green leader, Bob Brown, is a self admitted homosexual who is green on the outside red on the inside. If Julia is elected and the Greens help her over the line Australia will be in for an emissions trading scheme (ETS) death duties and open boarders. What affect the Green influence will have on the Israeli connection is anyone's guess.

ABBOTT SIDES WITH ZIONISTS

Recently there is a cooling towards Australian Labour in the media. The campaign has become a freak show and every hack journalist seems to be gunning for Labour.

The media swing toward Abbott may have been influenced by his recent genuflection to Israel. At the Australian Israel Chamber of Commerce in Melbourne, Abbott said his government would "never support a one-sided UN resolution against Israel to curry favour with an anti-Israel authority". Rather than remain silent on the flotilla affair as did Gillard, Abbott actually criticized Rudd for overreacting.

So Ms Gillard (of ambiguous sexual orientation) is a Fabian socialist, atheist, foreign born, unmarried woman living with a hairdresser (also of ambiguous sexual orientation) who works for an Israeli lobbyist. She is beholden to the Jewish Lobby, the enviro lobby, the miners, the Greens and its homosexual leader. Her office is built like a masonic temple in the masonic city of Canberra.

Source-UK DAILY MAIL/ Julia Gillard Australian Prime Minister escapes Wrath

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard clung to her bodyguard as she was dragged to safety through a crowd of angry protesters in Canberra today.

Riot police formed a shield around the prime minister as they helped her force a path through the protesters who surrounded a restaurant where she was attending an awards ceremony to mark Australia Day.

Miss Gillard stumbled after losing a shoe in the scuffle, but was caught by her personal security guard and managed to get into a waiting car.

Scroll down for video

New World Order Politicians getting what they deserve.

Little Creek Naval Amphibous Base-Virginia Beach, Virginia

2012-01-25T10:50:00.084-07:00

Source-CitizensAmericaParty.org/ Enterprise False Flag Persian Gulf

USS ENTERPRISE SCHEDULED FOR DE-COMMISSIONING IN 2013(PERFECT FALSE FLAG BAIT)

Name: USS Enterprise
Ordered: 15 November 1957
Builder: Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company
Cost: $451.3 million[1]
Laid down: 4 February 1958
Launched: 24 September 1960
Christened: 24 September 1960
Acquired: 29 October 1961
Commissioned: 25 November 1961
Decommissioned: Scheduled for 2013
In service: 12 January 1962 (maiden voyage)
Reclassified: CVN-65
Homeport: NAVSTA Norfolk
Status: in active service, as of 2012

Source-Haaretz.com/Israeli Government admits Iran has no Nuclear Weapons Program

Source-Wikipedia/Little Creek Naval Base

The Naval Amphibious Base, Little Creek is the major operating base for the Amphibious Forces in the United States Navy's Atlantic Fleet. The base comprises four locations in three states, including almost 12,000 acres (49 km²) of real estate. Its Little Creek location in Virginia Beach, Virginia totals 2,120 acres (9 km²) of land, though its post office address is in Norfolk. Outlying facilities include 350 acres (1.4 km²) located just north of Fleet Training Center Dam Neck in Virginia Beach, and 21 acres (85,000 m²) known as Radio Island at Morehead City, N.C., used as an amphibious embarkation/debarkation area for U.S. Marine Corps units at MCB Camp Lejeune, N.C.
The mission of the Naval Amphibious Base is to provide required support services to over 15,000 personnel of the 27 homeported ships and 78 resident and/or supported activities. The base's combination of operational, support, and training facilities are geared predominantly to amphibious operations, making the base unique among bases of the United States and Allied Navies.
The Naval Amphibious Base, Little Creek is the largest base of its kind in the world.
On October 1, 2009, Little Creek and the Army's Fort Story finished a 2 year merge into one joint base officially named Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story.

History

On July 16, 1942, a U.S. Navy truck drove off Shore Drive, the scenic highway along the south shore of the Chesapeake Bay between the resort areas of Ocean View in the City of Norfolk and the small town of Virginia Beach in Princess Anne County. The resort town was located on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean several miles south of Cape Henry, at the entrance to the bay.
Near an inlet called "Little Creek" the truck stopped in a waterlogged bean field of the Whitehurst family's farm. For days thereafter, trucks loaded with lumber and equipment rolled into the area in almost continuous succession. The reason for this mass assault in a bean field 12 miles (19 km) northeast of Norfolk was that, early in World War II, Navy planners saw a necessity for landing large numbers of American troops on foreign shores in the face of enemy gunfire. That such operations would be difficult was also evident. New methods and techniques in landing troops would have to be developed. Training would be needed before sufficient men were proficient in the complicated art of the amphibious assault, which would enable U.S. troops to drive to the heart of the enemy.
The base was initially established in the farmland of Princess Anne County. During the early phases of World War II the base was literally a combination of farmland and swamps. Four bases were constructed on this area: Camp Bradford, Camp Shelton, U.S. Naval Frontier Base, and Amphibious Training Base. Camps Bradford and Shelton were named for the former owners of the land.
At first Camp Bradford was a training base for Navy Seabees, but in 1943 it was changed into a training center for the crews of LSTs (Landing Ship Tank).
Camp Shelton was an armed guard training center for bluejackets serving on board merchant ships as gun crews. At the end of World War II it served as a separation center.
The Frontier Base was the forwarding center for Amphibious Force personnel and equipment destined for the European Theater.
The Amphibious Training Base (also known as "Little Creek") was the center for all types of amphibious training and the training of ship's crews for LSM (landing ship medium), LCI (landing craft infantry), and LCU (landing craft utility); LCM (landing craft mechanized), and LCVP (landing craft vehicle, personnel) boat crews were also trained at Little Creek.
At the new bases, the techniques of training had to be developed from scratch. Facilities for the upkeep of equipment as well as living facilities for personnel were primitive. The newcomers found few buildings and practically no roads or utilities. Just bean vines. After various improvisations along came temporary buildings that were later to give the site some resemblance to a naval base.
In a few months the trained men who were to land fighting forces from Africa to Normandy were ready for sea. During World War II over 200,000 Naval personnel and 160,000 Army and Marine Corps personnel trained at Little Creek.

Tenants

[edit]Afloat commands
(As of December 2009)
USS Whidbey Island (LSD-41)
USS Fort McHenry (LSD-43)
USS Gunston Hall (LSD-44)
USS Ashland (LSD-48)
USS Carter Hall (LSD-50)
USS Oak Hill (LSD-51)
USS Tempest (PC-2)
USS Hurricane (PC-3)
USS Monsoon (PC-4)
USS Squall (PC-7)
USS Thunderbolt (PC-12)
[edit]Major shore commands
Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group Two
Explosive Ordnance Disposal Expeditionary Support Unit Two
Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit Two
Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit Six
Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit Twelve
Naval Beach Group Two
Assault Craft Unit Two
Assault Craft Unit Four
Beachmaster Unit Two
Naval Construction Force
See also: Amphibious Construction Battalion One (ACB-1)
1st Naval Construction Division
Amphibious Construction Battalion Two
Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit 202
Naval Special Warfare Group Two
SEAL Team Two
SEAL Team Four
SEAL Team Eight
SEAL Team Ten
Naval Special Warfare Group Four
Special Boat Team 20
Tactical Air Control Group Two
Tactical Air Control Squadron Twenty One
Tactical Air Control Squadron Twenty Two
Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit Two
Underwater Construction Team One

Source-Cryptome.org/Norfolk Naval Base

Source-Wikipedia/Virginia Beach, Virginia

Source-Business Insider

When 32-year-old Jessica Buchanan was kidnapped by her Somalian guides in October of 2011, not many believed she or her partner Hagen Thisted, 60, would ever be seen alive again.
Working for the Danish Deming Group assisting refugees along Somalia's war-torn border, Buchanan and Thisted were seized on their way to the Galkayo airport by pirates outraged at the West.
Jim Miklaszewski at NBC reports the pirates demanded ransom for

Danish Refugee Council
Jessica Buchanan
the pair, but negotiations had stalled as the kidnappers were a heavily armed medley of locals rather than any organized group.
Haunted by the 1993 debacle in Somalia from which the movie Black Hawk Down is based, the U.S. was reluctant to intervene, knowing that any mistakes would cause outrage in the States and more embarrassment abroad.
Putting aside its concern, and prompted by reports that Buchanan's health was declining, the Pentagon ordered a rescue mission and sent two helicopters into the Somalian village last night where the pair were being held, and rescued them both.
The SEALs had parachuted in about 60-minutes prior, securing the area and locating the hostages, before the choppers were sent to pick everyone up — including up to nine pirates and as many as five additional hostages.
Debbie Wilgoren at The Washington Post reports the pirates guarding the pair had been chewing the narcotic leaf khat and were passed out when the SEALs swept in.
No U.S. troops were injured and the pair were apparently in good health, before being taken to a "safe location" to reunite with their families.
It's thought they are currently in Djibouti, where the U.S. has a small base on the coast of the Red Sea and that they will remain there for medical checks before being sent home.
The American people were given their first hint of the rescue during the President's State of the Union Speech when he pointed to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in the crowd and said, "Leon. Good job tonight. Good job tonight." Check out 11 incredible weapons that only the U.S. has >
Check out the ABC video below:

Jewish/Arab Controlled Nations of Saudi Arabia, Quatar, United Arab Emirates are getting "Special Training" from U.S. Navy combat specialist, in preparation for Iran Invasion!

Source-Wired.com/U.S. Navy Training Arabs to fight Iran

Tensions between the U.S. and Iran are at a high point, as the Islamic Republic threatens to close off a vital waterway and two U.S. aircraft carrier battle groups sit in the seas off the Iranian coast. But across the Persian Gulf, the U.S. has a previously unacknowledged weapon in reserve: a new special operations team.

Danger Room has confirmed with the U.S. Special Operations Command that a new elite commando team is operating in the region. The primary, day-to-day mission of the team, known as Joint Special Operations Task Force-Gulf Cooperation Council, is to mentor military units belonging to the U.S.’ oil-rich Arab allies, who collectively are known as the Gulf Cooperation Council. Those Arab states consider Iran to be their primary foreign threat.

The task force provides “highly trained personnel that excel in uncertain environments,” Maj. Rob Bockholt, a spokesman for special-operations forces in the Mideast, tells Danger Room, and “seeks to confront irregular threats.” The U.S. military has not previously acknowledged the existence of the team, known as JSOTF-GCC for short.

The unit began its existence in mid-2009 — around the time that the Iranian leadership rejected President Obama’s offer of a new diplomatic dialogue and underwent a serious internal challenge to its legitimacy from Green Movement protesters. But whatever the task force does about Iran — or might do in the future — is a sensitive subject with the military.

“It would be inappropriate to discuss operational plans regarding any particular nation,” Bockholt says about Iran.

There is no direct evidence that JSOTF-GCC has been involved in offensive action against Iran. It is unlikely, for instance, that JSOTF-GCC killed Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan last week, an assassination the U.S. has firmly denied any role in and for which the Israelis, reports Eli Lake of Newsweek, are all but openly taking credit.

Some special-operations veterans — who did not wish to be identified or quoted — downplayed the significance of the new task force, expecting it to primarily advise Gulf nations on how to train their own forces, and speculated that its actual role against Iran was indirect at most. Col. Tim Nye, the chief spokesman for the U.S. Special Operations Command, says the task force is responsible “for coordinating all SOF [Special Operations Forces] engagements and training with Gulf Cooperation Council nations.”

The special operations forces of those nations have shown a notable improvement over the past year. Qatari commandos quietly traveled to Libya ahead of Moammar Gadhafi’s downfall to prepare Libyan rebels for the successful capture of Tripoli. The United Arab Emirates, another close U.S. ally, has also made its elite forces a priority, even hiring Blackwater’s founder to bolster their training.

Not many details are available about the task force. It’s built around Naval Special Warfare Unit Three, one of the elite Navy SEAL teams. But the “Joint” in the task force’s name signals that it draws from the special-operations forces in the Army, Air Force and Marines as well. Its commander is a Navy captain or equivalent in a different service.

Officials would not identify missions of the task force, its leadership or its headquarters, citing the safety of the personnel involved and the success of those missions.

Even if JSOTF-GCC is primarily a training team, it represents another military option for the U.S. in the region during at a time of escalating rhetoric with Iran. The Iranians are threatening to close off the Strait of Hormuz, the sea lane through which a fifth of the world’s oil travels, as two U.S. aircraft carrier battle groups float nearby. And when the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says the U.S. could reopen the waterway by force, there might be an elite commando team nearby to help do it.

Source-Stars and Stripes-"Secretive Seal Team rescues Hostages"...

U.S. special ops team rescues workers from pirates in Somalia
By JOHN VANDIVER
Stars and Stripes
Published: January 25, 2012

Undated images provided by the Danish Refugee Council show Dane Poul Hagen Thisted, left, and American Jessica Buchanan, who were rescued from Somali pirates by U.S. forces.
DANISH REFUGEE COUNCIL
STUTTGART, Germany — U.S. special operations forces conducted a nighttime raid into Somalia early Wednesday, rescuing two kidnapped humanitarian workers and killing all nine of their captors, according to U.S. military officials.

“Last night’s mission, boldly conducted by some of our nation’s most courageous, competent and committed special operations forces, exemplifies United States Africa Command’s mission to protect Americans and American interests in Africa,” Gen. Carter F. Ham, commander of AFRICOM, said in a statement.

Jessica Buchanan, an American citizen and Poul Thisted, a Danish citizen, both working for a demining unit of the Danish Refugee Council, were transported to a safe location while plans were made to return them home, U.S. officials said. The pair had been held for ransom since October.

While Ham did not specify which service branch carried out the mission, such operations in the past have been carried out by SEALs. The Associated Press, citing unnamed U.S. officials, said the rescue was carried out by the same SEAL unit that conducted the Pakistan raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

The rescue mission was ordered by President Barack Obama, who, before Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, gave a thumbs up to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in an apparent reference to the mission.

The operation, conducted under the direction of AFRICOM, isn’t the first time special operations troops have ventured into Somalia. In 2009, they boarded helicopters and swept into southern Somalia to take out a wanted al-Qaida operative. The military also is believed to carry out occasional drone strikes in the country against high-value terrorist suspects. Even FBI agents entered the country last April to take custody of a pirate suspected of negotiating a ransom for American hostages.

“I think this is another indicator that we are taking that area, the instability around the Horn of Africa, continually more seriously,” said Jim Gavrilis, a former Green Beret and security consultant.

Such operations could become more commonplace, particularly with the successful track record of such missions in recent years, he said. But while policymakers might feel more and more comfortable deploying these forces, there are still risks.

“Any one of these operations has the potential to go bad,” Gavrilis said.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Obama voiced pride in the troops and said the mission should send a message about the willingness of the U.S. to go after groups that target civilians.

“Thanks to the extraordinary courage and capabilities of our Special Operations Forces, yesterday Jessica Buchanan was rescued and she is on her way home. As Commander-in-Chief, I could not be prouder of the troops who carried out this mission, and the dedicated professionals who supported their efforts.

“The United States will not tolerate the abduction of our people, and will spare no effort to secure the safety of our citizens and to bring their captors to justice,” Obama said. “This is yet another message to the world that the United States of America will stand strongly against any threats to our people.”

U.S. special operations forces received intelligence that placed the humanitarian workers in the vicinity of Adado, Somalia, according to AFRICOM.

“During the course of the operation, the rescue force patrolled to the location and confirmed the presence of Mrs. Buchanan and Mr. Thisted guarded by nine captors,” an AFRICOM news release stated. “All nine captors were killed during the assault.”

After securing the location, the U.S. forces found Buchanan and Thisted unharmed in an outdoor encampment, AFRICOM said.

“This successful hostage rescue, undertaken in a hostile environment, is a testament to the superb skills of courageous service members who risked their lives to save others,” Panetta said in a statement. “This mission demonstrates our military’s commitment to the safety of our fellow citizens wherever they may be around the world. I am grateful to report that there was no loss of life or injuries to our personnel.”

Buchanan and Thisted, who were in Somalia to conduct a demining training course for local Somali citizens, also did not suffer injuries during the operation, Panetta said.

The Danish Refugee Council reported on its website that the two aid workers were on their way to being reunited with their families.

The Associated Press, which made contact with two pirates it said were familiar with details of the operation, reported that the kidnappers holding the aid workers were caught sleeping, having become drowsy while chewing the narcotic leaf qat for much of the night.

“I am extraordinarily proud of the joint-service team that planned, rehearsed and successfully concluded this operation,” Ham said. “Thanks to them, a fellow American and her Danish co-worker are safe and will soon be home with their families.”

vandiverj@estripes.osd.mil

Lies, Lies, and More Lies from the President!

2012-01-25T00:28:00.011-07:00

NOT A DIME'S WORTH A DIFFERENCE FROM BOTH POLITICAL PARTIES, MASS CORRUPTION, MASS MURDER(Wars,Government Terrorism), AND MASS SOUL ROT, AMERICA 2012!

Source-The End of the American Dream.com/Moral Rot of America 2012

Is Christianity in decline in America? When you examine the cold, hard numbers it is simply not possible to come to any other conclusion. Over the past few decades, the percentage of Christians in America has been steadily declining. This has especially been true among young people. As you will see later in this article, there has been a mass exodus of teens and young adults out of U.S. churches. In addition, what "Christianity" means to American Christians today is often far different from what "Christianity" meant to their parents and their grandparents. Millions upon millions of Christians in the United States simply do not believe many of the fundamental principles of the Christian faith any longer. Without a doubt, America is becoming a less "Christian" nation. This has staggering implications for the future of this country. The United States was founded primarily by Christians that were seeking to escape religious persecution. For those early settlers, the Christian faith was the very center of their lives, and it deeply affected the laws that they made and the governmental structures that they established. So what is the future of America going to look like if we totally reject the principles that this nation was founded on?

Overall, Christianity is still the largest religion in the world by far. According to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, there are currently 2.2 billion Christians in the world. So Christianity is not in danger of disappearing any time soon. In fact, in some areas of the globe it is experiencing absolutely explosive growth.

But in the United States, things are different. Churches are shrinking, skepticism is growing and apathy about spiritual matters seems to be at an all-time high.

Before we examine the data, let me disclose that I am a Christian. I am not bashing Christians or the Christian faith at all in this article. In fact, I consider the decline of Christianity in America to be a very bad thing. Not everyone is going to agree with me on that, but hopefully this article will help spark a debate on the role of religion in America that everyone can learn something from.

Unfortunately, the reality is that most Americans spend very little time thinking about religion or spiritual matters these days.

Just consider the following quote from a recent USA Today article....

"The real dirty little secret of religiosity in America is that there are so many people for whom spiritual interest, thinking about ultimate questions, is minimal," says Mark Silk, professor of religion and public life at Trinity College"

This is backed up by the numbers. For example, a survey taken last year by LifeWay Research found that 46 percent of all Americans never think about whether they will go to heaven or not.

To most Americans, faith is simply not a big deal. This is particularly true of our young people. Those under the age of 30 are leaving U.S. churches in droves. The following comes from a recent CNN article....

David Kinnaman, the 38-year-old president of the Barna Group, an evangelical research firm, is the latest to sound the alarm. In his new book, "You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church and Rethinking Faith," he says that 18- to 29-year-olds have fallen down a "black hole" of church attendance. There is a 43% drop in Christian church attendance between the teen and early adult years, he says.

But it isn't just young people that are leaving American churches. The proportion of Americans that consider themselves to be Christians has been steadily declining for many years. Back in 1990, 86 percent of all Americans considered themselves to be Christian. By 2008, that number had dropped to 76 percent.

Meanwhile, the number of Americans that reject religion entirely has absolutely soared. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of Americans with "no religion" more than doubled between 1990 and 2008.

So what is going to happen if these trends continue?

Dave Olson, the director of church planting for the Evangelical Covenant Church, has made some really interesting projections regarding what is going to happen to church attendance in America if current trends continue.

According to Olson, only 18.7 percent of all Americans regularly attend church right now. If this number continues to decline at the current pace, Olson says that the percentage of Americans attending church in 2050 will be about half of what it is today.

Other research has produced similar results.

According to a study done by LifeWay Research, membership in Southern Baptist churches will fall nearly 50 percent by the year 2050 if current trends persist.

If you are a Christian, you should be quite alarmed by these numbers.

But what is happening to the faith of our young people should be even more alarming for Christians.

The American Religious Identification Survey by the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society & Culture at Trinity College is one of the most comprehensive studies on religion in America that has ever been done.

According to that study, 15 percent of all Americans say that they have "no religion".

That is up from 8 percent in 1990.

That is quite a change.

But the move away from religion is particularly pronounced among our young people.

One recent survey found that 25 percent of all Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 say that they have no religion.

Obviously the Christian faith is not winning the battle for the hearts and the minds of our young people. The cold, hard truth is that in America today, the younger you are, the less likely you are to consider yourself to be a Christian.

Large numbers of young Americans that went to church while they were growing up are now leaving U.S. churches entirely. A recent study by the Barna Group discovered that nearly 60 percent of all Christians between the ages of 15 and 29 are no long actively involved in any church.

But not only have they left the church, our young people have also abandoned just about all forms of Christian spirituality.

Just check out the results of one survey of young adults that was conducted by LifeWay Christian Resources....

•65% rarely or never pray with others, and 38% almost never pray by themselves either.

•65% rarely or never attend worship services of any kind.

•67% don't read the Bible or any other religious texts on a regular basis.

If this does not get turned around, churches all over America will be closing their doors. When the survey above first came out, the president of LifeWay Christian Resources stated that "the Millennial generation will see churches closing as quickly as GM dealerships."

But it is not just church that our young people are rejecting.

The reality is that they are also rejecting the fundamental principles of the Christian faith.

One survey conducted by the Barna Group found that less than 1 percent of all Americans between the ages of 18 and 23 hold a Biblical worldview.

The Barna Group asked participants in the survey if they agreed with the following six statements....

1) Believing that absolute moral truth exists.
2) Believing that the Bible is completely accurate in all of the principles it teaches.
3) Believing that Satan is considered to be a real being or force, not merely symbolic.
4) Believing that a person cannot earn their way into Heaven by trying to be good or by doing good works.
5) Believing that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth.
6) Believing that God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the world who still rules the universe today.

Less than 1 percent of the participants agreed with all of those statements.

That is staggering.

But it is not just young adults that are rejecting the fundamentals of the Christian faith.

Even large numbers of "evangelical Christians" are rejecting the fundamental principles of the Christian faith.

For example, one survey found that 52 percent of all Americans Christians believe that "at least some non-Christian faiths can lead to eternal life".

Another survey found that 29 percent of all American Christians claim to have been in contact with the dead, 23 percent believe in astrology and 22 percent believe in reincarnation.

Without a doubt, the religious landscape of America is changing.

Over the past several decades, church attendance has been steadily declining, the percentage of Americans that consider themselves to be Christians has been going down, and the number of people that hold traditional Christian beliefs has been dropping like a rock.

So what does all of this mean for the future of America?

Please feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts below....

Poisonous Snakes and Insects infest the U.S. Government!

Source-Mybudget360.com Young Americans face grim future

NSA And the Police State Part 2

2012-01-23T22:01:00.066-07:00

Watch The Spy Factory on PBS. See more from NOVA.

Source-Wayne Madsen Report

By Wayne Madsen
WMR's sources at the National Security Agency (NSA) have reported more high-level fraud at the agency that now combines signals intelligence and cyber-warfare functions under one officer, Army General Keith Alexander, the NSA director and commander of the U.S. Cyber Command.

When Alexander's predecessor at NSA, Air Force General Michael Hayden, was shopping for his own replacement, Alexander was the Deputy Chief of Staff for G-2 for the U.S. Army. Alexander would only take the job, according to our sources who were embedded in the Director of NSA's office, if Dr. James Heath became the senior science adviser to Alexander at NSA.
There was only one problem. Heath had his own company, Object Sciences Corporation, a firm which was intimately involved with tracking "Al Qaeda" operatives prior to the 9/11 attacks. Object Sciences provided deep data mining services to the Army's Land Information Warfare Agency's and Defense Intelligence Agency's ABLE DANGER and its affiliated DORHAWK GALLEY data mining programs.
At the same time, Hayden had shown favoritism to Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) in awarding the firm, as prime contractor, the over one billion dollar signals intelligence overhaul program known as TRAILBLAZER. Hayden hired William Black, a former NSA official who had retired and went to work for SAIC, as his Deputy Director at NSA. The issue with Heath was solved when SAIC purchased Object Sciences, providing a handsome profit to Heath prior to his taking the science adviser position under his friend Alexander. Black eventually returned to SAIC from his stint as NSA deputy director.
The following press release was issued on May 12, 2005:
"Science Applications International Corp. has completed its acquisition of Object Sciences Corp., the company announced today. Terms of the deal were not disclosed . . .
OSC's involvement in reshaping how intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance information is processed and analyzed has provided critical assistance to combat forces in specific theaters, such as Iraq and Korea, as well as the war on global terrorism in general, SAIC said."
Alexander took over as NSA director on August 1, 2005, a few months after the SAIC-OSC deal. Heath then became Alexander's chief science adviser.
Another former SAIC principal who, like Black, transitioned from SAIC to NSA and back again to SAIC was Sam Visner. After joining NSA from SAIC, Visner was the senior acquisition manager for NSA and was key to the award of the TRAILBLAZER contract to SAIC. A less expensive signals intelligence re-engineering solution code-named THIN THREAD, was rejected by NSA in favor of the TRAILBLAZER, which was later canceled after SAIC pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars.
Hayden went on to become the first deputy Director of National Intelligence and, ultimately, the CIA director. He now works with former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff at Chertoff Group. His pet project, TRAILBLAZER, was canceled due to cost overruns and failed deliveries and was replaced by another reported contractor boondoggle called TURBULENCE. A number of senior NSA, Justice Department, and congressional officials were harassed and one, Thomas Drake, prosecuted for revealing the corruption. Those coming under NSA and FBI scrutiny, all subjected to harassment and threat of prosecution, included, in addition to Drake, Justice Department prosecutor Thomas Tamm, House Intelligence Committee budget specialist Diane Roark, NSA officials William Binney, Kirk Wiebe, and Ed Loomis, and others, never mentioned in press accounts, who were interviewed by WMR.
One former NSA official who was terminated and then placed under NSA Security and FBI surveillance after reporting through proper channels fraud, waste, and abuse with TRAILBLAZER and associated contracts, told WMR, "we are not whistleblowers but witnesses to major crimes committed by NSA and contractors."
Among the spin-offs of TRAILBLAZER was the unconstitutional STELLAR WIND program that permitted NSA to engage in wholesale warrantless wiretapping of phone calls, emails, and faxes, particularly journalists and elected political leaders.
Hayden, who has become a national security adviser to Mitt Romney and would be assured a top-level job in a Romney administration, perhaps National Security Adviser, is also involved with a subscription web service called LIGNet, or "Langley Intelligence Group Network" as a "LIGNet adviser." WMR has been told by intelligence community insiders that LIGNet is an operational security (OPSEC) problem because a wealth of borderline classified information appears on the web site.

Source-Public Intelligence.net Anonymous Hacks website

Public Intelligence

On January 16, 2012 an unauthorized party associated with the hacktivist collective Anonymous gained access to this site’s web server. The attacker gained root access and posted a number of versions of a photo of a naked man. These images were used to deface the front of the site in multiple locations and contained the message “WAS HERE WITH 0DAY, ONLY SHIT I FOUND BAD WAS U LOGGING IN FROM A DSL CONNECTION… THEN AGAIN U BOUGHT THIS SERVER WITH UR PERSONAL CARD SO U CAN BE DOX’D… LEFT U THESE COX AS A FRIENDLY REMINDER THAT YOUR BOX CAN BE PWNED AT ALL TIMES…” The attackers then manipulated configuration files for the server which caused an error message to appear to visitors of the site. This state persisted for approximately eight hours blocking access to the site before it was later fixed by the attacker, who left a longer explanation for the hack in the server’s root directory.

Though the hackers were fairly polite and we do not believe that there is any current threat to our users, we have disabled our submissions form and will not be accepting new information at the moment. We have also disabled some of the user features on the site, which were more a remnant of a previous phase of this site’s operation and served little practical value. If you, at any point, have had an account on this site with a password that is also used elsewhere, you should change it. The hackers claim that they did not look into our database to retrieve this information. However, you would be wise to protect against that possibility.

We feel that this action by Anonymous was misguided. While we understand their desire to demonstrate their ability to “penetrate” anything, their defacement of this platform was unnecessary. This site has functioned for several years now as a vital source of information that is concealed and restricted from the general public. Large amounts of people in all walks of life utilize its resources. At the time of the defacement, this site was serving several files as source material for articles in publications around the world, including information on the automated scanning of license plates and other forms of public surveillance in Germany, the Department of Defense’s Non-Lethal Weapons Reference Book which received a large amount of coverage in Russia and Eastern Europe after it was reported on by the BBC, and a particularly frank Marine Corps handbook that describes the CIA’s history of funding the Mujahideen via the Pakistani ISI. Because of the defacement, many people visiting the site were then confronted with pictures of naked men which may have dissuaded them from accessing the extremely important information contained in these documents.

We’ve never professed to be extremely adept technologically, nor have we ever claimed to be creating a massively secure system for the submission of high-profile leaks. In fact, we hate “leaks” in general and we try to avoid using the word as much as possible. Leaking implies an accident, like something that escaped through a crack or water passing through a sieve. How can you leak something that should never have been secret in the first place? We are simply average, humble people who are trying to inform ourselves and others about the world in which we live. Nearly every piece of information on this site is something that was obtained from a publicly-accessible source using means available to any member of the public. We have published this material using open-source software in an attempt to inform others and demonstrate the potential for public action in the sphere of intelligence and media.

And so, if we are to create anything lasting, we must work together towards a society where everyone can express themselves freely and share information openly. We must not attack one another, for this only undermines the legitimacy of our cause. If we are to live in a world where knowledge truly is free, we must act with the gravity that this freedom demands. Anarchy is not chaos, it is self-governance.

A message left by the hacker:

sorry for this but we consider u friendly so i just left a message and
wiped /var/log

there was nothing u could do against this breach, this was just to
remind you that we can breach anything and so can the enemy :)

be careful what u do, improve ur OPSEC

maybe buy the server/hosting with a temp card and access is via Tor

try and remove links from ur personal life from this service :)

keep up the good work and hope u enjoy the cox :D

cheers

#antisec

PS: i didnt steal any of ur credentials neither i even look into the mysql
db, i dont know any of ur passwords though u should change them of course.
this was a direct root via a 0day we have :) it was not ur fault... i just
thought that i should leave u this message apart from the cox so u get a feel
what penetration looks like... our enemies dont leave messages ;)

Source-Kick them all out Project

(WMR) -- National Security Agency (NSA) sources have reported to WMR that the signals intelligence agency's warrantless wiretapping program was more widespread than originally reported and that it began shortly after the 2001 inauguration of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, some six months prior to the 9/11 attacks.

Former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio reported that NSA requested that his firm take part in the warrantless wiretapping program in a February 27, 2001, meeting but that he told NSA that Qwest would refuse to participate. AT&T, BellSouth, SBC, Sprint, and Verizon all agreed to participate in the wiretapping program, which resulted in such a large database of intercepted calls, faxes, and e-mails, that NSA recently announced it was building a huge 1 million square feet data warehouse at a cost of $1.5 billion at Camp Williams in Utah, as well as another massive data warehouse in San Antonio. The cover story is that the warehouses are part of NSA's new Cyber Command responsibilities. NSA sources have told WMR that the warehouses are to store the massive amount of intercepts collected by the ongoing Terrorist Surveillance Program, an above top secret program once code named STELLAR WIND by the NSA.

Nacchio was later convicted on 19 counts of insider trading of Qwest stock and sentenced to six years in federal prison. Nacchio maintained that his prosecution and conviction was in retaliation for his refusal to participate in the illegal NSA surveillance program. NSA also canceled a major contract with Qwest over its refusal to wiretap calls without warrants.

President Obama ordered his Justice Department's attorneys to press U.S. Judge Vaughn Walker to toss out a lawsuit brought against the Bush administration's warrantless wiretap program, details of which were revealed by AT&T engineer Mark Klein. Our NSA sources revealed that Obama has asked the lawsuit to be dismissed because the warrantless wiretapping program is as robust in collecting massive amounts of intercepted communications without a warrant under Obama as it did during the Bush-Cheney administration. Obama also backs immunity from lawsuits for telecommunications companies participating in the illegal surveillance operations. The Justice Department is using the draconian State Secrets Privilege to battle against lawsuits against the telecommunication carriers.

NSA collects domestic communications by installing specialized eavesdropping equipment, including traffic analyzers, at over 25 telecommunications facilities around the United States, including where Klein worked at AT&T's central office in the SBC Building at 611 Folsom Street in San Francisco and at major switching facilities in Bridgeton, Missouri; San Jose; San Diego; Seattle; Los Angeles (1150 South Olive Street, as well as the Beverly Hills central office that targets the area's rich and famous celebrities); Chicago (227 West Monroe Street); New York (Lower Manhattan at 33 Thomas Street, 375 Pearl Street, and 811 10th Avenue); Northern Virginia/Washington, DC; Miami; Atlanta (Midtown Center); Houston; Minneapolis; Detroit (1365 Cass Avenue); Jacksonville, Florida; Philadelphia; Kansas City; Dallas (One AT&T Plaza); Memphis; Pittsburgh; Bedminster, New Jersey; Boston; Nashville (333 Commerce Street); Baltimore; Cleveland (Huron Road Building); and Denver.

One of the first targets of the NSA warrantless wiretapping program in February 2001, a few weeks after Bush's inauguration, was Iraqi-Americans and other Arab-Americans, as well as resident aliens from Arab countries in the United States. The warrantless wiretapping of the Arab-American community coincided with "surge operations" directed by NSA against the communications of Saddam Hussein and his top government officials in Iraq and other countries.

The NSA warrantless wiretapping program soon grew to include millions of Americans, including elected and appointed government officials, federal judges, anti-Bush celebrities and clergy, and even intelligence and law enforcement officials. WMR previously reported that a joint NSA-CIA database code-named FIRST FRUITS maintained a database on the intercepted phone calls of U.S. journalists.

WMR previously reported that NSA "fishnet" surveillance was used in the take down of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, as well as political dirt gathering directed against New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and then-Senator Joe Biden. There is also every indication that NSA intercepted the phone calls and emails of the junior senator from Illinois -- one Barack Obama.

Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).

The Salt Lake Tribune

First published Jan 04 2011 12:09PM
Updated Mar 22, 2011 11:04PM
A groundbreaking ceremony Thursday will formally kick off work on the Utah Data Center, a $1.2 billion project viewed as the salvation for the state’s beleaguered construction industry.

Nearly 10,000 people are expected to be employed over the next three years building the 1-million-square-foot facility at Camp Williams on the Salt Lake/Utah county line.

The National Security Agency will use the climate-controlled environment of its computerized core as a repository for information gathered by different branches of the country’s intelligence apparatus, hence the facility’s nickname, “The Spy Center.”

The 2 p.m. event may be one of the public’s last chances to take an open look at the project, technically known as the nation’s first Intelligence Community Comprehensive National Cyber-security Initiative (CNCI) Data Center.

“We’ve been asked not to talk about the project,” said Rob Moore, president and chief operating officer of Big-D Construction. His company is part of a consortium of contractors that won the coveted construction contract from the National Security Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is overseeing the building.

While he could not speak about the facility as a Big-D representative, Moore was able to comment briefly as president of the Utah Association of General Contractors.

“We’ve lost over 40,000 jobs in the construction market since 2008,” he said. “This will have a significant impact replacing some of those jobs and providing work for many, many small businesses.”

Since the project first was announced late in the fall of 2009, small businesses have been jockeying to be included as subcontractors for the big construction companies that won the bid, in this case Big-D and its national partners, Balfour Beatty and DPR.

Work will get under way at an ideal time for Utah trades people, ramping up just as construction of the City Creek Center in downtown Salt Lake City is winding down.

“We’ve been fortunate here in the state,” said Jim Judd of the Utah AFL-CIO labor unions. “The NSA project will pick up the commercial construction business. It will provide long-term employment help for the state until, hopefully, the economy recovers .”

An Army Corps of Engineers news release about the ground breaking said construction now is scheduled to be completed by October 2013. The initial timetable envisioned the facility being operational by June 2012.

mikeg@sltrib.com

NSA Corruption

World Update January 21st, 2012 20:34 Hours

2012-01-21T20:34:00.072-07:00

U.S. Newspaper Owner writes Op-ED proposing Israel assassinate President Obama!

Source-International Middle East Media Center.org
US newspaper owner writes op-ed proposing Israel assassinate Obama
Sunday January 22, 2012 00:05 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

The editor and publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times, Andrew Adler, has come under fire, and on Friday issued an apology, for an op-ed in which he surmised that the Israeli Prime Minister should “order a hit” on US President Barack Obama in order to preserve the Jewish state.

Image of article from Atlanta Jewish Times

In the article, published over a week ago, Adler laid out three possible scenarios for the Israeli Prime Minister to follow, the third being the assassination of Obama by Israeli Mossad agents based in the US. The other two options, according to Adler, would be for Israel to launch an all-out assault on Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza or to attack Iran. He argues that these are the only ways for Israel to preserve its existence in the face of the threat he claims is posed by the Iranian state.

The online news and opinion site Gawker.com scanned the print article and posted it on their website, along with a conversation their reporter had with Adler regarding his article, in which Adler ‘nervously’ stated that he did not mean to imply that Israel should assassinate the US President.

Contrary to his conversation with Gawker.com, Adler’s article states clearly that Netanyahu’s ‘third option’ is to “give the go-ahead for U.S.-based Mossad agents to take out a president deemed unfriendly to Israel in order for the current vice president to take his place, and forcefully dictate that the United States' policy includes its helping the Jewish state obliterate its enemies.”

He continues, “Yes, you read ‘three’ correctly. Order a hit on a president in order to preserve Israel's existence. Think about it. If I have thought of this Tom Clancy-type scenario, don't you think that this almost unfathomable idea has been discussed in Israel's most inner circles?”

On Friday, after dozens of commentators criticized the article, Adler told reporters with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) that he plans to publish an apology in the next issue of his newspaper, after his article received negative responses from readers.

In response to claims that the US Secret Service was investigating the call for Obama’s assassination, Adler told the JTA that he had not been contacted by the Secret Service, and was not aware of any investigation.

Massive 'Last Days' Methane/Natural Gas Explosion underneath Oklahoma/Ohio??? to cause New Madrid fault to Split Open!

Source-Encyclopedia Brittanica-Fracturing causes earthquakes video

U.S. Government report ties Drilling/Fracturing for Oil to Earthquakes

Source-OilPrice.com

On 5 November an earthquake measuring 5.6 rattled Oklahoma and was felt as far away as Illinois.

Until two years ago Oklahoma typically had about 50 earthquakes a year, but in 2010, 1,047 quakes shook the state.

Why?

In Lincoln County, where most of this past weekend's seismic incidents were centered, there are 181 injection wells, according to Matt Skinner, an official from the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, the agency which oversees oil and gas production in the state.

Cause and effect?

The practice of injecting water into deep rock formations causes earthquakes, both the U.S. Army and the U.S. Geological Survey have concluded.

The U.S. natural gas industry pumps a mixture of water and assorted chemicals deep underground to shatter sediment layers containing natural gas, a process called hydraulic fracturing, known more informally as “fracking.” While environmental groups have primarily focused on fracking’s capacity to pollute underground water, a more ominous byproduct emerges from U.S. government studies – that forcing fluids under high pressure deep underground produces increased regional seismic activity.

As the U.S. natural gas industry mounts an unprecedented and expensive advertising campaign to convince the public that such practices are environmentally benign, U.S. government agencies have determined otherwise.

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According to the U.S. Army’s Rocky Mountain Arsenal website, the RMA drilled a deep well for disposing of the site’s liquid waste after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency “concluded that this procedure is effective and protective of the environment.” According to the RMA, “The Rocky Mountain Arsenal deep injection well was constructed in 1961, and was drilled to a depth of 12,045 feet” and 165 million gallons of Basin F liquid waste, consisting of “very salty water that includes some metals, chlorides, wastewater and toxic organics” was injected into the well during 1962-1966.

Why was the process halted? “The Army discontinued use of the well in February 1966 because of the possibility that the fluid injection was “triggering earthquakes in the area,” according to the RMA. In 1990, the “Earthquake Hazard Associated with Deep Well Injection--A Report to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency” study of RMA events by Craig Nicholson, and R.I. Wesson stated simply, “Injection had been discontinued at the site in the previous year once the link between the fluid injection and the earlier series of earthquakes was established.”

Twenty-five years later, “possibility” and ‘established” changed in the Environmental Protection Agency’s July 2001 87 page study, “Technical Program Overview: Underground Injection Control Regulations EPA 816-r-02-025,” which reported, “In 1967, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) determined that a deep, hazardous waste disposal well at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal was causing significant seismic events in the vicinity of Denver, Colorado.”

There is a significant divergence between “possibility,” “established” and “was causing,” and the most recent report was a decade ago. Much hydraulic fracturing to liberate shale oil gas in the Marcellus shale has occurred since.

According to the USGS website, under the undated heading, “Can we cause earthquakes? Is there any way to prevent earthquakes?” the agency notes, “Earthquakes induced by human activity have been documented in a few locations in the United States, Japan, and Canada.

The cause was injection of fluids into deep wells for waste disposal and secondary recovery of oil, and the use of reservoirs for water supplies. Most of these earthquakes were minor. The largest and most widely known resulted from fluid injection at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal near Denver, Colorado. In 1967, an earthquake of magnitude 5.5 followed a series of smaller earthquakes. Injection had been discontinued at the site in the previous year once the link between the fluid injection and the earlier series of earthquakes was established.”

Note the phrase, “Once the link between the fluid injection and the earlier series of earthquakes was established.”

So both the U.S Army and the U.S. Geological Survey over fifty years of research confirm on a federal level that that “fluid injection” introduces subterranean instability and is a contributory factor in inducing increased seismic activity.” How about “causing significant seismic events?”

Fast forward to the present.

Overseas, last month Britain’s Cuadrilla Resources announced that it has discovered huge underground deposits of natural gas in Lancashire, up to 200 trillion cubic feet of gas in all.

On 2 November a report commissioned by Cuadrilla Resources acknowledged that hydraulic fracturing was responsible for two tremors which hit Lancashire and possibly as many as fifty separate earth tremors overall. The British Geological Survey also linked smaller quakes in the Blackpool area to fracking. BGS Dr. Brian Baptie said, “It seems quite likely that they are related,” noting, “We had a couple of instruments close to the site and they show that both events occurred near the site and at a shallow depth.”

But, back to Oklahoma. Austin Holland’s August 2011 report, “Examination of Possibly Induced Seismicity from Hydraulic Fracturing in the Eola Field, Garvin County, Oklahoma” Oklahoma Geological Survey OF1-2011, studied 43 earthquakes that occurred on 18 January, ranging in intensity from 1.0 to 2.8 Md (milliDarcies.) While the report’s conclusions are understandably cautious, it does state, “Our analysis showed that shortly after hydraulic fracturing began small earthquakes started occurring, and more than 50 were identified, of which 43 were large enough to be located.”

Sensitized to the issue, the oil and natural gas industry has been quick to dismiss the charges and deluge the public with a plethora of televisions advertisements about how natural gas from shale deposits is not only America’s future, but provides jobs and energy companies are responsible custodians of the environment.

It seems likely that Washington will eventually be forced to address the issue, as the U.S. Army and the USGS have noted a causal link between the forced injection of liquids underground and increased seismic activity. While the Oklahoma quake caused a deal of property damage, had lives been lost, the policy would most certainly have come under increased scrutiny from the legal community.

While polluting a local community’s water supply is a local tragedy barely heard inside the Beltway, an earthquake ranging from Oklahoma to Illinois, Kansas, Arkansas, Tennessee and Texas is an issue that might yet shake voters out of their torpor, and national elections are slightly less than a year away.

By. John C.K. Daly of Oilprice.com

U.S./Pakistan friendship???

Pakistan/U.S. Ties on hold for now....

Source-Reuters

By Michael Georgy and Chris Allbritton

ISLAMABAD | Thu Jan 19, 2012 6:02pm EST

(Reuters) - Pakistan's ties with the United States remain on hold following a NATO cross-border air attack, its foreign minister said on Thursday, and Washington should not push Islamabad to go after militant groups or bring them to the Afghan peace process.

"Now that the re-evaluation process is under way as we speak, so till the time that that re-evaluation process is not complete, we cannot start the re-engagement," Hina Rabbani Khar said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday.

The November 26 NATO attack on the border with Afghanistan, which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, plunged relations between Washington and Islamabad to their chilliest levels in years.

Yet Khar struck a positive note, stressing the long alliance was vital for the two countries.

"I think this will also give us the ability, if we play it right, to strengthen the partnership and to make it much, much more effective," she said.

"Let me categorically say that we consider our relations and our relationship with the U.S. to be an extremely important one."

Khar said proposals for the tenor and rules for relations with the United States could be out within days.

"We are trying to push for it as we speak," Khar said. "I know that they have completed their recommendations and we will look for an appropriate day to hold the joint session of parliament. The recommendations could come out in days."

The United States sees Pakistan as critical to its efforts to wind down the war in neighboring Afghanistan, where U.S.-led NATO forces are battling a stubborn Taliban insurgency.

But the NATO border incident exacerbated a crisis in relations which erupted after U.S. special forces killed Osama bin Laden in a unilateral raid on Pakistani soil in May last year. It embarrassed Pakistan's powerful military.

Ties between Washington and Islamabad were also severely hurt a year ago by the killing of two Pakistanis by a CIA contractor: "I would say they are conveniently on hold until we start re-engaging," said Khar.

FOCUS ON HAQQANI NETWORK

The foreign minister rejected some media reports that Islamabad had snubbed a request by U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman to visit, saying it was a matter of choosing a more beneficial time.

The United States has long sought Pakistani cooperation in tackling the Haqqani network, the Afghan insurgent group now seen as the gravest threat to NATO and Afghan troops.

In October, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Islamabad with top U.S. military and intelligence officials and urged the Pakistanis to persuade militant groups to pursue peace in Afghanistan, and to tackle them if they don't cooperate.

Earlier, the then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, blamed a deadly bombing at the U.S. embassy in Kabul on the Haqqani network, which has long ties to al Qaeda. He said it acted as a "veritable arm" of Pakistani intelligence.

Pakistan argues that the United States needs to be patient and gain a greater understanding of the region's complexities before acting, and that pressure would only hurt efforts to pacify Afghanistan.

"'Push' is never wise. I think that every country must be allowed to develop their own strategy and their own timing," said a confident-sounding Khar, stressing that another incursion by NATO or the United States would be harmful.

"What is unacceptable to Pakistan is to have any troops on the ground. What is unacceptable to Pakistan is not to respect the inviolability of our borders," she said. "All of these things make it more difficult for us to be an effective partner."

While the United States is expected to keep a modest military presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014, all of President Barack Obama's 'surge' troops will be home by fall and the administration - looking to refocus on domestic priorities in a presidential election year - is exploring further reductions.

Khar said the United States should take a closer look at realities on the ground in Afghanistan, where the Kabul government is hoping to make security forces more effective before Western combat troops are due home by the end of 2014.

She said: "They need to ensure that they are bound by ground realities and not artificial lines of any type, timelines or anything else."

(Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Ed Lane and Alastair Macdonald)

Source-The Nation-U.S. to now "invest money" into Pakistan

KARACHI – The American government is willing to promote the US investment in Pakistan, particularly in the energy sector. This was stated by US Consul General William Martin during his visit to Karachi Stock Exchange where he also rang the bell for commencement of the day’s trading.

He assured the audience of the United States ’commitment to a strong bilateral relationship and to continuing strengthening of economic opportunities between the two countries. William expressed his delight on his visit to the Karachi Stock Exchange.

US Consul General applauded the initiative by the KSE’s Board to promote dialogue with regional exchanges. He stated that US will provide the investments and ideas to help Pakistan realize its unlimited potential.

Muneer Kamal, member of the Governing Board of Directors of KSE, thanked the US Consul General for gracing the occasion. He highlighted the resilience of the members of the KSE in navigating through tough economic and market environment. He expressed his strong faith and hope in the future of the country and the capital market, saying that the stock market will show increasingly better performance going forward.

This news was published in print paper.To access the complete paper of this day.

New Afghanistan Supply routes costing U.S. Taxpayers " A arm and a leg"...

Source-Washington Post

APNewsBreak: Pakistan’s closure of supply routes costs US 6 times more for new route
Text Size Print E-mail Reprints
By Associated Press, Published: January 19

WASHINGTON — The U.S. is paying six times as much to send war supplies to troops in Afghanistan through alternate routes after Pakistan’s punitive decision in November to close border crossings to NATO convoys, the Associated Press has learned.

Islamabad shut down two key Pakistan border crossings after a U.S. airstrike killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers in late November, and it is unclear when the crossings might reopen.

Pentagon figures provided to the AP show it is now costing about $104 million per month to send the supplies through a longer northern route. That is $87 million more per month than when the cargo moved through Pakistan.

While U.S. officials have acknowledged that using alternate transportation routes for Afghan war supplies is more expensive and takes longer, the total costs had not been revealed until now. The Pentagon provided the cost figures to the AP on Thursday.

U.S. officials said Thursday the elevated costs are likely to continue for some time, as U.S.-Pakistan tensions remain high and Pakistan has not yet offered to restore the transport arrangement or to begin negotiations on the matter. Until the closure, the U.S. had relied on Pakistani routes to move about one-third of all war supplies for Afghanistan.

The U.S. has given Pakistan more than $20 billion in aid since 9/11, including civilian and military assistance. But over the past year, relations with Islamabad have been strained by a series of incidents, including the U.S. assault in Pakistan last May that killed Osama bin Laden.

Pakistani leaders have also complained about repeated U.S. drone strikes into their country. The strikes, largely by the CIA, target militants hiding along Pakistan’s border who launch attacks against NATO troops in Afghanistan.

The final straw, however, was the Nov. 26 cross-border attack, which hit two Pakistani border posts, enraging the Pakistani government and further eroding already shaky relations.

The U.S. blamed the errant airstrikes on a series of communications and coordination errors on both sides. American officials expressed regret but have not apologized for the incident, insisting that Pakistan fired first. Pakistan denies that and has called it an unprovoked attack.

In addition to closing the border crossings, Pakistan ordered the U.S. to vacate Shamsi air base, which the U.S. was using to launch drone strikes at al-Qaida and Taliban militants.

Over the past year or so, the U.S. military has been shrinking its reliance on the Pakistani routes, which are used to transport fuel and other non-lethal supplies. U.S. officials say they could manage indefinitely without that access if Pakistan either makes the closure permanent or offers to reopen it under unacceptable conditions.

Officials said that moves by Pakistan to briefly close the supply routes on two previous occasions after disputes with the U.S. prompted the Pentagon to begin shifting more to the northern crossings. Officials also believe that even if Pakistan eventually opens the supply routes, that there will be additional fees charged, so the alternate routes would help avoid those extra costs.

On the other hand, sending NATO convoys through Pakistan is seen by Washington as a significant piece of the overall U.S.-Pakistani partnership. Failure to reinstate those routes would signal a more severe diplomatic breach between the two countries at a critical time in the Afghan war and the ongoing battle against insurgents who seek sanctuary on the Pakistan side of the border.

According to U.S. officials, 85 percent of fuel supplies for the war effort in Afghanistan are now going through the northern supply routes, along with 30 percent of the supplies that had routinely come through Pakistan.

The northern routes connect Baltic and Caspian Sea ports with Afghanistan through Russia and Central Asia and the Caucasus. And they combine sea, rail and truck transport.

There may be, however, some movement by Pakistan to allow certain civilian Afghan supplies through the closed routes.

Dependent on Pakistan for its imports, landlocked Afghanistan has asked authorities in Pakistan to release hundreds of vehicles stacked with goods and fuel that are being held up along with NATO supplies.

Pakistani officials say they are sorting through the thousands of stranded vehicles to push through supplies for Afghans. So far, the Pakistanis have given no indication of when they will open the border for NATO supplies to Afghanistan.

There has been limited contact between top U.S. and Pakistani officials.

Last week, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, talked by phone with his Pakistani counterpart, Army Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, their first contact since Dec. 21. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has not spoken to Pakistani leaders since the incident.

Associated Press Writers Bradley Klapper in Washington and Kathy Gannon in Islamabad contributed to this report.

___

Pakistan to Re-Open Supply Route??? A little "Hush Money"???

Source-Reuters

By Michael Georgy

ISLAMABAD | Thu Jan 19, 2012 6:22am EST

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan expects to re-open supply routes to NATO forces in Afghanistan, halted after a NATO cross-border air attack killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November, but will impose tariffs, a senior security official told Reuters Thursday.

The move suggests tensions with the United States and NATO have eased, but more progress is needed for the kind of cooperation necessary to fight militancy in the border region which U.S. President Barack Obama has called the world's most dangerous place.

The official said the fees were designed to both express continued anger over the November 26 attack and raise funds for the state to fight homegrown Taliban militants blamed for many of the suicide bombings across the country.

"The tariffs will cover everything from the port to security to roads, which after all belong to Pakistan," the security official, who asked to remain anonymous, told Reuters.

No date was given for reopening the supply routes. Pakistan's trade ministry was working out details of the tariffs, said the official.

The NATO attack plunged relations between troubled allies Pakistan and the United States to their lowest point in years.

Ties had already been severely strained by a secret raid by U.S. special forces that killed Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil in May last year, embarrassing the military, which has ruled the country for over half of its 64-year history and sets security and foreign policy.

Asked if the re-opening was a sign that the crisis in relations could be tackled, the official said there was some way to go before normalcy was possible.

The two land routes to Afghanistan through Pakistan account for just under a third of all cargo that the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) ships into Afghanistan.

MYRIAD CHALLENGES

Aside from friction with the United States, Pakistan faces a slowing economy heavily dependent on foreign aid and is struggling with militant violence.

Exploratory peace talks between the homegrown Taliban, which is close to al Qaeda, and Islamabad, raised hopes that Pakistan's leaders could eventually have one less major problem to deal with.

But the talks have made little headway, a senior security official told Reuters Thursday, after the Taliban flatly rejected a demand that it work through tribal elders to reach a deal whereby fighters approach authorities and lay down their arms.

"They felt it would be humiliating. The talks are not making progress," the official said. "If they want to be included in the political system, that is what they will have to do."

The Pakistani Taliban, allied with the Afghan Taliban movement fighting U.S.-led NATO forces in Afghanistan, are entrenched in Pakistan's unruly northwestern tribal areas, along the porous frontier with Afghanistan.

GOVERNMENT STABILITY

Past peace talks have merely given the group time and space to consolidate and launch fresh suicide attacks on army installations, police stations and crowded street markets.

Such a new wave of violence could further undermine a government under pressure from the Supreme Court and the military.

Pakistan's Supreme Court Thursday adjourned a contempt hearing for Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in a case that could push him from office and imperil hopes that the longest-running civilian administration in the country's coup-marred history can complete a five-year term.

Gilani was in court to explain why he should not be charged with contempt for failing to re-open old corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.

The government maintains Zardari has presidential immunity.

"It is my conviction that he (Zardari) has complete immunity inside and outside the country," Gilani told the court.

The prime minister, however, appeared not to have convinced some judges.

"On the next date, let's hear you convince us the issue is of the president's immunity," said Justice Sarmad Osmani, a member of the seven-panel bench. "Let's grab the bull by its horns."

While the immediate battle is about Gilani, the larger political crisis is about Zardari -- who has had his own run-ins with the chief justice -- and the fate of his government which is also increasingly at loggerheads with the military.

Tensions between the civilian leadership and the army, at their worst since a 1999 coup, were sparked by a mysterious memo last year that sought U.S. help in reining in the generals.

(Additional reporting by Qasim Nauman, Serena Chaudhry and Rebecca Conway in ISLAMABAD, and Faisal Aziz and Sahar Ahmed in KARACHI; Editing by Ed Lane)

Source-Russia Today: Deadly Bird Flu research stopped due to possible world wide possible pandemic

Under pressure to put their research on hold due to fear of a biological disaster, an international team of scientists have voluntarily suspended their study on an advanced, incredibly deadly mutation of the H5N1 bird flu.
In an effort to better understand the deadly bird flu virus, Ron Fouchier of Erasmus Medical College in the Netherlands, Adolfo Garcia-Sastre of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin, Madison have been slaving over their study of the avian influenza. In conducting their own research, the team of scientists was able to mutate the original H5N1 virus into a much more lethal form to see how the outbreak could increase in intensity if not controlled outside of the lab. As word came around late last year that their research had returned a variation able to induce an international outbreak, however, the scientific community urged them to abandon their study in fear that the mutated strain would escape the lab and cause a deadly, worldwide outbreak.
With the fear failing to subside weeks later, the team of scientists has temporarily halted their research.
In its natural form, the bird flu virus has led to nearly 600 known cases and 340 deaths since it was discovered in 2003. That year there were only four outbreaks, all in East Asia, although in the years since an outbreak has claimed lives as far west as Egypt. The scientists were studying what damage a mutated strain of the virus could bring, but the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity cautioned them to refrain from publishing the results of their finding, fearful that it would influence budding bioterrorists to use the study to create their own strain and launch an epidemic.
Despite the Board’s urging, others in the science community were skeptical. "In the end, is the likelihood of misuse outweighed by the danger of beginning a Big Brother society?" Professor Wendy Barclay of Imperial College London asked the Daily Mail last month.
The researchers say in a letter published in the journals Nature and Science on Friday that they will take a two-month break from their efforts. Since news of their study caught wind, the US government, the World Health Organization and other international bodies have been evaluating a way to go about publishing the findings in periodicals eventually, taking into account their research but avoiding the publishing of a how-go guide for biological warfare.
“We realize that organizations and governments around the world need time to find the best solutions for opportunities and challenges that stem from the work,” the scientists write.
“We hope that by having a calm and reasoned discussion of the facts, scientists and biosecurity experts can reach a better understanding and find ways to enable the research to go forward while minimizing risks,” adds Kawaoka.

Source-Got Questions.org The Seven Seals, The Seven Trumpets, The Seven Bowls....

Revelation Chapter 16 Verses 1-21

1 And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.

2 And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and [upon] them which worshipped his image.

3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead [man]: and every living soul died in the sea.

4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.

5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.

6 For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.

7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous [are] thy judgments.

8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.

9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.

10 And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,

11 And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.

12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.

13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs [come] out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.

14 For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, [which] go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed [is] he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.

16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.

18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, [and] so great.

19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.

20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.

21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, [every stone] about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

Source-King james Bible and the END TIMES

Massive Solar Flare January 19th reaches Earth today!

Source-FoxNews

A powerful flare erupted from the sun Thursday, Jan. 19, unleashing a plasma wave that may supercharge the northern lights for skywatchers in high latitudes this weekend.

The solar flare occurred at about 11:30 am EST (1600 GMT) and touched off a massive solar explosion — known as a coronal mass ejection — aimed at Earth, space weather experts and officials said. The charged particles from the sun explosion should reach Earth by Saturday night (Jan. 21), and could amp up northern lights displays when they hit the upper atmosphere.

"Forecasters say strong geomagnetic storms are possible when the cloud arrives during the late hours of Jan. 21st. High-latitude (and possibly middle-latitude) sky watchers should be alert for auroras this weekend," the skywatching website Spaceweather.com announced in an alert.

Several space telescopes recorded photos and video of the solar flare, including NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and the Solar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). [Photo and video of the solar flare]

According to the Space Weather Prediction Center maintained by NOAA, Thursday's solar flare erupted from an active sunspot group called Region 1401. Another solar hotspot, called Region 1402, is also fired off a flare, the center reported.

Auroras occur when charged particles from the sun interact with Earth's upper atmosphere, releasing visible light in the process. The particles are funneled toward Earth's polar regions by the planet's magnetic field, with the northern auroral displays known as the aurora borealis, or northern lights. The southern counterpart is called the aurora australis, or southern lights.

Thursday's solar flare rated as a powerful M2-class sun storm on the scale used by astronomers to measure flare strength. M-class storms are powerful, but mid-range, types of solar flares. They fall between the weaker C-class flares and the most powerful X-class solar storms, which can pose a threat to satellites and astronauts in orbit, cause widespread communications interference and damage infrastructure on Earth when aimed directly at the planet.

SDO mission scientists have said that sunspot group 1401 has been unleashing solar flares almost daily as the sun's rotation slowly turned the solar hotspot toward Earth in recent days. On Wednesday (Jan. 18), the region unleashed an M1.7-class solar flare, they said in a Twitter post.

The sun is currently in the middle of an active phase of its 11-year solar weather cycle. The current sun storm cycle, called Solar Cycle 24, is expected to peak in 2013, NASA scientists have said.

Gigantic SONIC BOOM and NO-PLANE!
RAF: Big bang in Grimsby wasn't us

THE Royal Air Force has said none of its planes were responsible for what many have called a "sonic boom" over Grimsby.

As reported, the Grimsby Telegraph received many calls from residents who had heard what sounded like a large explosion at about 7pm on Wednesday.

Initial fears that there had been an explosion were quickly allayed and theories turned to the possibility of a sonic boom from a plane.

Initially, these suggestions appeared to be legitimate when it was revealed that the Ministry of Defence (MOD) is currently carrying out a low-flying operation named "Exercise Lightning Force" in the area.

However, when contacted by the Grimsby Telegraph, Squadron Leader Nikki Stacey, based at Headquarters Air Command, said the noise had not been caused by an RAF aircraft, adding there was "nothing reported" from any of the forces' "fast jet units". Gareth Stringer, deputy editor of Global Aviation Resource magazine, said: "A sonic boom occurs when an aeroplane breaks the sound barrier and the noise that you hear is the shockwave of area around the aircraft.

"As far as I am aware, no aircraft should break the sound barrier within ten miles of the coast, but certain atmospheric and weather conditions can mean the sound of the boom can travel further.

"That could explain why something may have been heard inland.

"Being someone who's fascinated with aviation, hearing a sonic boom is something that I would find quite cool, but I can understand why people who didn't know what the noise was would be shocked.

"These things do happen and it is certainly not something that people should be scared about."

Although not confirmed, it appears that some kind of sonic boom is the most popular explanation held by residents who were startled by the noise.

Julie Glover, who lives in Laceby, said: "I heard a big bang and the whole house shook.

"I looked out of the window but all I saw was a plane flying over."

Emma Lingard, of Healing, was tending to her horse in Immingham when the bang occurred.

"I heard a loud clatter on the roof and some pheasants flew off, so I thought it was an animal," she said.

"I jumped and the horse jumped. I walked out of the stable and couldn't see anything.

"When I returned to the car, where my son, Tom, was, he said the car had shook.

"Whatever it was, it was strong enough to shake a parked car."

Read the original story and comments from visitors to This is Grimsby

Source-Grimsby Telegraph Sonic Boom heard in Town-NO AIRPLANES

South Pole(Antarctica) Shaking Like Never Before

Source-The Extinction Protocol

January 15, 2012 – ANTARTICA - A strong and shallow series of earthquakes have erupted near the remote South Shetland Islands region of Antarctica on Sunday, experts from the U.S. Geological Survey said. The earthquakes in the intense tectonically-activated series measured a 6.6 magnitude, followed by a 6.2 magnitude earthquake and 5.1 and 5.6 aftershocks. The epicenter of the earthquakes was at various depths of from one kilometer (0.62 miles) to 14 km (9.2 miles) below the earth’s surface and some 464 kilometers west of Coronation Island in distance. No destructive tsunami was created, according to the U.S. NOAA warning center. The earthquake series is worrisome because it’s further evidence of what I have been warning about for over the past 6 months, that the Southern hemisphere, particularly around the periphery of Antarctic, is shows increasing signs of seismic destabilization. On January 12, there was a swarm of five moderate earthquakes which erupted south of Africa- the strongest of which was a 5.3 and a 5.5. On January 13, the South Sandwich Islands, north of Antarctica, was hit with a 5.1, and 5.2. On January 14 the region was struck again with a 5.0 earthquake and another 4.9 on January 15th. Not only are earthquakes increasing along the southern polar region but in November of 2011, the Tasmania’s Antarctic Climate and Ecosystem centre found that the South Ocean was storing more heat than any other ocean on the planet. The shape of the earth, a mal-formed spheroid, whose center of gravity is becoming increasing displaced by the turbulent shifting of the planet’s mass due to a wave of strong earthquakes that have rattled the planet over the last 7 years. These large mega-thrust earthquakes are exacting a terrible toll of stress on the planet’s angular momentum. In 2004, the planet suffered a devastating 9.1 mega-thrust earthquake in the Indian Ocean near the Sunda Strait. In February of 2010, Chile was rocked by a 8.8 magnitude earthquake and in March of 2011, Japan was similarly hit with a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami. In April of 2011, the European satellite Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer, or GOCE released a detailed map of Earth’s gravity field. (See quakes and mounting stress increasing around South Pole)

The digital 3-dimensional model shows planet Earth’s dimensional gravity signature is now severely deformed and this is increasing mechanical stresses within the planet’s interior- which will further aggravate thermal gradient. As the planet is generating more energy in rotation to do the same work under greater resistant pressure- it is adding an additional burden to a stressed system that is already in dire need of a catastrophic correction. The fact that Earth has oceans to create tidal budge on its sides and absorb massive earthquake seismic shocks may be the only thing that has saved the planet thus far from shifting over. Earth’s unbalanced model is further compounded by two additional factors. The planet’s magnetic field is degrading from a magnetic polar migration and subsequent reversal and the disproportionate weight of the Antarctica ice-cap has created a wobble or precession in the planet’s spin, which has recently fluctuated according to some scientists. Throw in the planet’s angle of inclination of 23° degrees and you have an unstable system that is bobbling along in space as it spins in tilted and trembling fashion. If any more large earthquakes strike the planet in the near future, her stability will erode further and the dangers of a catastrophic crustal correction becomes more likely, similar to what has already happened on Uranus, which is sitting on its side, and Mercury (with a magnetic field that is already 150 times weaker than Earth’s) whose magnetic field has also slipped and is experiencing an unexplained thermal anomaly at the southern pole. All of these factors are increasing tectonic-plate stresses and earthquake activity on a very dangerous region of the planet that is already tinged by deep submarine volcanism. –The Extinction Protocol

White House Insider-Obama a Godless Communist!

2012-01-20T09:43:00.025-07:00

White House Insider Part 1

Source-Ulsterman Report.com: White House Insider part 1

White House Insider Part 2
WHITE HOUSE INSIDER: You Don’t Ever Wanna Do The Things I’ve Done…
by Ulsterman on January 18, 2012 with 95 Comments in News

The second installment of our latest interview with a longtime D.C. political operative reveals a story once kept silent – but now finally finding its voice. ( Part one HERE )

UM: …Just start as you did before – before you decided to not include it in that previous interview.

Insider: I had a good reason for that…still not sure we want to go there. What’s done is done and all I got are thoughts. Suggestions. Bad feelings.

UM: That’s fine – the story has worth.

Insider: Another drink then…and another story for your…for whatever you think it might…

UM: Go ahead. The convention. Denver. 2008.

Insider: Yeah…yes-yes-yes. Yes we fu–ing can. Hope. Change. All bullsh-t…

So let me…let me put it – I’ll start if off like this…

There’s a fella…he’s West Coast…I’m East Coast. Great guy. Hell of a nice guy. Smart. Real sharp.

UM: You’re both – you both do the same thing? Within the Democratic Party?

Insider: Yeah – that’s right. I’ve been at it longer. I’m older…but he’s good. Connected. Well regarded. Funny son-of-a-bitch. Well liked…that’s not easy to do…with what we do…being well liked. I got…plenty…plenty of people don’t care much for me. Comes with the-the job. What it…sometimes what we are required to do.

You know…you know I destroyed a man’s career for the good of the party? That’s what they told me. For the good…they wouldn’t listen to reason. So drop the goods. Get it to that faggot at the Times. Wife. Kids. Shit…that’s all…that’s—

UM: (interrupts) I need you to focus on Denver…the convention…your friend. Focus…

(Pause)

Insider: (smiles) Yeah…my friend. Maybe a friendly acquaintance…he was everybody’s friend though. Even our Republican counterparts liked the guy. Respected him. We didn’t see each other all that much…but there were emails. A phone call here and there. He was a primary contact for the campaign out there…California, had some good people working with us in Nevada. Dealing with the union f-cks out there. J-sus did they screw Hillary on that. I’ve seen some dirty sh-t go down…but that was…they stole it. Bribed it. And she has to know. Has to know…

UM: The convention. Go back to that.

Insider: Ok – yeah…the fu–ing convention…

I’m gonna go there and then jump back…then bring it back…that’s how it went for me. That’s how I started to put it together…what…what left me – what got me worried. Thinkin’ they might of…that something very-very bad went down.

The Denver convention. Big success, right? Barack Obama…the media…just another easy campaign success for us. Everyone falling over themselves to say how brilliant…how fu–ing brilliant Obama was.

UM: You weren’t there.

Insider: No…they had me…I was back east. I watched it on the television like everyone else.

UM: But your friend was there. From the West Coast…the other operative.

Insider: Oh yeah…he was there. He was helping organize it all. That’s how he got so close…closer than I had ever been to Obama up to then.

UM: And he didn’t think of the convention as a success? Is that right?

Insider: No, that’s not right. Everyone knew the convention was a success. Can’t deny that…what a show, right?

…it’s what he saw behind the…behind the scenes.

UM: From the president?

Insider: He wasn’t the f–cking president yet. He was still just a do-nothin’ Senator bought and paid for by those Chicago boys.

UM: Explain what your friend saw – “behind the scenes” as you put it.

Insider: Oh…what he saw – what he saw…yes indeed. What he saw was sh-t that didn’t feel right. What he saw was…was a guy who came in draggin’ and a guy who left bouncin’ off the f-cking walls. What he saw…what he heard was a godd-mn…dammit…I’m forgettin’ how he told it. The term he used…

UM: The chant?

Insider: Yeah – the chant…but he used a term for it and I can’t…it was a word…ah, dammit to hell…

UM: How about you go back to the coming in dragging part…explain that a bit more.

Insider: Not much to explain…Obama comes in…he’s been there already right. Several practice runs…fired up the teleprompter, going over the stage marks…all the typical sh-t. When he’s out practicing…the family is all there, right? But when he’s in the back area…no family. They are…they are in different areas. My friend – he thought that was a bit odd.

UM: The president – Barack Obama…he appeared fine during the rehearsals?

Insider: Sure-sure…he wasn’t close to Obama at that point – but he could see him from a distance…could hear him. He sounded…looked like the candidate on television. The interviews. Smooth. Confident. Charismatic.

UM: But then?

Insider: But…then…later in the back area. Like a meet n greet area…and an adjoining room. Private. Closed off. So my friend is back there…some others too – they are hoping to catch the candidate coming in. You know…everybody wants to shake his hand. All that sh-t.

UM: And Obama comes in.

Insider: Yeah – like I said…draggin’. He’s…he looks wiped. Wiped out. His color is all off. His eyes…he barely…my friend says…my friend SAID…he looked right through them. Like his eyes couldn’t focus enough to see them…and a big fella…Black guy…he was…it looked like he was holding Obama up. Making their way to the-the room…the private area.

UM: Did everyone notice Obama’s condition?

Insider: I don’t know – my friend didn’t say anything about that…but he sure as hell noticed. He thought maybe Obama had gotten sick…it’s not uncommon on the campaign trail. You eat some sh-t food sometimes.

…so Obama is holed up in this room. People are kinda mingling about I guess…maybe ten, fifteen minutes go by. Then a couple folks march on in – that’s how he put it to me…they marched on in…very purposeful. One looked like Secret Service…the other was a woman. Didn’t get too specific. Wish he would have but he didn’t. The woman goes in – the other fella…he stays outside the door. She’s in there for maybe another five minutes…she comes back out and tells ‘em to clear the hall. Clear out. Says they need about ten minutes to prepare.

UM: Prepare?

Insider: That’s what he told me – she said they needed a little time to prepare.

UM: For what?

Insider: Hell if I know.

UM: So did he clear out with the others? Your friend?

Insider: No…he goes up to the guy outside the door…outside the room Obama, the big fella, and the woman are in. He’s just concerned…wants to know if he can help in any way. You know, maybe go get something for a bad stomach?

…But the guy outside the door – he ain’t messin’. It’s all business. Serious. He pushes my friend right on the chest – hard…tells him to step away and to clear the hall. And that’s where…that’s when he hears the chanting. The…he said it sounded like…like a…Gregory chant. That’s the term he used. A Gregory chant.

UM: Gregorian?

Insider: Eh? Greg…yeah…Gregorian.

UM: Was your friend Catholic?

Insider: Catholic…I…I don’t know. But that was the term there…Gregorian. It sounded like a Gregorian chant coming from the room…the room Obama was holed up inside.

UM: Could they have been praying? Singing?

Insider: Maybe..but…this group…the Obamas…prayin’ has never seemed like their thing. The team…they had a bunch of religion jokes you know. Even by then it seemed clear to most of us…like I just told you – Obama is an atheist. Now I’ve developed that little line of reason…0f reasoning later – down the road…but we all figured it then too.

UM: And his wife – Michelle…no sign of her?

Insider: I don’t think so…like he told me…they were never together except on that stage. No wife. No kids. Not until it was showtime apparently.

UM: So what then? Your friend is stopped outside the door and he hears…he hears what is described as chanting…is he the only one around at this point?

Insider: Don’t know that – he didn’t say.

He cleared out – like they told him.

UM: Does he mention this to anyone else there?

Insider: Then? I don’t know…he would mention it later though. I do know that. He told it to some others…that’s a big part of this…where this story…where this is headed. It’s where he f-cked up. It’s where…it’s…(trails off)

UM: That’s not it…tell about when he sees Obama come out of the room again.

Insider: Yeah…it’s maybe 20 or 30 minutes later…he makes his way back into the hall…there’s already a bunch of people there. Somehow the message went out to come back in…I don’t know. So they’re all mingling…the mood is great. Nothing being said about Obama being sick, or acting strange…nothing.

UM: But your friend is still wondering…concerned?

Insider: Oh yeah…that seems natural, right? The guy who is gonna accept the nomination on national television…the guy who is probably gonna be the next President of the United States…he is carried into a room not more than an hour ago? Hell yes you would think he would be wondering what the f-ck is up with that.

UM: But nobody else was concerned?

Insider: I told you – I DON”T KNOW THAT.

UM: Right then…go ahead. Keep going…

Insider: So…you got about…there’s a ton a people now waiting to see the…to see Obama make his way out into the hall. The ceremony is firing up…you can hear the enormous crowd in the stadium…whatever worries there might have been…people mighta just forgot them. Easy to do in that kind of environment. It’s a f-cking rock concert you know. A convention…that last night…the build up…an amazing thing. Like a drug those moments. You get a taste of it…you want more.

UM: So Obama comes back out – he leaves that room.

Insider: Michelle Obama comes out first.

UM: She does? But she never went in…

Insider: Obviously she went in at some point…just…my friend didn’t see that. He wasn’t around. Just…just shut up and let me do this…get through this. Keep your mouth shut for a bit…

…Obama’s wife comes out, there’s another woman carrying a bag thing. That would be makeup. Pretty sure of that. She was always…the amount of cover that Obama wears…I told you about that before right? Cakes that sh-t on. 24/7. It’s why his color seems to change so much…different brand, or product…something like that.

So they come out…the First Lady – soon to be…Michelle…she just walks on by. Not a word to anyone. She’s got a secret service guy who is alongside her. Out she goes and not a word. My friend notices somebody puts their hand on her – trying to say high or something…it’s harmless…but the Secret Service fella, he is right there to intervene. Pushes this other woman…she gets pushed back and the…Obama’s wife…she just keeps on walking. No smile – nothin’.

Another five minutes or so and out comes Obama and a few others – the big fella from earlier, the woman who went in after them, and now there appears to be a couple of Secret Service alongside them.

UM: Was that woman Jarrett?

Insider: Told you – don’t know. He…my friend – he didn’t say…

…so out of that room they come. Everybody is excited…including Barack Obama. It’s like…it’s like one man went into that room and another one came out. An entirely different man walked out of that room than went in. That is how…that’s how he told it to me. A different man walked out. The change…that…the transformation was stunning. He seemed taller. His eyes were…there was an energy to him. Powerful. He was smiling and joking, shaking hands, talking real fast…the suit – the one you see on television…every detail was perfect. Everybody was rushing to shake his hand, tell them they loved him…but my friend…he was shaken up. It was too damn weird, right? What the hell happened in that room? How could one man walk in and another man walk out? We’re talking two extremes here…Obama was just about carried into that room…and he comes out…he’s bouncing off the f-cking walls.

UM: Did your friend get close…up close to Obama at that time?

Insider: Oh yeah…got the handshake. Looked right up at him. And Obama…he looked right down…looked right down and through him.

UM: Through him?

Insider: Yeah boy…right the f-ck through him. He didn’t recognize…my friend…he had been introduced to Obama not more than a day before. He was helping organize the whole fu–ing event there in Denver. He spoke to the president…to the nominee…probably for about ten minutes. And there was nothing odd at that time…Obama seemed like what everybody saw in public. Not what my friend saw go into that room…or what he saw come out of that room. And Barack Obama – my friend was very…he made a point of emphasis there – Barack Obama did not recognize him in the hall. Not a clue. He smiled down at him, shook his hand…kept repeating thank you over and over again…and his eyes were always blinking. Fast.

UM: Blinking…his eyes were…blinking?

Insider: Yeah…like f-cking shutters. Blinking. Over and over again. My friend watched him as we he made his way to the side stage…his eyes were blinking over and over again.

UM: Drugs? Amphetamines?

Insider: I told you before what I know on that…the…his depression…or something along those lines…that was leaking out from the White House after he got in there…so maybe. Maybe somethin’ like that.

But that ain’t the meat of this thing…the…that’s not…I don’t give a f-ck if there were drugs or what involved before he gave that speech in Denver. What I care about…what-what…where this gets…where this leads us here is how people start gettin’ messed up who mighta seen whatever happened in that room before that speech…

…My friend…I heard later he had shared what he saw here and there. I’m guessing that sharing…my gut tells me somebody wanted him to shut the f-ck up about it.

UM: Explain why you have that feeling. Just…put it out there. You’ve gone too far not to finish it.

Insider: I don’t…you don’t…you still don’t have…you’re too bold sometimes and that scares the hell outta me.

UM: This friend you’re talking about – you said they are…they were – younger than you? Quite a bit younger?

Insider: Yeah…younger…young enough anyway.

UM: Enough?

(Long pause)

Insider: Young enough that when they are found dead at home with no sign of…of…of foul play…when the cause is put down as “natural causes”…

…when – I mean natural causes? Really? Just like that? Natural f-cking causes? A guy…he’s in relatively good health…not so bad anyways…he is found dead alone at home…been dead for weeks…natural causes? All neat and tidy like that huh?

Guy in his 50′s…natural causes. Just drifts off of natural causes? Well f-ck you no. Now that just don’t sit right with this here boy.

UM: And no investigation, right? Nothing.

Insider: That’s right – nothing. I get the news…stunned. Pissed. Suspicious. Worried. Sh-t, I had everything running through my mind the moment I got word. The timing…everything pointed to something not being right? Something serious was…it was all…things were not right.

UM: So no specific cause of death?

Insider: No investigation…coroner…the only word on that I heard back was no investigation. Nothing. Was it a heart attack? Some said it appeared that way…but nothing official on that. NOTHING. It just…they found him dead, he was gone…that was it. DONE. A guy in his 50s just up and dies and that’s it? No way.

UM: And then the other stuff you tied together…I haven’t heard that from you yet. Go ahead…tell that now. It should be a part of this.

Insider: You really think so? You really…none of this sh-t scares you?

UM: Yeah…it scares me. If your instinct on this is right…yeah, very much so.

Insider: You doubt what…what I’m sayin’ here? You don’t believe it?

UM: Not at all but you said yourself…this is…this is a feeling you have. Nothing specific. At least nothing you’ve told me yet.

Insider: Oh…oh…the kid wants specifics…that it? So easy to ask for…but then…but then what then?

UM: What?

Insider: You heard me – what then? What’s knowing gonna change in any of this?

UM: Maybe nothing…but keep telling what you know.

Insider: Don’t know it…feel it.

UM: Fine then…what you feel it to be. You said there was – that you put it together. The other pieces.

Insider: Yeah…I did. You want to know all that? How…how if you say too much in this…what I do…step too far out of line and that’s it. Ruin your marriage? How about some jail time? Maybe more? Maybe less? That’s how it is for us…we all…you don’t ever wanna do the things I’ve done.

UM: You’re drunk.

Insider: Yes I am. You’re not?

UM: No.

Insider: You drinkin? Bushmills? I brought it – I asked…you said…that was right?

UM: And then some – and thank you.

Insider: Not drunk?

UM: No.

Insider: Bullsh-t.

UM: Finish the story. Share the pieces.

Your friend dies. No investigation into cause. Then what? Who else? What other – who else is involved?

Insider: The other pieces?

UM: That’s right…the other pieces.

Insider: I won’t name names…not gonna put that on you..not gonna…I don’t want that responsibility.

UM: Fine…but you can still share the details. Don’t need to be specific – just specific enough.

Insider: How about the involvement of one of the most powerful members of the United States Senate? That enough to perk you up? That enough…f-cking specifics for you?

We got the death of a longtimer…an operative. Good solid party guy. Fifty somethin’ years old. Natural causes. No investigation. He sees something about the current United States president…says it…shares it with some others, including this Senator. They are tight. Go way back a ways. She’s got power. If she has…if she gets some kind of information… that makes her a threat. It makes him a threat. There’s a business partner…he…well wouldn’t you know it…he has a serious legal threat brought down on him around the same time! Imagine that? Bet he was told something too, right? No accident there. Warnings is what was going on there. Back the f-ck off – and it was comin’ right from the White House boys. Or worse yet…back to f-cking Chicago. The unions. That vote that pissed ‘em off so much. And then they killed him. And now they are taking on the Senator herself. Right on it. Theft? And the fu–ing thief is…I sh-t you not…she headed up an Obama group. That’s either ballsy or stupid…or both…or just fu–ing insane. The Senator…she knew something. That vote…how she bypassed Obama on the Bin Laden announcement. That wasn’t his call and she knew it. She knew it. Her words that night. “No one knows when. No one knows how. No one knows why.” She was warning them to back off…the White House. Back the f-ck off. The public face…all smiles and nods. That’s how it’s always done…but there’s what’s said off to the side, if you know what to hear…you catch it. It’s there. You just gotta wait for it. You just—

UM: Apologies, but you…can you slow down. You’re throwing out too much too fast here. Slow it down. Please. I apologize but this is…it will be way too difficult to follow.

Insider: For who?

UM: For me…for anyone who reads this.

Insider: I don’t give a f-ck about them…this ain’t…I am…this ain’t for them. You asked me to tell you this…you…this is for you. I…if they can’t follow it…let the dumb bastards try. Piss on ‘em.

UM: Fine – but I can’t follow it…so…start again. The Senator – start with her. Take a bit of time to explain that…

…and then go from there.

White House Insider Part 2

White House Insider part 3

WHITE HOUSE INSIDER: I Hung My Head…
by Ulsterman on January 20, 2012 with 56 Comments in News

Following their witnessing of odd and troubling behavior from Barack Obama just prior to him taking the stage at the 2008 Democratic Convention, a longtime political operative is found dead, and those closely associated with him are facing a myriad of legal and financial challenges. Coincidence – or something far more sinister?

Insider: How about the involvement of one of the most powerful members of the United States Senate? That enough to perk you up? That enough…f-cking specifics for you?

We got the death of a longtimer…an operative. Good solid party guy. Fifty somethin’ years old. Natural causes. No investigation. He sees something about the current United States president…says it…shares it with some others, including this Senator. They are tight. Go way back a ways. She’s got power. If she has…if she gets some kind of information… that makes her a threat. It makes him a threat. There’s a business partner…he…well wouldn’t you know it…he has a serious legal threat brought down on him around the same time! Imagine that? Bet he was told something too, right? No accident there. Warnings is what was going on there. Back the f-ck off – and it was comin’ right from the White House boys. Or worse yet…back to f-cking Chicago. The unions. That vote that pissed ‘em off so much. And then they killed him. And now they are taking on the Senator herself. Right on it. Theft? And the fu–ing thief is…I sh-t you not…she headed up an Obama group. That’s either ballsy or stupid…or both…or just fu–ing insane. The Senator…she knew something. That vote…how she bypassed Obama on the Bin Laden announcement. That wasn’t his call and she knew it. She knew it. Her words that night. “No one knows when. No one knows how. No one knows why.” She was warning them to back off…the White House. Back the f-ck off. The public face…all smiles and nods. That’s how it’s always done…but there’s what’s said off to the side, if you know what to hear…you catch it. It’s there. You just gotta wait for it. You just—

UM: Apologies, but you…can you slow down. You’re throwing out too much too fast here. Slow it down. Please. I apologize but this is…it will be way too difficult to follow.

Insider: For who?

UM: For me…for anyone who reads this.

Insider: I don’t give a f-ck about them…this ain’t…I am…this ain’t for them. You asked me to tell you this…you…this is for you. I…if they can’t follow it…let the dumb bastards try. Piss on ‘em.

UM: Fine – but I can’t follow it…so…start again. The Senator – start with her. Take a bit of time to explain that…

…and then go from there.

Insider: From where to there and back again…this…I just don’t see this being part of what we’re doing. What’s done is done. We need to focus on the election, Fast and Furious…getting Holder gone. That’s…I can see that in front of me. -Name deleted – dying…his death…it’s just my speculation…my wondering about…about things.

UM: The story – your story…it has value. Tell the tale. Put it together – how it all fits.

Insider: I ain’t put nothin’ together son…got more questions than answers just like you. Don’t patronize me…don’t EVER patronize ME.

UM: You know that’s not what I’m doing – just get to the story. Start with the Senator and go from there…

Insider: (Long sigh) …Yes…the Senator…the others…you add it up…I may not have the answer but I got the problem…it don’t add up right now does it?

…The Senator…she and -name deleted- go way back. Long time. So if he saw somethin’ in Denver…he woulda told her. I have no doubt about that. He woulda told her, and he woulda told some others. A few folks. He was sharp enough…he was sharp period…he wouldn’t have gone off blabbin’ what he saw…not something like that…that woulda been dangerous to do. But he would…he woulda talked to a few folks about it initially. Carefully.

And he’s connected with Clinton people too…I didn’t tell you that before. A few of them…he mighta told them too as a means to…to protect himself.

UM: He was West Coast – he had ties to the Clintons?

Insider: Oh yeah…close friend of -Name Deleted – Tight. They did some work together back in…way back in ’94 – no….’92. Friends in high places and all that. They were…he mighta told him about it. Very possible.

UM: Back to the Senator…

Insider: The Senator…and another operative. I’ll start with him…he’s connected to the Senator…the story popped up in 2009. Shortly after Obama takes office. I hadn’t heard the story from -Name Deleted- about the convention yet. That would come later…like I said…we go there and back and there again on all this sh-t.

…so this other operative – he’s a big player in the party too. Connected. Gets himself into all kinds of trouble…heading to prison by the way.

UM: Who?

Insider: No names – no fu–ing names. Told you that…not gonna have the responsibility…you keep your mouth shut now and let me…you let me talk…this is coming out now so fine…let me be done with it…let it be done…

…This fella, he’s off to jail, but the sentence…he’ll be out soon enough. But somebody slapped him up hard on this thing…he pissed somebody off bad. The union boys…somebody is jerking his ass back in line…hard. That’s how I thought of back in ’09 when I first heard. Now…now you remember…he’s connected to the Senator…he’s connected to…he’s worked with -Name Deleted- …he mighta been told…I’m certain he was told about what happened in Denver. That’s why he got in trouble…he knew about it…maybe more…so he get’s stepped on. That’s how it’s done. They may not take your life…they’ll just mess you up good.

UM: Can you at least say what they are going to prison for?

Insider: For doing what so many of them are doing…for doing what has and will always be done…it’s just like Blago – EXACTLY like it. That boy knows things…he knows it. So…don’t kill the poor bastard outright…just give him a seriously tough warnin’. Same thing with this other fella – got no doubt about that. I was just trying to figure out the motivation…why they was gettin’ busted up. When I heard the Denver story…then him dyin’ like that…then it came together. Then I got that sick feelin’…way down in your stomach when you just know…you just know somethin’ ain’t right here.

…So this guy…his world starts to come crashing down in 2009…that’s the first big clue to the Denver situation. He’s being told to shut the f-ck up.

…Now we move into 2010…let’s say -Name Deleted-, he’s been tellin’ a few folks about what he saw in Denver…back in ’08. Maybe by now…maybe that got him to looking into some other things…maybe he’s gettin’ a bit…gettin’ scared. Now this is my speculation here…I got nothin’ to point at to confirm none of this…

UM: Understood – but given your track record of success…I’m fine hearing your thoughts. If you have a suspicion – I want to hear it.

Insider: Ok then…so let’s say my friend…he’s looking around a bit. He saw that sh-t go down in Denver…he’s wondering what the hell is up with that. He’s looking in some other places. There’s a campaign in 2010…and a candidate who is very much an Obama approved candidate. Does my friend work her campaign? Logic says hell yes he would, right? He worked to get Obama in during 2008. He helped organize the guy’s convention in Denver, right? So why wouldn’t he help to elect the person the Obama people want in that position?

…Except he doesn’t. He works against her. He works hard against her. And that campaign…that position…if he has concerns about a President of the United States…that position would be a very powerful weapon. Very powerful. So by working that campaign…my friend is working against the Obama people. He’s taking them on. And the position being fought over…it ties into Obamacare, immigration, the union deal…it’s big. Important. And a guy who helped usher…to bring Obama on as president…he’s now working hard against the administration. Somethin’ goin’ on there.

And that union deal…the card check legislation…the same Senator we been talking about…they come out against it. You know how that shook up the Obama White House? How pissed they were over that? Those union fellas…Gerard…the one you wrote so much about…he was all over that convention. Him and the Soros people…they were crawling all over that place. That’s another story there…some of the Hillary people…they were…right up to the day that convention got started…they were talking of staging a walk out…and the union fellas…word is they put the fear of God into them…literally threatened them, their families…they were told to sit the f-ck down. And that might be playing a part in all this too…probably is…the unions…this administration…

UM: Focus on the Senator…your friend…that campaign…

Insider: Right-right…the Senator…they are smacking up…right up against the union vote. Killing it. Kinda outta the blue on that…an odd thing. So you have them doing that…you got that other operative…he’s facing jail time…all this happens at about the same time. All of this…they are closely linked to my friend.

UM: The one who later died?

Insider: Yes…that’s…that’s right.

…and then in 2010 you got my friend going directly against the Obama administration – working against their candidate of choice. And you need to remember…California…Obama lost the primary out there. That plays a part in this…the president needed to lock up this position. That 2010 election was much more important to him than folks realize…and my friend…I’ll repeat it again…he was working against the Obama White House in 2010.

UM: Did your friend’s candidate win? The campaign they were working on?

Insider: Noooo…the Obama candidate won…and my gut says that left my friend…it left them exposed. Losing that election…if he had won it…like I said…he would have had a very powerful weapon against Barack Obama. But he lost…and that loss…that’s when he really started talking about what happened in Denver in 2008 – at the convention…that’s when I heard about it, not just from him, but a few others. So that means he was talking more…I think he was worried…and then it certainly came to the attention of…others.

(Long Pause) …he would be dead within months of losing that election. Timing…timing is everything huh? Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not…

…and the Senator…they don’t get out of this unscathed either…their entire…my understanding is their entire campaign fund…gone. Taken. And THAT is going down around the same time my friend dies. Again…you wanna call that coincidence? How much coincidence can a fella take before they start to question what the f-ck is going on? That’s where I was at at that point…what the f-ck is going on?

UM: Explain your thoughts on the theft – how that ties in to all of this.

Insider: I’ll do more than that – I’m gonna take it farther than what I told you before…this thing…what my friend mighta uncovered…it goes beyond Denver. I think they may have warned him after Denver…but he came across more than that…that’s my gut talkin’ again. My instinct – and I’ve been at this a loooong time. I know this playbook…some might say I helped write it. I certainly have come up with some of the rules over the years…

…that theft…the individual involved…no way they should have been in that position. Who authorized that? They already had baggage, a poor reputation…and she’s the one in charge of the millions of dollars sitting in a United States Senator’s campaign fund? Bullsh-t! NO way. NO fu–ing way. She was placed there by somebody with the authority…with the muscle to make that happen. Not in a state this important. Not with…like I said…all the things on the line…the union legislation…the challenges coming against Obamacare…no way a woman like that is allowed in that position unless she was there to do something very specific.

UM: The theft?

Insider: That is part of it…but I think it goes deeper. You come across those donation allegations that sorta swirled around the Obama campaign back in ’08? All the fake names…how difficult it was to trace the source?

UM: Vaguely.

Insider: What if you had certain groups…unions, foreign donations…whatever…they needed to get money – talking a sh-tload of money to Obama back when he was runnin’. I say this as somebody who experienced how much cash was floating around that campaign – it was unbelievable. Money was never an issue. NEVER. It was everywhere…and how…no way they raised all that money on the up and up. You just knew people were getting around the donation limits – had to be. There was…there was so much damn money in that campaign. Staggering.

UM: How does that relate to…to the theft from the Senator’s campaign?

Insider: What if the individual responsible for that theft…what if they were acting as some kind of laundering organization? And what if she represents a small fraction of the entire fu–ing operation that all ties back to the administration? Tens…hundreds of millions? Billions? Who the f-ck knows? The entire election system…the funding…what if it’s all corrupted? All of it?

This is out there stuff…I know. Sh-t yeah…I know…but what if my friend…he figured it out? Maybe it was that…maybe I’m way the f-ck off the mark here. But…you know the Obama campaign…somethin’ like $300 million…maybe more…probably more…it’s not disclosing those donors? It hasn’t yet? They never will. A ton of donors…laundered in…hidden from view…and that kind of money…you can buy a senator…you can buy a judge…you can buy…

…You’re willing to kill for it.

UM: How’s that possible? $300 million? Undisclosed?

Insider: Yes it’s possible – it was DONE. This president – Obama…he did it. Is doing it…and he’ll do it again…his people…they will do it again. And maybe this time…maybe they’re up to a billion dollars…more? Nobody knows. Money from China? Pakistan? Iran? Libya? Nobody fu–ing knows. That’s what I’m trying to lay out here…and I know it’s a convoluted mish…mish-mashing mess…that’s how they get away with it all. Make it all so damn…messy. You can’t follow it all…it’s impossible.

UM: But you think your friend might have been…looking into this stuff?

Insider: I do. Or something related to it…they were onto something. Let me try and summary – summarize it all up here.

You got a guy who is found dead. Alone. 50-odd years old. Been missing for a coupla weeks before they are discovered. No signs of foul play. The coroner comes out and says natural causes – no investigation. None. Now this person…they are kinda high profile…they got links to presidents for f-cks sake…and NO INVESTIGATION into cause of death? That’s a huge alarm right there. HUGE.

So this person now dead…you look back the past few years. They got a story…an awful strange story about the President of the United States. Soon after that story happened, they have a business associate getting charged – now going to jail. Good chance this individual was told about that story…and maybe more. Or maybe…coincidence?

You got a U.S. Senator…powerful Senator…they come out against the administration shortly after the events in Denver. Not long after. Why? Just politics? Or something else? Then again…maybe just coincidence.

You have my friend in 2010 battling against the Obama approved candidate for a position that could provide the means to take on the administration – full on. Now this campaign is going down less than a year before my friend is to be found dead. Coincidence?

Follow that up with the Senator who then has their campaign fund robbed by a person who once headed up a group called Californians for Obama. Coincidence?

And let’s talk about that time when my friend died. How the Senator…the words they used to describe that death. “No one knows HOW. No one knows WHEN. No one knows WHY.” My gut tells me that Senator may not know the answer to the first two…but they know…yes they know the answer to the third. And that statement…those words were chosen very carefully. And then they follow it up with speaking out BEFORE the president on the only real achievement the administration can try and claim as a victory – the Bin Laden killing? This senator is the one to make the first public announcement – not the president? And they chose to do so at the memorial for my friend? Coincidence?

No…this senator was sending a message. They knew the real deal about Bin Laden…or some of it. They knew enough to challenge…if backed into a corner they would…they would challenge the story the White House was gonna come out with – the story that painted Barack Obama as a hero. The senator was telling the White House to back off…

…you can snuff us out…people like me. But to take on a sitting Senator…even a president has to proceed with caution on that…especially if that senator has the goods, and I am pretty certain this one does.

So there’s that story. You think it’s got some value? Fine…publish it. Whatever. I’m gonna go back to work on Holder…get him out. He knows all of this sh-t. All of it. Get him gone…and it’s gonna be a campaign issue now. They delayed it…the administration…Issa played along…now it’s a campaign issue. Murderers. All of them. Fu–ing murderers…

(Silence)

…God I’m tired.

…You like Cash?

UM: Cash?

Insider: Yeah…Johnny Cash.

UM: Sure.

Insider: There’s a song of his…it was given to me a couple months back…I keep playing it over and over again. The more tired I get…the more I hear that song…

…I’m going to hell you know…done terrible things in this life. Hurt a lot of people. Ignored things I shouldn’t have…

(long pause)

…done…done terrible things…heaven ain’t an option for the likes a me…

UM: So long as you breath…there’s always options. Redemption…God forgives…God forgives even the worst of sin…

Insider: (Laughs) …Oh man…I wish I could see the world through your eyes for just a day…idealistic son-of-a-b-tch…

…No disrespect son…but…you don’t know ME. You really don’t…you don’t know the things…you don’t know what I’m capable of…what…Jesus Lord…the things I’ve done…

UM: You’re not all bad – I’ve seen that.

Insider: I’m a long-long way off from good…

UM: What’s the song?

Insider: What?

UM: The song – the Cash song?

Insider: Ah…the song. I hear it playin’ in my head now…all the time. Been hearing it when I’m talking to you…it just plays over and over…

…Damn tired son. This thing…all of it…I hope that good you say I got…I hope that’s enough…but I don’t think so. Not for me. Heaven ain’t for this old boy…

…That song…Hung My Head. That’s the name of it.

(Long drawn out sigh)

I Hung My Head…

White House Insider part 3

2012-the Year The U.S. falls into Tyranny!

The past year has been a bad one for democracy, and the Republic that once was the United States seems to live in name only. Because of the extreme abuses of power the Federal government has exercised just in the past year, the people of the Nation have been broken, discouraged and must now only be controlled.
A recent report in the state-run Russia Today cites an instructional military book, Non-Lethal Weapons Reference Book (leaked by PublicIntelligence.net) to outline the coming “high-tech crackdown” that may soon befall citizens of the United States deemed unruly.
If you have ever seen a farmer persuade his livestock to bend to his will with less-than-lethal methods such as cattle prods, whips and electric fences, you know how incredibly persuasive they can be to the animals. The U.S. government also knows a thing or two about controlling groups; unfortunately, the target isn’t unruly livestock, but U.S. citizens.

The report references one device that has already made a military debut in Afghanistan and that will likely become commonplace for domestic crowd control as law enforcement agencies throughout the country become increasingly militarized. The Active Denial System, which is described as a “long range, directed energy, vehicle mounted system that projects an invisible electromagnetic millimeter-wave energy beam beyond small arms range,” can be used as a non-lethal way to create extreme discomfort and quell group dissent.
Other military implements that may soon see use within U.S. borders include Acoustic Hailing Devices that provide “scalable, directional warning tones” causing “auditory damage” and the Distributed Sound and Light Array which “uses a combined laser, non-coherent light, and acoustics to produce a synergistic engagement system.” Other systems can completely disable motor vehicles and emit acoustic waves that make it impossible for crowds to shout without discomfort and nausea.
While many Americans deny that the U.S. government will ever use such weapons on a widespread basis against dissenters, recent developments in the country appear to indicate otherwise. The crackdowns on OWS camps carried out by police in riot/military gear, armed with tear gas canisters and rubber bullets, indicate that when large masses of people cry out, no matter what the political agenda, they will be quieted by local, State and/or Federal officials.
Before the crackdowns on the OWS camps, the Federal government demonstrated its willingness to bypass the judiciary system anytime an individual poses a threat to its agenda. In September, the Administration of Barack Obama executed U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki in the mountains of Yemen with a drone strike. Though he often spoke on behalf of al-Qaida, it could be reasonably assumed that al-Awlaki’s citizenship status gave him the right to trial before execution. The Administration disagrees: Pentagon lawyer Jeh Johnson said of the execution that only the executive branch, not the courts, is equipped to make military battlefield targeting decisions about who qualifies as an enemy.
Johnson’s statement would be less alarming if the Administration — with the help of hawkish neoconservatives like Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) — had not recently passed a military spending bill with provisions that effectively designate American soil a battlefield and every American a possible enemy. The bill gives the President the ability to indefinitely detain terror suspects, but this comes at a time when the lines of what constitutes “terror” are becoming increasingly blurry. The Federal government is currently in active negotiations with members of the Taliban, and Obama has made it clear that anyone who rejects his agenda is considered a “right-wing domestic terrorist.”
How long will it take for Federal government to decide it necessary to carry out al-Awlaki style executions on those deemed “domestic terrorists” as they sit in their homes in the United States? With the increasing use of military drones in U.S. airspace, the idea is not so far-fetched. The same Federal agencies that carried out fatally-flawed operations like those in Waco, Texas, and Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in the 1990s now have aerial drones and a license to kill in the name of Homeland Security. Some people may think that the agencies have refined their methods since those days; others have been following news about Operation Fast and Furious, the most recent endeavor by the Department of Justice, and know better.
Those people who do not believe the Federal government is out to harm them by breaking their will, dehumanizing them and bending them to be the subservient masses that will keep it afloat should simply take a flight. If being prodded, poked and virtually stripped naked by poorly trained agents of the Transportation Security Administration is not bad enough, how about having very personal belongings fondled, food stolen and grandmothers groped by the TSA? All are tactics of dehumanization to create subservient masses, and all are things that happened to American travelers last year.
Aside from quashing unruly masses and making problems disappear, the Federal government wants to keep tabs on the information being put out by journalists and bloggers throughout the Nation with a new Homeland Security initiative. According to Russia Today, in a new report, the Department reserves the right to collect personal information from news anchors, journalists, reporters or anyone who may use “traditional and/or social media in real time to keep their audience situationally aware and informed.”
And while Homeland Security is busy putting together a plan to rid the country of any bad press, Congress has been working to sanitize the Internet. Pending legislation like SOPA and the Protect IP Act will effectively give American citizens about as much online freedom as citizens of China.

Some Americans may think that if they are not in the public eye, don’t regularly protest and are not members of al-Qaida, they are not subject to government intrusion. But a recent decision by Magistrate Judge David Noce in United States v. Robinson says that as long as you park your vehicle in public parking lots or use public roadways, law enforcement has the ability to install a GPS tracking device with no warrant to log where you travel if they believe you “may be involved in criminal activities.”
When the First Congress enacted the original Crimes Act in 1790, with only 17 recognized Federal crimes, it may have been reasonable to assume that as long as a person was a law-abiding citizen, he was not at risk of intrusion. Today, though, there are more than 4,500 Federal crimes — and many are so obscure that they are nearly indecipherable. In addition to the 4,500 Federal crimes, there are tens of thousands of Federal regulations. Many people commit criminal acts daily without even knowing they are doing so.
Last year was a very busy one for all of those interested in ending American life as it is and has been known. The United States that was a Republic has already collapsed and has very quietly become a totalitarian regime, complete with a dictator named Obama and a Congress that bends to his will and continually legislates in such a way that would make any totalitarian regime proud. Together they have done everything in their power to undermine the Constitution and name themselves as the all-powerful ruling class. And with the undoing of the ideas of the Founders and the ruination of but a few more checks and balances, they will effectively claim their supremacy.
So what have Americans lost and why does the ruling class have to do away with the Constitution and the rights it gives to every American citizen? It is explained by James Madison, who contended that there was no way American lawmakers could declare themselves a ruling class under the provisions of the Constitution, in the 57th volume of the Federalist Papers:
If it be asked, what is to restrain the House of Representatives from making legal discriminations in favor of themselves and a particular class of the society? I answer: the genius of the whole system; the nature of just and constitutional laws; and above all, the vigilant and manly spirit which actuates the people of America — a spirit which nourishes freedom, and in return is nourished by it.
Those who are working so hard to claim themselves a ruling class know that their goal cannot be achieved if there is such a thing as a population that holds dear its “vigilant and manly spirit.” And they know how to slowly break that spirit without alarm by dehumanizing populations — luring people into accepting tyrannical rule in the guise of laws claimed to exist for public safety, homeland security or the better good of humanity. Unlike Madison, they always leave out words like freedom and never discuss the great threats government poses to the people, but contrarily advise vigilance to combat the people’s threat to the government.
Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul has been warning the public of many of these frightening developments for more than 35 years. Now, as he vies for the Nation’s highest office, many of his predictions have come true. Maybe it is time Americans listened to the “kook,” because those things he said would happen — predictions Americans once considered to be crazy and far-fetched — are now reality. He may be the Nation’s last hope to a path back to some semblance of the Constitutional Republic created by the Founders.
Editor’s note: It’s time to make your submissions for this month’s You Sound Off! feature, which will run Jan. 25. Get your submission in by Jan. 23. It should be no more than 750 words (if they are longer, we probably won’t read them). We will select the one or two we think are the best of the week to publish. We reserve the right to edit for grammar and style but will try not to alter the meaning.
Send your submissions to yousoundoff@personalliberty.com. Please include your name, address and telephone number (only your name will be published) so we can contact you if we need to clarify something. Anonymous submissions will not be considered.–BL

Source-Personalliberty.com

Russian Bear 2012

2012-01-19T12:13:00.091-07:00

Source-Voltairenet.org: The Zionist War against Putin and Russia

Of course one cannot rule out the possibility that both these recent incidents were not "accidents"....

Source-AP News.com
Russia asks if US radar ruined space probe
By SOFIA JAVED, Assocated Press – 4 days ago
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia will look into the possibility that a U.S. radar station could have inadvertently interfered with the failed Mars moon probe that plummeted to Earth, Russian media reported Tuesday, but experts argued that any such claims were far-fetched.

NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs also said the U.S. space agency was not using the military radar equipment in question at the time of the Russian equipment failure, but instead was using radar in the Mojave desert in the western United States and in Puerto Rico.

Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti quoted Yury Koptev, former head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, as saying investigators will conduct tests to check if U.S. radar emissions could have impacted the Phobos-Ground space probe, which was stuck in Earth's orbit for two months before crashing down near Chile and Brazil.

"The results of the experiment will allow us to prove or dismiss the possibility of the radar's impact," said Koptev, who is heading the government commission charged with investigating causes of the probe's failure.

U.S. experts suggested that the Russians should look for causes of the failure at home.

"The Russian Space Agency would do themselves and the future of Russian planetary exploration some good to look inside the project and the agency to find the cause of the Phobos-Ground mishap," said Alan Stern, former associate administrator for science at NASA and now director of the Florida Space Institute at the University of Central Florida.

The current Roscosmos head, Vladimir Popovkin, has said the craft's malfunction could have been caused by foreign interference. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin acknowledged U.S. radar interference as a possible cause but said it was too early to make any conclusions and suggested the problem could be the spacecraft itself.

"Practially all disruptions are due to flaws in the technologies manufactured 12 to 13 years ago," he said.

Other space experts said the possibility of U.S. interference should be considered only after investigating all other possible causes.

Alexander Zakharov, a specialist at the Space Research Institute, which developed the Phobos-Ground, called the suggestion "contrived" and doubted the United States has radar powerful enough to interfere with a spacecraft at an altitude of around 200 kilometers (124 miles).

"You can come up with a lot of exotic reasons," Zakharov told RIA Novosti. "But first you need to look at the apparatus itself, and there is a problem there."

The Phobos-Ground fell to Earth on Sunday in the vicinity of Chile and Brazil, but no confirmed impact sites have been reported.

The $170 million craft was one of the heaviest and most toxic pieces of space junk ever to crash to Earth, but space officials and experts said the risks posed by its crash were minimal because the toxic rocket fuel on board and most of the craft's structure would burn up in the atmosphere high above the ground anyway.

The Phobos-Ground probe was designed to travel to one of Mars' twin moons, Phobos, land on it, collect soil samples and fly them back to Earth in 2014 in one of the most daunting interplanetary missions ever. It got stranded in Earth's orbit after its Nov. 9 launch, and efforts by Russian and European Space Agency experts to bring it back to life failed.

Phobos-Ground was Russia's most expensive and the most ambitious space mission since Soviet times. Its mission to the crater-dented, potato-shaped Martian moon was to give scientists precious materials that could shed more light on the genesis of the solar system.

Russia's space chief has acknowledged the Phobos-Ground mission was ill-prepared, but said that Roscosmos had to give it the go-ahead so as not to miss the limited Earth-to-Mars launch window.

Associated Press writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.

Russia has no other "leaders"???...

IN THE EVENT OF A WORLD WIDE ECONOMIC/OR "OTHER" CATASTROPHIC COLLAPSE, IT WILL BE RUSSIA WHICH WILL SURVIVE INTACT. I BELIEVE(BARRING THE USE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS BY THE WEST) THAT BECAUSE RUSSIA'S PEOPLE HAVE ALREADY ENDURED EVERY CONCIEVABLE MAN MADE "EVIL EVENT" THE POWERS THAT BE CAN THROW AT IT,AND ADD TO THE FACT THEY HAVE A STRONG LEADER,(REGARDLESS OF HIS 'SUPPOSED' CORRUPTION)THAT THEY WILL ENDURE WELL. I MEAN REALLY THINK ABOUT IT, WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE OBAMA OR THE OTHER PUPPETS IN CHARGE IN CASE OF A NATIONAL EMERGENCY? OF COURSE THAT'S JUST MY OPINION!

Great Brave Russian Vladimir Putin

Source-Encyclopedia World Biography

When Vladimir Putin was appointed prime minister of Russia, very little was known about his background. This former Soviet intelligence agent entered politics in the early 1990s and rose rapidly. By August of 1999, ailing President Boris Yeltsin (1931–) appointed him prime minister. When Yeltsin stepped down in December of 1999, Putin became the acting president of Russia, and he was elected president to serve a full term on March 26, 2000.

Early life and education

Vladimir Putin was born on October 1, 1952, in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Russia. An only child, his father was a foreman in a metal factory and his mother was a homemaker. Putin lived with his parents in an apartment with two other families. Though religion was not permitted in the Soviet Union, the former country which was made up of Russia and other smaller states, his mother secretly had him baptized as an Orthodox Christian.

Though a small child, Putin could hold

Vladimir Putin

his own in fights thanks to martial arts classes. By the age of sixteen he was a top-ranked expert at sambo, a Russian combination of judo and wrestling. By the time he was a teenager Putin had begun to display the ambition that he later became known for, and he attended a respected high school, School 281, which only accepted students with near-perfect grades. The institution was the only one in Russia to stress chemistry, which was Putin's interest. However, he soon moved toward liberal arts and biology. Putin played handball and worked at the school radio station, where he played music by the Beatles and other Western rock bands. Fascinated with spy movies as a teen, he aspired to work for the KGB, the Russian secret service.
Work in the KGB

At Leningrad State University, Putin graduated from the law department in 1975 but instead of entering the law field right out of school, Putin landed a job with the KGB, the only one in his class of one hundred to be chosen. The branch he was assigned to was responsible for recruiting foreigners who would work to gather information for KGB intelligence.

In the early 1980s Putin met and married his wife, Lyudmila, a former teacher of French and English. In 1985 the KGB sent him to Dresden, East Germany, where he lived undercover as Mr. Adamov, the director of the Soviet-German House of Friendship, a social and cultural club. Putin appeared to genuinely enjoy spending time with Germans, unlike many other KGB agents, and respected the German culture.

Around the time Putin went to East Germany, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev (1931–) was beginning to introduce economic and social reforms (improvements). Putin was apparently a firm believer in the changes. In 1989 the Berlin Wall, which stood for nearly forty years separating East from West Germany, was torn down and the two united. Though Putin supposedly had known that this was going to happen, he was disappointed that it occurred amid chaos and that the Soviet leadership had not managed it better.

Russian politics

In 1990 Putin returned to Leningrad and continued his undercover intelligence work for the KGB. In 1991, just as the Soviet Union was beginning to fall apart, Putin left the KGB with the rank of colonel, in order to get involved in politics. Putin went to work for Anatoly Sobchak, the mayor of St. Petersburg, as an aide and in 1994 became deputy mayor.

During Putin's time in city government, he reportedly helped the city build highways, telecommunications, and hotels, all to support foreign investment. Although St. Petersburg never grew to become the financial powerhouse that many had hoped, its fortunes improved as many foreign investors moved in, such as Coca-Cola and Japanese electronics firm NEC.

On to the Kremlin

In 1996, when Sobchak lost his mayoral campaign, Putin was offered a job with the victor, but declined out of loyalty. The next year, he was asked to join President Boris Yeltin's "inner circle" as deputy chief administrator of the Kremlin, the building that houses the Russian government. In March of 1999, he was named secretary of the Security Council, a body that advises the president on matters of foreign policy, national security, and military and law enforcement.

In August of 1999, after Yeltsin had gone through five prime ministers in seventeen months, he appointed Putin, who many thought was not worthy of succeeding the ill president. For one thing, he had little political experience; for another, his appearance and personality seemed boring. However, Putin increased his appeal among citizens for his role in pursuing the war in Chechnya. In addition to blaming various bombings in Moscow and elsewhere on Chechen terrorists, he also used harsh words in criticizing his enemies. Soon, Putin's popularity ratings began to soar.

Acting president of Russia

In December of 1999, Russia held elections for the 450-seat Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament (governing body). Putin's newly-formed Unity Party came in a close second to the Communists in a stunning showing. Though Putin was not a candidate in this election, he became the obvious front-runner in the upcoming presidential race scheduled for June of 2000.

On New Year's Eve in 1999, Yeltsin unexpectedly stepped down as president, naming Putin as acting president. Immediately, Western news media and the U.S. government scrambled to create a profile of the new Russian leader. Due to Putin's secretive background as a KGB agent, there was little information. His history as a spy caused many Westerners and some Russians as well to question whether he should be feared as an enemy of the free world.

In Putin's first speech as acting president, he promised, "Freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, freedom of the press, the right to private property—these basic principles of a civilized society will be protected," according to a Newsweek report. In addition, Putin removed several of Yeltsin's loyalists and relatives from his cabinet.

Elected President

On March 26, 2000, Russians elected Putin out of a field of eleven candidates. After his election, Putin's first legislative move was to win approval of the Start II arms reduction treaty from the Duma. The deal, which was negotiated seven years earlier, involved decreasing both the Russian and American nuclear buildup by half. Putin's move on this issue was seen as a positive step in his willingness to develop a better relationship with the United States. In addition, one of Putin's earliest moves involved working with a team of economists to develop a plan to improve the country's economy. On May 7, 2000, Putin was officially sworn in as Russia's second president and its first in a free transfer of power in the nation's eleven-hundred-year history.

Putin, a soft-spoken and stone-faced man, keeps his personal life very private. In early 2000, an American publishing company announced that in May it would release an English-language translation of his memoirs, First Person, which was banned from publication in Russia until after the March 26 presidential election.

Putin has made great efforts to improve relations with the remaining world powers. In July 2001, Putin met with Chinese President Jiang Zemin (1926–) and the two signed a "friendship treaty" which called for improving trade between China and Russia and improving relations concerning U.S. plans for a missile defense system. Four months later, Putin visited Washington, D.C. to meet with President George W. Bush (1946–) over the defense system. Although they failed to reach a definite agreement, the two leaders did agree to drastically cut the number of nuclear arms in each country. Early in 2002, Putin traveled to Poland and became the first Russian president since 1993 to make this trip. Representatives of the two countries signed agreements involving business, trade, and transportation.

For More Information

Putin, Vladimir. First Person. New York: PublicAffairs, 2000.

Shields, Charles J. Vladimir Putin. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2002.

Source-Pravda.RU: 2012

While many of my predictions were optimistic on the time lines, the overall trends have stayed in the same direct. The main exception were the US/EU-created twitter revolutions in the Arab world, which to tell the truth, I had not predicted, but which do, over all, move us towards the ultimate confrontation that will lead to the destruction of Turkey, the collapse of NATO and the final rise of the Fourth Reich, thus reserving a future battle between are reborn Orthodox Block and the Fourth Reich.

Russia

Russia will more than likely face a mild recession this year, as demand for exports (primarily oil, gas, steel and wood) falls, first due to the US/EU fall and then due to the Chinese hard landing. The Russian economy weathered the over all 2008 Crisis, the start of the Super Depression, quite well, regardless of statistics and returned to strong economic growth the following year. 2011 was characterized by strong growth with many European companies, especially the British and Germans, moving production into Russia, to avoid the insanity of the EU, meet minimum criteria for local production and be in position to survive the EU/US collapses. From Siemens to Microsoft, new facilities are popping up everywhere.

However, the second half of 2011 was also marked by a major assault by the US/UK's Masonic elites upon Russia's stability. As I mention in my article ((article)), the West, knowing it is on the brink of an irreversible collapse, must make sure not to leave the stage for the decade or so it will take to recover, without knocking Russian down too, otherwise, they will face a new order they are not willing to face.

This, in effect, has already plaid itself out and failed, though the US media may continue to hype it and push for a new Cold War, to get the attention of their destitute off of their pathetic plights. The coup failed, though it did, to some degree , rock the boat. On the bright side, the rocking will be used to further needed reforms, as a new excuse exists to move some of the blocks out of the way. In the longer term, it had the effect of bringing nationalist, and thus monarchist elements to a more central position and these seeds will continue to grow until some time, probably within the next 10 years, the monarchy will be reinstated. Of course, this will be even more detrimental to the US Masons, one of the most vile enemies of Christian Monarchy that Satan has even loosened upon the earth. But then again, that is what the term blow back is for.

I also predict that two wars will erupt: more than likely another war with Georgia, early on in the year. The Americans will need something else to push on Russia, now that their pathetic purchased coup has so utterly fallen on its face and their hoax media "coverage" was exposed for the utter spliced rubbish that it is. More than likely, the US/Georgians will use another major occasion, such as a holiday (Pascha) or sporting event, to start their war, for which they have been hyper rearming, on the US dollar, since 2008. It will be another short and bloody failure, again sacrificing several thousand Georgian lives for US propaganda value. Since the Russian international information services have failed to come to western standards, over the past 3 years, it will lead to the same results: victory on the ground, defeat in the opinion/mass media. It will, however, be a major blow to the US bought politicos inside of Russia and will lead to major instability in Georgia.

The main war of the year will come in the summer with Turkey, as I predicted previously. It will be a culmination of Edegan's mad scheming to return the hated and barbaric Ottoman Empire to life and will instead result in the utter destruction of Turkey and the final collapse of the NATO rouge regime.

United States

This year, more then likely, America will transfer fully into a police state dictatorship. Sure, they will still have an "election" but the Republican candidate will be handpicked by the party's elites, to make sure he loses to Obama and that Obama remains in power. By midyear the government will have the right to arrest without warrant or accusation "terrorists" and their "enablers". This will be just in time, as inflation will continue to sky rocket and nations will continue moving away from the dollar. An example of this was the recent announcement from China and Japan that they will no longer use the USD in inter-nation trade, just another blow against the only real export the US has, outside of scrap metal and corn. Several major standoffs and shootouts with groups of sovereignty seekers will occur.

Black and Mexican on White and Asian violence will also escalate, but the partisan federal police will look the other way on the "oppressors" getting theirs.

As the economy continues to fall, as real unemployment, vs the fictional figures, continues to creep towards thirty percent, the public will grow ever more disenchanted and angry. More radical elements in Texas, the old Confederacy, Hawaii, Alaska, Maine and Vermont will call for independence and will be crushed. This will work out as all repressive measures work out, drawing instability underground but it will remain so.

Especially problematic for the US will be returning military, who will face little real employment outside the military.

Equally problematic, will be the collapse of Mexico and the full wash over of the violence into the US.

Mid summer, when the Turkish war begins, the US, leading NATO will charge in. However, strong initial losses coupled with internal unrest, will cause it to pull back, to deal with the internal fractures.

Passports out of the US will also become much harder to get, as brain drain will become a serious issue. 2012 will be the year that many of the brightest will finally throw in the towel and head out, especially after the Nov elections.

Of course, than there's the God factor. God punished the US with the many plagues, but the US elites have continued to practice greater and greater evil while the mindless masses screaming its not our fault (but we're a Republic damn it!) continue to holler and yelp in glee at every new warfootage to entertain them. God gave America 1. Heavy winters, 2. Flooding, 3. Fires, 4. Drought, 5. Hurricane Flooding in the NE, 6. Crop Failures, 7. Earthquakes, 8. Early and heavy blizzards in Oct....eight plagues that have all been ignored. As is the way of God, things will only get worse as His rage grows.

Mexico

I know I have been predicting this for two years now, but the collapse will finally come this year. I am amazed how the Mexican government has been able to hold on, but with even the most prestigious resort areas of Acapulco and Cancun war zones and violence flooding into the capital of Mexico City, the end is neigh. This year alone, over 300 gangland murderers occurred in the capital.

With America pumping weapons, keeping the borders open and thus the drug trade going and allowing a safe place for the cartels to hide and recoop, the collapse of the state, that already holds less then half the country within its grasp, is inevitable.

This violence will spill over into the Gulf, further into Arizona, creating absolute chaos
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in that oblast and into Texas, New Mexico and California.

Brazil
The Brazil carry trade will finally collapse, along with the iron ore trade with China, as China suffers a hard landing. Coupled with a much lower demand for oil and gas, the main economies crash down, Brazil's tens of millions of poor will bring the country and government to a standstill, bringing about civil strife and marshal law. The country will survive, but will exit 2012 in much worse financial shape then it entered.

Argentina

Argentina, having passed an insane "terrorism" bill that labels everyone and anyone who opposes the elected government as terrorists, open for indefinite detention, will face ever growing civil strife and the possibility of civil war. To that end, the government, as every government of its type and as Argentina has done in the past, will seek an external enemy, in this case, the traditional Falkland Islands. That there is great deposits of oil and gas already being exploited will just add to the bonus.

Argentina will launch another invasion and Britain will respond. However, the English navy is a shadow of its former self and it will not have US intelligence on its back. The Obama will be backing the Argentines and will give them vast intelligence which will cause the British to lose a carrier and several other ships. The Falklands will be occupied and the British will be unable to land reinforcements on it. To make sure it controls the islands, there will be a whole scale cleansing of the British population, placed on transports and sent to the UK.

No resolutions will pass in the UN, with the US blocking and calling for "cool" heads, while aiding the Argentines.

Cuba

Fidel will finally meet his maker this year and a nationalist government will seize power. This is not the good news that it would seem to the US, as those very same nationalists will start agitating for the Florida Keys and Miami, both effectively Cuban territories due to the mass migrations over the past 40 years.

Iceland

Iceland will continue to go its own way and will be blocked from European trade, as limited as that will become this year. For that reason, there will be major moves from the Kremlin to align the Icelanders into a Russian alliance. The Icelandic economy will be kept afloat, in large part, by Russian trade and monies, not the first time. While there will be realistic discussions about setting up Russian bases on Iceland, as long as NATO stands, which will be through most of this year, this will only be talk.

Ireland

Ireland, with the final collapse of the present EU system and the reformation and rise of the Fourth Reich, will be forced, by its people, to follow the Icelandic route, casting out the last vestiges of the EU. Economic turmoil will wrap the nation, but its low taxes will remain and several major US corporations, fleeing the Fascist regime in the US, will transfer and reregister in Ireland.

United Kingdom

Chaos, war, collapse and the signs of the return of the British. The whole cycle is in wake for the British, with large doses of pain and equal doses of hope. As reported two days ago, over 40,000 businesses look at shut downs in January alone, after another disastrous Christmas season.

The British will not follow the EU into the Fourth Reich formation, outright, but will hang around on the outskirts for the first half of the year, as the decent begins, unlike Ireland, Greece, Spain and Portugal, the first four that will leave outright.

When the British are defeated in Argentina, there will be massive unrest in the streets. David Cameron's government will be able to hang on, however only by slim margins.

The Islamics, never missing a chance to make enemies, will be out in force mocking the defeated British. This will of course feed into the various right wing nationalists groups.

When the Turkish war explodes, the British will ever willingly to join in behind the Americans, as part of the NATO force. However, after losing several combat ships, they will back out quickly, as internal decent will bring down the government. Right wing Nationalists will grab for power, rallying around the monarchy, specifically the crown princes. The rest of the year will see street riots and battles with various Islamic groups and mass deportations by the new government.

France

France's elections will go as planned, that is, Mary Le Pan will come no where near power, even though she has the majority of popular opinion behind her. The fellow Fourth Reich architect Sarkozy will remain in power, through every dirty trick, which may include the assassination of Mary. France will be a main figure in the Fourth Reich.

She will support the war against Russia, Greece and the Orthodox initially, but at the signal from Germany will pull out, allowing NATO to collapse and driving the last of the US vestiges out of Europe proper.

Germany

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The German elites will continue at the full clip moving their nation into the full Fourth Reich union, regardless of what the people proper feel or want. When the war against Russia and Greece begins, Germany will back it and send some planes, though no ships or ground troops will be supplied. When NATO is full invested, which will not take long, Germany will pull out, along with France, crashing the party.

By the end of the year, the EU will be around in name only and NATO will be a crushed and discredited organization. The Germans will be running the whole thing, through their Belgian puppets.

Spain & Portugal

Spain's economy will continue to implode and so will that of Portugal, neither nation able to control its currency. The war against the Orthodox and the collapse of NATO will cause major governmental turmoil and will crush the present right of center government. By the end of the year, they will eject themselves from the EU, as nationalists come to power. The two will form a free trade zone of their own, as well as continuing to make out reaches to Latin America and North Africa.

Italy

Italy's downward spiral will continue and the NATO war will be a major embarrassment. However, as much as people want to leave the EU, it will not work, as the Brussels controlled government will not leave and Italy will become a second tier state, its finances controlled by Brussels but still not part of the EU "Core" aka Fourth Reich. There will be many civil disturbances throughout the country, especially in the south, which will continue to be flooded by North and Central Africans.

Poland

Poland's alliance with the collapsing US empire will become fanatical. Caught between a resurgent and pissed off Russia and the rebirth of the Fourth Reich. Poland will remain in the EU but will continue to distance itself further and further.

Serbia

By the time the war with Turkey erupts, the Serbian Judases in power will be doing the famous helicopter on the roof run. When the Turkish tanks roll into Greece, the Serbian Radical party will rally the people to them, over throwing the puppet regime. Serbian fighters will already be heading down to fight the Turks, even as the government reorganizes and mobilizes the military.

Only part of the military will head to aid Greece, with the rest heading into Kosovo, over running and destroying the NATO forces in the area, and driving out the Albanian invaders in mass. NATO will pull out to a hostile Croatia, whose own nationalists will be rallying to the threat of the hated Turk.

Bulgaria

Bulgaria's leadership will face a similar problem as Serbia's. When the military is ordered to stay out of the war, as the Turks drive in, there will be a military coup as Orthodox Bulgarians take to the streets in defiance of their bankrupt puppet regime.

Bulgaria will also enter the war. American bases in Bulgaria will be besieged by the locals and the Bulgarian military will place the Americans under arrest, for the duration of the conflict.

Romania

Romania will stay out of the war with Turkey but its leadership will barely hold on to power, as it too is rocked by internal decent. They will then become an ever more fringe player in the "new" EU structure.

The Fourth Reich

The new and revised EU, one of close close and even closer cooperation, that is, one where all the fiscal power and thus all the power of the individual states is controlled by Brussels and thus by Berlin, will finally come into reality. The weaker states on the periphery will either be rejected, ejected or will self eject. The core states will be: Germany, France, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Austria, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia (the last 3 for strategic reasons). The dictatorial union of the unified elites will of course be weak, at first. They will effectively gut NATO and fully back their EuroForce. Not all states will leave the EU but those not part of the FR will be a second tier at best and will have strong secessionist views in place.

The ultimate strategy of the FR will be no different than that of the Third Reich, but they will require several years to rebuild their economies and put themselves back on their collective feet, as well as create a real war machine. Of course the FR will still be part of the EU and will use that cover name, adding something to the tune of core states or some such.

Greece

Greece will over throw its government within the first half of the year, by a military coup. They will be the first EU puppet regime running for the roof top helicopters. Greece will equally exit out of the EU and will restart printing of the Drachma. There will be talks about alliances with and the appearance of Russian bases.

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However, before these come to fruition, Greece's alliance with Cyprus and Israel will pull it directly into war with Turkey. The Turks will be fighting a three front war, but a large enough force will drive into Greece. The Greeks will fight as hard as they can but will be overcome. The Turkish assault will stall in Thessaloniki amidst massive street to street fighting and also in the mountains to the north. The northern Greeks will be bolstered by Serbia, Macedonian and Bulgarian volunteers, which will further stall the Turkish drive. NATO and the EU will stay out of the fighting, at this point, calling weakly for all sides to come to terms. The Turks will enter central Greece, though much slower than expected, as their forces will be drawn off by a general Kurdish uprising and continued heavy fighting in northern Israel.

Russia will at first stay neutral, also calling for peace, however, it will cut the Turks off from gas and oil. Russian humanitarian aid will fly into Greece, over Bulgarian airspace, even as the Bulgarian government falls to its own military. After that point, active Russian aid will be drawn in.

Images of dead Orthodox Greeks, from Turkish atrocities, will drive the masses into the streets demanding direct intervention. The UN will be blocked by US/UK/French vetos, even as Russian volunteers start to flood into the Balkans. Russia will start to threaten Turkey and this will quickly escalate into air skirmishes. NATO will come alive, directly threatening Russia to stay out. Russia will, by this point be drawn deeply into the fighting, with Ukraine close at the hip.

The Russian military will attack directly through Georgia, who after four days of resistance, will collapse. Tbilisi will not be besieged by major forces, surrounded and forced into submission, as the bulk of the military will drive into Turkey proper. At this point Armenia will enter the war on Russia's side and Azerbaijan on Turkey's.

NATO will confront Russia in the Black Sea and will suffer a full defeat, cut off from Bulgarian support bases, with only Romania's bases left. These will be degraded by Russian missiles and bombers. NATO ships will be sunk, most being American. NATO fighters will also be confronted at the edge of their operability over the Balkans and the Black Sea. This defeat, and Ukraine's entry into the war on Russia's side, will be used by the Germans as a reason to pull out and thus crush NATO from within.

By the end of the year, the Turks will have been checked in northern Israel, will be facing continual Syrian partisan warfare. They will have lost the eastern half of their country to Armenian, Kurdish forces, while Russia will be driving on them, sitting at the outskirts of Ankara. They will still hold Thessaloniki, but will have withdrawn from central Greece and will be under constant attack from the north by Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian forces. They will also have lost Cyprus by this point to S.Cypriot forces, unable to resupply it due to the other fronts.

The final destruction of Turkey, a Russian landing in Constantinople, as well as the capture of Ankara, will come in the first half of 2013. At this point, Turkey will face full dissolution as a nation, being divided into at least 3 maybe four parts: Greek (Byzentine), Armenian (Trebzon) and Kurdish south and southeast and maybe a smaller Bulgarian zone in the north of Turkey proper as well as a slice of northern Thrace.

Cyprus

Cyprus will ride out the war relatively easily compared to the rest in the area. Cyprus will suffer initial missile and bomber strikes by the Turks, directly on their infrastructure, including civilian zones, and on their gas drilling, shutting it down. However, the Greeks and Israelis will be involved and the Turks will suffer losses of planes needed in Greece and Israel. South Cyprus will instantly launch an assault on N.Cyprus and through hard fighting will drive out the Turks within several months.

Turkey

This year will bring Turkey its last war. Turkey's government will continue to be run by the Islamic demagogue Erdegan. He will form a close alliance with Egypt and will back the Syrian Islamic Sunni revolutionaries, including an invasion of Syria, which will fall. Thus surrounding Israel.

Erdegan will seek the mantle of the new Sulman and will launch an assault on the Israelis and thus their Greek and Cypriot allies, pulling Turkey into a war it will not win.

By mid 2013, Turkey will be on the dust bin of history, a dead nation.

Syria

Syria will fall to the Islamic Sunni jihadists, driving out the Alluwate and Christians, as well as suppressing the Shiites. Syria will also become a major battle ground in the war with Israel that Turkey will launch.

Syrian patriots will attack and bog down Turkish forces, fighting them throughout much of Syria, especially in the cities.

Jordan

Jordan will ride out this year as a neutral nation, keeping down their own Sunni fanatics with brutal force. However, Jordan will have to deal with a mass influx of driven out West Bank Palestinians.

Egypt

With its tourist economy dead, the fanatic ran Egypt will face economic ruin. Much of the manufacturing will also flee, along with much of the intellectual capital. In a desperate bid to stave off a military led coup, the Islamics will help launch the war on Israel.

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While the Israeli army will be busy fighting with the Turks on the north, the airforce will carve up much of the Egyptian army as it drives through the Sinai. Egyptian forces will reach the Israeli borders and will drive into southern Israel but will not get far, their supply lines over stretched and heavily damaged. Once Russia enters the war, Turkey's main forces will be pulled back to the Russian front and Israel will counter attack, driving the Egyptians out of the Sinai and closing the Suez Canal. Israeli missiles will destroy the dams along the Nile causing massive destruction downstream.

Egypt will pull out of the war within 3 months of entry, its economy destroyed, its key cities devastated, having lost the Sinai and with a military civil war between the moderate and Islamic forces.

Israel

Israel will suffer heavily in the war, its cities will be under heavy fire by missiles and aircraft bombs. Israel will survive, loosing over 20% of its population. It will take this opportunity to drive out the Muslim Palestinians from both Gaza and the West Bank.

Saudi Arabia and Iran

While at first supporting the Turkish drive, both with limited military assets and money, SA will soon be faced with a stark reality. With NATO's collapse and the US retreat, Saudi Arabia will have lost its main military protector and will watch helplessly as Turkey is dismembered, like a Christmas bird. Across the border, Iran will waste little time securing its positions in Iraq and will cause a major standoff over the Straights. Along the Persian Gulf, Iranian backed Shiites will become a major problem for the Sunni Arabs. The area will remain tense but mostly peaceful.

Libya

Endless civil war.

Sudan/South Sudan

This year will see a continuation of the war between these two states. Neither side will get to far, before Sudan collapses from its own civil war, between the black Arabs and the African tribes. Ethiopia will finally step in, crushing the last vestiges of the Sudanese military. South Sudan will become a protectorate of Ethiopia.

Ethiopia

Ethiopia will become the full power house of East Africa. It will crush the remains of the Sudanese military and its own will be on the borders of South Sudan. It will reenter the Somalia mess, beating down the Islamics and will form an active alliance with the Kenyan Christians driving out the Somali Islamic from northern Kenya, back into war torn Somalia.

South Africa

Taking advantage of the total global chaos, the Marxist fanatics of the black South African government will launch a final solution on the white population. The Boers will retreat into their own well armed enclaves, recreating the Boer republics and will fight it out with the SA forces, which themselves will lose their white components. There may be an alliance with the Zulus. Many non Boer whites will either join the Boers or flee the massacres.

Afghanistan

NATO forces in Afghanistan will face total catastrophe and the majority will be cut off and destroyed, unable to be evacuated out of Afghanistan. Iran will allow German, French and Italian forces out through its borders, as a show of good faith to the FR. US, UK and other forces will face disaster. Some will make it and be allowed into Uzbekistan, most will perish, along with the Karazai government.

Pakistan

Pakistan will collapse, as a full-fledged civil war gets under way. The Pakistani missile forces will secure the nuclear weapons and disarm them, so that the Islamic fanatics will not be able to use them, except as dirty bombs. Many will be smuggled out of the country to either India or Iran for safe keeping.

India

India will sit back and enjoy this year, working on its economy whose export markets will have collapsed. With China in the middle of a hard landing and Pakistan collapsing, there will be minimum security threats to India. Have fun this year.

China

China will have a full economic meltdown, or in today's jargon, a Hard Landing. What started with the property crash in October 2011, will only pick up steam. With the continued economic collapse of the EU and US, demand for exports will all but dry up. Internally, China will have hundreds of thousands of protests (last year it was measured at 180,000 protests alone). It will have a full insurgency again in East Turkmenistan (Xingjian) and in Tibet. These will be put down eventually, but the Chinese giant will be on its knees for years to come, dealing with the super Keynesian economic collapse and various street battles. What will arise in a half decade to a decade will be a much stronger and far more dangerous China.

Japan

Japan will spend the year rebuilding and reshaping Asia. With China temporarily out of the way, Japan will move quickly to first help S.Korea re-conquer N.Korea and two, to form a close alliance of the South China Sea, that is, with Taiwan, which Japan will recognize as an independent state, the Philippines and Vietnam. Japan will also work hard to entrench alliance with Russia, based on economics, while working for secession of Hawaii from a flailing and failing US. US forces will be asked to leave by the end of the year.

Koreas

This could finally be the year of reunification. With a weak new ruler and its master China on its knees, the N.Koreans will face heavy unrest and a military coup, which will lead to an "invitation" for S.Korea to enter the nation. Backed by Japan, S.Korea will reunify the nation, with little real fighting.

Stanislav Mishin

The article has been reprinted with the kind permission from the author and originally appear on his blog Mat Rodina

Putin's Intelligent and beautiful wife Lyudmila Shkrebneva

Source-RianRussia.ru

Lyudmila Shkrebneva met Vladimir Putin on the steps of a theater box office. The future first lady was with a friend who had arranged to meet her boyfriend, who in turn had invited Vladimir to come along. They all went to a concert by Arkady Raikin at the Lensovet Theater.

Soon after first meeting Vladimir Putin, Lyudmila moved to Leningrad and enrolled in university preparatory courses. While in her third year at university, she married Vladimir Putin, who was then employed in the intelligence service. The wedding took place aboard a pleasure boat on the Neva River on July 28, 1983.

In 1986, Lyudmila Putin graduated from the philology department of Leningrad State University, defending her thesis “The Participle in the Modern Spanish Language” and fluently speaking Spanish and French. Later, while living with her husband in Germany, she independently learned German.

For two years Lyudmila Putin taught German at Leningrad State University language courses. She took the initiative to set up the Center for the Development of the Russian Language and is a winner of the Jacob Grimm Prize “For a Special Contribution to the Popularization of the German Language” (October 2002).

She is also a prizewinner of the International Association for the Advancement of “Rukhaniyat” Spirituality (Kyrgyzstan). The award was given to her in December 2002 for contributing to the development of Kyrgyz-Russian cultural and humanitarian cooperation. In October 2005, Lyudmila Putin was made an honorary professor at Gumilev Eurasian University (Astana) and presented with the “Golden Warrior” medal.

Lyudmila Putin is interested in the theater and music and likes Russian love songs. She also goes in for tennis and downhill skiing.

Close friends call her a good housekeeper and a person of firm character. Her husband’s fast moving career did not take her aback because she had always believed in such a turn of events. Therefore, she feels admiration rather than pride.

In Lyudmila Putin’s opinion, the first thing the wife of a head of state should think of is “not harming the president’s activities.”

Asked if it is difficult to be the wife of a president, Lyudmila Putin gave a negative answer and added, “The main thing is to remain oneself.”

http://en.rian.ru/photolents/20080109/95834025.html

Source-CIA World factbook

Founded in the 12th century, the Principality of Muscovy, was able to emerge from over 200 years of Mongol domination (13th-15th centuries) and to gradually conquer and absorb surrounding principalities. In the early 17th century, a new Romanov Dynasty continued this policy of expansion across Siberia to the Pacific. Under PETER I (ruled 1682-1725), hegemony was extended to the Baltic Sea and the country was renamed the Russian Empire. During the 19th century, more territorial acquisitions were made in Europe and Asia. Defeat in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 contributed to the Revolution of 1905, which resulted in the formation of a parliament and other reforms. Repeated devastating defeats of the Russian army in World War I led to widespread rioting in the major cities of the Russian Empire and to the overthrow in 1917 of the imperial household. The Communists under Vladimir LENIN seized power soon after and formed the USSR. The brutal rule of Iosif STALIN (1928-53) strengthened Communist rule and Russian dominance of the Soviet Union at a cost of tens of millions of lives. The Soviet economy and society stagnated in the following decades until General Secretary Mikhail GORBACHEV (1985-91) introduced glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) in an attempt to modernize Communism, but his initiatives inadvertently released forces that by December 1991 splintered the USSR into Russia and 14 other independent republics. Since then, Russia has shifted its post-Soviet democratic ambitions in favor of a centralized semi-authoritarian state in which the leadership seeks to legitimize its rule through managed national elections, populist appeals by former President PUTIN, and continued economic growth. Russia has severely disabled a Chechen rebel movement, although violence still occurs throughout the North Caucasus.

Geography ::RUSSIA
People and Society ::RUSSIA
Nationality:

noun: Russian(s)
adjective: Russian
Ethnic groups:

Russian 79.8%, Tatar 3.8%, Ukrainian 2%, Bashkir 1.2%, Chuvash 1.1%, other or unspecified 12.1% (2002 census)
Languages:

Russian (official), many minority languages
Religions:

Russian Orthodox 15-20%, Muslim 10-15%, other Christian 2% (2006 est.)
note: estimates are of practicing worshipers; Russia has large populations of non-practicing believers and non-believers, a legacy of over seven decades of Soviet rule
Population:

138,739,892 (July 2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 9
Age structure:

0-14 years: 15.2% (male 10,818,203/female 10,256,611)
15-64 years: 71.8% (male 47,480,851/female 52,113,279)
65 years and over: 13% (male 5,456,639/female 12,614,309) (2011 est.)
Median age:

total: 38.7 years
male: 35.5 years
female: 41.9 years (2011 est.)
Population growth rate:

-0.47% (2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 222
Birth rate:

11.05 births/1,000 population (2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 173
Death rate:

16.04 deaths/1,000 population (July 2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 5
Net migration rate:

0.29 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 67
Urbanization:

urban population: 73% of total population (2010)
rate of urbanization: -0.2% annual rate of change (2010-15 est.)
Major cities - population:

MOSCOW (capital) 10.523 million; Saint Petersburg 4.575 million; Novosibirsk 1.397 million; Yekaterinburg 1.344 million; Nizhniy Novgorod 1.267 million (2009)
Sex ratio:

at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.92 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.44 male(s)/female
total population: 0.85 male(s)/female (2011 est.)
Maternal mortality rate:

39 deaths/100,000 live births (2008)
country comparison to the world: 104
Infant mortality rate:

total: 10.08 deaths/1,000 live births
country comparison to the world: 147
male: 11.58 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 8.49 deaths/1,000 live births (2011 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:

total population: 66.29 years
country comparison to the world: 161
male: 59.8 years
female: 73.17 years (2011 est.)
Total fertility rate:

1.42 children born/woman (2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 196
Health expenditures:

5.4% of GDP (2009)
country comparison to the world: 132
Physicians density:

4.3089 physicians/1,000 population (2006)
country comparison to the world: 8
Hospital bed density:

9.66 beds/1,000 population (2006)
country comparison to the world: 5
Drinking water source:

improved:
urban: 98% of population
rural: 89% of population
total: 96% of population
unimproved:
urban: 2% of population
rural: 11% of population
total: 4% of population (2008)
Sanitation facility access:

improved:
urban: 93% of population
rural: 70% of population
total: 87% of population
unimproved:
urban: 7% of population
rural: 30% of population
total: 13% of population (2008)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:

1% (2009 est.)
country comparison to the world: 46
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:

980,000 (2009 est.)
country comparison to the world: 10
HIV/AIDS - deaths:

NA
Major infectious diseases:

degree of risk: intermediate
food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea
vectorborne disease: tickborne encephalitis
note: highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza has been identified in this country; it poses a negligible risk with extremely rare cases possible among US citizens who have close contact with birds (2009)
Education expenditures:

3.9% of GDP (2006)
country comparison to the world: 107
Literacy:

definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 99.4%
male: 99.7%
female: 99.2% (2002 census)
School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education):

total: 14 years
male: 14 years
female: 15 years (2008)
Unemployment, youth ages 15-24:

total: 18.3%
country comparison to the world: 64
male: 17.7%
female: 19.1% (2009)

Russia has undergone significant changes since the collapse of the Soviet Union, moving from a globally-isolated, centrally-planned economy to a more market-based and globally-integrated economy. Economic reforms in the 1990s privatized most industry, with notable exceptions in the energy and defense-related sectors. The protection of property rights is still weak and the private sector remains subject to heavy state interference. Russian industry is primarily split between globally-competitive commodity producers - in 2009 Russia was the world's largest exporter of natural gas, the second largest exporter of oil, and the third largest exporter of steel and primary aluminum - and other less competitive heavy industries that remain dependent on the Russian domestic market. This reliance on commodity exports makes Russia vulnerable to boom and bust cycles that follow the highly volatile swings in global commodity prices. The government since 2007 has embarked on an ambitious program to reduce this dependency and build up the country's high technology sectors, but with few results so far. The economy had averaged 7% growth since the 1998 Russian financial crisis, resulting in a doubling of real disposable incomes and the emergence of a middle class. The Russian economy, however, was one of the hardest hit by the 2008-09 global economic crisis as oil prices plummeted and the foreign credits that Russian banks and firms relied on dried up. The Central Bank of Russia spent one-third of its $600 billion international reserves, the world's third largest, in late 2008 to slow the devaluation of the ruble. The government also devoted $200 billion in a rescue plan to increase liquidity in the banking sector and aid Russian firms unable to roll over large foreign debts coming due. The economic decline bottomed out in mid-2009 and the economy began to grow in the first quarter of 2010. However, a severe drought and fires in central Russia reduced agricultural output, prompting a ban on grain exports for part of the year, and slowed growth in other sectors such as manufacturing and retail trade. High oil prices buoyed Russian growth in the first quarter of 2011 and could help Russia reduce the budget deficit inherited from the lean years of 2008-09, but inflation and increased government expenditures may limit the positive impact of these revenues. Russia's long-term challenges include a shrinking workforce, a high level of corruption, difficulty in accessing capital for smaller, non-energy companies, and poor infrastructure in need of large investments.
GDP (purchasing power parity):

$2.223 trillion (2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 7
$2.138 trillion (2009 est.)
$2.319 trillion (2008 est.)
note: data are in 2010 US dollars
GDP (official exchange rate):

$1.465 trillion (2010 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:

4% (2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 99
-7.8% (2009 est.)
5.2% (2008 est.)
GDP - per capita (PPP):

$15,900 (2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 71
$15,300 (2009 est.)
$16,500 (2008 est.)
note: data are in 2010 US dollars
GDP - composition by sector:

agriculture: 4%
industry: 36.8%
services: 59.1% (2010 est.)
Labor force:

75.49 million (2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 7
Labor force - by occupation:

agriculture: 10%
industry: 31.9%
services: 58.1% (2008)
Unemployment rate:

7.5% (2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 78
8.4% (2009 est.)
Population below poverty line:

13.1% (2009)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:

lowest 10%: 2.6%
highest 10%: 33.5% (2008)
Distribution of family income - Gini index:

42.2 (2009)
country comparison to the world: 52
39.9 (2001)
Investment (gross fixed):

21.9% of GDP (2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 91
Budget:

revenues: $273.4 billion
expenditures: $333 billion (2010 est.)
Taxes and other revenues:

18.7% of GDP (2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 164
Budget surplus (+) or deficit (-):

-4.1% of GDP (2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 123
Public debt:

9% of GDP (2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 123
8.3% of GDP (2009 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):

6.9% (2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 174
11.7% (2009 est.)
Central bank discount rate:

5.5% (31 December 2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 39
8.75% (31 December 2009 est.)
Commercial bank prime lending rate:

10.817% (31 December 2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 47
15.308% (31 December 2009 est.)
Stock of narrow money:

$268.7 billion (31 December 2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 16
$213.8 billion (31 December 2009 est.)
Stock of broad money:

$780.6 billion (31 December 2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 19
$631.5 billion (31 December 2009 est.)
Stock of domestic credit:

$573.2 billion (31 December 2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 24
$437.8 billion (31 December 2009 est.)
Market value of publicly traded shares:

$1.005 trillion (31 December 2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 15
$861.4 billion (31 December 2009)
$397.2 billion (31 December 2008 est.)
Agriculture - products:

grain, sugar beets, sunflower seed, vegetables, fruits; beef, milk
Industries:

complete range of mining and extractive industries producing coal, oil, gas, chemicals, and metals; all forms of machine building from rolling mills to high-performance aircraft and space vehicles; defense industries including radar, missile production, and advanced electronic components, shipbuilding; road and rail transportation equipment; communications equipment; agricultural machinery, tractors, and construction equipment; electric power generating and transmitting equipment; medical and scientific instruments; consumer durables, textiles, foodstuffs, handicrafts
Industrial production growth rate:

8.2% (2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 39
Electricity - production:

925.9 billion kWh (2009 est.)
country comparison to the world: 5
Electricity - consumption:

857.6 billion kWh (2008 est.)
country comparison to the world: 5
Electricity - exports:

17.7 billion kWh (2009 est.)
Electricity - imports:

14.63 billion kWh (2009 est.)
Oil - production:

10.13 million bbl/day (2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 2
Oil - consumption:

2.937 million bbl/day (2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 6
Oil - exports:

7.301 million bbl/day (2009 est.)
country comparison to the world: 2
Oil - imports:

42,750 bbl/day (2009 est.)
country comparison to the world: 93
Oil - proved reserves:

60 billion bbl (1 January 2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 8
Natural gas - production:

610.1 billion cu m (2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 2
Natural gas - consumption:

424.9 billion cu m (2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 3
Natural gas - exports:

223.4 billion cu m (2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 1
Natural gas - imports:

38.2 billion cu m (2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 8
Natural gas - proved reserves:

47.57 trillion cu m (1 January 2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 1
Current account balance:

$71.13 billion (2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 4
$49.37 billion (2009 est.)
Exports:

$400.1 billion (2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 11
$303.4 billion (2009 est.)
Exports - commodities:

petroleum and petroleum products, natural gas, metals, wood and wood products, chemicals, and a wide variety of civilian and military manufactures
Exports - partners:

Germany 8.2%, Netherlands 6%, US 5.6%, China 5.4%, Turkey 4.6% (2010)
Imports:

$248.7 billion (2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 18
$191.8 billion (2009 est.)
Imports - commodities:

machinery, vehicles, pharmaceutical products, plastic, semi-finished metal products, meat, fruits and nuts, optical and medical instruments, iron, steel
Imports - partners:

Germany 14.7%, China 13.5%, Ukraine 5.5%, Italy 4.7%, Belarus 4.5% (2010)
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:

$479.4 billion (31 December 2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 3
$439.4 billion (31 December 2009 est.)
Debt - external:

$538.6 billion (30 June 2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 22
$393.5 billion (31 December 2010 est.)
Stock of direct foreign investment - at home:

$297.4 billion (31 December 2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 18
$256.2 billion (31 December 2009 est.)
Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad:

$274.6 billion (31 December 2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 17
$222.9 billion (31 December 2009 est.)
Exchange rates:

Russian rubles (RUB) per US dollar -
30 (2010)
31.74 (2009)
24.853 (2008)
25.581 (2007)
27.191

Beautiful Russian Women

Russian Brides....

Source-A Belarus bride.com: Russian Brides

Name: Anfisa

Age: 23

Birth Date: April 30, 1988.

Height: About 5'5"

Weight: About 112 pounds.

Education: Graduate Music University.

Work: Kindergarten Music Teacher.

Never married, no children.

Religion: Russian Orthodox

Anfisa does not smoke or drink. OK if you smoke, please only be an occasional drinker.

Anfisa lives with her parents. She does have computer experience, she does not know how to drive.

Born: Vitebsk

Anfisa has traveled to a couple FSU countries and Germany on vacation.

Language skills: Russian

Anfisa was referred to us by a current female member and good friend of our family. Anfisa and her parents all have excellent reputations in Vitebsk. Anfisa is a beautiful young woman with brown hair and blue eyes. Anfisa is very much an old fashion Vitebsk type woman. Anfisa has an excellent education and job which she can use in any Western country, she knows how to work for a living. Anfisa comes from a good old fashion Russian family, she does have old fashion values concerning marriage and family. It is very important to Anfisa that her future husband is a family and marriage minded type man.

Our crew in Vitebsk describe Anfisa this way: "She is a kind person who is very easy to get to know and to be friends with. Anfisa is a smart young woman, she is a nice person, we like her a lot. She is not shy, she is a calm person with a nice sense of humor. Anfisa is a touch-type person, she is able to show her feelings and emotions."

Anfisa would like to meet a good man from any country for love, marriage, and to create a happy and loving family together. You can be up to about 40 years old, if you have children that's fine with Anfisa. Anfisa would like to have a child with her future husband. You need to be an old fashion family man who loves kids, be a loving, touch-type man.

Anfisa likes to cook, bake, she enjoys travel, she likes reading, and of course she loves music. Anfisa also likes to be outside doing just about anything, including taking walks, camping, swimming and gardening.

Our crew asked Anfisa our question: Why are you a special person, and why should a man want to spend the rest of his life with you in particular?

Anfisa said, "I will love my husband and take care of my husband with all my heart."

Anfisa is a good woman, everyone who knows her really likes her. She is a sweet young woman who wants to find real happiness. Perhaps that real happiness is you!

Information updated January, 2012.

Our Rating:

Name: Marina

Age: 39

Birth Date: February 10, 1972.

Height: About 5'7"

Weight: About 121 pounds.

Education: University Graduate, Teaching College.

Work: Teacher

Marina was married for 5 years, she has been divorced for over 8 years.

Marina has a 6 year old son.

Religion: Russian Orthodox

Marina does not smoke, she will have a glass of wine or Champagne on special occasions. OK if you smoke, please only be a light drinker.

Marina has her own apartment and lives with her son. Marina has no computer experience, she does not drive.

Born: Ukraine

Marina has traveled to Poland, Ukraine and Russia on vacation. She has never traveled to a Western country.

Language skills: Russian

Marina was referred to us by a good friend of our family. She has an excellent reputation. Marina is a beautiful woman with gray eyes and dark brown hair. Marina is what we call an old fashion type woman. She has an excellent education and job, she knows how to work for a living and support herself and her son. She has those old fashion ideas about what family, marriage, and love mean in life, and she understands what responsibilities come along with those important parts of our lives. Marina had experience with a husband who did not understand what those responsibilities mean, of course she does not want that type man again in her life.

Our crew describe Marina as being a "more reserved, gentle, low-key person. She is not the type person to be the life-of-the-party, she is more on the shy side. Marina is a likeable person, she is friendly, she is an open person once she gets to know you. She is very much a touch-type woman who wants to find a man she can open-up with."

Marina would like to meet a good man from any country for love, marriage, and to create a loving and happy family together. You can be up to about 55 years old, if you have kids that's fine with Marina, she loves them of course. Your looks are not important, only your love and devotion to Marina are important. You need to be the type man who loves children, and you need to be the type man who feels marriage and family are the most important parts of your life. Be a touch-type man who wants to have a close relationship with your future wife Marina.

Marina is a very good cook and she enjoys being in the kitchen, she likes playing with her son, she enjoys being outside doing any activity, and she loves animals. She also enjoys swimming, taking walks, and she likes to watch a good movie now and then. Our crew asked Marina our question: Why are you a special person, and why should a man want to spend the rest of his life with you in particular? Marina said, "I promise to be a good wife for my future husband, I promise to hold him and our family close to my heart always. I dream for a warm family together."

Sweet thoughts from a sweet woman. Get involved with Marina and start your new life together. We believe you will be a happy man!

Information updated January, 2012.

Our Rating:

Source-Russia beyond the Headlines(Middle Class)

The Russian middle class: Life is what you make it
November 15, 2011
Andrei Molodykh, FillipTschapkovski, Russian Reporter
Members of a generation that grew up with no memories of the Soviet Union may complain about the state, but they don’t expect anything from it, which allows them, maybe, to be happier about their lives.

The Frolov family is having a fun in the yard. Source: Oksana Yushko
Vladimir Frolov stands near a modern apartment block in the city of Tomsk. Vladimir, 28 and his wife Nastya, 22, are both natives of the city, which has a population of around 500,000 and is located in the center of Siberia, 1,800 miles east of Moscow.

Vladimir attended Tomsk Polytechnical University and after graduating, began working for Tomsk Electromechanical Plant. He met Nastya there when she asked for his help with a technical drawing. They have a young son, Sergei.

Vladimir’ss starting salary was 10,000 rubles a month ― roughly $400 – which was not much, even for Tomsk. But in addition to the salary, the company offered the promising, young engineer a company loan with no interest for 25 years, which he used to purchase a one-bedroom apartment in a modern building on the river. The only catch was that if Vladimir were to be fired or quit of his own accord not only would the loan be payable immediately, but he would also have to pay interest on everything he had borrowed up to that point. Vladimir is consequently bound to the company for 25 years, and his family’s future predetermined.

Vladimir, however, finds the conditions fair: “It makes sense from the perspective of my employer. Otherwise, lots of people would try to get their hands on inexpensive loans through the company. Maybe we are dependent. But that’s a small price to pay for our own apartment.”

Life and Work

Every month, after paying the mortgage, the Frolovs have roughly $850 to spend. Vladimir is the sole earner, because Nastya has started classes for a second degree and also takes care of Sergei. Food costs are somewhere around $200 a month. “Everything else has to be split between child, clothes, culture and everything else,” Vladimir said.

He does not sound overly confident when it comes to his future. The Tomsk Electromechanical Plant makes, among other things, giant turbines that siphon smoke from subways. Six of these turbines are currently in use in the Moscow Metro.

“Theoretically, the contracts in the plant could be reduced or disappear at any time. If the higher-ups start making some kind of rubbish, then there are immediate consequences for our working conditions and our wages,” said Vladimir. To have any sense of security, Vladimir thinks he needs at least $1,500 a month, but to receive higher wages, productivity must increase, which in turn can only happen if the equipment in Vladimir’s plant is modernized. “If there were a switch to industry produced by locals, that would be half the battle. Sometimes I visit Germany on business, and there people try to use as many German products as possible. We need that same mentality in Russia.”

Vladimir is concerned about improving the situation at the plant and wants to help it produce innovative, Russian products. This is one of his goals for the future, and if the plant is successful, it will help Vladimir achieve his other dream: A house on the outskirts of town where he and Nastya can raise three kids.

The only problem for this typical Russian citizen is that he has no dream. To put it more accurately, his dream of an apartment has already come true. The framework, within which he no resides, is not conducive to fantasies or dreams, otherwise he would surely find his daily life intolerable. And he still has 22 years to go, before he has paid off his loan.

Nastya, for her part, is a little less ambitious – she would be happy with just two kids. Her goals for the moment are more pragmatic. She wants her son Sergei to go to preschool. In Russia, preschool, like regular school, is provided by the state, but the preschools are overcrowded and not everyone gets a place.

The government is involved in an ongoing campaign to raise the birthrate, but there is no infrastructure to support more children. Many preschool buildings from the Soviet era have been leased as office space, and strict regulations for registering childcare facilities prevent the creation of private kindergartens.

When Sergei is finally in preschool, Nastya would like to get a job in the social services sector. She would like to earn 20,000 rubles ($650) a month, but would settle for 15,000 ($490).

Nastya dreams of a vacation in Sevastopol, where she has relatives. In the future, she would like to travel more – to Egypt to see the pyramids, to Thailand or to Germany, because Vladimir has said lots of nice things about it.

As a salaried mid-management employee, Vladimir commutes between the office and the plant. He sees many sides of the business – one of his main responsibilities is processing orders. He also goes on business trips to clients and suppliers. Sometimes he even works in the plant. In one part of the plant, the old equipment has been replaced with new German-made facilities, but replacing all the old equipment is impossible; the company does not produce enough. The biggest challenged to its survival is the lack of long-term contracts. The factory keeps its head above water via short-term projects, making the majority of its money from air purification and automated control systems for oil pipelines. According to Vladimir, the plant would solve most of its problems if two or three long-term contracts could be signed with oil companies or Moscow Metro.

“German workers have so much indisputable rights and resources: pensions, health insurance, a house, a car, fitness studios, swimming pools. Our future, on the other hand, is full of uncertainty,” Vladimir says.

What would happen if Vladimir had an accident at the plant? Would the loan be payable? “We do not have to worry about that,” he says. “If something were to happen, an insurance company would pay my loan. To be perfectly honest, I am incredibly lucky. Millions of Russians are probably jealous of me.”

This story is abridged from the original version, which appeared in the Russian Reporter Magazine
View full article

Mitt Romneys Cayman Islands Accounts

2012-01-18T16:09:00.037-07:00

Source-CNN

Funny how the WORTHLESS MAINSTREAM MEDIA can dig up trash on every person on the planet, but Barry Soetoro, nothing??? 4 years and 6 TRILLION DOLLARS IN ADDED DEBT!

Source-ABC NEWS

Newt Gingrich lacks the moral character to serve as President, his second ex-wife Marianne told ABC News, saying his campaign positions on the sanctity of marriage and the importance of family values do not square with what she saw during their 18 years of marriage.

In her first television interview since the 1999 divorce, to be broadcast tonight on Nightline, Marianne Gingrich, a self-described conservative Republican, said she is coming forward now so voters can know what she knows about Gingrich.

CLICK HERE to see a preview of ABC News' exclusive broadcast interview with Marianne Gingrich and then catch the full interview tonight on ABC News' Nightline at 11:35 p.m. ET.

In her most provocative comments, the ex-Mrs. Gingrich said Newt sought an "open marriage" arrangement so he could have a mistress and a wife.

She said when Gingrich admitted to a six-year affair with a Congressional aide, he asked her if she would share him with the other woman, Callista, who is now married to Gingrich.

"And I just stared at him and he said, 'Callista doesn't care what I do,'" Marianne Gingrich told ABC News. "He wanted an open marriage and I refused."

Marianne described her "shock" at Gingrich's behavior, including how she says she learned he conducted his affair with Callista "in my bedroom in our apartment in Washington."

"He always called me at night," she recalled, "and always ended with 'I love you.' Well, she was listening."

All this happened, she said, during the same time Gingrich condemned President Bill Clinton for his lack of moral leadership.

She said Newt moved for the divorce just months after she had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, with her then-husband present.

"He also was advised by the doctor when I was sitting there that I was not to be under stress. He knew," she said.

Gingrich divorced his first wife, Jackie, as she was being treated for cancer. His relationship with Marianne began while he was still married to Jackie but in divorce proceedings, Marianne said.

There was no immediate comment from Gingrich on his ex-wife's allegations. Gingrich has said during the campaign he has "no relationship" with Marianne.

While she had been quoted earlier as saying she could end his career, Marianne Gingrich defended Newt's ethics while he served in Congress and came under several ethics investigations.

"At the time, I believed him to be ethical," she said in the interview.

The former Mrs. Gingrich says Newt began to plan a run for President at the time of the divorce and told her that Callista "was going to help him become President."

In a statement to ABC News provided by the campaign, Gingrich's two daughters from his first marriage said, "The failure of a marriage is a terrible and emotional experience for everyone involved."

The daughters, Kathy Lubbers and Jackie Cushman said they would not say anything negative about Marianne and said their father "regrets any pain he may have caused in the past to people he loves."

Marianne Gingrich said Newt has never expressed any such regrets or apologized to her.

NEWT EX-WIFE UNLOADS ON CAMERA; NETWORK DEBATES 'ETHICS' OF AIRING BEFORE SC PRIMARY

**Exclusive**
Wed Jan 18 2012 18:47:14 ET

Marianne Gingrich has said she could end her ex-husband's career with a single interview.

Earlier this week, she sat before ABCNEWS cameras, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

She spoke to ABCNEWS reporter Brian Ross for two hours, and her explosive revelations are set to rock the trail.

But now a "civil war" has erupted inside of the network, an insider claims, on exactly when the confession will air!

MORE

ABCNEWS suits determined it would be "unethical" to run the Marianne Gingrich interview so close to the South Carolina Primary, a curious decision, one insider argued, since the network has aggressively been reporting on other candidates.

A decision was tentatively made to air the interview next Monday, after all votes have been counted.

Gingrich canceled a press conference on Wednesday to deal with the matter.

"He believes that what he says in public and how he lives don't have to be connected," Marianne Gingrich, Newt's wife of 18 years, explained to ESQUIRE last year.

Developing...

UPDATE: The AP reports ABC is now likely to air the segment Thursday on NIGHTLINE.

Source-Human Events.com-Gingrich plan after South Carolina

Should Newt Gingrich turn in a strong showing in the South Carolina primary Saturday and his rivals for the conservative vote drop out of the GOP presidential race, the former House speaker feels confident he can draw a sharp contrast with front-runner Mitt Romney and win their party’s nomination for President this year.

“I have a game plan to win after South Carolina,” said Gingrich, who spoke to HUMAN EVENTS Wednesday morning between campaign stops in the Palmetto State. While freely admitting he is “totally focused on winning South Carolina,” Gingrich echoed the view of Florida campaign chairman Bill McCollum that he can defeat Romney in that state’s primary January 31st.

“And then, we will be competing in the Republican caucuses [to choose national convention delegates] in Colorado and Minnesota February 7 and then the caucuses in Washington State [March 3] and then we’re into ‘Super Tuesday,’ he told us, referring to the voting March 6 in which caucuses and primaries in a dozen states will choose their delegates.

“The one significant mistake we made in the campaign so far was failing to get on the ballot in Virginia [March 6],” Gingrich conceded, but he quickly added that “we learned from that mistake and we just have to work harder in the other Super Tuesday states to make up for this. (He did not mention that he also failed to qualify for the primary ballot in Missouri February 7, but Gingrich backers pointed out to us that the Show Me State primary is a non-binding “beauty contest” and that actual delegates are chosen at a state convention later in the year in which they insist their man will be competitive).

Gingrich’s “game plan” depends on conservative opponents such as Rick Perry and Rick Santorum leaving the race soon and letting him face Romney, whom he dismissed as a “confused Massachusetts moderate.” Referring to a recent appearance by Karl Rove on Fox Television, Gingrich recalled how the former Bush White House counselor concluded that Romney could not win if there was a “consensus conservative vote coming to South Carolina.” Gingrich himself believes “if there was a unified conservative vote in South Carolina, I would defeat Romney by at least 60-40.”

The ever-confident candidate expects that if Santorum and/or Perry dropped out of the race, their supporters on the right would flock to his banner without hesitation.

“There are a number of people in Texas who would donate to me the minute Perry is out” he said. When we pressed for names, he declined, saying “I’m just totally focused on South Carolina.”

Like his South Carolina chairman and onetime U.S. House colleague John Napier, Gingrich believes “we have a real chance to win here Saturday” but he would be satisfied with a “strong place showing.” After such results, the former speaker believes that there would be strong pressure for Santorum and Perry to leave the race and for him to get the desired “one-on-one” with Romney scenario needed for his game plan to work.

In the coming days and weeks, Gingrich told us, he plans to hammer Romney on three key points: contrasting his own “bold” plan for a 15% flat tax (“for all taxpayers and not just those who make $200,000 or more”) with what he called Romney’s “timid” tax reform plan; his call for a Chilean-style personal account plan for Social Security (“Romney’s belittling it in our last debate reminded me of George Bush denouncing Reagan’s tax plan as ‘voodoo economics’ in 1980”), and his “bold” national security policy, which includes strong defense of Israel (“Romney would be a more cautious, establishment type on national security.”).

Does Gingrich feel he is in the same spot as Ronald Reagan in 1976, who lost a string of primaries before defeating Gerald Ford in North Carolina in April and then went on to nearly win the nomination? He replied that there are two major differences: “First, there was no divided field among conservatives and he got to go one-on-one with [Ford] and second, he didn’t have to face Romney’s big money machine, with all of its Wall Street donations. It’s small by Obama standards, but huge by Republican standards.”

Source-CNN: Gingrich to consider Sarah Palin in his Administration

Gingrich: I'd like Palin in my administration

Comments (50) By MAGGIE HABERMAN | 1/18/12 4:28 PM EST
In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Newt Gingrich described Sarah Palin's comments about how she would vote for him if she lived in South Carolina as an "endorsement," and said he'd ask her to join a Gingrich administration:

"Gov. Palin is somebody who I think was a very good reform governor. She was extraordinarily effective negotiating with big oil. She did a good job in the state of Alaska. I think she’s a very articulate leader of the tea party conservative movement. I was honored and delighted last night when she said if she were in South Carolina, she’d vote for Newt Gingrich. I hope everybody who likes her decides she’s right. And I hope they vote for me.

"Certainly, she’s one of the people I’d call on for advice. I would ask her to consider taking a major role in the next administration if I’m president, but nothing has been discussed of any kind. And it wouldn’t be appropriate to discuss it at this time.

"I’m just delighted that she and Todd have been both of them so supportive of my candidacy. And they recognize that, you know, I’m a tea party Reform conservative. I’m not part of the Washington establishment. And I think that’s the signal that her endorsement last night really sends."

Source-ABC NEWS INVESTIGATIVE TEAM

Romney Parks Millions in Offshore Tax Haven
By MATTHEW MOSK, BRIAN ROSS and MEGAN CHUCHMACH
34 minutes ago

Although it is not apparent on his financial disclosure form, Mitt Romney has millions of dollars of his personal wealth in investment funds set up in the Cayman Islands, a notorious Caribbean tax haven.

A spokesperson for the Romney campaign says Romney follows all tax laws and he would pay the same in taxes regardless of where the funds are based.

As the race for the Republican nomination heats up, Mitt Romney is finding it increasingly difficult to maintain a shroud of secrecy around the details about his vast personal wealth, including, as ABC News has discovered, his investment in funds located offshore and his ability to pay a lower tax rate.

"His personal finances are a poster child of what's wrong with the American tax system," said Jack Blum, a Washington lawyer who is an authority on tax enforcement and offshore banking.

On Tuesday, Romney disclosed that he has been paying a far lower percentage in taxes than most Americans, around 15 percent of his annual earnings. It has been Romney's Republican rivals who have driven the tax issue onto center stage. For weeks, Romney has cited a desire for privacy as his reason for not sharing his tax returns -- a gesture of transparency that is now expected from presidential contenders.

"I can tell you we follow the tax laws," he said recently while on the campaign trail in New Hampshire. "And if there's an opportunity to save taxes, we like anybody else in this country will follow that opportunity."

But tax experts tell ABC News there are other reasons Romney may not want the public viewing his returns. As one of the wealthiest candidates to run for president in recent times, Romney has used a variety of techniques to help minimize the taxes on his estimated $250 million fortune. In addition to paying the lower tax rate on his investment income, Romney has as much as $8 million invested in at least 12 funds listed on a Cayman Islands registry. Another investment, which Romney reports as being worth between $5 million and $25 million, shows up on securities records as having been domiciled in the Caymans.

Official documents reviewed by ABC News show that Bain Capital, the private equity partnership Romney once ran, has set up some 138 secretive offshore funds in the Caymans.

Romney campaign officials and those at Bain Capital tell ABC News that the purpose of setting up those accounts in the Cayman Islands is to help attract money from foreign investors, and that the accounts provide no tax advantage to American investors like Romney. Romney, the campaign said, has paid all U.S. taxes on income derived from those investments.

"The tax consequences to the Romneys are the very same whether the fund is domiciled here or another country," a campaign official said in response to questions. "Gov. and Mrs. Romney have money invested in funds that the trustee has determined to be attractive investment opportunities, and those funds are domiciled wherever the fund sponsors happen to organize the funds."

Bain officials called the decision to locate some funds offshore routine, and a benefit only to foreign investors who do not want to be subjected to U.S. taxes.

Tax experts agree that Romney remains subject to American taxes. But they say the offshore accounts have provided him -- and Bain -- with other potential financial benefits, such as higher management fees and greater foreign interest, all at the expense of the U.S. Treasury. Rebecca J. Wilkins, a tax policy expert with Citizens for Tax Justice, said the federal government loses an estimated $100 billion a year because of tax havens.

Blum, the D.C. tax lawyer, said working through an offshore investment vehicle allows the investor to "avoid a whole series of small traps in the tax code that ordinary people would face if they paid tax on an onshore basis."

Wilkins agreed, saying the "primary advantage to setting those funds up in an offshore jurisdiction like the Cayman Islands or Bermuda is it helps the investors avoid tax."

"It helps U.S. investors avoid U.S. tax," said Wilkins, "it helps foreign investors avoid taxes in their home country, so it's not illegal or improper to set those funds up in a foreign jurisdiction, but it makes it more attractive to investors because it helps them avoid paying taxes on that income."

Bain Accounts in the Cayman Islands
Bain's presence in the Cayman Islands is not something the firm advertises. ABC News found references to the firm's accounts there in the footnotes of securities filings. When ABC News went to the office address listed for Romney's Bain funds, lawyers in the Caymans were not eager to answer questions.

Asked if he could confirm the existence of the Bain accounts, David Byrne, the chief marketing officer for the law firm Walkers, listed on documents as Bain's Caymans' representative, said he could not. "No, I can't at all," said Byrne. "Unfortunately, I can't comment at all on that."

There is now less secrecy than there was even two weeks ago surrounding Romney's tax rate. The money he made through Bain investments was taxed as capital gains at a 15 percent rate, instead of the higher tax rates borne by most Americans. Newt Gingrich told reporters Wednesday that his income was taxed at 31 percent.

The so-called "carried interest" rule has been the source of extensive debate in Washington, with opponents criticizing the allowance to tax those earnings at 15 percent a glaring loophole that benefits only the wealthiest Americans. Under the carried interest rule, income that is determined to be capital gains – like the profit reaped by hedge fund managers -- is subject to the lower 15 percent rate.

Wilkins said Romney's arrangements reminded her of the now famous remarks by billionaire financier Warren Buffet, who revealed in 2007 that he was paying taxes at a lower rate than his receptionist.

"Well, I think it's the issue that is sort of on the front page every day, when we look at the Occupy Wall Street movement and that people are really losing patience with the idea that a lot of multinational corporations have and a lot of wealthy people have that while they benefit from everything this country has to offer … they don't seem to be willing to pay their fair share," she said.

Romney, who left Bain in 1999, has confirmed that his earnings largely come from investments, and the tax rate he pays is consistent with that "because my last 10 years, my income comes overwhelmingly from some investments made in the past, whether ordinary income or earned annually. I got a little bit of income from my book, but I gave that all away. And then I get speaker's fees from time to time, but not very much."

Click Here for the Blotter Homepage.

The History of Jews and Whites in Mexico and Latin America

2012-01-18T00:47:00.101-07:00

Source-Mexconnect.com:The Jews of Mexico-Struggle for Survival

Jews in Mexico. a struggle for survival part 1
Shep Lenchek
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The survival of Judaism in Mexico is a tale of tenacity and tolerance. The story begins in Spain with the "Conversos", Jews who had converted to Christianity, always under duress.

It starts in 600 AD, the Visigoth king, Reccard, forcibly baptized 90,000 of his Jewish subjects and expelled those who would not accept Christianity. Some of the Conversos continued to practice their religion secretly for almost a century, then openly during the 800 years of Moorish rule. The number of Conversos grew during the 15th century when, in 1479, Ferdinand and Isabella launched a massive campaign to forcibly convert the Jewish population in Spain to Christianity.

With the birth of the Spanish Inquisition some three years later, the "Conversos" were now accused of secretly practicing Judaism. In 1492, all practicing Jews were expelled from Spain.

By 1530 the Royal Viceroy of Nueva Espagna, Antonio de Mendoza, had established law and order in the New World (some historians feel Mendoza himself came from a "Crypto-Jewish family. Mendoza was a very common name among Spanish Jews).

The "Conversos" were under increasing pressure from the Inquisition. Looking for a place in which they could retain their Spanish identity, they focused on Mexico. In 1531 large numbers of them left Spain and Portugal for the New World.

The inquisition had not yet come to Nueva Espagna and the new arrivals soon married into prominent Mexican families, became priests and bishops and enjoyed a 40 year period during which time, many began to practice Judaism openly. Doctors, lawyers. notaries-public, tailors, teachers and silversmiths, they brought much needed skills to the new colony and were well received. They settled in Vera Cruz, Campeche, Oaxaca, Guadalajara, Morelia and Mexico City.

By 1571 the Inquisition had arrived in the New World and again both practicing Jews and Conversos were under religious threat.

In 1579 the King of Portugal granted land for a colony north of Nueva Espagna, to a Portuguese nobleman, Luis de Carvajal. Named the "Kingdom of Nueva Leon," both Conversos and practicing Jews, banned in the Spanish colony, were welcome. But by 1641 the colony was gone. However, some of the original settlers had moved on to Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, then still part of Mexico, bringing with them seeds of Judaism that still survive.

One such family, named Villarreal, who freely acknowledge remote Jewish ancestors, has a web-site on the Internet ( http://members.aol.com/daniel5822/villarrealindex.html) that gives us an interesting look into the entire situation from the point of view of the Conversos. Located in South Texas, but with branches of the family still in Mexico, they openly acknowledge their Jewish heritage and are attempting to contact others with similar backgrounds, but make it clear that they will remain Catholics. They arrived as Conquistadors in 1519, most certainly 'New Christians,' since no practicing Jew could have served with Cortes. In 1573 they received a document from the King of Spain granting them the same status as "Old Christians. Yet in 1590, they left "Nueva Espagna" and settled in "The Kingdom of Nueva Leon."

Exactly why the ancestors of the Villarreal family left Nueva Espagna after approximately 71 years, during which they and their descendents enjoyed privileged status as original Conquistadors, is a question the living members of the family cannot answer. Perhaps it substantiates claims that the Inquisition often persecuted people who had sincerely accepted Catholicism, simply to strip them of wealth and power. This family was truly converted to Catholicism and remains so, but must have felt a threat to their safety from the Inquisition. Unlike others who fled, once safe in the "Kingdom of Nueva Leon," they did not return to Judaism. It appears that Jewish ancestry could cause problems for even devout Catholics.

Some 10 years later, all vestiges of open Judaism had disappeared. But what remained was perhaps as many as 20,000 Mexicans who had Jewish ancestors, almost five percent of the European population of that time.

It was not until 1865, during the reign of the ill fated Emperor, Maximilian, that an edict of religious tolerance was issued. Until then, only Catholics could be citizens. Some Jews who had arrived in the guise of "Conversos" and escaped the Inquisition, may have continued to practice Judaism secretly, but it was highly dangerous. As late as 1867 there were only 20 Jewish families in Mexico City and perhaps a dozen more in the rest of the country. It was not until late 1882, after the assassination of the Russian Tsar, Alexander II, that significant numbers of practicing Jews entered the country. In 1867 Benito Juarez, a Zapotepec Indian and a liberal, dealt what amounted to a deathblow to the Catholic Church. He banished the Papal Nuncio, seized church property, secularized hospitals run by the church and banned priests and nuns from wearing clerical garb in public. Religious processions were prohibited.

Now, Protestants were allowed to establish themselves in Mexico. With complete separation of Church and State now being enforced, and with the Catholic Church fighting for its life, it had neither the strength nor the inclination to concern itself with Jewish immigration. Basically, the only problems faced by the new arrivals were economic. The Jews who escaped from Russia to Mexico are the ancestors of possibly half of the present Jewish population.

In 1884 the Mexican government invited more than one dozen Jewish bankers to open branch banks in the country. With some sources of credit now available, Jews settled all over the country. Many of them became peddlers With merchandise strapped on a burro or mule, they brought housewares, clothing and novelties - heretofore not available locally - to the remote villages scattered throughout the Republic. Judaism has always recognized that the obligation to provide for the family comes before most other rules of Jewish law. Thus those who ventured into the hinterland were able to violate the rules of Kashruth, a code that sets up dietary rules, with a clear conscience, while remaining observant Jews.

By the time the next wave of Jews started to arrive in 1911 and 1913 and again in 1920-21, most of the former peddlers now owned stores. These newcomers came from what had been the Ottoman Empire and had lived there since being expelled from Spain. The Empire was breaking up, and centuries of tolerance were now over. As Sephardim, they re-established the style of worship that had existed in Spain before 1492. Language was no problem, since they spoke Ladino, a dialect of Spanish. Lacking capital, many of them started "sidewalk" businesses, displaying things on blankets spread on the sidewalk. Others became peddlers, replacing their more affluent co-religionists, who had settled in the larger cities of the Republic. Coming from a primitive part of the world, they had no difficulty in adapting to conditions in small-town Mexico. Some settled in places where Jews were totally unknown. But Mexicans and Jews adopted to each other well. In both groups, the family was the predominant social group and those who chose to settle in such places had experience in surviving in a non-Jewish environment. They struggled against living conditions, not hostility or persecution.

The next and last significant number of Jews to seek refuge in Mexico also came from Russia after WW I. Now a well-established Jewish community was there to receive them. The majority of those who chose Mexico rather than the United States, had either relatives or friends already settled in the country. Additionally in 1921 and again in 1924, new laws, passed in the U.S., restricted immigration, making Mexico even more attractive. Easing the way for this new influx, in 1917, President Venustiano Carranza started to revive the anti-clerical provisions of the Constitution of 1857 that had destroyed the position of the Catholic Church. Never popular, these laws had been disregarded and the Church had re-established itself. Now, Carranza, seeking to bring a form of Socialism to the country, revived them, and once again the church was in no position to protest the arrival of non-Catholics into the country. Additionally, they viewed the spread of Protestantism as a much greater threat, than that of Judaism.

From 1920 to 1930 Jews in Mexico enjoyed a period of stability during which they prospered.

The only recorded incidents of official anti-Semitism came in the 1930's. Suffering from a depression, Mexican labor unions pressured the government to enact restrictions on "Chinese and Jewish" immigration. Later in the same decade, neo-Nazi right wingers, financed from Berlin, staged anti-Jewish demonstrations in Mexico City. But not a single act of violence against Jews or Jewish property can be documented. It was just sound and fury without action, and garnered little support. This is not to say that some individual Mexicans do not harbor anti-Semitic feelings.

Despite strenuous efforts by the Jewish community to rescue Jews from the Nazis, they had little success. The Mexican government, now headed by Lazaro Cardenas, was more than willing to look the other way and did so when some 200 Jews from Cuba entered the country illegally

By and large, since the end of WW II, Mexicans Jews have encountered no more and possibly less anti-Jewish bias than other Jews throughout the Western World.

The Jewish experience must be divided into two parts - those whose families experienced persecution in Mexico, and those who have not. Conversos, who arrived between 1753 and 1821, when Mexico gained Independence from Spain and the Inquisition in Mexico ended, had been persecuted. By 1651, most of the "Crypto-Jews," had been wiped out. Their only legacy is those Mexican families, devout Catholics, who practice some Jewish customs, perhaps without realizing it. Those who suffered were those who had been promised a haven in the 'Kingdom of Nueva Leon." Some of them became Catholics. Their descendents know of their Jewish heritage, but remain Christians.

The Inquisition was never as virulent in Mexico as it was in Spain, where more than 4,000 people were burned at the stake. Many more were imprisoned for the "Jewish Heresy." Massacres were instigated that took thousands of lives. By contrast, between 1571 when the Inquisition was established in Mexico and 1821 when it ended, only about 110 people were actually burned at the stake. Perhaps the same number died under torture or in prison, either awaiting trial or after sentencing. There were no popular outcries against Jews. The Inquisition was imposed from Spain. It cannot be blamed on Mexicans.

Those who arrived between 1821 and 1865 were not allowed to become Mexican citizens. While this discouraged Jewish immigration, those who did enter the country, faced basically the same problems as those who were citizens. Political and economic chaos, not bias, was the problem.

Between 1882 and the 1930's those entering the country lived in harmony with their fellow Mexicans and since WWII there have been no real threats to Judaism. The miniscule number of Jews, just a small fraction of the total population, makes them invisible to the average Mexican. They no longer interest the Catholic Church. Passion plays still depict the Jews as being responsible for the crucifixion but when the play is over, it seems to have had no visible impact on day to day relationships between Jews and their neighbors.

The combination of tenacity on the part of Jews, and tolerance by Mexicans, both official and as individuals, has permitted Judaism to put down deep roots. Mexican Jews still struggle today against inter-marriage and migration to the United States and Israel. They have taken positive steps to handle these problems and, barring a radical change in the attitude of Mexicans or their government, are here to stay. We will examine these steps and the situation faced by Mexican Jews today in Part II.

Published or Updated on: January 1, 2000 by Shep Lenchek © 2008
Contact Shep Lenchek

Source-Mexconnect.com: The Jews of Mexico Part 2

Jews in Mexico. a struggle for survival part 2
Shep Lenchek
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The vast majority of the approximately 50,000 Mexican citizens who practice Judaism via organized congregations are descendents of people who, from 1881 to 1939, found life-saving refuge in this country. Unlike the ancestors of many who migrated to the U.S. to avoid military service or seek better economic opportunity, most who came to Mexico were fleeing to save their lives. This has left a legacy of fear, buried in the minds and hearts of the present community of Mexican Jews. Can it happen here? That Mexico, a 97 percent Catholic country, ever became a haven for Jews, is in itself remarkable. By and large, it is a tribute to kindness and tolerance on the part of Mexicans and bears witness to the ability of Jews to adapt to new environments.

Determining the exact number of practicing Jews in Mexico is difficult. The main source of figures is the Comite Central Israelita de Mexico A. C.. Located in Mexico City, this organization serves as an overall liaison body between Jewish congregations all over the Republic. However, since all of the existing synagogues are either Orthodox or Conservative, the Comite has no contact with Jews who might affiliate with a Reformed congregation, if one existed, or with those who consider their Judaism cultural rather than religious.

The official Mexican census sheds little light on the actual number of Jews in the country. They classify as Israelites both Jews and Protestant sects. Additionally, there are some Mexicans of mixed Indian and European ancestry who profess Judaism. Some scholars claim those who worship in the Iglesia de Dios and the Casa de Dios might well be included in the total count. Both read the Old Testament and observe some of the rules that regulate the lives of observant Jews. Others note that Seventh Day Adventists do likewise. More research is necessary before they can be considered to be practicing a form of Judaism. However, there is a well-established synagogue in Venta Prieta that serves Mexican Indians who definitely observe Judaism. Charges brought by the Inquisition substantiate that Jews who fled to Nueva Espagna in 1531, did convert Indians before the Inquisition was established in the New World. However, neither the rabbinate nor the rest of Mexican Jewry recognize any of these three groups.

Presently, there is no official anti-Semitism visible in Mexico Evidence of the attitude of the modern Mexican Government is plentiful. Jews serve and have served in high government positions. The United States, Canada and Great Britain have felt free to send Jews as ambassadors and consuls general. Those in power have welcomed them all. Artists, authors, entertainers, journalists, entrepreneurs, native born or foreign nationals, professing Judaism, have thrived. Even the closed ranks of bullfighters opened their arms to a Brooklyn-born Jew, Sidney Franklin, who in the early 1920's became a popular matador and remained in Mexico after he "cut the pigtail" as an announcer of bullfights, on the radio and later on television.

In the past, the main problems facing Mexican Jews have been intermarriage and migration out of the country. Now, beginning in the late 1990's, another one is emerging.

Since 1994, a group named Kulanu, a Hebrew word meaning "all of us." has started to explore other aspects of Judaism, south of the Rio Grande. One of the principal subjects of their investigation is the status of the "Conversos." They have started to seek out such groups who, without the blessings of the Rabbinate, have returned to Judaism. Based in the United States, the group is attempting to close the schisms between the descendents of those who suffered forced baptism and the organized Mexican-Jewish community.

As of early 1999 they have made contact with "Converso" groups in Vera Cruz and Puebla who now practice Judaism. Going beyond seeking out those who know about their Jewish background, they are also gathering information about the many devoutly Catholic families who practice some Jewish rites. When questioned as to why they do so, the typical answer of these families is, "because my mother was taught to do so by her mother who in turn learned it from her mother who learned it from her mother." They may light candles on Friday night or keep separate sets of dishes for dairy and meat, but have no idea that what they are doing is Judaic in origin.

Lecturing at the Spertus Institute in 1995, Schulamite C. Halevey, herself the descendant of a family that left Spain in 1492 and later made its way to Israel, reported on this. She details a legend prevalent among anusim, a Hebrew word meaning "people who suffered forced baptism." They tell their children," We are not really Mexican. We are descendants of Spanish nobility." Thus, they follow "Jewish" rituals, such as observing dietary laws that prohibit mixing of milk and meat, slaughter chickens by cutting the throat, avoid pork, light candles on Friday night. Some close their businesses on Saturday. Questioned about this particular practice, they answer, "It is a day we spend with our families."

Perhaps without knowing it, they are observing the Jewish Sabbath. Too, they have been taught to marry only others who observe these same "noble" traditions. Without realizing it, they are attempting to preserve memories of a Hebraic heritage that has lain dormant for centuries. Members of Kulanu bear witness to many such situations. One of their goals is to fan whatever latent sparks of Judaism they discover. It is this effort that may cause problems for the Jewish community. Probably, trying to convince anusim to return to Judaism will not succeed. It is hard to visualize large numbers abandoning the Catholicism they have practiced for generations. But, they are becoming aware of their connections to the religion of their ancestors. Many seem interested in learning about such backgrounds. But the interest is academic. They are Catholics. Perhaps it will result in a reservoir of good-will for practicing Jews. On the other hand, it may stir up resentments.

Kulanu is also attempting to convince organized Mexican Jewry, that those who do wish to return to Judaism should be accepted. To date, the answer is "no." Perhaps there is still some resentment among Mexican Jews against those who, they feel, abandoned their religion under pressure. There is no question that such attitudes prevailed in 1492, the time of the expulsion from Spain. Those who fled used the term "Marranos", meaning "swine" to describe those who converted. But perhaps the strongest reason that present day Mexican Jews prefer to ignore this pool of "latent Judaism" is mainly to avoid antagonizing the Catholic Church, fearing an up-surge of anti-Semitism.

They are probably right. Thus, the people from Kulanu, attempting to convince some anusim to return to the religion of their ancestors, are really not welcome. Orthodox Jews do not proselytize. They insist that only those born of a Jewish mother are Jewish. Additionally, the rite of circumcision the historical mark of the "covenant" between Jews and Jehovah, is a deterrent to adult males who might consider conversion. Adding up all these factors, a warm welcome for anusim returning to Judaism seems highly unlikely. All but two of the 23 synagogues in Mexico City are Orthodox and in light of Orthodox views on who is a Jew, it is likely that their point of view about anusim will prevail.

Until 1990, very little attention had been paid to the history of Jews in Mexico. A book published in Israel, researched by Joan Comay with the assistance of the Nahum Goldman Museum of the Jewish Diaspora, devotes only one and a half pages to Jewish settlement in all Latin America and mentions Mexico only in listing places where Jews have settled. Called "The Diaspora Story" it deals with the Jewish experience all over the world since the "Babylonian Captivity" but falls short when it comes to discussing how Mexican Jews function in the final decades of the 20th Century.

Until 1995, the most complete study of the Jewish experience in Mexico was published by the University of Mexico in collaboration with the Tribuna Israelita and the Comite Central Israelita de Mexico. Titled Imagenes de un Encuentro and sub-titled "La Presencia Judia en Mexico Durante LaPrimera Mitad del Siglo XX, it is in Spanish and as the subtitle says, deals only with the first half of the century. It portrays a vibrant Jewish community, apparently well integrated into Mexican society, but with a higher carryover of their religion into everyday life than is found in most other Jews who live in the Diaspora.

But Mexican Judaism is not monolithic. Actually, there are four different communities, based on places of origin. Those from Aleppo, Damascus, the Balkans and Eastern Europe, each have their own synagogues. The gulf between Ashkenazim from Russia, Poland, Germany and other parts of Europe and Sephardim, mainly from Italy and what was once the Ottoman Empire, remains.

An Ashkenazi mother of our acquaintance, complaining about her son's intermarriage, finally revealed that he was marrying a Sephardic girl. Ultimately, her complaint was narrowed down to the fact that the new bride did not cook the same foods the boy grew up eating. But there are probably other reasons she might not have been willing to admit. It is possible that the Ashkenazim, most of whom trace their residence in Mexico back to the 1880's, are somewhat prejudiced against later arrivals. Eastern European Jews in the United States faced the same attitude. There, the older German-Jewish Community looked down on them. The original problem that kept the groups separate, was language. The Ashkenazim spoke Yiddish among themselves, the Sephardim spoke Ladino. Today, they all speak Spanish, but still retain separate identities and resist inter-marriage.

In 1995, a movie titled "A Kiss to This Land" directed by Daniel Goldberg, a Mexican Jew, was shown at the San Francisco Bay Area's Jewish Film Festival. The film recreates the Mexico that Jewish immigrants found when they arrived in the 1920s and 1930s. It points out differences between the Jews who settled in the U.S. and those who settled in Mexico. The producer contends that Mexican Jews feel their Jewish heritage much more strongly than American Jews and shows how it affects their everyday lives. The film captured the attention of scholars, both Jewish and non-Jewish, and in the last four years, the Jewish experience in Mexico has been explored and is now the subject of numerous books in English.

Next, in the final part of this series, we will examine in detail how the Jewish community in Mexico copes with its main problems and take a look into its future, as they themselves see it

Part 1

Published or Updated on: January 1, 2000 by Shep Lenchek © 2008
Contact Shep Lenchek

Jews in Mexico Part 3(click)

Beautiful Cancun

Beautiful Acapulco

Beautiful Mazatlan

In 1821, Mexico won independence for itself from Spain. The new Mexican government, in a move to encourage development of a thinly populated area we know today as southeastern Texas, offered land grants to anyone, including Americans, who would be willing to inhabit the land. In return, settlers promised to obey Mexican law and observe Roman Catholicism.

Among the first Americans to receive a land grant was Moses Austin, originally of Connecticut, who planned to establish a colony in Texas. Austin died before his dream could be fulfilled, so the task of leading the people to Texas fell to his son, Stephen F. Austin. In 1823, the younger Austin led 300 families to the banks of the Brazos River, where each family received about 200 acres of fertile farmland and more than 4000 acres of range land.

Under Austin's extraordinary organizational skills, the colony prospered. Soon, many thousands of Americans flowed into the territory, attracted by the rich farm soil and the generous land grant policy of the Mexican government. Some settlers brought slaves and started up cotton plantations.

By 1830, the number of Americans living in Texas greatly outnumbered Mexicans, a fact that deeply concerned Mexican authorities. In an attempt to curtail American influence in Texas, Mexico closed the border to immigration from the United States, imposed taxes on the importation of American goods, and restated that slavery on Mexican lands was prohibited. The Mexican government then sent troops into the Texas province to enforce its laws.

Davy Crockett fights off Mexican soldiers with upraised rifle, in the final moments of the Alamo siege. Crockett and all defenders of the Alamo perished, but Texas gained a new battle cry "Remember the Alamo!", going on to win independence a few weeks later. Image courtesy of Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
The Americans in Texas protested against what they perceived to be a violation of their individual rights.

As tensions escalated over the next several years, the Mexicans responded by sending more troops. Finally, in 1835, violence broke out, prompting the Texans to reject Mexican rule and declare their desire for self rule.

In late 1835, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, the latest in a series of Mexican military dictators, decided to crush the rebellion. With an army of 6000 men, Santa Anna crossed the Rio Grande headed north to take care of the Texans once and for all. On February 23, 1836, Santa Anna's army began a siege against 187 men garrisoned at a fortified former mission called the Alamo, in San Antonio. Commanded by Lieutenant Colonel William B. Travis, the brave defenders of the Alamo refused to surrender, despite overwhelming odds. Serving under Travis in the Alamo included a group of volunteers from Tennessee, led there by the famous backwoodsman Davy Crockett. On March 6, the Mexicans stormed the Alamo, finally scaling the walls and killing every last man inside, but at a cost to Santa Anna of some 1600 troops.

While Santa Anna was preoccupied at the Alamo, Texas formally declared its independence from Mexico on March 2. While the heroic standoff at the Alamo continued, Sam Houston raised an army of Texans to carry the fight onward.

Houston's forces surprised Santa Anna at San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, shouting "Remember the Alamo!" as they swept through the Mexican encampment. The Mexican general himself was taken prisoner, but bargained for his release when he promised to recognize Texas independence.

Upon his return to Mexico, Santa Anna reneged on his pledge, but made no further attempts to corral the feisty Texans. The Republic of Texas, also called the Lone Star Republic, was born. Not surprisingly, Sam Houston was elected as its first president.

During their revolution for independence, American sympathy was with the Texans, but when the new republic petitioned for statehood, strong opposition arose. Texas permitted slavery, causing members of Congress from northern states to argue against the admission of another southern slaveholding state. Others feared that Mexico would be provoked into war if Texas joined the Union. For these reasons, statehood for Texas was delayed.

As the election of 1844 approached, the annexation of Texas became a major campaign issue.

The Democrats rejected Martin Van Buren, a former president and member of their own party, in favor of James K. Polk of Tennessee, who strongly favored Texas statehood and westward expansion.

When the electoral college votes were counted, Polk easily outpaced Henry Clay of Kentucky. A majority of congressional candidates supporting expansion won likewise, a clear signal the public supported Texas annexation in particular and Manifest Destiny in general.

With the mandate sent by the voters, outgoing President John Tyler moved quickly to push a statehood resolution for Texas through both houses of Congress, ending the controversy over the fate of the Lone Star Republic. Finally, on December 29, 1845, Texas entered the Union as the twenty-eighth state.

Source-US coin values advisor.com : Manifest Destiny and the American war against Mexico

Source-Activist Post translation of article below

American Government pouring billions of dollars in Private Mercenary Armies in Mexico

Source-BBC NEWS EN ESPANOL

William Márquez
BBC Mundo, Washington
Lunes, 16 de enero de 2012
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La firma de seguridad privada, Blackwater, ha recibido varios contratos del gobierno de EE.UU.
El Departamento de Defensa de Estados Unidos, el Pentágono, está delegando su lucha contra el narcotráfico a través de contratos multimillonarios con empresas privadas que se encargan de prestar asesoría, capacitación y realizar operativos en países productores de drogas y con vínculos al llamado "narcoterrorismo", incluyendo América Latina.
El gobierno se desentiende así del trabajo "sucio" que acarrean los diferentes aspectos del combate contra las drogas para dejarlo en manos de compañías con ánimo de lucro que emplean mercenarios y cuyas tácticas están libres del escrutinio público y político, dicen sus críticos.
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El Pentágono dice que es parte de su estrategia para garantizar la seguridad del país y que se realiza legalmente y siguiendo estrictos parámetros.

No se trata de una actividad encubierta. La sección de prensa del Pentágono confirmó a la BBC que, en 1995, se estableció la Oficina de Programas de Tecnología Contra el Narcoterrorismo (CNTPO, por sus siglas en inglés) cuya última instancia es el subsecretario de Defensa para Antinarcóticos y Amenazas Globales.

El Departamento de Defensa enfrenta serios retos a su presupuesto.
Según el comunicado del Pentágono, la CNTPO provee "apoyo administrativo de programas en una amplia gama de actividades de antinarcóticos del Departamento de Defensa".
Este "apoyo administrativo" es básicamente la identificación y subcontratación de grandes compañías especializadas en seguridad y reclutamiento de personal élite armado que entran a operar en terceros países independientemente.
"Desde el 11-S y los conflictos en Irak y Afganistán se ha incrementado la necesidad de adquirir estos servicios", dijo a BBC Mundo el teniente coronel James Gregory, encargado de prensa.
"Desde Septiembre 11 y los conflictos en Iraq y Afganistán se ha incrementado la necesidad de adquirir estos servicios"
Teniente Coronel James Gregory, encargado de prensa del Pentágono
Según el portavoz, son contratos múltiples, de tiempo y entrega indefinida, que se otorgan cada cinco años. La próxima ronda de comisiones será en agosto de 2012.
Hasta ahora, los mayores contratos han sido entregados a las empresas Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Reytheon, ARINC y U.S. Training Center (una subsidiaria de Blackwater), informó el alto oficial.
Recortes
La práctica se arraigó hace una década durante el gobierno de George W. Bush, que utilizó numerosos contratistas -mercenarios, dirían algunos- en las guerras de Irak y Afganistán.

El Pentágono ya no está para entrenar fuerzas extranjeras como lo hizo en un entonces en Colombia.
Barack Obama ha continuado con la misma política y, en este momento, por ejemplo, la seguridad del personal diplomático en Afganistán depende en gran parte de empresas privadas de seguridad.
Una de las razones por las cuales el Pentágono está intentando privatizar varios aspectos de sus actividades tiene que ver con el presupuesto nacional que no ha podido resolverse por disputas partidistas entre el congreso y el ejecutivo.

"Se habla constantemente de que el Pentágono está en la mira de los recortes presupuestarios", dijo Larry Birns, director del Consejo para Asuntos Hemisféricos (COHA), un centro de investigación de tendencia izquierdista en Washington.
"De una manera subrepticia quieren reducir el presupuesto de la lucha antidrogas transfiréndola a las agencias privadas"
Larry Birns, director del Consejo sobre Asuntos Hemisféricos, COHA
"Para el congreso, los recortes en el área de la lucha antidrogas serán obligatorios si el presidente espera equilibrar su propuesta de impuestos y la adjudicación de fondos".
Según Birns, la guerra contra el narcotráfico es impopular y no tiene peso político salvo en un año electoral como éste, así que el Departamento de Defensa quiere borrar ese gasto de sus cuentas.
"De una manera subrepticia quieren reducir el presupuesto de la lucha antidrogas transfiriéndola a las agencias privadas", expresó el analista.
Contratos "no específicos"

El Plan Mérida contempla la asistencia de US$1.000 millones a México en la lucha antidrogas.
Los contratos para las empresas privadas son jugosos, la CNTPO cuenta con un presupuesto de US$15.000 millones, según lo confirmó el teniente coronel James Gregory.

El Pentágono no es muy específico con respecto a la extensión de la participación de los contratistas por razones, explica, de seguridad. Pero afirma que estos actúan en conjunto con las autoridades locales, "incluyendo en zonas de combate" aunque "no participan en redadas o arrestos".
Sin embargo, hay serias implicaciones con respecto a los países donde estarían las empresas privadas.
Aunque es posible que ciertas élites políticas en estos países estén al tanto de sus actividades e, inclusive, las hayan invitado, hay una potencial violación de la soberanía nacional que podría generar una reacción nacionalista si el público llegara a percatarse de la situación, comentó el profesor Bruce Bagley.
Además "estamos reconociendo, en efecto, que las instituciones en los cuerpos de seguridad en estos países son tan deficientes que los estamos reemplazando con mercenarios a sueldo", añadió.
Las autoridades militares aseguran que los contratistas están sujetos a las mismas leyes vigentes en EE.UU. y los países donde operan, pero Bruce Bagley insiste en que podría haber un coletazo si ocurrieran imprevistos que impliquen violaciones al derecho humanitario y se vincule a Estados Unidos con esta actividad. No obstante reconoció que "ésta es la ola del futuro".
"Estamos frente a unas unidades más pequeñas, más eficientes, más capacitadas que pueden hacer el trabajo sucio que a las fuerzas militares de Estados Unidos no se les permite ni se les exhorta a hacer", concluyó.

ORIGIN OF THE MEXICAN FLAG

When the Plan of Iguala was promulgated on the 24th of February of 1821, Don Agustín de Iturbide, a Royalist general who tried to make peace with the insurgents, the Catholic clergy, and the Royalists according to the stated plan, the Insurgent general, don Vicente Guerrero carried a flag with the colors of white, green, and red diagonal stripes, dedicating it to Don Vicente Guerrero on the second of March of 1821. The colors represented the three fundamental points of the Plan of Iguala or Plan of the Three Guarantees:

(1) the Independence of Mexico
(2) the recognition of the Catholic religion and
(3) the union of Spaniards and Mexicans.
The order of the colors and the shield (emblem) in the center underwent alterations through history until the President Don Venustiano Carranza decreed on the 20th of September of 1916, that the emblem of the eagle with a serpent would be official as it is known today.

The origin of the Mexican emblem is based on a tradition which declared: "After a long pilgrimage, ordered by the god Huitzilopochtli, the Aztecs found an eagle with a serpent between its claws. This was the foretold sign to found on that site the capital of its dominion."

Wiki- Mexicans of European Descent

Mexicans of European descent, often called "güeros" (light-skinned) or blancos in Mexican Spanish, are generally those of light skin and predominantly European features which are most often associated with Mexico's upper and middle socioeconomic classes. The concept of "white" and race, in general, is defined in Mexico by ancestry and social class as much as it is by biological features. Another group in Mexico, "mestizos" also include people with varying amounts of European ancestry, and there is no clearly defined line between the racial groups of mestizos and güeros/blancos.

Europeans began arriving to Mexico with the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, with the descendents of the conquistadors, along with new arrivals from Spain formed an elite but never a majority of the population. Intermixing would produce a mestizo group which would become the majority by the time of Independence, but power remained firmly in the hands of the elite, called "criollo". While almost all European or Caucasian migration into Mexico during the colonial period was from Iberia, in the 19th and 20th century European and European derived populations from North and South America did immigrate to the country. However, at its height, the total immigrant population in Mexico never exceeded one percent of the total. Many of these immigrants came with money to invest and/or ties to allow them to become prominent in business and other aspects of Mexican society, but most either did not stay permanently or mix with Mexican society in general, except for some with the native criollo elite.

Today, most güeros are still associated with the Spanish colonial order. Although some would not be considered "white" by U.S. or European standards, one defining characteristic is that these people tend to keep themselves separate from the mestizo and other classes in Mexico. While the concept of race is relatively fluid, with large variation in skin color among mestizos, "white" or "European" looks are still strongly preferred in Mexican society, with lighter skin receiving more positive attention and foreign cultures considered to be "white", such as the United States, receiving deference.

ESTABLISHMENT OF EUROPEAN ELITE IN MEXICO

The main reason for the presence of European-descended people in Mexico is the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in the early 16th century.[7][8]Hernán Cortés and the conquistadors, with their light skin, brown or blonde hair and light-colored eyes, had never been seen before by the people of Mesoamerica. There are stories that Moctezuma took Cortés to be the return of the God Quetzalcoatl, but this has been disputed. Cortés managed to conquer the Aztecs through a series of alliances with enemy peoples which in the end made the Spanish dominant politically, although a very small minority numerically.[7][9] Further migration into Mexico from Spain supplemented the numbers of ethnic Europeans during the colonial period.[9] The conquest and subsequent domination by Europeans was justified by the Spanish as the indigenous were uncivilized and needed to be converted to Christianity. Spanish language and culture was imposed with indigenous ones suppressed.[7][10]

The Mexican experience mirrors much of that of the rest of Latin America, as attitudes towards race, including identification, were set by the conquistadors and Spanish who came soon after.[9] Through the colonial period, the Spanish and their descendents, called "criollos", remained vastly outnumbered by the indigenous and "mestizos", or those of mixed Spanish and indigenous parents.[7][10] To keep power, the Spanish and criollo elite perpetuated the idea of "Spanish" being equivalent to "civilized". The population of Mexico (or New Spain) was organized into a hierarchical class system with those from Spain being the most privileged, followed by criollos, then mestizos than the indigenous. Classification of this system was mostly by race, which was determined mostly by whom one descended from. The system was not completely rigid and elements such as social class and social relations did figure into it. However, the notion of "Spanishness" would remain at the top and "Indianness" would be at the bottom, with those mixed being somewhere in the middle. This idea remained officially in force through the rest of the colonial period.[7]

Criollo resentment to the privileges afforded the Spain-born or peninsulares was part of the reason behind the Mexican War of Independence. When the war ended in 1821, the new Mexican government expelled the peninsulares in the 1820s and 1830s. However, Independence did not do away with economic and social privilege based on race as the Criollos took over those of the Spain born. A division between "Spanish" and "indigenous" remained despite a majority mestizo or mixed race population. However, biological features were often not enough to distinguish between the two in many cases and some mixing occurred even in the upper classes. The main distinction between criollos and mestizos became money and social class and less about biological differences. The Criollos distinguished themselves from the rest of society as the guardians of Spanish culture as well as the Catholic religion.[11]

Those considered to be white/criollo/European were never the majority of the country's population, reaching a peak at around 18% during the early 19th century, according to census records. By 1921, the last time the official census took race into account, about ten percent were considered to be "white".[12] This is one reason why many of the political struggles of the latter 19th and early 20th centuries would be between these elite and the majority mestizos.[10]

Source-Wikipedia White Latin America

Total population
White people
192 million – 209 million[1][2]
33% or 36% of Latin American population
Regions with significant populations
Brazil 93M[3] or 105M[4]
Argentina 38M[2]
Mexico 12.0M[5] or 17.0M[2] or 19M[6]
Chile 8.8M[2] or 16.3M[7]
Colombia 8.9M[4] or 11M[8]
Cuba 7.3M[9]
Venezuela 5.6M[10]
Peru 4.4M[4]
Costa Rica 3.5M[2]
Puerto Rico 3.2M[4]
Uruguay 3.1M[4]
Dominican Republic 2.0M[4]
Bolivia 2.0M[4]
Ecuador 1.4M[11]
Paraguay 1.3M[2]
Nicaragua 1M[4]
All other areas 1.1M[4]

White Latin Americans[14] are the people of Latin America who are white in the racial classification systems used in individual Latin American countries. Persons who are classified as White in one Latin American country may be classified differently in another country. In some countries such as Ecuador being white is socially desirable, because it is associated with high socio-economic status. The colonial rule in Latin America kept strict track of the blood purity of its subjects, considering Christian (i.e. European) blood to be purest. This has meant that in contrast to racial policies in the U.S. which have generally encouraged segregation, Latin American countries have often had miscegenation, since even small amounts of European ancestry could entail significant upwards social mobility.[15][16][17]

Throughout Latin America people who are White identify with heritage from European settlers arriving in the Americas throughout the colonial and post-independence periods. Many of the earliest settlers were Spanish and Portuguese, and after independence, Italians have led numerically among the millions of immigrants. The Spaniards and Portuguese round out the top three. Notably large immigration occurred as well by Germans, Poles, Irish, British, French, Russians, Belgians, Dutch, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, Croats, Swiss, Greeks and other Europeans.[18][19][20] In at least some countries, the white population also includes Middle Easterners/Southwest Asians. The majority are Christians of Lebanese, Palestinian, and Syrian origin, but there are Armenians, Maghrebi Jews (most Jewish Latin Americans are Ashkenazi), and others.[21]

Composing about 33% or 36% of the population as of 2010 according to some sources,[1][2][22] White Latin Americans constitute the largest racial-ethnic group in the region. Nevertheless, White is the self-identification of many Latin Americans in some national censuses, as seen further on in this article. According to a survey conducted by consultant Cohesión Social in Latin America, conducted on a sample of 10,000 people from seven different countries of the region, a 34% of the interviewée identified themselves as "White".[23]

Twelve

2012-01-16T14:13:00.024-07:00

Twelve

12 Infected with "New Swine Flu"...

Source-USnews.com

By Jason Koebler

January 11, 2012 RSS Feed Print The days of medical masks at airports and widespread panic may be coming back—that's because at least 12 humans are believed to have been infected with a new strain of swine flu that's not covered by this season's vaccine.

The new swine flu strain, H3N2v, has shown at least some potential for human-to-human transmission in those 12 individuals, which makes it especially dangerous. Between 2009 and mid-2010, more than 17,000 people died worldwide from the highly contagious H1N1 swine flu strain, leading the World Health Organization to call the strain a pandemic.

The 12 people with the new swine flu strain live in Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Officials for the Centers for Disease Control say the sample size of H3N2 infections is too small to know whether it will pose a threat to the population at large.

"It's a very small sample and it's geographically spread, which makes it more difficult to get a handle on it," says Jeffrey Dimond, a CDC spokesman. "Most of the cases have come through direct contact with the animals, through the 4H Club and that sort of thing."

In order to have a true threat of causing an epidemic or pandemic, Dimond says the virus needs to spread easily between humans.

"If you're in close contact with someone who's ill, that's one thing," he says. "To make it like the pandemic flu of a few years ago, it has to be highly contagious from human to human."

H3N2v or another new flu strain could disrupt what CDC officials expected to be a relatively quiet flu season. Each year's flu vaccine protects against specific strains of the virus that researchers expect to circulate. In October, Joe Bresee, chief of CDC's influenza epidemiology and prevention branch, said he was confident this year's vaccine would protect against the most dangerous flu strains.

"The flu viruses this year's vaccine will protect against are very well-matched to those flu viruses that [were] circulating [in October]," he said. "We will have a vaccine that provides good protection this season to help keep influenza illness and serious complications down."

While it's too early to tell if the new H3N2 strain (or another unexpected strain) will develop into a larger threat, the CDC admits the current vaccine will do little to help stop the virus.

"These viruses are substantially different from human influenza A (H3N2) viruses, so the seasonal vaccine is expected to provide limited cross-protection among adults and no protection to children," the CDC wrote in a report released in late November.

12 Girls Come down with Tourettes Like Illness "Out of the Blue"

Source-WGRZ.com

LEROY, NY -- Administrators in the Leroy Central School District updated parents and students about a mysterious disorder that's affected twelve female high school students, causing them to exhibit symptoms similar to Tourette Syndrome.
Tourette Syndrome is a neurological disorder defined by involuntary motor and vocal tics.

Wednesday night, administrators said all 12 students have been diagnosed and are being treated. They are not releasing causes due to HIPAA laws. They said they found similarities among some cases but wouldn't elaborate.

"I can assure you these children have all been seen by professionals that have come up with answers and they are all being treated and they're actually doing pretty well," said Dr. Greg Young, with the NYS Department of Health. They have ruled out all environmental factors, infections and the possibility of carbon monoxide poisoning. NYS Health Department spokesman Jeff Hammond also says vaccines such as Gardasil were investigated as a cause and ruled out.

The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta has been consulted, and so has Columbia University, the Genesee County Health Department and the New York State Health Department. The CDC and Columbia University Medical School would not comment. But the

Dr. Young said tics like this can be caused by genetics, head trauma, drugs (all students tested negative), antihistamines, and drugs for ADHD and OCD. They said cases like this have been seen nationwide and they come and go in individuals. They add it's not uncommon to see them in waves as stress and anxiety exacerbate them. UB Neurology Professor Dr. David Lichter says some cases in schools and elsewhere have also been linked to mass hysteria but state officials feel that is not the case here.

Symptoms in these kids are "significant" according to officials, and they add they do not believe the students are making the illness up.

Some parents at the meeting were not satisfied by the response they got from officials. Jim DuPont spoke about his concerns afterwards. He said his daughter has missed almost every day of school in the past month.

"Now she has to be tutored," said DuPont. "And I worry about her future. She's only 17. She can't even drive now." DuPont said his daughter is being treated by a neurologist, but still hasn't gotten a diagnosis.

DuPont says she has never exhibited any symptoms like this before. "It's heartbreaking because you know her normal mannerisms," he said.

CDC Increases Pressure on parents to Vaccinate(Poison) Kids!

Source-InfoWars.com

Curt Linderman Sr.
Infowars.com
January 16, 2012

Recently, the CDC, in coordination with HHS and state health departments, has been increasing the pressure on parents to vaccinate their children. In many cases, pressure has been brought on families with phone calls, school notes sent home and now it seems, knocking on your doors. In this video, Natomas, California school officials and a school nurse are seen going door to door trying to vaccinate school children that have not had one of the many DTaP vaccines recommended by the CDC schedule (1). While these school officials are more than likely, concerned about federal dollars that they will be refused for each child that is not fully vaccinated (2) there is little doubt that there is a far more nefarious agenda at hand.

NORC (National Organization for Research at the University of Chicago) is currently working closely with CDC to ensure that all of America’s children are fully vaccinated with the toxic, sickness inducing and physically and mentally debilitating cocktail of toxins, carcinogens, DNA animal fragments and viruses through the National Immunization Survey (3). Calls to your home will be coming soon if you have young children or even teenagers. These calls will most certainly begin with a nice voice at the end of the line asking questions and perhaps even exhibiting true and deep concern regarding the health of your child. In some cases, the actual operator/survey taker might even feel that they are performing a righteous task for the good of the nation and your children. That is the farthest thing from the truth.

So what is the vaccine agenda all about and why is the CDC “ramping-up” their efforts to vaccinate every American? The notion that vaccines are about preventing disease is the first mistake most people make. This might have been the case back when Jenner originally noted that milk maids exposed to cow pox were seemingly unaffected by the more lethal small pox, but this agenda changed dramatically in the early 1900s. In fact, the change in the underlying reasoning for vaccination was so dramatic and fantastically disturbing that even many of the citizens considered to be “awakened” to the globalist agenda cannot comprehend its diabolical nature. Perhaps this is a defense mechanism, I’m not sure, but you must understand the medical history of the past 100 years to truly see what is going on and where we are headed.

What most American’s in this country call “traditional” medicine today started with the Flexner Report of 1910 (4). Flexner was called on to research and write this report by the Rockefeller and Carnegie eugenics organizations that were also working with the early European Eugenics societies (5). The immediate agenda of this report was to control the citizens and ultimately the population numbers (through the eradication of minorities and the mentally deficient). The way to do this was to turn profits and attention away from the healing traditions of nutrition and homeopathy and swing it 180 degrees towards the petroleum and pharmaceutical industry agenda of sickness, indebtedness and death. The first casualties where the medical schools of the early 1900s: before the Flexner Report, there were 650 medical schools across the United States teaching the true healing arts. By 1918 there were 50 left. These remaining schools were the ones that dropped to their knees and offered to worship at the altar of eugenics, the Rockefeller and Carnegie religion.

Why the history lesson? Because we have to understand that the modern vaccination policies of the western world have never been about healing and protecting the citizens. Most of us understand that things are moving at an increasingly accelerated pace regarding the placement of the New World Order government and vaccines play a crucial role in this agenda. Reports of FEMA camps, TSA checkpoints on our streets and in our shopping malls, commercials encouraging neighbors to turn each other in to the authorities for violations or concerns are daily occurrences now. A strong, healthy and smart citizenry is the most dangerous threat to tyranny and vaccines are a major part of the NWO solution to this problem.

The increase in autism, asthma, juvenile diabetes, juvenile arthritis, ADD, ADHD, Primary Immunodeficiency Syndrome, the staggering numbers of cancers among our children and more, are caused by the industrial medical complex, creating a need for pharmaceuticals that turn our children into walking, sometimes talking, little drug addicted zombies that can be assured to simply walk into the FEMA camps without any hesitation whatsoever. Add to this, the recent heavy push within the CDC to ensure that young adults are getting their booster shots and the elderly are getting their flu / pneumonia and shingles vaccines (6) and you have a populace that will willingly give up their freedoms for relief from the maladies caused by their new masters.

NORC’s involvement with the CDC in the push to vaccinate every American citizen is extremely concerning. The very fact that NORC is a Chicago University based organization simply cannot be coincidental. Our socialist Commander-in-Chief and the horribly corrupt nature of Illinois politics have to play a factor. Further investigation into NORC and their affiliations illustrates the eugenic nature of the vaccine agenda as if we were once again reading from the Rockefeller/Carnegie, eugenics inspired, Flexner Report.

NORC’s “selected Clients” page on their website(7) reads like a Who’s Who of the corporate greed and eugenics movement. Firms and organizations like; The Bill and Malinda Gates Foundation, JP Morgan Chase Foundation, Kaiser Family Foundation, AMA, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, U.S. Dept. of Justice and interestingly enough, foreign partners such as Deutsche Invest und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG), George Soros’ Open Society of Europe, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development as well as The Global Development Network.

Even if you haven’t looked closely into the numerous vaccine controversies, if you have a fundamental understanding of the New World Order and what they have in store for us, the CDC’s partnership with NORC and their need for ensuring that every American get vaccinated should be enough to do exactly what the woman in the above video clip did when they come to your doorstep: Tell them to &^%$ off and slam the door!

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38V_31p7jPI

2. http://www.whale.to/vaccines/aaps.html

3. http://www.norc.org/Research/Projects/Pages/national-immunization-survey.aspx

4. http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/291/17/2139.full

5. http://www.eugenics-watch.com/roots/chap12.html

6. http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/adult-vpd.htm

7. http://www.norc.org/About/Pages/representative-clients.aspx

GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceutical Company murdered children for research

Collecting RainWater Now A Federal Crime Against Humanity!

Monday, July 26, 2010
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/029286_rainwater_collection_water.html#ixzz1jf2LemFs

(NaturalNews) Many of the freedoms we enjoy here in the U.S. are quickly eroding as the nation transforms from the land of the free into the land of the enslaved, but what I'm about to share with you takes the assault on our freedoms to a whole new level. You may not be aware of this, but many Western states, including Utah, Washington and Colorado, have long outlawed individuals from collecting rainwater on their own properties because, according to officials, that rain belongs to someone else.

As bizarre as it sounds, laws restricting property owners from "diverting" water that falls on their own homes and land have been on the books for quite some time in many Western states. Only recently, as droughts and renewed interest in water conservation methods have become more common, have individuals and business owners started butting heads with law enforcement over the practice of collecting rainwater for personal use.

Check out this YouTube video of a news report out of Salt Lake City, Utah, about the issue. It's illegal in Utah to divert rainwater without a valid water right, and Mark Miller of Mark Miller Toyota, found this out the hard way.

After constructing a large rainwater collection system at his new dealership to use for washing new cars, Miller found out that the project was actually an "unlawful diversion of rainwater." Even though it makes logical conservation sense to collect rainwater for this type of use since rain is scarce in Utah, it's still considered a violation of water rights which apparently belong exclusively to Utah's various government bodies.

"Utah's the second driest state in the nation. Our laws probably ought to catch up with that," explained Miller in response to the state's ridiculous rainwater collection ban.

Salt Lake City officials worked out a compromise with Miller and are now permitting him to use "their" rainwater, but the fact that individuals like Miller don't actually own the rainwater that falls on their property is a true indicator of what little freedom we actually have here in the U.S. (Access to the rainwater that falls on your own property seems to be a basic right, wouldn't you agree?)

Outlawing rainwater collection in other states
Utah isn't the only state with rainwater collection bans, either. Colorado and Washington also have rainwater collection restrictions that limit the free use of rainwater, but these restrictions vary among different areas of the states and legislators have passed some laws to help ease the restrictions.

In Colorado, two new laws were recently passed that exempt certain small-scale rainwater collection systems, like the kind people might install on their homes, from collection restrictions.

Prior to the passage of these laws, Douglas County, Colorado, conducted a study on how rainwater collection affects aquifer and groundwater supplies. The study revealed that letting people collect rainwater on their properties actually reduces demand from water facilities and improves conservation.

Personally, I don't think a study was even necessary to come to this obvious conclusion. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that using rainwater instead of tap water is a smart and useful way to conserve this valuable resource, especially in areas like the West where drought is a major concern.

Additionally, the study revealed that only about three percent of Douglas County's precipitation ended up in the streams and rivers that are supposedly being robbed from by rainwater collectors. The other 97 percent either evaporated or seeped into the ground to be used by plants.

This hints at why bureaucrats can't really use the argument that collecting rainwater prevents that water from getting to where it was intended to go. So little of it actually makes it to the final destination that virtually every household could collect many rain barrels worth of rainwater and it would have practically no effect on the amount that ends up in streams and rivers.

It's all about control, really
As long as people remain unaware and uninformed about important issues, the government will continue to chip away at the freedoms we enjoy. The only reason these water restrictions are finally starting to change for the better is because people started to notice and they worked to do something to reverse the law.

Even though these laws restricting water collection have been on the books for more than 100 years in some cases, they're slowly being reversed thanks to efforts by citizens who have decided that enough is enough.

Because if we can't even freely collect the rain that falls all around us, then what, exactly, can we freely do? The rainwater issue highlights a serious overall problem in America today: diminishing freedom and increased government control.

Today, we've basically been reprogrammed to think that we need permission from the government to exercise our inalienable rights, when in fact the government is supposed to derive its power from us. The American Republic was designed so that government would serve the People to protect and uphold freedom and liberty. But increasingly, our own government is restricting people from their rights to engage in commonsense, fundamental actions such as collecting rainwater or buying raw milk from the farmer next door.

Today, we are living under a government that has slowly siphoned off our freedoms, only to occasionally grant us back a few limited ones under the pretense that they're doing us a benevolent favor.

Fight back against enslavement
As long as people believe their rights stem from the government (and not the other way around), they will always be enslaved. And whatever rights and freedoms we think we still have will be quickly eroded by a system of bureaucratic power that seeks only to expand its control.

Because the same argument that's now being used to restrict rainwater collection could, of course, be used to declare that you have no right to the air you breathe, either. After all, governments could declare that air to be somebody else's air, and then they could charge you an "air tax" or an "air royalty" and demand you pay money for every breath that keeps you alive.

Think it couldn't happen? Just give it time. The government already claims it owns your land and house, effectively. If you really think you own your home, just stop paying property taxes and see how long you still "own" it. Your county or city will seize it and then sell it to pay off your "tax debt." That proves who really owns it in the first place... and it's not you!

How about the question of who owns your body? According to the U.S. Patent & Trademark office, U.S. corporations and universities already own 20% of your genetic code. Your own body, they claim, is partially the property of someone else.

So if they own your land, your water and your body, how long before they claim to own your air, your mind and even your soul?

Unless we stand up against this tyranny, it will creep upon us, day after day, until we find ourselves totally enslaved by a world of corporate-government collusion where everything of value is owned by powerful corporations -- all enforced at gunpoint by local law enforcement.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/029286_rainwater_collection_water.html#ixzz1jf29llAQ

Source-Green Home Landscape Source.com